may, perhaps, void as we are of any thing like a record on the fubject, find it no eafy matter to determine. The outfide does not boast a profufion of ornament, though its battlement and buttrefles are light and well finifhed, and in a good tafte. The infide is much fuperior. The arch of entrance has arrested the admiration of many travellers; who, in fo plain, and even clumfy a building as the major part of this church prefents to the view, could form no expectation of meeting with a piece of fculpture, exceeding in elegance of defign, and correctness of exe cution, almost every thing of a fimilar kind in this kingdom. This chapterhoufe is, in a general fenfe, built upon the model of that of York, but in many particulars differs from it materially. The arch, of which I have been treat ing, is in the fame style, but very fuperior in beauty and workmanship. The roof is of ftone, not very richly ornamented, but light and fimple, and rather elegant. The ftails, which are niches in the wall, and extend quite round the room, are divided, each from the contiguous one, by a small plain cylindrical column. Thefe columns fupport the arched heads of the ftalls; all of which are pointed, and much decorated with sculpture, of a fingular and curious, but not very ftriking or highly finished kind. Of the devices on thefe ftalls, it is fomewhat remarkable, confidering they are very numerous, that no two bear the fmalleft refemblance to each other. The windows are of the later Gothic; large, light, not much pointed at the vertex, and divided into three compartments by ftone mullions. It is to be lamented, that the painted glafs, which once adorned them, is almost wholly deftroyed; the few mutilated fragments that remain being infufficient for any purposes of illuftration refpecting the date of the building, or the benefactors to its foundation. The origin of the fcreen is involved in the fame obfcurity; but as the ftyle is nearly if not altogether fimilar, it may reasonably be attributed to the fame period,

"It is obfervable in the choir of this church, the only part, the date of which can be incontrovertibly afcertained, that the fashionable style of architecture was unknown at Southwell for full half a century after it had prevailed in most other parts of the kingdom: for the more ornamented Gothic had been long introduced, and indeed was become very general in public buildings, at the time this part of Southwell church was erected. The choir, which was indifputably completed in the reign of Edward III. is of the ftyle of Edward I.; fo the chapter-houfe, which has all the appearance of being built much fubfequent to the contiguous parts of the church, is cf the ftyle of Edward III. excepting, indeed, the arch at the entrance, and that, carries with it a ftill more modern appearance. If we affix to this building an origin as much fubfequent to the introduction of that style, of which it bears the appearance, as the choir itfelf is after that age, whofe features predominate in it, we must place the chapter-house in the reign of Richard II. Should this conjecture meet with no material objection, it will receive fome confirmation from a prevalent tradition, refpecting one of the ornaments of the arch, at the entrance into the cloifter, which leads to the place we are examining. The ornament I mean is the head of a bishop. On what foundation does not appear, but this has always been fuppofed, at Southwell, to be a representation of Archbishop Neville. Neville, we know, filled the fee.of York in the reign of Richard; to which period the building of the chapter-house has been attributed. Giving credit, therefore, to the teftimony of tradition, thefe facts seem to confer fome reciprocity. of illuftration on each other, and give us ground to conclude, that this chapter-house was built, perhaps by the bounty, at leaft under the fanction of this prelate. Another circumstance, not to be omitted, is, that on the oppofite fide of the arch to the archbishop, is the head of a king, very like the engraving of

King Richard in Rapin's Hiftory of England; and in the window over this arch, till of late years, was the portraiture of John Gaunt, Duke of Lancafter, and uncle to that king, on a fquare of glafs, well painted, and in good preservation." P. 58.

XLV. Barrow's Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa. (Continued from p. 196.)

THE KAFFERS UNACQUAINTED WITH THE USE OF FISH.

THERE are perhaps few nations, befides the Kaffers, that have not contrived to draw fome advantages from the poffeffion of the fea-coaft. They have no kind of fifhery what foever, either with nets or boats. Whether they retain any remains of fuperftition attached to fome of the various modifications through which the Mahometan, as well as the Chriftian, religion has undergone in its progrefs through different countries, that forbids them the ufe of fish; or whether their way of life has hitherto prevented them from thinking on the means of obtaining a livelihood from the waters, I cannot pretend to fay; but they scarcely know what kind of a creature a fish is. The whole extent of their coaft, that is wathed by the fea and interfected by the mouths of feveral large rivers, does not produce a fingle boat, nor canoe, nor any thing that resembles a floating veffel. The fhort fpace of time, perhaps, which they have occupied that part of Africa they now inhabit, has not yet fufficiently familiarized them to the nature of deep waters, to intrust themselves upon a frail bark..

