Although Calvinism is the established religion in the settlement, there are many Lutherans. The ministers are paid entirely by the government ; and there is no country in which this useful body are more highly re spected. They hold the next rank to the president of the court of justice in town, and to the Land-droost in the country. The poor's funds accruing from donations at the church door, legacies, and also from a tax upon the emancipation of slaves, are entirely under their ma nagement. In 1798, the funds belonging to the establish ed church amounted to 22068/. 8s. 8d., and the relief grafted to the poor was 111'21. 17s.; those of the Luthe ran church were 14,8291. 13s. 2d., and the poor received 194/. 9s. 2d. In the district of Stellenbosch, at a place called Bavian's Kloof, is all establishment of .)loravian missionaries, who. about ten years ago, had collected into one society more than six hundred Hottentots, whom they not only instructed in the Christian religion, but taught sel eral useful trades. Each family possessed a small hut, with a patch of ground for raising A egetabk s; and by the example and persuasion of these good fathers, by the new regulations and imposts of the Dutch com missaries general in 1793, it was raised to 211,568 rix dollars ; which was farther increased to 450,713 during the last year of Lord 1Iaea•tucy's administration, while the settlement was in possession of the British, without a single additional tax having been laid upon the inhabi tants. The public revenue of the colony arises from the following sources, to each of which we have taxed the amount for 1801.
I on had become both cleanly and industrious. " The de portment of this Hottentot congregation during divine service," says Mr Barrow, (' was truly devout. The dis course delivered by one of the fathers was short, but re plete with gcod sense, pathetic, and well suited to the occasion : tears flowed abundantly from the eyes of those to whom it was particularly addressed. The females sung in a style that was plaintive and affecting ; and their voices were in general sweet and harmonious. Not more than fifty had been admitted as members of the Christian faith by the ceremony of baptism. There appeared to be no violent zeal on the part of the fa thers, which is the case with most other missionaries, to swell the catalogue of converts to Christianity, being more solicitous to teach their trades to such as might choose to learn them. Adopting the idea of the humane Count Rumford, their first great object seemed to be that of making men happy, that they might afterwards become virtuous, which is certainly much sounder phi losophy, than the reverse of the proposition." In the history of this settlement, there are few cir , umstances deserving of very particular attention. Its onquest was accomplished without bloodshed, and its natives have hitherto opposed but very feeble resistance 10 their European oppressors. The lofty promontory of the Cape was first discovered by Bartholomew Diaz, an eminent Portuguese navigator, in 1487, and named by him Cabo Tornzentoso, or the Stormy Cape, on account of the boisterous weather which he experienced near the coast, and which, with the shattered condition of his ships, and the mutinous disposition of his crew, pre vented him from doubling it, or making the land.* His sovereign, John II. however, gave it a name of more propitious import, and called it the Cape of Good Hope, thereby expressing his sanguine expectation, that the long wished for passage to India had now been found. These expectations were indeed completely fulfilled in 1497, by Vasco de Gama, who, having touched at the Cape, passed to the coast of Malabar. The Portuguese, in their subsequent visits to this country, made several attempts to establish a colony, but they all failed ; and nearly a century and a half was allowed to pass, before any European power had formed a permanent settlement on its shores. During this period, the English and Dutch frequently touched at the Cape for refreshments On their way to India; and it was the general custom to leave dispatches for their respective directors, buried in a certain spot, which were taken up, and carried home by returning vessels. The Dutch, however, at last be gan to discover the advantages which such a position would afford to their India trade, both as a point of com munication and refreshment ; and upon the favourable representations which Van Riebeck, then a surgeon in of the Dutch ships, gave of the mildness of the cli mate, aod the fertility of the soil, resolved to form a re gular estsblishment. 'Phis resolution was carried into ale( t in 1650, under the direction of Van Riebeck, who, having concluded a treaty with the natives, took posses :ion of the Cape peninsula, and laid the foundation of the present town, by erecting a font of wood and earth, and sonic other necessary buildings, which lie called Kier dc Kou,"a defence against all." This gentleman soon dis
