126 
BETHELSDORP. 
[1813. 
tian societies, their complaints would be just, and 
deserving immediate attention ; but I do not believe 
there is a missionary in South Africa capable of 
so glaring a breach of the commandments of Jesus 
Christ. 
I have briefly touched upon this delicate and dis- 
agreeable point, chiefly for the sake of the white 
inhabitants of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 
with whom the poor Hottentots are intermixed, that 
they may be informed of the true state of the case. 
CHARGE OF IDLENESS AT BETHELSDORP. 
That many of the inhabitants are inclined to be 
idle I have no doubt ; many such are to be found in 
the most industrious towns in England, though un- 
doubtedly there is a far greater proportion among 
Hottentots; but is this wonderful, when we attend 
to their early habits. Their wants being few, work is 
neglected ; they have not the same inducements to 
active exertion as the inhabitants of such a country as 
England. If a Hottentot obtain barely enough to 
support nature, he is satisfied, and can sleep contented 
in his sheepskin under any bush. If brought up in 
the service of a boor, he has so many fellow servants, 
and the boor so little work to perform, that very little 
labour falls to the lot of an individual. A farmer's 
servant in England has more actual labour to accom- 
plish than is assigned to six servants of an African 
boor. Thus being accustomed to a life of indolence in 
