Quanto praeftantius eflet
■ ...- ■ -viridi fi margine clauderet undas
Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum !
Juvenal,
The houfes are built of brick, and many of them are
white walhed on the outfide. The rooms are in general
lofty and fpacious, and very airy, which the hot xlimate
requires. There is but one church in the whole town,
and that is extremely plain, and feems to be rather too
fmall for the congregation. That fpirit of toleration,
which has been fo beneficial to the Dutch government at
home, is not to be met with in their colonies. It is but
very lately that they have fufifered even the Lutherans, to
build churches at Batavia, and at' this place ; and at the
prefent time, a clergyman of that perfuafion is not tolerated
at the Cape, but the inhabitants are obliged to content
themfelves with the chaplains of Danifli and Swedilh
Eaft-India-men, who give them a fermon, and adminfter
the facrament once or twice a year, and are very hand-
fomely rewarded. The government, and the inhabitants
do not give themfelves the trouble to attend- to a circum-
ftance of fo little confequence in their eyes, as the religion
of their flaves, who in general feem to have none
at all. A few of them follow the Mahommedan rite, and
weekly meet in a private houfe belonging to a free Ma-
homedan, in order to read, or rather chaunt feveral prayers,
and
*77*.
O c t o b e r . and chapters of the Koran. As they have no prieft among
them, they cannot partake of any other a<5ts of wor-
Ihip *.
The flaves belonging to the company, who amount to
feveral hundreds, are lodged and boarded in a fpacious
houfe erefted for that purpofe, where they are likewife
kept at work. Another great building ferves as an hofpi-
tal for the failors belonging to the Dutch Eaft-India fhips,
which touch here, and commonly have prodigious numbers
of fick on board, on their voyage from Europe towards
India. The vaft number of men, fometimes fix,
feven, or eight hundred, which thefe fhips carry out to
fupply the military in India, the fmall room to which
they are confined, and the Ihort allowance of water and
fait provifion, they receive on a long voyage through the
torrid zone, generally make confiderable havock among
them: it is therefore no uncommon circumftance at the
Cape, that a fhip on her pafiage thither from Europe,
lofes eighty or a hundred men, and fends between two,
* W e would not be underftood to throw an odium on the Dutch in, particular,-,
when it is well known that the negroes, who wear the chains o f the Englifli-,
and French, are equally neglefled : it was only intended ■ to awaken,, a
fellow-feeling towards an unhappy race of m e n , among, the colonifts o f , all
nations ; and to remind them whilft they enjoy, or f i rm to enjoy the inefiimable
bleffing of liberty, to exert themfelves in afts of humanity and klndnefs, towards
thofe from whom they with-hold it, perhaps, without remorfe
and