The English Are
Almost Equally Contemptuous; But There Is One Great Difference.
My
host, for instance, always calls a black 'a d-d nigger'; but if
that nigger is wronged or
Oppressed he fights for him, or bails him
out of the Tronk, and an English jury gives a just verdict; while a
Dutch one simply finds for a Dutchman, against any one else, and
ALWAYS against a dark man. I believe this to be true, from what I
have seen and heard; and certainly the coloured people have a great
preference for the English.
I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest Mozambiquer I have yet
seen, a bricklayer's labourer, who can speak English, and says he
was servant to an English Captain - 'Oh, a good fellow he was, only
he's dead!' He now insists on my taking him as a servant. 'I
dessay your man at home is a good chap, and I'll be a good boy, and
cook very nice.' He is thick-set and short and strong. Nature has
adorned him with a cock eye and a yard of mouth, and art, with a
prodigiously tall white chimney-pot hat with the crown out, a
cotton nightcap, and a wondrous congeries of rags. He professes to
be cook, groom, and 'walley', and is sure you would be pleased with
his attentions.
Well, to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered all over the village on
Sunday afternoon, and peeped into the cottages. All were neat and
clean, with good dressers of crockery, the VERY poorest, like the
worst in Weybridge sandpits; but they had no glass windows, only a
wooden shutter, and no doors; a calico curtain, or a sort of hurdle
supplying its place. The people nodded and said 'Good day!' but
took no further notice of me, except the poor old Hottentot, who
was seated on a doorstep. He rose and hobbled up to meet me and
take my hand again. He seemed to enjoy being helped along and
seated down carefully, and shook and patted my hand repeatedly when
I took leave of him. At this the people stared a good deal, and
one woman came to talk to me.
In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, and saw the people
go in to 'Abendsegen'. The church was lighted, and as I sat there
and heard the lovely singing, I thought it was impossible to
conceive a more romantic scene. On Monday I saw all the schools,
and then looked at the great strong Caffre lads playing in the
square. One of them stood to be pelted by five or six others, and
as the stones came, he twisted and turned and jumped, and was
hardly ever hit, and when he was, he didn't care, though the others
hurled like catapults. It was the most wonderful display of
activity and grace, and quite incredible that such a huge fellow
should be so quick and light. When I found how comfortable dear
old Mrs. Rietz made me, I was sorry I had hired the cart and kept
it to take me home, for I would gladly have stayed longer, and the
heat did me no harm; but I did not like to throw away a pound or
two, and drove back that evening.
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