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 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 potion, 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 far worse than beasts, that their foil 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 back 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 termites), grasshoppers, snakes, and some sorts of spiders. With all these changes of diet, the Boshies-man is nevertheless frequently in want, and famished 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 Sparman 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 Bothies-men live. They themselves, as well as their Lego-Hottentots, or else such Bothies-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 Bothies-men have their haunts. This is best discovered by the smoke of their fires. They are found in societies from 10 to 15 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 kraal. 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 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 larger kinds of game for their prisoners, such as buffaloes, sea-cows, and the like. Such agreeable baits, together with a little tobacco, soon induce them, continually cockered and feasted as they are, to go with a tolerable degree of cheerfulness to the colonist's place of abode. There this luxurious junketing upon meat and fat is exchanged for more moderate portions, consisting for the most part of butter-milk, frumenty, and hafty-pudding. This diet, nevertheless, makes the Bothies-man fat in a few weeks. However, he soon finds his good living embittered by the muttering and grumbling of his master and mistress. The words "pugwazi" and "tgaunath," which perhaps are best translated by those of "young sorcerer," and "imp," are expressions which he must frequently put up with; and sometimes a few curses and blows into the bargain; and this for neglect, remissness, or idleness: which last failure, if it cannot be said to be born with him, is however in a manner naturalized in him. So that, both by nature and custom detesting all manner of labour, and now from his greater corpulency becoming still more slothful, and having besides been used to a wandering life subject to no control, he most sensibly feels the want of his liberty. No wonder, then, that he generally endeavours to regain it by making his escape: but what is really a subject for wonder is, that when one of these poor devils runs away from his service, or more properly bondage, he never takes with him anything that does not belong to him. This is an instance of moderation in the savages towards their tyrants which is universally attested, and at the same time praised and admired by the colonists themselves; which, however, I cannot easily reconcile with what I have learned of the human heart. Is it in consequence of their fearing to meet with harsher usage in case they should be retaken? This far, however, is certain, that none of this species of Hottentots are much given to violence or revenge. Free from many wants and desires that torment the rest of mankind, they are little, if at all, addicted to thieving, if we except brandy, victuals, and tobacco. It is not improbable likewise, that the advantages accruing from a theft may be overlooked by them, when their thoughts are taken up with regaining their liberty, the greatest of all treasures. It is necessary to observe here, that some of the Hottentots or Bothies-men, who are thus forced into the service of the colonists, live in small societies peaceably and quietly in desert tracts, where the colonists cannot easily come at them, and are sometimes in the possession of a few cows. These people probably originate from Bothies-men who have run away from the colonists service.

"I must confess (continues our author), that the Bothies-men in some husbandmen's service are treated in the gentlest manner, and perhaps even without ever having a harsh word given them; live very well with regard to provisions; are well clad, relatively to their condition in life; and are very comfortably lodged, in comparison of what others are, in their own straw cottages. The chief of their business perhaps consists in tending a herd of cattle or flock of sheep during the heat of the day, when they have an opportunity of getting into a gentle state of intoxication by smoking tobacco; a state which excites in them sensations of agreeable a nature as the frenzy produced by spirituous liquors and opium seems to afford to many others, who are never at ease but when they can procure to themselves this delicious pleasure. And yet, though they may thus agreeably pass away the otherwise tedious hours of their lives in smoking and sleep, they nevertheless generally run away. The colonists wonder at this, as a procedure entirely devoid of reason; without perceiving, that in so doing they suppose the Hottentots not endowed with a desire, which has its immediate foundation in nature, and which is common to the human race, and even to most brute animals, viz. an earnest longing after their birthplace and families, and especially after their liberty.

"The slave business, that violent outrage to the natural rights of mankind, always in itself a crime, and which leads to all manner of misdemeanors and wickedness, is exercised by the colonists in general with a cruelty towards the nation of Bothies-men which merits the abhorrence of every one; though I have been told that they pique themselves upon it: and not only is the capture of those Hottentots considered by them merely as a party of pleasure, but in cold blood they destroy the bonds which nature has knit between husbands and their wives and children. Not content, for instance, with having torn an unhappy woman from the embraces of her husband, her only protection and comfort, they endeavour all they can, and that chiefly at night, to deprive her likewise of her infants; for it has been observed, that the mothers can seldom persuade themselves to flee from their tender offspring. The amiable tenderness of the mother, which perhaps glows with a more lively flame in the breast of this poor heathen than in those of her Christian tyrants, is the very circumstance laid hold on by their persecutors in order to rivet the chains of this wretched female so much the faster. There are some mothers, however, that set themselves free, when they have lost all..." all hopes of saving their children. After having made their escape, they sometimes keep secretly about the neighbourhood, in hopes of finding some opportunity of recovering their infants again."