the sea, leaving, I may say, none for
the remainder of the year."

"That is true," replied Swinton.

"And so it will be until the population is not only dense, but, I may
add, sufficiently enlightened and industrious. Then, I presume, they
will take the same measures for securing a supply of water throughout
the year which have been so long adopted in India, and were formerly in
South America by the Mexicans. I mean that of digging large tanks, from
which the water can not escape, except by evaporation."

"I believe that it will be the only remedy."

"Not only the remedy, but more than a remedy; for tanks once
established, vegetation will flourish, and the vegetation will not only
husband the water in the country, but attract more."

"All that is very true," replied Swinton, "and I trust the time will
come, when not only this land may be well watered with the dew of
heaven, but that the rivers of grace may flow through it in every
direction, and the tree of Christ may flourish."

"Amen," replied Alexander.

"But to resume the thread of my discourse," continued Swinton; "I was
about to say, that the increase of population, and I may add the
increase of riches,--for in these nomadic tribes cattle are the only
riches,--is the great cause of these descents from the north; for the
continued droughts which I have mentioned of four or five years compel
them to seek for pasture elsewhere, after their own is burned up. At all
events, it appears that the Caffre nations have been continually
sustaining the pressure from without, both from the northward and the
southward, for many years.

"When the Dutch settled at the Cape, they took possession of the country
belonging to the Hottentot tribes, driving the few that chose to
preserve their independence into the Bushman and Namaqua lands,
increasing the population in those countries, which are only able to
afford subsistence to a very scattered few. Then, again, they encroached
upon the Caffres, driving them first beyond the great Fish River, and
afterward still more to the northward. The Bushman tribes of hill
Hottentots, if we may so term them, have also been increased by various
means, notwithstanding the constant massacres of these unhappy people by
the Dutch boors; moreover, we have by our injudicious colonial
regulations added another and a new race of people, who are already
considerable in their numbers."

"Which do you refer to?"

"To the people now known by the