this they foon abandoned for want of fhelter for their fhipping, which they afterwards found, farther to the eastward, in the bay of De la Goa, ftill in their poffeffion. At length, however, from the very favourable reprefentations of Van Reibeck, then a furgeon of one of the Dutch fhips, the Eaft India Company came to a refolution to colonize the Cape; and fince the first establishment to the prefent war, a period of near 180 years, it continued in their hands. The progrefs of the population and the extent of territory have been tolerably rapid. The former, like fome of the provinces of North America, has nearly doubled itself in every twenty years. It was first fettled in 1650 by a hundred male perfons, to whom were shortly afterwards fent out, from the houfes of industry in Holland, about an equal number of females; and the prefent population exceeds 20,000 whites: many of thefe, however, have fince been imported from Europe. fity of its fubjects' to spread themfelves wide over the country. It forefaw that a spirit of industry, if encouraged in a mild and temperate climate, and on a fertile foil, might one day produce a fociety impatient of the hackles impofed on it by the parent state. It knew, that to fupply to its fubjects the wants of life without the toil of labour or the anxiety of care; to keep them in ignorance, and to prevent a ready intercourfe with each other, were the most likely means to counteract fuch a fpirit. It granted lands, therefore, on yearly leafes, at the fmall fixed rent of twenty-four rixdollars (not five pounds fterling), in any part of the country, A law was alfo paffel, that the nearest distance from house to houfe was to be three miles, fo that each farm confifted of more than 5000 acres of land, and confequently was rented at the rate of fomething lefs than a farthing an acre. From a fearcity of water, it frequently happened that many farms were at ice that diftance from each other. No land was granted in property except in the vicinity of the Cape. As the Dutch advanced, the natives retired; and those that remained with their herds among the new fettlers, were foon reduced to the neceffity of becoming their fervants. "The difficulties that for a time impeded the extenfion of the fettlement, were principally occafioned by the number of wild beasts of various kinds that fwarmed in every part of the country. In the private journal of the founder of the colony it is noticed, that lions and leopards, wolves and hyænas, committed nightly depredations, for fome time after the firft establishment, under the walls of the fort. The oppofition of the native Hottentots feems to have given them little interruption. They foon difcovered the predominant paffion of this weak and peaceable people for fpirituous liquors, and that a bottle of brandy was a paffport through every horde. With this and tobacco, iron, and a few paltry trinkets, they purchased a part of the country and of their stock of cattle, and then took the reft by force. A cafk of brandy was the price of a whole diftrict; and nine inches in length of an iron hoop the purchase of a fat ox. Deprived, by their paffion for intoxicating liquors and baubles, of the only means of exiftence, the numbers of the natives began rapidly to decline; and the encroachments of the fettlers were in proportion to the diminution of the obftacles. Finding it unneceffary to limit the extent of their poffeffions, the policy of the government kept pace with the propen "No permanent limits to the colony were ever fixed under the, Dutch government. The pastoral life that the peafantry of the remote diftricts at all times adopted, required a great extent of country to feed their numerous herds; and the imbecility and eafy temper of the adjacent tribes of natives favoured their avaricious views; and the government was either unwilling, or thought itself unable, to reftrain them. Having no kind of chart nor furvey, except of fuch districts as were contiguous to the Cape, it poffeffed a very limited and imperfect knowledge of the geography of the remoter parts, collected chiefly from the reports of the peafantry, fallacious often, through ignorance or defign, or of thofe who had made excurfions for their profit or pleafare, or from expeditions fent out by order, and at the expenfe of government; and the object of thefe, it would appear, was with the view rather of carrying on a lucrative trade with the bordering tribes of natives, than to fupply useful informa K 2 tion tion refpecting the colony. Attended with the parade of a military guard, furgeons, land-furveyors, burghers with waggons, oxen, horfes, and Hottentots without number, not one of them has furnished a fingle fketch even towards affifting the knowledge of the geography of the country. The only perfons who appear to have travelled with no other view than that of acquiring ufeful information, were the Governor Van Plettenberg, and the late Colonel Gordon. Thefe two gentlemen fixed, upon the spot, the boundaries of the colony, as they now ftand, to the eaftward. To complete the line of demarcation, through the heart of the country to the western fhore, was one of the objects of the feveral journies that fupplied the materials of the following pages. The chart that accompanies them was undertaken and executed by the order of the Earl of Macartney, in the years 1797 and 1798, when thefe journies were made. It was conftructed entirely from actual obfervations of latitude and of bearings, eftimation of distances, and frequent angular