Illi robur et æs triplex

the mark to fuppofe them to have fprung from fome of the tribes of thofe wandering Arabs known by the name of Beduins. Thefe people are known to have penetrated into almost every part of Africa. Much of the Arab features are vifible in the countenance of a Kaffer; and there is a strong refemblance in his way of life, his pastoral habits, his character, and treatment of ftrangers that may want his protection. Colonies of thefe people have found their way even to the islands of South Africa, where more difficulties would occur than in a journey over land to the Cape of Good Hope. By fkirting the Red Sea, and turning to the fouthward along the fea-coaft, the great defert of fand that divides Africa into two parts is entirely avoided, and the paffage lies over a country habitable as far as is known in every part." P. 211.

DISPOSAL OF THEIR DEAD.

"THE Kaffers differ alfo very materially from all the neighbouring nations in their manner of difpofing of the dead. Funeral rites are beftowed only on the bodies of their chiefs, and on their children. The firft are generally interred very deep in the kraals or places where their own oxen ufed to ftand at nights; and the bodies of infants are most commonly deposited in the ant-hills that have been excavated by the myrmecophage or ant-eaters. The reft are expofed to be devoured by wolves. As thefe animals drag them away immediately into their dens, the relations of the deceased are in no danger of being fhocked or disgusted with the fight of the mangled carcafs. A Kaffer, in confideration of this piece of fervice, holds the life of a wolf fa cred, at least he never endeavours to deftroy it; the confequence of which

Primus'

"The Kaffers moft certainly are not the aborigines of the fouthern angle of Africa. Surrounded on all fides by people that differ in every point, in colour, in features, in form, in difpofition, in manners, and in language, it would be abfurd to confider them as indigenous to the small spot they now poffefs. To fpeculate upon their ori gin, it might not perhaps be far from

Some author has afferted, that the cuftom of burning the dead was univerfal, till the practice of it, adopted as the most prudent and convenient difpofal of an unpleasant object, became a subject of oftentatious parade; and the funeral pile having at length exhaufted the forefts, neceflity obliged them to have recourfe to other means, fome to interment, others to expofure in high places to be devoured by crows and vultures. Had the Kaffers ever

burned

MANNERS AND

SKETCH OF THE
COUNTRY OF THE BOSJESMANS.

"THREE weeks had fcarcely elapfed, after our return from the Kaffer country, till we were ready for another expedition to the northward, across the Sneuwberg or Snowy Mountains. In these mountains, and in the country immediately behind them, dwells a face of men, that, by their habits and manner of life, are juftly entitled to the name of favage; a name, however, of which, it is greatly to be feared, they have been rendered more worthy by the conduct of the European fettlers. They are known in the colony by the name of Bosjefmans, or men of the bushes, from the concealed manner in which they make their approaches to kill and to plunder. They neither cultivate the ground nor breed cattle, but fubfift, in part, on the natural produce of their country, and make up the reff by depredations on the colonists on one fide, and the neighbouring tribes of people that are more civilized than themselves, on the other. Twenty years ago, it seems, they were lefs numerous and lefs ferocious than at the prefent day; and their boldness and numbers are faid of late to have very much increased. At one time they were pretty well kept under by regular expeditions of the peafantry against them. Each divifion had its commandant, who was authorized to raife a certain number of men, and thefe were furnished by government with powder and ball. It was a fervice at all times taken with reluctance, efpecially by fuch as were leaft exposed to the attacks of the favages; and, during the late difturbances of Graaff Reynet, thefe expeditions met with confiderable interruptions. The people of Bruyntjes Hoogte were the first who failed in raifing their proportion of men. Zuure Veldt was deferted, and Camdeboo and Zwart Ruggens became negligent and remifs. The people of Sneuwberg, lying nearest to the common enemy, were left to fuftain the whole brunt of the bufinefs; and had they not conducted themselves with great fortitude,

