baked earthen ware, fometimes in fingle nodules of an inch or
two inches diameter, but more frequently in clufters of two,
three, or four nodules, connected by necks which are alfo hollow.
In thefe ftones every ihade of color is faid to have been
found, except the greens ; but the moft common are thofe1 of
a pale yellow and chocolate brown. The country people know
them by the name o f puint-Jlones, beeaufe the powders they
contain, when mixed up with oil, make very good paint, without
any fifting or further preparation.
On the upper part of. the Bosjefman’s river we received a
vifit from the chief of the Ghonaquas, followed by.the laft remains
of this mixed tribe of Kaffer and Hottentot, ;COnfifting of
about a dozen people. The prediction of Vaillant concerning
this horde has turned out but too true. The name of Ghona-
>qua, like thofe o f the numerous tribes; of Hottentots now ex-
tinCt, is tuft on the eve o f oblivion. Driven out of their ancient
poffeffions in the Zuure Veldt by; the colonifts, they yet. found
an afylum from the father of Gaika, in one of the moft fertile
diftriSs of his kingdom, watered by the river Kaapna: here
they were fuffered to remain in . quiet till the late difturbances
among the Kaffers, occafioned by the refufal of Zambie to yield
to his nephew the power of the government. Unwilling to a a,
or undecided which part to take, they became a common
enemy ; and thofe who remained in the. country were plundered
and maffacred by both parties; whilft thofe who fled
acrofs the Great-Fiih river met with the fame treatment from
the Dutch farmers o f Bruyntjes Hoogte. Some fought refuge
-in the p l a i n s of Zuure Veldt, and were there plundered by the
. c > emigrant
emigrant Kaffers. The laft remaining party, with their chief
at their head, had concealed themfelves among the thick cover
of the Rietbergj where they had been furprifed by a party of
ftraggling Kaffers who had put the greateft part of the horde to
death,, and carried off the whole of their cattle. It was the remaining
few who were left in this helplefs and deplorable ftate,
that came to entreat we ihould lay before the Kaffer king their
melancholy- condition, requefting they might be reftored to his
proteftion. Unluckily for them they had made their application
too late ; and all that could now be done was to furnifli
them with> documents to that king, with, a verbal meffage
favorable to their wifhes..
The chief Kaabas and the gay Narina, who have furnilhed
ib long and fo eccentric! an epifode in the pkge of a French
gentleman’s travels among thefe people, were no longer recolt
leCted by them. The names even, were totally unknown in
their language-
Notwithffanding the friendly dlipoftti'on of the Kaffer king
towards the emigrant chiefs, we underftood at this place they-
had pofitively refufed to pafs the Fiih-river, withheld, no.
doubt, by the gang of outlaws before mentioned, on the banks
of thé Karooka. To drive them over at that time with an
armed force, to be fent from the Cape exprefsly for that pur-
pofe, was deemed an Unadvifable meafure ; but freih difturbances
among the fooliih people o f Graaff Reynet having fince
tendered it indifpenfibly neceffary to throw troops into that
diftriit,