SOUTHERN AFRICA. 189 
iscd to raise a certain number of men, and these were fur- 
nished by government with powder and ball. It was a service 
at all times taken with reluctance, especially by such as were 
least exposed to the attacks of the savages; and, during the 
late disturbances of Graaff Reynct, these expeditions met 
with considerable interruptions. The people of Bruyntjes 
Hoogte were the first who failed in raising their proportion of 
men. Zuure Veldt was deserted, and Camdeboo and Zwart 
Ruggens became negligent and remiss. The people of Sneuw- 
berg, lying nearest to the common enemy, were left to sustain 
the whole burden of repelling its attacks ; and, had they not 
conducted themselves with great fortitude, perseverance, and 
address, that valuable part of the colony, the nursery of cattle, 
would now have been abandoned. A whole division called 
the Tai-ka, and a great part of another, the Sea-Cow river and 
BJiinosceros-berg, had been deserted, as well as a small part 
of Sneuwberg. There is, however, another cause which, 
more than the interruption to the expeditions, has tended to 
increase the strength and the audacity of these savages, and 
which, unless removed, will probably in the end effect the 
utter ruin of this distant part of the colony. The government 
of the Cape, which seemed to have been as little acquainted 
with the temper and disposition of its distant subjects as with 
the geography of the country, formed all its resolutions, re- 
specting the Bosjesmans, on representations made to it by 
the persons who were immediately interested. In conse- 
quence of these representations, it decreed that such of the 
Bosjesmans, as should be taken alive in the expeditions made 
against them, were to be distributed by lot among the com- 
