542 
BENEFITS ATTENDANT ON COMMERCE. 
interest, would have drawn together ; and it may be doubted whether 
there exist among the bulk of mankind and among the different 
people of the globe, any motive for distant intercourse, so powerful, 
and so widely extended as this. That policy which induces a state to 
fetter its own commerce by restrictions on that of its neighbour ; for 
one is the consequence of the other ; is narrow and blind indeed, and 
built upon a principle which seems better adapted for generating 
international jealousy and enmity, than for exciting an honest spirit 
of competition by means of greater perfection in manufacture, or 
increased exertion of industry. 
Although a mercantile expedition to the tribes of the Interior, 
may not appear to promise many advantages beyond that of a trade 
in ivory, yet it would open the way for men of science and observ- 
ation who might sometimes accompany it, to examine the contents 
of those regions : and it will hardly be asserted that by such means 
we might not discover some source of gain, some stimulus to 
adventure, of which our present knowledge of the country may 
scarcely be sufficient to enable us to form any just idea. But to ascend 
a step higher and take a nobler view ; science and general knowledge 
might assuredly be benefited, and the cause of philanthropy and 
civilization might probably be promoted, by such intercourse. 
To return from this digression, to the policy of the Bachapins ; it 
may be said that they possess none but that which is of the weakest 
or lowest kind ; and which might be designated, more correctly, 
by the name of cunning. They are not insensible of the value of a 
friendly connection with the Colony, and always appeared to me to 
be desirous of possessing the good opinion of white-men ; in which 
light, possibly, we may view their practice of extolling their own 
pacific disposition towards us, and of representing every other tribe 
as hostile to all strangers. And it is probable that if the intermediate 
country, were not inhabited by Bushmen, a race of men whom they 
hate and fear, they would frequently visit the Cape, or at least, the 
borders of the European settlement. 
The Caffres, who have been mentioned in the preceding volume 
as having emigrated from their own country on the east of the Great 
