CHAPTER XIV.
OR THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA WITHIN THE
TROPIC,
S e c t io n I .—General Observations—Extension of the Kafir
Race in the intertropical parts of South Africa.
In thepreceding chapter I have described the Kafir tribes
best known to Europeans by their proximity to the English
colony, and have traced the extension <©f their language, and
of the family of nations to which they belong, through* countries
approaching the southern tropic, or even to tpe northward
of that line. I now proceed-to survey the population
of those regions of Africa which lie between the Same tropic
and the equator. In these parts of the continent it; will be
found that tribes of the same race, and dialects of the same
language are extensively spread.
I have already shown from a variety of-testimonies that the
Kafir language, or a dialect of the idiom sppken by the.Ama-
kosah, is prevalent among the native tribes, 'aboqf Dalagoa
Bay, and that the latter may therefore be considered as
belonging to the Kafir race, although their physical characters
are nearly similar to those of the intertropical Negro
nations.
The idiom spoken by the tribes of Dalagoa Bay, is also
spoken by the people who inhabit the coast as far to the
northward as the Bazaruto islands. Of this fact we are assured
by Mr. Thompson, who cites the authority of Mr.
Owen.#
The Bazaruto islands are opposite to the coasts of Sabia
and Sofala. Captain Owen says that the language here
* Thompson’s Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 373,
Spoken "'is akin to the dialects of Dalagoa Bay, Inhamban
and the Majo^yiël “ The Majowyi'eand the Macwanos are
the two-tribes best known to the Portuguése around Mozambique,
and to the northward/’ He add%if‘ We are thus
enabled, to trace a similitufiM ofilUngUagé-' from twelve to
thirty-thfêe^dh'grëes %outh, sufficient perha^s^tfi ' aSsigni ■ a
çommon origMto all tnë* numerous tribes "betw&em those lati-
tudes.^
The nations., termed iq (^gptajn Oyr^^jor^ogr^phy, Mac-
wan os and Majpyvyip, are probabljiihe Makûjt^qr Makuapa
of the Mosambique cqa-st, who will$be\ described m the fdra
lowing section, andjtheMonjou of Mr. S<jît$ who are con]je®|
ttired with great-probability,' by m writer in éhbÆdinbuægh
Review, to be^hefiMujab'of^the PortfU'ghfse, ?t&medi M’Jad
by the natives of Zanzibar.
It was long ago^concluded'iiy Lichtenstein and Dÿ Professof
Vatëri tHaf the people of the Mo^mbiqub^iæntïy Jdpe of thB
Kafir race. This inference was drawn chiefly frqmljthe* account
„given of that 'people by Maùritz' Thoman, si Jesuit, who lived
many years in that couhtry.f
Lichtenstein^delivers 'ït «as - an -opinion which' he has-
adopted. after much research, after studying; ' the works of
PoftugUMe writers on this country, and after 'visitit^e. the-
Kafiricountry at two different times in parts'very ratable froné
each other, that all the native tribes to the^buthward of
Quiloa, are of the Kafir stock.|
Mr. Thompson assures us that he hai-si seen “ a vocabulary
of the language of the island of Johanna, one Iffgthe Comoro
islesi drawn lip by fhê Rev.. W. Elliot^ a missioriary'd^tfely
resident there, which proyê^ that these islanders," mnd probably
also the aboriginal tribes* of. .Madagascar, speak a
dialect very intimately allied to »those of Caffraria and Mosambique.
’
It is the more remarkable that the Kafir languagè should
be found in islands remote from the coast,.as we know that all
* Owen’s Voyage, vol h p. 276.
+ Thoman’s Reise und Lebens-beschreibung, Augsburg, 1788. Lichtenstein,
vol. i. pi 243. Vater in.Mithridates/sf'è1. 269. *
$ Lichtenstein, tilt supra. § Thompson’s Travels in §buth Africa, p. 333, vol. i.