224 TRAVELS IN 
the colonists and their resources, and, above all, with the ha- 
bits of tliie native Hottentots. 
Cape Town, which may be called the capital of the colony, 
is situated on the south-east angle of Table Bay. It usually 
happens that the advantages of the bay, in forming a new set- 
tlement, determine the choice of the site for the town ; but, 
in this instance, the convenience of a plentiful stream of pure 
limpid water, rushing out of the Table Mountain, was the 
primary object to which the bay was subservient. Had this 
not been the case, the first settlers would unquestionably have 
given the preference to Saldanha Bay, whose only defect is the 
want of fresh water in the vicinity; whereas Table Bay is 
faulty in every point that constitutes a proper place for the re- 
sort of shipping; and so boisterous, for four months in the year, 
as totally to exclude all ships from entering it. 
As this point of the peninsula became, however, the seat of 
the petty concerns in which the Dutch Eaft India Company 
allowed its servants to traffic, and, under certain restrictions, 
the other settlers to carry on with foreign ships, a commerce 
that was chiefly confined to the supply of provisions and re- 
freshments in exchange for Indian and European articles, they 
found it necessary to build a fort for the protection of their 
property and of the Company's warehouses against the at- 
tempts of the natives. 
As the trade to India increased, and the Cape, in conse- 
quence, became more frequented, it was deemed expedient 
to extend the works, and to erect a citadel that should serve 
