The Boys Drew, Like
Chinese, From 'copies', And Wrote Like Copper-Plate; They Sang Some
Of Mendelssohn's Choruses From 'St. Paul' Splendidly, The Caffres
Rolling Out Soft Rich Bass Voices, Like Melodious Thunder.
They
are clever at handicrafts, and fond of geography and natural
history, incapable of mathematics, quick at languages, utterly
incurious about other nations, and would all rather work in the
fields than learn anything but music; good boys, honest, but
'trotzig'.
So much for Caffres, Fingoes, &c. The Bastaards are as
clever as whites, and more docile - so the 'rector' told me. The
boy who played the organ sang the 'Lorelei' like an angel, and
played us a number of waltzes and other things on the piano, but he
was too shy to talk; while the Caffres crowded round me, and
chattered away merrily. The Mantatees, whom I cannot distinguish
from Caffres, are scattered all over the colony, and rival the
English as workmen and labourers - fine stalwart, industrious
fellows. Our little 'boy' Kleenboy hires a room for fifteen
shillings a month, and takes in his compatriots as lodgers at half
a crown a week - the usurious little rogue! His chief, one James,
is a bricklayer here, and looks and behaves like a prince. It is
fine to see his black arms, ornamented with silver bracelets,
hurling huge stones about.
All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being well watered, but it
is not healthy for whites; I imagine, too hot and damp. There are
three or four thousand coloured people there, under the control of
the missionaries, who allow no canteens at all.
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