SOUTHERN AFRICA. 149 
It is a common idea, industriously kept up in the colony, 
that the Kaffers are a savage, treacherous, and cruel people ; a 
character which appears to be as false as it is unmerited. 
Their moderation towards the colonists, and to all white 
people, has shewn itself on many occasions ; and if the inha- 
bitants of the bordering parts of the colony had any sense of 
shame or feelings of gratitude, instead of assisting to propa- 
gate, they v/ould endeavour to suppress, such an idea. They 
know very well that in the height of a war into which this 
people was iniquitously driven, the lives of their wives and 
children that fell into the hands of the Kaffers were spared, 
whilst their women were murdered promiscuously by the co- 
lonists. Another instance of the different manner in which 
the Dutch and the Kaffers conducted themselves, under 
the sj^me circumstances, will serve to shew which of the 
two nations most deserves the character thrown upon the 
latter. 
In the month of February 1790, a vessel from India under 
Genoese colours was wrecked on the coast of the colony 
between the Bosjesman and Sunday rivers. The peasantry 
from various parts of the coast, from Lange-kloof to Kaffer- 
land, flocked down to the wreck, not for the humane purpose 
of giving assistance to the unfortunate sufferers, but to plunder 
them of every thing that could be got on shore ; and it is a 
notorious fact, that the only Dutchman who was anxious to 
secure some property for the captain and officers, had his 
brains dashed out with an iron bolt by one of his neighbours. 
In June 1797, the Hercules, an American ship, was stranded 
between the mouths of the Keiskamma and the Beeka. By 
