5, a French
attack in 1757, and various assaults by the native tribes. Next to
Elmina it was considered the strongest fort on the Guinea Coast. Up to
1876 the town was the capital of the British settlements on the coast,
the administration being then removed to Accra. It is still one of the
chief ports of the Gold Coast Colony, and from it starts the direct road
to Kumasi. In 1905 it was granted municipal government. In the courtyard
of the castle are buried George Maclean (governor of the colony
1830-1843) and his wife (Laetitia Elizabeth Landon). The graves are
marked by two stones bearing respectively the initials "L.E.L." and
"G.M." The land on the east side of the town is studded with disused
gold-diggers' pits. The natives are divided into seven clans called
companies, each under the rule of recognized captains and possessing
distinct customs and fetish.

See A. Ffoulkes, "The Company System in Cape Coast Castle," in _Jnl.
African Soc._ vol. vii., 1908; and GOLD COAST.

CAPE COLONY (officially, "PROVINCE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE"), the most
southern part of Africa, a British possession since 1806. It was named
from the promontory on its south-west coast discovered in 1488 by the
Portuguese navigator Diaz, and near which the first settlement of
Europeans (Dutch) was made in 1652. From 1872 to 1910 a self-governing
colony, in the last-named year it entered the Union of South Africa as
an original province. Cape Colony as such then ceased to exist. In the
present article, however, the word "colony" is retained. The "provinces"
referred to are the colonial divisions existing before the passing of
the South Africa Act 1909, except in the sections _Constitution and
Government_ and _Law and Justice_, where the changes made by the
establishment of the Union are set forth. (See also SOUTH AFRICA.)

_Boundaries and Area._--The coast-line extends from the mouth of the
Orange (28 deg. 38' S. 16 deg. 27' E.) on the W. to the mouth of the
Umtamvuna river (31 deg. 4' S. 30 deg. 12' E.) on the E., a distance of
over 1300 m. Inland the Cape is bounded E. and N.E. by Natal,
Basutoland, Orange Free State and the Transvaal; N. by the Bechuanaland
Protectorate and N.W. by Great Namaqualand (German S.W. Africa). From
N.W. to S.E. the colony has a breadth of 800 m., from S.W. to N.E. 750
m. Its area is 276,995 sq. m.--more than five times the size of England.
Walfish Bay (q.v.) on the west coast north of the Orange river is