52 
TRAVELS IN 
the whole, by the ties that a ftate of fociety neceflarily impofes, 
could poffibly exped:, and much greater than under their for- 
mer government. Property has been fecure in every inftance, 
and has been raifed to double its former value: and none has 
the lofs of life of any friend or relation to lament at the time of, 
or fmce, the capture. Their paper currency, fabricated by the 
government in order to get over a temporary diftrefs, but which 
it had never been able to take out of circulation, bore a depre- 
ciation of 40 per cent, and a filver dollar was fcarcely to be 
feen. The former is now at par with fpecie, and not lefs 
than two millions of the latter have been fent from England and 
thrown into circulation. Every perfon enjoys his fliare of the 
general profperity. The proprietor ofhoufes in town has more 
than doubled his rent ; and the farmer in the country, where 
formerly he received a rixdollar for each of his fheep, now re- 
ceives three. Four years of increafmg profperity, of uninter- 
rupted peace and domeftic tranquillity, have been the happy lot 
of the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Scenes very different from thefe would, in all probability, 
have been exhibited here, had not the Englifh taken poffeffion 
of the colony at the very time they were ripe for execution. 
Jacobinifm, or fubverfion of all order, had induftrioufly been 
propagated by the ill-difpofed, among the ignorant part of the 
colonifts, both in the town and country diftridis. A weak and 
timid government, inftead of crufhing it in its infancy, fuffered 
it to grow to maturity. Its principal officers were infulted 
with impunity. The Landrofls, or Chief Magiftrates of the 
police in the country, were driven out of their diftrids, and the 
farmers 
