TRAVELS IN 
at Moffel Bay ; but fince this pradice has been difcontlnued, 
they find it more advantageous to bring to Cape Town a load 
of aloes than a load of corn ; the former being worth from i8 /. 
to 20/., the latter only from 8 /. to 10/. The labour employed 
in coUedling and infpiffatlng the juice is ill repaid by the price 
it bears in Cape Town, which is feldom more than threepence 
a pound ; but it is ufually performed at a time of the year when 
the flaves have little elfe to do j and the whole ftrength of the 
family, flaves, Hottentots, and children, are employed in pick- 
ing off, and carrying together, the leaves of the aloes. Three 
or four pounds, I underftand, are as much as each perfon can 
colled and prepare in a day. 
This drug, it feems, has of late years been much employed 
in the porter breweries of London, which occafioned an in- 
creafed demand, and which may one day be extended almoft to 
an indefinite amount, if the partial experiments of the ingenious 
Sigr. Fabroni on the juice of this plant can be realized on the 
great fcale ; experiments that promife a no lefs valuable acqui- 
fition to the arts than a colouring fubftance which may be ufed, 
with advantage, as a fubflitute for cochineal. The quantity of 
infpiflated juice brought to the Cape market was eagerly bought 
up by the Englifh merchants, and lent to London as a remit- 
tance. The amount of this article entered on the Cuftom-houfe 
books, in the courfe of four years, was as follows ; 
Years, 
