CHAPTER XVI.
NAMAQUALAND.
A glance at the map of South Africa will shew two regions
on the Western side of the Continent to which the name of
Namaqualand is given, north and south of the Orange
River. The former is Great Namaqualand and cannot as
yet be said to form a part of the British Empire. But as it
at present belongs to nobody, and is tenanted,—as far as it
is tenanted at all,—by a very sparse sprinkling of Hottentots,
Bushmen, and Korannas, and as it is undoubtedly metalliferous,
it is probable that it will be annexed sooner or later.[1]
Copper has been found north of the Orange River and that
copper will not long be left undisturbed. North of Great
Namaqualand is Damaraland, whence too have come tokens
of copper and whisperings of gold. Even to these hard hot
unfertile sandy regions Dutch farmers have trekked in order
that they might live solitary, unseen, and independent. We
need not, however, follow them at present to a country which
is almost rainless and almost uninhabited, and for which we
are not as yet responsible. Little Namaqualand, south of
- ↑ The Legislature of the Cape of Good Hope has already taken steps towards the annexation of this territory by sending a Commissioner north of the Orange River, both to Great Namaqualand and Damaraland to ascertain the wish of the natives.