Description op the Cape op Good Hops. 241 
The Cape of Good Hope has beenfo often defcribed, and is 
fo well known in Europe, that I lhall mention only a few par- 
ticulars, which in other relations are omitted or mifieprefented. 
Notwithllanding all that has been faid to the contrap'’, no 
country that we faw during the voyage makes a more forlorn 
appearance, or is in reality a more llerile defart. The land 
over the cape, which conftitutes the peninfula formed by Table 
Bay on the north, and FalfeBay on the fouth, confifts of high 
mountains, altogether naked and defolate : the land behind 
thefe to the ealt, which may be confidered as the ifihmus, is a 
plain of vaft extent, confifting almoft wholly of a light kind of 
fea fand, which produces nothing but heath, and is utterly in- 
capable of cultivation. All the fpots that will admit of im- 
provement, which together bear about the fame proportion to 
the whole as one to one thoufand, are laid out in vineyards, 
orchards, and kitchen grounds ; and moll of thefe little fpots 
lie at a confiderable dillance from each other. There is alfo 
the greateil reafon to believe, that in the interior parts of this 
country, that wfich is capable of cultivation does not bear a 
greater proportion to that which is incorrigibly barren ; for 
the Dutch told us, that they had fettlement^ekht and twenty 
days journey up the country, a dillance edual to at leaft nine 
hundred miles, from which they bring pftjvifions to the Cape 
by land; fo that it feems reafonable toiconclude that pro vi- 
fions are not to be had within a lefs compafe. While we were 
at the Cape, a farmer came thither from the country, at the 
dillance of fifteen days journey, and brought his young child- 
ren with him. We were furprifed at this, and alked him, if 
it would not have been better to have left them with his next 
neighbour : Neighbour ! faid the man, I have no neighbour 
within lefs than five days journey of me. Surely the country 
mufl be deplorably barren in which thofe who fettle only to 
raife provifions for a market, are difperfed at fuch dillances 
from each other. That the country is every where deftitute of 
wood appears to demonllration ; for timber and planks are im- 
ported from Batavia, and fuel is almoll as dear as food. We faw 
no tree, except in plantations near the town, that was fix feet 
high ; and the Hems that were not thicker than a man’s 
thumb, had roots as thick as an arm or leg ; fuch is the in- 
fluence of winds here to the difadvantage of vegetation, letting 
the llerility of the foil out of the queftion. 
The only town which the Dutch have built here is, from 
its fituation, called Cape Town, and confifts of about a thou- 
fand houfes, neatly built of brick, and in general whited oa 
the outfide ; they are however covered only with thatch, for 
the violence of the fouth eall winds would render any other 
roof inconvenient and dangerous. The llreets are broad and 
commodious, all eroding each other at right angles. In the 
X principal 
