Preface.
This volume is a necessary preliminary to my detailed History of South Africa from 1505 to 1884, and indeed may be regarded as the nearest approach that is possible to a history of the country before 1505. Discoveries may yet be made which will throw a stronger light upon the distant past, but at present nothing more can be ascertained than is here placed on record. The book is the result of many years' close application to the study of the subject it deals with.
Geo. M. Theal.
Wynberg, South Africa,
October, 1918.
