CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 149 
In 1601, the ships of the English East India Company obtained 
sheep and cattle in exchange for pieces of old iron. 
Their weapons were the bow and arrow. When, later on, 
they came in contact with the Catfres, they adopted from them 
the ‘zagaie.’ At the time of the voyage of Le Yaillant (1781), 
the use of this weapon had spread very little among them, and 
the Hottentots, who already possessed ‘ zagaies ’ had not yet 
learned to make use of them very cleverly. Their clothing 
consisted of dressed skins, more or less ornamented. They 
knew very well how to remove the hair from skins. 
A peculiarity which is also found among the Caffres, is the 
circular form of their huts and of their camps. It seems that 
no South- African race can easily draw a straight line. 
The geographical distribution of the Hottentots is often 
described incorrectly. To judge of it from my own re- 
searches, they must have originally inhabited the south-west 
side of the Cape, that is to say , only the coast region ! 
While the Hottentots were in possession of the western part 
of the Cape, the Caffres occupied the eastern part (1500, Cabral). 
The shipwrecked sailors of Souza’s ship reached on the east 
(eastern coast) an Ethiopian village where they embarked. 
We cannot here imagine any confusion with the Hottentots, 
seeing that the sailors in question knew the latter perfectly, 
having seen them before. In 1684 an expedition of thirty-nine 
Boers found, in the eastern part of the Cape, some Caffres who 
had never yet seen a white man. It seems that the Hottentots 
at that time had no knowledge of the neighbourhood of the 
Caffres. It was probably about 1700 that they came in contact 
with them. From these connexions have resulted the mixed 
races of the ‘ Gonaqua ’ and the ‘ Gonaquebi.’ When Le 
Yaillant travelled amongst the Gonaqua (1781), they did not 
seem to remember their true origin. 
The nature of the soil obliged the Hottentots to keep near 
the southern coast. Further north they would have come upon 
the great plain of the Karrou, which, from the want of water 
and good pasturage, would not have suited their cattle at all. 
So when Le Yaillant visited the Karrou, he found there no 
other population besides Bosjesmans and Souzouana. By this 
last name he designates also Bosjesmans, not Bechuanas. 
While the Quaiquas occupied the most southern part of the 
country, they were in contact in the north with the Korannas. 
Le Yaillant met with the latter in their original station. But 
towards 1790 they emigrated towards the interior, and estab- 
lished themselves on the territory of the Transvaal, at the part 
where the Hart’s Biver falls into the Yaal. The old chief, 
Mossou Byt Taaibosh, stated, in 1872, to M. Burgers, who was 
then President of the Transvaal, that when he was about four- 
