20 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



to have attempted the life of any person. Not, 

 indeed, until the Boers began with them their 

 invariable policy of enslaving the native races with 

 which they came in contact did the Bushmen turn 

 upon them. From that time until the middle of the 

 present century war has been incessantly waged 

 upon these miserable nomads, who in turn have 

 shown themselves implacable and desperate foes, 

 The deeds of blood that have been enacted by 

 Boers and Bushmen upon each other are almost 

 incredible in their savagery, and would fill volumes 

 if their history could be written. The ancient Boer 

 method appears to have been, after a foray upon 

 their flocks, or without that pretext if in need of 

 slaves, to raise a force of mounted men a commando, 

 as it is called to track the Bushmen to their lurking- 

 places, surround them, shoot down the men and 

 women, and carry off the children as captives. One 

 frontier Boer has boasted that he had assisted in the 

 death and capture of 3,200 of these poor wretches, 

 another of 2,700. In Barrow's time a Boer from 

 GraafT Reinet, being asked at Cape Town if the 

 savages were numerous or troublesome upon the 

 road, replied " he had only shot four," with as 

 much composure and indifference as if he had 

 been speaking of four partridges. Barrow himself 

 heard one of the Dutch colonists boast "of having 

 destroyed, with his own hand, near 300 of these 

 unfortunate wretches." 



In their turn the poisoned arrows of the Bush- 

 men not infrequently proved the death of the Dutch 

 and their families, and they became extraordinarily 

 expert as cattle lifters. As a race, the tiny Bushmen 

 average only about four-and-a-half feet in height among 



