452 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HDMAN REASON, gion, every tenet of which, though labouring with the wildest absurdities, they embrace so heartily, and hold so dear, that I look upon it, as a great many others have done, an impossibility to ravish one of them out of a Hottentot'sbosom. Reason against them, and they wrap themselves up in a sullen silence, or run away : And it is very rare that you canget them tohearyou upon any religious topic. Never certainly were there, in matters of religion, so obstinate and so infatuated a people. Some Hotten- tots, in the hands of Europeans, have dissembled a profession of christianity for a while; but have ever renounced it for their native idolatries, as soon as they could get out of their hands. I never heard of a Hottentot dial died a christian. They seem bornwith amortal antipathy to every religion but their own. Many a time have I allured them in small companies, with tobacco, wine, brandy, 'and other things, to places of retirement, . in order to eradicate their nonsensical idolatrous whimsies, and instruct them in the pure worship of God. As long as my store lasted, I had their company, who seemed to attend with a design to learn; but theyonly listenedas spungers, in order to be treated . with the other bottle, and laugh at me when I was gone; at this bite they are as arch as other people. When my store was spent they immediately called out for morehire ; and without it, would not stay to hear a word more of religion. How have I laboured . to bring them to a sense of their duty to almighty God ? How have Iplied them upon the absurdity of acknowledging his su- periority to all other gods, and yet refusing him any act of wor- ship? And how disappointed were all my endeavours! I was still answered, when I could get an answer, with the tradition of the offence of their first parents, and the blindness and hardness of heart with which they were all cursed for it. From which, when I had taken all the advantage I could to inform and awaken. them, and pressed them hard upon the matter, their refuge was in this contradictigp, that Gounja - Gounga, or the God of gods, was a goodman, Who neither did, nor had it in his power to do, any one any hurt, though they had told me before how he had cursed their ancestors. When we had got so far, and I had fol- lowed my blow upon their absurdities and contradictions, they would often in a rage deny all they had owned, and flying from, one say, they neither believed in God, nor would hear a word about him. Thus much for their religion towards God : And though they are so incorrigibly stupid in this respect, yet partly their native temper, andpartly their common safety and peace oblige them to be more careful in their conduct toward their neighbours. And it must be acknowledged, in the main, they are affectionate and hospitable: The generalityof them are a loving honest people, meaning no harm usually to those who do not injure them,
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