SOUTHERN AFRICA, 
91 
S. Grain-farmers. 
4. Graziers. 
1. The free inhabitants of Cape Town, let their condition 
be what it may, are too proud or too lazy to engage in any 
kind of manual labor ; and two thirds of them owe their sub- 
sistence to the feeble exertions of their slaves. And for the 
better encouragement of this class of unfortunate beings, who 
otherwise could have little inducement to put out their 
strength or talents to the best advantage ; and in order to 
derive to themselves a certain fixed income from their labors, 
each slave is required to bring home to his proprietor a cer- 
tain sum at the end of every week ; all that he can earn above 
this sum is for his own use : and many are industrious enough 
to raise as much money in a few years as is sufficient to pur- 
chase their freedom, and sometimes that of their children. 
The price of provisions and the price of labor bear no sort 
of proportion. Butcher's meat is only about twopence a 
pound, and good brown bread, such as all the slaves eat, one 
penny a pound. A common laboring slave gets from two 
shillings to half a crown a day, and a mechanic or artificer 
five or six shillings a day. Yet an European will with ease 
perform at least three times the work of a slave. 
There is not, perhaps, any part of the world, out of Europe, 
"where the introduction of slavery was less necessary than at 
the Cape of Good Hope. Nor could it ever have found its 
way into this angle of Africa, had the same spirit of Bataviaii 
industry which, to make room for its numerous population, 
J!^ 2 
