fitt§ ifuafttitf', iVotdd hot Be required to exceed a fquare of
twelve yards, provided the depth be about four yards and a half.
And two citterns of thefe dimenfions, would be fully adequate
ftit érvéry purpofe tbit the' gâffMbn would require.
Ahèthér OhjhÔidBi hoWèVèr; was ftarted, grounded on the
cpihitm of fome 6f the artillery officers in the férvice of the
Ëatt India Company, who conceived the Lion s Hill to be within
point blank fliot Of the Devil’s Hill, the fiope of which, below
the rocky fuffimit, ii at leaft twice the height of the former,
and confequently commanded it. : Thefe gentlemen, who are
ffippo fed to be am mi g the heft informed of the Company s bffi-
fcéfS, may hè vèry gòod artillery officers, but they are certainly
Bad j'üÔgèS of dittante in a mountainous country 5 for, as Sir
James Craig h a s óbférved, the neareft point of the Devil’s Hill
is at thè dittane« óf 't fóò yards; but that, in Otder to get any
thing like a level wïth thé part of the Lion’ s Rump, on which
the ihoft confidéràblè part of the wòrks would be plated, it
would be neceffary to go farther back bn the flope of the Devil's
Hill, àt lëàft five hundred yards, and even then the èleva-
fión Would not be étjuàl to that point oh which the feid works
wèrë fitüatèd ; fo that the point blank range of the Company’s
artillery officers is, at leaft, 4200 yards. Sir James obfervCSj
that a refidence of fourteen months at the Cape, fince he gave
his opinion on this fubjtót, and à continued and unrèrtìitting
ftudy, to render thé placé as deferifible 'as p'offible, had only
ferved to confirm him in ît ; an opinion, indeed, which pt’rfeitly
coincided with that oï Lieutenant-Colonèl Bridges, whb Commanded
the Britifli engineers, as well as with that hf every intelligent
telligent officer who has been on duty at the Cape, not only
among the Engliffi, but alfo among the French, Dutch, and
German officers now fprving there.
Near the narroweft part of the peninfula, on the weftern
ihore, are two contiguous bays called Hout or Wood Bay, and
Chapman’s Bay; the latter communicating, by a defile of the
mountains, about a 700 yards in length, with Vis or Fiffi Bay
clofe to Simon’s Bay; and the former, by another defile, with
the great road leading from Cape Town to Simon’s Bay. There
appears to be-no inftance.on record of any fhip going intp
Chapman’s Bay, it being completely, expofed to all theprevailing
-winds that blow at the Cape, and, in confequence, leidom free
from a heavy fwell of the lea. Were It, indeed, ever fo fecure
and convenient for landing troops, all the advantages it hmlda
out would be obtained by a landing at Simon’s Bay. This is
not the cafe, were an enemy to effecft a ‘landing at Hout Bay to
the northward of it; as, from this place, tltey would he enabled
to make theirapproach toithe lines, leaving: Mjhfenberg, which,
on-a former occafion, I have called the Therrnopyhe o f the Cape
peninfula, in their rear.
Hout:Bay affords fafeand convenient anehoragefar eilght or
ten fhip.s; and has a rivillet of fnefh water falling intp it from
thehaek-parbof'Table Mountain ; hut thsigettiijg ¿out o f the
hay:is fuppefed'tohe‘veryiffiiieult aud.tprecarkmjj oniascount
«f the eddy-Winds'from the.fur-rounding jmpuatains whenitliey
are moderate Jin the. Offing, ¿or from .¿the ¿fouth-eafteiily wind*
fitting Into-the-enttanee ;, as wdl asftom -theiCDrtftant weilerly
i e j | fwell