A VOYAGE TO BORNEO.
153
The money that paffes here is the fame as in Holland, viz. ftivers, doublekees,ikellings, and rix-dollars. Two ftivers make one doublekee, three doublekees onefkelling, eight Ikellings one rix-dollar.—Note: that if you pay away your Englifhcrowns or Spanilh dollars, they will take them at no more than eight Ikellings a-piece,which is twenty-five per cent, lofs : therefore if you defign to touch at th? Cape out-ward-bound, I would advife you to ftock yourfelf with fuch goods in England as maybe proper for that market, to fupply your wants, or otherwise you muft furnifh your-felf with Dutch money ; though goods, if properly chofen, may produce forty or fiftyper cent, profit. Small pale ale in calks of about fix pounds per tun, ftrong beer inbottles, tobacco, butter, cheefe, flint-glafles, watches, and other proper fortment ofclock-work, with flight fcarlet, black, or fky-colour ftockings, will turn to as goodaccount as any thing you can carry thither.
Though fo many accounts have been given of the Hottentots, or Hotmendods, asour failors vulgarly call them, by perfons of greater capacities than I can pretend to,yet I cannot leave the place without faying fomelhing of them: they inhabit thecountry adjacent to the Cape, being the ancient inhabitants, or aborigines thereof.They are called Hottentots from their frequent repetitions of that word in their danc-ings ; the men are tall, ftrong fet, and very fwift runners ; having broad flat nofes,blubber lips, great heads, difagreeable features, fhort frizzled hair, and take themaltogether nothing can be more ugly. Their fkin is like our chimney-fweepers, notthat they are naturally fo black, but they make themfelves fo by daubing themfelveswith foot and ftinking greafe, which makes them frnell moft intolerably, and where-with their fhort curled hair is fo clodded and ftiff, that I can compare it to nothingbetter than a frozen mop ; they wear no cloaths, but throw a fheep’s fkin, or the hideof fome other beaft over their Ihoulders, the hairy fide being turned inward. Theycover their privy parts with a cafe of proportionable length made of the fame fluff asthe aforefaid mantle, which flicks out in a moft unfeemly manner. They bruife topieces the left tefticle of their male children when young, for what reafon I know not,unlefs it be in hopes that they may beget more males than females : being perhaps ofthe opinion of fome naturalifts, who hold that the male femen comes from the righttefticle, and the female from the. left. The women are generally fhort fquat creatures,but ftrong built, altogether as ugly in their kind as the men, having long flabby breafts,odioufly dangling down to their waift; which they can tofs over their Ihoulders fortheir children to fuck, whom they generally carry on their backs : they wear the famegarb, and cover their privities with a ftnall flap of fkin about five or fix inches fquare,tied round their waift with a thong of leather : they befmear themfelves as the men do,in order to have their bodies as fweetly perfumed, and their complexion as well paintedas the)u However they furpafs them in one point of drefs, for they adorn their legs andarms with raw fheeps 5 guts, not as much as wafhed from the ordure, but blown up withwind, and hung to the fun till they are pure dry and ftinking. Thefe they wear by wayof ornament, though if they happen to be hungry they will foon ftrip them off, andmake a hearty meal of them. You may guefs that thefe filthy animals, for they hardlydeferve the name of rational creatures, if at London , would be much greater cuftomersto our butchers, kitchen-wenches, and chimney-fweepers, for their drefs, &c. than to themercers, perfumers, &c. of Ludgate-hill or Covent-garden. There is no carrion fotainted and naufeous but what they will make a dainty meal of; which makes methink that they are born without the benefit of either frnell or tafte, for they covet notbetter food.than what I mentioned before. They are great lovers of tobacco and
arrack,