SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
211 
copper; and their only medium of exchange, and the only 
article of commerce they poflefs, is their cattle. 
There are perhaps few nations, befides the Kaffers, that have 
not contrived to draw Tome advantages from the pofTeffion of 
a fea-coaft. They have no kind of fifhery whatfoever either 
with nets or boats. Whether they retain any remains of fuper- 
ftition attached to fome of the various modifications through 
which the Mahometan, as well as the Chriftian, religion has 
undergone in its progrefs through different countries, that for- 
bids them the life of fifh ; or whether their way of life has 
hitherto prevented them from thinking on the means of obtain- 
ing a livelihood from the waters, I cannot pretend to fay ; but 
they fcarcely know what kind of a creature a fifh is. The 
whole extent of their coafl, that is wafhed by the fea and inter- 
fered by the mouths of feverai large rivers, does not produce a 
fingle boat, nor canoe, nor any thing that refembles a floating 
veiTel. The fhort fpace of time, perhaps, which they have 
occupied that part of Africa they now inhabit, has not yet fuf- 
ficiently familiarized them to the nature of deep waters, to 
entrufl themfelves upon a frail bark. 
" nil rcbur et pes triplex 
*' Circa pe£tus erat, qui fragllem truci 
" Commifit pelago ratem 
«« Primus" 
The Kaffers mofl certainly are not the Aborigines of the 
fouthern angle of Africa. Surrounded on all fides by people 
E E 2 that 
