The quest for gold next led a party into the northern wilds. In 1791 Willem van Reenen set out from his farm on the Elephant River, accompanied by a number of burghers, in the expectation of discovering gold, about the existence of which rumours had reached him. The party passed the farthest point reached by Hop thirty years before, and pushed northward until they probably penetrated into what is now Damaraland. One Peter Brand travelled fifteen days further than the main party, and was the first European to come into contact with the mysterious Damrocquas, the Berg Damaras. These natives had the appearance of Kaffirs, they spoke the Hottentot language, and they lived like Bushmen. For some months the party remained among the Damaras gleaning information about the various clans. Game was abundant; they accounted for no less than sixty-five rhinoceroses, six giraffes, and small game without number. What was more important to them, they dug up large quantities of “gold ore,” and transported it with much joy to Cape Town. Their chagrin can be imagined when they were assured that the “gold” ore was really copper ore. But belief in the existence of gold north of the Orange seemed to persist, as in 1793 another party left Cape Town, with Chevalier Duminy as a guide, in the packet _Meermin_, for a bay somewhere up the coast, where a train of wagons, sent overland, was to meet them on landing. The wagons, however, were not at the rendezvous, so the _Meermin_ sailed north until Walvis Bay was reached. Here, in February of 1793, the prospectors set up a stone beacon, engraved on one side with the arms of the States, and on the other with the monogram of the Dutch East India Company. Hottentots were found living along the shore, and Peter Brand sought their guidance for a trek into the interior. He was away about a month; during which time he traversed a portion of the Damara country, and was somewhat surprised to find an abundance of trees and many rich grazing tracts. Elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, lions, and giraffes were numerous, but there were no traces of the desired gold. Pienaar was probably the first European to penetrate into the country from the west coast. The early years of the nineteenth century bring us to the beginning of the missionary era in South-West Africa, and we now turn to the missionaries who came to evangelise the heathen inhabitants. These men have played no small part in the political life of South Africa, and the dust of the many controversies in which they were concerned ought not to be allowed to obscure the high value and romance of the early missionary enterprise. As pioneers, explorers, geographers, no less than as philanthropists, they have done a great deal for knowledge.