or night till it be exhaufted. Friends and ftrangers are equally
welcome to it as long as it will run. , Among the prefent com-
pany were two men whom, from their countenances,; I.could
perceive to be Europeans. They had been long enough in the
country to forget their own language, but not to have learned
that o f the Dutch, fo that in fad they fcarcely had the ,means
o f making themfelves intelligibly to any one. The one was an
Inffiman, the other. Engliih, and both were probably deferters
from the army or the navy.- The firft had taken up the pro-
feffion o f a. waier-wyzer or difcoverer o f water, and had iliewn
lagacity enough to eftabliih a l'ort of. reputation in .the .country.
By fpeaking little, looking wife, .and; frequent'; application to
the ¡eye of a double convex lens, which happened, to have an
air-bubble within it, he had pradifed with great fuccefs on the
credulity and ignorance o f the Dutch farmers, and had obtained
from them, by this and other means, a pair o f horfes,
and feveral hundred rix-dollars of paper Abney. Lighting, their
pipes at the .fun by means o f his glafs^apd the perfuafion that
the air-bubble within it was a drop of water that pblfeffed the
fympathetic quality o f always turning towards .its kindred
element, had fuch an irrefiftible effedt on the rude minds of the
African boors, that the Iriihman, like a true quack, appreciated
his confequence fo highly, that he never deigned to pay a vifit
to any farmer, in order to examine the ftate of his water, without
a previous fee. Obferving me laugh at the credulity of
the people gaping at his mountebank tricks, he. took occaiion
to fpeak to me apart, begging, for God’s fake, I would not det
e a the impofture, as he was now in fuch good pradice that
he was able to keep an affiftant. Surprife ceafes at the credulity
of
o f men born and educated in the wilds of Africa, on refle&ing
to what extent the impoftors of Europe have fucceeded, in living
upon the folly of thofe who have been weak enough to liften
to them. Animal magrietifm has raifed many a quack to a
ftate of grandeur, at the expence of credulity ; and the nonfenfe
o f the virgula divinatoria, or divining rod, has ftill its votaries.
There never perhaps were a fet of men fo void of refources in
overcoming difficulties as the Dutch farmers of the Cape. The
inanity o f mind, and the indolent habit of body, are not even
furmounted by felf-intereft. Their ignorance cannot be a matter
of wonder, but we often find in Europe unlettered men pof-
fefled of great talents and ingenuity. No printing-prefs has yet
found its way to the Cape o f Good Hope, except a fmall one
for cards or hand-bills. They contrive, indeed, to publilh a
fort of almanac, but that of the current year has fomewhat
buffered in its reputation, by having ftated an eclipfe o f the
moon to fall on the day preceding the full, and to be invifible,
when, unluckily for the almanac-maker, it happened at its proper
time, vifible, and nearly total.
The defcent to the eaftern plain was feveral hundred feet lefs
than had been the afcent of the oppofite face of the mountain.
The country was now rough and ftony, bounded by a high
ridge of wall-fided rock, from five hundred to a thoufand feet
in height. The fummit was a broad belt, of that kind of fur-
face formerly fpoken of under the name of Karroo. A partial
elevation ftill higher than this furface, is called the Bokkeveld’s
mountain, and refembles, in its appearance and produce, the
3 c mountains