This work, printed at the Institution Press, Lovedale, South Africa, was issued in Two Parts-Chapters I. to XXI. forming Part I., and Chapter XXII. to end forming Part II. Two editions have been sold in the Colony. This volume comprises both Parts, and is published in this country, in the hope that in the present crisis the valuable information it supplies will be found interesting to the British Public. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. THIS book is published in the hope that it will supply a want very generally felt, that of a cheap and accurate description and history of the land we live in. The descriptive portion of it has already been before the public, in the pamphlet "South Africa as it is," which, at the time of its publication, (January, 1871,) was most favourably commented upon by the leading organs of the colonial press. Accuracy and brevity have been the points chiefly aimed at. One object kept in view was to point out the moral as well as the material advancement of the country. The public, to whose favour it is submitted, must judge whether its merits or imperfections predominate. Free use has been made of any and every source of information that could be considered authentic. With the press of the colony the compiler was connected for several years, and while editing a newspaper, necessarily became more or less acquainted with everything of importance that then transpired in South Africa. The newspapers, magazines, gazettes, and bluebooks of the last eighteen years may be classed generally as sources from which knowledge has been derived, but which cannot be more definitely referred to. A list of books which have been consulted, and from whose authors the early history of the colony has been drawn, follows this preface. To have quoted them at the bottoms of pages or at the ends of chapters would have required greater space, without any counterbalancing advantages. Most of these books are now so rare as to be met with only by chance, and even the most diligent collectors seldom succeed in obtaining all the older works. An intimate acquaintance with a very large portion of the surface of the country, derived from extensive journeys, periods of residence in different localities, and several voyages between the principal ports, is the basis of the geographical and descriptive sections of this book. From the excellent manual of South African geography by Mr. HENRY HALL, of the Royal Engineers Department, the length of most of the rivers has been taken, and that author's chronological table of events has been used as a guide to historical research. Lovedale, South Africa, January, 1874. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. THE favourable reception which the first edition of this book met with has induced the author to enlarge, and, as he believes, otherwise considerably to improve it. This much, he feels, is due in return for the generous support and kindly notices he has received. In the present edition, the chapters referring to early Kaffir history will be found much more complete than they were in the first. Every one at all acquainted with cuur zo ndo knows in what confusion this subject is involved, down to the War of 18, of which the Hon. ROBERT GODLONTON has given a thoroughly reliable history. The writer, finding it impossible to form a satisfactory conclusion concerning preceding events in any other manner, applied to various antiquaries throughout Kaffirland, and by comparing their accounts with Colonel COLLINS' report and the statements of BARROW and LICHTENSTEIN, is enabled to lay before his readers a coherent narrative of the principal events in the history of these people since their ancestors crossed the Kei. Kaffir proper names are spelt in this book as they would be by an educated native, so as to give the correct sound of the words. By an English tongue some of them cannot be pronounced, no matter how they are spelt, and they have no recognized English orthography,-each writer having followed his own fancy in this regard. The mode of spelling adopted will enable the reader to identify the individuals referred to, as well as any other would, and has the advantage of being correct from a Kaffir point of view. The first edition was read by some hundreds of natives, among whom were many of the teachers of mission schools on the frontier, and as it is confidently anticipated that this issue will have a still larger circulation among them, it is but fair that everything in the history of their people, even to the spelling of the names of chiefs of old,-should be accurately given. The writer desires to express his thanks to the Venerable Archdeacon KITTON, of King William's Town, for the use of a valuable library of South African books, collected with great trouble and by means of agencies in England; to PERCY NIGHTINGALE, Esq., Civil Commissioner of Victoria East, for the use of various bluebooks; and to his fellow colonists generally, for enabling him by their support to publish a second edition so soon after the first. Lovedale, South Africa, January, 1876. PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. IN THIS, the third edition, some few alterations have here and there been made in the text, either to simplify it or to make it more accurate. The results of the census of 1875 and some statistics of crime have been added to the chapter on the Geography of the Cape Colony, in which also commercial statistics have ben brought down to the close of 1876. In some of the historical chapters additional paragraphs have been inserted, where it seemed advisable to enter more minutely into any particular subject. The author wishes again to express his thanks to the public of South Africa for the generous support which he has received, the best return for which he believes to be an earnest effort to make each successive edition of this book an improvement upon the one before it. Lovedale, South Africa, July, 1877. CONTENTS: Physical Divisions. Bays and Harbours. The Coast. Rivers. Salt Pans and Vleis. Islands. Peninsulas. Capes. Mountains. Deserts. Climate. Animals. Vegetables. Area. Population. Statistics of Industry. Boundaries. Provinces and Electoral- Divisions. Description of Towns aud Villages. Government. Administration of Justice. Code of Laws. Educational Establishments. Roads and Means of Transport. Telegraphs. Imports and Exports. Statistics of Crime. Revenue. Exploration of the Portuguese along the African Coast in search of a passage to India. Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomew Diaz. The theory of Columbus, and his great discovery. Africa doubled by Vasco de Gama. First Voyages of English ships round Africa. Portuguese conquests in the East. Rise of the Dutch Power, and enterprise of the Netherlanders. First Voyages of the Dutch round Africa. Gallant Exploits of the Dutch in the East. Formation of the Netherlands East India Company. Success of the Dutch in wresting territory from the Portuguese. Constitution of the Netherlands East India Company. Use made of Table Bay by the Company's ships. Memorial of two seamen wrecked in Table Bay. Van Riebeck's endorsement of the memorial. Resolution of the |