306 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
emigrate beyond the Orange-river, found the 
new colony of Natal, and finally to settle in 
and establish the Trans Vaal republic, are trace- 
able to many different sources, which appear 
to date back as far as the begining of the pre- 
sent century. 
The Dutch governor, Yan Plettenberg, in 
the year 1778, formally defined the boundary 
of the Cape Colony by the great Fish river to 
the Eastward, and by an ideal line, running 
through (what are now called) the districts of 
Somerset, Graaf-Eeinet, Beaufort, and Clan- 
william, up to a little rivulet, "the Koussie" 
which flows into the Southern Atlantic, to the 
North West. These boundaries, though exist- 
ing in name, appear to have been disregarded 
by the border Kaffir tribes (the Amakosa) who 
constantly crossed over and pillaged the far- 
mers of their cattle, along the frontier line of 
Graaff-Eeinet and Utenhage; until, in 1812, 
they were finally expelled from the colony. 
For many years the Cape farmers also, kept 
within their own bounds, and were not desirous 
of wandering. At length, about the commence- 
ment of the present century, small parties of 
a half cast breed derived from European and 
Hottentot origin, joining themselves to the Man- 
tatee tribes, gradually occupied the lands lying 
beyond the Orange river, at the JST. E. boun- 
