The Vow Traditional Cache
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Size: 
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The Boers made a larger near here on their way to do battle with the Zulu's at Blood River, this plinth marks the spot where the Vow was made to build a Church and sanctify the day should God grant them the victory over the Zulu warriors of King Dingane. Please be aware of muggles in the area.
The Great Trek (1836 - 1852)
Seven years into Dingane's reign - but a thousand kilometres south in the Cape Colony - the Boer people were about to embark on an exodus of biblical proportions from perceived tyranny at the hands of the British. Three decades of entrenched Colonial dominion saw the Boer - who by now were also known as the Afrikaaner - accumulate yet another descriptive epithet. They were about to become 'Voortrekkers'... a nation 'going forth' to seek political self-determination and survival of their cultural identity and language.The tall ships of their predecessors' emigration from Europe would be replaced by the most-enduring outer symbol of Afrikaanerdom - the covered ox-wagon.
Betrayal and Revenge
Of several wagon trains to embark on the arduous journey into an unknown hinterland, the group led by Piet Retief entered the Kingdom of the Zulu in 1837, and immediately began negotiating with Dingane for land to establish an independent Boer territory. On 6 February 1838 - the day scheduled to finalise their agreement - King Dingane had Piet Retief and 101 Voortrekkers put to death at his royal settlement near Ulundi . Dingane's impis then massacred other groups of would-be settlers camped in the vicinity of Estcourt . The survivors eventually regrouped and abandoned the site still referred to as Weenen - their 'Place of Weeping'. They headed inland... intent on revenge.
River of Blood
Within nine months the Voortrekkers believed themselves capable of defeating Dingane's Zulu hordes, and at Wasbank on 9 December 1838, vowed to sanctify that date and build a church... should God grant them victory over their enemy.
Exactly one week later - along the banks of a river near Dundee known to the Zulu as 'Peaceful One' - a 15 000- strong impi attacked the 460 Voortrekkers... and experienced the first failure of their Shaka-devised battle strategies.Traditional weapons, ox-horn formation and unquestioning bravery proved no match for the flintlocks, field artillery and mounted marksmen of the Boer's own unique tactics... and the ensuing carnage remains known as 'The Battle of Blood River'.
King Dingane fled northwards, only to be assassinated in a forest on the edge of Swaziland... while the Voortrekkers built their Church of the Vow three years later in a more secure Pietermaritzburg, and religiously maintain their Day of the Vow.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur ohfu arkg gb gur cyvagu
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