The early Cape Hottentots

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[Gentis Africanae]

Admodum Rev^do. Doctissimoque Viro

N.N. S.P.D.

Voluptatem, quam ex litteris meis te sensisse testaris, eandem et forte majorem, ex tuis in me propensae voluntatis testibus, venustate et prudentiâ plenis, quibus me dignatus percepi: quarum lectione et delectatione satiari nequeo, gratiasque penitissimo pectore Superis ago, quorum benignitate, in experimentum forsan, peculiolum aliquod mihi concessum, ut pietatis meae erga te specimen videant. Quaeso igitur etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

(N.B. Hic Pagina una ac altera, Domestica quaedam spectantia, continentes, praeteritae.)

Demiror Famam, nunquam ad liquidum perductam, tantas acqui(si)visse eundo vires, fictique adeo tenacem, ut illa quae veritati affinia de Afris nostris divulgantur, etiam apud vos percrebuerint; gentem hanc uno animo, in diem et in commune, ad naturae legem congruenter convenientem viventem, in quodcunque genus hominum hospitalem, candidam, fidam, veritatis, aequitatisque amantem, nec ab omni Numinis alicujus cultu funditus expertem, et singularem illi inesse ad omnia naturalis ingenii dexteritatem, ut est hominum captus, capacique ad praecepta animo inveni, qui legum severitate, et judiciorum metu se alligari, quondam praejudiciis juvenilibus abrepta, temeraria mea Musa cecinit: Quamvis sint homines, hominis vix nomine digni etc. Cujus delicti veniam petens, hic palinodiam cano, dum proh dedecus! nostratium vitiis, moris patrii oblitorum, in deterius mutatos, sui celantes, tectos et a nobis abstrusos explorate perspicio et cognosco, a quibus blasphemias, perjuria, discordiam, simultates, crapulam, technas, latrocinia, furta, ingratitudinem, effraenatam alieni appetentiam ignota quondam eis Facinora, aliaque crimina non levis notae, et auri sacram famem traxit; en praeclaros Christianarum vittarum

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[The African Race]

To the right reverend and learned gentleman ......

Greetings.

You say that you receive great pleasure from my letters; I feel the same and perhaps more from the expressions of your goodwill towards me, so full of charm and thought, with which you honour me. I can never read nor relish them enough, and from the bottom of my heart I thank the Powers above through whose kindness there has been granted me, perhaps to test me, some little share of this world's goods so that they may see a proof of my pious devotion to you. I beg therefore etc. etc. etc. [N.B. Here a page or two touching on private matters has been omitted.]

I am astonished that Rumour, never bearing a clear report, should have acquired such strength in her course and proved so tenacious of falsehood that those half-truths that are spread abroad about our Africans should have reached even your ears. I found this people with one accord in their general daily life living in harmony with nature's law, hospitable to every race of men, open, dependable, lovers of truth and justice, not utterly unacquainted with the worship of some God, endowed, within their own limits, with a rare nimbleness of mother wit, and having minds receptive of instruction.

My rash Muse was swept away by youthful prejudices when I formerly sang:

Though men, they scarce deserve the name of man.¹⁾

And for this fault I now seek pardon and sing a palinode; for, alas for the disgrace! it is through the faults of our countrymen, who have forgotten their ancestral ways, as I now plainly see and recognize, that the natives have been changed for the worse, and have become secretive, suspicious and shut away from us. From us they have learned blasphemy, perjury, strife, quarrelling, drunkenness, trickery, brigandage, theft, ingratitude, unbridled lust for for what is not one's own, misdeeds unknown to them before, and, among other crimes of deepest die, the accursed lust of gold. Behold the glorious priests of the Christian

1) This would seem to suggest an earlier account of the Hottentots by Grevenbroek, of which, however, I have been unable to find any record.

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Mystas! en Divinae Veritatis assertores strenuos, die et judicio novissimo ab his Barbaris media amphitheatri scrobe ustulandi. Haec est futuri summa favilla mali!^*

Caloris, frigoris, inediae, omniumque laborum supra fidem patientissimi, injuriarumque minime, quippe in vindictam proni, adeo ut pedes, culicesque pungentes, non alia de causa, ori ingestos, quam ut eos dentibus, jure talionis, insecent, molant, conterant, expuantque; nihilque sibi gratius, quam injuriam injuriae contribuere palam jactitent, nec facile quiescant, nisi animum cruciatu inimicorum exsaturaverint. Aspectu rancidi, cultu feri, vita agrestes, bellicosi tamen et insuetae servitutis, aëripedes agilitate, pernicitatem nonnumquam equorum, et Cretenses nandi facilitate, praevertentes.

Candore animi multis nostratium superiores sunt, corporis vero nonnullis, et arbitratu meo, forte omnibus albore pares, si nit[i]ori studerent, nunc adipe et radiis solaribus usti, asperoque faciei pigmento infuscantur, suntque coloris ravidi adustioris, ut plurimum argutis vivacissimisque ocellis, albugine dentibusque nive candidioribus, pupilla Colosandarachino,^** brevibus pedibus, gypsatisque manibus, graciles silonesque fere omnes. Qui Promontorio nostro

* This is an adaptation of a line of Propertius (Elegies I. ix. 18): haec est venturi prima favilla mali. The syntax of this paragraph is greatly confused. I have failed to include in my version any equivalent for the words: qui legum severitate et judiciorum metu se alligari.

** Van Oordt translates this word by bruingele. It is unknown to me. B.F.

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mysteries! Behold the strenuous champions of Divine Truth! On the last day at the last judgment they shall be burned in the middle ditch of the amphitheatre by these barbarians. ‘This is the final spark of the woe to come.’

They are beyond belief patient of heat, cold, fasting, and every kind of toil, but utterly impatient of injury, and prone to vengeance. Wherefore if a louse or a gnat sting them they put it into their mouth for no other reason than that by the law of retaliation they may chop, grind, and crush it with their teeth, and spit it out. Nothing pleases them more, they openly boast, than to return evil for evil, nor can they easily be at rest till they have satisfled their minds by the torture of their enemies. They are offensive to look at, savage in their dress, wild in their mode of life, but warlike and unaccustomed to slavery. They are as swift as the wind, often outstripping horses in fleetness of foot and Cretans in swimming.

In whiteness of soul they are superior to many of our countrymen, and in whiteness of body they are equal to some, and, in my judgment, would perhaps be so to all, if they cared for cleanliness. But as things are, what with fat and the scorching heat of the sun and the sharp pigment they put on their faces, they have grown dark and are of a swarthy brown colour. They have lively bright eyes, and the whites of their eyes and their teeth are fairer than snow. The pupils of the eyes are of a shade between brown and yellow. They have small feet and feminine hands; they are lightly built, and almost all snub-nosed. Those who live near our Cape are of middle height; but the inhabitants of the remote parts of this region are shaggy fellows, with taller and sturdier frames, and with frizzy hair.²⁾ Among them has been seen a king, Longurio, twelve foot high, with hair all over his body thicker than a water spaniel's.³⁾ To these latter the shortness of our countrymen is a matter of contempt. Sometimes they are bald in front; sometimes they wear beard and moustache and shave their heads. The women have large breasts. With the rarest exceptions I never saw one among them that was marked from birth, fat, hunch-backed, squinting, or that had varicose veins, a swollen paunch, flat feet or spindle-shanks, or one that went bow-legged or knock-kneed or had misshapen limbs of any kind, nor did I ever see one blind of an eye nor halt in his speech, nor

2) This description probably applies to the AmaXhosa, about whom Grevenbroek received a good deal of information from the survivors of the wrecked ‘Stavenisse’ (1686).

3) I have found no mention of this remarkable specimen of humanity in any of the contemporary records!

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proximi, mediae sunt staturae, qui vero abdita regionis inhabitant, villosi, procerioris robustiorisque corporis, et cirrati sunt: visusque inter eos Longurio duodecempeda regulus, toto corpore hirsutus, cane aquatrio pilosior, brevitasque illis nostratium contemptui est: subinde recalvastri, et nonnunquam barbam cum mystace alunt, caputque rasitant: mulieres mammosae. Insignitum aut obesum, gibbosum, paetum, varicem, ventricosum, pansam, loripedem, valgum, anuem (sic), compernem, aut distortis membris inter ipsos non vidi, praeter unum alterumve, luscum, exomphalum, atypum, nasutilumque, et si quis claudicat, aut manu, bracchio, oculo aliove membro mutilus, id hosti, ferae, aut casui imputet, non matri, quae minus, quam alibi mulieres, animi commotionibus affectionibusque obnoxia, salubri corpore, et justa membrorum eurythmiâ, robustisque artibus conspicuos liberos parit, quos sola decrepita aetas dissolvit.

Nostrates procul hinc profecti, mercaturam facturi, in gentem, cui non cornea fibra est,^* quae nostris tum forte comptis rasisque, aut imberbibus, merces suas distrahendas explicantibus indicantibusque, joculari convicio exprobrat, maritos suos vocarent, si secum pacisci vellent, cum in(s)titricibus sibi nullum negotium. Talia Barbari!

Auditu sunt solerti, naribus acutis, visuque, ut dixi, acerrimo, adeo ut melli insidiaturi, apiculam stupenda indagine, volantem ad favum usque in alta rupe, cava arbore aut crypta absconditum, oculis sequantur deregantque: sicubi, interveniente dumeto, sylva, fluvio aliove obstaculo remoraque, apicula aciem oculorum insequentis effugit, cursum indigator sistens, faciem soli occiduo obvertit, advolantemque praecedentis tramite apiculam omni cura investigat, quâ duce in praedam petitam incidat.

Porro observavi Afros nostros aviculae cujusdam cantu, volatuque mellis amicissimae, ad alveare perduci; ferturque alias aviculas, locis leonibus ferisque insessis occinere; alias

* The phrase is from Persius, Sat. I. 47.

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with a prominent navel or a prominent nose. If there be one lame among them, or one maimed in hand, arm, eye, or any other member, that defect he owes to enemy, wild beast, or accident, not to his mother; for the women there, in comparison with other lands, are less subject to disturbance and weakness of the mind, they have healthy bodies, beautifully proportioned limbs and sturdy frames, and they bear splendid children whose vigour only age can weaken and destroy.

Our countrymen went on a trading expedition some distance from this place and encountered a people whose wits were not all of wood; for when our men, who as it happened were nicely groomed, and had either shaved or not yet come to grow a beard, were spreading out their wares for sale and inviting purchasers, this people cast a humorous scoff at them, that they should summon their husbands if they wished to come to terms, for they never did business with women. This from savages!⁴⁾

Their hearing is quick, their sense of smell acute, and their sight, as I have said, so keen that when in quest of honey they perform the amazing feat of following with their eyes the tiny bee in its flight to the honeycomb whether it be lodged in a lofty rock or hollow tree or hidden cave. And if perchance, owing to the intervention of thicket, wood, river or other obstacle or hindrance, the bee should elude the sight of the pursuer, then he checks his course, turns his face towards the west, and diligently watches for another bee winging its way on the track of the former; this then serves him for a guide and brings him to the desired prize⁵⁾.

Moreover I have observed that our Africans are led to the bee's nest by the song and flight of a certain little bird that is very fond of honey⁶⁾. It is said that other birds give

4) I have been unable to find any official record of this incident.

5) Hahn, 200 years later, gives an interesting corroboration of this statement. ‘When a bee passes a Bushman or Namaqua in search of honey,’ he says, ‘the man will follow the bee as far as he can with his eyes, say at least 15 or 18 yards; in that line of flight he will search for a dropping of the bee and will find it; he will then in the next line of 10 of 15 yards search for another dropping, and the line of these two droppings will indicate the course the bee took to the nest ... There is a Hottentot at Warmbad who is a great expert in brewing honey beer ... This fellow told me himself of this manner of finding the honey by following up the droppings of the bees.’ (Trans. S. Afr. Philos. Soc., 1896, Min. Proc. p. xvi).

6) Popularly known in S. Africa as the ‘honey guide’ (Indicator spp.). The natives of Bechuanaland and elsewhere still obtain honey through the agency of this bird, as described by G., and are always careful to leave a little behind in payment.

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serpentium indices esse, ipsus vidi, ejusque ope forte in decempedam versicolorem jaculum caudâ acutissimâ, aspectu pulchrum, procul dubio aviculae, pullis aut eorum nido insidiantem incidi: adde his, quod Barbari adventantes, portumque hunc subituras naves e litore speculatores fidelissimi detegant, Europeorum oculis ad omnia haec caecutientibus, ita ut diceres eos acumine visus cum illo Siculo certaturos, qui ex Lilybaeo Promontorio Carthaginiensium classem ex ipsorum portu vela facientem numerabat, si Straboni fides habenda.

Lanam quam Hottentorum ovibus spissam natura negavit, hanc (res miratu digna!) pro capillitio eis datam, ovesque musimones,^* aut capillatas dicerem: quarum femura docto quorundam delicatulorum nostratium summique fastidii palato, non aeque ac Europaeorum vervecum armi, salivam detestabili fastu movent.

Carne bovina, ovilla, et quavis ferina, aliaque ipsorum rumini conveniente, probe tostâ, aut elixa magnam partem vescuntur; etiam pisce marino ac fluviatili, longissimeque hi icthyophagi diversi ab interioribus hujus orae incolis, qui ab omni piscium genere, etiam crustato abhorrent; adhaec Frugibus et bulbis sylvestribus aliisque dapibus inemptis, et quidquid Lurcones fames ingeniique largitor venter glutire docuit, hoc insaturabili abdomine degulant, nec balenae, aut aliis vastae molis piscibus, quos vivos aut mortuos exaestuans mare litori illidit, latrans ipsorum stomachus parcit; en dapes conquisitissimas!

Edentes qualescunque liquores, cibosque liquidos cochleari ex cornu bovis conflato, quandoque etiam conchâ marina eos hauriunt, quos adhaec penicillis, melli aut lacti instinctis oreque exsuctis capiunt.

Apriegnam, lupinam, leoninam, aliorumque rapacium carnivororumque animalium carnem, ut immundam, vetitam, sordibusque nutritam reprobant, respuuntque, et butyrum, ovaque gustare fas non putant. Pueris leporinam esitare licet, sed uxoratis nefas est. Ovium lacte, tanquam noxio, abstinent omnes, solisque impuberibus illo vesci licet.

* Pliny, Natural History, viii, 49, 75 § 199. Est in Hispania, sed maxime Corsica, non absimile pecori genus musmonum, caprino villo quam pecoris velleri propius.

[p. t.o. 178]

How the Hottentots milk their Cows (a) and make Butter (b).
[After Kolb.

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warning in places beset by lions or other wild beasts. And I myself have seen some that betray the presence of snakes. It was by the help of one of these that I came upon a ten-foot, parti-coloured tree-snake, with a very sharp tail and of beautiful appearance, which was, without doubt, intending to seize the bird, or its young, or their nest. An additional proof of their keen sight is that native watchers on shore most faithfully discover the approach of ships to this harbour long before they are visible to European eyes; so that it might be said that in sharpness of vision they rival that Sicilian, who, if we may believe Strabo, did from the Lilybaean promontory count the vessels of the Carthaginian fleet as they sailed out of their own harbour.

It is a notable fact that nature has adorned the heads of the Hottentots with the thick wool she has denied to their sheep. The sheep I should describe as musimones, or hairy. A leg of the local mutton does not, owing to their hateful gourmandise, tempt the nice palate of our dainty countrymen so powerfully as a shoulder of European lamb.

They live for the most part on beef, mutton, all sorts of game, and other flesh that suits their taste, well roasted or boiled. They also eat sea fish and river fish, and in this they differ widely from the inhabitants of the inland parts, who refrain from every kind of fish, even shell-fish⁷⁾. They live also on wild fruits and roots, and other unpurchased victuals; and whatever else hunger and the belly that is the dispenser of invention has taught gluttons to devour, this they swallow down into their insatiable maws; nor does that barking dog, their stomach, spare whales or other monstrous fish which the tide casts dead or alive upon the shore. Such are their choice feasts!

In eating liquids, or liquid food, they use spoons fashioned of ox-horn, and sometimes also sea-shells. Or they dip spónges in honey or milk and suck them.

They reject and refuse the flesh of boars, wolves, lions and other wild and carnivorous animals, as unclean, forbidden, and nourished on filth, nor do they think it right to taste butter and eggs. Boys may eat the flesh of hares, but only until provided with a wife. All refrain from sheep's milk as injurious, saving children who are allowed

7) This applies to the AmaXhosa, of whom the survivors of the ‘Stavenisse’ reported that ‘they eat no fish, nor anything that comes out of the sea.’ (Godée-Molsbergen, Reizen in Zuid-Afrika, iii, 62).

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Et quamvis variae hic praestantesque salinariae lacusque, quorum aquae sua sponte in sal concrescunt, salis tamen usus ignorant. Nostratium autem salgama, eorundemque carnem, aut piscem salictum, reliquosque cibos muriaticos non fastidiunt, quorum lactucam, oleraque tandem avidi edere didicere, quae olim pecori cum graminibus campi, illudentes Europaeorum ingluviei, depascenda censebant, et Boves convivas facerent, herbasque aggererent, invitantibus in prandium aut caenam regerebant, jactantes se inediam sustinere, pauperiemque pati ab infantia didicisse. Certe penitius omnem vitam eorum inspiciens comperi ipsos penuriae tolerantissimos, eamque per omnia extrema Rechabitarum similem ducere.

Potus nobis vicinis aqua et lacte, sed extimae gentes sitim insuper oxygulo, alicâ, zyrho, ceriâ, aut cervisiâ levant, quam Rotterodamenti similem, ducentis et amplius hinc milliaribus in capacissimis fictilibus vasis, primae et secundae notae cum pane autopyro coquere, adhaec pinsere granum nostratibus ignotum, farinâ candidissimâ boni nutrimenti, trifarium, milio aliquanto majus, et ab illo panicoque non multum abludente, norunt mulieres, quibus rei familiaris onus, et educendorum liberorum, agrorumque colendorum cura incumbit.

Si quae uno foetu geminos enixa, eos tollunt, et puerperae fovendos, nutriendosque dant: multum discrepantes à citerioribus, et qui nostratibus intermixti degunt, sueti alterum gemellorum, puellam scilicet, marem semper servantes, immani saevitia! avibus ferisque diripiendam dilacerandamque in dumo exponere, aut vivam in terram

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the use of it.⁸⁾ And although there are here various excellent salt beds and pools, whose waters turn of their own accord to salt, yet they are ignorant of the use of it. But they do not refuse our pickles, or pickled foods, or salted flesh or fish. Our lettuces also and other vegetables they have at length learned to eat greedily, though at first, mocking the indiscriminate taste of Europeans, they would say that they were only fit to be eaten by cattle along with the grass of the field. Then, if asked to lunch or dinner, they would retort, make the oxen your guests, pile up the grass, boasting that they could endure fasting and had learned to bear poverty from childhood. And indeed on a close view of their whole life I have come to know that they are very patient of scant living and order their whole existence in the rigorous manner of the Rechabites.

Our neighbours drink water and milk, but the distant tribes quench their thirst also with curds and various sorts of beer. This, which is like Rotterdam beer, is made by the women two hundred and more miles from here in huge earthenware vessels, and is of two qualities.⁹⁾ The women also bake a coarse bread, and pound a grain unknown to our countrymen which produces a white flour and is very nutritive; it is of three sorts, and is somewhat bigger than millet, and not very different from it and panic-grass.¹⁰⁾ On the women lies the burden of the household, and also the education of the children and cultivation of the fields.

If a woman among them bear twins, they rear them, giving them to the mother to be cherished and fed. In this they differ greatly from the nearer tribes and those who live among us, for their custom is, when twins are born, to take one of them, of course the girl, for they always preserve the male, and cast it with hideous cruelty to the birds and beasts to tear and rend in some thicket, or to bury it alive in the earth. The reason they allege is that

8) None of these food taboos seems to have persisted down to recent times, save only that of the hare. In all the Hottentot tribes this might only be eaten by women and children, and was strictly forbidden to men and to youths who had passed through the puberty rites. This taboo was apparently associated with the well-known myth in which the hare distorts the message given him by the Moon to convey to people on earth, and promises them death instead of immortality. Any man found guilty of eating the hare's flesh was excluded from the company of other men until he had been purified of his offence. (See Schapera, Khoisan Peoples, 239-40, 283, 357-8). The ‘Stavenisse’ crew reported of the AmaXhosa that ‘the old men and women do not eat hares, but the young people may ... they also do not eat lions and 'wolves' (hyenas), which are held to be unclean.’ (Godée-Molsbergen, loc. cit.) And again: ‘They do not eat poultry because these feed on filth, still less do they eat eggs, and it makes them sick to see Europeans do so’ (Moodie, Record, 417). Grevenbroek evidently had these statements in mind when writing the passage above. Schreyer (op. cit., 45) says that Hottentot men were forbidden to drink sheep's milk, which was a food fit only for women.

9) Soga (The Ama-Xosa, 399-401) also speaks of two varieties of Kafir beer, utywala, a mild inebriant, mostly used at social gatherings, and amarewu, a non-intoxicant kind, used for private and domestic drinking. The ‘Stavenisse’ crew said the Amaxhosa had corn from which ‘they make very well tasted and nourishing bread, and brew beer both small and strong, which is not unpleasant in taste, and which they keep in earthen vessels’ (Moodie, op. cit., 418).

10) Kafir corn (Holcus sorghum). The ‘Stavenisse’ crew reported the existence of three kinds of this corn (Godée-Molsbergen, op. cit., 67).

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defodere; causantes gemelliparam duobus liberis pariter alendis imparem: quae si parturiens aut continuo postquam partum exdidit extinguitur, eam sine mora cum embrione aut infante, etiam vivo, non minori crudelitate sepeliunt. Attamen quandoque pater pecore dives, nutricem filiolae supersti(ti) conducit, eique alendam tradit.

Hic silentio neutiquam praetereundum mihi arbitror, quod faber ferrarius quidam, vigesimo a Promontorio nostro lapide equitans, casu vagientem in arbore infantulum audiverit, et non procul inde repertam matrem probe delumbatam prolem diligere et στοχγὺ^* docuerit.

Cui addendum reor, quod Europaeae quaedam in ipso Promontorio, defossam ab Afris filiolam tempestive accurentes effoderint, collatitio collectoque aere nutrici cuidam educandam detulerint.

Ubi vacca vitulum cum vitula simul enititur, illum in partes sectum canibus devorandum abjiciunt, hanc fatuè servant licet nunquam concepturam, inaudita quippe res Afris his, juvenculam gemellam peperisse.

Pedicâ, hamo, nassa, teloque, cultu tenuissimo magnam partem victitant: quamcumque feram, etiam elephantem consectores venenatâ sagitta sauciarunt, hinc fugientem insequuntur eminus, eamque si non tempestivius, saltem post solis occasum, et sub crepusculum membris veneno et vespertino frigore jam obrigescentibus et sanguine coagulato, cadentem venatores assequuntur, excoriant dilaniantque, illius cor (cujus valvulis aut orificio virus concretum adhaeret) exscindunt, omnique lurido abscisso rejectoque, carbonibus semitostum, et in buccas sectum, pro primaria dape praeda(ti)cia, promulside, et lauta gustatione

* The copyist did not know Greek. The word attempted to be written here is probably στοργήν natural affection. B.F.

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a mother of two is unequal to the task of rearing both at the same time.¹¹⁾ If the mother dies in labour or immediately after giving birth to a child, then, with the same cruelty as before, they bury her at once with the embryo or infant, even if alive. However it does sometimes happen that a father who is rich in cattle hires a nurse for the little daughter who has survived, and hands her over to her care.

Here I think I ought not to pass over in silence the fact that a certain smith, who was riding twenty miles from the Cape, heard a child wailing in a tree, and not far off he found the mother to whom he gave a good hiding to teach her to love and care for her offspring.

To this I think I should add that certain European women at the Cape itself, running up just in time, dug up a little girl buried by the Africans. They raised a sum of money by subscription and hired a nurse for the child.¹²⁾

If a cow gives birth to a male and a female calf at the same time, they cut the male up and cast it to the dogs, the female they foolishly keep although it will never bear, for it is an unheard-of thing for these Africans that a twin calf should be fruitful.

For the most part they maintain a scant subsistence by means of snare, hook, weel and weapon. If their hunters wound any wild creature, even an elephant, with their poisoned arrows, they follow it from afar as it flees; and if they cannot come upon it sooner, then after sunset in the thickening light when its limbs are now stiffening with the poison and the chill of evening and when its blood is congealed, it falls and the hunters come up with it, flay it, and dismember it. The heart, to the valves and orifice of which the gathered poison clings, they cut out, and having chopped off and cast away all discoloured flesh,

11) The existence of this practice among the old Cape Hottentots is well-authenticated, although among the modern Nama twins, though regarded as unlucky, are no longer killed. Kolb (op. cit., 443 ff.) describes it at some length. Cf. also Schapera, op. cit., 266.

12) This incident is recorded in the official journal (Jan. 24, 1669): ‘Yesterday afternoon some Cape ladies, whilst taking a walk towards the downs where a number of Hottentots ordinarily live, were told that the latter had buried a woman who had been delivered of a child the previous afternoon and died shortly afterwards, and that with her they had buried the living baby, after having put it into a bag, covering it with earth as usual. Thereupon the women ... opened the grave as quickly as possible, and took out of it the little child alive.’ The incident of the smith I have not been able to confirm, but it seems equally authentic, and shows that infanticide was on occasion practised by the Hottentots (cf. Fritsch, op. cit., 334).

[p. 184]

devorant, reliquumque domi pullucto, licet vitiatum, depascuntur, nullosque carnales, nec morbum harum morbidarum carnium esu, macellarii visceribus inseminandum metuunt, judicantes cum Italis, mortua bestia, venenum intermori^*: quae an emptorem unquam inter nostros cives, manu subitis avidâ invenerit, dictu non est proclive; hoc sane exploratum habeo eos gammarorum, rajarum, astacorum, pagurorum, caraborum, et quorumcunque piscium captorum, effossorumque bulborum frequentem hiantemque institorem experiri, qui saepe arte deludens, invicem arte deluditur, quaerensque fragili illidere dentem, offendit solido: Σύροι πρὸς Φοινίκας.

Virorum est expedire hyemi commeatum alimentaque, amygdala silvestria, cortice holoserico, coloris crocei: ari majoris radices, aptatas cibo: variosque bulbos: quae soli ostenta, et igniculo retosta fercula vetustatem ferentia, in scrobibus cryptisque proinde ac in penario, pro cupediis, subsecivâ operâ, et tanquam παρέργῳ Cisalpini Afri reponunt: remotiores caveas Barbari effodiunt, in quibus solerter ad aliquot annos frumentum asservant, et quo sicca haec horrea habeantur, illis stramen ad justam spithamae[que] altitudinem insternunt, eodemque latera spisse satis circumdant, denique frumento caeteroque commeatu complent, orificiumque cellae cöarctatum primo stramine et virgulto, denique quartâ et novissimâ (ut ita dicam) contignatione cavernam cespitibus, pari cum solo libra, contegunt, et ab omni corruptione tutam, longumque relinquant, de nullo solliciti, nisi ut detegentes scrobem, compressam annonam omnem quantocius depascantur, ne aëri, lucique expositam aliqua calamitas tangat.

* In the last few lines there are several difficulties. I do not understand pullucto, carnales, nor macellarii.

[p. 185]

they half-roast it on coals, divide it into morsels, and swallow them as a foretaste, whet, or dainty appetiser for the banquet they have won by their hunting. The rest, though tainted, they consume at home, nor do they fear by the eating of this unwholesome flesh to plant any disease in their bodies, judging like the Italians that when the animal dies the poison dies with it.¹³⁾ Whether such an animal ever found a purchaser among our countrymen in one made reckless by some unforeseen predicament, it is not easy to say. But this I know for sure that they attempt dealings with a thronged and eager purveyor of lobsters, rays, crabs, crayfish, and all sorts of other fish he has taken, and roots he has dug up. He often cheats them or is in his turn cheated, and seeking to put his tooth in the tender flesh he champs upon bone. Greek meets Greek.

It is the part of the men to prepare the winter's supply of food, to wit, wild almonds with silky shells of a saffron hue, roots of the larger arum, good for food, and various bulbs. The natives on our side of the mountain, in their spare time, and as a hobby, expose these nuts and roots and bulbs to the sun, and roast them with a little fire, and when they have thus become fit to stand the passage of time they bestow them in ditches and caves, as if in a storehouse, to serve as dainties. The more distant natives dig storerooms in the earth in which they skilfully preserve corn for many years. To keep these granaries dry they fill the bottom with straw to the depth of a span, cover the sides pretty closely with the same, and then fill them with the grain and other provisions. The mouth of the chamber is stuffed with straw and brush, and finally, as a fourth and last layer, they cover the hollow with sods to the level of the ground. The corn is then left safe from all corruption and for a long time. Their only anxiety is, when they have opened the trench again, to devour all their store as quickly as possible lest some disaster should befall it on being exposed to the air and light.¹⁴⁾

13) This description of hunting and of the method to avoid the possible effects of the poison in the meat applies equally well to the modern Bushmen (cf. Schapera, op. cit., 133 ff.)

14) The account given by the ‘Stavenisse’ crew of the Xhosa corn-pits merely says: ‘They preserve their corn in cavities under ground, where it keeps good, and free from weevils, for years.’ (Godée-Molsbergen, op. cit., 66). The further details recorded by G. must therefore have been obtained orally from members of the crew. It is still the custom of the people to store their corn in such pits, which are generally dug in the cattle kraals.

[p. 186]

Palmariae marium partes sunt pascere pecus, illudque curare, et contra leonum omniumque ferarum et hostium insultus tueri, quos certo ictu jaculô sagittâve (plurimum venenatis) feriunt.

Sub vesperam pastum pecus sepimento clausum, et anteriore sinistro pede loro vinctum, palo alligant, cujus distenta lacte ubera mulieres mulgent, et si quae vacca illud retinet (ut ferè sit) illico adest femina, quandoque etiam vir, qui ore admoto, podici tenacis bestiae inflant, quo medio invita lac mamma manare patitur.

Ex collo et in pectus pasceolum, et in illo spiculum, cultrum, nicotianum, tubulumque hauriendo ejus fumo, adhaec nonnulla frivola, cum uno alteroque dupondio, quae nostrates emunxere, et quod palmarium est, cum quodam ligno dactylidem non excedente, vice praebiorum propendentem, habens, hoc lignum averuncandis quibusque periculis, dum nox illos in latissimis leonibus anguibusque infestis campis, sub Jove frigido fruticeque dormire coactos deprehendit, salutiferum sibi pervigili excubatione, anili superstitione fingunt.

Pari credulitate de scarabeo quodam somniant, bonique ominis sibi augurantur dum illum tugurio insidentem vident, quem pro numine venerantur, nec patientur Europaeum illi insidiari, nedum illum laedere, sed leniter arreptum in deserta loca deferunt, illicque tuto deponunt, quo facto diem hunc hilarem sibi sumunt.

[p. 187]

The prime duty of the men is to pasture the cattle and tend them, and to protect them against attack of lions or any wild beast or enemies. With sure aim they strike attackers with javelin or arrows heavily poisoned.

At the fall of evening the pastured cattle are brought into the enclosure, and each beast is tethered to a stake by the left forefoot. The women then draw the milk from the swollen udders, and if any cow, as commonly happens, tries to withhold it, at once comes a woman, or sometimes a man, who applies her mouth to the vent of the obstinate beast and blows in.¹⁵⁾ By this means the milk is made to flow from the reluctant udder.

They wear a wallet hanging from the neck on to the breast, in which they carry an arrow-head, a knife, tobacco, and a tube with which to drink the smoke of it, with a few trifles in addition, and one or two copper coins of which they have managed to cheat our fellows, and, what is of most importance, a piece of wood no bigger than a grape, as an amulet. An old-womanish superstition makes them suppose that this piece of wood will avert all dangers if darkness should surprise them in open country infested with lions and snakes, when they must pass the night in the bush under the open sky in watchful vigilance.¹⁶⁾

With regard to the scarab beetle their credulity leads them to entertain a similar illusion, and they hold it to be of good omen if they find one in their huts, for they worship them as divine, nor will they suffer a European to attack one, much less to injure one; they gently catch it up, carry it off to a deserted place, and set it down there in safety, upon doing which they look forward to a lucky day.¹⁷⁾

15) This usage is also described by Schreyer (op cit., 46). Even at the present day, among the Naman, if a cow refuses to give milk, as may happen when its calf has died prematurely, someone may stand behind it and blow hard into its vulva while the milking is taking place (Schapera, op cit., 295).

16) A similar use of amulets was already mentioned by Dapper (see above, p. 53) and is confirmed by most other early writers, as well as by more recent authorities on the Naman (cf. Schapera, op. cit., 394).

17) G.'s ‘scarab beetle’ is really the Mantis, still popularly known as ‘Hotnotsgod’ (Hottentot's god) in S.A. The Bushmen paid a good deal of reverence to this insect, which figures very prominently in their mythology, but among the Hottentots it is not a mythological figure, although, as G.'s description shows, its appearance was regarded as a favourable omen of the highest significance. Kolb is even more lavish in his account of the joy with which its alighting on a person or hut was greeted (op. cit., 416 f.). The modern Naman still believe that it brings luck if it creeps on a person, and no one is allowed to kill it (cf. Schapera, op. cit., 243).

[p. 188]

Gravem ex humero et a tergo pharetram, et sicubi adversarius imminet telum, sarissam, pilum, jaculumve, longo latoque, et quandoque adunco hamatoque praeferrata spiculo, ossibusve asperata, dextrâ gestant; altero cubitorum sex septemve et pluribus eburneis armillis calbeisque digiti crassitudine singulis, seque invicem contingentibus, tam in sui tutelam, quam ornatus gratiâ munito, quibus ictus hostiles, dentes unguesque ferarum è re nata cominus excipiunt: sinistrâ vero retinent clavam seu fustem ex praeduro gravique ligno, buxeo simillimo, cum aliquot sagittis arcuque, et illo quo teguntur laxo, lanatoque scorteo, quo eminus hostium telis veluti clypeo scutati illudunt: abtegentibus se nonnullis praesultatoribus rorariisque, decumanorum boum ferociorumque taurorum corporibus, quos prolusionibus simulacris pugnae certaminibusque ludicris exercitos et in prima acie stare doctos, in adversum hostem capistratos agunt, quem hoc mobili et in omnem partem versatili vallo, veluti peribolo loricave tecti, fidenter thoracati petunt.

