prefent volume, enter very fully into the queftion of the political,
military, and commercial advantages, which this grand
outwork of all the European poffeffions in India commands,
and of the dangers to which thofe of the Britilh empire in that
quarter of the world, as well as the trade of the Eaft-India
Company,, are now expofed, by having reiigned this point of
fecurity into the hands of an enemy. I feel it, indeed, incumbent
on me to prove a pofition I then took for granted,
that the Cape o f Good Hope was an acquifition by which our political
and commercial interejls in the Haft Indies had been fecured
and promoted.
Having hitherto dwelt more fully on the character and difpofition
of the feveral tribes of aboriginal inhabitants, bordering
upon the colony, than of the Dutch and German fettlers, I
thought it expedient to commence the prefent volume with a
military expedition to the Kaffer frontier, in order to afford
myfelf an opportunity of making fuch remarks and obfervations,
as had either efcaped me in compofing the firft, or had pur-
pofely been omitted. The character and difpofition of the
inhabitants of a country, likely to become the feat of war, are
points of nofmall importance to be known previous to its conqueft.
The late King of Pruflia, that wife and vigorous monarch who,
if now living, would not have been tardy in affifting to repel
republican tyranny or confular defpotifm, recommends, in his
celebrated inftruXions to his general officers, a particular attention
to the ftudy of the difpofition, the temper, and the turn o f
mind, of the people inhabiting thofe countries which were def-
tined to be the objeX o fa military expedition.
In
In this chapter I have alfo blended fome remarks on particular
points and paffes, with plans and defcriptions of the three
principal bays on the fouth-eaft coaft of the colony, from aXual
furveys ordered to be made by Rear-Admiral Pringle, at the
requeft of Lord Macartney. The regularity of a journal I
have not thought it neeeffary to obferve ; nor to confider the in-
fertion of dates important, the chief ufe of which is, to mark
the diftances travelled over in a given time, the ilate of the
weather, or temperature of the air, at given feafons, and the
growth and maturity of the vegetable productions of the earth,
as they appear in fucceffion. To thefe points I have already
attended in my former publication, as well as to the general
geography of the country. Of the prefent work, particular
topography will form a material part; the knowledge of the
one being no lefs ufeful than that of the other.
It might appear invidious to point out particular inftances of
fatal .miftakes which have happened from want of local information;
but they are numerous in the records of ourhiffory.
It may not, however, be unimportant to obferve, that, in acquiring
this kind of knowledge, and in making connexions with foreign
nations, our moft inveterate and rancorous enemy has always
been more fuccefsful, becaufe more affiduous, than ourfelvcs.
I might inftance this obfervation in the labours of & Anquetil du
Perron, whofe book was withheld from publication Car feveral
years, on account of the important information it was fup-
pofed to contain refpeXing the politics of India ¡‘—in the
Travels of Meffrs. Olivier and Bruguiere into the Turkilh and
Perfian empires, who were fent by the Executive Council- in
I 1792,