CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
43 
fall ; for so long as Great Britain retains the dominion of the sea, 
she can always land any number of troops at a distance from Cape 
Town, and, by occupying the peninsula, cut off all supplies from the 
interior, and oblige it to surrender. The fortifications are by no 
means strong towards the land, and the citadel itself is commanded 
by high lands ; so that if it should be thought advisable to attack it 
without loss of time, the result would be certainly favourable. The 
conduct of the British , since it has been in their possession, has been 
such as to conciliate all the respectable people of the settlement, who 
did not scruple to express great regret at their departure. They say, 
that were their mother-country free, the case would be different ; but 
that they now consider themselves as passing under the dominion 
of the French, whom they have detested ever since the Cape was 
garrisoned by them in the American war. One person, at whose 
house we were obliged to insist on having some provisions, told 
us at last, " that we were as bad as the French, in compelling them 
to provide whatever we pleased; however there was one dif- 
ference, that we paid for every thing, and they never paid at all." 
The Dutch have a still more powerful reason for regretting the 
departure of the English, the state in which they now actually are, 
and are likely to be, from the Caffrees. This brave and warlike 
nation had been tempted, by the rebellion of the boors in their vici- 
nity, to cross the Fish River, and endeavour to regain part of their 
country which had been obtained from them by the Dutch . Brigadier 
General Vandeleur, with the Sth dragoons, and some infantry and 
■ Hottentots, had been sent against them ; but had found it a difficult 
business to resist their undisciplined valour, and had even lost 
forty men in the different engagements, twenty of whom, and an 
VOL. I. G 
