136 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
gangs, at intervals, to traffic with them, and 
exchange cattle for brass rings, wire, and beads. 
About the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
on one of their visits, they reported haying met 
with another tribe of blacks who were coming 
down the Eastern coast, but a considerable dis- 
tance from Cape Town. They reported these 
people as cruel and barbarous ; and added the 
account of various encounters they had had 
with them ; in which their people had always 
been vanquished and many killed. When thus 
their Northerly and Easterly advance was re- 
tarded by the Kaffirs, the Hottentots had doubt- 
less returned to the Cape, to try what possi- 
bility there was of their driving out the Dutch. 
Soon, however, convinced of the fallacy of such 
an expectation as this, and thus dwelling, as 
it were, between two fires, they finally decided 
on migrating towards the North-west; and, 
keeping on the North side of the Dutch boun- 
dary, they moved towards Namaqualand, about 
the year 1760. 
In this exodus, it is more than probable that 
the natural boundaries of the country, viz, 
mountain ranges and long wide rivers, would 
have influenced them much in locating them- 
selves.* The Dutch boundary extended then 
* Speaking of the Hottentot tribes and their ancient localities, Mr. 
R. Moffat in his " Missionary Labours and Scenes/' says : — " At all 
