OCR Rendition - approximate

330 SIR H. B. FRERE.-On the Laws affecting the The chiefs are in general notably superior to their followers in physique. There are very great differences in culture and civilization among the different tribes. The Bechuana tribes, including the Batlapins, Basutos, &c., seem by common consent of all observers to be placed at the head of the list ; and from the observations of the earlier travellers, and of Burchell especially, it is clear that they were greatly in advance of the Kaffirs and Zulus in civilization when they first met the European travellers and colonists in South Africa ; though, in their case, as well as in that of all other South African races, there is much to show that they have degenerated from a higher grade of civilization, rather than risen from a lower state. Their language is one of the reasons adduced to prove that the Bechuana tribes belong to a later wave of immigration than others of the Bantu family. It has fewer " clicks " and Hottentot words, and other Hottentot elements, than the Zulu or Amakosa Kaffir. They have also among them a nomadic race of serfs (Balala), who are sometimes supposed to belong to an older wave of Bantu immigration, which was followed and conquered by later arrivals of Bechuanas. In the arts of life-in smelting and working iron and copper, in agriculture, in building houses with many rooms, upright walls, and a sloping roof, the Bechuanas are far in advance of all the Kaffir tribes. They are most industrious, and more willing to adopt now habits and the improvements of civilized life. The rule of the chiefs is less despotic, and the habit of congregating in large towns of front 5,000 to 40,000 inhabitants favours improvement and gives a better opening for the labours of the missionaries who have made so much progress in civilizing and converting some of the Bechuana tribes. In religious belief the Bechuanas, when the missionaries first came among them; differed little from the other Bantu tribes, as we now find those who have not had much intercourse with Europeans. Except in the case of witchcraft, in some vague influences of ancestral spirits, and in omens, they had little definite belief. Of any thing approaching our conception of a Divine or creative power, of a soul as distinct from life and intellect, of spiritual existences-they were sceptical. They were, in fact, materialistic Sadducees. It would take long to tell of the changes effected by the teaching and influence of the missionaries, especially those of the London Missionary Society, who have laboured among the Bechuana tribes. I doubt whether five centuries of Roman dominion, and of the