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into the inquiry to what extent the Cape might have been rendered advantageous to the interests of the British empire, as an emporium of eastern produce; as furnishing articles of export for consumption in Europe and the West Indies; and as taking in exchange for colonial produce, articles of British growth and manufacture. Mr. Barrow argues, and upon good grounds, that the company could supply their emporium at the Cape with the produce and manufactures of Great Britain, at so cheap a rate as to undersell any other nation; the Americans then, finding no longer a market there for their lumber cargoes, or notions, as they call them, would confine their export trade to articles of peltry and ginseng, which they might be induced to bring in exchange for tea, nankeen cloth, and muslins, at a moderate advanced price, such as would not make it worth their while to proceed to India and China, with which countries the company would then secure an exclusive trade. South America also offers a tempting market.

"I observed in Rio de Janeiro a whole street, consisting of shops, and every shop filled with Indian muslins and Manchester goods, which, having come through Lisbon, were offered, of course, at enormous high prices. The trade, it is true, that subsists between England and Portugal, might render it prudent not materially to interfere with the Portugueze settlements; but the case is very different with regard to those of Spain. The mother country, more intent upon drawing specie from the mine, than in promoting the happiness of its subjects in this part of the world, by encouraging trade and honest industry, suffers them to remain frequently without any supply of European produce and manufacture. It is no uncommon thing, I understand, to see the inhabitants of Spanish America with silver buckles, clasps and buttons, silver stirrups and bits to their bridles, whilst the whole of their clothing is not worth a single shilling. The whalers who intend to make the coasts of Lima and Peru, are well acquainted with this circumstance, and generally carry out with them a quantity of ready made second-hand clothing, which they dispose of at a high rate in exchange for Spanish dollars. All this branch of trade might, with great advantage to both parties, be carried on from the Cape of Good Hope.

Cape Madeira might be sold to the West Indies at less than one fourth of the expence of real Madeira; and a trade opened with New South Wales, exporting wine and clothing in exchange

for coals. The following facts evince that a whale fishery might advantageously be established there.

"The vast number of black whales that

constantly frequented Table Bay, induced a company of merchants at the Cape to establish a whale fishery, to be confined solely to Table Bay, in order to avoid the great expence of purchasing any other kind of craft than a few common whale boats. With these alone they caught as many whales as they could wish for, filling, in a short space of time, all the casks and cisterns with oil. although whale-oil was to be procured to Having gone thus far, they perceived that, almost any amount at a small expence, they were still likely to be considerable losers by the concern. The consumption of the colony in this article was trifling; they had no ships of their own to send it to Europe, nor casks to put it on board others for freight. dead stock in their cisterns, till the high preTheir oil, therefore, continued to lie as a mium of bills on England induced some of the British merchants to purchase, and make their remittances in this article. The price at the Cape was about forty rix dollars the legger, or ten-pence sterling per gallon. whale fishery took a few casks to complete Sometimes, indeed, ships from the southern their cargoes, but in general they preferred to be at the trouble of taking the fish themselves, in or near some of the bays within the limits of the colony, where they are so plentiful, and so easily caught, as to ensure their success. It is remarked that all the whales which have been caught in the bays, are females; of a small size, generally from thirty to fifty feet in length, and yielding from six to ten tons of oil each. The bone is very small, and, on that account, of no great value.

"The whale-fishing company, finding there was little probability of their disposing of the oil without a loss, thought of the experiment of converting it into soap. The great quantity of sea-weed, the fucus maximus, or buccinalis, so called from its resemblance to a trumpet, which grows on the western shore of Table Bay, suggested itself as an abundant source for supplying them with kelp or barilla ;and from the specification of a patent obtained in London, for freeing animal oils of their impurities, and the strong and offensive smell that train-oil in particular acquires, they endeavoured to reduce to practice this important discovery. The experiment, however, failed; for though they succeeded in making soap, whose quality in the most essential points might, perhaps, be fully as good as was desired, yet the sinell was so disgusting that nobody would puralso, just at that time, a cargo of prize soap, chase it. Unluckily for them there came in, which was not only more agrecable to the smell, but was sold at a rate lower than the

company could afford to manufacture theirs of train oil. Being thus thwarted in all their views, they sold the whole concern to an English merchant, who was supposed to be turning it to a tolerable good account, when it was signified to him, by the present Dutch government, that the exclusive privilege of fishing on the coasts of Africa, within the limits of the colony, was granted to a company of merchants residing in Amsterdam; and, therefore, that he could not be allowed to continue the concern.”

