LEETAKOO or LATTA/100, is a large and populous city of Africa, and the capital of the territory of the Boos hooana tribes. This town was visited in 1801 by Dr. Wil liam Somerville and Mr. Truter, and is sixteen days jour ney beyond the Orange river. The account of the town given by these travellers will be found in our article Boos 1100 ANAS.
Leetakoo was visited in June, 1813, by the Rev. Mr. Campbell, minister of Kingsland Chapel, who has given a very full account of the inhabitants. He describes the city as lying in a valley between hills, and stretching about three or four miles from east to west. The city is divided into about 50 districts, separated from each other, haying each a headman, or alderman, and a place enclosed for public resort, where the men spend the greater part of the day to gether, dressing skins, and making knives, and various arti cles. Copper and iron are obtained from some nation far ther west; and it is understood that there are copper mines in mountains not very distant from Leetakoo. From these metals the people manufacture axes, adzes, knives, spears, and bodkins, rings for the legs, arms, fingers, and ears. Their cloaks are made and sewed as well as those of Euro peans. The women of Leetakoo build the houses, dig the fields, and sow and reap, while the men milk the cows, make their clothes, and go to war. Even the queen digs
the ground along with the other females. They use a kind of pick-axe. They all sing when at work, and strike the ground in time. In the house of Salakootoo, the king's bro ther, Mr. Campbell saw paintings, which were rude repre sentations of the cameleon and rhinoceros, elephant, lion, ti ger, and steinbuck. They were drawn on the clay wall with white and black paint by Salakootoo's wife. The wa ter by which the town is supplied, is obtained from holes at the end of a hill about a mile to the westward. Each hole is one foot in diameter, and two feet deep. From 5r to 100 women are to be found at these little wells from morning till evening. From the best calculation wlticl Mr. Campbell could make, he estimated the number houses at 1500, and the inhabitants at 7500. There are, it is said, about a thousand places called outposts, where there are people and cattle.
Mr. Campbell places Leetakoo in about 26° 12' of South Lat. and 25° 14' East of Greenwich. See Barrow's Tra vels in the South of Africa ; and Campbell's Travels in the South of Africa, chap. 15, 16,17, 18, 19, 20. Lond. 1815.