The reason why I call these farmers wholesale, is, that all the produce brought by them is disposed of by lot to the highest bidders, according to "rise and fall" by auctioneers, who regularly attend for this purpose.
Met a number of this gentry hurrying to their duties on my return, having been too early to witness the auction. Hucksters receive their supplies in this manner, which they retail to the citizens—an extra tax, I should suppose, upon the honest burghers, from whose pockets must eventually be drawn the amount paid as commission to the auctioneers.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Settlement of Cape Town—Its productions—The Kaffir War—Latest dispatches—Cause of the Rebellion—Description of the Kaffir by the Traveller—Opinion of him by the Resident—Authority of prominent men—Observatory, &c.
Within larger limits I would willingly indulge in a more extended description of Southern Africa, which is set down by geographers as the "Cape Region;" but as each day now diminishes our cruise, so does each chapter deprive me of space for digression, and I must confine myself to the Cape Colony, or more properly speaking, to Cape Town and its environs.
The town is in latitude 33° 55' 30'' south, and as the Observatory has been decided to be in longitude 18° 29', and is distant three miles and a quarter from the town, due east, it would be placed 18° 25' 45'' east longitude.
The Cape of Good Hope, which is not the extremity of Southern Africa, as some geographers have it—"Lagullas" protruding further into the Indian Ocean—was discovered by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486, who gave it the name of the "Tormenting Cape," as previously stated, which was afterwards changed into its present title by the far-seeing Emanuel, and the hopes he then entertained of his navigators reaching the rich shores of the far "Inde," were made good by Vasco de Gama, eleven years after its discovery. The Dutch made their settlement here in 1652, of which they were deprived by the English in 1795, who afterwards restored it to them by treaty at Amiens, in 1802. Eventually it was ceded to Great Britain in 1815. The colony is quite extensive, and would be very productive but for numerous local causes which impede its growth. One of these has been named in the system of labor; but the most important impediment is want of unanimity amongst the settlers themselves. The Dutchman clinging to his ancient customs and habits, which are an abomination in the eyes of the Englishman; and the natives having been once subjected to the tender mercies of the white man, not understanding the use of freedom, or the benefits of self-government, live literally from "hand to mouth," in constant dread of recapture, and being forced, under the eyes of intelligent masters, to properly support themselves.
But even with these drawbacks the colony may be said to be flourishing, and when the Kaffir war is ended, and the Kat River rebellion put down, numerous fertile valleys will be open to the squatter, and contribute from their luxuriant bosoms bountiful supplies of wealth to the colony.