CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 151 
300,000. It is possible that formerly they may have been more 
numerous, but the difference cannot have been great. They 
have never suffered very greatly from either war or epidemics. 
Moreover, considering the climate, the polygamy that was 
customary amongst them, etc., circumstances were favourable to 
their multiplication. 
I think there is good reason for supposing that in 1500 their 
number was much smaller than at the present day. They had 
been unable, before the establishment of the Dutch Colony, to 
drive back the wild beasts, so dangerous to them and to their 
flocks. Lions, for instance, were still, in 1563, so numerous on 
the coast of Table Bay that Van Riebeek wrote in his journal, 
4 This night one would have said that the lions were inclined to 
take the fort by storm.’* 
Though inhabiting the coast in 1500, and even later, they 
possessed no knowledge of navigation ; so that they had no 
communication with Robben Island, which was situated opposite 
Table Bay. 
The different tribes of Hottentots may be divided into, 
1st, Quai-qua, or true Hottentots ; 2nd, the Nama-qua ; 3rd, 
the Koranna, Kora, or Kora-qua ; 4th, Sa-an, Sa-qua, or Bosjes- 
mans ; 5 th, Gonaqua and Gonaquebi — mixed races produced by 
a mixture of Caffres and Hottentots ; 6th, Griqua, a mixed race, 
one issue of white fathers and Hottentot mothers. Hybrids of 
Hottentots and white women have never been noticed, as far as 
I know, and probably they do not exist. 
The Griquas united about 1780-1790 into tribes, which 
abandoned the Cape Colony, and established themselves in the 
territory now forming the Vrystaat (Free State) and in Griqua- 
land West. More recently, somewhere about 1850, many of the 
Griquas returned towards the coast in the district called Griqua- 
land East, and formerly known by the name of Memandsland 
(N o-mans-land) . 
All the tribes, including the Gon aquas and the Griquas, 
belong by their physical characteristics and by their language 
to the same natural group. On the similarity of the language 
I must remark that the dialect of the Gonaquas is a mixture of 
the Caffre and Hottentot dialects, and that most of the Griquas 
speak Dutch. 
The language of the Bosjesmans is the poorest of all; one 
might call it degenerated Hottentot. This fact is easily ex- 
plained by the very primitive way of life of these pioneer 
hunters. An analogous example of degeneracy in language 
and physical characters may be observed now on the north-east 
borders of the Transvaal, among the Vaalpen Caffres, remnants of 
the great tribes of the Bechuanas, which have been exterminated 
* Hall, Manual of South African Geography, Cliron. Tables. 
