658 PHILOLOGY. 



Lower Guinea, that is, the western coast of Africa, from the equator to the country of 

 the Hottentots. The principal are, beginning from the north, (1) the Kambinda, who 

 live north of the Zaire or Congo River, between the equator and latitude 4 south ; (2) 

 the Mundjola, a savage tribe in the interior, west of the Kambinda ; (3) the Congo 

 proper, or a great nation occupying a country which extends about two hundred miles 

 from north to south, between the Zaire and Dande Rivers ; (4) the Angola or Kasanji, 

 who inhabit a narrow strip of land on the coast, between 3 and 9 of south latitude, where 

 they are subject to the Portuguese, but in the interior are spread over a large territory, 

 forming an independent and powerful people ; and (5) the Bengera or Bengucla, who 

 possess the country south of the Angola, extending to the sandy desert which separates 

 them from the Hottentots. 



The Makua are, on the eastern coast, what the Congo nation is on the west, the most 

 numerous and powerful people known to us ; and their name has therefore been used, in 

 the same manner, to designate all the tribes speaking cognate languages, from the 

 Sowaiel or Sowauli, near the equator, to the Sofala, in latitude 21 south. The principal 

 of these are (1) the Makua proper, who occupy an extensive region between the latitudes 

 10 and 20 south ; (2) the Mudjdna, who are spread over the interior of the continent, 

 to the north and northwest of the Makua; (3) the Makonde, also an interior tribe, whose 

 country stretches towards the territory of the Bengera on the western coast. The 

 Tafcwani, Masena, and Sofala dialects, of which vocabularies are given, are spoken by 

 tribes of the southern Makua, who inhabit the region watered by the great river Zambeze. 



The term Caffre or Kafir is of Arabic derivation, meaning infidel. It was employed 

 by the Arab settlers on the eastern coast of Africa to designate all the pagan and barba- 

 rous natives. From them, the Portuguese borrowed the appellation, which, as the proper 

 and particular names of the various tribes became known, gradually lost its general 

 signification, and is now restricted to a distinct class of tribes who inhabit the country 

 between the Makua on the north and the Hottentots on the south, and who differ suffi- 

 ciently from the other aborigines to deserve a special designation. They are generally 

 slender and well-made, with faces partaking slightly of the Moorish cast. Their color 

 is a yellowish-brown, between that of the mulatto and the true negro. The nose is not 

 much depressed, the lips are rather thick, the eye large, black, and bright, and the hair 

 woolly. 



Several tribes of this people are known to us from the accounts of travellers and mis- 

 sionaries. The most noted are the Bichuana, in the interior, north of the Hottentots, and 

 the Koossas or Caffres proper, with the Soolahs or Zulu, inhabiting the coast between the 

 colonial settlements and Lagoa Bay, in latitude 26 south. Of the people who occupy the 

 country between this bay and the Portuguese seaport of Sofala, we have hitherto had no 

 account. They are called Nyambana, or, as the Portuguese write it, Inhambane, and 

 it is of their language that a specimen is now given. A vocabulary of several hundred 

 words was obtained, but, for the reasons before mentioned, it is omitted. The American 

 missionaries, who have recently commenced their labors in the Zulu country, have 

 already formed a grammar and dictionary of that language, which it is to be hoped will 

 be published. The Zulu words which are given to show the similarity between that 

 tongue and the Nyambana, are taken from a vocabulary compiled by the Rev. H. J. 

 Venable, and now in the possession of the Missionary Board, to whose favor we owe the 



