1 24- Dr. Smith's Observations relative to the 



calculated for the guidance of man in a state of actual civili- 

 zation. 



Most Bushmen pertinaciously avoid every communication 

 with foreigners, and resort to the most unfrequented and 

 inaccessible spots, upon the actual or even supposed approach 

 thereof. They are deeply versed in deceit, and treacherous 

 in the extreme, being always prepared to effect by guile and 

 perfidy what they otherwise are unable to accomplish*. Such 

 treachery, however, though glaringly conspicuous, appears 

 certainly to be resorted to more as a means suggested by rea- 

 son and observation, to compensate for the inequality that ex- 

 ists between them and their more powerful neighbours, than 

 to proceed from the operation of abstract vicious and disho- 

 nourable principles. They are, therefore, not divested of that 

 which under other circumstances such attainments would give 

 reason to suspect, namely, personal bravery. That, all of 

 them enjoy in a very distinguished degree, and display in no 

 mean proportion in every situation, but more especially when 

 opposed to powers adventitious to those of their own tribes, 

 and upon whom they have been led from infancy to look with 

 impressions of horror, detestation, and dread. 



Though well aware of the inferiority of their own weapons, 

 when compared with fire-arms, yet when they discover that 

 it is necessary to oppose the latter, they manifest a remarkable 

 degree of courage, and a perseverance and coolness which 

 only the absence of fear could enable them to support. On 

 such occasions, instances have been known of individuals who 

 have had their left arms completely disabled, employ their 

 toes to fix their bows, so as to be able to continue their 

 defence; and many have been observed to persevere in re- 

 sistance, after being wounded or maimed in such a way as to 

 occasion almost immediate dissolution. Such violent opposi- 

 tion, and often absurd inflexibility, appear to be excited partly 

 by the influence of their unconquerable passions, and partly 

 by the dread they entertain of falling into the power of enemies, 

 whom they believe as certain either to destroy them at the in- 

 stant, or convert them into slaves. The coolness and indif- 

 ference with which almost the whole of the Hottentot race re- 

 gard the approach of death, has often been commented upon; 



* The Rev. Mr. Kicherer, a Missionary, who laboured for some time 

 amongst the Bushmen, at a station on the Zak River, says "Another sin- 

 gular escape from death deserves to be recorded. In the evening of a day 

 which was uncommonly sultry, I was sitting near an open window, when a 

 concealed party of Boschmen were just about to discharge a volley of poi- 

 soned arrows at me ; but, by the same girl who saved the life of Brother 

 Kramer from the danger of Vigilant, they were detected, and made off in 

 haste." Transactions of the Missionary Society, vol. ii. p. 21. 



and 