Hoc apparatu bellico instructi, pugnam laeti lacessunt, impavidique subsilientes, vibrando tela, jaculis certi, et sagittâ metuendi, vario corporis flexu et inclinatione hostilia exeunt arma; horrendo inconditoque clamore quo maximè hostis conterretur, tremendisque sibilis (voluntatis virtutisque indicibus) sublatis, dum fremitu aethera retonant, cum hoste paribus adsiste in armis, introrsum sinuata acie, formidabiles concurrunt, conserti cohaerentesque, et collato pede aperto Marte manum conferunt, et priusquam unum.

[p. 189]

Hanging from the shoulder on to the back they carry a heavy quiver, and if an enemy should be near, they carry in the right hand a dart, lance, spear or javelin, with a long, broad, and sometimes curved and barbed iron spike at the top. Sometimes the weapon is fitted with sharpened bone. On one of their arms they wear six or seven or more ivory armlets or bracelets, each of the thickness of a finger and touching one another. This is as much for protection as for ornament, for they parry with them at close quarters as occasion requires the blows of their enemies, or the teeth and claws of wild beasts. In the left hand they hold a club or staff of hard and heavy wood, like box, together with a bow and some arrows, and that loose and woolly skin covering, with which, as if protected by a shield, they ward off the missiles of the enemy. They also employ a sort of advance-guard or skirmishers who shelter themselves behind the bodies of huge oxen or savage bulls. These creatures are trained in preliminary sham-fights and sportive encounters, and taught to keep their places in the front line. They are then led against the enemy on a halter, and the warriors sheltering behind this moveable rampart which can be wheeled in any direction hurl their weapons at the foe, as confident in their defence as if protected by a breastwork or parapet.¹⁸⁾

Equipped with this warlike gear they gladly challenge encounter with the foe, leaping forth fearlessly, brandishing their missiles, deadly with their spears, terrible with their arrows, and with various bendings and stoopings avoiding the enemies' arms. With horrible uncouth shouts to frighten the enemy, and terrifying hissings to prove their courage and zeal, while the welkin rings with the cry, ‘To grips with the foe,’ with their line of battle bent inwards they make their formidable onset in serried unbroken array, and getting to close quarters in open warfare they join battle, and before one missile can fall they follow it with

18) This statement finds an interesting confirmation in the account given by de Barros of the skirmish with the Hottentots of Table Bay in which de Almeida was killed (1510). The Hottentots, says de Barros, ‘having called their cattle, which are accustomed to this kind of warfare, began to whistle to them and make signs by which they guide them, so that forming into a squadron, and sheltered by the cattle, they attacked our men with wooden darts hardened by fire. Some fell wounded and were trodden down by the cattle, and as most of them were without shields, their only weapons being lances and swords, in this kind of warfare they could not do much damage to the negroes, who from among the cattle hurled their weapons against our men, which had immediate effect.’ (Theal, Records of S.E. Africa, vi. 301). Schreyer (op. cit., 23-24) describes a similar method of hunting lions and other beasts of prey.

[p. 190]

telum ceciderit, instant cum altero, inestque virus volucri ferro, certoque ictu destinata feriunt, et internecino bello, nullâ imbellis sexus aut aetatis ratione habitâ, ad unum omnes atroces delent, ingerentes per ludibrium victis nequidquam fidem implorantibus: Mali corvi, malum ovum: braviumque^* conflictus, armentorum pecorumque maxime gregis, armorumque praeda, et nonnulla opima spolia, quae cito diripiuntur, per multas petita manus: sicque alteri alteros atterunt.

Quo modo quaque arte arma sua viro illinunt, scribere supersedeo, ne videar Europae, satis superque bellis ardenti faculam addidisse, viamque generi humano extirpando aperuisse, meque ipsum matribus posteritatique detestandum propinasse.

Pacem facturi in colliminio^** armati conveniunt, et ubi de ejus conditionibus convenere, ilico bucculam in ipso confinio, telis jaculisque confixam feris devorandam relinquunt, quaevis dira foedifrago imprecantes, optantesque ut pari modo quo victima confossus perfidus pereat, et volucribus, carnificis (sic), rapacibusque animalibus esca execratus fiat: rite vota nuncupantes.

V. Kal. Febs. anni MDCLXXXVII Primarius quidam Afrorum nostrorum, de Batavis optime meritus, plagam orientem spectantem, tridui aut quadridui viâ a nobis dissitam inhabitans, qui se suaque jam olim Societati nostrae venditavit, illiusque fidei omnia commisit, gentico nomine Thausouwè, nostratibus autem Nicolaus centurio dictus, in castrum, comite alio paris dignitatis, eique confini Afro vocatus venit, ut auctore, teste et arbitro Promontorii Praefecto, exardescentia inter ipsos dissidia, et jam gliscente discordiâ, priusquam res in nervum erumpat, cum bona gratiâ coniscantes componantur: dictum, factum: suas(u)que Praetoris omnis dolor pectibus erasus abit, sedantur animi, fit pristina amicitiae redintegratio,

* Praemium (?).

** Collimitio (?).

[p. 191]

another, and there is poison on the hurtling iron, and with sure aim they find their mark, and in internecine war, not sparing non-combatants of any age or sex, they mercilessly slaughter the enemy to the last man, casting at the conquered, who in vain appeal for mercy, the scornful taunt: a bad crow, a bad egg. The prize of the combat is a booty of a herd of kine or flock of sheep, or arms, and sometimes those of the conquered general. These are quickly plundered, being sought for by many hands. So they wear one another down.

By what method and what art they poison their weapons I omit to describe lest I should be found to have added fuel to a Europe already more than enough ablaze with war, to have opened up a path for the extirpation of the human race, and surrendered myself as an object of loathing to mothers and to posterity.

When about to make peace they assemble armed on their common boundary, and after agreeing upon the terms, forthwith they pierce a heifer with darts and spears upon the frontier line and leave it to be eaten of wild beasts, denouncing all sorts of curses on his head who should break the treaty, and praying that he should perish for his treachery by being transfixed like the victim, and be cast forth accursed as a prey to carrion birds and ravening animals. They adopt these vows with all due form.¹⁹⁾

On the 28th of January, 1687, occurred an incident I shall now describe. There is a certain chief of our Africans, who has deserved very well of the Dutch; he lives in a district to the East distant three or four days' journey from the Cape, and long ago ingratiated himself with our Society and entrusted everything to its good faith. His native name is Thausouwe, but our men call him Captain Nicolaus.²⁰⁾ On the day in question he came, in response to a summons, to the Castle, accompanied by another native, his neighbour, a man of equal dignity, in order that the Governor of the Cape might hear their case and by his skill and authority compose with good will on both sides before it became too strong a quarrel that had broken out between them and was threatening to end in war. The matter was soon disposed of. Under the Governor's suasion all bitterness was banished from their breasts, their passions were allayed, there was a complete restoration of

19) There appears to be no other record of such a ceremony.

20) This man was probably Captain Klaas, or Dorha, already mentioned by Ten Rhyne (see above p. 111). His ‘enemy’ was Koopman, whose rivalry ultimately led to the downfall of Klaas. There is no record in the official journal of the incident here referred to by G.

[p. 192]

pactaeque societatis signo, manus invicem sociant: sed hic sinistram, ille dextram jungit: quod miratus, hujusque novitatis mihi causam rimanti inquirentique, malum hunc accolam finitimumque gravem scaevam esse, sinistram qua viribus praepollet noxiosissimamque in fidei pignus obtulisse nervosè paratissimèque argutulus attendenti respondet Barbarus: qui porrò scissitanti (sic) scrutantique mihi, quo nomine apud ipsos Supremum numen veniat: continuò mirabili genealogia ultimae originis adjicit Khourrou vel Thikkwa: inferum autem Damoh appellari: ab hoc Summo Deo, Noh primum hominem, ejusque conjugem Hingnogh creatos: hosque sanguinis sui ultimos auctores humanum genus, majoresque suos uxores ducere, liberos tollere, poligamiae, paci et concordiae studere, alium non laedere, suum cuique tribuere docuisse, hisque similia praecepta, infra succincte narranda tradidisse, non irrediculè infit: amboque reconciliati, cum donis tamen et cum bona gratia dimittuntur.

In alterutrius territorio thermae reperiuntur, quas exopinatò cives nostri trajecturi, tabulis asseribusque suorum curruum constravere, eosque sive halitu bullientis ferventisque aquae, sive earundem exhalationum acrimoniâ ambesos, et colore aliquatenus mutatos invenerunt, perpauci(s)que passibus inde, geminas scaturigines aquae jugis gelidaeque, pari modo, quo majores nostri Aquis grani Balnea detexere, an aeque lavacro salutifera, hactenus popularium nostrorum negligentia in perspicienda rerum naturâ ignoratur. Aliaque majoris ponderis scitu factuque facilia dignissimaque eorundem negligentia inexplorata aut omissa, sordidè gazis, scelerum invitamentis, inhiantibus spreta jacent, dum ut assolet,^* et hominum nostrorum natura ita comparata sit, ut publica privatis illiberalibusque lucris postponant: hinc aegritudinis nostrae stirpes!

* I suspect some words have been dropped here in the MS. The phrase dum ut assolet makes no sense as it stands.

[p. 193]

friendship, and as a sign of established amity they shook hands. But the one gave his left hand, the other his right. I was surprised at this, and on my seeking and enquiring into the reason for so strange an action, the native, a shrewd fellow, replied to my query boldly and promptly, saying that this bad and troublesome neighbour was lefthanded, and had therefore offered his left hand which was the stronger and the more apt to mischief as a pledge of faith. In response to my further enquiries as to the name by which the Supreme Being was known among them, he immediately traced a wonderful genealogy back to the beginning and gave the name Khourrou or Thikkwa. The devil, he said, was called Damoh. By this Supreme God were created Noh the first man and Hingnogh his wife. This pair, the ultimate authors of his race, had taught mankind and his ancestors to marry wives and rear children, to practice polygamy, peace and concord, to hurt no one, to give to each his own, together with other similar precepts, which will be succinctly set forth below.²¹⁾ This information he gave me, sensibly enough. The pair, on being reconciled, were sent off with gifts and much goodwill.

In the territory of one or other of them warm springs are found. Our countrymen, having to cross them unexpectedly, bridged them with planks and beams from their waggons, and these they found to be eaten into and somewhat changed in colour, either by the vapour of the bubbling and boiling water or by the acidity of these same exhalations; and a few paces from there they discovered two gushing springs of perennial cool water, just as our ancestors did at Aken.²²⁾ But whether they be equally wholesome to bathe in is not yet known through the idleness of our countrymen in investigating the facts of nature. There are other matters also of more moment, easy and most worthy to be known and done, which through the same carelessness are neglected and ignored. These things they despise while gaping after riches which are but incentives to crime .... such is the nature of our folk; they postpone public interests to private and illiberal gains.

21) Khourrou=!Gurub, the thunderer, another name for Tsui-//goab (=Thikkiva, Thikkwa), the great Hottentot rain god. Damoh is probably an attempt to spell the name //Gaunab, who figures in Hottentot mythology as an evil chief, and in the beliefs of the people as the source of all evil. (See Hahn, Tsuni-//Goam, passim; Schapera, op. cit., 376-89). The myth of mankind's origin given by G. is apparently not found among the modern Naman, but Hahn (op. cit., 105) quotes from Wuras a Korana myth of a similar nature. ‘The old people say that they have heard from their grandfathers that Tsui-Koab had made two persons, a man Kanima, ostrich feather, and a woman Hau na maos, yellow copper. He gave them cows, whose milk they should drink, a jackal tail to wipe the perspiration off the brow, a staff with a club (Kiri), a quiver with arrows, and a bow, and a shield.’

22) These ‘warm springs’ are probably those now known as the Caledon Baths. The main trading route to the east passed close to them. They do not appear to have been frequented for curative purposes until the first decade of the 18th century. Cf. the journals of two visits to the ‘warm springs’ in 1710, published in V.R. Soc. 5, pp. 60 ff.

[p. 194]

Ego torrentem diurni itinere a Promontorio distantem, plurimis rivulis auctum, leni tractu aquarum prope Saldagniensem Sinum oceano se infundentem transiturus, compluries mephitim sensi, parem illi quem A^o 1673 in Latio apertissimis campis, ad dextram Viae Flaminiae ex Hetruria veniens, non procul Centumcellis, me odoratum commemini: quae loca accipio à discessu meo ab urbe, terrae motibus conquassata et pene eversa: Superi omen avertant, fallantque metum, ne similis calamitas aliquando hos colonos incautos, imparatosque improvisò percutiat, et ne hic alterum Aetnam, aut illius ignium aemulum Vesuvium aliquem inopinato prorumpentem videamus. Sane similium malorum praeludia expertissimo [et] exitioso prodigio constat nil boni portendere: utinam falsus malorum praesagus sim, faxintque Superi, ut tempestivis februis, catharmate humili, piacularibusque officiis averruncum patiamur Jovem iracunda et deprecanea ponere fulmina! Ignosce diverticulo.

Accepi ex quodam non temnendae fidei Batavo adseverante, se nunquam praetervectum cautem, uno alt(e)rove milliari à praedio suo distantem, quin viderit quoscunque comites Barbaros, decerptum ex proximo frutice aut arbore ramum, ei tanquam verbenam instravisse, rogatosque causam, jejunè satis, sui majorumque suorum antiquitus id moris, et vetustissime in usu ipsis esse, respondisse, et aegerrime tulisse, quod nostrates, loco hoc capitali, exonorantes alvum, illorum cultui tam foedè illuderent.

Unus et alter Afer mihi insuper narravit ipsos annuis comitiis, stato loco et die sub latebrosa rupe, tanquam Mantaeo, tributum sacrificare. Sed de his infra fusius.

Mulieribus suis mirum in modum morigeris, nec minus castis, haud secus ac jumentis mancipiisque dorso onera gestantibus, abutuntur, easque Manliano imperio exercent: quarum crura multis jaculis, spissisque loris a talibus genua tenus^*, hac de causa hocque argumento mihi

* There seems no possible doubt that these words are a slip for a talis genuum tenus.

[p. t.o. 194]

The Hottentot mode of Warfare.
(Notice the use of oxen as tanks.)
[After Kolb.

[p. 195]

There is a river a day's journey from the Cape, fed by many streams, which with a gentle motion pours its waters into the ocean near Saldanha Bay.²³⁾ Several times in crossing this I have caught the smell of sulphur. It was like the smell I remember encountering in the year 1673 in Latium in the open country, when I was on my way from Etruria, on the right of the Via Flaminia not far from Civita Vecchia. After my departure from the city, I hear, this region was shaken by an earthquake and almost overthrown. May the Gods avert the omen, and falsify my fears, so that no similar disaster may at any time fall suddenly upon these heedless, unprepared colonists, and that we may not see here a second Aetna, or some Vesuvius to rival its fires, bursting forth in a moment. Though assuredly my own experience of the preludes to such disasters makes it clear that a deadly prodigy like this portends no good. Oh, that I may be a false prophet of evil, and that the Gods above may bring it about that by timely expiations, humble purification, and acts of propitiation we may experience an averting Jove who will lay aside his angry but not inexorable bolts! Pardon the digression.

A certain Dutchman whose word I can trust assures me that he has never passed a certain rock a mile or two distant from his farm, without observing the natives who accompany him pluck a branch from some shrub or tree hard by and strew it upon the ground as a sacred offering.²⁴⁾ Being asked the reason for this act they replied, without further explanation, that it was the custom of their ancestors from of old and long in use among them, and that they took it very ill that our countrymen should foully insult their worship by disburdening their bowels in this sacred spot.

One or two natives have told me in addition that at annual gatherings at a fixed place and date under a shady rock they offer tribute of sacrifice as if to an oracle. But on this point I shall speak more at large below.

Their women, who are wonderfully complaisant, and no less chaste, they abuse like cattle or slaves, making them bear loads upon their backs, and they keep them under a harsh and rigid discipline. From ankle to knee their legs are bound with a close series of loops and thongs,

23) Probably the Berg R.

24) A similar usage was noted as far back as 1655 by Corporal Willem Muller (see above, p. 77). The ‘rock’ to which G. refers was probably one of the ‘graves’ of Heitsi Eibib, one of the outstanding figures in Hottentot mythology and belief. Cf. above, ‘General Introduction,’ p. xiii, and Schapera, op cit., 383 ff.

[p. 196]

videntur redimita, quo eorum pondere praepeditis, haud aliter ac ocreatis, malitiosae desertionis, aut abnoctandi, longiusque quam par est à gurgustiolo aberrandi facultatem, semper novitatis avidis caute provideque his periscedelibus recidant.

Quotiescunque foras palatum et pabulatum procedunt, ex dorso manticam, bulgam, ascoperamve, et in illa nonnunquam infantulum sedentem secum asportat, convasantes quaecunque huc et illuc observando ab obviis exterebrare, aut ex campis tripedali ferreo, quandoque etiam ligneo vecte, in mucronem deficiente, imaque sui parte cuspidato, effodere valent.

In Magosis filias cum hospitibus stupro coire parentes patiuntur, comitasque habetur vulgati corporis vilitas, totaque impudicitia (honos castis abstinentibusque auribus oculisque sit) urbanitas vocatur, modo pretium flagitii lunula, condalium, dactylion aeneum ferreumve, vel novena aut dena vitria corallia, hisque similia muliebria monilia crepundiaque dentur, et abstineant caveantque parentibus coram lascivire, et propudiosa, turpia, obscaenaque jacere verba, aut reverentiae pudorisque claustra violare, qui quàm aegrè ista ferant, et quàm gravia ipsis sint haec flagitia, torvo et reflexo in tergum vultu, fronte obducta, teretibus religiosisque auribus, et propero secessu, soliti suos adamare et deperire liberos, pudibundi talibus vitiis abhorrentes, testabuntur nec facili usquam gentium parentes, nil ve[r]nale redolentes, intimioris in liberos pietatis invenies, nullo aere nec quantovis pretio extraneis eos mancipio distracturos. Liberis quippe servitutis pretium ingratum est.

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and on no other ground and for no other reason, as it seems to me, than that they may be deprived of the opportunity of running away, or spending the night abroad, or wandering farther than is right from the hut, by being hampered with this weight of bonds, as if wearing greaves.^24a) For the women have an unfailing curiosity, the satisfaction of which is with careful foresight baulked by these shackles.

Whenever the women go abroad for exercise or to get food, they carry upon their backs a knapsack, bag, or wallet, sometimes with a baby sitting in it; and, looking hither and thither, they collect anything they can, either by extortion from those they meet upon their way, or by digging in the fields with a lever three feet long made of iron, or sometimes of wood with a pointed spike at the tip.

Among the Magosi²⁵⁾ parents allow their daughters to have sexual intercourse with strangers. This promiscuous cheapening of their person is regarded as polite, and complete shamelessness (I beg pardon of chaste and delicate eyes and ears) is called good manners. But the price of the sin must be paid, which is some brooch or ornament for hand or finger made of brass or iron, or nine or ten glass beads, or other like womanish toys or gauds; and they must likewise exercise care not to practise their wanton sports in presence of the parents, nor utter shameful, coarse or obscene words, nor pass the bounds of modesty and respect. How ill the parents brook any such offence and how weightily they view such faults may be judged from their grim, averted looks, their frowning brows, their scrupulously guarded ears, and precipitate retreat. For though they have much family affection and are passionately devoted to their children, they are filled with shame at such faults and shrink away from them.²⁶⁾ You would not easily find anywhere in the world parents, who without the least wish to make a profit out of them, have a deeper love and respect for their children. No money, no price will tempt them to sell them into slavery to strangers.²⁷⁾ Freemen despise the price of servitude.

24a) This statement does little credit to G.'s fund of commonsense. A more reasonable explanation of these leggings is given by Dapper (see above, p. 53).

25) i.e. AmaXhosa, a branch of the S.E. Bantu. The spelling ‘Magosi’ or ‘Magose’ figures in the various reports of the ‘Stavenisse’ crew.

26) The foregoing passage is obviously based on the following remarks of the ‘Stavenisse’ crew: ‘The unmarried daughters may indulge freely in love, nor is it any disgrace for them to sleep even with married men, although for this they must be paid, generally with three iron finger rings, or 10 or 12 coral beads, or some similar objects. The men are greatly offended if anybody should speak dishonourably or disrespectfully of their daughters, sisters or other female relatives, and show this by at once leaving the company’ (free translation of the original Dutch account, given in Godée-Molsbergen, op. cit., iii, 64). The verbal embroidery is all G.'s. - The custom to which reference is made here is probably that known to the AmaXhosa as ukumetsha, a form of unconsummated sexual intercourse practised by unmarried boys and girls (Soga, The Ama-Xosa, 113 ff.).

27) ‘It would be impossible to obtain slaves here, for they will not for anything in the world dispose of their children or any of their relations, having an outstanding love and regard for one another’ (Godée-Molsbergen, op. cit., 65).

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Si quae vulgò concipiens parit, haec omnibus despectui est, teneturque fetum, patrem nullum nisi populum habentem, alere: nec procum facile experitur, quam ubi proles propriâ industriâ victum et amictum sibi conquirere valet: adeo alieni sunt ab oneribus matrimonialibus, hocque casu nubens in potestatem mariti cum subole transit.

Virginem nubilem viro tempestivam à parentibus procus ex vicino, et nunquam eodem quo amasia nata vico oriundus, instituto probabili, quanto potest minime mercatur: sic enim moribus et longâ consuetudine cautum est, alienigenae non gentilitio eam despondere, incestus labi occurrendo, et illicito cum necessariis matrimonio vitando; forte etiam quo pacis, societatis et concordiae studia, et commercii nervi cum finitimis, hoc sacro foedere, jugali vinculo et matrimoniali capistro fidelius stringantur, et nuptiis alligati arctius coalescant: facta exinde juxta pacta conventa per amasium pensione, et armis, pecoribus, aliisque rebus, Barbaris in pretio, socero persolutis, pactam oppignoratamque filiam pater, eoque donato,^* defuncti filius sororem nuptui dat, illoque praemortuo consanguinitate proximus puellam in matrimonium (verius meâ sententiâ in servitutem) sine dote, sine paraphernis, nullisque paratibus, et solis panniculariis instructam collocat, pretiumque sibi totum trahit, sponsa laribus paternis nubit, et in amoris fideique conjugalis tesseram arrhamque articulum auricularis digiti scaevae abscindit, et ad eandem amputationem redit quotiescunque ad nova vota transit: quamobrem de salute mariti sollicita sit, ni malit manus digitis orbas videre.

* Probably for denato, dead.

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If any girl bears a child as the result of promiscuous intercourse, she becomes an object of contempt to all, and is bound to rear the babe, which has no father except the community. Nor does she readily find a suitor until the child by its own efforts is able to obtain food and clothing for itself; so averse are the men from taking on matrimonial burdens. When she does marry, she and the child pass into the power of the husband.²⁸⁾

When a girl becomes of marriageable age and ripe for a husband, a suitor from a neighbouring village, but never from the same one as his beloved - an excellent institution -purchases her from her parents at the lowest price for which he can get her. Through this old established custom it is secured that she is betrothed to a stranger and not to one of the same stock; the risk of incest is met, and the danger of illicit union within the tables of consanguinity avoided. The intention may also be that peace, harmony and concord, and the threads of friendly dealing may be drawn tighter by this sacred treaty, pledge of union, and matrimonial bond; that the marriage may be a link to bind them more closely to one another. When the bridegroom has then made payment in accordance with the terms agreed upon, and when arms, cattle and other things the natives value, have been presented to the father-in-law, then the father, or, if he be dead, the son of the deceased, or if he be dead, the male next of kin, gives the pledged and promised bride in marriage (more truly, in my opinion, in slavery) without dowry, without possessions, without preparations, equipped only with a few rags of clothing;²⁹⁾ the whole bride-price he keeps for himself, the bride marries into the family of the father (of the bridegroom), and as a token and gauge of her love and conjugal fidelity she cuts off a joint of the little finger of her left hand, and she resorts to a similar amputation as often as she passes to a new husband.³⁰⁾ Wherefore she does well to concern herself for her husband's health, should she have no taste to see her hands grow fingerless.

28) In the main this paragraph is equally true of the modem AmaXhosa.

29) The description up to this point applies to the AmaXhosa and not to the Hottentots. The ‘Stavenisse’ account, upon which G. has drawn, is more clearly expressed: ‘They will not marry any woman related to them by blood, no matter how remote the relationship may be; and to prevent such an unseemly union, they generally marry with their neighbours. The bridegroom purchases the bride from her parents as reasonably as he can, for a certain number of oxen, cows, iron, copper or beads; and having paid these he takes his wife home, accompanied by her friends and relatives, old and young, men and women’ (Molsbergen, op. cit., 64). The AmaXhosa still refrain from marrying a blood relative. The ‘purchase’ referred to is the payment of lobola cattle made by the bridegroom's family to the bride's people (see Soga, op. cit., chap. 13).

30) This is a Hottentot custom. Amputation of the finger joints is also found occasionally among the AmaXhosa, but, according to Soga (op. cit., 298-9), the custom takes its rise in children's ailments, and is due to the superstitious belief that if the first joint of the child's little finger (either hand) were not cut off, the child would waste away.

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Quandoque puerpera tribus quatuorve liberis jam praemortuis, orbitatem metuens, vitam superstiti infanti, ab averruncis diis deprecatura, per foramen in tugurioli tecto factum, desuper in humi jacentem nudum filiolum lympham ollâ ex proximo fonte, aut torrente haustam effundit, mox mediis mapalibus sedens, gnatum corpori applicat, eumque tanquam tum demum in lucem editum, suaviatur; hinc utriusque manus auriculari digito articulum deprecaneo sacrificio sibi abscindit, eosque inibi in terram defodit; ultimò hospites lautè prorsusque prolixe accipiuntur, seque liberaliter oblectant, saltatorio magistro papâ, omnibus in rebus, ut fere passim assolet, praesultante.

Procus ardentem castumque suum amasiae testaturus amorem, illius sinistram malam duobus suis dextrae digitis, pollice et indice, leni tactu comprimit, eosque osculatur. Pariter quidam trimulus Afer stipem à me petens, impetratam continuo matri, gaudio exiliens porrigit, quae sinistrâ eam avidè arripiens, primoribus duobus dextrae digitis laevam pusionis bucculam attingit, eosque labiis suis admotos, laeta me coram suaviata. Hinc una alterave ovicula, et ubi sponsi opes tantas expensas patiuntur, etiam bos harioli, fatidici aut magi manibus cadit; interim nova nupta alicui spinturnicio aut antistitae scientiâ moribusque caeteris conspectiori, veneriis tyrociniis, Junoniisque officiis imbuenda traditur. Haec eam quibus artibus sponsum demulceat, quomodo marito blandiatur, palpumque obtrudat, quibusque mysteriis conjugalia sacra constent, edocet; demum ei pedes felle caesae bestiae umbratica inungit, ejus folliculum tecto, sub quo haec sacra peraguntur, imponens: quo facto sacerdos, haruspex aut Flamen nudos neogamos, verendis dumtaxat tectis, à vertice summo ad imum calcem, pinguedine bestiae liquefactâ et igne temperatâ, eorundemque vestes unctor

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Sometimes a young mother who has already lost three or four children, and is afraid of being left quite childless, resorts to the following practice to secure the life of a surviving child from the protecting deities. Through a hole in the roof of the hut she pours water fetched in a pitcher from the neighbouring spring or river down onto her little son as he lies naked on the ground; then sitting in the middle of the hut she holds her child close to her body and kisses him as if he had just been born;³¹⁾ next she cuts off a joint from the little finger of each hand as a sacrifice of propitiation, and buries them there in the earth; finally guests are received in a luxurious and abundant style, and enjoy themselves lavishly, with a priestly dancing master, according to their almost universal habit, leading the way in everything.

The bridegroom, wishing to prove his burning and chaste passion for his beloved, gently pinches her left cheek with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, and then kisses these two fingers. I observed a similar action, when a native child of three years of age begged a copper of me, and forthwith, jumping with joy, gave it to his mother; for she eagerly snatched the coin with her left hand, but with the first two fingers of her right hand she touched the left cheek of the little lad, then put the fingers to her lips and fondly kissed them in my presence.

After the wedding³²⁾ a sheep or two, or, if the resources of the bridegroom will stand so great an expense, even an ox, is sacrificed by the hands of soothsayer, prophet or wizard; meantime the new bride is handed over to some ugly and experienced old crone, respected above the rest for learning and character, to be instructed in the ABC of love and the duties of maternity. From her she learns by what arts to allure her lord, to win upon her husband, and to soothe him down, and in what mysteries the marriage rites consist. Then within the shelter of the house she anoints the bride's feet with the gall of a slaughtered animal, placing the skin of the animal upon the roof under which these rites are performed. When this has been done, a priest, diviner, or flamen assumes the office of anointer and smears the newly-wedded pair, now naked except for their privates, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet with animal fat warmed and melted in the heat of the fire. Their garments are smeared in the same way. Then he sprinkles the skin of

31) I cannot decide whether G. is here referring to the Hottentots or the AmaXhosa; I have not come across any other mention of the rite he describes.

32) The following description apparently applies to the Hottentots only. It is one of the fullest of the earlier accounts and from such other evidence as is available appears to be substantially correct. Cf. the discussion of Hottentot marriage ceremonies in Schapera, op. cit., 244 ff.

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illinit: mox pulvisculo herbae Bochu ambos ipsorum pelles prospergit, quemadmodum olim Graecis Romanisque in more positum fuisse, farre molito et salito hostiam perspersam sacrare: denique utriusque collo praecordia sacrificii undulata contortaque (pari modo quo nostrates strophium, monilia, phalerasve subnectant) appendit: ultimo novis conjugibus mutuum amorem, castimoniam tori, illibitam fidem, sedulamque sobolis procreationem, reliquaque conjugalia munia seriò injungit: hinc vernaculae festivitatis pleni, diripiunt verruntque dapes adipatas, pedeque libero pulsantes thymelici terram, choreas agunt, viri cum viris tanquam in adronitide epulantur: feminae cum feminis gynaeceo gulum curant, et quisquis sexus tecto secretus: sola sponsa hoc geniali die (merito ei festivissimo) in posteram usque lucem jejunat, faucesque licet ardentissimas nullo liquore proluit, suspicor pro nimio gaudio, quod maritum nacta sit, corculumque maerorem versuatâ tristitia mentitur, cum laetitia exultans, uxorum ordini adscriptam: nocte sponsus solus cum sola in tecto, his sollennibus patrandis erecto, cubat: quid porró hic monstri alant agantque supparo Harpocratis, Lucinaeque velo obtecta manent, et per me licet aeternum maneant.

Nuptiis jam splendide celebratis, sponsus nuptam, utrorumque consanguineis, affinibus, paranymphis, amicisque stipatus, domum suam ducit, ubi repotiis et adjicialibus epulis, refectoque convivio, pro re nata excepti, quum perlitatum est hostiis, ne quid scenae desit, solenni inauguratione per cultrarium peracta, et confarreatis neogamis secunda quaevis adprecati, omnes ad solita munera alacres redeunt.

Parturienti mulieri consanguinitate ei junctae vicem obstetricis supplent. Hae octavo postquam infantem enixa die, subinde etiam tardius, puerperam pro anni tempore, hyberno tepidâ, aestivo frigida aquâ probè in tugurio, a vertice ad imam pedis plantam, remotis viris circumluunt, eamque tum demum foras ire patiuntur. Hine maritus

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both with a powder of the bochu shrub, just as in the old days we learn it was the practice of the Greeks and Romans to sprinkle a victim with milled and salted flour before sacrifice. Next the entrails of the slaughtered animal are hung in waved and twisted coils about the neck of each, much as our countrymen do with girdles, necklaces and ornaments for the breast. Finally the priest solemnly exhorts the young couple to mutual love, a chaste concern for the marriage bed, unsullied faith, an earnest zeal in the begetting of children, and all the other duties of wedlock.

After this, full of their native jollity, they fall upon their greasy banquet and clean it up, and musicians beating the earth with free foot begin the dance. Men banquet with men as if in special quarters; women feast with women in a place reserved for them.^32a) Each sex is under a separate roof. Only the bride on this auspicious day, which ought to be gayest for her above all, fasts till the morrow's dawn, nor though her throat be on fire will she taste of any drink. I suppose that she conceals her excessive joy at gaining a husband by an exhibition of affected gloom, while all the time exulting with joy at being enrolled among the wives. Then when night falls the husband sleeps alone with the bride in the house that has been built for the consummation of these rites. What prodigies they here devise and act remain concealed beneath the robe of Harpocrates and the veil of Lucina, and so far as concerns me may remain so for ever.

When the brilliant celebration of the nuptials is over, the bridegroom, accompanied by the kinsfolk and connections of both, by the bridesmen and his friends, leads the bride to his home. Here the drinking and feasting are resumed, and the festivities repeated, to welcome the pair as the occasion demands. Then when sacrifice has been made, so that nothing should be lacking to complete the scene, and when the solemn inauguration has been accomplished by the priest, after calling down all sorts of blessings on the newly-married pair, all promptly depart and resume their usual activities.

When a woman is in childbed, her relations perform the duties of the midwife. These women on the eighth day after the birth of the child, and sometimes even later, wash the young mother from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet thoroughly, before letting her go abroad. The men are turned out of the hut. The temperature of the

32a) This separation of the sexes at meals, and especially at feasts, is noticed by most writers on the early Hottentots.

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convocatos utriusque sexus propinquos et affines, tecto suo excipit, ubi quum consedere de nomine puero indendo primò uxorem suam percunctatur, eique ut plurimum assentitur, et post illum reliqui ad unum omnes, ingenioque puerperae applaudunt, suoque nomine appellatum infantem salutant, eique et parentibus felicia precati, genethliacis celebrandis diem terunt.

Notus mihi Barbarus Gauda dictus (qúo nomine Latinis Dama venit) quia ea die qua natus, matre ejus de cibo valdè sollicitâ, pater a venatione oneratus damis domum redibat, quorum carne esurientes convivas, nebridibusque recentem natum commodè tanquam fasciis excipiebat: hinc mater occasionem arripuit, filio Gaudae nomen imponendi. Alia media aestate pariens, quum Sol radiis suis terram pecusque maximè urit, adeò ut illa arescat, hocque ubera lacte siccata habeat, quamobrem puerpera, dum insuper mamillas suas exsiccatas videt, misericordia tacta, filiolae Bithathè nomen indidit, voce compositâ ex Bi quod lac, et thathè quod penuriam significat: appellatione valde opportunâ.

