856 



SOUTHERN AFRICA. 



Queen of Lattalioo. 



colony. The language of the Hottentots, is harsh and shrill. 

 Their dwellings are rude, and of an elliptical form. A few 

 poles are bent over, and skins or mats thrown over them. 

 The entrance is low, and serves for door, window, and chim- 

 ney. The Bushmen have huts still less convenient, consisting 

 of 3 mats, laid upon poles. The tribes, which have cattle, 

 pen them, at night, in the circle inclosed by the dwellings. 

 A village is called a kraal. Any food is acceptable to Hot- 

 tentots, or Bushmen. When in want of flesh, they eat 

 roots, ants, larvae, grass, mice, and toads. They can go 

 long without food, and when it is obtained, eat as much as 

 the Esquimaux, without injury. The Caffres live upon 

 flesh, milk, melons, &c. They use no salt. They eat no 

 pork, geese, hares, or fish. The latter, they suppose, are a 

 kind of serpent. All the tribes are fond of tobacco ; which, 

 for the want of a better pipe, they smoke through the shank 

 bone of a sheep. They smoke, also, the leaves of a kind 

 of hemp, called dacha, which stupifies and intoxicates. The 

 colonists have a profusion of articles of food, though much 

 of their subsistence is drawn from their herds. Much bran- 

 dy is consumed, which is spread over the colony by means 

 of traveling pedlers. The wines of the Cape are, some 

 of them, excellent. The Frontignac, and Lavelle, are equal to those of France. The Con- 

 stantia is produced from the vine of Shiraz, in Persia. Some of it is exquisite. The wines, 

 in general, have a deleterious mixture of brandy. There are 150 varieties. 



The mode of traveling is laborious, and slow ; in the greater part of the colony, there are 

 no roads, and the colonists travel in wagons, drawn by 6 or 7 pair of oxen, with relays in at- 

 tendance. They carry, also, sheep for provis- 

 ions, for there are no inns. This can, under no 

 circumstances, be called rapid traveling, except 

 by comparison. Campbell, who was familiar 

 with it, consoled himself with the reflection, 

 that the pace of an ox was swift, compared with 

 that of a snail or chamelion. The ox is also fre- 

 quently used with a saddle ; and a recent trav- 

 eler expresses his surprise at seeing, even in 

 Cape-Town, a " Hottentot chief, riding at full 

 speed, upon a roan ox." The Dutch colonists 

 have been subject to much animadversion from 

 travelers. Those who engage in agriculture are 

 called boors, and . they are as hospitable, but 

 A Lion aitucking Travelers in SoutkernMfrica. coarse and ignorant. They are addicted, at their 



convivial meetings, to intemperance, and the 

 most boisterous merriment. They are, however, more ignorant than depraved. The slate of 

 society, at Cape-Town, has not been highly praised ; but all travelers admit, that the ladies are 

 distinguished for sweetness and affability. The Hottentots, who have been called a stupid race, 

 seem to be so, only from their oppressed condition ; they are gentle, and faithful, when trusted. 

 They are filthy in their persons, and indolent in their habits, but they make good servants to 

 the boors, who have many of them as slaves, or attendants. They travel much, and one of 

 them has been known to go 60 miles, on his ox, to recover a knife, of the value of 18 pence 

 The Bushmen have been described as the lowest grade of human nature. Camjibell met a 

 horde, in which only one had a name, and he was called the " Old Boy " ! The Caffres are 

 a pastoral, and, at the same time, a plundering people. A missionary asked one, "for what 

 he supposed men were created," and his reply was, "to go on robbing expeditions against 

 each other." In their huts, they sit on the skulls of oxen, with the horns attached. They 

 hold hospitality sacred. They are very kind to each other, and a whole kraal takes an interest 

 in accommodating a misunderstanding between individuals. They are excellent herdsmen, and 



