more certain method of deftroying him was to watch at night
behind a bufh clofe to his path; and, as he palled, to wound him
in the tendons of the knee-joint, by which he was immediately
rendered lame and unable to efcape from the numerous Hafik-
gais that afterwards affailed him. Numbers of this huge animal
flitl remain in all their large rivers ; indeed they feem not
very felicitous about deftroying it. The tufks, though of the
fineft ivory, are too froall for the ufual purpofes to which they
apply this article; and they feem to have lefs relilh for greafe
than either the Hottentots or the colonifts. The fpoils o f the
ehace are always bellowed upon their perfons. The tufts of
the elephant furnifh them with ivory rings for the a im; the
leopard fupplies his Ikin to ornament the front of the cloak ;
and the ikin of the tyger-cat is ufed by the women as pocket-
handkerchiefs.
Befides the illicit trade that the Dutch farmers have carried
on with this people, eonfifting of pieces of iron, eopper, giafs-
beads, and a few other trifling articles, given to them in exchange
for their cattle, the Kaffers have no kind of commerce
with any other nation except their eaftern neighbours the Tam-
bookifes. In addition to the young girls which they purchafe
from thefe people, they are fupplred by them with a final! quantity
of iron in exchange for cattle. It has been fuppofetf that
the Tambookies, and other nations farther to the eaftward', pof-
fefled the art o f obtaining iron from the ore; but it is much
moth probable that they are iupplied with it by the Portuguefe
fettlerS of Rio de la Goa, not far from whieh their country is
fituated. The only metals known to the Kaffers are iron and
copper;
copper; and their only medium of exchange, and the only
article o f commerce they poffefs, is their cattle.
There are perhaps few nations, befides the Kaffers, that have
not contrived to draw feme advantages from the pofleflion of
a fea-coaft. They have no kind of fifhery whatfoever either
with nets or boats. Whether they retain any remains of fuper-
ftifrtm attached to fome o f the • various modifications through
which the Mahometan, as well as the Cbriflian, religion has
undergone in its progrels through different countries, that forbids
them the ufe of fifh ; or whether their way of life has
hitherto prevented them from thinking on the means o f obtaining
a livelihood from the waters, I cannot pretend to fay ; but
they fcarcely know what kind o f a creature a fifh is. The
whole extent o f their coaff, that is waftied by the fea and interfered
by the mouths o f feverai large rivers, does not produce a
fingle boat, nor canoe, nor any thing that refemhles a floating
velfel. The fhort fpace of time, perhaps, which they have
occupied that part of Africa they now inhabit, has not yetluf-
ficiently familiarized them to the nature of deep waters, to
entruft themfelves upon a frail bark.
** llli robur et ses triplex
** Circa pe£his erat, qui fragilem truci
“ Cotntnifit peJago ratem
“ Primus”-
The Kaffers moil certainly are not the Aborigines of the
fbuthera angle of Africa. Surrounded on all fides by people
e e 2 that