THEWHITEINVADERS
not forbear (though with some degree of caution and in gentle terms)
making complaints of the Dutch, as unjust invaders of the Hottentot ter-
ritories. For want of strength and powers, (he said) these latter were now no
longer in a condition to withstand their encroachments; almost every day
some Hottentot or other being obliged to remove with his cattle, whenever
the pasture he was in possession of, happened to suit a colonist.Y? For their
part, indigenous hunter-gatherers often raided the cattle and sheep, and
sometimes the homes, of the incoming farmers. In response to that re-
sistance, the farmers formed their one cooperative institution, the com-
mando.
The company had initially used its own military personnel in its military
operations. Bythe end of the seventeenth century, it had added a smattering
of free burghers. From 1715 onward, commandos consisted exclusively of
civilians. They were dependent on the company for their guns and am-
munition and, in theory, subject to company control. In practice, they
behaved independently. The main resistance came from indigenous hunter
gatherers (San) and from indigenous pastoralists (Khoikhoi) who had lost
their livestock. During the 1770s, indigenous bands attacked burgher