NAMA'QUAS, the principal existing tribe of the race generally known under the name of Hottentot. They inhabit the region called Great Namaqualand, n. of the Gariep or Orange river, and the country a few miles s. of it, as far as the Kamieshergen. They are a pastoral people of rather predatory habits, and live under the rule of their chiefs, whose powers, however, are of a very limited nature. Differing from the Bosjesnien Hottentots, the Namaquas are a tall, well made, active people, although presenting, the usual peculiarities of the race, such as the light olive complexion, the oblique eye, and shed tufted hair. They speak a dialect of the Hottentot language, which, however, differs considerably from that used by other tribes of that people. Mission stations of the Rhenish and 11 esclyan societies have been for many years established amount them, and in a few localities, near the Came Colony, with considerable success;. and the New Testament and some elementary works havq been translated into the Namaqua dialect. Ou the northern borders of the regions they inhabit, the Nitmacidas, udder the chief Africaner, the descendant of a fugitive slave from Cape Colony, have for many years kept np a predatory and bloody war with the tribes of Ovampos and Damaros. who live
n. of Walfish bay. The total number of Ntunaquas cannot exceed between 50,000 and 60,000 souls, scattered over a region of at least 150,000 NAIL ; and there is every pros pect of the pure Hottentot tribes soon becoming extinct, or at least absorbed, being gradually supplanted by the more energetic and civilized Bastard races, who, in point of civilization and appearance, are very little inferior to the ordinary Dutch Boer of Cape Colony. Many of the southern Namaquas possess wagons and oxen, and are employed in the transport of copper ore from the mines of Little Namaqualand to the shipping port at Hondeklip bay.
A few of the peculiar customs of the Hottentot tribes, described by Kolben nearly 200 years ago, may be still traced amongst the more remote tribes of the Nam:Niles; but contact with the Cape Colonists, and the efforts of the missionaries, have partially civilized this race, so that an ordinary Hottentot is quite as respectable a savage, or per haps more so than his Betjonana or Amakosa brethren.