The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-15 00:00:00

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE►.

A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CAPE OF GOOD
HOPS ; WITH OBSERVATIOSS ON THE. MEANS
G., IMPROVING THAT EXTENSIVE SETTLEMENT.

[From " TM New Monthly Magazino."J

(Concluded from our Paper of Thursday lasi.)

'Elie !Prowl class, or the wine growers, are a su-
perior description, being, Oa way before observed,
;root of them descended of French refugees. Their
Imp+ ate chiefly freeholds. in extent about one
hundred and twenty English acres, laid out in sine-
s:oas anti gardens. They have not only the best
holoses acd rotates. but in general their domestic
economy is better than will be found in most country
residences in this part of Africa. They raise little
t to.s, because that is an article easily obtained in ea-
ch: iii for wine ; their sheep, also. they procure
en a similar way; but they keep as matey cows as
4; ill furnish milk.for their families. The seascm for
loitigiog their wines to market is from September
to the new vtutage in March ; but usually they do
sit in the four concluding mouths of the year, afier
whorl' their draught oxen are sent to their own farms
or tlinve of others till they are again wanted.
'tile sandy roads at the Cape require fourteen or
sixteen Oxen to draw two pipes of wine. A small
tax is laid upon the wine and brandy brought to the
Cape market ; but all that is consumed or sold in
the ennotry is free from duty. This is a very No-
fitable concern. and the people engaged in it never
t.iil to realize considerable property.
3. The corn boors live in or near the Cape tits.
trim, mostly un freehold estate,, and are us general
a wealthy people. 'They tiring a consideral,le
quantity of grant to the market. besides supplying
the aise-growers 11114.1 grat.:ers. More, however,
might be raised, were these farmers better agri..
eulttirists; but, in reality, they are indebted for
their crops rather to the goodness of the soil, and
the favourableness of the climate, than to their own
ii!riuotry. Their plough. h monstrous machine,
drawn by fourteen or sixteen oxen, merely goes over
the surface, so that where the groom, is in the
lietisy it is not Ventilated at all. Yet with
all their bad managemeht they rely upon a return of
lateen fold, and teen double where the land ii well
irrigased. The grain is nut threshed but tsoddert
out by the cattle in circular floors. Part of the
chaff sod straw is reserved fur then horses, but the
ivat is ObitotlOCed as of On tile. though it would be
of material service in the folds where their cattle
• night. • Notwithstanding all this
want of care. thrt.e farmers thrive
fortunes.
• live in the distant parts of the co.
shade removed from the
itzatiou. Maul of them are No-
lo place without any fixed
straw lotto for their tic-
,. The hovel* built by
to be stationary are of the

~....v~'

filthiest dim:intim possible, being atiolom More
than our room. in which the whole family. Parents,
children, and thirteen or fourteen Nonvoting,
all herd together as well by night se by day.
The furniture of Connie is answerable to the
mansion, sod the dress of the inhabitants, both male
and female, iv equally appropriate. The stock of
the grazier /1 as easily disposed of as it is qatekly
reared and increased ; the butchers at the Cape
sending thin° own servants regularly round the
country to make the necessary 'lurches/es. fur which
they give hills npon their masters, which err pail
out the arrival of the cattle. As, therefore, the
wants pf three people are so few, and those sup-
plied at a trifling expense, if they are not effluent
it mast he their own fault. Till, however, they are
brought to a proper respect fur social habits and the
civil duties of life, they cannot be considered better
then a plague to the country, the blessings of
which are so grievously abused. It huts in conse-
quence been judiciously recommended, that in-
stead of suffering the butchers to collect their cattle
in the moonier just stated, certain fixed fairs
should be etaablished at Algoe, Plattenberg.
Mewl. and Saldatilla Bays, which would have
the effect of twinging on a reciprocal connexion
between the inhabitants of the several districts, and
thus prove a stimulus to industry and good manners.
As these periodical meetings for wide have been
so long in request among most nations, and are
of incalculable benefit, it is surprising that the
Dutch should never have adopted any thing
like them in dila region, where they must have
proved highly lucrative. Under our government,
which has begun to ameliorate 11)6 por • of
Africa in earnest, the institution of fairs in different
parts of the colony will no doubt be made an elowst-
tial point, for the purpose of converging the seve-
ral local interests, and of *stimulating the people
on all sides to exert themselves with energy in the
improvement of their respective districts, by
which means they will greatly enrich themselves.
Hereby also the Ruffirs and the Hottentots may
be brought to feel a relish for social intercouree and
industrious habits; which would have the happiest
effects in extending the light of knowledge
and mutual confidence between man and man,
over this vast continent, to the Straits of Moreno-
bique on the one shore, and at far as Cape Negro
oil the other. This is no romantic idea, when
the progress of the Romans in colonization is consi-
dered, and the still greater wonders that have been
wrought within a century int the vest we-tern con-
tinent. Here the obstacles to a rapid improvement
bear no proportion to the prospects or 'tweet's,
and experience shewa that settlers have more to diced
front indulgence than labour, iii a country which
yields spontaneously all that contributes to the wants
and the luxuries of man. By the united efforts of ate
increased population. however, this fertile region
may be rendered a mart for the supply clothier parts
of the globe with corn, wines of all sorts, brandy,
dried fruits, both', souls, °here. salted beef and fish,
hides, ivory, cotton, mid raw silk, with many other
valuable articles of commerce. This trade on the
coast wi:l of course open new distinct% of traffic
in the interior, and extend to an indefinite extent
• through Africa. Such ute the reasonable views
to be anticipated from the charge that has taken
place, and the measures now adopted For the relief
of a redundant population at kyr"-, and the cul-
tivation of that immense field of nut oral riches which
has been *tided to the British entinte, and which
will be more than a counterbalance to the loss sus-
tensed by the separation of the American Colonies,
though that event at the tune teas regarded by
short-sighted men and envious states, as the cer-
tain prelude to our national ruin.

11 4,1 ia.naca me ......-•.... •-- --•-
111 are pent op at night.
fri .lowerilitiess and want of i
• r well and realize fortunes.
4. The grillers lire in I
i bony. sock art scarcely I
Hottentots in civilisation.
' • 'nodes. roving from place
habitation, but erecting
toseional accommodation.
sects es may be mud to
, .
, •