a Lutheran church : a guard-houfe, in which the Burgher Senate,
or the council of burghers, meet for tranfadlingbufinefs relative
to the interior police of the town: a large building in which
the government ilaves, to the number of 330, are lodged : the
court o f juftice, where civil and criminal caufes are heard and
determined. The bafis of all the proceedings of this court is
the Roman or civil law, tempered or corrected by local circum-
ftances and unforefeen occurrences, as the nature o f the cafes
may feem to require, and which are generally provided for
in the code drawn up under the name of “ Statutes of India,”
for the fupreme court o f Batavia and the other inferior fettle-
ments o f the Dutch Eaft India Company. A full court is
compofed o f feven judges, by a majority o f whofe votes all
caufes are decided ; fubjeCt, however, to an appeal to a court
compofed o f the governor and lieutenant-governor, and
from their decifion to the King in council. The fifcal, or
chief a£ting magiftrate, is alfo the public accufer and attorney-
general to profecute, in all criminal cafes, for the fovereign.
The judges are none of them profeffional men, but are chofen
out of the burghers o f the town.
The Lombard Bank, to which is committed the management
of a capital of about 600,000 rix dollars, lent by the old government
in paper money to the fubjeCts on mortgages o f their lands
and houfes, or on moveable property, at an intereft of 5 percent,
is within the walls of the caftle ; as is alfo the Weejkammer or
Chamber for adminiftring the affairs o f orphans. The population
of the town is eftimated at about 6000 whites, inclufive of
the military, and twelve thoufand flaves.
Between
Between the town and Table Mountain are fcattered over the
plain a number of neat houfes furrounded by plantations and
gardens. O f thefe the largeft and neareft to the town is that in
which the government houfe is erefted. It is in length near
1000 yards, and contains about forty acres o f rich land divided
into almoft as many fquares by oak hedges. The public walk
runs up the middle, is well Ihaded by an avenue of oak trees, and
enclofed on each fide by a hedge of cut myrtles. The Dutch of
late years had entirely negleCted this excellent piece of ground;
but the fpirit of improvement that has always actuated the
minds of the Engliih in all their pofleffions abroad, will no
doubt ihew itfelf at this place, and convert the public garden
into a place not only ornamental to the town but ufeful to the
country. A part o f it, in faCt, has already been appropriated,
by order of the Earl of Macartney, for the reception of fcarce
and curious native plants, and for the trial of fuch Afiatic and
European productions as may feem moft likely to be cultivated
with benefit to the colony.
Among the foreign productions that might be introduced,
and in all probability cultivated with fuccefs at the Cape of
Good Hope, may be reckoned the different varieties o f the
cotton plant. Many of thefe have been already tried, and
found to fucceed extremely well in the light fandy foil that
generally prevails in the country. Two fpecies of indigo grow
wild in feveral parts o f the colony; and the cultivated plant of
India is now on trial. Different fpecies o f the caCtus, the
plant on which the cochineal infeCt feeds, grow juft as well
here as on the oppofite continent. The tea-plant has long
D been