interfections of remarkable points and objects. "From this chart it appears that the extent and dimenfions of the territory npofing the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, now permanently fixed, are as follows: Length from weft to eaft. Cape Point to Kaffer Land, River Kouffle to Zuureberg, Miles. Breadth from fouth to north. River Kouffie to Cape Point, Nieuwveldt Mountains to Plettenberg's Bay, - 580 520 315 160 225 Mouth of the Tufh River to Plettenberg's Baaken, which gives a parallelogram whofe mean length is 550, and mean breadth 233, English miles, comprehending an area of 128,150 fquare miles. This great extent of country, deducting the population of Cape Town, is peopled by about 15,000 white inhabitants, fo that each individual might poffefs eight and a half fquare miles of ground. A very great portion, however, of this territory may be considered as an unprofitable wafte, unfit for any fort of culture, or even to be employed as pafture for the fupport of cattle. Level plains, confifting of a hard impenetrable furface of clay, thinly fprinkled over with cryftallized fand, condemn ed to perpetual drought, and produ cing only a few ftraggling tufts of acrid, faline, and fucculent plants; and chains of vaft mountains that are either totally naked, or clothed in parts with four graffes only, or fuch plants as are noxious to animal life, compofe at least one half of the colony of the Cape.” P. 5. PERNICIOUS EFFECTS OF SLAVERY, "THERE is, perhaps, no part of the world, out of Europe, where the introduction of flavery was lefs neceffary than at the Cape of Good Hope. Nor would it ever have found its way. into this angle of Africa, had the fame spirit of Batavian induftry, which raised a wealthy and populous republic out of the fa, impreffed the minds of those who firit formed the fettlement. A temperate climate, a fertile foil, a mild and peaceable race of natives, were advantages that few infant colonies have poifeffed; and, as they still exist, may one day yet be turned to account. To encourage the native Hottentots in useful labour, by giving them an intereft in the produce of that labour; to make them experience the comforts of civilized life, and to feel they have a place and a value in fociety, which the miferable policy of the Dutch go•vernment denied to them, would be the fure means of diminishing, and, in time, of entirely removing the neceffity of flavery. Few negroes, in fact, have been imported fince the capture, and thofe few by accident, or by special commiffion: and as the increased demand for colonial produce has required a proportional increase of labour, they now bear moft extravagant prices. From one hundred to four hundred pounds fterling is daily paid for a flave in Cape Town: yet it is not unusual to find from twenty to thirty in one houfe. Some of thefe, indeed, are artificers, and are hired out at certain rates for the day, week, or month. The most active and docile, but the moft dangerous flaves are the Malays. They are faithful, honeft, and induftrious; but so impatient of injury, and fo capricious, that the flighteft provo cation will fometimes drive them into fits of frenzy, during the continuance of which it would be unfafe to come within their reach. The revengeful fpirit of a Malay was ftrongly marked by an occurrence which happened a fhort time ago. Conceiving that he not only had ferved his mafter fufficiently long, and with great fidelity, but had also paid him feveral fums of money, he was tempted to demand his liberty, and met with a refufal. The following morning the Malay murdered his fellow-flave. On being taken and brought up for examination before a commiflion of the Court of Juftice, he acknowledged that the boy he had murdered was his friend; but he had confidered that the most effectual way to be revenged of his master was, not by taking away his life, but by robbing him of the value of a thoufand rixdollars, by the lofs of the boy, and another thousand by bringing himself, in fo doing, to the gallows, the recollection of which would prey upon his avaricious mind for the remainder of his life. "The effects that a state of flavery invariably produces on the minds and habits of a people born and educated in the midft of it, are not lefs felt at the Cape than in the warmer climates. Among the upper ranks it is the cuftom for every child to have its flave, whofe fole employment is to humour its caprices, and to drag it about from place to place, left it should too foon difcover for what purposes nature had bestowed on it legs and arms. Even the lower clafs of people object to their children going out as fervants, or being bound as apprentices to learn the ufeful trades, which, in their contracted ideas, would be confidered as condemning them to perform the work of flaves." P. 45. SOCIETY AND MANNERS. "THAT portion of the day, not employed in the concerns of trade, is ufually devoted to the gratification of the fenfual appetites. Few have any tafte for reading, and none for the cultivation of the fine arts. They have no kind of public amufements except occafional balls; nor is there much focial intercourfe but by family parties, which ufually confift of card-playing or dancing. Money-matters and merchandise engross their whole converfation. Yet none are opulent, though many in eafy circumftances. There are no beggars in the whole colony; and but a few who are the objects of public charity. The fubfiftence for thefe is derived from the intereft of a fund established out of the church