Sicubi patrifamilias res pecuaria ampla est iterum per sacrificulum victima cadit, cujus adipe infans cum matre ab ariolo vaporante circumliniuntur herbâque Bochu, pari quo dixi modo persperguntur, natalitiisque datis, maritus in unam alteramque hebdomadam se foras proripit, et nisi infans mammâ disjunctus aut lacte depulsus sit, vir cum muliere sua etiam toto anno non cubat, eaque gravida secubat: interim pellicibus aut vagae veneri litans, nam Afris his plures solent esse nuptae, quae singulae suis mapalibus separatim degunt, remque familiarem maritique jussa religiosè curant, eique certatim vultu verbisque blandiuntur, qui in binoctium trinoctiumque pro cujusque venere, gratia meritisque, mox hanc mox illam complectitur,

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water is according to the season of the year, hot in winter, cold in summer. Then the husband calls together his kith and kin of both sexes and receives them in his hut. When they are all seated the matter of a name for the child is broached. First he asks his wife; as a rule he expresses his agreement with her, and after him they all do likewise, praising the wit of the young mother. They then greet the child by his new name, pray for happiness for him and his parents, and pass the day in celebrating the birth.³³⁾

A certain native of my acquaintance has gotten the name of Gauda (in Latin dama, or buck)³⁴⁾ from the following circumstance. On the day on which he was born, his mother being very anxious about food, his father came home from the hunt laden with buck. The hungry guests were fed upon the flesh, the newborn babe was swaddled in the skins. Impressed by the timely relief, his mother improved the occasion by naming the boy Gauda. There is a tale of another woman who gave birth to a child in the middle of the summer, when the sun with its rays most scorches earth and cattle, so that the earth is parched and the udders of the cattle are empty of milk. The young mother, beholding her own dry breasts, was touched with pity, and gave to her daughter the name Bithathe, a word compounded of Bi, milk, and Thathe, lack. Surely a very happy choice of name.

Any father who is well stocked with cattle again offers sacrifice on the occasion of a birth; the mother and babe are smeared in the fat of the victim, which is warmed by the priest; and they are sprinkled with bochu in the manner described. After the birthday feast the husband takes himself off for a week or two, and until the infant has been taken from the breast or weaned, he does not sleep again with his wife even if it be for a whole year.³⁵⁾ He always sleeps away from her when she is with child. In the meantime he goes with concubines, paying homage to a roving love, for these natives generally have several wives, each living separately in her own hut, looking after the household and scrupulously obedient to her husband's commands. They vie with one another in flattering him with word and look, and he embraces now one, now another, for a space of two nights or three, according to the passion,

33) This description (together with the following paragraph) also applies to the Hottentots. It is of course by no means complete, but is correct in suggesting that the mother is secluded for some time after the birth, and that before she leaves her hut she is ceremonially cleansed (cf. Schapera, op. cit., 262 ff). There is no other record of a name-giving ceremony similar to that mentioned by G.

34) Wreede's Hottentot vocab. gives the word k'goeda=steenbok (Latin capricornus, not dama, which is given as the Latin equivalent of klipspringer=Hottentot k'gogëe): Kolb's vocab. (said to be based on that of G.), gives Hot. kãouda=steenbok. (Molsbergen, op. cit., i, 222, 227).

35) This statement, although applicable to most primitive peoples, seems in the present instance not to refer to the Hottentots, but to be derived from the account given by the ‘Stavenisse’ crew of the AmaXhosa. They say: ‘As soon as a woman is confined in childbed, her husband must stay away from the hut for 12 to 14 days, and not sleep with his wife as long as she is suckling the child, even if it be for a year. In the meantime he must console himself with his other wives’ (Molsbergen, op. cit. iii, 64).

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hacque vicissitudine varietateque voluptatum libidinibus novos stimulos quaerit ϕιλογύνης, immorigeram verò delumbat, et pravitate incorrigibilem repudiat.

Si masculum vitalem enixa, pater ei fordam dono dat, infantariaeque in mandatis, ut tam proprio quam bestiae lacte gnatum nutriat, et qua par est sollicitudine educat, et de accrescendo illius peculio curam gerit. Filiam parienti puerperae maritus eadem quae tollens filium injungit, sed bucculam quam alendae filiolae credidit, quum illa tantarum virium est, ut sponte sua, nulliusque ope ex uterculo sitim lacte, aquâ, buâ, celiâ aut cervisia sedare valet, cum vitulo protinus reliquo armento suo aggregat. Duram horridamque vitam agentibus sterilitatem parit, et vix adolesecentes, jam effoetae; hunc, ut opinio mea fert, gentis infrequentia.

Solem tanquam auctorem omnis boni venerantur, et magni faciunt, Lunam verò flocci, illum Sorè, hanc Cha vocant, eodemque vocabulo ipsis etiam merda venit, imputantes fortè illi omnes tam hominum quam pecudum morbos, caeli inclementiam, et cujusque generis calamitatum scaturiginem, quae dum plena est, feminae menstruorum purgationibus laborantes, illi aegritudinis hujus causam adscribunt; divaricatis cruribus erectae stantesque mingunt: viri flexis genibus, et clunibus prope talos depressis lotium reddunt, neuterque sexus crepitum ventre aut ructum edit: cujus vitii insolentiam Europaeis non injuriâ acerbè satis exprobrant. Et pretiosissima eorundem monilia, ex tenuissimo filo, acu texta, plurisque empta, quam maximi pecudum greges veneunt, nullum alium usum, commodum, utilitatemque habentia, praeterquam eum quem luxus fingit, venenato joco circumcisè explodunt, dum ipsi praecordiorum intestinorumque ex collo pendentium virtute et pinguedine mactati pecudis, nostratibus tantopere exsibilatis medicamentis, nonnunquam morbos depellunt, et averruncant.

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affection, or gratitude inspired by each. By this constant round of varied pleasures his appetite is freshly whetted. A disobedient wife he beats, one whose badness is beyond reform he puts away.

If a woman bear a live male, the father makes her a present of a cow that is with calf, and the mother is instructed to rear the boy on her own milk and that of the beast; and he brings him up with due care, and sees to it that his property increases. If a woman bear a daughter, the husband gives the same commands to her as when acknowledging a son; but when the child is strong enough to be able of its own accord and unaided to allay its thirst from a vessel with milk, water, or beer, he forthwith joins the cow which he gave for the nourishment of his daughter, together with its calf, to the rest of his herd.³⁶⁾ The women lead a hard, rough life which produces barrenness; they are scarcely adolescent before they are effete. This is in my judgment the reason for the smallness of the population.

They worship the sun and value it highly as the author of all good. The moon they despise. They call the sun sore, the moon cha, the latter being also their word for dung. It seems as if they imputed to the moon all diseases of men and beasts, the inclemency of the sky, and the prevalence of disasters of every kind.³⁷⁾ When the moon is full, women who are in their monthly courses blame it for their illness.

[The women stand up and part their legs to make water; the men bend their knees and almost touch their ankles with their hams. Neither sex breaks wind or belches. They express their disgust pretty sharply, and not without excuse, when they meet this fault in Europeans.³⁸⁾] They also condemn with curt and biting ridicule the precious necklaces of the Europeans, strung with a needle on a slender thread, bought for a greater price than the largest flocks of sheep, and having no other use, convenience, or value than that fictitious one that luxury provides. Yet they themselves sometimes banish or avert diseases by the power of entrails and intestines which they hang round their necks, and by the fat of slaughtered beasts, remedies greatly scoffed at by our countrymen.

36) These sentences also refer to the AmaXhosa: ‘If a woman bears a son, the father gives her a cow with its calf, whose offspring she must preserve for the benefit of the child; if she bears a daughter, she also receives a cow and a calf, but as soon as the child can drink out of the common milk vessels, the father takes the cattle back’ (Molsbergen, op. cit., iii. 65).

37) On the Hottentot beliefs relating to the sun and the moon, see above, pp. 138, 141. (The Naman use the terms sores for the sun, and // kxab for the moon; and so do the Koranna, so that G. is obviously referring to the Hottentots. He is wrong, however, in stating that the same word is used for ‘dung’ as for ‘moon.’ The former, in Nama, is xoub.)

38) The passages within square brackets are omitted by van Oordt in his Dutch translation of G.'s MS.

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A Judaeis circumcisionem, non praeputii, sed graviorem cuticulae ad imum ventrem usque resectae, mutuatos diceres eos, qui abdita regionis inhabitant: et ab his eos qui nobis propinqui, didicisse sinistri colei (honore dicto) excisionem: utrosque autem omnes ritus tam sacerdotales quam sacrificales, meram antiquitatem redolentes, ab Israëlitis, tot licet saeculorum intervallo obumbratos, traxisse, quis adeo lusciosus ut non videat?

Si quis nostrorum Barbarorum virilia sua popae ejusque secespitae, clunaculo, aut excisorio scalpello subjicere abnuens, mavult genitalia numero et mensura juxta naturae legem integra sibi conservare, quàm se doloribus excruciandum et quadantenus emasculandum praebcre, hunc omnis diminutionis inimicum, per opprobrium arietem vocant, eumque ab omni societate hereditateque excludentes, tanquam fulguritum fugiunt: alii incisurâ in scroto factâ particulam cutis testiculo dextro abscindunt, suoque loco repositum, et vulnere curato, sui juris ephebum faclunt.

Afri circa trigesimam secundam Australis Poli graduum inclinationem, et prope Lusitanis Natalem dictam, degentes, insigni pompa, et splendidiore ocliferio circumcisionis sacra celebrant: quippe in propatulo et patente campo, flaminiam plus mille passibus ab omni habitatione secretam, annuam exstruunt, quo totius regionis praetextati circumcidendi confluunt, omnibusque rite praeparatis pontifex seu hariolus penis cuticulam sub Jove frigido juvenibus deglubit, eamque pube lanugineque tenus abscindit, mox adipe plagam recutitis ungit, eique involucra cujusdam bulbi, à caepe tunicis non multum abludentibus, applicat, et dumtaxat percuratis hinc egredi, et tum demum cum parentibus, amicis, et puellabus loqui fas est, quorum cautio est, ne miserè excruciatis cibus aut potus, ceteraque necessaria, per flaminem subministranda in trimestre desit: transactâque hac indictiva duplicatae quadragenariae stationis morâ, quisque tripudians domum revertitur, adultus virorum numero accensetur, multoque amplexu et convivio, remotis mulieribus, exceptum, sui juris faciunt, excedentique jam ex ephebis, ad omnia uxorem ducere patiuntur.

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It must be supposed that it is from the Jews that the inhabitants of the remoter parts have learned the practice of circumcision,³⁸⁾ [although it is a more serious operation with the Africans, involving the cutting away not only of the prepuce but of the skin right up to the base of the abdomen. From the Jews also the natives near us must have acquired the practice of removing the left testicle, if you will excuse the mention of it.³⁹⁾ Indeed who is so blind as not to see that it is from the Israelites that both divisions of Hottentots have derived all their sacerdotal and sacrificial rites, which are redolent of the purest antiquity, though admittedly the lapse of so many centuries has obscured the connection.

Should any of our Hottentots refuse to subject his male members to the sacrificial blade or lancet or operating knife of the priest, preferring to preserve his genital organs perfect in the shape and number provided by nature rather than submit himself to agonies of pain and a partial castration, this enemy of all amputation is insulted by the name of ‘ram,’ shut out from all fellowship and inheritance, and shunned as if blasted by the lightning of heaven. The others make an incision in the scrotum, cut away a little skin from the right testicle, send the young man home(?), and when the wound is cured regard him as his own master.

The Africans who live at about the thirty-second parallel of the degrees of the South Pole and near to the place called Natal by the Portuguese celebrate the rite of circumcision with notable display and brilliant éclat. Every year they build, in a wide spreading plain, a sacred booth more than a mile away from every habitation. To it flock the youths of the whole district to be circumcised; and when all preparations have been duly made the priest or prophet, under the open sky, draws back the skin of the penis of each youth and cuts it away as far as the hair on the pubis. He then anoints the wound with fat, and applies to it a wrapping of some bulb with coats not very different from those of an onion. Only when they are cured may they leave the booth; only then are they permitted to talk with parents, friends, and girls, whose business it is to secure that food and drink and other necessaries, to be dealt out by the priest, should not fail the poor sufferers for the space of three months. When this compulsory inactivity of twice forty days has gone by, each returns dancing home, and being now adult is numbered among the men. The women are sent away, while he is welcomed with many embraces and much good cheer. He is now his own master, and having left the ranks of the youths is given full liberty to take a wife].⁴⁰⁾

38) The passages within square brackets are omitted by van Oordt in his Dutch translation of G.'s MS.

39) On the alleged semi-castration of the Hottentots, see above p. 142 n.

40) This paragraph is derived almost literally from the accounts of the ‘Stavenisse’ crew (see Molsbergen, op. cit., iii 64-65, 94). It is a highly condensed but substantially accurate description of a custom still found among the AmaXhosa.

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A majoribus suis hostias victimasque ferire aegris, neogamis, et sanciendis foederibus barbaros Agones didicisse, à vero non abhorret.

Ablutionum, purificationum, purgationum, et sponsaliorum, aliaque plenilunio genialiter festa celebrare, et hilaria haec, nuptialiumque fescennina, ferias, jocosque praeficarum naeniis funebribus justis, epulisque feralibus interpolare, variaque sacra, et foedera sacrare gentilitia unde habeant, tardum est dictu, ipsimetque ignorant.

Haec opinio apud Afros nostros obtinet, hacque superstitione infecta gens, ut credat neminem morbo, suo fato, aut sicca morte vitâ defungi, sed omnes veneficio interimi, nisi qui armis hostilibus cecidere: aut qui à feris dilacerati, vel ab anguibus morsi, aut ab aliis venenatis animalibus puncti occubuere. Hinc saepius, ubi aliquem ex aegritudine mors consequitur, fatidicum (verius falsidicum) ii, qui prope terram Natalem morantur, conveniunt, eumque quis donatum veneficio è medio sustulerit percunctantur, qui prout ei in mentem venit, et spes, dolor, ira aut invidia dictat, aliquem denunciat: et quemcumque hic Calchas crimine falso flctique flagitii insimulat, quamvis patrem, filium, aut fratrem, aliumve defuncto proximum, amicum, aut vicinum, hunc ilicò Magi dicto fidem habentes, sine ulla causae perquisitione, aut altiore indagine, inauditum, indefensum, ad supplicium rapiunt, poenamque trahentes, in publica via supinum nudumque, manibus pedibusque vinctis et in terram defossis, radiis solaribus, nocturno frigori, adstantium praetereuntiumque contumeliis ludibriisque fatigandum exponunt, illiusque ventri quandoque nidum formicarum rubentium imponunt, quae vivi viscera rodunt, ubi mille tortus modis, sub teterrimo cruciatu exspirat. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum!

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It is very probable that it is from their own ancestors the native priests learned the practice of slaughtering victims large and small in the case of sickness, marriage, and the ratifying of treaties.

It is difficult to say, and they themselves do not know, whence they got the custom of celebrating merrily under the full moon feasts of ablution, purification, purgation, betrothal, and others, and of varying these jollifications and the licensed holidays and sports of marriage festivals with regular funereal dirges of mourning women and banquets for the dead, and of performing various rites and covenants.

An opinion that obtains among our Africans,⁴¹⁾ a superstitious belief which infects the race, is that nobody departs this life by disease, by destiny, by a natural death, but they believe that all are taken off by poison, except those who fall at the hands of the enemy, or are torn by wild beasts, or bitten by snakes, or stung by some other poisonous animal. Consequently when someone dies after an illness it often happens, among those who live near Natal, that they consult a soothsayer (more properly a false-sayer) and ask him who removed the dead man from among them by poison. The witchdoctor then denounces somebody, just as it comes into his head, at the bidding of hope, annoyance, anger or jealousy. Whoever this Calchas accuses on a false charge of an imaginary crime, be he father, son, brother or other near relative, friend or neighbour of the deceased, him straightway, never doubting the witchdoctor's word, without examining into the case or making any further enquiry, unheard, undefended, they hale away to punishment, and, prolonging his torture, naked, on his back in the public road, with his hands and feet bound and buried in the earth, they expose him to the rays of the sun, to the chill of night, to the mockery and insults of spectators and passers-by, till he be worn out by them, and sometimes upon his belly they put a nest of red ants, which gnaw the flesh of the living man, when, after innumerable tortures he dies in hideous agony. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum!

41) This description of witchcraft and its punishment is again taken almost verbatim from the accounts given by the ‘Stavenisse’ crew of the AmaXhosa (cf. Molsbergen, op. cit., iii, 63). Condensed as it is even in the original, the description is on the whole very accurate. Soga (op. cit., 180) describes a form of punishment of sorcerers identical with that mentioned in the text, and gives additional details (omitted by G.) which are also mentioned in the ‘Stavenisse’ accounts.

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Miratusque saepius cum Catone, quomodo haruspex haruspicem absque risu intueri possit: stupendaque res quod viri, animo viriumque validi, manu strenui, et fenum in cornu, nec venam publicam habentes, impunè sibi ab improbis his nebulonibus, superbia, insolentia, ignorantia, arrogantiaque elatis, imponi patiantur: qui in leonem aliudve animal (mirabili metamorphosi si Diis placet!) sese versipelles transfigurare, tempestatem, pluviam, grandinem, ventos, tonitrua fulguraque subito ciere, siderum motus observare, futuraque praedicere, veraque se vaticinari, divinitus scire, turpi venditatione jactitant. Et ne nostrates horum insidiis injuriisque obnoxii forent, inter ipsos unanimi consensu convenerat, ut de veneno rogati regererent, Europaeis toxica planè ignota esse: qua arte harioli dolis laqueisque vafre eludentes obviamque euntes, tuti in Magosis vixere, nec quotidie cum Orco rationem ponendam habuere.

Validis viribus incurvare baculum, eique intendere chordam, eademque semper oberrare, adhaec gracili modulare avenâ, calamoque agresti ludere, terrestres maritimosque inflare tubulos auloedi mares cisalpini gnaviter sciunt: sed eorum feminae cantilenam patriumque carmen semper ferme idem sylvestri musâ, aliâque voce cantando, corium ollae superinductum et intentum, fascils lorisque obvinctum palmis pulsare, iisque alternis vicibus plaudere, concentu Europaeorum auribus ingrato, tympanistriae decussatis cruribus humi sedentes, mox oculis in coelum et lunam versus sublatis, mox iisdem in terram et ollam lacte plenam defixis, apprime suo ritu et incondito ingeminato clamore ululatuque, et musicè aetatem agere, norunt.

Interiora regionis Aethiopiae confinia frequentibus multisque habitantur pagis, quorum amoenitate indigenae detinentur, et advenae omnium rerum copia, terraeque ubertate alliciuntur. Quo A^o 1686 navis Stavenisse naufragi se recipientes, tanta comitate, fide et benevolentiâ a

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I have often wondered with Cato how soothsayer can look at soothsayer without laughing; and it is an amazing thing that men, strong in mind and body, active with their hands, dangerous fellows, and of no common quality, should tamely allow themselves to be imposed on by these sorry rascals, swollen with overweening pride and ignorant arrogance. For these shameless braggarts give out that they are wizards and can transform themselves into a lion or any other animal (a wonderful metamorphosis indeed); that they can in a moment summon storm, rain, hail, winds, thunder and lightning; and that they have supernatural knowledge and can foretell the future and prophesy truth. Our countrymen, in order to avoid entanglement in their wicked plots, had come to a unanimous agreement among themselves that if questioned about poison they would reply that Europeans are absolutely ignorant of such things. By this trick they cunningly escaped and countered the wiles and snares of the witchdoctors, and lived safely among the Magosi without the necessity of taking the next world into their daily calculations.

The male musicians among those on the hither side of the mountains shew great ingenuity in bending a stick with their great strength, stretching a string upon it, and fumbling continually upon the same; and they are skilled to breathe an air upon the oaten flute, sport upon the rustic reed, or wake the music of such pipes as land or sea affords. Their women with uncouth art and in a strange voice sing a native lay or descant that rarely varies, beating the while with their palms upon a skin stretched tightly over a pot and fastened with bands and thongs, or else clapping their hands together. The harmony is not pleasing to European ears, as these women sit cross-legged with their tom-toms on the ground, now raising their eyes towards heaven and the moon, now gazing upon the earth or upon a pot full of milk, while they exercise their native skill in the rude and incessant shouting and wailing which constitutes their manner of musical entertainment.⁴²⁾

In the interior of the country bordering on Ethiopia are many populous districts, the charm of which detains the native inhabitants, while strangers are allured by the abundance of all things and the richness of the soil. Thither in the year 1686 the shipwrecked crew of the Stavenisse betook themselves,⁴³⁾ and were received with such courtesy, good faith, and kindness by the natives,

42) On the musical instruments and entertainments of the Hottentots, so sketchily referred to by G., cf. Schapera, op cit., 400 ff; and among contemporary writers, Dapper (p. 77 above), Schreyer, op. cit., chap. xvi; and Kolb, 527 ff.

43) On the wreck of the ‘Stavenisse’ (Feb. 16, 1686), see above p. 166. As already mentioned, the accounts given by the survivors on reaching the Cape were transcribed for the official records by G. himself, and it is sufficiently evident from his text to what an extent he drew upon them.

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Barbaris xenodocho et agape, aut privato hospitio excepti, ut nonnulli Batavorum his delinimentis imbuti, et beneficiis benevolentiaeque significatione alligati, maluerint illic rerum suarum fortunam, et stabile stabulum figere, quam cum faselo episcopio, Patrum Societatis nostrae jussu eo amandato, ad suos redire: testantes palam se nunquam liberalius domi paternae tractatos, nec laribus maternis benigniori amplexu exceptos, nusquam majoribus blanditiis illecebrisque delinitos, quam in hospita hac terra: addentes fortibus omne solum natale, nec aliud ipsos votis ambire, quam illud, in quo fatis monstrantibus, et manifesto numine, cum maxime sedes quietas inveniunt: Belgium sibi fortuito arbitrioque parentum patriam obvenisse, adscititiam hanc mstinctu motuque proprio ipsos sibimet eligere: quibus dictis epibatas longum valere jubent, et solventibus vela, auram secundam, ventisque ferentibus rectum sulcum felicissimo cursu ducant, et tanquam viali lare in petitum portum ferantur optant: quantum conjectura perspicio, nunquam factum mutaturi, aut infectum optaturi, et hoc solo nomine culpandos vereor, ne festorum dierum et avitae religionis obliti, Barbarorumque sacris initiati, iisque famulantes neophyti, tandem à vero Numine et Christo quem professi, ejusque genuino cultu desciscant, adaeque ac Lusitanus quidam, qui A^o 1652 aerae Christianorum ex India veniens, illic naufragium passus, cujus navis tabulae, tormenta bellica, anchorae, plurima ejusdem armamenta in littore injuriis temporum, maris aestibus, vetustatique omnium confectrici resistentia adhuc cernuntur: qui circumcisus proselytus, cum indigena connubio junctus, ex qua liberos sustulit, et in re lauta cum suis, patriae linguae, et aviti in Deum O.M. cultus oblitus vivit: hinc liquet quanti Europaeos faciant, quibus non solum

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whether at the public table or in private homes, that several of the Dutch, touched by such grateful entertainment, and bound by the benefits they had received and the display of goodwill, resolved to hazard their fortune among them and there set up their rest, rather than return to their fellows on the vessel which, at the order of the Council of the Company, was sent thither to look for them.⁴⁴⁾ Thereby they openly testified that they had never in their father's house met more generous entertainment, nor been more kindly entreated at their mother's table, nor experienced anywhere more soft and winning ways than in this friendly land. They added thereto that the whole earth was the fatherland of brave men, and that they sought no other land for themselves than that in which, by the finger of fate and the manifest will of God, they had been led to the discovery of a supremely peaceful home. Holland, they said, had fallen to them as a fatherland by the accident of chance and the choice of their parents; this adopted land they had chosen for themselves at the prompting of their own will. Which said, they bid the voyagers a long farewell, praying that a favourable breeze might fill their sails, and that with a carrying wind on a straight course they might have as prosperous a voyage to the desired haven as if they were on the king's highway. And well assured am I that they would never repent their choice nor wish undone what was done. In one particular alone do I fear lest they should deserve blame, to wit, if they should forget their holy days and ancestral religion, and being initiate in the rites of the natives and submitting to them as converts, should at length fall away from the genuine worship of the true God and Christ which once they professed.

This was what happened to a certain Portuguese who, in the year of Our Lord 1652, on his way back from India, was wrecked in this place. Ship's planks, guns, anchors, and much gear are still to be seen upon the shore, defying the spite of the weather, the tides of the sea, and the tooth of time. But the man has become a convert and been circumcised; he has been joined in wedlock with a native woman and raised children by her; and he lives prosperously among his own, forgetful of his native language and the ancestral worship of the great and good God.⁴⁵⁾ Hence we can learn what store the natives set by Europeans, to whom they not only give their daughters in

44) This probably refers to the fact that when the ‘Centaurus,’ sent for that purpose from the Cape, picked up the party of survivors near the mouth of the Buffalo R., three of the latter could not be found, so it was believed that they preferred to remain with the natives and were therefore purposely keeping out of the way. The vessel accordingly set sail without them. There is no record of the magniloquent farewell with which G. credits them. (Theal, op. cit., ii, 298; Molsbergen, op. cit., iii, 90-91).

45) ‘In all the time of their stay in that country,’ said the survivors of the ‘Stavenisse,’ they found but one European, an old Portuguese, in the country of the Mapontes [Ama Mpondo]; he had been shipwrecked there about 40 years before, while returning from India. The wreck, built of teak, is still to be seen on the shore, and, as the Africans state, several brass and iron cannon are still to be found there. This Portuguese had been circumcized, and had a wife, children, cattle and land, and spoke only the African language, having forgotten everything, his God included.’ (Molsbergen, op. cit., iii, 67; Eng. trans. in Moodie, Record, 431).

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filias suas in matrimonium dant, sed et eos insuper variis muneribus, observantia et beneficiis sibi devinciunt, eorundemque dictis tanquam legi auscultant.

Sed heus! hic mihi neutiquam silentio praetereundus miserabilis puer, inter pauca fortunae exempla memorandus, ob tristia, et levi penicillo adumbranda, quae undique Guilielmum Chenut, vix duodecennem Gallum circumstitere fata, ingenuis parentibus in Aquitania genitum, honesto loco natum, et liberaliter educatum, institutumque, cui fortè obvenerat singularis exempli patruus, in Suprema curia Burdegalae Vibiscorum famâ, probitate et scientiâ clarus celeberque causidicus, qui recusans in sacros ritus Regis Galliarum Ludovici XIV jurare, A^o Virginei partus (ni fallor) 1684 omnibus ejus subditis Reformatam profitentibus Religionem obtrusos: doctrinae et instituti à majoribus suis ipsi traditae tenax, mavult natale solum patriosque relinquere extorris lares, quam sententiam suam de Dei cultu, à patribus acceptam, in gratiam quorundam cucullatorum de fidei mysteriis balbutientium, vel tantillum mutare: hinc protinus cum impedimentis conquirit navem, eamque omni apparatu et commeatu instructam collectis vasis, rutisque caesis receptis cum suis nepteque Guilielmo conscendit, et Garumnâ ventoque secundis Cantabricum ingreditur profugus mare, novas tutioresque aerumnis suis quaesiturus sedes, sed proh dolor! vana spe, eum subeuntem portum in insula Cerne, Lusitanus Praetor quaesitis coloribus et veteratoria arte, heu pietas! heu prisca fides! nil tale veritum, immeritumque carceri impingit. Guilielmus diro suorum casui illachrymans, diu quid fugiat quidque sequatur anceps, tandem animum per omnia versans, casu et quasi Numinis ductu instinctuque in quendam Anglum incidit, cujus opem implorat, qui malis Gallorum indolens, miseratusque sortis pueri, eum bono

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marriage, but bind them to themselves in addition by various gifts, by complaisance, and by benefits, and by obeying their word as law.

But here, alas! I am reminded of the unhappy youth, William Chenut, whose story cannot be passed over in silence, for there are few to match it in the annals of misfortune, by reason of the tragic destiny, here only to be sketched lightly, which overtook him in his twelfth year⁴⁶⁾. Born in Aquitaine in France, of parents of good family and in an honourable station, he received the training and education of a gentleman. Among his blessings was the possession of an uncle of singular goodness, a busy lawyer, distinguished in the Supreme Court of Bordeaux for his reputation, honesty and learning. This uncle refused to conform to the worship of the French king, Louis XIV, which, unless I am mistaken, was in the year 1684⁴⁷⁾ forced upon all his subjects who professed the Reformed religion. Adhering firmly to the teaching and practice handed down to him by his ancestors, he preferred to leave his native land and go as an exile from his father's house, rather than vary in aught from the opinion of the true worship of God, which he had received from his fathers, in deference to the babblings of some monks about the mysteries of the faith. He forthwith procured a ship, thoroughly equipped and provisioned it, and having collected his baggage and sold his estate went on board with his family and his nephew William. Down the Garonne sailed the exile with the wind behind him and out into the Cantabrian sea bound for a new home that would bring him relief from his troubles. But, alas for this disappointment, the hope proved vain; for as he sailed into harbour in the island of Cerne^*, the Portuguese governor, on a far-fetched charge and with practised cunning (alas for the piety, alas for the honour of the good old days!), clapped him into prison, though he little expected any such thing and as little deserved it.

William, weeping bitterly over the mischance that had overtaken his people, for long remained doubtful what course to pursue. At length, turning everything over and over in his mind, he met by chance, or may we not say by the guidance of divine providence, with a certain Englishman whose help he begged. Indignant at the misdeeds of the French, and pitying the boy's lot, his new friend bid him be of good cheer, put him on his ship which

46) He was one of the men picked up by the ‘Centaurus’ on Feb. 9, 1688. The log book of that vessel reports of him that he ‘had embarked at Madeira in an English Company's ship, called the Boede, and that, (near this place), he had been ordered into the boat, with a pilot and other men, to look for a haven, and having lost the ship had been driven hither, and that while some of the crew were about to cook their victuals in a tent raised on the beach, the others having gone for firewood and water, they were discovered by a woman and soon after overpowered by the Caffers, who killed three men, one of whom was the pilot, the four others escaped, but to this day the boy found himself alone’ (Molsbergen, op. cit., 87-90; Eng. trans. in Moodie, op cit., 425). The much fuller details given by G. were no doubt obtained at first hand from the boy himself after the latter was brought to the Cape; but it should be noted that G's acount of the attack by the natives (see below) does not correspond fully with that just quoted.

47) Sic. The Edict of Nantes was revoked in October, 1685.

* Van Oordt thinks Madeira may be meant. I have no better suggestion. B.F.

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animo esse jubet, navique sua, non procul inde in anchoris stante exceptum, benigneque habitum in Americam Novamque Anglicam commodum defert. Unde Indiam Orientalem versus vela facturus, socium itineris periculorumque suorum, imò mortis testem futurum Guilielmum avehendum assumit, cumque littus orientale Africae adnavigans, mari tranquillo, caeloque sereno, conspectu jucundissimae amoenissimaeque plagae invitatus in scapham, cupidus eam propius visendi, descendit: escendentem in terram inexploratam cum sociis, Barbari ex insidiis latebrisque inermibus assiliunt incautosque trucidant, accurrunt illico feminae gratulaturae suis de tragico patrato scelere, quae dum oculos dira caede Britannorum pascuntur, in tempore vident Guilielmum gravem vulneribus suo suorumque cruori immersum nondum expirasse. Miseratione permotae, bene animatae et paratae, sublatum, in proximum tectum cupidissime deferunt, vulnera abstersa alligant, fomenta corpori admovent, probèque litum, cibo potuque reficiunt, sedulaque opera praestant, ne quid advenae desit, quem ipse Regulus Tokhe appellatus, quattuor filiis vicinis omnibus, etiam remotioribus Barbaris, et nonnullis custodibus stipatus visit, alloquioque suo dignatur, et discedens saucium secum habitatum veniat, civiliter invitat, verbisque his munera quaedam auctarii loco adjicit: cujus exemplo excitati adstantes Gallum, jam omnibus acceptissimum, brevi pecurosum opulentumque et in calamitate felicem reddunt, dum hic bovem, ille vaccam, iste juvenculam, alius vitulum ei dono dat, et quisquis certatim munuscula approbo infelicique puero plena manu largitur: O meritò dilecte Deo! Cressaque ne careat Dies nota!

Tandem persanatus et athleticè valens cum hospitis sui filio deambulatum foras procedit, qui fortè adolescentiae fervore, invidiâ, aut alio lubricae aetatis vitio raptus, nil tale merentis inopinatò vulnere gemino coxam telo transfodit; vide, sis, volumina sortis humanae et ut miserum Fortuna tenaciter urguet, Fatique illuctabilis tenor infelicem

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was riding at anchor near by, and, with kindly entertainment, conveyed him to New England in America. His intention was to voyage thence to the East Indies, and he again took William on board, to be the companion of his travels and dangers, and, as it turned out, the witness of his death. For as they sailed along the east coast of Africa, on a calm sea under a clear sky, lured by the sight of that smiling and pleasant land and desiring a nearer view of it, the captain with some members of his company got into the ship's boat. But as they disembarked upon this unknown shore, the natives sprang out of ambush, fell upon them and cut them down unarmed and off their guard. Then the women ran up to congratulate the men upon the dreadful scene they had enacted, and as they feasted their eyes upon the slaughtered bodies of the Englishmen, in due course they spied William, seriously wounded and bathed in his own blood and that of his friends, but not yet dead. Touched with pity at the sight, and being now well disposed to help him, they raised him up, bore him eagerly to the nearest roof, washed his wounds, poulticed him and anointed him, and restored him with food and drink. They spared no pains to see that the stranger should lack for naught. Even the king himself, whose name was Tokhe⁴⁸⁾, came with his four sons, all his neighbours, some natives also from distant parts, and a company of guards to visit the sick man, and condescended to hold converse with him; and at his departure, politely entreated him that he would come and live with him, and not only bespoke him thus civilly but gave him gifts to boot. Roused by this example all those that stood by followed suit. The Frenchman was now in great favour with all, and, one giving him an ox and another a cow, this man a heifer and that a bull-calf, in a trice they made him rich in cattle and goods and as happy as he could be in his misfortune, as they vied with one another, running up full-handed, to bestow their gifts on the youth they now pitied and loved. O man deservedly beloved of God! Let this day not lack its white mark.

He was at length cured and restored to vigorous health. Then one day when he was going a walk with the son of his host, the latter carried away by youthful passion, either jealousy or some other weakness incidental to this treacherous period of life, suddenly, without the least provocation, stabbed him twice with his spear in the hip. Consider, reader, the revolutions of human destiny, and

48) The great chief of the AmaXhosa about this time was named Togu (Soga, The Ama-Xosa, 19), which may possibly be identified with this Tokhe. Togu died approximately 1686.

