his 'Chronicles of Cape Commanders.' As an essayist on Cape history generally, Judge Watermeyer is very suggestive, and we may well regret that he did not write more fully on his native land. No colony is more rich in original and consecutive documents. Andrew Sparrmann, the Swedish naturalist and close observer of men and things, has left us some very valuable notices of the state of Cape society towards the end of the eighteenth century, and his narrative has the ring of exact truth about it. The same cannot be said of the Frenchman Le Vaillant, who is fanciful and untrustworthy. His observations as an ornithologist would suffice to condemn him as untrue in small things, and therefore in great. Barrow joins in this universal condemnation of Le Vaillant, but he himself has given us a very valuable topographical and statistical sketch of the country as it existed at the beginning of permanent British occupation in 1806. His preface gives a short review of authorities up to that date. Mr. Theal also furnishes us with a very useful list in his 'History of South Africa' (pp. 373-395). In a certain fashion, the Cape of Good Hope, as the half-way house between East and West, and a port of call for all nationalities, whether outward or homeward bound, has been more often described, perhaps, in ships' logs and travellers' note-books than any other part of the southern hemisphere, but these descriptions rarely include much information respecting the Hinterland. In this century Kaffir wars have cast a lurid light upon the records of the Colony. Of recent years the names of sportsmen and travellers in South Africa have been legion, amongst whom may be mentioned David Livingstone, Baines, Andersson, Harris, Gordon Cumming, Frank Oates, and Selous. For the latest statistics I have drawn largely upon the Preliminary Report of the Director of the Cape Census (1891), the 'Argus Annual,' 1891, the Annual Reports of the Cape Town and Port Elizabeth Chambers of Commerce (1891), the Natal Almanac, Directory, and Register (1891), the Cape Statistical Register, Blue-books, Reports, the columns of the Cape Times' (1890-1891), the Proceedings of the South African Philosophical Society, and the Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute; the last-named especially providing, from time to time, most useful commentaries on South African progress. 6 DODINGTON : January 9, 1892. WILLIAM PARR GRESWELL. CONTENTS THE CAPE CONSTITUTION. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND DIVISIONAL 28-48 49-66 67-99 100-120 121-136 THE DUTCH REPUBLICS. THE TRANSVAAL, OR SOUTH AFRICAN 221-254 255-268 269-285 GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA SOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 1. The Dutch Occupation. (1) THE first European who succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good Hope was the Portuguese captain, Bartoloméo Diaz (1486). He commanded an expedition of three vessels sent out by King John II, king of Portugal, with the view of discovering a passage to the East. Diaz encountered such terrible storms off the Cape that he called it Cabo di Totos Tormentos, or the Cape of all the Storms; but this name was afterwards changed to the Cape of Good Hope by King John, because by this route vessels could sail round Africa and trade with the rich markets of Asia. Diaz reached Algoa Bay (September 14), now the site of Port Elizabeth, and by way of annexation set up a cross on the little island of St. Croix, a surf-beaten spot in the Bay itself. By this exploration the Portuguese nation won great glory and profit. The secret of ages was revealed, and it was now known for B |