of merchants had a number of perfons in their, employ who
were very ill paid. Their falaries indeed were infufficient to
afford them a bare fubfiftence; but it tacitly allowed them to
negociate for themfelves. The confequence of fuch a conduit
was, that each became a kind of petty dealer. Each had his
little private fhop in fome corner of his houfe. The moft paltry
articles were in the lift of their commodities'for fale f| and
thofe who ranked high in the government, and affumed a firing
of full-founding epithets to their names, felt no fort of indignity
in retailing the produce of their gardens; not indeed avowedly,
but through the medium of their llaves. In fa£t, the
minds of every clafs, the governor, the clergy, the fifcal, and the
fecretary of the court of juftice excepted, were wholly bent on
trade. Koopman or merchant was a title that conferred rank at
the Cape, to which the military even afpired. On this fubjedt
the ideas of the Dutch differ widely from thofe of the Chinefe,
who have degraded the'merchant into the very loweft order of
their fociety.
That portion of 111c day, not employed in the concerns of
trade, is ufually devoted to the gratification of the fenfual appetites.
Few have any tafte for reading, and none for the cultivation
of the fine arts. They have no kind of public amufe-
ments except occafional balls ; nor is there much focial inter-
courfe but by family parties, which ufually confift of card-
playing or dancing. Money-matters and merchandize engrofs
their whole converfation. Yet none are opulent, though many
in eafy circumftances. There are no beggars in the whole colony
; and but a few who are the objeds of public charity.
The
The fubfiftence for thefe is derived from the intereft of a fund
eftabliihed out of the church fuperfluities, from alms, donations,
and colledions made after divine fervice, and not from any tax
laid upon the public. Except, indeed, a few colonial affeff-
ments for the repairs of the ftreets and public works, the inhabitants
of the Cape have little drawback on their profits or the
produce of their labour. The luxury of a carriage and horfes,
which iii England is attended with an enormous expence, is
kept up here for a trifle after the firft coft, Thofe in the town
that are ufed only for ihort excurfions, or for taking the air,
are open, and calculated for four or fix perfons. For making
journies they have a kind of light waggon covered with fail—
cloth, and fufliciently large to hold a whole family with clothes
and provifions for feveral days. The coachman is generally
one of thofe people known in the colony by the name o f Baf-
taards, being a mixed breed between a Hottentot woman and
European man, or a Hottentot woman and a flave. They make
moft excellent drivers, and think nothing of turning ihort corners,
or of galloping through narrow avenues, with eight in
hand. The ladies feldom take the exercife of riding on horfe-
back, that exercife being confidered as too fatiguing. They
generally confine themfelves to the houfe during the day,
and walk the Mall in the public garden in the cool o f the
evening.
It has been the remark of moft travellers that the Iadie§ of
the Cape are pretty, lively, and good-humoured ; poffefiing
little of that phlegmatic temper which is a principal trait in the
national chara&er of the Dutch. The difference in the manners
H and