It is singular enough that Barrow and other travellers do not allude to the race of Fingoes; this oversight is probably owing to their having been, till of late years, the slaves of the Kaffirs. [See Note 2.] The following account of them I have gathered from a work compiled by the editor of the "Graham's Town Journal," and published in 1836:-- "It appears that the term `Fingo' is not their national appellation, but a reproachful epithet, denoting extreme poverty or misery,--person having no claim to justice, mercy, or even life. They are the remnants of eight powerful nations, which have been destroyed or driven out of their country by the destructive wars carried on amongst the natives of the interior. Five of these nations were destroyed by the cruel Matawana, and the rest by the notorious Zoola Chief, Chaka, or some of the tribes tributary to them. The names of these nations were: "1. The Amalubi,--signifying a people who tear and pull off. "2. The Amazizi,--a people who bring. About twenty years ago, they, as a powerful nation, inhabited the country on the north-east of Natal. "3. The Amabile,--people of mercy. "4. The Amazabizembi,--axe-vendors. "5. The Abasaekunene,--right-hand people. "6. The Amantozakive,--people whose things are their own. "7. The Amarelidwani,--no definite meaning. "8. Abashwawo,--revilers or reproachers. "These nations being broken up and dispersed, many of those who escaped flew westward, and thus came into collision with the Amakosa Kaffirs, but principally with the tribes of the late Hintza, whose death is graphically described by Sir James Alexander, 14th regiment, in his account of the last Kaffir irruption in 1834 and 1835. They became slaves, herds, `hewers of wood, and drawers of water,' as well as tillers of the ground. They were oppressed in every way; when by industry they had gathered together a few head of cattle, they were either forcibly taken away from them, or, being accused of witchcraft, their property was confiscated. In short, their lives and property were held on the same precarious tenure, the mere will of their capricious, cruel and avaricious taskmasters. "This state of bondage at last became utterly intolerable, and its victims only looked for an opportunity to throw off the yoke. Their attention had been anxiously turned towards the colony, and communications had been made to the frontier authorities long before the irruption in 1834, urgently praying for an asylum within our boundary: but this application was kept a profound secret, from a conviction that were their intentions known to the Kaffirs, the indiscriminate massacre of the poor Fingoes would be the consequence." The war, of which many histories are given, delivered these poor creatures from their bondage, and they are now a happy people, with their own independent possessions of cattle, Sir James Alexander supplies an interesting description of their deliverance from captivity.