18. BAREND BARENDS, THE ORIGINAL CHIEF OF THE SEPT OF THE BASTAARDS

D. — Causes which forced the Migration of the Griquas to the Eastward.

E. — The Early Griqua Settlement.

F. — The Griquas of 1813.

The exact origin of this man and his family does not appear to be known. It is, however, certain that they were leaders among the Bastaard emigrants who were then flocking into the Gariepine valley, before the missionaries first visited, in their perplexity and distress, the elder Cornelius Kok at the Khamiesberg.

Barend Barends was in those days so far a chief that he had received a staff of office, similar to that bestowed upon the Koks and other native captains, showing that his position was recognised by the constituted authorities of the period. While the purer Griqua portion of the future tribe was gathering about the great flock-master Kok, Barend and his family seem to have formed the centre around which the Bastaard element of the same infant community congregated. This fact will make itself more clearly apparent when we come to treat of his rule at Boetsap and his migrations from that point.

The Barendses, as we have already seen, were sufficiently powerful to cope for a considerable time with all the difficulties of their exposed position. The Bastaards under them, or acknowledging their leadership, approximated more nearly in their customs and ideas to the border colonists, the backwoods-men of South Africa, than any other, and with whom they evidently retained friendly relations, as we find that after the Pienaar tragedy the latter solicited the cooperation of Barend Barends in their vain attempts to arrest the brigand chief of the Africaanders. This proposition, as we have already learnt, was agreed to, and thus both he and his brothers were brought into hostile collision with the most formidable native leader to be found in the history of the Lower 'Gariep.

His brother Nicholas Barends is described by Mr. Moffat as being a very superior man, both in appearance and intellect, with an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers. In the conflicts which ensued between themselves and Africaander, on one occasion Barends' party, who were far superior in numbers, and were headed by Nicholas Barends, unexpectedly carried off every ox and cow belonging to Africaander, only a few calves being left in the stall. After a desperate, though very unequal, contest for a whole day, having repeatedly taken and lost their cattle, the Africaanders returned home, slaughtered the calves which were left them, and rested a couple of days in order to dry the flesh in the sun, ready for an intended campaign.

For several days they pursued their course along the northern bank of the Great river, and having by spies found out the rendezvous of the enemy on the southern side, they passed beyond them, in order to attack them from a quarter on which they fancied themselves safe. They swam over in the dead of night, with their ammunition and clothes tied on their heads and their guns on their shoulders. The little force thus prepared seized their opportunity, and when all the enemy were slumbering in fancied security, aroused them by a volley of stones falling on their fragile huts. The inmates rushed out, and were received by a shower of arrows ; and before they could fairly recover their senses and seize their guns, the discharge of musketry convinced them that they were besieged by a host in a most favourable position. They consequently fled in the greatest consternation, leaving the captured cattle as well as their own in the hands of the Africaanders.

It was about this time that on the invitation of Barend Barends the missionaries joined the Bastaards on the banks of the 'Gariep, and it was from these again that a select party, though a mixed multitude, finally terminated a migratory life by settling at the spot afterwards called Griquatown, in 1804, with Messrs. Anderson and Kramer. They were members of distinct tribes, having different languages, customs, and grades of honour, from that of the descendant of the colonial farmer to the very lowest state of degradation in the Bushmen. Their government was of a mingled character, comprising the patriarchal, despotic, monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic, each party having its claims, either of birth, power, numbers, or hereditary right, exhibiting all the phases of a tropical thunder-cloud, which rolls on in wild and black confusion till it bursts forth scattering terror and death.

We have already seen that in 1801 these people had so far advanced to the eastward, in detached parties, that the one more directly under the care of the missionaries, which appears to have formed the vanguard of this movement, was then found some twenty hours of waggon travelling beyond the drift at Prieska, which would be probably some fifty or sixty miles ; the family clan of the Koks, which still remained on the southern side of the river and considerably to the westward, bringing up the rear.

We will now proceed to the next section of our subject, and consider the causes which governed the direction of the Griqua migration.

D. — Causes which forced the Migration of the Griquas to the Eastward.

From what we have already gathered concerning the turbulent career of the Africaanders and the bitter hatred existing between them and their rivals the Barendses, these circumstances of themselves would form an almost sufficiently strong motive to have impelled the Griqua leaders in an easterly direction. Nothing was to be gained in the west, the road in that direction was in a great measure barred by the armed bands acting under the inspiration of the notorious Africaander, who had guns in their hands and ammunition in their pouches, from whom little was to be expected but hard blows and dangerous wounds ; while beyond them, at no great distance, was the impassable barrier of the Great Waters which, centuries before, had turned the forefathers of the Hottentot race from their original course towards the setting sun.

