PRKSIPKNTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. I5I 



Into the hifetory of our commercial relations with the 

 natives \vc cannot here enter in detail, excciH to focus thought 

 for a moment on the early strug-,c:les on the Eastern Frontier. 



In despair all commum'cations with the Natives were for- 

 bidden under the Dutch reg^ime by a proclamation of Governor 

 van Plcttenberg^. dated 1778, in the hope that these quarrels as 

 between black and white would be avoided. 



Twenty-four years later, when the Cape was under British 

 rule temporarily, Earl Macartney again forbade even the crossing 

 of the F'ish River Boundary without special permission, and in 

 1812. when British rule had been re-established after a further 

 period of Dutch occuj)ation. Sir John Cradock continued the 

 same i)olicy. 



But the proclamation notwithstanding, a clandestine trade was 

 carried on with the natives, for the country in those days 

 abounded in ivory, and a fairly extensive trade seems also to 

 have been carried on by the soldiers on garrison dvity in the forts 

 along the Border. Moreover, the red clay obtainable only at a cer- 

 tain place in the District of Albany seems to have been in great 

 demand by the Kaffirs, and what were called " Clay Fairs " came 

 to be held under the supervision of the military. 



These, then, were the beginnings of a trade in which the 

 settlers soon participated on a growing scale. The natives 

 brought ivory, cattle, hides and gum, desiring in barter the odds 

 and ends of " Kaffir truck," such as copper wire, hatchets, beads, 

 buttons, the red coats of the soldier's uniform, knives, mirrors, 

 and such-like. 



From the first, however, trouble seems to have centred 

 around the bartering of cattle, for it was found that having 

 sold his stock, the wily native usually helped himself at the first 

 opportunity to whatever cattle was most accessible. 



Professor Cory, in describing the procedure, thus sums the 

 matter up with keen insight, and, for those who know the natives, 

 a fine humour : — 



Kaffirs brought cattle into the district for barter, and having 

 received their quid pro quo, left for their own country, but on the way 

 made pro\ision for further exchange by lifting someone else's cattle, 

 or perhaps, with the assistance of some obliging friend, recovered that 

 which had so recently been turned into beads and buttons. 



Eventually it was decided to definitely institute periodical 

 fairs where trading could be done under strict supervision, Fort 

 Willshire being chosen for the purpose in 1824, no one being 

 allowed to trade there without a licence. The spelling of this 

 name, by the way, appears to be one of the minor puzzles of 

 our historians, x^t one time we read of it as Wiltshire, at other 

 times as Willshire. Commonsense suggests the former, but the 

 official i)roclamations of the Government of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, published in 1838, compel me to adhere to the latter. Two 

 other fairs of almost negligible importance were also attempted 

 for a time, but Fort Willshire continued to be the great centre 



