Shunning colonial authority, he emigrated in 1834 to live among the Xhosa across the native reserve frontier, before he crossed the Orange River into northern territory.

He led his small party of emigrants, composed of seven Boer farmers, with their wives and thirty-four children & native servants,[7] into the uncharted interior of South Africa, and settled for a year at the base of the Zoutpansberg.

In addition he was a participant in the Graaff-Reinet resistance movements, first against the Dutch East India Company in 1795, and subsequently against English colonial governance.

[3] When the English installed Bresler as their landdrost in Graaff-Reinet, Carel and his two sons settled beyond the Great Fish River, outside the colony, rather than pledging allegiance with the new government.

With Louis acting as their leader, colonel Harry Smith deemed him an agitator of the sixth Xhosa war, and planned to arrest him.

Tregardt and Van Rensburg were the first of the voortrekkers to pass near Thaba Nchu, where the Barolong tribe of chief Moroka II was resident.

Van Rensburg would not be seen again; he and his trek of forty-nine persons were killed in June 1836 by a troop of Tsonga at a ford in Limpopo River, after a night-long assault.

[1] Tregardt sojourned at the salt pan on the Zoutpansberg's western promontory from May to August 1836, where he was visited by Potgieter's scouting party, who assured him that they would soon catch up and join his trek.

[8] In November 1836, Tregardt moved his camp eastwards to more agreeable climes in the vicinity of what would later be known as Schoemansdal and Louis Trichardt, a quarter known to the Vhavenda nation who occupied the land at the time as Dzanani.

[13] For this assistance, and for protection against Matabele raiding parties, Rasethau evidently gave Tregardt freedom to occupy land and access to hunting grounds.

[14] Tregardt decided on a southerly approach to Delagoa Bay, avoiding the Limpopo where the Van Rensburgs were murdered, and the tsetse flies endemic to the low regions.

[14] Tregardt arrived at the Olifants River via Chuniespoort on 2 October 1837, and consulted chief Sekwati of the Pedi people about a way forward.

Chief Sekwati paid them a friendly visit, and advised that the eastward route was everywhere obstructed by impassable mountains, lest they would leave their wagons behind and proceed by foot.

Here the subjects of the Sekororo induna Ngotshipana came to apologise, and managed to secure the release of four woman hostages by presenting Tregardt with two large elephant tusks.

They passed the Vila Luiza outpost and continued along swamps, lagoons and the villages of coastal tribes to reach the fort at Delagoa bay on 13 April 1838.

The climate and grazing at the fort was found to be unfavorable for a long term stay, and Tregardt dispatched a servant to Natal to request an evacuation by sea.

[14] He was the only Voortrekker leader to keep a diary of his trek, a valuable document in terms of linguistics[18] and ethnology,[4] besides his observations on the weather patterns, geography and the wildlife of the interior.

[4] In 1917 Preller's version of it was the first to appear in print, followed by T. H. le Roux's more reliable text in 1964 that was supplied with a glossary and linguistic annotations.