SOUTHERN AFRICA. 231 
of shipping for five months in the year, it should seem the 
Dutcli had no idea of their colony being attacked from that 
quarter, as there are only two small batteries mounting four 
or five guns each, to which ships of the line may approach 
within 500 yards ; and the strong ground at Muisenberg was 
entirely unoccupied before the British expedition appeared 
in the bay ; the few works and batteries, with which they 
attempted to defend this ground, were constructed between 
the time of its arrival in the bay and the day the troops 
marched for the Cape. But though the Dutch at that time 
suffered themselves to be easily driven out of this pass, they 
are now too well acquainted with its strength and importance 
to abandon it so speedily, should an enemy again attempt a 
landing in Simon's Bay. In fact there is no other road to 
Cape Town but at the foot of this mountain washed by the 
waves of False Bay. It is the Thermopylee of the Cape ; 
and so strong a position that, with the assistance of the se- 
veral breast-works constructed while in our possession, a 
chosen band of 300 riflemen miglit stop the progress of an 
army. 
For the complete defence of the various works upon the 
Cape peninsula, which I have just enumerated, a garrison of 
five thousand men has been considered, by all who are ac- 
quainted with the place, as the very least force that \vould 
be required ; and, consequently, no part of it could, with 
propriety, be detached into the interior, without exposing the 
garrison to danger. The colony, indeed, is so extensive, hav- 
ing an unprotected coast of 580 miles from Cape Point to 
the Kaffer country on the east, and of 315 miles from Cape 
