f 
 
 lii
 
 J2_ 
 
 EUROPEAN COLONIES, 
 
 IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 VIEWED IN THEIR 
 
 SOCIAL, MORAL, AND PHYSICAL CONDITION. 
 
 / 
 BY JOHN HOWISON, 
 
 or THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANy's BOMBAY SKUVICE ; 
 
 AND AUTHOR OF 
 
 " SKETCHES OF UPPER CANADA," 
 " FOREIGN SCENES AND TRAVELLING RECREATIONS," ETC 
 
 ^ 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 ^ubli^ijcv in (©rtinaiD to ^M IHajcgtw. 
 
 1834.
 
 ,ec' 
 
 TTl'' 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 The object of this work is to communicate 
 a vivid and accurate idea of those general 
 impressions which a visit to the respective 
 colonies comprehended in it, is calculated to 
 produce in the mind of a disinterested observer. 
 All political, commercial, and statistical details 
 have been avoided, and nature and human life, 
 conjoined with a few historical notices, are the 
 subjects to which the author has exclusively 
 devoted his pages. His idea has been to in- 
 troduce the reader to a knowledge of each 
 colony, by presenting to his view its features 
 and character in that succession which would 
 meet his eye and his observation, were he to 
 visit it personally. Each division of the work 
 comprises four similar and consistent parts. 
 The first of these describes the ocean which 
 
 A 3
 
 VI 
 
 must be traversed in proceeding to the country 
 whose designation it bears ; the second gives a 
 picture of the scenery and physical objects which 
 are calculated first to strike the attention of a 
 stranger arriving there ; the third delineates 
 the general character of the aboriginal inhabit- 
 ants ; and the fourth embraces the progress 
 of European settlement in the colony, and the 
 existing manners, condition, and habits of 
 thought, of its foreign residents. 
 
 The author having resided and travelled in 
 nearly all the colonies and settlements which 
 he professes to describe, and also sailed upon 
 their respective oceans, the facts and opinions 
 contained in this work are derived as much 
 from personal observation as from the authority 
 of others.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 THE WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 
 
 Slow progress of nautical discovery, page 1. — Early voy- 
 ages of the Portuguese, 5. — St. Helen's fire, 7. — Long calms, 
 8, — The w^aterspout, 9. — Origin of the ceremonies in cross- 
 ing the equator, 11. — The grassy sea, 17. — Site of the At- 
 lantis of Plato, 21. — Submerged continent, 22. — The 
 Guanches, 23. — A mummy, 24. — Self sacrifice, 26. — Ex- 
 tinction of the Guanches, 26. 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
 
 Coast of Morocco, 28. — Mouth of the Senegal, 29. — 
 Dreary prospect, 31. — Luxuriant vegetation, 32. — The ba- 
 hobab-tree, 32. — Alligators, elephants, flamingoes, 33. — 
 FertiUty of Western Africa, 34. — Its vegetable and animal 
 productions, 35. — The Kola nut, 36. — Vegetable money, 37. 
 
 Ivory and gold, 38. — Remarkable contrast, 39. — Want of 
 
 good harbours in all the coasts of Africa, 40. — Rivers of 
 West Africa, 41. — Bar of Senegal, 42. — Climate of West 
 Africa, 43. — The rainy season, 44. — The dry season, 44. — 
 Animals of West Africa. — Mental powers of animals, 48. 
 
 ABORIGINES. 
 
 Contrast between the Moors and the Negroes, 50. — The 
 negro character, 52. — Fraudulent conduct of Europeans on
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 the coast of Africa, 59. — Misrepresentations of English 
 writers, 61. — Testimonies in favour of the negroes, 63, — 
 Their real defects, 66. — Despotic governments, 68. — 
 Human sacrifices, 69. — Sanguinary caprices of royalty, 72. — 
 Religion of the natives of West Africa, 75. — Marabouts, 78. 
 
 — Gris-gris, 80. — Trial by ordeal, 84. — Indolence of ne- 
 groes, 89. — Their diet, 89. — Determined talkers, 90. — Me- 
 mory of negroes, 93. — Music and dancing, 94. — Foulahs, 
 95. — Mysterious initiation, 96 — Absence of monuments of 
 human art or labour in West Africa, 97. — Unchanging con- 
 dition of the negroes, 98. — Safeguard against foreign in- 
 vasion, 99. — Blessings of civilization, 99. 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Commencement of the African trade, 101. — European 
 establishments upon the coast, 107. — Principal forts, 109. — 
 Negro exactions for the liberty of trading, 110. — Euro- 
 pean governors, 111. — Factors, 112. — Subordinates, 113. — 
 Troops, 114. — Laptots, 115. — Traffic, 116. — Fatal navi- 
 gation — Contraband trade, 118. — Mode of trafficking with 
 negroes, 120. — Adulteration of gold-dust — Secrecy of 
 negroes as to the locality of their gold mines, 127. — Cam- 
 pagnon's mission, 128. — Abundance of gold in Africa, 129. 
 
 — Duties of European factors in West Africa, 132. — The 
 slave trade, 132. — Galam, and its neighbourhood, 136. — 
 The gum-trade, 137. — Singular method of trading, 139. — 
 Navigation of the Gambia by the English, 143. — Acts of 
 violence by a negro king, 144. — Society, 144. — Flagi- 
 tious conduct of the European inhabitants, 146. — Their 
 fatal intemperance, 149. — Character of the aborigines un- 
 influenced by intercourse with Europeans, 150. — Mulattoes, 
 
 153. — Their settlements, 154 Frightful storms, 155. — 
 
 Deplorable state of society in Kacheo, 150 Unsuccess- 
 ful attempts at colonization, 156. — Unremitting exertions 
 of Licutanant Beaver, 159. — Colony at Sierra Leone, 160.
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 
 
 Difficulty in navigating the South African seas, 163. - 
 Passage round Cape Horn, 165. — General aspect of the 
 South African Ocean, 165. — Storms at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, 167. — Frequency of gales, 168. — Erroneous notions 
 as to the real height of waves, 169. — Prevalence of north- 
 west gales, 173. — Vast disproportion of land in the two 
 hemispheres, 175. — Vain search for an Antarctic continent, 
 175. — Sublime character of the southern lands hitherto 
 discovered, 177. — Dissertations as to who first doubled the 
 Cape of Good Hope, 175. — Constellation of the Cross, 181. 
 — Meteorology of the South African Ocean, 183. 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
 
 Boldness and majesty of the Cape of Good Hope, 185. — 
 The Lion's Hill, 185. — Table bay, 186. — General aspect 
 of the Cape of Good Hope, 188. — Favourable position of 
 South Africa, 188. — Exhausted appearance of the country, 
 190. — Similar defects in other countries lying in the 
 same parallel of latitude, 191. — Universal scarcity of water, 
 192. — Fertile territory of Wynberg, 193. — No fruit indige- 
 nous to South Africa, 194. — Vegetables naturalized in the 
 Cape, 195. — Extreme peninsula of South Africa, 196. — 
 Dutch settlers, 197. — Hottentot's Holland, 199. — Heart of 
 African scenery, 199. — Kloofs, 200. — Kloof of Witzenberg, 
 201. — Scantiness of population in the interior of South 
 Africa, 202. — Desert plains, 203, — Oases, 205. — Exten- 
 sive solitude, 207. — Banks of South African rivers, 207. — 
 Rivulets and mountain torrents, 208. — Salt lakes and springs, 
 
 210 Long and calamitous drought, 211. — Wild animals, 
 
 211. — Assemblage of people on the banks of rivers, wait-
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 ing to cross, 212.— Zoology of South Africa, 215.— 
 Breed of cattle, 218. — Proposal to naturalize the camel in 
 South Africa, 222. — Peculiar tracts of country named 
 Karroo, 224. — Climate of South Africa, 226. — No ancient 
 monuments of human art in South Africa, 227. 
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Different representations given by travellers of the Hot- 
 tentots, 231. — Nations inhabiting South Africa, 232. — Hot- 
 tentot population, 233. — Causes leading to the extinction of 
 the Hottentot tribes, 234. — Their personal appearance, 
 236. — Bastard Hottentots, 238. — Hottentot servants, 241. 
 
 — Religious system of the Hottentots, 242. — Manicheans, 
 244. — General character of the aboriginal Hottentots, 247. 
 Moral eft-.ts of indulgence in animal food, 248.— Origin of 
 the H.itentots, 248. — Superstitious prejudices, 250. — The 
 Boschmen, 252.--Their country, 253 — Their habits, 255.— 
 
 Their food, 256 — Their social state, 257 Anecdote, 258. 
 
 The Boschraan language, 260 Low state of arts among 
 
 the Boschmen, 261. Their weapons, 262. — The Bosch- 
 man poison, 263. — The black spider, 265. — Venomous 
 animals, 266. — Feuds with Boschmen, 268. — Boschman 
 population, 273. — Degradation of the Boschmen, 274. 
 
 — The Caffres, 277. — Striking change in the aspect of the 
 country on the Caffre side of the Great River, 277. Pas- 
 toral life of the Caffres, 278. — Caffre style of beauty, 279. — 
 Form of government, 280. — Rarity of crime among the 
 Caffres, 281.— Their happy state, 282.— Effects of so-called 
 
 civilization, 284. — Profligate European emigrants, 284. 
 
 Wreck of the Grosvenor Indiaman, 286. — Search after the 
 survivors of her crew and passengers, 287. — Improvement 
 of the country towards the equator, 290. — Efforts of Mis- 
 sionaries, 291. — Moravian institution of Guatendal, 294. 
 
 Village of Bethclsdorp, 301. — Wretched situation of Pella, 
 303. — Hopelessness of missionary agency, 306.
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Possession taken by the Dutch of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 308. — First settlers, 309.— Simon Vanderstel, 311. — Gover- 
 nor Tulbagh, 313. — Character of the Dutch at the Cape in 
 1770, 315. — Dutch East India Company, 316. — Inhabi- 
 tants of Cape Town, 318. — Arrival of two French regiments, 
 
 320 Occupation of the Colony by the British, 322. — 
 
 Their supercilious conduct, 324. — Barrow and Lichtenstein, 
 323. — Present state of European society at the Cape, 326. 
 — Dutch population of South Africa, 327. — Habits of the 
 Dutch gentlemen, 329. — Sociable disposition of the Dutch, 
 
 329. — Females at the Cape, 330. — Young men, 331 
 
 General circumstances of the Dutch at Cape Town, 332. — 
 Little social intercourse between the Dutch and English 
 there, 333. — Causes of this, 334. — Houses at Capq Town, 
 337, — Hollanders, Frenchmen, and Englishmen, 338. — 
 Foreign towns of the three nations, 339. — Corn and wine 
 farmers, 341. — Inland boors, 342. — Their habitations, 343. 
 — Their food, 344. — A boor's farm, 345. — Hardships en- 
 dured by the inland boors, 346. — Their phlegmatic dispo- 
 sition, 346. — Their hospitality, 347. — Their aversion to 
 foreigners, 350. — Their means of education, 350. — Their chil- 
 dren, 351. — Comparison of the situation of the boors with 
 that of similar settlers in other parts of the globe, 354. — 
 English residents of South Africa, 357. — Colonists known 
 by the name of Bastards, 358. — Slave population of South 
 Africa, 361. — Malays and Mozambique negroes, 365. — 
 Runaway slaves, 366. — Ingenious mode of revenge, 367. — 
 Practice of abortion and infanticide, 368. — Infrequency of 
 crimes among the slave population, 369. — Mild character 
 of slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 370. — Names chosen 
 for slaves, 373. — Average price of a male slave, 374. — 
 Anecdote, 375.
 
 XU CONTENTS. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 THE INDIAN OCEAN. 
 
 The Indian Sea known to the Romans, 377. — Modern 
 development of geographical science, 379. — Subject of dis- 
 pute amongst geographers, 381. — Extent of the Indian Sea, 
 382. — Physical character of that sea compared to the tro- 
 pical parts of the Atlantic, 384. — Phosphorescence of the 
 sea, 385. — Beauty of the shells of the Indian Ocean, 387. 
 — The pearl, 388. — Islands, 390. — Wonderful agency of 
 the Coral insect, 390. — Coral islands, 391. — Geographical 
 distribution of vegetables, 394. — Animal inhabitants of Coral 
 islands recently formed, 398. — Speculations on this subject, 
 399, — Colony of lepers, 402. 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
 
 Effect on the imagination of tropical scenery, 404. — 
 Poetry of Hindostan, 407. — Aspect of India, 408. — Its 
 shores, 409. — Variety of physical aspects in Hindostan, 
 
 410. — Scarcity of water, 413. — Rivers of India, 414 
 
 Grandeur of the mountains, 417. — The Ghauts, 417. — 
 Hindostan exempt from the more violent and devastating 
 convulsions of Nature, 419. — Various productions of India, 
 420. — Fertility of the soil, 421. — Character of the climate, 
 423. — Grandeur of the vegetable world in India, 426. — 
 Inferior development of human powers, 427. — Causes of 
 this, 428.
 
 THE COLONIES. 
 
 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 THE WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 
 
 Nothing appears at first view more unac- 
 countable than the slow progress of nautical 
 discovery. How was it that nations so enter- 
 prising, powerful, and enlightened, as the 
 Greeks, the Romans, and the Carthaginians, 
 never attempted to carry their navigation be- 
 yond the Straits of Gibraltar, or even to ex- 
 plore the north-west coast of Africa, except in 
 two instances ? Why did not Ptolemy Lagus, 
 when he ruled over Egypt, and carried on an 
 extensive trade with India by way of the Red 
 Sea, never think of sending a ship to circum- 
 navigate Africa ? How did it happen that 
 neither Pythagoras, nor Eratosthenes, nor any 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 other of the ancient geographers and astro- 
 nomers, ever proposed to their countrymen, or 
 to their respective sovereigns, that a voyage of 
 discovery should be made in order to settle their 
 doubts and perplexities in reference to the form 
 of the earth, its productions, and the extent of 
 its habitableness ? Had Aristotle suggested a 
 scheme of the kind to Alexander the Great, 
 that conqueror, who loved everything new and 
 imaginative, would doubtless have been pleas- 
 ed with the proposal, and have taken measures 
 for its execution. If we consider the turn of 
 genius of the Macedonian hero, and the grand- 
 ness of his commercial views respecting Alex- 
 andria, we may safely presume that, had he 
 lived a little longer, and settled his affairs in 
 the East, he would have directed his attention 
 to maritime discovery, and pursued the track 
 which was afterwards followed by the Portu- 
 guese in the middle of the fourteenth century. 
 It is vain to reply to the abova questions 
 by saying that the vessels of the ancients were 
 not calculated for long voyages. If they could 
 traverse the Mediterranean and the Euxine, 
 they might at least have coasted Africa with- 
 out any difficulty as far as latitude 20° or 25" 
 south ; but we have something quite conclusive
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 3 
 
 upon the subject, if we regard as authentic the 
 Periplus of Hanno, according to which, Hanno 
 set sail from Carthage, in command of a fleet 
 equipped for the purpose of founding a colony 
 on the north-west coast of Africa. The expe- 
 dition consisted of sixty ships, and thirty thou- 
 sand individuals, men, women, and children, 
 which allows five hundred persons to each ship, 
 supposing that these were all of the same size ; 
 and this must have been, at the lowest calcula- 
 tion, four hundred tons burthen, without making- 
 allowance for the stowage of any considerable 
 quantity of provisions, the supply of which was 
 so scanty, that it failed when the fleet reached 
 Cape Non, and caused it to return to Carthage, 
 without having effected the object for which it 
 was designed. 
 
 If the ancients possessed ships of four hun- 
 dred tons burthen, they could easily have made 
 longer voyages than they ever attempted to do, 
 and we must therefore attribute their back- 
 wardness in maritime discovery to other causes 
 than the want of the means of engaging in it. 
 All the ancient republics were so much wrap- 
 ped up in themselves, and so exclusively en- 
 grossed with their own local affairs, that they 
 could not spare even a passing regard for any- 
 
 B 2
 
 4 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 thing else. When Themistocles proposed to 
 the Athenians, that the produce of the mines 
 of Laurentium should be employed in building 
 and equipping a hostile fleet, instead of being 
 distributed amongst the citizens, as had for- 
 merly been done, he was heard with applause, 
 and he carried his point ; but had Plato or any 
 other philosopher asked a donation in aid of 
 maritime discovery, he would have been laugh- 
 ed at by the people, and perhaps condemned to 
 banishment by the senate for endeavouring to 
 apply the public money to corrupt uses. Ego- 
 tism was the ruling influence at Athens, and 
 every one there was taught to undervalue or de- 
 spise all things that were not to be found in his 
 native land. To men of this character, the dis- 
 covery and knowledge of foreign countries could 
 present nothing attractive ; and many of them 
 would perhaps have been alarmed at any idea of 
 the kind, lest some distant region of the world 
 should be found to contain a nation surpassing 
 them in arts and arms, and too far advanced in 
 civilization to require their instructions, or to 
 condescend either to admire their manners or to 
 imitate their institutions. 
 
 Columbus was nine years soliciting assistance 
 from different governments to enable him to
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 5 
 
 undertake the discovery of America, and this 
 has been considered reproachful to Europe ; but 
 had he lived in ancient times, it is likely that 
 his applications to the Greeks, Romans, and 
 Carthaginians on such a subject, would have 
 been still more unsuccessful, though these states 
 then enjoyed a much higher grade of civiliza- 
 tion than Europe had any pretensions to at the 
 end of the fifteenth century. 
 
 It was in 1418 that the Portuguese first be- 
 gan to venture upon the West African Ocean, 
 under the auspices of the celebrated Prince 
 Henry. But these expeditions were entirely 
 of a coasting nature, and were conducted with 
 much caution and timidity, for Cape Verde was 
 not attained till seventeen years after the dis- 
 coveries had commenced; and it was not till 
 1471 that the equator was first crossed by Jean 
 de Santarem, who upon this occasion proceed- 
 ed as far as Cape St. Catherine, in south lati- 
 tude 2° 30'. 
 
 The accounts which we have of these early 
 voyages are much less in detail than could be 
 wished, for they give us no idea of the impres- 
 sions created in the minds of the navigators by 
 the new aspect which nature assumes in the tro- 
 pical seas, whether in relation to meteorology or
 
 6 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 to the animal kingdom. Many of them did not 
 advance so far as their royal employer expected, 
 alarmed, doubtless, by the occurrence of new and 
 inexplicable phenomena. As they sailed south- 
 ward, and felt the temperature increase, they 
 would consider that they were fast approaching 
 those regions which, according to the common 
 opinion, w^ere uninhabitable on account of heat. 
 When the harmattan blew, and dimmed the air 
 with particles of sand ; when unperceived cur- 
 rents carried the ship far out of her reckoning ; 
 when on a calm night the surface of the ocean 
 appeared on fire ; when waterspouts, as if im- 
 pelled by supernatural power, advanced with 
 horrid roarings towards the vessel ; and when 
 the thunder, lightning, rain, and typhoons of 
 the torrid zone raged in concert, the inexpe- 
 rienced navigator might well lose courage, and 
 think that nature was conspiring to oppose his 
 progress, and that it was time for him to re- 
 trace his way homewards. 
 
 The West African Ocean is comparatively 
 seldom visited by tempests, and when these do 
 occur, they are never of long duration. On 
 the other hand, violent shifting squalls are very 
 common, often arising unexpectedly, and con- 
 tinuing for an hour or two, when heavy rain
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 7 
 
 puts a stop to them and lulls the sea. Thunder 
 and lightning occur almost daily in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the coast ; and the meteor called 
 St. Helm's fire, is frequently seen at a ship's 
 mast-head, in the form of a whitish lengthened 
 flame, or of a globe of fire. The generality of 
 sailors regard it as portending good weather, or 
 the reverse, according to their humour at the 
 time ; but Catholics usually attribute the phe- 
 nomenon to the agency of some saint. Ma- 
 gellan, when sailing in the West African Ocean 
 in 1519, was particularly favoured in this way, 
 according to his historian Pigafetta. " In 
 stormy weather," says he, " we frequently saw 
 what is called the Corpo Santo, or St. Elme. 
 One very dark night it appeared to us like a 
 brilliant flambeau on the summit of a large 
 tree, and thus remained for the space of two 
 hours, which was a matter of great consolation 
 to us during the tempest. At the instant of 
 its disappearing, it diffused such a resplendent 
 light as almost blinded us. We gave ourselves 
 up for lost, but the wind ceased momenta- 
 neously." 
 
 The early navigators were accustomed to re- 
 gard with superstitious dread the long calms 
 which they frequently experienced in the West
 
 8 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 African Ocean, and particularly in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Gulf of Guinea. They found 
 these to be very different in character and du- 
 ration from anything of the kind that ever took 
 place in the northern oceans, where the air is 
 always slightly agitated even in the calmest 
 weather, and where the sea never ceases to un- 
 dulate with a gentle swell, and to present a 
 surface more or less rippled. But within the 
 torrid zone the atmosphere will sometimes re- 
 main stagnant during ten or twelve days in 
 succession; and the ocean, becoming smooth as 
 a mirror, reflects the blaze of the sun with in- 
 tolerable fervour. Sharks then appear, and 
 sport round the sides of the motionless ship — 
 snakes rise from the deep, and showing them- 
 selves for a moment, descend again — the por- 
 poise makes long circuits, spouting water, and 
 panting and breathing like a human being — and 
 the whale afar off raises his mountainous back 
 above the surface of the sea. The thunder 
 rolls heavily overhead, the masts and timbers of 
 the vessel are heard cracking, and there seems 
 to be no help or hope for man. Individuals 
 placed in a situation of this kind for the first 
 time, and ignorant whether the climate obeyed 
 those laws which prevailed elsewhere, would be
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 9 
 
 likely to view everything through a distorted 
 medium, and to give a colouring of the miracu- 
 lous to circumstances in reality no way out of 
 the common course of nature. 
 
 The waterspout may be considered the most 
 appalling phenomenon that appears in the equa- 
 torial seas ; and it is of more frequent occur- 
 rence, and attains greater magnitude, on the 
 west coast of Africa, than in any other part of 
 the ocean. It does not always show itself 
 under the same form, and on some occasions it 
 is stationary, while on others it moves forward 
 with varying rapidity. When a waterspout is 
 about to be produced, the sea, however smooth 
 it may previously have been, acquires a violent 
 degree of agitation at a particular spot, and 
 soon begins to foam and boil up with a whirling 
 and dashing noise. Presently a funnel-shaped 
 tube is observed to descend from the clouds, 
 which always hang very low at such a time, 
 and to direct itself towards the turbulent 
 waters, as if to form a junction with them. 
 This it sometimes does, or rather appears to 
 do, instantaneously, but more commonly not. 
 Meanwhile the agitation of the sea increases, 
 the tube grows larger, and the superincumbent 
 cloud descends to a lower level ; and at length
 
 10 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 all these parts unite, and form a pillar of water 
 fifty or sixty feet high, the base of which rests 
 upon the sea, while its top penetrates the over- 
 hanging clouds, and is totally concealed by them. 
 This pillar perhaps continues stationary for a 
 few moments, and then disappears ; but in other 
 instances it advances steadily in one direction, 
 and threatens destruction to any ship that may 
 lie in its course ; for the weather being always 
 perfectly calm upon such occasions, the ma- 
 riners cannot move out of its way. They must 
 therefore endeavour to destroy the object of 
 their fears before it reaches the vessel, which 
 they often successfully do by firing guns, the 
 sudden vibration thus produced in the air de- 
 stroying the equilibrium of the column of 
 water, which then falls down and mingles with 
 the sea. Should the waterspout continue to 
 advance in defiance of artillery, the seamen 
 seek to provide for their safety by going below 
 decks, and closing the hatches : nor is their 
 situation here so dangerous as might be sup- 
 posed, unless their vessel happen to be of very 
 small tonnage ; for I am inclined to believe that 
 no waterspout ever strikes a large ship under 
 any circumstances whatever, because, as soon 
 as it comes within a certain distance of such
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 11 
 
 an object, it must feel the influence of that 
 attraction of gravitation which all large bodies 
 exert upon each other, and, losing its balance 
 and stability, will no longer be able to sustain 
 itself in that columnar form and upright po- 
 sition which are essential to its existence. 
 
 The formation of waterspouts is ascribed by 
 some writers to the action of a whirlwind pro- 
 duced by the meeting of two opposite wdnds ; 
 a theory that ill accords with the calm state of 
 the atmosphere which is usually observed to 
 prevail during the occurrence of these pheno- 
 mena. It has also been asserted that the watery 
 pillar, so formidable in appearance, is hollow, 
 and consists entirely of the spray of the sea in 
 a state of gyration, and that therefore the quan- 
 tity of fluid composing it is too inconsiderable 
 to do any damage to ships by falling upon 
 them. We well know, however, that, when 
 waterspouts suddenly disperse in the open sea, 
 a loud noise is generally heard, like the dashing 
 of a cascade, which seems to indicate that they 
 have more bulk and solidity than the above 
 opinion would allow. 
 
 The equator having been first crossed within 
 the longitude of the West African Ocean, we 
 are naturally led to look in that quarter for the
 
 12 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 history and origin of the singular and nearly 
 universal usage called Baptism by Neptune, 
 with which mariners have from time imme- 
 morial been in the habit of signalizing their 
 passage from one hemisphere to the other. But 
 the whole subject is involved in the utmost ob- 
 scurity. The Greeks used to throw gold cups 
 and similar things into the ocean when they 
 wished to propitiate its deity, and they would 
 in general make libations to him when they 
 sailed past any of his temples, which were 
 usually built upon capes and promontories, in 
 order that they might be visible to mariners at 
 sea; and even in the present day it is custo- 
 mary with the Norwegian fishermen to perform 
 certain religious or superstitious acts on pass- 
 ing particular straits and headlands where the 
 navigation is considered intricate or dangerous. 
 Nor would a fast or a thanksgiving be an un- 
 reasonable ceremony on crossing the equinoctial 
 line; but the mode of celebrating that event 
 which has long been practised by European ma- 
 riners, so far from having anything devout in 
 its character, is a compound of fantastic and 
 unmeaning extravagances. 
 
 At first view we should be inclined to attri- 
 bute the invention of the ceremony in question
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 13 
 
 to the Portuguese, who were the navigators 
 that first passed the line, but there are two ob- 
 jections to our doing so. They were a religious 
 people, at least externally ; and priests almost 
 always accompanied them in their early voy- 
 ages of discovery, and celebrated the rites of the 
 church and kept its festivals with as much re- 
 gularity as circumstances would allow. Is it 
 likely, then, that such men would permit the 
 mariners, on crossing the equator, to indulge in 
 profane mirth, and to do homage, even in jest, 
 to one of the heathen deities, when the occasion 
 seemed to demand thanksgivings for present 
 safety, and invocations to the saints for deliver- 
 ance from prospective dangers? It appears, 
 too, that baptism, or some analogous ceremony, 
 was practised in other parts of the ocean be- 
 sides those lying under the equator ; as on 
 passing the tropic of Cancer, and the Straits 
 of Gibraltar ; so that the Portuguese, perhaps, 
 only followed an ancient and established custom 
 when they adopted the rite as often as they 
 found themselves about to cross the equinoctial 
 line. 
 
 Gemelli, in describing his voyage from Ma- 
 nilla to Acapulco, in the Spanish galleon, about 
 the end of the seventeenth century, says.
 
 14 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 that " the captain and the mariners, when they 
 supposed themselves to be within one hundred 
 leagues of the coast of California, began to look 
 out for a certain kind of seaweed, the appear- 
 ance of which indicates with certainty that 
 land is not far off. No sooner was the seaweed 
 discovered floating upon the waves, than the 
 crew proceeded to the election of a mock court 
 of judicature, called the Court of Senas, (or 
 signs, because they had found the one required,) 
 the object of which was to try the passengers 
 for fictitious crimes laid to their charge by pre- 
 pared accusers, and to condemn them to the 
 payment of fines in punishment for the same. 
 The sums of money levied in this way became 
 a perquisite of the mariners ; and no man was 
 cited before the Court of Senas who had pre- 
 viously made the passage between Manilla and 
 Acapulco." 
 
 In Jannequin's voyage to Africa, in 1639, 
 it is mentioned that Henry the Fourth of 
 France, passing through a dangerous channel 
 called the Raz, between St. Malo and Ro- 
 chelle, observed the sailors performing the rite 
 of baptism upon one of their party. He asked 
 upon what grounds the usage was established, 
 and on being informed that its antiquity was so
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 15 
 
 great that no one knew its origin or meaning, 
 he consented to submit to it himself. Were 
 the authenticity of this anecdote ascertained, it 
 would carry back the practice of the ceremony 
 to at least a century before Jannequin's time. 
 But, however this may be, it is impossible to 
 doubt that the rite has been much corrupted 
 since its first introduction, and that what is now 
 a piece of burlesque, was once a serious page- 
 ant, implying perhaps more than met the eye. 
 
 There is no mention of nautical baptism in 
 Magellan's voyage round the world, which took 
 place in 1519 : the earliest notice which we have 
 upon the subject is in the voyage of Alexis 
 de St. Lo to Cape Verde, in 1635, when the 
 ceremony took place under the tropic of Can- 
 cer. Jannequin, the writer above referred to, 
 witnessed it in the same latitude four years 
 afterwards. He says, that on such occa- 
 sions, the pilot attires himself in a long robe, 
 and, holding in his hands his book of charts, 
 summons all those who have not before made 
 the voyage, to appear before him. He then 
 causes them to swear upon his book, that as 
 often as they pass the same place they will 
 perform the requisite and established ceremo- 
 nies in the manner then observed. After
 
 16 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 this, his assistant gives each of the novices a 
 sliffht stroke on the back of the neck with tlie 
 flat of a sword, and having demanded some 
 presents, hands over the newly-initiated per- 
 sons to the mariners, who force them to plunge 
 their heads three times into a tub of water, and 
 in addition to this, dash a few buckets-full over 
 them, to complete their baptism. 
 
 A subsequent particular account of the cere- 
 monies used in crossing the equator, is to be 
 found in a voyage to Congo, by Angelo and 
 Carli, in 1666. " They (the Portuguese) also 
 observe this ancient custom," say our authors : 
 "those who have never been under the line 
 are obliged to give the sailors either a piece of 
 money, or something to eat or drink, or at least 
 money's worth, from which no man is excused, 
 not even the Capuchins, of whom they take 
 beads, Agnus Dei, and such like things, which 
 being exposed to sale, what they yield is given 
 to say masses for the souls in purgatory. If 
 any man happen to be such a miser as to deny 
 paying this duty, the sailors, clothed like offi- 
 cers, carry him bound to a tribunal, on which a 
 seaman is seated in a long robe, who, acting the 
 part of a judge, examines him, hears what he
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 17 
 
 has to say, and gives judgment against him to 
 be thrice ducked in the sea." 
 
 It is to be observed that, in the above descrip- 
 tions of nautical baptism, no allusion whatever 
 is made to Neptune, and that the fines and do- 
 nations which are in the present day exacted 
 from novices on their crossing the equator, are 
 not applied to any religious purpose, but are 
 expended by the seamen in amusement and 
 drinking. The introduction of the Grecian 
 deity appears, then, to be a modern innovation, 
 and probably was suggested by British mariners, 
 with a view to give a character of humour and 
 vivacity to an usage which had formerly been 
 too grave and simple to excite their interest or 
 please their taste. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of the 
 West African Ocean is that portion of it which 
 is named INlar do Sargossa by the Portuguese, 
 Krootza Zee by the Dutch, and Grassy Sea by 
 the English. It extends between 18*' and 30° 
 north latitude, and 20° and 35" west longitude, 
 and is often so completely overspread with a 
 species of floating seaweed, that it resembles a 
 field covered with brown vegetation ; and the 
 marine plants are in some places so strongly 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and closely intertwined, that they slightly im- 
 pede a ship's progress. This fucus nutans con- 
 sists of a series of nodules growing in bunches, 
 and a good deal resembling cauliflower stripped 
 of its leaves. They are of an olive or tawny 
 colour, and float upon the surface of the sea in 
 paraUel lines, except during the prevalence of 
 strong winds, when their arrangement is dis- 
 torted, and their general distribution becomes 
 irregular. In passing through the Mar do Sar- 
 gossa in April 1833, I could discover only a 
 few nodules of the weed, floating far apart ; but 
 as the north-east trade had been blowing fresh 
 for several days previous, I was led to conclude 
 that the great body of seaweed had been driven 
 to the westward of our track, and had accumu- 
 lated on the coast of South America. 
 
 Floating weed is found in nearly all parts of 
 the ocean in greater or less quantities, but no- 
 where does it cover so vast an expanse of water 
 as in the Grassy Sea ; and naturalists have form- 
 ed different opinions respecting the causes of 
 its accumulation there. It is a common belief 
 that \\\Q fucns in question is produced in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and carried from thence by 
 the Florida stream between the Bermuda and 
 Western Islands, and afterwards in a southerly
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 19 
 
 direction as far as the tropic of Cancer, or a 
 few degrees within it. The objection to this 
 opinion is, that seaweed produced in the Gulf 
 of Mexico, and conveyed so great a distance, 
 would arrive in a withered and decayed state ; 
 but this is so far from being the case in the 
 present instance, that the fucus of the Mar do 
 Sargossa is generally found to be fresh and 
 flourishing, and it has even been remarked that 
 it is the more so the farther it extends to the 
 southward. The simplest mode of accounting 
 for this accumulation of seaweed would be, to 
 suppose that it grew in the bottom of the ocean 
 in the latitudes in which it is always observed 
 floating ; but the vast depth of the sea there 
 seems effectually to overturn this theory, for it 
 is reasonable to believe that vegetation cannot 
 take place many hundred feet below the sur- 
 face, because of the overwhelming pressure of 
 the superincumbent water. And it has been 
 urged, in addition to this, that the marine plant 
 in question being of a green or brown hue, it 
 must necessarily grow in places accessible to 
 light, otherwise it would be entirely colourless. 
 However, the last argument has no validity; for 
 Humboldt informs us that he drew up a piece 
 of seaweed in the neighbourhood of the island of 
 
 c 2
 
 20 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 AUegrava (one of the Canaries), which was " as 
 green as our grass," though it had grown upon 
 a piece of madrepore one hundred and ninety- 
 two feet below the surface of the water, where 
 it must have vegetated in darkness, or at least 
 beyond the influence of any but a few strag- 
 gling rays of refracted light. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that the seaweed of 
 the Mar do Sargossa is actually produced upon 
 the surface of the ocean, and at or near the 
 place where it is found ; and that the mature 
 plants, when they shed their seed and decay, 
 afford substance and soil for the vegetation of 
 new ones. We well know that the smallest 
 floating body is sufficiently substantial to ad- 
 mit of the growth of a fiicus upon it, and we 
 often meet with such plants immensely ex- 
 ceeding in bulk the material to which they are 
 attached. A chip of wood, a cork, or a piece 
 of rope, thrown into the sea, are soon covered 
 with marine vegetation ; and large ponds of 
 water, and even lakes, are often found encrust- 
 ed with mosses and gramina, whose roots are 
 not attached to any extraneous substance, and 
 which appear to vegetate entirely upon the 
 debris of each other. The Mar do Sargossa, 
 being little agitated by tempests or moved by
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 21 
 
 currents, is particularly favourable for this kind 
 of parasitical vegetation. The flow of the Gulf 
 stream ceases to be perceptible in north latitude 
 30°, and, on the other hand, the current that 
 sweeps round the Cape of Good Hope loses its 
 strength in south latitude 25°, so that the por- 
 tion of sea intervening between these two pa- 
 rallels is as it were in a state of constant stag- 
 nation, because it is the boundary of a current 
 alike to the north and to the south, and is 
 imprisoned by continents to the eastward and 
 westward. 
 
 ^Vhile taking a survey of the West African 
 Ocean, it is impossible to forget that it is re- 
 puted by many writers to have been the site of 
 the celebrated Atlantis of Plato, which, accord- 
 ing to them, was sunk by some convulsion of 
 nature, such as an earthquake, or perhaps by an 
 inundation caused by the sudden irruption of 
 the Black Sea into the Mediterranean ; which 
 latter being thus prodigiously increased in mag- 
 nitude, would force a passage for its redundant 
 waters through the Straits of Gibraltar, and sub- 
 merge the Atlantis Island, at that time lying 
 not far from their western extremity. And do 
 cities, palaces, and works of art really lie in the 
 bottom of the West African seas ? and will some
 
 22 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 future effort of human ingenuity enable our 
 posterity to discover and explore a submarine 
 Herculaneum, perhaps more magnificent and 
 extensive than the subterranean one which is 
 as yet but imperfectly known to us ? 
 
 The supporters of the above theory tell us 
 that the Canaries, the Azores, and the Cape 
 Verde Islands, are the tops of the mountain 
 ranges of the submerged continent, which, ac- 
 cording to this supposition, must have been 
 united to Africa, or at least separated from it 
 only by a narrow strait. But it is objected 
 that all these groups of islands are. decidedly 
 of volcanic formation, while the neighbouring 
 coast of Africa presents not the smallest ap- 
 pearance of the kind ; and it is highly impro- 
 bable, or perhaps nearly impossible, that two 
 adjoining countries should have differed so es- 
 sentially in their geological characters. Be- 
 sides, the Atlantis is described by Plato as 
 being a country of singular fertility, and in 
 every respect highly favoured by nature ; a 
 description that is little applicable to a land 
 of burning mountains. 
 
 If we examine the supposed remains of the 
 submerged continent, we shall find nothing to 
 settle our doubts or guide our opinions. The
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 23 
 
 Canary Islands, when revisited by Europeans 
 in the fourteenth century, (for. the Carthagi- 
 nians discovered them,) were found to be in- 
 habited by a race of people called Guanches, 
 who are now extinct, with the exception of a 
 few families in Teneriffe. The Guanches were 
 a barbarous nation, unacquainted with arts and 
 letters, clad in goatskins, and having no sort 
 of arms but stakes and clubs, and divided into 
 small tribes or principalities, the chiefs of w^hich 
 had various privileges, similar to what the 
 nobles of Europe enjoyed in the feudal times. 
 Their serfs cultivated barley, and reared large 
 flocks of goats; and their houses were built of 
 stone, without cement. They did not know 
 the use of metals, and had no monuments of 
 antiquity amongst them except mummies ; it 
 being their custom to preserve the bodies of 
 their deceased relations by filling the different 
 cavities with odoriferous herbs, and then wrap- 
 ping the corpse in bandages of dried goatskin. 
 But let us not regard the uncivilized state of 
 the Guanches as a proof that they were not 
 a remnant of the population of the submerged 
 Atlantis. The sudden irruption of w^ater which 
 overwhelmed it would destroy most of its in- 
 habitants ; but a few would escape by taking
 
 24 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 refuge in the mountains, where, stupified with 
 terror and deprived of resources, they would 
 wander about in disorganized communities, 
 and rapidly sink into a state of barbarism. 
 And how would they think of continuing to 
 embalm their dead under such circumstances ? 
 Perhaps they had always followed the practice 
 from superstitious ideas similar to those enter- 
 tained by the ancient Egyptians; and believing 
 that the future condition of the soul depended 
 upon the preservation of the body, they would, 
 in the hour of inundation, snatch up the corpses 
 of their parents and relatives, and carry them 
 along with them to the mountains, as an act of 
 piety and moral duty, and the art and cus- 
 tom in question would thus be continued in 
 use and remembrance amongst them. 
 
 Humboldt says that he was not so fortu- 
 nate as to obtain a Guanches mummy at tlie 
 Canary Islands, though he had seen several in 
 Europe which were in a state of extraordinary 
 desiccation, the whole body, including the bones, 
 weighing much less than an ordinary skeleton. 
 In Golberry's Voyage to the Coast of Africa in 
 1785, there is the following description of a 
 Guanches mummy: — "It was five feet ten 
 inches long from the heel to the top of the
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 25 
 
 cranium. The features were still distinguish- 
 able ; the hair was long and black, and in good 
 preservation, but it was very easily detached 
 from the head ; the jaw contained thirty-two 
 teeth, so strongly fixed in their sockets, that 
 they were with difficulty extracted even with 
 the help of an instrument. The skin was in 
 good preservation on all parts of the body, and 
 dry and flexible, and of a deep brown hue. The 
 back and breast were hairy, and the cavities of 
 both were filled with masses of a certain kind 
 of grain, which were white and light, and of 
 nearly the size of a grain of rice. The mummy 
 was bound up like an infant in swaddling 
 clothes, in three turnings of tanned goatskin, 
 rather more than three inches wide." 
 
 But the practice of embalming is not the only 
 interesting usage of the ancient Guanches. We 
 are told, that on the election of a new sovereign 
 or chief, it was customary for many of them to 
 sacrifice their lives in his honour, by throwing 
 themselves down a precipice in presence of a 
 multitude of spectators who applauded their 
 devotion. Strange aberration of human reason ! 
 In various parts of the world we find a king's 
 friends or followers voluntarily perishing with 
 him when he dies, because he no longer has
 
 26 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 any need of their services in this world, and 
 may possibly have occasion for them in the 
 next ; but the subjects of a Guanche sovereign 
 devoted themselves to death at the moment 
 when he began most to require their assistance 
 and support, and this too by way of proving 
 the strength of their attachment to his royal 
 person — a practice more repugnant to common 
 sense and natural feeling than even the anala- 
 gous one which existed amongst the Natchez 
 Indians, who were wont to sacrifice their first- 
 born children in honour of their chief, the 
 Great Sun — for an infant is of less value to so- 
 ciety than a grown person, and its loss is more 
 speedily replaced, putting the precariousness of 
 its life out of the question. 
 
 The Guanches nation is extinct, or nearly so, 
 and this renders every memorial of it an ob- 
 ject of interest, independent of that agreeable 
 reverie which allows us to regard it as having 
 been composed of the posterity of the inhabit- 
 ants of the ancient Atlantis. When we hear 
 of the destruction of thousands of individuals 
 belonging to a populous community, we are 
 comparatively little affected, because the event 
 is in the common course of nature, and because 
 other thousands still remain to perpetuate the
 
 WEST AFRICAN OCEAN. 27 
 
 race, and repair the losses which it has sus- 
 tained ; but the extinction of an entire nation 
 awakens reflections of a different kind ; for it 
 conveys to us an impression that one of the 
 grand families of the human species has been 
 irrecoverably swept from the earth, and we feel 
 anxious to preserve some record of its exist- 
 ence, and of its customs and prejudices. These 
 latter become sacred in our eyes, should their 
 character be innocent ; and if it is the reverse, 
 we cease to be offended by them, when we con- 
 sider that their operation is over, and that no 
 one remains to adopt and diffuse them, or to 
 experience their malignant influence.
 
 38 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 The following sketch of the general cha- 
 racter of the West Coast of Africa is intended 
 to refer to those parts of it only where Enro- 
 peans have formed establishments, and will em- 
 brace those objects and features alone which 
 make the strongest impression upon a foreigner, 
 and most affect him during his residence in the 
 country. 
 
 The coast of Marocco, between the Straits of 
 Gibraltar and the mouth of the Senegal, is 
 throughout very barren and low ; though it is 
 here and there diversified by a few sand-hills 
 of small elevation. The sea, within several 
 leagues of the shore, is shallow and full of 
 banks and shoals, which render the navigation 
 there extremely dangerous ; and it would ap- 
 pear that the coasts of Barbary are fast gaining
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 29 
 
 upon the ocean, owing to the continual drift- 
 ino" of the sands of the Great Desert in that di- 
 reetion. A current also sets from the north- 
 east during two-thirds of the year, and doubt- 
 less brings with it quantities of mud and sand, 
 which it deposits along the coasts, and which 
 perpetually combine with the former cause to 
 fill up the bed of the sea. Many places on the 
 coa^t of Marocco, which were once excellent 
 and well-frequented ports, are now choked 
 up by sand-bars, and are inaccessible even for 
 boats. This has been particularly the case with 
 respect to Sallee, not long since famous as 
 being an established rendezvous for Moorish 
 pirates. The town, which formerly was washed 
 by the sea, is now more than a mile distant 
 from it ; and the port itself, strictly speaking, 
 no longer exists. Between the Straits of Gib- 
 raltar and the Senegal, no river of any magni- 
 tude or consequence is found ; and even springs 
 of water are of rare occurrence, and generally 
 brackish, and the country is of course barren 
 and desolate, and thinly inhabited. 
 
 But, on reaching the mouth of the Senegal, we 
 find nature wearing a very different garb, and 
 perhaps in no other part of the world is her transi- 
 tion from one extreme to another more sudden
 
 30 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and complete than it is here. This river pursues 
 nearly an east and west course through the in- 
 terior of Africa, as far as it has been explored, 
 till it comes within about two leagues of the 
 sea at Serenpate, where it forms an elbow al- 
 most equal to a right angle, and afterwards 
 runs parallel with the coast for fifty miles, and 
 then discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean 
 in about 16° north latitude. Between Seren- 
 pate and its mouth, it is separated from the sea 
 by a long neck or tongue of land varying in 
 width from three miles to as many hundred 
 yards, particularly towards its southern ex- 
 tremity, which is called the Point of Barbary, 
 and which is in some places so low and flat, 
 that the river, when flooded by heavy rains, 
 often bursts over it, and forms for itself new 
 outlets to carry off* its superabundant waters. 
 But the real mouth of the Senegal always lies 
 at the end of the Point of Barbary, and is dis- 
 tinguished a considerable way to seaward by 
 the breakers which extend across it, even in 
 the calmest weather. 
 
 On making the coast, the long tongue of 
 land already described is first seen, and is 
 little calculated to give the spectator a favour- 
 able idea of the neighbouring country ; for its
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 31 
 
 surface consists of loose sand, of a dazzling 
 whiteness, drifted into irregular ridges by the 
 wind, and sprinkled here and there with a few 
 stunted bushes of a brownish hue. No houses, 
 human beings, or marks of cultivation dimin- 
 ish the dreary uniformity of the prospect ; and 
 the brilliant sunshine of a tropical climate 
 seems only to give a painful distinctness to its 
 horrid features, and to make its solitude and 
 unfruitfulness more apparent. The adjoining- 
 coast presents a shelving beach, along which a 
 heavy surf constantly breaks. Here birds of the 
 egret kind resort in considerable numbers, and 
 disposing themselves in files, stand motionless 
 basking in the sun with their heads under their 
 wings. During the day, the reflection from 
 the shore is nearly intolerable to the eye ; and 
 the heated sand rarefying to an extraordinary 
 degree the stratum of air in contact with it, 
 produces a kind of mirage, which not only dis- 
 torts and disguises all objects within its in- 
 fluence, but communicates to them an appear- 
 ance of tremulous motion, which makes the 
 observer feel giddy should he continue to look 
 abroad for any length of time. 
 
 But after crossing the bar of the Senegal and 
 rounding the Point of Barbary, the Libyan 
 
 «k
 
 32 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 desert is no longer seen, and the eye, wherever 
 it turns, rests upon a mass of luxuriant vege- 
 tation consisting chiefly of trees that are un- 
 known in European climates. Amongst them 
 are found palms of various kinds, such as the 
 date, the cocoa-nut, and the areca ; and also 
 the cotton-tree, the wild fig, the tamarind, and 
 the banana. But the one that chiefly attracts 
 the attention is the bahobab or calabash tree, 
 which is the largest vegetable production in the 
 world : its trunk, according to Adanson, some- 
 times measuring sixty or seventy feet in cir- 
 cumference, and throwing out no branches 
 for nearly an equal height from the ground. 
 These stately trees love the banks of the 
 river, where they form places of general resort 
 for nearly all the animal inhabitants of the 
 forest. Their larger branches are peopled with 
 monkeys of different kinds, which, after uniting 
 into small detachments, run to their farthest 
 extremities, and having there for a few mo- 
 ments surveyed the persons passing by in 
 boats, and saluted them with discordant cries, 
 hurry back into the shade, and are soon suc- 
 ceeded by new reconnoitring parties of the 
 same species. On the twigs projecting over 
 the river, birds of the kingfisher tribe suspend
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 33 
 
 their nests, woven in a pear-like shape, where 
 they swing to and fro with every breath of 
 wind, safe from the depredations of either apes 
 or serpents ; while many reptiles of the latter 
 kind, varying in size and colour, twine them- 
 selves round the lower boughs, in order to 
 watch conveniently for prey, and dart down 
 upon it when it does appear. The roots of 
 the bahobab afford shelter to multitudes of 
 squirrels which sport amongst their interstices, 
 and its trunk is studded with lizards of the 
 most resplendent hues, lying in wait for the 
 insects which fly around in myriads and keep 
 up an incessant and sonorous humming. Alli- 
 gators lie basking in the sun upon the shal- 
 lows in the middle of the river, and their 
 musky scent is often perceptible when, fright- 
 ened by the approach of a boat, they plunge 
 under water and swim lazily away. The 
 crashing of boughs, heard occasionally in the 
 depth of the forest, announces that troops of 
 elephants are passing along there ; and in the 
 various little bays and inlets that indent the 
 banks of the stream, flamingoes may be seen 
 standing together in pairs, and laving with 
 water their scarlet wings ; while other birds, 
 equal in beauty, but still more shy and so- 
 
 VOL. 1. D
 
 34 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 litary, flutter amongst the bushes, or make 
 their presence known only by the melody or 
 strangeness of their notes. 
 
 Such are a few of the objects which first 
 strike the senses of him who visits Western 
 Africa. There nature seems everywhere boun- 
 tiful and prolific, and the animal and vegetable 
 worlds develope a countless variety of forms ; 
 and even the processes of their decay and re- 
 production go on more rapidly than in almost 
 any other country. The soil is so fertile that 
 grain is sowed and reaped in the space of three 
 months ; and abundant and periodical rains 
 produce a supply of water everywhere, and, 
 swelling the rivers, cause them to inundate the 
 neighbouring lands, which are thus maintained 
 in a state of constant productiveness, while the 
 humidity of the ground is preserved during 
 the dry season by the extensive and lofty fo- 
 rests which cover a large proportion of the 
 country. 
 
 The principal vegetable productions of West 
 Africa are maize, or Indian corn, which grows 
 there in great perfection, and in many districts 
 constitutes the chief subsistence of the natives ; 
 millet, a kind of grain equally useful and 
 agreeable as an article of food ; rice, similar to
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 35 
 
 that of Carolina ; the banana and plantain, so 
 universally known throughout the East Indies ; 
 the yam, and sweet potato, and other roots of a 
 similar kind ; the manioc, or cassava, and various 
 species of pulse and pot-herbs. The sugar-cane, 
 the tobacco-plant and indigo, and cotton, are 
 indigenous to the country, as well as a kind 
 of pepper which somewhat resembles that 
 brought from Malabar. The chief domestic 
 animals are cows, oxen, sheep, goats, and 
 poultry. Though in most districts both the 
 vegetable and animal productions above men- 
 tioned abound, yet the lands are but partially 
 cultivated ; and that, too, only in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of the villages, which are 
 mostly built upon the banks of a river, or not 
 far from the sea-shore. 
 
 Of all the productions of their country, that 
 which the natives value most highly is the 
 palm-tree, because it affords both oil and wine. 
 The first is extracted from the nut, and the 
 latter is obtained from the trunk by cutting 
 off a young branch, or making an incision in 
 the bark. A calabash is placed beneath the 
 aperture to collect the liquor, two or three 
 pints of which will flow out spontaneously in 
 twenty -four hours. Another esteemed vege- 
 
 D 2
 
 36 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 table production of West Africa is the kola 
 nut : it somewhat resembles a chesnut in shape 
 and consistence, but it is smaller, and is en- 
 closed in a hard shell. It grows in clusters 
 upon a large tree, and is annually collected, by 
 the negroes, who are in the habit of chewing 
 it, and consider it the greatest luxury that 
 their country affords, not even excepting palm 
 wine. The kola nut is far from being so 
 plentiful, at least everywhere, as to answer the 
 general demand for it ; and the poorer class of 
 negroes can seldom afford to indulge in its use, 
 and the rich pay a very high price for it. Its 
 taste is bitter and astringent ; and water drunk 
 after the nut has been chewed has the taste of 
 the finest white wine, and fruit appears im- 
 proved in flavour, and even tobacco acquires 
 a peculiar fragrance. In certain districts these 
 nuts are so highly esteemed, that with forty or 
 fifty of them a man may purchase a wife ; and 
 the negro princes often present a few to their 
 chief officers as a mark of particular favour 
 and confidence. The kola is also in general 
 use as money, and in several parts of West 
 Africa the people know no other circulating 
 medium. Some of the early European voy- 
 agers were not a little astonished to find a
 
 GENERAL THYSICAL CHARACTER. 37 
 
 vegetable production employed in this way ; 
 not because it was obtainable for the seeking, 
 (though doubtless with trouble and difficulty,) 
 but because of its perishable nature, and its 
 not being one of the necessaries of life, or of 
 any definite and intrinsic value. But we have 
 examples of a similar kind in countries in a 
 much higher state of civilization than West 
 Africa. In Hindostan the cowry shell is em- 
 ployed as a substitute for small specie ; and in 
 Venezuela and the Caraccas the people are in 
 the habit of giving and taking common eggs 
 in exchange for articles of small price. But 
 the vegetable money most worthy of record is 
 that which was employed by the Mexicans at 
 the time of the invasion of their country by 
 Cortez ; and their custom in this respect was 
 the more remarkable, because they had abund- 
 ance of gold and silver, and skilful artificers 
 capable of converting these metals into specie. 
 Nevertheless, the common circulating medium 
 was the cacoa bean ; and what Peter Martyr 
 says upon this subject in his Decades of the 
 Ocean, applies scarcely less to the kola nut just 
 described, than to the iuimediate object of his 
 remarks. " Oh, blessed money !" he exclaims, 
 *' which yieldeth sweete and profitable drinke
 
 SS WEST AFRICA. 
 
 for mankind, and preserveth the possessors 
 thereof free from the hellish pestilence of ava- 
 rice, because it cannot be long kept or hid 
 under ground." 
 
 The most valuable articles which West 
 Africa affords, at least as respects commerce, 
 are ivory and gold. Elephants abound in the 
 vast forests which extend along the banks of 
 the rivers Senegal and Gambia, and they are 
 objects of daily chase on account of their tusks, 
 some of which weigh from one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty pounds, but the ivory which 
 they afford is thought to be inferior to that of 
 India and Ceylon. Gold is more or less com- 
 mon throughout the whole of West Africa; 
 but the natives know it only in the state of 
 dust, for they are not far enough advanced in 
 the arts to extract the metal from the ore, or 
 even to obtain the latter by mining. The gold 
 dust is found either in the beds of rivers, or 
 is procured from the soil by washing ; but we 
 are unacquainted with the particular spots or 
 districts which yield it in greatest quantity, 
 the negroes carefully concealing these from the 
 knowledge of Europeans. We may easily be- 
 lieve that A^^est Africa abounds with this metal 
 in an extraordinary degree, from the large
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 39 
 
 quantity of it that is constantly in circulation 
 there, and from the ascertained fact that all of 
 it is collected either on the surface of the 
 soil, or within the depth of three or four feet 
 below it. 
 
 That part of the coast of Africa comprised 
 between the mouth of the river Senegal, in 
 north latitude 16°, and Cape Negro, in south 
 latitude IG"", presents a remarkable contrast in 
 its physical character with the northern and 
 southern extremities of the continent. Tlie 
 former tract of country is, generally speaking, 
 flat and alluvial, abundantly watered by streams 
 and springs, covered with forests, and highly 
 fertile under the slightest cultivation. Here 
 the palm, the banana, the fig-tree, the sugar- 
 cane, and the cotton-plant, blend their foliage 
 and struggle for preeminence in the forest; 
 buffaloes, wild cows, deer, boars, and elephants, 
 people the plains and meadows ; and the rainy 
 season never fails with grateful return to de- 
 luge the burning soil, and communicate vigour 
 and freshness to all its productions. But, on 
 the other hand, Barbary and South Africa, 
 though respectively situated under far happier 
 latitudes than the Western coast, and inter- 
 sected by chains of lofty mountains such as
 
 40 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 ought to produce abundant and overflowing 
 rivers, consist almost entirely of sandy plains 
 and arid wastes, strangers to all the finer and 
 more luxuriant forms of vegetation, and pro- 
 ducing even with difficulty the mimosse, the 
 cacti, and the euphorbia, — emblems of nature's 
 poverty and degradation wherever they occur. 
 Contrary to general experience, too, the regions 
 in question have no mines of the precious me- 
 tals to compensate for their other deficiencies ; 
 though their appearance, and the character of 
 their soil, would seem to indicate the existence 
 of these, and to point them out as lands of 
 promise to the diggers of gold. 
 
 One feature is alone common to all the coasts 
 of Africa without exception, viz. the total 
 want of good harbours ; and though in many 
 other countries such a defect is supplied 
 by the accessibleness of the rivers, Africa is 
 also unfortunate here, none of her streams, 
 however large, admitting vessels of burthen, 
 owing to the sandbars which universally ob- 
 struct their mouths. From the Straits of Gib- 
 raltar to the Cape of Good Hope there is 
 scarcely one secure and commodious port ; and 
 if we range northward from the latter point 
 along Caffiaria and Mozambique up to the
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 41 
 
 entrance of the Red Sea, we shall find the 
 whole coast to be equally inhospitable for 
 shipping. Shall we venture to attribute this 
 contiruiousness of the land, this unbroken out- 
 line of coast, to the peculiar form of the grand 
 continent in which it is observable ? 
 
 The triangular or wedge-like shape of Africa 
 seems favourable to the action of currents, 
 which, when they run along a regularly con- 
 verging slope of vast extent, must have a ten- 
 dency to sweep away projecting points of land, 
 to fill up bays, and to obliterate sinuosities ; 
 because their force is lateral, and not direct, 
 and because the nature of their course makes 
 them act with equality, and is unfavourable to 
 their encroaching in any one quarter more than 
 another. 
 
 The rivers of West Africa are not navi^a- 
 ble in proportion to their magnitude and the 
 length of their course, their channels generally 
 being much obstructed by sandbanks, except 
 during the floods that succeed the rainy season, 
 soon after which the waters begin to lower; 
 and the small sloops that are sent up the Se- 
 negal and Gambia to trade, if not sufficiently 
 expeditious in returning, are often left aground 
 high up the river, where they necessarily re-
 
 42 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 main till the next rains. But the inconveni- 
 ence of this kind of inland navigation is tri- 
 fling compared with that arising from the 
 sandbars which stretch across the mouths of 
 the great rivers of West Africa, and not only 
 prevent the entrance of shipping, but are also 
 extremely dangerous for boats ; and the passage 
 is sometimes altogether impracticable for days 
 together. The bar of the Senegal being parti- 
 cularly formidable, it merits a description, and 
 the more so as a general idea will thus be ob- 
 tained of the bars of all other African rivers of 
 a similar size. 
 
 During the rainy season the mouth of the 
 Senegal is about a league in width, and is con- 
 stantly furrowed by a rapid current, which is 
 met and opposed by the waters of the Atlantic 
 Ocean, driven towards the coast by the pre- 
 vailing north-west winds, and thrown into vio- 
 lent agitation by the resistance offered by the 
 sandbar lying directly under the spot where 
 the two hostile floods come into full contact. 
 But the effects of their junction are apparent 
 at short intervals only ; and an inexperienced 
 observer, happening to look towards the bar 
 immediately after these had taken place, would 
 suppose that there was nothing to be expected
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 43 
 
 there different from what was going on in any 
 other part of the neighbouring sea. 
 
 The first indication of what is soon to follow, 
 is a gathering together, as it were, and swelling 
 of the waters, which gradually and silently rise 
 up, and form one lofty broad-based wave ex- 
 tending across nearly the whole width of the 
 river ; and when it has acquired its greatest ele- 
 vation, breaking into a wreath of foam along 
 its top, after which it quickly sinks down, and 
 all becomes quiet and smooth as before. Pre- 
 sently this is repeated, but with the difference 
 that the wave has much greater height and 
 size the second time, and breaks more violently 
 and tumultuously. But its third accession far 
 exceeds in every respect the two preceding 
 ones ; for it rises eighteen or twenty feet per- 
 pendicularly upon a base of prodigious magni- 
 tude, and its crest, suddenly bursting, divides 
 longitudinally, and, falling down with a terrific 
 roaring, covers the adjoining sea with foam, 
 which has hardly time to disappear before the 
 waters show symptoms of recommencing their 
 strife. 
 
 The climate of West Africa is divided into 
 two seasons only, viz. the rainy and the dry 
 one. The former begins in JNIay with tornadoes
 
 44 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and frightful storms of thunder and lightning, 
 and lasts till the middle of October, when it 
 terminates in much the same way. It rains 
 more or less daily all that time, but the great- 
 est quantity descends in June and July ; how- 
 ever, as no observations have hitherto been 
 made with the pluviometer in that part of the 
 world, we can have no accurate idea of the 
 average fall of rain in the course of the season. 
 Probably it is not much short of what occurs 
 in the same latitudes on the western side of 
 India, where the south-west monsoon very 
 much resembles in character the wet season 
 on the coast of Africa, and where the fall of 
 rain ranges in general between eighty and one 
 hundred inches. 
 
 In both countries the humidity of the air at 
 these periods is extreme, but particularly in the 
 latter, because of the natural lowness of the 
 ground, and the thick forests which overspread 
 it in all directions. The dry season in West 
 Africa commences in November, and lasts till 
 May ; and during its continuance there is al- 
 ways a cloudless sky and a transparent atmo- 
 sphere, except when the wind called Harmat- 
 tan prevails : this generally blows from the 
 north-east for several days together, rendering
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 45 
 
 the air hazy and reddish, and withering tlie 
 grass and leaves by its dryness. 
 
