236 TRAVELS IN 
six thousand souls, could not be supposed to furnish more 
than a thousand men fit to bear arms, and, probably, not one 
hundred that woidd dare to use them. 
The Hottentot corps, consisting of about five hundred men,, 
so far from feeling any disposition to enter into the service of 
the Dutch, actually declined it, and expressed the strongest 
wishes to return to their connections in the distant parts of 
the colony. What may be the fate of these poor creatures, 
under their old masters, is difficult to conjecture. Con- 
vinced, as the Dutch Government would speedily be, that 
they would never be prevailed on to draw a trigger against 
the English, it will become a very serious difficulty in what 
manner to dispose of them. If they should desert in a body, 
which was generally thought would be the event, they would 
drive in the whole country. But if, before this happens, 
the humane colonists should succeed in obtaining the praj^er 
of two petitions presented by them, the government will be 
jelieved from any apprehensions with regard to the Hottentot 
corps : one of which was to surround and massacre the whole 
corps ; the other, to put a chain to the leg of every man, and 
distribute them among the farmers as slaves for life. 
The only chance they have of escaping rests upon the good 
intentions of the Governor and Commander in Chief towards 
them, from whose humane disposition, and honorable charac- 
ter, they will receive every protection and support, as far, ^t 
least, as depends upon him ; but, in a revolutionary govern- 
ment, the best disposed must, in some degree, swim with the 
torrent of popular opinion. 
