Origin and History of the Bushmen. 421 



opponents. If when they are detected they be in the vicinity 

 of rocks or mountains, they, after securing their plunder in 

 the way already described, retreat to those with amazing 

 rapidity, and from thence conduct their defence so dexte- 

 rously and effectually, that seldom are they overcome. They 

 shelter themselves so completely behind the rocks, that shot 

 can produce little or no effect, and the uncertainty of their 

 actual resorts renders the assailants little disposed to venture 

 upon a close approach. When in such positions, as well as 

 when in holes of the ground, the only effectual way in which 

 they can be secured or destroyed, is by approaching them 

 under the cover of a large shield, formed of the dried hide of 

 an ox, or of a hard rush or reed mat, and carried by one per- 

 son, while another accompanies him prepared for an actual 

 attack. Through those articles, the arrow will not penetrate 

 so as to produce much effect; and therefore, if they are not 

 in considerable numbers, or so close as that in advancing to 

 one, others are so situated as to be enabled to act with suc- 

 cess, they may thus be subdued, and frequently are so, both 

 by the frontier farmers, as well as by the Namaquas, River 



Hottentot, 



we found five more of my horses lying dead, one upon another, and on a 

 rocky rising ground, between the places Brandwacht and Malpes Fonteyn, 

 the robbers themselves. Here they defended themselves to the last ex- 

 tremity, in consequence of which, two of them were killed by the com- 

 mando'." MSS. 



A gentleman, who lately happened to be on the northern frontier of the 

 colony, at a time when the Bushmen had stolen 1200 sheep, says, " A com- 

 mando, which I accompanied, pushed forwards as fast as possible upon the 

 traces of the thieves, and it was most lamentable to see the track so strewed 

 with dead sheep which had been destroyed by the plunderers. It appears," 

 he adds, " that the Bushmen never leave behind them any cattle alive 

 which, from fatigue, cannot go on, but invariably kill them with poisoned 

 arrows." When they overtook them upon a high and rocky hill, they ap- 

 peared much confused, but immediately dispersed themselves and got be- 

 hind rocks, from whence they showered their arrows upon the farmers. 

 Of those the writer brought away two hundred. MSS. 



" On the morning which was fixed for our departure," says Mr. Kicherer, 

 *' one of our cows came home with an arrow sticking in her flank. We im- 

 mediately concluded that the Boschemen had driven away part of our herd. 

 In these cases, they oblige the cattle to run as fast as they can, and when 

 any of them are unable to keep up with the rest, they pierce it with a dart ; 

 in consequence of which, it falls on the road, and the carcass is fetched 

 away by the robbers on the following day. The cow which returned to us 

 had been thus treated, and served as a messenger to apprize us of what 

 had happened. I dispatched some Hottentots with fire-arms to pursue the 

 track of the banditti ; and in the mean time travelled on with the remainder 

 of the caravan. On the next day, my people joined us with seventy-three 

 out of eighty oxen, which had been stolen from us. They had happily fallen 

 in with the robbers, at the distance of a long day's journey beyond the hills, 

 and recovered the property ; but two of our horses had been killed by the 

 fatigue." Transactions of the Missionary Society, vol. iiu p. 12. 