 The Romans seem to have been well ac- 
 quainted with the animals of West Africa ; for 
 it was chiefly from thence, though by an in- 
 direct route, that they obtained those which 
 were exhibited in their circuses, or made to 
 fight with gladiators for the amusement of the 
 people. But there is one species of the Afri- 
 can mammalia which must have been unknown 
 to them, for none of their writers describe 
 it, and its peculiarities are such as would 
 have excited their strongest interest and atten- 
 tion had they ever enjoyed an opportunity of 
 seeing it alive. I mean the simia satyrus, or 
 ouran-outang, the most intelligent, and the 
 most resembling man, of all the monkey tribe. 
 It exists in the forests that border the south 
 side of the Senegal;' and we cannot well explain 
 how no individuals of the kind should ever 
 have found their way to Rome, seeing that the 
 Libyans could so easily have procured and 
 carried them to Carthage for sale, as they did 
 various other animals much more bulky and 
 formidable. Some writers, indeed, are of opi- 
 nion that the ancients must have derived their 
 idea of satyrs from their knowledge of the ex-
 
 46 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 istence of the simia satyrus ; however, Aulus 
 Gellius, who devotes a long chapter of his 
 Attic Nights to the enumeration of the won- 
 derful races of men and man-monsters that 
 were described to inhabit various parts of the 
 world by ancient writers, mentions none that 
 have any points of resemblance in common 
 with the simia satyrus. 
 
 But on the other hand, the Periplus of 
 Hanno contains the following passage, descrip- 
 tive of one of the incidents that occurred in 
 the course of the Carthaginian nautical expe- 
 dition along the coast of Africa, already allud- 
 ed to : — " There was also a lake containing 
 another island inhabited by savages. The wo- 
 men were more numerous than the men. 
 Their bodies were covered with hair, and our 
 interpreters called them Gorillse. We failed in 
 catching any of the men, for they took refuge 
 amongst precipices, and defended themselves 
 with stones. We, however, seized three wo- 
 men ; but as they broke their bonds, and -bit 
 and tore us with fury, we found it necessary 
 to kill them, and having flayed them, we 
 brought their skins to Carthage." 
 
 In the opinion of Gosellin, the geographer, 
 these Gorillas, whom Hanno mistook for human
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 47 
 
 creatures, were in reality ouran-outangs. How- 
 ever this may be, had the ancients been aware 
 that these animals existed in small communi- 
 ties, they would eagerly have sought for spe- 
 cimens of them to realize their fables of Satyrs 
 and Fauns, and would have regarded them as 
 an inferior grade of the human species. This 
 opinion would neither have been offensive to 
 their feelings, nor inconsistent with their creed ; 
 for so far from believing, as we do, that all 
 men are descended from the same parents, they 
 supposed that the world was peopled in two 
 different ways — either by emigration from an 
 inhabited part to an uninhabited one, or by the 
 natural production of the human race out of 
 the soil of the region which they might be 
 found to occupy. 
 
 The forms and capacities of the higher 
 orders of the monkey tribe have at all times 
 been a subject of curiosity and speculation, and 
 particularly since we have become acquainted 
 with the habits of the simia satyrus. Hum- 
 boldt remarks, that " monkeys are more melan- 
 choly in proportion as they have more resem- 
 blance to man ; their petulant gaiety dimin- 
 ishes as their intellectual faculties appear to 
 increase." We shall find this observation to be
 
 48 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 perfectly correct, if we compare the behaviour 
 of those individuals that walk on all-fours with 
 that of those which mostly preserve an erect 
 posture. The first are irritable, noisy, and 
 mischievous, and inclined for frolic; while 
 the others seem to be full of reflection, 
 and always preserve a grave deportment and 
 a sombre physiognomy. It is impossible to 
 deny that apes display more intelligence and 
 greater powers of reasoning the nearer they 
 approach to the human form ; but are we 
 to infer from hence that this development 
 of the faculties is entirely the result of a 
 superior organization, which permits the indi- 
 vidual enjoying it to manifest his intelligence, 
 though he may actually possess that quality in 
 no higher degree than the lowest of animated 
 beings do? 
 
 In judging of the mental powers of animals, 
 we are in the habit of comparing together dif- 
 ferent classes or genera — not individuals of the 
 same species — because it is the universal im- 
 pression that all such possess exactly, or at 
 least very nearly, the same degree of intelli- 
 gence. Horses differ little from each other in 
 intelligence, nor do elephants ; but it is obvious 
 that the elephant species displays faculties su-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 49 
 
 perior to what appear to belong to that of the 
 horse. Nevertheless, we may venture to sup- 
 pose that the intelligent principle is entirely of 
 the same grade and nature in both animals, but 
 that the elephant is enabled to manifest a su- 
 periority in this respect, merely from his pos- 
 sessing an organization which affords him a 
 greater facility of displaying his capacity and 
 explaining the operations of his mind. Shall 
 we then conclude that the principle which con- 
 stitutes mind in animals, is precisely the same 
 in every species whatever ; and that the oyster, 
 which is tossed about by the Kvaves, or lies 
 motionless in the bottom of the sea, possesses 
 the same degree of intelligence as a monkey of 
 the highest grade; but that its organization 
 neither permits it to exhibit this externally, 
 nor to feel a desire to exceed those bounds of 
 action, locomotion, and enjoyment, which have 
 been assigned to it and to all other individuals 
 of the same form and constitution ? 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 >0 
 
 ABORIGINES OF AVEST AFRICA. 
 
 The contrast in the physical character of 
 the countries bordering upon the two sides of 
 the Senegal, and the barrenness of the one and 
 the fertility of the other, have already been de- 
 scribed. Nor do their respective inhabitants 
 differ less essentially, whether in regard to ex- 
 ternal appearance, or to their moral and natural 
 qualities and dispositions. The Moors of the 
 deserts of Barbary are of an olive complexion, 
 tall, athletic, and active, and ferocious in tem- 
 per and inclined for warfare ; while the negroes 
 on the opposite bank of that river have jet- 
 black skins and woolly hair, and are a mild, 
 indolent, and peaceable race, placing their great- 
 est happiness in an exemption from labour or 
 pain. 
 
 Their country affords in abundance, and 
 almost without cultivation, those articles which 
 they consider the necessaries of life ; while rivers 
 and periodical rains cool its burning atmo-
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 51 
 
 sphere, and lofty forests yield its inhabitants 
 shelter from the sun. The Moors, on the other 
 hand, occupy a sandy desert and lead a nomade 
 life, and are continually either driving their 
 flocks over the country in search of pasture, or 
 galloping away upon hostile or plundering ex- 
 peditions. They often suffer from hunger and 
 thirst, and their tents are little calculated to de- 
 fend them from the summer ardours of their 
 climate. In winter they wander about the 
 plains, and in the warm season they retire with 
 their cattle to the mountains in the interior of 
 Barbary, and their life, wherever they are, con- 
 sists, or rather appears to consist, of a succes- 
 sion of hardships and privations. 
 
 Here we are naturally led to ask, why the 
 Moors have not long ago abandoned their in- 
 hospitable territories and crossed the Senegal, 
 and possessed themselves of part of its inviting 
 banks? Surpassing the negroes in courage 
 and in the art of war, they would easily have 
 made such a conquest, had they ever felt 
 disposed to do so ; and we must seek to ex- 
 plain their indifference in this respect, by refer- 
 ring it to their national character. 
 
 The Arabs or Moors are so devotedly at- 
 tached to the wild and wandering life which 
 
 E 2
 
 52 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 they lead in the desert, that no proffered ad- 
 vantages will ever induce them to forego it ; 
 ease and abundance present few allurements to 
 them, if these are only to be obtained by a sa- 
 crifice of established habits and of accustomed 
 scenes and objects ; and the dull expanse of the 
 sandy plain, and the husky sweep of the dry 
 wind careering over it, are dearer to the eye 
 and ear of an Arab than a view of cultivated 
 fields and the sound of wqods and waters. 
 
 A tribe of these people settling upon the fer- 
 tile shores of West Africa, would alike forfeit its 
 dignity in forsaking the usages of its ancestors, 
 and its independence in tilling the ground and 
 remaining stationary. And in accordance with 
 this, it is very certain that the Moors of Bar- 
 bary have at no time entered the negro country 
 in a hostile manner, except for the purpose of 
 carrying off cattle or slaves ; on effecting which, 
 they never failed to return home. 
 
 The negro character, like that of most other 
 uncivilized nations, has been variously repre- 
 sented ; but most commonly in an unfavourable 
 point of view, because of the prejudices and 
 prepossessions of those who have described it. 
 If we reflect what influence a warm climate, 
 and the easv attainment of the necessaries of
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 53 
 
 life, generally exert upon any race of men, we 
 shall come to a fair conclusion respecting the 
 leading points of the negro character, modified 
 as these are by two powerful sources of moral 
 degradation — the despotic tyranny of petty so- 
 vereigns, and the existence of slavery. Never- 
 theless, the inhabitants of West Africa are not 
 far removed from that state of social existence 
 in which the simple propensities and disposi- 
 tions of our species are permitted to develope 
 themselves without direction or restraint ; and 
 in which no peculiar physical causes force the 
 character to assume a particular bias dependent 
 upon the nature of the interests and pursuits of 
 the individual. 
 
 A people who live by plundering others are 
 naturally treacherous and unfeeling, because it 
 is their business to be so ; men who subsist by 
 hunting, and whose lives are spent in traversing 
 forests and deserts, are of a reserved and me- 
 lancholy disposition, because of their peculiar 
 occupations ; and savages, living in a state of 
 constant warfare with their neighbours, are ne- 
 cessarily distrustful and irritable. But a race 
 of people who obtain their means of subsistence 
 without exertion or anxiety, and who suffer 
 no physical evils, are always mild in temper,
 
 54 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and of a serene and placid disposition : not 
 being harassed by any particular idea connected 
 with their mode of life, they deliver themselves 
 up without reserve to the impressions of the 
 moment, and are lovers of society, hospitable, 
 inclined to pleasure, and averse to mental ex- 
 ertion, but withal timid, indolent, deficient in 
 steadiness, and destitute of foresight. 
 
 Such is nearly the general character of the 
 negroes of West Africa. Their labours, which 
 are light, devolve chiefly upon the women, and 
 both sexes spend a large part of their time in 
 amusement, which is mostly pursued during 
 the night. Fires are then lighted ; and the 
 ball, OY folgar, commences, and continues for 
 several hours. The young people dance, and 
 the old ones sit by talking, smoking, and look- 
 ing on ; and it is remarked that however fa- 
 tiguing the occupations of the parties may have 
 been during the day, they never fail to attend 
 the folgar and partake of its pleasures with viva- 
 city. Next morning they resume their usual 
 occupations, looking anxiously forward to the 
 renewal of the folgar in the evening, when they 
 again sing, dance, and smoke, as before. This 
 is the usual mode of life of a negro in his 
 native country ; and, so far as tranquillity of
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 55 
 
 mind is concerned, he may be regarded as one 
 of the happiest of human beings. With am- 
 bition he is totally vmacquainted ; he does not 
 seek to acquire riches, because he is always 
 contented with what he actually possesses ; 
 and, knowing nothing beyond what comes 
 within the range of his senses, he conceives 
 that nothing else is worth the knowing. 
 Should any misfortune befall him, he lays it 
 to the credit of some malignant spirit, and 
 trusts that his own Jetlche, or household god, 
 will repair it: if any unexpected good comes 
 upon him, he enjoys it to the utmost without 
 delay, in order to avoid the risk of losing the 
 advantage before he has had time to turn it 
 to account. 
 
 To war, and all kinds of fighting, the negro 
 has the utmost aversion, and never will risk 
 his life to preserve his own property, because 
 he rightly judges that it is not worth defending 
 with so much hazard to himself. Satisfied 
 with the enjoyments and sources of interest 
 which the common routine of his life affords, 
 he neither experiences ennui, nor torments him- 
 self in seeking for new pursuits and sensations ; 
 and consequently his temper is always cheerful 
 and serene, and the most violent and dangerous
 
 56 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 passions of human nature for the most part 
 remain dormant in his mind. 
 
 It will surely be admitted, that men in the 
 circumstances above described cannot well be 
 atrociously wicked in their nature, or evilly 
 disposed towards each other. Their virtues 
 may be of a negative description, but their vices 
 will have no very positive form, even though 
 they may be as destitute of any rational system 
 of religion, or of a code of defined moral duties, 
 as the negroes are. Indeed, it is in a barbarous 
 state only that men can exist in a social con- 
 dition without religion or laws. 
 
 The first lesson which civilization bestows 
 is, to teach us to be discontented with our con- 
 dition, to study how we may best circumvent 
 each other, to consider the acquisition of wealth 
 and external dignities as our supreme good in 
 this life, and to regard with contempt those 
 individvials who love innocent and unambitious 
 simplicity. The prevalence of ideas of this 
 kind, (without whicH no nation can become 
 great or flourishing,) leads to a multitude of 
 crimes and disorders, by producing that uni- 
 versal opposition of interests, that furious ri- 
 valry, and those imuuuerable temptations to 
 immoral and unjust actions which exist in all
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 57 
 
 highly civilized communities. Hence the ne- 
 cessity of imposing violent restraints upon 
 men's inclinations, by the establishment of san- 
 guinary laws, and the erection of judicial tri- 
 bunals, prisons, and places of public execution, 
 all of which however prove inadequate to the 
 end proposed ; for the most polished and best 
 instructed nations are invariably the most vi- 
 cious, and it is in them that human depravity 
 finds her widest scope, and assumes the darkest 
 character and the greatest variety of forms. 
 But men who are contented with what mode- 
 rately assisted nature bestows, and whose in- 
 terests and passions are not excited by a host 
 of seducing objects, may live, and generally do 
 live, in comparative innocence and harmony, 
 although profoundly ignorant as to the arts 
 and the economy of civilized nations. 
 
 The above remarks are directed against those 
 persons who would persuade us that the ne- 
 groes are habitually and naturally wicked and 
 barbarous, and that they have no good qualities 
 whatever. To argue seriously against the cor- 
 rectness of an opinion so absurd and untenable, 
 would be waste of time ; but it deserves some 
 notice, because it has been brought forward in 
 justification of the slave trade, and has been
 
 58 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 repeated by writers who were contented to say 
 what had already been said, without inquiring 
 into the truth or probability of their assertions. 
 It must be recollected that even those who 
 pretend to speak upon this subject from per- 
 sonal observation, are not deserving of much 
 confidence, being chiefly factors and traders, 
 who, having intercourse with the coast negroes 
 only, or rather with the slave-dealers, brokers, 
 and petty merchants amongst them, have 
 judged of the entire people by the worst speci- 
 mens of them that were anywhere to be found. 
 
 When we consider the general character and 
 conduct of those Europeans who have hitherto 
 been in the habit of frequenting the coast of 
 Africa, we shall perceive that the negroes must 
 have found it necessary in their transactions 
 with them to disregard integrity and justice, in 
 order to avoid the chance of being maltreated, 
 plundered, and overreached. One of the great- 
 est calumniators of the natives of West Africa 
 is Bosman, who was many years in the service 
 of the Dutch Company trading there ; and the 
 following is his summary view of their cha- 
 racter : — 
 
 " The negroes are all, without exception, 
 crafty, villainous, and fraudulent, and very
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 59 
 
 seldom to be trusted, being sure to let slip 
 no opportunity of cheating an European, nor 
 indeed one another. A man of integrity is as 
 rare among them as a white falcon, and their 
 fidelity seldom extends further than to their 
 masters ; and it would be very surprising if, 
 upon a scrutiny into their lives, we should find 
 any of them whose perverse nature would not 
 break out sometimes, for they indeed seem to 
 be born and bred villains, all sorts of baseness 
 having got such sure footing among them, 
 that it is impossible to lie concealed ; and 
 herein they agree very well with what authors 
 tell us of the Muscovites." 
 
 But we obtain a key to the apparent depra- 
 vity if we reflect how Europeans have deported 
 themselves on the coast of Africa. It is no- 
 torious that the grossest frauds and acts of 
 injustice were practised upon the negroes by 
 the agents and factors of the different mercan- 
 tile companies who used to have posts there 
 for the convenience of carrying on the slave- 
 trade. And Barbot informs us that in his time 
 the negroes were so distrustful of Europeans, 
 that in many places they would not venture 
 on board their ships, because hundreds of them 
 had at different times been kidnapped in that
 
 60 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 manner, and carried away to the West Indies 
 and there sold as slaves. The same author, in 
 speaking of the frequent adulteration of gold- 
 dust, says, that the negroes were first taught 
 that art by the Portuguese, in order that they 
 might practise it upon other European nations 
 visiting the country, and disgust them with the 
 African trade. 
 
 Bosnian, above quoted, tells a story of two 
 English ship-masters who had exchanged nearly 
 their whole cargoes for false gold-dust. On 
 discovering the imposition, they applied to the 
 English chief governor residing in that part of 
 the coast for redress ; but, says our author, " to 
 complain to him was to go to the devil to be 
 confessed, for he, participating in the fraud, 
 would by no means help them." Private 
 traders in West Africa used for many years 
 to practise the grossest impositions upon the 
 negroes, by giving them in exchange for the 
 productions of their country, damaged cloths, 
 unsafe muskets, false coral, and unserviceable 
 cutlery. 
 
 The authority of Lieutenant Beaver on this 
 subject is worthy of being quoted. " I need 
 not mention," says he, in his African Me- 
 moranda, " the various modes which Evuo-
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 61 
 
 peans take to overreach them in trade by light 
 weights, short measure, diminished capacity, 
 &c. ; all of which are now as well known to 
 the natives as to us ; and therefore, as before 
 observed, they consider us a compound of trea- 
 chery and deceit. There is nothing degrading, 
 nothing base, nothing infamous, but what they 
 consider to form part of the white man's cha- 
 racter." Were the negroes to submit to all 
 this without attempting retaliation ? Were 
 they to remain honest while their visitors prac- 
 tised every kind of villany and deception? — 
 No ! they found that they must either break 
 off all intercourse with foreigners, or make 
 themselves a match for them by adopting some 
 of their iniquities. 
 
 Pinkerton, in his Geography, describes the 
 negroes as being " akin to ferocious animals," 
 and as a people whose " chief pleasure is to 
 destroy ;" and various other writers have cha- 
 racterized them as the basest and most degrad- 
 ed portion of the human race. I must refer in 
 particular to the Reverend Mr. Bridges, who 
 has recently, in his Annals of Jamaica, given a 
 view of the state of the negroes in their native 
 land. That article contains many misrepre- 
 sentations ; and how far the author is qualified
 
 62 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 for the task which he has undertaken, will best 
 be shown by the following extracts from the 
 production in question : — 
 
 " In every age, the various regions of Africa 
 appear to have been inhabited by vagrant 
 tribes, whose indolence refused to cultivate the 
 soil, and whose restless spirit disdained the con- 
 finement of a sedentary life." I believe we 
 may safely assert, in contradiction to this state- 
 ment, that there neither is, nor ever was, one 
 vagrant tribe in any part of Africa compre- 
 hended between the river Senegal and Cape 
 Negro, an extent of ST of latitude. This will 
 enable us to determine how far Mr. Bridges' 
 geographical information is to be depended 
 upon ; and a few other random extracts will 
 equally qualify us to form an opinion respecting 
 his impartiality, and the degree of confidence 
 that may be placed in the accuracy of his 
 descriptions. 
 
 Speaking of the negroes, he says, " All that 
 is monstrous, vile, and contemptible, is uni- 
 versally found amongst these savages, whose 
 native cowardice can be stimulated only by the 
 consciousness of numbers" — " their garments are 
 the most loathsome skins !" — " from the earliest 
 years they are exercised in the destruction of
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 63 
 
 each other" — " and, if we fill up the outline 
 of the general picture, we must stain it with 
 a view of the horrid rites of cannibalism" — 
 " their actions are the simple result of revenge- 
 ful selfish feeling, influenced by the crimes 
 which universally prevail amongst them." — 
 " Africa is the parent of everything monstrous 
 in nature — there the passions rage without 
 control, and the retired wilderness presents an 
 opportunity to gratify them without fear or 
 shame." 
 
 Is the above the language of truths or of 
 common sense ? Ought it to proceed from the 
 pen of a Christian clergyman, who is bound to 
 believe that all mankind are his brethren, and 
 to view them with charitable forbearance ? The 
 spirit in which his " Original State of the 
 Negroes" is written, is as offensive and repre- 
 hensible, as the calunmies which it embodies 
 against that race are gratuitous and unfounded. 
 
 I will now proceed to the more agreeable task 
 of presenting the reader with a few testimonies 
 in favour of the negro character, by writers of 
 much higher and less suspicious authority than 
 any of those above referred to. The follow- 
 ing are the words of M. Mollien, who travelled 
 through a considerable part of West Africa,
 
 64 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and visited the sources of the Senegal and 
 Gambia rivers : — " Without money, without an 
 order from the sovereign, without recommen- 
 dation, an inn is always to be found in Africa ; 
 and it is not an accommodation offered out of 
 pity to a poor and unknown traveller, as is 
 often the case in Europe ; it is not a bundle of 
 straw given from compassion as to a beast. If 
 food is offered, it is not the remnants of a 
 meal ; on the contrary, you are treated like a 
 friend ; for half an hour at least your health is 
 inquired into with particular attention, you are 
 seated by the side of your host, who apologises 
 for the homeliness of the repast, &c." 
 
 The Abb6 Proyart, in his history of Loanga 
 and the neighbouring countries, observes, that 
 we judge of the mass of the negroes by those 
 resident upon the coast, who, being daily im- 
 posed upon by Europeans, make no scruple of 
 imposing upon them in return ; and he asserts, 
 that those who inhabit the interior of the coun- 
 try *' unite to a great deal of justice and frank- 
 ness, a disinterestedness which may be called 
 excessive." Robault, a French traveller who 
 made a journey to Galan by land in 1786, 
 everywhere experienced the most genuine hos- 
 pitality and the kindest treatment from the
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 65 
 
 negro chiefs through whose territories he had 
 occasion to pass ; and Adanson, the naturalist, 
 in his travels in the same quarter, observed 
 nothing but peace and security amongst the 
 natives, and found them to be everywhere 
 harmless and happy. 
 
 Park, speaking of the INl an din goes, in his first 
 journey, says, " it is impossible for me to for- 
 get the disinterested charity and tender solici- 
 tude with which many of these poor heathens 
 sympathized with me in my sufferings, relieved 
 my distresses, and contributed to my safety." 
 In another place he describes the affection which 
 the mothers universally display towards their 
 children, and makes the following remark : — " I 
 perceived with great satisfaction too, that the 
 maternal solicitude extended not only to the 
 growth and security of the person, but also, in 
 a certain degree, to the improvement of the 
 mind, of the infant ; for one of the first lessons 
 in which the Mandingo women instruct their 
 children, is the 'practice of truths 
 
 Maltebrun, the geographer, thus characterises 
 the natives of West Africa : — " The nesrro race, 
 even supposing it to be inferior in intelligence 
 to Europeans, Arabs, or Hindoos, possesses, ne- 
 vertheless, the faculties requisite to admit of its 
 VOL. r. F
 
 66 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 appreciating and adopting our laws and insti- 
 tutions. Notwithstanding the gloomy picture 
 which we have just traced of the actual state 
 of Africa, the negro is not unacquainted with 
 any of those feelings which dignify and exalt 
 human nature.'' 
 
 And with regard to the charge of cannibalism 
 that has been brought against the negroes, where 
 is the authority to substantiate it? Bosman, 
 who is always disposed to exaggerate the vices 
 of these people, makes no mention of this one. 
 Park, in the course of his extensive travels, 
 saw nothing of it. Maltebrun quotes a passage 
 from Grandpre's voyages, to show that it has 
 no existence. Robertson, author of Notes on 
 Africa, and many years a trader in that coun- 
 try, says, that he once heard a story of the 
 kind, but soon obtained proofs of its falsity. 
 
 Having endeavoured to defend the negroes 
 from the imputation of vices which do not belong 
 to them, I will now speak of the real defects 
 of their character, without palliation or reserve. 
 The first of these is a stupid indolence, and an 
 indifference to the future, which prevent their 
 wishing to improve their condition, and render 
 them neglectful of their commonest interests. 
 They are incapable of engaging steadily in any
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 67 
 
 pursuit, and their caprice is so great, that they 
 have scarcely done anything before they begin 
 to repent that it is done ; and if they make an 
 exchange or a bargain, they will generally re- 
 quest that it may be annulled or reversed, per- 
 haps within half an hour after it has been 
 effected. They possess no firmness or deter- 
 mination, and when engaged in affairs of dan- 
 ger and importance, the most contemptible 
 trifle will discourage them, and make them 
 withdraw from their post ; nor have they the 
 least idea that there is any honour or merit in 
 struggling against difficulties, or any disgrace 
 in suddenly abandoning the design or purpose 
 which they may have in hand before it is half 
 accomplished. In some countries it is an ad- 
 missible practice amongst the negroes to entice 
 one another into the commission of such offences 
 as are punishable by a fine. The betrayer, 
 should he succeed in this, immediately accuses 
 his victim, and appears as a witness against him, 
 when, having proved the charge, he receives a 
 part of the sum levied, and turns it to his own 
 account. Nor can it be denied, that on several 
 parts of the coast, the negroes are in the habit 
 of entrapping and selling each other as slaves. 
 But this kind of villany must have been alike 
 
 F 2
 
 68 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 unknown and impracticable in West Africa 
 previous to the commencement of the slave 
 trade by Europeans, who most likely suggested 
 it as a way of getting cheap slaves. Every one 
 will admit that robbery is much promoted in 
 large towns by the existence of shops for the 
 reception of stolen goods ; and upon the same 
 principle the entrapping of men became a com- 
 mon practice upon the coast of Guinea, because 
 there were always European agents ready and 
 willing to purchase and receive on board their 
 ships these victims of iniquity, without asking 
 or caring how they had been obtained. 
 
 Nearly all the graver defects of the negro 
 character are referable to the odious forms of 
 government which prevail in most parts of 
 their country. It is not sufficient that their 
 kings and rulers shotdd be despots, — they ac- 
 tually derive their chief revenues from the 
 crimes of their subjects ; slavery being the al- 
 lotted punishment of most offences, great and 
 small. No sooner is a misdemeanour com- 
 mitted than the offending person is sold for 
 a slave, and the greater part of the amount 
 received for him goes into the royal treasury. 
 And when the sovereign is in distress for 
 money, he does not hesitate to send out a party
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 69 
 
 of soldiers into the more retired quarters of 
 his dominions, to seize whatever individuals 
 they may chance to meet, in order that they 
 may be disposed of for the supply of his neces- 
 sities. The people are thus in continual expec- 
 tation of danger from the quarter to which 
 they naturally ought to look for protection ; 
 and their personal safety being so precarious, 
 ^liey are discouraged from being either indus- 
 trious or provident. The caboceers, or nobles, 
 also plunder them of their property in various 
 ways; and the frequent occurrence of human 
 sacrifices on festival days, and on the death 
 of any of the royal family, frighten them into 
 a state of stupid despair, which benumbs their 
 faculties, and smothers all idea of resistance 
 to the usual course of things. 
 
 Nothing can be more unjust and unreason- 
 able than to consider the nature of a despotic 
 government to be characteristic of the people 
 who are governed. Yet this is generally done 
 in reference to West Africa ; and the sangui- 
 nary sacrifices and wanton destruction of hu- 
 man life which take place in some parts of it 
 imder royal authority, are cited as an evidence 
 of the inherent cruelty and ferocity of the 
 negroes. On the contrary, it is only in re-
 
 70 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 publics and free monarchies, where the people 
 are constantly opposing their rulers, and de- 
 claiming against their political acts, that they 
 really and universally approve of everything 
 that is done, and fully identify themselves 
 with the character of the government under 
 which they live. 
 
 Wherever there is unreserved external ac- 
 quiescence in the body of a nation, there i* 
 inward aversion and hostility towards its rulers. 
 Will it for a moment be believed that the ne- 
 groes of Dahomey or Ashantee, when they wit- 
 ness the slaughter of their fellow-countrymen 
 at the "annual customs" held in these king- 
 doms, derive pleasure from the sight, or feel 
 any desire to execute similar atrocities them- 
 selves? They view the horrid spectacle as a 
 decree of fate, or as a part of the economy 
 of nature; and think themselves no more ca- 
 pable of putting a stop to it, or preventing 
 its recurrence, than of lulling a hurricane, or 
 dispersing a thunder-storm. Human sacrifices 
 daily took place in the temples of JMexico, yet 
 the people of that country were mild and 
 humane, and secretly shuddered at cruelties 
 which they dared not openly condemn. Thus 
 it is that the wild caprice or atrocious disposi-
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 71 
 
 tion of one man, whom chance or talents has 
 raised to power, will introduce customs that are 
 utterly repugnant to the feelings of the thou- 
 sands whom he governs, and which, at first en- 
 forced by royal authority, are afterwards main- 
 tained by tradition, and at the same time daily 
 execrated by those who have fatuitously adopt- 
 ed them. 
 
 In some of the small states of West Africa, 
 and particularly in Dahomey, the taste for 
 bloodshed in the sovereign, and the wanton 
 sacrifice of human life that takes place in con- 
 sequence, far exceed everything of the kind 
 that is to be found in the history of any other 
 part of the world. According to Dalzel, who 
 has written an account of the kingdom above- 
 mentioned, an annual festival is celebrated 
 there, at which the sovereign " waters the 
 graves of his ancestors ;" but it is not a river 
 or a fountain that affords him the requisite 
 fluid for that purpose — but hundreds of deca- 
 pitated human bodies. The victims are mostly 
 slaves brought from distant places; but when 
 these cannot be procured in sufficient number, 
 the deficiency is supplied out of the lower 
 orders of the people of the country. For 
 several days the executions go on almost with-
 
 72 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 out intermission, and the enclosures of the 
 palace are garnished with bloody human heads, 
 while the carcases lie scattered about in the 
 neighbourhood. But the most extraordinary 
 feature of the scene, is a kind of dance, which 
 is performed in presence of the king, by men, 
 to the number of sixty or seventy, who hold 
 each other by the hands, and move quickly 
 round in a circle. Should any one of the 
 party be observed to stumble, it is considered a 
 bad omen, and the miserable wretch is forth- 
 with removed from the ranks, and publicly be- 
 headed ; and, however often a similar execu- 
 tion may occur, there are always many indi- 
 viduals ready to fill the vacancies amongst the 
 dancers, regardless of the risk to which they 
 expose their lives by so doing. 
 
 At the time that Dalzel visited Dahomey, 
 and witnessed these scenes, the sovereign was 
 Trudo, one of the greatest negro generals ever 
 known, and famed for his conquests and victo- 
 ries. When asked if he did not often make 
 war with the sole view of procuring captives to 
 sell to the European traders who frequented 
 the coast, he warmly resented the imputation, 
 and declared that he made it a rule never to 
 dispose of a single slave upon any terms what-
 
 ABOIIIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 73 
 
 ever, unless he happened to have a greater 
 number than was sufficient to water the graves 
 of his ancestors. At another time, on being 
 reproached with cruelty, he denied the charge 
 in general, but acknowledged that he some- 
 times caused a few fresh human heads to be 
 thrown upon the bye-roads near his palace in 
 the night-time, in order " that people might 
 start when they came suddenly upon them 
 next morning." 
 
 In Dahomey, it is customary for the king- 
 occasionally to send a message to his ancestors, 
 which is accomplished in this way. He ac- 
 quaints his friends and courtiers with his in- 
 tention, and demands who will volunteer to 
 perform the service required. Should any one 
 of them come forward, he immediately com- 
 municates to him the message which he is to 
 deliver in the next world, and then causes his 
 head to be struck off. If, as sometimes hap- 
 pens, no man has zeal enough to offer himself 
 as ambassador, the king selects an individual 
 for the purpose, who, after receiving his in- 
 structions, is executed without delay. There 
 is a singular coincidence between this usage 
 and one recorded by Herodotus, as existing 
 amongst a tribe of Scythians named Gette.
 
 74 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 These people believed in the immortality of 
 the soul, and worshipped a god, or sage, named 
 Xamoxlis, to whom they sent a messenger once 
 every five years. The individual who engaged 
 to perform this office, was projected into the 
 air by the by-standers, and received upon the 
 points of their spears in his fall, and mortally 
 transfixed. 
 
 The kingdom of Dahomey, and its sangui- 
 nary form of government, may be regarded as 
 one of those morbid excrescences which occasion- 
 ally appear upon even the soundest and most 
 healthy bodies. Instead of being an evidence 
 of the natural cruelty of the Africans, it is the 
 reverse, in so far as exception proves the rule ; 
 for nothing similar to it has been found in any 
 other part of that great continent. Human 
 sacrifices do indeed take place in Ashantee, 
 upon particular occasions, but they are not 
 attended with that cool deliberation and gro- 
 tesque horror which characterise them in Da- 
 homey. Upon the death of the king, or of 
 any of the royal family, in the former king- 
 dom, it is customary for the officers of state 
 and caboceers, to rush into the public streets, 
 and kill the first persons they happen to see ; 
 by which they intend to show that excessive
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 75 
 
 affliction for the loss of the deceased has de- 
 prived them of reason, and rendered them 
 frantic. 
 
 The indigenous religion of the natives of 
 West Africa is a strange medley of fantastic 
 superstitions and observances ; and it seems 
 very remarkable, that a people, upon whom 
 nature has imprinted an universal similarity 
 of character and disposition, should possess no 
 regular system of mythology, and no received 
 and defined mode of belief. Not only is there 
 a greater or less difference in the creed of every 
 different nation, but the individuals composing 
 each, vary in their adopted forms of worship, 
 and in their religious opinions. Nowhere upon 
 the w^est coast of Africa do we find regularly 
 constituted native priests or ministers of reli- 
 gion, or places of worship, or even consecrated 
 spots of ground. The only exception to this 
 appears to be the kingdom of Fida, where a 
 certain species of snake is the national deity ; 
 and where a building is set apart for its resi- 
 dence and w^orship, and priests appointed to 
 attend upon it. In all other places, every man 
 follows his own fancy in matters of religion, 
 and chooses for his fetiche, or idol, whatever 
 animal or thing happens to strike his imagi-
 
 76 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 nation. He likewise makes a household god 
 of whatever form he pleases, and offers his ado- 
 ration to it as often as convenience or interest 
 lead him to do so. It may easily be supposed 
 that a mutual toleration prevails amongst the 
 negroes, and that no one interferes with his 
 neighbour, how^ever different their respective 
 idols may be. 
 
 Though the negroes are a cheerful, gay, and 
 unreflecting people, their religious ideas, so far 
 from partaking of these characters, are gene- 
 rally sombre and unattractive. Their mytho- 
 logy embraces no agreeable or ingenious alle- 
 gories ; and the attributes of their deities are 
 such as are calculated to inspire fear and dis- 
 trust, rather than hope and confidence. Their 
 fetiches^ or idols, are grossly-formed, bearing 
 a small resemblance to the human figure, and 
 the ceremonies practised at their worship are 
 repugnant to common sense. 
 
 The Benin negroes believe that a man's 
 shadow is appointed by his Creator to attend 
 him during his life, that it may render an ac- 
 count of his deeds after his death. But they 
 do not explain to us why the shadow deserts 
 its post during the rainy season, when the sun 
 is obscured. They likewise regard the great
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 77 
 
 ocean as the seat of the soul's future happiness 
 or punishment; an idea which, as far as my 
 knowledge goes, is entertained by no other 
 people in the world. But they have no firm 
 conviction of the truth of these, or, in short, of 
 any of then- religious opinions ; and their faith, 
 whatever its nature may be, consists altogether 
 of accidental impressions, which are as quickly 
 obliterated as they are easily renewed. 
 
 The only nation that pays any attention to 
 the preservation of its received system of be- 
 lief, is the Fidians. Whoever kills, or even 
 accidentally injures, a snake of the species 
 which is esteemed sacred amongst them, suf- 
 fers death ; and Bosnian relates, that an Eng- 
 lish shipmaster and several of his crew, who 
 had destroyed one of these reptiles, were mur- 
 dered by the natives. This took place soon 
 after Europeans had first begun to visit the 
 coast of Africa ; but he remarks, that even in 
 his time, when the Fidians were more tolerant 
 than formerly towards foreigners, it was highly 
 dangerous for persons of the kind to molest, 
 or even in any way disturb the sacred snakes. 
 
 Most of the negroes being thus unsettled 
 in their religious opinions, and regarding the 
 choice of a system of belief as a matter of taste
 
 78 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and convenience, it is not to be wondered 
 that the JMoorish Marabouts should have had 
 so much success in converting them to IMahom- 
 medanism, or rather, in making them acquiesce 
 in its doctrines. At what time the JNIara- 
 bouts first began to difFuse the tenets of the 
 Koran in West Africa, is uncertain ; but there 
 is no doubt that they entered the country from 
 Barbary by crossing the Senegal. They have 
 been found in almost every part of the conti- 
 nent that has been visited by Europeans, and 
 the reception of Mahommedanism by a very 
 considerable proportion of the natives has at- 
 tended their exertions to that effect wherever 
 they have gone ; and it may now be considered 
 the general religion of the people of Africa, 
 with the exception of those nations inhabiting 
 its southern division. 
 
 The sole acquirements of a ^larabout consist 
 in being able to read the Koran, which many 
 of them can do but indifferently. Those who, 
 in addition, can write Arabic, are considered ac- 
 complished men, and are employed as schoolmas- 
 ters. The simplicity of the negroes is easily 
 imposed upon by the high pretensions and as- 
 suming demeanour of the Moorish priests, who 
 find little difficulty in persuading them of the
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 79 
 
 truth of the Mahommedan religion, because 
 they neither perplex nor annoy them by the 
 discussion of metaphysical subtleties, nor insist 
 upon their believing things which they are 
 vniable to comprehend. The natural mental in- 
 dolence too, of the negro, disposes him to listen 
 patiently and submissively to any instructor, 
 and to repress any objections that may arise 
 w^ithin himself to what is proposed, instead of 
 bringing them forward and examining their 
 validity. 
 
 But I am inclined to believe that one pecu- 
 liarity in the character of the negroes has con- 
 tributed more than anything else to strengthen 
 and extend the influence of the Marabouts. 
 What I allude to is, that extreme fear of death 
 which prevails almost universally amongst the 
 natives of West Africa, and to such a degree 
 that they dislike even to hear the word men- 
 tioned. Bosman, in describing the inhabitants 
 of the slave coast, says, "No negro in the 
 whole country dare presume to speak of death 
 in presence of the king, or of any great man, 
 on penalty of undergoing it as a punishment 
 himself." The Marabouts must soon have per- 
 ceived that they might easily turn this gene- 
 ral weakness to their private advantage, and
 
 80 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 they accordingly offered for sale amulets or 
 charms for protection against all kinds of dan- 
 gers. Hence, doubtless, the origin of these 
 gris-gris, which are in such universal request 
 amongst the negroes of West Africa. A gris- 
 gris is usually nothing more than a folded slip 
 of paper, upon which a verse of the Koran is 
 inscribed, and which is enclosed in a case of 
 leather or metal, in order to protect it from 
 injury or decay. 
 
 The Marabouts take care to make gris-gris 
 of various qualities, so as to suit the views of 
 different purchasers. One, for instance, is stated 
 to be a security against drowning ; a second has 
 the property of averting musket-balls, and a 
 third is meant to prevent death from snake- 
 bites. The price of them varies in proportion 
 to the greater or less magnitude of the evil 
 which they are intended to neutralize or repel, 
 and according to the wealth of those who apply 
 for them ; and no negro will be without one, 
 if he can in any way compass the means of pro- 
 curing it. 
 
 Gris-gris are hung round the neck, or at- 
 tached to different parts of the body ; and it is 
 said that many of the richer class of negroes 
 are so covered with them, that they answer
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 81 
 
 nearly the same purpose as a coat of arms, and 
 really do protect the wearers from minor bodily 
 injuries. Such is the confidence of the Africans 
 in their efficacy, that it was customary for Eu- 
 ropean traders, after having purchased a cargo 
 of slaves, to despoil them of their gris-gris, in 
 order that being deprived of their imaginary 
 protecting influence, they might become timid 
 and submissive, and want courage to attempt 
 insurrection or acts of violence while on board 
 ship. 
 
 When the bar of the Senegal happens to be 
 in such a dangerous state that boats cannot pass 
 it, any person wishing to have communication 
 with the ships lying outside, finds little diffi- 
 culty in hiring a negro to swim on board with 
 a letter or small parcel. Before undertaking 
 this perilous duty, he goes to the nearest Mara- 
 bout, and purchases a gris-gris to protect him 
 from sharks, for he dreads these animals more 
 than he does the raging sea. Thus provided, 
 he plunges into the surf with confidence ; and 
 if, as sometimes happens, he is never again seen 
 or heard of, the INlarabout explains his disap- 
 pearance, by saying that he has been drowned, 
 and that he ought to have procured a gris-gris 
 aversive. of that accident, in addition to the 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 other, which was not intended to possess a 
 double virtue. 
 
 The habitual fear of death amongst the ne- 
 groes is in contradiction to the general cha- 
 racter of the inhabitants of the torrid zone. 
 The Asiatics are well known to regard the hour 
 of dissolution with serene indifference ; and 
 though a confirmed belief in the transmigration 
 of souls may, in many cases, lead to this effect, 
 its influence is by no means universal, because 
 the numerous sectarians who refuse to admit 
 that doctrine are equally placid in their Inst 
 moments. It is only the people of hot climates 
 that ever put themselves to death without any 
 exciting cause, or assist in setting fire to their 
 own funeral piles ; and all religions have had 
 the fewer martyrs the farther they have ex- 
 tended beyond the tropics. 
 
 Ulloa says, that the Peruvian Indians are in- 
 sensible to the dread of dying, and that the 
 Catholic priests try in vain to awaken their 
 fears, by describing the terrors of hell, and the 
 punishment of unbelievers in the world to 
 come. May we not ascribe the fears of the 
 negroes to the unsettled nature of their reli- 
 gious belief, and to the disturbance of imagina- 
 tion produced by the daily view of their hide-
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 83 
 
 ous fetiches or idols, which they are accustomed 
 alternately to worship and to despise, accord- 
 ing as the affairs in which they have solicited 
 their assistance turn out prosperously, or the 
 reverse ? 
 
 Though the JNIarabouts often take an inte- 
 rested advantage of the influence which they 
 have acquired, it must be admitted that the 
 negroes derive considerable benefit from their 
 intercourse with them. The notions of reli- 
 gion which they diffuse amongst their prose- 
 lytes, are infinitely more reasonable and more 
 favourable to morality than the Jeticke super- 
 stitions of the country, and the instructions 
 which they sometimes are able to commimicate 
 on other subjects have also a beneficial effect. 
 Their impositions with respect to the gris-gris 
 cannot be defended ; but these seem more ex- 
 cusable, when it is considered, that the inven- 
 tors of them have no other means of subsist- 
 ence, and that it is perhaps the most harmless 
 device that they can use to maintain an ascend- 
 ancy ov%r their proselytes. The term Mara- 
 bout appears to be improperly applied to these 
 Moorish priests, who in reality bear no resem- 
 blance to the fanatical and desperate impostors 
 of that name who infest the towns and mosques 
 
 G 2
 
 84 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of Barbary, and, under the guise of affected 
 inspiration, commit the most abominable ex- 
 cesses with impunity, the sacred character of 
 their profession placing them beyond the pale 
 of the law. 
 
 The trial by ordeal is very commonly adopt- 
 ed amongst those negroes who have not em- 
 braced Mahommedanism, though the practice 
 itself is entirely in contradiction to the general 
 spirit of their religion ; for they imagine that 
 the Supreme Being (whose existence all of 
 them acknowledge,) is too exalted in his na- 
 ture, and too far removed from them, to take 
 any interest in their concerns, or to interfere in 
 their behalf. How then can they expect that 
 he should protect the innocent from the dan- 
 gerous or fatal consequences of the ordeal ? 
 This kind of trial is instituted when an indi- 
 vidual accused of any crime cannot prove his 
 innocence by human testimony ; and he is on 
 some occasions obliged to submit to it, but in 
 general he demands the ordeal as a means of 
 clearing himself from suspicion, and* in the 
 latter case, it is always of a more severe and 
 trying character than in the former. 
 
 Appeals to divine justice, by persons under 
 false accusation, are common amongst most
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 85 
 
 uncivilized nations ; but it is in West Africa and 
 in India that they assume the most systematic 
 character, are most universally accredited, and 
 present the greatest variety of forms. The 
 ceremony is performed in different ways in the 
 Senegambia, in Guinea, in Congo, in Angola, 
 and in Mozambique ; and the inhabitants of 
 all these countries have their respective tales of 
 its miraculous efficacy. In some instances a 
 bar of iron, or a ring of copper, made red-hot, 
 is applied to the tongue of the accused person, 
 who, should he be innocent, suffers no pain or 
 harm from the fire. 
 
 Santos, speaking of this method in his His- 
 tory of Eastern Ethiopia, says, " What, how- 
 ever, is certainly shameful, some Christians 
 have been known to subject their slaves to 
 this ordeal ; and of these, several have even, 
 for three successive times, licked a red-hot bar 
 without experiencing the least hurt." Bosman 
 describes the same kind of ordeal as beins: fre- 
 quently used in Guinea, but its result was very 
 different, so far as his observation went. " All 
 the accused," says he, " were declared guilty, 
 and not without reason, for it would be strange 
 indeed if red-hot copper would not burn the 
 
 tongue."
 
 86 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 It is not the less certain, however, that this 
 ordeal by fire is often performed in India with- 
 out any injury to the person who undergoes it, 
 which we must attribute to the arts of the 
 Brahmans, who doubtless secretly apply some 
 preservative substance to the skin of the ac- 
 cused. The drinking of poison is also in com- 
 mon use throughout Africa, as a means of de- 
 tecting supposed guilt, the suspected individual 
 shortly expiring if he has really committed the 
 crime laid to his charge, but if not, he expe- 
 riences no bad effect from the draught. This 
 may be regarded as the least artificial of all 
 ordeals, so easy must it be for the conductor 
 of the ceremony to administer a noxious or a 
 harmless mixture, according as he is favourably 
 disposed or otherwise towards the prisoner. 
 The manner of this kind of ordeal amongst the 
 negroes, is the following, according to Father 
 MeroUa. " The aforesaid oath Bolungo," says 
 he, " is administered to the supposed traitor 
 by a sort of wizard called Cangizumbo, who, 
 making a certain composition out of the juice 
 of herbs, serpent's flesh, pulp of fruit, and 
 divers other things, gives it to the supposed 
 delinquent to drink, who, if guilty, (as they 
 tell you,) will immediately fall down in a
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 87 
 
 swoon or trembling to the ground, insomuch 
 that if they did not presently give him an anti- 
 dote, he would infallibly die away, but if not 
 guilty, no harm would happen to him." 
 
 It seems extraordinary, that nearly all the 
 ordeals in use amongst any people should be 
 attended with pain or danger to those under- 
 going them. The detection of guilt is one 
 thing, and the punishment of it another ; and 
 the first would be effected by an ordeal of a 
 harmless nature as completely as by one of an 
 opposite kind. The Brahmans alone seem to 
 have partially adopted this idea; and though 
 some of their ordeals are very severe, others 
 bring no suffering to the accused person, be he 
 guilty or innocent. Of this description are the 
 trials by chewing of rice, and by the balance. 
 In the first case, a small quantity of rice is put 
 into the mouth of the suspected individual, 
 which he is desired to chew. Should the frag- 
 ments of the grain quickly become moist, and 
 adhere together, he is declared innocent ; but 
 if, on the contrary, they continue dry and pow- 
 dery, and are expelled when he breathes, his 
 guilt is no longer considered doubtful. 
 
 This ordeal is seldom or never resorted to 
 on important occasions ; that of the balance is
 
 88 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of a mare solemn nature, and is thus perform- 
 ed. The accused person having fasted two 
 days, is brought to the place of trial, and the 
 attendant Brahmans begin the ceremony with 
 prayers and sacrifices. He is then placed in 
 one of the scales, while bricks and fragments of 
 the sacred herba clarha are put into the other, 
 so as to bring the two into exact equilibrium. 
 He now withdraws from the scale, and goes to 
 perform certain ablutions, and on his return 
 resumes his former position. A mantram, or 
 invocation, is now said by the officiating Brah- 
 man, and if the scales continue to preserve the 
 same equality as at first, the accused is con- 
 sidered innocent ; but if the one is observed to 
 outweigh the other, his guilt is supposed to be 
 made manifest. 
 
 It would appear that ordeals have in all 
 countries been the invention of the priesthood. 
 Their profession everywhere authorizes them 
 to declare to the people that the Deity will 
 always interpose to prevent the punishment of 
 •an innocent person ; and even though they 
 may not be persuaded of this themselves, they 
 rightly regard it as a doctrine worthy to be 
 maintained elsewhere, because it is favourable 
 to morality ; while those amongst them who
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 89 
 
 aspire to secular consequence, insist that the 
 management of ordeals shall rest in the hands 
 of their fraternity ; for, possessing this privilege, 
 they may by a little artifice render the tests 
 subservient to their interests and their wishes, 
 and acquire the ppwer of life and death, and 
 of condemnation and acquittal, over a large 
 proportion of their countrymen. 
 
 The negroes being, as already described, ex- 
 tremely indolent, and likewise very simple in 
 their habits and tastes, we may easily suppose 
 that they satisfy theij; personal wants at little 
 expense of time or trouble. It is said, that in 
 the neighbourhood of the rivers Senegal and 
 Gambia, twenty days tillage of the soil in the 
 sowing season will enable an individual to 
 subsist in abundance throughout the succeed- 
 ing year. 
 
 Maize, millet, yams, palm-oil, and fish, are 
 the articles which chiefly compose the ordinary 
 diet of the inlxibitants of West Africa ; but 
 they sometimes vary these with game of differ- 
 ent kinds, with respect to which they are not 
 very select, for they consider elephant's flesh 
 nearly as good as venison, and in some dis- 
 tricts they esteem young dogs as great a deli- 
 cacy as the Chinese do. However, their ge-
 
 90 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 neral diet almost everywhere consists of grain 
 and vegetables, and their drink is either water 
 or palm-wine. Their huts are built of hurdle- 
 work, covered with a coating of clay, and 
 thatched with grass or leaves ; and they are 
 not encumbered inside with many pieces of 
 furniture or cooking utensils. The shell of 
 the calabash forms their usual drinking-cup. 
 
 In an old voyage in Churchill's Collection, 
 the author describes an ordinary which he saw 
 upon the coast of Africa, a kind of establish- 
 ment which we should little expect to find in 
 that country. The fare consisted of beef and 
 dog's-flesh boiled together, and afterwards wrap- 
 ped in a raw hide to prevent their cooling. 
 The tavern-keeper sat under a large tree, where 
 there was a plank to serve as a table for those 
 travellers who might wish to dine at the place. 
 The reckoning for one meal, everything in- 
 cluded, was ten cowries, or about three-fourths 
 of a farthing sterling. • 
 
 The negroes having the entire disposal of 
 their own time, it becomes curious to inquire 
 how they employ it. Conversation holds a 
 chief place with them, and in fact takes pre- 
 cedence of everything else. They are the 
 most determined and unwearying talkers in
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 91 
 
 the .world, and the men even exceed the wo- 
 men in this respect. The most frivolous story 
 is lengthened by them into a tedious narration, 
 and the minutest circumstances are dwelt upon 
 with fatiguing prolixity ; while the whole is 
 accompanied with such animation of counte- 
 nance, and such energetic action, that a person 
 unacquainted with their language would sup- 
 pose that they were discussing affairs of grand 
 interest and importance. 
 
 We might naturally conclude, that a people 
 who spend so much time in talking, and hear- 
 ing each other talk, would abound in traditions 
 and tales, and frequently make such the sub- 
 ject of their narratives. But the negroes are 
 entirely destitute of these ; and the things and 
 events which occupy their minds, are exclu- 
 sively those of the past day, or the passing 
 moment, or are at least of comparatively recent 
 occurrence. It is true that the unvarying 
 tenor of their lives affords few events worth 
 remembering, and few eras by which the an- 
 tiquity of any fact may be dei^ermined. The 
 earliest records and traditions of all nations 
 consist chiefly of the history of battles, and of 
 the exploits of heroes; but the negroes have 
 always loved peace and tranquillity, and shun-
 
 9a WEST AFRICA. 
 
 ned warfare even at the expense of their li- 
 berty, and they have therefore no martial 
 achievements to form the groundwork of either 
 their narratives or their national songs. 
 
 Which of us is not ready to execrate a state 
 of warfare as a fertile source of misery to our 
 species? but at the same time, when we hear 
 of a nation that has never been engaged in it, 
 and has no examples of personal bravery to 
 record, we are led to form an humble estimate 
 of its general character and condition. Is this 
 inconsistency to be accounted for by the opi- 
 nion which history has taught us to entertain 
 of the human race ? We know that men, 
 both individually, and collectively, are ever 
 prone to encroach upon each other's rights and 
 liberties, and to practise usurpation and un- 
 bounded tyranny, in a way that becomes in- 
 supportable to a bold and spirited people, and 
 leads them to rebellion and to warfare in de- 
 fence of their persons and privileges ; and we 
 cannot easily believe that any nation has always 
 escaped oppression, and never been called upon 
 to resist insult or invasion ; and consequently, 
 when we find that its traditions or annals re- 
 cord no struggles of the kind, we at once con- 
 clude that it has been in the habit of quietly
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 93 
 
 and basely yielding to the hand of power, 
 whenever that has been stretched forth to en- 
 slave or destroy it. 
 
 The Abbe Proyart, speaking of the negroes of 
 Congo and Loango, remarks that they have an 
 excellent memory. " They make no use how- 
 ever of the faculty (continues he) for transmit- 
 ting to future ages what passes amongst them- 
 selves that is memorable, assuming as a prin- 
 ciple that they should confine themselves Ho 
 w^hat is strictly necessary, as well for knowledge 
 as for the wants of life. They all live in regard 
 to hisfory in that indifference which character- 
 ises the inhabitants of our country places, who 
 know no more of what passed in France under 
 Louis the Great, than under Julius Caesar. If 
 you ask them why they do not preserve the re- 
 membrance of what has been done by their fa- 
 thers, they will answer, that it signifies little to 
 know how the dead have lived ; the main point 
 is that the living should be honest people." 
 
 These seem to be the opinions of nearly all the 
 other nations inhabiting West Africa ; and it will 
 probably be a long time before any of them think 
 of collecting annals, unless the INIarabouts should 
 help them to do this, and condescend to write 
 these in the Arabicdanguage. The Chilians of
 
 94 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 South America form an extraordinary contrast to 
 the negroes in this respect. Amongst them the 
 people of every district appoint an individual to 
 preserve the traditions of the country, which is 
 his sole duty and employment; and in order 
 that he may perfectly retain them in his me- 
 mory, he makes a practice of frequently repeat- 
 ing them aloud to the sound of a drum. He 
 must also instruct a certain number of pupils in 
 thiis kind of oral history, so that his knowledge 
 of past events may not perish when he dies, or 
 become confused and inexact from the decline 
 of his faculties when he grows old. 
 
 The amusements which the negroes most 
 esteem next to conversation, are music and 
 dancing, in neither of which they particularly 
 excel. Their musical instruments are drums, 
 flutes, and horns, and a kind of rude guitar. 
 They have also professional and itinerant musi- 
 cians called Guiriots. These people hire them- 
 selves by the day or month to any one that is 
 disposed to entertain them, and their business is 
 to accompany him wherever he goes, and to sing 
 his praises and proclaim his virtues (as impar- 
 tially as European tombstones do those of the 
 dead) to the bystanders. Persons of wealth and 
 consequence always carry several of them in
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 9^ 
 
 their train, and make a practice of often giving 
 them presents to encourage them to exert their 
 powers of adulation, which however are at best 
 of a very low kind, consisting merely of re- 
 peated exclamations that their employer is rich 
 or generous, or of noble birth, or that he is a 
 great hero. 
 
 The guiriot, while engaged in this kind of 
 recitative, beats a small drum, the only advan- 
 tage of which is, that it sometimes drowns his 
 voice, and relieves the ear from the wearisome- 
 ness of a strain of uninterrupted tautology. The 
 negroes, though they derive much enjoyment 
 from the performances of the guiriots, neverthe- 
 less share in that prejudice against public mu- 
 sicians which is so universal amongst men in 
 every state of society. The guiriots, when they 
 die, are considered unworthy of honourable bu- 
 rial, and their corpses are usually placed upright 
 in a hollow tree, or thrown into the nearest 
 thicket, and covered with rubbish. 
 
 One very remarkable social institution is de- 
 scribed by Golberry as existing in the negro na- 
 tion called Foulahs, inhabiting the coast in the 
 neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. It is named 
 the Purrah tribunal, and is a secret association, 
 in some respects resembling freemasonfy, and
 
 96 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 in others the Catholic inquisition. The candi- 
 date for admission must be thirty years old, 
 and his friends and relations who may already 
 have been initiated, must guarantee his fidelity, 
 and swear to put him to death should he vio- 
 late his engagements. These preliminaries being 
 adjusted, he is removed from his usual place of 
 residence, and made to inhabit a solitary hut 
 in a thick forest. Here he continues several 
 weeks, and is daily supplied with provisions by 
 
 • 
 
 masked attendants, who visit him at certain 
 hours only. Nor may he quit his hut at any 
 time under the penalty of death. The required 
 period of seclusion having elapsed, he is sub- 
 jected to a variety of proofs of the most fearful 
 kind, in order to try to the utmost his ccfi\r€tge 
 and constancy, after which he is duly admitted 
 a member of the tribunal, having first sworn that 
 he will never divulge its mysteries and secrets. 
 
 It is said that those individuals whose impru- 
 dent curiosity has induced them to penetrate into 
 the secret wood which forms the scene of initia- 
 tion, have always disappeared, and have never af- 
 terwards been heard of; and that when any mem- 
 ber of the tribunal violates his oath, he is inva- 
 riably assassinated, and that too sometimes in 
 public, and even in his own house, in the midst
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 97 
 
 of his relations, none of whom ever attempt to 
 defend him, or to save his life. The chief bu- 
 siness of the Purrah tribunal appears to be to 
 watch over the public security, to decide upon 
 peace and war, and to punish obnoxious indivi- 
 duals. It seems an institution little calculated 
 to do good ; and we may well suppose that its 
 members abuse their prerogatives, for secret 
 justice too often becomes open oppression, while 
 the deposition of the civil authority in un- 
 known hands, so far from restraining the 
 wicked, makes them on the contrary consider 
 themselves free from responsibility, and amen- 
 able to no one. 
 
 No monuments of human art or labour are 
 found in West Africa, though we might rea- 
 sonably expect the contrary; for the negroes, 
 fixed to the soil which gave them birth, and 
 obtaining all the necessaries of life with trifling 
 exertion, are in a favourable condition to erect 
 buildings, and to employ themselves in the 
 formation of some memorials of their having 
 once existed. Yet the whole country presents 
 no monument of their own construction of ten 
 years standing, or solid enough to resist a strong 
 tornado; if we perhaps except a few small 
 mosques, composed of unbaked bricks, which 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the Marabouts have induced them to build in 
 some of their large villages. The only antiqui- 
 ties that exist in West Africa, are the remains 
 of several stone crosses, which the Portuguese 
 erected upon the most prominent parts of the 
 coast, when they were engaged in exploring it 
 at the end of the fifteenth century. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the ne- 
 groes have remained several thousand years in 
 the state in which we now find them. No 
 foreign people have ever entered their coun- 
 try, or formed settlements in it, except Eu- 
 ropeans ; who, having confined themselves en- 
 tirely to the coasts, and having always been few 
 in number, their presence has exerted no influ- 
 ence upon the character of that part of the po- 
 pulation which has had no direct intercourse 
 with them. Nor do the negroes seem disposed 
 to change their manners or mode of life, or to 
 adopt new ideas ; and it seems probable that in 
 the event of the conquest of the country by any 
 foreign nation, they would always continue a 
 distinct people, indifferent to despotism, if they 
 were allowed to lead a life of indolence and 
 ease, and willing to sacrifice everything for the 
 enjoyment of peace and personal security. 
 
 Happily for the people of West Africa, the
 
 ABORIGINES OF WEST AFRICA. 99 
 
 climate of their country is a safeguard against 
 foreign invasion, more certain and effectual 
 than armies or fortifications could ever be. Had 
 it not been for this, their territories would lonsr 
 since have been overrun by different European 
 nations, and would have proved a theatre for 
 reacting the scenes of cruelty and oppression 
 which compose the early history of America. 
 That soil which yet remains unbroken, would 
 have been furrowed and excavated in search of 
 gold ; and the negroes, forced by fire and sword 
 to labour for the benefit of their conquerors, 
 would have coveted a state of slavery in the 
 West Indies, as an amelioration of their lot, 
 and as a refuge from domestic toil and misery. 
 Nor can we consider them as altogether safe 
 from foreign disturbance so long as we hear 
 plans proposed for the civilization of Africa. 
 It is not difficult to comprehend the real mean- 
 ing and object of these, and it is equally easy 
 to anticipate what would follow their success- 
 ful execution. Let then the generous nations 
 of Europe allow the Africans to enjoy their 
 barbarism a few centuries longer. 
 
