The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE HEREEOS. 69A few scattered groups of Bushmen, the Ma-Cuancallas of the Portuguesesettlers, live in a state of bondage amongst the surrounding Bantu populations.They are employed by the Ovambos as carriers of ivorj' and iron ores, and are alsofrequently enlisted as soldiers. The whole region of the plains inhabited by theOvambos is intersected by excellent roads, which are accessible to the waggonsboth of the Europeans and natives, for these also highly appreciate the advantagesof wheeled traffic. When carts were first introduced they fell prostrate on theground, rubbing their foreheads in the dust raised by the passing wheels.At the beginning of the year 188f: some fifteen families of Dutch treliherssettled in the Ondongo district near a copious spring, the "Groot-Fonfain," whichhas its source to the east of the Etosha lagoon, founded a petty "republic," namedTJpingtonia, in honour of a prominent politician in Cape Colony. The new statecomprised, at least on the map, a superficial area of no less than 20,000 squaremiles, divided into allotments of 60,000 acres, and immigrants were invited fromall quarters to come and occupy the land. But the violent death of their leaderand the troubles with the natives have obliged this group ofBoers to place themselvesimder the protectorate of Germany.The Hereros (Oba-Herero, the "cheerful" or "merry people"), who wereformerly called the "Lowland" or "Cattle Damaras," are also a Bantu nation,who reach southwards far into the Hottentot domain. According to their owntraditions, they exclusively inhabited the highland region of Kaoko down to themiddle of the eighteenth century ; but towards the year 1775, at a time whenwater was more abundant in the country than at present, most of their tribesmigrated southwards. Biit a few remained behind in the Xaoko uplands, wherethey intermingled with the Bushmen, and like them became impoverished. TheHerero language, now well known, thanks to the works of the English and Germanmissionaries, who are settled amongst them and have published grammars andreligious treatises, is a pure Bantu idiom. At least this is the case in the districtswhere the Hereros keep aloof from other races, for in the neighbourhood of theHottentots hybrid dialects have sprung up in many places, in which the words ofboth tongues are intermingled, and inflected either with Bantu prefixed or Hottentotsuffixed particles.Since their exodus from the Kaoko country the Hereros have been frequentlyin conflict with other peoples. They had first of all to fight the " true Damaras,"the so-called "Highland Damaras," nearly all of whom they reduced to servitude.Then, after the middle of the present century, they were exposed to the incursionsof the Namaqua Hottentots and of the Bastaards, by whom thousands weredestroyed or reduced to slavery. Possessing no firearms with which to resisttheir assailants, who were perfectly equipped and in constant commercial intercoursewith the Cape, the Hereros seemed doomed to destruction. Galton, whovisited this region in the year 1850, foresaw the day when the Namaquas, withtheir scornful hatred of the blacks and the characteristic obstinacy of their race,must at last succeed in extirpating their hereditary foes.But the foreboding hasnot been verified. More numerous and more agile than their adversaries, the