AFRICA. 143 
them very prolific. The Hottentot women 
have at moft three or four children by their 
hufbands ; by negroes they triple that num- 
ber ; and bring forth ftill more to the 
v^hites. 
If the baftard whites are naturally wicked; 
if they are daring, revengeful, enterprifing, 
and perfidious — is it becaufe they are the ofF- 
fpring of a white man and a Hottentot wo- 
man, and becaufe the children bear a greater 
refemblance to the father than to the mo- 
ther ? This prefumption, however mortify- 
ing it may be for our fpecies, cannot be con- 
troverted. If it happen, which is very rare, 
that a white woman has connection with a 
Hottentot, the fruit of their intercourfe al- 
ways retains the good difpofition, and the 
mild and beneficent temper, of the father. 
Thefe instances, I muft repeat, are very un- 
common. In love affairs at the Cape, as in 
Europe, the women fhew more modefty, de- 
licacy, and referve than the men : the latter, 
on the contrary, never hefitate to gratify 
their appetite, whoever the objed: of it may 
be ; and the dangers that thence refult are 
not the fame to both fcxes : but the baftards 
of the white men and Hottentot women 
have 
