SOUTHERN AFRICA. 277 
more secure, from the circumstance of few, if any, fliips 
having ever been known to drive on shore from their anchors, 
whilst scarcely a season passes without some being lost in 
Table Bay. In the winter months, when the wind blows from 
north to north-west, forty or fifty ships may lie at anchor per- 
fectly secure in Simon's Bay ; and eight or ten may be suf- 
ficiently sheltered in the strongest south-easters. The Great 
Bay False, of which this is an identation or cove, was so little 
known at the time of the capture by the British forces, that 
Rear-Admiral Pringle, in the year 1797, directed it to be sur- 
veyed and sounded, in consequence of which the exact situa- 
tion was ascertained of a very dangerous rock, placed directly 
in the passage of sliips into Simon's Bay ; a rock, of the 
existence of which the Dutch were entirely ignorant. The 
annexed' chart, with the soundings, is a cop}^ of the said 
survey. 
The usual months in which ships resort to Simon's Bay 
are from May to September inclusive. The distance from 
Cape Town, being twenty-four miles, and the badness of the 
road, mostly deep sand and splashes of water, render the 
communication at all times difficult; but more especially so 
in the winter ; and few supplies are to be had at Simon's 
Town; a name with which a collection of about a dozen 
houses has most unworthily been dignified. 
The necessity of ships of war being sent round into Simon's 
Bay for five months in the 3^ear, might be attended with very 
serious consequences to the safety of the colony, as far, at 
least, as depended on the exertions of the navy belonging to 
