A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races by Harry Johnston

(_South and South-Central._)

Towards the close of the 18th century Great Britain cast longing eyes at the Cape of Good Hope, as a victualling station for her ships on the way to India which could not remain much longer in the weak grasp of a Dutch company and must not fall into the hands of France. In 1795 the British Government despatched a strong expedition with the authority of the Prince of Orange and took possession of Cape Town, after a brief struggle with the local authorities. Free trade, with some preference for British goods, at once took the place of the grinding monopoly and vexatious restrictions of the old Dutch company; and various other liberal measures were enacted, which would have done much to reconcile the Dutch colonists to British rule were it not that, when England at the Peace of Amiens in 1803 restored the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch Republic, there followed three years of direct Dutch rule under two most enlightened men, De Mist and Janssens, who did much to efface from the settlers' remembrance the justly hated selfishness of the old Dutch East India Company. Therefore, when Great Britain resumed, in a manner intended to be permanent, the administration of Cape Colony in 1805, a still more decided opposition was shown to her forces than before; and even after the cession of this colony by Holland in 1814 there remained among the Dutch settlers a certain lukewarmness, and a disposition to find fault with the actions and motives of the Colonial Government and of the British people. In 1806, when Cape Colony passed definitely under British control, it had an area of about 125,000 square miles[141]. The boundary on the East was the Great Fish river, and thence a curving line which ended at Plettenberg's Beacon, about fifty miles south of the Orange river. The boundary on the north was an irregular line from Plettenberg's Beacon (dipping far south in the middle) to the mouth of the Buffalo river (Little Namakwaland) on the Atlantic Ocean. The population of the colony (not counting the military forces) was about 26,000 Europeans (of whom 6,000 lived in Cape Town), about 30,000 Malay and negro slaves, some hundred thousand Hottentots and half-breeds, perhaps another hundred thousand Kafirs and a few thousand Bushmen. The industries and pursuits of the European settlers were limited to vine-growing, the raising of grain, and the care of large herds of cattle and sheep. The cattle were mostly the long-horned native cattle of the Hottentots, and the sheep the hairy, fat-tailed, domestic sheep of Africa. Ostrich farming was unknown, and although the Dutch commissioners, De Mist and Janssens, had begun to introduce merino sheep just before the expiration of their administration, wool had not yet figured amongst the exports.