1^08 SOrTHERN AFRICA. 



of the kingdoms of the East, and busied in lading their ves- 

 sels with the produce of those vast and opulent regions, 

 scarcely deigned to cast an eye on the rude border of South- 

 em Africa, its terraces of granite, its naked Karroo plains, 

 or the filthy and miserable kraals of the Hottentot. Their 

 fleets, indeed, stopped occasionally for water and refresh- 

 ments ; but no attempts were made to occupy, and still less 

 to colonize, this barren and unpromising country. 



The Dutch, a prudent and calculating people, having 

 pushed their way into the Indian seas, where they first 

 rivalled and then supplanted the Portuguese, were not long 

 in discovering the important advantage that might be de- 

 rived from the Cape as a naval station. In 1650, they 

 founded Cape Town, — a step which led to farther improve- 

 ment ; for it thereby became necessary that supplies of gram 

 and provisions should be drawn from the surrounding coun- 

 try. When, moreover, it was discovered that on some 

 neighbouring hills the vine could be reared in high perfec- 

 tion, a new value was stamped upon the settlement. The 

 natives, not then destitute of bravery, but ill-armed, undis- 

 ciplined, and disunited, were easily driven back by the colo- 

 nists, or reduced to an almost complete and hopeless bond- 

 age ; and hence the country, for several hundred miles in 

 every direction, so far as it afforded any herbage, was soon 

 covered with extensive grazing farms under Dutch masters. 



Peter Kolben, who resided some years at the Cape, pub- 

 lished a narrative, which, though it be liable to a few excep- 

 tions, gives us by far the fullest account of the Hottentots, 

 before that race was completely weighed down by Euro- 

 pean oppression. This unfortunate tribe has become noted 

 and almost proverbial for presenting man in his lowest es- 

 tate, and under the closest alliance with the inferior orders 

 of creation. It must, indeed, be admitted, that they take 

 particular pains to render their external appearance the 

 most hideous that the human body can possibly present. 

 Grease is poured over their persons in copious streams, 

 which, being exposed to the perpetual action of smoke, forms 

 on their skin a black and shining cake, through which the 

 native colour, a yellowish brown, is scarcely ever percepti- 

 ble. Grease in Africa forms the chief distinction of rank,— 

 the rich besmearing themselves with fresh butter, while the 

 poorer classes are obliged to tear the fa^ from the bowels cf 



