Grahamstown lies some 60 kilometres away from the coast. The town was founded in 1812 by Colonel John Graham and served initially as a military base for the protection of the British settlers from the Xhosas, who had been - in the process of the expansion of the Cape colony - forcefully pushed back to the Fish River and later to the Kei River. Time and again the Xhosas raided and looted farms in the border area and many settlers gave their farms up and moved to the town. In the process Grahamstown became the second-largest town of the Cape Colony in the 19th century.