356 



( Al'l-l.IN CAl'K OF GOOD HOPE. 



kindness, requested him to perform the experiment 

 in his presence. The cannon was tired as before, a 

 hundred times in fifteen minutes, during which the 

 barrel acquired 650 degrees of heat, while the re- 

 volving cylinder which contained the charges was 

 comparatively cool, heing only 250 degrees of tem- 

 perature. The sultan asked for the bill of ex- 

 penses, and being told by Mr Cochran that it was 

 left to his own pleasure, he went the next day at 

 the request of the sultan, to visit him at his palace. 

 The bag of gold he there received was truly an im- 

 perial present, and enough to make his fortune. 

 .Mr Cochran soon after returned to America, with 

 the understanding that he should have a contract 

 for supplying a large number of cannon of the pat- 

 tern exhibited, whenever it could be agreeable for 

 him to execute it." His invention has since been 

 taken into consideration by the American Institute, 

 with what result we have not heard; but a recent 

 New York paper states that the patent right of the 

 iiMinj-chambered nan-revolving rifle, as it is called, 

 has been sold by the inventor to a company, for the 

 enormous sum of three hundred thousand dollars. 



CAPELIN; a small and delicate species offish, 

 greatly resembling the smelt. It visits the shores 

 of Newfoundland and Labrador about the months 

 of August and September, for the evident purpose 

 of depositing its spawn upon the sandy beaches. 

 At such times, the swarms of these fish are so 

 numerous that they darken the surface of the sea 

 for miles in extent, whilst the cod prey upon them 

 with the utmost voracity. The manner of the 

 capelin's depositing its spawn is one of the most 

 curious circumstances attending its natural history. 

 The male fishes are somewhat larger than the 

 female, and are provided also with a sort of ridge, 

 projecting on each side of the back-bones, similar 

 to the eaves of a house, in which the female cape- 

 lin is deficient. The latter, on approaching the 

 beach to deposit its spawn, is attended by two 

 male fishes, who huddle the female between them, 

 until her whole body is concealed under the 

 projecting ridges before mentioned, and only her 

 head is visible. In this state they run, all three to- 

 gether, with great swiftness upon the sands; when 

 the males, by some imperceptible inherent power, 

 compress the body of the female betwixt their own, 

 so as to expel the spawn from an orifice near the 

 tail. Having thus accomplished its delivery, the 

 three capelin separate ; and paddling with their 

 whole force through the shallow surf of the beach, 

 generally succeed in regaining, once more, the 

 bosom of the deep. It is an entertaining sight, 

 while standing upon the shore, to observe myriads 

 of these fishes, forsaking their own element, and 

 running their bodies on the sand in all directions. 

 Many of them find it totally impossible to return to 

 the water, and thus the beaches of Labrador are 

 frequently covered with dead capelin. 



The cod are taken with hooks baited either with 

 capelin or herring. Dried capelin have of late years 

 come to be used in London as a relish for the break- 

 fast table. 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, (a.) The abori- 

 ginal inhabitants of the southern extremity of the 

 continent of Africa, may be divided into three prin- 

 cipal groups; the Hottentots, the Bosjesmen, or 

 Bushmen, and the Caffres. The Hottentots were 

 the original inheritors of the country now forming 

 the colony of the Cape ; the Bushmen are the wild 

 tribes of Hottentots driven beyond the boundaries 

 of the colony by the settlers ; and the Caffres are a 



- distinct race of warlike natives, possessing tin; 

 south-eastern portion of the continent beyond the 

 boundary-line of the colony. (See the article Caf- 

 fres in Supp.) 



The Cape of Good Hope was unknown to the 

 ancients, unless full reliance is placed on the ac- 

 count given by Herodotus, of the Phoenician navi- 

 gators, who, sent on a voyage of discovery by 

 Necho, king of Egypt, are said to have sailed 

 down the Red sea, and returned to Egypt by way 

 of the Mediterranean. This solitary fact excepted, 

 the southern boundary of the great continent of 

 Africa was utterly unknown to the civilized world, 

 until it was discovered by the Portuguese in their 

 daring attempts to find a passage by sea to the 

 East Indies. The first European who came in 

 sight of the Cape, was the Portuguese navigator 

 Diaz, 1493; but the bad weather he experienced 

 was so great that he was obliged to relinquish his 

 enterprise, and return to Europe, naming the inac- 

 cessible land the Cape of Storms ; but the king of 

 Portugal, John II., conceived better hopes from 

 its reported appearance, and bestowed upon it its 

 present name of the Cape of Good Hope. 



In 1497, the celebrated Vasco de Gama doubled 

 this celebrated Cape, and opened the way to the 

 discoveries afterwards made in the East Indies by 

 the Portuguese. For many years after, its harbour, 

 Table Bay, merely served as a place of refuge to 

 the vessels of the European nations, whose enter- 

 prise led them to that quarter of the globe. 



In the year 1650, the Dutch first effectually 

 formed a settlement in this spot. But thirty 

 years previous to this, the captains of two ships 

 belonging to the East India Company of England 

 had taken formal possession of the land in the 

 name of king James I. A full account of this 

 transaction is entered on the journals of the Com- 

 pany. The first part of the coast which was col- 

 onized by the Dutch, was on the banks of the 

 Great Fish river; but this was soon abandoned, on 

 account of its bad harbourage, and De la Goa Bay, 

 further north, was selected in its stead. Soon 

 afterward, the representations of Van Iliebeck, a 

 surgeon of one of the Dutch ships, induced the 

 managers to remove the colony to its present loca- 

 lity at Cape Town. The limits of the colony 

 were gradually extended by the Dutch to nearly 

 their present dimensions, and they remained in un- 

 disturbed possession until it surrendered to the 

 i British in 1795. It was, however, restored at the 

 peace of Amiens in 1802, but again taken in 1806, 

 and since then has remained in the hands of the 

 British. 



The history of this country, from its first coloni- 

 zation almost to the present time, consists of a 

 series of unjust measures and cruel acts, perpe- 

 trated by the settlers against the natives. The 

 Dutch government, in first taking possession of this 

 coast, did so with the simple intention of occupying 

 it as a useful possession for the purpose of refitting 

 their vessels engaged in the East India trade, and 

 supplying themselves with water and other neces- 

 saries. As a proof that the intentions of the 

 Dutch government were good, we find the resolu- 

 tions of the council in 1651 contain a public sup- 

 plication to the Almighty for the diffusion of the 

 principles of the reformed Christian religion amongst 

 the natives, then only known by the name of Wilde 

 Brutaale Menschen, (wild brute men) ; and lor 

 many years afterwards every effort was made to 

 conciliate them, by fining and punishing those who 



