oppreffion on one fide, and by want of energy and patient fuf-
fering on the other, feemed now to be completely diifolved.
The farther we advanced, the more feriouflv alarming was the
ftate of the country. The boors, it feems, unable to reltrain
their favage temper, which the penalty levied upomthem by
the General had wrought up into a rage, with the affiftance of
a fopie, determined to wreak their vengeance on the poor Hottentots,:
according to their common praitice, whenever infuriate
paffion feizes them. The reprefentations made to us by this
party were more than confirmed by our own obfervations in
o u r p r e g r t f s through the country. Among the numerous in-
ftances of cruelty to which we bore witnefs, the following were
particularly ftriking.
We had fcarcely parted from thefe people when, flopping at
a houfe to feed our horfes, we by accident obfcrved a young
Hottentot woman with a child in her arms lying ftretched on
the ground in a moft deplorable condition. She had been cut
from head to foot with one of thofe infernal whips, made from
the hide of a rhinoceros or fea-cow, known by the name of
fimbocs, in fuch a barbarous and unmerciful manner, that there
was fcarcely a fpot on her whole body free from ftripes; nor
had the fides of the little infant, in clinging to its mother,
efcaped the ftrokes of the brutal monfter. With difficulty we
had her removed to a fituation where medical affiftance could
be given ; but the fever ran fo high, and the body was bruifed
to fuch a degree, that for feveral days there were little hopes
of her recovery. It was a punifhment, far inadequate to the
crime, to keep the inhuman wretch on bread and water who
had
had been guilty of fuch unmanly cruelty, until the fate of the
fufferer was decided. Owing to a good conftitution {he gradually
recovered ; and the fellow was fuffered to depart, after
making her a pecuniary compenfation; had the wounds proved
mortal, the perpetrator would, no doubt, have afforded the
firft inftance of retributive juftice for the numberlefs inftances
of murder that have been committed with impunity on this unfortunate
race of men. The only crime alleged againft her was
the attempt to follow her hufband, who was among the number
of thofe of his countrymen that had determined to throw them-
felves upon the proteftion of the Engliih.
The next houfe we halted at upon the road prefented us with
a ftill more horrid inftance of brutality. We obferved a fine
Hottentot boy, about eight years of age, fitting at the corner
of the houfe, with a pair of iron rings clenched upon his legs,
of the weight of ten or twelve pounds ; and they had remained
in one fituation for fuch a length of time, that they appeared to
be funk into the leg, the mufcle being tumefied both above and
below the rings. The poor creature was fo benumbed and op-
prefled with the weight, that, being unable to walk with eafe,
he crawled on the ground. It appeared, on inquiry, that they
had been rivetted to his legs more than ten months ago. What
was to be done in a cafe of fuch wanton and deliberate cruelty i
It was fcarcely in human nature to behold an innocent boy for
ever maimed in fo barbarous a manner; and at the fame time
to look upon the cold blooded perpetrator without feeling a
fentiment of horror mingled with exafperation,— a fentiment
that feemed to fay it would ferve the caufe of humanity to ; rid
VOL. ii. o the