The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

U(\SOUTH AND EAST AFETCA.claimed by the British Government till the year 182S, nnd even this act of tardyjustice was as a stumbling-block to a large section of the colonists, including allthe IJocrs, who regarded the emancipation of the despised Hottentots as an infringementof their own hereditary privileges, and a step fraught with danger to thecolony. Many even preferred to quit the countr)'- rather than continue to dwellby the side of their former serfs now officially declared their equals.But during their one hundred and fifty years' contact with the whites previousto this proclamation how many Hottentot tribes had already been exterminated,more even by the gun than by small-pox ! "What has become of the Koranas,who had their camping grounds on the shores of Table Bay when the first Europeancolonists settled in the country, and of the Gri-kwas (Griquas), who encampedfarther north near St. Helena Baj-? Many other tribal groups, such as theGauri, San, Atta, Haisse, Sussi, Dama, Dun, and Shirigri, have also disapjDcared,leaving no memory behind them except the names given by them to their riversand mountains. And their murderers meantime assumed the role of agents ofdestiny, almost as instruments of the Divine Will, declaring that these inferiorraces were foredoomed to destruction, leaving their inheritance to " the chosenpeople !" Even now the opinion prevails that, under a wise dispensation ofProvidence, the Khoi-khoins are rapidlj' diminishing in numbers. But the wishis here " father to the thought," for the assimiption is amply refuted bj' the officialreturns.Doubtless the aborigines seem to decrease, but only through the effect ofan optical illusion caused by the fact of the relatively far more rapid growth of thewhite element. It should also be remembered that the change of social habitsgradually weans the natives from their rude ways, drawing them within the circleof more refining influence, assimilating them in garb and speech to their Europeanmasters, to whoso sentiments, religious views, and usages they daily moreadapt themselves.Moreover, a large number of these aborigines, still refractory to the everspreadingEnglish culture, have withdra\\Ti northwards, thus retracing the stepsof their forefathers when they descended seawards from the inland regions, bornealong, says the national legend, " in a great pannier."In Namaqualand, and asfar north as the Herero territory, these Oerlams, or Hottentots from Cajje Colony,have often gained the political predominance. They have even followed in thewake of the stream of Boer immigration to the neighbourhood of Hunpatabeyond the Cunene.At present organised tribal groups, such as those of the Haw-Ehoins and Xamaquas,Griquas, and Koranas, are found only in the region north of the OrangeRiver.Those residing in the settled European districts, although henceforth intermingledwith the general population, are nevertheless still classed apart in the censusreturns. In 1798 the four districts of the Cape, Stellenbosch, SweUendam, andGraaf-Eeinet, which at that time constituted the whole of the colony, had only13,000 Hottentots in a total population of 32,000. But in 1SG5 this element hadincreased to 81,600 in the territory of Cape Colony, and ten j-eai's later it numberedno less than 98,560. Doubtless most of these, although reckoned as true