308 AISORIGINES OF EASTERN J'ROVINCE.. 



were ruck-painters, thus ditfering apijareutly fiom the pastoral 

 Hottentots. Tliey are considered to represent the earliest and 

 purest type of liushman, whilst the ordinary inland Bushman, 

 and possibly also the Hottentot, have diverg'ed therefrom 

 through admixture with other stocks. 



Historical Data Relating to Hottentots. 



Immediately prior to the advent of Europeans in the 

 Eastern Province, the region between the Sundays River and 

 Great Eisli River was sparsely populated by a pastoral race 

 called Gonaqua, by vagrant bands of Kaffirs, and perhaps even 

 by remnants of Bushman tribes. It may have been some part 

 of this region, the country near to Sand Elats, that was refened 

 to by Paterson* in 1779 as " the Boshmen's land," but he doe.s 

 not seem to have actually met Buslimen in tlie course of liis 

 travels through lower Albany. 



It seems probable tliat for centuries the inhabitants of 

 this region M-ere mainly pastoral Hottentots. So long ago as 

 1622 A.D., the crew of the wrecked ship " S. Joao Baptista " 

 obtained pack oxen and milk from coastal Hottentots living 

 between the Gr.^at Eish and Kei Rivers. In the time of 

 Governor van der Stel (1689 a.d.) a tril)e called Inqua was 

 discovered by Ensign Isaak Schryver, living apparently in the 

 Aberdeen district. t The Inqua were numerous, their captain, 



* AViitiiig from the Swart Kops River, Paterson reported: "The 

 next morning we were overtaken by a peasant who was on his way to 

 the Boshmen's Land, and was glad to accompany us as this pUxce lay 

 in our way. The peasant proved to be Jacob Kock, who had a plantation 

 at Sand Fleet." Stow is not justified in saying that Lieut. Paterson 

 explicitly informs us that " the Zuurveld was then called Bushman- 

 land." Jacob Kock's destination was not revealed in the narrative — 

 he may have been going to Kock's Kraal, on the upper portion of the. 

 Great Fish Piver, near to Cookhouse. In any case, if Bushmen had 

 frequented the Bushman's Piver at that time, such a menace to the 

 pastoral tribes would probably have been mentioned by travellers, for 

 from the earliest days Bushmen and Hottentots seem to have been at 

 enmity with each other. Le Yaillant tells us that the Hottentots 

 advised him to avoid the Bushman's Piver, in order to " evade a 

 large troop of Caffres who had alarmed the whole canton, spreading 

 destruction wherever they came." 



t For a detailed account of the expedition, see " Moodie's Records," 

 p. 433 cf- seq. The site is probably on the Kariega River, head-waters 

 of the Gamtoos, recorded in the narrative as the Kaluiga. On that 

 river there is still a place called Hottentots Bush, and a tributary 

 named Hottentots River. So far as I can ascertain, no writer has 

 indicated a precise locality. In Theal's map of distribution of native 

 tribes in the year 1689, the Inqua are placed between the Sundays 

 and Great Fish Rivers. One of the tributaries of the Sundays River 

 is called the Cuinqua. Does this take its name from the Inqua .^ The 

 Inqua may have been the same tribe as the Heykom Hottentots, 

 mentioned by Kolben (1713). The Heykoms were said to adjoin the 

 Gamtoos Hottentots in a north-easterly direction, their country being 

 very mountainous and only fertile in the valleys. According to this 

 author, the Damaqua lived in "a country where there was scarce fuel 

 enough to dress their victuals unless they burn a sort of moss ; in this 

 country are several salt pits." Thunberg suggested that the Heykoms 

 had at one time inhabited the Long Kloof and Kromme River. 



