November. or Spifl thousand fheep, of which they drive great
droves to town every year ; but lions and buffaloes, and
the fatigue of the journey, deftroy numbers of their cattle
before they can bring them fo far. They commonly
take their families with them in large waggons covered
with linen or leather, fpread over hoops, and drawn by
eight, ten, and fometimes twelve pair of oxen. They
bring butter, mutton-tallow, the flefh and fkins of fea-
cows (hippopotamus), together with lion and rhinoceros’
fkins, to fell. They have feveral Raves, and commonly engage
in their fervice feveral Hottentots of the poorer fort,
and (as we were told) of the tribe called Bofcbemans os
Bufhmen, who have no cattle of their own, but commonly
fubfift by hunting or by committing depredations on
their neighbours. The opulent farmers fet up a young
beginner by intruding to his care a flock of four or five
hundred fheep, which he leads to a diftant fpot, where he
finds plenty of good grafs and water; the one half of all
the lambs which are yeaned fall to his fhare, by which
means he foon becomes as rich as his benefadtor.:
Though the Dutch company feem evidently to difcourage
all new fettlers, by granting no lands in private property,- ,
yet the produfts of the country have of late years fufficed
not only to fupply the Ifles of France and Bourbon with
corn, but likewife to furnifh the mother country with feveral
fhip loads. Thefe exports would certainly be made'
at
at an éafier rate than at prefenr, i f the feulements did not 177’-
, November
extend fo far into the country, from whence the produits
muft be brought to- the Table ' bay by land carriage, on
roads which are almoft impaffable. The intermediate
fpaces of uncultivated land between the different fettle-
ments, are very extenfive, and contain many fpots fit for
agriculture ; but one of the chief reafons why the colonifts
are fo much divided and fcattered throughoüt the country^
is. to be met with in another regulation of the company,
which forbids every new feuler to eftablifh himfelf within
a mile of another. It is evident that if this feulement
were in the hands of the commonwealth, it would have
attained to a great population, and a degree of opulence
and fplendor, of which- it has not the leaft hopes at pre-
fent: But a private company of Eaft-India merchants find
their account much better in keeping all the landed pro'-
perty to themfelves, and tying down the colonift, left he
fhould become too great and powerful.
The wines made at the Cape are of- the greateft variety
poflible. The beft, which is made at M. Vander Spy’s
plantation of Conftantia, is fpoken of in Europe, more
by report than from real knowledge ; thirty leagres * at
the utmoft are annually raifed of this kind, and each
leagre fells for about fifty pounds on the fpot. The vines
from, which it is made were originally brought from
* Adeagre contains about one hundred and.eight gallons, or a pipe.
Shiraz,'.