which we would
gladly have purchased had we possessed any English manufactures. When
they heard that we had no cloth, they turned back much disappointed.

The amount of population in the central parts of the country may be
called large only as compared with the Cape Colony or the Bechuana
country. The cultivated land is as nothing compared with what might be
brought under the plow. There are flowing streams in abundance, which,
were it necessary, could be turned to the purpose of irrigation with but
little labor. Miles of fruitful country are now lying absolutely waste,
for there is not even game to eat off the fine pasturage, and to recline
under the evergreen, shady groves which we are ever passing in our
progress. The people who inhabit the central region are not all quite
black in color. Many incline to that of bronze, and others are as light
in hue as the Bushmen, who, it may be remembered, afford a proof that
heat alone does not cause blackness, but that heat and moisture combined
do very materially deepen the color. Wherever we find people who have
continued for ages in a hot, humid district, they are deep black, but to
this apparent law there are exceptions, caused by the migrations of both
tribes and individuals; the Makololo, for instance, among the tribes
of the humid central basin, appear of a sickly sallow hue when compared
with the aboriginal inhabitants; the Batoka also, who lived in an
elevated region, are, when seen in company with the Batoka of the
rivers, so much lighter in color, they might be taken for another tribe;
but their language, and the very marked custom of knocking out the upper
front teeth, leave no room for doubt that they are one people.

Apart from the influences of elevation, heat, humidity, and degradation,
I have imagined that the lighter and darker colors observed in the
native population run in five longitudinal bands along the southern
portion of the continent. Those on the seaboard of both the east and
west are very dark; then two bands of lighter color lie about three
hundred miles from each coast, of which the westerly one, bending
round, embraces the Kalahari Desert and Bechuana countries; and then
the central basin is very dark again. This opinion is not given with
any degree of positiveness. It is stated just as it struck my mind in
passing across the country, and if incorrect, it is singular that the
dialects spoken by the different tribes have arranged themselves in a
fa