72 TRAVELS IN 
at the Cape, an opinion that the CafFres were a 
wicked and ferocious people ; in confequence of 
which thefe unfortunate beings were expofed 
to perfecutions that could not fail to irritate 
their minds, and render them ftill more for-? 
midable. My friend himfelf had been more 
or lefs infedled with this almoft univerfal pre-?- 
judice. I conceived that, by gradually intro- 
ducing milder inftitutions among thefe people^ 
an important and interefting revolution might 
be elFeded ; which could not fail to take place, 
the moment their tranquillity and fafety, which 
ignorance, and the terror alone of their name 
had for lo many years difturbed, fhould, by 
equitable laws, be fecured to them. The man 
bell calculated to work this defirable change in 
the fituation of the CalFres, and their perfecut- 
ing neighbours, was the fifcal j fince upon his 
jeport to the cornpany of the ftate of the fettle- 
ment, on his return to Holland, would depend 
the regulations that it might be thought pro* 
per to introduce for thp melioration of the go- 
vernment, and the welfare of the inhabitants. 
It was neceffary, therefore, that he fhould have 
perfonal experience of the truth pf what I had 
twenty times told him, of the evils that refulted 
from 
1 
