NATIVKS OF AFRUA IN Tllli lOxii CFNTL'RW I53 



eminent and their degree of civilisation? Diogo de Couto ?eenis 

 to establish a great difference between the tribes round the LJay, 

 including t'le X'ani'be of Xatal and those further South, in the 

 Southern part of Xatal and Caffraria. Hie chiefs cf the first 

 were " kings " reigning over an extended area, mustering as 

 many as 500 warriors, and this des€ri])t;on also aj^plie^ to the 

 Inhambane clans, whilst the Caftrarian ones were onl}- "" an- 

 cosses " {iciiikosi), headmen, heads and lords of three, four, 

 five villages. Pere>trello gives a similar account, saying that 

 these Caffrarian Natives " do not go far from the place where 

 they were born, and from the neighbourhood of the huts where 

 they were created and die." For that reason they were unaljle 

 to guide the jwrty more than two days, and lost their way. This 

 difference is also noted by l.avanha. He found a " cajitain or 

 Inhaca,"" t/;., an induna, who had disjjossessed an " ancosse," 

 (iimbacucumba, on the southern border of the Tugela (\'. p. 37), 

 and he promised him to plead his cause v\'hen he should reacii 

 Inhaca's kraal. The Delagoa Natives were raiding as far as 

 Zululand and further South in those liines, whilst the reverse 

 took place since the nineteenth century, after the rise of Chaka. 

 as one knows. In fact, though Perestrello complains of the 

 scarcity of food in the land of Inhaca, he describes the cajMtal 

 of this king as being quite an im})ortant place. 



It is not wanting in a certain polity and order of Government, for it 

 is large and contains many people, with its squares and streets not very 

 complicated, surrounded with a fence of very hard branches, high enough 

 and well closed, with three or four openings at the convenient places. 



This descri])ti( n perfectly answers to the "' iifsiiuija," or capital 

 of the Ronga chiefs some years ago. when fhey had still rct-ained 

 their full ]:)ower.* 



The same disintegrating influences acte^l then as ulw (in the 

 clans. 77'rr., younger brothers and sons of reigning chiefs wanted 

 to make themselves independent and to found new political 

 bodies. The son of Inhaca had tried to do so, but failed ( \', 

 p. 82 ) . The chief used to place sub-chiefs in the remote places 

 of his kingdom ; thus, the sister of Inhaca was reigning in that 

 cai)acity in the South of the country ( \'. p. jy ) . He had counsel- 

 lors, called by the chroniclers " Crfpitao '" and " Alajorial." More- 

 over, these petty kingdoms lived in perpetual warfare with each 

 other, and the tribes South of the Bay were hereditary foes of 

 the Mpfumo chief (I, p. 133), on the Northern shore. This 

 feud has persisted to the present day. and was one of the nctable 

 features in the war of 1894. 



The social customs have not been studied with much care by 

 our chroniclers; however, what they say regarding them is suf- 

 ficient to show that they were the same as now. The Kafifirs were 

 polygamists. Lavanha tells 'how the Chief Ubabu proudly 



* Cf. "The Life of a South African Tribe." T, p. 2,02, illustration rif the 

 Tembe capital.. 



