CHAPTER II. 



South Africa and its People. — The Bushmen, the Hottentots, the Kaffres, 

 and the Bechuana Tribes, and their Habits, 6fc. 



THE tract of country now known to us as Cape Colony was originally occu- 

 pied by the Dutch about the middle of the 17th century. A large propor- 

 tion of the original settlers were of Grerman origin ; but a considerable number 

 were of French , many French families having settled there between the years 

 1680 and 1690, driven thither by the persecution to which Protestants were at 

 that time subjected in France. The French and Grerman settlers enslaved the 

 native Hottentots, Kaffres, and Bushmen, and compelled them to labour for 

 them on their farms, and down to a very recent period this enforced servitude 

 of the native tribes was the occasion of constant warfare and murder. In 

 1796 the Cape settlement was taken by the English, but on peace being 

 concluded between the two nations, it was restored to the Dutch in 1803. 

 War breaking out shortly after, the Colony was again taken possession of 

 by England, and has continued to be a dependency of this country 

 ever since. From that time many people from England have settled 

 in the country both in the towns and throughout the country districts. 

 Cape Colony, from east to west, measures nearly six hundred miles, and 

 from north to south four hundred and fifty miles. The Colony of Natal 

 is one hundred and seventy five miles in length by about a hundred and 

 twenty in breadth. The population of Cape Colony, including British 

 Kaffraria and Natal, is about a million, more than one half of whom are 

 natives. 



The abolition of slavery in the British dependencies freed the Hottentots, 

 the Kaffres, and the Bushmen ; but, as we shall see further on, at the time 

 Dr. Livingstone commenced his career in Africa the Dutch Boers still com- 

 pelled the labour of those tribes in the neighbourhood of their settlements 

 who were too weak to resist them. The usual method was to manufacture a 

 cause of quarrel, which would give a colourable pretext for attacking a native 

 settlement, when they would carry off a number of the young of both sexes, 

 who became slaves in everything save the name. We believe that the exposure 

 of this traffic by Dr. Livingstone and his celebrated father-in-law, Dr. Moffat, 

 has resulted in a complete stoppage of this iniquitous traffic ; but it was not 

 o 