 The continent of America has already been 
 nearly depopulated of its aborigines by the 
 introduction of the blessings of civilization. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 The West Indian archipelago, from the same 
 cause, no longer contains a single family of its 
 primitive inhabitants. South Africa will soon 
 be in a similar condition — and the islanders of 
 the Pacific Ocean are rapidly diminishing in 
 numbers from the ravages of European diseases, 
 and the despotism of self-interested and fana- 
 tical missionaries. It surely is time that the 
 work of destruction should cease ; and since long 
 and melancholy experience has proved us to 
 be invariably unsuccessful in rendering happier, 
 wiser, or better, the barbarians whom we have 
 visited or conquered, we may now conscien- 
 tiously let them alone and turn a correcting hand 
 towards ourselves, and seek to repress those evils 
 which the march of intellect has long been 
 engendering, lest all vestiges of good should 
 disappear from amongst us, and leave us without 
 any qualities but our avarice, our selfishness, 
 and our vices.
 
 101 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN WEST 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 The African trade had its commencement 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century, under 
 the auspices of Prince Henry of Portugal. He 
 built a fort in the island Arguin, in the year 
 1455, for the residence and protection of his 
 commercial agents ; and this was the first es- 
 tablishment formed by Europeans in West 
 Africa. It doubtless originated in a voyage 
 of discovery, made by Nuno Tristan, in 1441, 
 when he advanced as far as Sierra Leone, and 
 brought back to Portugal a quantity of gold- 
 dust and ten negroes, both of which he had 
 obtained from the Moors, as a ransom for some 
 prisoners of their nation whom he had captur- 
 ed in the neighbourhood of the Rio del Ouro. 
 Some authors assert that these were the first 
 negroes ever imported into Europe, but this is 
 disputed by others, who pretend that the Normans 
 and Castilians visited and explored a consi-
 
 102 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 derable part of the west coast of Africa so early 
 as the thirteenth century. It is at least certain 
 that it was the view of those productions of the 
 country that first gave the Portuguese a high idea 
 of the advantages to be derived from the African 
 trade, and made them duly value the discoveries 
 which had already been effected by the zeal 
 of Prince Henry. Accordingly King John the 
 Second, of Portugal, sent Diego de Arambusa, 
 with twelve vessels, and a proportionable number 
 of people, to build a fort and form a settlement 
 on that part of the coast of Guinea where gold 
 might appear to be most abundant. Don Diego, 
 on reaching his place of destination, had an inter- 
 view with the king of the country, whose name 
 was Karamansa, and requested permission to 
 instruct him and his subjects in the Christian 
 religion, and also to build a house for the accom- 
 modation of the seamen. Karamansa readily 
 assented to the first proposition, but they found 
 much difficulty in persuading him to agree to 
 the second. However, his objections were at 
 length overcome, and the Portuguese began to 
 prepare materials for the erection of a fort ; 
 but, unluckily, they assailed with their pickaxes 
 a rock which was regarded as a fetiche by the 
 negroes, whose proposed conversion Diego had 
 either deferred or altogether forgotten, and
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 103 
 
 they took up arms in defence of their idol, and 
 drove the strangers away. Nevertheless things 
 were soon accommodated between the parties ; 
 and the building was at length completed, and 
 received the appellation of St. George del Mina, 
 which it has retained to the present day. The 
 negroes of that neighbourhood being great 
 traders in gold-dust, the Portuguese errone- 
 ously supposed that there were rich mines not far 
 off, and gave their castle the above name; which, 
 however, is not at all appropriate, for no mines 
 of any description exist within many miles 
 of it. 
 
 But this establishment, so far from securing 
 to the Portuguese the exclusive trade of West 
 Africa, drew the attention of rival nations to 
 that part of the world, and rendered them de- 
 sirous of partaking of its lucrative and enticing 
 commerce. Gold-dust, ivory, and spices, were 
 at that time considered the representatives of 
 wealth, and the most valuable and marketable of 
 all commodities ; and though West Africa had 
 never afforded any of the last article, the earlier 
 navigators naturally enough supposed that it 
 would be found to exist in a climate apparently 
 so favourable to its production. So early as 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, the 
 Spaniards, EngHsh, French, and Dutch, had
 
 104 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 began to send private ships to the coast of 
 Africa ; and the neighbouring seas became a 
 scene of continual warfare between the different 
 traders, who exercised a kind of piracy upon 
 each other, regardless whether their respective 
 nations were at peace or in a state of hostility. 
 However, they sometimes found a bond of 
 union in their jealousy of the Portuguese, who 
 endeavoured to monopolise the commerce of 
 the whole coast, upon the principle that it be- 
 longed to them on account of their priority of 
 discovery and possession : but the rights of 
 nations, real or imaginary, were little attended 
 to or respected by those who had so strong an 
 interest in infringing them ; and the Portuguese 
 were harassed in all quarters, and perhaps de- 
 rived less profit from the African trade than 
 any other people who had at that period en- 
 gaged in it. 
 
 About the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 the trade of West Africa began to assume an 
 organised form. Previous to that time it had 
 been carried on exclusively by private adven- 
 turers, (except in so far as the Portuguese were 
 concerned,) none of whom had any assigned 
 limits for their operations, nor any restraint 
 upon their actions beyond what an mherent
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 105 
 
 sense of equity might create. Hence the 
 natives were daily made the victims of their 
 tyranny, frauds, and extortions ; and in some 
 parts of the coast, the mere appearance of a 
 ship made the inhabitants take flight and con- 
 ceal themselves, lest they should be kidnap- 
 ped for slaves, or even carried away from their 
 homes by force. The masters and crews of the 
 trading vessels were mostly unprincipled and 
 rapacious characters, insensible to humanity, and 
 regardless of everything but private interest ; 
 for persons of good reputation could not easily 
 be engaged to undertake voyages of so dan- 
 gerous and uncertain a nature ; and hence, 
 these assumed the character of plundering ex- 
 peditions rather than of commercial ones. But 
 when the different European nations instituted 
 chartered companies for the management of 
 t^ie African trade, with exclusive privileges, 
 many of the disorders above alluded to were 
 remedied ; and the agents in the employ of the 
 companies being responsible to their superiors, 
 a system of comparative equity and of mutual 
 forbearance began to prevail in their com- 
 mercial transactions — and though a spirit of 
 rivalry might continue amongst them, there 
 was an end to all acts of open hostility.
 
 106 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 It would be out of place here, to enter into 
 any kind of history of the rise and growth of 
 the various mercantile companies who have 
 at different times formed establishments upon 
 tlie west coast of Africa, or to give an ac- 
 count of the vicissitudes and difficulties which 
 they have severally experienced in the course 
 of their existence. Nor would this be an easy 
 task in so far as concerns the describing of 
 their internal economy, which has in most in- 
 stances been kept a profound secret, for rea- 
 sons too obvious to require explanation ; and 
 nearly the same difficulty will impede the 
 execution of my present purpose, which is to 
 offer a view of the condition, ideas, and mode 
 of life, of Europeans residing upon the coast 
 of Africa. The deficiency of materials of the 
 kind is chiefly owing to the indolent and un- 
 observing spirit of the individuals who havfe 
 been in the employ of the different companies, 
 few of whom have committed to writing, or. 
 at least published, any account of their abode 
 in that part of the world — though some of 
 them perhaps were deterred from doing either 
 by a conscientious unwillingness to disclose the 
 private affairs which officially fell under their 
 management.
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 107 
 
 Should it be objected that the general cha- 
 racter and situation of the European residents 
 of the coast of Africa are neither calculated 
 to excite much interest, nor worthy to be de- 
 scribed, I shall reply, that whatever adds in 
 the smallest degree to our knowledge of man 
 and human life, is valuable and instructive, be 
 it pleasing or the reverse. The botanist never 
 refuses to admit a plant into his collection, be- 
 cause it has a mean or unsightly aspect. 
 
 All the European establishments upon the 
 coast of Africa, by whatever nation they were 
 formed, bad the same general object in view, 
 and vv^ere conducted in the same general way. 
 In speaking of them, I use the past tense, be- 
 cause, since the abolition of the slave trade, 
 they have universally and exceedingly declined 
 in importance and value, and because many of 
 them have latterly been altogether abandoned. 
 As soon as the parties concerned had fixed 
 upon the site of their proposed commercial 
 establishment, they began to erect a fort of 
 greater or less magnitude, having previously 
 obtained permission to that effect from the 
 natives. The most convenient situation for a 
 building of the kind was considered to be at 
 the confluence of a river with the sea, or upon
 
 108 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 ail island lying within a few miles of the coast. 
 In the first case, there was tlie advantage of 
 inland navigation ; and in the second, that of 
 the security and defensibleness of an insular 
 position, besides its being more cool and healthy 
 than any other. 
 
 The walls of the fort always enclosed a con- 
 siderable space of ground, upon which were 
 built the necessary magazines for the reception 
 of merchandise, and also barracks for the sol- 
 diers and artificers, and a depot for slaves ; 
 so that, in the event of external hostilities, the 
 gates might be shut, and the persons and the 
 property belonging to the establishment placed 
 in security. The quarters for the officers and 
 agents eir.ployed at the factory were in general 
 erected upon the ramparts, or at least adjoining 
 them ; while the negroes in their service, and 
 any others that might be attracted to the spot, 
 placed their huts outside of the walls of the 
 fort, but under the protection of its guns. 
 
 The command of the establishment was vest- 
 ed in the hands of one individual, who had 
 various subordinates, according to the extent 
 of the trade carried on at the place ; and if the 
 troops who garrisoned the fort exceeded twenty 
 or thirty, a commissioned officer usually had
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 109 
 
 charo'e of them. The most remarkable forts 
 were St. George del JNIiiia, already mentioned 
 as having been erected by the Portuguese, 
 thougli it subsequently fell into the hands of 
 the Dutch — Cape Coast Castle, the principal 
 establishment of the English — Fort Louis, at 
 the mouth of the Senegal, generally occupied 
 by the French — and Goree, situated upon an 
 island of the same name, near Cape Verde. 
 Most of these forts mounted from fifty to sixty 
 pieces of cannon, and contained large reser- 
 voirs for water, and were not only impregnable 
 to the negroes, but capable of standing a re- 
 gular siege by an European force. 
 
 The principal fort of each company was the 
 residence of the governor, or director-general 
 whom they had appointed to manage their 
 affairs. His office was one of considerable re- 
 sponsibiUty, and involved a variety of im- 
 portant duties. He had the superintendence 
 of the whole commerce carried on with the 
 negroes, whether at head-quarters or at out- 
 posts, and the regulation of the prices of goods, 
 and the rates of exchange, and of the kind 
 and quantity of merchandise to be annually 
 furnished for the African trade by his em- 
 ployers in Europe. It was also his business
 
 110 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 to extend as much as possible the sphere of the 
 company's commerce, to concihate the negro 
 princes, and even the common people; to inquire 
 into the conduct of subordinate officers and 
 agents, and to visit any parts of tlie country 
 where his presence might be necessary or ad- 
 vantageous to the interests of his superiors. 
 
 The negroes have always been in the prac- 
 tice of exacting from Europeans certain duties, 
 called customs^ for the liberty of trading. The 
 regulation of these was one of the most trou- 
 blesome duties which the director had to per- 
 form, for the native princes were ever ready 
 to invent pretexts for increasing them ; and 
 it sometimes happened, that if their unreason- 
 able demands were not complied with, they 
 would shut up the passes of the country, and 
 altogether prevent any traffic with the interior 
 — a measure which, if long persisted in, never 
 failed to prove ruinous to the factories on the 
 coast. The negro chiefs being naturally ca- 
 pricious and disposed for extortion, they fre- 
 quently fomented quarrels with their European 
 residents, for the sole purpose of forcing them 
 to purchase a reconciliation by presents ; and 
 the number of foreign nations possessing esta- 
 blishments in their country encouraged them to
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. Ill 
 
 act in this manner ; because, if they quarrelled 
 with one, they had no difficulty in opening a 
 trade with its neighbour on equally advan- 
 tageous terms. 
 
 Some of the governors were accustomed to 
 live in considerable splendour and external 
 dignity. They kept open table for their sub- 
 ordinates in office, and had guards to attend 
 them, and were honoured with salutes of ord- 
 nance whenever they left their stations or re- 
 turned to them. The French director-general 
 of the Senegal was perliaps more highly fa- 
 voured in these respects than any other person 
 in a similar situation ; and bis authority was 
 almost despotic, extending to life and death, 
 and permitting him to depose any of his offi- 
 cers without assigning a reason to the offend- 
 ing individual. But the power of the go- 
 vernors was necessarily very great in all the 
 establishments in West Africa, to Avhatever 
 nation they might belong. 
 
 The Dutch company appointed a council of 
 senior factors to assist their director-general 
 in his deliberations ; but, according to Bosnian, 
 it scarcely ever happened that any one of them 
 ventured to dissent from him, or to urge any 
 objections to what he might propose, so fearful
 
 112 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 were they of offending him, and suffering trou- 
 ble or persecution on account of their sincerity. 
 It seems to have been much the same at all 
 the other factories ; and no man employed in 
 them had any chance of promotion or happi- 
 ness, if he was so unfortunate as to displease 
 the person holding the supreme authority 
 there. 
 
 The individuals next in importance to the 
 director or governor, were the factors, who 
 ranked according to their standing in the com- 
 pany's service. The seniors generally remain- 
 ed at head- quarters, and had the immediate 
 management of the trade there, and the care 
 of the supplies of European merchandise which 
 were always kept in store. The junior factors 
 were employed in carrying on the traffic in 
 the interior of the country, which they did 
 sometimes by ascending the rivers in armed 
 vessels, and exchanging various articles for 
 slaves, gold-dust, and ivory, with the negroes 
 inhabiting the neighbourhood ; and sometimes 
 by establishing themselves for several months 
 in a large town or populous district, and, as it 
 were, keeping a shop to which the natives 
 might resort for traffic. 
 
 This last mode of conducting business re-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCLETY, lliJ 
 
 quired greater ability and circumspection than 
 the first, because the person engaged in it, and 
 all his property, were at the mercy of the 
 people amongst whom he happened to be re- 
 siding ; and if he in any way seriously offend- 
 ed them, intentionally or not, he was liable to 
 be robbed and maltreated, and even put to 
 death. Duties involvino; so much risk and 
 personal hardship were, it may be supposed, 
 little in request ; but, nevertheless, the hope 
 of being sooner or later transferred to more 
 agreeable ones, induced the junior factors to 
 exert their zeal and activity, in order that 
 the director-general might reward them with 
 speedy promotion. 
 
 The European subordinates of the establish- 
 ment consisted of clerks, book-keepers, ware- 
 housemen, artificers, mechanics, gunners, and 
 private soldiers, all of whom had particular 
 quarters assigned for their abode, and lived 
 under military discipline. The soldiers em- 
 ployed in the service of the different African 
 companies w^ere mostly invalids, and persons 
 who had been dismissed from the army on 
 account of bad conduct. Destitute of the 
 means of subsistence at home, such men wil- 
 lingly engaged to go to the coast of Africa, 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 where they knew that they would be permit- 
 ted to lead a life of ease, indolence, and licen- 
 tiousness, and be exposed to no danger except 
 that of a deadly climate, which was in reality 
 the most certain and inevitable one that they 
 could anywhere encounter. 
 
 Few of the troops in any of the forts were 
 fit for active duty, which was of the less con- 
 sequence, because they were seldom or never 
 required to fight except upon the ramparts of 
 the place in which they might be quartered, 
 and not often even there. Hence they spent 
 their time in smoking, in drinking palm-wine, 
 and in gaming, and were generally carried off 
 by fever or dissipation within two years after 
 their arrival in the country. A stranger on first 
 visiting any of the African forts felt that there 
 was something both horrible and ludicrous in the 
 appearance of its garrison, for the individuals 
 composing it appeared ghastly, debilitated, and 
 diseased, to a degree that is unknown in other 
 climates ; and their tattered and soiled uniforms, 
 resembling each other only in meanness and 
 not in colour, suggested the idea of their 
 wearers being a band of drunken deserters, 
 or of starved and maltreated prisoners of war. 
 
 In addition to the European artificers and
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 115 
 
 mechanics of several descriptions who were en- 
 tertained in the African establishments, there 
 was an inferior, though not less useful set of 
 people, called by the French Laptots, These 
 were negroes who hired themselves for em- 
 ployment, and were willing to do all kinds of 
 work, though they chiefly devoted themselves 
 to boating, and to the unloading of ships. 
 They were a strong, hardy, cheerful race, free 
 from the general indolence of their country- 
 men, patient of hardships in an incredible 
 degree, dextrous in navigating rivers, and 
 excellent swimmers and divers. Many of 
 them were always in the pay of the different 
 companies, and without their assistance it 
 would have been impossible to carry on the 
 trade ; for they attended the factors wher- 
 ever they went, whether by land or water, 
 serving them as guides and porters in the 
 first case, and as mariners in the latter, and 
 faithfully protecting them and their property, 
 and often fighting boldly in defence of both. 
 The Laptots generally lived outside of the fort, 
 except when employed in the capacity of sol- 
 diers, which sometimes became necessary, on 
 account of the mortality amongst its European 
 garrison. 
 
 I 2
 
 11() WEST AFRICA. 
 
 The objects whicli the different companies 
 had in view in erecting forts upon the coast 
 of Africa, were one and the same, viz. that 
 they might monopolise the trade of the neigh- 
 bouring country, and also have depots for the 
 reception of foreign merchandise, and of the 
 articles obtained in exchange for it. 
 
 Each company was in the practice of annu- 
 ally sending a certain number of ships to its 
 respective establishments, freighted wdth Eu- 
 ropean goods suitable for traffic ; while its 
 factors in Africa had in the m^n time been 
 collecting slaves, ivory, gum-arabic, and other 
 productions of the country ; so that the vessels 
 on their arrival suffered no detention, but al- 
 ways found a return cargo ready for them. 
 Before this system was adopted, the African 
 trade was carried on by private ships, which 
 made a coasting voyage, and touched at every 
 place which seemed likely to afford produce of 
 any kind. 
 
 Many months were often spent in this way 
 before a moderate cargo could be obtained ; 
 for, owing to the smallness of the negro vil- 
 lages on the coast, and the general indolence 
 and want of foresight of their inhabitants, the 
 traders were seldom able to purchase more than
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 117 
 
 a few slaves and elephant's teeth at any one of 
 them ; and it not unfrequently happened that 
 they found nothing at all to repay their time 
 and trouble. This tedious and tantalizing kind 
 of navigation always proved fatal to many of 
 those engaged in it. The seamen were attack- 
 ed with scurvy, or fell victims to the un- 
 healthiness of the climate, or sunk under their 
 fatigues ; and their vessels, without hands to 
 manoeuvre them, were left to the mercy of the 
 winds and waves. At the same time, the 
 slaves who might be collected on board, and 
 whom it was necessary to keep in close con- 
 finement on account of the nearness of the 
 shore, shared in the sickness, and rapidly pe- 
 rished from pestilential disorders. 
 
 Barbot, describing a vessel in a situation of 
 this kind, says, that the air between decks was 
 often so foul that a candle u^ould not burn, 
 and that the surgeon would faint on being 
 exposed to it. From the prevalence of calms 
 and currents upon the west coast of Africa, the 
 navigation there is remarkably tedious and un- 
 certain, and few of those who traded in the 
 manner just described were able to accom- 
 plish the entire voyage in less than eight or 
 nine months. These disadvantages led to the
 
 118 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 construction of forts by several European 
 nations ; and if the expense of maintaining 
 these absorbed a large part of the profits of 
 African commerce, its gains were at least ren- 
 dered more certain and less fluctuating than 
 they had formerly been. 
 
 Nevertheless, the formation of permanent 
 commercial establishments on the west coast 
 of Africa did not deter individuals from pri- 
 vately engaging in the trade there, though the 
 exclusive charters of the different companies 
 rendered this unlawful ; but these interlopers 
 (as they were called) employing well-armed 
 and fast-sailing ships and experienced mari- 
 ners, often made very successful voyages, not- 
 withstanding the efforts that were used to cap- 
 ture them, and prevent their trafficking with 
 the negroes^ who always secretly favoured 
 them, inasmucli^as they obtained from them 
 foreign goods at a cheaper rate than they could 
 do at any of the factories whatever. 
 
 The most determined and systematic inter- 
 lopers were the Englisli and the Portuguese; 
 and there was scarcely an establishment upon 
 the whole coast that had not to complain of in- 
 vaded rights and severe commercial losses, in 
 consequence of the extensive contraband trade
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 119 
 
 carried on by these two nations. It was one 
 of the chief and most troublesome duties of a 
 director-general to check this illicit trade, and 
 to discover and punish those who were engaged 
 in it ; which he commonly failed in doing, be- 
 cause the negroes whom he employed to watch 
 their manoeuvres were easily bribed to neglect 
 that duty, and even to assist the aggressors in 
 purchasing ivory and slaves, and conveying 
 them on board ship. However, the interlopers 
 mostly attached themselves to the trade in gold- 
 dust, on account of the portableness and su- 
 perior value of that article ; and Bosman com- 
 jDlains that in his time, 1700, they annually car- 
 ried off nearly one half of the whole quantity 
 brought by the negroes for traffic from the in- 
 terior of the country. 
 
 Though the forts were principally employed 
 as places of safe deposit for merchandise re- 
 ceived from Europe, or collected at outposts, 
 they were also generally the scene of a con- 
 siderable trade, being resorted to for that pur- 
 pose, not only by the coast negroes, but often 
 also by dealers from the interior of the coun- 
 try, who would bring slaves, ivory, and gold- 
 dust for traffic. Persons of this description 
 were always honourably, and even ceremoni-
 
 120 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 oiisly received by the governor, or by the fac- 
 tors, and conciliated in every possible way, lest 
 they might carry their goods to another market. 
 They were invited to enter the fort, and were 
 treated with liqueurs, sweetmeats, and presents, 
 and urged to drink freely ; and no sooner did 
 they show symptoms of confusion of ideas, than 
 the factors proposed to trade with them, and 
 displayed the articles which they were disposed 
 to give in exchange for their slaves, &c. The 
 unsuspicious negro merchant, dazzled by the 
 variety of tempting objects placed before him, 
 and exhilarated by wine or brandy, was easily 
 led to conclude a bargain little advantageous 
 to himself; and before he had fully recovered 
 his senses, his slaves, ivory, and gold-dust were 
 transferred to the stores of the factory, and he 
 was obliged to be contented with what he had 
 in his moments of inebriety agreed to accept in 
 exchange for them. 
 
 The factors used to urge, in justification of 
 this mode of proceeding, that it is nearly im- 
 possible to induce a negro to traffic while he is 
 sober ; and that his caprice and irresolution are 
 so great, that he will spend hours, and even 
 days, in cavilling about the smallest bargain, 
 and perhaps at last go away without conclud-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 121 
 
 ing it upon any terms ; and it must be ad- 
 mitted, that nearly every one who has written 
 concerning African commerce agrees in the 
 above remark, and in saying that it requires 
 the utmost patience and management to traffic 
 successfully with the blacks, because they are 
 the most incessant talkers and the most im- 
 portunate beggars in the world ; and that if 
 they are not calmly borne with, and mildly 
 treated, they will break off business altogether, 
 even though they should be losers by so doing. 
 M. Saugnier, a Senegal merchant, makes the 
 following remarks upon this subject : — " If they 
 (the native traders) be negroes, they are plied 
 with liquoi*; for though Mahommedans, they 
 will accept aniseed-water or brandy. They 
 drink till they lose their reason, and then 
 strike their bargains. Should they be Moors, 
 sugar and water is given them at discretion, 
 and sometimes brandy ; although follpwers of 
 Mahommed also, they will not refuse it, par- 
 ticularly the princes. It sometimes happens 
 that they are regaled in vain ; it is therefore 
 prudent in the merchant who is dealing with 
 them, to give them nothing to drink till he is 
 nearly sure of coming to an agreement." 
 
 But the nature and variety of the articles
 
 122 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 which the negroes demand in exchange for 
 their commodities, adds still farther to the 
 tediousness of the traffic. They do not sell 
 them for money, or for any one standard sort 
 of merchandise. On the contrary, eighty or a 
 hundred different kinds of manufactures were 
 necessary for carrying on the slave-trade ; the 
 principal of which were, Guinea blues, fire- 
 arms, gunpowder, linens, glassware, salt, coral, 
 iron, cutlery, dyed wool, beads, scarlet cloth, 
 carpenter's tools, liquors, spices, small shot, 
 trinkets, &c. The price of any article was not 
 calculated in money, but in an imaginary cir- 
 culating medium called a har, which varied in 
 value upon different parts of the coast ; and 
 though it was customary for the factors to 
 enter into an agreement with the negro dealers, 
 that certain articles should be considered equi- 
 valent to the value of a slave during the cur- 
 rent year, and that they should always consent 
 to receive such when offered to them ; still this 
 regulation could not be made to extend to 
 ivory, gold-dust, and other produce, and was 
 necessarily subject to various modifications, de- 
 pending upon the particular taste and wants of 
 the seller. On the Senegal, sixteen different 
 articles formed the established price of a slave.
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 123 
 
 However, it often happened that the dealer 
 would object to some of these, because he 
 did not require them, and would propose that 
 others should be substituted, which necessarily- 
 led to a long discussion as to what might pro- 
 perly be considered an equivalent for the re- 
 jected articles; and it was the changeableness 
 and pertinacity of the negroes upon such points, 
 that proved the grand impediment to the des- 
 patch of business, and rendered the distribution 
 of spirituous liquors amongst them necessary, 
 to make them reasonable and accommodating. 
 
 Had the negroes demanded articles of in- 
 trinsic value, or of expensive mtmufacture, in 
 exchange for their commodities, the trade could 
 not have been carried on with any profit either 
 by companies or by private individuals. But 
 the merchandise required for traffic was of the 
 vilest and cheapest description, the passion of 
 the Africans running upon ornamental things 
 rather than useful ones. With the exception 
 of fire-arms, Guinea blues, gunpowder, and spi- 
 rituous liquors, all the European merchandise 
 employed in the trade consisted of fancy arti- 
 cles, the original cost of which was hardly 
 worth computing. Glass beads of various 
 kinds, mock coral, small mirrors, tobacco-pipes.
 
 124 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 dyed wool, black pepper, 5ic. made up a large 
 part of the exchanges given for slaves, ivory, 
 and gold-dust ; nor does it appear that the ne- 
 groes ever became sensible of the utter worth- 
 lessness of the objects which they were accus- 
 tomed to receive from foreign traders, or tired 
 of the frivolous toys which the latter annually 
 imported for their use and consumption. But 
 it is one of the features of the negro character 
 to be pleased with puerilities ; while amongst 
 the women, the passion for ornaments and trin- 
 kets is so great, that the lover cannot hope to 
 be successful in his suit, nor the husband happy 
 at home, unless the mistress and wife are occa- 
 sionally conciliated and gratified by presents of 
 the kind. Hence, the elephant's tusks, which 
 had, perhaps, been the fruit of several days of 
 dangerous hunting, or the gold-dust which had 
 been collected with harassing labour, were often 
 exchanged by their possessors for a few snuff- 
 boxes, coral bracelets, and strings of glass beads. 
 One of the most troublesome duties that de- 
 volved upon the factors was the examination of 
 the gold-dust brought for sale by the negroes, 
 in order to ascertain its genuineness and purity. 
 At the commencement of the European trade 
 upon the coast of Africa, nothing of this kind
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 125 
 
 was found to be necessary, because the natives 
 at that time never thought of adulterating their 
 gold-dust ; but the Portuguese having instruct- 
 ed them in that pernicious art, as has already 
 been mentioned, it soon came into general use, 
 and was in many places practised with so much 
 expertness, that none but a metallurgist, or an 
 experienced trader, could detect the imposition. 
 The gold-dust was often combined with foreign 
 substances similar in appearance to itself, but 
 these latter were sometimes passed off even 
 without any admixture whatever of the pre- 
 cious metal. At other times, the gold was pre- 
 sented under the form, of ingots, which were 
 hollow within, and filled vv^ith some baser me- 
 tal, so that the fraud could only be discovered 
 by cutting them in pieces. Chemical tests were 
 seldom employed by the factors to try the pu- 
 rity of gold, because the venders objected to 
 the loss of metal which attended their use, and 
 imagined that they injured the quality of those 
 portions of it which were exposed to their^ 
 operation. 
 
 All the gold that occurs upon the west coast 
 of Africa is found in the state of dust, the 
 grains of which vary in size, but are seldom 
 very large. The gold-dust is obtained by
 
 126 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 washing the soil, the negroes having no idea of 
 the workuig of mines ; nor is it supposed that 
 they ever seek for such, because they rest con- 
 tented with the particles of metal that lie near 
 the surface of the ground, and probably are not 
 aware that they would find these in greater 
 abundance by digging to any considerable 
 depth. The vast quantities of gold-dust con- 
 tinually brought to the coast for the purpose 
 of traffic, and the undiminishing supply in the 
 market, notwithstanding the amount exported, 
 early struck the attention of European traders, 
 and led them to conclude that various mines of 
 inestimable richness must exist in the interior 
 of the country. To acquire a knowledge of 
 the situation of these became, therefore, an ob- 
 ject of the highest interest and importance ; and 
 the different chartered companies always took 
 care to direct the attention of their agents to 
 that point, under the hope that they might 
 eventually get possession of some of the mines, 
 and render them extremely productive, by open- 
 ing and working them in the European man- 
 ner. But unexpected difficulties occurred in 
 obtaining the desired information, and up to 
 the present day nothing very accurate is known 
 respecting the quarters where the West African
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 127 
 
 gold is chiefly produced. The negroes showed 
 from the first a strong unwillingness to give 
 Europeans any details upon the subject, doubt- 
 less suspecting what their intentions were, and 
 convinced that there would no longer be peace, 
 hope, or happiness for themselves, if foreign 
 nations were once allured by the prospect of 
 riches to take possession of their country ; and 
 they have hitherto kept their secret with com- 
 mendable resolution, in spite of all the artifices 
 that have been used to extort it from them, 
 and all the expeditions for the discovery of the 
 gold-mines that have at different times been 
 made by interested persons. It even appears, 
 that in many parts of the country, the digging 
 and gathering of gold by the negroes them- 
 selves, is restricted to certain periods, in order 
 that the metal may not become so common as 
 to diminish in value, or that its abundance may 
 not excite the cupidity of the neighbouring 
 states, and lead them to attempt the invasion 
 and conquest of the territory producing it. 
 According to Barbot, there was in his time a 
 rich gold-mine situated upon a hill in the dis- 
 trict of Commendo, which the negroes had 
 deified and pronounced sacred, with a view to 
 prevent its ever being opened — the authors of
 
 128 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 this politic measure knowing that superstition 
 would go farther to preserve the place invio- 
 late, than all the force and vigilance of human 
 laws. 
 
 In I7I6, the director-general of the French 
 African Company sen I. *a person named Campag- 
 non into Bamhouk, a kingdom bordering upon 
 the Senegal river, and said to abound in gold 
 in an extraordinary degree ; and what rendered 
 this report the more probable, was the extreme 
 jealousy with which its inhabitants regarded fo- 
 reigners of every description, whom they seldom 
 would allow to travel through their country. 
 Campagnon's mission was therefore a delicate 
 and hazardous one, but by his address, bold- 
 ness, and conciliating manners, he accomplished 
 it in safety; though the negroes of Bambouk, sus- 
 pecting his design in visiting their territories, 
 more than once proposed to put him to death. 
 His chief object was to obtain specimens of the 
 soil for future analysis, and he told the natives 
 that he wished to purchase of them a few bas- 
 kets-full of earth to make bowls for tobacco-pipes. 
 They found some difficulty in believing that he 
 had come so far for so insignificant a purpose ; 
 but, nevertheless, he not only succeeded in pro- 
 curing what he wanted, but also acquired a
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 129 
 
 great deal of information respecting the places 
 where gold most abounded, and the manner in 
 which the negroes were accustomed to collect it. 
 The fascinating accounts which Campagnon gave 
 of the mineral riches of Bambouk, and the spe- 
 cimens of the soil which he produced in proof 
 of his assertions, made the director-general 
 form a plan for the conquest of that kingdom, 
 which, however, happily for both negroes and 
 Europeans, was never put into execution — for 
 it is easy to perceive that the climate would 
 have rendered its accomplishment impossible. 
 
 Thus the African mines of gold are not likely 
 ever to fall into the possession of Europeans, 
 though they doubtless exceed in richness any 
 other in the world. Gold-dust was found in con- 
 siderable quantities in America, and in some of 
 the West India islands, for many years subse- 
 quent to their discovery and occupation by the 
 Spaniards ; but the supply soon diminished, and 
 during the last century very little has been ob- 
 tained in either quarter, although European in- 
 dustry has been exerted in collecting it. Africa, 
 on the other hand, has yielded immense quan- 
 tities of gold-dust for nearly four centuries, 
 besides what she has retained for her own use; 
 and it would appear that the metal in that form 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 now abounds in the country to a degree that 
 was never before suspected. The late missions 
 to the kingdom of Ashantee have acquainted us 
 with the commonness of gold there, and in other 
 parts of the interior of Africa ; and one of the 
 laws of Commassie, the capital of Ashantee, is 
 calculated to give a high idea of the quantity of 
 gold-dust in daily circulation amongst its inha- 
 bitants. Whoever picks up any gold-dust that 
 may have been dropped in the market-place is 
 punished with death ; because the washing and 
 sifting of its soil forms a part of the royal reve- 
 nues, and is never to be resorted to except in 
 great exigencies of the state. It may be neces- 
 sary to mention that the circulating medium of 
 the Ashantees is gold-dust, which they carry 
 about with them in quills ; and in paying for any 
 article that they may have purchased, they pour 
 the required quantity of gold-dust into the palm 
 of the merchant, when a few particles generally 
 fall to the ground, or are swept away by the 
 wind. It is these that„form the treasure which 
 the king reserves for himself, and which is daily 
 trodden under foot by his subjects, though they 
 may not otherwise touch it, except at the risk of 
 their lives. We must suppose that the Ashan- 
 tees are as careful of their money as most other
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 131 
 
 people, yet, as they drop so much of it in the 
 daily transactions of life, that their market-place 
 becomes a mine of gold, it is evident that a pro- 
 digious quantity of it must be in constant circu- 
 lation amongst them. 
 
 It might have been expected that the conti- 
 nual drain of gold-dust which Africa has expe- 
 rienced for several centuries, would have ex- 
 hausted her supplies, and forced her inhabitants 
 to seek the precious metal in its original mines ; 
 but they have never yet done this : all the gold 
 which they possess or exchange in trade, whether 
 in grains or in masses, being decidedly native, 
 and such as they have obtained by sifting the 
 sands of rivers, or by washing the soil of their 
 country. The mineral ore, and the larger 
 masses of the native metal, still remain un- 
 touched and unexposed ; and all the gold that 
 Africa has hitherto produced is no more than 
 the dtbris or detritus of the latter. It is the 
 deadliness of the climate alone that has so long 
 preserved West Africa from foreign cupidity ; 
 for she doubtless contains treasures which would 
 rival those of the New World, but which can 
 scarcely come into the possession of any Euro- 
 pean nation, except through the hands of the 
 negroes themselves ; who, however, are not likely 
 
 K 2
 
 132 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 to shake off the indolence with which they are 
 so often reproached, and devote themselves to 
 mining for the benefit of foreigners, until they 
 receive more advantage and less injury from an 
 intercourse with them than they have hitherto 
 done. 
 
 But to return to the general duties of Euro- 
 pean factors in West Africa. The seniors, as 
 has already been remarked, were usually sta- 
 tioned at the forts to conduct the trade there, 
 while upon the juniors devolved the more fa- 
 tiguing and hazardous duty of carrying on the 
 inland commerce, or of making coasting voy- 
 ages to collect ivory, rice, and millet, and other 
 productions of the country. Two principal ex- 
 peditions of the former description annually 
 sailed up the Senegal, from the French esta- 
 blishment of Fort Louis, situated at the mouth 
 of that river. The object of the one was to trade 
 for slaves at Galam, and of the other to purchase 
 gum-arabic of the Moors of the Desert ; the 
 place of rendezvous for that purpose being Se- 
 renpate or Terrier Rouge. 
 
 Galam is about three hundred miles above the 
 mouth of the Senegal, and the French had a 
 factory there called Fort Joseph, where the slave- 
 trade was carried on very extensively. The
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 133 
 
 company sent a number of vessels every year to 
 bring down to Fort Louis the slaves that had 
 been purchased by their agent at Galam ; and one 
 or two factors were usually placed in command 
 of the expedition, which was one of the most 
 dangerous and unpleasant that can be imagined. 
 It always took place at the commencement of 
 the rains, when the Senegal overflows, and is 
 navigable by flat-bottomed sloops of one hun- 
 dred tons burthen. But if the swelling of the 
 river facilitates navigation in one respect, it ren- 
 ders it more difficult in others ; for the rapidity 
 of the current is then great, and it bears along 
 vast quantities of driftwood of the largest size, 
 by which the bows of the vessels are continually 
 liable to be stove in. Nor is it almost ever pos- 
 sible to make use of sails in this voyage, the 
 wind during the rainy season being too squally 
 and shifting to be available for nautical pur- 
 poses in a river where the smallest deviation 
 from the proper course would run the sloop 
 aground upon a sand-bank, or heave her broad- 
 side against heaps of floating timber. It is by 
 the tow-line alone that any progress can be made 
 up the river ; and the services of that class of ne- 
 groes, already described under the name of Lap- 
 tots, were here peculiarly valuable; for European
 
 134 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 mariners are never employed in the navigation 
 of the Senegal, the fatigues of which would 
 quickly destroy them. The Laptots, walking 
 in a line upon the bank of the river, haul along 
 the sloop or boat, or push her off when she gets 
 aground, or extricate her from driftwood, or 
 repair her when she suffers injury. These men 
 endure incredible fatigues, which they alleviate 
 by songs and recitations uttered in cadence, 
 and they seldom enjoy any rest until darkness 
 requires that they should suspend their labours 
 till the ensuing morning. 
 
 Nor was the situation of the factor who un- 
 dertook the voyage a more enviable one, though 
 he was merely a spectator of the toils of his 
 subordinates. INIiserably accommodated in a 
 small vessel full of merchandise and people — 
 destitute of the common conveniences of life — 
 forced to live upon the most indifferent food — 
 and exposed to a noxious climate — he found 
 no consolation except in looking forward to the 
 end of the voyage, which generally lasted from 
 twenty to thirty days. He also had duties to 
 perform which demanded the exercise of the 
 greatest forbearance and circumspection. It 
 was customary for the various petty sovereigns 
 whose territories border upon the Senegal, to
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 135 
 
 exact tribute or presents for the liberty of trad- 
 ing, from all foreign vessels that passed up the 
 river ; and they never failed to invent reasons 
 for increasing the amount of these, particularly 
 if they thought that they could frighten the 
 factor into compliance. The utmost steadiness 
 in resisting encroachments of the kind was ne- 
 cessary on his part ; while, on the other hand, 
 the interests of his employers required that he 
 should avoid giving offence to the princes of the 
 country, who had it in their power to throw 
 the greatest impediments in the way of com- 
 merce. Things were therefore seldom adjusted 
 without long disputes and wearisome detention. 
 The INIarabouts, whom most of the negro kings 
 entertained about their persons, always encou- 
 raged them to practise extortions, both because 
 they hated Christians, and because they hoped 
 to share in the spoil that might be obtained. It 
 sometimes happened that hostilities took place 
 between the traders and the blacks, but as the 
 crews and vessels of the former were always well 
 armed, they in most cases had the advantage ; 
 but then their enemies seldom failed to attack 
 and insult them on their passage back, when, 
 owing to sickness and other causes, they were 
 less able to defend themselves.
 
 136 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Galam and its neiglibourhood are the most 
 unhealthy places upon the Senegal ; and even 
 the Laptots, inured as they were to an African 
 climate, often became its victims in the course 
 of the voyage. The factors were generally at- 
 tacked with a delirious fever, which would con- 
 tinue several weeks, if they were fortunate 
 enough to survive its effects so long; and it 
 sometimes happened that the return-cargo was 
 shipped without their being conscious of it, and 
 that they did not recover their senses till they 
 found themselves arrived at Fort Louis. Nor 
 was the voyage homewards without its diffi- 
 culties. The hold of the vessel, crowded with 
 slaves fettered in pairs, was hot as a furnace ; 
 and from it contagious vapours were diffused 
 everywhere : the crew, exhausted by disease 
 and previous fatigue, had scarcely strength to 
 do their duty : and the banks of the river were 
 infested by robbers waiting to plunder the sloop 
 in the event of her being wrecked. The voy- 
 age to Galam, whether undertaken on the com- 
 pany's account by their own factors, or by a 
 private trader for his personal advantage, was a 
 perilous expedition, which nothing but necessity 
 or the prospect of large profits ever induced any 
 man to engage in : and yet it appears that the
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 137 
 
 gains from it did not usually exceed one hun- 
 dred per cent. — a small return for the hardships 
 and dangers incurred, and for the odiousness of 
 the traffic in which they were encountered. 
 
 The other inland voyage to which I have al- 
 luded, was for the purpose of carrying on the 
 gum-trade with the INloors of Barbary. Exten- 
 sive forests of the Mimosa \ilotica lie about 
 two hundred miles east of the Senegal ; and these 
 people annually resort to them, and collect vast 
 quantities of the gum-arabic, now so generally 
 used in medicine and in the arts. The early 
 establishment of the French upon the Senegal 
 enabled them not only to discover this branch of 
 trade before any other nation had done so, but 
 likewise to appropriate it exclusively to them- 
 selves, as they continue to do at the present 
 time. At the termination of the rainy season, 
 a vessel is annually despatched from Fort Louis 
 with the requisite merchandise for the traffic ; 
 and the IVIoors, aware that it will arrive at a 
 certain time at the usual place of rendezvous on 
 the bank of the river, assemble there, bringing 
 along with them upon camels their cargoes of 
 gum-arabic packed in goat-skin bags. 
 
 The French traders having reached the spot, 
 which is either Serenpate or Terrier Rouge, each
 
 138 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 about sixty miles above Fort Louis, a number 
 of preliminaries and formalities are gone through 
 by both parties. The factors in charge of the 
 vessel invite the principal Moorish merchants on 
 board, and entertain them with coffee, Avines, 
 and sweetmeats, and load them with presents 
 for their wives, some of whom have in general 
 the curiosity to accompany their husbands upon 
 these occasions. As the price of the quintal of 
 gum is always fixed and agreed upon before 
 any exchanges take place, the French use every 
 means to conciliate the chief Moors and flatter 
 their vanity, in order to dispose them to be mo- 
 derate in their demands, and to throw no impe- 
 diments in the way of trade ; for let there be 
 ever so much gum in the market, the holders of 
 it dare not conclude any sales till their superiors 
 have given permission to that effect. The 
 Moors being haughty, capricious, and easily ir- 
 ritated, they must be treated with kindness and 
 deference, and allowed to have their own way 
 in all matters of small importance ; and it be- 
 hoves the factor conducting the gum-trade to 
 avoid offending them, both on account of the 
 interests of the company, and his own personal 
 safety; for they generally make bargains holding 
 naked daggers in their hands, and at these times
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 139 
 
 sanguinary affrays often take place amongst 
 themselves. 
 
 While speaking of the INIoors, it may be in- 
 teresting to mention what has been reported 
 respecting their peculiar mode of trading with a 
 certain people in the neighbourhood of the Se- 
 negal ; and the more so, because it appears from 
 the statements of Herodotus, that the system 
 in question has existed from time immemorial. 
 He informs us that the Carthaginians carried 
 on commerce with a nation inhabiting a coun- 
 try beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and that it 
 was managed without either of the parties see- 
 ing each other, or even exchanging words at a 
 distance ; and he describes the manner in which 
 they proceeded, which corresponds very closely 
 with what various modern travellers have re- 
 ported upon the same subject. 
 
 The earliest notice after Herodotus which 
 we have of this singular method of trading, is 
 in the voyage of Cadamosta, a Venetian pilot, to 
 the coast of Africa in 1455. He was informed 
 that the negroes of Melli were annually in the 
 practice of carrying a quantity of salt for traffic 
 to the edge of a great lake of fresh water in the 
 interior of the country. On their arriving 
 there, each merchant placed his parcels of salt
 
 140 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 in a line, and put his mark upon it, and then 
 the whole party retired to the distance of half 
 a day's journey, in order to allow the intending 
 purchasers to come to the place, (which they 
 did in boats or canoes,) and examine the salt ; 
 for these people always carefully concealed 
 themselves from view, and w^ould never venture 
 to quit their haunts till they felt certain that 
 all strangers had departed. They now placed 
 opposite to each parcel of salt so much gold- 
 dust as they considered to be its equivalent, and 
 then silently and cautiously withdrew. The 
 merchants of INlelli returned to the side of the 
 lake in the evening, and if they w^ere satisfied 
 with the price offered for their salt, they took 
 the gold and left the former ; but if the sum 
 appeared too small, they left both as they had 
 found them, and again removed to a distance. 
 The invisible traders coming forth a second 
 time, either added more gold to what they had 
 already deposited, or took it away altogether, 
 leaving the salt untouched, as being in their 
 opinion too high-priced. 
 
 This system continued several years ; but 
 the merchants of Melli at length becoming im- 
 patient to have a view of the mysterious traders, 
 employed an artifice to capture some of them.
 
 EUROPEAN .SOCIETY. 141 
 
 This they accomplished by digging pits on the 
 side of the lake, and concealing themselves in 
 these till the objects of their curiosity made 
 their appearance, when darting out, they sur- 
 rounded and seized four individuals, three of 
 whom they immediately set at liberty, but 
 detained the fourth for examination. They 
 addressed him in various languages, but he 
 maintained an obstinate silence, and refused all 
 sort of food, and died in a few days. He was 
 black, tall, and well-proportioned ; but his lower 
 lip was immensely thick, and hung down lower 
 than his chin, and it appeared red and inflam- 
 ed: and it was supposed by the people of Melli, 
 that all his countrymen had a similar deformity, 
 and that they required a continual supply of 
 salt to prevent their lower lips from corrupting ; 
 while the hideousness of their appearance made 
 them ashamed to appear before strangers, even 
 for the necessary purpose of trading. 
 
 These singular details, so far from being fa- 
 bulous, are in a great degree confirmed by the 
 authority of more modern and better-informed 
 travellers. Windhus, who accompanied the 
 British Embassy to Morocco in the year 1786, 
 when speaking of the Moors says, — " The me- 
 thod of trading in some of these parts is very
 
 142 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 extraordinary, for they do not see the persons 
 they trade with ; but passing over a little river, 
 leave their salt at the accustomed place in a pot 
 or jar, and retire ; then the people take the 
 salt, and put into the same pot as much gold as 
 they judge it worth, which if the Moors ap- 
 prove of, they take it away ; otherwise they, set 
 the pot on edge, and retire again, and after- 
 wards find either more gold or their salt re- 
 turned." Dr. Shaw also observes, that " the 
 Arabs still continue to carry on a trade with 
 some barbarous nations bordering upon the 
 river Niger, without seeing the persons they 
 trade with." 
 
 It is worthy of remark that all the authorities 
 above quoted, place the country of the invisible 
 traders in nearly the same geographical position. 
 The expression of Herodotus, "beyond the 
 Pillars of Hercules," is indefinite indeed; but if 
 we suppose with Major Rennel, that Hanno, in 
 his grand expedition, coasted West Africa as far 
 as Sierra Leone, there will be no difficulty in be- 
 lieving that the Carthaginians had commercial 
 relations with the negroes, and that the river 
 up which they are stated to have sailed was the 
 Senegal. And though Dr. Shaw mentions the 
 Niger as being the place of trade, it is evident
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 143 
 
 that he means the Senegal, which bore the name 
 of Niger among geographers long after its first 
 discovery. 
 
 Though, in describing the inland voyages 
 which it fell to the lot of the junior factors to 
 perform, I have chiefly referred to the French 
 trade on the Senegal, the same general features 
 belonged to the navigation of the Gambia by the 
 English. This river was explored with the 
 greatest assiduity, both by the agents of the 
 British African Company, and by private indivi- 
 duals, under the idea that rich gold-mines existed 
 upon its banks; and it subsequently afforded 
 them the means of carrying on the slave-trade 
 with the interior to a considerable extent. Se- 
 veral factors from James' Fort, the principal 
 Enghsh settlement in that quarter, and which 
 is situated near the mouth of the Gambia, were 
 generally dispersed at different outposts along 
 the banks of the river, with supplies of mer- 
 chandise, for the traffic in ivory and gold-dust ; 
 and their situation was particularly perilous and 
 disagreeable, alike on account of the unhealthi- 
 ness of the climate, the plundering propensities 
 of the negro princes, and their total seclusion 
 from Eviropean society. 
 
 When they had an opportunity of visiting
 
 144 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 each other, they ahuost dreaded to take ad- 
 vantage of it, lest they should find that their 
 comrade was dead, or that some quarrel with 
 the negroes had forced him to abandon his 
 usual place of residence. A factor named 
 Moore, who was appointed to the charge of 
 the post at Joar, was visited by a negro king, 
 who took possession of his house, and made 
 himself master of everything that it contained. 
 When one of the company's agents residing at 
 the place endeavoured to resist these acts of 
 violence, the negro sovereign ordered his prime 
 minister and secretary to hold him down, while 
 he seized the key of the store-room and opened 
 it, and soon became intoxicated by drinking the 
 brandy which he found there. After plunder- 
 ing and insulting an European who lay sick at 
 the factory, and swallowing all the spirituous 
 liquors that he could in any way procure, he 
 returned home, leaving the victims of his rapa- 
 city without means of redress or retaliation. 
 
 The only places where the European resi- 
 dents of West Africa were assembled in suffi- 
 cient number to form a society, were the chief 
 forts of the respective companies, where the 
 governors or directors-general had their head- 
 quarters ; and even there the circle was small.
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 145 
 
 and consisted exclusively of men, the factors 
 never bringing their wives to the country, a 
 thing which most likely they were prohibited 
 from doing. 
 
 At some stations, the governors kept open 
 table for a certain number of their officers ; 
 but this added little to the sociability of the 
 parties, because of the strict subordination 
 which was at all times maintained amongst 
 them, and which alone was capable of pre- 
 venting those displays of jealousy and bad 
 feeling, which would otherwise have been of 
 hourly occurrence. No individual ever en- 
 tered the service of any of the African com- 
 panies, except with the view of rapidly ac- 
 quiring wealth ; and every one was therefore 
 jealous of his neighbour's advancement, and 
 envious of his prosperity, if it impeded his 
 own, as it generally happened to do ; for the 
 factors, at least the inferior ones, made more 
 by private trade than by their salaries, and 
 there not being enough of the former to sa- 
 tisfy them all, each tried to secure as much 
 of it as possible to himself. They likewise 
 often entered into branches of commerce that 
 were forbidden by the company, and endea- 
 voured to improve their fortunes by various 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 indirect means and fraudulent devices, the ex- 
 posure of which would have cost them their 
 situations. 
 
 Unable to conceal their malpractices from 
 each other, a mutual distrust prevailed amongst 
 them, and they were unanimous with respect 
 to one object only, that of conciliating and 
 flattering their governors, on whose favour 
 their preferment entirely depended. At the 
 same time, though the governor's power was 
 absolute in everything that concerned the esta- 
 blishment over which he presided, a regard for 
 his own interest and comfort frequently pre- 
 vented his inquiring very strictly into the con- 
 duct of his officers, lest they should combine 
 against him, and try to ruin him by false ac- 
 cusations. It even appears, that in early times, 
 the governors of forts were sometimes poisoned 
 by their subordinates, either in revenge for their 
 having exposed their delinquencies, or in order 
 that the senior factor might be promoted to the 
 vacant office. 
 
 All writers agree, that honour and integrity 
 were nearly unknown amongst the European 
 inhabitants of the coast of Africa. Self-in- 
 terest formed their sole principle of action, and 
 truth and good faith were sacrificed without
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 14? 
 
 hesitation whenever the smallest advantage 
 was to be gained by doing so. They prac- 
 tised the grossest frauds with impunity, and 
 acknowledged them without shame. JNIonrad, 
 a French trader, says, that having once expos- 
 tulated with a Dutch merchant in West Africa 
 upon his iniquitous transactions, and repre- 
 sented to him that both temporal and eternal 
 punishment might be the result of them, he 
 received this answer — " Heaven is high, and 
 Europe is far off." When we consider the 
 character and pretensions of the majority of 
 those persons who used to enter the service of 
 the different African companies, or visit the 
 country as private adventurers, we shall not be 
 astonished at their yielding to the temptations 
 which beset them there, and taking advantage 
 of their removal to a sphere where social and 
 moral restraint were equally unknown, except 
 amongst the negroes. 
 
 The European establishments in West Africa 
 were chiefly supported and recruited by men 
 of desperate fortunes, or of low origin and ac- 
 quirements. The first soon drank themselves 
 to death, while the second often attained situa- 
 tions of power and consequence, in which they 
 could securely give play to those base qualities 
 
 L 2
 
 148 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and selfish passions which they had previously 
 concealed, or at least kept under restraint, in 
 order that they might not impede their ad- 
 vancement. The Dutch company was at first 
 in the practice of filling up the vacancies that 
 might occur in the lower branches of its ser- 
 vice, out of the private soldiers sent from Hol- 
 land to garrison the forts ; and it sometimes 
 happened that men of this description rose to 
 very high and responsible offices; but as most 
 of them were sooner or later guilty of gross 
 misconduct, that plan of promotion was at 
 length discontinued. A tropical climate has 
 always been found to exert an unfavourable 
 influence upon the character of Europeans, 
 even of a superior class, but it brutalizes and 
 infuriates those of naturally low habits ; and 
 hence we may easily conceive what that so- 
 ciety must have been, which consisted of an 
 assemblage of foreign vagrants settled upon the 
 fiery and fatal shores of West Africa. 
 
 Men of this kind, having no resources within 
 themselves, necessarily passed their spare time 
 in dissipation and sensuality. They soon grew 
 tired of each other's society, and found life in- 
 sipid, unless it was enlivened by noisy convi- 
 viality and a free use of the bottle. Even
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 149 
 
 during the day, the table was usually crowded 
 with glasses and different liquors, and an even- 
 ing debauch was a matter of course with every 
 one. Bosman remarks, that the favourite be- 
 verage with the English upon the coast of 
 Africa was punch. " It is incredible," conti- 
 nues he, " how many are consumed by this 
 damnable liquor, which is not confined to the 
 soldiery, but some of the principal people are 
 so bigoted to it, that I really believe, for all 
 the time that I was upon the coast, that at least 
 one of their agents, and factors innumerable, 
 died yearly." 
 
 When several establishments happened to be 
 situated within a short distance of eacli other, 
 though they might belong to rival nations, 
 their respective residents were in the habit 
 of paying mutual visits, and giving entertain- 
 ments, at which times an excess of luxury was 
 often displayed, both in the sumptuousness of 
 the repast, and in the variety and excellence 
 of the wines ; and repeated indulgence in these 
 convivial pleasures never failed to hurry many 
 of the guests to an early grave. But with 
 Europeans in West Africa, the fear of death 
 almost always operated less strongly than the 
 desire of enjoyment ; and their grand object
 
 150 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 was to banish those sombre reflections, and that 
 languor of mind and body, which arose from 
 the continued influence of a malignant climate, 
 and which were most easily and speedily dis- 
 sipated by the stimulus of jovial society and 
 spirituous liquors. " It would appear," says 
 Monrad, above quoted, " that in that country 
 all persons, whether young or old, retain to 
 the last their inclination for juvenile games and 
 sports. One daily observes them walk abroad 
 with flambeaux, play at quoits, laugh, dance, 
 make hunting-parties in the forest, and go in 
 pleasure-boats upon the rivers. It sometimes 
 happens, when the commandant of the fort is 
 dispirited or unable to sleep, that he causes a 
 drum to be beat in the middle of the night 
 before the chamber-door of each of its resi- 
 dents, all of whom get out of bed and assemble 
 in the great hall; and then both blacks and 
 whites mingle together, and dance and drink 
 almost in a state of nudity." 
 
 In taking a general view of the history of 
 the foreign establishments that have existed 
 upon the coast of Africa, we shall be asto- 
 nished to find that the residence of so many 
 Europeans in so many different parts of the 
 country, during upwards of three centuries, has
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 151 
 
 not had a more powerful and extensive influ- 
 ence upon the character and habits of the ne- 
 groes. These people would appear to be, of 
 all others in the world, the most likely to 
 adopt the ideas and customs of persons whom 
 they considered superior to themselves, and to 
 receive lessons from those who were qualified 
 to instruct them. Credulous, fond of novelty, 
 easily conciliated, unfettered by ancient tradi- 
 tions or priestly power, or by the trammels of 
 caste, they seem to be waiting for some foreign 
 influence to settle their opinions, and introduce 
 amongst them a system of moral and social con- 
 formity. Nevertheless, experience has proved 
 the reverse of this ; for the inhabitants of West 
 Africa are still externally and essentially the 
 same people that they were when the Portu- 
 guese began to frequent their coasts in the 
 middle of the fifteenth century. They have, 
 indeed, acquired a taste for trinkets and cloths, 
 and other articles of European manufacture, 
 and generally prefer brandy to palm-wine; but 
 they have never attempted to construct houses 
 or vessels after our fashion, or to acquire a 
 knowledge of any of our arts, or of our mode 
 of war, or our system of commerce. Nor have 
 they any greater curiosity respecting our reli-
 
 152 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 gion, which they doubtless hold in small es- 
 teem, if they judge of it by the conduct of 
 those of its professors with whom they have 
 hitherto had intercourse. It often happened 
 that Europeans of the lower class, after resid- 
 ing a considerable time amongst the negroes, 
 adopted their system of fetichism ; and there is 
 reason to believe that many even of the fac- 
 tors used to become converts to that absurd 
 and revolting creed, and secretly practise its 
 rites and ceremonials. 
 
 It is commonly supposed that the unwilling- 
 ness of the negroes to adopt our habits and 
 usages, arises from their indolence. This re- 
 mark is neither satisfactory nor correct; for 
 n}any of them could enjoy the improvements, 
 and obtain the conveniences of civilized life, 
 without the smallest personal exertion, by em- 
 ploying their slaves and gold to that end. The 
 king of Ashantee could soon assemble foreign 
 mechanics and artisans in his capital, and erect 
 a splendid palace, did he feel inclined to depart 
 from the usages of his ancestors. 
 
 The general adherence of the negroes to their 
 own customs is, in my opinion, to be chiefly at- 
 tributed to the conviction that prevails amongst 
 them that they arc a peculiar and distinct race
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 153 
 
 of beings, and that they have nothing in com- 
 mon with white men, and are unfitted to par- 
 take in their interests, avocations, and pleasures. 
 They express this notion by allegorical fables ; 
 and believe that their inferiority to Europeans 
 arises from their forefathers having long ago 
 excited the severe displeasure of the Deity by 
 preferring gold to knowledge. These ideas, 
 however, do not render them melancholy, though 
 they undoubtedly tend to repress all desire for 
 improvement, and all ambition to equal foreign 
 nations in intelligence and in the arts of life. 
 
 The progeny of Eiu'opeans by negro women 
 is, as may be supposed, very common upon the 
 w^est coast of Africa. In some places there are 
 who^e villages of mulattoes. All voyagers agree 
 in representing these people as the vilest and 
 most contemptible of the human species. The 
 men are deformed and of a feeble constitution, 
 and are ignorant, unprincipled, and revengeful, 
 cruel to their slaves, incredibly indolent, and 
 yet full of self-conceit on account of their ori- 
 gin. The women mostly follow a profligate 
 course of life, and are devoted to dress during 
 their earlier years, and afterwards to sloth and 
 drinking. Both sexes profess the Christian re- 
 ligion, though they in reality know nothing of
 
 154 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 it ; and all those of Portuguese descent call 
 themselves Catholics. The men used to enlist 
 as soldiers at any of the forts where their ser- 
 vices might be required ; but the greater part 
 of them derived their subsistence from contra- 
 band trade, in carrying on which they were the 
 agents of the interlopers of different nations, 
 who at all times unlawfully traded upon the 
 coast, to the prejudice of the various chartered 
 companies who had establishments there. 
 
 The chief mulatto settlements on the coast 
 of Africa are Kacheo, at the mouth of the river 
 St. Domingo, and St. Thome, in the island 
 of the same name, lying under the equator. 
 Kacheo consists of a small town, and a mean 
 fort, much out of repair, and scantily provided 
 in every respect. Nevertheless, the place gene- 
 rally has a governor appointed in Europe, who 
 is, in most instances, some military man whom 
 age or infirmities has rendered unfit for active 
 service, or some troublesome claimant upon the 
 crown whom it is found desirable to get rid of ; 
 for few persons of any class that go to Kacheo 
 ever return from it. Twenty or thirty inva- 
 lided Portuguese soldiers form the garrison ; 
 but their pay is so small that they can scarcely 
 subsist upon it, and most of them, when off
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 155 
 
 duty, are in the habit of prowling about the 
 streets at night, and robbing any one that they 
 may happen to meet. Criminals are often ban- 
 ished from Portugal to Kacheo, and these, with 
 the mulattoes produced by their intercourse 
 with the negro women, compose the chiefest 
 part of its population. 
 
