40 
RAPACITY OF UNFEELING TRADERS. 
3, 4< March, 
enabled to walk again, I saw a tear of joy and thankfulness moisten- 
ing her anxious eye. 
While 1 was thus engaged, some of my men had been busily 
trafficking with the natives, and had been taking advantage of their 
simplicity, by purchasing their clothes from off their backs ; and at 
so low a rate, that in this, my people showed themselves to have 
neither conscience nor feeling. So thoughtlessly fond of smoking, 
were these Bushmen, that one old man took off from his shoulders a 
beautiful leopard-skin, and bartered it to Hendrik for less than two 
ounces of tobacco ; and Ruiter got from another poor creature's back, 
a fine skin of a lion's whelp for which the Bushman foolishly thought 
an ounce of Dakka-leaves to be an equivalent. 
When I discovered these transactions, I felt highly irritated at 
the ungenerous advantage which had been taken of the folly of these 
savages, not because favourable bargains had been made, but because 
they were so very far below the current rate of bartering on this side 
of the Gariep, that they bordered closely upon fraudulence. I de- 
clared that such conduct displeased me, and that I would not coun- 
tenance their unfairness ; that I objected, not to their acquiring the 
skins at a cheap rate, but to their getting them for nothing. While 
/ was relieving their poverty, they were stripping them naked and 
giving nothing substantial in return. I reprimanded Ruiter for his 
unconscionable dealings, and immediately gave the Bushman as much 
tobacco as I thought to be a fair payment. 
Though all these remarks were made in the Dutch language, the 
kraal, who attended to every thing which I did, clearly comprehended 
the tenor of what was said, and well understood, though ignorant of 
our words, the reason of my giving him more tobacco. They watched 
this latter proceeding ; and then, as if to testify applause, turned 
their countenances towards me, that I might behold their satisfaction. 
As I rode away from their dwellings, which I have distinguished 
by the too-appropriate name of Poverty Kraal, a general salutation 
was given by the whole assembly ; and in a tone so mild and 
expressive of so much gratitude, that a man must have no heart at 