perfeverance, and addrefs, that valuable part of the colony, the nursery of cattle, had now been abandoned. A whole divifion called the Tarka, and a great part of another, the Sea-cow river, and Rhinoceros-berg, had been deferted, as well as a fmall part of Sneuwberg. There is, however, another caufe which, more than the interruption to the expeditions, has tended to increase the strength and the bold. nefs of thefe favages, and which, unlefs removed, will in the end effect the utter ruin of this diftant part of the colony. The cafe is this: The government of the Cape, which feemed to have been as little acquainted with the temper and difpofition of its diftant fubjects as with the geography of the country, formed all its refolutions refpecting the Bosjefmans, on repre fentations made to it by the perfons immediately concerned. In confequence of thefe reprefentations, it decreed that fuch of the Bosjefmans as fhould be taken alive in the expeditions made against them, were to be diftributed by lot among the commandant and his party, with whom they were to remain in a ftate of fervitude during their lives. Such as have been taken very young, and well treated, have turned out moft excellent fervants; they have shown great talent, great activity, and great fidelity. An oppofite treatment has been productive of a contrary ef feet; and the brutal conduct of moft of the Dutch farmers towards thofe in their employ has already been noticed. The poor Hottentot bears it with patience, or finks under it; but on the temper and the turn of mind of the Bosjefman it has a very different effect. He takes the first opportunity that offers of efcaping to his countrymen, and contrives frequently to carry off with him a mufket, and powder and ball. With tales of cruelty he excites them to revenge; he affifts them in their plans of attack; tells them the ftrength of the whole, and of individuals; the number of their cattle, and the advantages and the dangers that will occur in the attempt to carry them off; the manner in which expeditions are conducted against them; and, in fhort, every thing he knows respecting the colonifts. Armed with muskets and poifoned arrows, a party of these people was bold enough, a few days before we commenced our journey, to

approach

approach within four or five miles of the Drofdy, from whence they carried, off feveral hundred sheep. They were followed into a kloof of one of the mountains of Sneuwberg, where they remained in poffeffion of their plunder, laughing at their pursuers, and inviting them to approach and taste a little of their own mutton. One of them fired a mufket, and the ball grazing the hat of a peasant, caufed the pursuing party to make a precipitate retreat.

"In order, therefore, to bring about a converfation with fome of the chiefs of this people; to try if, by prefents and a lenient conduc, they could be prevailed upon to quit their prefent wild and marauding way of life; at the fame time to fee the ftate of the colony, and the fituation of the inha bitants; to infpect the boundaries, and to examine the nature of the country, a journey to the northward appeared indifpenfably neceflary. It promifed also much curiofity: and as no European traveller, except the two gentle men mentioned in the introductory -chapter, had ever afcended the mountains of Snow, a great deal of novelty was to be expected from it.

"On the 20th of October we departed from the Droidy, croffed the Sunday and its accompanying Karroo, and at the distance of ten miles northwefterly reached the foot of the mountains, within which a narrow defile of five miles in length, and a steep afcent of three miles at the farther extremity, led upon the extensive plains, and among the fcattered mountains that compofe the Sneuwberg. From the plains of Camdeboo, the fronts of thefe mountains appear to be the most regular formed, though the most confufedly placed, of any within the limits of the colony. The ftone ftratum that terminates their fummis is fo perfectly horizontal, and fo regularly fquared at the angles, that their vaft height and magnitude alone contradict the idea of fuppofing them to be lines of masonry." P. 234.

"The following day brought us to Waay Hock, or Windy Corner, the habitation of the late provifional land roft of Graaff Reynet, who had fignified an inclination to accompany us on the intended expedition. He had at tended Governor Van Plettenberg on his journey northwards, and had fince been commandant for many years on

expeditions against the Bosjesmans, which had given him an opportunity of being acquainted not only with the different parts within, but also with much of the country beyond, the limits of the colony. Having prepared himself for the journey, we remained with him only for the night; and on the following morning fent forward the waggons, while we made an excurfion into the mountains on our left in fearch of Bosjefmans. A large party of these people had carried off a number of cattle but two days before, and another was supposed to be still hovering about in these mountains. The places of their ufual haunts are eafily discoverable, but generally very difficult of accefs, and not fafe to approach. The kloofs or chafms, washed by torrents of water rushing down the fteep fides of the high stratified mountains, frequently leave a fucceffion of caverns, of which the Bosjefman choofes the highest, as not only removing him farther from the danger of a surprise, but giving him alfo the command of a greater extent of country.

