receded deeper and deeper into the mountain forests. As a result the Houtunqua disappeared from the historical record for some time with some Houtunqua eventually assimilating into colonial society of the time. Chief Dikkop, who died in 1816, was the last recorded Chief of the Houtunqua. Origins of the name A number of explanations exist for the origins of the name, 'Knysna' - including ‘xthys xna,’ purportedly from a Khoekhoe language term that night mean have meant ‘place of timber’, ‘place of ferns’, or even ‘straight down’ (referring to the cliffs at The Heads). However, it is also likely that the name is related to, or a derivative of, similar place names that do or have existed in other parts of Africa. In colonial times Lake Malawi was known as Lake Nyasa (very similar to 'Knysna'), while Webster's Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the word ‘nyanza’ as a noun `"(African): An expanse of water, as a lake or wide river". European settlement The first Europeans arrived in the area in 1760, and the farm Melkhoutkraal (literally translating from Afrikaans as 'milk wood kraal’) was established on the eastern shore of the Knysna Lagoon. Stephanus Terblans, the first European farmer to settle in the area, was given a loan permit to farm here in 1770. Upon moving to Knysna George Rex, a British-born entrepreneur credited as being the founder of Knysna, acquired the loan rights to Melkhoutkraal in 1804 and later, in 1816, to the farm Welbedacht, which he renamed Eastford. He gave of Eastford to the Colonial Government, on which the Royal Navy established the township of Melville. Rex’s properties were sold when he died in 1839. In April 1817, the transport brig , belonging to the Cape Town Dockyard, was the first European vessel to enter the Knysna heads. She struck a rock, now known as Emu Rock, and was holed. Her crew ran Emu ashore to prevent her sinking. In late April arrived to render assistance. After surveying the area, Podargus sailed safely into the Knysna and retrieved Emus cargo. The next major settler in Knysna was Captain Thomas Henry Duthie, who married Caroline, George Rex’s daughter, and bought a portion of the Uitzigt farm from his father-in-law which Rex had named Belvidere. The construction of a small Norman-style church was commissioned by Duthie on his property, and was consecrated in 1855. The settlement’s population grew slowly, and Englishmen