394 TRAVELS IN 
tion of slavery, the Hottentot may be considered as exempt. 
In the ^vbole course of my travels, and in the midst of the nu- 
merous attendants of this nation, with which 1 was constantly 
surrounded, I can with safety declare that I never was robbed 
or deceived by any of them. 
On making inquiry into the particulars of the unpleasant 
transaction that had taken place, one of the Hottentots, called 
Klaas Stunrman, or Nicholas the Ildmsmaiiy whom they had 
selected for their chief, stepped forwards, and, after humbly 
entreating us to hear him out without interruption, began a 
long oration, which contained a history of their calamities and 
sufferings under the yoke of the boors; their injustice, in first 
depriving them of their country, and then forcing their off- 
spring into a state of slavery ; their cruel treatment on every 
slight occasion, which it became impossible for them to bear 
any longer ; and the resolution the}' had therefore taken to ap-- 
ply for redress before the English troops should leave the 
country. That their employers, suspecting their intention, had 
endeavoured to prevent such application by confining some to 
the house, threatening to shoot others if they attempted to 
escape, or to punish their wives and children in their absence. 
And, in proof of what he advanced, he called out a young Hot- 
tentot, whose thigh had been pierced through with a large mus- 
quet ball but two days before, which had been fired at him by 
his master for having attempted to leave his service. " This 
" act," continued he, " among many others equally cruel, re- 
" solved us at once to collect a sufficient force to deprive the 
" boors of their arms, in which we have succeeded at every 
" house which has fallen in our way. We have taken their 
" superfluous clothing in lieu of the wages due for our 
2 