 The indolence of all classes is so great, that 
 the land in even the immediate neighbourhood 
 of the town remains uncultivated, with the ex- 
 ception of a few fields of maize and plantains ; 
 and the unheal thiness of the climate, doubtless 
 increased by this cause, conjoined with the 
 poverty of the inhabitants, gives them a dis- 
 tressed and emaciated appearance which makes 
 a stranger shudder. INIost of the houses are 
 built of upright wooden posts interwoven with 
 twigs, and plastered with clay, and whitewash- 
 ed ; the roofs are thatched with palm-leaves. 
 
 The rain sometimes pours down in torrents 
 for weeks together, accompanied with such 
 frightful storms of thunder and lightning, that 
 the inhabitants are forced to shut themselves up 
 in their dwellings, and sit in darkness till the 
 return of tranquil weather. Nor dare they at 
 any time venture far beyond the precincts of 
 the town, lest the Papel negroes (the aborigines
 
 156 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of the country) should rush from the neigli- 
 bouriug woods and destroy or take them pri- 
 soners ; and assassinations often occur amongst 
 the mulattoes in Kacheo itself, insignificant as 
 it is in population and extent ; and when an 
 alarm of the kind is given, the inhabitants, in- 
 stead of running to assist the person assaulted, 
 close their shutters and bar their doors, lest 
 they should become witnesses of the crime, and 
 afterwards fall victims to the fears and jealousy 
 of its perpetrator. Refugees and desperate cha- 
 racters of every kind resort to the place, and 
 live without decency or restraint, and are kept 
 in check by nothing but the dread of suffering 
 retaliation from the hands of each other. Filth, 
 famine, and misery lurk in every house ; crime 
 stalks abroad with brazen forehead ; the demon 
 of pestilence patroles the streets; and human 
 life and human character assume, in every par- 
 ticular, their basest forms and their most revolt- 
 ing aspects. 
 
 The formation of colonies upon the west 
 coast of Africa, or its islands, has been attempt- 
 ed by several European powers, but always 
 without success. And it must be admitted, 
 that no other part of the world offers so many 
 advantages, in so far as the cultivation of tropi-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 157 
 
 cal productions, and the convenience of trade, 
 are concerned. The cotton-tree, the indigo 
 plant, the sugar-cane, and the coffee slirub, and 
 a variety of species of the palm, are indigenous 
 there; besides tobacco, rice, Indian-corn, and 
 millet : and it is probable that nearly all useful 
 vegetables of equatorial growth might be natu- 
 ralized in the country, not even excepting the 
 nopal, or cactus coccinifera of JNIexico, and the 
 spices of the Eastern archipelago. The assem- 
 blage of all these sources of wealth (without 
 mentioning gold-dust, wax, and ivory,) in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of Eiu'ope would 
 prove an object of grand importance to any 
 nation that could accomplish it: but the fright- 
 ful mortality which has always depopulated 
 European settlements upon the coast of Africa 
 is likely for the future to discourage both go- 
 vernments and private individuals from making 
 permanent establishments there. 
 
 Two principal attempts at colonization have 
 been made by the British in West Africa — one 
 at Sierra Leone, under the auspices and protec- 
 tion of Government ; and the other by an associ- 
 ation of private individuals, who fixed upon the 
 island of Bulama as the theatre of their opera- 
 tions. Bulama lies at the mouth of Rio Grande,
 
 158 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 in north lat. 11% and is a highly fertile and 
 thickly- wooded island, of moderate elevation, 
 and abounding with elephants, and all kinds 
 of game. The expedition for its settlement 
 consisted of two hundred and seventy-five 
 emigrants, who embarked in two ships and a 
 cutter, and reached their place of destination 
 in safety ; but, unfortunately, a party of them 
 landed and took up their abode upon the 
 island before it had been purchased of the 
 negro chief to whom it belonged. The conse- 
 quence was, that a body of his people attacked 
 these intruders by surprise, killing six of them, 
 and carrying away as prisoners four women and 
 two children. This untoward event proved 
 fatal to the progress of the intended colony ; for 
 it alarmed the emigrants so much that the 
 greater number of them insisted upon returning 
 to England, for which they shortly afterwards 
 set sail, leaving only eighty persons upon the 
 island, who had agreed to remain there under 
 the command of Lieut. Beaver, of the Navy. 
 This gentleman was one of a committee which 
 had been appointed to superintend the settle- 
 ment ; and though his colleagues in office had 
 deserted him, he resolved to fulHl his duty, and 
 to continue in Bulama as long as a single colo- 
 nist should abide there.
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 159 
 
 The exertions which he made, and the diffi- 
 culties, hardships, and dangers which he en- 
 countered, during seventeen months that he 
 kept his post, equal or perhaps exceed any- 
 thing that ever fell to the lot of any individual 
 similarly situated. The rainy season commenced 
 forthwith — the people fell sick and died in ra- 
 pid succession ; those who retained their health 
 were lazy and discontented ; the negroes daily 
 threatened to attack and plunder the colony ; 
 the medical attendant refused to do his duty, 
 and eventually quitted the island ; and at 
 length Beaver himself was attacked with fever, 
 and lay dangerously ill. Nevertheless he reco- 
 vered ; but the mortality still continued amongst 
 his companions, who sank one by one under the 
 malignity of the climate, their minds feeling its 
 influence as powerfully as their bodies did. " It 
 has been observed," remarks Beaver, " that sick- 
 ness, fear, and despondency, have had strange 
 effects upon the minds of the colonists ; indeed, 
 they are at this moment every one of them al- 
 most idiots ; their mental faculties seem entirely 
 worn out." 
 
 During these periods of gloom, danger, and 
 embarrassment, Lieut. Beaver had contrived to 
 build a block-house, one hundred and sixteen 
 feet square, to clear a large piece of ground, to
 
 160 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 make a garden, and dig a well, &e. a large pro- 
 portion of the labour required in these works 
 being performed by his own hands. At length 
 the population of the colony was reduced to five 
 individuals besides himself; and these persons 
 having resolved to quit the island, notwith- 
 standing his remonstrances against their doing 
 so, he was obliged to accompany them. The 
 party embarked in a cutter, and arrived safely 
 in Sierra Leone, from whence Lieut. Beaver 
 sailed for England. In his " African Memo- 
 randa," he endeavours to show that the ill suc- 
 cess of the Bulama expedition was entirely 
 owing to the misconduct of the emigrants, and 
 to their having arrived at the place of settlement 
 at an improper season : but few impartial ob- 
 servers will fully admit the correctness of this 
 opinion ; and while every one will give Beaver 
 due credit for his courage, firmness, and perse- 
 verance, they will regard the history of his co- 
 lony as a veto against any future agricultural 
 settlements in West Africa, rather than as an 
 evidence of their practicability, or an encou- 
 ragement to establish new ones. 
 
 With respect to the colony at Sierra Leone, 
 which has cost Britain so much money and so 
 many lives, every one knows that it is a com-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. l6l 
 
 plete failure. The emancipated and delivered 
 negroes, for whom it was intended as an asy- 
 lum, soon grew disgusted with the spot, and 
 retired into the interior of the country. The 
 native merchants, who were expected to have 
 come from Central Africa to trade at the settle- 
 ment, have never yet made their appearance 
 there. Twenty-two thousand individuals of 
 different descriptions joined the establishment 
 at Sierra Leone between 1787 and 1826, and of 
 these only thirteen thousand remained, or were 
 in existence, at the end of the latter year. The 
 European emigrants consisted almost exclusive- 
 ly of disbanded and pensioned soldiers, who, it 
 must be supposed, were sent to the coast of 
 Africa, not that they might give the negroes a 
 taste for civilized life, or improve their morals, 
 but that they might cease to be a burthen to 
 Government, and a pest to their native country. 
 Of these men fewer have perished than could 
 have been expected, considering their dissipated 
 habits ; for out of one thousand two hundred 
 and twenty-two that joined the colony between 
 1817 and 1819, it appears that nine hundred 
 and forty-nine were alive in 1826. But the 
 number of civil and military officers who have 
 fallen victims to the climate is immense ; and 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Sierra Leone may now be considered untenable 
 by Europeans, or, at least, not worth retaining. 
 When the public functionaries shall have been 
 withdrawn from it — when it shall no longer 
 enjoy a local government — and when its laws 
 shall cease to be administered or observed — its 
 motley and partially-instructed population, un- 
 able to relish the simplicity of negro life, will 
 in all likelihood become pirates and banditti ; 
 and the British nation may hereafter find it ne- 
 cessary, for the security of her African trade, 
 to exterminate a colony which she has long pro- 
 tected, and has hitherto fostered with useless 
 and unproductive care.
 
 163 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 
 
 Though practical navigation has undergone 
 many improvements since the time of Vasco de 
 Gama, nautical men are liable even in the pre- 
 sent day to encounter in the South African 
 seas most of the difficulties and obstacles which 
 were described by himself and by his successors 
 as being inevitable in that part of the ocean. 
 The strength and excellent construction of our 
 ships enable us to double the Cape of Good 
 Hope at all seasons without accident or serious 
 detention ; and it has therefore become a com- 
 mon idea that the early Portuguese navigators 
 must have exaggerated the dangers of the pas- 
 sage, not only from a love of the marvellous, 
 but also from motives of commercial policy in- 
 culcated by their sovereign in his anxiety to 
 deter other nations from attempting to reach 
 India by that route. But the Dutch, resident 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, assert that a con- 
 
 M 2
 
 164 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 siderable amelioration has taken place in the 
 climate there since the time of De Gama, and 
 that it is actually much less tempestuous m the 
 present day than it used to be when they first 
 took possession of the country in 1652. We 
 know various instances of a change of climate 
 having occurred in islands and continents, in 
 consequence of the extirpation of forests, the 
 draining of marshes, and other causes; but we 
 have no authority for supposing that any parts 
 of the great ocean are liable to be affected in a 
 similar way ; because the character of their sur- 
 face never undergoes the least alteration, and 
 because they develope no new physical agents 
 calculated to exert any influence upon their re- 
 spective atmospheres. There appears, then, to 
 be as little reason to suspect De Gama of ex- 
 aggeration in his account of the African ocean, 
 as to place much confidence in the reports of 
 the Dutch colonists upon the same subject. 
 The climate of that sea is doubtless precisely 
 the same at present as it was several centuries 
 back ; and if modern navigators find much less 
 difficulty in doubling the Cape of Good Hope 
 than their predecessors did, the fact is to be 
 exclusively ascribed to the superiority of the 
 former in nautical tactics, and to the greater
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 165 
 
 sea-wortliiness of their ships. Rogers, and 
 Anson, and others, did not effect the passage 
 round Cape Horn without many dangers and 
 much detention ; but latterly the doubling of 
 that celebrated promontory has become of easy 
 accomplishment, not because the neighbouring 
 seas are less tempestuous than they formerly 
 were, but because nautical men choose the pro- 
 per season for the voyage, and equip their ves- 
 sels in a suitable way. This is proved by the 
 statements of Weddel, who surveyed New 
 South Shetland in 1820, and who says, " Even 
 at present an attempt to double Cape Horn 
 in the month of March might subject the 
 navigator to all the distresses which Anson ex- 
 perienced in 1747; and a ship must be well 
 found, and in good trim, to effect the passage 
 at all any time between February and April." 
 
 The general aspect of the South African 
 ocean is monotonous and unpleasing. It is 
 continually agitated by a long and irregular 
 swell, which suffers little sensible diminution 
 even after the longest calms that ever occur in 
 the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 where the weather is almost always in extremes, 
 being either very boisterous or very serene. 
 Thus the navigator is either involved in a tern-
 
 166 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 pest, and fearfully tossed by the violence of the 
 waves, or he is detained by calms, and lies roll- 
 ing for days together in an undulating sea. The 
 want of general winds likewise proves a great 
 obstacle to his progress, for in the South African 
 ocean it scarcely ever blows from any quarter 
 but the north-west, and south-east, either of 
 which winds will prevent his doubling the 
 Cape, according as he happens to be bound for 
 Europe or for India. The continual turbulence 
 of this sea is necessarily unfavourable to the de- 
 velopement of animal and vegetable life, and it 
 presents but few varieties of either. Here the 
 coral insect rears no monument of its labours 
 — the medusae are too fragile to exist — the fly- 
 ing-fish would find itself benumbed with cold 
 — and no sooner are the algee detached from 
 the rocks, than they are torn to pieces by the 
 waves. Several species of oceanic birds, how- 
 ever, sometimes enliven the prospect ; amongst 
 which the albatross, the solan goose, the black 
 gull, and the pintado, are most conspicuous. 
 Seals abound in the clusters of rocky islets that 
 lie near the coast, and whales visit the bays in 
 winter, and are then caught in considerable 
 numbers. Nevertheless, few parts of the ocean 
 are more solitary and less serene than the South
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 167 
 
 African seas, which, though situated in the 
 neighbourhood of the tropics, enjoy little of 
 that tranquillity and productiveness which they 
 might be expected to derive from their prox- 
 imity to the sun. 
 
 As it appears to me that the Cape of Good 
 Hope still merits the appellation bestowed upon 
 it by Diaz, it will be proper to say something 
 of these gales of wind which so often occur 
 there, and which appeared so formidable to that 
 navigator. The most violent of these storms 
 blow from the north-west, and occur in JVIay, 
 June, and July ; but, generally speaking, they 
 are not particularly dangerous, because there 
 is no lee-shore to be avoided, and because sea- 
 men with common attention may always fore- 
 tell their approach at least twelve hours be- 
 fore their commencement. In no part of the 
 ocean is the marine barometer so valuable an 
 instrument as in the neighbourhood of South 
 Africa. It invariably begins to fall the day 
 before the setting-in of a north-wester, and 
 does so in a greater or less degree in propor- 
 tion to the violence of the coming tempest. 
 Should the mercury rise even while the gale 
 continues to increase in strength, moderate 
 weather may confidently be expected within
 
 168 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 fifteen or twenty hours afterwards. These 
 gales are ahmost always accompanied with fogs 
 and rain, and their strength is very regular 
 throughout their duration. They seldom fail 
 to blow themselves out, without any of those 
 deceitful lulls and shiftings which characterise 
 typhoons and hurricanes, and cause a cross sea, 
 more dangerous to a ship than the most furious 
 winds. Any well-equipped vessel can safely 
 heave-to off the Cape, and lie in security, drift- 
 ing at the rate of one mile and a half an hour. 
 
 It is the frequency of these gales in the win- 
 ter, and their always blowing from the same 
 quarter, not less than their strength, that raises 
 those tremendous waves for which the Cape 
 seas have always been so celebrated. The ra- 
 pid current which sets through the Mozambique 
 Channel, along the eastern coast of Africa, has 
 also a considerable share in producing them ; 
 for, running sometimes at the rate of eighty or 
 a hundred miles a-day, and being checked in 
 its course by an opposing gale, a most tumul- 
 tuous agitation of the waters is the conse- 
 quence. It is very difficult to convey an ac- 
 curate idea of the magnitude and appearance 
 of the Cape waves in a strong gale. When 
 a person looks from the deck of his ship while
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 16*9 
 
 it is mounting or descending one of them, he 
 sees a smooth expanse on every side, and looks 
 in vain for any turbulence of the waters im- 
 mediately round him, the whole space within 
 the range of his eye being no more than the 
 side of a single wave, which he must pass over 
 before he can even get in sight of another. 
 But this description applies only when the 
 weather is very hazy, as it always is during 
 the height of a north-west gale. In clear sun- 
 shine, the vision embraces a range of many 
 miles, and the vast ridges of water above de- 
 scribed may be observed following each other 
 in silent and majestic regularity, their summits 
 crowned with dazzling wreaths of foam, while 
 the valleys that intervene present a tranquil, 
 smooth, and glassy surface. 
 
 Those persons who have never been at sea, 
 generally form very inaccurate notions of the 
 real height of its waves ; and this arises chiefly 
 from the vague and exaggerated expressions in 
 common use amongst mariners. It is very cer- 
 tain that the sea never rises " mountains high," 
 nor even attains an elevation equal to that of 
 the lowest hills ; and that the greatest waves are 
 less formidable and remarkable from the lofti- 
 ness of their crests, than on account of the
 
 170 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 prodigious and irresistible body of water that 
 composes them. Still, it appears to me, that if 
 the vulgar err on one side of the question, phi- 
 losophers do the same on the other, when they 
 assert that no wind, however strong, can cause 
 the waves to rise more than six or seven feet 
 above the level of the ocean. They, indeed, 
 qualify this by admitting of compound waves 
 of a much greater height, formed by the colli- 
 sion and accumulation of many natural ones, 
 and produced by the action of opposing winds 
 or currents, or bold shores, and various similar 
 causes. Boyle, in his Observations on the 
 Deepness of the Sea, endeavours to prove 
 that the agitation of its waters in stormy wea- 
 ther does not extend many fathoms below its 
 surface. He speaks, however, altogether upon 
 the authority of others, and the testimony 
 which he brings forw^ard in support of his 
 opinions is rather equivocal. An individual, 
 who was in the habit of descending in a 
 diving-bell, told him that once upon an occa- 
 sion of the kind, when the waves were seven 
 or eight feet high, he found, after reaching an 
 inconsiderable depth, that the waters around 
 him were perfectly tranquil; and that another 
 time, having been lowered into the sea in calm
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 171 
 
 weather, and having remained there for a short 
 period, he was drawn np again, and found, to 
 his astonishment, that a storm was raging on 
 the face of the ocean, though he had not till 
 that moment been aware of anything of the 
 kind. He likewise mentions the experience of 
 a ship-master, who used to dive under his vessel 
 (which drew twelve feet of water) while she 
 was under sail. Both stories have an equal 
 degree of probability, and it is likely that the 
 hero of them was one and the same person ; for 
 the man that would descend into the ocean in 
 a diving-bell, when its waves were "-seven or 
 eight feet high, certainly would not hesitate 
 to venture overboard for amusement in stormy 
 weather, to see what was going forward under 
 the keel of his ship. 
 
 I am willing to admit, that the height of the 
 waves is often increased by reflected winds, by 
 currents, and by the character of the neighbour- 
 ino- coasts : but if the influence of these and 
 similar causes is essential to the formation of a 
 sea more than six feet high, how does it happen 
 that the waves are found to be the larger the 
 farther we go from land? In the vast and 
 unbroken expanse of ocean^ eight hundred or 
 one thousand miles south of the Cape of Good
 
 172 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Hope, the waves must surely be what philoso- 
 phers term natural, in the strictest sense of the 
 word ; yet they rise far above the limits which 
 it assigns to them. Cook, in his second voyage, 
 often mentions the lofty seas which he encoun- 
 tered in these latitudes ; and speaking of some 
 ice islands sixty feet high, he says, " Such was 
 the force and height of the waves, that the sea 
 broke quite over them." And in a subsequent 
 part of his narrative, he describes an iceberg 
 one hundred feet in height, over which the 
 waves broke " considerably higher." 
 
 Winstanley, who first erected a lighthouse on 
 the Eddystone rock, states that the building, 
 though sixty feet high, was buried in the waves 
 in a violent storm, and that even after he had 
 raised it forty feet more, the spray appeared to 
 fly another hundred feet above the vane. Smea- 
 ton, the builder of the present Eddystone light- 
 house, which is ninety-five feet high, confirms 
 all this, and declares, that in strong gales from 
 the south-west, the structure is often so entirely 
 enveloped by the waves as to be invisible. 
 
 In both of the instances above referred to, 
 allowance must of course be made for the in- 
 creased elevation of the waves, arising from 
 their sudden and violent collision with the ob-
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 173 
 
 ject against which they struck. To estimate 
 this at two-thirds of the whole measurement, is 
 granting more than is necessary or even reason- 
 able, and reduces the actual height of the lofti- 
 est natural wave to about thirty feet, which 
 approaches very nearly to what personal obser- 
 vation has led me to consider the truth in this 
 matter. An accumulation of the waters of the 
 ocean much exceeding this, may however take 
 place during earthquakes and other convulsions 
 of nature, as has happened several times on the 
 coast of Calabria, and more particularly still at 
 the submersion of Callao, the port of Lima, 
 which occurred in 1745, and destroyed several 
 thousand people. On that occasion, it is said, 
 that a wave at least sixty feet high was seen 
 advancing towards the devoted town, which it 
 almost instantaneously overwhelmed. 
 
 In reference to the north-west gales that 
 prevail near the Cape of Storms, it is worthy of 
 remark, that the most frequent and formidable 
 ones come from the same quarter in both hemi- 
 spheres. It seems natural enough that north- 
 west wdnds should occur oftener and blow with 
 more violence than any other in the North 
 Atlantic and Pacific, and in the Baltic and 
 Greenland seas, and in various parts of the
 
 174 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ocean similarly situated, because we may sup- 
 pose that the frozen regions at either pole have 
 a great influence upon the general direction of 
 the winds of each hemisphere. But this does 
 not hold good with respect to the southern 
 one ; for in the neighbourhood of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and in much higher southern lati- 
 tudes, these north-west winds still prevail a con- 
 siderable part of the year, and are remarkable 
 both for their strength and duration. They 
 cannot have the least connexion with similar 
 winds in the northern hemisphere ; for the south- 
 east trade, which always blows between the 
 equator and 25° south latitude, forms a broad 
 and intercepting barrier to anything of the 
 kind. During December, January, and Febru- 
 ary, south-east winds prevail often with great 
 violence at the Cape of Good Hope ; and as 
 they are very cold, people generally suppose 
 that they come from the frozen regions of the 
 south pole. But this is so far from being the 
 case, that navigators who run down to 37° or 38° 
 south, in the months above mentioned, almost 
 invariably fall in with strong north -westers ; 
 and Cook's second voyage proves that these 
 continue to be very common even in the vici- 
 nity of the Antarctic circle. 
 
 On viewing a map of the world, the first
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 175 
 
 thing that strikes the eye is the vast dispropor- 
 tion of land in the two hemispheres. The con- 
 tinents of Asia and America spread themselves 
 out immensely, as they extend towards the 
 Arctic circle, and the seas in that quarter are 
 circumscribed by vast expanses of territory, and 
 intersected by islands, archipelagoes, and pe- 
 ninsulas. On the contrary, Africa and South 
 America grow rapidly narrower as they ap- 
 proach the tropic of Capricorn, and from thence 
 dwindle into a wedge-like shape ; and, as if des- 
 titute of solidity, and fearful of encountering 
 the boisterousness of a glacial sea, and the col- 
 lision of mountains of ice, they terminate in 
 their celebrated promontories, the one 55° and 
 the other 35° short of the pole, leaving a wide 
 and uninterrupted expanse of ocean in its neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 These geographical peculiarities of the south- 
 ern hemisphere, at once suggest the idea of an 
 Antarctic continent ; but it has hitherto been 
 sought for in vain, for I will not give the name 
 to the lately discovered country called New 
 South Shetland, which seems to be merely a 
 cluster of islands having an appearance of conti- 
 nuous land, owing to mountains of ice extend- 
 ing between their extremities, and in a manner 
 uniting them together. Neither does that coun-
 
 176 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 try lie in the situation which reason and certain 
 natural phenomena would lead us to assign to 
 the supposed Antarctic continent, which Cook 
 supposed must be found (if it does exist at all) 
 either opposite to the southern extremity of 
 Africa, or somewhat farther to the eastward. 
 The limited extent of Africa south of the equa- 
 tor was not the chief ground of his opinion, but 
 the vast accumulation of ice which he observed 
 in comparatively low latitudes in the southern 
 ocean. 
 
 It now seems incontestable, that ice cannot be 
 formed in large quantities except in the vicinity 
 of land ; and that icebergs are speedily destroyed 
 by the action of the winds and waves when they 
 float into the open sea. Nevertheless, the region 
 of ice islands extends at least twelve degrees far- 
 ther from the pole in the southern than in the 
 northern hemisphere ; and some years ago a ship 
 encountered several of these at so low a latitude 
 as 42°, or within seven degrees of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. We must still, therefore, believe in 
 the existence of an Antarctic continent, though 
 Cook failed in making the discovery, and doubt- 
 ed if any man ever would accomplish it. But 
 the apparent want of equilibrium in the north- 
 ern and southern hemispheres, above alluded to, 
 does not amount to the extent hitherto sup-
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 177 
 
 posed, for it has been ascertained that the vi- 
 bration of the pendulum in any given latitude at 
 sea in the latter, is greater than it is in a corre- 
 sponding one in the former ; and this observation 
 proves, that the average depth of the ocean in 
 the southern division of the globe falls short of 
 what it is in the northern one. 
 
 There is something inexpressibly sublime in 
 the character of the southern lands hitherto dis- 
 covered. It is true, that they present much the 
 same features as the Arctic regions ; but their re- 
 lative position is dissimilar to that of the latter, in 
 so far as they are totally separated from the rest of 
 the world by a turbulent ocean of vast and un- 
 interrupted extent. Greenland and Spitzbergen 
 and Nova Zembla belong either to America or 
 to Asia, and are in the neighbourhood of civil- 
 ized Europe, and are bounded by seas where 
 ships annually resort for commerce and fishing. 
 But Sandwich Land, the Ultima Thule Australisy 
 has, as far as we know, been only once seen by 
 human beings, through a veil of drifting snow 
 and through vistas of icebergs, and probably 
 will never again be visited ; and it is nearly the 
 same with the great island of South Georgia, 
 which stands isolated and desert in the midst of 
 a raging ocean. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 These countries produce nothing in summer 
 but coarse grass, and no animals of any descrip- 
 tion are to be found upon them ; and their black 
 mountainous cliffs, whitened by surf, either en- 
 tirely forbid the approach of ships, or are scooped 
 into sullen and gloomy bays of small extent, 
 where there is a fathomless depth of silent water, 
 and where the sun's rays can seldom penetrate, 
 on account of the loftiness of the arched preci- 
 pices which inclose them. 
 
 Whether Bartholomew Diaz was the first na- 
 vigator who doubled the Cape of Good Hope, 
 is a question which has been the subject of 
 many learned dissertations, and which is still 
 undecided. In the opinion of some, the Pheni- 
 cians, and of others, the Carthaginians, had cir- 
 cumnavigated Africa many centuries before the 
 era of the Portuguese discovery of a new route 
 to India ; and it is insisted that notices of such 
 voyages are to be found in the works of various 
 ancient historians. Strabo seems to be of opi- 
 nion that Homer himself had some knowledge 
 of an expedition of the kind, for he makes Me- 
 nelaus, in the Odyssey, tell Telemachus, that he 
 had sailed into the country of the Ethiopians. 
 But as Menelaus could not have entered the 
 Ked Sea from the Mediterranean, or navigated
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 179 
 
 the Nile liigher than its first cataracts, the only 
 way of explaining how he visited Ethiopia ap- 
 pears to Strabo to be in supposing that he had 
 passed through the Pillars of Hercules, and cir- 
 cumnavigated Africa, and reached the former 
 country by way of the Erythrean Sea; or that 
 the Isthmus of Suez was at that time covered 
 with water, and that Menelaus sailed over it. 
 But it strikes me that the whole difficulty is 
 solved by a passage in Diodorus Siculus, which 
 indicates that the country called Ethiopia in the 
 time of Homer extended farther to the west- 
 ward than it was subsequently considered to 
 do. Diodorus says, that a vessel with a favour- 
 able wind may sail from the Palus Mseotides to 
 Rhodes in ten days, and from thence to Alex- 
 andria in four days, and up the Nile into Ethio- 
 pia in ten days more. This proves that it was 
 possible to go by water from the Mediterranean 
 into Ethiopia, and that the latter name was for- 
 merly given to those regions of Egypt which 
 border upon the first cataracts of the Nile. 
 
 It has been justly remarked by various writ- 
 ers, that had any one circumnavigated Africa 
 in early times, and returned to tell his tale, we 
 should find some distinct and exact notice of 
 so important an event in the works of the 
 
 N 2
 
 180 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ancient historians. To this it may be added, 
 that had such a voyage been made, the anci- 
 ents would have possessed some knowledge of 
 the constellations of the southern hemisphere. 
 But as nothing of the kind appears in their 
 writings, it seems tolerably certain that the 
 Portuguese, who explored the western coast of 
 Africa in the time of Prince Henry, were the 
 first Europeans that ever crossed the equator. 
 As neither the Phenician nor Carthaginian 
 mariners were acquainted with the compass, 
 they would find it requisite to observe the 
 stars assiduously while at sea ; and had they 
 ever sailed beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and 
 reached even the tropic of Cancer, the new ap- 
 pearance presented by the heavens must have 
 strongly excited their attention, and been re- 
 garded as the most important and interesting 
 record of their voyage. It is to be regretted 
 that the journals of Diaz and De Gama have 
 not been preserved, for their account of the 
 impressions caused in their minds by the suc- 
 cessive appearance of the various constellations 
 of the southern hemisphere, must have been 
 not the least curious part of them. When 
 they had passed the equator, and found that 
 the polar star was no longer visible, they
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN OCEAN. 181 
 
 would feel as if the chain connecting them 
 with the northern world was broken ; and as 
 they continued to advance to the southward, 
 the closing of each day would be a time of 
 intense interest, and they would anxiously 
 watch the stars coming forth, impatient to 
 ascertain whether the heavens were about to 
 present any new wonders. 
 
 The constellation of the Cross is particularly 
 striking, both from its form and its splendour. 
 The first notice which we have of it is to be 
 found in the abstract of a voyage of a Por- 
 tuguese pilot to the Island of St. Thomas in 
 1520. The passage referred to runs thus : — 
 " When he arrived at the Rio de Ouro, which 
 is under the tropic of Cancer, he saw with asto- 
 nishment four new stars, remarkable for their 
 size and brilliancy, and which, says he, are dis- 
 posed in the form of a cross." Since that time, 
 various travellers of much greater celebrity 
 have related the impressions which they re- 
 ceived from the first view of the constellations 
 of the south, and particularly Humboldt, who 
 often alludes to the subject with enthusiasm. 
 " The traveller," says he, " feels that he is not 
 in Europe when he sees the immense constel- 
 lation of the Ship, or the phosphorescent clouds
 
 182 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of Magellan, arise in the horizon. The heavens 
 and the earth, everything in the equinoctial re- 
 gions assumes an exotic character. We saw 
 distinctly for the first time the Cross of the 
 south, on the nights of the 4th and 5th of July, 
 in latitude 16" north. It was strongly inclined, 
 and appeared from time to time between the 
 clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by un- 
 condensed lightnings, reflected a silvery bright- 
 ness. If a traveller may be permitted to speak 
 of his personal emotions, I shall add, that on 
 that night I saw one of the reveries of my 
 earliest youth accomplished." Spix and Von 
 Martins, known from their scientific travels in 
 Brazil, also speak with animation of the skies 
 of the southern hemisphere ; and even Thun- 
 berg, who is seldom betrayed into expressions 
 of emotion or admiration upon any subject, 
 becomes enlivened here, and regrets his small 
 acquaintance with astronomy. " I vvas ex- 
 tremely sorry," says he, in his Travels in South 
 Africa, " that I had not taken more pains to 
 learn so noble a science, and would with plea- 
 sure have exchanged for the knowledge of a 
 single constellation all those (botanical) defini- 
 tions with which I liad formerly burdened my 
 memory."
 
 SOUTH AFRICA-N OCEAN. 183 
 
 The meteorology of the South African 
 ocean presents few peculiarities. Hurricanes 
 and waterspouts are scarcely known there, and 
 thunder-storms and other electrical phenomena 
 occur very seldom. At sea, between the tro- 
 pic of Capricorn and the Cape of Good Hope, 
 on both sides of the continent, the transparency 
 of the atmosphere exceeds what is known in 
 any other part of the world ; and European 
 astronomers, on first visiting these latitudes, 
 contemplate with astonishment the nocturnal 
 splendour of the heavens, in which the naked 
 eye can perceive stars of two degrees less 
 magnitude than it can discern in the northern 
 skies. Here Jupiter and Venus shine with 
 startling refulgence, and cause opaque bodies 
 to cast well-defined shadows; the fixed star 
 Aldebaran appears nearly as ruddy as Mars ; 
 Castor and Pollux seem to reflect each other's 
 light ; the Corona Australis, dim and obscure 
 in other latitudes, displays the lustre of its 
 gems ; and Orion appears preternaturally bril- 
 liant and gigantic. During the monotony of a 
 voyage, a sky of this kind affords countless 
 resources to the instructed and speculative 
 mind ; and nowhere can it be contemplated 
 under such favourable circumstances as at sea.
 
 184 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 where a regular horizon, and the absence of all 
 intervening objects, allow the eye to range un- 
 wearied over the whole sweep of the heavens, 
 and enjoy their concentrated splendour at one 
 and the same moment.
 
 185 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Few headlands in the world present a cha- 
 racter so striking and defined as the Cape of 
 Good Hope. Its boldness and majesty conform 
 well with the vast magnitude of the continent 
 of which it forms the southern extremity. The 
 lion is properly the emblem of Africa, because 
 the noblest species of that animal is peculiarly 
 found there; and it is singular that Nature 
 should have carved one of the three mountains 
 composing the Cape promontory into a corre- 
 sponding shape. The likeness in question is not 
 at all fanciful or forced, but nearly as accurate 
 and regular, in certain respects, as would have 
 been produced had human labour been employed 
 upon an equally large scale. The Lion's Hill 
 displays a colossal statue of the animal in a 
 couchant posture, the crown of the head being
 
 186 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 two thousand five hundred feet high, and the 
 hind-quarters about sixteen hundred ; while a 
 tongue of land, extending from the inferior 
 part of these, forms the tail of the gigantic 
 monster. Had the artist who proposed to fa- 
 shion a statue of Alexander the Great out of 
 Mount Athos, been allowed to execute his plan, 
 it is doubtful if the resemblance to the original 
 would have been more perfect than it is in the 
 natural animal colossus of South Africa. 
 
 Neither Diaz, nor Vasco de Gam a, nor Cabral, 
 nor many of their successors, could have seen 
 Lion's Hill, or at least been aware of its pecu- 
 liar contour, which is not discoverable from sea 
 until a ship has entered Table Bay ; and though 
 it is uncertain where the Portuguese first land- 
 ed, we may believe that it was not in a port 
 whose unsheltered expanse would be highly un- 
 inviting to mariners who had so much cause, 
 both from hearsay and experience, to dread the 
 tempests for which the South African seas were 
 at that time so celebrated. Saldanha Bay was 
 more likely the first resort of the early voyagers ; 
 for in most of the old charts of South Africa it 
 is called Table Bay, from whence we may sup- 
 pose that it was frequented under that name, till 
 Van llebeck landed in Table Bay in 1650, and 
 discovered and pointed out its general superio-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 187 
 
 rity over the other ports of South Africa. It 
 would seem surprising, that a country so favour- 
 ably and conveniently situated as the Cape of 
 Good Hope should have remained uncolonized 
 and almost unvisited till more than one hun- 
 dred and fifty years after its discovery, were not 
 an explanation of the fact to be found in the 
 scarcity and badness of its harbours. Between 
 the mouth of the Orange River on the west 
 side of the continent, and that of the Kitkamma 
 on the east one, an extent of coast amounting 
 to fourteen hundred miles, and embracing the 
 whole colony, there is not one tolerable harbour, 
 with the exception of Saldanha Bay, which is 
 almost useless on account of the scarcity of 
 wood and water in its neighbourhood. The 
 other places frequented by shipping in the pre- 
 sent day are no better than coves and open 
 bays, in which vessels at best are sheltered from 
 only one wind, and are daily liable to be driven 
 on shore and disabled or lost. It is not astonish- 
 ing then, that the earlier navigators sailing to 
 and from India should have touched as seldom 
 as possible upon a coast where violent tempests 
 are as common as secure harbours are rare, and 
 where there were neither spices nor precious 
 metals to repay the dangers of the navigation. 
 The general aspect of the Cape of Good
 
 188 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Hope, as viewed from the sea, is not inviting ; 
 and it is the previous long voyage alone that 
 disposes the stranger coming in sight of it to 
 find something beautiful in its scenery, and to 
 anticipate any local enjoyment during a resi- 
 dence in the country. The mountains are stern, 
 rugged, and for the most part destitute of wood ; 
 the shores present little cultivation, and few ap- 
 pearances of being inhabited ; and the grass is 
 scanty, and confined to the low grounds ; and a 
 strong surf generally breaks along the rock- 
 bound coasts. But nevertheless a tranquil gran- 
 deur, and a character of magnitude and con- 
 sistency pervade the whole ; and if the land- 
 scape wants that variety, and those rich tints, 
 which belong to the exterior of many countries 
 situated in a less happy climate, it at least offers 
 nothing repulsive or unharmonious. 
 
 The favourable position of South Africa as 
 regards latitude, and the variety of surface which 
 its territory presents, ought to render it one of 
 the most fertile, convenient, and highly-gifted 
 regions in the world ; but as the traveller ad- 
 vances into its interior, he seeks in vain for 
 these characters; and, astonished and bewildered 
 by tlie desolation that surrounds him, he tries 
 to discover the cause of Nature's unkindness to
 
 GENERAL i'HYSICAL CHARACTER. 189 
 
 SO vast a country, and asks himself whether it 
 can have always been in the state in which he 
 sees it. Ranses of mountains denuded of soil, 
 and traversed by deep furrows — their summits 
 carved into fantastic shapes by the action of the 
 elements, and their declivities scooped out into 
 vast basins and other cavities — intervening 
 plains overspread with the detritus of sand- 
 stone formations, and with masses of the same 
 kind of rock, and producing only scattered 
 tufts of coarse grass or acrid plants — wide 
 channels of torrents, and deep beds of rivers per- 
 fectly dry, or affording brackish water in little 
 pools far apart — are the grand and leading fea- 
 tures of an immense proportion of the territory 
 of South Africa. But this scene of barrenness 
 and desolation, which ought to belong to the An- 
 tarctic regions, enjoys an indulgent and tempe- 
 rate climate, and bears no mark of ever having 
 experienced the shock of earthquakes, or the 
 desolating fire of volcanoes, or the fury of the 
 hurricane ; and in no part of the world, perhaps, 
 is there so strong a contrast between the sky 
 and the region lying beneath it — -the one 
 being genial, mild, and brilliant ; the other 
 wild, treeless, and fearfully desert. 
 
 South Africa seems to be a worn-out and
 
 190 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 emaciated country. Its mountains without soil 
 or verdure resemble skeletons, and its unwater- 
 ed plains, incapable of supplying the nourish- 
 ment necessary for the process of vegetation, 
 are like an animal body in which the circulation 
 has ceased from disease or exhaustion. Here 
 we find none of the rotund forms of youthful 
 nature, but wrinkles and decrepitude, and pro- 
 stration of strength. The plains of South Afri- 
 ca being overwhelmed by the debris of its own 
 mountains, may we not suppose that, before 
 this took place, they were as fertile and popu- 
 lous as they are now barren and desert ; and that 
 the country has produced within itself the 
 causes of its own destruction, as is the case with 
 Egypt, where the fertile borders of the Nile are 
 continually narrowing from the encroachment 
 of the sands of the neighbouring deserts ? and 
 this change was in operation three thousand 
 years ago ; for when the priests of Memphis, in 
 their mythological allegories, represen ted Typhon 
 as endeavouring to enter the bed of Isis, they 
 meant no more than that the sands of Libya 
 were gradually drifting towards the banks of 
 the Nile, and had a tendency to overspread them 
 and destroy their fertility, as has since been 
 partly verified.
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 191 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that the countries 
 lying in the same parallel of latitude as South 
 Africa, both to the eastward and westward, 
 should bear a strong resemblance to her in their 
 physical defects. Nearly the whole south-west 
 coast of New Holland is a barren sandy desert, 
 uninhabitable on account of want of water : 
 and directing our view to South America, we 
 find in the vast arid and desert plains called 
 Pampas, bordering on the Rio de la Plata, a 
 repetition of the same repulsive characters. It 
 is true, that both of these regions being very 
 flat and scantily wooded, the scarcity of water 
 vmder which they suffer is much less difficult 
 to account for than in South Africa, which is 
 everywhere intersected by ranges of hills and 
 mountains of considerable elevation, and in 
 many districts refreshed by abundant and pe- 
 riodical rains. Barrow's explanation of this 
 anomaly seems more satisfactory than any other 
 that has yet been offered. He says, that nearly 
 all the elevated lands of South Africa consist 
 of sandstone resting upon a basis of granite, 
 which latter sometimes rises above the general 
 surface of the country, but is more commonly 
 sunk many feet below it. In the first case, 
 abundant springs are always found, because the
 
 192 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 rain, after filtering through the porous sand- 
 stone, is stopped in its progress downwards by 
 the dense and impenetrable granite, and is forced 
 to find egress horizontally, which it does in the 
 form of springs and rivulets ; but when the 
 upper surface of the stratum of granite lies 
 below the level of the neighbouring country, 
 the water descends in the same way till it meets 
 it, and then runs off under-ground, unseen by 
 man, and useless to the superincumbent soil. 
 The correctness of this theory would soon be 
 brought to the test, were the farmers in the in- 
 terior of South Africa in the habit of digging 
 wells, as these would enable us to ascertain 
 whether water was always to be found by boring 
 down to the surface of the granite. 
 
 The grand characteristic of South Africa 
 being a scarcity of water, it is easy to suppose 
 that the general appearance of the country must 
 almost everywhere indicate the existence of 
 that evil to the most superficial observer. But 
 still there are many considerable tracts of land 
 which form an exception to this, and which vie 
 in beauty with the most fertile spots in Eu- 
 rope. In general, the territory which a stranger 
 first has an opportunity of viewing, is a small 
 district called Wynberg, in the neighbourhood
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 193 
 
 of Cape Town, which is calculated to give an 
 equally favourable and false idea of the interior 
 of the colony to those who yield too readily to 
 first impressions. Wynberg is covered with 
 country-houses, gardens, vineyards, pasture and 
 cornfields, and woodlands ; and is abundantly 
 watered by never-failing springs and rivulets 
 descending from Table INIountain. Here may 
 be found congregated a vast variety of plants 
 and trees indigenous to opposite climates, but 
 accommodating themselves in a wonderful man- 
 ner to the soil of South Africa. The avenues 
 and pleasure-grounds, and even the public roads, 
 are in many places adorned with oaks not in- 
 ferior in magnitude and beauty to the finest in 
 Europe, and producing acorns of an extraor- 
 dinary size and excellence. The same species 
 of fir that is found in the mountains of Norway, 
 may be seen growing in clumps of vast height, 
 and towering above all the neighbouring woods. 
 In the lower and more sheltered garden-grounds, 
 the banana, emblem of the torrid zone, evolves 
 its long and gracefully depending leaves under 
 the shade of orchards of peach and nectarine 
 trees. Not far off, the vines of France and 
 Italy dazzle the eye with the brightness of 
 their green, which contrasts agreeably with the 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 194 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 silvery grey foliage of the protea argentea, 
 plantations of which are found interspersed in all 
 directions. In exploring the gardens, one meets 
 with the tea-tree of China, the date of Arabia, 
 and the loquat of Northern India. The orange, 
 fig, and mulberry, grow everywhere, and yield 
 abundance of fruit ; and the apple, and pear, 
 and plum, and other orchard trees of Europe, 
 are not less common and productive. Nowhere 
 perhaps does vegetation appear under so great 
 a variety of forms as in the territory of Wyn- 
 berg; for there theHindoo, the Eastern Islander, 
 the South European, and the Norwegian, may 
 each find some of the productions of their re- 
 spective countries, and be reminded of the rural 
 scenes and enjoyments of their native land. 
 
 When it is considered that nothing deserving 
 the name of fruit is indigenous to South Africa, 
 it will appear the more singular that so many 
 different sorts, brought from so many different 
 countries, should not only thrive, but attain 
 perfection there. All the trees above enumer- 
 ated have been imported by the Dutch, who, 
 on taking possession of the Cape, found that it 
 produced no plant or vegetable worthy of cul- 
 tivation, or of any use to civilized man, unless 
 the aloe and mimosa should be considered an
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 195 
 
 exception. Many of the European fruits have 
 been improved by transplantation, particularly 
 peaches, nectarines, melons, and mulberries ; and 
 if the wine made from the Cape grapes is in- 
 different, the fault lies with the manufacturer, 
 and not in the material. The above remark is 
 also applicable to the garden vegetables that 
 have at different times been naturalized in the 
 colony. All of them are cultivated with the 
 greatest success ; and the potatoes, pease, cab- 
 bages, cauliflowers, &c. raised there, are by no 
 means inferior to those of the temperate regions 
 of Europe. Some go so far as to assert, that 
 even the protea argentea, which is so useful as 
 firewood, is not a native of South Africa, but 
 was brought from St. Helena : though I cannot 
 accede to this ; for the tree in question is now 
 found growing at a great elevation on the de- 
 clivities of the Devil's Mountain, where it is 
 impossible to believe that it ever was planted 
 by the hand of man. With respect to the oak 
 and fir, no one thinks of disputing their Euro- 
 pean origin ; and though these and other timber 
 trees flourish at the Cape, still its soil and cli- 
 mate seem more peculiarly favourable for the 
 production of fruit. After travelling a w^hole 
 day through barren and sandy deserts in the in- 
 
 o 2
 
 196 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 terior of the colony, I have been astonished and 
 delighted, on reaching a boor's house, to find 
 beside it a peach orchard covered with blos- 
 soms, and exhaling odour, and actually present- 
 ing the only vegetable form within the range 
 of the eye. 
 
 Wynberg, however, owes much of its beauty 
 and high cultivation to its having been the 
 spot out of the limits of Cape Town first plant- 
 ed and improved by the Dutch. Vander Stel, 
 one of the earlier governors of the colony, chose 
 Constantia, now celebrated for its wines, for 
 a country residence, which no doubt induced 
 many of the wealthier settlers to build houses 
 in the neighbourhood, and adorn them with 
 gardens and vineyards. Other parts of the 
 country, not very distant, make a near approach 
 in agreeableness to Wynberg, particularly Dra- 
 kenstein and the Paarl; but being farther inland, 
 they have not enjoyed the same advantages as 
 the latter in obtaining foreign plants, and nei- 
 ther have those which they do possess yet had 
 time to become much diffused or to attain great 
 perfection. 
 
 The extreme part of the peninsula of South 
 Africa is vseparated from the rest of the country 
 by a chain of mountains, which extends com-
 
 GENERAL PHYblCAL CHARACTER. 197 
 
 pletely across the continent in a semicircular 
 direction, forming an impenetrable barrier, ex- 
 cept in those places where deep chasms called 
 kloofs, improved by human labour, admit of 
 the passage of travellers, cattle, and waggons. 
 None of the Dutch ventured to settle beyond 
 these mountains for a considerable time after 
 they had colonized the Cape ; but population 
 increasing, and land becoming scarce, the emi- 
 grants at length found it necessary to extend 
 themselves into the back country. But before 
 this took place, the peninsular tract of land 
 which Nature has walled off in the manner 
 above described, was tolerably well peopled and 
 cultivated, and it is now, and always has been, 
 the most civilized and agreeable part of tlie 
 colony. It appears that several of the first 
 Dutch governors were of opinion that the set- 
 tlement should be confined to the territory in 
 question ; for their judgment was sound enough 
 to enable them to perceive that the Cape of Good 
 Hope would never be of any value to Holland, 
 or to any other nation, except as a place of re- 
 freshment for ships engaged in the India or 
 China trade, as has since been fully verified. 
 And it would be well for Great Britain were 
 the colony concentrated upon the extremity of
 
 198 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 South Africa, instead of being scattered over 
 many thousand square miles, as it is at present. 
 In the former case, indeed, the population would 
 necessarily be very small, from the narrowness 
 of the territory assigned to it. But of what use 
 to the parent country is a large population in 
 South Africa? On the contrary, it is injurious; 
 because it entails upon her the inconvenience 
 and expense of supporting a great military, 
 civil, and judicial establishment, which the trade 
 of the colony is too inconsiderable and unim- 
 portant to repay. The southern angle of Africa, 
 which nature has so completely separated from 
 the interior country, would, if properly settled 
 and cultivated, produce sufficient supplies of 
 every description for all the Indian shipping of 
 Europe, and would be cheaply and easily de- 
 fended, and would require but a small civil 
 establishment for its internal government. Had 
 the colony been thus limited from the first, the 
 Hottentots, undisturbed by the encroachment 
 of Europeans, would have remained stationary 
 in the back country, and reared cattle in secu- 
 rity, and sold them at a low rate for the con- 
 sumption of the settlement. 
 
 The territory in question is still the most 
 populous and best cultivated part of the colony
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 199 
 
 though it presents in different quarters a consi- 
 derable extent of arid sandy plains. The farms 
 are generally not far distant from each other ; 
 their owners are mostly in good circumstances ; 
 their houses are neat and substantially built, and 
 they enjoy many of the best comforts and con- 
 veniences of life. The country is interspersed 
 with villages more or less considerable, and the 
 roads between them are good. A tract of land, 
 called Hottentots' Holland, on account of its 
 levelness and resemblance to the flats of the 
 United Provinces, and lying at the foot of the 
 range of mountains already alluded to, is very 
 densely peopled, and offers an agreeable picture 
 of cultivation and social order, unmixed with 
 almost any features of African wildness and 
 sterility. The settlements of the Paarl, Stellen- 
 bosch, Drakenstein, and Franchhoek, have a 
 similar character; and the European stranger 
 visiting them sees nothing that particularly re- 
 minds him that he is in a foreign country, except 
 the total absence of natural woodland. 
 
 It is not till he travels some distance into the 
 interior, that he finds himself in the heart of 
 African scenery. In doing this, he must pass 
 one of the three kloofs or openings in the moun- 
 tains ; and as these kinds of defiles are met with
 
 200 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 everywhere throughout the country, it will be 
 proper to say something of them here. In ge- 
 neral they are formed partly by nature and 
 partly by art ; for when it happens that a range 
 of hills interposes itself between two inhabited 
 districts, rendering communication difficult or 
 impossible, the residents find out the spot where 
 the land is least elevated, or where it is divided 
 by a valley, and mutually set about making a 
 road fit for the passage of horses and cattle, and 
 the rude and strong- wheeled vehicles of the 
 country. Kloofs are more or less steep and dif- 
 ficult of ascent, according to the populousness 
 and intercourse of the neighbouring regions. 
 Those situated in old settlements are often 
 tolerably smooth, safe, and convenient ; while 
 others, far in the interior, are in many instances 
 so rugged and dangerous as to risk the destruc- 
 tion of the traveller's waggons, and the laming 
 or even death of some of his oxen. 
 
 The two kloofs, called the Witzenberg and 
 Scarfedeberg, are the worst in the colony. 
 They are produced by a double range of moun- 
 tains, separated by a valley about a mile and a 
 half wide ; and it requires eight hours to pass 
 them in a bullock -waggon, though the whole 
 distance does not exceed nine miles. It is usual
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 201 
 
 for travellers going this road to hire a team of 
 oxen to carry them across the two kloofs, while 
 their own cattle, being unyoked, follow the 
 waggon at their ease, and are relieved from a day 
 of fatifrue which would unfit them for work for 
 a week after. The sum commonly paid on such 
 occasions is from three to four guineas — in ap- 
 pearance a large amount for a piece of labour of 
 the kind, but in reality not very considerable ; 
 for cattle in ascending the Witzenberg often fall 
 down and break their legs, or roll over the pre- 
 cipice and are killed; and the value of a good 
 ox in that part of the country is never less than 
 two pounds sterling. 
 
 In the kloof to which the reader's attention 
 is now directed, and which I myself have tra- 
 versed, the road winds along the side of a steep 
 hill, which, though the lowest of the range to 
 which it belongs, is still about one thousand 
 feet high. The path never exceeds three yards 
 in width, and is so completely covered with 
 largfe stones, that it seems as if the workmen 
 employed in its formation had endeavoured to 
 obstruct it and render it impassable, instead of 
 toiling to do the reverse. On the right hand the 
 hill rises as perpendicularly as a wall ; and on 
 the left, it slopes very abruptly down to the
 
 202 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 plain below ; and so confined is the intervening 
 road, that a waggon as it winds along is either 
 grazing the cliff on the one side, or trembling 
 on the brink of the precipice on the other. In 
 many places large masses of stone project into 
 the road like buttresses, narrowing it so much 
 that there is scarcely room for a waggon. to 
 pass ; and the slightest restiveness of the oxen, 
 or inattention on the part of the driver, would 
 be followed by some fatal or irreparable acci- 
 dent. The wearied animals proceed at a slow 
 and regular pace, except where any particular 
 impediment to the progress of the waggon oc- 
 curs, and then the driver finds it necessary to 
 urge them to exertion both by his voice and his 
 whip. The fore oxen often stumble, and even 
 fall upon their faces ; and the panting and fre- 
 quent bellowing of the whole team show how 
 severe their toil is, and make it requisite that 
 they should be allowed to stop and enjoy a lit- 
 tle breathing-time every two or three hundred 
 feet of the way. 
 
 The first thing that strikes the stranger on 
 entering the interior of South Africa, is the 
 scantiness of its population, and the remote- 
 ness of the farms from each other. In the dis- 
 trict of Swellendam, which is one of the best
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 203 
 
 settled and most cultivated diA'isions of the 
 colony, the houses are on an average eight or 
 ten miles apart, and the intervening country 
 is generally a desert, partially covered with 
 low shrubs and coarse grass, and unenlivened 
 by any other objects, except perhaps a herd 
 of sheep or oxen. Even these, however, are 
 seldom seen in the neighbourhood of a public 
 road ; because the pastures there being mostly 
 eaten up by the cattle of travellers, the resi- 
 dent boors send their flocks to more distant 
 and retired spots. Trees or brushwood are 
 extremely rare on the plains, and still more 
 so on the hills ; the lowest ranges of which pre- 
 sent those barren, naked, and weather-beaten 
 summits, which in most other countries we 
 are accustomed to find only in mountains of 
 considerable elevation. Nor is game by any 
 means plentiful, even in districts more thinly 
 settled than has been described ; for the ex- 
 treme openness of the country enables animals 
 of every kind to see a great distance around 
 them, and they are shy and timid in propor- 
 tion, and always make off as soon as they ob- 
 serve any one approaching. The number of 
 travellers, it may be supposed, is very small 
 in the remoter parts of the colony ; and one
 
 204 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 may journey for days together without meet- 
 ing a single individual, except at the farm- 
 houses which occur on the way. The above 
 is doubtless a gloomy picture, but nevertheless 
 scenes of the kind have their attractions ; and 
 if Nature in the interior of South Africa seldom 
 appears in rich and varied attire, she is always 
 simple, serene, and sublime. 
 
 The traveller may proceed several hundred 
 miles and never once perceive any material or 
 even describable alteration in the aspect of the 
 country. Sometimes he will descend the sides 
 of a valley of moderate depth, and sometimes 
 climb a deep kloof or defile; and one day a 
 range of hills will closely skirt the road, and 
 the next they will be at a considerable distance 
 from it ; but he will never have occasion to 
 plunge into a forest, or go along the borders 
 of a lake, or pass through cultivated fields, or 
 enter a village, or, in short, experience any of 
 that " sweet vicissitude and grateful change" 
 which lend such charms and animation to a 
 journey through wild and solitary regions 
 more fertile and highly favoured than South 
 Africa. He will often cross the dry bed of 
 a torrent, and have reason to regret that it 
 contains no water ; and when a running stream
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 205 
 
 lies in his route, he will see it afar off, and 
 be able to trace its course by the band of 
 thick shrubbery extending along both its 
 banks. And he will feel the more delight 
 on reaching one of those oases of verdure 
 and vegetation, from their being of so rare 
 occurrence in the arid wastes of Africa. There, 
 in the vicinity of a never-failing stream, or 
 on the banks of a river, Nature assumes some 
 of her most agreeable aspects. Groves of aca- 
 cia and mimosa, and clumps of odorous and 
 flowering shrubs, form places of shelter for 
 birds and insects. The sound of the rippling 
 waters drops blandly upon the ear, in place of 
 the unvarying and husky sweep of the wind 
 over a country presenting nothing to impede 
 its progress. The rays of the setting sun are 
 softly broken by the stems and the fohage of 
 interposing trees, instead of shooting along the 
 sandy surface in broad defined bands of light ; 
 and the winnowing noise of flights of birds 
 returning to their nests, breathes a language of 
 security and composure. The scenery of the 
 interior parts of South Africa has so great a 
 general similarity, that a single description will 
 suffice to convey an idea of the usual aspect 
 of nature there, in districts which are neither
 
 206 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 thickly inhabited, nor in a state of cultiva- 
 tion. The following picture is one out of 
 many closely resembling it, which I had an 
 opportunity of contemplating in the course of 
 my travels through the colony. 
 
 From the bottom of a kloof which I had 
 ascended, a plain fifteen miles wide, and more 
 than thirty long, stretched to the westward. 
 Its surface was completely covered with ferny 
 shrubs growing close together and to an equal 
 height, and undulating simultaneously when a 
 breeze passed over them. Their continuous- 
 ness however was broken, and to a lonsc ex- 
 tent, in two directions, though from very dif- 
 ferent causes. The course of the road, or ra- 
 ther waggon-track, leading to the kloof, could 
 be perceived winding through the bushes for 
 a great way, the reddish hue of the denuded 
 soil rendering it very conspicuous ; and fol- 
 lowing an opposite direction, and intersecting 
 the path, ran a small rivulet, deep and narrow 
 in its channel. Its waters glittering under the 
 setting sun enabled the eye to pursue their 
 course for many miles, and the whole resem- 
 bled a golden serpent creeping through a low 
 and dense thicket. The plain was bounded on 
 each side by a range of hills, rising some- 
 what abruptly, and covered two-thirds of
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 207 
 
 their height with shrubs of the same species 
 as those found below. Near their summits 
 vegetation entirely disappeared ; and the sur- 
 face was bristled with sharp and angular frag- 
 ments of rock, projecting separately from the 
 ground, or appearing like the edges of narrow 
 strata, and sometimes like basaltic columns. 
 On the tops of some of the hills, large frag- 
 ments of rock were piled upon each other in 
 the most fantastic and unaccountable manner, 
 and others of a slender form stood perpen- 
 dicularly amongst them like isolated pillars. 
 The valley was terminated in the west by 
 three successive ranges of mountains, whose 
 numerous summits, presenting many varieties 
 of outUne, received the full blaze of the set- 
 ting sun, and though the most distant, were 
 in reality the most conspicuous and attractive 
 features of the landscape. The whole of this 
 extensive scene was a solitude. No animal of 
 any kind could be observed wandering upon 
 the plain ; scarcely w^as the hum of an insect 
 heard, nor did even the smallest birds appear 
 amongst the shrubs ; and the rivulet rippled 
 along untasted and unenjoyed, though in a 
 country where water is one of the scarcest and 
 most valuable gifts of nature. 
 
 The banks of South African rivers are in
 
 208 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 general remarkable for steepness and slipperiness, 
 and sometimes, as in the Great Fish River, for a 
 rocky precipitousness which renders them im- 
 passable except at particular places. The descent 
 and fordage for waggons is often very dangerous 
 in the rainy season, and requires great caution 
 lest the oxen should be carried down by the 
 current and the vehicle upset in the middle of 
 the stream, or lest, after having crossed it, they 
 should be unable to climb the bank and be 
 drawn backwards by the weight behind them. 
 In all cases where there is any risk of accidents 
 of this kind, it is necessary to make the person 
 whose business it is to lead the cattle, swim the 
 river in front of them, holding in his hands a 
 thong attached to the horns of the fore oxen, 
 in order that they may be encouraged to struggle 
 against the current. This deepness of channel 
 is always a source of great inconvenience when 
 the traveller pursues an unfrequented route, as 
 he may require to explore the banks of a river 
 for several miles before he can succeed in dis- 
 covering a place where his cattle can descend 
 to drink. 
 
 Nearly all the rivulets and mountain-torrents 
 in South Africa cease to flow from December or 
 January till May, and several of the most con-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 209 
 
 siderable rivers are without current during that 
 season, or offer only scattered pools of water. 
 At the first view of these deep and dry channels, 
 one is led to suppose that the course of the 
 stream which formed them has been changed by 
 some convulsion of nature ; so disproportioned is 
 the quantity of water (should there be any at all,) 
 to the magnitude of the chasm within which 
 it is collected. But in July and August, these 
 apparently deserted channels overflow with pro- 
 digious torrents, which sweep everything before 
 them, and annually scoop out new and exten- 
 sive sinuosities in the banks which but partially 
 confine them. 
 