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persequatur! Nullo titulo factum enorme excusantem, aetate, viribus, staturâ armisque longè sibi praestantem, solo animo superior male feriatum ex vulnere validus, non dubitanter converrit, qui probè fugillatus lumbisque fuste contusis domum se proripit, querelasque ad patrem calumniator defert, insontemque criminatur. Hic totus teres atque rotundus, justitiaeque tenax premit altum corde suum filiique dolorem, nihil tamen statuendum censet, nisi alterâ parte auditâ. Nostras saucius claudusque attrepidat. Inquirenti hospiti, rem omnem articulatim, libera bile exponit: qui convictum criminis falsique filium in officio continendum, primò severissimis verbis, mox acrioribus verberibus, judex nostratibus aemulandus corrigit, docetque neminem confictis criminibus premendum nec suum flagitium aliis objectandum, horrenda haec esse peccata, iisque omnem humanam consocietatem dissolvi, additque alteri non faciendum quod sibi factum nolit. Hospitii jura sarta tecta servanda: adoptatitium hunc filium fraterno amore, omnibus officiis, studio, humanitate benevolentiaque sibi complectendum discat, sciatque vulnera ad mensuram non infligi, et potuisse ejus vitio et culpa innoxium necari advenam. O! Cedro digna; quibus dictis in mutuam gratiam reductos dimittit, Barbarus nomine, sed re multis Christianis humanior, Sotope nomen ferens, quibusdam etiam Sesse dictus.

Noster jam secundo consanescens belle se habet, caritate cum primis in parentes, cognatosque, et dulcedine natalis soli ductus, libertatisque rerumque desiderio, quas homines vel vita aestimant, vel morte redimunt, trahitur, solâque spe revisendae aliquando patriae se sustentat, linguaeque barbarorum peritus, multa de origine, legibus, moribusque hujus gentis, eamque Magoses appellari, aliaque scitu digna,

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how persistently Fortune persecutes the wretched, how the irresistible urge of Fate oppresses the hapless. When the perpetrator of this atrocious deed offered no excuse, William revenged himself upon him. Superior only in courage, and with a strength born of his wound, he, without a moment's hesitation, tackled his wanton assailant, who was older, stronger, taller and better armed; he sent him to the right about and cudgelled him black and blue, whereupon the latter ran helter skelter to his father with a pack of lies to lodge a complaint against the innocent victim of his attack. The father, a flawless character and staunch upholder of justice, although he felt deeply the injury to himself and his son, yet decided that nothing should be done without hearing the other side. Then the European stumbled in wounded and limping, and in reply to the enquiries of his host he gave a full and free description of the whole affair. The king then, finding his son guilty of assault and perjury, ordered him to be detained in court, and gave him first a severe reprimand and then a severe thrashing. As a judge he might serve as a model to our countrymen; for he laid it down that nobody should be convicted on a false charge, that it is wrong to shift the blame for one's misdeeds on to the shoulders of another, for these are dreadful sins which break up the whole framework of human society. ‘Do not do to others,’ he said, ‘what you would not they should do to you. Keep the laws of hospitality inviolate. Learn to regard this adopted son of mine with a brotherly love, and treat him with all duty, zeal, kindness and goodwill; and realise that you have been lightly punished, for you might through your wickedness and folly have killed an innocent stranger.’ O memorable words! When they had been spoken, he dismissed the pair, now restored to amity, he, who was in name a savage but in fact more humane than many Christians. His name was Sotope; by some he was called also Sesse.⁴⁹⁾

Our hero now had a second recovery and was again in fine trim. But he began to be drawn by love for parents and relations, by the remembered charm of his native land, and by the desire for liberty and all those things which men value as much as life and will purchase with their death. At length he lived only in the hope of revisiting his fatherland. Being now skilled in the native tongue he learned much of their origin, laws, and customs, and, together with much else worth knowing, that they were

49) He was probably a local headman, as his name does not occur in the extensive lists of Xhosa chiefs recorded by Soga (The S.E. Bantu, passim).

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discit, et huic quattuor populos confines esse, videlicet Matimbos, Embos, Mapontes, et Makriggas, hosque novissimos bellicosissimos, raptuque vivere, tandem auditione et fama accipit, varios Europaeos (quos Melunke vocant) non procul inde quaquaversum dispersos degere, hos protinus invisit, qui pari patriae amore flagrantes, facilè de suscipiendo itinere in hoc Promontorium conveniunt, statimque condicunt locum, definiuntque diem coëundi: dictum, factum: compactò hi panem, illi farinam, isti carnem tam recentem, quam fumo induratam aut sale conspersam, aliaque salsamenta et cibaria, reliqua arma, similiaque viae auxilia conquirunt, et in commune convasant, et quisque hospitis sui aedes, quanquam optimè de eo meriti compilat, pari modo quo Israëlitae Aegyptios mare Erythraeum vadentes despoliant: quid moliantur, quidque machinentur advenae, barbaris facile subdolet, qui obvii et expositi, quoscunque periculi instantis certiores faciunt, blandèque suadent ineptire desinant, ostendentes vix caelo venien(ti)bus avibus viam quam meditantur stolidi[s] paten(tem), intuta esse omnia et insessa à ferocissima gente, latrociniis addictâ: sed nihil his moti, tanquam addicti et consecrati destinatâ morte itineri se accingunt: primo caeca viâ ad nos penetrare conantur: sed inexsuperabilia juga montium, praealtis asperibusque silvis inaccessa, latronibusque obsessa vetant, qui coorti armis, numero viribusque longe superiores, obsistentes trucidant, ast arma, commeatum, tegumentaque abjicientibus moderati, nudis

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called Magosi; also that four peoples were their neighbours, the Matimbi, Embi, Mapontes and Makriggas, the last being very warlike and living on plunder.⁵⁰⁾ Finally the report reached him that various Europeans (whom they call Melunke) lived not far off scattered here and there over the country. These he promply visited, and finding them burning with an equal love of their fatherland, he easily agreed with them about a joint effort to return to this Cape. They appointed a place, and fixed a day for meeting. The plan was no sooner made than acted on. As arranged some brought bread, others flour, others meat, either fresh or smoked and salted. They collected also other foods, salt and fresh, and arms, and other requirements for the way, and put them in the common store. Each man also robbed the dwelling of his host, although they had been so kindly treated, even as the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians when crossing the Red Sea.

The natives easily got wind of their plotting and planning, and openly opposed them, informing them all of their imminent danger, using their best endeavours to dissuade them from their folly, pointing out to them that the journey they intended was scarcely feasible for birds, that the whole route was unsafe and beset by a blood-thirsty people addicted to brigandage. Nothing daunted by these warnings, like dedicated and devoted men with danger in store for them, they girded themselves for the journey. At first they essayed to get through to us by a secret way, but were prevented by impassable mountain ranges, difficult of approach by reason of forests of tall and prickly trees. The mountains were also beset by robbers, who being far superior in arms, numbers, and strength, barred the way against them and were for slaughtering them; but when they cast away their arms, food and clothing, the brigands spared their lives and suffered them to retrace their steps. Returning home again undismayed by this disaster, they collected much property of their hosts, and being again equipped with everything attempted a second journey, this time through winding valleys. Here they encountered thick, entangling brush, and being assailed on all sides by brigands, again lost all their possessions and were compelled to return to their quarters. Yet even now they did not despair. Again they contrived to equip themselves, and decided to effect a passage close to the sea; again impassable rocks and a warlike people accustomed to live by plunder thwarted them. Whether this people, who now for the third time robbed them of their all, was the same as met them on their former attempts, is not certain. But this much at least is clear that the Africans are so kindly and easy to deal with that when their guests again came

50) Magosi = AmaXhosa; Matimbi = AmaThembu (Tembus); Embi = abaMbo (?); Mapontes = amaMpondo; Makriggas = Ama Riligwa = Hottentots (Soga, S.E. Bantu, 110); Melunke = abeLungu, white people.

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vitam concedunt, iterque relegere patiuntur: qui domum revertentes, clade hac nihil deterriti, multa de rebus hospitum suorum asportantes, omnibusque rebus rursum instructi, iter per valles et ambages iteratò tentant, ubi condensa impeditissimaque nemora, et assilientes undiquaque praedones spoliatos diversiola sua repetere cogunt. Ast ne nunc quidem animum despondentes, apparatu sibi de integro prospiciunt, statuuntque juxta mare iter conficere, sed rupes inviae in littore, et bellicosissima gens, rapto vivere assueta restitere: an illa eadem, quae nostris tertium, nihil de bonis suis reliqui fecit, non constat: illud sanè liquet Afros commercio faciles indulgentissimosque, diversitores suos domum reversos omnibusque rebus exutos, ne verbo quidem inclementiore appellasse, aut vultu contumelioso insequutos, mansuetudine vix primitivae Ecclesiae Christianis notâ: sed vae dedecus! in nobis patitur Christus opprobrium, in nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum! dum nomine tenus Christiani exscensu in hanc plagam nonnunquam è navibus facto, miseros incolas blanditiis, et crepundiorum donis pellectos, aut trucidant, aut vinctos plagiarii, in suas naves, alibi magno distrahendos, contrudunt: et quid mirum! si hoc detestabili et infando lucro inescati redeuntes Christiani ab Afris, cautius mercari doctis, jure talionis sontes cum insontibus caedantur.

Hinc inferre libet, quod nulla gens sit adeò effera, quae illaesa in innoxium saeviat hominem, eumque ignotum, nudum et inermen necare velit: testorque me vidisse ἂνδροποϕαγον (sic) malis meis illachrymantem, commilitonibus quibusdam meis, mihi in calamitate innocenti, inauditâ crudelitate insultantibus. Manus de tabula.

Novissimè famâ accipiunt gentem, Promontorio nostro viciniorem, quotannis catervatim in Magosis (sic vocata regio in qua naufragi nostrates cum maxime hospitantur) tanquam ad mercatum permutandis mercibus confluere: occasio arridet, eamque quoquomodo arripiendam, nilque intentatum relinquendum, censent nostri: qui ubi solito foro institores, non procul illinc adventasse accipiunt, quosdam ex suis exploratum ablegant, iisque in mandatis dant, Afros hos nullâ interpositâ morâ conveniant, eorum animos explorent petantque, sibi liceat ipsorum ductu et auspiciis in Promontorium nostrum pervenire. Annuunt mercatores: nostri ad vasa laeti conclamant, ast itineri accinctis meticulosae resistunt barbarae, quae animo à nostratibus abalienato, eos sibi comites itineris, longè accersito colore fictaque specie recusant, maritis blandâ nimis indulgentiâ, erubescendo deformique obsequio, uxorum severitati assentantibus.

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back stripped of all they had, they did not address one word of reproach to them or cast at them the least resentful look, thereby exhibiting a charity scarcely known even to the Christians of the primitive church. But, oh, the shame of it! it is by us dishonour is cast upon the name of Christ, by us the law of Christ is made a thing accursed. Christians only in name, ever and anon there disembark upon these shores, men who deceive the natives with soft words and the gift of a few trifles, and then either slaughter them or kidnap them for the slave trade, bind them, thrust them aboard ship and sell them in strange lands at a great price. What wonder then that the Christians, when they return again tempted by this loathsome and unspeakable traffic, find that the natives have become more particular in their dealings, and retaliate by slaying the innocent with the guilty.

Hence it may be inferred that no race is so savage as, unprovoked, to offer violence to an innocent man, or wish to slaughter a stranger, naked and unarmed. And I bear witness that I have seen a cannibal shedding tears at my misfortunes, while companions of mine, with unheard of cruelty, jeered at me in a disaster I had done nothing to deserve. But why paint the lily!

Lastly they got rumour of a race, living near our Cape, who every year came in companies among the Magosi (this is the name of the people of the district in which our shipwrecked fellow-Europeans were principally entertained) as if on a trading expedition for the exchange of goods. The chance was an attractive one; our men decided that it should by all means be seized, and that nothing should be left untried. Accordingly when they learned that the traders had arrived at their usual market place, which was not far distant, they detailed some of their men to make enquiries, and instructed them to get in touch with these natives without delay, to learn the state of their minds, and request permission to journey to our Cape under their guidance and auspices. The traders agreed. Our men then joyfully called to one another to collect their baggage. But when they were ready for the road, the native women became fearful and opposed the project; they distrusted our men and refused to have them as companions of their journey, alleging far-fetched excuses and inventing lying pleas. The over-indulgent husbands, with a base compliance of which they should have been ashamed, yielded to the harsh resolution of their wives.

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Jam Europaei deplorato exitu despondent animum, eumque agriculturae et rei pecuariae bona fide applicandum, et revisendae patriae omnem spem decollatam, hicque solo natali extorribus moriendum statuunt. Solus Isbrandus Hogesaad, primarius navis Stavenisse olim nauclerus, naviculariae peritissimus, concilio acer, manuque fortis, et ad omnia egregius mihi nominandus occurrit, qui praeter expectationem omnium aliam aggrediendam viam, marique tentandum iter hortatur, monstratque intra annum quattuor Europaeas in isto littore naves pari fato ejectas, earundemque tabulas, caeteraque armamenta extruendae navi sufficientia ad manum, casuque oblata, in sapientiam vertenda esse, et nemora proceris caeduisque arboribus plena: Portum Lusitanis Natalem dictum (quia die natalitia Jesus Christi duobus abhinc seculis ab ipsis detectus) non procul inde tutum, omniaque votis prona; adhaec in expedito esse Afrorum sedulam, tenuique mercede conductam operam, eamque non defuturam docet, multasque rationes perveniendi ad exitum sibi propositum profert: in quam sententiam omnes pedibus manibusque transeunt, grandique doloris ingenio, miseris venit solertia rebus, consiliumque exordiuntur: ex obicibus ostiorum quae in foris sunt, et per quae in carinam descenditur, serras, et ex sacra anchora incudem conflant: vela, rudentes, funes, secures, malleos, dolabras, clavos, dolia, malos, reliquaque

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At length the Europeans despaired of a way out and lost heart.⁵¹⁾ They made up their minds to apply themselves in good earnest to tillage and cattle-raising, convinced that every hope of regaining their native land had been knocked on the head, and that they would have to die in exile. Only Isbrand Hogesaad, formerly the captain of the Stavenisse, a skilled seaman, bold in counsel and vigorous in action, and an outstanding man all round, claims the tribute of my mention. He surprised everybody by urging them to try another way. ‘Let us attempt the sea’, he cried. ‘Within a year four European ships have been cast upon this shore. With their timbers and the rest of their gear we have materials at hand for the construction of a ship. What chance has offered must be made to serve the ends of wisdom. The woods also are full of lofty trees ready for the axe. The harbour which the Portuguese call Natal (because they discovered it two centuries ago on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ) offers a safe refuge not far from here. Everything favours our hopes.’ He pointed out also that they could avail themselves, for a very small return, of the zealous aid of the Hottentots, who would not fail them; and he advanced many plans by which they could reach the goal of their endeavour.⁵²⁾

They all came over to his way of thinking. Their sufferings sharpened their wits, they developed inventiveness in their sad plight, and began the execution of their plan. From the iron bars of the doors in the gangways, and the doors that gave a passage down into the hold of the ship, they managed to make saws. The anchor was turned into an anvil. Sails, cables, ropes, axes, mallets, picks, nails, jars, masts, and all the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of ships that have been dashed against the

51) G.'s account, as given above, is not in agreement with the available records. From the latter it appears that when the ‘Stavenisse’ was wrecked 47 of her crew set out overland towards the Cape. They passed through various Bantu tribes, who treated them well, but also came across some bands of Bushmen, who stripped and robbed them of all they had. ‘They were naked when they reached the country of the AmaXhosa, where they were received with great compassion and were supplied with food and shelter. Five of them had perished before that time. After resting awhile with the AmaXhosa, they all wished to proceed on their journey westward, but some of them were induced not to do so by being informed that the next people were Bushmen, who would certainly murder them. Twelve of the boldest, however, made the attempt, and report had been received that they had all been killed. Of the 47 men who had left the wreck of the “Stavenisse” to travel southward, 17 were dead; 21 were rescued [by the Centaurus], and the fate of the remaining 9 was unknown, but it was supposed that they were still living among the natives in different parts of the country’ (Theal, ii, 302-3; Molsbergen, iii, 92-4; Moodie, 426-7). Many of the details given by G. were either obtained orally from the survivors, or are fictitious.

52) The credit for building this vessel really belongs to John Kingston, who with some others had been wrecked in the ketch Good Hope at Port Natal. The men who remained behind with the wreck of the Stavenisse were found by one of these Englishmen and guided to Port Natal, where under the guidance of Kingston they all set to work upon the Good Hope and completely rebuilt her, naming the new vessel Centaurus, and after purchasing provisions from the local natives they set sail for the Cape on Feb. 17, 1687, reaching it on March 1st. G. is quite wrong in stating that the vessel was built by the party which Chenut had joined. The latter made no attempt at all to build a boat of their own, and in fact were rescued in Feb. 1688 by the Centaurus itself, which had been bought from its makers and sent back purposely to look for the remaining survivors. (Theal, ii, 292 pp; Molsbergen and Moodie, loci. cit.)

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allisarum navium ejectamenta, ferramenta, instrumenta, et quascunque naufragiorum tristes reliquias corradunt, et in casis quas sibi omnique apparatui et commeatui excipiendo construxere, multa barbarorum opera deponunt: fervet opus sub Isbrando totius negotii curatore, machinamque in aquam deducunt, tanta arte, velocitate ac felicitate elaboratam, ut divina manu arbores in Celocem conversae viderentur, eamque cibaria annona, omnique penu ex proximis vicis instructam conscendunt, et commeatum, quem navis non capit, eum tecto relinquunt, triticum verò Africanum, milio assimile, de quo supra mentionem injeci, in dolia contrusum, eo quae dixi modo, in terra defodiunt. Imo gregem viginti et amplius decumanorum boum, aperto campo pascere sinunt: quae omnia Argonautae nostri, anno converso, ex mandato Patrum Conscriptorum Societatis nostrae, eò liburnicâ delati, ponderi, numero, et mensura integra, et illaesa, tanquam S. Sancta, et numini alicui dicata, spectatiori quam Attica fide, intacta invenerunt. Digna quae marmore caedantur!

Guilielmus noster ne ad aliena pabula, tanquam immunis fucus sedeat, rem culinariam lixa curat: interim comites forti animo anchoram tollunt, vela pandunt, altum tenent, oramque legunt, quod Barbara, proficiscentem Anglum quendam, sexum egressa in litus usque lachrymans lugubri ejulatu prosquitur, immisericordi anniculum patri (cui cum corpore animum dederat) Iulum, quem ex eo pepererat, palmasque ad caelum, inter advolventium undarum impetum, dirasque imprecationes ingrato hospiti factas, gemitu, querelisque confecta tollit, dum Britannus tanquam Marpesia cautes firmus, institutum iter persequitur. Quod nostri vento marisque fluxu semper secundis, tertiâ decimâ (ni fallor) perficiunt die, adeo ut nubem non navem conscendisse viderentur, portumque nostrum sani salvique barbarico indumento subeunt, quod exscendentes in continentem cum patrito exultantes commutant, casusque suos popularibus diu desiderati exponunt, et Gulielmus Europaeo cuidam obvius, sordibus et squalore licet obsitus,

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shore, tools, instruments, and every kind of sad relic of shipwreck they gather together and store, with the help of many natives, in the huts which they built to receive themselves, and all their equipment and supplies. The work went busily on under Isbrand who superintended the whole affair, and they launched their vessel in the sea, contrived so skilfully, quickly, and successfully, that it would seem they must have had divine aid in transforming the trees into a cutter. When they had loaded the ship with supplies and provisions of every sort from the neighbouring villages, they embarked. Such of their stores as the ship could not hold they left in their shelter; but the African wheat, that resembles millet, of which I spoke above, they packed in jars in the way I described and buried in the earth. They even left a herd of twenty or more fine oxen grazing on the open plain. A year later our Argonauts were conveyed in a galley to the same place by the order of the Council of our Company, and they found all that they had left behind uninjured and perfect in weight, number and size, as if sacrosanct or dedicated to some deity.⁵³⁾ Their possessions could not have been more scrupulously respected by the proverbial Attic good faith. The story ought to be cut in marble!

William, in order not to sit an idle drone at another's feast, turned kitchen-boy and helped with the cooking. Meantime his companions boldly weighed anchor, spread sail, and having gained the high sea, coasted along the shore. As one of the Englishmen set off, a native woman, defying the restrictions of her sex, followed him right down to the shore with piteous tears and lamentations, holding up to the unrelenting father (to whom she had given her heart along with her body) a little one-year-old Iulus, his son; then she raised her arms to heaven, and standing in the rush of the waves, called down curses on the head of the faithless stranger until exhausted with cries and groans. All the time the Englishman held upon his adopted course, firm as a Marpesian rock.⁵⁴⁾

Favoured by wind and wave our men accomplished their voyage, unless I am mistaken, on the thirteenth day. It would seem that they had embarked on a cloud instead of a ship. They sailed into harbour safe and sound, and, disembarking, joyfully exchanged the savage garments in which they were arrayed for European dress, and poured the varied story of their long absence into the ears of their fellows. As for William, he met a certain European and

53) This refers probably to the galiot Noord, which was sent in October 1688 on another search expedition similar to that of the Centaurus. At Port Natal it picked up a few more survivors of the Stavenisse who had in the meantime found their way there. No mention is made of the cattle which G. says had been left behind. (Molsbergen, iii, 123 ff., esp. pp. 153 ff; Moodie, 441).

54) There is no mention of this incident in the available records.

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ab illo invenitur, ejusque ope, tum forte apud Frisiorum Principem, quidam interioris admissionis et gratiâ florens domesticus, fraternae sortis certior factus. Hic rem omnem Patribus Societatis nostrae aperit, qui miserati juvenis vicem, extemplò Praefecto Promontorii Senatuique in mandatis dant, eum terra marique et quacunque perquirant via, et opere maximo operam dent, ut latebricolam indicatum, primâ occasione oblatâ, ipsorum nave depositum et honorifice habitum in Belgium et ad suos dimittant, quos tandem post tot discrimina rerum fortior meliorque adolescens Deo T.O.M. gratus votivam suspendens tabulam, exoptatissimus revisit, voluntatemque de eo bene merito, literis grati animi testibus, abundè remensus.

Haec in exortiva Africae plaga acta sunt, et ne occiduos hujus orae incolas sua laude fraudem, paucula etiam de illis levi penicillo, à capite accersita, summaque tantum secutus fastigia rerum attingam, quo tradam qualiscunque inter Barbaros maximè inconditos, et agreste hoc hominum genus, possit esse virtus.

Patrum C. Societatis nostrae mandato, navis aurea Argo, vulgo de Goude Buys, IV nonas Majas MDCLXXXXIII Χριστωγονίας e Portu Texel mare subit, et per oceanum Caledonium rectà pergens, Antonio Baanman Enkhusá Batavo navis Praefecto, et Jacobo Lepi rationum accepti et expensi scribâ, stipati centum et nonaginta sociis, aes triplex circa pectus habentibus, feliciter satis, passisque velis ad Aequatorem usque navigatione secunda pervehuntur, ubi cum malaria variisque morbis luctantes, multi malis suis succumbunt, et occumbunt, aequoreisque piscibus esca facti reliquis comitibus navitisque nil boni praesagiunt, donec fide majora perpessi impendentem portui nostro montem altissimum, cui a similitudine mensae, Tabula nomen, jam quodammodo in portu navigantes errabundi V id. Octob^s laetique prospiciunt, sed renitente vento et aestu in sinum D. Helenae ingratis delati: ubi navem ad

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was recognized by him beneath all his rags and filth; and through the instrumentality of this man, a certain official of great influence in the inner circle of the stadholder of Friesland was informed of his brother's lot. He laid the whole affair before the Council of our Company, who out of pity for the youth's case, forthwith gave orders to the Governor and his Council at the Cape to search for him high and low, by land and sea, and to use their best endeavours that the lost sheep should as soon as possible be put upon one of their ships, treated handsomely, and restored to his people in Holland.⁵⁵⁾ So at long last and after all those adventures, the youth, strengthened in body and soul, and offering grateful thanks to Almighty God, was joyously welcomed by his people. Nor did he omit generously to repay the goodwill of his benefactor by letters expressing his sense of gratitude.⁵⁶⁾

These events were unfolded on the east side of Africa. That the inhabitants of the West may not be robbed of their meed of praise, I shall now lightly sketch a few incidents of their history from memory, touching only on the main points, in order to show that virtue can exist among savages of any sort, even the most rude, and in the midst of this wild race of men.

On the 4th of May, 1693, by the order of the Council of our Company, a ship The Golden Argo, commonly called de Goude Buys, put out to sea from the port of Texel, and sailing on a straight course through the English Channel, with a Dutchman, Antony Baanman of Enkhuizen, as captain, and James Lepi as purser, and one hundred and ninety hearts of oak for crew, reached the equator after a favourable voyage under full sail without much to set them back. But here they had to struggle with malaria and various other diseases; there were many that fell ill and many that died, and their bodies being cast as food to the fishes augured no good to their companions on that voyage. At length, after incredible hardships, on the 11th of October, the voyagers, now feeling themselves almost in port, joyfully sighted the lofty mountain that overhangs our harbour, called Table Mountain from its shape. But wind and wave resisted them, and they were carried against their will into St. Helena Bay.

55) Molsbergen (iii 87) quotes a letter written by Simon van der Stel in June, 1689, to the Chamber of XVII, in which reference is made to a letter from them asking after Chenut, and going on to say that the latter had been found serving as a sailor on board the Noord, had conducted himself well, and was being sent back home immediately.

56) This sentence suggests that Chenut's benefactor might have been G. himself.

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anchoras collocant, supplicesque ac dimissi ad caelum confugiunt, unde misericordiam Numinis intuentur implorantque, et prope mensem hic frustra morati, animum de optato exitu despondentes, dum omnem planè auxilii spem decollatam vident, lintrem tanquam sacram anchoram in Mare III. id. Novemb^s dimittunt, in quem septem octove corporis animique viribus praestantiores, caeteris morte aut longiore valetudine consumptis, armati descendunt, et excensione in litus factâ, diu ignari viarum per deserta et feris bellicisque insessa loca vagantur donec commeatu omni absumpto, et turpissiman famem passi, magnam partem exspirant. Solus Laurentius Matthei F. vulgò Laurens Thijs, faber lignarius moribundus ab Afris, natione magis quam ratione Barbaris, reperitur, qui noctem antecapturi cum semi-mortuo, humeris ipsorum alternatim suscepto, ad mapalia citato cursu properant. Hic inedia propè necatum, primo recenti lacte, mox jusculo ovillo, tandem carne elixa aliisque efficacibus fomentis refocillant: alio Pegasio nuncio nostratium in Saldagniensi portu stationem, de Laurentii casu certiorem faciunt, ubi V. Kal. Jani^is benigne à popularibus, post varios casus excipitur: qui adolescentem edocent, navem qua vectus luculentis mercibus et septemdecim arcis, auro argentoque tam rudi quam signato plenis, onustam, rudentibus fractis litori illisam, omnesque ejus socios morbo et dolore consumptos, unum tantum in litore superstitem conspici.

Haec ab exordio detexui, longiusque prolapsus, quam epistolae cancelli patiuntur: plura si de hujus juvenis navisque sorte scire gestis, evolve si placet Mercurii Europaei tomi sexti partem secundam, complectentem sex posteriores menses anni 1695, editam Amstelodami typis Timothei van Hoorn in 4^o pag. M. 237 ubi omnia fusius, non meo, sed ni fallor cujusdam praestantissimi auctoris clancularii stylo exarata patent: parce quaeso longius evagato.

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Here they brought their ship to anchor, and suppliant and downcast turned their thoughts to heaven, whence they looked and prayed for God to aid them. About a month they tarried here without avail, despairing of the escape for which they yearned. At length, seeing that every hope of help came to nothing, on the 11th of November as a last chance they sent off the ship's boat with a crew of seven or eight men of outstanding strength of body and mind, the rest being now dead or wasted with long disease. They took their arms with them, and managing to disembark, for a long time they wandered at random through desert places infested with wild animals and enemies. At length, their food all consumed, after agonies of starvation, almost all expired. Only Laurens, son of Matthew, commonly known as Laurens Thijs, a carpenter, survived to be discovered in a dying state by the Africans, savages in name but not in nature, who in order to anticipate the fall of night carried the dying man in relays on their shoulders and ran with him to their huts. He had almost perished with hunger. But they were able to revive his strength, feeding him first with fresh milk, then with a little mutton broth, and finally with boiled meat, and using other efficacious remedies. Then by a messenger like another winged Pegasus they informed our men stationed at Saldanha Bay about Laurens's plight. Here on the 28th of December, his troubles at an end, he was made welcome by his fellow-countrymen. They informed the young man that the ship on which he had sailed, with its rich merchandise and seventeen coffers full of gold and silver bullion and coin, had slipped its cables and been wrecked upon the shore, and that all his comrades had perished through disease and suffering, one only being to be seen upon the shore alive.⁵⁷⁾

I have told this story from the beginning, and it has been too long a digression for the limits of a letter. If you wish to learn at more length the story of this man and his ship, turn up, if you will, vol. vi, part 2 of the European Mercury, comprising the last six months of 1695. It is published at Amsterdam by Timothy van Hoorn. There on p. 237 you will find the whole story told at greater length, not by me, but by the pen of an anonymous author of great powers, if I may trust my judgment. Forgive the long digression.

57) The story of De Gouden Buys, as related by its two survivors, Daniel Silleman and Lourens Thijsz, was published in pamphlet form, Utrecht, 1706, and is reprinted fully, with annotations, in Uit ou Reisbeskrywinge (edited by W. Blommaert and S.F.N. Gie; Cape Town, 1922), pp. 129-69. G's account of the adventures of Thijsz is in the main correct. It will be noticed, however, that he says nothing of Silleman, save that there was another survivor of the wreck.

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Si Romani iniquissima censentur lege decimasse legionem, quae infelici marte cum hoste conflixerat, quid tibi videbitur: si dixero vix decimum comitem meorum ad Indos suam revisurum patriam, neminemque vestigiis praeeuntium deterreri, omnia licet Indiam advorsum, perpauca retrovorsum videant, dum partim justo severius, et servilem in modum habiti à navium praefectis (quos maximam partem totidem Cerberos et viperei generis fratres diceres) inclementer et acerbe tractati, crebris diuturnis et sub alio sole miserrimis itineribus fracti, mille modis morbisque excarnificati pereunt: partim proni patuloque ore in mare desperati prosiliunt, alii infelicitatum dam(n)atam vitam finituri, mortem occupant, sibimet ipsis violentas inferentes manus: nonnulli armis hostium collato pede cadunt, quidam carnificum dextrâ sinistrè satis in crucem tolluntur: alii patrios ritus exosi, nova molientes ad hostes aut barbaros transfugiunt, sibique iter ad avitos praecludentes, à patrio extorres solo, in alieno noti nimis omnibus, ignoti maximè sibi moriuntur, omnesque suis deplorati, vitam cum morte commutant: en pretium curae, vigilatorumque laborum praemium! en opes! en spes inanes!

Accedit quod a X. Kal. Quint^s mdclxxxiv quibus navi Mosâ, secundum cataractas Mosae, septentrionale ingressus mare Indiam petens in hunc usque diem, ad quadraginta naves Croesi divitias ferentes, perditas Societati nostrae numero, quarum aliae partim ponto immoderata tempestate, aut hostium telis mersae, partim incendio conflagratae, aut igniario pulvere accensae, dissiliere, nonnullae ab hostibus pyratisve direptae: quaedam incerto, hincque acrius torquente fato, longum desideratae, latent: reliquae in caecas cautes, brevia, litoraque allisae, cadaveribus mercibusque pretiosissimis, totius mundi oram illustrarunt: et cum naves merito Deorum templa deberent esse, quia

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If that is thought to be a very harsh law of the Romans in accordance with which they killed every tenth man in a legion that had been beaten in battle, what will you say if I tell you that scarcely one of those who voyaged with me to India will see their native land again? Yet none is deterred by the footprints of his predecessors, although all are turned towards India, and very few in the other direction. For some perish through unduly harsh treatment, being kept like slaves by the ships' captains (who for the most part are so many Cerberuses or off-spring of the dragon's teeth), being roughly and cruelly handled, broken by frequent, long, gruelling voyages under a foreign sun, and generally tortured in a thousand ways and by a thousand diseases; others in their despair leap head first and open-mouthed into the sea; others, resolved to end a life condemned to suffering, hasten their end by laying violent hands upon themselves; some fall in close combat at the hands of the enemy, some the dexterous hand of the executioner exalts to a sinister death upon the cross; yet others, filled with loathing of their ancestral religion, follow strange courses, deserting to the enemy or to the natives, and, cutting off all hope of a return to the ways of their forebears, exiles from the land of their birth, on a foreign soil, known but too well to all the world, and most unknown to themselves, they meet their end; deplored by relatives and friends, they chose death instead of life. This is the return for the care spent upon them, the reward for watching and toil! This is the wealth they gain! This is the realisation of their fond hopes!

To this must be added that from the 22nd of June 1684, when on the good ship Meuse I sailed down the Meuse and entered the northern sea on my voyage to India, up to the present day some forty ships, carrying the riches of Croesus, have been lost by our Company, of which some have been sunk by heavy seas or the fire of the enemy, some have been burned by fire or blown up by gunpowder, some have been plundered by the enemy or by pirates; there are some, long missing, which an uncertain and therefore more torturing fate has overtaken; the rest have been dashed on hidden reefs, on shallows, and on shores, and have strewn the coasts of the whole world with corpses and precious merchandise.

Furthermore ships should properly be temples, because the sailors must struggle with all the elements, and are never separated from shipwreck by more than three or four finger-lengths, if the ship be built of the stoutest pine; yet all the crew, with the exception of a few good men, seem bent upon rushing to destruction; they change their climate and their merchandise, but not their hearts.

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nautis cum omnibus elementis luctandum, semperque sint digitis à naufragio remoti tribus, aut quatuor, si sit latissima taeda, tamen omnes, paucis bonis exceptis, ad interitum fermè ruere, et caelum mercesque non animum mutasse videri: hinc meo quidem animo patres malint domi liberos suos, carbonibus assidentes leto malo emori, spe verae licet serae poenitentiae, jacturam animae non facturos, quam eos in spem opibus sine fine parandis, iisque apud Indos per omne fas et nefas corradendis sustulisse, sciantque uno omnium maritimorum hominum sensu liquidò constare, quemcunque parricidam supra meritum plecti, se navigationi in Indiam et acerbis horum hominum injuriis committens: quotquot enim facinorosi et flagriones terrestri itinere, vel secundo Scaldi, Mosâ, Vahali, Rheno, Fossâ Drusiana, Amasi, aliisque viis ad Batavos perfugiunt, et quotquot furciferi per Scalas campenses penè gemonias dixissem, se in urbium ocellum Foederati non solum Belgii, sed merito totius mundi conjiciunt, maximam partem sub signis nostrae Societatis militaturos scias, et virtutis esse domare quod cuncti pavent, et quod omnem spem bonam ejurasse videtur.

