their children their unfortunate hiftory and their country’s
difgraceful conduit.
The means of education, it Is true, muft be very difficult to
be had among a people fo widely fcattered over a vaft extent
of country as the peafantry are in the colony of the Cape,
Some have a perfon in the houfe whom they call the fchool-
mafter. This is generally a man who had ferved out his time
in the ranks. His employment, in this new fituation, is not
only to inftruit the children to read, to write, to fing pfalms,
and get by heart a few occafional prayers, but he muft alfo
make himfelf ferviceable in other refpefts. At one place that
we paffed, the poor fchoolmafter was driving the plough,
whilft a Hottentot had the more honorable poft o f holding and
direding it. The children o f thofe who either cannot obtain,
or afford to employ, fuch a perfon, can neither read nor write >
and the whole o f their education confifts in learning to ihoot
well, to crack and ufe with dexterity an enormous large whip,
and to drive a waggon drawn by bullocks.
A book o f any kind is rarely feen in any o f the farmers’
houfes, except the Bible and William Sluiters Gefangen, or
fongs out o f the Bible done into verfe by the Sternhold and
Hopkins o f Holland. They affedt to be very religious, and
carry at leaft the devotion of religion fully as far as the moft
zealous bigots. They never fit down to table without a long
grace before meat pronounced with an audible voice by the
youngeft of the family; and every morning before day-light
one of William Sluiter’s Gelangen is drawled out in full chorus
by an affemblage of the whole family. In their attendance at
church they are fcrupuloufly exa£t,' though the performance of
this duty cofts many of them a journey of feveral days. Thofe
who live at the diftance of a fortnight or three weeks from the
neareft church generally go with their families once a-year.
Rude and uncultivated as are their minds, there is one virtue
in which they eminently excel— hofpitality to ftrangers.
A countryman, a foreigner, a relation, a friend, are all equally
welcome to whatfoever the houfe will afford. A Dutch farmer
never paffes a houfe on the road without alighting, except indeed
his next neighbour’s, with whom it is ten to one he is at
variance. It is not enough to inquire after the health of the
family in paffing: even on the road, if two peafants ihould
meet they inftantly difmount to fhake hands, whether ftrangers
or friends. When a traveller arrives at a habitation, he alights
from his horfe, enters the houfe, ihakes hands with the men,
kiffes the women, and fits down without farther ceremony.
When the table is ferved he takes his place among the family
without waiting for an invitation. This is never given, on the
fuppofition that a traveller in a country fo thinly inhabited
muft always have an appetite for fomething. Accordingly,
“ What will you make ufe of ?” is generally the firft queftion.
I f there be a bed in the houfe it is given to the ftranger; if
none, which is frequently the cafe among the graziers o f the
diftant diftriit of Graaff Reynet, he muft take his chance for a
form, or bench, or a heap of iheep ikins, among the reft of the
family. In the morning after a folid breakfaft he takes his
fopie, or glafs of brandy, orders his Have or Hottentot to faddle
m 2 the