35 TRAVELS IN 
is naturally colleded on the borders of tli6 
fea, by that which the inhabitants throw into 
it, and ftill more by the bloody remains 
which the Company's butchers (who ufe nei- 
ther the heads, feet, nor inteftines of the ani- 
mals they kill) throw away,, and leave at the 
doors of their fhops ; where, being coUeded 
into heaps, they become corrupted, infe£l the 
air and the inhabitants, and add ftrength to 
thofe epidemical dlfeafes too common at the 
Cape in ihe feafon when the fouth-eaft wind 
has not prevailed. The moft dangerous and 
dreadful diforder here is the fore throat. Peo-? 
pie of the ftrongeft conftitutions often fall a 
facrifice to it in three or four days : it is fo 
violent, that they have fcarcely time to coun- 
teradl its effefts by the affiftance of medicine. 
The fmall pox is another fcourge in all the 
colonies here. Before the arrival of the Eu-» 
ropeans, this diftemper was not known ; and 
fmce the Dutch have poffefTed the Cape, it 
has been within a hair's breadth of deftruc- 
tlon. The firft time of its appearance, more 
than two-thirds of the inhabitants perifhed. 
Its ravages, however, were ftill more deftruc- 
^ive among the Hottentots ^ it appeared that 
^hi§ 
