20 TRAVELS IN 
woods of It ftretch along the feet of the eaftern fide of the 
Table Mountain, planted folely for fuel. The Conocarpa^ an- 
other fpecies of Protea, the Kreupel boom of the Dutch, is alfo 
planted along the fides of the hills : its bark is employed 
in tanning leather, and the branches for fire wood. The 
grand'iflora^ fpec'ioja Eff melUfera^ different fpecies of the fame 
genus, grow every where in wild luxuriance and are colleited 
for fuel, as are alfo the larger kinds of Ericas or heaths, phyllicas, 
Brimias^ polygalas^ the Olea Cap^njis^ Kucha racemofa^ Sophora, 
and many other arboreous plants that grow in great abundance 
both on the hills of the peninfula, and on the fandy ifthmus 
that conne£ls it with the continent. The article of fuel is fo 
fcarce that a fmall cart load of thefe plants fells in the town 
from five to feven dollars, or twenty to eight-and-tweiity 
fhillings. In moft families a flave is kept exprefsly for col- 
lecting fire wood. He goes out in the morning, afcends the 
ffeep mountains of the peninfula, where waggons cannot ap- 
proach, and returns at night with two fmall bundles of faggots, 
the produce of fix or eight hours hard labour, fwinging at the 
two ends of a bamboo carried acrofs the fhoulder. Some 
families have two and even three flaves, whofe fole employment 
confifts in climbing the mountains in fearch of fuel. The 
expence of a few faggots, whether thus colleCled or purchafed 
by the load, for preparing viduals only, as the kitchen alone 
has any fire place, amounts, in a moderate family, to forty or 
fifty pounds a-year. 
The addition to the inhabitants of five thoufand troops, and 
a large fleet flationed at the Cape, has increafed the demand 
for 
