CHAPTER XVIL 
*; 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN OF LITAKUN ; ITS HISTORY; RE- 
GULATIONS ; POPULATION ; ARCHITECTURE ; DOMESTIC ARRANGE- 
MENT ; SITUATION ; AND CLIMATE. 
The Town of Litdkun (Letarkoon) lies in the parallel of 
27°. 6'. 44 '. of south-latitude ; and, according to estimation by course 
and distance, on the meridian of 24°. 39 . 27". of east longitude from 
Greenwich. It is distant from Cape Town about 972 miles by the 
road, in the direction of north-east. The nearest sea-coast is, ac- 
cording to the latest charts, that which is named ' the coast of Natal,' 
on the eastern side of the continent ; a distance which, if actually 
travelled, would probably be found to be not less than 700 miles; 
as Algoa Bay, the nearest sea on the south, is at a journey of about 
750 miles. The mouth of the Gariep *, the nearest coast on the 
west, appears to be equidistant with Algoa Bay. 
* The mouth of this river has been placed in various maps, in the latitude of 28^", 
on the authority only of an observation, said to have been made by Colonel Gordon, a 
Dutch lieutenant-governor of the Cape. 
