The Portland daily press., 1896-06-13
Oath Times. }
THETHREE NATIVE RACES.
That Predominant in South Afric a.
(Jaraes Bryce in the Century,

\JaIl0S OFyc6 III Gno Cenbury.)
When the Dutch fixed their first post at
Cape Town, in 1862, with no thought
either of colonization or of conquest, but
for the sake Of having gardens which
could supply fresh vegetables to the
scurvy-stri oxen crews of their ships sail
ing to the East, they found three native
races inhabiting the country. One Of
| these, the. Bushmen, though few in num-
bers, were widely scattered over the
whole of South Africa. They were no.
MAIDS Of almost the lowest kind, with a
marvellous faculty for tracking and trap
ping wild animals. but neither owning
cattle nor filling the soil. with scarcely
even a tribal organization, no religion,
and a language consisting of a success
| ion of clicks. Unable to aocustom them-
selves to civilized life, drivensout of some
districts by the settlers. and in others no
longer able to find support, owing to the
extinction of game, they are now almost
extinct, though few are still left in the
deserts of the Kalahari and northern
Bechuanaland. Before many years the
only trace of their existence will be in
) remarkable drawings of amin ais
IN which they delighted to cover the
smooth surface oftrocks. These drawings
which are found all the Ray from the
Zambesi to the Cape, and from Maniac
land to the Atlantic, are executed in red
and yellow pigments, and are often full
of spirit and character.
The second race was that which the
Dutch called Hottentot, They were o
a reddish or yellowish black hue, taller
than the Bushmen, but with squat and
seldom muscular f1gures-a thoughtless,
cheerful, easy going people, who roved
hither and thither with their focks and
herds as they could find pasture. They
were decidedly superior to the zBushmen
whom they hated, but quite unable to
Withstand Europeans, and their mum bers
rapidly declined. partly flom the loss of
their best grazing grounds. but largely,
also, through epidemic diseases, and es-
pecially smallpox, which ships touching
on their way from India. brought into
the country They are now, as distinct
race. almost extinct in tue colony,
though a good deal of their blood has
passed into the mixed black population
of Cape Town and it's neigh borhood-a
population the other elements of which
are Malays and west-cOast negroes the
descendants of slaves imported in the
last century. Farther north, on the
south side OF the Orange river. and be-
yond 1t in Namagualand, small tribes
cognate to the Hottentots still wander
over the dreary plains.
Very different from these weak Bush
men and Hottentots was, and is, the third
native race those who are called Bantu
selves and Kaffirs by Europeans. The
word Kaffir is Arabic. and means an in
fidel (literally lone who denies. 1t is
applied by Mussulmans not merely to
those South Africans, but to other heath
en-; as, for instance. by the Afghans to
the idolateTs of Kafiristan, in the Hindu
Kush mountains. The Portuguese prob
ably took the name from the Arabs,
whom they found already settled on the
east coast. These Bantu tribes-if we
may class those as Bantus who speak
languages of what is called the Bantu
type-fill all East Africa from the region
of the Upper Nile southwark
Those who dwell south of the Zambezi
are generally strong and well made men,
sometimes as black as Gulf of Guinea
negro, sometimes verging on brown
tint; and though they have the woolly
hair and thick lips generally characters
tic Of the negro, individuals are often
found among them whose cast of features
suggests an adm lxture of Semitic blood
They are more prolific than the Hotten-
tots, as well as physically stronger and
better mGQe, ana Gn6y were further adj
vanoed in the arts of life. Some of the
tribes dug out and worked iron and cop
per; all of them used iron. Their chief
wealth lay in their cattle; horses they
did not possess, but where the land was
fit for. tillage they cultivated it. They
had no religion. except in sort of magic
and that worship of the ghosts of ances-
tors which seema to be the most widely
diffused of all human superstibions. In
stand Of q DriagthOO0 fHara Vyera vii dc
or medicine mon, often powerful as the
denouncers of those whom the chief
wished to put to death Intelleotually
they were very much upon the level of |
the native races of West Africa.