55 
for the use of his own family, and for which he refused a 
thousand Rix-dollars. 
* In the boor's house, the best apartment is always reserved 
for strangers. It is usually furnished with more than one 
bed, and will accommodate a pretty numerous party, pro- 
vided they conform to the country fashion of turning in, two 
or three together. With the ample materials they possess, 
it would be desirable that the colonial system of cookery 
were a little more varied. It never passes the limits of 
stewed and boiled. Of the art of roasting they have no con- 
ception; and the beaf-steak and mutton-chop are known only 
on the outskirts of the colony, where they are broiled by the 
yard, after the primitive manner of the Hottentots. ‘They 
have a variety of vegetables for the table, but appear to set 
no great value on them, owing, perhaps, to the superior 
excellence of their bread. "There is, however, one vegetable 
which you never miss; that is cucumber, garnished with 
slices of onion, and floating in a sauce compounded of oil, 
vinegar, and pepper, poured on boiling hot. 
* Each cover is furnished with a white napkin; but the 
duty of its office is executed by a deputy, the Vaatdock, (dish- 
clout,) which circulates from hand to hand, and from mouth 
to mouth, while the other is kept carefully folded up, to be 
paraded again at next meal. The carving-knife and fork have 
not yet penetrated beyond the isthmus ; nor is the table fur- 
nished with supernumeraries even of the common sort. Every 
person takes his own knife and fork to carve what stands 
before him; the dish is then sent round, and each sticks his 
fork into a portion of itas it passes. Strangers of morbid 
delicacy will do well on these occasions to help themselves to 
all they require when the dish makes its first round, as 
the boor is not very particular in the uses to which he puts 
his fork during the repast. 
“ The character of the African peasantry has been a 
favourite theme of vituperation to several travellers who 
have treated of this colony. One really cannot peruse, 
without feelings of disgust, the pictures of sloth, ignor- 
ance, vulgarity, and cruelty, which have been drawn. 