To the west then all was repellent, but to the eastward another prospect appeared. In that direction an apparently virgin country spread out before them, watered by a stream surpassing, according to their knowledge, all others in magnitude ; plains swarming with game, and pools of water teeming with hippopotami ; a race of people whose puny shafts were of little avail against the unerring bullet ; and still beyond them, instead of the Great Waters, as in the opposite direction, with the dread and mystery which overshadowed them, were tribes of unknown numbers, equally or even more defenceless in point of weapons than the dwarf hunters of the plains, possessors of countless herds, promising endless spoil, which some of them had already, as the companions of the Koks, or the marauding Bloem, gazed upon. The missionaries who were leading the way were probably in their simplicity and ignorance dreaming of conducting their proselytes far away from the haunts of wicked men, and founding a place of eternal peace and quiet in the depths of the wilderness.

There were other causes, doubtless, which gave additional impetus to this eastward movement, besides the unceasing depredations of Africaander and his ruthless banditti, and the feuds which rose up between themselves and the Bastaards of the Gariepine valley in consequence of them. A general insurrectionary movement of the Hottentot race seemed to have spread itself even into that remote portion of the country. We learn from Mr. Barcherds that, on the 20th of December 1798 the landdrost of Stellenbosch received information that the Hottentots of Little Namaqualand were turbulent, had assembled in large bodies, and had seized five farms, murdered one man, taken twenty muskets, and carried off a number of cattle ; when immediate orders were dispatched to the fieldcornet Van der Westhuyzen to call upon the inhabitants of his ward to render assistance to those in Little Namaqualand. These proceedings of the landdrost were approved of by the governor, who directed that no violence should be committed against the Hottentots except in self-defence.

Fortunately for the moment the commando had the desired effect ; the Hottentots were again quiet, no one had been shot nor any violence exercised, and only one person, Gerrit Owies, who had imprudently parted from the commando, was killed, not by a Hottentot, but by the arrow of a Bushman. Part of the stolen cattle and muskets was recovered, but the chief disturbers had retired to the Great or Orange river, and scarcity of grass and weakness of the horses had prevented further pursuit. There was no time for congratulation upon this partial success, for thirteen days after the receipt of the above intelligence, J. A. van Wyk, fieldcornet of the Hantam, reported that Africaander with a band of more than one hundred followers had murdered a farmer named Hermanus Engelbrecht, and had carried off 3,700 sheep and goats, 446 head of cattle, eight horses, three muskets, and other property, besides two waggons, and had retreated with his booty to the Orange river.

Again orders were issued to raise a commando and pursue the marauders ; but before the results of this expedition could be learnt, the disturbances at Graaff-Reinet had come to a head, and the governor had ordered General Vandeleur to march to the rebellious district with a sufficient force to afford protection to the well-disposed inhabitants, and thus the disturbances and outrages on the northern border remained unchecked.

In December 1801 Fieldcornet Jacob Kruger reported that Floris Langman, his wife and three children, and five or six of his domestics had been cruelly murdered ; while the fieldcornet of Cedarbergen sent intelligence that the Hottentots were refusing to take service and preparing to congregate with arms as far as behind Hantam. Upon receipt of this report, the lieutenant-governor General Dundas promptly authorised a commando to pursue the murderers, but recommended cautious treatment and forbearance to be shewn to the Hottentots, so as not to cause aversion by uncalled for severity to make them dangerous enemies instead of useful servants.

Thus the entire northern border, as well as the eastern, was in a state of anarchical confusion, and we find one atrocity following the other in quick succession, for scarcely had the last intelligence been received when an express came from Gerrit Maritz, the fieldcornet of the Roggeveld, stating that Cornelius Coetzee, together with his two sons, a butcher named Frederik Werner, and his servant Frans Scherpenaard, had been murdered by his own slaves and Hottentots, that the house had been plundered and the money with a waggon and oxen had been taken, and also that the wife of one of Coetzee's sons was missing. In this case a commando immediately pursued the murderers and captured the greater number of them ; although Fieldcornet Jacob Kruger stated that the marauding party was still about sixty-eight strong, some of them being armed with muskets.

The Koks also, who were then living at their camp of t'Kow-bahas, became involved in this surging whirlpool of bloody strife, Barend Barends appears by this time to have given up the struggle and retired with his flocks and herds farther to the north in company with the missionaries, but they, at the time Mr. Borcherds visited their kraal in February 1801, were engaged in hostilities with Africaander. Cornelius, the elder, was absent on an expedition against him, and Adam, his son, had been left in charge of the kraal. A detachment of the Bastaards, mounted and armed, had come down the river from T'Karaap for the purpose of joining him in this attack, when they succeeded in capturing thirty-six head of cattle, although both Africaander and Stephanus, his European associate, escaped.

With this evidence before us of the turbulent state of Little Namaqualand and the lower Gariepine valley, it can be no matter of wonder that there was a general movement towards the east amongst the Bastaards and Griquas under the Koks and Barend Barends. We will therefore proceed to the next stage of our investigation.

E. — The Early Griqua Settlement.

In or about 1800 the missionaries Anderson and Kramer discovered the springs at Klaarwater, the spot where Griquatown sprang up after they had induced the Griquas to settle there and relinquish their wandering propensities.

