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LYDENBURG

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 156 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LYDENBURG , a See also:

town and See also:district of the See also:Transvaal, See also:South See also:Africa. The town is 6o m. by See also:rail N.N.E. of See also:Belfast on the See also:Pretoria-Delagoa See also:Bay railway. Pop. (1904) 1523. It is picturesquely situated on the Spekboom tributary of the Olifants See also:river at an See also:altitude of 4900 ft. Some 15 M. E. is the Mauchberg (8725 ft.), the highest point in the Transvaal. The town is the See also:chief centre for the Lydenburg goldfields. Next to Lydenburg the most important See also:settlement in these goldfields is See also:Pilgrim's See also:Rest, pop. (1904) 1188, 23 M. N.E. of Lydenburg. Lydenburg (the town of suffering) was founded in 1846 by Boers who two years previously had established themselves farther See also:north at Ohrigstad, which they abandoned on See also:account of the See also:fever endemic there.

Lydenburg at once became the See also:

capital of a district (of the same name) which then embraced all the eastern See also:part of the Transvaal. In 1856 the Boers of Lydenburg separated from their brethren and proclaimed an See also:independent See also:republic, which was, however, incorporated with the South See also:African Republic in 186o. The See also:discovery of See also:gold near the town was made in 1869, and in 1873 the first successful See also:goldfield in the Transvaal was opened here. It was not until 1910, however, that Lydenburg was placed in railway communication with the rest of the See also:country. The See also:present district of Lydenburg consists of the north-See also:east and central parts of the See also:original district. In the Lulu Mountains, a See also:spur of the See also:Drakensberg, and some 40 M. N.W. of Lydenburg, was the stronghold of the Kaffir chief Sikukuni, whose conflict with the Boers in 1876 was one of the causes which led to the See also:annexation of the Transvaal by See also:Great See also:Britain in 1877.

End of Article: LYDENBURG

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