SOUTHERN AFRICA. 5 
In this chapter I have alfo blended fome remarks on parti- 
cular points and pafles, with plans and defcriptions of the three 
principal bays on the fouth-eaft coaft of the colony, from a£lual 
furveys ordered to be made by Rear-Admiral Pringle, at the 
requefl of Lord Macartney. The regularity of a journal I 
have not thought it neceflary to obferve ; nor to confider the in- 
fertion of dates important, the chief ufe of which is, to mark 
the diftances travelled over in a given time, the ftate of the 
weather, or temperature of the air, at given feafons, and the 
growth and maturity of the vegetable produdions of the earth, 
as they appear in fucceffion. To thefe points I have already 
attended in my former publication, as well as to the general 
geography of the country. Of the prefent work, particular 
topography will form a material part ; the knowledge of the 
one being no lefs ufeful than that of the other. 
It might appear invidious to point out particular inftances of 
fatal miftakes which have happened from want of local in- 
formation; but they are numerous in the records of ourliifiory. 
It may not, however, be unimportant to obferve, that, in acquiring 
this kind of knowledge, and in making connexions with foreign 
nations, our moft inveterate and rancorous enemy has always 
been more fuccefsful, becaufe more afliduous, than ourfelves, 
I might inftance this obfervation in the labours of Anquetil du 
Perron^ whofe book was withheld from publication for feveral 
years, on account of the important information it was fup- 
pofed to contain refpeding the politics of India : — in the 
Travels of Mejfrs. Olivier and Bniguiere into the Turkifh and 
Perfian empires, who were fent by the Executive Council in 
I 1792, 
