The general term Kaffir is used for many of the tribes bordering on the
colony of the Cape. These differ only in minute respects one from the
other, though their connexion with the English history of the Cape is
very different. The Amakosa Kaffirs are those who inhabit the district
to the eastward of the Cape colony, and it is with these tribes that we
have very frequently been at war.
The men of the Amakosa are fine, active, and well-made, standing not
unusually six feet in height. Their clothing consists of a blanket,
which is discarded when a long journey is undertaken and it is not
necessary to sleep out at night. Their weapon is the light assagy,
termed by them "Umkonto." This spear can be thrown to the distance of
seventy or eighty yards, and it will have sufficient force to penetrate
through a man's body. Lately the Kaffirs have found that an assagy is
no match for a gun, and thus they have procured large numbers of guns.
The Kaffirs are very fond of horses, and many of our disputes with these
tribes arose from their love of stealing both horses and cattle.
Like most of the African tribes, the Kaffirs build wicker-work huts, and
thatch these with the long Tambookie grass, arrange the huts in a
circle, and thus form a village, or what we term a kraal.
The Zulu tribe are those Kaffirs who inhabit the country east of Natal.
They are, as a rule, shorter and stouter than the Amakosa, though they
differ but slightly from them in most particulars. They use a stabbing
assagy instead of the light throwing spear of the Amakosa, and are
consequently in war more disposed to fight at close quarters than are
the Amakosa. The English have never yet been at war with the Zulus, but
before our occupation of Natal the Dutch emigrants had several
encounters, the events connected with which have been detailed in the
preceding pages.
The Matabili are a tribe of Kaffirs in the interior, nearly due north of
Natal. They are a branch of the Zulu nation, and occupy the country
situated in about 26 degrees south latitude, and about 29 degrees east
longitude.
The Bushmen may be called the gipsies of Africa. They are usually
wanderers, travelling from place to place according as the game travels.
They are small men, but immensely hardy and strong, arrant thieves, and
almost untamable. They usually live in caves among the rocks, or build
rough huts in the bush. They are the only inhabitants of South Africa
who use the bow and arrow, and these men poison their arrows with so
deadly a composition as to produce certain death in the creature struck
by an arrow.
The End.