Having proceeded, ip ¡this manner, to mark dgiwo the route
and the chains o f mountains on each fide of it, as far as the
drofdy of |Graaf ^.eynef, and from thence tq the fija-coaft at
AlgoaB^y, I hete joiried Lieutenant Rice of the navy, an able
and intelligent nayigator, who had heen fent in his Majefty’s
brig the Hope, under the inftrudtions of Rear-Admiral Pringle,
to make a furvey of this bay, and of the coaft and bays from
hence to the Cape. Here we made repeated obfervations for the
latitude, but had no opportunity, dining opr ftay, of taking
the,angular djftance o f the Sup and ¡VJpon, in order, to determine
the longitude. I therefore retained the longitude arifing
from the data I procured in the manner already mentioned,
although it differed, a little fyom Mr. Rice’s, being about a degree
more eafterly. His lpngitude was the refult of the log-
reckoning; but as the currents that, at all feafons ofthe year,
are fipund to fet in one; diredtion or another upon the Bank of
L ’Aguillas, render the log-reckoning very uncertain; and, as
the refult of obfervations, afterwards made, gave about the
mean longitude between ours, it did not appear important to
make any change in the chart. I was moreover induced to
retain the longitude, brought out by computation of the diftance
and diredtion travelled, on perceiving that it differed not half
a degree with that of Algoa Bay, as laid down in the excellent
chart of the Bank L ’Aguillas, pubJifhed by Major Rennell.
A difagreement, however, will be found in fome of the longitudes,
as given in the text, and thofe marked in the chart,
for the knowledge of which I am indebted to the writers o f
the Critical Review. This difference, which is not material,
muft
muft have arifen, I fuppofe, from adopting, in the manufcript,
the longitudes of Mr. Rice after the. chart had been finifhed
and fent to England, on the return of the Earl of Macartney;
whereas, the manufcript was not tranfinitted for publication till
twelve months afterwards. For I obferve that the bays, on the
fouth coaft of the chart, are a little more eafterly than they are
faid to be in the tex t 5 but in all the other parts, except the
bays, the one exaftly correfponds with the other.
• That the relative fituations of the feveral parts of the chart are
corf e<3, or pretty nearly fo, I can venture to pronounce, as no pains
were fpared, nor precautions negledted, to make it as complete as
the means I employed would admit; I have, indeed, received the
flattering teftimony of Brigadier (now Major-General) Vandeleur
who, after travelling from the Cape of Good Hope to the Great
Fiih River, and from thence to Graaf Reynet, with a copy of
the chart in his hand, and a good perambulator, obferves, that
he had not been able to difcover an error amounting to ten
miles in any part of the country over which he had paffed. ft
may be right to mention, however, that I cannot be very certain
as to the fea-coaft between Saint Helena Bay and the
Khamieiberg, as I could only obtain a fight of that coaft from
thefe two points ; but the etror cannot be confiderable, nor of
much importance, as charts of this deicription are not ufed for
nautical purpofes. The great objedt was to aicertain the extent
of the fettlement; the natural produdtions it afforded ;• and
the relative pofition of its boundaries to the neighbouring tribes
of natives; points, important as they were, that had hitherto
not been determined.
vol. 11. E The