them. The great diftaoce from the market, limited the quap-'
tity that was manufadured, . and not the-fcantinefs of the; materials.
This diftarice is a ferious ; inconvenience to the farmer, and a
great encouragement to his natural propenfity to idlenefs.: If
he can contrive to get together a waggon load or two o f butter
or foap, to carry with him to Cape Town once a year,1 or once
in two years, in exchange for clothing, brandy, coffee, a little'
tea and fugar, and a few other luxuries, which his own diftrid
has not yet produced, he, is perfedly fatisfied. The confidera-
tion of profit is out of the queftion. A man who goes to Cape
Town with a fingle waggon from the Sneuwberg muft eonfume,
at leaft, lixty days out and home. He muft have a double team,
or 24 oxen, and two people, at the leaft, befides hiinlelf to look
after, to drive, and to lead the oxen and the iheep dr goats,
which it is ncceflary to take with them for their fubfiftence on
rite journey. His load, if a great one, may coniiil of fifteen
hundred weight of butter and foap, for which he is glad to get
from the retail dealers at the Cape, whom he calls Semaus or
Jews, fixpence a pound, or juft half what they fell the article
for again. So that the value of his whole load is not above
37/. io>. But as he has no other way of proceeding, to the
Cape, except with his waggon, it makes little difference in point
of time whether it be laden or empty. And the more of thefe
loofe articles he can bring to market, the fewer cattle he has
qccafion to difpofe of to the butcher, Thefe conftitute his
weakb, and with thefe he portions off his children. -
Candles
Candles being an unfafe article to tranfport by land carriage
are feldom brought out of the country; but a vegetable wax,
collected from the berries of.a ihrubby plant, the myrica cerífera^
plentiful on the dry rnarihy grounds near the fea-£hore, is fome-
times fent up to the Capé in large green cakes, where it may be
hád from a fhilling to fifteenpence a pound. The tallow to be
purchafed at the Cape is barely fufficient for the confumption of
the town and the garrifon, and: the candles made from it are
feldom lower than fifteenpence a pound.
A l o e s .
This drug is extracted from the common fpecies of aloe known
by the fpecific name of perfoliata, and is that variety which,
perhaps on account of the abundant quantity of juice it contains,
botanifts have diftinguilhed by the name of fuccotrina,
though vulgarly fuppofed to have taken the name from the
ifland of Socotra, where this drug is faid to be produced of
the beft quality, in which cafe, at all events, it ought to be
Jocotrina.
Large traits of ground, many miles in extent, are covered
with fpontaneous plantations of this kind of aloe, and efpedally
in the diftria of Zwellendam, at no great diftance from Moffel
Bay., In this part of the country the farmers rear few cattle or
iheep, their ftock confifting chiefly of horfes 5 and they formerly
cultivated a certain quantity of corn, which they delivered at a
fmall fixed price, for the ufe o f the Dutch Eaft India Company,