THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE HORSE. 21 



name of the ' Wiud-sucker or tlie Desert-liorse.' Jackson says of him 

 tiiat the Desert-horse is to the coiumon Barbary horse what the Desert- 

 camel 13 to the usual camel of burden ; but that he can only be induced to 

 eat barley or wheat— oats are never given to horses in Africa ; but that 

 supphed mth a Httle camel's milk, he mil travel almost incredible dis- 

 tances across the Desert. He is principally employed in hunting the 

 antelope and the ostrich. ° 



There is some Httle exaggeration, however, about this, for when he is 

 brought towards the coast, and can no longer get his camel's milk he will 

 eat the barley and the straw which are given to him, and will thrive and 

 get fat upon them. If he chances to die, it is from being suffered to p-or^e 

 too much of his new food ; or if he loses a portion of his speed and W 

 It is because he has been taken out of his exercise, and permitted to 

 accumulate flesh and fat too fast. 



^^TV^'S'l ''''^^?- ''^ '^^'■^^^' ^ *^'^ kingdom of Bournou, is a breed, 

 which Mr Tully, m his almost romantic historj of TripoH, reckons superior 

 even to those of Ai-abia or Barbary; it possesses, according to him the 

 best qualities of both those breeds, being as serviceable as that of Arabia 

 and as beautiful as that of Barbary. ' 



On the soiith of the Great Sahara Desert we find again the Arabian or 

 the Barbary horse m the possession of some of the chiefs of the Foulahs 

 and the Jalofs ; but the general character of the animal is in those torrid 

 reg-ions much deteriorated. These horses are small, weak, unsafe, and 

 untractable The Foulahs, however, can bring into the field no fewer 

 man Ib,UUO cavalry. Some miters have asserted, that in the kino-dom of 

 Benm a much larger niunber could be collected. * 



In the country lying between that of the Foulahs and the kingdom ot 

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

 numerous m the mland districts. Bosman, however, says of them that 

 they are very ill-shaped ; that they carry their heads and necks more pro- 

 jectmg and depressed than even the ass ; that they 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 mth his feet 

 He adds that at Fida, on the Slave-coast, whence he journeyed inland to 

 Elmma, he bought five or six of them, each of which cost him somewhat 

 ess than 4Z., but they did him no manner of service, and he was compelled 

 to leave them behind. I^either 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 OP GOOD HOPE HORSE. 



-Nothing is certainly known of the western coast of Africa, doseendino- 

 towards the south: but arriving at the Cape of Good Hope, we find thai 

 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 mmgled together, and crossed in every possible way, except 

 that not one notion of scientific improvement seems to have entered the 

 head of the Dutch boor. They were a small hardy race, capable of endur- 

 andXn ill-fed ^""^ ^ ''^''''^ '^""^^ ^^"^^^ neglected ; never di-essed, 



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

 government set earnestly to work to improve these undersized animals and 

 with very considerable success The British light regiments of dra-^ons 



