ance
back at this family of Africans before entering on the branch of the
negro family which the Makololo distinguish by the term Makalaka. The
name Bechuana seems derived from the word Chuana--alike, or equal--with
the personal pronoun Ba (they) prefixed, and therefore means fellows
or equals. Some have supposed the name to have arisen from a mistake of
some traveler, who, on asking individuals of this nation concerning the
tribes living beyond them, received the answer, Bachuana, "they (are)
alike"; meaning, "They are the same as we are"; and that this nameless
traveler, who never wrote a word about them, managed to ingraft his
mistake as a generic term on a nation extending from the Orange River to
18 Deg. south latitude.*

* The Makololo have conquered the country as far as 14 Deg.
south, but it is still peopled chiefly by the black tribes
named Makalaka.

As the name was found in use among those who had no intercourse with
Europeans, before we can receive the above explanation we must believe
that the unknown traveler knew the language sufficiently well to ask a
question, but not to understand the answer. We may add, that the way in
which they still continue to use the word seems to require no fanciful
interpretation. When addressed with any degree of scorn, they reply, "We
are Bachuana, or equals--we are not inferior to any of our nation,"
in exactly the same sense as Irishmen or Scotchmen, in the same
circumstances, would reply, "We are Britons," or "We are Englishmen."
Most other tribes are known by the terms applied to them by strangers
only, as the Caffres, Hottentots, and Bushmen. The Bechuanas alone use
the term to themselves as a generic one for the whole nation. They have
managed, also, to give a comprehensive name to the whites, viz., Makoa,
though they can not explain the derivation of it any more than of their
own. It seems to mean "handsome", from the manner in which they use
it to indicate beauty; but there is a word so very like it meaning
"infirm", or "weak", that Burchell's conjecture is probably the right
one. "The different Hottentot tribes were known by names terminating in
'kua', which means 'man', and the Bechuanas simply added the prefix
Ma, denoting a nation." They themselves were first known as Briquas, or
"goat-men". The language of the Bechuanas is termed Sichuana; that of
the whites (or Makoa) is called Sekoa.

The Makololo, or Basuto, have carried their powers of generalizat