40 TRAVEL S IN
at Blauwberg would command all the great roads leading to Cape
Town from the north and north-eaft; Saldanha Bay is the key
to Zwartland, the principal granary of the colony; and the
fecond Kloof, that of Rhode Sand, might fpeedily be taken pof-
feffion of from thence; nothing would then remain for the gar-
rifon but to diipute thofe pafles, or to ftarve within their lines.
To underftand exa&ly what is meant by a kloof, the reader
may imagine a continued chain of mountains to be cleft, or
torn afunder, fo that the correfponding parts of the fides pf the
chafm, fome proje&ing others retiring, if clofed again, would
fit to each other; and the paflage is more or lefs fteep inverfely
as the magnitude of the rent. In the Dutch government the
one in queftion was fo negledted as fcarcely to be pafiable by
waggons; but fince the colony became Engliih it has undergone
a thorough repair. To carry into effe<ft this ufeful work, a
fmall contribution was levied on thofe who derived the greateft
advantage from the improvement; but fuch is the uncouth
temper of the people, and fo adverfe to every thing that tends
to public benefit, that, rather than pay the trifling fum of a
ihilling, many of thofe who came from the diftant parts preferred
to avoid this kloof by making a circuit of two days
jpurney, and palling that of Rhode Sand which is ftill worfe.
And although the repair has been the means of faving the
life of many a poor ox, yet, on our return, we obferved two
carcafes of thefe animals that had recently been left to expire
among the rocks. If, after cutting and flafhing thefe poor
creatures with their enormous whips, the phlegm of a Dutch
boor
boot fo far gets the better of his paffion, on feeing that his beaft
"is completely exhaufted, that inftead of drawing his knife, or
kindling a fire under its belly, he unyokes it, the chances are
ftill ten to one, the animal, never rifes more. The moment it is
left alone a flock of the Egyptian vultures, and the ftill more
voracious vulturine crows, are fure to tear it in pieces, making
it undergo a moft cruel and protracted death. I faw an inftance
of this kind that was really ihocking to the feelings of humanity.
On the only great and public road, leading from Cape Town
towards Rondebofch, a road that at leaft a thoufand people, of
one de/criptipn or another, pafs in the courfe of the day, I obferved
an ox lying, in the midft of the way and within two miles
of the town, with part of the bowels torn out of the belly. The
thitd day after this I palled the; fame way, and the ox was ftill
alive with its head erect, and the f bowels lying on the ground
befide i t ; and thus it might have lain to linger away with pain
and hunger, perhaps as many days more, had I not requefted
the chief officer of the police to fend a perfon and difpatch it.
The habitude which the people of this colony neceflarily acquire
it witneffing-inftances of cruelty on human as well as brute
creatures, cannot fail to produce a tendency to hafdneis of heart,
and to ftifle feelings of tendernefs and benevolence. In fa£t the
rigour of juftice is rarely foftenedwith the balm of mercy. All
criminals, condemned to fuffer the puniffiment of death, are afterwards
hung in chains clofe to the public road, to be eaten by
the crows and vultures. And, under the old government, when
a Have had been guilty of murdering a colonift, implacable rancour,
not fatisfied with putting in pra&ice every fpecies of torture
that malignant and diabolical ingenuity could invent, as
v o l . l i . O long