With regard to this occupation of Klaarwater, we glean the following from the Report before referred to. I never, says the writer, understood that when the missionaries discovered the fountains there were any tribes occupying the place. They found that part of the country empty, and took possession of it. Upon this point it is only necessary to remark that any one who has studied the habits of the Bushmen knows that many of the small tribes wander about from fountain to fountain, according to the migrations of the game and the varying seasons, and that still, although these tribes were widely scattered and sparsely sprinkled over the country, it was none the less their own. To whom else could the claim possibly belong ? The writer during several years' residence in Griqualand West was informed both by old Koranas and Bushmen that when the former arrived in the country that portion of it now under discussion was fully occupied by Bushmen.

We know also from Korana evidence that the Koranas had a kraal or town at the springs at Campbell, and also an encampment at Klaarwater itself for a considerable time, long before the alleged discovery of this water. We know further that the Bushmen resented their occupation of the place, and a large body of the latter attacked them there in consequence ; and that these same Koranas retreated subsequently from it, not on account of the water failing, but from these very attacks which the owners of the soil made upon them. In addition to this, as a further proof of Bushman occupancy, during one of the writer's visits to Griquatown he discovered some Bushman paintings on some rocks in the Griquatown hills, which were certainly done before the missionaries took possession of the place, and not afterwards when the valley was occupied by men with guns in their hands ever ready to hunt down the Bushmen upon the shortest notice. The evidence therefore is conclusive, that instead of the country being without owners when these pioneer-missionaries arrived at the springs, its real possessors had just about that time wandered to some other portion of their hunting grounds. The twang of the bow and the cry of the wild hunter had been the only sounds which had echoed among the rocks and groves of its hills, covered as they were at that time with virgin forests of the wild olive tree.

One is surprised to learn from a letter from the Rev. Dr. Philip to Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, that after all the agitation about Griqua claims the missionaries Anderson and Kramer took possession of the springs, not in the name of any individuals, but in that of the London Missionary Society, thus assuming to themselves the power of ejecting any person from their infant dominion who was not subservient to their rule. This power, we shall find in the subsequent career of the people under them, was not a mere technical fiction, but one upon which they acted. Not only was the land to be in their name, but the chiefs themselves must be men of whom they approved. In the letter above referred to is the following sentence bearing upon this subject : " the only chief the Griquas had among themselves at this period was old Kok, and he was so far from being an independent chief that he had the staff of a Hottentot captain, which he had received from the colonial government, and he did not then accompany them to the new territory, but retired to the Khamiesberg."

From what follows one cannot help suspecting that the old man, both shrewd and wise in his generation, finding that his own influence was gradually being undermined and lost in the growing influence of the missionary teachers, became weary of the sham, and that the reason of his not being an independent chief arose not so much from the fact of his having inherited and accepted a bauble in the shape of a wand of office which he carried with him into the wilderness, as the trammels which were gradually being spread around him by the men who were assuming the guidance and governance of his tribe.

Seeing that up to the time the missionaries induced these Griquas to settle at Griquatown, they were a mere set of miserable nomads, without home and without territory, it is quite certain that their claims commenced after this settlement, and therefore not under the elder Cornelius Kok. We have seen that this chief obtained great influence among all the natives, whom he conciliated and subdued more by kindness, that is by the method which most quickly reached the natives' hearts when half-starved and pinched with hunger, viz. supplying them with plenty of flesh, the spoils of the chase, than by proving the strength of his powder in shooting them down. In this he doubtless shewed his wisdom, but at the same time we cannot discover that he set up any great land claims : that phase of Griqua occupation came afterwards.

Under the powerful patronage of the London Missionary Society, whose members in those days could do no wrong, the power of annexation displayed by their Griqua protégés seems to have been amazing. In the course of a few years they claimed the sovereignty of any or every tract of country over which they had either hunted or where their cattle had trekked. This was certainly not the policy adopted in the days of their old chief Cornelius Kok, as we are informed by a most reliable authority, the Rev. J. Campbell, that he always evinced a more friendly and conciliatory spirit towards the Bushmen than many others ; and on one occasion, when he intended to send cattle to feed in their part of the country, he first asked the Bushman captain what he should give for permission to do so. Having once heard some person mention twelve thousand rixdollars, without knowing its value, the captain demanded that sum. Kok told him that rixdollars would be of no use to him, he would therefore give him a sheep for every two thousand rixdollars, and the captain was highly pleased with the six sheep instead of the twelve thousand rixdollars which he had asked.

After the departure of Cornelius Kok, the Griquas who remained certainly did not display, although more immediately under the rule of their religious guides, the same spirit of conciliation. That the Bushmen resented the despotic occupation of their country is certain ; this is proved even by the scattered incidents which have been recorded by those who travelled through it during that period. Thus we learn that a short distance from Griquatown there is a spring called Kogel-been (Bullet-leg) Fontein, so called from a Bushman captain who was wounded in the leg near the place by a Griqua, after having stolen some cattle. The Griquas, we are told, about the mission, were much exasperated against the neighbouring Bushmen.

