SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
7 
tentots feems to have given them little interruption. They foon 
difcovered the predominant paflion of this weak and peaceable 
people for fpirituous liquors, and that a bottle of brandy was a 
paflport through every horde. With this and tobacco, iron, 
and a few paltry trinkets, they purchafed a part of the country 
and of their ftock of cattle, and then took the reft by force. A 
cafk of brandy was the price of a whole diftrid: ; and nine 
inches in length of an iron hoop the purchafe of a fat ox. De- 
prived, by their paffion for intoxicating liquors and baubles, of 
the only means of exiftence, the numbers of the natives began 
rapidly to decline j and the encroachments of the fettlers were 
in proportion to the diminution of the obftacles. Finding it 
unnecelTary to limit the extent of their poffeffions, the policy of 
the Government kept pace with the propenfity of its fubjeds to 
fpread themfelves wide over the country. It forefaw that a 
fpirit of induftry, if encouraged in a mild and temperate climate, 
and on a fertile foil, might one day produce a fociety impatient 
of the fhackles impofed on it by the parent ftate. It knew, that 
to fupply to its fubjeds the wants of life without the toil of 
labour or the anxiety of care ; to keep them in ignorance, and 
to prevent a ready intercourfe with each other, were the moft 
likely means to counteract fuch a fpirit. It granted lands, 
therefore, on yearly leafes, at the fmall fixed rent of twenty-four 
rixdollars, (not five pounds fterling,) in any part of the country. 
A law was alfo paffed, that the neareft diftance from houfe to 
houfe was to be three miles, fo that each farm confifted of 
more than five thoufand acres of land, and confequently was 
rented at the rate of fomething lefs than a farthing an acre. 
From a fcarcity of water, it frequently happened that many x 
farms 
