iXyi I N T R O D U C T I O N. peareff-in this enlightened age i At the fame time,-.however, many have been hitherto induced to give credit to tales alrnoit asr marvellous,, with which authors, who have before me vifited and defcribed the Hottentots, have fea- foned their relations, in order to make them go down the .better with the public. So that the reader muft not be furprized to find my accounts frequently differ much from thofe of various o f my predeceffors; and at the fame time, I ill all now and then be obliged to take up my own and his time with fome very narrow limitations of what they have advanced. Otherwife, in faCt, the public would have reafon to doubt of my own veracity. I- muft here likewife previoufly inform the reader, that I do not undertake to give a full and complete hiftory o f the Cape of Good Hope, but merely fuch relations concerning every thing remarkable, as I have either been able to collect, or have m yfelf obferved with refpeCt to thispartof the world. A deficiency of this- kind may, perhaps, even in matters , of importance, meet with a ready excufe from many of my readers, when i t is confidered, that without being either rich myfelf, or in the leaft fupported by others, I undertook an expedition, which, when confidered with re- fpeCt to thefe circumftances, will appear to be of no fmall extent. The whole of the fum that I took out with me to bear my travelling expences was about twenty-five rix- dollars, and what, by dint o f ceconomy, I had made my- 8 felf felf mafter o f by the time' I got home,; was fomewfiat more than dquble.thakfum;'¡! fo rtnòì sdì ài yb nq , : • Thus fo far was I from .being .able to purchafe collections, or to . obtain atymyceafe,i or, by .dint of money, opportunities p£ eplargigg-- thp-fiphqye .p f ipy,: knowledge, that I even, could,riot pofiibly- arrive tat them ; without great trouble and danger. In this cafe, I have been obliged to content myfelfwvdth;what fortune ha^fthroyyft-m.my ¡way* as I may fay, jgratis.t 1G | g ^ m | | | bsdh-Jtv!> i n i ’.; The arranging by way o f journal the occurrences and events which I have defcribed, though in certain refpe&s it be not the bfift, method,, is. ye,t in general,, the moft natural. In order to acquife^ah adequate idèa o f a variety o f objeCts out of the great number o f thofe that have prefented themfelves, it conduces not a little to know on what days they were feen. In faCt, thè time, the manner, and the order, in which things occur, are accidental circumftances from which much light-may be derived. But the greateft advantage accruing from this method is, that hereby it becomes eafier both for the writer and reader to diftinguiih, what is the aCtual refult o f the author’s own experience, from what he has, in defeCt o f this, been obliged to advance pn the ftrength of the information given him by others. At the fame time, in order to come to a more fpeedy and pleafing conclufion of the travels themfelves, certain defcriptions, critical ftriCtures, and reflections are deferred V ol. I. b at
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