co% cred, and took advantage of, the passion which these weak and peaceable Hottentots had for spiritous linuers ; and by giving them a few casks of brandy, a little tobacco, iron, and some paultry trinkets, obtained from them a part of their country and their flocks. A piece of iron hoop was the price of an ox, and a cask of bran dy the purchase of a whole district. A hundred male settlers constituted the first colony of the Cape ; but these being afterwards joined by nearly an equal number of females from the houses of industry in Holland, and also by a number of French refugees, who were obliged to leave their country in 1685, its population rapidly in creased. The principal difficulties which were at first experienced in the extension of the settlement, arose from the wild beasts that swarmed in every part of the country, and which committed their nightly depredations under the very walls of the fort. But these were by de grees almost completely extirpated ; and, unless one in effectual attempt of the natives to recover their lands, and to expel their oppressors, the Dutch continued with out any farther interruptions, either from the Hottentots or Europeans, to extend their encroachments over the richest districts of the country, for nearly 180 years. This settlement, however, by the restrictive regulations On its commerce, though its inhabitants and territories were continually increasing, was unable to support the expellee of its own government ; and, except as a port of refreshment for their Indian ships, it became a burden, instead of a convenience to the mother country. Soon after the breaking out of the French revolution, the ma nia for liberty and equality found its way into the settle ment,' and serious apprehensions were entertained, lest the colonists should declare themselves a free and inde pendent republic. A convention was established, and pro scribed lists were made out, of such of the inhabitants as were to be condemned to banishment or the guillo tine ; and even the slaves had their meetings, and began to hail the period of their complete emancipation. The appearance of a British fleet, however, in 1795, soon put an end to these proceedings. The Dutch force was driven from the advanced posts of Simon's Town and Muysemberg by General Craig, with a very small body of the 78th regiment, aided by corps of seamen and marines, landed for the occasion from the fleet in False Bay, commanded by Sir George Keith Elphinstone ; and the important advantage which had been gained was maintained in the face of a superior force by that able general, until the arrival of an army under Sir A lured Clarke, when, on the advance of the British to Wynberg, terms of capitulation were accepted of. During the sevel'ears it remained in our possession, a wise and li beral licy had considerably increased its revenue and commerce; and, on closing the public accounts the year after the departure of Lord Macartney, the governor, a balance of between two and three hundred thousand rix dollars remained in the treasury, after defraying all the ex pences of the colony. By the peace of Amiens, in l802, it was delivered up to the Batavian republic in full sove• rcignty ; but so far declared a free port, that the ships of the British and French nations were to be allowed to enter its harbours, upon paying the sake duties as those of the mother country. In 1806, it NTas again taken by the British, under Sir David Baird and Sir Home Pop ham, under whose dominion it still remains. Sec BRI •AIN, vol. iv. p. 657. Sec An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, by John Barrow, Esq. who, in the second volume of this valuable work, has treated at considerable length, of the value and impor tanec of the Cape of Good I lope, as a military and naval station, as a scat of commerce, as a central depot roe the southern whale fishery, and as a territorial possession ; and by way of conclusion adds, ,4 that, under the present implacable disposition of France towards this country, and the insatiable ambition of its government, Great Britain never can relinquish the possession or this colo ny for any length of tinie, without seriously endangering the safety of her Indian trade, and the existence of her empire in the East." See also Sparrman, Le \radiant, Thunberg, and Paterson's Travels in this S'ettlement; Stavo•inus's Proycsgra to the East Indies, vol. i. p. 535, Sec. and iii. p. 432, bz.e.; Lord Valentia's Travels, vol. i. p. 41, &c. ; Peuchet Dictionnaire, &c.; Semple's If and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope; and Perceval's -9ccount of the Cafie of Good Hone.