During 1837 and 1838 Kruger 's family was part of the Voortrekker group under Potgieter that trekked further east into Natal . Here they met the American missionary Daniel Lindley , who gave young Paul much spiritual invigoration . The Zulu King Dingane concluded a land treaty with Potgieter . But he reconsidered and massacred first Piet Retief 's party of settlers , then others at Weenen . Kruger later recounted his family 's group coming under attack from Zulus soon after the Retief massacre , describing " children pinioned to their mothers ' breasts by spears , or with their brains dashed out on waggon wheels " . But " God heard our prayer " , he recalled , and " we followed them and shot them down as they fled , until more of them were dead than those of us they had killed in their attack ... I could shoot moderately well for we lived , so to speak , among the game . " Because of the attacks , the Krugers returned to the highveld , where they took part in Potgieter 's campaign that forced Mzilikazi to move his people north , across the Limpopo River , to what became Matabeleland . Kruger and his father settled at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountains in the Transvaal . In Natal Andries Pretorius defeated more than 10,000 of Dingane 's Zulus at the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838 , a date subsequently marked by the Boers as '' Dingaansdag '' ( " Dingane 's Day " ) or the Day of the Vow
others at Weenen
Weenen massacre
Paul Kruger