firft thunder-ftorm after the winter, which they confider as fo
infallible a token of the fumtner having commenced, that they
tear in pieces their fkin-coverihgs, throw them in the air, and
dance for feveral fuceeilive nights. The fmall Circular trodden
places around their huts indicated their fondnefs for this
amufement. His chearfulnefs is the more extraordinary, as
the morfel he procures to fupport exiftence is earned with
danger and fatigue. He neither cultivates the ground nor
breeds cattle ; and his country yields few natural productions
that ferve for food. The bulbs o f the iris, and a few gramineous
roots of a bitter and pungent tafte, are all that the vegetable
kingdom affords him. By the fearch o f thefe the whole
furface of the plains near the horde was fcratched. Another
article of his food is the larvse of ants. Whether the foil of
the graffy plains, near the Sea-Cow river, be too rich for the
nature of thefe infeCts, or whether they are kept under by the
Bosjefmans, I will not take upon me to fa y ; but an ant-hill, fo
very common in moft parts o f Africa, is here a rare object
Holes now and then occurred, over which the hills of the
infeCt, demolifhed by this people, once had flood ; but they
were not very numerous. A third article, the larva: of locufts,
he can occafionally obtain without much trouble; but the procuring
of the other muft coil him no fmall pains,
Marks of their induflry appeared in every part of the country,
in their different plans of taking game : one was by making
deep holes in the ground and covering them over with
flicks and earth ; another by piling flones on each other in
rows, with openings or interruptions in fuch places as it was
intended
intended the game ihould pafs, and where the hunter could
conveniently lie in ambuih to flrike the animals with his poi-
foned fpears, or fhoot them with his arrows. In this manner
were lines continued acrofs the plains and mouths of defiles for
feveral miles. Sometimes, inflead of Hones, were placed rows
of flicks, with black oflrich feathers tied to the ends, as being
more effedtual in turning game towards the fpot where they
wifhed them-to pafs.
When all thefe means of fubfiftence fail them,, and they are
certainly very precarious, they are driven to the neceffity of
hazarding a toilfome and dangerous expedition of plunder into
the colony. Such a mode of life naturally leads to habits of
cruelty. The difpofition o f the Hottentot race is mild and manageable
in the highell degree, and by gentle ufage may be
moulded into any fhape; but the treatment of the farmers towards
them has been fo very flagitious, that their cruelty even
admits of palliation. Though in the eye of political juflice it
may be confidered as a crime for a ftarving family, driven by
imperious want to the neceffity of taking the property of another
who has perhaps more than he can poffibly ufe, yet in
the law of nature the offence is venial: hut the Bosjefmans
for their conduft have not only the plea of nature and humanity,
but alfo that of retribution. They were driven out of
fheir own country, their children feized and carried into
flavery, by the people on whom they now commit their depredations,
and on whom they naturally take every occafion of
exercifing their revenge. But that their fludied barbarity
ihould be extended to every living creature that appertains to
the