 The general scarcity of water throughout 
 South Africa gives a peculiar feature to tra- 
 velling in that country. In all the northern 
 parts of the world, water is a thing which we 
 expect to find everywhere or anywhere, and 
 there the mere idea of a deficiency of it never 
 enters the mind. But in South Africa the 
 subject is constantly forced upon the atten- 
 tion, and the traveller must regulate all his 
 movements with reference to the situation and 
 distribution of springs and rivulets — halting 
 when he meets with one, though it might 
 otherwise be inconvenient to do so, or conti- 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 nuing to advance, however fatigued he may feel, 
 till he reaches a fit place of refreshment for his 
 cattle. The water obtained from ponds and 
 rivulets is often so bad that nothing but neces- 
 sity could induce any one to drink it. Besides 
 being commonly deep-coloured and muddy, it 
 most likely has a brackish or silicious taste, or 
 is strongly impregnated with muriate of mag- 
 nesia, and intolerably bitter, as I found to be 
 the case in the water of the Lion's River near 
 Beaufort. Salt lakes and springs occur in many 
 places ; and I have met with a few large pools so 
 strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydro- 
 gen, that their odour was perceptible two miles 
 off. It is very certain that in many parts of the 
 interior of the country the springs and rivulets 
 are drying up, and the annual rains becoming 
 more scanty and irregular. The traveller often 
 meets with houses and farms that have been de- 
 serted by their owners on account of a permanent 
 failure in the supply of water which they once 
 enjoyed ; and other places are tenable only 
 two-tliirds or half of the year for a similar rea- 
 son. In 1818, when it was found necessary to 
 establish a new drosdy upon the northern fron- 
 tier of the colony, government selected with 
 that view the present site of Beaufort, as being
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 211 
 
 a fertile, well-watered, and eligible spot, and 
 purchased the land of a boor for fourteen thou- 
 sand rixdoUars. It was at that time so cele- 
 brated for its luxuriant pastures as to have re- 
 ceived a Dutch name designating these; but 
 when I visited the place in the spring of 1830, 
 I found the neighbourhood so dry and barren 
 that the cattle were dying for want of food ; 
 and the inhabitants assured me that they had 
 enjoyed no regular rains for six years, and point- 
 ed out the unmoistened channel of the Ganika 
 River in corroboration of their statements. In 
 the district of Albany, where British settlers are 
 chiefly located, an increasing drought has of 
 late been experienced, and many of them an- 
 ticipate a period when they will be obliged to 
 abandon their farms on that account, and seek 
 new lands in some more favoured situation. 
 
 The rarity of flowing waters in South Afri- 
 ca during the summer season, renders those 
 that do exist places of resort for all kinds of 
 wild animals ; though I much question the fre- 
 quent occurrence of terrible and obstinate com- 
 bats between beasts of prey in such situations, 
 as has been asserted by several writers. I am 
 rather inclined to believe that animals of the 
 same species always go to one particular spot 
 
 p 2
 
 212 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 when they wish to drink, and in considerable 
 numbers at a time, and that others of a different 
 class then neither molest them nor intrude upon 
 them ; and that the banks of rivers in Africa are 
 regarded as neutral ground by the quadrupeds 
 frequenting them, instead of being a daily arena 
 of battle. The vast flocks of deer which roam 
 over the plains of Africa are believed to drink 
 only once in twenty-four hours, and at a cer- 
 tain hour of the day. I have seen thousands 
 of spring-boks proceeding in a file to the Great 
 Fish River for that purpose; and the neigh- 
 bouring colonists told me that these animals 
 were daily observed passing along at the same 
 time and place, and nearly in the same order. 
 
 If the rivers of South Africa are the means 
 of assembling together a great variety of the 
 animal species, the same thing sometimes takes 
 place with respect to the human race. It is 
 scarcely necessary to premise that none of the 
 rivers in the interior of the country have either 
 ferries or ' bridges, and that when they are 
 flooded and unfordable, those persons intend- 
 ing to cross them must wait till the waters sub- 
 side. In this way, in the more populous parts 
 of the colony, a large assemblage of people of- 
 ten occurs on their banks ; for the different tra-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 213 
 
 vellers, as they successively arrive, establish 
 themselves in the neighbourhood of the ford, 
 and a kind of village is very soon formed, a 
 good deal in the Tartar style. Those who 
 come to the place in waggons cause them to be 
 drawn up at a convenient distance apart, and 
 immediately unyoke the oxen, and allow them 
 to feed in the neighbourhood under the care of 
 slaves or Hottentots. Having made these ar- 
 rangements, the boors draw forth their pipes, 
 and sit smoking and looking around them. 
 Their wives kindle a fire, and set about pre- 
 paring the meal that happens to be required, 
 and the children scramble inside the waggons, 
 or amuse themselves with the dogs, which are 
 always very numerous on occasions of the kind. 
 Those who arrive on horseback, knee-halter their 
 animals to prevent their straying far, and then 
 proceed to make arrangements for their own 
 accommodation, &c. by depositing their baggage 
 in a spot sheltered by trees or bushes. But if 
 this cannot be obtained, they collect a quantity 
 of brushwood, and pile it up to windward in a 
 semicircular form ; and kindling a fire inside, 
 they are soon as comfortably situated as the 
 waggon travellers, particularly if the weather 
 happens to be mild and serene. The slaves
 
 214 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and Hottentots who may join the caravan are 
 contented with still humbler accommodations. 
 They wander from one fire to another as long 
 as the different parties permit their approach, 
 and at night wrap themselves in their sheep- 
 skins, and lay down upon the bare ground. At 
 day-break almost every one hastens to the bank 
 of the river to ascertain its depth ; and should it 
 have become fordable, an immediate and general 
 move takes place, and in an hour or two its 
 banks resume their usual solitariness. 
 
 Even to name all the animals of South Afri- 
 ca, would lead me too far into a department of 
 knowledge which does not belong to this work, 
 and to which I am not qualified to add anything 
 new. But I must remark that, amongst the 
 many physical anomalies that characterise that 
 country, the greatest is the contrast between 
 the degraded nature of her soil and vegetation, 
 and the variety, beauty, perfection, and mag- 
 nitude of her quadruped inhabitants. No other 
 part of the world exhibits so many fine and 
 noble species of animals. The elephant, the rhi- 
 noceros, the lion, the hippopotamus, the came- 
 leopard, the gnoo, the zebra, the buffalo, and per- 
 haps the unicorn, besides innumerable kinds of 
 deer, divide our attention and admiration : and
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 215 
 
 we are perplexed to explain how an arid, barren, 
 and almost uninhabitable land should be prolific 
 in animal forms surpassing as a whole what 
 are to be found in the richest and most fertile 
 quarters of Europe, Asia, and America. How 
 do the vast troops of graminivorous animals that 
 swarm upon many of the African plains find 
 subsistence? Spring-boks present themselves 
 in flocks of ten or twelve tliousand in tracts 
 of country where there is no vegetation ; and 
 though the surface of Africa seems too barren 
 and ungrateful to support one-tenth part of her 
 animal population, flights of locusts annually 
 overspread it in different directions, and dispute 
 possession of the scanty herbage with the va- 
 riety of nobler creatures that depend upon it 
 for subsistence. 
 
 A view of the zoology of South Africa is 
 completely adverse to the opinion which one 
 is sometimes led to entertain, that animals are 
 found in perfection and abundance in propor- 
 tion to the fertility and exuberant vegetation 
 of the country which they inhabit. New Hol- 
 land surpasses South Africa in these respects, 
 but the kangaroo is the largest animal found 
 there, and it is almost confined to the northern 
 parts; for according to P6ron the naturalist, who
 
 216' SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 was attached to the grand expedition of disco- 
 very fitted out by Napoleon, a species of water- 
 rat was the only quadruped observed along an 
 extent of the south-west coast, comprehending 
 eight or nine hundred miles. 
 
 With regard to the existence of the unicorn 
 in South Africa, it may be remarked that it is 
 as likely to be found there as anywhere else ; 
 and perhaps more so, if one considers what va- 
 rious and fantastic animal forms the country 
 produces. The gnoo and the giraffe are in real- 
 ity more singular beings than the unicorn ; and 
 were it not that the latter is mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture, and has been sought for in vain, no one 
 would perceive anything marvellous in the ex- 
 istence of a single-horned beast shaped like a 
 horse. Barrow seems inclined to believe that 
 the unicorn inhabits the country north of the 
 Orange River, and he says there is a general im- 
 pression of the kind amongst the colonists; and 
 that when he offered a large reward to any one 
 who should bring a specimen of the animal to 
 Cape Town, all who heard him seemed to think 
 there could be no great difficulty in securing 
 for themselves both the one and the other. He 
 saw in a cave some Boschman drawinsfs which 
 appeared to him to be intended to represent the
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 217 
 
 animal in question; but Burchell is of opinion 
 that he was mistaken, and that the Bosch men had 
 delineated only one horn, under the idea that, 
 in a side view of the head of any of the deer 
 species, the other would lie exactly behind 
 it, and therefore not be visible to the spectator. 
 And this opinion is probably just; for it is ob- 
 servable in the hieroglyphical drawings of un- 
 civilized nations, that the designer seldom ex- 
 ecutes the figures in detail, but only represents 
 so much of each as will be sufficient to indicate 
 what it is meant for. 
 
 In point of utility the ox stands pre-eminent 
 amongst the animals of South Africa. Uniting 
 the docility and the best qualities of the horse 
 and the camel, it supplies the place of both, 
 and its services are in such constant requisition, 
 that it is not going too far to say, that the bu- 
 siness of life could not be carried on in the co- 
 lony without them. When the Dutch took 
 possession of the country, the common price of 
 a bullock was a knife or a pound of tobacco; 
 and as long as the Hottentots were left undis- 
 turbed in the neighbourhood of the Cape, cattle 
 were procurable at an almost equally low rate. 
 But after the encroachments of the settlers had 
 driven the aborigines into the interior, they
 
 218 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 became very unwilling to sell their cows or 
 oxen on any terms, and the former often had 
 some difficulty in procuring the number requir- 
 ed for the supply of the shipping in Table Bay; 
 for it must be recollected that they did not be- 
 gin to breed and rear cattle themselves, till they 
 found that they could not easily obtain them 
 in any other way. In all the journals of the 
 early Dutch expeditions inland, the Hottentots 
 are represented as being extremely averse to 
 bartering away their flocks, and as generally 
 concealing them, or sending them to a distance, 
 when they had notice of the approach of Euro- 
 peans. They, doubtless, had discovered by that 
 time, the utter worthlessness of the articles 
 which they were expected to accept in ex- 
 change for their domestic animals ; but fearing 
 to incense their visiters by refusing to traffic, 
 they practised all kinds of evasion to escape 
 their importunities and unreasonable demands. 
 
 Whether the cattle now reared in the colony 
 are equal or inferior to those which the Hot- 
 tentots possessed before their country was taken 
 from them, is a point not easily ascertained, but 
 I am inclined to adopt the latter opinion ; for 
 that people having a natural genius for tending 
 and managing cattle, and being then unrestrain-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 219 
 
 ed in their choice of pasture grounds, it may be 
 supposed that their flocks had obtained a high 
 state of perfection. Vailliant, whose veracity in 
 points of this kind is free from suspicion, speaks 
 with admiration of the noble oxen which he 
 saw amongst the few independent hordes that 
 still existed in the colony at the period of his 
 travels ; and both he and Kolbe describe the 
 fighting oxen, called backleyers, which some 
 tribes of Hottentots trained to war. These 
 animals were not only useful in the field of 
 battle, where they attacked and trampled upon 
 the adverse party, but they also kept watch at 
 the kraals like dogs, and would sally forth on 
 the approach of any stranger, and maltreat him 
 severely if he did not retire in good time, or if 
 the herdsman neglected to call them back, when 
 they never failed to obey his voice, and to re- 
 turn quietly to their former stations. Though 
 no animals of this kind are now to be found in 
 the colony, it is easy to believe that they for- 
 merly did exist, if one considers the docility of 
 the present race of oxen, and the aversion which 
 they testify to strangers, particularly in remote 
 and unfrequented districts, where it is often 
 dangerous to approach them. 
 
 Tliough the breed of cattle in South Africa
 
 220 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 is doubtless deteriorated and confused by vari- 
 ous intermixtures, there are still two distinct 
 kinds of oxen there which are equally proper 
 for labour — the one tall, long and heavy in the 
 carcase, and the other much lower in stature, 
 and more muscular and compact. It is gene- 
 rally agreed, that the latter sort endure con- 
 tinued fatigue and privation better than the 
 former ; and at the same time they do not require 
 so much food, nor are they so long in collecting 
 the necessary quantity, which are important 
 considerations in a country so scantily provided 
 with pasture as South Africa. But, on the 
 other hand, the larger variety of oxen is in- 
 valuable in sandy districts, and in the passage 
 of steep kloofs, where heavy loaded waggons 
 can scarcely travel unless the animals drawing 
 them are weighty and powerful, and capable of 
 herculean efforts. The usual colour of both of 
 these kinds of oxen is reddish brown, or black 
 and white. Some are found entirely white, and 
 some of a slate colour, but neither of them are 
 much esteemed. In most parts of Europe the 
 breath of horned cattle is fragrant and agree- 
 able; but it is the reverse in South Africa, where 
 the bitterness and acridity of the herbage upon 
 which they chiefly feed, conmumicate a rank-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 221 
 
 ness and pungency to their exhalations which 
 are quite overpowering. 
 
 Perhaps no domestic animals in any part of 
 the world labour so hard and fare so badly as 
 the oxen of South Africa. Even while on the 
 farm of their owner, they are never fed either 
 in winter or summer, and depend entirely upon 
 the natural pastures of the country for subsist- 
 ence. During a journey, it is still worse with 
 them ; for after travelling seven or eight hours 
 they are turned adrift to provide for themselves; 
 it may be in a place that does not produce a 
 blade of grass or a green leaf ; they then either 
 eat the stems of withered shrubs, or stand still 
 in one spot looking disconsolately around them. 
 And should the country afford pasture, it is 
 likely enough that there may be no water at 
 hand, and thirst prevents the distressed animals 
 from feeding with relish and benefit, or perhaps 
 from doing so at all. But even supposing that 
 they experience none of the above privations, 
 they generally become lame after travelling a 
 considerable distance, for the hard and gravelly 
 roads wear down their hoofs to the quick. This 
 evil once begun, of course daily increases, and 
 the traveller soon finds it necessary to leave the 
 helpless creatures behind : when, unable to walk
 
 222 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 about in search of food, they die of hunger, or 
 are attacked and devoured by wild beasts. In 
 various parts of the colony, and particularly in 
 the Karroo, the skeletons of cattle which have 
 perished in this way lie along the road-side in 
 great numbers. 
 
 It has often been proposed to naturahze the 
 camel in South Africa, and the character of the 
 soil and climate there would seem to ensure the 
 success of any experiment of the kind. The 
 chief difficulty would be in the conveyance of 
 the camels from India, which is the country 
 where they could most conveniently be obtain- 
 ed. It w^ould be necessary to fit up a vessel 
 expressly for their accommodation, having at 
 least nine feet between decks ; nor would this 
 alone suffice for their securitv and comfort, for 
 these animals being very long-legged, and rather 
 sluggish in their movements, they would be 
 constantly liable to be overthrown by the rolling 
 of the ship, unless some effectual means of as- 
 sisting them to maintain their equilibrium were 
 adopted. The camel would be a valuable gift 
 to South Africa, whether for the transport of 
 goods or the convenience of. travellers. Nine 
 thousand pounds' weight is considered a full 
 load for twelve oxen, exclusive of the waggon
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 223 
 
 which contains it ; and with this they cannot 
 well travel for a continuance more than eighteen 
 miles a day. A moderate-sized camel will carry 
 a weight of eight or nine hundred pounds with 
 ease, and travel thirty miles a day. In supporting 
 hunger and thirst, he far surpasses the ox, great 
 as that animal's powers of endurance in this re- 
 spect are ; and no herbage is so coarse or acrid as 
 to be rejected by him in times of necessity. The 
 use of the camel would also obviate the present 
 difficulty or impossibility of travelling on horse- 
 back through many parts of the colony, large 
 tracts of which afford no kind of pasture suit- 
 able for horses, and no habitations where a sup- 
 ply of grain can be obtained. But a single 
 camel could carry grain sufficient for the sub- 
 sistence of many horses for weeks together, 
 and moreover make daily journeys of as great 
 length as the latter could do for a continuance. 
 Grandpre, in his Voyage in the Indian Ocean, 
 makes the following remarks relative to the 
 transportation of camels : — "I had one on 
 board my vessel, which did not drink during 
 the whole passage from Socotra to Pondicherry, 
 which was seventeen days ; nor did it eat in 
 that time more than twenty pounds of millet 
 straw. After the fourth day it seemed to rumi-
 
 224 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 iiate but little ; about a quarter of an hour a day, 
 as nearly as I could observe. As soon as it was 
 landed, it ran to a spring and drank plentifully ; 
 and it appeared in as good condition as if it had 
 suffered no want ; though its thirst was great, 
 its desire of food was by no means so. It still 
 ate moderately, and with no more eagerness 
 than usual." 
 
 The preceding sketch of the physical features 
 of the colony would be incomplete, were I to 
 omit mention of those peculiar tracts of country 
 named Karroo, which occupy a very considerable 
 proportion of its territory. The word Karroo 
 is a Hottentot one, and probably means a dry 
 and desert plain, such being the character of the 
 regions to which it is applied. A range of moun- 
 tains called the Swartzberg extends along the 
 eastern side of South Africa, at the distance of 
 about fifty or sixty miles from the sea, and walls 
 off that breadth of coast from the interior ; and 
 it is within these mountains that the Karroo dis- 
 tricts begin. The band of coast above alluded 
 to, is comparatively fertile and well-watered, 
 and it produces several considerable forests of 
 tall and flourishing trees; but on the opposite 
 side of the Swartzberg, the country assumes a 
 very different character, and a much greater
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 225 
 
 elevation, and stretches out into a vast plain, 
 eighty miles broad and three hundred in length. 
 Here the traveller, when he has advanced a lit- 
 tle way inland, finds an open horizon on every 
 side, or at most sees only a few insignificant 
 and isolated hills. The general soil is a bed of 
 light-coloured clay, baked into flinty hardness 
 by the sun, and unmoistened anywhere by 
 springs or rivulets. A light coating of sand 
 partially covers its surface, which in some places 
 is strewed with small fragments of quartz, 
 mostly of a circular form, and either loose or 
 imbedded. The only w^oody shrubs produced 
 here are a species of mimosa, yielding gum, and 
 a dwarf willow ; but the scantiness of their fo- 
 liage is such that they afford no shade, and scarce- 
 ly a sheltered place for a bird to build its nest. It 
 is only in the winter that the Karroo can be tra- 
 versed, because the rains then bring up even 
 luxuriant herbage in certain quarters, and water 
 is found collected in pools here and there ; but 
 between November and INIay everything of this 
 kind has disappeared, and the bleached soil be- 
 comes uninhabitable by man or beast, and is 
 never once furrowed by the wheel of a waggon 
 or impressed by the foot of an ox or horse. 
 To the northward, the Karroo plains are 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 bounded by a range of mountains called the 
 Nieu veldt, and resembling the Swartzberg in 
 their elevation and general direction. Beyond 
 these is a vast tract of country called the 
 Grand Karroo, and as yet but partially ex- 
 plored. It is the land of that singular and 
 interesting race of beings the Boschmen; and 
 it would appear that its general character is 
 even more sterile and repulsive than that of the 
 smaller Karroo, which has just been described. 
 
 The climate of South Africa, particularly in 
 the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 is healthy and agreeable, and altogether such 
 as is seldom to be found under the same pa- 
 rallel of latitude in any other part of the 
 world* During December, January, and Fe- 
 bruary, the sun, it is true, is extremely power- 
 ful, and the south-east winds often blow with 
 excessive fury, and prove a source of great 
 annoyance to those persons who reside in 
 unsheltered spots : but the remaining three- 
 fourths of the year embrace a pleasing vari- 
 ety of sunshine and shade, and a temperature 
 which ranges between 40** and 75° Fahrenheit. 
 In the elevated lands in the interior of the 
 colony, freezing weather occurs in June and 
 July, and snow sometimes falls to a consider-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 227 
 
 able depth. These months form the periodical 
 rainy season of the colony, and the most bar- 
 ren districts are then clothed with at least 
 a scanty verdure. Even the desert and barren 
 Karroo plains just described appear carpeted 
 with flowers, and enjoy one of the most en- 
 chanting climates in the world. Their atmo- 
 sphere becomes inexpressibly soft, serene, and 
 transparent ; their natural solitariness loses all 
 its horror, and is mellowed into a character 
 of simple tranquillity ; and the traveller pass- 
 ing through them at these times can with 
 difficulty bring himself to believe that they 
 will a few weeks after assume their annual 
 garb of fiery aridness and unrelenting sterility. 
 On this subject I speak from personal expe- 
 rience; and the enjoyment which I have de- 
 rived from the climate and scenery of several 
 parts of the Karroo plains will never be effaced 
 from my recollection. 
 
 In traversing South Africa one looks in 
 vain for any ancient monuments of human 
 art however rude, or any vestiges of extin- 
 guished civilization. It has always appeared 
 to me that the mind is more disposed to seek 
 and expect something of this kind in a desert 
 and desolate land, than in a luxuriant and 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 fertile one, infinitely better adapted for the 
 abode and increase of the human species. The 
 traveller, while he wanders through the forests 
 of America, embowered in verdure and tread- 
 ing upon a rich and well-watered soil, or ex- 
 plores the enchanting solitudes of the Poly- 
 nesian Islands, never thinks of inquiring for 
 indications of the former existence of social 
 man in such places, nor does he ask himself 
 if they can have always been equally tenant- 
 less and abandoned. The luxuriance of the 
 scene charms him into a state of placid re- 
 pose, and a variety of pleasing objects engage 
 his attention, and he feels satisfied with what 
 he sees, and has no desire to add anything to 
 the picture. It strikes him too, that Nature 
 appears young and vigorous, and that, though 
 her beauties remain untouched and untasted, 
 it will not always be so ; and that man, and 
 arts, and commerce, may ere long find a con- 
 genial theatre of activity in the wilderness 
 which surrounds him. 
 
 But his sensations are very different when 
 he visits a country like South Africa. He 
 sees decay and desolation on every side ; and 
 instead of considering the regions about him 
 as lying in reversion for the benefit and occu-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 229 
 
 pation of future generations, he regards them 
 as having been exhausted by constant repro- 
 duction during a long series of ages, and as 
 doomed ever to form a blank spot in the in- 
 habited v/orld. He imagines that they must 
 formerly have been fertile and well-peopled, 
 instead of having apnarently been created in 
 vain; and he seeks for monuments of antiquity, 
 and imagines that such must lie buried under 
 the soil. 
 
 No ruins of any description, no coins, no 
 mounds of earth, no pieces of sculpture, no 
 inscriptions, no articles of ancient manufacture, 
 however simple or insignificant, have yet been 
 found in South Africa ; and it w^ould seem, 
 that it has never till lately been inhabited by 
 a race of people superior in knowledge and ci- 
 vilization to the Hottentots. However, both 
 Sparmann, and Campbell the missionary, saw 
 in the interior of the country piles of stones 
 like funeral monuments, which, though very 
 inconsiderable in reality, seemed to them to 
 be works demanding greater perseverance and 
 labour than Hottentots would be able to com- 
 mand or bestow. 'J'hese heaps of stones, and 
 several ruined walls lately discovered near the 
 Orasige River, (but which arc believed by
 
 230 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 some to have been erected about eighty years 
 ago by an outlawed colonist,) form the only 
 South African monuments of human art or 
 industry whose date is supposed to be an- 
 terior to the occupation of the country by the 
 Dutch in 1652.
 
 231 
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 No uncivilized people have been represented 
 in a greater variety of lights than the Hotten- 
 tots. Some of the earlier voyagers called them 
 Troglodites — others regarded them as Anthro- 
 pophagi — and a few described them as being 
 addicted to sorcery. They have very little pre- 
 tensions to any of these characters in the pre- 
 sent day, and least of all to that of magicians. 
 Kolbe, the first writer who professes to treat 
 of the Hottentots in an accurate and authentic 
 manner, attributes to them such a variety of 
 ludicrous and apparently inconsistent habits and 
 usages, as led many persons to doubt his vera- 
 city, and others to regard the aborigines of 
 South Africa as the lowest and most brutal of 
 human beings. While these impressions still 
 continued, Vailliant gave a relation of his travels 
 in South Africa ; and, going into the opposite 
 extreme, he painted the Hottentots in totally 
 different colours, and even hinted that he had
 
 232 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 found their society preferable to that of people 
 of the higher classes in Paris. Sparmann, Thun- 
 berg, Barrow, and Lichteristein, and other more 
 modern writers, describe them as they really 
 are, or rather were ; for the race may be consi- 
 dered nearly extinct,. unless we agree to view 
 the Boschmen and Hottentots as one and the 
 same people — an opinion very generally enter- 
 tained by persons qualified to form a judgment 
 upon the subject, 
 
 Kolbe says, that the nations inhabiting South 
 Africa in 1705 were seventeen in number, and 
 he gives their names, and the general position 
 of their respective territories. The correctness 
 of his enumeration has been doubted, and some 
 of the names in his list are certainlv rather sus- 
 picious — such as the Koopmans, for that word 
 means a merchant in Dutch ; but his accuracy 
 on this subject is of little importance, so long as 
 we know that the Cape of Good Hope was for- 
 merly well peopled by a native race possessing 
 abundance of cattle, and forming a variety of 
 different tribes. It is indeed difficult to believe 
 this at present, when scarcely a remnant of^them 
 exists in the colony, and it is in vain to seek for 
 any of them elsewhere. The Hottentots did 
 jiot retire into tlie interior of their country to
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 233 
 
 avoid the encroachments of Europeans, as many 
 of the natives of America have done. They had 
 neither spirit nor incUnation to acquire new ter- 
 ritories by dispossessing their weaker neigh- 
 bours ; and in many instances Nature herself 
 forbade their advancing or retroceding, by pre- 
 senting sterile and uninhabitable deserts in every 
 direction in which emigration was practicable. 
 Most of the Hottentot nations, therefore, died 
 out, or allowed themselves to be extirpated in 
 their respective territories. 
 
 None of the earlier writers on the Cape at- 
 tempt to give us any idea of the amount of the 
 Hottentot population there when the Dutch 
 first colonized it ; but, judging from the num- 
 ber of kraals, and chiefs of kraals, described or 
 alluded to in their journals, we may reasonably 
 suppose that it was very considerable ; and that 
 if the handful of Europeans who first took pos- 
 session of the country met with but a feeble 
 resistance on the part of the natives, this was 
 owing to the pacific disposition of the latter, and 
 to the hopes which tliey entertained that their 
 invaders would ere long depart of their own 
 accord. It may be asked, how a region, consist- 
 ing of yn watered deserts like South Africa, 
 could support a large population of any kind?
 
 234 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 But it is very certain that the character of the 
 country in that respect has changed much for 
 the worse within the last century, and that it 
 still continues to do so, as I have already men- 
 tioned in the physical sketch of the colony. If 
 Africa formerly enjoyed more abundant and re- 
 gular supplies of water than it now does, it must 
 have been proportionably more fertile in herbage 
 and grass, which is proved by the multitude of 
 cattle whicli existed everywhere at the period 
 when the Dutch formed their first settlement ; 
 and the Hottentots, being entirely a pastoral 
 race, would require nothing but their flocks for 
 their subsistence and increase; hence there is 
 little difficulty in believing that their country 
 once abounded with large communities of 
 people. 
 
 Three causes, more or less rapid in their ope- 
 ration, have led to the extinction of the Hotten- 
 tot tribes. First, their impoverishment, arising 
 from the encroachments and exactions of Euro- 
 peans ; secondly, the abuse of spirituous liquors ; 
 and, lastly, the introduction of the small pox. 
 This last has always been one of the most fa- 
 vourite and characteristic gifts of civilization 
 when she has come to diffuse her vaunted bless- 
 ings amongst men in a state of barbarism ; and
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 235 
 
 it is very certain that the Hottentots experienced 
 its full malignity. Their slovenly mode of life 
 — their free use of the grossest kinds of animal 
 food, and their habit of crowding together in 
 their small huts, would alike increase the viru- 
 lence of the disease, and favour its extensive 
 propagation. 
 
 The Hottentots have generally been regarded 
 as the lowest and the most degraded beings in 
 the scale of humanity ; but this opinion cannot 
 be correct, if it be true that the doinestication 
 of animals is the first definite step towards the 
 civilized state. These people not only possessed 
 flocks of cattle, but had the art of training them 
 both for the saddle and for war ; and as far as 
 respects the arts of pastoral life, they were little 
 inferior to the Tartars of Northern Europe. 
 
 The disgusting habits and carnivorous pro- 
 pensities of the Hottentots, combined with the 
 meanness of their habitations, and the barba- 
 rousness of their costume, have tended more 
 than anything else to render them objects of 
 contempt and aversion. But it does not appear 
 that their capacity was on a level with their 
 degraded style of life ; for the Dutch, according 
 to Kolbe, were in the habit of sending em- 
 bassies to various tribes, and making treaties
 
 236 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 with them ; and the same writer states, that 
 the Hottentots were often employed in situa- 
 tions of confidence and responsibility; as was 
 more particularly the case with one of them 
 named Klaas, who was afterwards banished to 
 Robben Island on an accusation which proved 
 to be a false one. However, we cannot easily 
 believe with Kolbe, that every Hottentot kraal 
 had a regular form of government, and various 
 officers to enforce it, such as judges, magistrates, 
 priests, and physicians; nor is it likely, that 
 when the tribe called Heykoms engaged in bat- 
 tle, it was customary for their chief to sit upon 
 an adjoining eminence and play the flagelet, 
 his subjects being bound to continue the contest 
 till he chose to terminate his performance, or till 
 the adverse party took flight. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to describe minutely the 
 personal appearance of the Hottentots. Every 
 one knows that they are of an olive complexion 
 and moderate stature, and that they differ from 
 all other races of men in the remarkable trian- 
 gularity of their visage. This has led some of 
 their calumniators to consider them as a link 
 between the baboon species and our own. Such 
 an opinion requires no serious refutation ; but it 
 may be remarked that all animals of the simia
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 237 
 
 tribe have very long and clumsy fingers and 
 toes, while, on the contrary, the Hottentots are 
 distinguished for the shortness and delicacy of 
 these members, to such a degree that the hands 
 and feet of many of the men resemble those of 
 females of the highest class in Europe. Indeed, 
 this constitutes the only agreeable personal qua- 
 lity to which the Hottentots of either sex have 
 the least pretension ; and I am convinced, that 
 even the Peruvian ladies, who esteem a small 
 foot an indispensable point of female beauty, 
 would find something to admire in that respect 
 in the aborigines of South Africa. 
 
 No individuals of the genuine and unmixed 
 race of Hottentots are now to be met with, ex- 
 cept in the more remote parts of the colony, 
 and even there they are daily decreasing in 
 number. The few that do exist gain a miser- 
 able subsistence by hiring themselves to the 
 boors as herdsmen, for which service they gene- 
 rally receive their food and thirty or forty shil- 
 lings a year. Most of them wear jackets and 
 pantaloons of buckskin ; but a few retain their 
 original dress called the kross, which is a scanty 
 cloak formed of the skins of sheep or jackals, or 
 of any other animal that happens to be procur- 
 able. I saw a whole family of this kind tend-
 
 238 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ing cattle in the Karroo. The children were 
 entirely naked, but the men and women wore 
 the kross, and their appearance corresponded in 
 every particular with Vailliant's descriptions. 
 All the Hottentots of this kind speak Dutch, 
 or at least a few words of it, and a great num- 
 ber of them are altogether unacquainted with 
 their native language. No independent horde 
 of this people now exists within the bounds of 
 the colony. 
 
 The bastard Hottentots (as they are called) 
 who have replaced the primitive tribes, are 
 common over all South Africa, and form a large 
 proportion of its population. These people pre- 
 sent a vast intermixture of different races, but 
 the Malay seems to predominate; though many 
 of them are of European or of Mozambique de- 
 scent. Scarcely any of the bastards speak or 
 understand the aboriginal language of the 
 country, nor do they retain many of the 
 customs or traditions of their ancestors ; and, 
 therefore, they are quite unable to give any 
 information respecting the early history and 
 condition of the Hottentot race ; and they are 
 not disposed to communicate what they do 
 know upon the subject, for in general they feel 
 very unwilling to admit that they have any 
 Hottentot blood in their veins.
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 239 
 
 It is chiefly in their carnivorous propensities 
 that these bastards resemble the aborigines of 
 the soil. They are contented to live exclu- 
 sively upon animal food, and care little or no- 
 thing for bread and vegetables ; and they take 
 particular pleasure in butchering and quartering 
 cattle. When travelling, I always found that 
 the killing of a sheep was the signal amongst 
 my people for the suspension of all other busi- 
 ness. The skin was first taken off with the 
 greatest care and neatness, and then the entrails 
 were inspected, and cautiously removed, and 
 deposited on the ground in regular order. The 
 division of the carcase was next performed with 
 much expertness ; and the head and quarters 
 were hung in the form of a quincunx on the 
 branches of a bush or tree, if either happened 
 to be near the spot. But the whole process, so 
 far from being conducted in that coarse and re- 
 volting manner which the primitive Hottentots 
 used to employ on similar occasions, was re- 
 markable for neatness and nicety. 
 
 The bastards also retain in a great measure 
 the natural indolence of their ancestors. Kolbe, 
 Vailliant, Sparmann, and Barrow, and, in short, 
 all the travellers who have visited and described 
 South Africa, mention the laziness of the Hot- 
 tentots as surpassing that of any other people
 
 240 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 whatever ; and though their descendants do not 
 inherit it to that extreme degree, still, if left to 
 themselves, they will spend the day, and every 
 day, in basking in the sun or lying by the fire, 
 indifferent even to the calls of hunger, should 
 the gratification of these be attended with much 
 trouble. But it must be admitted that this 
 quality, inconvenient and reprehensible as it is, 
 renders them extremely patient and enduring 
 at times when no exertions of their own could 
 relieve or remove their sufferings. For in- 
 stance, wdien travelling in bad weather, or 
 when exposed to privations of any kind, their 
 impassibility is truly marvellous ; and it would 
 appear that the real cause of their indolence is 
 merely an obtuseness of sensation, which in 
 particular circumstances stands them in the 
 same stead as energy of character and mental 
 vigour would do; for the Hottentot, altogether 
 destitute of these qualities, bears cold, hunger, 
 and thirst, with a degree of patience and firm- 
 ness which in other people might receive the 
 name of heroism. 
 
 But the life of a Hottentot in the service of 
 a traveller is one of luxury and repose, com- 
 pared with that led by him who goes into the 
 interior of the country to purchase cattle and
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 241 
 
 drive them home. There are many Hottentots 
 who make a profession of this, and who en- 
 gage with any one requiring their services to 
 proceed to the Karroo in the end of winter, and 
 buy any number of sheep or oxen, and bring 
 them to their employer wherever he may live. 
 These men are often trusted with large sums 
 of money, and they never abuse the confidence 
 reposed in them. Having made their purchases, 
 they proceed to drive the cattle to their place 
 of destination, perhaps two hundred miles dis- 
 tant ; and it is here that their dangers and hard- 
 ships begin ; for besides being on the watch all 
 day to keep together a large flock travelling 
 through an open country, they must protect 
 it at night from wolves or lions, and from the 
 depredations of cattle-stealers, who are common 
 enough in most parts of the colony. On this 
 account the Hottentot perhaps finds it neces- 
 sary to sit awake all night with his gun in his 
 hand ; and the greater the darkness is, the more 
 constantly must he be upon the alert. Neither 
 does he enjoy the assistance of the shepherd's 
 dog, so useful in similar situations in Europe ; 
 for though he generally keeps several animals 
 of the kind, they have neither sufficient courage 
 nor sagacity to be much depended upon, except 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to give an alarm on the approach of danger. 
 A single Hottentot will in this manner drive 
 several thousand sheep two or three hundred 
 miles without losing one of them, and all for 
 the trifling remuneration of twenty-five or thirty- 
 shillings a month. 
 
 The nature of the religious system of the 
 aboriginal Hottentots has often been discussed 
 in the writings of travellers. Some deny that 
 these people had ever any notion of the ex- 
 istence of a supreme being ; while others assert 
 that they worshipped the moon, and not a few 
 assure us that they held in adoration a species 
 of mantis, and also sacrificed to an evil principle : 
 but however opposed to each other these authors 
 may be in the above points, they all agree that 
 the Hottentots were particularly reserved with 
 respect to their religion, and generally tried to 
 mislead those who questioned them upon the 
 subject. It seems very certain, at least, that they 
 had not any regular system of mythology, or 
 any defined code of belief ; and that they neither 
 practised religious ceremonies, nor raised altars 
 or temples to their deities. Had the aboriginal 
 Hottentots inhabited an arctic or antarctic region, 
 or a burning desert, and been forced to spend 
 their days in seeking and procuring the means 
 of subsistence, one would be little astonished at
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 243 
 
 the meagreness and obscurity of their theo- 
 logical system ; but they possessed numerous 
 flocks, and lived in a country abounding with 
 game, and, in short, enjoyed ease and plenty, 
 and had leisure enough to exercise their facul- 
 ties and their imagination, and to observe the 
 course of nature ; and one would suppose that 
 under such favourable circumstances a system 
 of religion more or less rude must have been 
 developed. The Greenlanders, the Laplanders, 
 the Samoieds, the Kamtschatkans, and the 
 most northern Indians of America, have their 
 respective mythologies, some of which are both 
 complicated and poetical; yet all these people 
 suffer privations and physical inconveniences 
 sufficient to prevent the birth of any reflections 
 unconnected with their personal necessities and 
 the common business of life. How comes it 
 then that a pastoral nation, inhabiting a tem- 
 perate climate, should have been so far behind 
 them in the exercise of their faculties, and in 
 the number and variety of their ideas ? I be- 
 lieve that an answer to this inquiry can only be 
 found in that mysterious and unaccountable 
 deterioration of men, animals, and plants, which 
 is observable throughout the whole southern 
 hemisphere beyond the tropic of Capricorn. 
 
 R 2
 
 244 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 We may safely presume that the aboriginal 
 Hottentots were Manicheans, or that they ad- 
 mitted the existence of a good and an evil 
 principle. This is the religion of nature in 
 all parts of the world, and the only one which 
 addresses itself to the senses and reason of an 
 uninstructed and uncivilized man. Let us 
 imagine that an individual of the kind has 
 built a house for himself, and that he has a 
 wife and children, and a flock of cattle, and 
 a cultivated spot of ground which annually 
 produces fruit and grain for his subsistence, 
 and that he has for some time enjoyed the 
 blessings of abundance and prosperity. Should 
 a neighbouring torrent suddenly overflow, and 
 sweep away his house, and drown his children 
 and cattle, and devastate his lands, he will 
 never think of attributing these misfortunes 
 to the Being who created himself, and the 
 animals and things necessary for his happiness 
 and convenience. It will appear to him to be 
 an inconsistency to suppose that the Giver of 
 good can also be the source of evil, and can 
 take a pleasure in destroying his own works. 
 The idea of the existence of a separate and 
 malignant power, who is the author of his 
 distresses, will immediately present itself; and
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 245 
 
 he will recall the various instances of human 
 misery that have occurred within his observa- 
 tion, and endeavour to explain them in the 
 same way. Should it appear to him that there 
 is a predominance of good in the world, he 
 will doubt the reality of this, by considering 
 that if the amount of the good really exceeds 
 that of the evil, the beneficent spirit who pro- 
 duces the first must be more powerftd than 
 the malignant one who occasions the latter. 
 But if it really be so, he will argue, why does 
 not he altogether destroy his adversary, or pre- 
 vent him from exercising any influence over 
 the world and its inhabitants. Thus forced 
 to adopt the doctrine of Manicheism in its 
 simplest form, he will seek consolation for the 
 dark and discouraging character of such a sys- 
 tem of belief in indolence and apathy and 
 sullen indifference. For, as it is his impres- 
 sion that the powers producing good and evil 
 are equally balanced, he will conceive that 
 any homage or worship or exertion on his 
 own part to please either is unnecessary, and 
 may perhaps be injurious to him, by causing 
 greater offence in the being from whom it is 
 withheld than approbation in him upon whom 
 it is bestowed. Like the Hottentot, he will
 
 246 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 build no temples, and erect no altars, and 
 make no sacrifices, and will avoid entering 
 into religious speculations, and feel averse even 
 to hear the subject mentioned. 
 
 With respect to the opinion that the Hot- 
 tentots worshipped a species of grasshopper, I 
 am satisfied that it is an incorrect one. I 
 never could learn anything confirmatory upon 
 the subject while I was in South Africa ; and 
 it seems probable that the aborigines of the 
 country had merely some popular prejudice 
 in favour of that kind of insect, similar to 
 what now exists among the peasantry of Eu- 
 rope in regard to the cricket. What nation 
 would choose for a deity one of the feeblest 
 and most insignificant of animal beings ? Even 
 the ancient Egyptians, who worshipped, or ra- 
 ther held sacred, a great variety of animals, did 
 not include any insects in their number; for 
 though the scarabaeus is frequently introduced 
 among their hieroglyphics, it does not appear 
 that they paid it any particular reverence or 
 even respect, but merely employed it as a 
 symbol of strength. In Hindostan also, where 
 a considerable number of animals are reputed 
 sacred, we find no vestiges of the worship of 
 insects, though they are received into the ani-
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 247 
 
 mal hospitals there, and considered worthy of 
 human care and attention. 
 
 In their general character the aboriginal 
 Hottentots were mild, timid, and free from 
 deceit, and strangers to avarice and ambition. 
 But their good qualities were shaded and over- 
 powered by a strong degree of constitutional 
 melancholy, which was also unfavourable to 
 the exercise and developement of their facul- 
 ties, and made them appear stupid and even 
 brutal. It appears that they lived in the ut- 
 most harmony amongst themselves, and that 
 crimes and acts of violence were almost un- 
 known in their kraals. Their wars were nei- 
 ther frequent, sanguinary, nor of long dura- 
 tion ; for they had no idea of military glory, 
 and the subject of contest was generally a flock 
 of sheep or a few dozen of oxen. They had 
 made no advances in arts or agriculture, and 
 had fewer notions of astronomy and medicine 
 than the generality of uncivilized tribes. Nei- 
 ther were they disposed for change or improve- 
 ment ; and it is probable, that had not Euro- 
 peans deprived them of their country, they 
 would have remained till the present day in 
 the condition in which they were found by the 
 first circumnavigators of Africa.
 
 248 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Rousseau asserts that men who use a large 
 proportion of animal food are always of a cruel 
 and vindictive nature, and he brings forward 
 the English as an evidence of the justness of 
 this opinion ; which was probably suggested by 
 some crude notions which he had acquired re- 
 specting the Indians of North America. The 
 Hottentots prove the untenableness of this 
 theory ; animal food was their universal and 
 exclusive diet, for they cultivated no grain or 
 vegetables, and their country produced neither 
 spontaneously, yet were they gentle in de- 
 meanour and humane in their dispositions, and 
 scarcely susceptible of violent or angry pas- 
 sions. I am, however, willing to admit that 
 Rousseau's opinion may hold good with re- 
 ference to tropical climates ; for the use of 
 animal food is prohibited, or at least very 
 much restricted, in all the religious systems 
 of India, most of which are founded upon 
 maxims of sound policy and a deep know- 
 ledge of human nature. 
 
 The origin of the Hottentots is as obscure as 
 that of all other uncivilized nations, and of most 
 civilized ones. They have a tradition that their 
 ancestors came to South Africa in a trehJmis, or 
 ship, and that they consisted of only one family.
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 249 
 
 who propagated the species amongst themselves. 
 Incest was formerly common in all their tribes ; 
 and its existence may be explained on the au- 
 thority of this tradition, which probably seemed 
 in their opinion to render it admissible. But 
 the story of the trekhuis is doubtless of Euro- 
 pean origin, for the Hottentots had no canoes, 
 boats, or vessels of any description when they 
 were first visited by the Dutch ; and even at 
 present their descendants hold the sea in parti- 
 cular horror, and can scarcely ever be induced 
 to trust themselves upon it. It happened while 
 I was travelling along the eastern coast of the 
 colony, that I mentioned within hearing of my 
 Hottentot attendants, that I should perhaps 
 embark at Algoa Bay and return to Cape Town 
 by sea. They immediately came to me in a 
 body, and declared that if I had any intention 
 of the kind, they would quit my service and 
 proceed homewards, for that they would rather 
 die than go on board ship. I assured them that 
 I would attend to their feelings in that respect; 
 but from that moment they became dissatisfied 
 with their situation and distrustful of myself, 
 and I was happy when circumstances enabled 
 me to dispense with their services and discharge 
 them. The master of a coaster informed me
 
 250 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 that he had once, while lying in Algoa Bay, 
 allured a Hottentot on board his vessel, and 
 carried him to Cape Town, a distance of five 
 hundred miles, where, however, he did not 
 allow him to go on shore. After a few 
 days, he set sail again for the former port, 
 and on arriving there, landed his impatient 
 passenger, who, shuddering at what he had 
 undergone during his two voyages, imme- 
 diately quitted the place, though he had for 
 many years before resided in it, and hastening 
 into the interior, was never afterwards seen or 
 heard of by my informant, though he had often 
 made inquiries respecting him. It is worthy of 
 remark, that the Tambookie CafFres, inhabiting 
 the eastern coast of Africa beyond the Great 
 Fish River, have much the same aversion to the 
 sea. According to Barrow, they have no boats 
 or canoes, and never eat any kinds of fish or 
 other marine production. The aboriginal Hot- 
 tentots ate only those fish that have scales. 
 
 These superstitious prejudices regarding the 
 sea remind us of those entertained by the an- 
 cient Egyptians, whose dread of that element 
 seems to have chiefly arisen from the impossi- 
 bility of finding and embalming the bodies of 
 those who might be drowned in it. According
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 251 
 
 to their belief, the soul immediately after 
 death entered a purgatory called Amenthe, 
 from whence it was sooner or later removed 
 by a kind of resurrection, which restored it to 
 the same body which it had formerly animated. 
 Hence the general necessity of preserving the 
 corpses of deceased persons, whose final beatifi- 
 cation would have been retarded, or altogether 
 prevented, by the want of the requisite vehicle 
 for the reception of the spirit after its release 
 from purgatory. It is true that individuals of 
 eminent virtue and blameless lives were sup- 
 posed, according to the Egyptian theology, to 
 be transferred to heaven the moment they died, 
 so that they had no farther use for their bodies, 
 and might have dispensed with the embalming 
 of them ; but as no one could be certain that he 
 merited a transition so happy and sudden, he 
 naturally regarded the security and preservation 
 of his body as an object of the highest and most 
 serious importance. The Greeks, too, consi- 
 dered the want of funeral rites to be a terrible 
 evil, and on that account they had a particular 
 horror of perishing at sea. In cases of shipwreck 
 they used to tie their most valuable effects to 
 their bodies, and with them a piece of parch- 
 ment, intimating that the articles accompanying
 
 252 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 it were to be the reward of any one who might 
 happen to pick up their corpses, and bestow 
 upon them the necessary funeral rites. 
 
 It may appear to many of my readers that I 
 have dwelt too long upon the Hottentots ; but 
 I feel satisfied that those who love to examine 
 minutely the different shades of human charac- 
 ter and conditions, will be of different opinion ; 
 and under this impression I will now proceed to 
 enter into some details respecting the Boschmen, 
 another nation yet existing in part of the colony 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. I am aware that 
 many writers of the highest authority regard 
 the Hottentots and Boschmen as one and the 
 same race, and consider that the peculiarities of 
 character which the latter present arise from 
 the nature of the country which they inhabit. 
 Any discussion upon this subject would be out 
 of place here, for it is my object to represent 
 men as they are, instead of conjecturing what 
 they may have been ; but still it is but just to 
 remark, that the traditions of the Hottentots 
 themselves support the above theory ; for they 
 say that their ancestors having been in the habit 
 of treating their children with great severity, 
 many of the latter deserted their homes, and, 
 flying northwards, formed themselves into a
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 253 
 
 separate community, which is that now called 
 Boschmen. 
 
 This story seems to me to be as little worthy 
 of credit as that of the trekliuis ; for all the 
 early travellers in South Africa describe the 
 aboriginal Hottentots as being remarkably in- 
 dulgent to their offspring, and as even allowing 
 them the privilege of beating their mothers, as 
 soon as a particular ceremony had established 
 their claims to manhood ; and the few excep- 
 tions to this parental mildness that might occur, 
 could not lead to the formation of a tribe so 
 numerous and widely diffused as the Boschmen 
 formerly were; for the colonists have within 
 the last century destroyed an immense number 
 of them, on account of their inveterate and in- 
 cessant practice of stealing cattle. 
 
 The proper country of the Boschmen is the 
 Grand Karroo desert, lying to the north of the 
 Nieuveldt range of mountains, and traversed 
 by the Orange River. Nowhere does Nature 
 present a more horrid aspect, or a character 
 more unimprovable by the labour of man. 
 There it sometimes scarcely rains for years to- 
 gether ; and the hardened argillaceous soil, pro- 
 ducing only a few bulbous plants and some 
 species of eujihorhia, affords no subsistence to
 
 254 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 graminivorous animals, and presents one vast 
 and unbroken solitude, occasionally visited by 
 flocks of ostriches and by the shy rhinoceros. 
 Most of the hills, which seldom exceed eight 
 hundred feet in height, are of a conical shape, 
 and stand detached from each other, and consist 
 of quartz discoloured by the action of the ele- 
 ments, and utterly barren of vegetation. But 
 they are not unfrequently found closely group- 
 ed together ; and the valleys thus formed are 
 deep, tortuous, and gloomy, and as sterile as the 
 plains, and equally destitute of water. Small 
 birds are very rare in this tract of country ; 
 and serpents, lizards, and locusts are its only 
 stationary and permanent inhabitants. 
 
 In one respect the Boschmen differ from 
 every other people. They are placed in a coun- 
 try which neither produces the necessaries of 
 life, nor can be made to produce them. It is 
 too often the practice of civilized men to accuse 
 savages of indolence, and to conclude that all 
 of them indiscriminately could improve their 
 condition were they inclined to do so. With- 
 out inquiring into particulars, or collecting the 
 necessary information, they consider as brutal 
 and degraded beings all those of the human 
 species who do not erect buildings, study the art
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 255 
 
 of war, and cultivate manners, like themselves. 
 Wedded to the prejudices of civilized life, they 
 view with contempt the arts and ingenuity 
 exercised for preservation and subsistence by 
 men in a state of nature, though these may 
 require infinitely greater apprehension and in- 
 dustry than belong to the mechanics and arti- 
 zans of our most populous cities. The weaver, 
 by moving his shuttle backwards and forwards 
 ten hours a day, procures the means of pur- 
 chasing the necessaries of life, and the black- 
 smith obtains the same by as many thousand 
 strokes with his hammer; but the Boschman 
 requires in a manner to vary his trade every 
 week, or perhaps oftener, and his whole exist- 
 ence is one continued scene of expertness, re- 
 source, and invention. 
 
 Instead then of contemning the Boschman, 
 and viewing him with repugnance, because he 
 often subsists on serpents, lizards, locusts, and 
 the larvae of white ants, let us admire that he 
 contrives to live at all in the country which 
 Nature has assigned him. To the extreme 
 scarcity of game there, is added an extraordinary 
 difficulty of killing it, for the total want of 
 trees or brushwood renders the hunter's ap- 
 proach visible at a great distance, and it is only
 
 256 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 y 
 
 by creeping on his belly for hours or even days 
 together, or lying flat on the ground covered 
 with sand, that he can get a chance of discharg- 
 ing his arrows with effect. 
 
 Should the Boschman fail in the chase of 
 animals, as often occurs, he must seek for rep- 
 tiles or insects to supply his wants, and in the 
 defect of these, he is forced to eat certain lilia- 
 cious bulbs which are found in most parts of 
 the Karroo. At night he scoops a hole in the 
 ground and lies down in it, or creeps into a 
 bush, and brings its branches or twigs together 
 over his head in the form of an arch. It is not 
 laziness that prevents his building a house, 
 which he might do with sand and stones, but 
 the absolute necessity of his continually chang- 
 ing his abode in order to find the requisite sup- 
 ply of water and food. The latter he is obliged 
 to eat half-raw, because he cannot procure suffi- 
 cient fuel to cook it thoroughly. His life is 
 thus an alternation of sufferings, and he is al- 
 ways either fatigued or hungry, or cold or wet, 
 or thirsty or expiring from want. No art or 
 industry on his own part can improve his con- 
 dition. The arid waste which he inhabits ad- 
 mits of no cultivation ; were he to attempt to 
 keep flocks, they would die for want of pasture
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 257 
 
 and water ; and if he abandoned his own coun- 
 try and attempted to settle in any neighbour- 
 ing one, he would be massacred by its inhabit- 
 ants or reduced to slavery. 
 
 The Boschman, notwithstanding his unhappy 
 mode of life, is neither deficient in apprehen- 
 sion nor common sense. Tlie few who are in 
 the service of the colonists, particularly the 
 boys, are remarkable for quickness of capacity, 
 and they make excellent domestics. Some tra- 
 vellers have asserted, that the social state of the 
 Boschmen is so low that they have no distinc- 
 tion of names. I can testify from my own 
 observation that this , opinion is altogether 
 unfounded, and that each individual amongst 
 them has a name which is applied to himself 
 individually. However, it is very evident, 
 that no people could better dispense with the 
 use of personal names than the Boschmen ; for 
 it is seldom that more than two or three fami- 
 lies are found together, the country not afford- 
 ing subsistence for a larger number in one spot. 
 Herodotus says, — " Of all mankind of whom we 
 have any knowledge, the Atlantes alone have 
 no distinction of names ; the body of the peo- 
 ple are termed Atlantes, but their individuals 
 have no appropriate appellation." However, 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the correctness of this statement ought to re- 
 main in doubt, until modern observation has 
 furnished us with a fact of a similar kind. 
 
 I saw five genuine Bosch men in the gaol at 
 Beaufort in the year 1830. Two of them 
 were confined on charges of murder, and the 
 others for stealing and killing oxen, Tl\ey 
 were the first individuals of unmixed race 
 that had come under my observation, and I 
 did not find in them that resemblance to the 
 Hottentots which I had expected; for their 
 visages were far from presenting the triangu- 
 larity of form which characterises the former 
 nation. These Boschipen were tolerably mus- 
 cular and well-shaped, except that their bellies 
 were flaccid and protuberant. Their lips were 
 large and projecting, and their eyes and noses 
 very small, and the latter very flat. Their 
 eyelids always remained half closed, the ciliary 
 processes being nearly parallel, except when 
 something excited their attention. Their fore- 
 heads were small and contracted, and their 
 hands and feet delicate, and even diminutive. 
 They seemed much at their ease, and rather of 
 a cheerful disposition. The senior of the party 
 understood no language but his own, and said 
 .that neither himself nor his countrymen used
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 259 
 
 or even comprehended one word of the Hotten- 
 tot language, and that his nation was a distinct 
 people, and that all of them had names. Ob- 
 serving him chewing a kind of herb, we asked 
 him if it was dacca (wild hemp, which the Hot- ' 
 tentots use for smoking). He answered, " No." 
 « Is it like tobaeco?"— « No," replied he, " it is 
 better, it makes me feel drunk." 
 
 One of his companions, a boy about fifteen 
 years old, had been deprived of the first joint 
 of both of his little fingers. He informed us 
 that his mother having lost her first child soon 
 after its birth, had mutilated him in that way 
 to prevent his dying also, and that it was a 
 custom of the Bosch women to do the same 
 thing in similar cases. This seems to prove 
 that these people are not so indifferent about 
 the lives of their children as has often been 
 represented. In those instances in which they 
 have been seen to destroy their offspring, it is 
 probable that they dreaded their falling into 
 the hands of the colonists, and being reduced 
 to slavery; and a gentleman at Beaufort in- 
 formed me, that a magistrate of his acquaint- 
 ance had once, when pursuing some Boschmen 
 cattle-stealers, found a strangled child, which 
 the fugitives had, he supposed, put to death 
 
 s 2
 
 260 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and left behind them, that it might not en- 
 cumber them in their flight. 
 
 The Boschman language may be considered 
 the most extraordinary of articulated sounds. 
 'That of the Hottentots has long been cele- 
 brated for the peculiar clicking of the tongue 
 which attends its pronunciation, and the Bosch- 
 man dialect presents this peculiarity in a much 
 stronger and more impressive degree, at least 
 two-thirds of the words being spoken with that 
 singular accompaniment, which few Europeans 
 are ever able to acquire, or successfully imitate. 
 I observed that a sentence is expressed in the 
 Boschman language in much fewer syllables 
 than in Dutch or EngUsh, and that these are 
 uttered nearly without any hiatus, while the 
 same sounds are frequently repeated with a 
 slight variation of accent; from which I con- 
 clude that it belongs to the class of languages 
 called Polysynthetic, which have hitherto been 
 regarded as peculiar to North America, and of 
 which the distinguishing idiom is the follow- 
 ing. The person expressing an action or idea, 
 instead of employing a whole sentence for that 
 purpose, selects the roots of the principal words 
 required, and joining these together, composes 
 from them one long word, which gives his
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 261 
 
 meaning almost as fully and definitely as ten or 
 twelve words would do in a language constructed 
 upon the common principles. Those who in- 
 sist that the Hottentots and Boschmen are the 
 same people, bring forward the similarity in 
 the character of their languages in support of 
 their opinion ; but it must be remembered that 
 the clicking of the tongue is also common in an 
 inferior degree to those spoken by the CafFres 
 and the Betchuanas, each of whom forms a dis- 
 tinct nation, having as little resemblance to the 
 Hottentots and Boschmen, as they have to each 
 other. , 
 
 It may easily be supposed that amongst the 
 Boschmen all the arts are in a low state of ad- 
 vancement ; for how can men, whose lives are 
 employed in obtaining a sufficiency of food to 
 satisfy the cravings of hunger, find time to 
 weave, or to build, or to use the knife or the 
 chisel ? The Karroo desert does not even afford 
 wood proper for bows and arrows, and its inha- 
 bitants obtain this from the banks of the Orange 
 River, and manufacture it into these weapons, 
 which they use with extraordinary dexterity 
 and effect ; but which nevertheless would avail 
 them little, either in the chase or for self-de- 
 fence, did they employ them in their simple
 
 26^ SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 form. only. Nature has here supplied a power- 
 ful auxiliary, and this they have done their ut- 
 most to improve. The Boschmen anoint their 
 arrows with a poison, which is the most viru- 
 lent, fatal, and concentrated substance of the 
 kind yet discovered, and the mode of manu- 
 facturing which is fully known only to them- 
 selves. Whether materials of this description 
 are found in greater perfection in South Africa 
 than anywhere else, or whether the Boschmen 
 merely excel other people in the preparation of 
 them, is uncertain ; but there is no doubt that 
 neither the Ticuna poison of the Indiajis of the 
 Amazon River, nor the Wourali poison of the 
 natives of Guiana, equals in virulence the sub- 
 stance now in question. 
 
 Thirty or forty years ago, when the Bosch- 
 men and colonists were continually at war, many 
 of the latter fell victims to their arrows, which 
 they generally discharged in ambuscade ; and 
 even in the present day, instances of the kind 
 sometimes occur. The Boschmen employ two 
 sorts of arrows — one armed with a triangular 
 piece of iron, and the other with a pointed 
 fragment of bone, jagged on the sides, and hav- 
 ing a piece of quill attached to it in such a man- 
 ner as to prevent its being drawn out of the
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. ^63 
 
 flesh of the wounded object. The first they 
 use chiefly for killing animals, and the second 
 in their combats with men. Nor is the same 
 kind of poison applied to both, a composition of 
 superior virulence being prepared expressly for 
 the destruction of the human species. The bone 
 is endued with a thin layer of this, which is al- 
 lowed to dry, and then a coating of gummy 
 varnish is laid over it to prevent its cracking or 
 dropping off*; but the nature of the last appli- 
 cation is such, that the moment the arrow pene- 
 trates the flesh, the animal heat causes it to dis- 
 solve, and the poison is thus brought into con- 
 tact with the \yound, and quickly absorbed. 
 Death generally follows in six or eight hours, 
 and is preceded by livid swelling of the body 
 and convulsions. Those individuals who have 
 recovered from the wounds of a Boschman 
 arrow must have been struck with the first 
 sort, as I have reason to believe that the kind 
 last described never enters the flesh without 
 proving fatal. 
 
 The materials which enter into the composi- 
 tion of the Boschman poison are by no means 
 accurately known. Lichtenstein says that its 
 principal ingredients are the venom of snakes, 
 mixed with the concentrated juice of the bulb
 
 264 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of the hi^manthus toxicarms. He mentions 
 that a certain substance of a dark brown colour 
 and resinous appearance, and highly deleterious 
 in its nature, is found by the Boschmen amongst 
 the rocks, and employed by them in anointing 
 their arrows ; but not having had the good for- 
 tune to meet with this singular production, he 
 i? unable to give any farther account of it. 
 But Mr. Rhynweldt, the civil commissioner at 
 Graaff Reynet, who is intimately acquainted 
 with the Boschman country and its inhabitants, 
 informed me that the venom extracted from the 
 body of a large black spider was the kind of 
 poison which the Boschmen esteemed best, and 
 considered most destructive. The Indians on 
 the river Amazon compose a poison for their 
 arrows of great strength, and very effectual in 
 killing animals, but by no means proportionably 
 fatal to the human species. According to Con- 
 damine, it is made by boiling certain plants, 
 particularly lianas, and more than thirty kinds 
 of herbs enter into its composition ; but he 
 justly supposes that not one half of these add to 
 its efficacy. 
 
 In Martyr's Decades of the Ocean, translated 
 by Lok, we have the following quaint account 
 of the manner in which poisons are manufac-
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 265 
 
 tured by the Indians of the Oronoco : — " They 
 have olde women skilful in that art, which at 
 certaine times they shutte up against their 
 willes, giving them matter or stuffe for that 
 service ; they keepe them in two dayes, where- 
 in they boile the ointment, and having finished 
 the same at length, they lette them out ; if they 
 find the olde women in healthe, so that they be 
 not halfe deade through the force of the poyson, 
 they grievously punish them and cast away the 
 ointment as unprofitable, (for they affirme that 
 the force of the same is so great that through the 
 smell thereof while it is made it almost killeth 
 any that make it.)" 
 
