SI TRAVELS IN 
whatsoever. Luckily, perhaps, for them, the paucity of ideas 
prevents time from hanging heavy on their hands. The 
history of a day is that of their whole lives. They hear or 
speak of nothing but that such-a-one is going to the cit}^ or 
to church, or to be married, or that the Bosjesmans have 
stolen the cattle of such-a-one, or the locusts eaten their corn. 
The young people have no meetings at fixed periods, as in 
most country-places, for mirth and recreation. No fairs, no 
dancing, no music, nor amusement of any sort. To the cold 
phlegmatic temper and inactive way of life may perhaps be 
owing the prolific tendency of all the African peasantry. Six 
or seven children in a family are considered as very few ; 
from a dozen to twenty are not uncommon ; and most of 
them marry very young, so that the population of the colony 
is rapidly increasing. Several, however, of the children die 
in their infancy, from swellings in the throat, and from erup- 
tive fevers. Few instances of longevity occur. Their mode 
of life is perhaps less favorable for a prolonged existence 
than the nature of the climate. The diseases of which they 
generally die in the country are bilious and putrid fevers 
and dropsies. 
The men are in general much above the middle size, very 
tall and stout, but ill made, loosely put together, aukward, and 
inactive. Very faw have those open ingenuous countenances 
that among the peasantry of many parts of Europe speak their 
simplicity and innocence. The descendants of French families 
are now so intermarried v,'ith those of the original settlers, that 
no distinction, except the names, remains. And it is a remark- 
able fact that not^a w^ord of the French language is spoken or 
