erritory
inhabited by Griquas and Bechuanas. By Griquas is meant any mixed race
sprung from natives and Europeans. Those in question were of Dutch
extraction, through association with Hottentot and Bushwomen.
Half-castes of the first generation consider themselves superior to
those of the second, and all possess in some degree the characteristics
of both parents. They were governed for many years by an elected chief,
named Waterboer, who, by treaty, received a small sum per annum from
the colonial government for the support of schools in his country, and
proved a most efficient guard of our northwest boundary. Cattle-stealing
was totally unknown during the whole period of this able chief's
reign; and he actually drove back, single-handed, a formidable force of
marauding Mantatees that threatened to invade the colony.* But for that
brave Christian man, Waterboer, there is every human probability that
the northwest would have given the colonists as much trouble as the
eastern frontier; for large numbers among the original Griquas had
as little scruple about robbing farmers of cattle as the Caffres are
reputed to have. On the election of Waterboer to the chieftainship,
he distinctly declared THAT NO MARAUDING SHOULD BE ALLOWED. As the
government of none of these tribes is despotic, some of his principal
men, in spite of this declaration, plundered some villages of Corannas
living to the south of the Orange River. He immediately seized six of
the ringleaders, and, though the step put his own position in jeopardy,
he summoned his council, tried, condemned, and publicly executed the
whole six. This produced an insurrection, and the insurgents twice
attacked his capital, Griqua Town, with the intention of deposing him;
but he bravely defeated both attempts, and from that day forth, during
his long reign of thirty years, not a single plundering expedition ever
left his territory. Having witnessed the deleterious effects of the
introduction of ardent spirits among his people, he, with characteristic
energy, decreed that any Boer or Griqua bringing brandy into the country
should have his property in ardent spirits confiscated and poured out on
the ground. The Griqua chiefs living farther east were unable to carry
this law into effect as he did, hence the greater facility with which
Boers in that direction got the Griquas to part with their farms.

* For an account of this, see Moffat's "Scenes and Labors in
South Africa".