SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
121 
a very honest man, and anxious to fuUil the duties of liis 
office, was turned out of liis district, and aflervvards tlireat- 
ened to be put to death by these unprincipled people, be- 
cause he would not give them liis permission to make war 
upon the Kaffers ; and because he attended to the complaints 
of the injured Hottentots. The boor, indeed, is above all 
lavr. At the distance of five or six hundred miles from tlic 
seat of Government he knows he cannot be compelled to 
do what is right, nor prohibited from putting in practice what 
is wrong. To be debaired from visiting the Cape is no 
punishment to him. His wants, as we have seen, are very 
, few, nor is he nice in his choice of substitutes for those which 
he cannot conveniently obtain. Perhaps the only indispen- 
sable articles are gunpowder and lead. Without these a 
boor would not live one moment alone, and with these he 
knows himself more than a match for the native Hottentots 
and for beasts of prey. 
The produce of the grazier is subject to no colonial tax 
whatsoever. The butcher sends his servants round the coun- 
try to collect sheep and cattle, and gives the boors notes upon 
his master, which are paid on their coming to the Cape. 
They are subject only to a small parochial assessment, pro- 
portioned to their stock. For every hundred sheep he pays 
a florin, or sixtcenpence, and for every ox or cow one penny. 
With the utmost difficulty Government has been able to col- 
lect about two-thirds annually of the rent of their loan-farms, 
which is only 24 rixdollars a year. Under the idea that 
they had been dreadfully oppressed by the Dutch Govern- 
ment, and that their poverty was the sole cause of their run- 
A OL. n. R 
