SOUTHERN AFRICA. 295 
more advantageous to the general interests of the colony, than 
to the individual benefit of those entrusted with the govern- 
ment. 
There cannot be a st ronger proof of this being the case than 
the general prosperity that prevailed under the British govern- 
ment; when, in the course of six years, with the administra- 
tion of the same political system reserved to them by the ca- 
pitulation, except in so far as regarded the abolishment of 
monopolies, which were nearly done away, the public re- 
venues were more than doubled, without an additional tax or 
increase of rents : and property in the town was also raised to 
nearly the double of its former value. 
The Dutch East India Company were, in fact, jealous of 
establishing a power at the Cape which, by too great encou" 
ragement, might, in time, shake off their yoke in Europe, and 
overawe their settlements in India. For, although the whole 
population of the colony, exclusive of slaves and Hottentots, 
barely amounted to 20,000 souls, men, women, and children, 
which were scattered over an extent of country whose dimen- 
sions are not less than 550 by 230 English miles, yet, as it was 
not convenient for the Government to keep up a great force at 
the Cape, these colonists, few as they were, felt themselves 
sufficiently strong to give it, at least, a good deal of trouble. 
Nor, indeed, could it always place a firm dependence on the 
forces that were stationed there, these being chiefly hired 
troops engaged for limited service, of whicli both officers and 
men entered frequently into family connections with the in- 
habitants. Thus circumstanced, it would have been no dif- 
