136 TRAVELS IN 
*' by which the nvhok of their catile willy of courfe, fall hitff 
the hands of the booi'sT 
This curious produdion concludes by obferving that, " al- 
*' though all the above points have been repeatedly urged to 
" the Commandants, it will avail nothing unlefs they be en- 
forced b]/ the government." He might have added that, re- 
moved as they v. ere out of the reach and infpedlion of govern- 
ment, no recommendation nor orders would be attended to by 
men who were fo completely under the dominion of their brutal 
paffions. I fhould not have ventured to give the fourth article 
of thefe extraordinary inftrudions as authentic, had it not ap- 
peared before me as an official document. The Britifh govern- 
ment was much too mild and moderate for a fet of men of fo 
odious a charadler as their own countryman has here defcribed 
them. In the articles of his inftrudions. Such men will never 
become civilized until they are *' rukd with a rod of iron." 
The mofl lenient meafures, replete with every indulgence, have 
been tried without fuccefs. Not one fentiment of gratitude ever 
efcaped them for a full pardon of all their offences, and the 
remiffion of a large debt ; on the contrary, rebellion raifed its 
liead in the fame moment that indulgence was extended. So 
confcious, indeed, are they of their wickednefs, that, whenever 
they efcape punifhment, they conclude that the government no 
longer poiTefles the power of infliding it, and that it fpares 
them only becaufe it is convenient to let them alone. Yet to 
what a wretched condition might they be reduced by one fingle 
ad of the government j forbidding them all accefs to the Cape, 
and 
