On The East Side Of
The Table Mountain There Is Another Village Of Ten Small Houses, Built
Round Like Bee-Hives, And Covered With Mats Woven Of Bent Grass.
[Footnote 162:
Corey, or Coree, was a savage, or Hottentot chief; who
had been in England. - Purch.]
"The land at the Cape of Good Hope, near Saldanha bay, [Table bay] is
fertile, but divided by high and inaccessible rocky mountains, covered
with snow, the river Dulce falling into the bay on the east side. The
natives are the most barbarous people in the world, eating carrion,
wearing the guts of sheep about their necks, and rubbing their heads,
the hair on which is curled like the negroes, with the dung of beasts
and other dirt. They have no clothing, except skins wrapped about their
shoulders, wearing the fleshy side next them in summer, and the hairy
side in winter. Their houses are only made of mats, rounded at the top
like an oven, and open on one side, which they turn as the wind
changes, having no door to keep out the weather. They have left off
their former custom of stealing, but are quite ignorant of God, and seem
to have no religion. The air and water here are both excellent, and the
country is very healthy. The country abounds in cattle, sheep,
antilopes, baboons, pheasants, partridges, larks, wild-geese, ducks, and
many other kinds of fowls. On the Penguin isle [Dassen or Robber's
island,] there is a bird called penguin, which walks upright, having no
feathers on its wings, which hang down like sleeves faced with white.
These birds cannot fly, but walk about in flocks, being a kind of
mixture, or intermediate link, between beast, bird, and fish, yet mostly
bird. The commodities here are cattle and ningin roots; and I believe
there is a rock yielding quicksilver.[163]The Table mountain is 11,853
feet high.[164] The bay is full of whales and seals, and is in lat. 33 deg.
45' S." - T.R.
[Footnote 163: Ningin, or Ginseng, is mentioned afterwards. The
quicksilver rock has not been found. - E.]
[Footnote 164: This height is probably an exaggeration, or was measured
up its slope or talus, not ascertained perpendicularly. - E.]
On the 16th of June, after a consultation, we set ashore ten of our
condemned persons to remain at the Cape. These were John Crosse, Henry
Cocket, Clerke, Brand, Booth, Hunyard, Brigs, Pets, Metcalf, and
Skilligall. These men agreed that Crosse should be their chief, and we
gave them weapons for their defence against men and wild beasts,
together with provisions and clothes. The natives at this place are
especially desirous of brass, and care not much for copper, chiefly
wishing to have pieces of a foot square. They care little for iron
hoops. We caught seven or eight hundred fishes in the river, at one haul
of our seyne. The country people brought us for sale a root called
Ningin,[165] of which we bought a handful for a small piece of copper
an inch and half long.
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