SOUTHERN AFRICA. 45 
to take place, he waited upon the chief magiftrate to know 
from him whether it was the fafhion among the EngUfh to 
break on the wheel. A few days after this he was found hang- 
ing in his room. It was thought that the fear of ftarving, for 
want of employment, on account of his having held fuch an 
odious office, had operated fo powerfully on his mind as to 
have led him to the perpetration of felf-murder. Under the 
idea of conveying terror into the minds of the multitude, the 
place of execution is erected clofe to the fide of the great 
avenue leading into the town. The firft objeft that prefents 
itfelf to a ftranger, after paffing the Caftle, is a large gallows 
flanked by wheels and engines of death— objeds not well 
adapted for impreffing any very favorable opinion either of the 
humanity of the people or the lenity of their laws. Though 
the cuftom of moft European nations may have fandioned 
public punifhments, as warnings againft the commiffion of 
crimes, the conftant expofure of the inftruments of death can 
have little fhare in producing this effed:. The human mind, 
by long habit, becomes reconciled to objeds that, for a time, 
might have created difguft and difmay ; and nothing is more 
likely to happen than that the unrefleding part of the multi- 
tude fhould turn into a fource of ridicule, when made too 
familiar to them, what was intended to convey the fenfation 
of terror. 
There is, perhaps, no part of the world, out of Europe, where 
the introdudion of flavery was lefs neceflary than at the Cape 
of Good Hope. Nor would it ever have found its way into 
this angle of Africa, had the fame fpirit of Batavian induftry, 
which 
