great body of the colony, their character depends on the nature of the surface and of the soil; as they are wholly neglected by the boors.

Commerce. Wine and brandy are the staple commodities of the Cape. Ten or twelve different kinds of wine are manufactured. The other exports are grain and pulse, wool, hides and skins, whale oil and bone, dried fruits, salt provisions, soap and candles, The annual value of aloes, ivory, ostrich feathers, and tobacco.

wine and brandy exported, is about $50,000; aloes 6500; skins 6000; dried fruit 3000; ivory 1600: ostrich feathers 1000. The total value of exports for 4 years, (1799-1892) was $300,995. The imports for the same period, amounted to £1,195,507 38. 6d. currency. The imports from England were, woollens, cottons, hardware, cutlery, haberdashery, millinery, boots, shoes, stationary, furniture, paints and oils, earthen ware, naval stores, smoked meats, cheese, and pickles; from the E. Surat piece-goods, tea, coffee, sugar, pepper, spices, and rice; from America, lumber, salt-fish, pitch and turpentine; from the N. of Europe, iron, plank, French wines, beer, gin, Seltzer water, coffee, and preserves; and slaves from the coast of Guinea.

Climate. The year is divided into four seasons, the reverse of those in northern latitudes. The spring, from the first of September ta the first of December, is the most agreeable. The summer from December to March, is the hottest; the autumn, from March to June, is variable, but gencrally fine and pleasant weather. The winter, from June to September, though the greater part of the time pleas-ant, is frequently stormy, rainy and cold. The two most powerful winds, are the N. W. and S. E. The first commences towards the end of May, and blows occasionally to the end of August, and sometimes to the end of September; usually about 4 months in each year. The S. E. predominates the rest of the year; and, when the cloud shows itself on the mountain, blows with great violence. "In the midst of one of these storms of wind," says the Abbe De la Caille," the stars look larger, and seem to dance; the moon has an undulating tremor; and the planets have a sort of beard, like comets."

Face of the Country. The Cape Peninsula is a high mountainous tract, between Table and False Bays, 36 miles from N. to S. and & from E. to W. connected with the main by a low flat isthmus, from 20 to 30 feet above high water mark. This isthmus has few irregularities of surface, except such as are made by ridges of sand, adventitiously brought thither by the strong S. E. winds from the shores of False Bay. The Table Mountain, flanked by the Devil's Hill on the E. and the Lion's Head on the W. forms the northern extremity of the peninsula. The whole tract of country to the N. of the Cape, is much more sandy, barren, and thinly inhabited, than to the E. in which direction it increases in beauty and fertility with the distance.

Agriculture. Barrow calculates that at least half of the land in the colony may be considered as an unprofitable waste, unfit for any sort of culture, or even to be employed as pasture for cattle.

The lands are held by the colonists by different tenures. Those in fee simple are chiefly in and near the Cape District, and are the choicest patches of land, consisting of 120 acres each. Beside these are the quit rents, the gratuity lands and the loan lands, which are farms granted to the first settlers, and are each a square of 3 miles on a side, (9 square miles, or 5760 acres) paying a rent of 24 dollars per farm. In 1798 the number of these farms was 1832, containing 16,488 square miles, or 10,552,330 acres, renting at 43,978 rix-dollars.

Wine is chiefly cultivated in an extensive valley on Berg River, called Drakenstein Valley, commencing about 60 miles E. of the Cape. This valley is a remarkably fertile tract of land, and is owned wholly in fee simple. The variety of wines is very great. About 6000 pipes, of 154 gallons each are made annually in this valley. Great quantities of choice fruits are also raised here; and every month in the year, at Cape Town, the table may be supplied, at a very low rate, with 10 or 12 different sorts of fruit, all excellent. The celebrated Constantia wine is raised on two farms, close under the mountains, about midway between False and Table Bays. One of the farms produces the white, and the other the red Constantia. From 150 to 200 leaguers or pipes are annually made of both.

The coffee and sugar cane may both be profitably cultivated. Two species of indigo grow wild. Flax yields two crops a year. Hemp is raised in lieu of tobacco. The cactus, on which the cochincal insect feeds, grows wild. All the distant farms are devoted to grazing, and immense numbers of cattle are annually raised for exportation, and driven from 100 to 600 miles to Cape Town.

Rivers. Great Fish River is very deep, and from 300 to 400 yards broad. It riscs in the N. E. part of the colony, and runs in a S and S. S. E. course about 300 miles, into the sea 580 miles E. of the Cape.

