172 Observations o?i the Origin of the Bushmen, 



Saap or Saan, and history describes a portion thereof under the 

 appellation of Bushmen, to which, as a subdivision of the 

 former, the following remarks are intended to apply. 



The term Bushman, or more properly Bosjiesman, is of 

 Dutch origin, and commonly employed at present by the 

 colonists to designate a native of the wild and savage tribes 

 residing immediately beyond the northern boundary of the 

 colony, and supporting themselves either by plunder or the 

 spontaneous productions of nature. The time when such 

 communities began to exist, must ever remain a matter of 

 conjecture, yet it is certain that they occurred at an early 

 period, for vve find that the histories of such hordes are familiar 

 to the better disposed Hottentots even far in advance of the 

 colony, and stated by them to have existed from time 

 immemorial. Considering the manner in which their num- 

 bers are at present occasionally increased, we may, without 

 much danger of error, attribute their origin, partly to the 

 consequences of war and poverty, and partly to the association 

 of characters whom crime induced to seek a refuge in the 

 desert, or the habits of a better state of society expelled from 

 its haunts. In very early times, the part of the country now 

 known to us as the chief resort of the Bushmen, was more 

 densely populated than at present, and the outrages and violences 

 perpetrated by its inhabitants were, according to tradition, 

 even more frequent and horrible than they now are. In such 

 days also, the barren districts lying between the Oliphant 

 and Groone Rivers, now a long way within the boundary of 

 the colony, together with various other spots near the western 

 coast, were peopled by such characters ; and the Great 

 Karoo, as well as the country about the Camptoes River, 

 were likewise at one period the retreats of persons like those 

 in question. The belief of such having been the case, is 

 founded partly upon the traditions of the older Hottentots ; 

 partly upon the statements of the writer of the Diary of a 

 Journey made by Governor Simon van der Stell, to the Coun- 

 try of the Amaquas*, and partly upon the authority of a 

 document quoted by the Rev. Dr. Philipt, which furnishes 

 evidence shewing, that in the year 1702, a party of armed 

 Boors reached as far as the last named district, and found 

 there " no kraals, except hordes of Bushmen." Besides 

 such real and presumptive proofs, of their antient existence 

 in various situations, we also find them in the present 



day scattered over all the deserts of Great Namaqualand 



„__ - ___^ » 



* " Reschryvin^e van de Kaap d>r Goede Hoope, door Francois Valen- 

 tyn," p, 6, Amsterdam, 1726; or translation in the South African Quarterly 

 Join ii.-il, ■ -I I, p. 30 et sen 



1 Researches in South Africa, hy the Rev. John Philip, D.D. vol. I. \>. T! 



