The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-07-25

Or nsdoIf Peek to Max.

Or. AadoIf Peek to NAL.
- . Disappearing r.. stt
a letter received in WasbinSt.
Or. Rudolf Pooh, the well knaa u "
thropologist, says: 'a
am about to start, under :,
Fpices Of the Imperial Acadsml
Sciences OF Vienna, to make
Of the Bushmen. The race !.
dying out, and the sole purpoSo 's :
expedition is to add to our knos'
OF this people before they becom.
tinct.
The fact has been recognise.
some years that this African ~
destined to extinction. This 10 sn
more remarkable because eva,r"
else the African races are Nor. 'usa
holding their own.
Pestilence, war, and the OWL, !,
the whites introduce are povar1..
Obliterate them. Africa is y,0n',
In native population.
But the Bushmen are now rod.
to a handful, and every wear ~
are dwindling. Circumstances ara
hard for them, and it is not bpo.',
they could be saved, even by Chow
in their conditions.
The Bushmen inhabit the p,.,.
desert of South Africa. There Is Il
running water. and yet among 4.
sand wastes there are denrpss;o,.
where the natives find water nv A.
ging, and in places it comes 50 n0s.
the surface that vegetation flourish.
and many animals find nurture in n.
desert.
The Bushmen are only a few inchp,
taller than the pygmies Of Central
Africa. They live in rock caves q,
in huts of sticks and grass. They SOL
dom wear more than a leather apron IA
protect their legs from thorns.
They subsist on the scant veget,.
ton, on roots, and on the animals the,
kill. Clubs, bows and arrows, and !,
few spears are their only weapons
They are primitive, but they do not
buy their wives; they have been faith.
full to those whites who have befriea
ed them, and they paint and draw NJ
an astonishing manner. Much hm
been written Of the thousands Of ami
NAL paintings with which they ador,|
the rocks and the walls Of their caves
Why do they not abandon the desert
to which they are confined? They
could not IL they would. They are
hemmed around by pastoral and agnl
cultural regions, all occupied by strong
tribes, who kill them like vermin \
they venture across the line.
II they were free to leave the desert
1t is doubtful IL they would do so, for
they are hunting people, and such
tribes have never voluntarily become
a pastoral or an agricultural commit
nifty. Whenever cattle have been given
to the Bushmen they have killed
them, for they will not herd them.
The whites have been even more
destructive Of the Bushmen than their
native enemies. Late in the eighteenth
century the Dutch used to shoot these
little people as they would game. i
is recorded that In the ten years end
ing in 1795 the Dutch killed 2,4SO Bush
men.
They have always shrunk from con
tact with civilization, and to-day, when
they see white protectorates planted
all around them, they are retreatils
farther into the desert. The whites
are invading the more fertile valleys
are stalking out ranches and building
little settlements, are killing of The
game that is the hereditary food O
the desert nomads, blowing the places
where the Bushmen 90 for berries and
edible roots, and. narrowing the area
In which they can live.
They seem wholly unable to live un
der new conditions. and the old con-
ditions are passing away. All who
know them hest say that their abss
lutte determination IL a question o.
only q few years.-Washington Post