SOUTHERN AFRICA. 329 
a, ii)ater wyzer, or discoverer of water, and had shewn sagacity 
enough to establish a sort of reputation in the country. By 
speaking little, looking wise, and frequent application to the 
eye of a double convex lens, which happened to have an air- 
bubble within it, he had practised with great success on the 
credulity and ignorance of the Dutch farmers, and had ob- 
tained from them, by this and other means, a pair of horses, 
and several hundred rix-doUars of paper money. The lighting 
of their pipes at the sun by means of his glass, and the per- 
suasion that the air-bubble within it was a drop of water that 
possessed the sympathetic quality of always turning towards its 
i:indred element, had such an irresistible effect on the rude 
minds of the African boors, that the Irishman, like a true 
quack, soon learned to appreciate his consequence so highly, 
as never to pay a visit to any farmer, in order to examine 
the state of his water, w ithout a previous fee. Observing me 
laugh at the credulity of the j>eople gaping at his mounte- 
bank tricks, he took occasion to speak to me apart, begging, 
for God's sake, I would not detect the imposture, as he was 
now in such good practice that he was able to keep an assist- 
ant. Surprise ceases at the credulity of m.en born and edu- 
cated in the wilds of Africa, on reflecting to what extent the 
impostors of Europe have succeeded, in living upon the folly 
of those who have been Aveak enough to listen to them. 
Animal magnetism has raised many a quack to a state of 
grandeur, at the expence of credulity ; and the nonsense of 
the vwgida dmnatoria^ or divining rod, has still its vo- 
taries. 
There never perhaps was a set of men so void of resources 
in overcoming difficulties as the Dutch farmers of the Cape. 
VOL. I. u u 
