434 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE CHAP, xix 



Malays are much quieter, honester, and more diligent, and 

 less wicked than in that place : in instance of which I need 

 only say that there has never been a case of running amoc 

 here. 



The town is governed by a Governor and Council who 

 are quite independent of Batavia. The present Governor is 

 Eyck Tulback. He is very old, and has long enjoyed his 

 present station with a most universal good character, which 

 is easily explained in this manner : he is unmarried, and 

 has no connections which may make him wish to make 

 more money than his salary furnishes him with ; conse- 

 quently, not entering into trade, he interferes with no man, 

 and not wishing to be bribed, does strict justice on all 

 occasions to the best of his abilities. 



The climate, though not at all too hot for those who 

 come from India, would doubtless appear sufficiently warm 

 could any one be transported immediately from England to 

 this place. Upon the whole it seems much of the 

 temperature as the island of Madeira, though scarcely quite 

 so hot. This I judge from the productions. In general, 

 during the whole summer, the air is frequently fanned by 

 S.E. winds, which come off the hills above the town with 

 vast violence, and during the time of their blowing, especi- 

 ally at first, are very troublesome to such as are obliged 

 to be abroad in them, by raising the sand with which the 

 whole country abounds, and filling their eyes with it. Nor 

 are the houses quite free from its effects ; however closely 

 they are shut up, the sand will find an entrance, and in 

 a short time cover every kind of furniture with a thick 

 dust. 



Inconvenient as this certainly is, it, however, does not 

 seem to have any effect beyond the present moment, though 

 the inhabitants must in the course of a summer inhale an 

 immense quantity of this sand, which has been thought by 

 some physicians to be productive of ulcers in the lungs, etc. 

 etc. Yet consumptions are diseases scarcely known here, 

 and the healthy countenances, fresh complexions, and above 

 all, the number of children with which all ranks of people 



