They Go Naked,
Except A Short Cloak Of Skins, And Sandals Tied To Their Feet, Painting
Their Faces With Various Colours, And Are A Strong Active People, Who
Run With Amazing Swiftness.
They are subject to the King of
Monomotapa,[34] who is reported to be a mighty sovereign.
Their only
weapons are darts.
[Footnote 33: It has been before remarked, that the Saldanha bay of the
older navigators was Table bay. What is now called Saldanha bay has no
river, or even brook, but has been lately supplied by means of a cut or
canal from Kleine-berg river, near twenty-five miles in length. - E.]
[Footnote 34: This is an error, the Hotentots having been independent
nomadic herders of cattle and sheep, divided into a considerable number
of tribes, and under a kind of patriarchal government. - E.]
As the Dutchmen offered them some rudeness, they absented themselves
from us for three days, during which time they made great fires on the
mountains. On the 19th of November, there came a great multitude of them
to us, with a great number of cattle, and taking a sudden opportunity
while bartering, they set upon us and slew thirteen of our people with
their hand-darts, which could not have hurt any of us at the distance of
four pikes' length. The Dutchmen fled from them like mice before cats,
basely throwing away their weapons. Our Baas or captain kept on board
to save himself, but sent us corslets, two-handed swords, pikes,
muskets, and targets, so that we were well laden with weapons, but had
neither courage nor discretion, for we staid at our tents besieged by
savages and cows.
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