46 t r a v e l s i n
which raifed a wealthy and populous republic out o f the fea,
imprefled the minds of thofe who firft formed the fettlement.
A temperate climate, a fertile foil, a mild and peaceable race of
natives, were advantages that few infant colonies have pofiefied ;
and, as they ftill exift, may one day yet be turned to account.
To encourage the native Hottentots in ufeful labor, by giving
them an intereft in the produce of that labor; to make them
experience the comforts of civilized life, and to feel they have a
place and a value in fociety, which the miferable policy o f the
Dutch government denied to them, would be the fure means
o f diminilhing and, in time, of entirely removing the neceffity
o f flavery. Few negroes, in fail, have been imported fince the
capture, and thofe few by accident, or by fpecial permiflion :
and as the increafed demand for colonial produce has required
a proportional increafe o f labor, they now bear moll extravagant
prices. From one hundred to four hundred pounds fter-
ling is daily paid for a Have in Cape Town ; yet it is not un-
ufual to find from twenty to thirty in one houfe. Some of
thefe, indeed, are artificers, and are hired out at certain rates
for the day, week, or month. The moil active and docile, but
the moil: dangerous, ilaves, are the Malays. They are faithful,
honeft, and induftrious ; but fo impatient of injury, and fo
capricious, that the flighted: provocation will fometimes drive
them into fits of phrenzy, during the continuance o f which it
would be unfafe to come within their reach. The revengeful
fpirit o f a Malay was ftrongly marked by an occurrence which
happened a ihort time ago. Conceiving that he not only had
ferved his mailer fufficiently long, and with great fidelity, but
had alfo paid him feveral fums of money, he was tempted to
demand
demand his liberty, and met with a refufal. The following
morning the Malay murdered his fellow-flave. On being
taken and brought up for examination before a commiflion of
the Court o f Juftice, he acknowledged that the boy he had
murdered was his friend ; but he had confidered that the moil
effectual way to be revenged of his mailer was, not by taking
away his life, but by robbing him of the value o f a thoufand
rixdollars, by the lofs of the boy, and another thoufand by
bringing himfelf, in fo' doing, to the gallows, the recollection
of which would prey upon his avaricious mind for the remainder
of his life.
The effects that a ftate of flavery invariably produces on the
minds and habits o f a people, born and educated in the midil
of it, are not lefs felt at the Cape than in the warmer climates.
Among the upper ranks it is the cuftom for every child to have
its flave, whofe foie employment is to Humour its caprices, and
to drag it about from place to place left it Ihould too foon dif-
eover for what purpofes nature had bellowed on it legs and
arms. Even the lower clafs of people object to their children
going out as fervants, or being bound as apprentices to learn
the ufeful trades, which, in their contracted ideas, would be
confidered as condemning them to perform the work of flaves.
- The education of youth has hitherto been very much neglected.
The government never hit upon any fuccefsful plan
for the eftabliihment of public fchools; and the individual had
no other ambition but that o f qualifying his fons, by writing
and accounts, to become fervants of the Company. This body
o f