112 DUTCH AND FRENCH BOERS. 



from the centres of civilization are less informed, but are a body 

 of frugal, industrious, and hospitable peasantry. A most efficient 

 system of public instruction was established in the time of Gov- 

 ernor Sir George Napier, on a plan drawn up in a great measure 

 by that accomplished philosopher, Sir John Herschel. The sys- 

 tem had to contend with less sectarian rancor than elsewhere ; 

 indeed, until quite recently, that spirit, except in a mild form, was 

 unknown. 



The population here described ought not to be confounded with 

 some Boers who fled from British rule on account of the emanci- 

 pation of their Hottentot slaves, and perhaps never would have 

 been so had not every now and then some Rip Van Winkle 

 started forth at the Cape to justify in the public prints the deeds 

 of blood and slave-hunting in the far interior. It is therefore not 

 to be wondered at if the whole race is confounded and held in low 

 estimation by those who do not know the real composition of the 

 Cape community. 



Population among the Boers increases rapidly; they marry soon, 

 are seldom sterile, and continue to have children late. I once met 

 a worthy matron whose husband thought it right to imitate the 

 conduct of Abraham while Sarah was barren; she evidently agreed 

 in the propriety of the measure, for she was pleased to hear the 

 children by a mother of what has been thought an inferior race 

 address her as their mother. Orphans are never allowed to re- 

 main long destitute ; and instances are frequent in which a tender- 

 hearted farmer has adopted a fatherless child, and when it came 

 of age portioned it as his own. 



Two centuries of the South African climate have not had much 

 effect upon the physical condition of the Boers. They are a 

 shade darker, or rather ruddier, than Europeans, and are never 

 cadaverous-looking, as descendants of Europeans are said to be 

 elsewhere. There is a tendency to the development of steatopy- 

 ga, so characteristic of Arabs and other African tribes ; and it is 

 probable that the interior Boers in another century will become in 

 color what the learned imagine our progenitors, Adam and Eve, to 

 have been. 



The parts of the colony through which we passed were of 

 sterile aspect ; and, as the present winter had been preceded by a 

 severe drought, many farmers had lost two thirds of their stock. 



