 It started when the Gqunukhwebe clans of the Xhosa started to penetrate back into the Zuurveld, a district between the Great Fish and the Sundays Rivers.Some frontiersmen, under Barend Lindeque, allied themselves with Ndlambe (regent of the Western Xhosas) to repel the Gqunukhwebe.Panic ensued and farms were abandoned.