During the 19th century, the river formed the border of the Cape Colony and was hotly contested during the Xhosa Wars of 1779 to 1878 between the Xhosa nation on the one side and the Dutch farmers and the 1820 Settlers from England on the other, and in 1835, the Fingo people were permitted to settle on the river's banks. During apartheid, the lower reaches formed the western boundary of the nominally independent Ciskei homeland.