SOUTHERN AFRICA. 205 
drawing, and h?,ve added to the Dutch fcale of roeds one of 
Englifti yards, the former being to the latter as 4x^6-0- to i. 
This military plan, together with the bays, I have thought it 
expedient to publifh, as multiplied copies of them are in the 
poffeflion not only of the government and officers at the Cape, 
but alfo of French officers in Europe ; and it is prefumed they 
may be of ufe to thofe who, perhaps, may hereafter be fent on 
an expedition againft this important fettlement without pof- 
feffing local knowledge, although, for fuch apurpofe, and againft 
fo extenfive a colony, it would be highly advifeable to feledt 
fuch as were well acquainted not only with the fortified penin- 
fula, but alfo with the different bays and paffes of the country, 
the manners of the colonifts and their refources, and, above all, 
with the habits of the native Hottentots. 
Cape Town, which may be called the capital of the colony, 
is fituated on the fouth-eaft angle of Table Bay. It ufually 
happens that the advantages of the bay, in forming a new fet- 
tlement, determines the choice of the fite for the town ; but, in 
this inftance, the convenience of a plentiful ftream of pure 
limpid water, ruftiing out of the Table Mountain, was the pri- 
mary objeft to which the bay was fubfervient. Had this not 
been the cafe, the firfl: fettlers would unqueftionably have given 
the preference to Saldanha Bay, whofe only defe£l: is the want 
of frefli water near it ; whereas Table Bay is faulty in every 
point that conftitutes a proper place for the refort of fhipping ; 
and fo boifterous, for four months in the year, as totally to ex- 
clude all fliips from entering it. 
As 
