48 
TRAVELS IN 
their value in fociety was in proportion to the benefits they 
were able to render to that fociety, by their labour and moral 
condud. 
Thefe men have clearly fhewn to the world, by the elFedls 
of this inftitution, that there is not among favages, in general, 
that invincible averfion to labour which fome have been inclined 
to fuppofe. Thofe, indeed, whofe daily fubfiftence depends on 
the chace, may contract a difpofition to rambling and to a fre- 
quent change of place, but the precarious fupply of food ob- 
tained by hunting is not the reward of fluggifh indolence, but 
of toil, of laffitude, and anxiety. The fewer the wants that 
man has to gratify, the lefs inclination will he feel to exert his 
corporeal powers. In a mere favage ftate, if thefe wants could 
be fupplied without any effort, the predominant pleafures of 
life would confift in eating and fleeping. The propenfity to 
inadion can only be overcome by giving the labourer an intereft 
in the produd of his labour ; by making him feel the weight 
and value of property, The colonifts of the Cape purfued no 
fuch plan with regard to their condu<fl: towards the Hottentots. 
Having firft held out the irrefiftible charm that fpirituous liquors 
and tobacco are found to polfefs among all people in a rude 
ftate of fociety, they took the advantage of exchanging thofe 
pernicious poifons for the only means the natives enjoyed of 
fubfifting themfelves and their families ; and, however extraor- 
dinary it may appear, inftead of inftruding and encouraging 
a race of men, of willing and intelligent minds, tojenew the 
means of fubfiftence, of which they had deprived them, they 
imported, at a vaft expence, a number of Malay flaves, not 
more 
