At too great a distance from the seat of government for its power to reach them, they defied it and knew no law but their own imperious wills, acknowledging no authority,--guilty of every crime openly, and careless of detection." "I certainly have read of great cruelty on the part of these Dutch boors, but I had no idea of the extent to which it was carried." "The origin was in that greatest of all curses, slavery; nothing demoralizes so much.

These boors had been brought up with the idea that a Hottentot, a bushman, or a Caffre were but as the mere brutes of the field, and they have treated them as such.

They would be startled at the idea of murdering a white man, but they will execute wholesale slaughter among these poor natives, and think they have committed no crime.

But the ladies are coming up, and we shall be interrupted, so I will not task your patience any more to-day.

I shall therefore conclude what I may term part the first of my little history of the Cape colony.".