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The original Buffalo River, before humans began to change it into a harbour, consisted of a large lagoon that was about four miles in length and in places perhaps 30 feet in depth. The banks were gently sloping towards the sea (especially on the western shore) but further inland the river emerged from a deep valley, steep on both sides and covered with dense natural forests. During times of drought, the river tended to silt up which meant that it was often shallow near the sea because of an extensive, shifting sand-bar.
The Eastern Cape is a region afflicted by periodic extended droughts and, when this happens, the river stops flowing altogether. Before the harbour was built or, rather, before the first dredger went into operation in 1886, silting caused by such droughts would result in the sand-bar becoming a regular beach, enabling people to cross without even wetting their feet. Usually, however, the bar would be about knee deep at low tide but impassable when the tide was full.
Periodic flooding, which happened at least once every decade, would cause the river to rush down the narrow valley, scouring the floor of the lagoon and driving the sand before it into the sea. The sand-bar would then disappear, and the channel into the sea would be scoured sometimes to a depth of 20 feet or more.
Contemporary maps and written records mention the existence of a Xhosa village at the Buffalo mouth as early as 1835. This belonged to the Gqunukhwebe people, a community which fell under the authority of Chief Phato. Their "kraal", as it is often called, was situated on the western bank of the river. (If you go down to the harbour and stand on the quay outside Shed B, look directly across the harbour. You will be looking at the spot where the Xhosa village was situated in 1835.)
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The people who lived in the village were primarily pastoralists, although they also had their gardens to grow their corn and other essential vegetables. Written records dating back to May 1835 mentioned these plots. The reports also spoke of the cattle which were seen being driven over the river mouth at low tide. This, of course, was the scene before the arrival of the first Whites, but that is a different story altogether.
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After about 1770, sporadic conflict soured relations between the Cape colonists and the Xhosa pastoralists in what became known as the Eastern Cape, as both groups vied for ownership of the same land. The colonial Governors tried many solutions to solve the "frontier question" but, since they were all soldiers, they tended to believe that military power was the ultimate answer.
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Sir Benjamin D'Urban was certainly no exception. He imagined it possible to use his small army to drive the Xhosa people out of the Colony and even beyond the Kei River. When conflict again erupted late in 1834, therefore, the Governor and his neophyte, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith, attacked deep into the "enemy" heartland. Long before D'Urban's ambitious plans were even remotely realized, he had already resolved that the land between the Keiskamma and Kei Rivers be annexed as the Province of Queen Adelaide.
In May 1835 the Governor and his army were camped near the Buffalo River at a mission station which had been given the rather grand title of King William's Town in honour of the British Monarch. The river, they noted, flowed strongly and was situated almost directly at the centre of the conquered territory. With luck, D'Urban thought, its mouth might form an ideal harbour for his new province but he wanted to know for certain. The very next day, therefore, an expedition was organised to survey the Buffalo River mouth.
The adventure was led by Colonel Smith, with Aide-de-Camp Sir James Alexander in tow. Progress was slow and rowdy. The men, in a boisterous mood, attempted to round up or shoot anything that moved but they achieved little. Any creature worth its salt would take flight and be gone long before any soldiers arrived.
At the river mouth they found a small community of the Xhosa people whose village was on the western bank, about a kilometre (nearly a mile) from the sea. These people were not involved in the war which raged in the interior, yet they were clearly aware of the conflict and ready for any eventuality. Tidings of the advancing party reached them long before the first soldiers appeared. By the time that Smith and his rowdy companions arrived at the river mouth, therefore, the village was quite empty. The residents and their beasts had long vanished westwards, leaving only their gardens to be ravaged.
The following morning a look-out spotted some of the Xhosa herders driving their cattle over the sand-bar at the river mouth. It was the first moment that any of the river people had been seen and the soldiers immediately saddled up to give chase. It took time to get going, however, and still more time to force the reluctant horses across the shifting sand in the knee-deep water. When they had reached the opposite shore, therefore, the herders and their beasts had long vanished into the dense bush further to the east.
The company departed the area soon thereafter, and the first brief contact between the Black community and the White soldiers was over. Troops would return to the region 18 months later, in November 1836, when the Knysna anchored off the Buffalo River mouth, bringing supplies for the men at Fort Peddie. They would remain for six weeks but, although there exists much correspondence from that episode, never once was the Black community mentioned.
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It is not that they had disappeared. There was no longer a war in progress, so there was little reason for them to flee. Indeed, when the troops returned yet again in April 1847, the village was still there and the villagers, far from fleeing, actually welcomed the soldiers and formed a linked community with them. History therefore has a major flaw in it: the Black community was there but their existence during those crucial six weeks was never even mentioned.
