About Andries Pretorius
Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius (27 November 1798 – 23 July 1853) was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the South African Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa. The large city of Pretoria, executive capital of South Africa, is named after him. Pretorius was educated at home, and although a school education was not a priority on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, he was literate enough to read the Bible and write his thoughts down on paper. Pretorius descended from the line of the earliest Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony. Schulte, in his time as a theology student at the University of Leiden, changed his name to the Latin form and therefore became Wesselius Praetorius (later Pretorius).
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