54 GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE BUSHMEN. 6 March, 
talking and in questioning them on various subjects ; but, although 
exceedingly amused by the novelty and strangeness of the scene, 
I cannot say that this mode of employing my time was very in- 
structive, or that I gained many new ideas from their conversation. 
Still, it was extremely interesting, because it gave an opportunity 
of observing man in an uncivilized state, and enabled me to dis- 
tinguish some of those characters which may be regarded as common 
to all the human race. And, if among Bushmen, are to be met with, 
many of those failings, of which we find examples too frequently 
among ourselves ; there are, to counterbalance these, several good 
qualities, which usually, we are not disposed to allow that savages 
can naturally possess. It is a negative, or rather an equivocal, species 
of praise, to say of them, that ambition never disturbs the peace of 
the Bushman race. And I believe that in this people no existence 
can be traced of the sordid passion of avarice or the insatiable 
desire of accumulating property, for the mere gratification of pos- 
sessing it. Between each other they exercise the virtues of hospita- 
lity and generosity; often in an extraordinary degree. It must, 
however, be admitted that in general, they are more inclined to 
supply their wants by robbing the colonists and neighbouring tribes, 
than by honest industry and patient labor : while too often, yet not 
always, that essential virtue, veracity, is disregarded, and the neglect 
of it considered a mere venial offence. The mental powers of Bushmen 
are never to be extolled ; for whatever concessions may be made in 
favor of their heart, nothing can be said in praise of their mind, 
at least in their present rude state. The feelings of the heart and 
all its various passions, whether good or bad, are the common pro- 
perty of all mankind, the educated and the uneducated, the civilized 
and the uncivilized ; but in the higher faculties of the mind, and in 
the cultivated powers of reason, the savage claims but little share. 
It is in the improvement of these faculties and powers, that 
civilized nations may place their high superiority, and their just boast 
of pre-eminence. 
These people expressed no curiosity to be informed respecting 
any article of European manufacture ; nor, when told that I was one 
