tary force, meanwhile, should clear the Xhosa out of the land west of the
colonial boundary at the Fish River, and beyond that to the Keiskamma.
Finally,up to six thousand people should be imported from Europe to form
a close settlement on small agricultural farms along the right bank of the
Fish; the colony was to be "fully protected by this formidable barrier."45
Step by step, the government tried to carry out this blueprint. In 1811
and 1 81 2, in a campaign that set the precedent for the piecemeal conquest
of all the black farming people of Southern Africa, British regular troops,
54