Sunday River is at least 250 miles long; and, running S. and S. S. E. falls into Zwartkop's Bay.

Great River runs into Cantoos Bay.

Gauritz River empties a little W. of Muscle Bay. It may properly be called the Sink of the Colony. All the waters that originate within 150 miles to the E. or W. upon the Great Karroo, and along the Nieuwveldt, meet in one immense chasm of the chain of mountains nearest the sea, and are discharged through the channel of the Gauritz. In the dry season, it is easily forded; in the rainy seasons, it has been known to rise to the height of nearly 100 feet, leaving ruin and desolation behind it.

Bays. Saldanha bay, as a spacious, secure, and commodious sheet of inland sea-water, for the reception of shipping, can scarcely perhaps be equalled. It extends in length about 15 miles, in the direction of the coast, which is here about N. by E. and S. by W. The entrance is near the N. end, through a ridge of granite kills, moderately high.

Table bay has been described.

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3

False bay is a large body of water in the shape of a parallelo gram, E. of the Cape Peninsula, opening into the Southern Ocean, between the Cape of Good Hope on the W. and Hanglip Point on the E.

Muscle bay, like all those on the southern coast, is open to the S. E. but has a safe and good anchorage in most winds. A magazine for the reception of grain is erected near the landing place. It is a strong stone building, 150 feet long, and will conveniently hold 10,000 bushels.

Plettenberg's bay is 320 miles from the cape. The west point, is in lat. 34 6 S. and lon. 23 48 E.

Algoa bay, is open to all winds from N. E. to S. E. It has a I good bottom, and five fathoms depth, at the distance of a mile. The landing place is in lat. 33 56 S. and lon. 26 53 E. 500 miles from the cape. The mouth is 20 miles broad. Fresh water is abundant.

Mountains. The north front of the Table Mountain directly facing the town, has a horizontal ridge two miles in length. The height of the ridge is 3582 feet. Devil's Hill is merely a wing of the Table Mountain, on the E. 3315 feet high; Lion's Head is another on the W. 2160 feet high. The height of the Nieuwveldt, according to Barrow is at least 10,000 feet. Its summits are usually covered with snow six months in the year.

WESTERN COAST AND INTERIOR OF
AFRICA.

SCARCELY any thing is known of the coast between the mouth of the Koussie, in lat. 16 55 S. the northern limit of the colony of the Cape; and Cape Negro in lat. 16 15. Very few of the Namaquas are found N. of the Koussie. Barrow says, that the whole coast between the Koussie and the Orange, in lat. 28 S. is a mere desert, perhaps a continuation of the Great Karroo. Orange river rises in the country of the Bosjesmen, in the N. E. corner of the Cape colony, in about lat. 31 S. and lon. 27 E. and empties in lat. 28 S. and lon. 16 E. The distance of these two points, in a direct line, is about 650 miles. Its whole length is at least 1000. Barrow saw it 70 or 80 miles from its source. It was from 300 to 500 yards broad, and the volume of water was immense. Like the Nile, it has its inundations and its cataracts.

The whole coast, from Cape Negro in lat. 16 15 S. to the head of the Gulf of Guinea, is called the Coast of Congo.

BENGUELA. This kingdom reaches from Cape Negro to the mouth of the Coauza, in lat. 9 54 S. about 150 leagues. It was formerly powerful. Old Benguele is a town on a high mountain, near the coast, in lat. 11 5 S. carrying on a considerable trade in provisions and ivory; for which it receives muskets and other fire arms. The country is mountainous, and swarms with wild beasts, and is unwholesome near the coast.

ANGOLA reaches only to the mouth of the river Dando, in lat. 8** S. The Portuguese have several forts on the coast.

CONGO is divided from Loango, by Congo river, in lat. 6 30 S. It reaches very far into the interior, and has Fungono on the N. E. and Matamba on the SE. When the Portuguese first discovered this country, in 1484, it was covered with large towns and villages, and the capital contained 50,000 inhabitants. The army of the king was numerous and powerful. He is despotic, is elected by the nobles out of the seed royal, and is the proprietor of all the lands in his dominions. The king was early converted by the Portuguese! to the Catholic faith, and a profession of that faith is said now to be an indispensable requisite for the succession to the throne. Numbers of the Congoese also are Catholics; but a great majority are pagans, who worship various animals. Banza, or St. Salvador, their capital, is situated 40 leagues up the Zair, on a rocky eminence, and is said to contain a number of churches, and about 40,000 inhabitants, of whom about 4000 are Portuguese, who reside in a quarter by themselves. The inhabitants receive the products of Brazil, and the manufactures of Europe, in return for slaves, of whom about 16,000 are annually procured for the Portuguese. The soil is generally excellent, and the surface uneven. Millet, maize, the sugar-cane, and various excellent fruits are cultivated. The Zair is a very long and large river, probably not inferior in size to Orange river. Copper and iron are procured from the mines.

