THE ARABIAN HORSE. 21 



there are few horses immediately on the coast, but they are more numerous in 

 the inland districts. Bosnian, however, says of them that they are very ill- 

 shaped ; that they carry their heads and necks more projecting and depressed 

 than even the ass ; that the}' are slow and obstinate, and only to be forced on 

 by dint of blows ; and that they are so low, that a tall man sitting on their 

 backs could touch the ground with his feet. He adds that at Fida, on the 

 Slave-coast, whence he journeyed inland to Elmina, he bought five or six of 

 them, each of which cost him somewhat less than 4/., but they did him no 

 manner of service, and he was compelled to leave them behind. Neither horses, 

 nor any other produce of value, can be looked for in these unhappy countries, 

 so long as they are desolated by the abominable slave-trade, under the sanction 

 of the more civilised but truly unchristian nations of Europe*. 



THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE HORSE. 



Nothing is certainly known of the western coast of Africa, descending 

 towards the south ; but arriving at the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the 

 horse, if a native of that country, is only occasionally seen in its wild state. 

 The horses that were introduced by the first colonists, the Dutch, were mostly 

 procured from Batavia, Java, and South America. At the very commencement 

 of the colony, many horses were imported from Persia. These were mingled 

 together, and crossed in every possible way, except that not one notion of scien- 

 tific improvement seems to have entered the head of the Dutch boor. They 

 were a small hardy race, capable of enduring a great deal of fatigue, but in 

 every way sadly neglected ; never dressed, and often ill- fed. 



When the Cape was ceded to the English, both the colonists and the govern- 

 ment set earnestly to work to improve these undersized animals, and with very 

 considerable success. The British light regiments of dragoons, in their passage 

 to the East, can now frequently draw considerable supplies of horses from this 

 colony, and some regiments have been entirely mounted here. This is sufficient 

 proof of the degree of improvement which they have reached. Jt is, however, 

 said that the riding-masters have occasionally much trouble in breaking in the 

 Cape horses, which are naturally vicious, and especially when put beyond the 

 pace to which they had been accustomedt. They rarely stand above fourteen 

 hands high ; they are hardy, and when thoroughly broken in, are capable of 

 enduring great privation and fatigue. They are rarely shod while they remain 

 in the colony, or if they are, it is only on the fore feet. Their principal food is 

 carrots, with a small quantity of corn. No hay is grown near Cape Town, nor 

 are there any pastures on which the horses can be turned J. 



The wild horses have long disappeared near to the colony, and we have no 

 authentic record that any of them were ever taken and attempted to be domes- 

 ticated. 



The horse is rarely seen in any part of the eastern coast of Africa. It is not 

 a native of Madagascar, but is again found in Ajan and Adel, on the soutlwern 

 frontiers of Abyssinia. 



THE ARABIAN HORSE. 



Although modern Europe owes so much to Arabia for the improvement in 

 her breed of horses, it may be doubted whether these animals were found in that 

 country as a matter of merchandise, or indeed existed there at all in large num- 

 bers in very early times. The author of the book of Job, in describing the wealth 

 of that patriarch, who was a native of Arabia, and the richest man of his time, 

 makes no mention of horses, although the writer shows himself very conversant 



* Busman's Coust of Guinea, p. 366. f Percivall's Cape of Good Hope, p. 161 



J Pcicivall's Cape of Good Hope, p. 145. 



