XI 
since the year 1652, and until lately 
ceded to the crown of England, were 
sedulous in their endeavours to con- 
ceal the fertility of the country, and, 
if possible, to cast the mantle of obli- 
vion over those scenes of enormities 
which were so long practised by their 
countrymen on the unoffending na- 
♦ tives ; but notwithstanding they dis- 
couraged foreigners from visiting any 
of the colonial settlements belonging 
to the government of the Cape, still 
a few enterprising people found their 
way, in the course of the last century, 
several hundred miles northward of 
the Fish River, which is the boundary 
that divides the Christian settlements 
from Caffraria. Of these were Messrs. 
Vaillant, Sparman, Gordon, Patterson, 
and others ; but we could not in any 
