CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



857 



ill-used them, by forbidding retaliation, and endea- 

 vouring to prevent their being provoked by ill- 

 language. This mode of annoyance seems to have 

 been so prevalent, that it was ordered they should 

 not be called Zu-arte stinkende honden, (black 

 stinking dogs) : on account of the indisposition of 

 the government to extend their territory, it was 

 not until twenty years after their first settlement 

 that they became possessed of any considerable 

 portion of land. By that time they had obtained 

 power over that part of the present colony known 

 by the name of Cape District, the inoffensive Hot- 

 tentots offering but little opposition. They soon 

 discovered the predominant passion of this weak 

 and peaceable people for spirituous liquors, and 

 that a bottle of brandy was a passport through 

 every horde. With this, and tobacco, iron, and 

 a few paltry trinkets, they purchased a part of the 

 country, and of their stock in cattle, and then 

 took the rest by force. A cask of brandy was the 

 price of a whole district ; and nine inches in length 

 of an iron hoop the purchase of a fat ox. The 

 boors, or Dutch farmers, although against the 

 wishes of the government, still continued to ex- 

 tend the boundaries of the colony by fresh en- 

 croachments, pushing on from one spot of good 

 pasturage to another, dispossessing the natives, and 

 committing the most unparalleled acts of barbarity. 

 The consequence was, that the original inhabitants 

 rapidly decreased, and when the British took pos- 

 session of the colony, that which had been a thick- 

 ly populated country, was found to contain within 

 its boundaries but 15,000 of the native Hottentots, 

 and these in a state of abject slavery. During a 

 series of years, the only alleviation of their miseries 

 which the aborigines experienced, arose from the 

 exertions of the Christian missionaries, who, under 

 great disadvantages, undertook their conversion, 

 and their instruction in some of the arts of civil- 

 ized life. 



The country at present occupied by the colonists 

 is about 600 miles from east to west, with a mean 

 breadth from north to south of 233 miles, contain- 

 ing nearly 140,000 square miles. Although it con- 

 tains considerable tracts of excellent pasturage, the 

 greater portion of its surface is occupied by sandy 

 and sterile plains, and ranges of naked and inaccessi- 

 ble mountains ; but this remark does not apply to 

 all parts, particularly to its eastern boundary, Al- 

 bany District, or to the country of the Caffres be- 

 yond the borders, which is covered in great part 

 with the most luxuriant vegetation. 



Cape Town, (a.) the capital of the colony, stands 

 on a gentle declivity sloping towards the sea. On 

 every side except this, it is surrounded by lofty 

 mountains. It is a regular and neat-built town, 

 and well watered by a plentiful stream which issues 

 from the Table Mountain. Many of the streets 

 are of considerable breadth, having canals of water 

 running through them, which are walled in and 

 planted on each side with oaks, but others are 

 narrow and ill-paved. They are all straight, how- 

 ever, being laid out in a line, and intersect each 

 other at right angles. The houses are in general 

 built with stone, and whitewashed ; and the great- 

 est number are two stones high, with flat roofs. 

 The spacious squares give the town an open and 

 airy appearance ; the public market is held in one ; 

 another is the common resort of the farmers and 

 graziers, with their waggons ; and a third is used as 

 a parade for exercising the troops. This last lies 

 between the town and the castle, and has two of 



its sides completely built up with large and hand- 

 some houses. The castle stands a little east of the 

 town. It is a pentagonal fort, surrounded with a 

 ditch and regular outworks, and contains within 

 its walls the Lombard-bank, the orphan-chamber, 

 and most of the public offices of government. It 

 also affords accommodation for 1000 men with their 

 officers, and has magazines for artillery, stores, and 

 ammunition. The barracks, originally intended 

 for an hospital, granaries, &c., which, with its two 

 wings, occupies a part of one of the sides of the 

 great square, is a large and regular edifice, and has 

 sufficient convenience in the upper part of the 

 building for 4000 men. The other public build- 

 ings are the Calvinist church, the Lutheran church, 

 the court of justice, the guard-house, and the 

 theatre. Behind the town, on the acclivity of 

 Table Mountain, is the government-house, and a 

 beautiful public garden, which is an oblong piece 

 of ground, containing about forty acres of rich 

 land, divided into forty-four squares by oak-hedges. 

 Part of it has been appropriated for the reception 

 of scarce and curious native plants, and for experi- 

 ments upon such Asiatic and European productions, 

 as may seem most likely to benefit the colony. 

 Over the same acclivity are also scattered a num- 

 ber of handsome villas, each of which is surrounded 

 by plantations and gardens. Besides the castle, 

 the town is defended by many other forts and bat- 

 teries placed on different eminences. 



In 1831, the population of Cape Town was 

 19,186; there being of males 9331, and 9855 

 females. It may now be estimated at above 

 20,000, of whom upwards of 10,000 are white in- 

 habitants, the majority being Dutch or of Dutch 

 descent. 



The celebrated mountain called Table Mountain 

 extends from east to west for the length of two 

 miles. The bold face that rises almost at right 

 angles to meet this line, is supported, as it were, 

 by a number of projecting buttresses, that rise out 

 of the plain, and fall in with the front a little 

 higher than midway from the base ; these, and the 

 division of the front by two great chasms into 

 three parts, give to it the appearance of the ruined 

 walls of some gigantic fortress. The Table-land 

 at the summit of the mountain is 3582 feet above 

 the level of Table Bay. A remarkable natural 

 phenomenon takes place here during the summer 

 season. It is a dense mantle of vapour, called the 

 table-cloth, which rests upon Table Mountain, and 

 afterwards rushes over its precipitous sides like a 

 cataract of foam. In summer the prevailing wind 

 is the south-east, and it bears in some degree an 

 analogy to the trade-winds and sea-breezes of the 

 tropics. When sufficiently strong to surmount the 

 Table Mountain, the first indication of the fact is 

 a little mist, which is seen to float like a thin 

 fleecy cloud on a part of it, about ten or eleven 

 o'clock in the forenoon. By noon the mountain 

 becomes fringed with dew; and half an hour later, 

 the mist is so dense as to produce a general obscu* 

 ration. In another half hour the little cleft be- 

 tween what is called the Devil's Berg (mountain) 

 and the Table Mountain, pours over the cloudy 

 vapour; and at two o'clock the first-i:amed eleva> 

 tion is capped by the cloud. The Table-Cloth is 

 now said to be completely spread; the south-east 

 wind, having, so to speak, overflowed the tower- 

 ing barrier which arrested its course, now rushes 

 down the mountain into Table Bay with resistlos 

 fury, producing loud and terrific noises as it forces 



