Origin and History of the Bushmen. 125 



and though it must be acknowledged to be strongly marked in all 

 of them, yet from what I have myself seen as well as heard, I 

 feel disposed to consider it as most conspicuous amongst the 

 Bushmen. These, though they show an inclination to escape 

 where danger is imminent, yet if they find that not to be ac- 

 complished with facility, they encounter their fate with scarcely 

 the appearance of reluctance or concern; they yield up their 

 lives without the slightest semblance of fear, and even view 

 the approach of death with so little emotion, as almost to in- 

 cline one to deny them the feelings of reasonable beings. As 

 one example of such hardihood, I may instance the murderer 

 of the late Mr. Trelfall, who, at the time^ when the executioners 

 were in front of him, and ready with their weapons to inflict 

 the punishment which his barbarous conduct so imperiously 

 demanded, observed, in reference to some part of a person's 

 conduct who was present, and which displeased him, that he 

 only wished he had him the offensive person on the other 

 side, (meaning of the Orange River,) and that he would do 

 for him also. 



Cruelty is familiar to the Bushmen in its most shock i no- 

 forms, and is exercised without remorse upon all such as, 

 under untoward circumstances, fall within their reach. The 

 love of revenge is one of the strongest feelings to which they 

 are obnoxious; it urges often to the most barbarous proceedings, 

 and induces to outrages of the most hideous character, merely 

 to satisfy momentary irritation, or the ranklings of a long- 

 fostered malice. Under such ascendancies, pitiable is the in- 

 dividual who falls within their power, as he is certain of being 

 subjected to the most agonizing tortures while life exists, and 

 to mutilations and disfigurations the most intolerable to sym- 

 pathy, and appalling to observation, at the very latest, the 

 moment that has fled. Their eagerness after retribution is 

 so urgent, as to render it a matter of indifference on whom it 

 is practised, provided the sufferer be believed to be of the same 

 country as the individual or individuals who may have injured 

 or annoyed them, and in this way the innocent are constantly 

 made to suffer for the guilty. 



From what I have been able to observe, as to their inclina- 

 tion towards cruelty and revenge, I almost feel disposed to 

 consider such as peculiarly vigorous in the Bushmen, more 

 especially as I have on many occasions seen both of them ex- 

 ercised towards their own relations, with as much rancour as 

 they could be towards strangers; and several instances have 

 come within my own knowledge, where parents were destroyed 

 by their own children, as well as examples of the most decided 

 inhumanity of the former to their offspring, both of which 



were 



