SOUTHERN AFRICA. ,09 
is an axiom or felf- evident truth, that fuch are and always will 
be the confequences of degrading man to the lovveft of all con- 
ditions, that of being made the property of man. 
The Dutch ufe little prudence or precaution with regard to 
their domeftic flaves : in the fame room where thefe are affem- 
bled to wait behind their mafter's chairs, they difcufs their crude 
opinions of liberty and equality without any referve ; yet they 
pretend to fay that, juft before the Englifh got poflefTion of the 
Cape, and when it was generally thought the French would be 
before-hand with us, the flaves who carried the fedan chairs, 
of which no lady is without one, ufed very familiarly to tell 
their miftreffes, " We carry you nov/, but by-and-by it will 
" be your turn to carry us." The proportion of flaves to 
whites, of both fexes and all ages, in the town, is not more than 
two to one ; but that of Have men to white men is near five 
to one. 
The field flaves belonging to the farmers are not, however, 
nearly fo well treated as thofe of the town ; yet infinitely better 
than the Hottentots who are in their employ. The farmer, in- 
deed, having a life-intereft in the one, and only five-and-twenty 
years in the other, is a circumfliance that may explain the dif- 
ference of treatment. The one, alfo, is convertible property, 
an advantage to which they have not yet fucceeded in their at- 
tempts to turn the other. The country flaves, notwithftanding, 
are ill fed, ill clothed, work extremely hard, and are frequently 
puniflied with the greateft feverity ; fometimes with death, when 
rage gets the better of prudence and compaflion. 
In 
