422 
A ROBBERY. — EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE FEAR. 
18 July, 
way of the inhabitants, who finding them unguarded might not have 
been able to resist so favorable an opportunity for purloining some- 
thing : for, of the four men whom 1 kept in town, three were utterly 
incapable, through fear, of taking any charge ; and so just were my 
suspicions, that it was discovered the next morning, that every button 
had been cut from off all the Hottentots' great -coats which were left 
in the hut under the care of Van Roye, Platje, Keyser, and Stuur- 
man. This we supposed to have been done by women and children, 
as many of them had frequented the enclosure in the course of the 
day : but whether by women or by men, it was evident that they 
were tempted by the absence or carelessness of those who ought to 
have watclied over them. 
Did a Hottentot possess the notions of a European, I should 
not have been sorry at this robbery, because it would have made him 
more careful in future ; and the inconvenience of a buttonless coat 
would have daily reminded him of his neglect, and have taught him 
a useful lesson. But his apathy gives him quite another character, 
and renders him insensible to any stimulus of this kind ; what he 
has lost, he never thinks of afterwards ; and rather than burden his 
mind with any new or additional care, he is content to take the 
chance of another loss, considering himself to be greatly the gainer 
if he escape robbery the next time. 
Platje, Andries, and Keyser were so completely subdued by their 
fears, that they never spoke, not only to the natives, but even not 
to their companions. While at the town, they concealed themselves 
in the hut all day, and manifested so distressing a state of timidity 
that they attracted the notice of the inhabitants. Mollemmi asked 
us why they were so much afraid : They have not, said he, any occa- 
sion to be so ; we shall do them no harm. 
As soon as the hunters had set out this morning, the rest of 
my men whom I had ordered to remain with me at the waggons, 
deserted me ; or at least, I found myself left the whole day in the 
town with no one near me but Stuurman and Andries, mere boys. 
On inquiring for the others, they informed me that Platje was so 
much in dread that the inhabitants, for the sake of plundering the 
