XIV INTRODliCTION. 
tlons which remind us of our country where* 
ever we obferve its manners, its charader, and 
its language. 
The females of the Cape, when I faw them 
for the firft time, had really excited my afto- 
nifhment by their drefs and their elegance ; 
but I admired in them, above all, that mo- 
defly and referve peculiar to the Dutch 
manners, which nothing as yet had cor- 
rupted. 
In the courfe of fix months, a great change 
had taken place. It was no longer the 
French modes that they copied ; it was a 
caricature of the French. Plumes, feathers, 
ribbons, and tawdry ornaments heaped toge- 
ther without tafte on every head, gave to 
the prettleft figures a grotefque air, which 
often provoked a fmile when they appeared. 
This mania had extended to the neighbour- 
ing plantations, where the women could 
fc^rcel;^ 
