2g2 
TRAVELS IN 
is the confideration of the end it was meant to anfwer. The 
poor wretches were peaceably fleeping under their humble 
covering of mats, and in the heart of their own country, far 
removed from the boundary of the colony. The inroads of 
thefe favages would much more effedlualiy be checked by 
charging them boldly, whenever they fhould be known to have 
pafled the limits, but not to purfue them into their own coun- 
try. This, however, would not anfwer the object of the far- 
mer, which is that of procuring children. To attend his 
numerous flocks and herds, he muft have many people j and 
Hottentots are now fo fcarce that a fufficient number is not to 
be had. Thefe, too, muft be paid wages ; but the poor Bosjef- 
man has nothing except his fheep-fkin and his meat. The 
fatigues, however, that the peafantry undergo in their long 
expeditions againft them are fometimes very great. They are 
frequently, for many days together, without a drop of water, 
enduring hunger, want of reft, and the viciffitudes of heat and 
cold. Many fuffer from the wounds of poifoned arrows, 
which, if not mortal, frequently, by injudicious treatment, 
bring on lingering complaints of which they never recover. 
Some of them are prudent enough to carry with them cupping 
veffels^ to draw out the poifon, and fweet oil to wafh the 
wounds, and a quantity of vinegar to drink ; but the greateft 
part depend entirely on the application of the fnake-ftone, 
which has been noticed before to be only a piece of burnt 
bone. The Hottentots generally wa£h their poifoned wounds 
with a mixture of urine and gunpowder; and it is obferved 
that thefe people feldom die except wounded very feverely. 
On 
