IXTHODUCTION,
cLi that flutter up and tiown o
1 New Zealand forest to listen i
le lilossoms hi those „-hitUess dells ; and have paused arnld the solemn stiUnes,
1 for some sound of life. I have tracked Australian wildernesses, and regions
""'• f™'» " " '»'«' "f N " " « . "t i t e man's foot had never trod before. Craters, and ea.er,,,
and eataeornbs, 1 have explored, elimbed many a rugged mountain, aod ero.s.d many a nameless river. From the hi»h
peaks of St, Helena, and the volcanie slopes of Ascension, I have watched the golden sun go down in a hi.zc of -lor^
and ga^ed upon the dark ship, as they speeded homewards with their precious f,-eight, till thev looked as .pecks o", th¡
boundless Atlantic. There, t.o, have 1 lingered by the vvdllow-bordcred grave of t i e great N.pd.on, and ,narked the end
of human amb.tron, 1 can teU you of the cohl, grey wastes of ocean, that in melancholy tumult are clemallv bowlin-
,-o..nd the ree-bound region, of the Antarctic, where the s torm-md drift, it,, burden of snow, a, a white .nantie' over the
precp.ce, of Cape Horn, and the harrowing shriek of the albatross is alone heard over the moanin- of tl,e wate>-s- and
of the tempest-driven billows, that la,h. in then giant magnificence, Africa's « Cap. of Storms," there 1 have been amidst
sceues of shipwreck, of danger, and of death. Each spot, each varied region, possesses an interest of its own-an
mdmdual charm or terror altogether separate from the rest: thus it is with Africa
Had I wandered the whole world
over besitles, I sho.dd have kno,™ but httle more of the " impression." a pi
:e with that region stamps
upon the mind, than if I had never strayed from the home of my fathers,
Africa i, vast and g,and, every feature of its savage sceno,-y is based on a sede of magnificence. To me it ba.
always been a coimtry of pecnUar interest, a,.d I have m some slight degree been enabled to g.-atify my ,
visiting Its shores, and looking upon it, mountains, rough and steep,
" Heaving m die clear bise skj-
Their ribs of graaite, bnre ami liry."
•arly desire of
My rcade,. may thbk a. «„thusiast, but that enthusiasm m-Ue. frotn an ardent admiration of whatever Í3 heantifal
throughout nature, combined with a lo.e of novelty that lead-s me to seek " fi-esh fields and pasture, new." l'hère
18 a charm, a freedom about such a life, which those who live aud die í
over-civilised country can never know. My reader, may set mc down as
real enjoyment of existence, more of nataj-e, and 1
Lirrounded by all the artificial refinements of an
1 savage, when I remark, that I have hatl more
- ^ care, during the many months I have passed amongst Kafire and
New Zealander-s, than I ever had amid the anxieties and conventionalities of more refined life
•• Tlicn, coucbed a i.iglit in Imnter's «at.led shieling,
Hoir nildly beautiful it «as to l.car
Tlie eiepliant liis shrill rheilli pealing.
Like some far signal-trumpet on tiie ear!
While t!,o broad midnight n.001. .ras shining elear.
How tearful to lock forth upon Ihc «oods,
And sec those stately forest-kiogs appear.
Emerging from their shadowy solitudes,
As ir that trump had »oke Earlli's old gigantic broods!"
But T must conclude. In the ensuing pages i have endeavoured to give, in as concise a form as possible some
remarks on the history, ehai-aete,-, and customs of the various African tribes that have afforded .naterial for my penciland
I smcerely trust that, by the united aid of the descriptions and illustrations, my indulgent readers who do not feel
tnchned thc.nselves to penet,-ate the wOds of Kafirland, may be e.iabled to fortn a more correct knowledge of its singular
mhabitants than thej' have hitherto possessed.
(iENEllAL KEMAKICS
RACES INIIABITING SOL'TIIEBK AFRICA.
T h i i o u g h o v t the various districts and regions of Africa, southward of the Tropic of Caijcicorn, we find to exist,
after careful investigation, but two disthict aboriginal races of men, designated as the Hottentots and the Kafirs!
The former, as fai- as we can judge from analogy of colour and physical peculiarities, appear to belong to the
Mongolian race, and wei-e, undoubtedly, the most ancient inhabitants of the land. After the discovery of the Cape of
Good Hope by the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, the Dutch, in 1Ü52, made settlements on the soutli-western
angle of the African Continent. At that period all the vast extent of territory now distinguished as the Cape Colony
aud belonging to the British cro^vn, was then inhabited by Hottentots, whose orfgin and history are involved in much
doubt aud obscm-ity. The whole race is totally cüstiiict from all t,ther Afr-ioan tribes of which we ha^'c any knowledge;
and, from the yellow colour of their skin, their peculiar physiognomy, and the distinct character of their language, it
is evident that they hare arisen from a race differing widely from that of their dark-skiimed neighbom-s. The Hottentots
include the aboriginal inhabitants of the Cai)e Colony, south of the Gariep or Orange River, extending eastward fot meriy
as far as the Fish River and the Keiskamma, where they were met by the Kafirs; the Namaqua-s occupying Great
Namaqua Land, beyond the Orange River, extending along the western coast up to Walwich Bay and the Damara
country, and mland towards the Great Kalagari Desert; the Korannas, who are scattered along the hanks of the
Orange River, and are to be met with, stretching in a north-easteriy direction, as far as the kingdom of the Araazulu
Kafirs; and, lastly, the Bushmen, who are the most remarkable portion of the Hottentot I'ace; they lead a nomadic
life, and are to be found scattered thinly among all the Beehuana tribes of the interior, as far north as the Mampoor
Lake, eight hundred miles beyond Latakoo. In the fastnesses of the Quathlamlia mountains (a snowy range dividing the
country of the Zulus and eastern Kafirs from the Basuto and Beehuana territory), are still to be found the Baroa,
or "men of the bushes." The desert wastes and barren rocky glens of the mountains are the refuge of the Bushmen,
who are the most degraded and the weakest portion of the Hottentot family. At the present time, nowhere but in Gi-eat
Namaqua Land does the i-ace enjoy full freedom, and its dispereion over the arid plañís and along the banks of the
desert-flowing rivers of the interior, would lead us to suppose that it wa.s once the sole possessor of all the southern
portion of the African continent, and that the Kafirs have taken from them, by supei-iority of force, the territory they now
inhabit. Fonnerly the Hottentots were powerful, rich, and comparatively happy, living in pastoral ease aud abundance
on the produce of their hortls and fiocks: they did not, like the Kafirs, cultivate the ground, theii- only care bebg tievoted
to the management of their cattle. They were then divided into many t.ibes and subdivisions, each mider a patriarchal
government or rule; hut the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope by Europeans wa.s the commencement of their
disorganisation and subsequent sla,ery and ruin. Tlie Gonaquas were a tribe (now extinct, though fonnerly numerous
and powerful) consisting of a people of mixed Hottentot and Kafir descent; and the dialect now spoken by the frontier
Kafirs ],artakes. in a certain degree, of the Hottentot "click," a peculiarity probably derived from their intermixture with
the latter race.
meet vvith Hottentot and Bushmen drawings in all the caves of South Africa, generally consisting of rude
representations of elephants, ostriches, antelopes, and the human figure, coloured with clay or ochre; these the Kafir tribes
ascribe to the Jioroam/, or people of the south, while they say, as for themselves, they have come from the north and the
north-east. In speaking of the different tribes they thus express themselves; "First appeared the Hottentots, then the
Kafirs, and lastly the Rechuanas (who also belong to the Zingian family equally with the Kafirs). The Hottentots adopted