INHABITING PART OF SOUTHERN AFRICA. 207 
readily imagine the difficulties I experienced in avoiding 
frequent conjecture, and the impossibihty of doing so alto- 
gether; but recourse has been had to conjecture rarely, 
and, though some of the conclusions may, from insufficient 
data, or other causes, prove erroneous, I shall still feel suf- 
ficiently recompensed for my labour, should the facts I have 
collected be found serviceable to those engaged in writing 
the Natural History of Man. 
The part of Africa situated to the south of the Tropic, 
contains at least three distinct races of men. Those met 
with in proceeding from Cape Point northerly, are intru- 
ders ; they constitute the Anglo-Dutch colony of the Cape, 
and are a mixture of almost all the modern nations of Eu- 
rope, the Dutch preponderating. The colonists dwelling 
in the remoter districts attain a gigantic size, owing, no 
doubt, to their descent from a race naturally tall ; and in 
perfecting which, as to stature, much has been effected by 
climate, food, and other localities. This race, at present, 
extends from Cape Point northward to the banks of the 
Gariep, or Orange River, and eastward as far as the Keis- 
kamma River. They have pushed before them, and partly 
exterminated, the race of Hottentots, or Bosjeman (for I 
shall consider them as the same), who are now found only 
in small numbers, either as servants to the colonists, or still 
preserving a sort of savage independence in that vast tract 
of almost desert country, extending from the chain of 
mountains out of which the Gariep and Great Kei rivers 
rise, westward to the shores of the Southern Atlantic. On 
the verge of the Tropic, and close to the western shore, the 
Damaras are found (a Negro race, as I have been assured), 
who extend towards Benguela and Congo; so that the 
Bosjeman race, if they exist much to the north of the 
Gariep River, must occupy a central stripe of Africa, 
