SOUTHERN AFRICA. 266 



any of its advantages. In common with other countries 

 remote from the sea-coast^ this portion of the continent 

 receives its rain in thunder-showers during" the summer 

 months j and there being- none during the rest of the year, 

 the chmate, notwithstanding frequent nocturnal dews, is 

 characterized by extreme aridit}'. The sun shines with 

 matchless splendour through a sk}- of delicious blue, which 

 is rarely visited by a cloud ; and during his meridian blaze 

 over a level expanse in many parts strongly imj^regnated 

 with salt, the delusion of mirage is nowhere more perfect. 

 Optical lakes impart to the wanderer fevered with thirst, 

 the torments of Tantalus ; yet even on these naked plains he 

 will experience none of the debilitating fervour of an Indian 

 sun. 



Although thinly populated by skulking broods of Bush- 

 men, and by the starving remnants of nomadic pastoral 

 tribes, which have been broken up by Avar and violence, this 

 is a land in which no man permanently dwells — neither is 

 the soil any man's property, being abandoned as water or 

 fuel fails. Nearly all the rivers by which it is traversed are 

 periodical, and the few pools that exist, being dried up af 

 certain seasons, the miserable wretches, whose existence 

 depends upon the wild animals, migrate with them to distant 

 parts, keeping within the verge of expiring verdure. Owing* 

 to the devastation occasioned in the countries north-east of 

 the colony by the hordes called Mantatees and Ficani espe- 

 cially, as well as by marauding hands of Bergenaar^Griquas 

 ■ — a race of mixed European and African lineage — many 

 hundred famishhig survivors of the Bechuana tribes took 

 refuge, during- the years 1824 and 1825, in the frontier 

 districts of Graaif Keinet and Somerset. Amongst the 

 savage nations of South Africa, as elsewhere, a principle of 

 extinction has indeed for ages past been in active operation. 

 Begions now silent and deserted, once contained their busy 



