THEWHITEINVADERS
precedented challenge. In 1659, quarrels over cattle escalated into warfare.
The Khoikhoi first destroyed five settler farms and captured numerous
sheep and cattle, but during 166o, using superior weaponry and tactics and
exploiting the divisions among the indigenous people, the colonial govern-
ment established control. It then sought to secure and limit its territorial
commitment by planting a thick hedge around the settlement and building
watch houses along the perimeter,
During the following generation, the settlement expanded at the ex-
pense of the pastoral communities to the north and the east of the Cape
peninsula. Gaining confidence from their defeat of the peninsular people,
the settlers became increasingly brutal.
They branded,
thrashed,
and
chained Khoikhoi whom they suspected of theft and placed them on Rob-
ben Island, seven miles northwest of Cape Town-s-an island destined to be
used as a prison by successive regimes down to the present. Khoikhoi to the
north of the peninsula put up the most effective resistance. War began in
1673 and continued intermittently until 1677, but once again-as
would
repeatedly happen throughout their conquest of South Africa-the
Euro-
pean invaders established control with superior arms by exploiting inter-