AFRICA. j 
fully convinced me of its excellenee that I can- 
not too often recomniend the ufe of it. 
The news of my return was Toon fpreaij 
through the Cape, and a crowd of Idlers haften- 
ed from every quarter requeuing to fee what 
they called my new curiofities. The trouble of 
continually opening and (hutting my boxes de- 
termined rne to add this portion of my riches 
to that which my friend had fo ingenioufiy ar- 
ranged in my abfcence. I began with clafling 
the different fpecies of birds^ not indeed me- 
thodically, but, in a natural feries, by pairs, 
male and female together, 
Almoft the whole of Bpers^ houfe was con- . 
verted into a cabinet of natural hiftory, and 
this fort of decoration, at once fplendid and 
novel, attrad^d fo much company, that one 
might have fuppofed it the general place of ren- 
dezvous of the whole town. It was never with- 
out vifitors. What kind of curiofity influenced 
thefe vifitors, and what intercft was felt for 
the arts and fciences, by a people wholly en- 
groffed by mercantile fpeculations, rnay be 
judged from the circumftance, that the objedts 
which afforded them the greateft delight were 
frequently thofe belonging to the cantons 
neareft the town, and that there was not an in- 
B ^ Jiabitaa 
