X. 
PKEEACE. 
The difficulty of obtaining the exact information required 
on any particular subject, connected with the Cape and its 
dependencies, was one often keenly felt by myself, whilst 
residing there. The various works of travellers, are so vo- 
luminous ; whilst those of Officers, or other casual visitors, 
are so locally confined in the information given, that, either 
hours have to be spent in searching through several ponde- 
rous tomes in some library, or else, they are wholly thrown 
away, by the perusal of the wrong book, before the point 
requiring elucidation can be arrived at. 
The favourable and nattering reception by the public of 
both editions of my former little work on "Kaffraria," to- 
gether with the suggestions offered by some of the review- 
ers of it, has, also, further emboldened me to attempt the 
present more extended volume. 
In forming this, I have sought to attain my object, as 
much by careful and judicious compilation, as by original 
composition; and, consequently, although much may ap- 
pear in it "not very new," still, I dare to hope, that 
from the combination of the notices, u new and old," which 
it contains, it may be found a useful, if not an amusing, 
book. 
The attainment of the latter qualification has not been 
wholly lost sight of, and I have, therefore, endeavoured to 
intersperse through the chapters and pages, a few remarks 
and anecdotes, calculated to render them amusing and 
pleasing to the more general reader. 
The labour of my work has been in compiling from 
the many and large works of previous authors ; for, whilst 
my opportunities in the colonies themselves, or at home, 
brought to my notice any book, bearing on the subject, I 