The poor Bushmen say in defence of their conduct that the country was originally theirs, that the Griquas have seized the fountains of water and shot almost all the game, and that they are forced to steal or to starve. The Griquas, on the other hand, urge in their defence that their chief dependence for subsistence is on their cattle, that it is hard to be deprived in one night of their principal means of support by those savages who will neither sow nor rear cattle. Mr. Campbell, however, who saw much of these Bushmen during the course of his journeys and is certainly no mean authority upon the subject, considers, notwithstanding all the charges brought against them, that these Bushmen, wild as they undoubtedly are, are nevertheless more docile than any of the other native nations, and more grateful for kindness shewn to them.

In almost every instance, as we have seen and shall see more fully as we proceed, their territory was forcibly taken possession of. Now and then, in a few isolated cases, when they protested against the intrusion, some trivial recompense was offered to them, which thus, at some subsequent period, formed the pretext of purchase, and thus step by step, either by force or fraud, the unfortunate Bushmen found themselves driven from all the available springs in the country.

That such a people as the early Griqua emigrants should have acted in this manner is not surprising, for they were described as being, for years after Mr. Anderson joined them, a people who not only neither planted nor sowed, but who never exercised any sentiment of either justice or mercy to their neighbours. But that men who had adopted " the rights of the Aborigines " for their watchword should have been so obtuse as not to be able to distinguish who were the true aborigines to whom those rights belonged, seems certainly rather surprising.

There appeared at the time a disposition on the part of the friends of the Griquas to put down every thing to their penetration and powers of observance, thus we have been told the springs at Klaarwater were discovered by the missionaries with the Griquas, although it is quite certain that they had been occupied for generations before by the Bushmen, that the Toovenaar Koranas under 'Kunapsoop halted there for a time, in their migrations to the Malalarene, and that the Koks in their hunting expeditions visited them. Again, the springs at Campbell were said to be discovered by the same enterprising natives, although we know that they were in the occupation of the Bushmen for centuries before, after which they were seized by the Koranas, who held them for about a year and then left them, when the Bushmen once more returned to the spot.

This last discovery was said to have been made by the Griquas in 1805, after which they took possession of them, and commenced cultivation before any arrangement was ever thought of with the previous owners of the ground, although we are told that a Bushman called October Balie was found living there, and was supposed to have some right to the land. Much has been said and written about one hundred and fifty rixdollars given as purchase money to the said Bushman, on account of which the claim to the so-called Campbell Lands, a tract of country extending many miles, has been built up ; as if this one man could dispose of the independent rights of his countrymen, men living in different portions of the wonderful range of the 'Kaap, and of clans different from his own.

Besides, from the observations of Cornelius Kok the elder, dollars were not very plentiful among the Griquas in those days, and Mr. Campbell in 1820 gives us a slightly different version of this land transaction. He tells us that finding the Griquas intended making a permanent settlement at the spot, the captain of the Bushmen who resided there complained to Cornelius Kok, the chief of the Griquas at Campbell and the eldest of all the Griqua captains, that he was cutting down a wood and digging out the roots of the trees that belonged to him and afforded him and his people a shade during the summer.

Mr. Campbell states that after this Cornelius gave him as a recompense two oxen and ten goats. He also ploughed land for him, in which he sowed a bushel of wheat, that in the harvest produced six sacks full. The Bushman being so successful in his demand upon the father, was encouraged to ask something of the son, Abraham, for the ground he had ploughed up, and he obtained from him six sheep. These payments were evidently intended by the Bushman captain as compensation on account of the Griquas settling at the springs at Campbell and for the right of ploughing there, but he never dreamt for a moment that such a transaction was to deprive him and his countrymen of their ancient territorial rights over a large extent of country. This transaction, however, was evidently looked upon by the Griquas as an act of generosity on the part of the Koks, for, adds this writer, these were freewill offerings, as the poor Bushman had no means to enforce his demand. The Bushman's right to make it was never once taken into consideration.

As we have said, the original intention evidently was that this arrangement conveyed the right only to the cultivated grounds, together with the privilege of cutting down necessary timber, and also allowed a fair and reasonable amount of grazing ; but in lieu of this, this paltry purchase was made the foundation of the Griqua claim to the much-spoken-of Campbell grounds, equal to several English counties in extent. Thus we shall find in all and every case of the same kind, the rights of the true aborigines were trampled under foot without hesitation, although the ground had been in the possession of their forefathers from time immemorial.

How different would have been the case, and how great the outcry that would have been raised by the same class of men, had any attempt been made to dispossess these protégés of theirs, the par excellence in their sight, " poor natives," after comparatively but a few years' occupation of their easily obtained and ill-gotten territory ? No wonder then that the hatred of the despoiled Bushmen was so intense, that urged, as they felt themselves to be, by a stern lex talionis, they were, as Mr. Campbell tells us, pleased when one of these Griquas had been killed, with the reflection that they had thereby lessened the number of those who oppressed them.

Returning once more to the thread of Griqua history, we find after the departure of old Cornelius upon the establishment of Griquatown, that the missionaries for a time took the entire management of the affairs of the tribe into their own hands. Upon this point we gain some information from the letter of the Rev. Dr. Philip to the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, before referred to. He therein states that when the missionaries saw proper to separate civil from religious affairs, they recommended to the people to make choice of a chief as a civil magistrate, and Adam Kok was the person chosen on that occasion.

