i85 
TRAVELS IN 
CHAP. III. 
Sketches made on a yourney into the Country of the Bosjesmans, 
Three weeks bad scarcely elapsed, after our return from 
the Kaffer country, before we were ready for setting out on 
another expedition to the northward, across the Sneuwberg or 
Snowy Mountains. In these mountains, and in tlie country 
immediately behind them, dwells a race of men, that, by 
their habits and manner of life, are justly entitled to the name 
of savage ; — a name, however, of which, there is great reason 
to apprehend, they have been rendered more worthy by the 
conduct of the European settlers. They are called by the co- 
lonists Bosjestnans, or men of the bushes, from the concealed 
manner in which they make their approaches to kill and to 
plunder. They neither cultivate the ground nor breed cattle, 
but subsist, in part, on the natural produce of the country, 
and make up the deficiency by depredations on the colonists 
on one side, and the neighbouring tribes of people that are 
more civilized than themselves on the other. Twenty years 
ago, it seems, they were less numerous and less ferocious 
than at the present day ; and their boldness as well as their 
numbers is said of late to have very much increased. At 
one time they were pretty well kept under by the regular ex- 
peditions of the peasantry which were undertaken against 
them. Each division had its commandant, w^ho was author- 
2 
