in the aforementioned Nomansland, south of what had by then become the British colony of Natal. Their settlement there was to avoid a potential conflict with the Free State and simultaneously serve as a buffer against Bushmen and "their predatory raids upon the farmers and natives of Natal" After their leader Adam Kok III had sent an advance party to survey the area, the entire group agreed to the arrangement and arrived there in 1862. More recently recovered official documents, however, tell the story of a deal that was negotiated between the Colonial Office and the Free State in 1854, long before the Griquas had any knowledge of their fate. The Colonial Office agreed to undertake the expulsion of the entire population in exchange for a settlement of a border conflict between the Afrikaners and the Cape colonists. According to the sources, Adam Kok III and his followers only learned about the plans six years after the official document had been secretly signed. Realising that they could not muster a fighting-force that could match the colonial army, and after having voiced their opposition to becoming either subjects to the Crown in the Cape Colony or servants in the Free State, they left their homeland under duress to go into exile in 1863. Ultimately, all sources agree that the last great Griqua leader's followers ended up in the area around Mount Currie and set up a Laager, a simple settlement site made up of small huts, where they remained for over half a decade. In 1869, Reverend Dower of the London Mission Society visited the place and agreed to establish a church if the people were to move once more. Kok consulted with the populace, and they chose an area farther south of the mountain. The Griquas moved there in 1872, and founded the town of Kokstad, named in honour of their leader. The state that was established around Kokstad, while Griqua ruled, was populated overwhelmingly by the pre-existing Xhosa speaking peoples, with the Griqua forming only a very small, politically-dominant minority. Government Though, in historical terms, constantly on the move, with permanent settlements existing only for short intervals, the people of Griqualand East managed to establish a Raad (or Volksraad), a gathering of 12 members which made decisions on behalf of the Griqua population and formed delegations to deal with the surrounding polities. Currency In 1867, after the Bank of