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Between the Cape frontier and the Gariep lay a country inhabited by San communities. In 1814 Erasmus Smit and Jan Goeyman established a mission here, known as Toornberg or Toverberg after a nearby hill. James Read later called it Grace Hill. The mission formed part of an effort to draw San people into settlements near the colonial boundary. In 1830 the settlement of Colesberg was founded on the site of the abandoned station, named for the Cape governor Sir Lowry Cole.