of two hundred and twenty-five miles, to a point behind the
Snowy Mountains called Plettenberg's Landmark, and from
thence be continued in a circular fweep inwards to the mouth of
the River KouJJie, upwards of five hundred miles ; thefe lines
will circumfcribe the traft of country which conftitutes the colony
of the Cape of Good Hope.
By reducing this irregular figure to a parallelogram, it will be
found to comprehend an area of at leaft one hundred and t wenty
thoufand fquare miles. And as it appears that the whole population
of whites, blacks, and Hottentots, within this area,
amounts only to about fixty thoufand fouls, though it cannot
boaft that
“ Every rdod o f grbtind maintains itamafl,5*
vet every two iquare miles may be iaid to have at leaft one.
human creature allotted to it. If, therefore, the Dutch at home
occupy one of the moft populous countries; in Europe, they
poflefs abroad the moft defert colony that ,is certainly to be met
with upon the face of the globe. But as this is left- owijig to
the natural defeats of the country, than to the regulations under
which it has been governed, the comparative population with
the extent of forface ought not be taken as the teft of the in-
trinfe value of the fettkmeut, as the population of-any country,
under a moderate Climate, will, in the natural courfe , of, thingf,
always rife to a level with the means of fubfiftence.
As the heft foil for vegetable growth is wnqueftionably produced
from a decom.pofition of vegetable matter, it amounts
to
to a pleonafm to fay, that the richeft foil will invariably be
found where vegetation is moft abundant and moft luxuriant}
the foil and the plant aüing reciprocally-as caufe and effeif,.
Hence, if climate were entirely out of the queftion, we ihould
have an infallible criterion for determining the quality of foil
in any country by the abundance or fcarcity, the luxuriance or
poverty, of the native plants. Meafuring the foil of the Cape
fettlement hy this fcale, it would be pronounced among the
pooyeft in the known world 3 for I may fafely venture to fay,
{hat feven parts in ten of the above mentioned furface are, for
a great part of the year, and fome of them at all times, deftitute
of- the leaft appearance of verdure. The upper regions of all
the chains of mountains are naked maifes of fandftope j the
valleys at their feet are clothed with grafs, with thickets, and
fometimes with impenetrable forefts. The inferior hills or
knolls, whofe furfaces are generally compofed of Ioofe fragments
of fandftone, as well as the wi.de fandy plains that conneâthem,
are. thinly ftrewed over with heaths and other ihrubby giants,
exhibiting to the eye an uniform and dreary appearance. In
the Iqweft parts of thefe plains, where the waters fubfide and
filtering through the, fand, break out in fprings upon the furfacç,
vegetation is fomewha,t more luxuriant. In fuch fituations the
farm-houfes are generally placed ; and the patches of cultivated
ground contiguous to them, like the Oafes in the fandy deferts,
may be çonfidered as fo many verdant iflandg in the midft of a
heundlefs wafts ; ferviog to make the furrounding wildernefs
more dreary by cornparifon. Of fuch plains and knolls is thé
heft of land çompofed that lies between the fijft chain of mourj-
tains and. the fea-coafts.
The