Lest the account given in this book of the "trekking" springbucks should
be considered an exaggeration, it may be mentioned that in 1892, when
the author held the appointments of Civil Commissioner for Namaqualand
and Special Magistrate for the Northern Border of the Cape Colony, he
was obliged to issue a hundred stand of Government arms to the Boers for
the purpose of driving back the game which threatened to overrun those
parts of Namaqualand where ground is cultivated. As it was, there was
some difficulty in repelling the invasion.
The term "Bushman," strictly speaking, only applies to the diminutive
former inhabitants of the Desert, who are now practically extinct to the
south of the Orange River. The Trek-Boer, however, usually calls every
Hottentot of low stature a Bushman.