who were the firft difcoverers of the Southern extremity o f the
continent of Africa, at leaft in modern times, eftabliihed no
fettlement nearer to it than the Banks of Rio Infante, now
the Great Filh River and boundary o f the Colony to the
Eaftward, which is nearly fix hundred miles from the Cape of
Good Hope; and this they foon abandoned for want o f ihelter
for their ihipping, which they afterwards found, farther to the
Eaftward, in the bay of De la Goa, ftill in their pofleflion.
At length, however, from the very favourable reprefentations of
Van Riebeck, then a furgeon o f one of the Dutch ihips, the
Eaft India Company came to a refolution to colonize the Cape;
and fince the firft eftablilhment to the prefent war, a period of
near 180 years, it continued in their hands. The progrefs
o f the population and the extent o f territory have been tolerably
rapid. The former, like fome o f the provinces o f North
America, has nearly doubled itfelf in every twenty years. It
was firft fettled in 1650 by a hundred male perfons, to whom
were fhortly afterwards fent out, from the houfes of induftry in
Holland, about an equal number o f females; and the prefent
population exceeds twenty thoufand whites: many o f thefe,
however, have fince been imported from Europe.
The difficulties that for a time impeded the extenfion o f the
fettlement were principally occafioned by the number o f wild
beafts o f various kinds that fwarmed in every part of the country.
In the private journal o f the founder of the colony it is
noticed, that lions and leopards, wolves and hysenas, committed
nightly’'depredations, for fome time after the firft eftablilhment,
under the walls of the fort. The oppofition o f the native Hottentots
tentots feems to have given them little interruption. They foon
difcovered the predominant paflion of this weak and peaceable
people for fpirituous liquors, and that a bottle o f brandy was a
pafiport through every horde. With this and tobacco, iron,
and a few paltry trinkets, they purchafed a part of the country
and of their ftock of cattle, and then took the reft by force. A
calk of brandy was the price o f a whole diftridt; and nine
inches in length o f an iron hoop the purchafe o f a fat ox. Deprived,
by their paflion for intoxicating liquors and baubles, of
the only means of exiftence, the numbers o f the natives began
rapidly to decline ; and the encroachments of the fettlers were
in proportion to the diminution o f the obftacles. Finding it
unneceflary to limit the extent of their pofleflions, the policy of
the Government kept pace with the propenfity o f its fubje&s to
fpread themfelves wide over the country. It forefaw that a
fpirit of induftry, if encouraged in a mild and temperate climate,
and on a fertile foil, might one day produce a fociety impatient
o f the ihackles impofed on it by the parent ftate. It knew, that
to fupply to its fubje&s the wants o f life without the toil of
labour or the anxiety of care ; to keep them in ignorance, and
to prevent a ready intercourfe with each other, were the moft
likely means to counteract fuch a fpirit. It granted lands,
therefore, on yearly leafes, at the fmall fixed rent o f twenty-four
rixdollars, (not five pounds fterling,) in any part of the country.
A law was alfo palled, that the neareft diftance from houfe, to
houfe was to be three miles, fo that each farm confifted of
more than five thoufand acres of land, and confequently was
rented at the rate o f fomething lefs than a farthing an acre.
From a fcarcity of water, it frequently happened that many
farms