156 
CORNELIS; AND JAN VAN ROYE. 
24 April, 
The candour with which he exposed to me the faults of these 
two men, is highly to be admired. He apprised me that they were 
too fond of brandy, and that, as they could always have access 
to the pakter's, they often, at GraafFreynet, proved troublesome 
and refractory ; but that, in the journey they were about to under- 
take and where they could have neither temptation nor the means 
of gratifying that propensity, he did not doubt that they would be 
found valuable servants ; especially as they were baptized and knew 
the Christian duties ; qualifications which he naturally urged as a 
strong inducement for preferring them to ordinary Hottentots. 
The truth of this account of their defects, was proved on the very 
same evening ; for Cornelis made his appearance at the parsonage, in 
a state of complete intoxication, and had probably been induced 
to over-indulgence in his propensity, by the prospect of the wages 
of his new service. Both the minister and the landdrost, with the 
view of putting some check upon his excesses, had very wisely, 
though not perhaps legally, as the man was by his baptism entitled 
to the same privileges as the Dutch colonists, forbidden the pakter 
to sell him any brandy, unless he produced a paper signed by the 
one or the other, specifying the quantity which they allowed him to 
purchase ; according to a colonial regulation framed, expressly for 
Hottentots, but which, I fear, is too often neglected. In this state, 
the man, finding his demands for more brandy, resisted by the 
pakter, flew to the landdrost ; and, with violent and impertinent 
language, insisted on having his right. That step not availing him, 
he came to the minister, and in a turbulent indignant tone, asked 
what right any one had to restrain him as if he were a Hottentot : 
Was he not a Christian ! and could he not have as much brandy as 
he pleased, without being obliged to ask leave of any man ! 
As these two people, but more particularly Jan Van Roye, 
might, from the instruction they had received, easily be believed to 
possess a degree of knowledge much superior to other Hottentots, I 
conceived they might, in an equal degree, prove superior to them 
in usefulness ; and was, therefore, satisfied at having engaged them, 
as I could have little to fear from a disposition to drunkenness, in 
