When Cortés reported in his letters the discovery of the great empire
of Montezuma, he and his audience might have thought it unique. Then
in 1532 came word from Peru of Atahuallpa's realm, setting off decades
of exploration north into the deserts, south toward the cold tip of South
America, east into the basin of the Amazon. If there were two, there must
be more, went the reasoning. But the Spaniards never found another to
conquer. In light of this example one might ask, what can we learn from
these nine exceptional individuals, however heroic? Perhaps there is not a
tenth like them, no generalization to be drawn about life between worlds.
In this chapter we will meet others from around the globe whose experi-
ence as interpreters resonates with the lives of the women and men we
have already met. Here again we encounter the themes of prior margin-
alization, engagement with outsiders, and yet more alienation from the
home community.

European settlement of the southern tip of Africa began at the Cape
of Good Hope in the 1600s. At the time, it was inhabited by the Khoikhoi,
a brown-skinned people who traveled with herds of cattle and sheep if
they were fortunate or lived by hunting and beachcombing if they were

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