"In one of these retreats were dif covered their recent traces. The fires were fcarcely extinguifhed, and the grafs on which they had flept was not yet withered. On the fmooth fides of the cavern were drawings of feveral animals that had been made from time to time by these favages. Many of them were caricatures; but others were too well executed not to arrest attention. The different antelopes that were there delineated had each their character fo well difcriminated, that the originals, from whence the representations had been taken, could, without any difficulty, be afcertained. Among the numerous animals that were drawn, was the figure of a zebra remarkably well done; all the marks and characters of this animal were accurately reprefented, and the propor tions were feemingly correct. The force and fpirit of drawings, given to them by bold touches judiciously applied, and by the effect of light and fhadow, could not be expected from favages; but for accuracy of outline and correctnefs of the different parts, worfe drawings than that of the zebra have paffed through the engraver's hands. The materials with which they had been executed were charcoal, pipeclay, and the different ochres. The

animals

animals represented were zebras, quachas, gemsboks, fpringboks, reeboks, elands, baboons, and oftriches, all of which, except the gemsbok, are found upon the very spot. Several croffes, circles, points, and lines, were placed in a long rank, as if intended to exprefs fome meaning; but no other attempt appeared at the reprefentation of inanimate objects. In the courfe of travelling, I had frequently heard the peafantry mention the drawings in the mountains behind the Sneuwberg, made by the Bosjefmans; but I took it for granted they were caricatures only, fimilar to those on the doors and walls of uninhabited buildings, the works of idle boys; and it was no difagreeable disappointment to find them very much the reverfe. Some of the drawings were known to be new; but many of them had been remembered from the first fettlement of this part of the colony.

"A part of the upper furface of the cavern was covered with a thick coating of a black fubftance, that externally had the appearance of pitch. In confiftence, tenacity, and colour of a brownith black, it refembled Spanish liquorice. The Imell was flightly bituminous, but faint, and rather offenfive. It flamed weakly in the candle, and gave out a thin brownish fluid, but no fmell while burning; the refiduum was a black coaly fubftance, two thirds of the original bulk. The patch adhering to the rock was covered with myriads of very minute flies. In reaching up to it, in order to cut off a fpecimen with my knife, the people called out to me to defift, affuring me that if the finalleft particle got into the eye, the fight of it would be loft for ever; that it was deadly poifon, and used by the Hottentots to fmear the points of their arrows. They all agreed in the baneful qualities of this black matter, from having experienced the fatal effects of it on feveral of their companions, who had fuffered lingering deaths from wounds received with arrows poisoned by the klip gift, or rock poifon. Not having as yet the opportunity of trying the deleterious quality of the fubftance, I cannot pretend to fay whether this account of the peafantry be strictly true.

"In the courfe of the day we arrived at the houfe of Krüger, the commandant of Sneuwberg, who kindly

2

offered his fervices to be of our party, though he had but just returned from an expedition against the Bosjefmans. He had at this time with him in the houfe one of these wild men, with his two wives and a little child, which had come to him by lot, out of forty that had been taken prisoners. The man was only four feet five inches high, and his wives were ftill of a fhorter ftature, one being four feet two, and the other four feet three inches. He reprefented to us the condition of his countrymen as truly deplorable. That for several months in the year, when the froft and fnow prevented them from making their, excurfions against the farmers, their fufferings from cold and want of food were indefcribable: that they frequently beheld their wives and children perithing with hunger, without being able to give them any relief. The good feafon even brought little alleviation to their misery. They knew themselves to be hated by all mankind, and that every nation around them was an enemy planning their deftruction. Not a breath of wind ruled through the leaves, not a bird fereamed, that were not supposed to announce danger. Hunted thus like beafts of prey, and ill treated in the fervice of the farmers, he said that they confidered themselves driven to defperation. The burden of their fong was vengeance against the Dutch. This little man was intended to have accompanied us; but as he seemed more inclined to abide by his wives, he was permitted to follow his uxorious inclinations.

"Proceeding to the northward, a curious but truly deplorable spectacle prefented itself. It was a troop of locufts refting upon the ground. They covered a space of about one square mile in extent, fo completely that the furface appeared to the eye, at a little diftance, to have been burnt and ftrewed over with brown ashes. Not a fhrub nor blade of grafs was vifible. The waggons paffed directly through them, before which they rofe up in a cloud that darkened the air on each fide. Defirous of feeing the whole troop on the wing, the Hottentots ran amongst them, and the horses were made to gallop through them, but without fuccefs: none but fuch as were immediately under the fect of the men and horfes rofe up. The peafantry

affirm