nate any greater number by the term intzi-intzi or intsintsi; or an
unusually great number, by the expression intsintsi lisu/n (a great
many tens). In reckoning the number of a large herd of cattle, they
separate them into tens, and thus gain a more distinct notion : but in
ascertaining whether any be missing from a herd with which they
are acquainted, they depend, as they say, solely on their knowledge
o f the colors, particular spots, size and countenance, of each animal.
This last method proves their great strength of memory *, as well as
some mental perception, when necessity forces them to use it: and although
this latter faculty may not be found equally strong when applied
to .other purposes more unusual in their mode of life, yet the fact
plainly shows that it needs only a different education to bring it into
action on many other occasions where at present it appears lamentably
feeble.
There is little doubt that, small as this power may at present
appear, it will admit of an extension much beyond its present
bounds, although it be an experiment which hitherto has never been
tried. With this view it would be highly interesting to make the
trial, by bringing half a dozen, or more, boys of this nation, to
England, to be educated in useful learning and instructed in those
arts which might be most likely to contribute to the civilization or
Improvement of their countrymen at their return. In this manner
they would by mutual conversation with each other while in Europe,
preserve the knowledge of their own language while they were acquiring
ours, and at the same time would give us a favorable opportunity
of examining theirs, and of reducing it to a regular written form by
which they might be enabled to record useful information and, under
the care and assistance of some liberal-minded and sensible European,
communicate to the youth of their own country the civilizing influence
of letters.
When I speak of civilizing the native tribes of Southern Africa,
I mean not to be understood as asserting that their minds are susceptible
of a very high polish, or as being very confident that they are