drawing, and have added to the Dutch fcale of roeds one of
Englilh yards,, the former being to the latter as 4tVoV to i .
This military plan, together with the bays, I have thought it
expedient to pubiiih, as multiplied copies of them are in the
poffeffion not only of the government and officers at the Cape,
but alfo of French officers in Europe; and it is prefumed they
may be of ufe to thofe who, .perhaps, may hereafter be fent on
an expedition againft this important fettlement without p o t
felling local knowledge, althoughj for fuch apurpofe, and againft
fo extenfive a colony, it would be highly advifeable to feleifc
fuch as were well acquainted not only with the fortified penin-
fula, but alfo with the different bays and paffes of the country,
the manners of the colonifts and their refources, and, above all,
with the habits of the native Hottentots.
Cape Town, which may be called the capital of the colony,
is fituated on the fouthTeafl: angle of Table Bay. It ufually
happens that the advantages of the bay, in forming a new fettlement,
determines the choice of the fite for the town; but, in
this inftance, the convenience of a plentiful flream of pure
limpid water, rufhing out of the Table Mountain, was the primary
obje£t to which the bay was fubfervient. Had this not
been the cafe, the firft fettlers would unqueftionably have given
the preference to Saldanha Bay, whofe only defeft is the want
o f frelh water near i t ; whereas Table Bay is faulty in every
point that conftitutes a proper place for the refort of flapping j
and fo boifterous, for four months in the year, as totally to exclude
all ihips from entering it.
As