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with trees of a considerable size, having all the appearance of a gentleman's park in England; and the deep ravines near the sea-coast are choked up with forests of a superior growth. The whole district is intersected by several streams of water flowing from north to south, besides a number of streamlets and springs which have never been opened, or prevented from running to

waste.

From the general view which we have taken, it is evident that the colony affords ample scope for an extended cultivation. Including Albany, there are not less than seven millions of acres of unoccupied and cultivable lands, besides three times that amount of an inferior quality—an extent of territory capable of affording an affluent provision for seventy thousand industrious and agricultural families. The loan-farms, in present occupation, amount in number to nearly 2,300; in quantity to eleven millions of acres. If, under a better system, these farms were parcelled out, and each made to support but one-tenth part of the number of persons residing at Gnadenthal, itself once a loan-farm, they would give employment and maintenance to a population of 270,000 souls, instead of 20,000, the utmost number residing on them at present, including slaves and Hottentots: and, if to the numbers employed in agriculture we add the tradesmen and artificers in the towns, those occupied in the fisheries and the coasting trade, we may safely conclude, that the colony is capable of supporting a population little short of a million of souls.

That many of the neglected and wholly uncultivated loanfarms, now in the possession of Dutch boors, will fall into the hands of more active and industrious proprietors can scarcely be a matter of doubt, or regret. Hemmed in on every side, and all his old habits broken in upon, the boor, finding that neither he nor his cattle can any longer take their accustomed range, nor Hottentots be procured to attend his flocks and herds, will be too happy to dispose of his interest in the land, and betake himself behind the Snowy Mountains, to that delightful retreat, among the Bosjesmans, recommended by Mr. Burchell.

It would be a waste of words to dwell on the political and commercial importance of a colony so happily situated as that of the Cape, commanding, by its position, a ready communication with every part of the civilised world, and which, if deemed

advisable, might be made the great entrepot of the Eastern and Western hemispheres. But we cannot pass in silence one of the beneficial results which we anticipate from the extended colonisation of the Cape, namely, that of the improved condition of the bordering Kafirs. The example of an industrious population of Europeans will not, we are persuaded, be thrown away on this well-disposed and fine race of men; on the contrary, we augur that, when they shall have adjusted their disputes among themselves, they will cheerfully set about the cultivation of a grateful soil, not with coarse millet and bitter gourds, as heretofore, but with productions of a more useful and salutary nature. These people being entirely free from idolatrous prejudices, would be ready to embrace the benevolent doctrines of Christianity.

[The preceding remarks, so suited for a preface to the work now presented to the public, are from the "Quarterly Review" of November, 1819; and in thus adopting them, the Editor pays his humble tribute to the prophetic sagacity of the reviewer, and congratulates those who promoted the emigration of that year on the success that has attended it. If policy and philanthropy were justified in sending forth 3,700 souls on the distant shores of the Cape Colony, before its fertility had been proved, how much more encouragement now has the Government and the country to extend the colony in the same direction. A cycle of pressing times has again revolved, permanent employment for our labouring population is becoming daily more scarce, and population is still increasing. Emigration to some colonies has realised disappointment, it has entailed the system of poor-laws on others, and the United States, now the abode of beggary and bondage, have returned upon us a number of unprofitable consumers to swell our surplus population. £50,000 again expended would relieve the country of 4,000 poor-rate dependants, give them a new life, and obtain for the colony that labour which is the only element wanting to its complete prosperity. To the serious attention of the members of the administration, the ministers of religion, the house of lords and commons, to magistrates, and rate-payers generally, the appropriation of another £50,000 cannot but recommend itself, after viewing the

benefits accruing from the first experiment, as shewn by the present work. Another £50,000 laid out to establish another colony at Natal with an equal number of persons, would nationalise that possession, secure the Cape from all depredators, and be the cheapest defence the Government could employ.

J. S. C., ED.]

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