Adde quaecunque de his Hellyn Anglus, Aquitanus Tavernier, cum Helveto Stoupa scripsere, olim mihi aliaque visa, sed quantula haec quae ipse expertus, meoque malo damnoque didici, suo tempore locoque in apricum proferenda. Redeat illuc unde deflexit calamus.

Solum adespotum, derelictum, possessore vacuum vel rude quod quis colendum sibi eligit, cedit occupanti, priorque tempore etiam jure potior in Magosis habetur, fructusque innatos colonus, non in commune nec in medium, sed sibi soli vindicat, domumque suam deportat, fundumque effoetum, ingratum, aut aliâ quacunque de causâ repudians, aggreditur alium, demigrat, solumque vertit quotienscunque libet, modo imperii et natalis soli margines non egrediatur, nefas enim est aliò habitatum ire, et finitimi populi jurisdictioni lares transfugos submittere.

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Wherefore in my opinion fathers would do well to let their sons sit over the coals at home until they die an evil death, with the chance of saving their souls by a true though late repentance, rather than excite them to the hope of immense wealth to be raked together in India by all means fair and foul; they should know that it is fairly agreed by the common consent of all sea-faring men, that any murderer who signs on for the voyage to India under the savage villainy of these men, has received more than his due of punishment. For all the criminals and rascals who flee into Holland by land, or down the Scheldt, the Maas, the Waal, the Rhine, the Canal of Drusus, the Ems, or any other way, all the gaol-birds who escape hanging and hurl themselves into what is rightly known as the most delightful city^* not only of the United Netherlands, but of the whole world-most of these, you must know, intend to serve under the flag of our Company. Their virtue is to triumph over the restraints all other men obey; no place is left in their breasts for any honest hope(?).

You may supplement this with the observations of the English writer Hellyn, the Aquitanian Tavernier, and the Swiss Stoupa, whose works I saw long ago.⁵⁸⁾ The little that I myself have been through and have learned to my misfortune and loss will be brought to light in the proper time and place. But I must return from my digression.

Among the Magosi if a man takes for cultivation a piece of ground that is ownerless, abandoned, unoccupied, or that has never been broken, it passes into his possession. First in time is first in law. The husbandman does not bring the produce into the common stock, but claims it for his own and carries it to his home. If his farm becomes exhausted, or gives a poor return, or if he dislikes it for any other reason, he goes to another, and changes his dwelling, shifting his ground as often as he likes provided that he does not overpass the limits of his native soil; for it is forbidden to go and live elsewhere, to transfer one's house and home so as to fall under the jurisdiction of a neighbouring people.

* Amsterdam (van Oordt).

58) The reference is to Peter Heylyn, Cosmographie. Containing the Horographie and Historie of the whole world. London 1652; and les Six Voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier ... en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes, Paris 1676. I have been unable to identify Stoupa; there is no author of this name Iisted in the British Museum catalogue.

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Omnes unius tribus agri compascui, et saepius dissidiorum bellique cum vicinis causa sunt, cum homines à natura ita comparati sint ut putent semper alterius pecus grandius uber habere, hincque certaminum lachrymae.

In confesso est ipsos nil habere antiquius sanctiusve, quam arctum hospitiis solvere animum et peregrinos convivasque tecto, hunc in finem singulis pagis erecto, omnique comitate et commeatu publicitus excipere, et cum asymbolis hilariter helluari, et ad crepusculum usque anancaeis poculis certare: quod testantur liquidò Batavi nave Stavenisse novissimè vecti, centum et amplius milliarium intervallo juxta litus vagè et quaquaversum dispersi, qui dum ultrò citòque commeantes, et sursum deorsum officiosa cursitatione se mutuò invisunt, ab Afris genialiter curatissimèque excepti detinentur, festumque agere adventu suo, et unum alterumque diem cum ipsis epulari coguntur, praetextentibus barbaris mox coeli inclementiam, mox non vadosa ob recentem nimbum flumina, aliaque effugia allegantes, hunc duntaxat in finem ficta, quo peregrinantes distineant, et diutius consortione alloquioque horum advenarum gaudeant fruanturque: hac virtute sane, intra paucas memorandâ, multos Europaeos hic nobiscum degentes, longis parasangis praevertunt, utinamque cives nostri hospitalitatis sacra aemulentur, et à barbaris discant hospitii jura nunquam fallere, minusque inhumano agrestique esse ingenio, aequabilius me hercule atque constantius se res nostrae haberent, nam violare fidem cum Barbaris turpe, tum Christum profitentibus foedissimum est.

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All the lands of one tribe are for common pasturage.⁵⁹⁾ From this cause frequently arise domestic quarrels and wars with their neighbours. Human nature is so fashioned that men always think the flock of the next man to be more prosperous. Hence disputes and tears.

It is admitted by all that the Hottentots hold no obligation more sacred than that of comforting a distressed soul by hospitality. Strangers and visitors are entertained at the public expense, in a hall erected in each district for this purpose, with every courtesy and attention; they partake of joyous banquets scot free, vying with their hosts till the fall of night in swallowing brimming goblets at a draught. Clear proof of this is afforded by the recent case of the crew of the Dutch ship Stavenisse. Scattered here and there at intervals on the land near the coast over an area of a hundred miles or more, they went hither and thither, up and down, busily engaged in a round of mutual visitings; all the time they were cordially and attentively welcomed and entertained by the Hottentots, who made holiday on their arrival, compelled them to stay with them a day or two, alleging at one time that the weather was bad, at another that the rivers were impassable by reason of the late rains, inventing one excuse after another in order to detain their guests and be the longer able to enjoy the society and conversation of their visitors.⁶⁰⁾ In this very important virtue they are miles ahead of many Europeans who live here with us. I only wish that our citizens would rival them in their respect for strangers, and learn from the natives never to break the laws of hospitality and to rid themselves of their inhuman and savage temper. Things would go much more smoothly and steadily with us, if this lesson could be learned. And God knows, if it is a disgrace for a native to break faith, it is an abomination for those who profess the name of Christ.

59) The ‘Stavenisse’ crew said of Xhosa land tenure: ‘The land is common; everyone depastures his cattle and cultivates his gardens where he pleases. He is also free to shift his dwelling from one spot to another, provided that he remains within the bounds of the kingdom’ (Molsbergen, iii, 65). Although not literally correct this observation shows a fair understanding of the unstable character of Xhosa land holdings. G's additional details are also reasonably accurate.

60) The Stavenisse crew all comment favourably upon their reception and treatment by the natives. ‘They found the country very fruitful and populous, and the natives friendly, compassionate, obliging, strong, and ingenious’; ‘they are generally kind, compassionate, and hospitable’; ‘one may travel 200 or 300 miles through the country, without any cause of fear from men ... neither need one be in any apprehension about meat and drink, as they have in every village or kraal a house of entertainment for travellers, where these are not only lodged, but fed also’; ‘they were then obliged for some days to beg their food in the kraals or villages of the Magose Africans, until at length they were distributed in the surrounding villages or neighbourhood, and there very well treated’ (Moodie, 417, 427, 431, 430). The ‘house of entertainment’ to which reference is made is probably the visitors' hut which most big kraals possess. G's description, as usual, is highly coloured.

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Morbi epidemici inter Cisalpinos Afros subinde grassantes sunt gramia, gravedo, rheuma, et fortè alii mihi ignoti, vereorque ne foedam impetiginem venereamque luem à nostratibus contraxerint.

Etiam atque etiam illis suasor fui, lectulos ilignis pedibus, loris tanquam stramine tectos, pellibusque perstratos sibi conservandae curandaeque valetudini conficerent, sed surdis narrata fabula, dum videntes probantesque meliora tamen deteriora sequuntur: tantae molis est! ab inveterato, damnoso damnatoque errore, perversaque consuetudine terrae filios divellere.

Fatidicus seu flamen sacrificium facturus cote clunaculum subigit, vaccamque tribus quatuorve passibus ab ostiolo tugurioli, in quo aeger decumbit, stantem pedibusque revinctam, capite Septentrioni obversam levi pugno, laterique sinistro impacto, victimarius sternit: cadentique in dextrum, inque virides substratos ramulos, illico particulam cutis palmae magnitudine et quantam laevâ capit, dextra prope umbilicum exscindit, eamque sine mora dextro decumbentis carpo alligat, mox pergit vivam deglubere, evisceratamque mugientem audivi, exenterataeque et viventis ilia malè carbonibus tosta, devorantes Afros vidi: hinc pauxillo sanguine, quem ollâ extari, capeduncula, aut testudinis putamine excepit, aegri faciem diluit, et felle victimae libans, ejus folliculum tecto infirmi imponit.

Testor longe segnius irritasse animum meum, quaecunque de ritu sacriflcandi veterum tam lapidibus, quam aeri insculptaque caelataque, aut in tabulis, aulaeis, tapetiis, membranis, libris chartave picta unquam vidi, quam hic nostrorum Barbarorum sacrificalis et for(di)cidiorum apparatus, oculis meis subjectus.

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Epidemic diseases which attack the natives on this side of the mountains from time to time are sore eyes, colds and catarrh, and perhaps some others unknown to me.⁶¹⁾ A loathly impetigo and venereal disease have, I am afraid, been caught from us.

Again and again I have endeavoured to persuade them to make bedsteads for themselves with oak legs, to cover the frame with thongs for a support, and to lay skins thereon, in order to preserve or restore their health. But my advice was given to deaf ears. They see and approve the better course but follow the worse. So huge a task is it to wrench the sons of earth from ingrained error or evil custom, even if they be ruinous and recognized as such.

When a soothsayer or priest is about to make a sacrifice he first whets the knife; he then places the cow with its feet tied and its head to the North three or four paces from the door of the hut in which the sick man lies, and gives it a light blow with his fist on the left side. It falls to the right on to green branches lying ready for it; and forthwith he cuts away with his right hand from near the navel a piece of skin the size of his palm, as much as he can hold in his left hand; then he immediately binds this on the right wrist of the patient.⁶²⁾ His next business is to skin the animal alive. I have heard a disembowelled cow lowing, and have seen the Hottentots eating the badly roasted side of another cow in the same condition and still alive. After this he washes the face of the sick man in a little blood which he catches in a pot, or dish, or tortoise shell; and making libation of the gall of the victim, he puts the gall-bladder on the roof of the sick man's house.

The sacrificial implements of our natives, and their methods, offered directly to my gaze, roused in me a far more lively interest than anything I have ever learned of the sacrificial rites of the Ancients by examining what has been cut or embossed on stone or bronze, or painted in pictures, tapestries, carpets, parchments, rolls or books.

61) The description which follows of diseases and their treatment refers entirely to the Cape Hottentots, and is much fuller than any given by earlier writers It appears in the main to be fairly accurate, although some of the details mentioned cannot be confirmed from other sources.

62) Even among the modern Hottentots the skin drawn off a living goat is used while still warm as an application for any severe pain, and poultices are also made of the entrails of a goat disembowelled alive to prevent loss of heat (Schapera, op. cit., 412-3). The ordinary Hottentot method of slaughter is well described in the journal of v.d. Stel's trip to Namaqualand. ‘First they laid it on its back and one cut open its belly while it still lived, thrust in his hand and drew out the entrails, the sheep being still alive. Then the skin was clumsily torn from one side, the flesh severed from the shoulder blade, the ribs roughly broken off one side and stripped of flesh one by one, the same process being then repeated on the other side. The reason why they do not cut the throats of the animals they slaughter is to keep the blood, which they collect and boil by itself and then eat’ (Waterhouse, op. cit., 124).

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Si conjectare permittitur, non alia de causa ipsos aegri collo omentum circumdare, eumque axungia oblinire dicerem, quam ut iis spirituum vitalium nimias exhalationes sistant, porosque corporis obturando, frigus externum arceant, caloremque nativum foveant.

Gramina pasta in ventriculo vel panticibus aut intestinis victimae inventa excretaque, quidam simul cum carne discocta, in deliciis habent: inelegantibus sané! alii ea prae foribus decumbentis abjiciunt, quorum medullâ igne liquefactâ, praesentissimo remedio, aegrum perunguunt, eumque frequentissimè abstinentiâ diaeteticisque, praecipue lacte vaccino, cum manipulo piperis aliisque aromatibus simul elixis egelidisque decumbenti propinatis, sanant.

Frequentissimè aegro tam prono quam supino immejunt, nec hujus faciem urinâ illotam patiuntur, nec desunt qui decumbenti lotium unius viri exceptum conchâ, aut testudinis putamine aliove vase, ut redditum admixto cujusdam herbae pulvisculo propinent: feminarum lotium aspernantur, ipsaeque mulieres illud sibi noxium censent: sed quandoque viri, aegrotam clunibus insedentem nudamque cruribus, à genubus ad pedes usque commingunt.

Ubi femina decumbit, recentia boum excrementa, admixtâ aquâ ad ignem confervescere in olla faciunt, quae sedenti in scrobe, cruribus aegrae tepefacta, prospero subinde successu inguinibus tenus affundunt, adjuvante (meâ sententiâ) plurimum naturâ, sui semper conservatrice.

Scarificationem seu incisionem in cute transversam, ad digiti longitudinem, praecipuè in pectore lateribusque, satis superque spissam, morbo laborantibus adhibent, et nonnunquam cauteria.

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If I may be allowed a conjecture, I should say that the reason of their hanging the entrails round the neck of the patient and anointing him with fat is to check the excessive exhalation of the vital spirits, and, by closing the pores of the body, to keep out external cold and foster the native heat.

The pasture grass found in the stomach or bowels of the victim, and the excreta, are cooked by some together with the flesh and looked upon as a great treat: not a very refined one to be sure! Others fling these things before the sick man's door, and when the marrow has been extracted from them by the heat of the fire, they anoint the sick man with it, a very powerful remedy. They treat the patient also by fasting and dieting. A favourite diet is cow's milk boiled with a handful of pepper and other aromatic herbs, and given to the patient cold.

A very frequent remedy is to turn the patient on his back and on his front and make water on him. They do not allow even his face to escape a bath of urine. Some even take, in a sea-shell or tortoise-shell or some other vessel, the amount of water discharged by one man, mix it with a powder from a certain plant, and administer it to the sick man. They do not attach any healing property to the water of women; the women themselves think it injurious to them. But sometimes a sick woman is made to sit upon her haunches with her legs bare, while the men make water upon her from the knees to the feet.⁶³⁾

When a woman is ill, they take fresh cow dung, mix it with water, and heat it on the fire; the woman is put to sit in a trench, and the warm water is dashed over her legs up to the waist. The patient sometimes recovers, but in my opinion most of the credit is due to Nature which always strives to preserve itself.

As a cure for disease they also employ scarification or criss-cross incisions in the skin of about a finger's length, especially on the chest and sides. The cuts are made very close to one another. Sometimes also they try cautery.

63) Although not all the details of this account can be confirmed from other writers, there is evidence enough to substantiate the use of urine by the early Hottentots in their medical treatments. Schreyer, e.g., gives a valuable first-hand observation to this effect. He was travelling inland with a party of soldiers, who had with them some Hottentots as guides. One of the latterhad a swollen testicle which pained him so much that he could hardly move. ‘The sun was going down, when they made a small fire, which none of us might approach, and to ensure this they had kindled a separate fire for us. They seated themselves in a circle round their fire. The “doctor,” after addressing himself to the sun with much gesticulation and talk, went up to the patient, who was lying completely naked on the ground, and began to make water all over him, from the head down all over the body, until his flow had ceased; the other Hottentots, 7 or 8 in number, then faithfully followed his example. The patient, after being lustily bathed and washed in this way, went to sleep in his kaross, and the following day was again fit enough to accompany us’ (op. cit., 31-2). Kolb also gives a good deal of attention to this mode of treatment (op. cit., 566 ff.).

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Humorum acrimeniam, inflationes inflammationesque seu phlegmone(s), aliaque tubera, decumbentibus aeque feliciter ac nostrates cucurbitulis, ore exugunt: hoc modo Afram vix bilustri cujusdam Europaei filiolae verendis exsuxisse calculum phaseoli magnitudine, ex illius parentibus accipio.

Convalescenti salubribus jusculis pharmacisque corroborato, sacerdos sive haruspex omnem comam novaculâ abradit, postea illum viridibus foliis, nostratium salicis affinibus, sed minoribus, cutem corticemque malorum redolentibus, totum ab unguiculo ad capillum summum perfricat, mox calidâ aquâ, ultimoque persanatum frigidâ abluit: porrò una alterave ove, et si res pecuaria restituto sanitati ampla est, etiam bove aliove armento aut jumento ejus saluti perlitat, quem adipe hostiae delibutum, perspersumque pulvisculis herbae bochu, omentoque bestiae intorto, ejusque collo amuleti loco circumjecto, amictuque pinguedine inuncto, et bochu pulvere consperso sanum salvumque convivatorem dimittit, et in sostrum lautè soteriis cum amicis excipitur. Quae sit salutifera, quaeque sit herba nocens, earundemque vim apprimè norunt: recordor eos indicasse mihi florem, narrantes illo e terra pullulante, mulieres suas quotannis mense Septembri aliquot diebus, altum sopitas, gravique somno pressas, et quasi torpore obductas, veternosas catalepsi laborantes in multum lucem stertere. Tempestatum significatus post futuros ante pronunciant, nec siderum motus stellarumque discursum planè ignorare videntur, quod exemplo infra colligendum dabo.

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Angry humours, inflations, inflammations, tumours and other swellings they treat by sucking with their mouths as successfully as our physicians by cupping.⁶⁴⁾ I am informed by the parents that a European girl scarcely ten years old was treated in this way by a native woman who managed to suck from the pudenda a stone the size of a bean.

When a convalescent has been strengthened by wholesome broths and medicines, the priest or soothsayer shaves all his hair off with a razor. Then he rubs him from the tips of his toes to the hair on his head with green leaves, like our willows, but smaller, and with a smell like appleskin. After that he washes him in warm water, and, finally, when the cure is complete, in cold. Furthermore a sacrifice for health is made with a sheep or two, and if the restored invalid is sufficiently rich in cattle, the victim may be an ox or other plough-animal or draughtanimal. The priest smears the man with the fat of the victim and sprinkles him with bochu powder; next the entrails of the animal are plaited and hung round his neck like an amulet; then his blanket is anointed with fat and sprinkled with bochu, and at last he is let go, well and whole, to banquet with his fellows. The doctor's reward is to be welcomed among his friends at a feast of thanksgiving for his recovery.⁶⁵⁾

Healing or noxious plants and their qualities they know extremely well. I remember their pointing out a flower to me and telling me that, when it sprouts from the earth, their women every year in the month of September during several days fall into a deep sleep and drowsiness; it is as if a torpor had overcome them, and they lie snoring in a sort of cataleptic trance till late in the day⁶⁶⁾. They are also able to foretell the weather; nor do they seem to be wholly ignorant of the various movements of the stars and constellations, as may be inferred from an instance I shall quote below.

64) Scarification (followed by rubbing various ingredients into the cuts, i.e. a form of inoculation) and cupping are still practised among the modern Hottentots (cf. Schapera, op. cit., 407, 409 ff.) The sucking to which G. refers is nowadays used chiefly in case of snakebite and similar injuries, to remove the poison, and also in such cases where the disease is attributed to the introduction by wizards and evil spirits of foreign substances into the patient's body. The magician massages the part affected and then sucks hard at it, to produce at last triumphantly from his mouth the harmful substances which he claims to have extracted in this way from the body of the patient (Schapera, 390).

65) This rite appears to be essentially the same as that still performed among the Nama, although it varies somewhat in detail. At the end of any grave illness, the patient, who has hitherto been secluded in a hut where he was subject to various taboos, is ceremonially cleansed with a mixture of moist cowdung and mineral powder, is given a new set of garments to wear, takes part in a special purification meal with all the other people who have recovered from the same disease, and is finally ceremonially reintroduced to all the ordinary daily tasks from which he was cut off during his seclusion (Mrs. A.W. Hoernlé, Harvard African Studies, ii, 77-9; cf. Schapera, 406-7, 256 ff.).

66) I have been unable to find any confirmation for this statement, and cannot imagine to what plant G. is referring.

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Vulnus herbarum succo per syphonem ei immisso, aut earundem foliis, aut bulborum quorundam tunicis, etiam insulso butyro seboque obligatum curant, sauciique urinâ ferventi, et in dimidiam sui partem decoctâ abluunt; si quem venenatum animal pupugit vel momordit, aut si quis virulentis armis laesus, protinus ejus crus, pedem aut brachium supra subtusque plagam vincturâ, morâ, fasciâ, aut loris arctissimè sistendae sanguinis circulationi, et ne virus per venas latius serpat constringunt, variisque incisionibus cultro aut spiculo circum vulnus rectâ descendenti non transversâ linea per cutem factis, continuò vir aut mulier accurrit, oreque plagae admoto, virus omne exsugit. O factum bene! quid hac ope medica praestantius? quid hac fide majus? quid hoc alexipharmaco salubrius?

Cupido sciendi confectionem Butyri dicam. Utrem lanâ introrsum versâ lacte propemodum complent, loroque ejus orificium constringunt, quem dextrâ laevaque, et utraque extremitate sublatum, ultrà citràque divaricatis cruribus stantes commovent, quassant et concutiunt, donec cremor in butyrum congelatus concretusque sit.

Si forte contingit contra haec remedia malum ingravescere, illico insectantur viperam, anguem aut serpentem qualemcunque obvium, quem necatum apud saucium ferunt, apertoque effractoque ejus ore, omne virus ei adimunt, quod duabus vesiculis quantum vel avellana caperet, ovi albumini assimile, in utraque maxilla juxta dentes situm, qui morsu infixi hominum bestiarumve corpori, per foramen, quo vicinum eis virus receperunt, concavi illud vulneri inspirant: has vesiculas cum aliquot scorpionibus aliisque toxicis simul mistas et elixas cum vaccino lacte, tanquam sacram anchoram aegro pro potione medica dant, adhibentes malo huic nodo malum cuneum, saepiusque hoc clavo clavum feliciter pellunt! ultimoque serpentem totum quantum candentibus earbonibus to(s)tum in pulvisculum lapidibus commolunt, quo saucii corpus, praecipuè vulnera perfricant, hocque medicamentum usu exploratissimum.

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They treat wounds by introducing into them through a pipe the juice of plants, or else they bind them with the leaves of plants or the coats of certain bulbs, using also unsalted butter and lard. They also wash the wound with the urine of the wounded man, reducing the quantity to half by boiling. A sting or bite from a poisonous animal, or a wound from a poisoned weapon they treat with great skill. The injured leg, foot or arm they at once bind above and below the wound, very firmly, in order to check the circulation of the blood and prevent the poison spreading along the veins; then they make various incisions in the skin with a knife or spear-head round the wound, not across but in descending straight lines; then immediately a man or woman runs up, puts his lips to the wound and sucks all the poison out⁶⁷⁾. O noble deed! What could be better than this medical aid? Where shall we find greater loyalty? What more effective antidote exists?

If you wish to know their way of making butter, I can tell you. They take a skin bag, with the woolly side in, and almost fill it with milk; then the neck is tied tightly with a thong, and the butter-maker, standing with his legs apart, and holding one end of the bag in his left hand and the other in his right, moves it vigorously up and down, to and fro, shaking and churning it, until the cream has been massed and hardened into butter⁶⁸⁾.

If by chance the trouble increases in spite of these remedies, forthwith they look for the first viper, snake or serpent they can find, and kill it and bring it to the wounded man. Then they break open its mouth and take all the poison from it. This poison is contained in two little glands. There is about as much of it as would fill a nut-shell; it is like the white of an egg; and it is situated in each jaw near the teeth. The teeth are hollow, and when they are fixed by a bite into the body of man or beast they transmit into the wound through the opening in them the poison they draw from the glands nearby. It is these glands that they mix with scorpions or other poisons, boil in cow's milk, and administer to the sick man as a last hope. In this they are often successful, applying the toughest wedge to the toughest notch, or driving out a nail with a nail, as the proverb says. Finally they toast the whole serpent on glowing coals, and grind it to powder with stones. With the powder they rub the body of the wounded man, especially the wounds⁶⁹⁾. Experience has shown them the great worth of this remedy.

67) cf. Ten Rhyne's description, p. 149 f. above.

68) See above, p. 129.

69) The modern Hottentots still use snake poison on occasion as an antidote to snake bite, a small dose of prepared venom diluted in water being swallowed. The crushed head of the snake may be applied as a poultice in case of snake bite, powdered spider as a poultice for spider bite, while in the case of scorpion sting the particular animal if possible is captured, its tail and nippers pulled off, and the body ground and applied as a paste to the wound. (Schapera, op. cit., 409). G's observation therefore appears to be accurate enough.

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Animi vitio laborantem, flagitiosum, et novissima meritum exempla, circumrugienti leoni, hominibus pecorique infesto, pellibus probè infibulatum, teloque armatum, coercendis nebulonis sceleribus, tanquam faeneum hominem periculo objiciunt, advolantibus subsidio omnibus, victoremque ovatu salutant, et hoc claro egregioque facinore in integrum restituto, abrogatis legibus, criminibusque abolitis, salillo puriori, omniumque sententiis atramento sutorio absoluto cuncti gratulantur: nec de nihilo, cum leo semel carne humana pastus, ut delicantissimam omnibus praefert. Qui adhaec in pretio habet carnem caninam, visus enim est devorasse canem, ejusdemque caput postridie pro repotiis edere maluisse, quod in propinquo ante decipulam abjectum erat, quam vervecem vivum duobus inde passibus frutici alligatum dilacerare, hunc dum intactum transit, glandibusque plumbeis trajectus cadit. Quem fecunditate sua vastaturum regionem liquet, nisi conquirens sibi foetuique praedam, rediens à venatione, saepe cubile scymnis vacuum inveniret, qui ferocia aut famis instinctu latius à lustro vagantes, hominibus praeda fiunt, aut inediâ pereunt, dum catuliens leaena vel leo nostratium armis aut decipulo necatur. Huc accedit quod leones prurientem catervatim sequentes leaenam, venereo aestu saevientes se mutuo dentibus unguibusque dilacerant.

Leo à captura rediens ventriculum carnibus plenum coram pullis vomitu exonerat, pari modo leaena frustis esculentis crudis catulos alit, iisdemque insuper ubera praebit.

Qui leonem quantumlibet necat aut capit, ei ex publico aerario per aediles sedecim nummi argenti cum nummi besse, vulgo R.D. in βραβεῖον numerantur, decem si ejus dextra aut industria pardus, tres ubi lupus ceciderit, addendis acuendisque animis praemio dantur. Quo nonnulli nimium accensi suo cum damno, vitaeque jacturâ discunt, quam asper leo tactu, et quam periculosi morientium animalium ungues morsusque sunt.

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A vicious, criminal person who is judged worthy of the extreme penalty is exposed to danger like a straw man, that is to say, he is well trussed up with skins, provided with a spear, and flung to a man-eating, cattle-raiding lion, to curb his rascalities. All then rush up to his support, and should he prove the victor they hail him with shouts of triumph; his brilliant exploit restores him to his former rights; the action of the law is suspended, the charge is set aside, and all congratulate him on being now cleaner than a salt-cellar and quite freed, in universal popular opinion, of the stain on his character⁷⁰⁾. And not without reason, for a lion who has once tasted human flesh prefers it to all other as being the most delicate.

Lions also set a special value on dog-flesh. One day a lion ate a dog. The head of the animal was thrown near by in front of a trap. Next day when the lion came back for a renewal of the feast he was observed to prefer the dog's head to a living wether tethered two paces off to a shrub. As the lion went past the wether without touching it, he was pierced by bullets and fell. Lions are so fertile that they would lay the whole countryside waste were they not kept down in various ways. Often when a lion goes off hunting for itself or its young, on its return it finds the lair empty of cubs, which through natural ferocity or the pangs of hunger stray too far from their den and become a prey to men. Or they perish of hunger, if the lioness or lion is killed by the weapons of our men or in a trap. Also when a lioness is in heat the lions follow in troops, and their sexual rage is such that they tear one another to pieces with tooth and claw.

When a lion comes back from a kill it disburdens its belly of its load of flesh by vomiting it up before the cubs, and the lioness likewise feeds them on undigested tasty morsels as well as offering them her dugs.

A man who kills or captures any sort of lion is paid by officials from the public treasury a sum of sixteen and two-thirds silver nummi, commonly called a rix dollar, as a reward; if he kills or captures a leopard he gets ten, and three for a wolf.⁷¹⁾ The rewards are intended to stimulate hunters, some of whom have been made so eager that they have learned only with the loss of their lives how flerce a lion is to touch and how dangerous are the teeth and claws of a dying animal.

70) This opportunity of rehabilitating himself may conceivably have been offered to one or two criminals known to G., but it is certainly not the normal Hottentot method of administering justice, even as described by the earliest writers. Dapper's account (see above, p. 65 ff.) has far more truth in it.

71) As early as 1656 the Council at the Cape, in consequence of the great damage caused by wild animals, had decided to offer premiums for the destruction of these beasts. The original scale was: for catching and killing a lion, 6 reals; a ‘tiger’ or hyena, 4 reals; and a leopard 3 reals (D., June 22, 1656). In every case the dead animal was to be exhibited to the Commander of the Fort.

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Divitiae Afris nostris palmariae, arma, et pecus sunt. Fixas sedes nullas habent, migrare per arva illis mos, atque errantes circumportare penates, bubis citatis velocissimisque dorso quaecunque onera, etiam homines et clitellas portantibus, et quo prata et pascua gregem, buceraque secla vocant, huc cum mapalibus suis sparsi, vagantesque circumcelliones ire, pecusque quoad contenebrascit pascere, illudque septis (ut supra dixi) nocte continere, alternantes brachia pedesque plausu, et ducere choros lasciviore corporis motu imminente luna, intempestâ concubiaque nocte assolent.

Morbo et aetate confectum, solum mutantes in tuguriolo probè clauso, instructum commeatu, aquâ et igne, pro silicern(i)o, singulari immanitate depositum, omnique auxilio destitutum, Barbarorum barbarissimi nobis vicini, nullo sexus aut consanguinitatis respectu, a lege alimentaria alienissimi derelinquunt.

Feminae ex incurvatis arcuatisque et in terram depactis tigillis crebrisque axiculis, transversè sibi invicem vimine connexis, orbiculatum convexum, testudineumque, et circiter quinque pedes altum, ejusque diametro duodenos non excedente, tuguriolum cum bicubitali ostiolo orienti obverso aedificant, illudque craticulis seu mattis, storeisve ex junco hibisco scirpove aff[r]abrè textis, quandoque etiam pellibus, contra caeli inclementiam aestuantesque ventos contegunt, et hoc tectum totam familiam, tenerosque agnellos, adasias cum vitulis excipit, in cujus centro omnibus fovendis cibisque praeparandis foculus perennis lucet, ibique ut plurimum libero corde confabulantur, tempusque cacchinis et cavillationibus Abarides, concordiâ conjunctissimi terunt: En lepidum gynaeceum!

Hae etiam figlina sua vasa dextrè satis conflant, ex fusili argillâ, quam effossam domum deportant, eamque in partes juglandium magnitudine sectam, pellique inspersam, aspersamque subinde quantulacunque aquiculâ, ne nimium arescat, in biduum aut triduum insolant, hinc depsititiam in cylindros, botellorum instar, ulnae magnitudine singulos, redigunt: primumque in gyros, turbinemque inflectunt

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The chief riches of the natives in our parts are arms and cattle. They have no fixed abodes, but move from place to place carrying their homes with them on their wanderings. Their oxen, travelling at a very rapid pace, carry all their burdens, even men and pack-saddles, on their backs. Where meadows and pastures invite the flocks and herds, there they scatter themselves with their little huts, living the life of wandering friars. Till even shadows fall they pasture their flocks; at night they enclose them, as I said above; then to the clapping of hands and stamping of feet, with wanton gestures they ply the dance beneath the presiding moon far into the stilly hours of night.

When changing their terrain they abandon those enfeebled by sickness or age. The man to be left is shut up in a hut with a supply of provisions, water, and fire to furnish forth his funeral feast, but destitute of every other aid. This singular cruelty is practised by the natives near us, who are the most barbarous of their race. They regard neither sex nor kinship in thus rejecting all obligations to maintain the sick and old.⁷²⁾

The women make the huts, and in this wise. Numerous rods and poles are fixed in the earth and bent over in the shape of an arch, forming a hemispherical, convex, tortoise-shell-like frame. The sides are woven across with pliant withies. The hut is about five feet high, the diameter does not exceed twelve feet, and there is a little door three feet high looking to the East. The huts are covered with skilfully woven mats of rush or reed, or sometimes even with skins to afford protection against the inclemency of the sky and the raging winds. This roof covers the whole household, including the newborn lambs and the cows with their calves. In the centre is an ever-glowing hearth to keep all warm and cook the food, and there for the most part the native women pass their time, discharging their hearts in gossip, and laughing and joking, the best of friends and cronies. Picture to yourself the elegant salon!

The women also make earthenware vessels quite skilfully out of moistened clay. They dig up the clay and carry it home, where it is cut up into portions the size of a walnut. These are placed on a skin and sprinkled with a little water from time to time to prevent them getting too dry, and exposed to the sun for two or three days. They are then kneaded into cylinders, like bottles, each an ell in

72) This custom of abandoning elderly people to their fate was still being practised by the Hottentots in the middle of last century (see authorities quoted by Schapera, op. cit., 359). Hahn, inquiring into the reason for the practice, was told by the Naman that it was sometimes done by very poor people who had not enough food to support their aged parents. ‘But sometimes,’ he adds, ‘even if there was food enough, and if people, especially women, who had cattle of their own, gave suspicion that they secretly did mischief by practising witchcraft, they were left to die from starvation’ (Tsuni-//Goam, 86, 74).

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fundo aut basi ollae destinatos: hine pari modo testam profundam latamque ex arbitrio et proportionis norma construunt, eamque digitorum et conchae marinae ope, introrsum et extrorsum perpolitam laevigatamque, rubro colore, (minio subsimili) quaquaversum illinunt, et sub eodem tecto ubi elaborata, pelle aut storeis in diem unum alterumve probè coopertam, ne nimio aëre aut vento, justo citius siccata, rimas agat aut fatiscat, relinquunt: denique siccâ aridâque bucerdâ repletam, luculento igni ansatam imponunt, coctaque in varios usus apta.

Adhaec calathos, canistros, ficellasve ex hibisco consolidatas hauriendae aquae, et continendo cuivis liquori, magnitudine et forma nostratium sitularum, nusquam perfluentes, solertissimi texunt, interiorem plagam inhabitantes, et in occidua Europaei nassas et retia viderunt.

