THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 411 



enormous expansion of trade and industry. The 

 Transvaal, however, threatens to become Anglicized 

 against its will. Despite the endeavours of 

 President Kriiger and the old Boer party, thanks 

 to the discovery of the gold-fields, a British 

 population is steadily flooding the territory of the 

 South African Republic, railways are being pushed 

 steadily towards its borders, and a few years will 

 in all human probability see that rich country far 

 more pervaded by the Anglo-Saxon element than 

 is the Cape Colony now, even if it be destined 

 never again to add lustre to the British crown. 



In 1806, when the Cape for the second time and 

 finally* fell into our hands, its borders were much 

 more circumscribed than they now are ; the Great 

 Fish River on the east, and an irregular line drawn 

 from Buffalo River on the west to the site of the 

 present town of Colesberg, forming its limits in those 

 directions, while the Atlantic and Indian Oceans 

 bridled it to the west and south. 



At that period the total population was 73,663, 

 of whom some 27,000 at most were of European 

 descent. Since that time the area of the Colony 

 has been enormously increased. Bushmanland, 

 Little Namaqualand, British Kaffraria, Griqualand 

 West, and finally Kaffraria itself, have one after 

 the other been added, forming a present total area 

 of 213,917 square miles nearly double the extent 

 of Great Britain and Ireland and having a total 

 population of 1,377,213 souls, of whom considerably 

 more than 340,000 are Europeans or of European 

 descent. British and Boers are at present fairly 

 evenly divided in the Colony, the latter probably 

 exceeding the former by some 30,000. 



