man’s Bay. The latter is expofed to the weft and north-weft,
but the former is iheltered from all winds. The confined
anchorage, which is faid to admit of, at the utmoft, ten ihips
only, and the eddy winds from the furrounding high mountains,
which make it difficult for fhips to enter and get out,
are the objections that have been ftated againft the ufe of Hout
Bay.
All thefe bays, the pafifes o f the mountains, and indeed every
part of thepeninfula, are capable of being maintained, if properly
garrifoned, againft any attack that will probably be ever made
againft them. Moft of the works, batteries, and lines, have undergone
a completerepair, with many improvements; and others have
been judicioufly added, by the Britiih engineers. The pafs at the
footof Miiifenberg, afteephigh mountain, waihed byFalfeBay,
and the only road of communication between Simon’s Bay and
the Cape, may now be confidered as impregnable, though the
Dutch fuffered themfelves very eafily to be driven out of it.
It Is the Thermopyl* of the Cape; and from the feveral breaft-
works, lately conftruded along the heights, a chofen land of
three hundred rifle men ought to ftop the progrefs of an army.
Cape Town, the capital, and indeed the only affemblage of
houfes that deferves the name of a town in the colony, is
pleafantly fituated at the head of Table Bay, on a Hoping plain
that rifes with an eafy afcent to the feet of the Devil’s Hill, the
Table Mountain, and the Lion’s Head, before mentioned ; the
laft, ftretching to the northward, in a long unbroken. hill of
moderate height, is King James’s Mount, (the Lion’s Rump of
the
the Dutch,) and affords ihelter againft the wefterly winds to
ihips in Table Bay. It moft completely commands every part of
the town and the caftle to the north-eaft of i t : and this, with
the Amfterdam and Chavonne batteries, command the anchorage
in the bay. The town, confifting of about eleven hundred
houfes, built with regularity and kept in neat order, is difpofed
into ftraight and parallel ftreets, interfering each other at right
angles. Many o f the ftreets are open and airy, with canals o f
water running through them, walled in, and planted on each
fide with oaks ; others are narrow and ill paved. Three or
four fquares give an opennefs to the town. In one is held
the public market; another is the common refort of the
peafantry with their waggons from the remote diftri&s of the
colony; and a third, near the ihore o f the bay, and between
the town and the caftle, ferves as a parade for exercifing the
troops. This is an open, airy and extenfive plain, perfeaiy
level, compofed of a bed of firm clay, covered with fmall hard
gravel. It is furrounded by canals, or ditches, that receive
the waters of the town and convey them into the bay. Two
o f its fides are completely built up with large and handfome
houfes. The barracks, originally intended for an hofpital, for
corn magazines, and wine cellars, is a large, well-defigned,
regular building, which, with its two wings, occupies part o f
one of the fides of the great fquare. The upper part of this
building is fufficiently fpacious to ' contain 4000 men. The
caftle affords barracks for iodo men, and lodgings for all the
officers of one regiment; magazines for artillery ftores and
ammunition ; and moft of the public offices of government are
within its walls. The other public buildings are a Calvinift and
a Lutheran