386 
Communication from a Settler in Southern Africa. [Dec. ], 
some future time become a respectable 
town, but not in this or the next gene¬ 
ration. 
The spot fixed upon is the finest in 
the whole colony; a gentle rising hill, 
the surface diversified with easy swells 
and falls, the land is very good, plenty 
of wood, and though the water is ra¬ 
ther brackish, habit soon renders it 
palatable; the prospects around are 
grand and beautiful, not rising to sub¬ 
lime, but softened to interesting. The 
district is at present an appendage to 
that of Ritenbager. The head magis¬ 
trate, who resides at Graham s r lov\n, 
is deputy landdrost to the landdrost, or 
Governor, at Ritenbager; a court of 
I bemraden consisting of the depu ty land- 
drost and two provisional magistrates, 
sit once a month at Graham’s Town 
for the determining of cases under 500 
rix dollars. An appeal lies to them 
from the court of Bathurst, the appel¬ 
lant must deposit 25 rix dollars in the 
Bathurst court, which is returned to 
him if he is successful. The courts 
are composed of military men. From 
the habits acquired in a military life, 1 
should think a soldier hardly a fit per¬ 
son to will the destinies and domestic 
government of so many families, espe¬ 
cially where the law is so undefined; 
here are a thousand families under his 
coutroul, as far as fine, imprisonment, 
and even corporal punishment; and 
what makes it more disgusting, it is 
iuflicted on the white inhabitants by 
the hands of a Hottentot. 
The government at Cape Town acts 
by certain known laws, but here a de¬ 
cision is sometimes said to be shaped 
by the law of England, and sometimes 
by the Dutch colonial law. Among 
the erections already finished at Ba¬ 
thurst, the largest and most conspicu¬ 
ous is a Canteen for the sale of spirits ! 
would any one believe, that in a place 
like this, wild,uncultivated, and scarce¬ 
ly inhabited, a license for the exclusive 
sale of spirituous liquors, was sold to a 
person keeping this Canteen, for nine¬ 
teen thousand rix dollars, about eigh¬ 
teen hundred pounds sterling , for one 
year ? What enormous profits must this 
man make to enable him to pay to the 
government such an immense sum for 
this privilege of retailing spirits. The 
restrictions in his favour are very se¬ 
vere ; no person is allowed to purchase 
(under a severe penalty) less than half 
an aume, (about 19f gallons) either for 
his own consumption, or to sell; nor are 
two or three permitted to join and pur¬ 
chase that quantity for the use of their 
families. The consequence of this mo¬ 
nopoly may be easily conceived. The 
restriction of passes feels very galling 
to people brought up in habits of free¬ 
dom, and accustomed to go to any part 
of the country; here no person is al¬ 
lowed to go out of the district without 
a pass from the magistrate: should his 
affairs lead him to Cape Town, he must 
get a pass from the governor, which 
will generally occasion a delay of a 
month or six weeks. That part of the 
country of which I have seen the most 
is the tract of country between the 
Kowie and Great Fish rivers. The ge¬ 
neral face of the country is mountain¬ 
ous, lofty, sterile, rugged hills inter¬ 
sected with deep ravines and broken 
into tremendous precipices, with here 
and there a fertile valley and some ele¬ 
vated, wild and unsheltered plains ; 
the vallies are of small extent, one of a 
mile wide is seldom met with, I have 
only seen one of that width since our 
arrival; in general they are very nar¬ 
row and the sides almost perpendicular, 
fitter for pasturage than tillage; the 
banks of all the streams are so steep 
and high, that all the rivers appear to 
run in ravines; nearly all the wood 
grows in these dells, the banks of which 
being so precipitous and deep, render 
it very difficult to get the timber out. 
The brow or side of a hill, is never co¬ 
vered with wood as in England ; some¬ 
times you meet with a track of bush, 
which is usually a shrub of the mimosa 
genus, a kind called rhinoceros wood, 
with a few other shrubs which serve 
only for fuel. 
The country suffers most from want 
of water; there are very few springs in 
the vales, and a few stagnant pools are 
found on the levels or plains, which 
during the rainy season are well filled 
with pretty good water, but in the dry 
months are totally destitute of this ne- 
nessary element. Any person seeking 
for a spot to settle on must turn his 
principal attention to water, and care- 
fuly search for a perennial spring, as he 
is very liable to be deceived by the ap¬ 
pearance of many of the brooks during 
the wet season, when they flow with a 
plentiful stream, but in summer are 
quite dry. Having found good water, 
the next consideration is good land; 
which also is rather scarce, and con¬ 
venience of situation for the purpose 
of irrigation is scarcer still, but without 
it, it is impossible to carry farming to 
any extent: it is necessary in every 
stage 