About this time several writers speak of the Griqua chiefs, and Adam Kok is called the paramount chief. The probable explanation of this appears to be that Adam was the mission chief, while the others were heads or chiefs of independent outstations or kraals not acknowledging the jurisdiction of Griqua-town, and therefore not under the entire control of the missionaries. Adam's more energetic successor, doubtless for the promotion of religion and morals, endeavoured to force all these discontents under the politico-religious government of the centre, of which he was the representative. Adam, however, does not appear to have been as docile a feudatory of the church as was anticipated. He was still animated by the old hunter spirit of his father, and found more invigorating exercise in the pursuit and excitement of the chase, and that of a wandering life, than in mere spiritual exercise and practice of hymnology.

From the time of his accession to the chieftainship until 1816 matters did not work smoothly between the resident missionaries and himself, but still at that time he evidently possessed too much influence among his fellow Griquas to allow the former to consider it prudent to break with him. In 1811, however, a native catechist, named Andries Waterboer, joined the mission in Griqua-town. In 1816 old Cornelius Kok, seized once more with a fit of wandering and a desire to see the remainder of his family in his old age, left his farm at the Khamiesberg, whither he had retired and made his reappearance among the Griquas. On his return, we learn from the letter of the Rev. Dr. Philip that he wished to be recognised as chief of the place, but, he adds, his pretensions were rejected by the missionaries and the people.

From this we can trace the gradual development and assumption of power by their spiritual guides, and can see that the mission party by this time had sufficient influence to reject the father, although they were not then able to get rid of the son ; it required, as we shall discover, several years longer to upset the pretensions of the younger and more popular man. We are told, however, as a preparation for that event, that during the long absence of his father, from his frequent contact with Bushmen, Koranas, and other predatory tribes, he had lost more or less the civilised habits of his relatives. In this retrogression he must nevertheless have been supported by a considerable portion of the old followers of his father, who still looked back with a lingering regard upon the feastings and fleshpots of former and more stirring times.

An instance has been given in the reminiscences of another tribe of an old reclaimed cannibal, whose mouth watered as he was conversing in his old age with a too tempting individual. We therefore cannot be surprised, especially when we remember the teachings of colonial experience, how " school Kaffirs," girls and youths who have undergone years of training and been accustomed to European clothing, return to the more orthodox blanket and red-clay at the earliest opportunity, to find that these once still more degraded Griquas, forgetting the famine and fasting fretting under the tightening restraints imposed upon them by their teachers, the novelty of the new modes of life having worn off, should remember only the brighter spots of their former existence and long once more for the wild freedom they enjoyed under their old chief, and gradually become more and more averse to peaceable pursuits and a settled life. The sympathies of their present chief Adam encouraged them, while he is charged by the friends of the mission party with winking at the marauding expeditions engaged in by his people, and even joining in them himself. As we know, however, that some of the charges then brought against him for a purpose were capable of contradiction, we are inclined to believe that this last was one of them.

We will now, to obtain a clearer view of the further development of the Griqua " nation," pursue our inquiry, by making an examination of two distinct periods of its growth, viz. the one commencing in 1813, the other in 1820.

F. — The Griquas of 1813.

It is a fortunate circumstance for the purposes of the investigation which we are now pursuing that such a thoroughly reliable and observant traveller as Mr. Campbell visited the country at the period above indicated. His unimpeachable impartiality placed him above all local or tribal prejudices, and for this reason we are able to accept the evidence which he brings forward with unmixed and hearty satisfaction.

Having traversed two different lines of country during his progress to and his return from the Interior, his observations are spread over a wider range of surface than they otherwise would have been. To avail ourselves fully of the information he has thus afforded us, we will, for the sake of a clearer comprehension of it, arrange the items contained therein in two separate portions, viz. : —

a. — The Bushmen of the Period, and

b. — The Griquas of the Early Settlement.

a. — The Bushmen of the Period.

In commencing this subject, we will preface our remarks with the observation that the route taken by Mr. Campbell was through Graaff Reinet, across the Bushman country to Read's drift on the 'Gariep or Great river, thence to Lithako, the chief town of the Batlapin, via Griquatown, returning by the sources of the Malalarene, again passing Griquatown, to the ford on the 'Gariep at t'Keys or Kheis, after which he continued down the left side of this river valley until he arrived at Khamiesberg, from which point he once more visited Capetown.

The Bushmen met with in this journey of 1813 were found more thickly congregated along the valleys of the Malalarene and Kolong ('Hhou as they themselves called it), the 'Gij-'Gariep (the Yellow river or Vaal), and the 'Nu-'Gariep (or the Black or Upper Orange river), than in any other portion of the country through which Mr. Campbell travelled. Some were also found along the banks of the 'Gariep or Great river from the junction of the four rivers which composed it down to its mouth, where a tribe of these people, called 'Navi-i-I'kaa, were then living ; while at the same time Bushmen occupied in a scattered manner the entire territory as far to the eastward as the Tambukis, i.e. the Abatembu.

