jgo TRAVELS IN 
dance, or preventing a scarcity, of the necessary articles of 
life, and it must be confessed they constitute a very essential 
part of its comforts, the European colonists of the Cape of 
Good Hope might be classed among the happiest of men. 
But as all the comforts of this world are blended with their 
concomitant evils, as roses are placed on stems surrounded 
with thorns, so these people, in the midst of plenty unknown 
in other countries, can scarcely be considered as objects of 
envy. Debarred from every mental pleasure arising from 
the perusal of books or the frequent conversation of friends, 
each succeeding day is a repetition of the past, whose irk* 
some sameness is varied only by the accidental call of a tra- 
A^eller, the less welcome visits of the Bosjesmans, or the terror 
of being put to death by their own slaves, or the Hottentots 
in their employ. The only counterpoise to this wearisome 
and miserable state of existence, is a superfluity of the ne- 
cessaries of life, as far as regards the support of the animal 
functions, which all, of every description among the colonists, 
have the means of acquiring with little exertion either of body 
or mind. 
A short sketch of the circumstances and resources of the 
several classes of the colonists will be sufficient to convey a 
general idea of their respective conditions. The 22,000 
Christian inhabitants that compose the population of this 
colony may be reduced into four classes. 
1. People of the town. 
2. Vine-Growers. 
