THE QUIZZYHOTA LACCOLITE 
KE. H. L. SCHWARZ 
Rhodes University College, Grahamstown, South Africa 
EARLY REFERENCES 
The first reference to this remarkable mountain that I can find 
is contained in a description of Kaffraria by the Rev. Francis 
Fleming :* 
But perhaps the most surprising and gigantic of these singular precipices, as 
yet known in Kaffraria, is that which rises on the south bank of the Great Kei 
River, about seven miles from the old military post of Fort Warden and lying 
fifty miles north of King Williamstown. It forms one side of a singular shaped 
mountain, the Quizzyhota.2. The top is a long table-land of some miles in 
length, but contracted to about one or perhaps less in width. The extremities 
of the mountain and of the krantz which forms the whole north side of it and 
which is thickly covered with aloes, euphorbias and orchids, rise suddenly at 
angles of nearly 45°; the surrounding country stretching out into low undulat- 
ing ground thinly dotted over with straggling mimosas and spec-boom, Portu- 
lacaria afra, gives an abrupt and most singular appearance to this object. On 
the southern side, which is thickly covered with large and thick bush, the hill 
descends with rather a more gradual slope and so affords an easy retreat for 
the Kaffirs. 
For the purpose of visiting this singular locality a party of six officers left 
their quarters during the war of 1846. (Theal gives 13th November, 1847.) 
One of the number, however, feeling indisposed, left their party a short distance 
from the camp and returned home and so escaped the untimely end to which the 
other five poor fellows came. These unfortunate and deeply lamented officers 
were: Major William Leinster York Baker, Lieutenant Clarevaulx Faunt, 
Ensign William Burnop (Adjutant) and Doctor Neil Stewart Campbell of the 
73rd Regiment, and Doctor R. J. Locke of the 7th Dragoon Guards. The 
author who visited the spot in person to superintend (by request) the removal 
of the bodies to King Williamstown, made every enquiry while there respecting 
them and their death scene. One Kaffir was shown to him who displayed a 
wound on his right side which he said he had received from one of the gentlemen 
t Kaffraria and Its Inhabitants, London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co. (1854), 30. 
2 Ouizzyhota is a Kaffir word meaning ‘‘the place where one warms one’s hands.” 
The name is particularly applicable to the mountain as the middle slopes consist of 
bare faces of dolerite which, exposed throughout the day to the sun, absorb the heat 
and become intensely hot. 
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