The Dutch themselves were not anxious that the Cape should be restored to them; Mr. Barrow tells us on good authority, that it was their intention, had peace continued, to have given it a fair trial of ten or twelve years, and if it should not then produce a surplus for the use of the state, to consider how to dispose of it to the best advantage. The French attempted, at the treaty of Amiens, to make it a free port, a measure which would be the most effectual injury to the concerns of the company. The directors, however, we are told, have seen their error in undervaluing so im portant a possession; and the means of reconquering it are pointed out in this work, and of improving it, when we shall have reconquered and resolved to retain it. As one of the most effectual measures of improvement, he recommends that ten thousand Chinese should be introduced, a race of men industrious and useful in every situation; nor would there be any difficulty in prevailing upon that, or a greater, number to leave a country where the pressure of want is so frequently and so severely felt; neither is the government of China so strict in preventing emigration as is usually supposed. That prevention was politic when it was enforced as a state maxim; but the practice of the government has changed with the circumstances, and emigrations take place every year to Manilla, Batavia, Prince of Wales's Island, and to other parts of the eastern world, Another and easier method of increasing the quantity of productive industry, is by collecting together the Hottentots, as the Moravians have done at Bavian's Kloof, and encouraging them to settle upon the waste lands. The drought to which the colony is subject, might be materially lessened by compelling the boors to enclose their estates, as by their original grants they were bound to do: hedge rows and trees would shelter the ground, and attract

moisture from the atmosphere. A fa mily or two might be procured from Madeira, to improve the process of making wine. A Dutch merchant, on the restoration of the colony, obtained a grant of the whole district of Plettenberg's Bay, on condition of paying a certain annual rent. This district he meant to divide into an hundred parcels, and apportion out to as many industrious families, Dutch or German, who were to be sent over with stock, utensils, implements of husbandry, and every other article requisite to carry on the useful trades, and to till the ground. None of them was to be allowed a single slave; but it was recommended to encourage the Hottentots to every kind of useful labour. This plan, which would have proved so beneficial to the settlement at large, Mr. Barrow says, there is every reason to suppose would have succeeded to the height of the wishes of him who projected it. For such plans, adventurers enough might be procured in England among those who would willingly remove from hard winters in a cold country, and frequent scarcities; it would be quite as prudent to tempt the Irish there, as to make a present of them to the king of Prussia, for the eventual advantage of the French armies; and emigrants of a far better character are yearly driven from those estates in the Highlands, which their fathers had possessed before them from times beyond the memory of man, because the lairds find that their mutton can be brought to market, and their tenants cannot. We are in want of such colonies as might assist in alleviating the burthen of our poor rates, and the miseries of the poor. There is no room for our emigrants in the East, the West Indies are pestilential, Canada too cold, and at Botany Bay it must be confessed that the society is bad. Our swarms, therefore, are hived by America.

With respect to the boors, though, as Mr. Barrow says, it will indeed require a long time before any effectual steps can be adopted for their own improvement, they may immediately be prevented from impeding the amelioration of the Hottentots. Without gunpowder they would be at the mercy of the oppressed; and as it is in the power of government, by the small military post at Algoa Bay, completely to deprive them of this article, which is necessary to their very existence, they might be kept

in order by supplying them according to their good behaviour. An importation of hangmen, for their especial benefit, would also be attended with especial advantage. While the fear of the gallows was operating what it seems the fear of God will not, they might gradually be improved by the establishment of fairs, or markets, at fixed and rather frequent periods; for which Mr. Barrow points out Algoa Bay, Plettenbergs Bay, Mossel Bay, and Saldanha Bay, as fit stations. Then also the Kaffers, feeling their personal safety, would willingly bring their ivory, and leopard and antelope skins, in exchange for iron, beads, and tobacco, and perhaps coarse cloth, provided they were allowed to take the advantage of a fair and open market; and here the Hottentots would barter the honey which they collect in

the woods. At these meeting-places villages would immediately grow, and towns at no distant period; and here schools should be established. In a few generations English might be made the language of the settlement, and the African boor might be reduced to the shape of man, and exalted to the character of a civilized being and a Christian.

"If any of the hints," says Mr. Barrow, "thrown out in this volume should prove beneficial to my country, by sug gesting such measures as may avert the evils which now threaten our trade and settlements in the East, I shall consider the labour and application of three months not to have been bestowed in vain!" Three months is a time surprisingly short for the composition of a large quarto volume; we are far, however, from accusing this gentleman of hurrying into the world a crude mass of materials. The present volume is not so much designed for the amusement and information of literary men in their leisure, as for the instruction of statesmen, who are thereby to be influenced to action. It is in fact a political treatise, and delay might have disappointed its ob

ject.

An odd blunder occurs incidentally in the course of the work: it is said that the Portuguese admirat, Rio de Infante, gave his own name to the river so called; but

Rio means a river, and Infante's name was Joam. This reminds us of two errors of the same kind, far less pardonable, as they occur in writers whose business it was to have been better informed. The one in a quarto volume respecting Portugal informs us, that there is a manu factory of oil, azeita, at the town of Chitar; whereas the fact is, that it is a manufactory of chintzes, chitar, at the town of Axeitam. In like manner the bulky historian of maritime discovery tells us, that there is a village called Aldea in Africa, forgetting that aldea is the Portuguese word for village.

