SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
»45 
of their former government to be awed by its authority, have 
exercifed, in the moft wanton and barbarous manner, an abfo- 
lute power over thefe poor wretches reduced to the neceffity of 
depending upon them for a morfel of bread. There is fcarcely 
an inftance of cruelty faid to have been committed againft the 
flaves in the Weft-India iflands, that could not find a parallel 
from the Dutch farmers of the remote parts of the colony 
towards the Hottentots in their fervicc. Beating and cutting 
them with thongs of the hide of the fea-cow or rhinofceros, is 
a gentle punilhment, though thefe fort of whips which they 
call Jhambos are moft horrid inftruments, tough, pliant, and 
heavy almoft as lead. Firing fmall -fhot into the legs and 
thighs of a Hottentot is a punifhment not unknown to fome 
of the monfters who inhabit the neighbourhood of Camtoos 
river. Inftant death is not unfrequently the confequence of 
punifhing thefe poor wretches in a moment of rage. This is 
of little confequence to the farmer ; for though they are to all 
intents and purpofes his flaves, yet they are not transferable 
property. It is this circumftance which, in his mind, makes 
their lives lefs valuable and their treatment more inhuman, 
i In offences of too fmall moment to ftir up the phlegm of a 
Dutch peafant, the coolnefs and tranquillity difplayed at the 
puniftiment of his flave or Hottentot is highly ridiculous, and 
at the fame time indicative of a favage difpofition to unfeeling 
cruelty lurking in his heart. He flogs them, not by any given 
number of laflbes, but by time ; and as they have no clocks 
nor fubftitutes for them capable of marking the fmaller divi^ 
fions of time, he has invented an excufe for the indulgence of 
■ i u • one 
