“When the Dutch settled at the Cape, they took possession of the country belonging to the Hottentot tribes, driving the few that chose to preserve their independence into the Bushman and Namaqua lands, increasing the population in those countries, which are only able to afford subsistence to a very scattered few.  Then, again, they encroached upon the Caffres, driving them first beyond the great Fish River, and afterward still more to the northward.  The Bushman tribes of hill Hottentots, if we may so term them, have also been increased by various means, notwithstanding the constant massacres of these unhappy people by the Dutch boors; moreover, we have by our injudicious colonial regulations added another and a new race of people, who are already considerable in their numbers.”

“Which do you refer to?”

“To the people now known by the name of Griquas, from their having taken possession of the Griqua country.  They are the mixed race between the Hottentots and the whites.  By the Dutch colonial law, these people could not hold possession of any land in the colony; and this act of injustice and folly has deprived us of a very valuable race of men, who might have added much to the prosperity of the colony.  Brave and intelligent, industrious to a great degree, they, finding themselves despised on account of the Hottentot blood in their veins, have migrated from the colony and settled beyond the boundaries.  Being tolerably well provided with fire-arms, those who are peaceably inclined can protect themselves, while those who are otherwise commit great depredations upon the poor savages, following the example shown them by the colonists, and sweeping off their cattle and their property, in defiance of law and justice.  You now perceive, Alexander, how it is that there has been a pressure from the southward.”

“That is very evident,” replied the Major.

“Perhaps I had better proceed to the northward by degrees, and make some mention of the Caffre tribes, which are those who have suffered from being, as it were, pressed between encroachments from the north and the south.  The Caffre race is very numerous.  The origin of the general term Caffre, which means Infidel, and no more, is not known, any more than is that of the term Hottentot.”

“A proof of what we found out at school,” observed the Major, “that nicknames, as they are termed, stick longer than real ones.”

“Precisely,” replied Swinton; “our acquaintance is mostly with the more southern Caffres, who occupy the land bordering on the east coast of Africa, from the Cape boundary to Port Natal.  These are the Amakosa tribe, whose warriors have just left us; the Tambookies, whose territory we have recently quitted, and to the northward of them by Port Natal, the Hambonas.  These are the Eastern Caffres.

“On the other side of the Mambookei chain of mountains, and in the central portion of Africa, below the tropic, are the Bechuanas, who inhabit an extent of country as yet imperfectly known to us.  These may be termed the Central Caffres.