fuperfluities, from alms, donations, and collections made after divine fervice, and not from any tax laid upon the public. Except, indeed, a few colonial affeffments for the repairs of the streets and public works, the inhabitants of the Cape have little drawback on their profits or the produce of their labour. The luxury of a carriage and horfes, which in England is attended with an enormous expenfe, is kept up here for a trifle after the first coft. Thofe in the town that are used only for thort excurfions, or for taking the air, are open, and calculated for four or fix perfons. For making journies they have a kind of light waggon covered with fail-cloth, and sufficiently large to hold a whole family with clothes and provifions for several days. The coachman is generally one of those people known in the colony by the name of baftaards, being a mixed breed between a Hottentot woman and a European man, or a Hottentot woman and a flave. They make most excellent drivers, and think nothing of turning fhort corners, or of galloping through narrow avenues, with eight in hand. The ladies feldom take the exercife of riding on horfeback, that exercise being confidered as too fatiguing. They generally confine themfelves to the house during the day, and walk the Mall in the public garden in the cool of the evening." P. 48. A SILVER MINE PRETENDED TO BE FOUND. "THE plain to the eastward, at a dozen miles beyond Stickland, is terminated by two mountains, between which the road leads into a valley better cultivated and more thickly inhabited than any part between it and the Cape. Simonfberg, on the right, is among the higheft of the mountains that are feen from the Cape. Its forked Parnaffian fummit is frequently, in winter, covered with fnow, and in the fouth-eaft winds of fummer is generally buried in the clouds. It alfo has it's Helicon trickling down its fides, as yet a virgin fpring untafted by the Mules. It held out more charms, it seems, for Plutus, than for Apolio. A man in the time of the governor, whose name the the mountain perpetuates, intent on making his fortune by impofing on the credulity and ignorance of the Company's fervants, melted down a quantity of Spanish dollars, and prefented the mafs to the governor, as a fpecimen of filver from a rich mine that he had difcovered in this mountain. Enraptured at the proof of fo important a difcovery, a refolution was pafled by the governor in council, that a fum of money fhould be advanced to the man, to enable him to profecute his difcovery, and work the mine, of which he was to have the fole direction; and in the mean time, to convince the public of the rifing wealth of the colony, the mafs of filver was ordered to be manufactured into a chain, to which the keys of the castle gates should be fufpended. The chain was made, and ftill remains in the fame fervice for which it was originally intended, as 'a memorial of the credulity of the governor and the council." P. 59. THE DUTCH COLONISTS—THEIR MODE OF LIFE, &c. "AT the head of this little valley (Hex-river valley) we were to take leave of every human habitation for at leaft fixteen days, the time required to crofs over the Great Karroo, or Arid Defert, that lay between us and the diftant diftrict of Graaff Reynet. It therefore became neceffary to fupply ourfelves with a stock of provifions, as nothing whatfoever is to be had on the defert, except now and then an antelope. To thofe travellers who are furnished with a good waggon and a tent, the want of habitations is no great lofs; for few of them, behind the first range of mountains, have any fort of convenience, comfort, or even cleanlinefs. Among the planters of Africa it is true there are fome who live in a decent manner, particularly the cultivators of the grape. Many of these are descendants of the French families who, a little more than a century ago, found an afylum at the Cape of Good Hope from the religions perfecutions that drove them from their own country. But a true Dutch peafant, or boor, às he ftyles himself, has not the fmalleft idea of what an English farmer means by the word comfort. Placed in a country where not only the neceffaries, but almost every luxury of life might by induftry be procured, he has the enjoyment of none of them. Though he has cattle in abundance, he makes very little ufe of milk or of butter. In the midst of a foil and climate moft favourable for the cultivation of the vine, he drinks no wine. He makes ufe of few or no vegetables nor roots. Three times a-day his table is loaded with males of mutton, fwimming in the greafe of the sheep's tail. His houfe is either open to the roof, or covered only with rough poles and turf, affording a favourable shelter for fcorpions and spiders; and the earthy floors are covered with duft and dirt, and fwarm with infects, particularly with a fpecies of the termes, which, though not fo deftructive as fome others of this genus, is nevertheless a very troublefome and difagreeable animal. His apartments, if he happens to have more than one, which is not always the cafe among the grazing farmers, are nearly deftitute of furniture. A great cheft that contains all his moveables, and two smaller ones that are fitted to his waggon, are the most Ariking articles. The bottoms of his chairs confift of thongs cut from a bul lock's hide. The windows are without glafs; or if there fhould happen to be any remains of this article, it is fo patched and daubed as nearly to exclude the light it was intended to admit. The boor notwithstanding