In 1825 seasonal migration to the region by white farmers was officially allowed, which soon developed into permanent settlement; in 1838 a Trekker party acquired the area around the modern Winburg from its original black inhabitants, in 1846 a British Resident settled at Bloemfontein, and two years later British sovereignty was proclaimed over the area. Early white travellers in the Transgariep is a survey of this phase of white contact with the region, and more especially of the written accounts left by the first white travellers there, and includes the text of eleven of the latter, in many cases translated from the Dutch, German or French.