SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
593 
The pleafures of the inhabitants are chiefly of the fenfiial 
kind, and thofe of eating, drinking, and fmoking predominate; 
principally the two latter, which, without much intermiffion, 
occupy the whole day. They have no relifli for public amufe- 
raents. They have no exercife but that of dancing. A new 
theatre was erected, but plays were confidered to be the moft 
ftupid of all entertainments, whether the performance was Eng- 
lifh, French, or German. To liften three hours to a converfa- 
tion was of all punifiiments the moft dreadful. I remember, 
on one occafion only, to have obferved the audience highly en- 
tertained ; this was at an old German foldier fmoking his pipe ; 
and the encouragement he met with in this part of his character 
was fo great, and his exertions proportioned to it, that the whole 
houfe was prefently in a cloud of tobacco fmoke. 
There is neither a bookfeller's (hop in the whole town, nor a 
book fociety. A club called the Concordia has lately afpired to a 
collection of books, but the purfuits of the principal part of the 
members are drinking, fmoking, and gaming. Under the di- 
redlion of the church is a library, which was left by an indi- 
vidual for the ufe of the public, but the public feldom trouble 
it. In this colledlion are fome excellent books, particularly rare- 
and valuable editions of the claffics, books of travels and general 
hiftory, ads of learned focieties, didionaries, and church hif- 
tory. Books are rarely found in Cape Town to conftitute. 
any part of the furniture of a houfe. So little value do they fet 
on education, that neither Government nor the church, nor 
their combined efforts, by perfuafion or extortion, could raife a 
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