Notwithstanding the natural sterility of the climate, industry has supplied this place with all the necessaries, and even the luxuries of life, in the greatest profusion. The beef and mutton are excellent, though the cattle and sheep are natives of the country; the cattle are lighter than ours, more neatly made, and have horns that spread to a much wider extent. The sheep are clothed with a substance between wool and hair, and have tails of an enormous size; we saw some that weighed twelve pounds, and were told that there were many much larger. Good butter is made of the milk of the cows, but the cheese is very much inferior to our own. Here are goats, but they are never eaten, hogs, and a variety of poultry. Hares are also found here, exactly like those of Europe; antelopes of many kinds, quails of two sorts, and bustards, which are well flavoured, but not juicy. The fields produce European wheat and barley, and the gardens European vegetables, and fruit of all kinds, besides plantains, guavas, jambu, and some other Indian fruits, but these are not in perfection; the plantains, in particular, are very bad, and the guavas no larger than gooseberries. The vineyards also produce wine of various sorts, but not equal to those of Europe, except the Constantia, which is made genuine only at one vineyard, about ten miles distant from the town. There is another vineyard near it, where wine is made that is called by the same name, but it is greatly inferior.
The common method in which strangers live here, is to lodge and board with some of the inhabitants, many of whose houses are always open for their reception: the rates are from five shillings to two shillings a day, for which all necessaries are found. Coaches may be hired at four-and-twenty shillings a day, and horses at six shillings; but the country affords very little temptation to use them. There are no public entertainments; and those that are private, to which strangers of the rank of gentlemen are always admitted, were suspended while we were there by the breaking out of the measles.
At the farther end of the High-street, the Company have a garden, which is about two-thirds of an English mile long; the whole is divided by walks that intersect each other at right angles, and are planted with oaks that are clipt into wall-hedges, except in the centre walk, where they are suffered to grow to their full size, and afford an agreeable shade, which is the more welcome, as, except the plantations by the sides of the two canals, there is not a single tree that would serve even for a shepherd’s bush, within many miles of the town. The greater part of this garden is kitchen-ground; but two small squares are allotted to botanical plants, which did not appear to be so numerous by one half as they were when Oldenland wrote his catalogue. At the farther end of the garden is a menagerie, in which there are many birds and beasts that are never seen in Europe; particularly a beast called by the Hottentots Coe doe, which is as large as a horse, and has the fine spiral horns which are sometimes seen in private and public collections of curiosities.
Of the natives of this country, we could learn but little, except from report; for there were none of their habitations, where alone they retain their original customs, within less than four days’ journey from the town; those that we saw at the Cape were all servants to Dutch farmers, whose cattle they take care of, and are employed in other drudgery of the meanest kind. These are in general of a slim make, and rather lean than plump, but remarkably strong, nimble, and active. Their size is nearly the same with that of Europeans, and we saw some that were six feet high; their eyes are dull and without expression; their skins are of the colour of soot, but that is in a great measure caused by the dirt, which is so wrought into the grain that it cannot be distinguished from complexion; for I believe they never wash any part of their bodies. Their hair curls strongly, not like a negroe’s, but falls in ringlets about seven or eight inches long. Their clothing consists of a skin, generally that of a sheep, thrown over their shoulders; besides which, the men wear a small pouch in the middle of the waist, and the women, a broad leather flap, both which hang from a girdle or belt that is adorned with beads and small pieces of copper. Both men and women wear necklaces, and sometimes bracelets of beads; and the women wear rings of hard leather round their ancles, to defend them from the thorns, with which their country every where abounds: some of them have a sandal, made of wood or bark; but the greater part of them are unshod.
To a European, their language appears to be scarcely articulate; besides which it is distinguished by a very remarkable singularity. At very frequent intervals, while they are speaking, they cluck with the tongue against the roof of the mouth: these clucks do not appear to have any meaning, but rather to divide what they say into sentences. Most of these Hottentots speak Dutch, without any peculiarity of pronunciation.
They are all modest, even to sheepishness; for it was not without the greatest difficulty that we could persuade any of them to dance, or even to speak in their own language to each other, in our presence. We did however both see them dance, and hear them sing; their dances are, by turns, active and sluggish to excess; sometimes consisting of quick and violent motions, with strange distortions of the body, and unnatural leaps backwards and forwards, with the legs crossing each other; and being sometimes so spiritless that the dancer only strikes the ground first with one foot and then with the other, neither changing place nor moving any other part of his body: the songs also are alternately to quick and slow movements, in the same extremes as the dance.
We made many enquiries concerning these people of the Dutch, and the following particulars are related upon the credit of their report.
Within the boundaries of the Dutch settlements, there are several nations of these people, who very much differ from each other in their customs and manner of life: all, however, are friendly and peaceable, except one clan that is settled to the eastward, which the Dutch call Bosch men, and these live entirely by plunder, or rather by theft; for they never attack their neighbours openly, but steal the cattle privately in the night. They are armed however to defend themselves, if they happen to be detected, with lances or assagays, and arrows, which they know how to poison by various ways, some with the juice of herbs, and some with the venom of the serpent, called Cobra di Capelo; in the hands of these people a stone also is a very formidable weapon, for they can throw it with such force and exactness as repeatedly to hit a dollar at the distance of a hundred paces. As a defence against these freebooters, the other Indians train up bulls, which they place round their towns in the night, and which, upon the approach of either man or beast, will assemble and oppose them, till they hear the voice of their masters encouraging them to fight, or calling them off, which they obey with the same docility as a dog.
Some nations have the art of melting and preparing copper, which is found among them, probably native; and of this they make broad plates, which they wear as ornaments upon their foreheads. Some of them also know how to harden bits of iron, which they procure from the Dutch, and form into knives, so as to give them a temper superior to that of any they can buy.
The chiefs, many of whom are possessors of very numerous herds of cattle, are generally clad in the skins of lions, tygers, or zebras, to which they add fringes, and other ornaments, in a very good taste. Both sexes frequently anoint the body with grease, but never use any that is rancid or fœtid, if fresh can be had. Mutton suet and butter are generally used for this purpose; butter is preferred, which they make by shaking the milk in a bag made of the skin of some beast.