1856 was a bad year for the Xhosa nation of the Wild Coast. Their lands had been taken by the British, drought had withered their crops, and their prized cattle were dwindling under a mysterious disease. The people were facing a hard winter when hope came in the shape of a young girl called Nongqawuse, the niece of a prophet. Nongqawuse claimed that the spirits of the ancestors had spoken to her from a pool in the Gxara River (Nongqawuse pools). If the people would only kill all their cattle and burn their crops, a day would come when new cattle and crops would arise along with an army of the ancestors who would drive the British into the sea. The "vision" took hold among the desperate people, who followed her orders. By February 1957 more than 200 000 cattle had been slaughtered and left to rot. All the summer crops had been burnt.
The allotted day dawned and nothing happened. The weakened population began to starve and within a few months more than a third of the entire Xhosa people had died of starvation and disease. A mass Xhosa grave has been found in King William's Town resulting from the starvation (view cacheGC1EYCG for more info on this) Nongqawuse was taken to Robben Island for her own safety but her people were broken. The 1856 cattle killing has receded into legend and its tragic manifestation is Nongqawuse's pool.
The cache is a 1.2 Litre LNL. One should approach the pools from the northern side of the river. Enjoy the hunt.