Uterque sexus verenda melotâ aut aliâ quavis pelle tegit: capilli variis anadematibus, crepundiisque intermixtis conchulis, cochleis, plurimisque maris ejectamentis conspersi, auresque crotaliis graves, et nonnunquam in vertice virorum, veluti militis galeati pinna, leporis cauda eminet: et quotiescunque ovem aliudve animal mactant, ejus felle se illinunt, folliculumque capillitio innectunt, atque felle bestiae pro salute aegri caesae, prolibant, folliculum verò tugurioli tecto, in quo aeger decumbit, superstitiosi, ut dixi, imponunt.

Ex collo, auribus, et femure catellos, astragalos, crotalia, fila, lineas, funiculosve coraliis globulisque Cypreis, eburneis, ferreis vitreisque consertos feminae pendentes habent, in digitis varios condulos, et in utroque carpo fermè eadem cimelia.

Viri caudam pardalis, vulpis, felisve odorariae, aliorumve animalium bacillo superinductam, ad cubiti longitudinem, ut plurimum dextrâ euntes sedentesve tenent, quâ gramosi sudantesque, vicé pannulei aut sudarii, se abstergunt: iidem coriaceam fasciam, corrigiam seu cingulum, duos aut tres digitos latum, aliquotque ulnas longum, nudis femoribus circumligant, et prope podicem nodo constringunt, propendentibus utrimque ejus extremitatibus semiulnae longitudine, et caudarum similitudine inter clunes.

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length. The first step is to mould the clay into a circle to form the bottom of the pot; then by further moulding they make a deep or wide vessel as suits their fancy and the law of proportion; this is polished and smoothed inside and out with the fingers and with a sea-shell, and smeared all over with a red colouring matter rather like minium; the pot is then left for a day or two in the same house in which it was made, well covered with a skin or mat so that it may not get too much air or wind, and so dry too quickly and fall into cracks; finally the pot is stuffed with dry cowdung, provided with handles and placed on a bright fire. After baking it is ready for various uses.⁷³⁾

Furthermore the inhabitants of the interior are very skilful in making closely-woven pails or baskets of reeds for drawing water or holding any sort of liquid. They are about the size and shape of our buckets and are perfectly watertight. In the western parts Europeans have seen weels and nets (of native manufacture).

Both men and women cover their private parts with a sheepskin or some other kind of skin.⁷⁴⁾ Their hair is sprinkled over with various ornaments and gauds, including sea-shells, snail-shells, and many things cast up by the sea; their ears are heavy with pendants; and sometimes the men have the tail of a hare standing up on their crown like the plume in a soldier's helmet. Whenever they kill a sheep or any other animal, they smear themselves with the gall and twine the gall-bladder with their hair. But if the animal has been slain for the cure of a sick man, they superstitiously make libation of the gall, and put the gallbladder, as I have said, on the roof of the hut in which the sick man is.

Hanging from neck, ears, and thighs the women wear chains, loops, pendants, threads, cords and strings of coral, or copper, ivory, iron or glass beads; on their fingers are various rings, and on both wrists, as a rule, similar treasures.

The men, whether walking or sitting, generally carry in the right hand the tail of a panther, fox, skunk or other animal drawn over a stick a cubit's length; and this serves them in place of handkerchief or towel to wipe away rheum or sweat. The men likewise have a leathern band, sash, or girdle, two or three fingers wide and several ells in length, which they bind round their bare thighs and tie in a knot near the rump. The two ends of it hang down like a tail between the buttocks to the length of half an ell.

73) This account of potmaking by the Hottentots is much more detailed then any previous mention, and is on the whole an accurate description of a process still employed by some natives of S. Africa.

74) The following description of Hottentot clothing is very slight, but in substantial agreement with those given by other writers.

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Hoc instructu nitent mares, hoc cultu mundoque muliebri uxores et puellae lemniscatae et semi-nudae, variisque pigmentis adornatae et coll[in]itae superbiunt, quae cum sibi in Magosis obviam fiunt, mutuo amplexu et osculo, testantes gaudia vultu, alia aliam junctis manibus amicissimè salutat, unde gentium? quo tendat? quomodo valeat? quid novi ferat regio? quasque cantilenas et choreas novi moris didicerit? blandiloqua, fur et mendax invicem percontatur.

Pedes soleis coriaceis sandalorum vice, veterum Romanorum more cisalpini vinciunt viri: Feminae non nisi in lumecto spinetisque, leonibus aliisque feris imperviis, caeterum pedibus mirae brevitatis, semper nudae et discalciatae: hae soleae, dum fames eos in desertissimis locis et procul à mapalibus deprehendit, silice contusae, igneque tostae, novissimus ipsis pastus.

A mare et femina simul terrâ genitis, quidam genus dicunt; alii constanti majorum traditione et Judaeorum Christianorumque scriptis magis consentaneâ, viro ejusve uxori una pariterque per fenestram olim in terram escendentibus originem suam in Magosis adscribunt, et in hoc conveniunt omnes, quod ab his primis parentibus, agriculturam, fruges terrae, baccasque condere, mulgere pecus, cervisiam et panem coquere, didicerunt: tincta sensu verba!

Victus et amictus illis hirtus, hispidus et munditiis carens: humi cibum per feminas paratum, lotis manibus, somnumque capiunt: eadem illa pellis, quae ipsos de die texit, benignâ vicissitudine nocte ipsis vicem cervicalis, culcitrae, straguli, et conopei supplet.

Citimi proximè nos aderrantes, quique montibus superfusi vecticulariam vitam, avidamque abactores agunt, desertaque et humano cultu vacua sequuntur, nullis adstrictos disciplinis, nullis ferè moribus neque lege, nec cujusquam imperio regi. Pacis artium et civilis habitus rudissimos, opicos

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I have now described the outfit of a fashionable male, and the dress and adornment in which the women, both wives and maids, flaunt themselves, festooned with ribbons and half-naked, and smeared with various decorative pigments. Among the Magosi when women meet, they embrace and kiss, their faces beam with joy, each takes the other's hand in friendly greeting, and they enquire of one another: Where from? and Whither away? How does your health? and what is the news in your part? and what new ditties and dances have you learned? chatting together as thick as thieves.⁷⁵⁾

The men on this side of the mountain follow the ancient Roman practice of binding their feet with skin shoes by way of sandals; the women do so only in thorny bushes and thickets through which no lion or wild beast could force a way, otherwise their feet, which are wonderfully small, are bare and unshod. If hunger overtakes the natives in desert places far from their huts, these velskoene, pounded with flints and roasted on the fire, furnish their last repast.

Some assert that their race came into being from a male and female simultaneously sprung from the earth; others, among the Magosi, following the steadfast tradition of their ancestors, and one more in harmony with the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, ascribe their origin to a man and his wife who in remote times descended through a window on to the earth. All are agreed that from these first parents they learned agriculture and the storing of grains and berries, the milking of cattle, the brewing of beer and the making of bread.⁷⁶⁾ There is a gleam of sense in their words.

Their food is as rough as their clothing, and both are lacking in elegance and refinement. On the ground, after washing their hands, they eat the food the women have prepared; on the ground they sleep. The same skin that covers them by day is conveniently converted at night to supply the uses of a pillow, a mattress, a rug and a mosquito net.

Our nearest neighbours whose wanderings bring them quite close to us, and those who are scattered over the mountains, live a hand-to-mouth existence as robbers and cattle-raiders; they keep to desert places untouched by human cultivation; they are bound by no discipline, obey hardly any custom or law, and are not subject to the

75) The description of Xhosa greeting customs is, as usual with G., taken almost verbatim from the reports of the ‘Stavenisse’ crew. Cf. Molsbergen, iii, 66: ‘If the women have not seen each other for 5 or 6 days, they embrace and kiss, each asking the other about her health; and whenever they meet they greet each other, men and women, young and old alike, asking whence they come, and where they are going, what news they have, and whether they have not learned any new dances and songs.’

76) ‘They deduce their origin,’ said the Stavenisse crew, ‘from a certain man and woman, who grew up together out of the earth and who taught them to cultivate the ground, to sow corn, milk cows, and brew beer’ (Molsbergen, iii, 62; Moodie, 431). A somewhat similar story is found among the Zulu and Tswana tribes even now. I do not know the other version, according to which the ancestors of man descended out of the sky.

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horridioresque transalpinis, et qui introrsum degunt, non inficior. Hi quippe addictius regnantur, suoque regulo cum vitae et necis, jurisque dicendi potestate armato gaudent, quem summa veneratione prosequuntur, ejusdemque caritate flagrant: qui jura subditis de plano, sine judiciorum litiumque anfractu, parte utraque auditâ, ex aequo et bono reddit, ejusque decreto stant, et imperio, legibus institutisque cordati viri, nullâ parendi morâ, nemine obstrepente, tanquam numini, ad amussim obtemperant. Ex idoneo auctore habeo, quod ejus pedibus quum tugurio, veluti palatio degreditur, seque in publico conspici patitur, mattas stragulasque in magnificentiam substernant.

Si quis filius familias à patre acerbè vapulasse, seque ad sanguinem usque caesum queritur: causa cognita, convictus vaccam districtus calidiorque pater, spectatae integritatis judici, aequabilitatem juris exercenti, multam pendit: qui ubi dijudicandae controversiae, fortè nimium intricatae et obscuritate involutae, imparem se censet, ingenii sui viribus diffisus, concilio finitimarum gentium regulorum convocato, conciliandi causa considet, dicamque Princeps apolectis juxta secum ventilandam decidendamque exhibet: quorum calculo, pluriumque suffragio, partes tanquam magno justitiae et indulgentiae in subditos (semper fermè regentibus similes) documento, acquiescunt: hincque obsequium in Principem et aemulandi amor validior quam poena ex legibus et metus, praecipuè cum subditorum gratia et leges aequantur.

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command of any chief.⁷⁷⁾ They have no skill in the arts of peace or civil society, and are, I admit, barbarous fellows, and much wilder than those on the other side of the mountains and in the interior. But these latter are under much stricter rule;⁷⁸⁾ they rejoice to acknowledge a chief armed with the power of life and death, and of administering justice; they follow him with the deepest veneration and are passionately loyal to him. He deals out simple justice to his subjects, without tortuous pleas and judgments, but after hearing both sides, and on a fair and equitable basis. They abide by his decree, and like wise men yield exact obedience to their chief, their laws and their institutions, without reluctance or demur, as if they recognized a divine authority in them.⁷⁹⁾ I have it on sufficient evidence that when he emerges from his kraal, as from a palace, and allows himself to be seen in public, they strew rugs and mats before his feet to do him reverence.

Suppose a son complains that he has been cruelly beaten by his father,⁸⁰⁾ and that the cuts have drawn blood: the case is tried, and the stern hot-tempered father, if condemned, pays a cow as a fine to a judge of proved integrity administering even justice. But suppose the chief has been called upon to decide an intricate and obscure dispute to which he feels himself unequal, deeming it too difficult for his powers of judgment, he then calls a council of the heads of the neighbouring tribes, sits with them in conference on the case, entrusting to this select body the task of discussing with him and pronouncing upon the issue involved. A majority vote of this bench of judges is acquiesced in by the disputants who look upon the procedure as a great proof of justice and goodwill to his subjects on the part of the chief. Subjects do, as a rule, resemble their rulers. The result is willing obedience to their chief and a wish to rival him which is more powerful than fear of legal punishment. This is the more so since there is no respect of persons and the laws are fairly administered.

77) This refers of course to the Bushmen (Sonquas), and not to the Hottentots.

78) Some details in the following passages are based upon the written records of the Stavenisse crew; but a good deal has been added, either from oral information or from G.'s own idea of what is fitting.

79) The Stavenisse record merely says: ‘They are obliged to submit their disputes to the King, who, after hearing the parties, gives sentence on the spot, to which all parties submit without a murmur’ (Molsbergen, iii, 66; Moodie, 431).

80) G.'s tendency to embellish his raw material is well illustrated in this paragraph. The Stavenisse record is worded as follows: ‘When a father beats his son so as to draw blood, and complaint is made to the king, he must pay the king a cow, as a fine. Should the matter in dispute be of great importance, when he cannot rely upon his own judgment, he refers the parties to an older king in his neighbourhood’ (Molsbergen and Moodie, locc. cit.). The whole account of Xhosa legal procedure is, generally speaking, accurate enough in outline.

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Seria seu publicè seu privatim tractantes, alto silentio, arrectisque auribus quisque gravitatem asseverans non adstat sed assidet, et alter alteri nunquam refragatur, obrogatve, aut sermonem obloquendo intercipit, nec voce mox demissiore, mox intentiore contendit, aut verba magno cursu convolvit, sed semper aequabili et tempore praefinito clementerque disputat: magna eis capitis reverentia cani, pro quo juniores viâ cedunt, cui honorificè consurgunt, quodque semper consulunt.

Hunc Regulum vitâ defunctum, cirris detonsis, galeris, cudonibus calyptrisque in vicinum amnem aut torrentem maeroris testimonio abjectis, cum conjugibus et liberis vero desiderio, duodenis mensibus, inoperto capite et barba rasa cunctus populus luget: quorum nullus toto illo vertente anno vel minimo butyro sebove se illinere, nec primo luctus mense schisto lacte vesci audet, solo pane et carne ut potest se sustentans.

Defunctum per ostiolum quod (ut dixi) orientem fermè semper respicit, efferre ipsis nefas, sed fracto ei ex opposito foramine, crati pro sandapila impositum, tanquam per posticam τετράϕοροι subinde etiam plures, viribus conspicui vespillones, non humeris sed manibus sublatum, caeterâ sequente pompâ, efferunt, feretrumque juxta sepulchrum abjiciunt.

Denati cucuma, nostratium feni metis non absimile, et quandoque luto oblitum, cratitiis parietibus gypso incrustatis, consanguinei, ut infaustum malique ominis, cum tota demortui supellectile omnique vestitu frivolisque, ne contagium morbi suspectum creditumque vulgetur, in Magosis concremant, attegiisque auguratò mutant: arma verò reliquaque aenea, ferrea aut eburnea vasa, hisque similia utensilia, quasi luis malorum expertia, postquam virorum urinâ lustrata sunt, aut in unum alterumve mensem sub dumo, aëre et pluviâ purganda abjecta jacuerunt, haeredibus cedunt.

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Serious business, public or private, is discussed in deep silence and with close attention. A man asserts his dignity not by standing but by sitting. No man thwarts or obstructs his fellow, or interrupts his speech by interjections. A speaker does not attempt to gain his point by whispering one moment and shouting the next, or by pouring out a violent stream of words; but in smooth tones, within the fixed time, and in a gentle manner he argues his point. A white head commands respect. For him the younger men make way, they rise to do him honour, and his advice is always sought.

When the chief dies⁸¹⁾ they shear their locks; skin caps, bonnets and helmets are all cast into the nearest river or mountain stream as a sign of mourning; and, together with their wives and children, in true grief, for twelve months, with uncovered heads and shaven chins the whole people mourns. Not one among them throughout that circling year will anoint himself with the smallest piece of butter or fat, nor in the first month of mourning will he venture to eat curdled milk, but will maintain himself on bread and meat as he best can.

It is forbidden to carry the dead man out through the little door, which, as I have said, always looks East. They break an opening in the opposite direction, lay the body on a hurdle that serves for a bier, and four bearers, sometimes more, conspicuous for their strength, raise it up in their hands, not on their shoulders, and carry it out through the postern-gate, as I may call it. The rest of the procession follows, and the bier is laid down near the grave.

The deceased's hut, which is pretty much like a hay-cock in our country, except that it is sometimes caulked with mud and the wattled walls plastered with lime, is burned by the relatives as being unlucky and ill-omened, together with all the dead man's furniture, clothing, and effects.⁸²⁾ This is the practice among the Magosi. Its purpose is to prevent the spread of infection which they suspect and believe in. They then consult the auspices and move to a fresh site. The dead man's arms, however, his copper, iron and ivory vessels, and any other similar utensils, are regarded as free from the contagion. They are purged in men's urine, or else cast for a month or two in some thicket to be cleansed by air and rain, after which they pass to the heirs.

81) This paragraph is taken almost verbatim from the Stavenisse report (Molsbergen, iii, 64); those which follow are probably derived from oral information. The description as a whole is reasonably accurate even of modern Xhosa burial customs, although some of the taboos recorded are not mentioned in the same form by Soga (op. cit., 317 ff.).

82) Soga states that the dead man's clothes, sleeping mat, wooden rest, blanket, pipe and other personal articles are buried with him in the grave (op. cit., 320). He confirms the burning or abandonment of the old homestead and the erection of a new one.

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In regimen extincti gnatus natu maximus succedit, patris vitam et mores exprimere studens: non procul inde juxta viam, mortuum rhenoni involutum, in alta fossa, clunibus insedentem, genibus mento admotis, eoque habitu quo in utero matris embrion haesit, terrae gremio pollinctor mandat, interque summum funus ducentium adstantiumque lessum, gemitum, planctumque, et praeficarum ejulatum, confictasque lachrymas, altaque suspiria persolventium justa funebria, defunctique laudes canentium, singultu naeniarum medios impediente sonos, inhumant sepeliuntque, et heroum aggesto silicum acervo, et una alteraque praealta et erecta pertica aut stipite pro cippo aut cenotaphio ornant, novissimeque parentalibus fabulam transalpini claudunt.

Secedentes a monumento, molliter ossa cubent defuncto precantur, obtestantes obsecrantesque eum ne hominibus pecoribusque noceat: quotiescunque conditorium hoc praetereunt, abrasum e vicinia ramulum, aut evulsam è terra herbam, aliave ei insternunt et prostrati, fatum defuncti queruntur, eumque utilitatis publicae commonefaciunt, et causam quaerunt, cur malit illic comploratus desideratusque delitescere, quàm suorum curam redivivus gerere? quod omnia à discessu ejus è vita, praecipiti cursu in pejus vergant, miseratus tandem immerentium maerorem, laborantibus succurrat, rogantes à sepulchro secedunt.

Malè de republica meritum, capite pronum in specum aut ferae antrum pro hypogaeo, nulli lachrymabilem praecipitant, et maledictis lapidibusque obruunt.

Redeuntes ab exequiis, protinus se aquâ vicini torrentis aut stagni abluunt, quibus aetate ceteris praevectior, tecto humi orbiculatim sedentibus tanquam lustramento immeit; hinc peculiari sacrificio ovis vel bos cadit, excernentesque quaecunque in ejus ventriculo et intestinis reperiunt, illo semet ipsos, pecus, casulamque superstitiosi aspergunt, carnemque omnem epulo ferali devorant.

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The eldest son succeeds to the position of chief, and makes it his object to imitate his father's life and character. The interment takes place beside the road not far away. The dead man is wrapped in his kaross and put sitting on his hauches in a deep trench with his knees moved up to his chin; thus, in the position he occupied as an embryo in his mother's womb, he is entrusted to the lap of earth.⁸³⁾ The interment is accompanied by loud wailings and groanings and beatings of the breast from those who have attended the funeral or gathered as spectators: and there is also to be heard the keening of the official women mourners who with forced tears and heavy sighs accomplish the due formalities, hymning the praises of the dead man while deep sobs interrupt their funeral dirges. A mound of stones forms the monument to the departed; one or two lofty poles or posts are erected upon it for a memorial; and a funeral feast forms the last act of the tragic drama.

As they withdraw from the tomb they pray for the dead man that his bones may rest in peace, and they beg and beseech him not to injure man or beast. And whenever they pass his grave, a branch is plucked near by, or a plant pulled from the earth, to strew upon it, and they cast themselves upon their faces and bewail the dead man's fate, reminding him of the public good and asking him how he can lie there hid amid their tears and lamentations instead of rising from the dead to resume the care of his people. Since his departure from this life all things have gone headlong to the bad; let him now pity their unmerited distress and come to the help of his suffering people. Thus praying they depart from the tomb.

An offender against the state is cast headlong into a cave or wild beast's den as into a dungeon. Nobody sheds a tear for him, and they crush him with curses and stones.

Immediately on their return from the funeral they wash themselves in a neighbouring stream or pool. Then they all sit in a circle on the floor of a hut and the eldest among them makes water on them as a lustral bath. Then, as a special sacriflce, a sheep or ox is slain, and, removing whatever they find in its stomach or bowels, the superstitious creatures sprinkle themselves, their cattle, and the hut with it. Finally all the flesh is devoured in a funeral feast.⁸⁴⁾

83) According to Soga, the body is buried in a reclining position, doubled up as described, and not in a sitting position (op. cit., 319-20). The wailing to which G. refers normally takes place not at the graveside, but at the home of the deceased, before the funeral procession sets out. ‘No religious ceremony takes place at the grave,’ says Soga, ‘and no words of condolence or sympathy are uttered. A precatory sentence, however, is often addressed to the departed, such as 'remember us for good from the place to which you have gone'’ (op. cit., 320).

84) The washing and sacrificial feast after the funeral are practised by both Hottentots and AmaXhosa, but the besprinkling to which G. refers is a Hottentot custom only.

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Mortui bona filiis aequis portionibus haereditate obveniunt, quibus deficientibus, gradu consanguinitatis defuncto propior succedit, et frater fratris bona non pater cernit: novissimè extraneus vocatur, filiabus à paterna fraternaque, et à quacunque alia haereditate semper exclusis; sane jure gentium antiquissimo singulaeve istae flnis et principium familiae censentur, parvique aestimantur.

Leonis, pardalis, tigridis, onagri, ovis, aliarumque ferarum pecudumve pellibus, per alutarios hos concinnatis et adipe axungiaque probè maceratis subactisque, tanquam boeta (barbarico ornatu mastrucati) velantur omnes, intimasque quandoque in extimas vertunt, studiosissimique in sua quisque se continere pellicula, veteremque semper retinere: nonnunquam tamen antesignanum aliquem, sua manu strenuum, aut corporis habitu, vel animi magnitudine, altâ formâ aut genere ceteris conspectiorem discoloriâ segmentataque pelle tectum observitavi.

Omnium Afrorum Asianorumque more, haud secus quam oleo, artus quavis pinguedine contra solis, frigoris, morborumque injurias perfricant, diluunt inunguntque: foeditas foetorque quem nostrates illis impingunt, non sordibus, sed potius herbae (Bochu incolis dictae) botanicis Europaeis cognitae, adscribendus, quam lapidibus contusam dispulveratamque, suavi suffimine, praesentissimo amuleto, saluberrimoque diapasmate capiti aspergunt et circumliniunt; hujus herbae odor advenis injuncundus, gravis, insuavisque, sed aliquandiu eum odorantibus non inelegans, fragrans gratusque est.

Magni adhuc faciunt herbam Daggha ipsis appellatam, cujus radiculas in placentae formam compactas, magnitudine nummum argenteum, vulgo RDⁿ non excedente, dentibus pari modo, quo Indi opium, aut Aegyptii Oetum, commolunt: unde quidem soporem, sed rabiem nunquam sibi conciunt.

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The possessions of one deceased fall to his sons in equal proportions; if they fail, the next of kin succeeds.⁸⁵⁾ A brother inherits the property of a brother, not the father. In the last event an outsider is called in, for the daughters are forever debarred from inheriting from a father, a brother, or any other source. And indeed by the most ancient law of nations they are regarded as the end of one family and the beginning of another, and are made of small account(?).

It is the native fashion to dress like herds in skins, and they all go clad in the hides of lions, leopards, tigers, zebras, sheep and other animals wild or domesticated. The skins are prepared by being softened in fat and grease and well worked. Sometimes they wear them inside-out, They are very particular to wrap themselves each in his own skin, and never to throw away an old one. I have however occasionally seen a distinguished warrior, who was a mighty man of action, or one conspicuous above his fellows for his fine physique or greatness of mind or lofty stature or noble birth, dressed in a skin of a distinctive colour and with a tasselled edge.

Like all Africans and Asiatics they rub their limbs with any sort of fat, just as if it was olive oil, anointing themselves copiously as a protection against the danger of sun, cold or disease. The noisome stench of which our people accuse them is to be ascribed not to dirt but rather to a plant known to European botanists and called Bochu by the natives. This they crush with stones and reduce to a powder, and then sprinkle or rub on their heads as a sweet fumigatory, potent charm, or disinfectant scent. Strangers find the smell of this plant unpleasant, heavy, and offensive, but to those who have had time to become accustomed to it, it seems choice, fragrant and agreeable.

They set very great store by the plant Daggha, as they call it, the roots of which they make into little cakes not exceeding in size the silver coin known in the vernacular as a rix dollar; and these they chew, as the Indians do opium and the Egyptians oetum. It puts them to sleep, but never maddens them.

85) This paragraph is based wholly on the Stavenisse reports: ‘Should a son die, his brother and not his father inherits his cattle. When the father dies, the sons inherit in equal proportions, and should there be no male issue strangers inherit in preference to daughters’ (Molsbergen, iii, 65). Actually, in any Xhosa household, the principal heir is the eldest son of the first wife, who has to make provision for his younger brothers and sisters; in polygynous households, the eldest son of each wife inherits all the property alloted by the father during his lifetime to that wife, but the eldest son of the first wife succeeds to the headship of the family. If a man has no sons, his property is inherited by his father if still living; if not, then by his eldest brother of the same ‘house’. (Maclean, Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, 1858, 71-72).

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Eodem in usu pretioque ipsis herba Cannah, forte nostratium cannabis, cujus semina dicerem non multum abhorrere ab illis, quae aliquando Mantuae Carpetanorum in sartagine cum pipere, oleo et sale frixa (canamones Hispanis dicta) degustavi.

Animalium terrestrium, volucrium et acquatilium, tam domesticorum quam silvestrium immensus, tanquam vivario et ad prodigium numerus, et omnium instar hoc specimen habeas, quod ultrà mille elephantes quandoque gregatim pascantur, quorum aliqui tantae vastitatis, ut alterum eorum dentem (meo calculo cornu) triginta supra centum librarum pondere viderim: nec minor serpentium, amphibiorum, et insectorum multitudo, quorum genera ut plurimum in quatuor et plures species se spargentia, easdemque maximam partem nostratibus ignotas, omnibusque scriptoribus incognitas, attonitus animadverti, et ne à fide abhorrentia narrare videar, scias eadem mihi assiduos testes retulisse, et inter caetera visas ipsis pascentes belluas, capite equo similes, oblongo collo, brevi caudâ, reliquis vero corporis partibus elephantem referentes adaequantesque, incredibilis penè pernicitatis, adeoque cicures ut mansuefactas crederes; porrò ex ore nonnullorum haud spernendae fidei accepi, visos sibi monocerotes equo statura omnibusque membris simillimos in fronte cornu brachii longitudine et crassitie gestantes ferocissimos: alii quorum fides non vacillat narrant dari illic bicornes equos paris ferocitatis et formâ egregios: nonnulli praetendunt se vidisse insignes arduosque silvestres equos catervatim pascentes, et inter illos quosdam nive candidiores, alios carbone nigriores, nonnullos albos, sed jubâ caudâque nigrâ, et vice versâ, quosdam atros, caudâ jubâque candidos, omnes Asturconibus praestantiores, quos ob velocitatem Pegasos diceres: Onagrum non minoris pernicitatis et spectatae pulchritudinis fasciis albis nigrisque duorum digitorum latitudine alternatim per totum corpus, ab auribus usque ad caudam et imos talos affabrè striatura

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They use for the same purpose and hold in equal esteem the Canna plant, which is perhaps our hemp.⁸⁶⁾ The seeds of it do not seem very different from those which I once ate in Madrid, fried in the pan with pepper, oil and salt, and called canamones by the Spaniards.

The number of animals here of earth, air, and water, and both domestic and wild, is so prodigious that it is like living in a zoo. Let one example serve for all: more than a thousand elephants sometimes feed together in a herd, and some of them are of such a size that I have seen a single tooth (I should rather call it a horn) that weighed more than one hundred and thirty pounds. The number of snakes, amphibians, and insects is just as great. Each class of them splits up as a rule into four or more species, and these, I am astonished to perceive, are for the most part unknown to the Europeans and unrecognized in the writings of all naturalists. I do not want you to suppose that I am straying from the truth; you must know therefore that the most careful observers have reported the above facts to me, and have told me among other things that they have seen creatures grazing with horses' heads, long necks, short tails, like elephants in the rest of their parts and as big, of an almost incredible swiftness, and at the same time so little shy that they seemed domesticated. I have also heard credible witnesses state that they have seen ferocious unicorns as big as horses and like them in every limb, with a horn on the forehead as long and as thick as your arm. Others, of unimpeachable veracity, say that there are horses here with two horns, equally ferocious and of exquisite beauty. Some profess to have seen fine tall wild horses feeding in herds, and among them some fairer than snow, others darker than coal, some white with black mane and tail, and vice versa, some black with white mane and tail, all of them outclassing the Asturian breed and each a Pegasus in swiftness. I have seen with wonder a zebra of no less speed and rare beauty, artistically striped over his whole body from his ears to his tail and down his legs to the pastern with alternate bands of black and white two fingers thick. It was only in the size of his

86) Canna or Ganna is identified by Marloth (Common Names of Plants, 30) as ‘several species of Salsola’. Reference is made to the Hottentot use of it in the notes to the plates accompanying the journal of van der Stel's expedition to Namaqualand. ‘They generally chew a certain herb called canna. They pound it root and stem together between stones and store and preserve it in bags made of sheepskin. In October, when we were approaching the Copper Mountain, everybody was gathering this herb on the surrounding mountains as a supply for the whole year. They use it as the natives of India use betel or areca. They chew both stem and root almost all day and become thereby intoxicated, so that on account of this effect and its pleasant smell and stimulating taste, one may safely expect some advantage from its workings’ (Waterhouse, 162, 165).

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dispersum miratus, sola aurium magnitudine ab equo differentem: similem forte Absolon novissimè conscendit.

In Hippopotamo stupendae molis bellua, cui aquam terramque incolendi natura est, superiorem maxillam mobilem, illudque cum crocodilo commune habere observavi, feruntque ejus pinguedinem elixam potamque variis morbis mederi.

In rostro dente timendi apri a venatoribus capti cornu digitum magnitudine non excedens recurvum, quandoque etiam bina ipsus vidi, pariterque tres pluresve apros subterraneos Europaeis incognitos vulgo aard-varkens, centum et amplius librarum singulos, auribus praegrandibus et asininis, rostro oblongo, ceterum capite, seta totoque corpore apro simillimos, cauda vero crassâ, porrectâ, coniformi, et in acutum desinente bipedali, nullis dentibus armatos, tremendis autem et cultratis ungulis, quatuor in anterioribus, quinque in posterioribus pedibus, quibus se contra quoscunque insultus tuentur, iisdem sibi cavernam editioribus locis, mox hic mox illic effodiunt, frequenter orienti soli oppositam, ore angusto, quod vix ac ne vix ipsos capit, aditu clementer declivi, et in aliquot cubitus recto tramite provecto, seque magis ac magis pandente, donec in illius extremitate satis amplum recipiendis etiam hominibus cubile orbiculatum convexumque pedibus posterioribus terram, anterioribus obviam usquequaque abrasam ejicientes, excavant: in quo die latent, indeque sub noctem pabulatum egrediuntur nutrientes se formicis, quas exertâ in illarum examina seu nidos tenui et cubitali linguâ, earundemque ova depascuntur: hinc libet suspicari causam, cur ipsorum carnem insulsam insipidamque expertus fuerim: nonnulli narrarunt mihi quod triplo majores quam dixi viderint.

Adnotatum experimento domesticos equos hos longaevos, acerrimos, insignesque esse, quos mandato Patrum Conscriptorum ex Persia, et Javâ, impensiori pretio huc advectos, tanta felicitate et fecunditate auctos videmus,

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ears that he differed from a horse. On such a one Absalom may have mounted for his last ride.⁸⁷⁾

I have observed in the case of the hippopotamus, an enormous beast whose nature is to inhabit land and water alike, that he moves his upper jaw, a peculiarity he shares with the crocodile. They say also that the fat of this animal boiled and drunk is a cure for various diseases.

On the snout of a boar with terrible tusks that was taken by hunters I have seen a horn with a backward curve not above a finger in length. On other specimens I have seen two such horns. Furthermore I have seen at least three specimens of an underground boar unknown to Europeans and commonly called earth-pigs (ant-eater). Each of them weighed over one hundred pounds, and had large donkey's ears, a long snout, and for the rest in head, bristle and body resembled a boar, save that its tail was thick, projecting, tapering, and ended at a length of two feet in a sharp point. This creature is armed with no teeth, but has tremendous knife-like claws, four on the front paws, five on the back, with which it protects itself against all attack. With these it also digs a hole for itself, now in one place, now in another, on rising ground. This hole usually faces East, and has a narrow entry barely big enough to admit the animal; it then slopes gently down and continues in a straight course for several cubits, widening out more and more until at the end it forms a vaulted spherical chamber big enough to hold a man. When the ant-eater is hollowing out its den, it keeps casting out with its hind legs the earth that is scraped away in front by the fore-paws. In this cave it lies by day, but at night-fall it comes out in quest of food, feeding on ants or on their eggs, which it licks up by thrusting its thin tongue, which is a foot and a half in length, into a swarm of ants, or an ants' nest. Their diet is, I suppose, the reason that I found their flesh so tasteless and insipid. Some people tell me that they have seen specimens three times as big as I have described.

Experience has shown that the horses for domestic use which the Council imported from Persia and Java at a great price are long-lived, spirited, and excellent in every way⁸⁸⁾. They have thriven so well here and bred so fast that some of the settlers drive round in a coach-and-four,

87) Part of this description is derived from the Stavenisse crew, who claimed to have seen ‘two animals feeding together in the wilderness, in size and colour like the elephant; having a head like the horse, a short tail, but a long neck, very tame, and totally unknown in Europe’ (Moodie suggests this may have been the giraffe), and ‘horses, which they do not catch or tame, although they approach within 10 or 12 paces; they are finely formed, and quite black, with long manes and tails, incredibly swift, and of great strength; some have the tail black, and others white.’ (Moodie, 432; cf. Molsbergen, iii, 67.)

88) Horses were first imported into the Cape from Batavia in 1653; in 1665 they had increased so greatly in number that some were sold by public auction to the farmers, at an average price of £4 16s. (the cost of 4 or 5 fine large oxen); in 1689, they had so far deteriorated in size and condition that some stud horses were imported from Persia to improve the breed (Theal, ii, 38, 158, 357).

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ut nonnulli colonorum citis quadrigis, imo sejugibus, Dynast[r]is pares, vehantur, et quandoque denos in varios usus pascant equos, duasque turmas dimacharum sub signis stantes, et ad nutum regentium cum quatuor cohortibus parituras, quotannis lustret Colonia: adhaec regio haec duros progenerat boves, velocitate pares illis quos Indus prope Gangem habet.