Before we quit this interesting volume, we quote one extract more, as containing a curious fact for the consideration of the Neptunists.

"But the strong argument advanced in favour of the Cape isthmus having, at no great period of time, been covered with the sea, rests on the sea-shells that have been on its surface. Such shells may exist, though I never saw them, except on the shores of the bays; but, as I have before observed, whole strata of these may be found buried in the sides of the Lion's Hill, many hundred feet above the level of the sea. These shells have not been brought into that situation by the waves of the ocean, but by birds. There is scarcely a sheltered cavern in the sides of the mountains, that rise immediately from the sea, where living shellfish may not be found any day in the year. Crows even, and vultures, as well as aquatic birds, detach the shell-fish from the rocks, and mount with them in their beaks into the air; shells, thus carried, are said to be frequently found on the very summit even of the Table Mountain. In one cavern, as Į Mossel Bay, I disturbed some thousands of have already observed, at the entrance of birds, and found as many thousands of living shell-fish scattered on the surface of a heap of shells that, for aught I know, would have filled as many thousand waggons. The presence of shells, therefore, in my opinion, is no argument for the presence of the sea."

discovered in the sand that is accumulated

thanks to this very able author for the We have now only to express our information which he has afforded to the country, and our hopes that the country may be profited by it.

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ART. VI. An Account of the Cape of Good Hope. By Captain ROBERT PERCIVAL. 4to. pp. 339.

THE well deserved success of captain Percival's former work, his account of Ceylon, has induced him to present the public with this volume respecting a country, better known indeed, but little less interesting, and not less important to her colonial empire. He was detained two months at the Cape on his voyage out, and again two months on his return. These visits were at different seasons, and at periods politically critical; and he who should be disposed to remark that the author's residence there was but a short time for the compilation of a quarto volume, would do well to remember, that a man who observes every thing, sees much in a little space.

The appearance of the coast is described as singularly striking:

"The immense masses which rise in many places almost perpendicularly from the sea, and are lost among the clouds; the vast gullies and caverns, which seem to sink to an

immeasurable depth amidst these stupendous mountains; the long-extended ledges of rock, over which, in a few places, are scattered

some tufts of stunted trees and withered

shrubs; the successive ridges of white sandy hills, each of which appears like a valley to the one by which it is surmounted; the terrible surf which is continually raging on the beach, along which these ridges are stretched; with the spray which is thrown to an immense height by the waves recoiling from the more rocky parts-all these objects rushing at once upon the eye of those who approach the cape, produce an effect which can be but faintly conveyed by description.

"This surf which is driven towards the land with such fury, produces a phenomenon in the sandy deserts, even far removed from the sea. In the time of the violent southeast winds it is carried to a great distance into the country, presenting the appearance of a thick mist. It gradually quits the atmosphere, lighting on the trees and herbs, and lining the surface of the sands. On the commencement of the rainy season it is again dissolved; and being carried off by the streams which are then formed, it is lodged in a number of small lakes, which, by a natural process, in time become absolute salt pans ; and thence it is that the Dutch colonists collect the salt which supplies their consumption. A person walking on the sandy beach during the continuance of the south-east winds, so as to be exposed to its influence, soon finds his clothes covered and encrusted with saline particles; while nis skin is quite parched up, and his lips begin to feel their effects very sensibly."

All modes of conveyance are very dear, and very difficult to be procured. A saddle horse could not be hired at less than from six to eight rix-dollars, a paper currency, worth about three shillings; and the general hire of a waggon to a stranger was from twenty to thirty. It must, however, be remembered, that wherever Englishmen go they are imposed upon, and that English soldiers abroad are regarded as being professionally, as well as nationally, fit to be cheated. These waggons, in which all long journies are undertaken, are large, strong, and commodious; for size and accommodation they may be compared to travelling houses. The body rests on à pole running lengthways; below it is not unlike a coach, except that it is seldom hung on springs. Within are platforms, and benches for seats and bedsteads; and at one end a place for cook. ing for, like the cobler's stall, a waggon serves the traveller at the Cape for parlour, for kitchen, and hall. The sides are of wood, and the roof of planks or sail-cloth, well tarred, to keep out rain. The Dutch farmers of the interior, during their long journies to Cape Town, live in these vehicles. They sleep in them, their slaves under them, and the cattle graze by. They are drawn by either horses or oxen in great numbers, from four to ten or twelve pair. The horses are small, but spirited and hardy. A bunch or two of carrots is sometimes their only sustenance during a long journey.