 The black spider above mentioned is well 
 known all over the colony as being of a dan- 
 gerous nature, and it is believed that many in- 
 dividuals have died of its bite. In boldness and 
 ferocity it exceeds any other insect with which 
 I am acquainted. I have frequently met with 
 them in the Karroo, and always found, when I 
 touched them with a stick, that, instead of 
 making off in alarm, they would turn round 
 upon me, and either firmly grasp the end of the 
 instrument that annoyed them, or rush towards 
 my feet, obliging me to defend myself or to 
 retire.
 
 266 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Such extreme irritability alone would seem 
 to indicate the venomous qualities of this spi- 
 der. Lichtenstein says, that this is the test 
 by which the Boschmen choose snakes for the 
 composition of the poison for their arrows ; and 
 that they not only give a preference to the 
 most active and restless animals of the kind, 
 but are in the habit of enraging and torment- 
 ing them before they kill them, in order to in- 
 crease the power and acrimony of their venom- 
 ous secretion. It is difficult to determine whe- 
 ther the Boschman's theory on this point be 
 just or not; but I must remark that Niewhoff, 
 in his Voyages to the East Indies, mentions 
 that the Javanese obtain a poison from a spe- 
 cies of lizard called gekko, by suspending it by 
 the tail for several days, the uneasiness of such 
 a position causing a fluid to exude from its 
 body which is highly deleterious to man and 
 beast. Two other animals besides snakes and 
 spiders, reputed highly venomous, and believed 
 to be employed by the Boschmen in the manu- 
 facture of their arrow-poison, exist in South 
 Africa. One is a species of Julus. It is a 
 caterpillar, five or six inches long, hideous in 
 appearance, the upper part of its body being 
 cased in transverse scales of a deep brown
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 26? 
 
 colour, and its belly covered with long hair. 
 It has thirty or forty legs, like those of a cen- 
 tipede, and when not in motion it generally 
 lies rolled up in a circular form. The Hot- 
 tentots assert that its bite is certain death. 
 The other animal alluded to is a lizard, called 
 gietze by the colonists, which is said to be 
 even more formidable than the reptile above 
 described ; however, it must be of very rare 
 occurrence, as some people altogether deny its 
 existence, and very few can be found who pro- 
 fess to have seen it, or to have had evidence 
 of its dangerous qualities. I cannot avoid re- 
 marking here, that it is a common and vulgar 
 prejudice, that all animals endowed with poi- 
 sonous properties are ever on the watch to 
 exercise these upon man, and never fail sooner 
 or later to show their malignant nature by 
 biting him. If they have not done this, it is 
 erroneously supposed that they must be harm- 
 less, which is evidently a false conclusion ; for 
 we may be in the habit of daily seeing and 
 approaching them for years together without 
 suffering from their presence. Many an in- 
 dividual has lived nearly a century in a coun- 
 try infested by the most venomous snakes and 
 never experienced any injury from them ; and
 
 268 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in the same way generations may pass before it 
 happens that any particular species of animals 
 is incited to render a single individual the 
 victim of its deadly bite or sting. Traditions 
 on this subject are not to be despised ; and it 
 is better to wait till accident proves their fal- 
 sity, than to run the risk of verifying them by 
 rashness or bold experiment. 
 
 The colonists have always stood in a less 
 pacific relation to the Boschmen tlian to the 
 Hottentots. The causes of this are not diffi- 
 cult to explain. The Boschmen have from 
 time immemorial been robbers by profession; 
 and when Europeans began to settle in their 
 neighbourhood, they committed upon them 
 the same kind of depredations that they had 
 been accustomed to practise almost with im- 
 punity upon the Hottentots; but they soon 
 found that they had a very different sort of 
 people to deal with, and that their plundering 
 expeditions were now attended with infinitely 
 greater danger than formerly, and that death 
 was what they had to expect in the event of 
 their being captured or detected in the execu- 
 tion of them. This, instead of repressing their 
 freebooting propensities, served to exasperate 
 them against the colonists, and made them not
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 269 
 
 only study how they might rob them with 
 greater address, but also led them to commit 
 many w^anton acts of violence, in revenge for 
 the severity that was always exercised towards 
 themselves. At first, the colonists had viewed 
 the Boschmen in the light of enemies only 
 when they stole their cattle ; but at length, in- 
 censed by their retaliating system, they de- 
 nounced vengeance against the whole nation, 
 and sacrificed the guilty and the innocent with- 
 out discrimination whenever they found an op- 
 portunity. If information was received that a 
 number of Boschmen had assembled together 
 in any particular spot, a commando was imme- 
 diately called out by the Landdrost or Veldt- 
 cornet. No one thought it necessary to in- 
 quire whether the savages had done any evil, 
 or intended to do any. A body of armed men 
 marched against them, and shot as many as 
 possible; and being assailed in their turn by 
 showers of poisoned arrows, several were most 
 likely wounded, and being carried home by 
 their companions, they died in agony, and a 
 view of their sufferings served to increase and 
 perpetuate amongst their children and relatives 
 their natural and habitual hatred of the Bosch- 
 men.
 
 270 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 It would be a task equally painful and un- 
 profitable to enter into the history of these 
 kind of transactions. Much has been written 
 upon the subject by contending parties, and 
 many things brought to light which had better 
 have been allowed to remain in obscurity and 
 oblivion. 
 
 Taking an abstract view of the question, it 
 seems impossible to condemn the Boschmen for 
 stealing cattle from their neighbours. Their own 
 country denies them the means of subsistence, 
 and can we expect that they should quietly and 
 contentedly sit down in the desert and perish 
 from want ? The colonists have sometimes en- 
 deavoured to obviate this difficulty, by supply- 
 ing the Boschmen with small flocks of sheep and 
 oxen, in order that they might rear them and 
 breed others, and thus be reclaimed from their 
 marauding life. But they complain that these 
 donations of cattle never in one instanceproduced 
 the eflect intended, for the Boschmen on re- 
 ceiving them, merely removed to some distance, 
 and began to kill and eat them, and continued 
 to do so till they were all consumed, and then 
 recommenced their depredations. 
 
 This was just what ought to have been ex- 
 pected, because the Boschmen knew very well
 
 ABOIUGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 271 
 
 that their own country did not afford either 
 pasture or water for cattle, and that the animals, 
 if driven about in search of these essential ar- 
 ticles, would soon become lean and incapable 
 of travelling, besides being constantly exposed 
 to the attacks of lions and w^olves, and to the 
 rapacity of other individuals of their nation 
 who had not partaken of the bounty of the 
 colonists. It could not be expected that the 
 Boschmen should point out this to their bene- 
 factors, and refuse their gifts ; they accepted 
 these, and turned them to what they considered 
 the best account. 
 
 I do not mean to assert that there are no 
 places in the Boschman country where cattle 
 might be reared ; but of what avail would it 
 be to supply a few families with herds, while 
 the rest of the community were left destitute 
 of them ? The latter would immediately plun- 
 der the former, and war and dissension would 
 add to the misery of the nation. On the other 
 hand, the whole body of the people could not 
 keep flocks, because, as has already been re- 
 marked, there is not pasture or water suflicient 
 for any considerable number of these ; and sup- 
 posing that every Boschman family were to re- 
 ceive an equal proportion of cattle for breeding,
 
 272 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the stronger ones would take possession of all 
 the fertile lands, leaving their unprovided fellow- 
 countrymen to wander about the Karroo deserts, 
 where their sheep and oxen would shortly pe- 
 rish, leaving them as poor and miserable as ever. 
 Therefore no human aid can effectually ame- 
 liorate the condition of the Boschmen, or correct 
 their habits of plunder, while they remain within 
 their present territories. They require a new 
 country, and who can give them that ? or would 
 they accept it were it offered to them ? It is 
 therefore as vain and useless to disclaim against 
 their vices, as it would be to inquire how it 
 happens that several thousand individuals have 
 become inhabitants of a region from which 
 Nature has pertinaciously withheld everything 
 calculated for the comfort, prosperity, and hap- 
 piness of man. 
 
 The Boschmen, though always an infinitely 
 less considerable people than the Hottentots, 
 have survived the extinction of the latter, and 
 are likely to exist many years more ; for it is not 
 probable that Europeans will ever seek to de- 
 prive them of their present territories. How- 
 ever, the occasional occurrence of seasons of 
 extraordinary dryness even now destroys no 
 small number of them, by causing a scarcity of
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 273 
 
 game and water ; and it appears that their wo- 
 men bear comparatively few children, and that 
 a large part of these die in infancy ; so that the 
 Boschman population must be rapidly on the 
 decline. The whole nation is supposed to con- 
 sist of not more than three thousand persons, 
 but this is entirely a matter of conjecture. In- 
 deed the condition of men in these countries is 
 such, that their extinction is little to be re- 
 gretted ; for they are the most wretched of 
 created beings, and the busincvss of their lives 
 seems to be that of showing what amount of 
 physical misery our species can endure. Camp- 
 bell, the missionary, informs us in his Travels in 
 South Africa, that having met with a Bosch- 
 man, he was desirous of inquiring into the state 
 of his ideas, and he accordingly asked him 
 what he thought was the worst thing a man 
 could do? To this question, which would 
 prove a puzzling one to the greater number of 
 civilized beings, the Boschman was not able 
 to make any satisfactory reply ; and his inter- 
 rogator found it necessary to change his ground, 
 and demanded of him what was the best thing 
 a man could do. " His answer to this question 
 was extremely affecting," observes Mr. Camp- 
 bell. " ' All my life,' said he, * I have seen only 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 evil, and never any good, therefore I cannot tell 
 what is best.' " 
 
 The moral and physical degradation of the 
 Boschmen has generally been supposed to ex- 
 ceed that of any other part of the human species ; 
 but the correctness of such an opinion is ques- 
 tionable, at least in so far as respects their degree 
 of intelligence, and the number of their ideas. 
 The difficulties which they experience in pro- 
 curing the necessaries of life, and the privations 
 which they suffer, are perhaps unequalled any- 
 where else ; but still they do not exhibit that 
 obtuseness of the faculties which generally be- 
 longs to a condition of physical misery. The 
 only races of people that are similar in their 
 circumstances to the Boschmen are the natives 
 of New Holland, and the Pecharas, a tribe in- 
 habiting Patagonia. 
 
 The south-west coast of New Holland is 
 nearly as badly supplied with water as the Kar- 
 roo plains of Africa; and quadrupeds are so 
 scarce there, that its inhabitants derive near- 
 ly their whole means of subsistence from the 
 shores of the sea, to which they regularly resort 
 at ebb-tide to collect the shell-fish that may 
 have been left in the cavities of the rocks. 
 Like the Boschmen, they are often forced to
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 275 
 
 eat insects and reptiles; and like them they 
 wander from place to place in small parties, and 
 form temporary huts of the twigs of bushes, and 
 seek relief from the pains of hunger in torpidity 
 and sleep. But here the parallel terminates; for 
 the New Hollanders are too stupid and indolent 
 to turn to the utmost account the few resources 
 which Natiu'e has placed within their reach ; and 
 so deficient are they in ingenuity, that they 
 have not acquired even the art of fishing with 
 nets or hooks, or learned the use of the bow 
 and arrow. The Boschman, on the other hand, 
 pertinaciously forces his unrelenting country to 
 yield him all that it produces or contains ; and 
 the variety of inventions which he employs in 
 the capture of game, and in carrying off cattle, 
 equally proves his intelligence, and contributes 
 to the supply of his wants. In physical strength, 
 also, he surpasses the native of New Holland, 
 whom Peron, the naturalist, found by experi- 
 ment to be the weakest of the human race, and 
 whom we are therefore justified in placing in the 
 lowest grade of our species, whether we class 
 him according to the qualities of his mind or of 
 his body. 
 
 The tribe inhabiting the south coast of Pata- 
 gonia, and named Pecharas by Cook, because 
 
 T 2
 
 276 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 they frequently repeated that word, resemble 
 in their physical condition the New Hollanders ; 
 but they exceed them in activity and animation, 
 owing, it is probable, to the superior coldness 
 of their climate. Wandering in small parties 
 along the sterile and precipitous shores of the 
 Straits of Magellan, they collect shell-fish for 
 their subsistence during the day, and at night 
 creep under the bushes, and obtain partial shel- 
 ter by twining their branches overhead, and 
 covering the arch thus formed with coarse grass. 
 Severe as their climate is, many of them go 
 nearly naked, and the others wear a scanty cloak 
 made of the skins of wild beasts, and their only 
 weapons are wooden clubs and stones. How- 
 ever, in giving the Boschman a higher rank in 
 the scale of humanity than the New Hollander, 
 or Pechara, I rest his pretensions to this entirely 
 upon the superior address which he displays in 
 struggling with the physical difficulties which 
 environ him ; for the social condition of the 
 three races in question is equally low; the na- 
 ture of their respective countries forming an 
 insurmountable barrier to their living in com- 
 munities, or in any way uniting for the pur- 
 pose of security, convenience, or mutual im- 
 provement. 
 
 But let us turn from these distressing scenes
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 277 
 
 to the view of a happier and a more fortunate 
 people, and the last of the aborigines of the 
 colony that remains to be described. The 
 Caffres, of whom I am now speaking, inhabit 
 the coast of South Africa lying north-east of 
 the Great Fish River, which was formerly the 
 boundary of the colony in that direction : but it 
 was not to be expected that the inviting coun- 
 try lying beyond it would long escape the en- 
 croachment of Europeans. The British Go- 
 vernment soon found reasons for dispossessing 
 the Caffres of a considerable part of it, and set- 
 tlers are now annually flocking thither, while 
 several fortified posts have been erected for their 
 security, and to facilitate the acquisition of 
 new territory whenever a convenient opportu- 
 nity may occur. 
 
 A striking change in the aspect of the coun- 
 try takes place on the Caffre side of the Great 
 Fish River. Instead of naked and sandy plains, 
 scantily sprinkled with mimosse, one sees an 
 agreeable diversity of rounded hills and smooth 
 and sweeping valleys, both thickly covered with 
 brushwood, and most of the latter affording 
 streams of transparent water. The atmosphere 
 is soft and clear, the odour of vegetation per- 
 vades it, and the general scenery is free from 
 that hardness of outline and abruptness of cha-
 
 278 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 racter which almost universally belong to it in 
 the neighbourhood of the peninsula of the Cape 
 of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this fine 
 region have few points of resemblance in com- 
 mon with the Hottentots or Boschmen. They 
 infinitely surpass both in intelligence, bravery, 
 personal appearance, and knowledge of the arts 
 of life. They are bold without being ferocious, 
 and are mild in their manners and of graceful 
 address ; and their mode of life presents all the 
 simplicity of nature, without any of those bar- 
 barous or disgusting habits which are so apt 
 to excite in a stranger prepossessions unfavour- 
 able to those who practise them. 
 
 The Caffres are a pastoral people ; but they 
 do not generally lead that nomade life which 
 was universal amongst the Hottentots, and 
 which the aridness of their country rendered 
 necessary. On the contrary, they have fixed 
 villages or kraals, composed of conical- shaped 
 huts, formed of interwoven twigs, plastered 
 with clay and thatched with straw. The site 
 of these is usually upon an elevated spot, well 
 sheltered by trees and brushwood; and in many 
 instances so much so, that it is the smoke alone 
 that enables the eye to discover that the place is 
 inhabited. The Caffres possess abundance of
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 279 
 
 fine oxen and cows, and the milk of the latter 
 forms a considerable part of their food : but they 
 also eat the flesh of these animals and of sheep ; 
 and they cultivate maize and millet, and several 
 kinds of vegetables. It is this uninterrupted 
 abundance of all the necessaries of life, conjoin- 
 ed with the temperateness of their climate, that 
 confer upon the Caffres a perfection of form 
 which is probably not to be found amongst any 
 other people. The personal beauty of the men 
 strongly excited Barrow's admiration ; and he 
 says that those proportions which enchant us in 
 the Grecian works of art, are of common oc- 
 rence amongst the Caffres. I can vouch from 
 personal observation, that he does not exagge- 
 rate here, having myself visited these people. 
 
 The CafFre style of beauty is of the most 
 refined description, presenting that happy me- 
 dium between muscular strength and slender 
 effeminacy, which is best calculated to please 
 the eye and satisfy the judgment. These peo- 
 ple are of a bright copper colour, and clean in 
 their persons, and the men go entirely naked ; 
 for the kross, or cloak of tanned hide, which 
 they generally wear, hangs loosely from their 
 shoulders, and scarcely touches their bodies, 
 unless when they are seated or standing very
 
 280 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Still. Their countenances have no physical 
 peculiarity, and are generally symmetrical and 
 pleasing in expression ; their eyes being dark, 
 their noses regular, and their teeth good. The 
 women are the reverse of the men in every 
 respect ; their figures are clumsy, and their 
 features coarse and even repulsive; and they 
 go about wrapped in krosses which cover them 
 from the shoulders down to the heels. Never- 
 theless, they love ornaments, and they carefully 
 adorn their dresses with brass chains, plates 
 of polished metal, beads, cowries, and similar 
 articles. 
 
 The Caffre form of government is that of a 
 chief whose dignity is hereditary, but his au- 
 thority is very small, and he seldom exerts it 
 except in the collection of tribute, which is 
 generally paid in cattle. Lichtenstein says, 
 that among the tribe called Koossas, the breast 
 of every ox that is killed becomes a regal per- 
 quisite; and Burchell mentions the same custom 
 as prevailing among the nation called Betch- 
 uanas, far in the interior of South Africa. 
 We may suppose that this kind of tribute is 
 in neither instance paid in reality, but com- 
 muted for something -of a more convenient 
 form. The Caffres never eat fish, though
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 281 
 
 these abound upon their coasts, and in most 
 of the rivers which flow through their coun- 
 try ; and it is not difficult to imagine why a 
 pastoral people, enjoying all the necessaries of 
 life, should neglect fishing, and avoid the trou- 
 ble of making canoes and the dangers of navi- 
 gating them. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that crimes 
 and acts of violence are rare amongst the 
 Caffres. When an unenlightened people are 
 neither enslaved nor oppressed, nor exposed 
 to poverty or persecution, they seldom com- 
 mit crimes either against society or indivi- 
 duals. They continue innocent and harmless, 
 and well-disposed towards each other, till an 
 intercourse with civilized man teaches them 
 how to be discontented, by suggesting plea- 
 sures of difficult attainment, and awakening 
 desires which cannot be fulfilled without in- 
 jury to their fellow-beings. If any people can 
 be considered universally happy, the inland 
 CafFres are so ; but it is to be feared that evil 
 days will soon come upon them, as they have 
 already done upon the frontier tribes. A 
 weekly fair has been established at the post 
 near the Great Fish River, called Fort Will- 
 shire, and the Caffres go there with cattle,
 
 282 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 hides, horns, elephant's teeth, &c. and sell thein 
 to the colonists. The money which they ob- 
 tain in this way is spent in purchasing ardent 
 spirits, gaudy clothes, and contemptible trin- 
 kets, so that the traffic daily impoverishes 
 them, instead of adding in the smallest de- 
 gree to their happiness or comfort. Many of 
 them acquire habits of drinking ; others, occu- 
 pied by new ideas, neglect their flocks, their 
 only source of subsistence ; and some, who have 
 been ruined, begin to plunder their neighbours. 
 Acts of violence, sanguinary quarrels, avarice, 
 and jealousy, already begin to spread their ra- 
 vages amongst them ; and they owe 'all this, 
 and will soon owe more than this, to the 
 taste for European manufactures which has 
 been diffused amongst them, and which many 
 of our self-styled modern philanthropists, in 
 the depth of their infatuation, consider as the 
 first step towards civilized life. 
 
 No people that I have ever visited appear 
 so free from evils, miseries, and inconveniences 
 as the Caffres. In travelling through their 
 country, nothing meets the eye that can cause 
 a painful or disagreeable impression. Poverty 
 and want are unknown there, and old age de- 
 scends smilingly to the grave. The labours of
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 283 
 
 this people are so trifling that they do not de- 
 serve the name, and are regarded more in the 
 light of amusements than anything else. To 
 drive out the flocks in the morning, to collect 
 them at sunset, to milk the cows at nightfall, 
 and to hoe the ground for the reception of 
 maize or millet, constitute the essential busi- 
 ness of life amongst the Caffres. Exertions 
 of the kind preserve the health and render 
 buoyant the spirits ; and the Caffres, in accord- 
 ance with this, are full of vivacity and fond of 
 exercise. They are continually seen bounding 
 among the thickets that embower their dwell- 
 ings, or strolling in parties and talking and 
 laughing. In short, they are in that condition 
 of life in which man has always been found 
 most happy and most virtuous ; and the evi- 
 dently approaching extinction of such a people 
 is to be viewed with regret. 
 
 I am aware that many persons will ask if 
 the extermination of savages, of barbarians, is 
 at any time to be regretted, and, least of all, 
 when their place is to be supplied by Euro- 
 peans and civilized beings ? and as this objec- 
 tion may appear plausible, it will be well to 
 submit it to examination : and, in the first 
 place, it is proper to remark, that when we
 
 284 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 talk of peopling a country with civilized be- 
 ings, it is always taken for granted by the 
 mass of society, that persons of education and 
 refinement are to be transported there at once, 
 and that the wilderness or desert is suddenly to 
 become the abode of a virtuous and intelligent 
 community, and the seat of arts, elegancies, and 
 domestic enjoyment. In short, agriculture is 
 to flourish, education to be promoted, science 
 encouraged, roads made, public buildings erect- 
 ed, and all the advantages of social life deve- 
 loped and brought to maturity. These are 
 dreams produced by ignorance and delusion. 
 In every instance, the emigrants who first flock 
 to a new country are inferior to its aborigines 
 in virtue, intelligence, usefulness, and respect- 
 ability. 
 
 The dregs of the population of large towns ; 
 a peasantry rendered desperate by the pressure 
 of hopeless poverty ; debauchees and spend- 
 thrifts destitute of friends and credit ; such are 
 the materials which form the foundation of the 
 anticipated superstructure of civilized life ; such 
 are the beings who are let loose to play pranks 
 in the wilderness, and commit ravages upon its 
 simple, unsuspicious, and uncorrupted inhabit- 
 ants. These Europeans, it is true, carry with
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 285 
 
 them the knowledge of a religion which is cal- 
 culated to correct their evil propensities ; but^ 
 unfortunately, at all times, the image of a gib- 
 bet, or gaol, or of a house of correction, has more 
 effect in restraining their inclination for vice 
 and injustice, than the precepts of morality, 
 however obvious and sublime these may be. 
 Transported into a new land, freed from the 
 terror of laws and police, and independent of 
 their superiors, they rush into all kinds of ex- 
 cesses, and feel a particular delight in frighten- 
 ing, oppressing, and enslaving tlie aborigines of 
 the country. These, if they attempt to assert 
 their rights, are maltreated and massacred as 
 insulting and dangerous barbarians ; and if they 
 quietly submit to the tyranny of their invaders, 
 they are counted as beasts destitute of spirit 
 and unworthy of mercy or commiseration. 
 
 The emigrants, though divided by national 
 prejudices, and jealous of each other's prospe- 
 rity, will at least form a league against the 
 natives ; while, at the same time, the introduc- 
 tion of drunkenness, small-pox, and other con- 
 tagious diseases, will rapidly thin their num- 
 bers, and lead to their final and early extinc- 
 tion. Such is in general the early history of 
 European settlements in foreign countries.
 
 286 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Details of this kind are seldom found in 
 writing ; for it is not to be expected that the 
 actors in such atrocities will try to preserve 
 the memory of them, even supposing that 
 there should exist an individual amongst them 
 who is capable of guiding a pen or reading 
 his native language. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that Caffraria 
 has had European inhabitants in different parts 
 of the coast long before the present time. Till 
 within fifteen or twenty years ago, the coast in 
 the neighbourhood of the Great Fish River was 
 laid down in all charts nearly a degree too far 
 to the westward ; and this was the cause of nu- 
 merous shipwrecks, the greater part of which 
 probably have never come to our knowledge. 
 
 In 1782, the Grosvenor Indiaman was wreck- 
 ed upon the coast of Caffraria, and a Dutchman 
 named Vanreenen went in search of the sup- 
 posed survivors of her crew and passengers. 
 He found many persons evidently of European 
 descent in various places, and likewise a large 
 village containing about four hundred mulatto 
 or bastard Caffres, called Hamboanas ; amongst 
 whom were three white women, who said that 
 they had been shipwrecked upon the coast when 
 they were children, and that they recollected
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 287 
 
 none of the particulars of their misfortune. This 
 shows that Europeans must have been thrown 
 into the country many years anterior to the loss 
 of the Grosvenor, though when and in what 
 way cannot now be ascertained. Here are two 
 remarkable circumstances that deserve notice. 
 
 It is well known that a large number of the 
 crew and passengers of that vessel got safely on 
 shore, but Vanreenen failed in discovering any 
 of the party, or even learning anything satis- 
 factory concerning them, though he visited the 
 spot only nine years after the shipwreck. Why 
 did not the Hamboanas in the neighbourhood 
 protect and assist the white men, whom they 
 must have regarded as relations and friends, if 
 it be true that on seeing Vanreenen and his 
 party, they cried out, " Our fathers are come !" 
 It is not probable that the Caffres wantonly 
 destroyed them, for they are not a sanguinary 
 race ; and being accustomed too to the sight of 
 white people and their descendants, and being 
 in peace with these, we may suppose that they 
 would have given a favourable reception to 
 others of the same race. Neither was any ar- 
 ticle of European origin found in the country 
 by Vanreenen, nor the smallest circumstance 
 or object that could point out what had been
 
 288 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the fate of the shipwrecked persons. It ought 
 to be recollected, that Vanreenen, on first meet- 
 ing the white women above mentioned, offered 
 to carry them and their families to the Cape, 
 and that they received the proposal with joy. 
 After this he proceeded a little way farther 
 along the coast till he came to the place of the 
 shipwreck, where he found several guns and a 
 quantity of iron ballast ; then returning by the 
 same route, he again visited the females, under 
 the impression that they would be ready to 
 proceed with him to the colony ; but they de- 
 clined his offers, and told him that they must 
 first gather in the harvest, &c. ; an excuse so 
 frivolous, and so inconsistent with their former 
 declarations, that it is impossible to doubt that 
 it was invented by themselves to conceal their 
 unwillingness to accompany him; when they 
 had on a former occasion expressed their anx- 
 iety to do so, they were unacquainted with the 
 object of his journey ; but having ascertained 
 this during his absence, they were led to change 
 their intentions for reasons best known to them- 
 selves. 
 
 These circumstances taken in connexion, ren- 
 der it probable that all the people of the Grosve- 
 nor, except those who reached Cape Town, were
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 289 
 
 put to death by the Caffres and Hamboanas. 
 Perhaps these people, finding that the seamen 
 stole their provisions, insulted their women, 
 and attempted to make themselves masters of 
 everything, and that they were not likely soon or 
 easily to find the means of quitting the country, 
 considered it a measure of prudenceand necessity 
 to destroy the whole party, in order to get rid of 
 their oppressors at once, and to prevent any one 
 conveying intelligence of the affair to the neigh- 
 bouring colonists. It would be their general 
 interest that the transaction should be kept 
 secret ; and when it was known that Vanreenen 
 and his companions had arrived in search of the 
 shipwrecked people, every article that had be- 
 longed to them would be concealed, and the 
 white women prohibited from accompanying 
 him to the colony, or giving him any informa- 
 tion relative to the object of his journey. There 
 is no other way than the above of explaining 
 how upwards of a hundred individuals, thrown 
 upon a fertile and healthy coast, should all have 
 perished in less than nine years, and that too 
 without leaving behind them any memorial or 
 vestige of their ever having existed. 
 
 The Hottentots, the Boschmen, and the Caf- 
 fres are the only aboriginal inhabitants of the 
 VOL. J. u
 
 290 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 colony. None of the other neighbouring na- 
 tions being within its limits, a description of 
 them does not belong to the plan of this work. 
 With respect to South Africa in general, it 
 appears that the condition of the people and 
 the character of the country improve as we ad- 
 vance towards the equator. The town of Lat- 
 takoo, containing about five thousand persons, 
 is found in latitude 26" 30' ; and its inhabitants 
 describe many great and powerful nations as 
 existing to the northward of them, some of 
 whom it would appear possess the art of re- 
 fining and working metals. The vast country 
 extending between the tropic of Capricorn and 
 the equator is wholly unknown and unexplored, 
 and is likely long to continue so ; the difficulty 
 of an expedition of the kind being almost in- 
 surmountable ; for the nearest point from which 
 the travellers could start is Cape Town, and 
 when they had reached the quarter from whence 
 their researches were to commence, their cattle 
 would be worn out, their waggons injured, and 
 their stores consumed, by the fatigues and dura- 
 tion of the previous journey. 
 
 This inconvenience would be diminished were 
 it practicable to convey the exploring party and 
 their supplies in a vessel from Table Bay up the
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 291 
 
 Orange River, from the banks of which they 
 might begin their travels ; but that stream, it 
 would appear, is not navigable even for boats ; 
 and its mouth is so obstructed by a bar and by 
 sand-banks, as to render the entrance both diffi- 
 cult and dangerous. 
 
 It now remains for me to speak of the various 
 attempts which missionaries have made to form 
 establishments in South Africa, and to improve 
 the condition of its aborigines. Were we to 
 judge of this matter by the discussion which it 
 has occasioned, and by the sums of money that 
 have been spent in forwarding it, and by the 
 statements that are circulated relative to the sub- 
 ject, we would suppose that a vast deal of good 
 has been accomplished, and that much more 
 is to be expected ; but if we form our opinion 
 from actual observation, and take into view 
 the physical peculiarities of South Africa, we 
 will decide that the missionaries have actually 
 effected nothing there, and that a perseverance 
 in their labours is more likely to injure than to 
 benefit the objects of these. 
 
 This remark is not intended to refer in the 
 remotest degree to the conduct and qualifica- 
 tions of the missionaries, many of whom are 
 distinguished for the greatest zeal and disinter- 
 
 u 2
 
 292 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 estedness in labouring to accomplish the hope- 
 less task that has been allotted to them. They 
 have been sent to South Africa by the societies 
 to Avhich they respectively belong, and it is not 
 their business to accuse their superiors of igno- 
 rance and want of judgment, or to express a 
 desire to be removed to another and more pro- 
 mising sphere of action. 
 
 It seems obvious, that the first step towards 
 forming a missionary establishment, should be 
 to obtain an accurate geographical knowledge of 
 the country in which it is proposed to place it. 
 Such, at least, was the opinion of the Jesuits, the 
 Dominicans, the Franciscans, and of other so- 
 cieties who have been successful in assembling 
 together uncivilized men, and giving them a 
 taste for the arts and conveniences of social life. 
 But the British JNIissionary Societies never con- 
 sider geographical information to be of the 
 smallest importance ; and the evils of this erro- 
 neous impression are strongly exemplified in the 
 attempts which they have made, and are mak- 
 ing, to found establishments in South Africa. 
 
 Enough has already been said to satisfy the 
 reader that the bane of South Africa, and the 
 cause of its sterility, is want of water ; and that 
 consequently its population must always be
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 293 
 
 scanty and very widely diffused. Even in the 
 best and most fertile districts of the colony, with 
 a few exceptions, the springs and rivulets are 
 generally ten or twelve miles apart, and perhaps 
 throughout the year they do not respectively 
 afford more water than is sufficient for a single 
 family possessing the usual number of cattle, 
 putting irrigation on the smallest scale out of 
 the question. Yet it is in a country of this kind 
 that the missionaries are instructed to form 
 establishments, and to collect people into vil- 
 lages, which they have partially effected in a 
 few instances, but in every case without im- 
 proving the condition of those who have joined 
 their institutions. And supposing the settle- 
 ment to be situated upon the banks of a never- 
 failing stream, one or two of which do exist in 
 the colony, how are its inhabitants to obtain the 
 means of subsistence ? Only three ways present 
 themselves : viz. the rearing of cattle — or the 
 practice of agriculture — or the introduction of 
 manufactories. The first is impossible, on ac- 
 count of the want of pasturage for any consi- 
 derable number of animals in one neighbour- 
 hood, and the fatal diseases to which they are 
 liable under such circumstances. 
 
 On the other hand, the people could not live
 
 294 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 by cultivating the soil, because it is everywhere 
 unproductive and of difKcult tillage ; nor could 
 it be improved by irrigation, all the rivers in 
 South Africa flowing in deep and rocky chan- 
 nels, from which the water could be raised only 
 by the aid of expensive and complicated machi- 
 nery. The last resource of the community is, 
 that they should engage in manufactures, and 
 obtain the necessaries of life in exchange for 
 these. But in a country where the proportion 
 of the inhabitants does not exceed two indivi- 
 duals to every square mile ; where the poorer 
 classes clothe themselves in skins; where the bet- 
 ter sort make at home almost every article that 
 they require ; and where there is no chance of 
 an increase of population, how could the manu- 
 facturers dispose of their commodities? And 
 supposing them to be of a disposable character, 
 would they equal in cheapness and excellence 
 those of a similar kind imported from Europe ? 
 I am aware that the celebrated JMoravian insti- 
 tution, called Gnatendal, may be brought for- 
 ward to prove the weakness of my arguments 
 and observations; and I will therefore enter into 
 a few details concerning the place, which I have 
 myself visited. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Gnatendal the coun- 
 try is horrid and barren beyond description.
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 295 
 
 Not a tree or shrub meets the eye, and not an 
 insect is heard to hum ; and animated beings of 
 every kind seem to fly the frightful soUtude, 
 where a painful and unbroken silence almost al- 
 ways prevails. In approaching the place from 
 the Cape side, the settlement, which lies in a val- 
 ley, is entirely concealed from the eye till one 
 reaches the summit of a hill immediately over- 
 looking it. He then sees beneath him a basin, 
 formed by barren hills, and about a mile and a 
 half long, and nearly half as broad, the bottom 
 of which, sprinkled with cottages and embroi- 
 dered with gardens, presents a scene of rustic 
 animation calculated to delight the beholder 
 under any circumstances, but more particularly 
 when he unexpectedly finds it, as it were, em- 
 bedded in the middle of a desert. 
 
 The village of Gnatendal is about one mile 
 long and half a mile broad. The houses, which 
 are not placed with any regularity, resemble 
 British cottages in their internal arrangement, 
 most of them consisting of a narrow passage 
 running across the building, and a room on 
 each side. The walls are generally composed 
 of unbaked bricks, coated outside with clay of a 
 brown colour, which is sometimes whitewash- 
 ed. Some of the houses have glass windows, 
 and all of them are neat and clean in their ex-
 
 296 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 terior, and one does not see any remains of 
 slaughtered animals lying about as is common 
 in Hottentot kraals. The paths leading from 
 one part of the village to another are shaded 
 with trees and enclosed by hedges, which, com- 
 bined with other particulars, gives the place an 
 air of taste and embellishment which one may 
 often look for in vain in the villages of civi- 
 lized Europe. The church and missionary 
 houses are built in a style of appropriate sim- 
 plicity, and the tall and flourishing oak-trees 
 in front of them render their aspect very at- 
 tractive ; and the whole settlement is invested 
 with a character of serenity, calmness, seclu- 
 sion, and repose, such as belongs to few other 
 inhabited spots with which I am acquainted. 
 
 Gnatendal contains thirteen hundred souls. 
 Few of these are genuine Hottentots ; and the 
 mass of the population consists of half-breeds 
 or bastards of various kinds, and some Mozam- 
 bique negroes, who have purchased their free- 
 dom. The JMoravian missionaries never in- 
 vite any one to settle in Gnatendal ; on tlie 
 contrary, they say, that they are troubled with 
 daily applications to that effect ; and no one is 
 admitted as a resident, except with the con- 
 sent of a certain number of Hottentot censors.
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 297 
 
 chosen by the Hottentots themselves to decide 
 upon that and similar affairs. These censors 
 represent the people, as it were, and are elected 
 by vote. All kinds of trades, such as those of 
 shoemaker, tailor, waggonmaker, blacksmith, 
 cutler, &c. are carried on in the village. 
 
 The Hottentots are considered to have an 
 excellent capacity, which enables them to learn 
 anything ; and their children possess greater 
 quickness and acuteness than those of Euro- 
 peans, and soon excel in many of the mecha- 
 nical arts. The women have a natural aptness 
 for music, and there is certainly considerable 
 sweetness in their voices ; though the singing in 
 Gnatendal church is far from being so finished 
 and enchanting a performance as Latrobe's de- 
 scription would lead his readers to suppose. 
 All the villagers are neat and respectable in 
 their dress. The men wear buckskin panta- 
 loons, and cloth or linen jackets ; and the 
 women skirts of calico, and white bod dices of 
 cotton and other stuffs. Everv house in the 
 settlement has a garden attached to it, and 
 most of these are in a state of high cultiva- 
 tion, and produce many of the commoner sorts 
 of vegetables ; but this is less owing to the 
 goodness of the soil than to the constant supply
 
 298 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of water which Gnatendal enjoys, and whicli 
 enables the residents to irrigate their grounds 
 several times a- week. 
 
 There is no cultivation within many miles of 
 Gnatendal, and the pasture in its neighbour- 
 hood is scanty and miserable, even during the 
 rainy season ; and the inhabitants at all times 
 require to drive the few cattle that they do 
 possess to a great distance to obtain forage. 
 The settlement appears on first view a mon- 
 strosity in the wilderness, and the traveller 
 immediately asks how its population subsist? 
 A reply to this question will show that the 
 same objections apply to Gnatendal as to all 
 other institutions of the kind in South Africa. 
 At the beginning of summer, half of the in- 
 habitants desert the village and wander about 
 the country in search of work ; and when the 
 harvest is done, they return home with the 
 little money that they may have earned, and 
 contrive to exist upon it and the produce of 
 their gardens till the ensuing season. Those 
 who remain in the village all the year through 
 are chiefly tradesmen. They are supported by 
 the sale of their handiwork, for which there is 
 a considerable demand ; because the country 
 lying thirty or forty miles beyond Gnatendal
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 299 
 
 on every side is very populous, and its boors 
 obtain cutlery, farming utensils, and even wag- 
 gons, from the Hottentots of the institution, 
 instead of sending for them to Cape Town. 
 
 Many strangers, too, visit the spot from cu- 
 riosity, nearly all of whom purchase some spe- 
 cimens of Hottentot manufactures, thus causing 
 an influx of money, of the highest importance 
 to the community. And it is to be supposed 
 that the missionaries generally assist the des- 
 titute part of their flock, and in this way re- 
 tain many individuals in the village who would 
 otherwise be forced to leave it on account of 
 poverty and want of employment. Hence it 
 appears, that the settlement at Gnatendal is 
 entirely and exclusively supported by extra- 
 neous means, and that its inhabitants cannot 
 derive any certain subsistence, either from agri- 
 culture or grazing, or from the natural pro- 
 ductions of the neighbouring soil. Were any 
 of these resources available, the missionaries 
 would doubtless have recourse to them, and 
 improve alike the condition and the morals of 
 the Hottentots, by fixing them in their village, 
 and rendering them independent of foreign aid 
 and intercourse. 
 
 The Jesuits of Paraguay would not allow a
 
 300 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 stranger visiting their missionary stations to 
 remain more than two days and two nights 
 at any one of them, lest, as they said, he should 
 corrupt the neophytes and teach them Euro- 
 pean vices : an admirable regulation, which 
 unfortunately caimot be adopted at Gnatendal, 
 where an influx of travellers and visitors to 
 purchase its manufactures is encouraged, as 
 essential to the prosperity and even existence 
 of the institution. 
 
 I have thus proved all that I proposed to do, 
 viz. that the state of Gnatendal does not con- 
 trovert my assertion, that no missionary settle- 
 ment in South Africa can ever be made to de- 
 rive its subsistence from the soil, or afford with- 
 in itself the resources necessary for its stability 
 and success. And none of these can imitate 
 Gnatendal, no other part of the country being 
 populous enough to give temporary employ- 
 ment to hundreds of nomade labourers, or to 
 consume the manufactures that might be pro- 
 duced by the part of the community who re- 
 mained at home. 
 
 The above remarks will enable the reader to 
 form a judgment of the state of the missions far 
 in the interior of the colony, where the soil is 
 infinitely less productive and more arid than in
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 301 
 
 the neighbourhood of the sea-coast. But even 
 the Bethelsdorp institution, near Algoa Bay^ 
 feels all the evils of drought and sterility ; and 
 it was selected by Vanderkemp, so far back as 
 1798, as the most eligible spot for the purpose 
 that the surrounding country afforded. Mr. 
 Campbell, who visited this settlement in 181.3, 
 in his character of superintendent of missions, 
 thus describes it: — "The ground on which it 
 stands is barren in the extreme, so that nothing 
 green is to be seen near the houses ; this also 
 adds to the gloominess of the village. Neither 
 trees nor gardens are to be seen to relieve the 
 eye ; but all this arises from the total want of good 
 water on the ground, except in the barren spot 
 where the village stands. In consequence of the 
 miserable appearance of the village, the settlers 
 are reported by many people to be extremely 
 indolent." 
 
 Lichtenstein gives a still more gloomy pic- 
 ture of Bethelsdorp in 1804, and states that its 
 inhabitants were in rags and misery, and that 
 the site of the place was hideous and barren 
 to the last degree : but I have preferred quoting 
 Campbell, as the former author was thought to 
 be unfavourably disposed towards the mission, 
 and inclined to show it in the worst possible
 
 302 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 light. IVIr. Campbell proposed that every house 
 m Bethelsdorp should have a garden behind it, in 
 imitation of Gnatendal. The reply was, " The 
 people are discouraged from doing so, by the 
 barrenness of the ground where the village stands, 
 the ivant of water, the depredation of goats, &c." 
 The following other questions and answers, 
 selected from a variety which he proposed to 
 the missionaries, will give a better idea of the 
 settlement than any description would do : — 
 " Could not the small river which runs across 
 Bethelsdorp be conducted so as to water these 
 gardens ?" — " TJie river is often dry, and like- 
 wise it cannot be conveyed to ground so high 
 as that on which the village stands." — " Could 
 not the village be built on Zwartkop's River ?" 
 
 — " No, the ivater is brackish, and unfit for use." 
 
 — " Could not more trees be planted about the 
 village ?" — "' The ground is so rocky and dry 
 that they ivill not grow." Mr. Campbell in- 
 forms us that the number of individuals be- 
 longing to the institution in 1813 was 1052, of 
 which only 608 were present. The remainder 
 were most likely wandering about the country 
 in search of those means of subsistence which 
 were unattainable at home, in the same way 
 as has been described as aimually occurring 
 amongst the inhabitants of Gnatendal.
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 303 
 
 The physical state of the missions in the in- 
 terior is extremely wretched, as the following 
 extracts from Campbell's journal, while he was 
 at Pella, near the Orange River, will show : — 
 " A more barren -looking spot can hardly be con- 
 ceived than Pella, all around being white sand, 
 interspersed with a few bushes ; two sides of 
 which space, the north and east, are bounded by 
 high rugged and black mountains. We visited 
 their gardens in the afternoon, the sight of 
 which cast a gloom on every countenance. It 
 was the second month of their spring; many 
 things had been sown, but most had perished, in 
 consequence of the saltpetre with which the 
 ground was impregnated, as soon as they had 
 raised their heads above ground ; others seem- 
 ed struggling to live, I do not recollect a single 
 smile on any countenance while viewing the 
 garden. The water is the only temptation they 
 have to remain at Pella. The banks of the 
 Great River, which are only about four miles dis- 
 tant, are so covered with rocks, that they cannot 
 live upon them. Thermometer at noon 8 4V' 
 *' We had still uninterrupted sunshine ; but 
 though cheering to look upward, it was gloomy 
 to look downward, for everything had a sicldij, 
 dying aspect." — " They (the Namaqua Hotten- 
 tots) come at different times of the day to the
 
 304 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 door of the missionaries ; and when they sakite 
 them with good morning, it is the same as tell- 
 ing them they have nothing to eat that day!' 
 
 Thompson, in one of his excursions in South 
 Africa in 1824, visited this same Pella, and 
 found it entirely deserted, the missionary and 
 forty of his flock having removed to a spot 
 twenty miles distant, in consequence of the 
 failure of pasture at the station; while the 
 remaining four-fifths of its former inhabitants 
 were wandering about the neighbouring coun- 
 try with their cattle, in search of grass and 
 water. 
 
 Can any individual of sound judgment view 
 with complacency and satisfaction the efforts 
 made to assemble communities of people in 
 situations such as those above described? where 
 life must be a scene of continued privation and 
 misery — where no species of knowledge can 
 enable them to ameliorate their condition — 
 where Nature wars against every effort of the 
 l^ind — and where they must be the happier and 
 more contented the deeper they are sunk in bar- 
 barism and ignorance. The interior of South 
 Africa is a country which will afford means of 
 subsistence more or less scanty to its population 
 as long as they continue nomade and dispersed ;
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 305 
 
 but if they are collected together into large so- 
 cieties, poverty, famine, and death must ine- 
 ' vitably be the result. The poorest and most 
 miserable of the Hottentots are often those who 
 have long resided at missionary establishments. 
 They are induced to join these by the hope of 
 bettering their condition. Bringing with them 
 their cattle, sliould they happen to possess any, 
 they settle at a station such as Pella, under the 
 idea that they will there be able to earn a liveli- 
 hood by the labour of their hands ; but finding 
 this to be a delusion, they are obliged to kill 
 their flocks for their support, and when these 
 are consumed, they find it necessary to desert 
 their homes, and travel through the colony till 
 they are assisted by some one, or taken into the 
 service of the boors. But even those who are 
 not dri vent from the institution by poverty do 
 not abandon a nomade life, as is too commonly 
 supposed. 
 
 I have already shown that in general one half 
 of the population of the missionary establish- 
 ments is absent, from various causes, for a great 
 part of the year, on which occasions they pro- 
 bably forget a vast deal of what has been taught 
 them — that is to say, if they really have learn- 
 ed anything at all. At Gnatendal, Green Kloof, 
 
 VOL, I. X
 
 306 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and Bethelsdorp, and a few other stations, where 
 the inhabitants speak Dutch, they are, I have 
 no doubt, tolerably well instructed in religion ; 
 but in Namaqualand and the Boschman coun- 
 try, the people understand no language but 
 their native one ; and the missionaries must 
 address them through interpreters, and of course 
 find great difficulty in instructing their hearers ; 
 and even when any missionary does acquire the 
 native language of his congregation, it proves 
 of little use to him, from its not containing 
 words calculated to express the ideas and opi- 
 nions which it is his object to inculcate. 
 
 The missionaries of South Africa, doubtless, 
 feel severely the disadvantages of their situa- 
 tion, the hopelessness of the labours imposed 
 upon them, and the many hardships to which 
 they are exposed ; but they are too good men 
 to wish to abandon their posts, and too zealous 
 in the cause of religion and civilization to be 
 discouraged by the physical and moral difficul- 
 ties which surround them. I am aware that 
 many persons who contribute largely to the 
 support of missionary associations will condemn 
 my opinions on this subject, considering it a 
 matter of indifference how poor, destitute, and 
 miserable the Christian converts may be, pro-
 
 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 307 
 
 vided they are able to crawl to church two or 
 three times a week, and to repeat a few psalms 
 and prayers : but unfortunately the Hottentots 
 and Boschmen have little taste for a system of 
 spirituality ; and the sight of cultivated lands 
 and of abundance of cattle would do more in 
 alluring them to adopt a settled mode of life, 
 than super-human eloquence, or even the per- 
 formance of miracles, on the part of their 
 instructors. 
 
 X 2
 
 308 
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN SOUTH 
 AFRICA. 
 
 The Dutch took possession of the Cape of 
 Good Hope by the same authority that has 
 served other European nations in similar cases, 
 viz. the power and the inclination to form a 
 settlement. However, there are two points in 
 the proceedings of the Hollanders which we 
 cannot but admire. They neither asked the 
 Pope to give them South Africa, nor did they 
 assure its natives that their sole object in com- 
 ing amongst them was to instruct them in the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 According to Kolbe, whose work contains 
 the earliest details which we possess respecting 
 the colony, the governor, Van Rebeck, purchased 
 the country of the Hottentots for forty thou- 
 sand florins ; but the truth of this has been 
 doubted ; nor is it likely that the Dutch gave
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 309 
 
 any price for a territory which they could have 
 taken by force, which presented few attractions 
 or objects of wealth, and wliich they must at that 
 time have proposed to occupy only by way of 
 experiment. However this may be, the views 
 of the Dutch government were at first very 
 moderate in reference to the Cape of Good 
 Hope; for they built only a small mud-fort at 
 the confluence of the Salt River with Table Bay, 
 and for many years the settlement and the cul- 
 tivated grounds did not extend farther back 
 than the bottom of Table INIountain. After a 
 time, the advantageousness of the colony being 
 represented to the home government, emigrants 
 were allured thither by donations of land ; 
 while, to equalize the population, and to pre- 
 vent intermixture with the Hottentots, a num- 
 ber of girls, taken out of the charity-schools in 
 Holland, were conveyed to the Cape at the pub- 
 lic expense, to serve as wives for those who 
 might want them. 
 
 No accurate information can be obtained re- 
 specting the habits, mode of life, and character 
 of the first settlers at the Cape of Good Hope ; 
 nor are these objects of much interest or im- 
 portance, as all infant communities are too con- 
 stantly engaged in providing for their absolute
 
 310 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 wants, to have time or disposition to unfold 
 any peculiarities of character. From the fre- 
 quent change of governors that took place in 
 the course of the first hundred years after the 
 establishment of the colony, we may suppose 
 that many of them were removed from office 
 on account of their corrupt practices. Kolbe, 
 who wrote in the year 1713, enters into various 
 details of this kind, particularly in reference 
 to Adrian Vanderstel, who was governor in 
 1699. He accuses him of having monopolized 
 the fisheries at the Cape, and of having appro- 
 priated to himself thirty leagues of territory 
 upon its eastern coast, and built splendid resi- 
 dences in various districts out of the colonial 
 funds, one of which he was ordered to pull 
 down at his own expense previous to his recall 
 and dismissal from office. The inferior ag-ents 
 in the employ of the Dutch Company, having 
 such an example before them, were of course 
 led to abuse the trusts reposed in them ; which 
 they had an opportunity of doing when traffick- 
 ing with the Hottentots for cattle for the public 
 service, or when furnishing supplies to the ships 
 in Table Bay. And it would appear that all 
 the officers of the colony, of whatever grade, 
 connived at each other's malpractices, and en-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 311 
 
 deavoured to improve their fortunes at the ex- 
 pense of the Dutch India Company, and by- 
 extortions upon the natives. 
 
 It is probable that Simon Vanderstel, the pre- 
 decessor of the corrupt governor of that name, 
 above alluded to, and who came to the colony 
 in 1679, was the person who first communicated 
 a spirit of improvement to its inhabitants, and 
 diffused amongst them a taste for the arts of 
 social life. He was a man of lively imagina- 
 tion, and of a vigorous and enterprising mind, 
 which led him to plan and execute various un- 
 dertakings, which never had occurred to his 
 predecessors in office. He proposed to open a 
 canal of communication between Table Bay and 
 False Bay, of a sufficient size to admit the 
 passage of the largest vessels from the one to 
 the other ; so that during north-west gales the 
 shipping might run for shelter into the latter 
 port, and during south-east ones resort to the 
 former. He also made a journey into Nama- 
 qualand, beyond the Orange River, and explored 
 many parts of the colony that had never before 
 been visited by Europeans, or were at least very 
 imperfectly known to them. He built an ele- 
 gant country residence ten miles from Cape 
 Town, and called it Constantia, in honour of his
 
 312 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 wife ; and it is this farm which now produces 
 the celebrated wine of the same name. Here 
 it would appear that Vanderstel spent much of 
 his time, and frequently entertained his friends. 
 Kolbe, who sometimes enjoyed his hospita- 
 lity, complains of his propensity for exagger- 
 ation and his love of the marvellous ; and says, 
 that he once assured him, that in the course of 
 his travels in the colony, he had ascended cer- 
 tain mountains of so great a height, that he 
 could see the grass moving on the surface of 
 the moon, and hear it rustling in the wind. 
 
 Vanderstel had the merit of encouraging the 
 culture of the grape in the colony, but none of 
 the settlers there have to this day been able to 
 make wine equal to that of Constantia. This 
 favoured territory is of so small extent, and its 
 soil so much resembles that of the neighbouring 
 grounds, that the superior quality of the grapes 
 raised upon it has always been a subject of 
 mystery and astonishment. But Stavorinus, 
 the Dutch voyager, pretends to explain the 
 difficulty ; for he says that the soil at the Cape 
 of Good Hope is badly adapted for the culti- 
 vation of the grape, on account of its being 
 everywhere impregnated with salt ; and that 
 Governor Vanderstel, aware of this, caused a
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 313 
 
 basket of earth to be taken up at the distance 
 of every hundred roods, throughout a consi- 
 derable extent of country in the neighbourhood 
 of Table Bay. He then separately mixed with 
 water these specimens of the soil, in order to 
 dissolve the saline particles contained in them, 
 and by evaporating the respective solutions, he 
 easily ascertained what spot of ground was least 
 brackish. This proved to be the site of Con - 
 stantia ; and he accordingly selected it for a 
 vineyard and a country residence. 
 
 We possess no details relative to the state of 
 European society at the Cape of Good Hope 
 that are worth recording till the year 1771, 
 when Governor Tulbagh had long presided over 
 the colony, and was revered and beloved, alike 
 by the inhabitants of Cape Town and by the 
 foreigners who happened to visit it. Unlike 
 many of his predecessors, he was a man of the 
 most scrupulous integrity in public and private 
 life ; and the moderateness of his establishment, 
 and his indifference to external pomp and cere- 
 monies, combined with a diligent attention to 
 business, and an accessibleness to all persons 
 however humble, showed that he viewed his 
 official situation less as a means of promoting his 
 own pleasure and benefit, than as an instrument
 
 314 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to advance the happiness and prosperity of the 
 people under his administration. Those sums 
 which he might have spent in pubUc enter- 
 tainments, he employed in relieving the indi- 
 gent ; his greatest happiness consisted in doing- 
 justice and exercising benevolence ; and the in- 
 fluence which he possessed as the head of the 
 government, was constantly exerted in promot- 
 ing union and harmony amongst those over 
 whom he presided ; — a task of equal difBculty 
 and importance in all colonial societies, whether 
 large or small. 
 
 It is difficult to believe that the people who 
 witnessed so many virtues, and experienced 
 their effects for so long a time, did not reflect 
 some of them in a faint degree, or at least hold 
 in respect qualities which they were themselves 
 incapable of imitating. But the picture which 
 Stavorinus has drawn of the Dutch at the Cape 
 of Good Hope about the year 1770, would lead 
 us to form an opposite conclusion. " The chief 
 trait in their character," says he, " which ap- 
 pears the most evident to a stranger after a 
 little reflection, is the love of money ; and this 
 is so palpable and universal amongst them, both 
 in men and women, that one must be more 
 than prejudiced in their favour to attempt to
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 315 
 
 deny it. Flattering words, insinuating caresses, 
 the allurements of friendship, love, and hospi- 
 tality, nought is omitted or neglected that can 
 contribute to gain the hearts and ensure the 
 confidence of the wandering strangers who 
 touch at the Cape : this appears to me the 
 probable reason why most people who have 
 been there once or twice, and have without 
 reflection taken the base metal of self-interest 
 for the sterling gold of refined courtesy and 
 friendship, are so profuse in their encomiums 
 on the Cape, as if it were the most agreeable 
 abode upon earth, and the centre of every satis- 
 faction. But view the other side of the picture, 
 and examine into the principles and motives 
 which give rise to the abundance of allure- 
 ments, and the promotion of self-interest will 
 appear to be the mainspring that excites this 
 exercise of seeming hospitality." 
 
 Stavorinus proceeds to tell us that the inha- 
 bitants of Cape Town are universally envious 
 of each other's prosperity ; and that the men are 
 ignorant, disinclined for reading or the acquire- 
 ment of any kind of knowledge, and that they 
 have not courage to go abroad to better their 
 fortunes, or to enter into the military or naval 
 services. I should not have given this writer's
 
 316 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 opinions so much at large, had not he been 
 a Dutchman ; but as he professes to describe 
 his own countrymen and their descendants, his 
 testimony must be of considerable importance 
 in enabling us to judge of the state of society 
 at the Cape of Good Hope towards the end of 
 the last century. 
 
 It ought to be recollected, that the Dutch 
 East India Company adopted the same perni- 
 cious system in the payment of their officers 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, as they did in their 
 other foreign settlements. The salaries were 
 contemptibly small, and scarcely sufficient to 
 purchase the necessaries of life ; but those re- 
 ceiving them were tacitly permitted to increase 
 their incomes by private trade and other in- 
 direct sources of emolument. " Thus," says 
 Thunberg, the Swedish traveller, ** while the 
 governor makes ten rixdollars of every pipe of 
 wine that is sold in the colony, other officers 
 find their advantage in giving leave of absence 
 to people who receive pay from the company 
 without doing any service for it. Some make 
 their fortunes by false weights ; others by da- 
 maged goods. A shipwreck fills the pockets of 
 many. In consequence of the rapacity of their 
 captains and their mates, the sailors seldom get
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 317 
 
 their due. The soldiers must yield something 
 to their officers. The sick must starve for the 
 support of many that are in health, and the 
 defunct must leave part of their effects to the 
 first comer." 
 
 Every one naturally struggled to obtain the 
 greatest possible share in these contingencies, 
 and a spirit of rivalry, distrust, and dissimula- 
 tion arose from this continual collision of in- 
 terests ; and when any one gained an advan- 
 tage, he became an object of envy to his neigh- 
 bours, because they had not participated in it, 
 or been able to appropriate it exclusively to 
 themselves. Private trade, and the perquisites 
 of office, proved however, in many cases, insuffi- 
 cient for the support of married people with 
 large families, and they accordingly opened 
 boarding-houses for the reception of strangers 
 visiting the Cape, and their efforts to obtain 
 inmates formed an additional source of jea- 
 lousy and mutual dislike. The society was 
 thus kept in a state of division by that atten- 
 tion to self-interest which Stavorinus consider- 
 ed the mainspring of Dutch character in Cape 
 Town ; but which, being in reality essential to 
 the prosperity and even subsistence of most of 
 its inhabitants, was much less reprehensible
 
 318 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 than he would make it out to be; though it 
 is impossible to deny that a stranger like him- 
 self could have little pleasure in associating 
 with people who were too much absorbed in 
 their own petty concerns to find time to think 
 or talk of anything else. 
 
 It might reasonably be supposed that the 
 daily intercourse with foreigners, which the 
 inhabitants of Cape Town enjoyed, would 
 have polished their manners and extended 
 their ideas ; particularly as almost every per- 
 son that visited the place became an inmate 
 of some private boarding-house, and was treat- 
 ed as one of the domestic circle while he re- 
 mained there. But few of these strangers were 
 calculated to refine or improve the individuals 
 with whom they might come into contact. 
 Masters and supercargoes of ships, and mercan- 
 tile agents from different countries, composed 
 the majority of the voyagers that touched at 
 the Cape. And if now and then a governor, 
 or a director, or a senior merchant, in the ser- 
 vice of the Dutch India Company, landed there 
 in his way to or from the Eastern islands, his 
 regard for state and etiquette would prevent 
 his associating with its inhabitants. Spar- 
 mann describes the society which he met in
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 319 
 
 the liouse of the colonial resident at False 
 Bay in 1772, as being of a most singular and 
 motley description. It consisted of the officers 
 and passengers of Dutch, French, and British 
 ships, and of a number of English ladies, mar- 
 ried and unmarried, on their way to different 
 parts of India, either to join their husbands 
 there, or to procure an object of the kind. 
 Four or five European languages were spoken 
 at table ; and after dinner, when the desert was 
 brought in, the Dutch shipmasters unanimously 
 put on their hats, and smoked their pipes, 
 while the rest of the company partook of the 
 fruits placed before them. 
 
 An influx of strangers of this description 
 could have no very favourable influence upon 
 any society whatever ; and we find from the re- 
 marks made by subsequent travellers, that little 
 change had taken place in the manners and 
 mode of life of the inhabitants of Cape Town 
 for many years after. Baynal, however, who 
 wrote about this period, represents the settle- 
 ment as one of the most favoured in the world, 
 and tells us, that the sole business of the females 
 there was to educate their children and pro- 
 mote the happiness of their husbands ; and that 
 so great was the simplicity and purity of senti-
 
 320 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ment existing amongst them, that when a girl 
 happened to conceive an attachment for a young 
 man, she boldly avowed it, and was applauded 
 for so doing, and seldom failed by her sinceri- 
 ty to secure the affections of the object of her 
 choice, and to crown her wishes by marriage. 
 
