bastards. The colonists, in their paramilitary response to insurgent resistance from Khoi and San people, readily conscripted the Basters into commandos. This ensured the men became skilled in lightly armed, mounted, skirmish tactics. Griqua migrations Equipped with guns and horses, many of the Basters who were recruited to war chose instead to abandon their paternal society and to strike out and live a semi-nomadic existence beyond the Cape's frontier. The resulting stream of disgruntled, Dutch-speaking, trained marksmen leaving the Cape hobbled the Dutch capability to crew their commandos. It also created belligerent, skilled groups of opportunists who harassed the indigenous populations the length of the Orange River. Once free of the colonies, these groups called themselves the Oorlam. In particular, the group led by Klaas Afrikaner became notorious. He attracted enough attention from the Dutch authorities to cause him to be rendered to the colony and banished to Robben Island in 1761. One of the most influential of these Oorlam groups was the "Griqua". In the 19th century, the Griqua controlled several political entities which were governed by Kapteins or Kaptyns (Dutch for "Captain", i.e. leader) and their Councils, with their own written constitutions. The Griqua had also largely adopted the Afrikaans language before their migrations. Adam Kok I, the first Kaptein of the Griqua and recognised by the British, was originally a slave who had bought his own freedom. He led his people north from the interior of the Cape Colony. Probably because of discrimination against his people, they again moved north—this time outside the Cape, taking over areas previously controlled by San and Tswana people. This area, where most of the Griqua nation settled, was near the Orange River, just west of the Orange Free State, and on the southern skirts of the Transvaal. It came to be called Griqualand West, and the territory was centered on its capital "Klaarwater", later renamed Griekwastad ("Griquatown"). Waterboer dynasty and Griqualand West While much of the Griqua people now settled, many remained nomadic, and Adam Kok's people later split into several semi-nomadic nations. After a significant schism, a portion of the Griqua nation migrated to the south-east under the leadership of Adam Kok's son Adam Kok II (to the south-east they were later to found Philippolis and then Griqualand East. In the original area, which now came to be called Griqualand West, Andries Waterboer took over control and founded the powerful