FACTORS IN NATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 52 1 



hordes overwhelmed tlie Pondos after a magnificent resistance, 

 and so the European clan, fighting desperately, and vastly out- 

 numbered, came to be dispersed. Kay, writing in 1833, has left 

 an illuminating account of both mother and son, from which we 

 quote : — 



Every account shows that she lived to a good old age. and went down 

 to the grave full of days twenty-two or three years ago. It would also 

 appear from a variety of circumstances that her day was a much more 

 peaceable one than that of her descendants. How far her influence 

 operated in stilling the active and warlike spirits around her, and in 

 preventing local feuds, which are now ever and anon breaking out, is, of 

 course, hard to say; this, however, all frankly acknowledge, that "The 

 word of Quma was a great word " ; that is to say, it possessed weight 

 which was calculated to effect great things. . . . It is said that Daapa's 

 antagonists seldom dared to attack him. when in his prime, with less than 

 doulile or treble his force, " for," said one, when accounting for his 

 extraordinary valour, " he and his men have the white men's blood in 

 them." 



Without, then, in any way exaggerating the importance in 

 the economic realm of the shipwrecks, or attempting to generalise 

 upon a single instance, I am more than content to bring forward 

 these highly suggestive facts and quotations, and to let them make 

 tlieir own emphasis. 



Another important result of the earlier disasters was the 

 survey of the African coast between the Cape of Good Hope and 

 Cape Correntes, undertaken by Perestrello in 1575 a.d., at the 

 command of King Sebastiao of Portugal ; and the custom which 

 sprang up of making substantial presents to native chiefs who 

 befriended shipwrecked mariners, or who delivered them up in 

 safety at the various ports of call, was in itself a great incentive 

 and encouragement to the system of barter, then in its infancy. 

 Indeed, so late as 1829, Sir Lowry Cole, then Governor at the 

 Cape, sent Hintza and his ])eople a present of clothes, blankets, 

 hatchets, iron cooking-pots, beads, etc., etc., as a reward for 

 help given at the wreck of the French ship, the Eole, near St. 

 Johns — and. incidentally, as a stimulus in cases of future need. 



Reviewing the whole matter, then, we are surprised at the 

 part played by so seemingly and j^eculiarly external a factor as 

 the ship in the economic development of Kafifraria, for the ship 

 was mainly responsible for the discovery of the land ; the survey 

 of the coast to find out the features of the coast-line, and the 

 ]5iaces where harbour could, be found ; the opening up of com- 

 munications with the aboriginal inhabitants of the land ; and the 

 beginnings of commercial relations. 



The next stej) obviously was to plant settlements and to 

 open up the internal comnuuiications of the land itself, and 

 another great factor brought this immense work within the 

 bounds of possibility. 



(2) The IVhccl. — Great as had been the ])art ])layed by the 

 ancient argosies in bringing to sight a vast realm of unlimited pos- 

 sibilities, it fell to the wheel to develop the vast realm of the 

 l.irent — a task absorbing centuries of toil, accelerated by won^ 

 derful modern devices, and a growing population, and yet but 

 scarce begun. 



