i64 TRAVELS IN 
small quantity of iron in exchange for cattle. It has been sup- 
posed that theTambookies,andothernations farther to the east- 
ward, possessed the art of obtaining iron from the ore ; hut it is 
much more probable that they are supplied with it by the 
Portuguese settlers of Rio de la Goa, not far from which their 
country is situated. The only metals known to the Kaffers 
are iron and copper ; and their only medium of exchange, 
and the only article of commerce they possess, is their cattle. 
There are perhaps few nations beside the Kaffers, that have 
not contrived to draw some advantages from the possession of 
a sea-eoast. They have no kind of fishery whatsoever either 
with nets or boats. Whether they retain any remains of su- 
perstition that might have been attached to some of the va- 
rious modifications through which the Mahometan, as well as 
the Christian, religion has undergone in its progress through 
different countries, and which forbids them the use of fish; 
or whether their mode of life has hitherto prevented them 
from thinking on the means of obtaining a livelihood from 
the waters, I cannot take upon me to decide; but it is 
a fact that they scarcely know what kind of a creature a fish 
is. The whole extent of their coast, which is washed by the 
sea and intersected by the mouths of several large rivers, does 
not possess a single boat, nor canoe, nor any thing that resem- 
bles a floating vessel. The short space of time, perhaps, 
which they have occupied that part of Africa they now inha- 
bit, has not yet sufficiently familiarized them to the nature of 
deep waters, to entrust themselves upon a frail bark. 
" nil robur et xs triplex 
" Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci 
« Commisit pelago ratem 
« Primus" 
