CATTLE AS AK ECONOMIC FACTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA. 433 



usual to slay a beast sacritically in the presence of the " armies '" 

 to ensure success and immunity from death. The i>overnment 

 ot tlie tribe showed a further stage of the evolution m that the 

 chief governed supreme. Nevertheless he was surrounded b\- 

 AiiiapaRati (counsellors j who represented various sections of the 

 tribe, and since each moved about among the people of his own 

 section he heard what his people desired and thought, and advised 

 the chief accordingly, and thus the chief was sateguarded from 

 acting otherwise tiian in accordance with the wishes of the 

 majority — unless he was a tyrant, in which case he was feared 

 and obeyed for a season, and then either his followers all deserted 

 him and sought protection elsewhere, or else he 'found an untimely 

 death. 



The Bantu seem to have been constantly at war amongst 

 themselves, a condition of affairs which culminated in those great 

 disturbances of one hundred years ago, throwing the whole of the 

 Bantu population into confusion and causing the wholesale and 

 extensive redistribution of tribes. In the course of their redis- 

 tribution and movements these tribes came into contact and 

 with the w'hite man with what result, sj far as our study is 

 concerned, must appear later. 



III. — The Coming of the Dutch. 



Returning then to the early days of the settlement at the 

 Cape, we recall that the disastrous affair of D'Almeida with the 

 Hottentots resulted in the Portuguese deliberately omitting to 

 call at the Cape on their way to the East. The discovery of this 

 new route to the East had resulted in the passing of the great 

 Eastern trade into the hands of the Portuguese, and the decline 

 and fall of the Republics of Venice and Genoa, which were 

 dependent upon the East. Unfortunately however (for him) 

 the hasty decision of the Portuguese King resulted in the forma- 

 tion of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, and in the ensuing 

 race for power it became evident that Portugal was passing into 

 the darkness of eclipse. Into all the details of change we cannot 

 here enter, the main point with which we are concerned being 

 this, that the Dutch, finding the Cape vacated by the Portuguese 

 owing to the cattle trouble, established themselves on the shores 

 of Table Bay. 



The landing of Jan van Riebeek in April, 1652. was a memor- 

 able event in the history of the aboriginal tribes of South Africa. 

 A fort was built. Trade, for cattle, was initiated with the Hot- 

 tentots. The following year the Hottentots trying to eat their 

 cake and have it, made a raid on the herds of cattle sold to the 

 white men, and carried off' all except two, and this proved to be 

 the beginning of open hostilities which continued intermittently 

 for years. 



The settlers' herds, slowly acquired by continued purchase, 

 Avere closely guarded day and night, and in order to make the 

 precautions more effective grants of land came to be given across 