In passing through the Bushman country, after leaving Graaff-Reinet, although the journey occupied the space of twelve days, only a single family of Bushmen was met with, and that on the first day on which the travellers visited the territory. All the farmers along the border had Bushman servants, principally, however, women and children. On this journey they on several occasions came upon Bushman huts and other evidences of the existence of the inhabitants, and also saw on some of the eminences columns of smoke rising, which were employed by the Bushmen as signals, and which showed that although these people remained invisible, the movements of the caravan were being narrowly watched ; but during the whole time, so cautious were these wily hunters, that not one of them sufficiently exposed himself as to appear in sight.

Of those they met, a child that a woman carried had a string of berries, as a substitute for beads, interspersed with circular pieces of ostrich eggshell. The oldest of the party, who appeared at the head of them, was called Old Boy in their language. Each of them carried a jackal's tail on a stick to wipe the perspiration from their faces in hot weather. Each of them also carried a quiver of poisoned arrows. These people looked upon the month of May as their harvest, for the ground being softened by rain, they could easily dig up roots not only for present use, but if they chose for future provision also. In the summer they were supplied with locusts, which they dried and pounded into powder, which served them as a substitute for flour.

The lions at that time were very numerous in that portion of the country, and it was asserted that these unfortunate people sometimes threw their children to the savage brutes in order to preserve themselves from their clutches, and it was from this circumstance, together with the slaughter committed amongst them by the colonial commandos, that the desire of these animals for the flesh of Bushmen had of late years greatly increased, until in 1813 it was said that these ferocious creatures killed more Bushmen than sheep.

A young Bushman who accompanied the travellers for a few days said that all their quarrels arose about their wives. He said they often quarrelled, and when any of their quarrels ended in killing one another it was considered a display of courage. They often attempted to take one another's wives, which he did not think was bad ; he said it was fine to take others' wives, but if any of the kraal were to take his wife whilst he was away, that would not be fine.

On arriving at the Brak river, this young Bushman, who evidently belonged to the painter tribes, left them suddenly without notice. It was afterwards discovered that the Bushman tribes of that portion of the country whence he came were always at variance with those in the mountains which he saw the travellers were approaching, and therefore dreading to visit any of these hostile kraals he had embraced a favourable opportunity of leaving them. Near the Brak river the waggons had several narrow escapes from being precipitated into the pitfalls made by the Bushmen for catching game. They were five or six feet deep, at the bottom of them a poisoned stake was fixed, while the mouth was carefully concealed by a slight covering of branches strewn over with grass.

Below Read's drift, but near the 'Nu 'Gariep, they came to a Bushman kraal under a chief named Bern. Another captain, a brother of his, had his kraals on the opposite side of the river. Bern was the paramount head, whose sway was acknowledged by the people of all these kraals. Some Koranas appear to have been intermingled with them. Pitfalls, one of which was seven or eight feet deep, were found on the banks of the river. On crossing to the other side, a short distance from the drift, another Bushman kraal was met with, the people of which were employed by one of the Griqua captains to watch his cattle, for which service they were allowed to use the milk of the cows ; and it is stated Bushmen were generally found to be faithful herdsmen. Their huts were similar to those seen on the south side of the river, low, shaped like an oven, and covered with mats made of rushes.

Leaving Griquatown for Lithako, between the former place and Ongeluk Fontein a number of Bushman pitfalls were again passed. Ongeluk Fontein, or the Fountain of Misfortune, obtained its name from an accident which occurred there whilst a hunting party of Griquas was resting under a camel-thorn tree standing by it, the gun of one of them going off whilst he was in the act of sharpening his flint, and shooting his neighbour. In 1813 a small kraal of fugitive Bachoana were found to have located themselves there. In the intervening country beyond T'Goaypa or Blinkklip, and towards Kuruman, no other inhabitants were found than kraals of Bushmen and Koranas thinly and indiscriminately scattered throughout it.

On the return journey, after leaving Malapeetze many Bushmen were still found along the banks of the Malalarene river. Crossing into this valley, the travellers approached a Bushman kraal. Seeing strangers approaching, the Bushmen supposed they were enemies coming to attack them ; they therefore hastily turned out and drew up in battle array. The chief, whose name was 'Ma'ko-on, by brandishing his bow and jumping into the air endeavoured to intimidate them. The guides, however, made signs that they were friends, and on a nearer approach the Bushmen were so far convinced of it that they laid aside their bows and poisoned arrows, although the women still concealed themselves in their huts ; but, after a time, seeing some tobacco distributed among the men, they came out from their concealment. 'Ma'ko-on's two wives, who were only about four feet in height and not in the least deformed, had each a very small baby tied to her back. They had never seen white people before, neither had they heard of Klaarwater or the missionaries.

The faces of these people were frightfully daubed with red paint, put on apparently with a view to terrify those who were their enemies. This 'Ma'ko-on, although besides his bows and arrows he did not seem to possess anything else than the skin cloak which covered him, was evidently a clever man. He was the chief captain of all the Malalarene clans. He said that he had many people towards the east, that they were peaceable Bushmen, as was his father and his grandfather before him ; they never stole, he continued, anything from their neighbours, and ended by saying " We have plenty of game and water."

