A F R I C 95 
abandon them to their unhappy fate, fo that 
they die of hunger, if not by the virulence 
of the diftemper. 
This terror, fo natural among a favage 
people, is in no manner repugnant to that 
fincere affeftion and purity of manners by 
which they are diftinguifhed. The pidure 
of the devaftation of their hordes, always 
prefent to their imaginations, is a fufficient 
motive to induce them for a moment to 
forget the moft facred duties ; but one is 
{hocked to read in old authors, and to hear a 
modern traveller repeat after them, that the 
Hottentots, when they take it into their 
heads to change their refidence, abandon, 
without pity and without regret, their old 
men, and every thing that is ufelefs to them, 
orthat might tend to retard their march. This 
affertion ought not to be adduced as a rule, 
or a general cuftom : unlefs they find them- 
felves in fuch fatal and urging circumftances 
as that of which I have juft now fpoken, or 
in war, what motives could make them 
haften rather than retard their journey ? Be- 
fides, I can never allow myfelf to think that 
a Hottentot can adl in this manner without 
long experiencing the deepeft regret. 
4 When 
