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 
Ryck 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 
8.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 