A number of Bushman pitfalls were found in different parts of this valley. Proceeding down it several Bushmen were met with, but although they were pleased with the presents of meat which were made to them, while cutting it they held their bows and poisoned arrows in their hands, as if jealous of their safety among such strange visitors as they had never seen in their part of the world before.

The journey of Mr. Campbell along the valley of this river has a very important bearing upon the subject of our investigation, as it firmly establishes the fact that even up to 1813 the Bushmen were the sole proprietors of this tract of country, and that land claims had not been extended so far by the mission party of Griquatown. This fact becomes more significant when we ascertain that Adam Kok, the Griqua chief, accompanied the exploring expedition, and it is certain that he never once advanced such an idea, for we may feel convinced that had he done so, the observant Mr. Campbell would certainly have made a note of it.

No other people than Bushmen were then inhabiting the wonderful 'Kaap, or Campbell Rand as it was afterwards called, standing out for many miles on either hand as far as the eye could reach like a great sea-cliff, diversified with precipitous gorges and bold, abrupt, projecting bluffs, a very paradise for a race of cave dwellers. Abundance of game swarmed over the river plains, innumerable hippopotami peopled the reedy banks and the deep waters of the Vaal, springs of crystal water trickled through the crevices of the rocks, which abounded more with honey than almost any other portion of South Africa. The writer, in the winter of 1872, counted twelve or fourteen rock hives swarming with bees in a distance of less than a hundred yards. These were in the fissures of some overhanging rocks, while the indefatigable workers made the air resound with their busy humming.

With regard to these, Mr. Campbell informs us that the Bushmen marked the hives in the rocks, as farmers marked their sheep, and should they find on their regular visits that any hive had been robbed, they were sure to carry off the first sheep or cow they met. They said that the Koranas, Batlapin, and Barolong had cows and sheep to live upon the grass of the land, that they had none, wherefore they had a right to the bees that lived only on the flowers. Their right in this respect was seldom invaded, as all found it to their interest to let the Bushmen obtain the honey and then to purchase it of them.

It appears evident that at this time there were no outstations of either Griquas, Koranas, or fugitive Batlapin, owing allegiance to the Griquatown government in any portion of this country between the 'Gij 'Gariep and the great escarpment of the 'Kaap, itself a worthy monument to mark the ancient coast line of the great lacustrine region of South Africa in a remote period of geological time.

Shortly after this they arrived at the first Griqua village which was attached to Klaarwater, and which had lately been called Campbell. There were still some of the original Bushmen living there. These lived by themselves on the east side. Four different languages were spoken at the village, Dutch, Korana, Sechuana, and Bushman. The Bachoana were also living separate, farther to the eastward than the Bushmen. They were only staying temporarily as servants.

In the neighbourhood of Campbell in 1813 there was additional evidence which showed how recent was the claim to territorial rights and exclusive jurisdiction on the part of the Griquas over any extent of country except a small tract immediately surrounding the station at Griquatown itself, and perhaps Campbell. At the time of this visit there was living on the banks of the Vaal, nearly opposite to the Campbell kloof, an independent kraal of Koranas. The kraal consisted of sixty or seventy persons ; they were not, however, confined to any particular spot, but moved up and down the river as provision for their cattle was plentiful or scarce.

So little had the Griquas penetrated to the eastward that it was only a short time before the arrival of Mr. Campbell that they had discovered the existence of the 'Gumaap or Great Riet river and the Upper Orange or 'Nu 'Gariep. In 1813 Bushmen were still occupying the broken country below the junction of the Orange and Vaal, between the river and the great rand. A Bushman and his wife and his brother's wife came to visit the travellers while they were encamped there. As this is the part of the range which the clan under Oude Timmerman occupied, these people were in all probability a portion of them, if not the old captain himself, as he must then have been at least forty years of age.

That these Bushmen were susceptible of the feelings of jealousy was illustrated by a tragical incident which took place amongst some of them about this time. A Bushman had a dispute with his brother as to which of them should obtain a certain woman for wife, to whom both were equally attached. His brother succeeded in obtaining her, but afterwards in passing the hut in which the couple lay fast asleep, the unsuccessful suitor strung his bow and shot his brother through the heart with a poisoned arrow.

Besides the Bushmen already mentioned, Mr. Campbell learned that there was another very large kraal of them, a day and a half's journey higher up the 'Gij 'Gariep than its junction with the Kolong. These would therefore be living somewhere in the broken country about Klip Drift and the present Pniel mission station, while the numerous chippings which were discovered in that part of the country in 1874 by the writer prove how thickly they must have inhabited it before the stronger races intruded upon them.

In his return journey to Capetown Mr. Campbell traversed the country to the Langeberg, the south-eastern boundary of the Kalahari. Here they were met by some Bushmen under their chief named Owl. On clearing the mountains they entered a desert of sand, which they were more than a day in crossing, when they came to the Great river.

