Editing Paul Kruger (section)

===Great Trek===
[[File:Great Trek map full.png|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Great Trek]] routes of the 1830s and 1840s|alt=]]
In 1834 Casper Kruger, his father, and his brothers Gert and Theuns moved their families east and set up farms near the [[Caledon River]], on the Cape Colony's far north-eastern frontier. The Cape had been under British sovereignty since 1814 when the Netherlands ceded it to Britain with the [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814|Convention of London]]. Boer discontent with aspects of British rule, such as the institution of English as the sole official language and the abolition of slavery in 1834, led to the [[Great Trek]]—a mass migration by Dutch-speaking "[[Voortrekkers]]" north-east from the Cape to the land on the far side of the [[Orange River|Orange]] and [[Vaal River|Vaal]] rivers.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 3–5}} Many Boers had been expressing displeasure with the British Cape administration for some time, but the Krugers were comparatively content. They had always co-operated with the British, and had not owned slaves. They had given little thought to the idea of leaving the Cape.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 7}}

A group of emigrants under [[Hendrik Potgieter]] passed through the Krugers' Caledon encampments in early 1836. Potgieter envisioned a [[Boer republic]] with himself in a prominent role; he sufficiently impressed the Krugers that they joined his party of Voortrekkers.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 7–8}} Kruger's father continued to give the children religious education in the Boer fashion during the trek, having them recite or write down biblical passages from memory each day after lunch and dinner. At stops along the journey, the trekkers made improvised classrooms, marking them with reeds and grass. The more educated emigrants took turns in teaching.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 10}}

[[File:G.S. Smithard; J.S. Skelton (1909) - The Voortrekkers.jpg|thumb|left|[[Voortrekkers]]; a 1909 depiction|alt=A romantic depiction of settlers in covered wagons, driving lifestock]]
The Voortrekkers faced indigenous competition for the area they were entering from [[Mzilikazi]] and his [[Northern Ndebele people|Ndebele]] (or Matabele) people, a branch from the [[Zulu Kingdom]] to the south-east. On 16 October 1836, the 11-year-old Kruger took part in the [[Battle of Vegkop]], where Potgieter's [[laager]], a circle of wagons chained together, was unsuccessfully attacked by Mzilikazi and around 4,000–6,000 Matabele warriors.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 74–75}}{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 10–11}} Kruger and the other small children assisted in tasks such as [[cast bullet|bullet-casting]], while the women and larger boys helped the fighting men, of whom there were about 40. Kruger could recall the battle in great detail and give a vivid account well into old age.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 10–11}}

During 1837 and 1838 Kruger's family was part of the Voortrekker group under Potgieter that trekked further east into Natal. Here they met the American missionary [[Daniel Lindley]], who gave young Paul much spiritual invigoration.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 14}} The Zulu King [[Dingane kaSenzangakhona|Dingane]] concluded a land treaty with Potgieter. But he reconsidered and massacred first [[Piet Retief]]'s party of settlers, then [[Weenen massacre|others at Weenen]].{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 74–75}} Kruger later recounted his family's group coming under attack from Zulus soon after the Retief massacre, describing "children pinioned to their mothers' breasts by spears, or with their brains dashed out on waggon wheels". But "God heard our prayer", he recalled, and "we followed them and shot them down as they fled, until more of them were dead than those of us they had killed in their attack&nbsp;... I could shoot moderately well for we lived, so to speak, among the game."{{sfn|Davenport|2004}}

Because of the attacks, the Krugers returned to the highveld, where they took part in Potgieter's campaign that forced Mzilikazi to move his people north, across the [[Limpopo River]], to what became [[Matabeleland]]. Kruger and his father settled at the foot of the [[Magaliesberg]] mountains in the Transvaal.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 74–75}} In Natal [[Andries Pretorius]] defeated more than 10,000 of Dingane's Zulus at the [[Battle of Blood River]] on 16 December 1838, a date subsequently marked by the Boers as the [[Day of the Vow]].{{#tag:ref|Outnumbered about twenty-to-one, Pretorius won at Blood River without losing a single man—he suffered only three lightly wounded—while the Zulus sustained around 3,000 fatalities.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp=171–172}} This was widely interpreted by the trekkers as a miraculous event demonstrating divine support for the Boers.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p=13}}|group = "n"|name = "bloodriver"}}