When we refled: on the Hottentot nation, which, with all
its tribes, occupies, * as it were, a point only on a great continent
; when we confider them as a people differing in fo extraordinary
a manner from every other race of men upon it, or
upon the face of the whole globe even, the natural formation of
their perfons, their color, language, manners, and way of life,
being peculiar to themfelves, conjedure is at a lofs to fuggeft
from whence they could have derived their origin. Except
in the extreme flatnefs of the nofe, and the ihort brufliy hair,
they approach neareft in color, and in the conftrudion o f the
features, to the Chinefe, how Angular foever it may feem to
trace a likenefs between the moft civilized and ingenious, and
one o f the loweft of the human fpecies. I f it be admitted,
with feveral well-informed miffionaries, that the Egyptians and
the Chinefe were originally the fame people, and the arguments
are certainly ftrong in favor of the fuppofition, notwith-
ftanding the many learned and ingenious objedions ftated by
the philofopher o f Berlin, there would be no difficulty in conceiving
fome of the numerous tribes of people who inhabited
the vicinity of the Nile to have found their way to the utmoft
limit of the fame continent. Indeed, from all the ancient accounts
that have been preferred o f the Egyptians and Ethiopians,
it would appear that the real Hottentots, or Bosjefmans,
were the people intended to be defcribed. In their general
phyfical charader they bear a ftrong refemblance to the Pigmies
and Troglodytes, two tribes who are faid to have dwelt in the
neighbourhood of the Nile. The charader drawn by Diodorus
Siculus, of fome o f the Ethiopian nations, agrees exadly
with that of the Bosjefmans. A fpecies of brutality is ftated
by
by him to prevail in all their manners and cuftoms; their
voices were ihrill, diffonant, and fcarcely human; their language
almoft inarticulate; and they wore no clothing. The
Ethiopian foldiers, when called upon to defend themfelves,
or to face an enemy, ftuck their poifoned arrows within
a fillet bound round the head, which, projecting like fo many
rays, formed a kind of crown. The Bosjefmans do exadly
the fame thing; and they place them in .this manner for the
double purpofe of expeditious ihooting, and of ftriking terror
into the minds of their enemies.
The whole of the Hottentot country, comprehending all the
different tribes of this people, is limited to the thirty-fecond
degree o f latitude on the eaft coaft, and the twenty-fifth on the
weft. Beyond the line, conneding thefe two points, the
various Kaffer tribes occupy a broad belt quite acrofs the continent;
and no two people can differ more than the Bosjefmans
and the Kaffers, having no one agreement either in their
phyfical or their moral charader.
The Bosjefmans, though in every refped a Hottentot, yet
in his turn of mind differs very widely from thofe who live in
the colony. In his difpofition he is lively and chearful ; in
his perfon adive. His talents are far above mediocrity ; and,
averfe to idlenefs, they are.feldom without employment. Confined
generally to their hovels: by day, for fear of being fur-
prifed and taken by the farmers, they fometimes dance on
moon-light nights from the fetting to the riling of the fun.
They are faid to be particularly joyful at the approach of the
0 0 2 firft