24 TRAVELS IN 
latter was vcrj much the case in the distant parts of the 
Cape colony. 
For want of such a power the laws have certainl}', in most 
cases, proved unavailing. The Landrost had onl}'' the shadow 
of authority. The council and the country overseers were 
composed of farmers, who were always more ready to skreen 
and protect their brother boors, accused of crimes, than to 
assist in bringing them to justice. The poor Hottentot had 
little chance of obtaining redress for the wrongs he suffered 
from the boors. However willinjz: the Landrost might be to 
receive his complaints, he possessed not the means of remov- 
ing the grievance. To espouse the cause of the Hottentot 
was a sure way to lose his popularity. And the distance 
from the capital was a sufficient obstacle to the preferring of 
complaints before the Court of Justice at the Cape. When- 
ever this has happened, the orders of the Court of Justice met 
with as little respect, at the distance of five or six hundred 
miles, as the orders of the Landrost and his council. If a 
man, after being summoned, did not chuse to appear, there 
was no force in the country to compel him ; and they knew 
it would be fruitless to dispatch such a force from 
the Cape. Hence murders and the most atrocious crimes 
were committed with impunity ; and the only punishment 
was a sentence of outlawry for contempt of Court ; a sentence 
that was attended with little inconvenience to the criminal, 
who still continued to maintain his ground in society, as if 
no such sentence was hanging over him. It debarred him, 
it is true, from making his usual visits to the capital, but he 
found no difficulty in getting his business done by proxy. 
