=)lO FACTORS IN NATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 



away. Their abandonment of the Cape left it vacant for the 

 Dutch to occupy, and this was ettected in order to secure a station 

 where the East Indiamen could get supplies of fresh meat and 

 vegetables. 



The early troubles with the Hottentots arose over cattle. 

 The explorations and expansions of the settlement were depen- 

 dent upon cattle ; the Great Trek, nearly all the Kaffir wars, the 

 self-destruction of the Amaxosa race in 1856, and numerous 

 other important events and developments are closely related to 

 this unrealised factor. Since these are detailed in a separate 

 paper, it is not proposed to recapitulate them here. 



(2) The Horse, on the other hand, was unknown to the 

 aborigines. Strange and wonderful stories are told of the super- 

 stitious fears of the Natives when first they saw men riding 

 horses. Probably the first of these which fell into the hands of 

 the Natives where the old " crocks " left behind as useless by 

 one and another of the military expeditions which invaded Kaffir- 

 land, and once they got over their superstitions the desire for 

 possession sprang up in the hearts of the younger men, this 

 leading to endless episodes and thievings all along the Eastern 

 frontier. The Rev. Stephen Kay mentions in his " Caft'rarian 

 Researches,"* that 



They have been much encouraged and assisted within the last four 

 or five years by travellers and military gentlemen, who have presented 

 them with horses of a superior description .... The old chief one 

 day tauntingly upbraided his sons with not being able to use their legs 

 since they had got amahashi (horses) to carry them. "This,'" said he, 

 "was not the case when S'Lhamhi was young; we even tliought it no task 

 to journey on foot, or to try the strength of our limbs in hunting. But 

 things are altered now !" 



The changing circumstances exerted an immediate influence 

 on the general situation affecting race relationships. So long as 

 the horse was the possession only of the soldiers the advantages 

 of distance and speed were on their side, and as the number of 

 horses in Kaffirland increased the task of maintaining order and 

 punishing wrongdoers became increasingly difficult. 



Nevertheless it operated to open uj) the country and to 

 " speed up " development generally, for the lumbering ox-wagon 

 could go across the veld where roads there were none, but the 

 lighter horse-drawn vehicle made roads a necessity. 



Then, again, at a critical time in the history of Natal, the 

 horse played a most important part. The bitter struggles which 

 issued in the Great Trek had not been forgotten by the emigrant 

 Boers, and in pursuance of their policy they l>oldly proclaimed 

 a Republic in Natal, in order to be independent of the British 

 Government. After an encounter with the soldiers, the garrison 

 were besieged in a small fort, and the British sovereignty in Natal 

 was in serious danger. x\t this stage a Colonist named Richard 

 King rode 600 miles across Kaffirland in ten days, from Durban 

 to Grahamstown. and a relief expedition 1)eing sent with all speed, 

 arrived just in time to save the situation. In this case the history 



*i2T (1833). 



