1772» .April. companion; he aflerted, that I was the firft that had fpoken to him on that fubjedt, at the fame time that' he was fo ftupid (for fo he called himfelf) as not to know or comprehend any thing concerning it, nor did he think it was for him to trouble himfelf with thefe matters; however, he did not feem unwilling to believe every thing that any body fhould think proper to tell him. His thoughts had never afcended to a fuperior being, nor led him to the firft origin o f any thing, to the creature or to the Creator. He very well knew, that the white men aflembled together in the churches, but had never thought of aiking to what pur- pofe. Very likely it may be fo, was the anfwer he ufually gave me, when 1 talked to him on this fubjedt. Notwith- ftanding this, he feemed to have in fome meafure an abhorrence of vice, and a veneration for what was good. The perfon, who at that time recommended him to my fervice, gave him the charadter o f being extremely faithful. In other refpedts his mind was capable enough of being illumined; but as the making of profelytes brings the Dutch in neither capital nor intereft, this poor foul, with many others of his countrymen, was negledted. But more of this and other matters by the next opportunity that offers. I am, 8tc. With the botanical excurfion, the detail of which is given in this letter, I was extremely well pleafed on feve- ral accounts. The fix laft days o f it might almoft be called a forced march, intermixed with a good deal of leaping, and (what tires one full as much) clambering. With the J the fame inclination, however, I think I could have lafted 177?- out feveral days longer in the fame manner. The next day after my departure from the Cape, was, as 1 have already related, the moft tirefome to m e a fte rw a rd s both my limbs and joints feemed to get more ufed to the exer- cife. The two or three firft days after I had got home; I felt myielf lore and tender, or, as people ufually exprefs it, beat and bruifed all over, but this went off by degrees in like manner as, thanks to the violent exercife I had taken, fome difagreeable, though flight touches, o f a rheumatic gout entirely vanilhed, with which I had been troubled ibme time before, and that chiefly in rainy weather ; and which did not return upon me, before I was ex- pofed to the cold in the Antardtic polar, circle. After my return home, however, I was wife enough to make a little excurfion every day. S E C T .
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