SOUTHERN AFRICA. ,5 
was a famine j and a very ferious fcarcity has twice happened 
during the fhort period of our poffeflion. 
The earlieft authors, who have written on the fubjed of the 
Cape, are Tachard^ Merkliriy and Valentyji^ none of whom were 
a day's journey from the town, and, confequently, mufl: have 
drawn up their relations from what they could colledl from the 
inhabitants ; which experience has found to be neither import- 
ant nor correal. The fame remark will nearly apply to the 
work of Kolbe^ who, although profefTedly fent out in the cha- 
radler of a naturalift, has defcribed fubjeds that he never faw ; 
retailed idle ftories of the peafantry that betray his great ■ cre- 
dulity and imbecility of mind ; and filled his book with rela- 
tions that are calculated to miflead rather than inform.' The 
Abbe de la Caille had no opportunity of colleding general in- 
formation, being principally employed in the arduous under- 
taking of meafuring a bafe line, of thirty-eight thoufand eight 
hundred and two feet, in order to determine the length of a 
degree on the meridian ; and in afcertaining the fituations of 
the principal fixed ftars in the fouthern hemifphere. His ac- 
count of the Cape is, therefore, very imperfect. Sparrmann^ 
the Swede, followed next, and, by his indefatigable labours, 
fupplied a very extenfive and fatisfadtory account of the natural 
productions, efpecially in the animal kingdom, of thofe parts 
of the fettlement over which he travelled ; but he was credu- 
lous enough to repeat many of the abfurd ftories told of the 
Hottentots by his predecefTor Kolbe, with the addition of others 
colle£ted from the ignorant boors. His map is alfo fo miferably 
defective, and fo incorrect in every part, that he muft certainly 
have 
