a tribe of Hottentots inhabiting a district in the south of Africa, on the confines of the Nimiqua country. The people are much taller than the other Hottentots of the colonies, though they evidently appear to be descended of the same race, having the same language and customs with their neighbours the Nimiquas, who are undoubtedly of the same extraction. Like other savage tribes, the Koraquas are ever ready to pilfer, and appropriate to their own use whatever they find pleasing, or suited to their purposes. They attempted to carry off some of M. Vaillant's effects, even before his face, and he was obliged, either to watch over or deposit them in some place of safety, in order to prevent their rapacity.

The excessive dryness of the country renders springs extremely rare; but to supply this defect the inhabitants dig in the earth a kind of cisterns, to which they gradually descend by means of steps; the greatest marks of industry which M. Vaillant could discover among any of the African nations. To secure this scanty supply of water even from the birds, they are in the practice of covering the mouth of the hole with stones and the branches of trees; yet in spite of all this economy, the wells frequently become dry, in which case the horde must remove to some other quarter. This circumstance renders the Koraquas a more wandering people than any of the other western tribes. They colour their bodies differently according to whim or caprice, and it is no uncommon thing to see them vary it every day, which gives them to each other a strange appearance as if they were dressed for a masquerade.