262 
COOKERY. — PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 
19 June, 
Julh who, I now began to perceive, was one of the most quiet 
and steady of all my party, showed himself desirous of gaining my 
good opinion, by various acts of voluntary service, and a readiness 
and attentiveness on every occasion where he thought he could be 
useful. He undertook the office of coo/c, and succeeded extremely 
well in boiling the tongue of the buffalo, and in producing something 
in the form of a curry. To give him the character of being a good 
cook, according to the judgment of Europeans, would be ridiculously 
wide of the truth ; but among Hottentots he deserved that of pos- 
sessing superior talents. 
None but those who merely ' eat to live' would undertake 
a journey in Africa, with no better cooks than Hottentots. By their 
methods, the finest meat is almost always rendered tough and 
nupalatable ; every kind undergoes but one and the same process, 
which is simply that of cutting it into lumps of the size of a fist, and 
throwing them into a large iron pot of water, which is usually left 
standing on the fire till the men are ready to take their meal : the 
consequence of which is, that their meat is almost alway sover- 
boiled and exceedingly hard. But this very well suits their taste ; and 
from a strong dislike to meat too little boiled or roasted, they chuse 
rather to go to the opposite extreme. As it was not easy to change 
the system and notions of these men, I found it less troublesome to 
accommodate my palate to their cookery, than to pretend to teach 
them an art of which I knew as little as themselves. 
I shall not be classed with those who only ' live to eat,' if I 
place an experienced cook upon the list of persons necessary on such 
an expedition ; as we have discovered by our own sufferings, that the 
same kind of food, though even of the best quality, continued from 
day to day for too great a length of time, without any variation in the 
mode of preparing it, ceases to excite the digestive powers, and no 
longer affords due nourishment. Under such circumstances, the 
body, instead of gaining strength, becomes daily weaker ; the muscles 
relax, and an extraordinary debility gradually ensues. It is not dis- 
puted, that a change of food either in species or in mode, is necessary 
to health and strength ; and as both these latter are absolutely essential 
