A F R I C A. 
colony. Their hoofs tire fo hard, that, what- 
ever road they travel, they are always bare. 
Thus, though the country is not without far- 
riers, their only employment is to cure horfes 
that are fick or hurt, or to fit them for car- 
riages. 
Is this property In the hoof, of being abfo- 
lutely indeftrudible, owing to the food of the 
atiimal ? I think not. Horfes are fed at the 
Cape, as in certain countries of Europe, on 
barley, ftraw, or green forage : the only dif- 
ference is, they eat no oats ; for oats do not 
thrive in Africa, and therefore are not culti- 
vated. 
Does it depend on the climate ? Or Is it.com- 
^on to the Arabian horfes, from which thofe 
of the Cape are defcended ? I dare not anfwer 
either of thefe queftions in the affirmative. 
But this at leaft I can affert, that mine, after 
travelling fifteen months, over rocks and flints.^ 
in execrable reads, and alter violent hunts, re- 
turned with their hoofs as found and v/hole as 
the day they quitted the Cape. 
My' want of thill oxen, however, made me 
confent to the bargain ; and with thefe I took 
|he way to the refideoce of Van der "Weft- 
F f 4 huyfen ; 