Novissimè memorandi occurrunt noxiosissimi canes sylvestres, qui deni vicenique catervatim sursum deorsum venantes, oves vitulosque obvios, protenus ferocissimi hos exenterant, illarumque ubera aut ventrem praelongis acutisque dentibus dilacerant, totumque gregem momento sternunt, ni opilionum provida cura et pecuariorum canum fide arceantur.

De rhinocerote bicorni, (?)alie, bisonte, bonasso aliisque animalibus scribere supervacaneum habeo, ne tot tantaeque bestiae tibi nauseam pareant (sic): hoc unicum addere placet, à nonnullis mihi narratum esse, quod haustu unius heminae sanguinis harum ferarum, continuò postquam captae sunt, quidam longiori valetudine consumpti convaluerint, nec te latere velim quod nulla bellua hic visa sit, quae non ad homines assurâ adsuescat.

Nil aurâ hac salubrius, nil aëre purius, caelo raro fulgure tonante nec edurante nil tempestatius molliusve, si anniversarium Circium Ornithiasque procaces, gelido ab austro alternis vicibus subinde bacchantes Etesiamque imbricum, pluviaeque prodromum exceperis: quibus aestuantibus, montes vicinos nive et pruinâ in aliquot dies persidente, mense (quod mirandum) Decembri adulto, cum sol vertici nostro proximus, coöpertos, et Julio aquam glacie concretam, et in vallibus grandinem vidi: quae nuper tanta mole cecidit, ut civis cujusdam praetextatus praepetumque notarum filius, quatuor è Promontorio milliaribus, mancipio stipatus, per deserta domum rediens, prae frigore cum comite enectus sit. Porro discordia ventorum tanta est, ut quatuor naves in nostro portu in anchoris una stantes, et singulam singulum ventum nonnunquam respicientem, nimirum unam Euro, alteram Gauro, tertiam Caeciae, ultimamque Africo prorâ obversam simul viderim: nec minor eorundem inconstantia, cum sua quisque vice alter alterum, una eademque die quandoque excipiat, quod communi omnium sententia probatum, quotquot navigant, testantium se in flectendis Promontoriis maximas ventorum mutationes saepe sensisse.

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or even a coach-and-six, like princes, and sometimes keep as many as ten horses for various purposes. Every year, too, along with the four cohorts of infantry the Colony reviews two squadrons of dragoons, ranged under their colours and very obedient to their leaders. This place also produces very hardy oxen, as swift as those found in India near the Ganges.

Finally must be mentioned the very destructive wild dogs, which hunt up and down in packs of ten or twenty; when they come on sheep or calves, with the utmost savagery they promptly disembowel some and tear the udders and bellies of others with their long sharp teeth. In a moment they destroy a whole flock unless the watchful herds or trusty dogs can keep them off.

About the two-horned rhinoceros, the eland, the bison, the bonassus, or hairy bull, and other animals, I think it unnecessary to write. I am afraid so many huge beasts may disgust you. There is only this I should like to add: I have been told by several people that on drinking half a pint of the blood of one of these animals immediately after its being taken, patients who have long languished in sickness have recovered. Nor would I have you ignorant that there is no animal that has been seen here of which the flesh when roasted is not suitable to men.

Nothing could be more wholesome than the air here, more clear than the atmosphere, more mild and temperate than the sky which but rarely thunders and lightens and then not for long. Exception must be made only of the blustering gales that blow every year from various quarters in the chilly South, and of the showery trade wind, the harbinger of rain. When these are raging I have seen the neighbouring mountains covered for several days with snow and frost, even in the middle of December, when the sun here is at its zenith, which is a very remarkable thing. In July I have seen water covered with ice, and hail in the valleys. Indeed lately hail of such size fell that a youth in his teens, a promising lad, the son of one of our citizens, was killed. He was coming home through the wilds with a slave, and he and his companion were overtaken by the storm four miles from the Cape and died of cold. Furthermore the struggle between the winds is sometimes so great that I have seen four ships riding at anchor together in our harbour all facing different winds at the same time, one East, one North West, a third North East, and the last South West. Even if but one wind blows at a time, it is very unsteady, shitting its quarter often in one and the same day, a fact supported by the universal testimony of all sailors, who state that in rounding the Cape they have often been aware of the greatest changes in the wind.

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Campi quo remotiores a nobis, eo magis graminosi, herbidi, cultoribusque ingeniosi: armentis, pecudibus, aliisque animalibus, adhaec omni genere ferarum, veluti theriotrophio, (ut dixi) scatentes, saltusque ingentium belluarum adeo feraces, ut hominibus parum sit periculi a leone aliave fera, cum praeda tam domesticarum mansuefactarumque quam indomitarum bestiarum, quae facili assultu, minori etiam sui cum periculo, quam si hominibus ut plurimum armatis insidietur, dilaceranda passim obvia.

Latomiae et montes variis metallis gravidi: solum nonnunquam gemmis dives, umbrosis nemoribus, praealtis crassisque arboribus, construendis domibus navibusque luxurians: quibus accedunt variae arbores, quarum fructuum feritas, haud dubie colendo molliri posset, inter caeteras oleastellos vidi, maximopere saepiusque commendatos, sed hactenus, quo fato me latet, neglectos, forte quia ejus cultura ignoratur, nec reperitur qui olei confectionem didicerit.

Prope nos multiplicia arva, variaque naturâ, et in uno jugo aut versu quandoque tria quatuorve glebarum genera: hic male pinguis arena, illic sabulum, ibi argilla, mox uligo, lutum, silices rupesque. Hinc fit (ut opinor) quod frumenti solum laetas segetes non uno eodemque tempore simul maturas fundat, aliae enim aliis citius maturescunt: qua etiam de causa colonus cererem non uno tenore quo coepit, sed tantum adultam falcibus aptam, mox hoc mox illo sulco, falculam ab immatura segete avertens, metit.

Sol gravis raro arva aut herbas urit, rariusque carbunculatio: non ligone aut pastino, sed urpice terram Africanae mulieres interioris cardinis fodiunt, quibus usitata consuetudine et majorum exemplo ad hoc usque tempus id perfrequens.

Cisalpini Afri addictè modicâ mercede operam suam locantes, Messenis serviliores famulantur, manusque operi insuetas gnaviter admovent. Pecus scabrum cteniatri feliciter curant, illudque pecuarii fidi pascere percallent. Boves ad usum agrestem formant: jumenta jugunt, ducunt et disjungunt, essedarii, jugarii et aurigarii solertissimi: quidam expediti in equo, quem fundere et flectere didicere, ita ut Sarmatam aliquem patentibus campis inequitantem

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The more distant the veld is from us, the more grassy it is, the richer in plants, and the more suited to cultivation. It abounds in oxen and sheep and other animals, as well as every kind of wild beast, so that, as I have said, it is like a zoo; and the mountain glades are so full of huge creatures that there is little danger to man from lions or other wild animals, for there is everywhere ready for them to rend and tear a supply of victims both domesticated and wild which they can easily pounce upon with less danger to themselves than if they attacked men who are generally armed.

There are quarries, and the mountains are pregnant with various metals. Sometimes the soil is rich in gems. And the abundant shady woods and tall stout trees are suited for constructing both houses and ships. Also there are the many wild fruit trees which could without doubt be improved by cultivation. Among others I have seen a species of olive, often warmly praised but as yet, through what chance I know not, neglected. It may be that the method of cultivation is unknown, and that no one has been found who understands the manufacture of the oil.

Near us are many fields of various kinds; that is to say, in a length of one hundred feet you will often find three or four kinds of soil: there barren sand, there gravel, elsewhere clay, and then marsh, mud, flint and rocks. This is the reason, I think, that the ground under corn does not yield crops that ripen uniformly at the one time, but some patches are more advanced than others. So a farmer does not steadily carry out the mowing of the crops once he begins, but turning his reaping-hook from the unripe corn, he goes now along this furrow, now along that, selecting what is ready for the sickle.

The sun is rarely so hot as to scorch the crops; blight is still rarer. The women of the interior, to whose lot this task even at the present day, from old custom and ancestral precedent, still falls, do not dig the soil with mattock or dibble, but with a rake.

The natives on this side of the mountain enthusiastically hire out their labour for a modest wage, and toil more submissively than Spartan helots. They are apt in applying their hands to unfamiliar tasks. Thus they readily acquire the veterinary skill to cure scab in sheep, and they make faithful and efficient herds. They train oxen for use in ploughing; and if put in charge of a wagon, coach or cart, they are found exceedingly quick at inspanning or outspanning or guiding a team. Some of them are very accomplished riders, and have learned to break horses and master them. You would swear it was a Sarmatian galloping over the open plain. Runaways, vagrants and

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jurares: drapetas, errones fugitivosque tam liberos quam servos reprehendunt, retrahunt, domumque spe praemii reducunt. Bajuli, corbulones, geruli, angari, hemerodromi fidissimi: lignarii, fornacarii, lixae, pampiniatores, vindemiatoresque et in calcatorio torcularii seduli: silvestrem agrum extricant, elapidatumque pastino, ligone aut bipalio fodiunt, manumque buri sine laxamento admovent, sementem faciunt, terram rastris insectantur, deoccant, lirant cratiuntque: irpicibus dirunciunt, eruncantque ex agro, vinea hortoque herbas, magnamque in messe quam demetunt operam indefessi praestant, capite hedera convolvulisque redimito, quo aestuantium radiorum solarium rigorem corymbiferi infringant, diceresque te bacchantium agmen videre, per omnia Afris nostris simillimum, nisi quod illi[s] dextrâ poculum vibrantes, vino madeant, dum hi una manu falculam altera culmos tenentes messores, areatores, evannatoresque acriter desudant.

Horum mulieres filiaeque non infideles lotrices, nec gerariae indiligentes: patinas omniaque vasa coquinaria eluere, sordesque everrere et sarrire, facesque ex agris undecunque colligere, focum accendere, coquulae apprimè norunt, Batavis parvo famulae.

Palam est quod sine horum Davorum opera, acrius coloni nostri licet fortissimi agris laboribusque suis ingemiscerent: sed proh dolor! nimia felicitate (ut assolet) torpescentes, tanquam Salmacidis spoliis, sine sudore aut labore partis, enervantur multi.

Non ingratum tibi, nec abs re fore arbitror si narravero me vidisse Afram, cui pro diurno labore in gabata a quodam Belga analecta dabantur, quae laeta haud aliter quam pipans gallina pullos convocat, suos conclamans populares, eis capturam tanquam in diribitorio dilargitur, vix bucellam sibi servans, hacque bonorum communione promiscue gaudent omnes, ita ut tubulus nicotiani accensus ab ore ad os omnium accurrentium perambulat, donec in fumum et cineres tabacum conversum sit. A Barbaris certare beneficiis Christiani discant.

Rigandae terrae crebri fontes, rivuli, amnesque limpldissimi saluberrimique non desiderantur, quorum incredibilis pelluciditas et dulcedo saepius sitim mihi adeo aut provocavit aut auxit, ut dixisses me sub Jerubbaalis signis novissimae lustrationis militare.

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deserters they arrest and bring back home in hope of a reward. They make trusty bearers, porters, carriers, postboys and couriers. They chop wood, mind the fire, work in the kitchen, prune vines, gather grapes, or work the wine press industriously. They clear wild ground, and when the stones have been picked out of it, break it up with dibble, hoe, or mattock. Without relaxation they plough, sow, and harrow. From field, vineyard or garden they clean out the weeds with their rakes, and at harvest time they exert themselves indefatigably, their heads bound with ivy and convolvulus so that the green clustering leaves may mitigate the flerceness of the sun's burning rays. A troop of Bacchic revellers you might say, and indeed the resemblance is complete save that the followers of Bacchus brandished goblets in their hands and were drenched with wine, whereas our natives at the harvest have a sickle in one hand and the corn stalks in the other, and whether harvesting, threshing, or winnowing are drenched in sweat.

Their wives and daughters make reliable washerwomen and busy chars. They wash plates and dishes, clean up dirt, gather sticks from the fields round-about, light the fires, cook well, and provide cheap labour for the Dutch.⁸⁹⁾

It is perfectly plain that without the aid of these slaves, our farmers, stout fellows though they be, would be groaning bitterly over their toil in the fields. But, oh, the shame of it! as usual too much good fortune has bred sloth, and many are enervated as if by the spoils of Salmacis, won without toil or sweat.

It will not bore you, I think, and it will be à propos, if I tell you that I have seen a Hottentot woman, who in return for a day's labour had been given some scraps in a platter by a certain Dutchman. She began to crow with delight like a hen gathering her chickens, calling her people together and making a regular distribution of her booty among them, and hardly keeping a mouthful for herself. All alike delight in this communion of goods.⁹⁰⁾ Even a pipe of tobacco when kindled is passed round from mouth to mouth of the crowd that keeps running up, until the weed has vanished into smoke and ash. Let the Christians learn from the natives to vie with one another in well-doing.

For the irrigation of the soil there is no lack of limpid, wholesome springs, streams and rivers, the incredible clearness and sweetness of which has often so occasioned or increased my thirst that you would have declared me to be a soldier of Jerubaal at the last testing.⁹¹⁾

89) An excellent, if rather eulogistic, description of the way in which the Hottentots were being employed as servants by the European farmers. Most of the domestic labour, of course, was done by imported slaves, but many of the farmers already had Hottentots as well (cf., e.g., The Diary of Adam Tas, passim).

90) See above, p. 47.

91) Judges, 7, 4-6.

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Terra Cerere et uvis ferax, copiâ rerum, omni commeatu et annonae affluentia abundans, etiam nicotiano, virtute Americano pari, si cultura accedat: fruges mira largitate, et nonnunquam messem cum quadragesimo faenore ferens: ex semine triticio, centum uno minus culmos, totidemque spicas, et in una fricta quinque supra septuaginta grana cum maximè, stupenda fecunditate, Sicula non inferiore, numero.

Extensissimos campos gethyum sylvestre, aliaque quae ad victum conducunt, ferentes, vastaque loca epimenidiis, ulpico, ascalonia, atractylide, caepula, et ampeloprasso plena, ex fide dignis accipio: ipsusque vidi agros ambugia refertos, quam edulem aliquoties legi, cum acidulis, corrudaque variarum specierum.

Ostensa mihi arva viginti abhinc annis et forte à condito mundo in illum usque diem rudia et ab natura et ab humano cultu vasta, quae triticum, bis aut ter saltem toto illo quadrilustro cessata, nullo fumo^* adjuta et nudo duntaxat aratro levi sulco versa, copiosa messe, quolibet anno minime defrugata tulerunt, et tum cum maxime in herbis stantem luculentam pollicebatur.

Taleam seu putamen mali duorum pedum depactum coäluisse, eique anno post surculum mali insertum, eumque intra annum fructum maturum protulisse succurrit, vitemque mense Junio satam, Decembri insequente uvas inaudita fertilitate edidisse narrant, omnesque fruges exoticas quas alma Europa, fertilis Asia, grataque cultoribus America laxo sinu fundit, hic felicissime in acroteriis nostris, si paucas exceperis, abunde percipi, nec colonorum spem fallere, manifestum est.

In brassicas capitatas et apianas tantae molis incidi, ut quamlibet earum vix ahenum coquendam caperet; parisque magnitudinis buniades vidi, quibus eundo fessus tanquam sediculae insedi. Betas adhaec me coram carnosas pulvinis effoderunt, viri bracchium crassitie et longitudine adaequantes, his similia legumina stupefactus conspexi, et magis dum omnia jucundissime sapida expertus.

Tam largo hic pubescit vinea fetu, ut ex octingentis Appianis vitibus, sed^** cados (vulgo oxhoofden) praestantissimo vino helveolo, rubello aut gilvo una vindemia se replevisse ex idoneo colono habeam, et communi omnium sententiâ accepi. vitem nostram vernaculam adeo mitem

* Read fimo.

** Read sex.

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The soil, which is fruitful both of corn and wine, provides a copious plenty of provisions and supplies. It even yields tobacco, which, if it were cultivated, would rival the American. The grain crop is wonderfully abundant, the increase of the harvest being sometimes forty-fold. I count ninety-nine stalks and as many ears from one grain of wheat, and in one ear which I rubbed out there were seventy-five grains. This is an astonishing yield, equal even to that of Sicily.

I have it on reliable authority that there are wide plains bearing wild onions and other vegetables suitable for food, and huge tracts of land full of supplies, such as leeks, shallots, edible thistles, spring onions and garliok. I have myself seen fields full of ambugia, which I have sometimes gathered and found fit for eating, together with aciduli(?) and wild asparagus of various species.

Fields have been shown to me which twenty years ago, and perhaps from the creation to that day, were a rude waste on which neither nature nor man had grown anything. But for the last twenty years they have been well sown, and with only two or three fallow periods in all that time, with no manure, and after the slightest turning of the surface with the plough, they have yielded an abundant harvest of wheat. At the time I saw them the corn was in the blade and promised a rich crop.

I remember that a sprig or cutting of an apple-tree two feet long took root when planted. A year later a slip was grafted on to it, and within the year it bore ripe fruit. Also a vine planted in June bore grapes the following December. Such fertility is unprecedented. But indeed all the fruits of other lands, those which genial Europe, fertile Asia, and America, the farmer's joy, pour from their open lap, can with few exceptions be seen flourishing here on our promontory and never disappointing the hopes of the husbandman.

I have seen heads of cabbage and marrows so big that hardly a pot could be found to hold them. The turnips here are equally large, so much so that I have used one for a stool when I got tired walking. Beets have been dug out of a bank in my presence so fleshy that they were as long and as thick as a man's arm. Such vegetables it has astonished me to behold, and the more so on finding them all deliciously flavoured.

Our vines here bear so well that a reliable farmer told me that in one vintage from eight hundred choice vines he got six casks (commonly called hogsheads) of excellent pale-red, dark-red, or yellow wine. And everybody assures me that the native vine produces so mellow a grape that

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educare uvam, ut helluonibus racemorum nunquam noceat, licet se bumammis ingurgitent: imo quod ex longa navigatione aegros, laboribus fractos, ipsosque dysentericos et torminosos, praesertim si cum acinis eorundem cutem admixtâ panis offula simul commedant, tanquam panchresto medicamento frequentissimè, morbidosque alios curet.

Porrò terra haec perpetuis quasi apricis floribus vernat, quorum odor excitatissimus et aspectus jucundissimus: cui accedit quod montes, colles, prata, nemora, omnesque loci, herbis, fructibus, seminibus, aromaticisque adeo referti, ut herbidam Hispaniam horum fecunditati comparatam, Arabiae desertis Libyaeque solitudini similiorem dicerem, quae adolentia naribus, tam grata expertus, ut me totum nasum aliquando optaverim odoribus satiandum, omnes pastillos, quaecunque suffimenta, et Sabaeorum thuribula suâ fragrantiâ superantibus, suavitateque omnibus Italorum seplasiis, Iberorumque pharmacopolarum, aromatariorum, et myriopolarum officinis tantum praestare sensi, quantum rosa calthae: cunctosque Omnipotentis Artiflcis dextram structurâ, omnibus numeris absolutissimâ, subtiliter ductâ, stupendum in modum variâ, nitidâ, et non uno genere formosâ testari, et odorum dulcedine clamitare Deum! Deum! annoque converso renascentes imagine symbolicâ hominum a mortuis non obscure resurrectionem docere.

Non est quod colonus locustas, grandinem, rubiginem, uriginem, aliasve calamitates messui noxias, multum hic metuat: volucres tamen ni attendentium solertiâ vigilacique ut plurimum barbarorum curâ arceantur, subinde arvum, vineam hortumque populantur: adhaec raucae, scolopendrae, erucae, cyniphes, convolvuli, scarabaei aliaque insecta tantae tenuitatis ut vix in conspectum cadant, aciemque nostrorum oculorum paenè effugiant, nonnunquam vitem graminaque triticia tenera, et nondum in culmum excreta, poma, pisa similiaque legumina depascuntur, et cum vermiculatione agricolae expectationem misere frustrantur.

Nulla hic rustico vectigalia imposita, certè perexigua, decimas saltem frumenti coacti, proprioque calculo subducti, pendit quarto anno postquam excoluerit fundum,

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it never injures the greatest glutton, even if he consumes whole bunches of the largest size. Indeed it is maintained that men invalided after a long voyage, their health broken by their sufferings, and perhaps afflicted with dysentery and gripes, have often been cured as if by a specific on eating berries and their skins together with a little bread. Sufferers from other diseases have also, it is said, been cured.

Then in this land there is, I might almost say, everlasting spring, by reason of the sunny flowers with their lively scents and gay liveries. Here too are mountains, hills, valleys, meadows, groves, all so filled with grasses, and shrubs, with grain, and aromatic herbs, that verdant Spain compared with such fertility would show like the barren deserts of Arabia or Libya. So sweet have I found the breath of these scents in my nostrils that at times I could have wished myself all nose the better to sate myself with perfumes the fragrance of which was as far beyond all pastiles and incense, and Sabaean thuribles, all the perfumeries of Italy and pharmacies of Spain, the shops of the dealers in spices, and the vendors of myrrh, as a rose is sweeter than a marigold. All these flowers proclaim the hand of the Omnipotent Creator in their structure, so perfect are they in all their parts, so delicate in design, so infinitely various, so bright, so manifold in their shapes of beauty; with the sweetness of their scent they seem to cry aloud God! God!; and as they spring up anew each returning year they show forth plainly in a symbol the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

The farmer here has no great cause to fear locusts, hail, blight, mildew or other disasters to his crops. The birds, however, unless prevented, as they usually are, by the skill and wakeful vigilance of the natives on guard, do sometimes ravage a field, a vineyard, or a garden. And there are root-worms, centipedes, canker-worms, caterpillars, beetles, as well as other insects so small that they are scarcely visible but almost elude the sight of our eyes, which sometimes devour vines, young corn not yet grown into the stalk, fruits, peas, and other similar vegetables. The crops are wormed, and the farmers wretchedly cheated of their hopes.

No tax, or at any rate a very small one, is laid upon the farmer. All that is required of him is that in the fourth year after he has begun to cultivate his farm he should pay a tithe of the grain harvested according to his own calculations; and the farm is given free to each man by

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gratis in singulos a Societatis nostrae Patribus, sexaginta ut plurimum jugerum, quandoque immetatorum descriptum.

Novi colonum frugi hominem, qui anno MDCLXXII hic ex Europa appellens, fauces loculosque araneantes, et nihil praeter Bionis censum apportabat, qui civitate donatus, nunc trium quatuorve praediorum, domesticorum et usibus capacium, instructissimarumque aedium et plus octo millium tam armentorum jumentorumque, quam ovium capitum, et triginta mancipiorum dominus, cui decem et plures mercede conducti Europaei in famulatu sunt, quorum operâ subinde ultra mille modiorum tritici messem cogit, et ex una vindemia plures triginta cados vini generosissimi Falerno Massicoque non inferioris in labro videt, et quidquid tangit crescere tanquam favus, omnibusque copiis circumfluens, honoribus laudibus, amicisque abundat: auri adhaec argentique tam signati quam^* praedives, paucisque annis ad maximas pecunias pervenit. Autumoque Europam agricolam ab omni parte beatiorem copiosoremque vix nostro aevo vidisse. En quae sutori calceus dare valet! et procul dubio, plures ejusdem fastigii cives, hie ei opibus pares aut superiores, omnium solum auro subpactum videremus, si rebus suis pari qua hic sollicitudine et quâ decet curâ, attenti quaesitis invigilarent, sed majorem partem per fas et nefas, Afros et Laomedontes perfidia vincentes, et ad quaestum calentes et caligantes, sua bona non norunt, quae ut parta, ita dilabuntur: alii satietate ubi famem parant, elephantes balenasque deglutientes, et quo plura habent, eo acrius quae non habent cupiunt, amorque pudendi lucri, aurique sitis cum auro crescit, cujus omnes vias norunt, omniaque ejus causâ faciunt, Tolosanum esse, malaque ad se trahere, ut caecias nubes, luce meridiana clarius liquet, tertiumque heredem eorum bonis gaudere nunquam visum, et ut nudi hic appulerunt, sic etiam justo Dei judicio nudi, helluantes coloniae sanguinem, dilapidatis omnibus rebus, plurimum murcidi asotique moriuntur.

* Some word has fallen out, probably rudis.

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the Council of the Company, and generally consists of sixty acres, sometimes of an unspecified amount.⁹²⁾

I know a thrifty farmer here who arrived from Europe in the year 1672. He was then as poor as a church mouse, without bite or sup, or a penny in his pocket. He was made a burgher and is now owner of three or four farms of his own, capable of supplying every need; of a well-furnished house; and of more than 8,000 head of cattle, including oxen and sheep, not to speak of thirty slaves. He has more than ten Europeans in his employment. He sometimes harvests more than 1,000 bushels of wheat, and from a single vintage he gets more than thirty brimming casks of noble wine as good as Falernian or Massic. Whatever he touches grows imperceptibly like the honey-comb, and he is now over-flowing with wealth, authority, honour, and friends. He possesses huge sums of gold and silver, coined and uncoined, and in a few years has come to great riches. I venture to assert that Europe has hardly seen in our time a farmer more completely blessed with all good things. See what the cobbler gets by sticking to his last! And without doubt we should see more citizens in the same exalted position, equal or superior to him in wealth, without doubt there is solid gold beneath the surface of every farm, if only all attended to their affairs with the same solicitude and with a proper zeal, and watched over their grains. But for the most part they are quite unscrupulous. More dishonest than the Carthaginians or Laomedon, both eager and blind in their pursuit of gain, they do not know their own good, and no sooner do they make anything than it is squandered. By present feasting they prepare future fasting, swallowing down elephants and whales; the more they have, the more eagerly do they desire what they have not; the love of filthy lucre, and the thirst for gold, grow with the possession of it; they know all paths to it, and stick at none. But it is clearer than the noonday sun that such gain brings a curse; as the North-East wind gathers clouds, so it draws troubles upon itself. It has never been seen that a third heir rejoiced in their possessions. Naked they came to these shores, and by the just judgment of God they die naked, drunk with the blood of the colony, their fortunes squandered, sunk in sloth and rottenness.

92) When S.v.d. Stel founded the settlement at Stellenbosch (1679-80), he offered prospective colonists as much land as they could cultivate, with the privilege of selecting it for themselves anywhere in the Stellenbosch valley. ‘It was to be theirs in full property, and could be reclaimed by the Company only upon their ceasing to cultivate it. Like all other landed property in the (Cape) settlement, it was burdened with the payment of a tithe of the grain grown upon it and not consumed by the owner’ (Theal, ii, 252). The tithes were at first not very rigidly demanded, and were collected only upon grain brought to Cape Town for sale, but after 1709 the burghers were required to pay one-tenth of all the grain grown by them, and as the quantity was known only from their own declarations, this tax had an extremely bad effect upon the character of the people (Theal, iii, Index, s.v. ‘Tithes of grain’; of. also Diary of Adam Tas, passim).

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Plures quadraginta naves tam Societatis nostrae, quam variarum gentium hic quotannis appellunt, quarum navitae, corpora curantes, viribus refectis, et coempto commeatu, plus minusve mille argenteos nummos, quaelibet pro pane, carne, vino, cervisia, oleribus, caeterisque cibariis inemptis, nonnullisque mercibus larga manu sumptuosa pendit, aereque suo emuncti proficiscentes, colonis his nullum aliud sui desiderium relinquunt, quam quod metuunt, non pro voto ditiores condicto propediem redituros.

Patriam ipsorum linguam aliqua cum Hebraeorum idiomate communia habere opinor, nam videtur ex gutturalibus, dentalibus, lingualibus aliisque vocalibus labris illuctantibus, nobisque pronunciatu asperis conflata: nec abhorret à vero, eam variis constare dialectis, nec passim eandem, cum ex quibusdam qui in abdita regionis penetravere, acceperim, testantibus se in gentes varias linguis incidisse, quibuscum illis nullum omnimodo sermonis commercium nisi per incerpretes erat: aliis nonnulla ipsorum vocabula intellecta, ceterum nutu signisque locutos.

Indiculum quarundam vocum rerumque peregrinantibus apprime necessarium, ex vernacula procul hinc degentium indigenarum lingua compilavi qui excursoribus nostris eò aliquando delapsis, aut consultò tendentibus, aliquatenus prodesse poterit, et quantum conjectura consequi licet, idioma hoc maturum divesque: e.g. Caye Mansine, navem interpretatum denotat, voce compositâ ex Caye- domus, et Mansine mediâ productâ, aqua i.e. domus aquatica, non absono inclinamento pro nave: et simili verborum deductione ac etymologia in aliis^*

Huic adjicere non abs re fore mihi visum unum exemplum numerorum ad denarium usque, tam in Magosis quam hic apud Afros nostros frequentatorum, quorum utrorumque discrimen pateat, liceatque aliquando (si libet) alteri cuidam Bochardo, exoticarum linguarum perito, eorundem originem indigare, videlicet:-

* The MS. shows no stop, and the sentence seems incomplete.

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More than forty ships belonging to our Company, or of various nations, call here every year. The crews of these ships spend every year a thousand silver dollars more or less, for in looking after their health and restoring their strength and purchasing supplies they pay with lavish and extravagant hand for bread, meat, wine, beer, vegetables and other supplies and various articles of merchandise; then they set sail despoiled of their cash, leaving no regrets behind them in the colony but only the fear that they will not promptly return with as much more money to spend as the colonists could wish (?).

I am of opinion that the language of the natives has something in common with Hebrew, for it seems to consist of gutturals, labials, dentals, linguals and other sounds that fall with difficulty from the lips and are hard for us to pronounce. It is also probable that their language consists of various dialects and is not everywhere the same; for I have heard some who penetrated into the interior relate that they encountered races differing in speech, with whom they could have absolutely no converse except through interpreters; while to others some of their words were intelligible, and for the rest they spoke by nods and signs.

I have compiled a list for travellers of some essential words with their meanings, from the language of natives living some distance from this place.^92a) It may be of some use to our explorers who wander into those parts or deliberately make their way thither. The idiom, so far as I can see, is a well-developed and rich one. E.g. Caye mansine means a ship. It is a compound word from Caye, house, and mansine, with the middle syllable long, which means water⁹³⁾, i.e. water-house, not an unintelligent turn of speech for ship. Similar derivations and etymologies may be observed in other words.

Here it seems appropriate to add as an illustration the numbers from one to ten as in use both among the Magosi and here among our Africans. The difference between the two will be obvious, and we may, if you please, leave to some future Bochard⁹⁴⁾, skilled in strange tongues, the task of tracing out their origin:

92a) This list does not form part of the MSS. The text suggests that it was a vocabulary of Xhosa, and not of Hottentot, although, as we have already seen, G. subsequently compiled a long Hottentot vocabulary upon which both Valentyn and Kolb drew (see above p. 162, 164).

93) In modern Xhosa, i-Kaya=home, domicile, and amanzi= water; mansine is probably meant to be the locative form emanzini.

94) Samuel Bochart (1599-1667) was (according to a note by van Oordt in his Dutch trans. of G.) a noted Orientalist whose work on the animals of the Bible had a deep influence on Oriental linguistics. (Molsbergen, iv, 297.)

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In Magosls { Mounje	unum	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { chiu
In Magosls { Mabile (media producta)	duo	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { kham
In Magosls{Matato ( Penult. longa)	tria	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { nhona
In Magosls { Seine vel Mane	quatuor	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { haka
In Magosls { Meslano	quinque	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { kouru
In Magosls { Mestandato	sex	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { nanni
In Magosls { Nounje	septem	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { hunkou
In Magosls { Ulnane	octo	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { kheysi
In Magosls { Pete	novem	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { ghesi
In Magosls { Chiumi	decem	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { gissi
In Magosls { Chiumi mabile	viginti	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { khamgissi
In Magosls { Chiumi matato	triginta	In Promontorio Bonae Spei { nhonagissi

Mea sententia nostrates hic citius expeditiusque Hottentoticam addiscent linguam, quam Barbari Belgico commodè loqui sermone scient: more proh dedecus! praepostero, cum merito Belgas non latere deberet, quam firmum sit unionis vinculum linguae commercium, illudque esse ingens adminiculum populis in officio et quiete continendis: exemplo veterum Romanorum in suis provinciis, et cum maximè Hispanorum Lusitanorumque in utraque tam orientali quam occidentali India probatissimo; sed pudet scribere nostros plurimum ad opes et luxuriam magis, quam ad commodum utilitatemque publicam spectare, qui quum merito omnes curas, vigilias cogitationesque suas in Provinciae hujus salute configerent, discerentque ab Hispanis exemplo cum Jove coloniarum fundamenta jacere, sacranti-

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Among the Magosi { Mounje	one	At the Cape { Chiu
Among the Magosi { Mabile (the middle syllable long)	two	At the Cape{Kham
Among the Magosi { Matato (the penult long)	three	At the Cape { Nhona
Among the Magosi { Seine or mane	four	At the Cape { haka
Among the Magosi { Meslano	five	At the Cape { kouru
Among the Magosi { Mestandato	six	At the Cape { nanni
Among the Magosi { Nounje	seven	At the Cape { hunkou
Among the Magosi { Ulnane	eight	At the Cape { kheysi
Among the Magosi { Pete	nine	At the Cape { ghesi
Among the Magosi { Chiumi	ten	At the Cape { gissi
Among the Magosi { Chiumi mabile	twenty	At the Cape { khamgissi
Among the Magosi { Chiumi matato	thirty	At the Cape { nhonagissi^95

In my opinion the Dutch here will more quickly and expeditiously learn the language of the Hottentots, than the natives will acquire a good speaking knowledge of Dutch. This, alas, is the reverse of what ought to obtain. The Dutch ought to be aware how firm a bond of union a common language is, and how powerful a means it is of keeping peoples loyal and peaceful. We have the authoritative precedent of the ancient Romans, and more especially of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the Indias, east and west. But, I am ashamed to say, our countrymen for the most part pay more heed to gain-getting and soft living than to the public advantage and good. They ought to devote all their cares, all their thoughts, all their working hours to the well-being of this province; from the example of the Spaniards, who in such circumstances dedicate a church to Omnipotent God and know that all

95 The Xhosa numerals are not listed in the Stavenisse accounts and must therefore have been derived orally from one of the survivors. Their modern forms (retaining the class prefixes as given by G.) are as follows: 1. omnye, 2. amabini, 3. amatatu, 4. ezine or amane, 5. emihlanu, 6. emitandatu, 10 ishumi, 20. mashumi (a) mabini, 30. mashumi (a) matatu. The words given for 7, 8, 9 do not correspond at all with the modern Xhosa forms, which are: isixenxe, isibozo and itoba respectively. (McLaren, Kafir Grammar, 68).
The Hottentot numerals correspond fairly closely to the modern Nama and Korana forms, except that, as usual, the clicks have not been indicated. The modern Korana numerals, as recorded by Meinhof, are as follows: 1. /ui, 2. /am, 3. !nona, 4. haka, 5. goro, 6. !nani, 7. hau-kx'u, 8. //xaisi, 9. guesi, 10. tjisi, 20. /am tjisi, 30. !nona tjisi. (Der Koranadialekt, 41.)

