Collectanea
First Series
Includes descriptions of the Cape by Ovington, 1695; Beeckman, 1715;
Dampier, 1691; Rogers' Description of Natal, c. 1696; Cnoll's
Dagregister van een reis naar het
Warme Bad, with an English translation; Dagverhaal wegens de reis naar 't Warme
Water, opgesteld door Willem van Putten,
c. 1710, with an English translation; letter dated 1708 from John Maxwell to
Rev. Dr Harris; Instructien gedateerd
30 Maart 1699 door Gouverneur
Simon van der Stel; Instructien
gedateerd 19 April 1708 door Commissaris
Cornelis Joan Simons
Reprint: ISBN 0-9584522-8-8
With a preface by C. Graham
Botha.
102 Ovington’s Description of the
The next description which I come to, Secondly, is of the Ancient Inhabitants of this Promontory,
in what relates to their Nature and Customs. They retain the vulgar name of Hotantots, because of their constant repetition
of that word in their hobling Dances.
There is a vast difference between the nature of
these People that dwell upon this place, and the Country they Inhabit; for of
all parts this affords a Dwelling most neat and pleasant, and of all People
they are the most Bestial and Sordid. They are the very reverse of Human kind,
Cousin Germans to the Halalchors, only meaner and more filthy; so that
if there’s any medium between a Rational Animal and a Beast, the Hotantot lays the fairest Claim to that Species.
They are sunk even below Idolatry, are destitute both of Priest and Temple, and
saving a little show of rejoicing, which is made at the Full and the New Moon,
have lost all kind of Religious Devotion. Nature has so richly provided for
their convenience in this Life, that they have drown’d
all sense of the God of it, and are grown quite careless of the next.
They are more Tawny than the Indians, and in Colour and Features come
nearest the Negroes of any People,
only they are not quite so Black, nor is their Cottony Hair so Crisp, nor their
Noses altogether so fiat. For Nature pleases herself as well in the variety of
Individuals of the same kind, as in a great number of Species of all sorts of
Animals.
It might seem here a rational Conjecture for the
reason of the Negroes Blackness, that
they are burnt by the Sun’s Beams, which we experimentally find tinctures the
fairest Complexions, when it comes near them, which recover again by
withdrawing to a cooler Air. And therefore that those who are most expos’d to the Sun’s Heat should always be the Blackest.
For Blackness and Whiteness are not suppos’d natural
to any People whatever, ‘tis presum’d to be the
effect of the Climate, because those that are Fair by living a long time under
or near the Line, shall in two or three Generations, as ‘tis affirm’d, become tawny and Black, tho’
they Marry only with fair People. But methinks there is something in Nature
which seems to thwart this current opinion. For under the same Parallels are
People of quite different colours; as for instance,
the Hotantots, who live between thirty four and
thirty five Degrees are Black; the Inhabitants of Candie who are under the same Elevation of the Pole, are White. The
People of
Ovington’s Description of the
and yet the Natives in both parts are Olive-colour’d.
Some are apt to ascribe this to the Air and Climate or Earth, which in some
places produces Patagons, who are Giants, as in
other, Pygmies; but this seems weak and unaccountable. Others resolve much of
it into the effect of Food and Diet, which I believe may be of some power, and
efficacy in this matter upon this Account. Because at Suratt, I observ’d a young Indian very Black, taken into the English Service, who by tasting Wine and Eating Flesh, grew paler
sensibly than he was before. The strong Aliment by a frequent mixture of its
lively Juyces with the Blood and Spirits, which for a
long time had been kept low by a Phlegmatick
Nourishment, did actuate and purify them by degrees, and thereby shew’d in some time the effect of their fermentation by a
faint Varnish upon the Face. Besides, it is a Remark of the Ancients, but not
methinks very sound, whereby they took notice, that ‘tis the Humidity of the
Elements, which defends the Indians against
that action of the Sun, which burns the Complexion of the Negros;
and makes their Hair grow like Cotton; whereas some of the Indians, whose Hair is long and uncurled, live as near the Aequator and endure as intense a Heat as the Hotantots and several Negroes of Africa, whose Hair is crisp and frizl’d. And therefore something must be added besides the
Sun’s Heat, for distinction of Complexion and of Hair under the same Parallels.
Lewenhoock observes that the Blood of the Negroes is of a different Contexture
from ours. And Malphigi observ’d a
small Membrane not transparent between the Cutis
and Cuticula, which caus’d
the Blackness.
The Hotantots are as
squalid in their bodies as they are mean and degenerate in their
Understandings. For they are far from being curious either in their Food or
Attire, any further than what they find Nature reaches forth to them. They
think it a needless Toil to spend time in dressing of the Hides of Bulls, or in
Spinning and Weaving the Wool of Sheep, for Ornaments and Covering to their
Bodies. They are satisfied with the same wrought Garments that Nature has clad
the Sheep with, and therefore without more Labour or
Art, they take them from the Backs of the sheep, and put them presently upon
their own, and so they walk with that Sheep-Skin Mantle about their Shoulders,
or sometimes thrown like a Hood over their Heads, which seem to be the Ancientest Garments, according to Gen. 2. 21 unto Adam and
his Wife did the Lord make Coats of Skins. They generally turn the Wool
inwards, that the outside of the Garment may defend them from Rain, and the
inside from the impressions of Cold. The Ornaments about their Heads are small
Shells, or little pieces of Lead or Iron fasten’d to
their frizl’d Hair,