Lesotho - Arrival of the Whites
In the late 1820s a new threat came to the clans occupying the Mohokare valley. Groups of Khoikhoi, known as Kora, appeared led by Dutch-speaking people of mixed descent. Many were mounted on horseback and armed with guns. The Basotho again had to take refuge on their mountain-tops and in remote rock- shelters, which horses could not easily reach. Horses had never before been seen in Lesotho.
Moshoeshoe decided to obtain horses and guns for his own people. Also, after hearing of the advantages that other clans derived from having a resident missionary, Moshoeshoe sent cattle to induce a missionary to stay with him. In fact, Moshoeshoe also hoped that the mission- aries would help him to acquire guns and thus prevent the depredations of the Kora.
In this way three missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) - Thomas Arbousset, Eugene Casalis and Constant Gosselin - came to Thaba Bosiu in 1833. Moshoeshoe placed them with his two senior sons, Letsie and Molapo, at Makhoarane, the site of the present-day Morija.
The arrival of the missionaries had far- reaching effects on the life of the people. Potatoes, 'wheat, fruit trees and domesti cats and pigs were introduced. Before long the missionaries had opened schools and printed books in the Sesotho language.
The French missionaries did not belong to any of the colonising white groups of southern Africa and were accepted as citizens of Moshoeshoe's kingdom. In fact, Eugene Casalls had a role similar to that of a Foreign Minister for the period 1837 - 55 while living in a mission at the foot of Thaba Bosiu. His knowledge of the outside world proved invaluable to Moshoeshoe during the period when white settlers began to threaten his kingdom.
A new and powerful group, the white people from the Cape Colony, began crossing the Orange River in large numbers in the mid-1830s. They trekked in ox-waggons, lived partly by hunting and eventually some settled as farmers on land within Moshoeshoe's Kingdom and in adjacent areas. For the Basotho the next thirty years was a time when only the statesmanship and diplomacy of Moshoeshoe saved their nation from extinction.
A Treaty made with the Governor of the Cape in 1843 recognised Moshoeshoe as an ally, with duties to maintain order in a large area north of the Orange River. In return he would,receive a sum of $75 per year from the Colonial Treasury. In 1845 this was replaced by a second Treaty which recognised white settlement on part of Moshoeshoe's territory, but without clearly defining boundaries.
In 1848 the Orange River Sovereignty was proclaimed, making the area between the Orange and Vaal Rivers British territory. A British Residents Major Warden, was placed in charge at the newly founded town of Bloemfontein. Major Warden was instructed to delineate boundaries between the different chiefs, a procedure quite unacceptable to the Basotho who regarded the Barolong, the Griqua and the white farmers as settled on part of their own territory. Warden's boundary line aroused such resentment that the two sides resorted to arms. After attacks had been made on the Bataung of Moletsane, allies of Moshoeshoe, the Basotho came to their aid. At the Battle of Tihela, near Ladybrand, in 1851, a crushing defeat was delivered on Major Warden's force which included Barolong, Batlokoa, Griqua and white farmers.
A blow such as this to British prestige aroused a predictable reaction, and it was decided that Moshoeshoe should be punished. No less a personage than the High Commissioner for the Cape Colony, Lieutenant-General Sir George Cathcart brought 2 000 troops and in December 1852 camped with them near the Mohokare River, opposite the present site of Maseru. The Basotho were ordered to pay within three days a fine of 10,000 head of cattle and 1,000 horses. Moshoeshoe, who always preferred peace to war, met Cathcart at his camp to request peace, but to no avail.
Only a third of the required cattle had been brought in at the expiry of the deadline, and Cathcart began military operations against Moshoeshoe. His force split into three columns, one of which soon mounted the Berea Plateau to round up cattle. As the 12th Royal Lancers were driving the cattle down from the Plateau on the north side, a force under Moshoeshoe's son, Molapo, attacked from the rear, and the British troops suffered heavy losses. That evening the Basotho further harassed Cathcart's men and caused the captured animals to stampede and break away. Meanwhile, realising that more was to be gained by diplomacy than by continuing the fight, Moshoeshoe sent Cathcart a letter which enabled him to withdraw without feeling that he had to avenge a defeat.
Cathcart and his force withdrew. Shortly afterwards Moshoeshoe defeated his old rival Sekonyela, and the entire upper Mohokare Valley came under his direct control.
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