SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
93 
The hills that furrounded the plain of Geel-beck were com- 
pofed of a dark purple-colored flate ; and among thefe were 
feen prancing a fmall herd of that beautifully-marked animal 
the zebra^ and a great number of another fpecies of wild horfe, 
known in the colony by the Hottentot name of qua-cha. This 
animal was long confidered as the female zebra, but is now 
known to be a fpecies entirely diftind. It is marked with faint 
ftripes on the four quarters only ; is well fhaped, ftrong limbed, 
not in the leaft vicious, but, on the contrary, is foon rendered 
by domeftication mild and tractable : yet, abundant as they are 
in the country, few have given themfelves the trouble of turn- 
ing them to any kind of ufe. They are infinitely more beau- 
tiful than, and fully as ftrong as, the mule ; are eafily fup- 
ported on almoft any kind of food, and are never out of flefh. 
The zebra has obtained the character of being fo vicious and 
ungovernable as never to be completely tamed, perhaps only 
from fome very imperfed: and injudicious trials. The fuccefs 
of an attempt to domefticate animals that are naturally fierce 
or timid would require more perfeverance and patience, more 
labor, and more addrefs, than feem to fall to the fiiare of a 
Dutch peafant. A vicious animal, taken from a ftate of nature, 
is not to be tamed with the point of the knife, nor with 
ftripes ; they are more impatient of pain than fuch as are 
already rendered docile and accuftomed to the cruelties exer- 
cifed upon them by man ; and wounds and harfli treatment 
ferve only to make them more fierce and unmanageable. At 
the landroft's of Zwellendam I faw a male and female zebra 
that, while young and attended to, were faid to have been mild 
and docile j but by negled, and probably by teafing, had 
become 
