CATTLE AS Ai\ ECONOMIC FACTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA. 43y 



banishment from the settlement The Kaffirs, as was to be 



expected, had already begun to retaliate and avenge themselves upuii 

 their treacherous neighbours. War was proclaimed between them ; tlieir 

 barbarities were reciprocal and terrihc indeed. Scenes were then exhi- 

 bited which left an indelible impression ; and feelings were excited in the 

 minds of both parties which have not yet subsided, but whch will in all 

 probability go down to posterity. It was an age of horror not to be 

 described '■* 



For an important and searching description oi those terrible 

 days reference should be made to " Barrow's Travels," 1, 418, 

 and the mainspring of the turmoil was the desire of black and 

 white for cattle. 



As a result of Barrow's investigations a treaty was made 

 with certain Kaffir Chiefs in 1798, fixing the Colonial boundary 

 once more at the Fish River, which neither Colonist nor native 

 was to cross on any pretext. But the issue had only been post- 

 poned, and it was not long before the old trouble arose in an 

 intensified form. Gaika had by now arrived at manhood's years, 

 and Ndhlambe, the regent, desired still to remain at the head of 

 affairs : consequently there was trouble, which ultimately 

 resulted in the partition of the Amararabe nation into two tribes 

 — the Amangqika, or followers of Gaika, and the Amandhlambi, 

 or followers of Ndhlambe. All the turmoil involved in such a 

 partition helped to aggravate considerably an already complicated 

 situation, resulting in greater suspicion and hostility as the natives 

 observed the advance of the white man. 



The situation might possibly have been saved even then, how- 

 ever, had not the treaty of Amiens at this stage restored the Cape 

 to the Batavian Republic, and in all the uncertainty inseparable 

 froiTi this, the second great change of Government, within the 

 brief period of six years, the wild confusion on the distant 

 Eastern frontier contiued unchecked, and even then, before 

 Governor Janssens could do more than visit the disaffected area, 

 the European war had been renewed and the Cape was once more 

 captured by the British on the loth of January, 1806, necessitat- 

 ing yet another change of Government. These changes natur- 

 ally had a most deplorable effect in the matter of the 

 administration in its relation to the natives, and could not but 

 operate to aggravate an already grave situation. 



VI. Conclusions. 



And so. whether we look at the abandoninent of the Cape 

 by the Portuguese, and the re-settlement by the Dutch; at the 

 explorations and the expansion of the colony ; at the develop- 

 ment which proceeded by leaps and bounds ; at the woeful set- 

 backs to the settlement and establishment of certain districts ; 

 the disastrous losses, the fiercely flaming political conflagrations, 

 the wonderful growth of the trade ; not to mention the virtual 

 extermination of both the Bushmen and Hottentot races ; and 

 last, but bv no ineans least, the most deplorable and unfortunate 



* Stephen Kay: "Researches in Caffraria," 255 (1823). 



