SOUTHERN AFRICA. 401 
ties of the colony to collect sheep and cattle. In all these 
situations he has the opportunity of making an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the boors, which generally leads to his mar- 
riage with one of their daughters. The parents of the girl 
spare him a few sheep and cattle to commence with, on con- 
dition of their receiving half the produce as interest, until he 
can repay the capital ; he looks out for a place, as it is called, 
no matter where, whether within or without the limits of the 
colony, and builds for himself a hut ; with his cattle are con- 
signed to him, at the same time, and on the same terms, as 
he supposes, a few little Hottentot children to look after 
them ; and on these little creatures, in the plenitude of his 
power, subject to no control, he exercises the same severity 
of punishment that his own irregularities had incurred when 
he was in the ranks. 
From the barbarous treatment of the boors towards the 
Hottentots in their service, of which we had ourselves been wit- 
nesses in so many instances, it would have been an act of the 
greatest inhumanity to attempt to force these poor creatures 
back again upon their old masters ; yet a very serious diffi- 
culty arose, how to dispose of them. Part of the troops, that 
composed the detachment under General Vandeleur, con- 
sisted of the strength of the Hottentot corps, otherwise called 
the Cape regiment. This body of men had been partly 
formed under the Dutch government, and, in fact, were the 
only serviceable troops that opposed the British forces in the 
pass of Muysenberg, where they acted with spirit, though un- 
supported. After the capitulation. General Sir James Crai^ 
found it expedient, for many reasons, to take them into the 
VOL. 1. 3 r 
