kooa are Negroes, which the Kaffers are not,[1] and as there is no word in Arabic bearing such a signification. Still his notice of the name is satisfactory, as it tends to prove that such a people has been heard of by the Kaffers, which thus establishes the link of connection, between the tribes of the Cape and the Mosambique.
The Makooa are a strong athletic race of people, very formidable, and constantly in the habit of making incursions into the small tract of territory which the Portuguese possess on the coast. Their enmity is inveterate, and is confessed to have arisen from the shameful practices of the traders, who have gone among them to purchase slaves. They fight chiefly with spears, darts, and poisoned arrows; but they also possess no inconsiderable number of musquets, which they procure in the northern districts, from the Arabs, and very frequently, as the Governor assured me, from the Portuguese dealers themselves; who, in the eager pursuit of wealth, are thus content to barter their own security for the gold, slaves and ivory, which they get in return.
These obnoxious neighbours have latterly been quiet, but in their last incursion, they advanced with such a force into the peninsula of Cabaçeiro, as actually to oblige the Portuguese to quit the field. In their progress they destroyed the plantations, burnt the slave-huts, and killed or carried off every person who fell into their hands.[2] They penetrated even into the fort of Mesuril, and threw down the image of St. John, which was in the chapel, plundered the one adjoining the Government House, and converted the priest's dress, in which he celebrates mass, into a habit of ceremony for their chief. This occurred about three years ago, and most clearly evinces the very weak and precarious state of this settlement.
- ↑ This is allowed by all travellers. Mr. Barrow, from their colour, features and manners, considers the Kaffers as descendants of Arab Bedowee. In this I think him mistaken, as I believe them to be part of the Æthiopian tribes, of which an almost unbroken chain my be still traced from the borders of Egypt. Of these I shall have occasion to speak more fully in a subsequent part of the work.
- ↑ A similar incursion of these people is mentioned in Purchas, which happened in 1585. Vide Vol. II, page 1553.
