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AFRICA. 133 
The continual care and attention beftowed 
by the Gonaquas on then* drefs, fufficiently 
prove that they are fond of cleanlinefs : all, 
therefore, that can be faid, is, that it is ill 
underftoodj and, even before we proceed fo 
far, it might be neceffary to enquire whe- 
ther they are not obliged to boughou them- 
felves in this manner, either on account 
of the temperature of the climate, or from 
a want of thofe refources which nature 
has not pointed out to them. Their clothes, 
indeed, are only the fpoils taken from fa- 
vage animals \ but, as I have already (hewn, 
they do not negledt, as fome have pretended, 
to clean and prepare them before they em- 
ploy them for making drefles, 
A Hottentot is neither poor nor miferable. 
He is not poor, becaufe his delires never ex- 
ceeding his knowledge, which is very li- 
mited, he never feels the fpur of neceffity. 
Mifery is a point of comparifon of which he 
has no conception : a complete uniformity, 
and the fame refources, rendering the lot of all 
perfeftly equal, when abundance prevails, they 
are all happy, and in times of fcarcity they are 
all in the like manner expofed to want. The 
difgufting contraft of riches mounted on a 
K 3 golden 
