84 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[December, 
they are excellent swimmers, and bathe three or four times a day.. 
The females have a mode of braiding or plaiting their vi^ooUy hair, 
and adorn themselves with necklaces of shells. Both sexes gen- 
erally go bareheaded, and without shoes. There are other tribes 
of Hottentots at a greater distance from the cape, whose appear- 
ance indicates the last degree of wretchedness. But very few 
attempts, we believe, have been made to civilize or even to human- 
ize them. Our present concern is with those in the immediate 
vicinity of the Cape colony (we mean the children). Both Hot- 
tentots and CafFres enjoy the privileges of the school in Albany 
district, where, notwithstanding all those complicated obstacles 
which invariably attend the first settlers in a new country, there 
are no less than nine chapels ; seven of which are Methodist, one 
Congregational, and one Baptist, in particular parts of the district, 
all erected by voluntary contributions . Another was contemplated 
to be erected in Graham's Town some time in the course of 1831. 
Most of these places of worship have Sunday schools connected 
with them, affording to the rising generation, black as well as 
white, regular instruction in the rudiments of learning, as well as 
the first plain principles of practical religion. 
In treating of this interesting subject, the GrahanCs Town 
Journal^ a weekly paper of much merit, sa3rs, " Government has 
also done much to foster and promote the progress of education, 
by the appointment of schoolmasters at different stations, with 
suitable allowances ; providing eligible school-rooms, and furnish- 
ing them with the necessary materials for conducting the several 
schools on the Lancasterian system. These schools, though un- 
questionably productive of much good, are not so popular, nor so 
well suited to the circumstances of the people, as Sunday and 
evening schools, which have been established, and are supported 
by private individuals. The children of the poorer inhabitants 
are compelled to tend cattle, or afford other assistance, from a very 
early age ; and so indispensable are their services, that it is only 
on Sundays, or after the close of their daily labour, that they are 
disengaged, or that time can possibly be spared for the acquire- 
ment of more useful knowledge. The total number under in- 
struction in the district cannot, at a moderate computation, be less 
than one thousand, which gives the unexampled ratio of rather 
more than one to every seven of the entire population. 
