SOUTHERN AFRICA. 189 
At the Cape of Good Hope, some twenty years ago, two 
pound of butchers' meat cost one penny ; at the capture by 
the Enghsh the price had advanced to one pound for two- 
pence ; yet, notwithstanding the increased demand, occa- 
sioned by the addition of five thousand troops and near three 
thousand seamen, frequently more than this number, with all 
the various attempts and combinations that were practised 
(and, on a certain occasion in the year 1800, very unwisely 
countenanced by high authority) to raise the price of this ar- 
ticle, the contract for supplying the garrison was never higher 
than at the rate of two and five-eighths pounds for sixpence. 
Two pounds of good wholesome bread might be generally 
purchased for twopence. Even in the midst of a scarcity, 
which threatened a famine, bread rose no higher than two- 
pence the pound ; and all kinds of fruit and vegetables are so 
abundant, and so cheap, as to be within the reach of the 
poorest person. A pint of good sound wine may be pro- 
cured at the retail price of threepence ; and were it not 
for the circumstance of the licence for selling wine by re^ 
tail being farmed out as one source of the colonial revenue, 
a pint of the same wine would cost little more than three- 
halfpence. 
The farming out of the wine licence was a subject of griev- 
ance to the soldier, as it compelled him to buy his wine in 
small quantities at the licensed houses, when the civilians and 
housekeepers were allowed to purchase it in casks of twenty 
gallons, at the rate of five or six rixdollars the cask, which is 
just about half the retail price he was obliged to pay for it. 
Yet, vexatious as such a regulation appeared to be, it was 