If shod, it is only on the fore feet; but this is not usual, for their hoofs are harder than those of the European horse. Perhaps the general character of the soil may be a more valid reason. The oxen are strong, large, boney, lank, and leng legged; they are yoked both by the horns

and the neck.

"In front of the body of the waggon there is a bar or piece of wood for a seat, like that placed before our hackney coaches: on this two of their slaves sit, and from this station guide a long team of horses or oxen. One of the slaves holds the reins, and guides the cattle, whilst the other sits beside him with a long whip that trails on the ground till he has occasion to use it on the cattle, which he does with both his hands. The handle of this prodigious whip is of bamboo, from twelve to fifteen feet long, and is fixed to a thick leather thong of buffalo hide, rudely

platted, and of an equal length with the handle, with a lash nearly three feet long attached to the extremity. The drivers are so very expert in the use of this immense whip, which to an European appears so unwieldy, that they can touch a team of ten or twelve pair of cattle in any part they have a mind, even with the certainty of hitting a fly off any of the animals. Indeed, none of our English charioteers can at all be compared with them in such feats of dexterity. When they come to a deep place of the road, or steep and difficult ascent, they keep cutting and slashing amongst the cattle to make them all pall together, and exert their strength equally. By this means the animals will draw the waggon over the most difficult places, even rocks and precipices, whilst the fellow who holds the reins, equally dexterous on his part, will guide them over in complete safety. "When these drivers appear pushing through the streets of Cape Town, at full gallop, and turning from one street to another, without pulling in, even where the comers are extremely narrow, which is generally the case, a stranger stops short with a mingled sensation of wonder and anxiety, dreading every moment some fatal consequences; which, however, rarely ever happen. The drivers are early initiated in this art; for, while as yet little boys, they begin by being employed to guide the foremost pair, when a long team is attached to a waggon, in passing through a narrow road. In many places about the Cape, these roads are merely rocky defiles between the hills, or narrow paths between ridges of sand. On coming to the entrance of those narrow places, they give notice of their approach by cracking their whips, which they do with such a loud report, as stuns the ears of a stranger. This is the signal to warn any other waggon which may be coming from the opposite quarter, not to enter the narrow path till the other has cleared it; for if they were to meet there, it would be impossible for them to pass each other. This is a regulation to which they strictly adhere, and a very heavy penalty is at tached to the breach of it, as the inconvenience arising thence would be extreme; one of the waggons would require to be completely unloaded, and the passage would thus perhaps be stopped up against all intercourse, probably for several hours.

"Every waggon is provided with strong chains, or drags, like those used by our mail coaches, to prevent their being overturned in going down the precipices and steeps. Some times they are obliged to drag all the four wheels, and have for this purpose a machine which they call a lock shoe, being a kind of sledge or trough shod with iron, into which the wheels are set. This prevents the wag gon from running down the cattle, and certainly is very ingenious in the invention. The cattle are generally placed in the team so as to draw by the shoulders, a bow or yoke of wood being put on each, and fastened by pegs,

through which holes or notches are made to admit the harness. The yoke of the hind pair is fastened to the pole of the waygon, and those of the rest have a strap or chain, running along the yokes of each pair, and carried on to the head, where it is fastened to the horns. Their bellies and hinder parts are left at liberty, which gives them rooin to move about in the waggons, and appears to render the draught easier to them. The principal guidance of the waggon depends on the foremost pair, which are generally the best trained, otherwise they might trample down the little Hottentot boys, who us, lly run before, and guide them by a kind of bridie or cord passed through the nostrils. It some times happens that these little wretches are thrown down and trodden to death, before the cattle can be stopped. The attachment of the animals to their little leaders is very great, and sometimes you will see them look about for them, and keep bellowing and uneasy till they come to their heads. The cattle are under great command, and will readily obey the slightest word from their drivers; on being called to by name individually, they will increase their efforts, and draw together, even without the employment of the whip."

The English found the climate agree with them better than with the natives, and were in general much more healthy than the Dutch, who, from their inactive habits of life, and their excess in eating heavy gross food, were subject to apoplexies, dropsies, liver complaints, and eruptions all over the body. A useful lesson for our countrymen in the West Indies. The English, in like manner, suffer more from climate than the French, from the same reason, their diet. Though man is by nature an accommodating animal, an Englishman is by habit the least so of his species. Wherever he goes he will carry his own modes of life with him, he will persist in his animal food and bis fermented liquors, when the natives subsist upon vegetables, spices, and water; in consequence he kills himself, and the climate is called unhealthy. Captain Percival's account of the Cape climate is not altogether congruous. In one place he says that it is singularly well adapted to restore debilitated and broken constitutions: in another that the great change from hot to cold at certain periods of the year proves very destructive to consumptive habits. Consumptions, indeed, and ulcers seemed to be the only distempers attended to any extent with fatal consequences to our countrymen. In some instances the smallest sore on a · man's leg has occasioned the loss of the limb.

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