The varied Population of the Cape. 99 



who crowd the streets. He feels himself amazed at finding * 

 himself in a sort of Noah's Ark, where he meets with more va- 

 rieties of one species than the patriarch had under his chai'ge of* 

 the whole animal creation. Here he may see the pure spotless 

 robe of the Hindoo rubbing against the painted Tcaross of the 

 CafFre and the soot-stained sheepskin of the Hottentot ; here 

 the barefooted boor from the snow mountain stares at the po- 

 lished boots of the London cockney : here he may contrast the 

 crop of the Pennsylvanian with the pendant crown-lock of the 

 Chinese : here the Brazilian may shake hands with the Malay, 

 and the Guinea Negro with his brother from Madagascar. In 

 the midst of this motley group, Europeans of every description, 

 either as traders or prisoners of war, pass in review before him. 

 The geographical position of the colony will account, in some 

 measure, for the concurrence of these heterogeneous elements of 

 population. The peculiar circumstances under which it was 

 originally established, facilitate the emigration of people from 

 all parts of Germany and the north of Europe. The revocation 

 of the Edict of Nantz drove numbers of French Protestant fa- 

 milies here for refuge ; the practice of discharging soldiers in 

 the settlement, after a certain period of service, few of whom 

 ever returned to Europe ; the extensive communication between 

 Europe and India, in the course of which numberless adventu- 

 rers w^ere induced by hope, or forced by distress, to relinquish 

 their prospects in the east, and settle in the colony ; and, finally, 

 the salubrity of the climate, inviting the martyrs to tropical 

 diseases to repair hither for the re-establishment of their health : 

 such are the lights of the picture ; the shades are furnished 

 from the coasts of Africa and the Indian Archipelago. 



" In a society so constructed, the manners must be as varied 

 as the materials of which it is composed ; and ages must elapse 

 ere they can amalgamate and assume a national form. This 

 renders the colonists peculiarly prone to adopt the customs of 

 strangers ; and as these adoptions are oftener the fruit of ca- 

 price than of sound judgment, they are apt sometimes to excite 

 a smile. Can there be conceived, for instance, a more awkward 

 or more ludicrous object than a huge boor heaving up his pon- 

 derous shoulders in imitation of a Parisian, twisting his neck, 

 and drawling out " Ilk wit neit," whilst his utmost endeavours 



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