2 February - Voortrekker leader
Piet Retief publishes his Manifesto which sets out the reasons the Voortrekkers are leaving the
Cape Colony
28 March - Piet Retief and his followers leave the Cape Colony
23 April - Piet Retief orders Erasmus Smit to be ordained as a minister of the Voortrekkers, but meets with opposition because they consider him as being too old and sickly at 59
October - The voortrekkers under the leadership of Piet Retief arrived in
Natal over the
Drakensberg mountains after trekking overland from the Cape Colony during the
Great Trek.