I20 
TRAVELS IN 
wards the Cape of Good Hope ; for Vafco de Gama found the 
inhabitants of this part of the coafl: of a copper or brown co- 
lour, clothed in cotton, in filk, and fatin bonnets ; and a little 
further to the northv/ard he met v/ith Indian fhips having on 
board both compaffes and charts. The Arabs, in fad, at that 
time, had poficihon of all the coaft from Cape Corientes to the 
Red Sea. 
The tribe of Congo appeared to be very prolific ; children, 
in fwarms, ilTued from the thickets ; and fuch as vv^ere under the 
age of eight or nine years were peifedlly naked ; they exhibited 
no appearances of being fcantily fed, but, on the contrary, were 
plump and healthful. 
Juft the reverie was the condition of their dogs. Thefe ani- 
mals were the moft lean and miferable looking creatures I ever 
beheld, and their numbers feemed little inferior to thofe of the 
children. It is a fortunate circumflance for the KafFers, and 
equally fo for the colonifts, who are no lefs fond of dogs than, 
the former, that, notwithfcanding the heat of the climate, the 
canine madnefs, with its concomitant and remarkable fymptom 
the hydrophobia or dread of water, is totally unknown. One 
of the greateft nuifances in Cape Town is the number of dogs 
that prowl about the ftreets (acknowledging no mafter) particu- 
larly by night, when they quit their dens and lurking places, in 
quell of the offals of butchers' fhops. In this refpedl, however, 
they are of ufe, for the lazy Dutchman conceives he has done his 
part by calling them out of the flaughter-houfe into the ftreet. 
Before the Englifh brought in a garrifon of five thoufand men, 
3 the 
