BOSHIES-MEN, a species of Hottentots, so called, according to Dr Sparrman, from their dwelling in woody or mountainous places. They are sworn enemies to a pastoral life. Some of their maxims are, to live on hunting and plunder, and never to keep any animal alive for the space of one night. By this means they render themselves odious to the rest of the inhabitants of the Cape; and are pursued and exterminated like the wild beasts, whose manners they have assumed. Others of them again are kept alive, and made slaves of. Their weapons are poisoned arrows, which shot out of a small bow will fly to the distance of 200 paces, and will hit a mark with a tolerable degree of certainty at the distance of 50 or even 100 paces. From this distance they can by stealth, as it were, convey death to the game they hunt for food, as well as to their foes, and even to so large and tremendous a beast as the lion; this noble animal thus falling by a weapon which perhaps it despised, or even did not take notice of. The Hottentot, in the mean time, concealed and safe in his ambush, is absolutely certain of the operation of his poison, which he always culls of the most virulent kind; and it is said he has only to wait a few minutes in order to see the wild beast languish and die. The dwellings of these foes to a pastoral life are generally not more agreeable than their maxims and manners. Like the wild beasts, bushes and cliffs in rocks by turns serve them instead of houses; and some of them are said to be so far worse than beasts, that their foal has been found close by their habitations. A great many of them are entirely naked; but such as have been able to procure the skin of any sort of animal, great or small, cover their bodies with it from the shoulders downwards as far as it will reach, wearing it till it falls off their backs in rags. As ignorant of agriculture as apes and monkeys, like them they are obliged to wander about over hills and dales after certain wild roots, berries, and plants (which they eat raw), in order to sustain a life that this miserable food would soon extinguish and destroy were they used to better fare. Their table, however, is sometimes composed of several other dishes, among which may be reckoned the larvae of insects, or that kind of caterpillars from which butterflies are generated; and in like manner a sort of white ants (the termes), grasshoppers, snakes, and some sorts of spiders. With all these changes of diet, the Boshies-man is nevertheless frequently in want, and furnished to such a degree as to waste almost to a shadow. "It was with no small astonishment (says Dr Sparrman), that I for the first time saw in Lange Kloof a lad belonging to this race of men with his face, arms, legs, and body, so monstrously small and withered, that I could not have been induced to suppose but that he had been brought to that state by the fever that was epidemic in those parts, had I not seen him at the same time run like a lapwing. It required but a few weeks to bring one of these starvelings to a thriving state, and even to make him fat; their stomachs being strong enough to digest the great quantity of food with which they are crammed, as they may rather be said to bolt than eat. It sometimes happens indeed that they cannot long retain what they have taken in; but this circumstance, it is said, does not hinder them from beginning again upon a new score." The capture of slaves from among this race of men is by no means difficult; and is effected (Dr Sparrman informs us) in the following manner. "Several farmers that are in want of servants join together and take a journey to that part of the country where the Boshies-men live. They themselves, as well as their Lingo-Hottentots, or else such Boshies-men as have been caught some time before, and have been trained up to fidelity in their service, endeavour to spy out where the wild Boshies-men have their haunts. This is best discovered by the smoke of their fires. They are found in societies from 10 to 50 and 100, reckoning great and small together. Notwithstanding this, the farmers will venture in a dark night to set upon them with six or eight people, which they contrive to do by previously stationing themselves at some distance round about the encampment. They then give the alarm by firing a gun or two. By this means there is such a consternation spread over the whole body of these savages, that it is only the most bold and intelligent among them that have the courage to break through the circle and steal off. These the captors are glad enough to get rid of at so easy a rate; being better pleased with those that are stupid, timorous, and struck with amazement, and who consequently allow themselves to be taken and carried into bondage. They are, however, at first treated by gentle methods; that is, the victors intermix the fairest promises with their threats, and endeavour, if possible, to shoot some of the