ed in the land, and then
treating them with barbarity and injustice.

"The Hottentots, won over by kindness and presents, thought it of little
consequence that strangers should possess a small portion of their
extensive territory, and willingly consented that the settlement should
be made. They, for the first time in their lives, tasted what proved the
cause of their ruin and subsequent slavery--tobacco and strong liquors.
These two poisons, offered gratuitously, till the poor Hottentots had
acquired a passion for them, then became an object of barter--a pipe of
tobacco or a glass of brandy was the price of an ox; and thus daily were
the colonists becoming enriched, and the Hottentots poor.

"The colony rapidly increased, until it was so strong, that the governor
made no ceremony of seizing upon such land as the government wished to
retain or to give away; and the Hottentots soon discovered that not only
their cattle, but the means of feeding them, were taken from them.
Eventually, they were stripped of every thing except their passion for
tobacco and spirits, which they could not get rid of. Unwilling to leave
the land of their forefathers, and seeing no other way of procuring the
means of intoxication which they coveted, they sold themselves and their
services to the white colonists, content to take care of those herds
which had once been their own, and to lead them out to pasture on the
very lands which had once been their birthright."

"Did they then become slaves?" inquired Alexander.

"No; although much worse treated, they never were slaves, and I wish to
point that out; but they became a sort of feudal property of the Dutch,
compelled to hire themselves out, and to work for them upon nominal
wages, which they seldom or never received, and liable to every species
of harsh treatment and cruelty, for which they could obtain no redress.
Yet still they were not bought and sold as were the slaves which were
subsequently introduced into the colony from the east coast of Africa
and Madagascar. The position of the slave was, in my opinion, infinitely
superior, merely from the self-interest of the owner, who would not kill
or risk the life of a creature for whom he had paid two or three hundred
rix-dollars; whereas, the Dutch boors, or planters, thought little of
the life of a Hottentot. If the cattle were to be watched where lions
were plentiful, it was not a slave who had charge of them, but a
Hottentot, as he had cos