 The arrival of two French regiments at the 
 Cape, in 1784, caused a considerable, though 
 temporary, change in the habits and mode of life 
 of the Dutch. The officers and their wives 
 introduced a taste for Parisian fashions ; and the 
 females of Cape Town, no longer satisfied with 
 the simple costumes which had formerly pre- 
 vailed amongst them, were seized with a rage 
 for expensive and fantastic dresses. Ostrich 
 feathers for plumes were particularly in request ; 
 and Le Vailliant, who had collected a large 
 quantity of these in the course of his first jour- 
 ney in the interior of the colony, with a view 
 of sending them to Europe, found it necessary 
 to part with the whole for the satisfaction of his 
 fair friends. The French officers likewise esta- 
 blished a theatre, and the amateur performances 
 that often took place there delighted the society 
 beyond expression, and infused a taste for gaiety 
 and dissipation into its gravest members. This 
 state of things continued till two of the princi-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 321 
 
 pal actors attempted to counterfeit tlie paper 
 money at that time current in the colony. They 
 were quickly detected, and narrowly escaped 
 being hung; and their coadjutors, ashamed of 
 so disgraceful a transaction, discontinued their 
 performances; while, on the other hand, the 
 Dutch, rendered suspicious of the moral cha- 
 racter of their gay visiters, became less intimate 
 with them, and the society gradually resumed 
 its former tranquillity. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope 
 had, from the first establishment of the colony 
 in 1652, enjoyed profound peace and personal 
 security, and had neither been disturbed by 
 fears of foreign invasion, nor agitated by inter- 
 nal commotions, nor by the inflammatory doc- 
 trines of restless reformers. Though the trade 
 and population of the country had gradually and 
 even rapidly increased, the manners and ideas 
 of its inhabitants had undergone no change ; and 
 if an abundance of the necessaries of life, a fair 
 portion of political liberty, moderate desires, 
 and a contentedness with their condition, are 
 calculated to render any people happy, the co- 
 lonists in South Africa were certainly so. They 
 had indeed a few grievances and causes of com- 
 plaint, arising chiefly from the rapacity and in- 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 justice of some of their governors, and from the 
 restrictions that were from time to time imposed 
 upon their trade by the impolitic enactments of 
 the mother country ; and it has even been as- 
 serted, that on these grounds they were tho- 
 roughly disposed for rebellion about the end of 
 the last century, and would have declared them- 
 selves independent, had not they been checked 
 in their designs by the invasion of the English 
 in 1795. However this may be, the trifling re- 
 sistance which was made to the landing of the 
 British troops, and to their subsequent invest- 
 ment and occupation of Cape Town, seems to 
 indicate that the Dutch, if not actually disposed 
 to receive foreign conquerors, were at least in- 
 different about continuing any longer under the 
 protection of Holland. 
 
 The occupation of the colony by the British 
 forms the most important era in its political and 
 domestic history; for never before had any Eu- 
 ropean settlement so long escaped foreign inva- 
 sion and the evils of war, and consequently the 
 effects of both were the more strongly felt by 
 those who were thus suddenly subjected to 
 them. Although the English local government 
 redressed several grievances of which the colo- 
 nists had long been complaining, and reduced
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 323 
 
 the amount of their taxes, they nevertheless 
 utterly disliked their invaders, whose mode of 
 life, habits, and ideas bore little similarity to 
 their own ; and they would willingly have sa- 
 crificed part of their liberty and properties to be 
 relieved from their domination. Nor are the 
 causes of this feeling difficult to explain. Soon 
 after the British had taken possession of the 
 Cape of Good Hope, they made various changes 
 in the local government ; many individuals were 
 removed from office — others had their salaries 
 and perquisites reduced — not a few found their 
 personal consequence diminished — some had 
 their hopes of advancement suddenly destroyed 
 — and, in short, the views and interests of every 
 individual in Cape Town were more or less af- 
 fected by the new arrangements brought about 
 by their foreign masters. Besides all this, most 
 of the principal Dutch families being connect- 
 ed by ties of relationship or long acquaintance, 
 every one naturally took up the cause of ano- 
 ther, and a spirit of discontent and irritation 
 was thus diffused through the whole community, 
 and imbibed by individuals who had little or no 
 grounds for the indulgence of either. Every 
 one had something to say in reproach of the 
 English government, and the minor dissensions 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 previously so common in Cape society were all 
 forgotten amidst the new circumstances under 
 which its members found themselves placed. 
 
 But these grounds of dislike to the British 
 occupants of Cape Town might have been got 
 over, had not they been fomented and increased 
 by the conduct of the conquerors to the con- 
 quered. Unhappily the British do not possess 
 the art of conciliating those people whom they 
 bring under their subjection ; because, consider- 
 ing themselves superior as a nation and as in- 
 dividuals to all other inhabitants of the earth, 
 they never have any intercourse with foreign- 
 ers without allowing them to perceive how 
 thoroughly they despise them. Wherever they 
 observe manners or modes of thinking different 
 from their own, they pronounce sentence of 
 condemnation against those who have adopted 
 them ; and, wTapped in a supercilious self-compla- 
 cency, weigh and measure their fellow-creatures 
 by an imaginary standard, and undervalue them 
 in proportion as they fall short of it. Even when 
 the British add to the prosperity of a colony, as 
 they did at the Cape of Good Hope, the benefits 
 which they confer are neutralized by the de- 
 portment of those from whom they emanate. 
 The exercise of justice and integrity, and of all the
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 325 
 
 higher virtues, by a conquering people towards 
 the conquered, seldom so well compensate the 
 latter for the pain of foreign domination, as con- 
 ciliating manners, a concealment of prejudices, 
 and a disposition for intercourse and sociality. 
 I will not farther enlarge upon this subject here, 
 as in treating of other colonies I shall but too 
 often have occasion to revert to it, and to bring 
 forward instances in illustration of the above 
 remarks. 
 
 The principal writers who describe the colony 
 at this period are Barrow and Lichtenstein ; 
 and great as their respective merits and powers 
 of observation are, they always stand at variance 
 when the subject in question has any relation to 
 Dutch character and Dutch society. Lichten- 
 stein is a man of science, and a judicious and 
 enlightened observer; but, unfortunately, while 
 writing his work, that of Barrow has too often 
 presented itself to his thoughts, and he has ex- 
 erted himself to contradict it as often as possible, 
 and to prove the incorrectness of its statements, 
 which makes the relation of his travels assume 
 the character of an eulogy upon the colony, and 
 a defence of the Dutch, instead of being an 
 unbiassed narration of what he saw in South 
 Africa.
 
 526 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 At the time that Barrow made his observa- 
 tions, the colonists were in a state of political 
 ferment and dissension, and Dutch society ap- 
 peared to great disadvantage. Nor was he 
 likely to be well received under the official 
 character which he bore, while it at the same 
 time necessarily introduced him to a know- 
 ledge of persons, scenes, and occurrences little 
 calculated to excite favourable impressions, or 
 to soothe the fatigues of travelling peculiar to 
 the country. But he might, nevertheless, have 
 been a little more indulgent in his views of the 
 colonial societv, and have considered that the 
 inhabitants of Cape Town had never enjoyed 
 an opportunity of acquiring a taste for that 
 knowledge, education, and mental refinement, 
 which he professes to have in vain sought for 
 amongst them. 
 
 The account of the present state of Euro- 
 pean society at the Cape of Good Hope, which 
 I am now about to enter into, is almost en- 
 tirely the result of personal observation ; and if 
 it differs in some respects from what has been 
 given by preceding writers, this may be partly 
 referred to the changes which a series of years 
 has operated in the colony, and partly to my 
 desire to do strict justice to the character of a
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 32? 
 
 people, whom foreigners, whatever the reason 
 may be, have seldom shown themselves dis- 
 posed to treat with much indulgence. 
 
 The Dutch population of South Africa may 
 be divided into three classes, viz. the residents 
 of Cape Town and its immediate neighbour- 
 hood, the corn and wine farmers, and the in- 
 land boors. The Dutch residing in and near 
 Cape Town either hold situations under go- 
 vernment, or engage in commerce, or subsist 
 upon the produce of their lands. They are, 
 generally speaking, a stout, tall race of men, 
 of ruddy complexion, and inclining to corpu- 
 lency, lively in their manners and disposition, 
 and good-humoured and hospitable. Few of 
 them have any pretensions to learning or ex- 
 tensive knowledge, but neither are they defi- 
 cient in observation and good sense ; and their 
 indifference to cultivated pursuits arises, in my 
 opinion, less from indolence, than from a want 
 of proper incitement of the kind produced by 
 the example of others. Their conversation, it 
 may be supposed, is chiefly confined to their 
 personal affairs, and to those of the colony, 
 with the general condition of which most of 
 them are well acquainted. They take little or 
 no interest in English or European politics, ex-
 
 328 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 cept when these have any reference to South 
 Africa. Warmly attached to the land of their 
 birth, and perfectly contented with their con- 
 dition, they in most instances feel very averse 
 to all kinds of innovations. That restlessness 
 of spirit, and those ambitious views, which tor- 
 ment so many Europeans, are totally unknown 
 amongst them ; and they seldom care to vary 
 the routine of life by travelling, or by change 
 of abode, or in any other way. Nevertheless, 
 they are highly impatient of the censure of 
 foreigners, whether it may relate to their per- 
 sonal habits or to the colony in general ; and 
 every one is inclined to resent it as an affront 
 offered to himself individually. The traveller 
 who happens to express his disapprobation of 
 any of the customs of the country, or of the 
 mode of life or style of thinking of its people, 
 is at once accused of malignity and misrepre- 
 sentation ; for tlieir ideas not being expanded 
 by an acquaintance with other parts of the 
 world, they naturally enough suppose that the 
 things appertaining to themselves are unobjec- 
 tionable, and that these neither require im- 
 provement, nor are susceptible of it. 
 
 The Dutch gentlemen residing in the coun- 
 try derive their chief amusement from their
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. ^29 
 
 gardens and the care of their live stock. Few 
 of them are sportsmen, and they have no idea 
 of walking for pleasure ; and seldom go abroad 
 even on horseback, except on business or to 
 pay visits. In summer they rise early ; but in 
 the present day at least, they neither drink 
 brandy nor smoke in the morning, though tra- 
 vellers have too often accused them of doing 
 both. Their breakfast is a very slight meal, 
 and they pass the day in overlooking their 
 slaves, and sauntering about their grounds ; and 
 dine early, and instead of sitting at table and 
 sipping wine in the European style, they go to 
 sleep for an hour or two. The elder members 
 of a family seldom think of taking up a book 
 for amusement, but the girls sometimes read 
 German and English novels and poetry. 
 
 The Dutch are naturally of a sociable dispo- 
 sition, and both in Cape Town and in the 
 country they frequently meet at each other's 
 houses in the evening, and converse or play 
 cards. They also give great entertainments, 
 but chiefly on anniversary occasions, such as 
 marriage and birth-days, when they sit long 
 over the bottle, and dring wine out of immense 
 glasses or cups called pocals, which are passed 
 round the table as often as a toast is given, and
 
 330 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 emptied by each of the guests in succession. 
 These convivial meetings soon become very- 
 noisy and tumultuous, but without any quar- 
 relhng ; and the host expects that no man shall 
 quit his house sober, and in this he is seldom 
 disappointed. It is only on occasions like the 
 above that the Dutch drink hard ; at all other 
 times they are temperate and even abstemious, 
 though they always have abundance of country 
 wine at command. 
 
 The young females at the Cape of Good 
 Hope are extremely fond of dancing and 
 music, and of society in general ; and they 
 are in most instances qualified to perform well 
 their parts in all of these. They have con- 
 siderable pretensions to beauty and grace, and 
 enjoy a never-failing vivacity and an agreeable 
 self-possession, which render them highly at- 
 tractive. The remarkable difference of phy- 
 sical and mental character between the young 
 people of the two sexes in South Africa has 
 been described and commented upon by several 
 writers, and it cannot well escape the notice of 
 a foreigner. The young men have a tendency 
 to be clumsy, listless, and phlegmatic, and of 
 slow apprehension; while, on the other hand, 
 the girls are in early youth slender and deli-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 331 
 
 cately-shaped, active, full of animal spirits, and 
 clever and intelligent. It is to be regretted 
 that such promising qualities should in general 
 undergo so little and so short cultivation; for at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, when a female marries 
 and begins to have a family, she thinks that she 
 may altogether withdraw from society, and that 
 she thenceforth ought to find undivided em- 
 ployment within the walls of her home. 
 
 The young men at the Cape have been ac- 
 cused of indolence and want of spirit, because 
 they are often found lingering at home in a 
 state of dependent idleness at an age when 
 they ought to be established in some profession, 
 or at least doing something to gain a livelihood. 
 But these grounds of reprehension will nearly 
 vanish, if it is considered how peculiarly the 
 objects of it are situated, and what limited 
 sources of employment the colony affords to 
 those who have been reared and educated within 
 it. The appointments under government ob- 
 tainable by persons of the kind are few in 
 number and seldom vacant — the requisite sup- 
 ply of members of the learned professions is 
 procured from Europe — there is now neither 
 a military nor a naval service into which the 
 Dutch young men can enter — and no ships
 
 332 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 being built or fitted out at the Cape, they have 
 no opportunity of adopting a seafaring life. 
 They might indeed become farmers, but it is 
 seldom that their parents can afford to pur- 
 chase lands for them in a favourable part of 
 the country ; and they are neither willing to go 
 into the interior, and lead the life of an inland 
 boor, nor calculated to prosper in a situation of 
 the kind. They therefore have no resource ex- 
 cept commerce^ or rather petty traffic ; and the 
 most industrious amongst them either open 
 small ware-rooms, or become agents and buy 
 and sell on commission. 
 
 With respect to the general circumstances of 
 the Dutch inhabitants of Cape Town, I may 
 remark that few of them can be called rich, but 
 that the majority are in an easy condition, and 
 contrive to subsist upon their means, whatever 
 these may be. All the necessaries of life are 
 remarkably cheap there, and the Dutch too are 
 excellent managers and economists, though at 
 the same time they take care to live well, and 
 pay every attention to their ease and comfort ; 
 which they can the better do, as they spend 
 little or no money upon public amusements, or 
 books, or pictures, or fine horses, or ornamental 
 gardening. Taking them altogether, they may 
 be considered a happy and an amicable people ;
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 333 
 
 and if they are but partially acquainted with 
 the nobler and more refined enjoyments of life, 
 they on the other hand know nothing of those 
 extremes of misery and misfortune which exist 
 in all highly civilized societies. They are uni- 
 versally kind and charitable towards each other, 
 and any destitute individual belonging to their 
 circle will always find a home and an asylum 
 amongst them, even without the aid of rela- 
 tionship to enforce his claims upon their bene- 
 volence. 
 
 The Dutch and English residents of Cape 
 Town have little social intercourse. The 
 Dutch complain of the hauteur of the English, 
 and of their love of ceremony and unpliant 
 disposition, and excessive attachment to their 
 own customs. The English, on the other 
 hand, coming from a distant country, have few 
 feelings, views, or interests in common with 
 those persons who have been born and reared 
 in the colony, and receive little pleasure fi'om 
 their society. Dislike on the one side, and in- 
 difference on the other, throw the two parties 
 asunder, and it is not likely that a mutual ac- 
 commodation will ever take place between them ; 
 and the more so as many individuals of both 
 nations speak no language but their ow^n. 
 
 It seems not a little remarkable that the
 
 334 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Dutch should have reason to accuse the English 
 of arrogance and love of ceremony, these having 
 from the earliest times been the peculiar cha- 
 racteristics of the former in their eastern colonies. 
 It does not appear, however, that they were so 
 at the Cape of Good Hope when it was under 
 the Batavian government ; for we have no ac- 
 counts of the high pretensions of the company's 
 officers there, or of their jealous regard for 
 precedence. At present, too, the Dutch gen- 
 tlemen who hold official situations in South 
 Africa are distinguished for politeness and affa- 
 bility, and never affect any personal importance 
 in their intercourse with society, or lay claim 
 to any particular prerogatives. But things are 
 very different in Batavia, and in similar places, 
 where the European inhabitants carry the study 
 of etiquette and precedence to the highest pitch, 
 and live in a state of continual dissension on 
 account of the infringements of both, that often 
 happen notwithstanding all their care and atten- 
 tion. Stavorinus informs us, that when two 
 ladies of equal rank meet in their carriages in 
 the streets of Batavia, it often happens that 
 neither of them will make way for the other, 
 and that they both remain in the same spot for 
 hours together, till one of the parties is wearied
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 335 
 
 into submission, and allows precedence to her 
 adversary. A scene of this kind occurred be- 
 tween two clergymen's wives when he was re- 
 siding in the settlement. They both stood their 
 ground for a quarter of an hour, and exchanged 
 a great deal of abusive language, but at length 
 drove past each other by mutual consent, con- 
 tinuing however their invectives as long as they 
 were within hearing. The same writer, in de- 
 scribing the convivial gaiety which prevailed 
 at a party given by the British governor of 
 Calcutta says — '* This freedom and ease is dia- 
 metrically opposite to the stiff and obnoxious 
 formality which takes place at Batavia, in the 
 company of the governor-general and the coun- 
 sellors of India. Indeed an Englishman could 
 never brook the insupportable arrogance with 
 which the Dutch East India Company's serv- 
 ants are treated by their superiors, as well at 
 Batavia as at the out-factories. It would be 
 well if this conduct remained solely confined to 
 the Asiatic regions which gave birth to it; but, 
 unfortunately, we see it continued by purse- 
 proud individuals when they return to a coun- 
 try where from the most ancient times it is 
 known to be in perfect contradiction to the 
 genius and temper of the inhabitants."
 
 336 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The last remark is perfectly correct in refe- 
 rence also to the Dutch at the Cape of Good 
 Hope ; the restraints imposed by ceremony be- 
 ing almost unknown amongst them, at least in 
 so far as social intercourse is concerned. They 
 visit each other at all times, and very generally 
 without any specific invitation, and never feel 
 themselves disconcerted or put to inconvenience 
 by the arrival of guests, however unexpected. 
 They do not cultivate that domestic privacy 
 to which the English are so much attached, 
 and which makes them dislike sudden visits ; 
 though their pride has more to do in relation to 
 this point than they generally are willing to 
 acknowledge. A scrupulous regard for exter- 
 nal appearance too often induces the Englisii 
 to repress all feelings of benevolence and hos- 
 pitality ; and rather than be surprised over an 
 indifferent meal by the unforeseen arrival of 
 a visiter, they will cause their servants to pre- 
 vent his entrance by falsehoods, and will un- 
 hesitatingly sacrifice truth, friendship, and sin- 
 cerity, to escape the shame of appearing to be 
 poor or economical. This, however, is only one 
 of the minor depravities of character which are 
 common to all societies in a state of high civi- 
 lization, when life assumes such complicated
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 337 
 
 relations, and men become so intricately situated 
 with respect to each other, that if they have any 
 regard for self-interest or for the esteem of their 
 fellow-beings, they dare no longer indulge a 
 single generous, natural, or unsophisticated feel- 
 ing, lest it should lead them to commit them- 
 selves by neglecting external appearances — the 
 study of these, and the art of imposing upon 
 others, being the sole object and business of 
 their agitated and worthless existence. 
 
 Perhaps no town in the world so small as 
 Cape Town contains an equal number of ele- 
 gant and spacious houses. These appear quite 
 out of proportion to the income and resources 
 of those who inhabit them ; and in a certain 
 sense they are so, for one-third of their accom- 
 modations usually remains unoccupied, and the 
 rest is in general but scantily furnished. The 
 same remarks apply, though in a less degree, 
 to the country-houses in the neighbourhood of 
 Cape Town. Many of these are built in a style 
 of magnitude and substantialness which seems 
 far to exceed the means of their proprietors, and 
 which is seldom to be observed in European 
 colonies, and perhaps only in those occupied or 
 at least founded by the Dutch. Few other 
 people have expatriated themselves with so 
 
 VOL. I. z
 
 338 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 much willingness in forming establishments 
 abroad, or felt so speedily reconciled to a total 
 disjunction from their native land, or have so 
 unreservedly appropriated the produce of their 
 labours to the local improvement of the foreign 
 country to which they may have emigrated. 
 No sooner has a Hollander become resident in a 
 colony, than he conforms himself, withoujt he- 
 sitation or delay, to the genius and climate of 
 the place ; and, regarding it as his future home, 
 he abandons all thoughts of returning to his na- 
 tive land, and employs his capital and resources 
 in establishing himself, where he happens to be, 
 and in collecting around him the conveniences 
 and enjoyments of life. The Frenchman, with 
 all his flexibility of character, requires a longer 
 time than the Hollander to become reconciled to 
 a foreign land ; but nevertheless, when settled 
 there, he sooner or later acquires strong local 
 attachments, and generally at length naturahzes 
 himself to the soil, and looks forward with com- 
 placency to spending his days there. But the 
 Englishman, willing as he is to emigrate under 
 the hope of improving his fortune, and long as he 
 may remain abroad, never really becomes a colo- 
 nist in the strictest sense of the word. He finds 
 it nearly impossible to assimilate himself to any
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 339 
 
 country except his own, and, to the last, allows 
 his mind to be haunted with the desire of re- 
 turning there ; while he at the same time denies 
 himself various indulgences, in order that, by- 
 economy, he may limit the term of his expatri- 
 ation. The foreign towns of the three nations 
 in question are strongly illustrative of these re- 
 marks. The English settlements in almost every 
 part of the world are built in a mean and un- 
 substantial style, and seldom comprise any orna- 
 mental features, however insigniilcant. They 
 seem to be purposely kept in a condition that 
 will allow of their being abandoned by their 
 occupants wdth as little loss or regret as possible, 
 on the successful invasion of an hostile power. 
 And it has always been a principle with the 
 British government to spend no money on the 
 improvement of her colonies, probably because 
 she considers their, tenure too uncertain to war- 
 rant her doing anything of the kind ; and be- 
 cause her disregard of that object is likely to in- 
 spire their inhabitants with a similar one, and 
 to prevent them employing their surplus capital 
 in a way that would permanently withdraw it 
 from the parent state. It is not my intention to 
 discuss the good or bad effects of this system, 
 but merely to remark that the Dutch have al- 
 
 z 2
 
 340 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ways viewed the subject in a different light, and 
 considered that it is a piece of sound policy to 
 attach colonists to their place of abode, by sur- 
 rounding them with useful and 'agreeable ob- 
 jects, and encouraging them to increase the 
 number of these out of their private resources. 
 Hence the towns which they build in foreign 
 places equal, in stability, grandeur, and con- 
 venience, those which they have at home ; and 
 their colonists feel a deep attachment to the land 
 where they happen to reside, such as is un- 
 known to the English under similar circum- 
 stances, and which the latter would regard as 
 unnatural and unpatriotic. Cape Town is per- 
 haps the handsomest town in the world of its 
 size ; and almost every building either respect- 
 able or ornamental which it contains, with the 
 exception of the Commercial Exchange, was 
 erected by the Batavian government, or by the 
 Dutch inhabitants, previous to its being cap- 
 tured by the British. And though the colony 
 has now been thirty-five years in our possession, 
 an episcopalian place of worship is only now in 
 the course of erection ; and the members of the 
 established church have hitherto been under 
 the necessity of meeting in one of the Dutch 
 churches, the use of which has been liberally 
 granted them by its particular congregation.
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 34-1 
 
 The class of colonists next to be described is 
 composed of corn and wine farmers. These peo- 
 ple are mostly found within one hundred miles 
 of Cape Town ; and they form the mass of the 
 white population in the districts of Stellenbosch, 
 the Paarl, Drakenstein, Franchhoek, &c. In the 
 stronger points of their character they resemble 
 the higher class of Dutch in Cape Town, only 
 they are less polished, and have fewer preten- 
 sions to knowledge or education. They are 
 likewise extremely indolent and sluggish in 
 their dispositions, and rather gross in their 
 ideas ; and, in short, have precisely those habits 
 and manners which too many writers have er- 
 roneously described as prevailing in Dutch so- 
 ciety in South Africa in general. These men 
 are in easy circumstances-; and having plenty of 
 slaves at command, they do no manual labour 
 of any kind, and sometimes scarcely take the 
 trouble to superintend their farms. They are 
 particularly kind to strangers and travellers ; and 
 most of them possess comfortable houses, and all 
 the necessaries of life in abundance. They 
 smoke, sleep, and eat a great deal; but are 
 withal very temperate in drinking. They sel- 
 dom think of any amusement except shooting, 
 and will hardly attempt even that, unless the 
 game lies almost within gun-shot of their own
 
 342 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 doors. Their conversation is confined to their 
 domestic affairs, and to those of their neigh- 
 bours ; and they have little knowledge of any 
 part of the world except South Africa, and con- 
 sider travelling for the sake of curiosity as a 
 piece of unaccountable folly. Few people in 
 any country lead so easy a life as they do, whe- 
 ther as respects mental or bodily exertion ; and 
 happily their idleness does not dispose them to 
 be mischievous or malignant ; and even though 
 it were to do so, its attendant sloth would 
 neutralize such qualities, or at least render them 
 in a great measure ineffective. Their wives are 
 notable managers, though they do little more 
 than overlook the women slaves, and direct their 
 labours ; while they themselves sit the greater 
 part of the day at a small table furnished 
 with implements and materials for making tea, 
 a cup of which they offer to every friend or 
 visiter that happens to enter the house. 
 
 The general character and condition of the 
 wine and corn farmers presents too few peculi- 
 arities or interesting features, to require any 
 farther description ; and I will now proceed to 
 speak of the inland boors, who form a large pro- 
 portion of the white population of the colony. 
 The isolated situation of these men has pro-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 343 
 
 duced in them a corresponding singularity of 
 character, which, however, is not precisely of 
 the kind that might be expected. Those 
 mild manners and that gentleness of disposi- 
 tion, which almost universally belong to a pas- 
 toral people, do not exist amongst the boors in 
 the interior of South Africa ; although their 
 seclusion from the world, and their tranquil and 
 unlaborious mode of life, would seem highly fa- 
 vourable to the developement of such qualities. 
 The habitations of this class of colonists are 
 generally twelve or fifteen miles apart, and 
 very often twenty or thirty, or more ; and 
 the intervening tracts of country, extensive 
 as they are, do not always afford sufficient 
 pasture for their flocks, which form their sole 
 means of subsistence. They never practise 
 agriculture of any kind, because the want of 
 labourers, and the nature of the soil, alike 
 forbid it ; and few of them even have gar- 
 dens for the production of vegetables. These 
 they seldom taste, and bread is an equally 
 scarce article at their tables, and they contrive 
 to live almost exclusively upon animal food. 
 As soon as one sheep is eaten up, another is 
 killed ; and when they slaughter an ox, which 
 they seldom do, the greater part of its flesh is
 
 344 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 smoke-dried, and forms what they call bill-tong ; 
 and this they occasionally eat along with fresh 
 meat, as a substitute for bread and vegetables. 
 Neither do they generally use milk, the acrid 
 and alkaline quality of their pastures being un- 
 favourable for cows and goats. Tea, coffee, 
 sugar, spirituous liquors, and similar articles, 
 are in a great measure beyond their reach ; and 
 they even use salt very sparingly, either from 
 economy or from a natural dislike to it. The 
 bottoms of their bedsteads and chairs are made 
 of dried hides, and they use thongs of the same 
 material instead of cordage; and even the skulls 
 of oxen are sometimes placed in the front of 
 their houses to serve as seats. This practice is 
 not peculiar to South Africa. The Guachos, a 
 nation of mixed Indian and Spanish descent, 
 inhabiting the Pampa plains extending along 
 the Rio de la Plata, generally seat themselves 
 upon the skulls of horses or wild oxen, with 
 both of which animals their country abounds. 
 
 Thus the inland boors are necessarily satis- 
 fied with the productions of their own soil, 
 small in number as these are; and few men 
 either civilized or savage lead a life in ap- 
 pearance so destitute of comfort and attrac- 
 tion. Surrounded by sterile and uninhabitable
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 345 
 
 deserts, cut off from all regular intercourse 
 with their fellow-beings, exposed to the in- 
 cursions of Boschmen and the ravages of wild 
 beasts, and incapable of materially improving 
 their condition, they would feel miserable did 
 they know anything better ; but, on the con- 
 trary, they are a contented race of people, and 
 appear not to have a wish ungratified. While 
 travelling in the colony, I visited a boor's farm 
 upon the Lion's River, near Beaufort, and 
 walked over his grounds with him. He in- 
 formed me that it had not rained there for 
 four years, and that the neighbouring river had 
 become so brackish that it was scarcely drink- 
 able. He had tried to make a garden, but 
 without success, owing to the alkaline nature 
 of the soil; and he pointed out a small piece 
 of s^round which he had sowed three different 
 times with wheat that same season, the blade 
 upon which appeared only in small patches a 
 few inches high. The surface of the ground 
 near his house was beginning to exhibit a thin 
 coat of saltpetre ; and he jestingly said, that he 
 believed he must turn his attention to crops of 
 tliat kind, instead of attempting to raise any 
 more grain! A lion had recently devoured his 
 two horses, and his cattle were dying for want
 
 346 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of pasture. His household furniture consisted 
 of two wooden stools" a large chest, a table, 
 and a bedstead, and a few plates and dishes of 
 earthenware; and he had not tasted bread* for 
 several weeks, nor could he kill any game be- 
 cause he was unprovided with ammunition. 
 
 The above is not a singular case. Hundreds 
 of the inland boors have equal difficulties to 
 struggle against, and equal hardships to en- 
 dure; and when one considers this, it will 
 appear that those writers who have accused 
 them of unconquerable indolence and baneful 
 contentment, have done so unreasonably, be- 
 cause in reality no exertions of their own can 
 ameliorate their condition, or bring- within 
 their reach the conveniences and enjoyments 
 of life. What is an individual situated like 
 the one above described to do? To which 
 point are his energies to be directed ? Where 
 shall he find materials to work upon ? Let 
 him wlio condemns the laziness of the boors 
 endeavour to answer these questions fairly, and 
 he will be better able to judge how far they 
 deserve his censures in that respect as well as 
 in others. 
 
 The inland boors are of a sombre'and phleg- 
 matic disposition, which is doubtless nourished
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 347 
 
 and confirmed by the peculiarity of their situa- 
 tion. They have either slaves or Hottentots 
 to attend to their flocks ; and if they count 
 these in the evening on their return from pas- 
 ture, it is as much as tliey commonly do in the 
 ^course of the day, which they spend mostly 
 in walking about the house, and conversing a 
 little with their wives and families. No amuse- 
 ment is known in the house of a boor, nor is 
 any book ever found there except the Bible. 
 The young people seldom resort to games or 
 sports, or dance, or sing, or play any musical 
 instrument ; and when the two sexes meet, 
 little conversation takes place between them, 
 and the men and women generally sit at dif- 
 ferent ends of the room, except when meals are 
 served. The boors have three of these daily, 
 and all of them consist of animal food dressed 
 in nearly the same way ; and the carcass from 
 which it has been obtained generally hangs 
 from the roof of the apartment in which the 
 table is laid, and is often within a few feet of 
 the elbow of the master of the house. 
 
 The boors of South Africa have long been 
 celebrated for hospitality; and when a foreigner 
 criticises their manners or character, the Dutch 
 in Cape Town never fail to remind him of their
 
 348 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 claims to that virtue, in a way that shows that 
 they consider it equivalent to a thousand other 
 good qualities. I am far from denying the 
 hospitality of the boors ; but as they exercise 
 it in a very particular way, and as it is re- 
 garded as the main prop of their character, 1 
 may be allowed to make a few observations 
 upon the subject. 
 
 The inland boor seldom or never asks any 
 one to enter his house; but if a stranger 
 chooses to do so of his own accord, no objec- 
 tion is made ; and should he remain till a meal 
 is served, he is expected to take his place at 
 table without invitation, and he is equally free 
 to depart when he pleases, without ceremony 
 or notice. Everything therefore depends upon 
 the will of the traveller, who must always make 
 the first advances, and who may thus either 
 take up his abode in the desert, or seek the 
 shelter of the nearest hoiise, as may best suit 
 his taste and humour at the moment. How 
 few parts of Europe afford anything to com- 
 pare to this ! A person travelling, whether 
 through the most sequestered or the most po- 
 pulous districts of that country, would gene- 
 rally in vain solicit the hospitality of their in- 
 habitants. Were he to do so, some would be
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 349 
 
 startled at his boldness, and others would re- 
 gard him as a robber, and drive him from their 
 doors ; and supposing that some necessitous 
 person did consent to run the risk of lodging 
 and feeding him, he would most likely demand 
 of his guest five times the value of the accom- 
 modations bestowed. 
 
 What is it then that renders the hospitality 
 of the boors so distasteful to most of the fo- 
 reigners that happen to partake of it ? The 
 cause lies in the manner of the thing, not in 
 the matter. The boor bestows no smile of 
 welcome upon his guest, he scarcely speaks to 
 him ; and when a meal is served, he merely- 
 makes a sign to him to be seated at table. 
 He views him with cold indifference; and the 
 shelter and food which he bestows seem to be 
 given, not in compliment to the individual 
 himself, but as a matter of custom or neces- 
 sity. It is impossible to be pleased with treat- 
 ment of this kind, even when we know and 
 feel that we have no claim whatever upon any 
 man's hospitality ; and for this reason I have 
 almost always, when travelling in the remoter 
 parts of the colony, preferred remaining in my 
 waggon to entering any boor's house, though T 
 was well aware that it would be freely opened
 
 350 SOUTH AFRICA. • 
 
 to me. These men, however, receive their own 
 countrymen with much greater cordiality than 
 they do foreigners ; and the former never fail to 
 speak of their kindness and benevolence in the 
 highest terms, and are astonished that any one 
 should differ with them on that subject. 
 
 The boors have an unconquerable aversion to 
 foreigners, nor can they understand what in- 
 duces them to travel through their country ; 
 the acquisition of knowledge or the gratifica- 
 tion of curiosity being motives which are ut- 
 terly incomprehensible to the mind of a boor. 
 That enterprising and scientific traveller Bur- 
 chell, who has added so extensively to our know- 
 ledge of South Africa and its productions, is 
 spoken of by the boors in terms of contempt, 
 and named '* the silly flower-gatherer." They 
 knew that the collections of plants which he 
 made could not be intended for sale ; and, un- 
 able to conceive what was the object of his 
 botanical researches, they regarded them as a 
 proof of his imbecility of mind. 
 
 The means of education, as may be supposed, 
 are very limited in every part of the colony ex- 
 cept Cape Town, and most of all amongst the 
 boors in the interior. However, these people 
 do not altogether neglect the instruction of
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 351 
 
 their children when chance throws an oppor- 
 tunity of the kind in their way, which fre- 
 quently occurs, there being a set of Euro- 
 peans, chiefly disbanded soldiers, who take up 
 the trade of schoolmaster, and wandef about 
 the country in search of employment. They 
 teach reading, writing, and the elements of 
 arithmetic ; and any boor who may require 
 their services for his family, receives one of 
 them into his house as a guest, and pays him 
 ten or twelve shillings a month besides. He is 
 seldom employed by one individual longer than 
 a year, and generally for a much shorter time ; 
 but while he remains with his patron, he is 
 treated as one of the family, and is often much 
 respected by its members. 
 
 The children of the boors partake of the 
 saturnine temperament of their fathers and 
 mothers. The first and indeed the only play- 
 thing which the boys use is a large whip, which 
 they, exercise in imitation of a waggoner, and 
 in this way they acquire at an early age that 
 extraordinary dexterity in the management of 
 draught oxen, which is in a manner peculiar to 
 the natives of South Africa. When the young 
 boor approaches Vnanhood, he begins to take 
 delight in shooting, and becomes a connoisseur
 
 352 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in cattle, and exerts himself to procure a fine, 
 swift, and well-matched team ; and the feats 
 which it performs, and the characters of the 
 different animals composing it, constitute his 
 chief subjects of conversation. His dress is 
 coarse and simple, and always of the same fa- 
 shion, nor does he study personal appearance, 
 or place any value upon trinkets and finery, 
 even as a means of attracting the notice of the 
 other sex. The girls are generally well-looking, 
 but deficient in vivacity, which may be attri- 
 buted to their having no compnaions of their 
 own age, and no occupations or amusements ex- 
 cept what are afforded by the daily routine of 
 their father's house. Most of them marry very 
 early, and the courtship is seldom of long du- 
 ration ; they make useful wives, and display 
 much activity in the management of the general 
 concerns of their families. 
 
 I have been thus particular in describing the 
 character and mode of life of the inland boors, 
 because they are altogether a singular people, 
 and because there is every chance of their re- 
 maining unchanged for a long period, or per- 
 haps as long as they exist at all. Those revo- 
 lutions and political events which might affect 
 the condition of the inhabitants of Cape Town
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 353 
 
 and its neighbourhood, would be unfelt by the 
 inland boors, to whom it is a matter of indiffer- 
 ence, except in so far as national prejudices are 
 concerned, whether the colony is in possession 
 of the English, or the French, or the Dutch, 
 or the Portuguese. Neither would any acts of 
 the colonial government materially affect them, 
 except such as related to taxation ; an evil of 
 which they are not likely ever to have cause to 
 complain, because all that could be obtained 
 from them in that way would hardly repay the 
 trouble and expense of collection. They are 
 equally beyond the influence of commercial re- 
 strictions, for the want of foreign importations 
 or of colonial manufactures would occasion 
 them very little inconvenience. All the habi- 
 table spots in the southern part of the colony 
 being already occupied and appropriated, there 
 is no opportunity for emigrants to diffuse 
 themselves amongst the boors, and introduce 
 new ideas and modes of life ; while the distance 
 at which the latter live from each other is hos- 
 tile also to the occurrence of those slow and 
 gradual changes which take place in all com- 
 munities in the lapse of time, even without the 
 influence of foreign intercourse. The boors will 
 therefore, in all probability, be the same as what 
 VOL. I. 2 a
 
 354 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 they now are, two or three centuries hence, 
 should South Africa continue habitable so long. 
 In examining the condition of any particular 
 people with a view to discover what influence 
 it has upon their character, we are naturally 
 led to seek for parallel examples in other parts 
 of the world, in order to find whether similar 
 circumstances always produce similar results. 
 But we shall hardly be able to do this in the 
 present instance ; because in no other country is 
 there a civilized population sprinkled over an 
 immense extent of territory in the same small 
 proportion, and under the same disabilities, as 
 in South Africa. The condition of the back 
 settlers of America, doubtless, bears some re- 
 semblance to that of the boors. But the former 
 people, though residing in the deepest solitude, 
 and totally destitute of relations with their 
 fellow-beings, are forced to lead an active and 
 industrious life. The soil which they inhabit, 
 to be productive, requires a variety and a suc- 
 cession of labours, which it afterwards fully re- 
 pays ; and this encourages its proprietor to per- 
 severe in his toils, and to form schemes of more 
 extensive improvement. One day he wields 
 the axe, on another he guides the plough, and 
 on a third he erects fences, or sets fire to the
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 355 
 
 thickets ; and no sooner is the present object 
 accomplished, than a new one awakens his in- 
 terest and demands his exertions. On the other 
 hand, the labours and expectations of the boor 
 cease when he has built his house and stocked 
 his farm with cattle, and he thenceforth confides 
 in Nature for the gradual increase of the latter, 
 which constitute his sole wealth, his fields be- 
 ing unfit for cultivation, and his condition un- 
 improvable by his own exertions. Hence the 
 difference of character between the two indi- 
 viduals in question, though their respective si- 
 tuations seem to correspond. The American 
 backwoodsman is of an active disposition and 
 buoyant temper, and enjoys scenes of enterprise 
 and adventure ; while the boor is morose, spirit- 
 less, and melancholic at all times, and awkward 
 and irresolute under circumstances of novelty 
 or danger. 
 
 In the physical condition of the inhabitants 
 of the Llanos, in the neighbourhood of the 
 river Oronoco, we find a resemblance to that 
 of the boors of South Africa. These Llanos 
 are immense steppes or plains, scantily supplied 
 with water, and producing only a few palm and 
 mimosa trees, but affording tolerable pasture 
 during two-thirds of the year. There are some 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 scattered farms upon them, many miles distant 
 from each other; and their occupants devote 
 themselves exclusively to the breeding of cattle, 
 and allow their flocks to wander at will over 
 the surrounding deserts, except at night, when 
 slaves are sent on horseback to collect them 
 together, and bring them near the house. No 
 kind of agriculture is practised in the Llanos ; 
 and those inhabiting them live altogether upon 
 animal food, part of which is prepared by being 
 dried in the sun and sprinkled with salt — an 
 article of diet very similar to the hill-tong of the 
 African boors. Like the latter, the Spaniards, 
 or Meztizos, inhabiting the Llanos, are indo- 
 lent, apathetic, and unambitious, and never 
 attempt to subject Nature to compulsion, nor 
 feel a desire for more than she voluntarily pro- 
 duces and bestows. 
 
 The national character of the Dutch appears 
 in a more favourable light in South Africa than 
 in any of their other settlements abroad. If we 
 look towards the Eastern islands, we shall find 
 this people jealous of all other nations, tyran- 
 nical to those under their control, devoted to 
 pomp, ceremony, and parade, yet mean in the 
 midst of grandeur, and avaricious even in their 
 extravagance ; sensual and indolent to the last
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 357 
 
 degree, and always preferring to secure or ex- 
 tend their dominion by means of fire and sword, 
 rather than by acts of kindness or the arts of 
 conciliation. In Guiana, we see them in a con- 
 tinual state of warfare with slaves, fighting in 
 the midst of swamps and morasses with parties 
 of Maroons, and endeavouring to terrify the yet 
 unrevoked blacks into abject submission, by in- 
 flicting cruel punishments upon their rebellious 
 countrymen. Casting our eyes towards Japan, 
 we observe them imprisoned in a small island, 
 treated with contempt by the natives, and sub- 
 mitting to the most degrading observances, that 
 they may preserve the exclusive privilege of 
 trading with a people with whom a hatred of 
 foreigners forms the basis of national character. 
 On the other hand, if South Africa presents a 
 scattered and disjointed society, indifferent to 
 mental cultivation and unambitious of im- 
 provement, she at least affords a view of men 
 living in a state of tranquillity and comparative 
 innocence, and neither harassed by a deadly cli- 
 mate, nor corrupted by daily scenes of usurpa- 
 tion, rapine, and bloodshed. 
 
 I do not consider it necessary to say almost 
 anything of the English residents of South 
 Africa. In Cape Town they are chiefly either
 
 358 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 persons officially connected with government, 
 or merchants on a greater or smaller scale ; but 
 the number of both is inconsiderable. Neither 
 the one nor the other has much intercourse with 
 the Dutch ; and though the colony has been so 
 long in our possession, the mass of its popula- 
 tion has not adopted British habits or modes of 
 life, but continues to adhere to its national cus- 
 toms; however, the English language is now 
 very generally spoken or understood, except in 
 the interior districts. Grahamstown, upon the 
 Great Fish River, is inhabited entirely by 
 British emigrants ; and it contains nearly two 
 thousand persons. A few of these are mer- 
 chants, and the rest are shopkeepers and me- 
 chanics. Their condition differs from that of 
 the other colonists only in so far as they have 
 no slaves, with whom they can well dispense ; 
 there being many half-blood Hottentots in the 
 neighbourhood who engage themselves as ser- 
 vants or labourers for trifling wages. The in- 
 habitants of Grahamstown are an industrious 
 and thriving people, and their modes of life are 
 similar to what they have respectively been ac- 
 customed to in their native country. 
 
 A certain race of colonists, which cannot pro- 
 perly be classed with any of those already men-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 359 
 
 tioned, still remains to be described. It is 
 composed of a mixture of Dutch, English, 
 Hottentots, Caffi-es, and runaway slaves, and 
 generally receives the name of Bastards. These 
 people inhabit the country bordering upon both 
 sides of the Gariep, or Orange River, and lead 
 a marauding life, and are divided into various 
 tribes, or parties, each of which follows and 
 rallies round a chief or commander, chosen from 
 amongst themselves. They possess waggons, 
 oxen, fire-arms, and flocks of sheep, most of 
 which have been stolen from the inland colo- 
 nists, or procured by the murder of some of the 
 travellers or traders who occasionally cross the 
 Orange River on their way to visit the tribes 
 residing far in the interior. Most of these bas- 
 tard communities have kraals or assemblages 
 of huts, which bear the name of their respec- 
 tive leaders, and where they congregate and 
 reside at those seasons when the neighbouring 
 country affords pasture and water. The men 
 are mostly tall and well-shaped, and of a copper 
 colour; and they possess much more courage 
 and energy than the genuine races of Hotten- 
 tots and Boschmen. They are expert in the 
 use of fire-arms, and of a cruel and vindictive 
 disposition ; and are infinitely more to be dread-
 
 360 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ed by travellers than any other people in South 
 Africa ; for they value waggons and European 
 articles as much as they do cattle, and seldom, 
 like the Boschmen, confine their acts of plun- 
 der to the stealing of the latter. The Bastards 
 are supposed to derive their origin from some 
 Europeans, who, being obliged to fly from the 
 colony on account of their crimes, found an 
 asylum in the neighbourhood of the Orange 
 River, and there formed an association of run- 
 away slaves and wandering Hottentots. It is 
 very certain that these banditti often receive an 
 accession of strength from persons of different 
 complexions, who find it necessary to retire be- 
 yond the reach of the arm of the law ; and it is 
 probable that they will continue to increase in 
 number, till famine, or the want of sufficient 
 pasture-grounds, excites dissension amongst 
 themselves, and causes them to fight and to 
 destroy each other. 
 
 There is one other class of the population of 
 South Africa which I have not yet brought 
 under review, nor does it, strictly speaking, 
 belong to this division of the work ; but as the 
 persons in question have been introduced into 
 the colony by Europeans, and as they have a 
 great admixture of the blood of the latter in
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 361 
 
 their veins, they may as appropriately find a 
 place here as anywhere else. I will therefore 
 now make some remarks upon the slave popula- 
 tion of South Africa. 
 
 The present slave population of the colony 
 amounts to about thirty-two thousand indivi- 
 duals, nearly one half of whom are females. 
 Within these last twenty years, the number of 
 males has continued nearly the same, but that 
 of the other sex has experienced an increase of 
 three thousand. The present race of slaves 
 owes its origin to that which the Dutch them- 
 selves formerly imported or purchased from 
 foreigners ; their laws having always prohibited 
 their reducing to bondage the aborigines of the 
 country. 
 
 It was from their possessions in the Eastern 
 islands that the Dutch obtained most of their 
 slaves ; and the JNIalay physiognomy still predo- 
 minates amongst these people, numerous and 
 frequent as are the intermixtures which they 
 have undergone. A considerable number of 
 Mozambique negroes have likewise at different 
 times been introduced into the colony, probably 
 by Portuguese and Brazilian slave-ships touch- 
 ing there for refreshment or from stress of 
 weather. Madagascar, too, has furnished a few
 
 362 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 slaves, but the descendants of these are no 
 longer distinguishable by any peculiarity of 
 person or visage. The three races above men- 
 tioned have at all times intermarried with each 
 other, and the females have had continual in- 
 tercourse with Hottentots and with Europe- 
 ans, and it is the offspring of this intermixture 
 which forms the present motley slave popula- 
 tion of Cape Town. The diversities of phy- 
 siognomy observable there are quite perplex- 
 ing, and the instances are rare in which one 
 can accurately determine to what particular 
 race any slave belongs, and distinctions of the 
 kind are daily becoming more faint, and will 
 soon be entirely lost, except in so far as colour 
 is concerned. Many of the slaves are as black 
 as negroes, but the general complexion of the 
 majority is an olive-brown ; and no small num- 
 ber (particularly of the female sex) are as white 
 as Europeans. 
 
 All the domestics in the colony are slaves, 
 with a very few exceptions ; for those persons 
 who cannot afford to purchase individuals of 
 the kind, hire them from any of their richer 
 neighbours who may have more of them than 
 they require for their own service. Some 
 Dutch families possess twenty or thirty grown-
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 363 
 
 up slaves, gnly a few of whom they retain at 
 home, the others being employed abroad for 
 the benefit of their owners. This system may 
 appear an odious one, but it is in reality quite 
 the reverse, when, as often happens, the master 
 of a slave tells him that he has no occasion for 
 him at home, and that he may dispose of him- 
 self as he pleases, provided he pays him a cer- 
 tain sum monthly. The slave accepts these 
 conditions, and hastens to seek employment, 
 in which he is encouraged to be assiduous by 
 the reflection, that whatever sum he may gain 
 beyond what is exacted by his master will be- 
 long exclusively to himself. Under this sys- 
 tem, slavery assumes its mildest form, and ap- 
 proaches to the nature of heavy taxation ; and 
 the individual, freed from the presence and the 
 caprices of his master, may almost forget his 
 own real condition, or at least alleviate it by 
 the consideration that he does not labour solely 
 and entirely for the benefit of another. This 
 view of the subject necessarily implies that 
 the former shall not demand from his slave a 
 greater sum than he can easily earn, and that 
 he shall not dictate how the surplus is to be 
 disposed of, or expect to receive any account 
 of it.
 
 364 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The slaves at the Cape of Goodv Hope are, 
 generally speaking, mild and humane in their 
 dispositions, full of vivacity, gentle in their 
 manners, and neither vindictive nor deceitful. 
 I am well aware that many of the Dutch are 
 in the habit of giving them a very different 
 character; but I must decline placing much 
 confidence in the accuracy of what they say 
 upon the subject, on the ground that it is 
 usual with Europeans in every colony to ca- 
 lumniate, abuse, and despise the persons sub- 
 jected to their sway. Were we to believe 
 some of the West India planters, we should 
 suppose the negroes to be monsters of stupi- 
 dity, laziness, and ingratitude. Were we to 
 believe the Spaniards, we should conclude that 
 they had found the natives of Mexico and 
 Peru to be universally vicious, imbecile, and 
 contemptible. Were we to believe the first 
 English settlers in North America, we should 
 regard its natives as worse than ferocious and 
 untameable beasts — and were we to believe 
 many of the European residents in India, we 
 should refuse to give the Hindoos credit for 
 common intelligence, or for a single good or 
 respectable quality. Though it may seem an 
 inconsistency to assert that the generality of
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 365 
 
 mankind are not qualified to form a correct 
 estimate of those with whom they have daily 
 intercourse, and who Hve under their observa- 
 tion, and perhaps even in their houses, the 
 thing is nevertheless true, because in judging 
 of them, they exercise their temper and their 
 prejudices instead of their understanding. 
 
 Some of the earlier travellers in the colony 
 speak of the desperate and revengeful character 
 of the Malays and the Mozambique negroes ; 
 but acts of violence on the part of slaves, either 
 towards their masters or other individuals, are 
 now extremely rare at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 Neither is the country any longer infested by 
 those bands of runaway slaves who used to rob 
 the farmers, and even commit ravages in the 
 vicinity of Cape Town ; and the occasional ap- 
 prehension and condemnation of whom seldom 
 failed to lead to those barbarous tortures and 
 cruel executions which the Dutch government 
 has been reproached with too long permitting, 
 but which it latterly found proper to abolish. 
 It is probable, that in proportion as the condi- 
 tion of the colonists was improved, an amelio- 
 ration took place in that of their slaves ; and 
 that the latter at present enjoy kinder masters 
 and milder labours than they did forty or fifty
 
 366 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 years ago, and that they have consequently be- 
 come more humane and more contented. 
 
 A few runaway slaves generally inhabit the 
 clefts and recesses of Table IMountain, on which 
 their fires may often be observed at night. 
 They subsist chiefly by collecting fuel, which 
 they privately dispose of in Cape Town or its 
 neighbourhood ; and having purchased provi- 
 sions, return to their solitary haunts, where 
 they have no shelter excepting what the rocks 
 afford. These men are neither dangerous nor 
 troublesome, and they never commit depreda- 
 tions in a body. It is said that a small colony 
 of revolted slaves exists upon Cape Hanglip at 
 the mouth of False Bay, and that they form a 
 social community, having houses, laws, and 
 landed property. They cultivate the ground, 
 and rear abundance of cattle, which they ex- 
 change for various articles that are brought to 
 them in boats by one or two individuals in 
 Simon's Town, who carry on the traffic in 
 secret, and who alone are allowed to visit the 
 territories of these South African Maroons, 
 which are almost inaccessible to strangers, be- 
 cause the promontory where they are situated 
 is divided from the continent by a narrow arm 
 of the sea, and encompassed with sunken rocks
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 367 
 
 and breakers. It does not appear that this set- 
 tlement has ever given any annoyance to the 
 colony, either by piracies or by encouraging 
 slaves to desert their masters ; and probably, for 
 this reason, neither government nor private in- 
 dividuals have thought it prudent to disturb or 
 dispossess its inhabitants. 
 
 Sparmann and Barrow, and other writers 
 upon the Cape of Good Hope, relate various in- 
 stances of the atrocities committed by slaves 
 there, in revenge of real or imaginary wrongs ; and 
 state that they often commit suicide, and even 
 kill their fellow-slaves, in order to punish their 
 masters for maltreatment ; the pecuniary loss 
 which he incurs by the death of the party or 
 parties being in their opinion the severest re- 
 tribution that can be inflicted upon him. 
 
 This ingenious mode of revenge is not con- 
 fined to South Africa ; and its prevalence in 
 other coimtries is one of the strongest com- 
 ments that can be made upon the evils of sla- 
 very ; for it proves that persons in that condi- 
 tion value their lives so little as willingly to sa- 
 crifice them, under torments and ignominy, for 
 the sake of satisfying a sudden resentment, or 
 from the desire of retaliating injuries. Despe- 
 rate men, in a state of freedom, sometimes
 
 368 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 commit crimes, and even involve themselves in 
 ruin, with the sole view of injuring those who 
 may have oppressed them ; but they seldom are 
 so infatuated as to throw away their lives for a 
 similar purpose; because they feel that their 
 souls and bodies appertain exclusively to them- 
 selves, and are not objects of mere traffic and 
 valuation. We must therefore regard the atro- 
 cious acts in question, not as a pi'oof of the vice 
 and depravity of their perpetrators, but as a 
 perdurable evidence of the abstract accursedness 
 of slavery. 
 
 Lavysse, in his Description of Venezuela, 
 speaking of the frequent practice of abortion 
 and infanticide amongst the negro slave women 
 in those Spanish settlements, where they are 
 cruelly treated, informs us that it is not un- 
 common for a man and his wife to resolve upon 
 poisoning themselves, their children, and their 
 fellow-slaves, with a view to revenge their per- 
 sonal wrongs, and to escape future misery. In 
 order to witness and fully enjoy the distress and 
 perplexity of their masters, they reserve them- 
 selves for the last victims of the tragedy, and 
 usually begin the work of destruction by poi- 
 soning their children, and then do the same to 
 some of their companions in bondage, selecting
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 369 
 
 such as are most useful and valuable to their 
 owner — such as artificers and mechanics. The 
 poisons employed are of slow operation ; and 
 those who administer them, having contemplated 
 their successive effects for weeks or months to- 
 gether, and seen their master reduced to ruin, 
 at length calmly devote themselves to death, 
 and perish without remorse or regret. Kalm, 
 in his Travels in North America, states, that in 
 his time the negro slaves there often had re- 
 course to secret poisoning when they wished to 
 take revenge upon their masters, and that they 
 always selected as their victims his most valu- 
 able and favourite servants, caring little about 
 detection and punishment, if they succeeded in 
 the execution of their purpose. 
 
 Atrocities like these are now unknown at the 
 Cape of Good Hope. Desperate crimes rarely 
 occur amongst the slave population there ; and 
 even continued maltreatment (uncommon as it 
 is) seldom leads them to take revenge upon 
 their masters, though they enjoy very favour- 
 able opportunities of doing so, owing to the 
 isolated situation of the farms in most parts of 
 the colony. Nothing is more common than to 
 find a boor and his family residing thirty or 
 forty miles distant from any other habitation. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 b
 
 370 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Persons so situated are entirely in the power of 
 their slaves, who might at any time destroy 
 them all, plunder the house, and, driving off 
 the cattle, proceed far into the neighbouring 
 deserts, and there remain undisturbed, and 
 even unheard-of, as long as they chose to avoid 
 observation. People travelling in the interior 
 of the country are, if possible, still more at the 
 mercy of their slaves ; because, at such times, 
 the latter are usually provided with fire-arms, 
 and have the care of the cattle, and, as it were, 
 the entire management of the journey. But 
 neither in the one case nor in the other is any 
 danger ever to be apprehended ; and the mas- 
 ter, so far from distrusting his servants, looks 
 to them for protection and assistance in the 
 hour of need. 
 
 In no part of the world, I believe, does 
 slavery assume so mild a character as at the 
 Cape of Good Hope. In Cape Town and its 
 neighbourhood the condition of the slaves is 
 better than in the remote districts, where field 
 labour is required, and where their masters can- 
 not so easily command the comforts and neces- 
 saries of life ; but even in such situations they 
 are for the most part well fed and decently 
 clothed, and their cheerfulness and alacrity
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 371 
 
 sliow that they are neither overworked abroad 
 nor tyrannized over at home. Here I speak in 
 reference to the men only ; for the females per- 
 form none but domestic duties, and spend most 
 of tlie day within doors, and in the same apart- 
 ment with their mistresses ; and either attend to 
 the dairy or the kitchen, or employ themselves 
 at their needle ; so that their occupations are 
 much more light and agreeable than those of 
 the majority of women-servants in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The Cape of Good Hope is perhaps the only 
 place in the world where a state of bondage has 
 no external badge attached to it ; and this, 
 doubtless, has tended to improve the character 
 of the slave population there. In most other 
 slave countries, that class of people are either 
 prohibited from wearing certain articles of 
 dress, or are obliged to assume a particular 
 garb or emblem, to distinguish them from free- 
 men, and to prevent them for a moment los- 
 ing a recollection of their degraded condition. 
 Formerly no slave in Cape Town, male or fe-^ 
 male, was allowed to walk abroad after sunset 
 without carrying a lantern ; but this regulation 
 no longer exists, nor has any disorder or incon- 
 venience arisen from its disuse. 
 
 2 B 2
 
 372 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 It would appear, that though a state of higli 
 civilization may teach men to declaim against 
 a state of slavery, it does not always lead them 
 to ameliorate the condition of their slaves. The 
 Romans, the Greeks, and the Spartans, treated 
 these people with equal cruelty and contempt, 
 notwithstanding their boasted love of civil and 
 political liberty. When we read of Cato the 
 elder selling his old slaves, or abandoning them 
 to famine and misery — when we find that De- 
 mosthenes hired out his sword-cutlers, and sup- 
 ported himself upon their wages — and when 
 we are told that the Spartans encouraged their 
 young men to roam about the country and 
 assault and kill any Helots that they might 
 meet, we are inclined to M^onder at the incon- 
 sistency of the ancients, and to suspect that 
 they were really noble-minded only in great 
 public emergencies, and that they seldom in- 
 vested themselves with the garb of humanity, 
 except on holidays, when every one would be 
 abroad to see and applaud them. 
 
 The Athenians employed every possible 
 means to degrade their *slaves in their own esti- 
 mation and in that of others. They were not 
 allowed to dress or to wear their hair like free- 
 men, and their masters were prohibited from
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 373 
 
 bestowing upon them any name that had ever 
 belonged to a distinguished person. 
 
 It is not a little singular that the moderns 
 should in most colonies choose those very names 
 for their slaves, which the ancients strictly for- 
 bade the use of in similar cases. And if the 
 Greeks in some instances were wont to treat 
 particular slaves with kindness, the individuals 
 thus distinguished were either useful in minis- 
 tering to the pleasures of their masters, or in su- 
 perintending their estates and domestic affairs, 
 and owed to these qualities alone the indulgence 
 and estimation which they might enjoy. With 
 regard to the Spartan amusement of killing 
 Helots during the night, it has been objected, 
 that it is impossible that Lycurgus could ever 
 have encouraged or even permitted such wan- 
 ton barbarities merely with a view to render 
 the youth of his republic dexterous in the use 
 of arms. This argument seems fallacious, for 
 though Lycurgus was a just man, he may not 
 have been a humane one ; and he perhaps wished 
 to impress the Spartans with the opinion that a 
 slave was unworthy of sympathy, and entitled 
 to live only by sufferance. But if he inculcat- 
 ed that the practice of agriculture, and of the 
 mechanical arts, was beneath the dignity of a
 
 374 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 citizen, how could he consistently encourage 
 the young warriors to destroy the class of men 
 upon whom he had devolved these degrading 
 occupations, and without whose labours and 
 assistance his republic could not have existed 
 one week ? The Helots were as necessary to 
 the Spartans as the negroes are to our West 
 India planters ; and were the latter to instruct 
 their children to shoot any slaves that they 
 might find abroad after nightfall, their conduct 
 would not be more repugnant to humanity and 
 common sense, than was that of the Spartans in 
 reference to the Helots, on whom they exclu- 
 sively depended for the cultivation of the ground, 
 and for the few conveniences of life which they 
 did enjoy. 
 
 The average price of a male slave in Cape 
 Town is from one hundred to one hundred and 
 twenty pounds, and that of a female thirty or 
 forty pounds less. But the price of all kinds 
 of slaves, and particularly of mechanics, has of 
 late considerably declined, owing to the influx 
 of European emigrants into the colony in the 
 year 18221 ; most of whom finding it impossible 
 to cultivate the lands allotted to them by the 
 British government, either entered the service 
 of the colonists, or exercised their respective
 
 EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 375 
 
 trades in Cape Town, and in various parts of 
 the neighbouring country. Barrow has justly- 
 remarked, that in no quarter of the world is 
 slavery less necessary than in South Africa, 
 where a temperate climate permits Europeans 
 to labour without injury to their constitution. 
 However, the evil has been introduced, and is 
 now too extensive to be speedily or easily re- 
 moved, although some deluded enthusiasts, if 
 they had their own way, (which happily they 
 have not,) would effect this by general and im- 
 mediate emancipation. In the mean time, let 
 them console themselves with the assurance 
 that the slaves in South Africa are better treated 
 and more fortunately situated than those of al- 
 most any other country, and that the removing 
 of their fetters is consequently the less neces- 
 sary and urgent, and may best be accomplished 
 in a gradual way, 
 
 I never was asked for charity in the streets of 
 Cape Town but once. The applicant was an 
 old woman, who, in answer to my inquiries re- 
 specting her condition, told me that she was 
 formerly a slave, but that her mistress had re- 
 cently died, leaving her " nothing hut her free- 
 ' domT Let those hasty and intemperate eman- 
 cipationists, who raise their voices so loud,
 
 376 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 consider well the nature and consequences of 
 the measure which they advocate — and let them 
 scrupulously examine whether it will be for the 
 benefit of those who are its objects, lest, in sud- 
 denly delivering them from bondage, they leave 
 them with " nothing hut their freedom^''
 
 INDIA. 
 
