Chap V. DRESS OF THE NATIVES. 73 



during the twenty years which followed, not a single charge 

 was ever brought against either him or his people. Sir 

 George Cathcart not only abrogated the treaty with the 

 Griquas, but prohibited their purchasing gunpowder for 1heii 

 own defence. An exception was made in favour of the 

 Transvaal Boers and Caffres, our avowed enemies, while the 

 Bechuanas and Griquas, our constant allies, are debarred from 

 obtaining a single ounce. Such an error could not have been 

 committed by a man of local knowledge and experience, and 

 such instances of confounding friend and foe, under the idea 

 of promoting colonial interests, will probabty lead the Cape 

 community to assert the right of choosing their own governors. 



Many hundreds of both Griquas and Bechuanas have become 

 Christians and partially civilized through the teaching of 

 English missionaries. My first impression was that the 

 accounts of the effect which the Gospel had had upon them 

 were too highly coloured. When, however, I passed on to 

 true heathens in countries beyond the sphere of missionary 

 influence, I came to the conclusion that the change produced 

 was unquestionably great. 



The Griquas and Bechuanas were in former times clad 

 much like the Caffres, if the expression may be used when 

 there was scarcely any clothing at all. A bunch of leather 

 strings about eighteen inches long hung from the lady's waist 

 in front, and a prepared skin of a sheep or antelope covered 

 the shoulders. The breast and abdomen were left bare. The 

 men wore a patch of apron about as big as the crown of a hat, 

 and a mantle exactly like that of the women. To protect the 

 skin from the sun by day and from the cold by night, they 

 smeared themselves with a compound of fat and ochre : the 

 head was anointed with pounded blue mica schist mixed with 

 grease. The particles of shining mica, as they fell on the body 

 and on strings of beads and brass rings, were considered 

 highly ornamental. They now come to church in decent 

 clothing. Sunday is well observed, and, even in localities 

 where no missionary lives, religious meetings are regularly 

 held, and children and adults taught to read, by the more 

 advanced of their fellow-countrymen. 



It is a proof of the success of the Bechuana Mission that 

 when we came back from the interior we always felt on 



