Foreign Notices : — Africa. 491 



Placed at the southern extremity of Africa, and centrally situated with 

 regard to India, South America, and Europe, the Cape enjoys great scope 

 for commercial enterprises, which must ever be the firmest support of this 

 thriving colony; and, were the ports made free, it would become a depot 

 and general mart for the productions of both hemispheres. It is true that, 

 in all the extent of coast which we possess, there exist but few perfectly 

 safe harbours : but in this respect I do not consider the Cape worse oif 

 than other countries ; and I believe its bays and roadsteads have obtained 

 a worse character than they really deserve. It is certain, that in various 

 gales which have destroyed or driven on shore many vessels in the various 

 bays of the colony, there always have been vessels exposed to the same 

 chances of destruction which have " weathered the storm ; " and although 

 the navigation round the Cape is dangerous to the inexperienced, from the 

 force of currents, the severe gales prevailing at certain seasons of the year 

 in the Indian Ocean, and the total absence of lights on the coast, I have been 

 informed by experienced seamen that they do not consider the hazard so great 

 as that which exists in the northern seas. This being the opinion of some 

 of our most experienced coasters, who were bred up in the roughest of the 

 European navigations, may be relied on : as to myself, I would rather under- 

 take the voyage to Europe, at certain seasons, than the coasting here. 



The first hardy navigators who weathered the Cape named it the " Cape 

 of Storms : " their prince, however, with better feeling, gave it the name it 

 now bears ; and, with all its faults, it still offers the cheering hopes of grow- 

 ing prosperity. The Dutch proprietors foresaw their inability to keep 

 possession of this colony ; and, from a mistaken policy, surrounded the 

 coast with ideal dangers, and exaggerated those which exist : and the nar- 

 row-minded policy of the Dutch East India Company retarded internal 

 improvements, except in extending their line of territory, and encouraging 

 some few remarkable and interesting journeys to the northward, while they 

 at the same time placed many obstacles in the way of a generous, friendly, 

 and commercial intercourse with the strange and divided natives on the 

 frontier ; a policy which, until lately, has been followed up by several of the 

 British governors. On the advance of the European stock, the compa- 

 ratively mild tribes of Hottentots were easily subdued, or retired before 

 the intruders ; but many of the cruelties stated to have been exercised by 

 the Dutch have been greatly exaggerated. Those dreadful distempers, the 

 small-pox and measles, depopulated many of the fertile districts, and cer- 

 tainly had no small share in reducing the aborigines to a condition border- 

 ing on slavery. 



The climate of the Cape of Good Hope, although affected by sudden 

 and remarkable changes, I consider one of the most salubrious on the face 

 of the earth j and those who have it in their power to choose their resi- 

 dence may, even in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, select such spots as are 

 not rendered intolerable by solar heat, or exposed to the healthy but dis- 

 agreeable gusts of the south-east wind. The soil, as may be expected in a 

 country of primitive mountains, is various, but, generally speaking, may be 

 termed sandy loam, with iron pyrites, &c., and fragments of rock, gene- 

 rally of schist or sandstone, requiring both water and manure ; but, even 

 where rocks or sand prevail on the surface, the country cannot truly be 

 called barren, as it produces many hardy shrubs, and forms extensive graz- 

 ing ranges for both tame and wild animals. The more fertile spots are dis- 

 persed between and along ranges of mountains of the most romantic forms ; 

 immense plains of a stiffer soil, to the north, rear thousands of cattle and 

 sheep, by natural produce alone ; and, perhaps, this stock is of the best 

 description for South Africa. Those cattle ranges are, however, subject 

 to periodical droughts ; and, the rivers having their sources at great ele- 

 vations, the rains which fall are speedily discharged down the rocky beds 



