hundreds in a groupe. Some of thefe villages might ftill have
been expe&ed to remain in this remote and not very populous
part of the colony. Not one, however, was to be found. There
is not in the whole extenfive diftriit of Graaff Reynet a fingle
horde o f independent Hottentots ; and perhaps not a fcore of
individuals who are not aitually in the fervice of the Dutch.
Thefe weak people, the moil helplefs, and in their prefent condition
perhaps the moil wretched, o f the human race, duped out
of their pofTeffions, their country, and finally out of their
liberty, have entailed upon their miferable offspring a ftate of
exiftence to which that o f flavery might bear the comparifon
of happinefs. It is a condition, however, not likely to continue
to a very remote pofterity. The name of Hottentot
will be forgotten or remembered only as that of a deceafed
perfon of little note. Their numbers o f late years have rapidly
declined. It has generally been obferved that wherever Europeans
have colonized, the lefs civilized natives have always
dwindled away, and at length totally difappeared. Various
caufes have contributed to the depopulation of the Hottentots.
The impolitic cuftom o f hording together in families, and of
not marrying out of their own kraals, has no doubt tended to
enervate this race o f men, and reduced them to their prefent
degenerated condition, which is that o f a languid, liftlefs,
phlegmatic people, in whom the prolific powers o f nature
feem to be almoft exhaulled. To this may be added their
extreme poverty, fcantinefs o f food, and continual dejeilion of
mind, arifing from the cruel treatment they receive from an
inhuman and unfeeling peafantry, who having difcovered
themfelves to be removed to too great a diftance from the feat
of
of their former government to be awed by its authority, have
exercifed, in the moil wanton and barbarous manner, an abfo-
lute power over thefe poor wretches reduced to the neceffity of
depending upon them for a morfel o f bread. There is fcarcely
an inftance of cruelty Laid to have been committed againil the
flaves in the Weft-India iflands, that could not find a parallel
from the Dutch farmers of the remote parts of the colony
towards the Hottentots in their fervice. Beating and cutting
them with thongs of the hide of the fea-eow or rhinofceros, is
a gentle punilhment, though thefe fort of whips which they
call Jhambos are moil horrid inftruments, tough, pliant, and
heavy almoft as lead. Firing fmall ihot into the legs and
thighs of a Hottentot is a punilhment not unknown to fome
o f the monfters who inhabit the neighbourhood of Camtoos
river; Inflant death is not unfrequently the confequence of
puniihing thefe poor wretches in a moment o f rage. This is
of little confequence to the farmer ; for though they are to all
■intents and pUrpofes his flaves, yet they are not transferable
property. It is this circumftance which, in his mind, makes
their lives lefs valuable and their treatment more inhuman.
In offences of too fmall moment to ftir up the phlegm o f a
Dutch peafant, the coolnefs and tranquillity difplayed at the
punilhment of his Have or Hottentot is highly ridiculous, and
at the-fame time indicative of a favage difpofition to unfeeling
cruelty lurking in his heart. He flogs them, not by any given
number o f lalhes, but by time ; and as they , have no clocks
nor fubftitutes for them capable of marking the fmaller divi-
fions of time, he has invented an excufe for the indulgence of