SOUTHERN AFRICA. 259 
municatlon at all times difficult ; but more efpecially fo in the 
winter ; and few fupplies are to be had at Simon's Town ; a 
name with which a collection of about a dozen houfes has mod 
unworthily been dignified. 
The neceffity of fhips of war being fent round into Simon's 
Bay for five months in the year might be attended with very 
ferious confequences to the fafety of the colony, as far, at leaft, 
as depended on the exertions of the navy belonging to the fta- 
tion. Being a lee port, the chances are greatly againfl their 
being able to work up to Table Bay, and ftill lefs to Sal- 
danha Bay, to afford any affiftance in the event of an at- 
tack by an enemy's fleet ; which, without any interruptiori 
or moleftation, might difembark troops, and land artillery, 
ftores, and ammunition at Robben Ifland, or any of the wind- 
ward bays. 
This being the cafe, it would feem more defirable that the 
fhips of war upon the ftation fhould v/inter in Saldanha Bay, 
being not only a windward port vnth refpedt to Cape Town, but 
one of the beft harbours, perhaps, in the whole v>'orld. Here 
any number of fhips may lie in perfed fecurity at all feafons of 
the year, either to the northward of the entrance in Hoetjes 
Bay, from whence they can at all times get out in the winter 
months, or to the fouthward in fummer, when, with equal fa- 
cility, the fouth-eafterly winds will at any time carry them out. 
On the wefl: fide of Hoetjes Bay, nature has ereded a granite 
pier, againfl the fides of which fhips may be brought as to the 
L L 2 . fide 
