A Hottentot is capable of ftrong attachments ; with a readi-
nefs to acknowledge, he poflefies the mind to feel, the force of
a benevolent aftion. I never found that any little adt of kind-
riefs or attention was thrown away upon a Hottentot; but, on
the contrary, I have frequently had occafion to remark the joy
that iparkled on his countenance, whenever an opportunity occurred
to enable him to difeharge his debt of gratitude. I give
full credit to all that Monfieur Le Vaillant has faid with regard
to the fidelity and attachment he experienced from this race of
men ; of whom the natural character and difpofition feein to approach
nearer to thofe of the Hindus than of any other nation.
Is it not then a moil: unaccountable circumftance,. that
the Dutch fhould have given the preference to a race of men,
of talents much inferior, and whofe temper, always capricious;
becomes on flight provocations cruel and revengeful ?— I mean
the Malay flaves. The negroes of Mofambique and of Mada-
gafear are harmlefs and ffcupid on their firft arrival, but feon
become cunning and diihonefb by intercourfe with their elder
brethren. In full poffelBon of all the vices that muft infallibly
refult-from the condition offlavery, there i& yet no part'of the
world where the domeftic flaves of every defcription are fo
well treated, asad fo much trufted, as at the Cape of Good Hope.
They are better clothed, better fed, and infinitely more comfortable
than any of the peasantry of Europe. Yet fuch are the
bad effects, which the condition of flavery produces on the
mind, that they are incapable of feeling the leaft fpark of gratitude
for good and gentle ufage, whilft, under the fevere. hand
of a rigid and cruel mailer, they become the beft of flaves. It
■ I is
is an axiom or feff-evident truth, that fuch are and always will
be the confequences of degrading man to the loweft of all conditions,
that of being made the property of man.
The Dutch ufe little prudence or precaution with regard to
their domeftic flaves : in the fame room where thefe are aflem-
bled to wait behind their mafter’s chairs, they difcufs their crude
opinions of liberty and equality without any referve; yet they
pretend to fay that, juft before the Engtifh got poffelfion of the
Cape, and When it was generally thought the French would be
before-hand with us, the flaves who carried the fedan chairs,
of which no lady is without one, ufed very familiarly to fell
their miftrefles, “ We qarry you now, but by-and-by it wilt
“ be your turn to carry us.” The proportion of flaves to
whites, of both fexes and all ages, in’ the toWn, is not more than
two to one; but that of Have men to white'men is near five
to one.
- The field flaves belonging to the farmers are not, however,
nearly fo well treated as thofe o f the town ; yet infinitely beftef
than the Hottentots who are in their employ. The farmer, indeed,
having a life-intereft in the one, and only five-and-twenty
years in the other, is a circumftance that may explain the difference
of treatment. The one, alfo, is convertible property,
an advantage tor which'they have not yet fuccCeded in their attempts
to turn' the other. The country flaves, notwithftifndTrig,
are ill fed, ill clothed, wofk extremely hard, aHd arefreijufefttly
punifhed with the greateft feverity ;■ fometf mes'with death, when
rage gets' the better of prudence aiicl corfipaffioFi'.
In