6S2 
GOOD HOPE, 
carrots is fometimes their only fuftenance during a long 
journey. Tlieir hoofs being much harder tlian thofe of 
tlie European liorfes, they are not in general (hod ; and 
wlien they are, it is only on the fore feet. The Cape 
horfes are not iwift travellers; they hardly ever exceed 
fourteen hands in height; and on account of the flies, 
which are exceedingly troublefome, their tails are fel- 
dom cut. The Dutch never paid any attention to im¬ 
proving the breed of horfes ; they fcarcely ever thought 
of introducing thofe of another country to crofs the 
breed, and improve tlie blood. The oxen are flrong, 
large, and bony ; though of an aukward fhape, being- 
lank and long-legged. In general they are yoked both 
by the horns and the neck ; and affifl the draught with 
their heads as w^ell as their bread and flioulders. In 
front of the body of the waggon there is a bar or piece 
of wood for a feat, like that placed before our hackney 
coaches: on this two of their Haves fit, and from this 
dation guide the horfes or oxen. One of the flavfe-s 
guides the reins, whild the other fits befide him with a 
long whip tliat trails on the ground till he has occafion 
to life it on the cattle, which he does with both his 
hands. Tlie liandleof this prodigious whip is of bam- 
boe, from twelve to fifteen feet long, and is fixed to a 
thick leather thong of bufiafo hide, rudely platted, and 
of an equal length with the handle, with a ladi nearly 
three feet long attached to the extremity. The drivers 
are fo very expert in the ufe of this immenfe whip, that 
they can touch a team of ten or twelve pair of cattle in 
any part they have a mind. When they come to a deep 
place in the road, or deep and difficult afcent, they keep 
cutting amongd the cattle to make them all pull toge¬ 
ther, and exert their drength equally. By this means 
the animals will draw the waggon over the mod difficult 
places, even rocks and precipices, whild the fellow who 
holds the reins, equally dextrous on his part, will guide 
them in complete faiety. The means employed to ren¬ 
der the cattle tlius manageable are, however, revolting 
to luimanity. It excites not only co-mpaffion but horror 
to fee many of thofe unfortunate beads cut and mangled, 
as they are, in vaiious parts of the body ; for a Dutch 
boor, or farmer, if lie find his cattle lazy, or dopping 
irom fatigue, or where they meet with obdacles which 
tneir drength cannot eafily furmount, will not hefitate 
to draw out his knife and fcore their flefli, or even cut 
dices off, without mercy. Every waggon is provided 
w’itli fh'ong cliains, or drags, like thofe ufed by our mail 
coaches, tb prevent their being overturned in going 
oown the precipices and deeps. Sometimes they are 
obliged to drag all the four wheels, and liave for this 
purpofe a maciiine wliicii they call a lock-dioe, being a 
kind of fledge or trough flmd with iron, into which the 
wheels are fet. This prevents th.e waggon from run¬ 
ning down the cattle, and certain'v is very ingenious in 
th e invention. 
