AFRICA, 189 
to clean them well, and afterwards to heat them 
with brufhwood. Our viduals could then be 
cooked in the utmoft perfeflion. 
If we believe Kolben, Swart«Land and the 
diftrid of the Twenty-four-Rivers, when the 
Dutch firft fettled there, were inhabited by fe- 
veral tribes of favages, the names of which he 
mentions. At prefent^ not one of thefe primi- 
tive and original nations is to be found, nor 
does tradition even fpeak of their exiftence. I 
have certainly too great a horror for crimes to 
attempt to excufe them, wherever they may 
be found ; and if the firft planters got polTeffioti 
of the two diftridls I have mentioned, only by 
exterminating the inhabitants, they were 
monfters whofe name and remembrance ought 
to be devoted to eternal execration. But before 
we condemn them, fhould w^e not convince our- 
felves by evidence that they are really guilty ? 
May not Kolben, who in every page of his 
work commits fo many miftakes, be erroneous 
alfo in this refpefl: ? Have the people he men- 
tions really exifted, and can we believe that 
the Dutch deftroyed them, when fo many 
hordes of Hottentots, whom they have pre- 
ferved. 
