1775. not help being, difguited with it at times, as wte faw the ^ ^ , r' Hottentots :eat fo ’ immoderately and greedily of it. For whole nights together the fleffi-kettle Was kept boiling oh the fire, and frequently they broiled foihe more of the flelli' between whiles. As . fooiv as;:anyv one .of-the :Hc% tentots i was/awake,.he; was Immediately .prepared to pat both boiled androaft. /Sleeping or waking, as one may lay, they had always either meat or a.pipe in their mouths; and beiides, as they found leifure and .opportunity, viz. the ¡two or three firibdays after:we had ihot any game," feveral of them were particularly careful and diligent in fkimming off the fat from the pot. Beiides, however affiduous they were in befmearing their bodies with it, yet I was always obliged to exert my authority as their mafter, in order to make them put a little of it on my ihoes and.bridles,‘Which •would otherwife have been cracked in pieces, or parched up by the drought of the weather. , In their difpofitions my Hottentots were, particularly in the evenings, 'merry and talkative, and that fometimes in a high degree. I have every reafon to believe, that Mr, I m m e l m a n and I were riot unfrequently the fubjecfts of their gibes,, jokes, and laughter. Perfuaded as we were of this, it was juft as well for us that we did not underftand the language; eipetially, as now we could not be more hurt than i f we imagined they 1 abufed us in thought only; and in that cafe, we were far from being fo fqueamiih as a certain officer, who firft puniffied a iol- dier for a fault he had committed, and afterwards, merely on the fufpicion that he muff infallibly have had the impudence 7 impudence to take it amifs, ordered a certain number o f ^ > 7 ^ laffies to be given him into the bargain. ~sJ In the defert in particular,, a great deal o f management was requifite, in order to keep in with the Hottentots 5 fo that thefe people, who are very iriuch inclined, on every little whim that takes them, to run away, might not, in that place, defert us. On tfie other hand, not to give room by too much lenity, for any great degree o f negle<51 and impudence, we were twice under the neceffity o f trying What effe£t blows would have upon them, and we found that they anfwered the purpofe extremely well. Prudence, however, required, that the offender’s crime, his remiffnefs and negledl o f duty, for inftance, ihould be reprefented, as being likewife a great offence againft their own comrades, and puniffied accordingly; who by this means, as well as by that o f hemp, tobacco, and commendations properly diilri- buted, were prevented from taking the delinquent’s part. Having learnt by experience, that the Boffiies-men in our fervice were extremely flothful and entirely independent on me, as long as they had by them any tolerable quantity of hemp or tobacco for fmoking, I grew very fparing in my treats, giving out only enough for two or three pipes at a time, and none at all to fuch as had negleited their duty. In default of tobacco or hemp, they ufed to fmoke the dry bark of fome trees, mofs, leaves, horfe-dung, or that o f the rhinoceros ; to which they added, when they could get it, the item o f fome old wooden pipe, itrongly impregnated with the oil of the tobacco that had been fmoked in it, cutting it into ihreds, in order to meliorate, by the delicate flavour of the tobacco, that of the ingredient above-mentioned. V o l . II. L in
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