Hotman was a man of unfeigned piety, nor were his firm and lofty ideas on religion ever shaken; the purity of his home-life, his devotion to wife and family, his courageous endurance of poverty and trouble, made him one of the finer characters of his age. His very timidity and restlessness were but the results of a parent s anxiety for the safety of his children; the infinite horrors of unbridled war filled him with fears for them. It was his quick intelligence and passionate temperament that made him a wanderer, and even laid him open to the suspicion of cowardice. As an author, if not original, he certainly was not Scaliger s " vulgareingenium." His criticism is sound and acute, his learning beyond question scholarly and legal, his Latinity admirable, even eloquent; he is one of the best writers of his age; and it is not to be urged severely against him that he cheated himself with that snare of clever and needy men, alchemy, and sought to achieve the transmutation of metals.
His chief works were—the Anti-Tribonien (1567),a trentise to show that French law could not ho hased on Justinian; the Fi-anco-Gcillia (1573), with the pam phlets in its defence; his Conti-m-ersia patnti et nepotis (1585); his Hrittum Fulmen (IW i), ncainst the bull of Pope Sixtus; the Consolatio (published in 1593); A Treatise on the Eucharist (1566): A Life of Coligny (1575), with many other worki on law, history, politics, or classical scholarship. These are mostly forgotten; but, in their day they placed Francis Hotman in the first rank among the lenmed and accomplished authors of France. A collection of his letters was published at Amsterdam iu 1700.
HOT SPRINGS, a post village in Hot Springs county, Arkansas, United States, is situated on a tributary of the Washita river, 55 miles S.W. of Little Rock. It is much resorted to by strangers on account of its hot springs, which are about sixty in number, and together have a daily flow of about 500,000 gallons. They vary in temperature from 93 to 150 Fahr., and their beneficial effects depend chiefly upon external application. The principal diseases in which they are efficacious are affections of the skin, malarial fever, and rheumatism. The number of persons who make use of them is about 20,000 annually. The town is well supplied with hotels and churches. The population, which in 1870 was 1276, was 51 79 in 1880.
HOTTENTOTS was the generic name given by Europeans to the native tribes inhabiting the southern extremity of Africa. Some early writers termed them Hodmadods or Hodmandods, and others Hot-nots and Ottentots all corruptions of the same word. The common denomination adopted by themselves was Khoi-Khoin (men of men), or Qute Qute, Kwekhena, t Kuhkeub, the forms varying accord ing to the several dialects.
These aborigines, totally distinct as they were in their primitive state from all other African races, have been generally regarded as the most ancient inhabitants of the land. A little more than two centuries ago they were a numerous people, whose nomadic tribes or clans and families were spread over the territory now distinguished as the Cape Colony; and tradition, as well as the evidence afforded by names of places and surviving peculiarities of manners and language, points to their having in prehistoric times extended much further to the north-westward and eastward, where they have been supplanted by the Kaffre or Negro tribes. The freedom, security, and protection enjoyed by the Hottentots since the Cape of Good Hope became a portion of the British empire have in no small degree arrested the process of extermination of the race which was rapidly proceeding at the close of last century. When Sir John Barrow described their condition in 1798, he estimated their numbers at about 15,000 souls. In 1806 the official return gave a population of 9784 males and 10,642 females. In 1824 they had increased to 31,000. At the census of 1865 they numbered 81,589; and the census of 1875 gave the Hottentot population within the Cape Colony at 98,561. In the returns for the last-mentioned periods, however, the designation " Hottentot " has no doubt embraced many persons of mixed race. It is only at the mission stations or in their vicinity that any genuine descendants of the early tribes are now to be met with. Beyond the colonial borders, however, they are numerically strong. Dr Theophilus Hahn gives the following as an approximate statement of their numbers (amounting in all to nearly 17,000) in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland : Pure Namaquas Geikous, or Red Nation, 2500; Topnaars, 750; Kharo-oas, 300; Khogeis, 100; Ogeis, or Great Deaths, 800; Khau-goas, or Young Red Nation, 1000; Habobes, or Velschoendragers, 1800; Karagei-Khois, 800; Gaminus, or Bondlezwaarts, 2000; Gunungu, or Lowlanders, 200. Namaqua Hottentots or Oerlaams Eicha-ais, or Afrikaaners, 800; Kowisis, 2500; Amas, 2000; Kliauas, 700; Gei-Khauas, or Gobabis people, 600.
