Namaqualand

an African country lying south of the Orange River, and now absorbed in Cape Colony, is divided into the greater and the lesser. The former comprises all the region north of Cape Colony, extending from the Orange River, lat. 29° 30', to Walfish Bay, lat. 23°, and stretching inland from the west coast to the Kalihari Desert, comprehending an area of about 100,000 square miles. The Little Namaqualand is the territory south of the Orange River, and, though very rich in mineral resources, is a barren-looking country, and with only a few bays, notwithstanding it has a coastline of over one hundred miles. The native tribes perhaps number about 50,000 souls. They are mainly confined to the region called Great Namaqualand, north of the Gariep or Orange River, and the country a few miles south of it, as far as the Kamiesbergen. They are a pastoral people of rather predatory habits, and live under the rule of their chiefs, whose powers, however, are of a very limited nature. Differing from the Bosjesmen Hottentots, the Namaquas are a tall, wellmade, active people, although presenting the usual peculiarities of the race, such as the light olive complexion, the oblique eye, and short tufted hair. Both men and women have remarkably small and neat hands and feet. The lower limbs of the women, however, are very thick and ungainly, especially as they advance in years, when they assume a dropsical appearance. The Namaquas are less influenced by the surrounding civilization of Europeans and missionaries than the more energetic and civilized Bastard races, who, in point of civilization and appearance, are very little inferior to the ordinary Dutch Boer of Cape Colony. "The Namaquas," says Chapman, "are in many respects a strange people, and one hardly knows what to make of their character and feelings. The missionaries told me as a fact that when once a party were going out on a cattlelifting expedition, they very innocently asked them to pray for their success" (1:428). The Namaquas speak a dialect of the Hottentot language, which, however, differs considerably from that used by other tribes of that people. Mission stations of the Rhenish and Wesleyan societies have been for many years established among them, and in a few localities, near Cape Colony, with considerable success; and the New Testament and some elementary works have been translated into the Namaqua dialect. Many of the southern Namaquas possess wagons and oxen, and are employed in the transport of copper ore from the mines of Little Namaqualand to the shipping port at Hondeklip Bay. A few of the peculiar customs of the Hottentot tribes, described by Kolben nearly 200 years ago, may still be traced among the more remote tribes of the Namaquas; but the constant contact with the Cape Colonists, and the efforts of the missionaries, have partially civilized this race, so that an ordinary Hottentot is quite as respectable a savage, or perhaps more so than his Betjouana or Amakosa brethren. Information on Namaqualand may be found in the travels of Moffat, Campbell, Chapman, and Le Vaillant. SEE AFRICA; SEE HOTTENTOTS; SEE NATAL.