 THE INDIAN OCEAN. * 
 
 The Indian Ocean, notwithstanding its re- 
 moteness from Europe, was from the earliest 
 asres much better known there, than the Atlan- 
 tic can be said to have been previous to the 
 voyages of Columbus and Vasco de Gama. 
 The Romans possessed, at a very early period, 
 a tolerably correct idea of the geography of that 
 part of the Indian Sea which extends between 
 the mouths of the Arabian and Persian gulfs 
 and the island of Ceylon. This was the result 
 of the indirect commercial intercourse which 
 they carried on with the rich countries of the 
 East, and of the publication of the writings of 
 Megasthenes, whom Seleucus Nicanor had sent 
 as ambassador to the city of Palibothra in Hin- 
 dostan. 
 
 When Egypt became a province of the Ro- 
 man empire, the direct trade with India that 
 had been established by the Ptolemies, by way
 
 378 INDIA. 
 
 of the Red Sea, still continued, and furnished 
 an exhaustless stream of information respecting 
 the great Eastern Ocean ; and truth began to 
 be separated from fable, and facts confirmed 
 which had at first been deemed incredible. 
 Nevertheless, everything related of the Indian 
 Ocean was yet strongly tinged with the marvel- 
 lous and imaginative ; and its prodigious and un- 
 known extent, and the vast variety and the curi- 
 ousness of its productions, were circumstances 
 well calculated to awaken the interest of an en- 
 lightened people, and to lead them to hope and 
 expect that Nature's wonders would be found 
 to multiply in proportion to the progress of dis- 
 covery. 
 
 The romance of nautical or terrestrial dis- 
 covery has long ceased to exist. The ancients 
 being acquainted with only a small portion of 
 the globe, and that portion lying in a temperate 
 climate, they could neither conclude from ana- 
 logy that the productions of other parts of the 
 world must resemble those of their own, nor 
 have any reason to suppose that a strong gene- 
 ral similarity would be found to prevail amongst 
 the inhabitants of the most remote regions. 
 Hence they not only gave credit to tales of 
 monsters in a human shape, and of trees and
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 379 
 
 rocks of miraculous qualities; but did not 
 think it at all astonishing or repugnant to the 
 principles of Nature that such things should 
 exist. 
 
 But the developement of geographical sci- 
 ence in modern times has satisfied us that 
 Nature everywhere confines herself within cer- 
 tain limits in so far as respects the general 
 forms and qualities of animated beings ; and, in 
 the present day, even the most credulous person 
 does not suppose it possible that those regions 
 which remain unexplored shall be found to 
 contain tribes of men with only one eye, or with 
 feet large enough to shade their bodies from 
 the sun, or nations of Amazons, or races of 
 giants or of pigmies, or shrubs that produce 
 geese, or trees whose leaves on falling to the 
 ground become living mice, or birds of prey 
 large enovigh to carry away young elephants in 
 their claws. 
 
 By merely knowing the latitude of any coun- 
 try, we can now, upon principles of analogy, 
 form a correct estimate of its productions, and of 
 the character and condition of its inhabitants ; as- 
 sured that the novelties which it may produce 
 in any department of Nature will, instead of 
 being calculated to excite popidar wonder.
 
 380 INDIA. 
 
 possess an interest in the eyes of men of science 
 only, or at least of those individuals who take 
 delight in tracing the shades of difference which 
 serve to distinguish and classify the various ob- 
 jects which present themselves upon the surface 
 of our globe. Hence no traveller now attempts 
 to deceive us with marvellous narrations, because 
 our geographical knowledge would enable us 
 to detect him ; and hence ignorant men listen 
 with indifference to the recitals of voyagers, be- 
 cause they know that these are not likely to 
 convey any information savouring of the wild 
 and wonderful, or calculated to amuse an un- 
 cultivated understanding. Humboldt remarks, 
 that it is possible that in the unexplored regions 
 of New Holland or of South America, we may 
 find the lichens and mosses which are so dimi- 
 nutive in Europe, assuming ligneous trunks, 
 and growing to the height of our oaks, and 
 forming immense forests. The man of science 
 would be astonished and enchanted by a disco- 
 very of the kind ; while an individual who had 
 never studied nature, would perceive nothing 
 uncommon in the fact, and would perhaps ask 
 in what respect the forest in question differed 
 from those of any other country. 
 
 At what period the Indian Ocean was first
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 381 
 
 visited by foreign ships is uncertain ; nor would 
 this question probably have engaged the atten- 
 tion of any one, had not the situation of the 
 country named Ophir in the Scriptures been a 
 subject of dispute amongst geographers. The 
 notices which we possess respecting the ancient 
 Ophir and its productions are so obscure and 
 indefinite as to apply to almost any tropical 
 region yielding gold ; and hence some writers 
 have placed this celebrated land on the west 
 coast of Africa, while others have referred it to 
 the eastern side of the same continent, in the 
 neighbourhood of Sofala ; a third class of au- 
 thorities respectively identify it with Arabia 
 Felix, with Hindostan, and with Serendiep or 
 Ceylon ; and latterly, a theorist, bolder than any 
 of his predecessors, has pronounced Bencoolen, 
 in the island of Sumatra, to have been the seat 
 of Ophir and the scene of Queen Sheba's glory. 
 It seems in the highest degree improbable that 
 a people so little enterprising as the Jews were 
 in the time of Solomon, and so occupied by in- 
 ternal dissensions, should have made long voya- 
 ges, and discovered new countries; and we may 
 therefore suppose that they obtained their gold 
 and spices at as little distance from home as was 
 possible, and never extended tlieir expeditions
 
 382 INDIA. 
 
 beyond the coasts of Arabia Felix. The Arabs 
 were doubtless the first foreign nation that 
 ventured to traverse the great Indian Ocean ; 
 for the early Portuguese navigators found them 
 scattered over nearly the whole of its archipe- 
 lago, and in many places naturalized to the soil. 
 The Indian Sea may be considered as com- 
 mencing at the tropic of Capricorn, from 
 whence, bounded on the west by the island 
 of Madagascar and by Africa, and on the east 
 by New South Wales and Sumatra, it extends 
 in an expanse ahnost unbroken, except by the 
 peninsula of Hindostan, to the tropic of Can- 
 cer. In no other part of the equatorial ocean 
 do we find so large a space presenting so few 
 islands, and preserving so uniform a depth, and 
 offering so few obstacles to the progress of the 
 navigator. With the exception of the three 
 islands composing the Mauritius, and the in- 
 considerable archipelagoes of the Maldives and 
 Laccadives, nothing breaks the continuity of 
 this watery area, eighteen hundred miles broad, 
 and two thousand long. Hence its waves roll 
 with a slow and mountainous swell, its trade 
 winds are steady and regular, and it is seldom 
 disturbed by violent tempests, and usually en- 
 joys a beautifully transparent atmosphere. The
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 38f:J 
 
 unbroken character of the Indian Ocean is re- 
 markable, not on account of the extent of open 
 sea which it comprehends, but because this is 
 situated in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 the equator, a thing which nowhere else oc- 
 curs. It is merely necessary to cast our eyes 
 on the map to perceive that all other tropical 
 parts of the ocean are thickly studded with 
 islands, either isolated and of great size, such 
 as Sumatra, Java, Borneo, St. Domingo, Cuba, 
 New Guinea, &c., or in archipelagoes and clus- 
 ters, like the Gallapagos, the Carribeans, the 
 New Hebrides, the Sandwich and Society Is- 
 lands, and others. Beyond the limits of the 
 tropics, the earth seems to shrink under the 
 ocean, except in those places where she as- 
 sumes the bold form of a continent, as in the 
 instances of Greenland and New Holland ; and 
 the nearer we approach towards the Arctic and 
 Antarctic regions, the more sparingly do we 
 find islands either in groups or solitary. The 
 accumulation of islands under the equator is 
 evidently the result of the spherical figure of 
 our planet, and of its diurnal revolutions, which 
 give it a continual tendency to extend its di- 
 mensions in the line and direction of its greatest 
 circumference; upon the established principle,
 
 384- INDIA. 
 
 that the centrifugal force increases in propor- 
 tion to the distance from the axis of motion. 
 
 Though the physical character and aspect of 
 the Indian Ocean bears a strong similarity to 
 that of the tropical parts of the Atlantic, still 
 the resemblance is not complete in all points. 
 The former ocean is but seldom visited by those 
 squalls and storms of thunder and lightning 
 which are of common occurrence in the latter, 
 particularly in the neighbourhood of the west 
 coast of Africa ; neither are the formidable 
 waterspouts, which have already been described 
 as frequently appearing in the same quarter, 
 to be often observed in the Indian seas, where 
 nearly all the atmospherical phenomena of the 
 torrid zone are mild in their character, and 
 where the winds, the temperature, and the cur- 
 rents, are subject to little irregularity through- 
 out the year. But though possessing these ad- 
 vantages, this ocean is one of the most solitary 
 in the world, at least in so far as respects the 
 visibleness of its inhabitants. The voyager will 
 traverse it for days in succession without see- 
 ing any animated beings wliatever ; and when 
 such do appear, it is generally under the form 
 of the shy and snow-white tropic-bird, soaring 
 far above the vanes at the mast-head, and often
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 385 
 
 remaining poised in the air like a small frag- 
 ment of cloud ; or of the great black peterel, 
 which wheels continually round the ship, with- 
 out ever approaching within several hundred 
 yards of her ; or of the flying-fish, which shoots 
 across the waves and quickly disappears ; or of 
 the whale, evolving its dark-coloured back upon 
 the surface of the water like a crescent, and in 
 a few moments withdrawing itself from the 
 view. 
 
 But if the Indian Ocean generally wants 
 animation during the day, it often presents 
 a scene of redeeming splendour at night; for 
 nowhere is that beautiful phenomenon, the 
 phosphorescence of the sea, to be observed in 
 such brilliancy or under so great a variety of 
 foruis. When the wind blows fresh, the waves 
 are crested with long serpentine wreaths of fire, 
 and the ship is surrounded with concentric 
 luminous zones, and seems to be forcing her 
 way through a burning flood. Sometimes 
 starry lights and comet-shaped bodies gleam 
 in her track, and sometimes a sudden and con- 
 tinuous blaze illuminates a considerable portion 
 of the sea around her, and the eye is never 
 weary of watching the changeful glories of this 
 nocturnal exhibition, which is observable in a 
 
 VOL. I. 2 c
 
 386 INDIA. 
 
 partial degree in the calmest weather ; for then 
 every fish that happens to be swimming with- 
 in a few yards of the surface of the water is 
 surrounded by a luminousness which distinctly 
 marks its course, and even indicates its size 
 and form. 
 
 The phosphorescence of the ocean is a subject 
 which has long engaged the attention of natu- 
 ralists, and various causes have been assigned in 
 explanation of it. Some insist that it depends 
 upon electricity; while others ascribe it to the 
 diffusion of animalcule capable of emitting 
 light. The first theory appears quite untenable ; 
 and the second may be considered to be so like- 
 wise, except when it is applied to those in- 
 stances of frequent occurrence and above de- 
 scribed, in which the sea presents a variety of 
 starry and defined luminous forms. These are 
 evidently produced by zoophytes, holothuriee, 
 and medusae ; but that general phosphorescence 
 of the waters of the ocean, which exists in a 
 greater or less degree at all times and in all lati- 
 tudes, and which wears the appearance of in- 
 numerable sparkling points, has been satisfac- 
 torily proved by Bory St. Vincent to arise from 
 the vast quantity of putrified animal substances 
 which are diffused throughout the body of the
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 387 
 
 ocean, and which emit a phosphorescence when 
 agitated either by the breaking of the weaves or 
 by the passing of a ship. The phosphorescence 
 is always greatest in the neighbourhood of the 
 equator, because animal decomposition goes 
 faster on there than in temperate or cold re- 
 gions; but it is impossible to doubt that it 
 does go on everywhere, and that it is capable 
 of producing the effect in question ; while, on 
 the other hand, the existence of phosphorescent 
 animalcul^e has in most instances been assumed 
 without any evidence ; for sea- water, in a high 
 state of luminousness, it is well known, is often 
 found to be absolutely destitute of any inhabit- 
 ants of the kind. 
 
 The shells inhabiting the Indian Ocean have 
 long been celebrated for their beauty and ele- 
 gance, and for the splendour of their colours. 
 The cyprCce and the voluta? abound on the 
 shores of the Isles of France and Bourbon ; but 
 the neighbourhood of Ceylon is above all other 
 places in the world a repository for everything 
 that is rare and exquisite in conchology. Either 
 owing to the general tranquillity of the ocean 
 there, or to the nature of its bottom, the shells, 
 whatever their species may be, surpass in tint 
 and in developement those found anywhere else, 
 
 2 c 2
 
 388 INDIA. 
 
 and are sought and prized by collectors accord- 
 ingly. Even the pearls obtained in the Indian 
 Ocean partake of the superiority of her other 
 productions ; and the banks where they are bred 
 in the Gulf of Manaar, have always yielded an 
 immense revenue to the different nations to 
 which they have at different times belonged. 
 The pearl is one of those productions of nature 
 which require for their formation a concurrence 
 of circumstances so complicated and obscure as 
 to elude our narrowest scrutiny and most con- 
 tinued observation. The oyster itself is very 
 generally diffused over the globe ; but it is only 
 in the Gulf of Manaar, in the Bay of Ormus, 
 in the Persian Gulf, in the Gulf of Venezuela, 
 and in the Gulf of St. Miguel, that it gene- 
 rates pearls of magnitude and beauty ; for 
 opaque, and, as it were, abortive concretions 
 of the kind, are to be met with in the oysters 
 of all regions, and even in fresh-water shell- 
 fish. A view of the situation and nature of the 
 places above mentioned authorizes us to con- 
 clude that a tropical climate and a sheltered 
 sea are requisite for the production of genuine 
 pearls ; for, of the four gulfs, three lie within 
 ten degrees of the equator ; and the other, that 
 of Ormus, though beyond the tropic, is cele-
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 389 
 
 brated as being one of the hottest places in the 
 world. But observation does not enable us to 
 decide what additional circumstances must com- 
 bine for the accomplishment of the effect in 
 question. As only a small proportion of the 
 oysters collected in even the most favourable 
 situations are found to contain pearls, it has 
 been supposed that they are excrescences pro- 
 duced by a disease in the fish ; and one indivi- 
 dual, in admitting this, asserted that it was 
 caused by a small worm perforating the shell, 
 and that by keeping oysters in reservoirs, and 
 boring them artificially, we might force them 
 to generate pearls — a theory which, unfor- 
 tunately, was not confirmed by experience. 
 The defined locality of the pearl oyster, and 
 the peculiar properties of the animal itself, 
 are analogous to what has already been re- 
 lated of the poisonous fishes of the West In- 
 dian Ocean ; and we can as little explain the 
 operations of Nature in the one case as in the 
 other, though we may feel equally desirous of 
 being able to do so in both, in order that we 
 might promote the work of elegance and beauty 
 in the former instance, and prevent the destruc- 
 tion of human life in the latter. 
 
 I have just remarked, that the Indian Ocean
 
 390 INDIA. 
 
 contains but few islands in proportion to its ex- 
 tent ; nor are any of these of considerable size ; 
 but the difference in their structure and phy- 
 sical aspect is equally striking and singular. In 
 the Isles of France, and Bourbon, and Rod- 
 rigues, but particularly in the two latter, we 
 trace the action of recently extinct volcanoes, 
 and observe in many places streams of lava, deep 
 craters, and scorched plains ; while barren moun- 
 tains and rocky precipices everywhere rise to a 
 considerable height, and invest Nature with a 
 stern and sublime character. On the other 
 hand, the islands composing the Maldive and 
 Laccadive archipelagoes are universally almost 
 level with the surface of the sea, and of the 
 tamest possible aspect, and consist altogether of 
 coral reefs, and exhibit the action of water in- 
 stead of that of fire. Bourbon and its neigh- 
 bours appear to have been forced out of the 
 ocean by the most violent and sudden of Na- 
 ture's agents — subterranean fire ; while the 
 Maldives and Laccadives owe their formation 
 to the slowest and least obtrusive of these — 
 the labours of marine animalculee. 
 
 Perhaps of all the agents that are gradually 
 and silently effecting changes upon the surface 
 of our planet, the most universal and important
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 391 
 
 is the insect which produces coral. The South 
 Pacific and the Indian Oceans, and the Arabian 
 Gulf, present us with various examples of its 
 stupendous powers ; and others are daily making 
 their appearance upon the surface of the sea, in 
 the shape of reefs and islands, which bewilder 
 and impede the navigator ; who, guided by the 
 charts of his predecessors, is astonished to en- 
 counter shallows and soundings, and even dry 
 land, and trees, and animals, and human beings, 
 in places where he expected to find nothing but 
 fathomless depths and an unbroken horizon. 
 If we reflect that coral islands are often dis- 
 covered in isolated masses in the deepest parts 
 of the ocean, we shall obtain some faint idea of 
 the vast quantity of material which enters into 
 their structure, and of the magnitude of the 
 labours of those insects which are the instru- 
 ments of their formation. The coral island 
 must have its foundation in the bottom of the 
 ocean, from whence the little molluscous ar- 
 chitects must raise it in successive layers till it 
 reaches the surface of the waves, even should 
 the depth be thousands of feet or fathoms. 
 What an insignificant proportion then must the 
 visible extent of any coralline archipelago bear 
 to the mass of matter which lies concealed under
 
 392 INDIA. 
 
 water, and forms its basis and foundation! And 
 it is well worthy of remark, that the insects in 
 question seem to observe a kind of economy in 
 their architecture, and never make the inferior 
 part of their structures broader, or perhaps so 
 broad, as their upper surface is intended to be ; 
 for deep water is almost always found at the 
 edge of a coral reef; which proves that it does 
 not rise from its foundation in the shape of a 
 pyramid, but that it is actually from top to 
 bottom a vast pillar or column of the same 
 thickness. Peron, a French nautical man, has 
 even supposed that coral islands are sometimes 
 raised upon slender stalks, which bear no greater 
 proportion to the extent of their surface, than 
 the stem of a mushroom does to the circum- 
 ference of the vegetable growing upon it ; and 
 that when a violent tempest occurs, the stroke 
 of the waves may break the coral pillar, and 
 occasion the instantaneous submersion of the 
 island which it supported. In this way we may 
 explain how navigators have often searched in 
 vain for reefs, shallows, and breakers, which 
 had been observed and reported to exist by 
 their predecessors. 
 
 The coral structure having been raised to a 
 level with the surface of the ocean, the mollusca^
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 393 
 
 necessarily suspend their labours, because it 
 is only under water that they can carry these 
 on. But, nevertheless, the still half submerged 
 island acquires in the course of time an increase 
 of elevation from other sources. Shells, and 
 seaweed, and various marine exuviae, are de- 
 tained and entangled by its rugged surface, 
 which gradually becomes fit to support vegeta- 
 tion. The cocoa-nut, which, owing to its buoy- 
 ancy and its protecting shell, is of all other 
 fruits or seeds the best able to float long upon 
 the waves without injury to its powers of ger- 
 mination, is soon accidentally thrown upon the 
 coral island, where it sows itself, and becomes 
 a tree. It seems very certain, at least, that the 
 palm species appears upon recently emerged 
 lands within the tropics before any other form 
 of vegetation, and that it can exist and flourish 
 in places where no other plant would grow ; and, 
 as it abounds upon most of the islands and coasts 
 of the torrid zone, the extensive dispersion of 
 its fruits by the waves is a thing that must ne- 
 cessarily happen. Sir George Staunton, in de- 
 scribing his voyage in the Eastern Ocean, says, 
 " The coral rocks above the surface on which 
 vegetation flourished were many of them so 
 small as to contain each only a single stem, like
 
 394 INDIA. 
 
 a vessel's mast, the whole of them presenting 
 to a distant view the appearance of several 
 fleets of shipping." 
 
 But in admitting that the palm-trees which 
 first appear on emerging coral islands have in 
 most cases derived their existence from nuts 
 borne thither by the winds and waves, I am far 
 from believing that the same kind of plants 
 would not in due time be produced upon the 
 spots in question without foreign assistance. 
 The most superfi^cial acquaintance with the geo- 
 graphical distribution of vegetables, is sufficient 
 to convince us that they have not been diffused 
 over the world from one common centre ; and 
 that every tract of country that emerges from 
 the ocean does not depend for its supply of 
 plants upon the accidental circumstance of their 
 seeds being conveyed to it by currents, oi; by 
 birds, or even by the winds, as is still very 
 generally supposed. A mode of production so 
 uncertain, clumsy, and imperfect, is inconsistent 
 with reason, philosophy, and human observa- 
 tion ; and we are fully warranted in believing 
 that every island, whether great or small, or 
 whether in the neighbourhood of other regions 
 or far remote from them, contains within its 
 own soil (that is to say, when it does possess
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. ^ 395 
 
 one,) the elements and instruments of vegeta- 
 tion, and that it will in due time be covered 
 with plants of natural and spontaneous growth, 
 and of a kind suitable and congenial to its cli- 
 mate. We can account for the extraordinary 
 and pertinacious locality of many species of 
 plants, only by supposing that particular soils 
 are capable of evolving particular vegetable 
 forms ah origine, or without the intervention 
 of seeds. 
 
 The purest granite rock, reduced to powder, 
 and carefully preserved from any possible ve- 
 getable mixture, would doubtless, after being 
 for a greater or less period of time exposed 
 to the action of the air, produce some of the 
 plants of the country in which the experiment 
 was tried, or others similar to them. If all ve- 
 getables were produced at one common centre, 
 and from thence gradually diffused over the 
 world, how happens it that we cannot trace 
 their course and progress from one country to 
 another, instead of finding many species of 
 them isolated, as it were, in remote quarters 
 of the globe, and utterly unknown anywhere 
 else ? The cactus exists in equinoctial America 
 only ; the breadfruit-tree has never been ob- 
 served except in the islands of the South Pa-
 
 396 INDIA. 
 
 cific Ocean. The protea argentea is peculiar 
 to the southern pronaontory of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. The clove and nutmeg trees are 
 as decidedly indigenous to the Molucca archi- 
 pelago as the tea-plant is to China. In short, 
 no connexion whatever can be traced between 
 the vegetable productions of different countries, 
 except what may be supposed to depend upon 
 the similarity of the climates in which they 
 respectively grow ; and almost every unknown 
 land which we have an opportunity of ex- 
 ploring, is found to contain plants of a species 
 never observed anywhere else, and strictly in- 
 digenous to the soil. It seems probable, in- 
 deed, that new species of plants are daily 
 coming into existence, and that there are no 
 limits to the subordinate variations of form 
 that occur in the vegetable world. Forty years 
 ago, the number of plants described by bo- 
 tanists did not exceed twenty-five thousand, 
 but at present it amounts to upwards of fifty- 
 six thousand ; an increase arising not more per- 
 haps from the persevering researches of modern 
 travellers, than from that developement of new 
 vegetable forms which appears to be continu- 
 ally going on in all parts of the world, and par- 
 ticularly in the equinoctial regions.
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 397 
 
 Though we now possess a tolerably accurate 
 and compreliensive knowledge of the opera- 
 tions and productions of Nature, we are still 
 totally unacquainted with the extent of her 
 powers in the formation of vegetables and ani- 
 mals, or whether any of the higher orders of 
 the latter are ever brought into existence with- 
 out the intervention of other individuals of the 
 same or of a similar species. The history of an 
 isolated and solitary coral island in the Indian 
 or the Pacific Ocean, from the period of its first 
 emerging above the surface of the sea, till it 
 has become covered with various species of 
 plants, and peopled by different animals, would 
 afford us the desired insight into the physical 
 capabilities of the globe. But as this history 
 cannot be obtained at present, and as it could 
 not be executed at any time without the con- 
 currence of successive generations of men, (an 
 improbable circumstance,) we must rest satisfied 
 with what analogy and conjecture may furnish 
 in reference to the subject. I have above re- 
 marked, that we may reasonably believe that 
 every soil contains within itself the elements 
 of vegetation, and is capable of producing 
 plants, though neither their seeds nor shoots 
 may ever have been deposited in it ; and I am
 
 398 INDIA. 
 
 inclined to suspect that animals also are often 
 generated in places where none of their species 
 have before appeared or existed. It is probable 
 that the principle of organization, after passing 
 through a series of the simpler forms of exist- 
 ence, acquires a degree of intensity and perfec- 
 tion which enables it to develope itself under 
 those characters which belong to the higher 
 orders of quadrupeds. It is well known that 
 we can at pleasure produce those living forms 
 called hifusoria^ by the admixture of particular 
 substances, and that we can even choose which 
 species of them we shall bring into existence. 
 Here then we have an evolution of animal life 
 from vegetable substances, without the inter- 
 vention of other animals. The infusoria are 
 unquestionably living and intelligent beings ; 
 and it is perfectly possible that we might by 
 some particular process, such as Nature may 
 constantly be carrying on, improve their organ- 
 ization to such a degree, as gradually to raise 
 them higher in the scale of animals, and to 
 cause their developement into a superior and 
 more perfect form of existence. We are almost 
 forced to come to some conclusion of this kind, 
 when we seek to discover how solitary islands, 
 of recent coral formation, and situated in the
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 399 
 
 middle of a vast ocean, have been provided 
 with animal inhabitants. A thousand accidents 
 may convey men to such places, however unex- 
 perienced they may be in the art of navigation ; 
 but the vulgar and commonly received opinion 
 that animals are supplied in a similar way, is 
 utterly untenable in two-thirds of the instances 
 in which it is adopted. 
 
 The navigator, who finds deer, foxes, squirrels, 
 mice, &:c. in a desert isle, one thousand miles 
 distant from any other land, great or small, 
 may, to spare himself the trouble of reflection 
 or inquiry, pronounce that they came from the 
 nearest continent; but this assertion will not 
 satisfy the naturalist, vv^ho is well aware that no 
 land animals of any description are in the habit 
 of quitting their native soil, and plunging in- 
 to the wide ocean, and undertaking voyages of 
 discovery. In dry seasons, in South Africa, the 
 spring-boks are often forced by want of pas- 
 ture to desert their usual haunts, and to wander 
 in various directions near the coast, hundreds 
 perishing of hunger by the way ; yet in that ex- 
 tremitv the survivors never either swim across 
 the Mozambique Channel to Madagascar, or at- 
 tempt to reach St. Helena. The emigration of 
 quadrupeds by water is in direct opposition to
 
 400 INDIA. 
 
 the laws of Nature ; nor is there a single instance 
 on record of land animals of any kind being ob- 
 served in the open sea, long and often as it has 
 been traversed ; and it is scarcely necessary to 
 allude to the impossibility of their living many 
 hours in a situation of the kind, however buoy- 
 ant and expert they may be in the act of swim- 
 ming. And if we admit that every island, how- 
 ever isolated and detached, has derived its 
 animal inhabitants from the regions nearest ad- 
 joining it, how shall we account for the exist- 
 ence in particular places of quadrupeds that 
 are found nowhere else? Some persons may 
 suppose it possible that New Holland was first 
 supplied with animals from New Guinea, or 
 from Java, neither of which are far distant from 
 her shores ; but from what country did she ob- 
 tain the kangaroo, and the ornothoryncus para- 
 doxus, which are utterly unknown in every 
 other part of the world ? The ornothoryncus, 
 exhibiting the bill and webbed foot of the duck 
 engrafted upon the body of the beaver, is per- 
 haps the most distinctly local of all animated 
 beings ; and as no region but one produces it, or 
 even anything in the remotest degree resem- 
 bling it, we are forced to believe that it first 
 came into existence upon that soil where it is
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 401 
 
 now found ; and that it, or any other varieties 
 of animal form, may come into existence again 
 in the most remote, isolated, and inaccessible 
 spots, whenever particular, but to us unknown, 
 circumstances concur to favour their production 
 and developement. 
 
 Navigators, in visiting detached islands, or 
 groups of islands, occasionally observe that their 
 inhabitants are distinguished by some physi- 
 cal peculiarity from any neighbouring people ; 
 and they find themselves at a loss to explain 
 the cause of a thing, which perhaps depends 
 upon some antecedent circumstances of no very 
 distant date, and of a nature not likely to be 
 suspected. The obscure island of Diego Garcia 
 in the Indian Ocean, will most likely be found 
 to contain a singular race of people by any 
 European ship that may happen to touch there, 
 owing to the two following occurrences, the 
 last of which can be known to very few indivi- 
 duals now alive. Towards the end of the last 
 century, the French, then in possession of the 
 Mauritius, on several occasions, sent the le- 
 prous slaves of that colony to the island of Diego 
 Garcia, both in order to prevent the disease 
 being communicated to others, and to afford those 
 affected with it the means of living entirely 
 VOL. I. 2d
 
 402 INDIA. 
 
 upon turtle ; a kind of diet whicli is reputed to 
 be very efficacious in restoring such persons to 
 health. At this time an English merchant brig- 
 was driven by strong gales close to Diego Gar- 
 cia, and came to anchor within a small distance 
 of it. She was manned chiefly with Lascars, or 
 Indian sailors ; and when the weather had mo- 
 derated, she sent a boat on shore for water, 
 and two of them were despatched into the in- 
 terior of the island in search of a spring. In 
 the course of their ramble they fell in with a 
 small colony of lepers, consisting of eight or ten 
 persons, both male and female, and spent a little 
 time amongst them, and then returned to the 
 boat and related their adventure. No sooner 
 was the master of the brig informed of it, than 
 apprehensive of leprous contagion, he positively 
 refused to take the Lascars on board, and they 
 were carried back into the island by force, and 
 left there, while he pursued his voyage, and 
 never saw or heard more of them. I learned 
 these particulars at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 from the individual who was first officer of the 
 vessel at the time that this occurred, (about 
 1792 ;) and it is probable that no European has 
 since visited the island, which is surrounded by 
 dangerous reefs, and quite out of the usual
 
 INDIAN OCEAN. 403 
 
 track of ships. The progeny arising from the 
 intercourse of the Madagascar and Mozambique 
 slaves, and the two natives of Hindostan, would 
 in all likelihood present some singularities of 
 feature and form; but when it is considered 
 in addition that leprosy renders white the skin 
 of black or swarthy people, and that this pecu- 
 liarity is communicated, though in an inferior 
 degree, to their children, it is easy to conceive 
 that the present population of Diego Garcia (if 
 it really has any) must wear a singular physical 
 aspect, and must differ very materially from 
 that of the other islands in the Indian Ocean. 
 
 2d2
 
 404 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER 
 
 OF INDIA. 
 
 In reading descriptions of the effect which 
 tropical scenery exercises upon the imagination 
 of an European, it is particularly necessary to 
 pay attention to the circumstances in which the 
 writers of them were placed ; otherwise they 
 will, to all appearance, be alike contradictory 
 and inconsistent in their tenor and character. 
 The casual visiter of the torrid zone, and the 
 individual who has been long resident there, 
 will never be found to coincide in their opinions 
 respecting the climate, and the face of Nature, 
 in the vicinity of the equator; nor does this 
 depend, as we might at first suppose, upon the 
 influence of the novelty of the objects in the 
 one case, and of a familiarity with them in the 
 other ; but it has a deeper and more obscure 
 origin, and is doubtless connected with the in-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 405 
 
 sidious operation of a long-continued exposure 
 to a high degree of temperature upon the or- 
 gans and constitution of those who have been 
 accustomed to a cold chmate. 
 
 An European traveller, visiting for the first 
 time any of the fertile and favoured regions of 
 the torrid zone, is dazzled and enchanted by 
 the brilliancy of colouring and variety of form 
 which the animal and vegetable worlds assume 
 there. He contemplates by turns the heavens, 
 the earth, and the ocean, and feels at a loss 
 whether most to admire the serenity of the first, 
 the rich and motley garb of the second, or the 
 tranquil and resplendent expanse of the latter. 
 During the day, his attention is arrested by the 
 gigantic palm-trees, which he observes growing 
 in groups close to the sea-shore, or rising in 
 solitary elegance far above the level of the fo- 
 rests in the interior of the country — by the 
 banana, whose long and dependent leaves of 
 a vivid green float in the breeze like streamers 
 — by the stately mango, dark and dense in its 
 foliage, and studded with golden fruit — by 
 the leafless euphorbium, composed of a thick, 
 short, and prickly stem, which, projecting a 
 foot or two above the ground, sends forth re- 
 gularly-curved and divergent branches, exactly
 
 406 INDIA. 
 
 similar to those of a candelabra — and by the 
 lianas, or creepers of various kinds, which hang 
 from the boughs of the trees like cordage, or, in- 
 terlacing together, form a kind of net-work be- 
 tween their neighbouring trunks. No sooner 
 has night veiled in obscurity the vegetable crea- 
 tion, than myriads of fire-flies animate the scene ; 
 while the ocean, as if emulous of their beauty 
 and brightness, becomes covered with luminous 
 points and streaks. In the cloudless sky over- 
 head are seen blazing the resplendent constel- 
 lations of the northern and southern hemi- 
 spheres ; and at short intervals, shooting stars 
 appear to travel through the remotest depths of 
 the heavens. 
 
 But after a few years' residence within the 
 tropics such scenes lose their interest, and are 
 viewed with indifference, and even dislike. 
 The waving of the palm-tree assumes a melan- 
 cholic character ; and the monotonous murmur- 
 ing of the surf upon the beach is a sound of 
 gloom and despondency. The annual setting 
 in of the rains, at a time when the barren earth 
 refuses to nourish a blade of grass and the 
 leaves of the trees are coated with dust, is felt 
 to be gratifying only because it lowers the tem- 
 perature of the climate, and not because it is a
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 407 
 
 signal for the revival of vegetation, and the 
 adornment of the face of the earth. Those sen- 
 sations of " vernal delight and joy," and that 
 serenity of spirit, which certain aspects of Na- 
 ture in temperate regions seldom fail to excite 
 in the mind of an European, are unknown to 
 him in the torrid zone ; the splendid and im- 
 posing imagery of which fails to address itself 
 to the heart, or awaken those secret sympathies 
 which exist between the hiunan soul and the 
 finer forms of inanimate nature. Nor are in- 
 fluences of this kind ever experienced by the 
 Asiatics themselves, or by the natives of any 
 tropical regions whatever. In the poetry of 
 Hindostan, though we find numerous descrip- 
 tions of the aspects of Nature, and of the various 
 forms which she presents, we never meet with 
 any of those allusions to her more refined power 
 upon the imagination, that continually occur in 
 the writings of Europeans, and have been per- 
 sonally experienced by most persons of sensibi- 
 lity and cultivated taste in that quarter of the 
 globe. Wordsworth will for ever be unintelli- 
 gible to the natives of the torrid zone, whether 
 they be inhabitants of Asia, Africa, or South 
 America ; while Europeans, residing in any of 
 the tropical parts of these three countries, will al-
 
 408 • INDIA. 
 
 ways find his sentiments and analogies unconge- 
 nial and inapplicable to the character of the mate- 
 rial world around them. Is this mental peculiarity 
 dependent upon the physical operation of warm 
 climates upon the human constitution? And 
 here it is well worthy of remark, that neither 
 the Hindoos nor the Chinese have ever been 
 able to make any progress in the art of land- 
 scape-painting, or even to comprehend the rules 
 of perspective, or perceive their propriety or 
 usefulness ; while at the same time the chiaro 
 scuro is equally little relished and understood 
 by them. This has been ascribed (as I shall 
 shortly have occasion more fully to state) to a 
 disorder in the visual organs, produced by the 
 glare of the sun ; and as Europeans probably 
 are liable to be affected in a similar way, after a 
 long residence in the torrid zone, we may sup- 
 pose that the cause of the defective conceptions 
 of landscape beauty has a strong affinity in the 
 two cases. 
 
 The aspect of India, when approached from 
 seaward, is neither impressive nor calculated to 
 excite any favourable expectations of the gene- 
 ral beauty of the country. All its coasts, whe- 
 ther those of Malabar, or of Coromandel, or of 
 the Bay of Bengal, are flat and low, and unen-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 409 
 
 livened by general cultivation ; while the sandy 
 beaches, and groves of palm-trees which border 
 them, impart a monotonous uniformity to the 
 scene. The chains of mountains which extend 
 along the Malabar and the Coromandel coasts, 
 lie on an average twenty or thirty miles inland, 
 and are consequently too distant to enter effec- 
 tively into the prospect. 
 
 The shores of India, except near the mouths 
 of the Ganges and Indus, are of safe naviga- 
 tion in the fair season, and almost entirely free 
 from hidden dangers ; but they are scantily pro- 
 vided with harbours, either good or bad ; and 
 all the rivers, like those of other tropical regions, 
 have sand-bars, which render them inaccessible to 
 vessels of burthen. It is singular, that a country 
 whose productions have from the remotest times 
 been coveted by all nations, and which are now 
 dispersed over the whole civilized world, should 
 possess only one secure and commodious haven, 
 though its coasts have an extent of nearly three 
 thousand miles ; while northern Europe, Labra- 
 dor, Newfoundland, and the north-west coast 
 of America — regions condemned to perpetual 
 sterility, and scarcely habitable by man, are 
 everywhere indented by the finest bays and in- 
 lets, capable of affording shelter to the naviga-
 
 410 INDIA. 
 
 tor in the most tempestuous weather of a natu- 
 rally tempestuous climate. 
 
 No division of the world presents a great- 
 er variety of physical aspects than Hindostan. 
 These are not regulated by parallels of latitude, 
 but depend principally upon the elevation of 
 the country, and its greater or less remoteness 
 from the sea. The coasts are for the most 
 part low, fertile, and thickly wooded, and, as 
 may be supposed, unhealthy, wherever there is 
 little or no cultivation. Being much intersected 
 by rivers, whose inundations during the rainy 
 season do not admit of the use of ferries or the 
 construction of bridges, travelling is here diffi- 
 cult and dangerous ; while at the same time the 
 continuous forests render it monotonous and un- 
 interesting. Towards the base of the mountain 
 ranges. Nature assumes a more cheerful aspect ; 
 and agriculture, instead of being confined to the 
 formation of rice-fields, displays a varied cha- 
 racter, both with respect to grain and to vege- 
 tables. The valuable timbers of India are here 
 seen in perfection. The teak-tree attains vast 
 magnitude ; the sandal and the wild cinnamon 
 exhale their perfumes ; the areca, esteemed for 
 its aromatic nuts, raises its slender and graceful 
 stem ; and the banana, the citron, the pepper-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 411 
 
 tree, and the mulberry combine to diversify the 
 landscape. The ascent of the mountains occa- 
 sions a striking change of scene ; all now be- 
 comes wild, solitary, and sublime ; and intermi- 
 nable thickets, profound and dark ravines, and 
 fantastic-shaped rocky pinnacles, alternately en- 
 gage the traveller's attention, while the in- 
 creasing coolness and elasticity of the air inform 
 him that he is about to enter a new climate. 
 Beyond the mountains he finds an elevated coun- 
 try disposed in vast plateaux, some of which 
 are populous, fertile, and well watered ; while 
 others present a dry and stony surface, destitute 
 of vegetation during a great part of the year, 
 and wearing a sombre and painful uniformity of 
 appearance. Beyond these, in different direc- 
 tions, lie immense regions, varying widely in 
 their physical character, and which it would 
 be tedious to enumerate and minutely describe. 
 Among the most remarkable of these are the 
 tracts of country called jungles, which in many 
 places extend hundreds of miles in length and 
 breadth. Covered with stunted forests and long 
 grass, they afford an asylum to wild beasts, and 
 to tribes of uncivilized Indians, who lead a life 
 half nomade and half predatory. A large part 
 of the district named Cutch consists of saline
 
 412 INDIA. 
 
 and sandy plains, but recently redeemed from 
 the ocean, and which, being still liable to sub- 
 mersion, are alike sterile and uninhabitable. 
 Guzerat, on the other hand, is an extensive ter- 
 ritory, covered with beautiful clumps of trees, 
 and producing grain and cattle in abundance, 
 and watered by various streams, large and small ; 
 while the region called the Deckan, is unshaded 
 even by a thicket or shrub of natural growth, 
 parched by fiery winds, and seldom refreshed 
 by heavy or continued rains. But through 
 whatever quarter of India the traveller passes, 
 he will be not less struck with the smallness of 
 the population in proportion to the extent of 
 country in which it is found, than with the im- 
 mensity of the territory that remains unoccu- 
 pied by man, and a great part of which must 
 ever continue desolate and uncultivated, owing 
 to the want of water, and various other causes. 
 After making long journeys in different direc- 
 tions, and observing the general poverty of 
 the people, and the solitary wildness of their 
 country, he will be tempted to exclaim : — Is this 
 the land which has for centuries supplied, and 
 which still continues to supply, with costly ma- 
 imfactures, with beautiful fabrics, with spices, 
 gold, and gems, the whole of the civilized world.
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 413 
 
 and for the carrying of whose productions mighty 
 nations have always contended, because it has 
 ever proved a source of prodigious wealth to the 
 people who have enjoyed it ? Where are the 
 materials of luxury? Where are the artificers 
 that prepare them ? Here I see depopulated 
 towns, an indigent peasantry, and few of the 
 exteriors of grandeur even amongst the highest 
 classes of society. Do the Hindoos then despise 
 riches ? or are they plundered of the profits of 
 their labour and their commerce by a race of 
 domineering foreigners, who drain them of their 
 resources, and confer no benefit in return ? 
 
 In temperate regions the aspect of Nature is 
 varied and modified by lakes and rivers in a 
 degree that seldom occurs in the torrid zone ; 
 where the rapid evaporation which is con- 
 stantly going forward, prevents the accumu- 
 lation of water in even the lowest grounds, 
 and causes the streams, whatever their mag- 
 nitude may be, to shrink as it were M'ithin 
 their channels, except during three months of 
 the year, when they are recruited by frequent 
 rains. India is, generally speaking, a badly 
 watered country, and various parts of it are 
 uninhabitable on that account ; and the eye of 
 the traveller will in many places range over
 
 414 INDIA. 
 
 an area of an hundred miles in circumference, 
 without being able to discover a pond or a ri- 
 vulet, or to perceive one spot where a bright 
 verdure indicates the existence of either of 
 them. The tanks or reservoirs constructed by 
 the natives, and filled by the periodical rains, 
 are indeed often so large as to deserve the 
 name of little lakes ; but they occur only in 
 the vicinity of towns or populous villages, and 
 have no effect in diminishing the aridity of the 
 neighbouring soil. The natural lakes of Hin- 
 dostan are exceedingly few in number, compared 
 with the extent of the country ; while, in mag- 
 nitude, even the greatest of them, such as those 
 of Chilka and Pulicate, fall infinitely short of the 
 most inconsiderable ones of Northern Europe. 
 
 Nor has India any reason to boast much of 
 her rivers ; for the Ganges and Indus derive 
 their celebrity more from their geographical 
 position, and from the historical associations 
 connected with them, than from their magni- 
 tude, navigableness, or beauty. Their waters 
 are muddy, and their mouths are obstructed 
 by sand-bars, and their channels disfigured and 
 prodigiously widened by those periodical inun- 
 dations to which all the rivers of tropical re- 
 gions are more or less subject, and which cause
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 415 
 
 the formation of two sets of banks, the inner 
 one confining the stream in the dry season, 
 and the outer one forming its limits during 
 the rainy months of the year. These inunda- 
 tions generally bestow fertility upon the coun- 
 try over which they extend, and are in many 
 instances indispensable to agriculture ; but they 
 entirely destroy the beauty of the banks and 
 channels which are exposed to their effects, and 
 confer an aspect of desolation which at first 
 startles the beholder. In some of the Asiatic 
 rivers, such as the Indus and the Euphrates, 
 the space between the inner and outer banks 
 exceeds a mile in breadth. This remains ex- 
 posed and dry during at least half of the year, 
 and presents nothing but sand and stones, and 
 perhaps a few tufts of reeds and grass ; the time 
 which intervenes between the periodical inun- 
 dations being too short to admit of any gene- 
 rous vegetation taking place, except where the 
 inhabitants may have planted green crops of 
 rapid growth and early maturity. Hence, few 
 of the great streams of tropical regions offer 
 any scenes of tranquil beauty within a vast 
 distance of their mouths, their banks being 
 almost everywhere else excavated and disrupt- 
 ed, and their half-dry channels covered with
 
 416 INDIA. 
 
 rubbish, sand, and fallen trees. It is only after 
 advancing five or six hundred miles up the 
 Ganges, where its inundations are inconsider- 
 able, that we observe those transparent and 
 foaming waters, those umbrageous forests grow- 
 ing upon the edge of the stream, and those 
 flowery and enchanting solitudes, amidst which 
 the Vanaprasta and Sannayasa, Brahmans, and 
 sages of former times, used to devote them- 
 selves to an ascetic life, and seek for early ab- 
 sorption into the divine essence. Nevertheless, 
 it is only in temperate latitudes that we shall 
 meet with that varied, noble, and impressive 
 river scenery which forms so fine a trait in the 
 physical physiognomy of our globe ; for since 
 the floods which occur in cold regions are sel- 
 dom so violent or so long in duration as to de- 
 vastate the banks where they take place, these 
 become the seat of a mature and characteristic 
 vegetation, which embellishes the stream at all 
 seasons, and is never liable to be destroyed. 
 If it be here objected that the smooth, level, 
 and cultivated borders of the Nile throughout 
 Lower Egypt invalidate my remarks in refer- 
 ence to the broken and desolate aspect of the 
 banks of all rivers subject to periodical inunda- 
 tions, I have to reply, that the ground on the
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 417 
 
 sides of the Nile is artificial ; and that the 
 ancient inhabitants of the country, by filling 
 up cavities and excavations, and levelling one 
 spot and raising another, at length bestowed 
 upon the banks of the river that gentle slope, 
 and that continuity of surface, over which 
 the most impetuous torrents will rush without 
 breaking the soil or leaving a furrow. Hero- 
 dotus informs us, that in the reign of Anysis, 
 Sabacus king of Ethiopia conquered Egypt, 
 and ruled over it fifty years. He punished no 
 man with death, whatever his offences might 
 be, but employed criminals in raising the 
 ground in the neighbourhood of their dwel- 
 lings ; and a great part of Egypt was in this 
 way rendered dry and habitable, 
 
 If the rivers of India are not remarkable for 
 beauty. Nature has given the country an equi- 
 valent in the loveliness and grandeur of her 
 mountains. Two long chains of these extend 
 along the opposite coasts of Malabar and Co- 
 romandel, and have an average height of four 
 thousand feet above the level of the sea ; and 
 their steepness is in general so great, that they 
 can be passed at only a few places, which have 
 been rendered accessible chiefly by human la- 
 bour, and are named Ghauts ; though that ap- 
 
 VOL. I. 2 E
 
 418 INDIA. 
 
 pellation is often improperly bestowed upon the 
 mountain ranges themselves. The base of these 
 is almost everywhere covered with lofty forests, 
 and with the varied and luxuriant vegetation of 
 the torrid zone ; while, as has already been re- 
 marked, the choicest and most valuable natural 
 productions of India find there a congenial soil, 
 and are cultivated with success. Amidst the 
 defiles of the more elevated regions, the most 
 enchanting prospects and the most surprising 
 combinations of scenery abound. At one time 
 the traveller will pursue his way along the nar- 
 row summit of a lofty and spine-shaped ridge, 
 crowned with trembling palms, and winding 
 with gigantic curves through the middle of 
 a deep and extensive valley ; at another, he will 
 find himself bewildered amongst naked and 
 isolated masses of granite, which close the pro- 
 spect on every side, and produce a concentrated 
 gloom in their neighbourhood by the mighti- 
 ness and density of their shadows. And on a 
 third occasion, after having long followed a 
 narrow pathway between two walls of rock, he 
 will unexpectedly reach its termination near the 
 top of a mountain, and see stretched far beneath 
 him a fertile plain, embellished with a silvery 
 tank, having near it a grove of mango-trees, in
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 419 
 
 the midst of which rise the minarets of a pa- 
 goda ; while, in the direction of the mountain 
 range, crowds of rocky pinnacles appear in per- 
 spective, the nearer groups mellowed by the 
 rising or setting sun, and the remoter ones fad- 
 ing into each other, and dimly commingling 
 their outlines in azure obscurity. 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable in the physical 
 aspect of Hindostan than the total exemption 
 which it presents from all the more violent and 
 devastating convulsions of Nature. The torrid 
 zone has generally been considered the proper 
 and peculiar sphere of these, at least in their 
 most powerful form ; but the soil of India is 
 nowhere liable to be scorched by volcanoes, 
 or disrupted by earthquakes, or submerged by 
 overflowings of the sea. Nor does history or 
 tradition indicate that accidents of the kind 
 have ever occurred in the country ; and a geo- 
 logical examination of its surface corroborates 
 this negative evidence. The vast peninsula, in 
 whatever manner it may be contemplated, al- 
 ways preserves an attitude of sublime repose, 
 like what we see continually repeated in the 
 statues of its guardian deity, Bramha, or 
 Boodh ; and perhaps no region in the world 
 offers fewer data for the construction of geolo- 
 
 2 E 2
 
 420 INDIA. 
 
 gical theories, or speaks more obscurely to the 
 senses of those naturalists who love to point 
 out the alterations which they suppose to have 
 taken place upon the surface of our planet. 
 Nor is the atmosphere of Hindostan less tran- 
 quil than her territories ; for it is never disturb- 
 ed by hurricanes like those that rage in the 
 West Indies, nor by typhoons such as occur 
 upon the coasts of China ; and seldom expe- 
 riences even the tempests and gales of Avind 
 which are common in almost every other coun- 
 try during at least one season of the year. 
 
 To describe, even in the most concise style, the 
 various productions of India, agricultural and 
 commercial, would be to fill a volume ; while, 
 on the other hand, a simple enumeration of 
 their names would communicate neither amuse- 
 ment nor instruction. Suffice it then to say, 
 that the country, besides affording within itself 
 everything necessary for the subsistence, con- 
 venience, and luxury of its millions of inhabit- 
 ants, yields, or could be made to yield, in 
 addition, a sufficient quantity of silk, cotton, 
 spices, sugar, dyes, coffee, oil, rice, sandal-wood, 
 varnish, and pearls, to supply the present con- 
 sumption of the whole civilized world ; besides 
 a vast variety of exquisite and costly manufac-
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 421 
 
 tures, whether useful or ornamental. But Na- 
 ture has ab we all things favoured and blest 
 India in denying her any mines of the precious 
 metals. Hence the grand mass of the people 
 have always devoted their time to agriculture ; 
 and have on that account been enabled to pre- 
 serve amongst themselves, unimpaired, for a 
 vast succession of ages, that simplicity of man- 
 ners and character, tliat moderation of temper, 
 and that indestructible attachment to their 
 country and to their institutions, of whicli tUey 
 afford so admirable an example, and to wliich 
 they owe the profound tranquillity which they 
 have always enjoyed, except when harassed by 
 foreign invaders. An immense proportion of 
 Hindostan remains uncultivated and unpeopled ; 
 and, bearing tliis in mind, we shall more easily 
 be able to conceive how rich and fertile many 
 of the other parts of the country must be ; since, 
 notwithstanding the natural indolence of the 
 people, these produce a surplus of precious com- 
 modities, the exportation of which annually 
 employs several hundred thousand tons of Eu- 
 ropean shipping. I will conclude these re- 
 marks by quoting a paragraph on the subject 
 by ColUn de Bar, a French historian. 
 
 " Such is the fertility of the soil in India,
 
 422 INDIA. 
 
 that the trees bear fruit twice a year ; and such 
 is the perfection of the system of agriculture 
 there, that three ordinary harvests are some- 
 times reaped within the same period ; while in 
 several provinces renovation and reproduction 
 are carried so far, as to give even five crops in 
 two years ; an advantage which is attributable 
 not only to the mode of tillage, but also to the 
 effects of a genial climate, in which the sun, 
 parent of vegetation, continually diffuses a fer- 
 tilizing warmth. Nature there enjoys an inces- 
 sant activity ; nor can her energy be checked 
 by any of those malignant agents which reduce 
 the earth to sterility, and cover it with ruins. 
 In vain, during a series of ages, have oppression, 
 barbarism, bigotry, massacres, and famine, whe- 
 ther the consequences of war and of bad govern- 
 ment, or the effect of monopoly and avarice, 
 attended the steps of the conquerors who have 
 devastated India. All these calamities vmited 
 have proved inadequate to despoil the pacific 
 Hindoo of the vast advantages which bountiful 
 Nature has lavished around him," 
 
 The opinion which an European forms of any 
 climate is more generally the result of his per- 
 sonal sensations, than of any inquiry into the 
 influence which it exerts upon others ; hence
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 423 
 
 travellers do not agree in their statements re- 
 specting the temperature and atmospherical 
 character of the torrid zone. Some represent 
 the climate of India as being one of the hap- 
 piest in the world, because the sky is serene 
 and cloudless during three-fourths of the year, 
 and because the vegetating powers of Nature 
 never suffer any suspension ; while others de- 
 scribe the almost perpetual sunsliine as mono- 
 tonous and oppressive, and consider the want 
 of an aimual winter to be the want of a source 
 of enjoyment. But nearly all Europeans who 
 visit India find the average heat to be much 
 less than what they expected ; and as many of 
 them scarcely ever suffer any sensible inconve- 
 nience from it, we must refer the malignant 
 operation of tropical climates upon the human 
 system to other and more obscure causes than 
 their high temperature. 
 
 The character of the climate of India is so 
 nuich modified by different local and accidental 
 causes, that a foreigner's impressions respecting 
 it are liable to vary as often as he changes his 
 place of residence. In those parts of the coun- 
 try where woods and groves abound, where a 
 continual supply of water admits of general 
 irrigation, and where gardens encompass every
 
 424 INDIA. 
 
 dwelling, and green fields destroy the glare of 
 the sun, the climate is neither oppressive nor 
 uninviting during the greater part of the year ; 
 and the mind enjoys a state of tranquil serenity, 
 insensible to the monotonousness of Nature's 
 operations, and satisfied with the objects which 
 fall within the range of its observation ; but, on 
 the other hand, in those sterile plains which are 
 strewed with grey stones, and diversified only 
 by a few naked and rocky hills, and which are 
 annually visited by hot winds of several months' 
 duration, the climate of Hindostan assumes a 
 horrid and repulsive character, and seems to 
 exert a hostility to animal and vegetable life, 
 instead of being, as it generally speaking is, the 
 prolific parent and successful nurse of both. 
 But let the European reside in the most fertile 
 and favoured regions of Hindostan, let him en- 
 joy uninterrupted health, and let him have the 
 command of all possible means of alleviating the 
 heat, still he will not, even after the longest 
 residence, become entirely reconciled and assi- 
 milated to the climate, unless his mind and 
 character adapt themselves to it as well as his 
 constitution. It has always appeared to me, 
 that the inconvenience which the native of 
 northern regions at first experiences from the
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 425 
 
 influence of tropical climates, has less connex- 
 ion with his body than with his mental pecu- 
 liarities. It is not the sensation of heat that 
 oppresses him, but the sensation of personal re- 
 straint and abridged liberty of action. Accus- 
 tomed in his own country to be continually 
 in motion, to go abroad at all hours, to pass 
 from one place to another, and to engage in 
 various active pursuits, he finds, on arriving 
 in the torrid zone, that things of the kind are 
 impracticable, and that to preserve his health 
 and his life he must altogether renounce them. 
 Irritation and ennui ensue, unless his internal 
 resources are very considerable ; and his consti- 
 tution suffers more from the state of his mind 
 than from the heat of the climate. The Hin- 
 doo, to whom the high temperature of India 
 is perfectly congenial, owes his exemption from 
 its ill effects upon foreigners, less to his having 
 been born and reared in the vicinity of the 
 equator, than to his sedateness of character, his 
 moderate desires, and his aversion to business 
 and active pursuits. He passes most of the day 
 in contemplative ease, and in a sitting posture, 
 and seldom suffers himself to be hurried or dis- 
 turbed ; wliile, on the other hand, the European 
 lives in the midst of business, and ceases to
 
 426 INDIA. 
 
 value existence whenever he ceases to have 
 some source of excitement or annoyance. 
 
 How can it be explained, that in the torrid 
 zone everything should attain superior perfec- 
 tion and developement except the human mind, 
 which there appears to be enfeebled by those 
 very influences which more or less invigorate 
 all the forms and powers of Nature ? Nowhere 
 does the vegetable world assume so magnifi- 
 cent, so varied, and so brilliant an aspect. The 
 palm rises to the height of one hundred and 
 fifty feet ; the trunk of the adansonia is some- 
 times found to be half as much in circumfer- 
 ence ; the bark of many trees exudes precious 
 gums and fragrant perfumes ; the blossoms of 
 others produce spices and ambrosial nuts ; the 
 most splefidid fructification crowns the com- 
 monest plants ; the flowers of the rafllesia 
 expand to a diameter of three feet ; the very 
 weeds possess valuable medical properties ; and, 
 in short, a perpetual and luxuriant verdure ex- 
 ists throughout the year. Nor is the favour- 
 ing influence of the torrid zone less perceptible 
 in the animal creation which inhabits it; for 
 the elephant, the camelopard, the lion, the 
 royal tiger, and the camel, combining amongst
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 427 
 
 them bulk, intelligence, beauty, strength, and 
 usefulness, are found only within its limits, or 
 nearly so : while the seas abound with resplen- 
 dent shells and corals, and mature into perfec- 
 tion the pearls of Ceylon and the purple-dying 
 murex of Nicoya. Many of the rivers of equa- 
 torial countries roll gold; and the mountains 
 enclose mines of that metal, and are traversed 
 with ramifications of silver ore, which are the 
 richer the deeper they lie under the surface of 
 the earth ; and in similar regions are procured 
 all the gems and precious stones that shine at 
 the courts and in the palaces of sovereigns, in 
 whatever part of the world their kingdoms may 
 be situated. 
 
 But under the torrid zone the character and 
 powers of our species partake of neither the 
 splendour nor the developement which there 
 belong to the productions of the soil, whether 
 animate or inanimate. The more brilliant ex- 
 hibitions of human genius, and the grander 
 efforts of human industry, have always taken 
 place in colder regions ; and a high degree of 
 temperature seems to have the effect of rarefy- 
 ing tlie faculties of man as well as the atmo- 
 sphere which surrounds him, so that they be-
 
 428 INDIA. 
 
 come too much attenuated to support an accu- 
 mulation of powerful ideas ; in the same manner 
 as the air, after undergoing great expansion, 
 can no longer bear up the bird or the balloon, 
 which would float upon it without difficulty 
 were it in a state of medium density. It is 
 very certain that there is no instance of any 
 individual of great genius being born within 
 the tropics, and that the most civilized nations 
 there never advance beyond a certain pitch of 
 knowledge and refinement. And while we 
 may believe that they have no reason to regret 
 this, in so far as their general happiness is con- 
 cerned, we shall nevertheless feel a strong cu- 
 riosity to discover the cause of the moral pheno- 
 menon itself; which has been ascribed by turns 
 to the natural indolence of the natives of hot 
 climates, to the facility with which they pro- 
 cure the means of subsistence, to their want of 
 mental and physical energy, and to their indif- 
 ference to a high degree of political freedom. 
 All these four causes may operate in a greater 
 or less degree in producing the effect in ques- 
 tion ; but it appears to me that a fifth one acts 
 more powerfully and decidedly in that way 
 than any of them : I mean a theocratic form
 
 GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 429 
 
 of ffovernment, which seems to be a natural and 
 indispensable accompaniment of civihzation in 
 tropical climates, whether in Asia, Africa, or 
 America. In the first-mentioned country, the 
 Hindoos afford a striking example of the kind ; 
 and also the Turks, who, though not ostensibly 
 in subjection to the priesthood, found all their 
 laws and institutions upon the precepts of the 
 Koran. Africa, again, furnishes us with an in- 
 stance of theocracy in the ancient Egyptians ; 
 and directing our view towards America, we 
 find that both the Mexicans and Peruvians 
 were governed in a similar way at the time 
 that the Spaniards invaded their territories. It 
 is scarcely necessary to remark, that the effect 
 of a theocratic government has always been to 
 advance nations to a certain degree of civiliza- 
 tion only, and to keep them stationary there ; 
 and we may thus explain why the inhabitants 
 of tropical regions have never attained a high 
 state of intelligence and refinement: but this 
 does not solve the point in question, because 
 we are again led to ask how it happens that a 
 theocracy should prevail so universally amongst 
 them, and be so well adapted to their character 
 and habits of mind ? Is it because their natural
 
 430 INDIA. 
 
 indolence makes them dislike the trouble of 
 reasoning and reflecting, and induces them to 
 throw that upon the priesthood ? for whoever 
 unreservedly submits himself to their guidance 
 in any country whatever has no farther occa- 
 sion to use his faculties, and, strictly speak- 
 ing, has no right to do anything but to hear 
 and to obey. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
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