of
his family sinking into barbarism.

The route we at this time followed ran along the middle, or skirted the
western zone before alluded to, until we reached the latitude of Lake
Ngami, where a totally different country begins. While in the colony,
we passed through districts inhabited by the descendants of Dutch and
French refugees who had fled from religious persecution. Those living
near the capital differ but little from the middle classes in
English counties, and are distinguished by public spirit and general
intelligence; while those situated far from the centres of civilization
are less informed, but are a body of frugal, industrious, and hospitable
peasantry. A most efficient system of public instruction was established
in the time of Governor Sir George Napier, on a plan drawn up in a great
measure by that accomplished philosopher, Sir John Herschel. The system
had to contend with less sectarian rancor than elsewhere; indeed, until
quite recently, that spirit, except in a mild form, was unknown.

The population here described ought not to be confounded with some
Boers who fled from British rule on account of the emancipation of their
Hottentot slaves, and perhaps never would have been so had not every now
and then some Rip Van Winkle started forth at the Cape to justify in the
public prints the deeds of blood and slave-hunting in the far interior.
It is therefore not to be wondered at if the whole race is confounded
and held in low estimation by those who do not know the real composition
of the Cape community.

Population among the Boers increases rapidly; they marry soon, are
seldom sterile, and continue to have children late. I once met a worthy
matron whose husband thought it right to imitate the conduct of Abraham
while Sarah was barren; she evidently agreed in the propriety of the
measure, for she was pleased to hear the children by a mother of what
has been thought an inferior race address her as their mother. Orphans
are never allowed to remain long destitute; and instances are frequent
in which a tender-hearted farmer has adopted a fatherless child, and
when it came of age portioned it as his own.

Two centuries of the South African climate have not had much effect upon
the physical condition of the Boers. They are a shade darker, or
rather ruddier, than Europeans, and are never cadaverous-looking, as
descendants of Europeans are said to be elsewhere. There is a tendency
to the development of ste