110 
BETHELSDORP. 
[1S13. 
5 th. The boors in this part of the colony are never 
satisfied unless they have twenty or thirty Hottentots 
running about them. When tliey happen to have 
fewer, they are full of complaints against Bethelsdorp. 
They have not employment for more than four or five, 
except at the ploughing and reaping seasons. Hot- 
tentots being so easily obtained, is a great injury to 
the boor, and to them. Many of the boors have four 
or five stout sons, who, in consequence of the croud of 
Hottentots about the house, have no occasion to put 
their hands to any work, wherefore they sit with their 
legs across, the greater part of the day, or else indulge 
in sleep. They sometimes bestir themselves to shoot 
for an hour. In this way their days and years pass 
on in miserable idleness. Perhaps the only thing 
which a Hottentot will have to do during a w^hole day, 
is to bring his masters whip from the next room; 
another will have to bring his mistress's fire box and 
place it under her feet ; a third, to bring two or three 
times wood from the fire to light her master's pipe. 
In this way the Hottentots have their habits of idleness 
confirmed and increased : the boor's family feel life a 
burden, because they have nothing to do, or to talk 
of, and feeling themselves miserable, they endeavour 
to derive pleasure from making others miserable also. 
This account of a boors life has been related by 
various persons to me, and appears from what I saw 
to be a true picture of many, though not all. 
Were boors restricted to a certain number of Hot- 
tentot servants, according to the work they had for them. 
