SOUTHERN AFRICA. 285 
intended the game fhould pafs, and where the hunter could 
conveniently iie in ambufh to ftrike the animals with his poi- 
foned fpears, or {hoot them with his arrows. In this manner 
were Unes continued acrofs the plains and mouths of defiles for 
feveral miles. Sometimes, inftead of ftones, were placed rows 
of fticks, with black oftrich feathers tied to the ends, as being 
more effectual in turning game towards the fpot where they 
wifhed them to pafs. 
When all thefe means of fubfiftence fail them, and they are 
certainly very precarious, they are driven to the neceffity of 
hazarding a toilfome and dangerous expedition of plunder into 
the colony. Such a mode of life naturally leads to habits of 
cruelty. The difpofition of the Hottentot race is mild and ma- 
nageable in the higheft degree, and by gentle ufage may be 
moulded into any fhape ; but the treatment of the farmers to- 
wards them has been fo very flagitious, that their cruelty even 
admits of palliation. Though in the eye of political juftice it 
may be coniidered as a crime for a ftarving family, driven by 
imperious want to the neceffity of taking the property of an- 
other who has perhaps more than he can poffibly ufe, yet in 
the law of nature the offence is venial : but the Bosjefmans 
for their conduct have not only the plea of nature and huma- 
nity, but alio that of retribution. They were driven out cf 
their own country, their children feized and carried into 
flavery, by the people on whom they now commit their depre- 
dations, and on whom they naturally take every occafion of 
exercifmg their revenge. But that their ftudied barbarity 
fhould be extended to every living creature that appertains to 
the 