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bus Deo T.O.M. aedem, gnavisque omnia prospere evenire colentibus Divos, nec praeposteri cruces et patibula coërcendis sceleribus initio erigere, salutemque Reip: ex lege in qua jurati sunt, supremam debere esse, sed praecipites ruentes auctoritati, mandatis, statutisque Patrum Conscriptorum Societatis nostrae S.S. illudentes, corradunt per omne fas et nefas everriculo pecuniam, virtutem post nummos habent, nimiumque Reformatores hi (Deformatores parum abest quin dicam) in Calvini verba jurantes nil bonis operibus, omnia gratiae tribuunt, nil virtuti, minusque merito dant, contractuum innominatorum Do ut Des, Facioque ut Facias etc. defensores studiosissimi, caeterum patrii juris rudissimi, hinc eorum imperium Abderitico per omnia simillimum, stolideque despoticum diceres, dum veniam corvis datam, imbellesque columbas censuram vexare, protegi sontes, immeritos premi, scelerique murum dari videres: quam ob rem ne mireris si dixero me plura indicia non adumbratae sed expressae pietatis, probitatis, fortitudinis, ingenuitatis, aliarumque virtutum signa in Europa una die vidisse, quam tot tantisque stipendiorum curriculis, quibus sub signis Societatis nostrae merui, inter commilitones nostros observaverim: citra tamen paucas illas horas, quibus sacris interfui divinisque adstiti, et quibus consuetudini familiaritatique Praenobilium D.D. van Reede, van Goens, van Beveren, van Rhee, Heinsii, Paets, rerum mearum non infidelibus arbitris, aliisque viris natalium splendore, doctrina meritisque conspicuis me applicui, cum propter eorum summam rerum Societatis Indicae agendarum experientiam, tum propter singularem in me affectum. Etsi fractus illabatur orbis, sciamque omnes homines mihi inimicos capiendos esse, dicam quae sentio, cum moderamine tamen tutelae inculpatae, scapham appellans scapham: vir Rev^de., huc omnia reciderunt, ut tanquam Pelopis domi, nusquam sit tuta fides, non marito a conjuge, nec conjux (sic) a marito, non patri à filio, nec filio a patre, non hospiti ab hospite, non socero a genero satis cautum, fratrum quoque gratia rara, rarique boni, numero vix sunt totidem quot Thebarum portae, vel Divitis ostia Nili, nullaque tam destestabilis pestis quae non homini ab homine hic nascatur, qui tandem laterum

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things prosper with those who worship the heavenly powers, they would be wise to learn that the foundations of a colony must not be laid without the blessing of God, that it is a mistake to begin by erecting crosses and gibbets for the suppression of crime, and that the safety of the state into the service of which they are sworn, comes before all. Instead they rush heedless on, caring nothing for the authority, commands, and decrees of the Council of our Company, ruthlessly sweeping all the money they can into their drag-net, despising virtue in comparison with cash, enthusiastic Reformers (I am tempted to call them Deformers), who having sworn allegiance to Calvin allow nothing now to good works and everything to grace; they ascribe nothing to virtue and still less to merit; they are zealous champions of innominate contracts: Do ut des, facioque ut facias etc., but for the rest know nothing of their country's law. Hence their rule may be likened to the warning examples of antiquity in its stupid despotism; they pardon the ravens and punish the doves, protect the guilty and oppress the innocent, and give the place of honour to crime. You must not then be surprised if I say that in one day in Europe I have seen more evidences of piety, honesty, courage, innocence, and other virtues, and not the mere promise of these virtues but their fulfilment, than I have seen among my colleagues here in all my long years of service with the Company. I wish only to make exception of the few hours I have spent in divine service and in the worship of God, and those in which I have devoted myself to familiar friendship with the reverend and noble gentlemen, van Reede, van Goens, van Beveren, van Rhee, Heinz and Paets, who know me well and the truth of what I say, as well as other gentlemen conspicuous for birth, learning, or good works; with all these I have been glad to associate both by reason of their great experience in the conduct of the Company's affairs and their notable affection for me. But though the sky should fall, and though I knew that I should make all men my enemies, I would say what I think, with the reservation of not blaming the administration, calling a spade a spade. Reverend Sir, things have come to this pass that, as in the house of Pelops, so here there is nowhere any sure reliance; a husband cannot be too much on guard against his wife, nor a wife against a husband, a son against a father, nor a father against a son, friend against friend, or father-in-law against son-in-law. Love between brothers is rare; good men are rare; there are hardly as many as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of rich Nile; and there is no crime so abominable that it is not plotted by man against man. We now begin to fear

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suorum ensem timere coeperunt. Redeamus a diverticulo in viam.

Hic mihi silentio praetereundum non videtur, quod Afris nostris communi fratis sororisve nomine, more Israëlitarum indigitetur patruelis et consobrina, aliisque quarto consanguinitatis gradu se invicem contingentes.

Nullae illis artes, nulla opificia, nulli mercenarii, quique suorum apparatuum elaborator et artifex, nulli illis libri, nullae litterae, omnia illis plus quam Cimmeriis immersa ignorantiarum tenebris: attamen cum Nicolao Almeida Lusitano Mosambique oriundo, et Britannica nave, cui Johannes et Maria nomen, huc delato, multus sermo mihi fuit, qui inter alia non spernendae indaginis retulit, prope sinum del Agoa Aethiopiam versus, se lapidibus maximae molis, in tropaei modum constructis insculptos vidisse characteres, nulli Europaeo comiti notos: credendi autem temeritate reus non videbor, hinc conjecturam capiens, an non illic tot locis quaesitum Salomonis Ophir detegere liceat: eoque magis quod idem Nicolaus ad omnia stupenti asseveraverit, se inibi auri facti rudisque tantam vim vidisse, ut Americani Atubalibae opes horum divitiis collatae longe inferiores censeantur, seque una die bovem mactatum et in frusta dissectum Aethiopibus vendidisse, et viginti imo triginta auri libras informis, infecti et eximie obrizi (quasi ophirizi) traxisse.

Hic ex castello Regis Lusitaniae Ingome dicto, sitoque in regione Symbao, proficiscens, duodecim dierum justo itinere, in ejus metropolim Mamboni pervenit, ubi Praepotentis Regis Sangacatto aula: qui tres ex centum et amplius concubinis, praepetum notarum sustulit filios, Lusitanorum loquentes, legentes et scribentes exactè satis

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the sword even of our own kin. But let me return from my digression.

Here I think I should mention that among our natives (i.e. the Hottentots) the names of brother and sister are, in the Israelitish fashion, bestowed on cousins on the father's or the mother's side; while among others (i.e. the Magosi) the names of brother and sister are given to those related to one another in the fourth degree.⁹⁶⁾

There are no arts and no crafts here, and no hired workers; every man is the designer and maker of his own equipment; they have no books, no writing; everything is plunged in an ignorance darker than Cimmerian night. I have, however, had much conversation with one Nicolas Almeida, a Portuguese born in Mozambique who came here in an English ship, the John and Mary. Among other matters worthy of investigation he told me that near Delagoa Bay on the Ethiopian side he saw characters cut on stones of huge size that had been set up in the manner of a trophy. These characters were not familiar to any European of his company. I shall not be held guilty of rash credulity if I suggest the query whether we may not here discover the Ophir of Solomon, which has been sought in so many places.⁹⁷⁾ This is the more likely as the same Nicolas told me to my complete surprise that he had seen there such a quantity of gold both wrought and unwrought that the wealth of the American Atahualpas compared with their riches would be found far inferior; and that he one day sold to the Ethiopians an ox which he had slain and cut up, and got therefor twenty, nay thirty pounds of gold, unshaped and unwrought, but wonderfully refined - obrised the Portuguese say, which suggests Ophirised.

Setting out from the fort of the King of Portugal in these parts, which is called Ingome, and lies in the district Symbao, he came, after a full twelve days' journey, to the capital Mamboni, where there is the court of the powerful king Sangacatto.⁹⁸⁾ This king had, from his hundred and more concubines, three sons of great promise, who spoke, read, and wrote the language of the Portuguese with a fair degree of correctness. This they owed to the conspicuous

96) This must be the earliest mention of the fact that both Hottentots and AmaXhosa possess what anthropologists term ‘classificatory’ systems of kinship nomenclature, whereby a man applies certain terms of relationship not only to members of his own family, but also, according to definite rules, to more remote relatives. Among the modern Naman, the term !gãn, used for brothers and sisters, is also used for the children of paternal uncles and maternal aunts (i.e., as G. says, they are also called brother and sister): but for the children of paternal aunts and maternal uncles there are different terms, i.e., they are not regarded as brothers and sisters. The AmaXhosa have a somewhat similar system of relationship terminology.

97) The suggestion that what is now Southern Rhodesia and the adjoining districts of P.E.A. were the Ophir of the Scriptures is also found in earlier Portuguese writers, e.g. de Barros and dos Santos. Modern research has tended to discredit this theory, although it still crops up from time to time. Cf. the authoritative discussion of the whole question by G. Caton-Thompson, The Zimbabwe Culture, Oxford 1931.

98) Ingome may be an attempt to write the name of the R. Ingomiamo, near whose mouth is Sofala, one of the earliest Portuguese strongholds in E. Africa; Symbao is probably meant to represent Mozambique, Mamboni = Mambo, the hereditary name of the Rozwi (Shona) chiefs; Sangacatto I cannot identify. On the Portugese in E. Africa, see Theal, Records of S.E. Africa, where most of the available records are reprinted.

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linguam, qui illud illustri clementiae, singularique bonitati Emmanuelis Pereira Regis Lusitaniae inibi Praefecto, ad omnia solertes, ipsosque Lusitano ritu vestire, aliaque scitu digna docenti acceptum ferunt.

Divinitatem aliquam Messimo dictam, in lucis summo cultu venerantur, cum spe minime dubiâ, ipsos Christianorum sacris propediem initiandos; deprehensum in adulterio adulteramque vivos jugulant, eodemque supplicio homicidia, furta, et latrocinia plectunt, eorundem bona fisco addicentes.

Asserit terrâ marique in Promontorio Corrientes ad os australe freti, quod Africam ab insula forte Ptolomei Menuthia (vulgo Madagascar) disjungit, visa sibi animalia amphibia, rubentia, et in terra pascentia, Sirenibus proxima, duodecim pedes circiter longa, crassaque ex proportionis norma, porcino capite, pro brachiis pedibusve quasi alas testudinis marinae habentia, superna parte homini, inferna pisci cum cauda subsimilia, quae ore sibilantia nec aliam vocem edentia saepius audivit; tam mares quam feminas, parte genitali hominibus pares, eorundemque carnem jumentorum non piscium similiorem: in utraque maxilla duos dentes, spithamae longitudinis, et duorum duntaxat digitorum latitudine extra gingivam prominentes observavit: quales mihi à quodam Anglo hic ostensos et magno Mosambique emi, ex nonnullis me accepisse memini, jactantibus eos maximè salutiferos, et si credere fas est, podagrae mederi.

Doleo quod quum hinc Indiam versus navi Purmer vela darem, ad Promontorium Corrientes in anchoris stans, navique Unicornu rediens, oramque hanc legens, nihil horum, praeterquam quod immensae magnitudinis balenam, navem nostram à puppi et prora, et ab utroque latere aliquoties circumnatantem, et quodammodo adorantem, instantis tremendae tempestatis, paucis post horis obortae, quaque aliquot diebus mirum in modum jactati, quasi praenuntiam, viderim.

Hujus Nicolai frater germanus, Mattheus Almeida, sub Lusitano Mosambique merens stipendia, illis non contentus, sed auri fame tractus, comitibus quinquaginta Lusitanis, cum sexcentis Afris, Regi Lusitaniae subjectis, omnibus

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generosity and singular kindness of Emanuel Pereira, the representative there of the King of Portugal, who finding them of quick parts taught them to dress in the Portuguese fashion, and other things worth knowing.

They worship a divinity called Messimo, in groves, with such reverence that there is little room to doubt that they will ere long be initiated into the Christian religion.⁹⁹⁾ A man or woman taken in adultery they put to death. Homicide, robbery, and brigandage merit the same penalty, the goods of the condemned being forfeit to the public treasury.

He states that at Cape Corrientes, at the southern end of the strait which separates Africa from the island now called Madagascar (which is perhaps the Menuthia of Ptolemy) he saw both on land and in the water amphibious creatures, of a reddish colour. They fed on land, and looked like Sirens. They were about twelve foot long, and thick in proportion, with pigs' heads, and instead of hands and feet a kind of fins like a turtle. The upper part was like a man, the lower like a fish with a tail. He often heard them hissing, but never uttering any other sound. They were both male and female, and their genital organs were like those of human beings. Their flesh was like oxen, not fish. In each jaw he noticed two teeth a span in length, but protruding beyond the gum merely the breadth of two fingers. I remember that a certain Englishman showed me teeth like these, and that I heard from several people that they fetch a high price at Mozambique. My informants claimed that they are very good for preserving the health, and, if one may believe it, that they cure gout.

I once made the voyage from here to India on the good ship Purmer, and returned on the Unicorn. On the way out we lay at anchor off Cape Corrientes, and on the way back skirted all this coast. To my regret I saw none of the creatures described above, but I did see a huge whale which swam round our ship, bow and stern, starboard and larboard, many times, as if paying us some sort of homage. It proved the harbinger of a terrible storm which burst upon us a few hours later and for several days gave us a wonderful tossing.

Matthew Almeida, the brother of my friend Nicolas, was in the service of Portugal at Mozambique. Discontented with his lot, and led on by the accursed lust of gold, he took with him fifty Portuguese and three hundred natives, all well armed and ready for plunder, and with these he made

99) Messimo=medzimu, the name applied by the Mashona to their ancestral spirits.

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probè armatis et ad praedam instructis, à fluvio Sena Niembam usque viginti dierum itinere distantem Septentrionique obversam penetrat, ibique à fidentis praesentisque animi incolis pro suis strenue pugnantibus cum commilitonibus ad internecionem caesus.

Di boni! quae animarum messis hie Christo fieri posset? quam vastus hic praedicationibus campus? si postposito privato emolumento, omnes ad majorem Dei gloriam communi bono invigilarent: sed vah dedecus! maximam partem, à Religionis et Sacramenti auctoritate ad mercedem atque quaestum per omnes artes abducuntur, quorum aliqui duas tresve personas sustinent, qui animi egestate, infirmitate ingenii, meritorum penuria, omniumque virtutum patrocinio nudi inopesque, ne uni soli quidem sufficerent: I pudor in silvas! et Barbaros edoce, nimium ne credant colori, dum alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.^*

Sed singula haec scripto comprehendere litterarum cancelli non patiuntur, cujus modum vereor me bene longa hac, et voluminis instar, epistola excesserim. Ast tu indulgentissime Vir latiorem a me flagitans, scribendi cacoëthi, longiusque prolapso quam judicii tui, et utriusque aetatis ratio postulat, facilè ignosces, et pauca haec cuicuimodi sunt, profligandis tuis quaestionibus, quaequae mihi memoratu visa digna, et Latiali sermone scriptu facilia non aspernaberis, nec ea censoria lima laevigare, calamistro tuo inurere, nec desultorio meo stylo peregrinantibus usitatissimo ignoscere gravaberis.

Quo uno omnia verbo complectar, terram scias hanc suis contentam bonis, nec mercis aut opis alicujus (si luxuria absit) indigam, tam longè latèque se pandit Divina bonitas, abundè incolis exhibens alimenta.

Insuper his praecincta circumfluo imperiosoque et uniones exaluminatos aliquando infundente litoribus cum ambro aliisque purgamentis, Oceano; exiguo isthmo peninsula continenti adhaeret: quam quam Batavus anno 1651 occupans Duce et auspiciis .... van Riebeeck eximii viri justo emptionis titulo et juris auctoritate à Barbaris tenet,

* Virgil, Eclogues, ii, 17 and 18. The precise identification of the alba ligustra and vaccinia nigra of Virgil is uncertain.

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his way from the river Sena to Niemba, a journey of twenty days to the north. The inhabitants of this place proved to be men of a confident and ready temper, they put up a strenuous fight in defence of their own, and were so successful that they slew Matthew and his followers to a man.

O kind heaven, what a harvest of souls could here be made for Christ! What a field is here for the preaching of His gospel! if only private gain could be put in the second place, and all, for the greater glory of God, would watch over the common good. But, alas, for the most part they forswear their allegiance to God and country and turn to unscrupulous quest of gain; and there are some who fill two or three public positions, men whose poverty of spirit, weakness of intellect, incapacity for service, and utter absence of all virtuous endowment, would not suffice for one. Off, Shame, and hide in the woods! and teach the natives not to put too much trust in colour. The white blossoms fall, the black berries are gathered.

But the limits of a letter do not permit of my including every particular, and I fear that I have already transgressed them in this very long, and literally voluminous, epistle. But you, kind sir, asked me to write at length, and you will readily pardon my evil lust for writing, even if it has gone beyond what your judgment and consideration of our respective ages, could permit; and you will not despise these few observations, such as they are, in which I attempt to reply to your questions, and to record what seemed to me both worth telling and easy to express in the Latin tongue; nor will you refuse to smoothe my roughness with your critical file, to dress the unkempt locks of my poor prose, and to forgive the homely style which is all that exiles can attain.

To put all in a word, you must know that this land is sufficient unto itself, and needs neither commerce nor any other aid, if luxury be absent, so bountifully does the goodness of God here display itself, affording nurture without stint to the inhabitants.

In addition to this the land is girdled with a circumfluent and lordly Ocean, which from time to time casts upon her shores pearls of the colour of alum, together with amber and other offerings from its store. A narrow isthmus unites the peninsula to the mainland. This peninsula, in the year 1651,¹⁰⁰⁾ the Dutch occupied under the command and auspices of the great van Riebeeck, and now hold from the natives on a just title of purchase and with the sanction of

100) Sic. Van Riebeeck landed in Table Bay on April 7, 1652.

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in dies colonis, agris, fortunisque auctiorem gliscentemque, sed quo justo interveniente pretio venditores ignorant, et emptores dicere gravantur: sufficit volentibus non factam injuriam et nostrates ex tenuissimis principiis, vastioris terrae dominos factos, quam totius Bataviae ambitus complectitur: qui in cunis adhuc vagientes, multis frequentibusque latrociniis barbarorum irritati, et oblatas pacis conditiones superbè satis spretas videntes, bellum illis indicunt, et cum omnibus copiis, tam stipendiario milite quam colonis, impressionem in hostilem terram populationemque faciunt, modico saltem praesidio in arce relicto, qui captantes temporum momenta, dum barbarus nocturnis choraeis fessus, ut fere fit, primulo diliculo somnum capit, nil tale metuentem, et in utramvis aurem dormiscentem assiliunt, pars trucidatur, reliqui fuga sibi consulunt. Europaei omnia diripientes, ingentem pecudum armentorumque vim, magnis itineribus abducunt. Barbari se colligentes regredientium terga et latera premunt, sed equitatu nostro in fugam versi statuunt ad conspectum stellae, orientem solem antecedentis (hinc eos motus siderum et statas temporum vices omnimodo non ignorare colligere licet) attemperate omnibus copiis in nostrorum castra quadripartito agmine reptabundi, et in ventrem proni provolare; ex compacto assultant, sed in speculis stans miles, hoste detecto ad arma clamat; consurgunt nostri, impetumque inimicorum fortiter propellunt, quibus si mens non laeva fuisset, illaesi ad libitum Batavos non diu post cecidissent, nam tanta vis imbrium subito effusa tantaque violentia ventorum coörta, ut frigore obrigescentibus membris, et madentibus nostrorum armis, itinere fessos, sarcinis impedimentisque graves ad unum omnes deleri potuissent, sed aliter Superis visum fuit, hoc unico ictu totae Barbarorum vires accisae, illaque victoriâ debel-

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law, and the settlement grows greater day by day in burghers, farms, and fortunes; but what the just price was that passed between them the sellers do not know, and the purchasers are averse to stating.¹⁰¹⁾ It is sufficient that no harm was done to those who accepted the occupation without resistance, and that our countrymen, from the slenderest beginnings, have become the lords of a domain vaster than the whole circuit of Holland. For when the colony was still in its infancy, the burghers, provoked by repeated robberies on the part of the natives, and perceiving that the terms of peace they offered were rather scornfully rejected, declared war upon them. They then collected all their forces, both mercenary troops and burghers, made an invasion into the territory of the enemy and began to lay it waste, leaving only a small garrison behind in the fort. The invaders waited their time, and when the natives were wearied on one occasion with their usual dancing by night, and had fallen asleep at the first peep of dawn, they fell upon them, off their guard and sleeping soundly. Some were slaughtered, the rest sought safety in flight. The Europeans then plundered everything, and drove off by forced marches a huge quantity of sheep and oxen. The natives rallied and pressed upon the rear and flanks of the retreating host, but our cavalry routed them. They then made a plan to be carried out at the first sight of the morning star (and this is the reason why I think they cannot be regarded as totally ignorant of the motions of the stars and the fixed order of time). Dividing all their forces into four divisions they were to steal upon our camp, crawling up on their bellies. At the agreed signal they sprang up for the attack. But our pickets sighted them and gave the cry To arms. Our men arose, and vigorously repelled the assault of the enemy. But if they had not misjudged the situation they could a little afterwards have slain the Dutch with impunity to their heart's content, for such a flood of rain suddenly fell and so violent a wind rose that our men were numbed with the cold and their weapons were soaked with wet. If the natives had then attacked they could have slain them to a man, exhausted as they were with marching and encumbered with packs and baggage. But heaven willed otherwise. This one blow crippled the natives' strength. One victory finished

101) In 1672 the Dutch ‘bought’ from the Goringhaiqua chief Schacher ‘the whole district of the Cape, including Table, Hout and Saldanha Bays, with all its lands, rivers and forests’ for goods to the nominal value of £800 (the goods actually transferred were worth £2 16s. 5d.); and a little later a similar agreement was made with the Chainouqua chief Dhouw, who ‘sold’ the district of Hottentots Holland to the Dutch ‘in return for merchandize amounting in value to £800. The goods actually transferred were worth no more than £6 16s. 4d.’ (Theal, ii, 198-201). In the eyes of the Hottentots these ‘sales’ were probably nothing more than the granting of usufruct, and the ‘purchase price’ analogous to tribute paid for this use (Schapera, 290).

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latum, nobisque in otio vivendi copia quiesque parta, et latius extendendi pomeria occasio oblata fuit.

Sub hujus Coloniae primordiis, Afri nostros conterraneos ignivomos putabant, dum adstupentes, displosis nostratium bombardis una solâ glanda plombeâ quantamcunque feram, leonem, elephantemve tanquam Jovis ignibus ictum, sterni vident. Iidem equites nostros, totidem Centauros, aut semi-viros[que] equos sibi fingebant, ad quorum conspectum contremiscebant. Eorundemque fortitudinem in tantum reverebantur, ut quamlibet mulierem puellamve horum barbarorum, alteram Thalestram Alexandri concipiendi studio se prostituentem dixisses, eò acriori in venerem cupidine (instigante et stimulante forte ejus marito) quo firmius credebat, foetui ex nostris concepto, parentis virtutem ingenerari: Misella! pulveris nitrati et nostratium armorum ignara.

Talibus illusionibus fovendis, nostratium aliquis, barbaro pateram ex vicino torrente aquâ replendam porrexit: nostras interim aliam priori assimilem, spiritu vini maximarum virium diffluentem in tentorio suo abscondit, revertitur Afer, cantinumque lympha plenum reportat, quem arreptum nostras juxta latentem patinam subdole collocat, convocatque Barbaros, ut cum suis magis adsint. Protinus omnes adstant, interroganturque, an aquam per Afrum ex amne haustam et scutella contentam flammis conflagrare valeant? qui imperitiam suam fassi, negant à quoquam id posse fieri. Astu nostras patinam spiritu vini gravem produxit, petitque ignem sibi dari, vafreque admotis sulphuratis spiritum vini accendit, quem ubi flammatum barbari vident, credentes aquam à se allatam ignem concepisse, nullum suspicantes dolum, quidam eorum pudore, omnes metu diffugiunt: sic ars deluditur arte.

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the war. The chance of living in peace and quiet, and the freedom to extend our dominion, were secured for us.¹⁰²⁾

In the early days of the Colony the natives thought that our men who lived next to them could vomit fire. They stood by in amazement, while on the discharge of our guns they saw the largest wild animal, a lion, or an elephant, laid low by one leaden bullet as if struck by lightning. Our cavalry likewise they regarded as so many Centaurs, half horses half men; at the sight of them they began to shake; and they held their strength in such awe that any native wife or maid would prostitute herself to them, hoping, like a second Thalestra, to conceive an Alexander; the woman's husband perhaps would urge her to it, and she would be all the more ready because firmly convinced that the virtue of the sire would be implanted in any child conceived from one of our men. Poor woman! All because she had never heard of powder and shot.

In order to foster these illusions one of our fellows gave a native a dish to be filled with water from the streams near by. Meantime he took a second dish like the first, overflowing with strong spirits of wine, and hid it in his tent. The native returned bringing the bowl of water, which our man took and put secretly beside the concealed dish. He then summoned the natives to attend with their witch-doctors. They all came at once, and were asked whether they could cause to break into flame the water fetched by the native from the stream and contained in the dish. They confessed their inability, alleging that nobody could do it. Then our wily fellow produced the bowl of spirits of wine, called for a light, and cunningly applied the match to the spirits of wine. When the natives saw the burst of flame, they thought he had set the water on fire; suspecting no deceit, they fled in all directions, some through shame, but all in fear. So is the trickster tricked¹⁰³⁾.

102) The episode to which G. refers took place during the war of 1673-77 against Gonnema (see above, p. 88). In July, 1673, the first punitive expedition sent out from the Fort under Cruse found the Hottentots' kraal abandoned, but seized all the cattle and marched back home. They had not gone very far before they discovered that the Hottentots were following them, and at their first resting-place an attempt was made to recover the cattle. It failed, but the Hottentots kept hovering about for some time. ‘Had hardly marched a quarter of an hour,’ says Cruse's report, ‘when it began to rain so horribly that in case of necessity not one of us would have been able to discharge his musket, but God has protected us from an attack of the enemy who might, humanly speaking, have been able to destroy us all and recapture the cattle’ (D., July 25, 1673).

103) De Choisy, one of the Jesuits who passed through the Cape in 1685-86 on their way to Siam, relates an identical episode which he says was told to him by Simon v.d. Stel as having happened during the journey to Namaqualand. He describes it as follows: ‘Un jour qu'il estoit campé sur une petite hauteur, les Outentos qui l'accompagnoient, lui dirent qu'il alloit mourir, et qu'ils voyoient venir à lui les deux plus grand sorciers du païs. En effet, deux hommes habillez bizarrement, suivis d'une centaine d'autres, s'approchoient gravement: mais il les prévint, et leur fit dire qu'il estoit plus grand sorcier qu'eux; et pour le leur prover, il fit apporter devant eux un verre d'eau-de-vie, y mit le feu, et l'avala toute enflammée. Les pauvres sorciers se jetterent à genoux, reconnurent son pouvoir supérieur, et se retirent’ (Journal du Voyage de Siam, reprint 1930, p. 276). There is no mention at all of this incident in the official records of the journey, but some such story must have been current in the Cape about 1685, forming the source upon which both G. and de Choisy drew their respective accounts.

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Hanc oram varias regiones emenso, plagamque vestris pedibus obversam colenti, et sarcophago plebeioque rogo contento hospitam, defunctique ossibus meis levem futuram spero, cum ei gravis non fuerim, cuilibet enim et quolibet tempore (absit superbia verbo et vero) commilitonibus convenis, indigenis, advenisque hospitibus fidem meam, vah! minus hic quam uspiam tutam libens exerui, ubi opportunitatis vel necessitatis ratio id postulavit, licet pessimè habitus, et iniquitate laborum mulctatus: cui accedit quod hic reconditus angulus in quem contrusus, voto meo et opinione fertilior, prae Europae deliciis perplacet: quem magni a me fieri non est quod mireris, si animum meum studiis assertum, involutum literis, et mansuetiorum Musarum amicum, inimicum turbae, à negotiis et curis semper alienum, quietis pacisque amantem spectaveris, Deoque complacitum esse, me in hunc compingere locum, cujus felicitati nihil deest, quam ut hoc exulcerato formidulosoque tempore, per aliquem religiosum Numam, caput non reduviam gemursam(que) curantem, ab scelerum vestigiis expietur, et Reip: turbines audaciâ furentes, flagitiaque anhelantes cum eorundem Autolico Duce, qui pecori imperitat, quem tota armenta sequuntur, exophthalmoque scordalo, perque alterum Titum Judaei hi funditus exstirpentur, et colonia his everriculis et erubescenda sentinâ vacuefacta, ad pileum vocata floreat vigeatque: magnique refert rudis hic populus, dulci fortuna ebrius Numinis metu mitigetur, melioreque consuetudine permulceatur, et ab altero quasi Hercule latrociniorum et rapinarum vindice monstrorumque domitore efferatae hinc genti rubigo animorum effricetur, animusque ejus ad Dei cultum à vitae pravitate convertatur, et huic solutae fluentique juventuti erudiendae, probeque educandae, scholae moderatrices officiorum erigantur, à quibus à tenera statim aetate liberalium artium disciplinis, mentis, genii et ingenii boni adolescentes, sub idoneis magistris, dictis factisque probe excolantur, imbuanturque, et sapientiae sedulam operam det, studiosorum lectissima cohors, fortium virorum seminarium, bono publico et parentum votis sedulo litaturum.

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I have traversed many regions, and now live in a corner of the globe that lies beneath your feet; I ask no more than an undistinguished grave, and I hope this shore will be friendly to me and that when I am dead it will lie lightly on my bones. I have not been a burden to it; to every man at every time (and I hope there may be no arrogance in word or deed of mine), to my colleagues who came here with me, to the natives I found here, to the strangers who have since come, I have ever offered my confidence freely. I have done this whenever occasion offered or need required, though, alas, there is no place where confidence is more misplaced than here, and I have been vilely treated, and unjustly requited. But I have this also to content me that this remote corner into which I have been thrust, is more fertile than I hoped or believed, and charms me more than the refinements of European civilisation. That I should love it will not surprise you, if you consider that my mind has always been devoted to study, wrapped up in books, a friend of the gentle Muses and an enemy of the bustling throng, ever averse from the cares of business and devoted to peace and quiet. Reflect too that it has been God's will to fix me in a spot that lacks nothing for happiness except that in this corrupt and parlous age some religious Numa should arise, to attend to the head, not to the sore nail or the corn on the toe, and to clear the place of the traces of its crimes. But as for the disturbers of the State, raging in their fury and panting with villainy, together with their leader, a pop-eyed thieving blackguard, who lords it over the flock and whom the whole troop follows, another Titus must arise to extirpate them like the Jews of old, and when the colony has been purged of these plunderers and of this shameful scum, and rescued from slavery, it will flourish and prosper. It is of great moment to this rough people, made drunk with good fortune, that it should be tamed by the fear of God, and mellowed by better ways of life; another Hercules is needed to be the punisher of robbers and plunderers, and the subduer of monsters, so that the rust may be rubbed off their savage souls, and their minds turned from a life of shame to the worship of God; schools must be set up to inculcate right standards of morality, so that our dissolute and helpless young people may receive proper training and education. Here from their earliest years youths of good ability, character and intellect must be instructed in the liberal arts, under suitable teachers, so that they may be imbued with fit notions of speech and conduct. Such a choice band of scholars, applying themselves earnestly to the pursuit of wisdom, will form a nursery of noble men, giving continual satisfaction to the public good and the prayers of their parents.

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Plura non addo ne videar intemperans, scribendo ea quae occultari debent imperiique arcana revelando: multa scitu digna mandato Praefecti Promontorio, concernentia vitam, mores, statumque dissitorum et circumjacentium incolarum conscripsi, quae Patribus Societatis Indicae non displicuisse gratum, longèque gratissimum, quod bono publico curas, cogitationes, omnesque vigilias meas, licet conculcatus, conferam.

Vale vir Rev^de et stabili salute potiaris, acroamaque hoc adstricte ex schedis meis rejectaneis adversariisque compilatum, crassiorisque Minervae tam rerum auditione acceptarum, quam quas certis auctoribus omni exceptione majoribus, et ex annalibus, instrumentisque authenticis comperi, oculisque usurpavi, aequi bonique consule, fldesque penes auctores sit, quippe multa elutriata in hebetes quarti imo quinti interpretis aures, et effutita audaci, temeraria et barbara linguâ, credentium se narrata apprimè intelligere, cum nihil intelligant, verbum de verbo malè exprimentes, impudentiaque sua fidem capitulatores sibi perstruentes, et secum ipsi discordes, necessum est, omnes de genuino sensu balbutire, et nos de veritate rerum adumbratâ intelligentia hallucinari. Hoc Ryparographi^* levidense hujus provinciae commentariolum, conditionemque regionis, brevi aliam manu Lysippea ex vero et liquido per singula liniamenta simulatam, communi bono, valentioribus lateribus excepturam, spero imo confido, voveoque ut Deus te nobis diu sospitet, tibique sit mei fervida cura, qui se, fortunas caputque suum pro incolumitate tua devovet.

* Ryparograhi seems corrupt.

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I add no more. I would not be thought indiscreet through writing what ought to be concealed or revealing state secrets. At the request of the commander in charge of the Cape I have put in writing much that it is worth knowing regarding the life, habits, and condition of the natives both far and near. I am glad that this has pleased the Council of the India Company, and still more glad am I to devote all my efforts and thoughts and sleepless nights to the public good, though I be trampled on.

Now farewell, reverend sir, and may you enjoy lasting health. Be indulgent to this little composition which has been thrown together from my note-books and odd pages of writing. It is a rough sketch, embodying matters of hearsay as well as information gathered from reliable witnesses, written records, authentic documents, and my personal observation. My informants must bear the responsibility for what they say. Many statements have been filtered through the dull ears of four or five interpreters, and then poured forth in a bold, rash, and barbarous style by men who believed they understood what was told them, though they really understood nothing. They interpret badly, but endeavour by their boldness to make themselves believed, and they often contradict themselves. Inevitably they all miss the true sense, and our understanding is darkened and we get false notions of the real facts. I hope, nay, I am confident, that this slight sketch of the province, and description of the country will soon be superseded, for the common good, by another of more powerful eloquence fashioned in every line, truly and brilliantly, by the hand of a Lysippus.

I pray God to preserve you long in health and strength for us, and may your love for me not grow cold, for you know that I would give myself, my fortune, and my life for your wellbeing.