50 
TRAVELS IN 
" of them fpeak EngUfli tolerably well. We were told that 
*' fo great was their propenfity to drunkennefs, we fhould ne- 
" ver be able to reduce them to order or difcipllne, and that the 
" habit of roving was fo rooted in their difpofition, we muft 
" expe<£l the whole corps would defert, the moment they had 
** received their clothing. With refpe<£l to the firft, I do not 
*' find they are more given to the vice of drinking than 
*' our own people ; and, as to their pretended propenfity to 
'* roving, that charge is fully confuted by the circumftance of 
*' only one man having left us fmce I firft adopted the meafure 
" of alTembling them, and he was urged to this ftep from hav- 
" ing accidently loft his firelock." — " Of all the qualities," he 
further obferves, " that can be afcribed to a Hottentot, it will 
" little be expedted I (hould expatiate upon their cleanlinefs ; and 
" yet it Is certain that, at this moment, our Hottentot parade 
•* would not fuffer in a comparifon with that of fome of our re- 
" gular regiments. Their clothing may, perhaps, have fuf- 
*• fered more than it ought to have done, in the time fince it 
" was iflued to them, from their ignorance of the means of 
" preferving it ; but thofe articles, which are capable of being 
" kept clean by walhing, together with their arms and accou- 
" trements, which they have been taught to keep bright, are 
" always in good order. They are now, likewife, cleanly in 
" their perfons; the pradtice of fmearing themfelves with 
" greafe being entirely left off, I have frequently obferved 
" them waQiing themfelves in a rivulet, where they could have 
*• in view no other object but cleanlinefs." It will be no lefs 
fatisfadory to the reader, than it is gratifying to myfelf, in 
thus having an opportunity of adding, in fupport of my former 
1 defcrip- 
