Le Hottentot [graphic].
Title
Le Hottentot
Description
Portrait image of Klaas, a young Hottentot (i.e., Khoikhoi), who accompanied Le Vaillant during parts of his voyage. According to the text, the engraving was done after a sketch by Vaillant. Klass is dressed in the typical Khoikhoi fashion: he wears a fur loin-cloth, a cape made from sheep or badger's skin (with the woolly side inward), and a lamb-skin cap. It appears that he also wears animal innards around his neck and legs, as was customary among the Khoikhoin. A good description of their dress can be found in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid (London: 1670), p. 590-591., Plate in François Le Vaillant's Voyage de Monsieur Le Vaillant dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance: dans les Années 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 85 (A Paris: Chez Leroy, Libraire, rue Saint-Jacques; vis-à-vis celle de la Parcheminerie, no. 15, M.DCC.LXXXX [1790]), vol. 1, p. 212., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1790]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Leva 1790 9861.O v 1 p 212, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2923
Andries Africander, a mulatto Hottentot [graphic] / W. C. Harris del.
Title
Andries Africander, a mulatto Hottentot
Description
Portrait image of Andries Africander, a mulatto Hottentot (i.e. Khoikhoi), who served as Harris's driver during part of his travels. A pensioned private in the Cape Rifle Corps, Africander is shown here with his rifle. As Harris noted, and as the engraving suggests, he was missing both his right eye and his index finger. When Harris first made Africander's acquaintance, the latter had already made numerous trips into Moselekaste's country. He was also acquainted with the chief, and spoke a bit of English and Sichuana. He proved, however, to be an unfortunate addition to Harris's party. "A coward, a mutineer, and an inveterate liar," Harris wrote, " . . . Andries caused more mischief and trouble to us by his pernicious example and rebellious conduct when beyond the reach of the law, than can be well conceived by those who have never had the misfortunes to be exposed to the machinations of so dangerous a ruffian." (p. 10), Plate in Sir William Harris's The wild sports of Southern Africa: Being a narrative of a hunting expedition from the Cape of Good Hope, through the territories of the Chief Moselekatse, to the Tropic of Capricorn (London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1852), p. 8., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1852]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Harris 14048.O p 8, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2912
Hottentote [graphic].
Title
Hottentote
Description
Image of a young Hottentot (i.e., Khoikhoi) woman whom Le Vaillant met during his travels. The woman wears typical Khoikhoi dress: namely, a cape made from sheep or badger's skin. She does not, however, wear the customary fur loin-cloth -- an oversight allowing the illustrator to show her genitalia. Like many Khoikhoi women (including Saarti Baartman, the so-called "Hottentot Venus," who was crudely "exhibited" to European audiences in the early nineteenth century), the woman shown here has a "vagina dentata," which Le Vaillant described as a "natural apron." (See the English translation of Le Vaillant, Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa [London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, 1796], vol. 2, p. 353), Plate in François Le Vaillant's Voyage de Monsieur Le Vaillant dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance: dans les Années 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 85 (A Paris: Chez Leroy, Libraire, rue Saint-Jacques; vis-à-vis celle de la Parcheminerie, no. 15, M.DCC.LXXXX [1790]), vol. 2, p. 346., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1790]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Leva 1790 9861.O v 2 p 346, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2924