The Letters and Journal of Gustav Steinbart

Gustav Steinbart

The Letters and Journal of Gustav Steinbart, German Military Colonist to British Kaffraria, Cape Province, South Africa: The journal, 28 February 1857-1 August 1858 (German and English texts)

Steinbart was part of a contingent of German soldiers and settlers brought to the Eastern Cape (then known as British Kaffraria) by the British colonial government following the Crimean War in the late 1850s. Their purpose was two-fold: to settle the sparsely populated frontier region and to act as a defensive barrier against the indigenous Xhosa people, following the frontier wars.