Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/154

 116 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. claimed by the British Government till the year 1''28, and even this act of tardy justice was as a stumbling-block to a large section of the colonists, including all the Boers, who regarded the emancipation of the despised Hottentots as an infringe- ment of their own hereditary privileges, and a step fraught with danger to the colony. Many even preferred to quit the country rather than continue to dwell by the side of their former serfs now officially declared their equals. But during their one hundred and fifty years' contact with the whites previous to this proclamation how many Hottentot tribes had already been exterminated, more even by the gun than by small- pox ! What has become of the Koranas, WHO had their camping grounds on the shores of Table Bgy when the first Euro- pean colonists settled in the countrj% and of the Gri-kwas (Griquas), who encamped farther north near St. Helena Bay i' Many other tribal groups, such as the Gauri, San, Atta, Haisse, Sussi, Dama, Dun, and Shirigri, have also disappeared, leaving no memory behind them except the names given by them to their rivers and mountains. And their murderers meantime assumed the role of agents of destiny, almost as instruments of the Divine Will, declaring that these inferior races were foredoomed to destruction, leaving their inheritance to " the chosen j)eople ! " Even now the opinion prevails that, under a wise dispensation of Providence, the Khoi-khoius are rapidly diminishing in numbers. But the wish is here *' father to the thought," for the assumption is amply refuted by the official returns. Doubtless the aborigines seem to decrease, but only through the effect of an optical illusion caused by the fact of the relatively far more rapid growth of the white element. It should also be remembered that the change of social habits gradually weans the natives from their rude ways, drawing them within the circle of more refining influence, assimilating them in garb and speech to their Euro- pean masters, to whose sentiments, religious views, and usages they daily more adapt themselves. Moreover, a large number of these aborigines, still refractory to the ever- spreading English culture, have withdrawn northwards, thus retracing the steps of their forefathers when they descended seawards from the inland regions, borne along, says the national legend, " in a great pannier." In Namaqualand, and as far north as the Herero territory, these Oerlams, or Hottentots from Cape Colony, have often gained the political predominance. They have even followed in the wake of the stream of Boer immigration to the neighbourhood of Humpata beyond the Cunene. At present organised tribal groups, such as those of the Haw-Khoins and Nama- quas, Griquas, and Koranas, are found only in the region north of the Orange River. Those residing in the- settled European districts, althojigh henceforth inter- mingled with the general population, are nevertheless still classed apart in the census returns. In 1798 the four districts of the Cape, Stellenbosch, Swellendam, and Graaf-Reinet, which at that time constituted the whole of the colony, had only l'i,000 Hottentots in a total population of 32,000. But in 1865 this element had increased to 81,600 in the territory of Cape Colony, and ten years later it num- bered no less than 98,560. Doubtless most of these, although reckoned as true