The name of Kaffir, or unbeliever, was originally given to the inhabitants of the southern coast of Africa by the Moors; and, being adopted by the Portuguese, it became the common appellation of all the tribes occupying the southeastern coast. The Kaffirs living beyond the Fish River, on the eastern boundary of the colony, are a bold, warlike, and independent people, and are supposed to be of Arabian origin. VII. Post-Offices—The Colonies. “There were men with hoary hair Amid that pilgrim band: Why had they come to wither there, Away from their childhood’s land?” HEMANS. If fanaticism had not been mixed up with the materials embarked on the Mayflower, July 22, 1620, those scenes which disgraced humanity and civilization and enacted under the belief of witchcraft would never have occurred here; but, unfortunately, that evil came over with the “Pilgrim Fathers,” and its consequences gave a dark page to the history of the “Land of Promise.” They were, it is true, the pioneers of liberty to a certain extent,—freedom to the body, but not to the mind. The chains, riveted by the old Gothic laws at that period existing in England, and by which millions of human creatures were held in a state of mental and physical bondage, were left behind, it is true; but the link which bound them to superstition remained unbroken. Apart from this, however, their landing on Plymouth Rock was the dawn of a new era, and it gave an additional spring to human enterprise, “opened new trains of thought, new paths of gain and of information.” “What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine, The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith’s pure shrine!” Passing over the dark days of witchcraft and the persecution of the Quakers, the colonial history brightens up under a more tolerant rule. That the belief in witchcraft was a delusion arising from ignorance, under the influence of which many persons became frantic, there can be no doubt. And yet there was a method in their madness so cunningly carried out that it deceived many far more enlightened. A writer speaking upon the subject says, “It is but justice to the inhabitants of New England to observe that, though the present age may censure the past for its superstition, neither England nor any other nation is entitled to cast the first stone at them. More persons were put to death in England in a single county, in a few months, than suffered in all the colonies during the whole period of their existence.”