or four at Leeuwdnkuil, a place between the mountains, and about a
mile and a half distant. Within fifty miles, in various directions, are
nearly a dozen other out-posts; but they are not always inhabited : of
these, the largest is the Kloof.
The aggregate number of inhabitants at Klaarwater and the out-
stations, amounted in the year 1809, as I was informed, to seven
hundred and eighty-four souls; and it was supposed that at this
time it had not decreased: for, although some had left them and
returned into the Cape colony, others had been added from that quarter
in an equal proportion. The Karas and Bushmen living within
the Klaarwater district, cannot be considered as belonging to the
establishment, since they show no desire to receive the least instruction
from the missionaries, nor do they attend their meetings, but
continue to remove from place to place, a wild independent people.
The tribe of Hottentots now at Klaarwater, had its origin from
the two families of the Mixed Race, of the name of Kole and Berends,
who, about forty years ago, preferring their freedom on the banks of
the Great River to a residence within the Cape colony, where they
had acquired a few sheep in the service of the farmers, emigrated
thither from the Kamiesberg with all their cattle and friends. These
were, from time to time, joined by others of the same race, who
found their life under the boors not so agreeable as they wished.
Thus, their increasing numbers rendered them an object worth the
attention of the missionaries ; whose station amongst the Bushmen
at Zak River, happened to break up about the year 1800. These H ottentots
appearing to offer an easier and more promising soil for their
labors, the missionaries attached themselves to them, and followed
them in all their wanderings along the river, till they were at last
persuaded to remain stationary at Aakaap, and finally atKlaarwater ;
which, at the time they took possession of it, was a Bushman kraal;
The existence of this little community of Hottentots, was well
known to the colonists under the name of the Bastaards, because
the whole of them were at that time, all of the Mixed Race. *
See the note at page 154.
3 A