CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



tion are, a journey to the city or church, a man 

 aii.l tlu* depredations of the locusts and Bosjesmans. 

 Their style of farming is miserable in the extreme. 

 The land is merely scratched with a huge unwieldy 

 plough, drawn by eight horses, or a dozen of oxen. 

 A rude harrow follows the sower, which always 

 leave-, the field in a rougher state than the coarsest 

 lea ploughing in Britain. They use no manure, ex- 

 cept i little for barley, though the kraals, or pens, 

 in which their cattle stand are as full of dung as the 

 stable of Augeus ; and after this wretched prepara- 

 tion, they calculate upon a return of fifteen fold. In 

 low situations, near rivulets, where they have a com- 

 mand of water, they usually reap from thirty to forty 

 for one. Their public burdens are the same as those 

 of the wine-growers ; and the duty upon the grain 

 which is carried to Cape-town amounts to nearly a 

 tenth of its value. The graziers are by far the 

 rudest of the Cape colonists, and can scarcely be 

 said to be superior, either in intelligence, in man- 

 ners, or in comforts, to many of the uncivilized hordes 

 of savages that surround them ; many of them, espe- 

 cially towards the northern and eastern boundaries of 

 the settlement, have no rixed habitations, but wander 

 about from place to place, and sleep with their fa- 

 milies in waggons, or build temporary reed huts like 

 the Hottentots. Those even who are stationary are 

 scarcely better accommodated. Their huts being on- 

 ly destined for temporary accommodation, until a 

 fountain dries up, or their flocks have consumed the 

 pasture in its neighbourhood, are generally construct- 

 ed of clay baked in the sun, or sods, covered with 

 a thatch of rushes, carelessly put together, rarely 

 water proof, and protected only by a door of reeds 

 matted together. They have seldom more than one 

 apartment, and here the peasants, with their children, 

 and the house Hottentots, are huddled together du- 

 ring the night. The master's bed, which is an ob- 

 long frame of wood, standing on four feet, and re- 

 ticulated with thongs of undressed leather, which 

 supports a wool mattress or feather bed ; a great chest, 

 which contains all their moveables, and serves for a 

 table ; a few chairs, and a large iron pot, for prepa- 

 ring their provisions, are their principal articles of 

 furniture. The dress of the me.i consists of a blue 

 shirt, leather pantaloons, a broad brimmed hat, and a 

 pair of shoes of raw hide. The women have a short 

 jacket and petticoat, a thick quilted cap tied under 

 the chin and falling down upon the shoulders, no 

 stockings, and seldom shoes. Their principal food 

 is mutton, which is served up three times a day. 

 They have very little milk and butter, and but few 

 vegetable-;. The master carves the meat with a 

 large pocket knife, and then every one helps him- 



self. Wine is rarely seen at their tables, though 

 they live in the midst of a soil and climate most fa- 

 vourable for the cultivation of the grape. A glass 

 of strong ardent spirits is the favourite debauch of 

 a Dutch African boor, and his greatest luxury is his 

 pipe, which never quits his mouth except when he 

 eats or sleeps. Such are the comforts and situation 

 of many a peasant who possesses several thousand 

 sheep, and as many hundreds of cattle. Indolence is 

 the predominant feature in hi > character. It is only 

 by the most urgent necessity that he can be brought 

 to exert himself, even for his own convenience or inte- 

 rest. But though indolent in what concerns his own 

 comfort, he is active in oppression towards the miser- 

 able Hottentots who are under his authority. Of 

 these helpless beings, each family in Graaf Reynet 

 possesses, on an average, about thirteen, who ate, i;i 

 general, treated with the most brutal inhumanity. 

 The most trifling fault is visited with the severest 

 punishments. 1 he husband is frequently separated 

 from his wife and children, and driven from his ha- 

 bitation, is compelled to join his persecuted, but 

 still independent countrymen, among the mountains.* 

 Their cruelty is also extended to the Caffres and 

 Bosjesmans, with whom they are almost constantly 

 at war. From the latter of these, however, they 

 often experience the most terrible retaliation ; and, 

 consequently, the murder of one of them is pro- 

 claimed by the Dutch as a most meritorious action. 

 "A boor from Graaf Reynet," says Mr Barrow, 

 " being asked in the secretary's office, a few days be- 

 fore we left the town (Cape), if the savages were 

 numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, he had 

 only shot four, with as much composure and indiffe- 

 rence as if he had been speaking of four partridges. 

 I myself have heard one of the humane colonists 

 boast of having destroyed, with his own hands, near 

 three hundred of these unfortunate wretches." 



Many of the farmers in the eastern parts of the Manners, 

 settlement can neither read nor write. Their igno- &c. of the 

 ranee, however, is more to be lamented than to be colonists, 

 wondered at, when the means of instruction within 

 their reach are considered. The habitations are too 

 widely scattered over the country to admit of the 

 establishment of public schools ; and the means of 

 individuals are too circumscribed to admit of their 

 hiring competent teachers in their families ; for who, 

 that had received a tolerable education, would bury 

 his knowledge in the hut of an African peasant, 

 whose supply, even of the necessaries of life, are of- 

 ten but scanty. A disbanded soldier, who had ser- 

 ved the Dutch long enough to obtain his stipulated 

 discharge, generally becomes the preceptor of a 

 Boor's children ; and he is frequently paid for hi 



1 .Many and most shocking instances of barbarity inflicted upon this unfortunate race, are recorded in a pamphlet pub- 



luriMg the last peace, by Baron de P , private secretary to Governor Jansens. Among these, is an 



it df tin- imiHki ,.f lift' (.!! innocent Hottentots, \\ho, having come to a farm to beg some hemp and tobacco, were in- 

 ' inuinly tortured in order to extort a confession that they were come with an intention to plunder the colonists, and after- 

 ^liot ; and another, equally brutal, of which we give the following translation: " As soon as the English had aban- 

 doned the fort, (at ,-\ljr<>a Bay), a boor named Ftrrara, of a Portuguese family, made himself master of it, and kept pos- 

 i till the anival of a detachment of troops which government sent thither, under the command of Major Von Gelter. 

 The Caffrcs, fully jKi-Miaded that the late peace had put an end to all disturbances between them, sent to the new comman- 

 <l.r of the fort :\ bullock to b- Main as the test of reconciliation and friendship. The Caffre sent on the occasion put himself 

 under the guidance of a Hottentot ; and Forrara, by way of returning the kind intention, laid hold of the Caflre, and 

 bruled kim ative ; hound the poor IJottentot to a tree, cut apiece offleik out of his thigh, made tan eat it rate, and then re. 

 him." 



