Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/231

 OBIQUALAND EAOT. 177 The surface of the country is already dotted over with several little centres of population, which are destined gradually to become English towns. At the mouth of the St. John River, in Pouduland, has also been founded the seaport which cannot fail to become the chief emporium of the whole seaboard between East Ix)ndon and Durban. Palmerton is an important missionary station, which is gradually acquiring the aspect of a town, and promises one day to become a populous place. Oriqualand East. The north-west section of Kafirland, which is separated from Basutoland by the Drakenberg Range, and bounded on the north-east by the colony of Natal, on the south by Pondoland and Terabuland, is officially designated by the name of Oriqualand East. It is now, however, inhabited mainly by tribes of different origin from the Griquas ; amongst them are several Kafir groups, including the l*oudomisi, the Ama-Bakos, the Ama-Xesib^s, and even a few Fingos. The Griquas, who gave their name to the district, number at present not more than two or three thousand out of a total population of about seventy thousand. They formerly dwelt with the other Griquas, or Bastaards, on the plateaux watered by the Upper Orange ; but after long migrations in various directions, they separated from the rest of the nation, and under a chief bearing the Dutch name of Adam Kok, settled in the year 1862 on the eastern slope of the Drakenbcrg Mountains. Here they gradually acquired possession, under the British suzerainty, of the territory which was hitherto known as " No Man's Land," but which might with more propriety have been called " Everybody's Land," such was the multitude of immigrants from all the surrounding tribes that here found a refuge. Oriqualand East is crossed by the main highway between the Cape and Natal, which after skirting the frontier of Pondoland passes by the capital, the Dutch town of Kokstad, which is situated on a headstream of the St. John over 5,000 feet above sea-level. Matatiel, another large village, lies in the mountainous western district at the converging point of several tracks leading to the crest of the waterparting between the Orange basin and the coast streams. Several Basuto families, crowded out of their own territory, have crossed the divide vdih their herds and settled in the upland valleys on the eastern slope of the main range. 108— Af