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Orange (River) Free State

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Orange (River) Free State

is the name assumed by the republic of Dutch Boers, who, after, retiring from Natal when declared a British colony, established themselves in that portion of the country in the interior of South Africa lying between the two great branches of the Orange River, the Ky and the Gariep, known to the colonists as the Vaal and Orange rivers, and situated north of the Cape Colony. It consists of vast undulating plains, sloping gently down from the Maluti Mountains to: the Vaal River, dotted over, however, in many places by rocky hills, although to the northward hundreds of miles are found so entirely level as to present scarcely a break on the horizon. The population consists principally of English and Dutch settlers, besides a considerable number of native Kaffres (q.v.) and Hottentots (q.v.). In common with all new countries, the want of religious ordinances was for some time severely felt in the Orange Free State, but of late, years ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, Wesleyan missionaries, and Episcopalian clergymen have, been appointed to this field of labor, and the population is gradually being transformed into a Christianized community. See The Missionary World (N.Y. 1875, 12mb), p. 529, No. 1104; Grundemann, Missions- Atlas, No. 1.