As a matter of fact, the greater proportion remained behind, and their descendants formed the majority of the 376,000 whites enumerated in the census of 1891.

The Great Trek was really composed of various detachments which started one after another in 1836.

Statistics of the numbers of trekkers vary from 5,000 to 10,000.

I have not been able to trace whether these figures refer only to adult males, or whether they include the women and children.

In any case, when discussing South African affairs, we must always bear in mind the small number of persons concerned, in comparison with the vast extent of the area in question.
Not only these trekkers, but all who, from the period of the seventeenth century onwards, had had the tendency to wander from the Cape, belonged to the most adventurous and warlike portion of the population.