Rave the means of acquiring with little exertion- either o f body
Of mind.
A ihort {ketch of the circumftances and refources of the fe-
veral clafles of the colonifts will be fufficient to convey a general
Idea of their refpedtive conditions. The 22,000 Chriftian inhabitants
that compofe the population of this colony may be reduced
into four clafles.
1. People o f the town*.
2‘. Vme-growers-.
3'. Grain-farmers,.
4. Grazier si ■
1. The people of the town we have already obfervedto bgaw
idla diflolute race. of. men, fubfifting chiefly by the labour of
their flaves. In order to derive a fixed inoome and to avoid
any trouble, they require each ilave to bring; them a certain,
fum atithe end-of every week; ail that he can.earn above, this,
firm is, for himfelf* and many are induftrious enough to- raife asl
much money in a few- years as is fufficient to purchafc their
freedom, and fometimes that of their, children. The price o f
provifions and the price of labour-bear no fort, of proportion.:
Butcher’s meat is only about twopence,a pound, -and good brown
bread, fuch as; all.the- Haves.eat,, one penny a pound.. A-com-,
mon labouring flave gets from two JhillingS to half a~crown a;
day, and a mechanic; or artificer five and fix {hillings a,-day...
The people o f Cape Town are almoft all of thempetty dealers,,
and they,have a remarkable propenfity for public vendues. Not
: 1 a. day
a day pafles without feveral of thefe being held both before and
after dinner. And it is no uncommon thing to fee the fame
identical articles expofed at two different fales the fame day.
In fa£t, a vendue is a kind of lottery. A man buys a fet of
goods in the morning, which he again expofes to fale in the
evening, fometimes gaining and fometimes lofing. Yet all
moveable property, on fale by public auilion, is liable to a duty
of 5 per cent., 3! of which the audioneer is accountable for to
Government; the remainder is for himfelf. I cannot give a
ffromger inftance. of the rage for vendues than by ohferving
that in four fueceflive months of the yea® 1801, the amount of
property fold by public audipn was 1,500,000 rix- dollars, a
£um equal to, the whole quantity of paper money in circulation,
which,, indeed, may be confidered as the only money, of late
years, that has circulated in the country; In what manner,
therefore, thefe articles were to; be-paid, for is a fort of my-ftery,
which, how.ever, the declining ftate o f the colony may before
this have explained.
The better fort of people are thofe who are employed in thp
different department§;of Government, but their falaries. were fo
finall that moft of them were petty merchants. Others have
eftates in the country and derive a revenue- from their produce-.
Others again are a fort of agents for the country boors, and
keep, huufes. te, lodge them when, they make their annual- vifit
tgi the tfiwu». Thefe a*e a kind-of .-Jessi brpkers» who live .eass
tirely-byidefrauding the, fisnplebaoss- in, difpofing of their- pro—
dme>. andvpwshafing for them neoeflaries. in. return. A boor- h*
the Cape can. do, nothing for himfalfi Unaocuftomed to any-
3 D 2 fociety