SOUTHERN AFRICA. 3S5 
times ; paying thrice a duty to Government of 6 per cent, and 
thrice of 4 per cent., making a tax of 30 percent, on the value 
of the property. It may be obferved, that this rage for buying 
and felling makes the transfer and the public vendue duties two 
, of the moft produdive branches of the public revenue. 
Condition of the Inhabitants. 
If the condition of m.ankind was to be eftimated entirely by 
the means ir polTefTed of fupplying an abundance, or preventing 
a fcarcity, of the neceffary articles of life, and it muft be con- 
felTed they conftitute a very efTential part of its comforts, the 
European colonifts of the Cape of Good Hope might be pro- 
nounced amongft the happiefl: of men. But as all the pleafures 
cf this w^orld are attended with evils, like rofes placed on ftems 
that are fnrrounded with thorns, fo thefe people, in the midft of 
plenty unknown in other countries, can fcarcely be confidered 
as obje£ls of envy. Debarred from every mental pleafure 
arifing from the perufal of books or the frequent converfation 
of friends, each fucceeding day is a repetition of the paft, whofe 
irkfome famenefs is varied only by the accidental call of a tra- 
veller, the lefs welcome vifits of the Bosjefmans, or the terror 
of being put to death by their own flaves, or the Hottentots 
in their employ. The only counterpoife to this wearifome 
and miferable ftate of exiftence, is a fuperfluity of the ne- 
ceflaries of life, as far as regards the fupport of the animal 
fundions, which all, of every defcription among the colonifts, 
VOL, II. 3 D have 
