288 TRAVELS IN 
fix Inches, they dig a fmall trench, about a 
foot and a half in depth, and as much la 
breadth, for the purpofe of receiving the 
waters ; and this precaution fecures it from 
all moifture. In different cantons I vifited 
and furveyed more than feven hundred of 
thefe huts ; but I never faw one of a fquare 
form, as fome authors have pretended. Be- 
fides, I fuppofe it is of little importance to 
the reader to know whether thefe favages 
lodge in round or in fquare habitations ; but 
I muft remark, that, by mentioning every 
thing, one may, foon or late, difcover thofe 
travellers who have only feen a part of what 
they have related. 
The fields of the Hottentots being either 
by the foil, their pofition, or the number of 
fmall rivers which water them, much more 
fertile than thofe of the Hottentots, it ne- 
ceflarily follows, that the Caffres, who apply 
to agrici^lture, remain fixed to one fpot ; and 
this is always the cafe when nothing inter* 
rupts their repofe. The fame fields which 
gave them birth, is alfo the fcene of their 
lateft moments, unlefa they are attacked, I 
do not fay by barbarous perfecutors only, 
who thiift after their blood, but by fome of 
thofe 
