98 DUTCH AND FRENCH BOERS. Chap. V. 



situated far 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 Governor Sir George Napier, on a plan drawn up in 

 a great measure by that accomplished philosopher, Sir John 

 Herschel. The system had to contend with less sectarian rancour 

 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 remain long destitute ; and instances are frequent in 

 which a tender-hearted farmer has adopted a fatherless child, and 

 when it came of age has 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 steatopyga, 

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

 probable that the interior Boers in another century will become 

 in colour what the learned imagine our progenitors Adam and 

 Eve to have been. 



The parts of the colony through winch 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. 



