A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The 11th November we came to anchor in Saldanha bay, in lat. 34° S. ten
leagues short of the Cape of Good Hope, where there are three fresh
water rivers.[33] The people came to us with great plenty of oxen and
sheep, which they sold for spike nails and pieces of old iron, giving
the best for not more than the value of a penny. Their cattle are large,
and have a great lump of flesh on the shoulder, like the back of a
camel. Their sheep have prodigiously large tails, entirely composed of
fat, weighing twelve or fourteen pounds, but are covered with hair
instead of wool. The people are not circumcised; are of an olive black
colour, blacker than the Brazilians, with black curled hair like the
negroes of Angola. Their words are mostly inarticulate, and in speaking
they cluck with the tongue like a brood hen, the cluck and the word
being pronounced together in a very strange manner. 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.]
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