PREFACE. 
A LTHouGH the sale of an edition unusually large, and the demand for 
a new one, may not afford any proof of the merits of a work, they furnish at 
least a fair conclusion that the public is not indifferent to the subject of it. 
Africa, indeed, independent of its being the source from whence a very 
considerable portion of European knowledge had its origin, has lately ex- 
cited a more general and lively interest, since the condition of its ill-fated 
inhabitants has engaged the attention and the sympathy of their fellow- 
creatures on another and more happy continent. To those who have so 
laudably exerted themselves in the cause of suffering humanity it must af- 
ford no inconsiderable degree of pleasure to find that, in the southern parts 
of this country, there are still to be met with hordes of natives, who, though 
suffering unmerited ill usage, have yet escaped the horrors of slavery. 
Africa is interesting in another point of view. Though known anciently, 
it is still known but imperfectly ; so that the old Greek maxim, adopted 
in after-ages by the Romans, is equally applicable at the present day as it 
was two thousand years ago, Africa semper aliquid novi offert. Africa 
never fails to present something new to the inquisitive traveller. It might 
have been expected, however, from the length of time that the Dutch have 
had possession of the southern extremity of this quarter of the continent, 
that not only their extensive colony would have been accurately described, 
but that a competent knowledge would have been obtained of the manners, 
customs, and conditions of the surrounding tribes of aboriginal inha- 
bitants. This, however, is far from being the case. Numerous as the 
