This would not have been felt as so great an evil but that the young men of those tribes, anxious to obtain cattle, the only means of rising to respectability and importance among their own people, were in the habit of sallying forth, like our Irish and Highland reapers, to procure work in the Cape Colony.

After laboring there three or four years, in building stone dikes and dams for the Dutch farmers, they were well content if at the end of that time they could return with as many cows.

On presenting one to their chief, they ranked as respectable men in the tribe ever afterward.

These volunteers were highly esteemed among the Dutch, under the name of Mantatees.

They were paid at the rate of one shilling a day and a large loaf of bread between six of them.