butter, but the company did scarcely anything for them. There was no
government post beyond Stellenbosch until 1745, when the company
founded one at Swellendam, 120 miles east of Cape "Town. In 1786 it
inaugurated another at Graaff-Reinet, near the northeastern limit of trek-
boer expansion. Stellenbosch, Swellendarn, and Graaff-Reinet were district
headquarters run by a landdrost, a salaried company employee. These
local administrations were extremely sketchy. A landdrost had scarcely
any salaried staff-perhaps
a clerk and a soldier or two. He was obliged to
46