The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-09
human foresight, recks little of the
plans Of men.
II.

AS bef1ts the record Of n trading ma
ton the history of the Dutch on Man
haitian begins with a transaction in real
estate in the bargain and sale Of the
whole island for q most insignificant
sum. Thereafter the transactions with
the aboriginal population were con-
Quoted in sharper bargaining. The con-
quest Of The Bronx ls record OF rapinc
and reprisal. For many years such
outlying settlements, colonies of a
colony. as Amersfoort and Flatbush
and New Utrecht. now indistinguishablc
In the reticulatbon OF city streets. needed
the protection OF armed men and ar
mored abodes. on the way to Coney
Island the amateur Of our ancient his
tory may yet find in the trace Of
Gravesend Old Town the foursquare
settlement whose perimeter was bounded
on each face by the range at which
hackbut. seker and demiculverin could
interlace their fire from corner block
houses. Yet compared with their Brit
ish neighbors in North America the
Dutch were fair in their treatment Of
the Indian.
There was the same reasonable fair
ness of dealing in South Africa with
the subordinate population which the
DutCn there IOunu. As. lneNOTaDlt as
the British in ousting the aboriginals
from such property as might be de
sired the Dutch seem to have regarded
the lower people with a sluggishIy
moving yet amused liberation. That
the Dutch were sluggish in anger was
only part and parcel OF their charac-
teristic slowness in everything, n habit
of mind rather than virtue of the
II, nnta ha xxght 10
the Dutch at the Cape dispossessed the
Hottentot from his hunting range they
kept him about the premises in a ca
pacity and with n Judgment little DIFF
ferent from those of the beasts II
burden.
That the colonies of the two Dutch
India companies differed in their treat
ment Of the red and the black inherea
most largely in the cultural stage cf
the subordinate peoples. The Iroquois
confederation. which was of sufficient
strength to block advance OF Dutch set
tlemcnt westward of Fort Orange in the
readily accessible Mohawk Valley. is
clear evidence that the Indians had
passed beyond the ruder stages of
nomad life into the beginnings Of
national existence. The individual was
not the holder of real property. but the
tribal holding was a we'll recognized es-
tate. The individual Indian had that
within him which might command re-
spect after the sting of his revenge had
passed from memory we cannot regard
the redskin OF fiction as merely a fg-
ment of the romantic mind.
But the Hottentot whom the Dutch
met in the cloves Of Table Mountain lay
- 49, T.
He had not reached the estate Of tribal
order; no commanding figure stands out
from the early records as worthy Of
even the trumpery dignity Of chief; no
names are preserved of men of native
mark: South Africa has not n literature
Of its early foes. That has arisen in a
later period. arisen out of a stouter
race OF Africans. the Bantu people. who
are later corners within the area of the
present Union of South Africa than
were the Dutch. therefore not to he
considered as birds of lost soil and
on that score entitled to sympathy. We
can feel the thrill of Dingaan's Daag
the tread of the impis Of Chaka and
Moselekatse thuds through the Boer
tales Of the veldt. invaders all on the
soil Of the Dutch, no more t. he con-
]
and Lobengua. who are but of yester-
day.
/ In the early days OF the Dutch settle
ment Of the Cape, the only period in
which they can be held responsible for
! an aboriginal problem, we have to do
with no higher type Of mankind than
/ the Hottentot, a man raised above the
bottom level of humanity only through
] ., On thpra tho la md
where the Hottentot was found yet
lower type. the Bosjesman. Here we
seem to find a close congener of the
rude man of the European cave life
which was destroyed by the advance of
the Armenoid race over the northern
continent. whose possession of bronze
gave them the mastery over the men
who fought with clubs and stone axes
probably with their teeth rs well. The
Bosjesmen sat so far below the Hotten-
tots that il is within the memory of men
vet living that they were hunted down
with dogs, like game and the sport
appealed to the Boer as much as To the
Kaffir. The Hottentots themselves were
revolving animals. even to the taste oi
the early Dutch, and that was not at al
nice. Lancaster OF the Honorable Eas
India Company gives us one IT the
earliest accounts Of the Hottentots
"The people OF this place are all OF q
tawny color. of n reasonable stature
swift of foot and much given to picl
and steal (wherein We see that Ian
caster had studied his catechism to goot
end and knew his duty to his neighbor)
their speech IL wholly uttered through
the throat, and they cluck with theil
tongues in such sort that in seven week.
during which we remained here In thi
place the sharpest wit among us coulC
not learn a word of their language"
The fact that the Hottentots had n
tribal life contributed most largely Il
the determination Of their condition
among the Dutch. When the settlemen
was young, when the gardens were blu
thin fringe around Van Rlebeek's for
and never beyond the range of 1t
musauetoons, the Hottentot manifesto
his suspicion OF the newcomers by wan
derng away over the mountain, Blu
he had scaNenger interest In the neN
and strange community. The waste q
the Dutch was luxury far beyond any
thing he had ever known. The picking
OF the garbage drew him back to un
wonted feasts. and rather than foe I
be dreaded the Hottentot was n colore
tramp at the back doors. possibly to b
set to work, Thus arose system q
slavery of the patriarchal type, tn
stranger was within the gates of tn