226 
TRAVEL.S IN 
them encouragement. The captains of the men of v\rar are, at 
the fame time, the purfers ; and they feed their men by con- 
tra<51:, which, ftipulating for quantity only, leaves the quality to^ 
the difcretion and the confcience of the captain. The Dutcb 
(hips of war that were fent out, with the governor and 
troops on board, to take pofleflion of the Cape, had, a remark- 
able long pafiage, which occafioned- the Dutch failors on board' 
our fliips, to obferve, that the captain's mufty peas,, rancid pork, 
and black bread were not confumed, before which it would 
not be his intereft to come into port where better articles were 
to be had. The fame failors got hold of fome of their bread, 
which they carried through the ftreets of Cape Town, tied to 
the end of a ftick, by way of a joke, it being fo very black as 
ta have more the appearance of animal excrement, baked in the 
fun, than of bread. 
On the prefent plan of navigating their fhips, the Dutch 
would find it impradicable to proceed from Europe to India 
without breaking the voyage. The unfavourable form of their 
veffels for moving quickly through the water, the little fail they 
carry, efpecially by night, the economical plan in which they 
are fitted out, forbidding the ufe of copper fheathing, and the bad 
provlfions laid in for the people, are all againft a long continued 
voyage. The mortality that fometimes prevails on board their 
Indiamen, even on fhort paflages, is almofl incredible. Mr. 
Thunberg informs us, and his veracity may be depended oDj, 
that the mortality on board the fhip which carried him to the 
Cape, after a voyage of three months and a half from the Texel, 
amounted to one hundred and fifteen j that three other fhips in 
the 
