HOTTENTOTS, an extraordinary people in the south ern extremity of Africa, originally occupying the territo ries around the Cape of Good Hope. They are altoge ther an insulated tribe, confined to a small corner of the African Continent, and bearing no resemblance either to the Negro race along the western coast, or to the Caifre nation to the eastward. Various conjectures have been proposed, but nothing very satisfactory has yet been esta blished, respecting their origin, or affinity. Kolben, in full consistency with his multitude of marvellous stories on the subject, affirms, that they have a tradition among them selves, of having been thrust upon the promontory of the Cape out of some narrow passage ; and, as a narrow pas sage might signify a door-way or windo•v, lie forthwith concludes, that it could he nothing else than the window of Noah's ark, out of which they crept. Mr Barrow con siders them as approaching nearest in colour, and in the construction of the features, especially in the shape of the eye, to the Chinese or Tartar race; and accounts for this relation, by supposing them to have proceeded from the Egyptians, who have been not improbably represented as originally the same people with the Chinese. In support of this opinion, he adduces the strong resemblance between the physical character of the Bosjesinans, or real Hotten tots, and the descriptions given by ancient writers, particu larly by Diodorus Siculus, of the Egyptians and Ethio pians, especially of the Pigmies and Troglodytes, who are said to have dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Nile. The early Portuguese writers, also, mention a colony of Chi nese in the vicinity of Soffala ; and the natives in the inte rior of Madagascar are described as a small race of Tar tars, resembling the Hottentots in stature, colour, and countenance. The name Hottentot, though frequently represented as their native appellation, is uow ascertained to be of modern fabrication, and has no place or meaning in their own language. They take it to themselves, under the idea of its being a Dutch word ; and it is conceived to have been applied at first as a term in some degree imita tive of the remarkable clacking made by them in speak ing, which is said to sound like hot or tot. Each horde had formerly its particular name, as the Attaquas, Hessaquas, Houtiniquas, Namaquas, and Coranas ; but the designa tion by which the whole nation was distinguished, and which they still bear among themselves in every part of the country, is Quaiqux.
The whole of the Hottentot country, comprehending all the different tribes of the race, extends along the east coast to the 32° of S. Latitude, and to the 25° on the West. None of the first discoverers of the Cape of Good Hope, nor of the early Portuguese navigators, had much commu nication with the natives ; and the Hottentots were scarcely known to Europeans till about the year 1509; when Fran cisco D'Almeyda, Viceroy of India, returning home after his quarrel with Albuquerque, landed at ;Fable Bay, and was killed, along with seventy of his people, in a scuffle with the natives. A Portuguese captain, having touched on the coast, about three years afterwards, planned the fol lowing cowardly scheme of avenging his countrymen. He landed a piece of ordnance loaded with grape shot as a pre tended present to the Hottentots ; and while the unsuspect ing natives were crowding around the engine, the brutal Portuguese fired off the piece by means of a rope which was attached to it, and viewed with savage delight the man gled carcases of the deluded creatures, who had trusted their professions of friendship. They were occasionally visited for refreshments by the English, Portuguese, and Dutch traders, in their voyages to the East Indies, till the establishment of a colony among them by the last men tioned nation, in the year 1650. They made little opposi tion to the new settlers ; and were soon induced, by their passion for brandy and tobacco, first to sell their country and cattle, and next to become themselves the servants of the purchasers, for the purpose of guarding those flocks and herds, which had so recently been their own property. These wretched people, duped out of their possessions and their liberty, have entailed upon themselves and their offspring a state of subjection, which is comparatively worse than slavery ; inasmuch as, in consequence of their not being transferable property, their immediate value is diminished, and their treatment less tempered by the self interest of their oppressors. In the remoter parts of the
colony, especially, they are subjected to cruelties, which have not been surpassed in the worst of the West India islands. Instant death is not unfrequently the consequence of that brutal rage to which they are exposed. To fire small shot into their legs or thighs is no unusual punish ment. One of the gentler chastisements which they en dure is, to be lashed or rather bruised with thongs, cut from the hide of the sea-cow or rhinoceros, which are nearly as hard and heavy as lead. With these horrid in struments they are flogged at leisure, not by a number of blows, but by a period of torture ; and the savage master makes it one of his favourite recreations to regulate the time of their suffering, by smoking as many pipes of to bacco as he deems proportionate to the offence.* These boors or Dutch farmers are authorised by an old law of the colony to claim as their property all the children of the Hottentots in their service, to whom they may have given in their infancy a morsel of meat ; and, though the same regulation directs their emancipation at the age of twenty five, this is a privilege which they are generally too igno rant to claim, or too feeble to enforce. At most, the poor wretches, after spending the prime of their strength in an unprofitable servitude, are turned adrift at last, with no other earthly property except the sheep skin upon their back. Those who are apparently free, and engage themselves from year to year, are not much better provided for. If they have families when they enter the service, their chil dren are encouraged to run about the farm house, where they receive their morsel of food ; and upon this ground, are often claimed as the property of the farmer, when their parents are desirous to remove, or perhaps forcibly turned away. Those who are unmarried, as well as free, are doubtless the least wretched ; but even their personal ser vice is easily converted into the hardest bondage. Their paltry wages are stopped upon every frivolous pretext ; and should any of the cattle entrusted to their care be miss ing, they must prolong their service, without pay, till they have earned the value of what was lost. Or, should no da mage of this nature be imputable to their negligence during the year, they may still have nothing to receive at the end of it, in consequence of a hill for brandy or tobacco, brought against them, to the full amount of their In such circumstances, they have little inducement to en gage in marriage ; and when they do enter into that state, they are frequently without any offspring, or at most have seldom more than two or three children. Their extreme poverty, scanty food, and constant dejection of mind, ap pear to exhaust the prolific powers of nature ; and then. practice of marrying only among their own limited horde is considered as an additional hindrance to their increase. Multitudes of the more independent tribes, also, have pe rished by the hostilities of the Caffres, and the ferocity of the wild beasts, as they receded towards the interior of the country.* From all these causes combined, the Hottentot race is rapidly diminishing, and in all probability will soon become wholly extinct. Many of their tribes, mentioned by the earlier travellers, have entirely disappeared ; and, at the commencement of the present century, not a kraal or village was to be found about Cam toos river, where, only 20 years before, hundreds of the natives were met in groupes. In the whole extensive district of Graaff Rey net, there is not a single horde of independent Hottentots; and the whole number within the limits of the colony does not amount to fifteen thousand. Much has been done since the colony came last into the possession of Great Britain, especially by the measures of Sir John Craddock, and the progress of missionary settlements, to protect and preserve this oppressed race of beings; but, though a little remnant may thus be collected, the nation, it is to be feared, is almost already extinguished. A mixed breed, called Bastaards, produced from Hottentot women and European fathers, or the slaves from other countries, are likely to supplant the original inhabitants. They are already a numerous race in the colony ; and are a tall, stout, and active people.