Departing from the ford, which the travellers crossed about the 26th of August, they came to some Koranas who had just arrived at that spot ; the women were busily employed erecting their huts. No other inhabitants were met until the end of the second day, when they arrived at two other Korana kraals containing about one hundred and fifty people. They possessed many hundred oxen, cows, sheep, and goats. They neither sowed nor planted, but depended entirely on their cattle for subsistence. They appeared to be a dull, gloomy, indifferent people.

Again the expedition travelled four days without meeting any inhabitants, when they arrived at another Korana kraal, belonging to Hans Human, a Bastaard Hottentot. It contained six huts and about forty inhabitants, who possessed many cattle and had plenty of milk. They seemed to have nothing to do but like their dogs to lie upon the grass, enjoying the sunshine until the next meal.

About three days' travelling from this place brought them to a kraal of people under the command of Cornelius Kok the younger, son of old Cornelius, who was then living at Silver Fontein. The majority of the inhabitants called themselves Orlams ; there were some there also who had forsaken Griqualand quietly to enjoy a plurality of wives and to live in every other respect without restraint. A number of them spoke the Dutch language. They were composed of Orlams 215, Koranas 180, and about thirty Bushmen, making a total of four hundred and twenty-five. Such then was the independent clan which at this time acknowledged the chieftainship of the younger Cornelius Kok, whose authority was in after years called in question by Waterboer and his supporters, who declared that he had never been the head of any people at all, much less of an independent clan, until Waterboer himself, in the plenitude of his power, had graciously bestowed the office of a provisional fieldcomet upon him. This point, however, will be further explained under the heading of Griqua chiefs.

At this time Cornelius, being like his father a great hunter, had just returned with a large party of his people from a hunting expedition against the elephants on the other side of the river. They had journeyed five or six days to the northward without finding a single fountain, when like the Batlapin under similar circumstances they lived without water except that obtained from the wild melons found scattered everywhere over the ground, which after being roasted on the fire yielded a good supply. These Griquas stated that between their kraal and the Colony to the south there were scattered Bushmen living throughout the country.

Proceeding onwards, the travellers met a little below the Falls a party of Bushmen, who captured all their oxen while grazing, wounding at the same time one of the herdsmen with a poisoned arrow. An armed party started in pursuit, with the intention of endeavouring to get between them and the Great river, and thus to take them by surprise. Some of the people imagined that these marauders had been watching the motions of the travelling party the whole way down the river, and had chosen to make their attack at that place as the farthest from assistance ; others that the Bushmen who had made this attack were in connexion with Africaander, the plundering chief who was the terror of that part of the country.

It appears that the herds had driven the cattle to the Great river, a distance of twenty miles, to drink. Near the river they observed four Bushmen at a distance, lurking in the bushes. On leaving the river the Bushmen followed them, and as it grew dark they managed to take aim at the tallest of the party in charge of the cattle. Finding himself wounded, he ran to one of his companions, and desired him to pull out the arrow. He did so, but two pieces remained in the wound, which he had the fortitude to pick out with a native awl, while another young Hottentot kept off the Bushmen with his musket, which he fired towards the place whence he thought the arrow proceeded. They then left the oxen that they might help their wounded companion to the waggons, where he died in great agony. The Bushmen, alarmed at the few well-directed shots which had been fired at them by the Hottentot, fled also in an opposite direction, little dreaming that the oxen had been abandoned. They were found the next day quietly grazing near the spot where the catastrophe had taken place, by the armed party sent in quest of them.

It was afterwards discovered that the Bushmen were numerous in this neighbourhood, and that those who had occasioned the mischief had followed the travelling party from the Falls, watching for an opportunity to plunder. They were in alliance with Africaander, giving him a share of whatever booty they captured, especially if they found powder.

Two days after this occurrence the travellers arrived at Pella, situated in a wild nook of the Kaabas mountains, about three or four miles from the Great river. On the 23rd of September the travellers left Pella, and arrived on the 26th at Silver Fontein, the residence of old Cornelius Kok. Here Mr. and Mrs. Sass, a missionary and his wife, were staying. All the people lived in huts made of rush mats, the same as the ordinary Hottentot houses, only those belonging to Cornelius Kok and Mr. Sass were much larger than the others. This station was only a temporary one, the missionaries having, as we have seen, previously resided at Warm Bath, on the other side of the Great river, but had been driven thence by the freebooter Africaander.

By thus following Mr. Campbell through his journey, we have discovered several important facts connected with Griqua history in the year 1813. We find that up to that time a very considerable portion of the country shortly afterwards called Griqualand was still in the possession of the true aborigines, and that in some localities they were congregated together in no insignificant numbers, living a life of freedom under their own independent chiefs ; and this in the so-called " unoccupied country " taken possession of for the benefit of the " poor Griquas." We find also that the Griquas themselves formed distinct clans under chiefs, some of whom certainly did not acknowledge any allegiance to the governing power centred in Griquatown. It is this centre, now that we know the condition of the territory surrounding it, and the very contracted influence which it at that time exercised, to which we will direct our attention ; and which thus brings us to the next step in our inquiry.