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.