S e c t io n II.— Of the Races of Men inhabiting the ultra-
tropical parts of Souih-Africa—Hottentots^—Kafirs.
The southern^ region of Africa, to a considerable extent
northward of the Cape of Good Hope, is peopled by tribes
belonging to two woolly-haired races, differing in many respects
from each other as well as from the nations commonly
termed Negroes, yet haying with the latter, and with each
other, some common qualities. The Hottentots, who are of
much lighter colour than Negroes, and differ from them likewise
in the shape of their skull and in other respects, formerly
inhabited the territory now occupied by the colony of the
Cape, and they still possess the country bordering on the
colony towards the west. The origin of the term Hottentot,
is unknown: the people term themselves Qaaiquse, and the
wild Hottentots, or Bushmen, have"the name pf SaabsTi The
Kafirs,- who live to the eastward of the Hottentots, have a
greater resemblance to Negroes. This might be inferred
from the fact that they are very often so termed by travellers.
In the late smrvey of Eastern Africa we are assured that “ all
the country east and northward of the Camtoos River was
formerly inhabited by a race of Negroes very distinct from the
Hottentots, who appear to have peopled i t , from the northward,
generally by the interior, whence they have spread to?
wards the west.” “ These Negroes,” says the same writer,
“ were formerly termed by the Arabs and Portuguese, Kafirs,
or Kaffers, meaning literally infidels. When the Dutch first
colonised the Cape, all the country beyond this settlement was,
in conformity with the language of the first discoverers, called
the country of the Kafirs, since latinized into Caffraria.”
Kafir—JlT—and Kafiria would have, been a more correct
mode of orthography for the name of the people and that
of the country.*
5[ I. Of the Quaiquae, or Hottentot Race—Tribes of Hottentots:
There is no African people whose physical history presents
more interesting subjects for consideration than the Hotten-
* Owen’s Survey. Geog. Journal, vol. iii. p. 199.
tots. If we were to admit , the supposition that the human
kind consists nf distinct families, there1 is assuredly none which
presents stronger. Claims to?be regarded as« a race of separate
origin than the, Hottentots,rHistinguished as they are by s@
many moral and physical peculiarities^ by a language and
manner of utterance, so different from those! óf other men, and
by their situation at the remote extremity, of a great continent.
If we adopt the opinion which Lichtenstein and Vater have
maintained, that Sputhern Africa was peopled from, the north,
and that one tribe has beep pressed by a secondary tribe,..or
moved onwards towards the" south, wë shall then, regard th<$
Hottentots, as thje last relic and,.specimen of the most anciently
existihgracejofijmen who have trodden upon the,«Soil pf Africa*.
It was the opinion of Professor Vater,'that, thé Hottentots
prpbnbly made their way; from thte. north into their present
regipn along the western sideJof Africa, and that they, arrived
at thesouthem extremity, many ages^frèforê ;th‘e Kafirs-; advanced
towards the same quarter by the easternicoast. However
this may have been, the latter i people' have: certainly encroached
upon the Hottentots. The names of rivers and of
pl|g|S now within the tierritories inhabited by the Kosas' and
Bechuanas, plainly derived from the Hottentot language* are
proofs of this fact. Similar encroachments, made by both
thesje tribes, on the country of the Gonaaqua* Hottentots are
matters of historical tradition.
When the Dutch' colonists, occupied the Cape of Good
Hope, the Hottentots were a comparatively numerouSvr>nd
extensive nation. By Kolben and other early voyagers, and
by the older African geographers, who described the Hottentots,
as Dapper, this nation is said to haveibeen divided into
a great number of tribes, most of which are now loft, or have
coalesced, since the occupation of their country, under the
common national term. Kolben enumerated eighteen nations
or tribes, whose names are as follows :• 1. The Gunyeman,
nearest to the Cape, who sold their territories to the Dutch.
2. The Kokhaqua, further towards the; north. 3. The Sussa-
quas, near Saldanha Bay. 4. The Odiquas. 5. The Khiri-
griquas, through whose territory the Elephant River flows.
6. The Great and the Lesser Namaaquas.^. The Attaquas* 9. The