>776- mers, it is not able to go through his hat, or his ordinary January. > 0 u »„ryO linen or coarfe woollen coat. In the diftriit of Sneeutvberg the land-drojl has appointed one of the farmers, with the title of veld-corporal, to command in thefe wars, and as occafion may require, to order out the country people alternately in feparate parties, for the purpole o f defending the country againft its original inhabitants. Government, indeed, has no other part in the cruelties exercifed by its fubjedts, than that o f taking no cognizance of them; but in this point it has been certainly too remifs, in leaving a whole nation to the mercy of every individual peafant, or in fadt, of every one that chufes to invade their land ; as o f fuch people'one might naturally ex- pedt, that interefted views, and an unbridled fpirit o f revenge, fhould prevail over the didtates of prudence and humanity. I am far from accuiing all the colonifts of having a hand in thefe and other cruelties,. which are too frequently committed in this quarter o f the globe. While fome of them plumed themfelves upon them, there were many who, on the contrary, held them in abomination, and feared left the vengeance of heaven fhould, for all thefe crimes, fall upon their land and their pofterity. It is true, that no endeavours have as yet been made to polifh the Bojhies-man natives, and make them better men, and more ufeful to the colonifts; but if we may form any judgment from the difpoiition of thofe who have been hired into the colonifts fervice, or have been made flaves of, and have not run away, this feems not impoifible to be effected. Yet, perhaps, the fentiments that are commonly entertained to their difadvantage, as well as the cruelties which Which have been hithefto pradlifed upon them, cannot but lay £11%+ many impediments in the wary of an attempt o f this nature. If what I have been affured by many be true, the Hottentots, who originally refidfed at Agter Bncntjes-boogte, lived peaceably with the Chriftians who firft migrated thither. They ufed likewife to perform the kindeft offices for the latter, and Would frequently go unaiked in fearch o f a ftray lamb, or the like, belonging to the- Chriftians, and take it home to them; but at length they had withdrawn themfelves, and now live concealed in holes and corners up and down this part of the country like other Boihies-men. Yet, being fewer in number, they are not- altogether fo bold and daring. Their complexions being rather o f a yellow caft, they are confidered as o f a different nation, and have consequently been called Cbinefe- or »S^zs/^-Hottentots. The chief abode of thefe fugitives is on each fide o f the two Vifch-riv'ters. Many of them that I faw had been good Serviceable flaves. While we, like them, were ftrolling up and down between the two Vifch rivers, we came occafion- ally to the very fpots, where the traces o f their extin- guifhed fires were plainly to be feen, with other marks o f their having been encamped there : and it would not, in my opinion, have been difficult for them to have harraffed us and done us much mifchief; but whether it Was their ftupidity, the mildnefs o f their difpofitions, or their fears that withheld them I know not, but they certainly did not do it. If, indeed, the mildnefs of their difpofitions alone influenced them in this matter, their conduct is by no means juftifiable; for viewing it in this light, one may juftly fay, that they commit a crime againft them- V o l . II. U felves,
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