386 TRAVELS IN 
In justice, however, to the farmers of Plettenberg Bay 
district, it ought to be stated that they are the only class of 
people, in the whole colony, which deserves the name of being 
industrious. To fell the large trees, that are now only to be 
procured in deep glens, and then to drag them out, is a work 
of labor and toil ; and their profits are so trifling, that few of 
them are enabled to purchase slaves, and of course are reduced 
to the necessity of working themselves. 
The extent of the forests, beginning at Mossel Bay, and 
running eastward parallel to the sea-coast, is at least two 
hundred and fifty English miles, and the breadth from the 
feet of the mountains to the sea is ten, fifteen, and in some 
places twenty, miles. A great part of this tract is composed 
of large and beautiful plains, intersected by numerous rivers, 
and abounding in lakes full of excellent fish. The ground is 
well calculated either for pasturage or tillage, and capable of 
complete irrigation. Was this long tract of country, together 
with that which is comprehended between the north range of 
mountains and the west coast, and from Saint Helena Bay 
to the Cape, inhabited by industrious families, a much greater 
mass of people than is at present contained within the widely 
extended limits of the colony might be subsisted with in- 
finitely more comfort than they now are, and an abundance 
of corn and cattle, wine, and other necessaries, might be 
suppHed, over and above, for a garrison of five thousand 
men, and for a fleet containing an equal number of souls. 
But, in order to make the country produce such a supply, 
it would be necessary to introduce a new race of inhabitants, 
or to change the nature of the old ones. 
