90 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



feveral negroes carrying to the town branches of 

 various fhrubs, among which I remarked the 

 cunoma Gtpetifis, and many fine fpecics of protect, 



perienced a great pleafure in feet kg thefe 

 beautiful plants, but it was not a little dainped 

 fiom the confideration that they had been cut 

 only to burn- I took fome fpecimens of them ; 

 and the negroes, whofe burden I had confider- 

 ably lightened, continued their way down to 

 Cape Town. We were diftrerTed to fee thefe 

 unfc rtunate creatures going on without flopping, 

 although the fudden declivity ot the mountain 

 feemed to make it abfolutely necefTary for them 

 to take breath. 



The mountains in the neighbourhood of the 

 town ferve as an afylum for the runaway flavcs, 

 who, from barbarous treatment, have been im- 

 pelled to defert. Under cover of the night, they, 

 from the prefTure of hunger, approach the ha- 

 bitations, in order to obtain by Health, at the 

 rifk of their life, fome (lender means of fub- 



:cc. Jt is eafy to judge of all the horror 

 infpircd by the ufage that they experience in 

 the town, from the milerable cxiftence to which 

 they give the preference. It would not be unat- 

 tended with danger to go alone and without 



, near the caverns in the rocks where thefe 

 wretches, driven by defpair, conceal thcrafelves 



from 



