AFRICA. 97 
mldft of the fands and the rocks, tormented 
by thirft, and exhaufted by hunger; while 
the few that furvive are obHged to make 
long marches before they can find the fm all- 
eft affifta nee. 
Such are the three motives that make the 
Hottentots commit a barbarity to which they 
find themfelves impelled by a force fupe- 
rior to afFeftion or a fenfe of duty. In timid 
and fimple hearts nature can do nothing : 
but though its influence be fufpcnded for a 
moment, it is no lefs powerful or great ; and 
public calamities, among people unacquaint* 
ed with the combinations of our arts, and 
who have no means of alleviating them but 
by a fudden flight, ought not to be the 
touchftone by which we try them, nor the 
rule by which they are to be judged. 
Thofe indifpenfable emigrations, to which 
they are compelled by the difference of the 
ieafons, will not, I hope, be brought as a 
fourth example of their barbarity. When 
an extraordinary drought has dried up all 
the fprings as well as the furrounding lakes, 
when a fcorching fun has withered the paf- 
tures, or when an infedious ditlemper has 
broken out among the cattle in the neigh- 
Vol. II, H bourhood^ 
