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45 
ment, I am afraid tliey do not possess many charms to suit an 
Englishman's taste, being in general thin, sallow, and much 
relaxed by the climate, with no small share of that inertness 
usually attendant upon a long residence in countries situated 
under the tropics. They are very negligent in their persons, 
excepting on public occasions, and go without stockings like the 
Dutch planters' wives in the interior of the Cape. They also 
resemble the latter in their taste for a pipe, which they smoke 
much at their ease ; but are nevertheless lively, and have a fine 
flow of animated conversation. 
The food on which the planters live is gross in the extreme, 
and to this in a great measure may be atfaibuted the diseases 
which prevail. Great profusion of boiled meats, chieiiy pork and 
beef, are laid on the table, and rude mis-shapen lumps of these are 
mixed together with vegetables on the same plate, without any 
of that attention to nicety observable at the table even of the 
poorer classes in England ; while all the other dishes are dressed 
with a great quantity of oil by no means remarkable for its 
purity. It appears to be the fashion to eat fast, and to drink 
pretty briskly while at table, and as soon as the cloth is removed 
the company adjourn to a separate apartment. 
As to the importance attached to the mode of taking our 
meals, it may be said altogether to arise from prejudice : the 
Hindoos with their solitary repast, the Arabs with their single 
dish, out of which they may be said to feed gregariously, and 
the Abyssinians with a joint of raw meat, all feel the same kind 
of satisfaction and pride in their respective methods,* as the 
European does from the fancied superiority of his own. Con- 
