rights of man, which is always a crime and leads to all manner of
wickedness, is exercised by the Colonists with a cruelty that merits the
abhorrence of everyone, though I have been told that they pique
themselves upon it; and not only is the capture of the Hottentots
considered by them merely as a party of pleasure, but in cold blood
they destroy the bands which nature has knit between husband and wife,
and between parents and their children. Does a Colonist at any time get
sight of a Bushman, he takes fire immediately, and spirits up his horse
and dogs, in order to hunt him with more ardour and fury than he would a
wolf or any other wild beast.".

"I am far from accusing all the colonists," he continues, "of these
cruelties, which are too frequently committed. While some of them plumed
themselves upon them, there were many who, on the contrary, held them in
abomination, and feared lest the vengeance of Heaven should, for all
their crimes, fall upon their posterity."

The inability of the Amsterdam authorities to control the filibustering
zeal of the colonists rendered it easy for the people at the Cape to
establish among themselves, in 1793, what purported to be an independent
Republic. One of their proclamations contained the following resolution,
aimed especially at the efforts of the missionaries--most of whom were
then Moravians--to save the natives from utter ruin: "We will not permit
any Moravians to live here and instruct the Hottentots; for, as there
are many Christians who receive no instruction, it is not proper that
the Hottentots should be taught; they must remain in the same state as
before. Hottentots born on the estate of a farmer must live there, and
serve him until they are twenty-five years old, before they receive any
wages. All Bushmen or wild Hottentots caught by us must remain slaves
for life."[9]