AFRICA. 343 
In all my excurfions, which always ended 
at fun-fet, I never faw any of the Boflimeii 
but once. They were only three m num^ 
ber, and were traverfing the back part of a 
mountain oppofite to that on which I was j 
but they did not think proper to attack us. 
We indeed carried nothing with us that 
could tempt them ; and thefe three vaga- 
bonds had perhaps been am.ong thofe to 
whom I had fo recently given chace, and in 
all probability remembered the terror into 
which I had thrown them, Thefe infamous 
wtetches do not form, as has been falfely 
fuppofed, a particular nation ; nor are they 
a people who have had their origin in thole 
places whete they are now found. Boflimeii 
is a name compofed of two Dutch words, 
which fignify bMjJd^men^ or men of the woods : 
and if is under this appellation that the in- 
habitants of the Cape, and all the Dutch ii% 
general, whether in Africa or America, dif- 
tinguifh thofe malefoftors or aflaffins who 
defert from the colonies in order to efcape 
punifliment. In a word, they are what in 
the French Weft-India iflands are called Mar-- 
roon Negroes. Thefe Bofhmen, therefore, far 
from being a diftindl fpecieSj a§ has been evei> 
Z 4 lately 
