CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, a British colony, was so called from the cape on its s.w. extremity. It was established by the Dutch in 1652, some attempts at a settlement hav ing been previously made by the Portuguese. The former only intended it at first as an intermediate station between Holland and their East Indian possessions; and at first occupied only a small tract of ground on the slopes of Table mountain, with some por tion of the adjoining fiats; but they had in their neighborhood scattered tribes of improvident natives, singularly feeble of purpose, and incapable of organization on a large scale. The tide of immigration set in from Holland, and when the country was finally taken possession of by the British in 1800 (there having been a brief occupation of it from 1796 till 1803), the Dutch had extended their dominion as far to the c. as the mouth of the Great Fish river, and fruit that point in a waving line across the country to the w., a little s. of Orange river.
In entering upon the government of this large territory, the British found themselves face to face with a race of a totally different sort from that of the purposeless Hottentot —a people styled Kaffirs, mainly of Arab descent, consisting of tall, athletic, finely formed men, of warlike dispositions, with an incurable propensity to steal from any one, provided he was not of their own tribe, and particularly so if he was a foreigner. The inevitable result was a succession of wars—those, namely, of 1812, 1819, 1828, 1835-36, 1846-47, 1851-52.
Cape Colony proper is bounded on the n. by the Orange river and the Kei. But of late the area of this British possession has been greatly extended by the annexation of districts lying to the northward. Of these successive annexations the most important are that of British Kaffraria (see KAFFRARTA) in 1866; of Basuto-land, lying in the upper basin of the Orange river, in 1868; of two vast districts across the Kei called Finsro-land and Noman's-land, now called Griqua-land East (q.v.), in 1875; of Griqua-land West, in 1876; and of the Transvaal (q.v.) in 1877. The area of cape Colony proper is 181,592 sq.m., and its pop. in 1875, 496,381. The area of the whole colony, with the newly
incorporated districts, is estimated at 329,495 sq.m., and its pop. at 1,142,782.
The highest range of mountains within the colony is 9,000 ft. above the sea. The mountains keep at a distance from the coast-line of from 30 to about 100 in., and receive different names on their course, such as the Stormberg, Sneeuwberg, Nieuwveld, Hog geveld, and Kamiesberg. Between this principal range and the sea on the e., there are two other ranges less continuous and regular, the intermediate one generally more dis tant from the first than they are from each other.
South Africa being not far from the region of the trades, s.e. winds prevail, especially in the summer time; the only other wind thatmay be said to blow is that from the n.w., which prevails during the colder months. But whichever of these two winds predominates—the one bearing a supply of rain from the Indian ocean, the other, if less frequent, more richly laden from a part of the Atlantic nearer the line than the country which it fertilizes—it fails to deposit its stores on the opposite side of the principal water-shed which crosses its path. Hence the curious fact of the transposition of sea sons in the same latitude. As the harvest in such latitudes depends more on the sup ply of rain than anything else, people are reaping on the one side of the country whilst they are sowing and planting on the other. Certain parts of the country are liable to long continued droughts, because while very heavy rain-falls take place, the rain is confined to a patticidar part of the year. The country, however, is admirably adapted for the storage of water. In many places one meets with the successive beds of dried up lakes, with a narrow outlet at the lower ends, through which a periodic stream flows. By closing up this outlet, artificial lakes or dams may be formed to almost any extent, and of unlimited number; and from the steepness of the slope, the lands lower down admit easily of being laid tinder water.