sketch was accordingly transmitted to, and received at, the Colonial Office, but allowed to be copied and published by Mr. Arrowsmith, without the consent of the compiler, without the least acknowledgment of his name as its author, and without either promotion or remuneration! The Map referred to filled the hitherto vacant space from the colony to Dela Goa Bay, and a very large portion of the country of the Bechuanas, even to within a short space of the tropic.

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In resuming the Map, as a right of which he has been despoiled, the compiler calls attention to the additions now made, namely, the country occupied by the emigrant Boers, including Natal, and that between the two great branches of the Orange River, and the country claimed by the Griquas. A plan of Port Elizabeth and a chart of Algoa Bay accompany the Map.

It may, perhaps, be perfectly useless to deprecate criticism. The work has been begun and continued with pure motives, and for the good of a settlement where the compiler has passed the best years of his life, and the happiest of his days. He only solicits fairness, tempered with consideration, for the small opportunities an Albany Settler, after a twenty-two years separation from his country, can have to perfect a literary labour; and casts his work upon the watered ground in the hopes of finding its fruit after many days.

JOHN CENTLIVRES CHASE.

Port Elizabeth, 5th July, 1842.

Note. On reference to the Map, the separate plan of Elizabeth Town (introduced however at page 197 in the work) and the chart of Algoa Bay will be found omitted. This arises from the Editor having already had a new Map of the colony prepared, with the four sketches of Cape Town, &c., below, intended for the illustration of his own work on the colony. Mr. Chase having, with the present work, sent him valuable fresh drawings, being considerable improvements on all previous Maps, the Editor has engrafted them on his own, making this acknowledgment to Mr. Chase, as well as on the face of the Map itself. Indeed the Map must be considered that of Mr. Chaes,

PREFACE.

It will not be necessary to take up the time of our readers in discussing the cause of that distress which, for some time past, has been pressing hard on certain classes of the labouring and manufacturing poor; it is enough to know that it exists, and more than enough to apprehend, from the result of the active and anxious inquiries of men competent to the task, that the country does not, and cannot under any circumstances, command the means of regular and permanent employment for its increased and increasing population.

In referring to past times and to the history of other countries, it will be found that, whenever population began to press severely against the means of subsistence, the remedy resorted to was emigration-not by single families, but in whole hordes like the northern Tartars, or whole legions like the Romans, their invariable policy being to cast their swarms when the hive was full. China and Japan are, perhaps, the only exceptions from this practice. Of the latter country we know but little; but enough is known of the former to deter any civilised society from following its example in this respect, or from submitting, if possible to avoid it, to that last and most dreadful of its resources, famine, by which whole provinces are laid waste, and the population brought down to the level of subsistence.

If it should appear, then, that after all other measures are little better than palliatives of the evil, wholly inadequate to afford any permanent relief, the only material point to be settled would be that of the direction into which the tide of emigration should be turned. The decision became the more urgent when it appeared that ship after ship was regorging on our shores loads of disappointed emigrants, who, after flying to what they imagined a land of liberty and plenty, but which on their arrival they found to be the abode of beggary, bondage,

and disease, were returned, stripped of everything, to swell the surplus population, and to increase the number of unprofitable consumers. That our own colonies claimed the preference could admit of no doubt; and among those which, on every account, might be considered the most eligible, there could be no hesitation in making choice of that which, from the nature of its produce, the salubrity of its climate, and the advantages of its situation, should appear to hold out the most flattering prospect of reciprocal benefit to the mother country, and to the individuals who might wish to leave it in search of better fortune.

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The Cape of Good Hope has always maintained a favourable hold on the public opinion. Long before it fell into our possession, the passing visitors of this celebrated promontory were lavish in their praises of its fine climate, equally removed from the extremes of heat and cold; of its beautiful flowers and choice fruits, some of which were always in season; of the excellent quality of its bread, and the variety and abundance of its vegetables; of the neat and cleanly condition of the capacious houses; and of the substantial comforts and the respectable appearance of every class of its inhabitants. It might be urged, perhaps, that some little deduction should be made from the glowing descriptions usually given by persons landing at this half-way house" (as it was called) after a long voyage; and yet, making every allowance, it must be admitted that the excellence of the soil and climate cannot be greatly exaggerated which will produce at the same time, and in boundless profusion, the apple and the orange, the peach and the pear, the grape and the apricot, the guava and the strawberry, together with a great variety of other fruits and esculent vegetables, the natural growth of countries situated both within and without the tropics. When, added to all this, we behold with our own eyes the multitude of heaths of surpassing elegance and beauty, the endless variety of bulbous-rooted flowers, and a long list of the choicest flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants, which are brought with some care to adorn our conservatories, but which are there scattered in wild and spontaneous profusion over the country, it cannot but enhance our good opinion of a spot favoured with so much beauty and elegance.

That such a feeling for the Cape of Good Hope, whether cor

rect or not, does prevail, was very manifest when, at the close of Parliament in 1819, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the intention of His Majesty's Government to extend the colonisation of that settlement. The measure was not merely approved, but hailed with applause by every part of the House; so that, instead of £50,000, the Minister might, we believe, with the same ease have obtained, if he had thought it expedient, a much larger sum.

The same predilection was equally conspicuous in the crowds which thronged Downing-street, in order to await the decision of the Colonial Department on their applications to be enrolled in the number of those who were to add to the population of this happy country.

The want of markets will be felt only when the settlers shall begin to accumulate a surplus produce; and as that surplus will be a saleable commodity in Europe, it will no doubt find its way thither, either through the Cape, by means of a coasting trade already put into activity, or direct from the bays and harbours of the colony. To render this advantageous, however, the Government at home must stretch forth its protection, and, instead of considering it as a foreign country, place it on the footing of the British plantations in North America. Its bounty has already been experienced in the reduction of the duties on wine and wool; above all, we should rejoice to see the present restriction of the corn-laws removed or qualified, as far as regards the produce of the Cape. This may not unreasonably be expected; for, while England is compelled to purchase large quantities of wheat from foreign nations, and to pay for it principally in money, the settlers of the Cape will take, in full return for theirs, which, in point of quality, is far superior, the manufactures of England. Tobacco, too, if duly encouraged, would become one of the great staples of the Cape; and when, to this and the former articles, we have added hides and skins, dressed and undressed, whalebone, oil and brandies, and dried fruits, wax, aloes, and perhaps barilla, we are not sure that we have enumerated all the produce that is likely to be sent to the mother country in any considerable quantities.

The plains of Albany, intended for the location of the settlers, are interspersed with fine clumps of vigorous brushwood, mixed