promised to be navigable, (p. 24.); extending the colonial boundary to the Keisikamma,
(p. 23.); forming the English settlers into a separate colony, (p. 19, 20,); making previous
arrangements for their reception, (p. SO, SI.); not to disembark at Cape Town, but to
proceed direct to Algoa Bay, (p. 31.); appointing a separate landdrost for the new dis-
trict, (p. 32); the distribution of rations of provisions by Government (p. S2, 83.) for a
limited time, on security of the land, (p. S5.); and sooner or later it will be found advisable
to adopt many others.
For those who have read this pamphlet, or are acquainted with the subject, it will be
sufficient merely to recommend that review to their perusal, as the easiest means of convincing
them of the illiberality and arrogance of its writer; who, having already
laid before the public his opinions on .the Cape,, is resolved to uphold his own
writings by attacking every other publication which might appear to him as interfering
with^ them. There is one work, however, which he has spared “ Barrow’s
Travels;” and which he appears so much to respect as a monument o f correctness
that he bestows (p. 210.) commendations on one book merely because its writer states
in his preface that he has freely availed himself of “ the superior work of Mr. Barrow.”
This saved him from the reviewer’s anger; and there is little doubt that a complimentary
remark on Mr. Barrow, which he found in the preface to the Rev. M r. Latrobe’s Journal
saved that gentleman also. But in the V Hints,” alas ! no praises of that author are to
be found; therefore, “ we do not see that his (Mr. Burchell's) book can be of any use.!’
Professor Lichtenstein has committed an offence which this reviewer will never forgive ■
he has written a book of Travels in Southern Africa; and in which he has rendered thé
public the service of pointing out the numerous errors and misrepresentations of Mr.
Barrow s book. Htnc illcc lachrymal, for this reason the reviewer penned that illiberal
piece of misrepresentation, and abuse, to be found in the sixteenth number (vol. viii.
p .874.) Certainly, Lichtenstein’s work contains three times as much ‘ actual information’
respecting the Cape colony, as Barrow’s ; and those who wish for such, will spend their
time more profitably in reading the volumes of the former, than those of the latter author.
I h e chief value of ‘ Barrow’s Travels' did not consist in those indelicate descriptions,
which render it a work unfit for general perusal, nor in those acrimonious
aspersions which it contains on the general character of the Dutch natives, but in
its statistical matter, and which any person holding the situation of ‘ auditor of
accounts m that colony might have written without great study or pretensions. At the
date of its publication, it might have been à useful book, but since that time the statistics
and circumstances of the colony have changed so much, that at present it can only serve
to mislead those who consult it for such information. Of this, a multitude of instances
might be pointed out in various publications which have been compiled from it. An
anonymous writer in the ‘ Colonial Journal,) (1st O c t 1819, as quoted in the • Globe’
newspaper of the 7th.) asserts that the settlement proposed by Mr. Burchell “ on the
banks of the Sea Cow river,” “ cannot be approached but through a region which the
Dutch have been obliged to abandon, on account of the hostilities of the exasperated
Bosjesmans.” In this there is a trifling absurdity ; for, the new district being stated in
the ■ Hints’ to ‘ adjoin the northern boundary’ of the Cape colony, where is the intermediate
region through which it is to be approached ? But the fact probably is, that this
writer, who evidently knows little of the subject he writes upon, has relied upon the scraps
of information displayed upon Mr. Barrow’s map, where the words, “ This northern
part of the Colony has been deserted by the Dutch on account of the attacks of the Bosjesmans
Hottentots,” have misled him : that part is, notwithstanding the high authority
-of that elegant map, and the profound knowledge of the Colonial Journalist, inhabited
by the Dutch to the furthest extent of the boundary of the Colony. Before a writer
comes forward to instruct the public, he should first instruct himself.
. The public, who in general know nothing of the arts employed by this Quarterly Reviewer,
will be amused at some of his petty, but in his line, important, tricks. As it was
impossible to persuade the public that the author of the ‘ Hints’ had not had very advantageous
opportunities of knowing much more about that part of the world than himself, it
was necessary, to answer his views, that they must be told that “ we (that is, one presuming
individual,) are only surprised that, under-such circumstances, his book should contain so
scanty a portion of actual information,” and that “ the settlement which he recommends
lies behind the Sneuberg, on or about the Sea Cow. river. To this point, and farther,
the colony may one day advance, but certainly will never begin there. Mr. Burchell
might as well talk of planting a settlement behind the Himalaya mountains,” (p. 209.)
A writer whose pen is guided by honorable motives and a rigid adherence to truth, is in
no danger of contradicting himself. But this reviewer has betrayed himself: he says,
the colony may one day advance to that point, but will never begin there. That work
which he quotes so respectfully (Barrow’s Travels) coincides surprisingly with his descriptions.
The reviewer, and that writer, appear to have been at the Cape exactly
at the same time; and it is remarkable that they are perhaps the only persons now in this
country who, at that period, saw the wreck of the Hercules. (Quarterly Review, p. 246.
-— Bar. Trav., p. 197. 224.)
Thus much, this honest and impartial Quarterly: but the trne statement is, that Mr.
Burchell recommended the Zuu reveld, or part of the district of Albany, as the most eligible
spot for commencing the new colony (p. 20. and 21.): and at page 28. his words are : “ At
the present moment, the occupation of the Zuureveld appears by much the most likely
plan for affording, at the least expense, a comfortable situation for emigrants.” At
page 37. he proceeds to state, that “ the number of emigrants which the district already
described would accommodate, is not indefinite: nor of this can any proper estimate be
formed, before the first party have located themselves, and a general survey of the country
have been takfen. I f it should then be found that more land were wanting, and that the
Caffi'es were not inclined to part with theirs, the view must be directed to other quarters; and
the country lying northward of the north-easternmost part of the Cape Colony, presents
itself as decidedly the most eligible of all the unoccupied territory that adjoins the
northern boundary.” The writer then describes that country more fully than the other
districts recommended, because it had never before him been traversed by any European;
and this he supposes to be the “ scanty portion of actual information” which so displeases
the honest reviewer. Now, this man well knew, if not through any other medium, certainly
through the pamphlet on which he was passing his opinion, that the district of Albany was
the spot proposed by Mr. Burchell, and that the other was a secondary consideration, in
case “ the Caffres were not inclined to part with theirs:” but his love of honor and
impartiality obliged him to omit that which would have proved the utility of the Hints,
and to notice only that which might give a color to his assertion, that they “ could be of
no use.”
In moral turpitude, there is no difference between making a wilful misrepresentation,
and uttering ‘ the thing which is not.’ To the latter class belongs this writer’s barefaced
assertion at page 206., respecting “ gross mistakes and exaggerated statements,’’
as far as it is intended to be applied to the ‘ Hints’ : and also his words at page 209.,
relative to Saldanhabay, “ and this description, which is altogether unintelligible, is copied