1811. 
THE LOWEST IN THE SCALE OF MAN. 
457 
had been without grease or animal food. They looked first wish- 
fully at our pots which stood on the fire, and then submissively at 
us. Truly, these were the most destitute of beings, and the lowest 
in the scale of man. Their miserable poverty-stricken appearance 
excited the greatest compassion ; and as they stood before me, this 
wretched picture of human nature created a train of reflections per- 
fectly new to my mind. What I had as yet seen of man in a wild 
state, had amused while it interested and instructed me ; but this 
sad resemblance, in outward shape, to those great, intellectual and 
elevated characters, whose genius and talents have made their names 
immortal among us, distressed me to melancholy ; and while my 
eyes were fixed in painful observation on their vacant countenances, 
I asked myself, What is man ? and had almost said ; Surely all the 
inhabitants of the globe never sprang from the same origin ! These 
men seemed, indeed, the outcast of the Bushman race. Yet, not to 
be unjust to them, I must own that I have seen many like them ; but 
not, however, till a later period of my travels. I have now, I think, 
beheld and known the lowest of the human species ; and it has 
taught me a lesson of humility and gratitude ; it has rendered still 
greater, my admiration and respect for men of intellect and culti- 
vated minds ; it has also taught me to be thankful to the industrious 
workman ; to feel kind compassion for the uneducated and the un- 
civilized ; and to despise the idle, the arrogant, and vain. 
To feed the hungry, is one of the pleasures of the philanthropist ; 
but that pleasure was here somewhat alloyed by the dog-like voracity 
with which they ate the meat we gave them, and their selfishness in 
not saving any of it to take home to their families. To this repast 
we added some pipes of tobacco, which raised their enjoyment to its 
highest. They squatted on the ground by the fire, with the rest of 
our people ; and remained till late in the evening before they thought 
of returning home to their kraal. I took my seat also amongst them, 
that I might the better watch their manners ; but finding at last that 
their smoking absorbed all their thoughts, and created an incapacity, 
as well as a disinclination, for conversation, I retired to my waggon, 
to try if the sound of my flute would have any effect upon them. 
3 xN' 
