- 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.

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