6. How the Bushmen were treated by the native tribes of Africa and by the Boers

QUOTE: These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited.

END OF QUOTE

In this book, the Bushmen are mentioned as the entity which has been wronged by the others. Here the others are not the Boers alone, but almost all the native populations of Africa who came to occupy the traditional lands of the Bushmen. Every one of them has been quite wicked in the way their dealt with the Bushmen. In fact, they were treated in the same manner as a gathering of poisonous snakes in a locality near to human habitation would be seen.

QUOTE 1: The Bushmen of Southern Africa have been described by their enemies, not only as being " the lowest of the low," but as the most treacherous, vindictive, and untameable savages on the face of the earth : a race void of all generous impulses, and little removed from the wild beasts with which they associated, one only fitted to be exterminated like noxious vermin, as a blot upon nature, upon whom kindness and forbearance were equally misplaced and thrown away.

QUOTE 2: On the one hand the Basutus slew them without mercy, whenever any of the marauders fell into their hands. The Baphuti chief Morosi, who was himself a half caste by his mother's side, destroyed the men of entire clans in order that he and his people might possess the women and girls, and only a few years before his death he made a grand final raid upon their remaining strongholds, when some hundreds of them perished, all the surviving females were captured, and the remnant of the unhappy fugitives was forcibly amalgamated into his tribe.

QUOTE 3: The massacre of many hundreds of these miserable creatures, and the carrying away of their children into servitude, seemed to be considered by him and his companions as perfectly lawful, just, and necessary, and as meritorious service done to the public, of which they had no more cause to be ashamed than a brave soldier of having distinguished himself against the enemies of his country

QUOTE 4: A war of extermination was commenced against them by the Koranas. Many of the Bushmen, he said, were shot

QUOTE 5: when closely pursued they would take refuge in dens and caves, in which their enemies have sometimes smothered scores to death, blocking up the entrance with brushwood, and setting it on fire.

QUOTE 6: The government apparently, without any further examination, acceded to the strong representations, and recklessly issued orders which proved the death-warrant of several hundred unhappy wretches, many of whom must have been perfectly innocent of the crime so sweepingly ascribed to them.

QUOTE 7: In this report it is stated that the Griquas have been accused, and with much probability of truth, of having whilst in a savage state treated the Bushmen with barbarity, and expelled them from the greater part of their country.

QUOTE 8: " These coverts enable the Bushmen to lurk here, in spite of all the efforts of the Griquas to root them out. They are a great annoyance to the latter, as well as to the other pastoral tribes in their vicinity, and they are consequently pursued by them, equally as by the Boers, with the utmost animosity."

QUOTE 9: that the Bastaards perpetrated the most horrid cruelties upon his nation, that when they had overpowered a Bushman kraal they would make a large fire and throw in all the children and lambs and kids they could not take away with them, and if they could by any chance lay hands on a grown-up Bushman they would cut his throat ;

QUOTE 10: " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "

QUOTE 11: One was not prepared to meet with such a display of genuine feeling as this among people who have been looked upon and treated as such untamably vicious animals as this doomed race are said to be.

QUOTE 12: In the same locality two or three villages of Bachoana Bushmen were found, "a people greatly despised by all the surrounding tribes."

QUOTE 13: When the Batlapin attack a Bushman kraal to revenge robberies of cattle, they kill without distinction men, women, and children ; women, they say, to prevent them breeding more thieves, and children to prevent them from becoming like their parents !

END OF QUOTEs

The Boers were also quite terrible towards the Bushmen. In fact, they treated them like snakes and killed them remorselessly.

Here it might be correct to delve upon the emerging White race versus other races issue. Historically as well as actually the native-English were different from most other white populations. In fact, they were different from almost all other human populations. The reason for this can be traced into the verbal codes inside pristine-English.

However, there is this information that might be needed to be mentioned here. The Boers and the native populations of Africa saw the Bushmen as some kind of poisonous beings. There are hints in this book that the native-English side did have a more benign attitude to them. Since I have not yet read about the later years, I cannot say anything more here with any level of certitude.