LOANGO. We know not how far this country reaches to the N. Biafra is between it and Benin. The king is powerful. The country is populous. The inhabitants are pagans, but use circumcision. Polygamy is common. They are licentious to an extreme. Loango, the capital, is in lat. 4 40 S. on a considerable river, about 2 leagues from the sea. The town is large and populous. The exports are principally slaves and copper. The climate is remarkably hot. The soil fertile, but the agriculture miserable.

BIAFRA is said to be a powerful and populous kingdom, bounded N. W. on Benin. It has a capital of the same name. The natives are idolaters.

GUINEA. The whole coast, from the mouth of the Del Rey, in lon. 8 30 E. to that of the Mesurada, in 11° W. about 500 leagues, is called the Coast of Guinea; and the country of Guinea, is considered as extending northward to the mountains of the Moon. On the coast it is divided into Benin, on the E. reaching to the river Volta, 220 leagues; Guinea Proper, reaching thence to cape Palmas 180; and Malaqueta, or the Grain Coast, between cape Palmas and the Mesurada.

BENIN. The country so named, is divided into Benin Proper, in the E. Whidah in the middle, and Ardra in the W. Each of these has its own monarch. The king of Benin proper has a large revenue, and can bring 100,000 men into the field. The inhabitants acknowledge a Supreme Being; but worship an evil spirit. who is considered as the author of all their calamities. Polygamy is common. Benin, the capital, is in lat. 6 38 N. and lon. 4 47 E. on the river Benin, or Formosa, 69 miles from Agatten, at its

mouth. It is said to be 4 miles in circumference, and to contain, 30 long, broad, and straight streets, of low houses. The streits are adorned with a variety of shops, filled with European wares. The palace is very extensive. None but natives are permitted to live herc. The entrance to the city is through a wooden gate, where a guard is stationed to collect the customs on merchandize. This country has been one of the principal marts for slaves.

WHIDAH is a much smaller kingdom than the preceding; but is remarkably fertile and populous. The inhabitants know many of the arts of civilized life. They are enterprising and industrious. The commerce of the country is extensive, and the manufactures are important. Slaves are the chief exports.

ARDRA lies between Whidah and the Volta, and extends far into the interior. Its government is despotic, and the crown hereditary. The soil is fertile. The manners of the people resemble those of Whidah. The country is populous.

GUINEA PROPER. This country is divided into the Gold Coast, on the E. and the Ivory Coast, on the W. Both are divided into numerous petty principalities, independent of each other, and engaged in almost constant wars. This renders them intrepid and ferocious. The prisoners are always sold as slaves. The climate is healthy to the natives, but prejudicial to Europeans. Slaves, ivory, and gold are exported to a great extent. All the slaves from this coast are, in the West-Indies, called Koromantyns. They are distinguished from all the other negroes by firmness, both of body and mind, by activity, courage, and an elevation of soul, which prompts them to enterprises of difficulty and danger, and enables them to meet tortures and death with fortitude or indifference. Most of the insurrections in the islands are owing to them. Edwards* gives an account of a formidable insurrection in Jamaica, in 1760, occasioned by 100 newly imported Koromantyns, all on one plantation.

In their own country when a great man dies, several of his wives, and great numbers of his slaves, are sacrificed at his funeral. They believe in a God of the Heavens, the Creator of all things, called Accompong, to whom they offer only praise and thanksgiv ing. Assarci is the god of the earth; to him they offer the first fruits, and pour out libations. Iboa is the god of the sea: if the arrival of ships trading on the coast is delayed, they sacrifice a hog to deprecate his wrath. Obboney is the author of all evil; to bim they sacrifice prisoners, or slaves. Besides these every family has a tutelar saint, who is some ancestor on the anniversary of whose burial all his descendants assemble round his grave, and sacrifice a cock or a goat.

GRAIN COAST, or MALAGUETA. This country, is 100 leagues in extent, from cape Palmas to the Mesurada. It is said to be subject to a single monarch, whose power is despotic, and who assumes great pomp and magnificence. The people are pagans, worshipping the moon, and believing in sorcery. Great numbers of them

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