44 
TRAVELS IN 
The hills that surround the plain of Geel-beck are com- 
posed of a dark purple-colored slate ; and among these hills 
we were gratified with the sight of a small herd of that beauti- 
fully marked animal the zebra, and a great number of another 
species of wild horse, known in the colony by the Hottentot 
name of qua-cha. This animal was long considered as the 
female zebra, but is now known to be a species entirely dis- 
tinct. It is marked with faint stripes on the fore-quarters 
only ; it is well shaped, strong limbed, not in the least vicious, 
but, on the contrary, is soon rendered by domestication mild 
and tractable ; yet abundant as they are in the country, few 
have given themselves the trouble of turning them to an\' 
kind of use. They are infinitely more beautiful than, and 
fully as strong as, the mule ; are easily supported on almost 
any kind of food, and are never out of fiiesh. The zebra has 
obtained the character of being so ferocious and ungovern- 
able as never to be completely tamed, perhaps undeservedly 
from some very imperfect and injudicious trials. The success 
of an attempt to domesticate animals that are naturally fierce 
or timid, would seem to require more perseverance and pa- 
tience, more labor, and more address, than fall to the share 
of a Dutch peasant. A vicious animal, taken from a state 
of nature, is not to be tamed with the point of the knife, or 
the lash of the whip ; animals in a wild state are more im- 
patient of pain than such as are already rendered docile and 
accustomed to the cruelties exercised upon them by man ; 
and wounds and harsh treatment serve only to make them 
more fierce and unmanageable. At the landrost's of Zvvel- 
lendam I saw a male and female zebra that, while young and 
attended to, were said to have been mild and docile ; but by 
neglect, Jllid probably by teasing, they had become exceed- 
