Though Khoikhoi themselves did not apparently smelt metals, the earliest Portuguese visitors attest that they used copper for jewellery and valued iron as tips for their spears; both metals probably reached the Cape through long-distance trade with Bantu speaking peoples in the interior. Khoikhoi also traded dagga (marijuana). Long standing demand for these three goods would form the basis of trade with European mariners, particularly the English and the Dutch, who began to call regularly at Table Bay on their way to and from Asia in the 1590s.
At first Khoikhoi were willing to trade large quan tities of cattle and sheep desperately needed by hungry European sailors. In return they received small quantities of iron, copper and tobacco (apparently used as a mild dagga substitute). However, they rapidly learned that Europeans valued cattle far more than metal trinkets and tobacco; the price of livestock in Table Bay accordingly rose steadily, prompting some European sailors to resort to outright theft. In the long history of spasmodic trade and conflict at Table Bay, enormous opportunities presented themselves to those Khoikhoi who could master European languages. Two of these – Harry and Doman (See Three Khoikhoi interpreters) – would play central roles in the politics of the new settlement Jan van Riebeeck founded in 1652.
