ory.--E.]

SECTION XVI.

_Account of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope._

Nothing remarkable occurred to the author of this voyage, while on the
way from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope, except seeing the wreck of
the Schonenberg, a ship belonging to the Company, which had been lost
a little before.[2] On coming in sight of the Cape, they discovered
many French, English, and Dutch ships at anchor in the roads, some
outward-bound and some homewards. A little way from the entrance of
the bay is a small island, on which there is always a guard composed
of a serjeant and a small number of men. As soon as the serjeant sees
what number of ships a fleet consists of, he hoists a flag, and fires
so many pieces of cannon as there are ships in sight, to give notice
to the commandant at the Cape. They are here employed in making
train-oil, and in raking oyster-shells to burn into lime. Into this
island, malefactors are generally banished from the Cape, and from
most parts of India. Here, besides the punishment of being separated
from all their friends, they are kept to the hardest labour.

[Footnote 2: This is said to have been on the coast of Africa _at the
height of Angola_, whither they were driven by a storm. But this could
not possibly have been the case _before_ reaching the Cape of Good
Hope.--E.]

Table Bay is very fine and large, of a semi-oval form, entering
several leagues into the land, and may be about nine leagues in
circuit; but the anchorage is not every where equally good, and there
is some danger near the shore. The middle of the bay is commanded by
a very strong fort, being a regular pentagon, and each of its fine
bastions mounts twenty pieces of heavy cannon. This fort and the town
are situated on the edge of a plain about three leagues in extent,
lying at the bottom of three very high mountains. The first of these
is _Lion Mountain_, having some resemblance to a lion couchant. The
second is _Table Mountain_, which is much higher, and has a broad flat
top like a table, being so high that it may be seen twenty leagues out
at sea in clear weather. The third is called the _Devil's Mountain_,
and is not so remarkable as either of the other two. The houses of
Cape Town are very neat and commodious, but are only built two stories
high, on account of the furious winds at S.E. which sometimes blow
here.

About the year 1650, the Dutch East-India Company bought a certain
district of this country from the H