274 TRAVELS IN 
formed of the fame metal, upon which Is en- 
graven in large letters the word capitein^ is 
put round his neck as a badge of his digrlity. 
From that moment his melancholy horde, 
which for a long time has loft its national 
name, afTumes that of the new chief who has 
been fet over it. They will then fay, for 
example, the horde of captain Kees, who be- 
comes to the governor a new creature, a new 
fpy, and a new flave, and to his own country- 
men a new tyrant. 
The governor himfelf Is never perfonally 
acquainted with thofe Vvhom he appoints. It 
is generally the planter neareft the horde who 
foliclts and determines the nomination for one 
of his own creatures ; becaufe he trufts that a 
low perfon whom he has in this manner pa- 
tronized will not be ungrateful, and that he 
will have all his vafTals ready at his fervice 
when neceffity may require. Thus without 
any preliminary information, and even with- 
out any regard to juftice, a helplefs and feeble 
horde are obliged to receive laws from a man 
often incapable of commanding them ; and 
thus does the intereft of one individual prevail 
over the general good both in great and little 
affairs : and it is thus that the revolutions of a 
7 republic. 