Of the maimers and cudoms of the inhabitants of 
Cape-Town, Mr. Barrow h",s given a very intelligent 
account.—“The education of their youth has hitherto 
been much negleffed. The government never adopted 
any fuccefsful plan for the edablilliment of public 
iciiools ; and tlie individna' had no other ambition but 
that of qualitying his for.s, by ivriting and accounts, to 
bebome fervants of the company." Tliis body of mer¬ 
chants had a number of perlons in their employ who 
w'ere very ill paid. Their falaries were infufficient to 
atiord tl'.em a bare fub-fidence ; but it allowed them to 
tiegociate for themfelves. The confequence was, that 
every one became a kind of petty dealer. Each had 
his little private diop in fome corner of his houfe. The 
inod paltry articles were in the lid of their commodities 
for (ale ; and thofe wlio ranked high in the govern¬ 
ment, and alfumed a driiig of founding epithets to their 
names, felt no fort of indignity in retailing the produce 
of iltcir .gardens; not indeed avowedly, but through 
JJie meuium of their Haves, In faft, the minds of 
every clafs, the governor, the clergy, the fifeal, and 
the fecretary of the court of jndice excepted, were 
wholly bent on trade. Koopman or merchant was th.e 
title that conferred rank at the Cape, to which the mi¬ 
litary even afpired. That portion of the day, not em¬ 
ployed in the concerns of trade, they devoted to the 
gratification of the fenfual appetites. Few have any 
tade for reading, and none f the cultivation of the fine 
arts. They have no kind of public amufements except 
occafional balls ; nor is there much fecial intercourfe 
but by family parties. Money-matters and merchan- 
dife engrofs their whole converfation. Yet none are 
opulent, though many are in eafy circumdances. There 
are no beggars in the wliole colony ; and but a few wdio 
are the objects of public charity. The fnbfillence for 
thefe is derived from the intered of a fund cdablilhed 
out of the church rnpcrflulties, from alms, donations, 
and collections made after divine fervice, and not from 
any tax laid upon tlie public. Except, indeed, a few 
colonial affedments for the repairs of the dreets and 
public works, the inhabitants of tliis colony have little 
drawback on their profits or the produce of tlieir labour, 
“ It has been the remark of mod travellers that the 
ladies of Cape-Town are pretty, lively, and good-hu¬ 
moured ; podeding little of tliat phlegmatic temper 
which is a principal trait in th.e national charatfer of 
the Dutch, The did'erence in the manner^ and appear¬ 
ance of the young men and the young women, in the 
lame family, is inconceivably great. The former are 
clnnify in their (hape, aukward in their carriage, and of 
an unfociable difpofition ; whild the latter are gene¬ 
rally of a delicate form, below the middle fize, of eafy 
and unadeCIed manners, well drelfed, and fond of focial 
intercourfe, an ind-ulgence in wliich they are leldom re¬ 
drained by their parents, and which they as leldom turn 
to abiife. They are here indeed lefs dependant on, and 
lefs fubjeCl to, the caprice of parents than elfewhere. 
Primogeniture entitles to no advantages; but all the 
children, male and female, diare alike in the family 
property. No parent can difinherit a child without 
adigning, on proof, one at lead of the fourteen reafons 
enumerated in the Jndinian code. By the law of the 
colony, a community of all property, botli real and 
perfonal, is fuppofed to take place on the marriage of 
tw'o perlons, nnlefs tlie contrary Ihould be particularly 
provided againd by folemn conlraiit made before mar¬ 
riage. Where no Inch contract exids, the children, on 
the death of either pareni, are entitled to that half of 
tile joint property which was fuppofed to belong to the 
decealed, and which cannot be withheld on application 
after they are come of age. 
“It is but judice to the young females of the Cape 
to remar.k, that many of them have profited much more 
than could be expected from the limited means of edu¬ 
cation that the place affords. In the b.etter faihilies, 
mod of them are taught iiiufic, and I'onie have acquired 
a tolerable degree of execution. Many underdand the 
French language, and tliey are now making great pro¬ 
ficiency in the Englidi. They are expert at the needle, 
at all kinds of lace, knotting, and tambour work, and 
ill general make up their own dred’es, following tlie 
prevailing fafhioiis of England brought from time to 
time by the female paflengers bound to India, from 
whom they may be literally laid to 
“ Catch the manners living as they rife.” 
Neither are the other lex, while boys, deficient in vi¬ 
vacity or talent ; but for want of the means of a proper 
education, to open their minds aiid excite in them a 
defire of knowledge, they foon degenerate into the 
common routine of eating, fnioakjiig, and deeping. F'civ 
of the male inhabitants feem anxious to alfociate with, 
the Englidi, except fuch as hold employiiieius under 
the government. This backwardiiefs may be owing in 
part to the different habits of the two nations, and 
partly, 
