14 TRAVELS IN 
man's Bay. The latter is expofed to the weft and north-weft, 
but the former is ftieltered from all winds. The confined 
anchorage, which is faid to admit of, at the utmoft, ten (hips 
only, and the eddy winds from the furrounding high moun- 
tains, which make it difficult for {hips to enter and get out, 
are the objedlions that have been ftated againft the ufe of Hout 
Bay. 
All thefe bays, the pafles of the mountains, and indeed every 
part of thepeninfula, are capable of being maintained, if properly 
garrifoned, againft any attack that will probably be ever made 
againft them. Moft of the works, batteries, and lines, have under- 
gone a completerepair, with many improvements J and others have 
been judicioufly added, by the Britifli engineers. The pafs at the 
foot of Miiifenberg, a fteep high mountain, waftied by Falfe Bay, 
and the only road of communication between Simon's Bay and 
the Cape, may now be confidered as impregnable, though the 
Dutch fuffered themfelves very eafily to be driven out of it. 
It is the Thermopylse of the Cape ; and from the feveral breaft- 
works, lately conftru£ted along the heights, a chofen band of 
three hundred rifle men ought to ftop the progrefs of an army. 
Cape Town, the capital, and indeed the only aflemblage of 
houfes that deferves the name of a town in the colony, is 
pleafantly fituated at the head of Table Bay, on a floping plain 
that rifes with an eafy afcent to the feet of the Devil's Hill, the 
Table Mountain, and the Lion's Head, before mentioned ; the 
laft, ftretching to the northward, in a long unbroken hill of 
moderate height, is King James's Mount, (the Lion's Rump of 
the 