has his enjoyments: he is abfolute mafter of a domain of feveral miles in extent; and he lords it over a few miferable flaves or Hottentots without control. His pipe fcarcely ever quits his mouth, from the moment he rides till he retires to reft, except to give him time to fwallow his fopie, or a glass of ftrong ardent fpirit, to eat his meals, and to take his nap after dinner. Unwilling to work, and unable to think; with a mind difengaged from every fort of care and reflection, indulging to excefs in the gratification of every fenfual appetite, the African peafant grows to an unwieldy fize, and is carried off the ftage by the firft inflammatory disease that attacks, him. "How different is the lot of the labouring poor in England, who for fix days in the week are doomed to toil for twelve hours in every day, in order to gain a morfel of bread for their family, and the luxury of a little animal food for the seventh day! "The "The cultivators of the ground, who inhabit the nearer diftricts to the town, though fomething better than the breeders of cattle, live but in a very uncomfortable manner in the midft of profufion. They have little or no fociety with each other, and every one feems to live folely for himself. Though removed from each other to the diftance of feveral miles, and enjoying the benefit of many thousand acres of land, under the rate of a farthing an acre, it is yet a fingular fact, that fcarcely any two neighbours are found to be on good terms with each other, but are embroiled perpetually in quarrels and difputes about the extent of their farms, or the privilege of a spring or a water-courfe. One great caufe of their endless difputes is the abfurd manner of eftimating distance by time. The quantity of land in a government farm, according to the established cuftom of the colony, muft be one hour's walk across it. If one farmer is fupposed to have put down his baaken, or ftake, or land-mark, a little too near to that of his neighbour, the Feldwagtmeefter, or peace officer of the divifion, is called in, by the latter, to pace the distance, for which he gets three dollars. If the Feldwagt-meefter fhould happen to regulate his pace to the fatiffaction of both parties, the affair is fettled; but as this is not always the cafe, the next step is for the difcontented party to apply for a commiflion, confifting of the Landroft, two members of the council, the fecretary of the diftrict, and a meffenger. Thefe gentlemen share fifteen dollars a-day as long as they are out upon the commiffion to determine how far a man ought to walk in an hour. "The dangerous and difficult roads in every part of the colony, but particularly the kloefs or paffes of the mountains, and the fill more perilous fo.ds of the rivers, how how very little fenfe is entertained by the peafantry of public benefits or public conveniences. Each gets over a difficulty as well as he can, and no more is thought about it till it again occurs. An instance appeared of this in croffing the Breede river oppofite to Brandt Valley, which is done by means of a fmall flat-bottomed tub, about fix feet by three. In this machine foot paffengers haul themselves over by a rope xed to two ports, one on each fide of the river. When a horfe is to cross, the faddle is taken off, the rider gets into the tub, and drags the animal after him. But when a waggon is to be tranfported, it must first be unladen, and the baggage carried over in the vefiel: the carriage is then made faft by one end to this floating machine, and the other is buoyed up by a cafk, and in this manner it is dragged over. Thus is half a day confumed in paffing a small river of thirty or forty yards at the moft in width, when a few planks, properly put together, would enable them to carry over any fort of carriage, cattle, or horfes, with fafety and convenience in five minutes. "The women of the African peafantry pafs a life of the moft liftlefs inactivity. The miftrefs of the family, with her coffee-pot conftantly boiling before her on a small table, feems fixed to her chair like a piece of furniture. This good lady, born in the wilds of Africa, and educated among slaves and Hottentots, has little idea of what, in a state of fociety, conftitutes female delicacy. She makes no fcruple of having her legs and feet washed in warm water by a flave before strangers; an operation that is regularly performed every evening. If the motive of fuch a custom were that of cleanlinefs, the practice of it would deferve praife; but to fee the tub with the fame water paffed round through all the branches of the family, according to feniority, is apt to create ideas of a very different nature. Most of them go conftantly without ftockings and fhoes, even when the thermometer is down to the freezing point. They generally, however, make use of small stoves to place the feet on. The young girls fit with their hands before them as liftlefs as their mothers. Moft of thein, in the distant diftricts, can neither read nor write, fo that they have no mental refources whatever. Luckily, perhaps, for them, the paucity of ideas prevents time from hanging heavy on their hands. The hiftory of a day is that of their whole lives. They hear or fpeak of nothing but that fuch-a-one is going to the city, crto church, or to be married, or that the Bosjefmans have stolen the cattle of fuch-a-one, or the locuits eaten their corn. The young people have no meetings at fixed periods, as in moft country-places, for mirth, and recreation. No fairs, po dancing, no mufic, For |