X. C. OF GOOD CHA P. their genius manifefts itself in rows of trees and canals; though experience proves the noxious effects of stagnant water; especially in hot climates, and most fatally at Batavia.-The company's flaves are lodged and boarded, in a fpacious house. The large hofpital for the East Indiamen, is generally pretty much crowded. For the fe fhips fometimes carry 6, 7 or 800 men, to fupply the regiments in India; and their confined fituation, and fhort allowance of water and falt provifions, make fuch havock among them, that it is not very uncommon for an Indiaman, so freighted, to lofe, between Europe and the Cape, 80 or 100 men, and to fend 2 or 300 to the hofpital. It is a lamentable fact, that the Mortality of facility with which the Zeelverkoopers (Soul-mongers) inmen kidnap veigle these unfortunate people, makes the company's serSoul-mongers. vants more indifferent than they fhould be about their prefervation*. They are plentifully supplied, however, with an antifcorbutic diet, which, with the air of the place, certainly contributes more to their recovery than their doctors, who drench them all, indifcriminately, with the cheap contents of two or three huge bottles. ped by No toleration 308. Toleration, which has been fo beneficial to Holland, at the Cape. is unknown at the Cape and at Batavia. In 1772, even a Lutheran clergyman was not tolerated at the Cape; but the chaplains of Danish and Swedish ships, now and then offici * I wonder that the Slave-mongers, in their diftrefs for pretexts to justify their traffic, have never mentioned the Dutch Soul-mongers, whofe practice would have afforded them this notable argument.-The Soul-mongers kidnap men in Holland: ergo the flave-mongers may lawfully fteal or carry off men, women and children in Africa, and murder them, if they refift. But this argument will fcarcely fatisfy those who reason on different principles, and who will never be convinced, that many thousands ought to be actually murdered in Africa, because some hundreds are virtually murdered by the Dutch Zeelverkoopers. See § 20. ated X. C. OF GOOD ated there. As in most other European colonies, no attention CHA P. whatever is paid to the religion of the flaves. A few of them, however, who are believers in Mahomet, meet weekly, in the house of a free Mahometan, and read or chaunt some prayers and chapters of the koran. and revenue, Foriler. 309. The governor depends immediately on the Eaft In- Government dia company, and prefides over a council compofed of the sketched by fecond, or deputy governor, the fiscal, the major, the fecretary, the treasurer, the comptrollers of provifions, and liquors, and the book-keeper; each of whom has the charge of a branch of the company's commerce. This council manages the whole civil and military departments. The deputy governor prefides over the court of juftice, which confifts of some of the members of the council. But no two relations can vote in either. The governor has a fixed falary, house and furniture, a garden and a table. He receives, befides, 10 dollars for every leagre (108 gallons) of wine, exported to Batavia. The company gives 40 dollars for each leagre, of which the farmer receives but 24. Of the remainder, the governor is paid two-thirds, faid to be worth 4000 dollars annually, and the other third goes to the deputy, who directs the company's whole commerce here.— The fifcal is at the head of the police, and fees the penal laws executed. He is also appointed by the mother country, to whom alone he is accountable, as a check on the company's officers. The major commands the garrison.— The defignations of the other officers are defcriptive of their departments. 310. The above is the substance of the account of the government of the Cape, given by Forster, whose work was published in 1777. But it would appear that some change in it has fince taken place; for the author of Das Merkwurdigste, printed CHA P. printed in 1787, fays the government of the Cape is divided X. into the eight following departments-1 ft. The Great CounC. OF GOOD cil for the company's political and commercial business. It HOPE. alfo fometimes reprefents the States General, and corre- A tax on produce, yielding, communibus annis,. Guilders 206,617 206,500 X. But Kolben ftates the clear annual revenue, which the CHA P. Dutch Eaft India company derives from the Cape, at above 300,000 guilders, annually. He appears, however, to in. C. OF GOOD clude the profits of that part of their Eaft Indian trade, which is connected with the Cape. HOPE. 311. There are 700 regular troops in this colony, includ- Military and population. ing the garrison, of 400. The fencible white men form a militia of between 4 and 5000, of whom a great number may be assembled in a few hours, by signals of alarm. Hence we may estimate the whites of all ages and both fexes, at between 16 and 20,000. But a part of the colonists are fo very far scattered, as to be able to afford little protection to one another, and to the community. There are in the colony five or more flaves to one white man. These flaves are chiefly from Madagascar, with a mixture of Malays, Bengalese and fome negroes.-The greater part of the colonists are Germans, with fome French protestants and Dutch. They are industrious, hofpitable and sociable; but fonder of good living, than of acquiring knowledge, for which they may plead the plenty of good cheer, and the extreme scarcity of good fchools. Such colonists as can afford the expense, generally fend their fons to Holland for improvement; but the education of their females is too much neglected. AUSTRIAN. BAY. 312. The Bay of Delagoa, on the east of Africa (lat. about DELAGOK. 26° S.) was discovered in 1545, by Laurenço Marquez, a Portuguese. In this bay his nation afterwards formed a Portuguese fettlement, on the river Manyeeffa, then the only one in fettle there Delagoa, navigable for large ships. They built a fort of which the veftiges ftill remain; but abandoned it, on the Manyeeffa becoming unnavigable by an accumulation of fand: X. CHAP. fand: and their colony of Mozambique having then acquired ftrength, they did not find it worth while to renew their fettlement in Delagoa Bay. DELAGOA. 313. The waters of the Mafoômo, in the fame bay, having, in time, opened a channel of four fathoms over the bar, the and Dutch. Dutch formed a fettlement there, which they held till 1727, when a strong squadron of English pirates, who had their rendezvous at Madagascar, after plundering the Dutch warehouses, razed them and the fort to the ground*. Large tracts unoccupied by Europe ans. Auftrian at tempt, under Cal. Bolts. 314. Such was then the increasing prosperity of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, and its dependencies, that the Dutch gave up all thoughts of re-establishing that of Delagoa; fo that, from that day to this, a large and fine country, on the east of Africa, from Cabo das Correntes to the most eastern dependencies of the Cape colony, and on the west, a much larger tract, from Saldanha bay to Benguela, have been unoccupied by the Europeans, and abandoned to the peaceable and rightful possession of the unchriftianized Africans. 315. In the fpring of 1777, however, an establishment was made on the river Mafoômo, on behalf of Her late Imperial Majesty, the Empress Queen, Maria Therefa. The circumstances and fate of this colony, as far as I have been able to collect them, were as follow:-With a view to recover the trade of the Eaft, to the Austrian dominions in Flanders, Tuscany and the Adriatic gulph, which had been loft on the abolition of the Oftend Eaft India company, in 1727, Her Imperial Majesty granted a charter, in 1775, to William Bolts, Efq. a gentleman who had been formerly employed in Bengal, by the English Eaft India company, * See an account of this fettlement and its destruction, in the Dutch Reisen na Indien I. de Buckoi, and the English History of the Pirates. |