when we fa'w him, be above thirty years of age* was marked
with the fmall pox. It is rather fmgular that a difeafe, which
is fuppofed to have originated in the northern parts of this, continent,
and. from thence diffeminated into every corner of the
world, ihould neither be endemic in the fouthern extremity of
the fame continent, nor its contagions eifedts, when carried:
thither, of permanent duration.
I am aware that fome modern authors Have traced the origin'
of the fmall pox to Arabia, where it was common at the tkne-
of the flight from Mecca ; but I think Doctor Mead’s opinion'
more probable, that, at a much earlier period it prevailed, along
with the plague, in Ethiopia and other inland countries of
Northern Africa; Eor. had a difeafe of fo contagious a nature
been endemic in Arabia, in the beginning of the feventh century,
when the inhabitants of this country were the carriers of
the eaftern, and the conquerors of the wellern world, its .baneful
efiedts would fooner have been experienced, in foreign nations.
That the Saracens and Arabians were the means of dif-
perfing it through the world, there can be little doubt. The
Chinefe, according to their own annals, had it from the latter
in the tenth century; and a&Dodtor Mead has obferved, in the-
beginning of the twelfth century it: gained vail ground by
ineaBS of the wars waged by a confederacy of the Chriftian •
powers againft the Saracens-for the recovery of the Holy Land;
This being,” fays the Dodtor, “ the only vifible recompence
“ of' their religious expeditions, which they brought back to
**• their refpedtive countries.” The Ethiopians being a race
«f people almoft unknown, and: Unit out from all commerce
with
with the reft of the world, will account for its long confinement
to its native foil.
That canine madneis is not owing to heat of climate, as we
are apt to fuppofe in -England, may be inferred from its non-
-exiftence in Egypt, in the Weft India iflands, and other tropical
fltuations, as well as at the Cape of Good Hope.
From the banks of the Sunday River to head-quarters in
Bruyntjes Hoogte, little occurred that was worthy of notice.
The obfervation I formerly made, that men and other animals
>in Southern Africa appear to increafe in their bulk, in proportion
to the elevation of »thè country of which they are inhabitants,
was forcibly exemplified in our journey from the
Zuure Veld to Bruyntjes Hoogté. On the plains of the former,
ftretching along the fea-coaft, feldóm fubjedt to long
drought, and well covered with grafs, the cattle aré generally
lean and of a diminutive free; and iheep will fcarcely exift. On
the heights of the latter, where half the furfaGè of thè groiind
is naked, and the grafs found only here and there in tufts, they
have the fineft oxen, ¡without exception, in the whole colony^
.and iheep equal to thofe of the fnowy mountains. Nor are
thefe heights lefs favourable to the growth of the human fpecies.
There is fcarcely a family in which fome part of :it has not arrived
to a very unufual free. But o f all the monilrous beings-
I ever beheld, in the ihape of a human creature, was a woman
of the name of Van Voonn. . So vaft -was her bulk that, although
in perfedt health, free from rheumatic or other local
complaints, and under'forty years of age, (he ; had not been
H r 2 able