Sarili kaHintsa

When Sarhili left his father's Great Place (the residence of the King), as custom, to establish himself, he began trying to fight the Sotho to no avail.

His Kingdom's indirect aid to the Ngqika during the Seventh and Eighth Frontier Wars (1846–1853) was discovered and led to a temporary British invasion of Gcalekaland.

[2]: 686 Sarili played an important part in the Great Cattle Killing, a millennialist movement which began among the Xhosa in 1856, and led them to destroy their own means of subsistence in the belief that it would bring about salvation by supernatural spirits, who would return and drive all white people into the sea.

The Cape achieved responsible government in 1872 and, with little further interest in annexing Xhosa land, signed treaties with both Sarili and his enemies such as the Thembu, recognising Gcalekaland's territorial integrity.

The British government, on the other hand, sought to offer protection to increasing numbers of Transkeian chiefdoms, isolating Sarili diplomatically and reducing his power in the region.

From the mid-1870s, a series of severe droughts across the Transkei began to place growing strain on the relative peace which had prevailed for the previous few decades.

[3][4][5] In 1877, fighting between Mfengu and Gcaleka tribesmen broke out at a festival, rapidly escalating into a shoot-out and finally into a full-blown inter-tribal war that spread along the frontier.

Sarili tried to unite the Xhosa tribes into a unified force in order to prevent the annexation, but after two devastating pitched battles, he declared an end to his resistance and went into exile, first in Pondoland and afterwards to Bomvanaland.