1812. 
TROUBLES OCCASIONED BY THE HOTTENTOTS. 
457 
single bead more. He was persuaded to believe that I was so much 
in need, that necessity would compel me to purchase them at any 
rate, in which hope, he refused to lower his demand. The beads were 
therefore, again put into the waggon, and the oxen were driven home. 
I record these and many other transactions equally trifling in them- 
selves, because they exemplify much of the national character. 
It happened, the night being cold, that I came out of the wag- 
gon to warm myself at the Hottentots' fire, all of them being at that 
hour asleep ; and, as it was my custom on such occasions to look 
around to see if all was right, I discovered that the horses were 
missing. Fearful that it might be an act of treachery of the natives, 
I awoke some of my people to inquire into the circumstance. They 
were already well acquainted with it, and had, notwithstanding, laid 
themselves very composedly down to sleep, intending to search for 
them in the morning ; if the lions should not have made prey of them 
in the mean while. 
It was again entirely through the neglect of Andiies that they 
had been lost : it was his day for attending the cattle at pasture, and 
he had probably been lying all the time asleep under a bush, instead 
of watching to prevent their straying away. The disposition of this 
Hottentot, was either so careless, so worthless, or so stupid, that no 
reprimand had any effect in causing him to pay more attention to 
the duty which had been allotted to him. And though this duty was 
the simplest and least laborious of all ; being merely to watch the 
cattle at pasture and drive them home in the evening ; it was, in 
another point of view, a very important one, as the loss of the oxen 
and horses would have put an end to my journey, at least in its 
present form. 
I therefore appointed Van Roye and Cornelis to take charge of 
the cattle, each on alternate days, considering them to be men on 
whom I might more safely depend. Hitherto no defined employment 
had been assigned to these two, because the character which had been 
given me with them, as baptized Hottentots and men who had 
received some instruction, seemed to promise for them a conscientious 
readiness to make themselves useful on every occasion ; and for this 
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