We remember: – Bloukrans murders February 16-17, 1838 written by RONELLE SYDERS

[Nat Quinn]

We remember: Vienna – Bloukrans murders February 16-17, 1838

The largest infanticide in one night of the children of our nation.-WRITTEN BY RONELLE SNYDERS.

The horrific events of Bloukrans River, Moordspruit and Bushman’s River in the early morning are remembered. There were 185 children, 41 men, 56 women and 250 servants killed.

The three Zulu regiments of King Dingaan left Umkungunhlovo after the murders of Governor Retief and his men to commit these murders. They were expecting more reinforcements.

The Zulu regiments began their killing, robbery, and destruction.

Daniel Bezuidenhout went to warn fellow countrymen.

Also, the Italian merchant’s wife Therese Viglione went on horseback to warn fellow countrymen.

Here fourteen men are trapped, but they fire back. When Cilliers’ men were within range, they heard that the ammunition had run out. It was then that the young Marthinus Oosthuizen performed his heroic deed. He fetched the ammunition and raced among the Zulus on horseback.

Now the onslaught could be averted. the murders put Sarel Cilliers with his men, reinforced by Maritz and some of his men, the fleeing Zulus in pursuit, all the way down the Bushman River and Moordspruit in the direction where the morning’s first attack took place.

“But there was nothing left to save. Just as they came down the creek, they saw the smoking murder mounds of their friends, who had been standing there the night before.

Men, women, and small children were killed there in the early hours of the morning with horrific barbarity.

The grass was caked together with the noble blood that flowed there; the wagons smashed or burned; the earth white with feathers from torn open bedding — a scene of death and destruction calculated to make the strongest men’s hearts bleed.

Infants are there pierced in the arms of their mothers and at the breast with dozens of assay stitches, so that the bodies stick together; of little children the heads were smashed against the wagon wheels; of women cut off the breasts, the bodies horribly mutilated, and corpses of her murdered little children pressed to the bloody breast.

From some wagons the blood is still draining, and within them lie pregnant women, and unborn children as if torn apart by vermin.

Here it was that the pious Sarel Cilliers, with his head bared, let Here was it that the pious Sarel Cilliers, with his head bared, let out the sigh from his broken heart:“Oh, God, will not the blood of the infant be avenged!”

That day began with the collection of the deceased, in order to prevent them from falling prey to the vultures and predators.

At the top of Bloukrans, the young girls Johanna van der Merwe with 22 ace stitches and Catherina Prinsloo with 17 ace stitches are discovered, both terribly mutilated by the Zulu ace stitches, but still alive.

Only the next day is Mrs. De Beer (b. Loggenberg) with twenty-two axle stitches. She fled for a while after being wounded, and then climbed into a thorny tree. During the morning, a number of Zulu soldiers pass under the tree, and some of her blood drips on them. They were already relapsing, and then stabbed her further with their axes from under the tree, as far as they could reach. She was too weak to get out of there herself; and it was not until the next day that vultures were noticed spinning, that she was discovered. She died days later.

Wherever you go, the people were crying…..

The following is a list of many shortcomings, of those who were killed:

Pieter Liebenberg’s wife.

Wynand Bezuidenhout and his wife and their 6 children.

Roelof Botha and his wife.

Daniel Bezuidenhout’s wife and child.

Widow Frans Smit.

Adriaan Rossouw and his wife and four of their five children. One child was left behind who suffered 30 wounds but survived.

Willem Jacobz and six children.

Jacobus Coetzee senior.

Piet du Preez’s wife and their seven children.

Nicolaas Grobbelaar’s wife and four children.

Steph Grobbelaar and his wife and two of their four children.

Jan Roos and his wife and two children.

Charles Roos and his wife and their three children.

Lourens Erasmus and his wife and five children.

Jan Joubert and his wife and two children.

Willem Wagenaar and his wife and their four children.

Josias van den Berg and his wife and their four of their six children.

Christian de Beer and his wife and their three children.

Zacharias de Beer and his wife and his five children.

Piet de Wet and his wife and their seven children.

Widow Fredk. Oosthuizen and her six children.

Adriaan de Beer’s two children.

Hendrik Loggenberg and his wife and their three children.

Cornelis van Zyl and his wife and their three children.

Joachim Prinsloo and his wife and seven of their eight children.

Frederik Kromhout and his wife and their child.

Andries Bester and his wife and six children.

Widow Cloete.

Michiel Grobbelaar and his wife and their four children.

Lourens Klopper and his wife and their two children.

Louw Bothma (widow) and his child.

Frans van Wyk and his wife and their four children.

Louw Botman and his wife.

Abram Botha and his wife and their six children.

Jan Bothma (widow) and his four children.

Stephanus de Beer and his wife and their six children.

Willem van der Merwe and his wife and their three children.

Marthinus van der Merwe and his wife.

Gerrit Engelbrecht and his wife and his child.

Willem Engelbrecht and his wife and their two children.

Gert Engelbrecht (widow) and his four children.

Jan Botha and his wife.

Josua Joubert and his wife and their six children.

Johannes de Beer’s two children.

David Viljoen and his wife and their three children.

Widow of Joseph van.

Widow of Loggenberg.

Christiaan Loggenberg and his wife and their two children.

Johannes Gysbertus Roos and his wife and their two children.

Stephanus de Beer’s wife and their five children.

Barend Johannes Loggenberg’s wife and their three children.

Daniel Liebenberg’s wife.

Jacobus Hatting’s wife and their four children.

Christiaan de Beer’s wife and three children.

Jan de Beer’s wife and their child.

Gerrit Botman’s wife and their child.

Johan van der Merwe’s wife and their four children.

Andries van’s wife and their ten of their eleven children.

Gerrit Bothma’s wife and their four children.

Hermanus Fourie’s wife and their two children.

So they cried.

Sources:+Gustav Preller’s book Piet Retief.
+Gustav Preller’s Voortrekker people 6.+Jan Visagie’s Voortrekker ancestor 1835 – 1845.
+Other.

 

SOURCE:Ons onthou: Weenen – Bloukransmoorde 16-17 Februarie 1838 – Volkskrag Nuus

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