*775* September. k/rs> quality, and, perhaps, the incitement o f the example of thefe latter, may have its effeft in making fome alteration in the nature o f thefe females. Add to this, that out of the fo- ciety o f their nation, they do not feel themfelves bound to obferve that rigid virtue and limplicity of manners, which they otherwife would, any more than the religion of the Chriftiansneither can it indeed he required, that fuch a one ihould always be proof againft flattery, promifes, prefents, and, perhaps, the threats, which a mafter, of whom fhe ftands in awe, may think fit to employ, in order to {atisfy his unruly defires. The pledges of love, proceeding from fuch a union, have hair almoft, if not quite, as woolly and frizzled as the genuine Hottentots; but their complexion and features, partake more or lefs of both the father and .mother. They are likewife, as it appears to me, more bulky and lufty than the Hottentots are in general ; they are better rcipeeled too, and at the fame time more confided in, and more to be depended upon, but at the fame time prouder and more conceited than the others. Neither thefe, nor any other illegitimate children, are ever baptized, or, indeed, enquired after by the Chriftian mi- nifters at the Cape, except in cafe that any one ihould prelent himfelf as the father, and make a point of the child’s being baptized, and thus give the infant the right of inheritance. I faw two brothers in the vicinity o f Hottentots Holland's Bath, the iffue o f a Chriftian man and of a baftard negrefs o f the fecond or third generation. One of the fons, at this time about thirty years of age, feemed not to be flighted in the the company o f the Chriftian farmers, though, at that Se time, he had not been baptized. The other, who was the elder brother, in order to get married and fettled in life, as he then was, had been obliged to ufe all his influence, and probably even bribes, to get admitted into the pale of the church by baptifm. For my part, I cannot comprehend the reafon why the divines o f the reformed church at the Cape are fo fparing of a facrament, which others, particularly the Papifts, have endeavoured to force, as it were, upon the heathens with fire and fword, and all manlier of cruelties. The cloth does not, as far as I know, receive any benefit from the chriftening of children at the Cape, at leaft no particular benefit from the baptizing o f illegitimate children; fuch conduit, therefore, cannot fairly be afcribed to any retrofpedt to felf-intereft, nor indeed to abfolute remiffnefs and negleit; a difpofition which would but ill fuit with that fpirit o f charity and univerfal benevolence, fo peculiarly enforced by the doitrines o f Chrifti- anity. Farther, i f the clergy at the Cape think by this means to diminifh the number o f unlawful conneitions with the heathen women, they will find that this ftroke o f policy will not anfwer their purpofe : indeed, the letting fuch numbers of infants born of Chriftian parents fuffer in their fpiritual interefts, is a ftrangely cruel method of preventing fin. It is true, a great many of the whites have fo much pride, as to hinder, as far as lies in their power, the blacks or their offspring from mixing with their blood : but it appears to me, that Chriftian humility ought to operate fo far with the clergy, as to prevent them from being aihamed
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