[Office Copy.] Letter from LORD BATHURST to MAJOR GENERAL SIR LONDON, 30th May 1820. SIR,-Having communicated with His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs respecting the means which it might be proper to adopt with a view to remunerate the Government of the Settlement confided to your charge, for the value of the French Schooner Sylphe, I have to inform you that His Majesty's Proctor will be instructed to use proper means to reverse the Decree of the Admiralty Court under which that Vessel was sold; and that the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have, in the meantime, been desired to imprest to the Colonial Agent for the Cape the Amount of the Sum disbursed by the Colonial Treasury for the purchase of the Vessel. I have &c. Letter from the REVEREND WILLIAM WRIGHT to HENRY COMPSEY COTTage, Callan, May 30th 1820. SIR, Very soon after my last letter to you, I received a letter from Mr. Hamilton, Secretary to the Society for propagating the Gospel, conveying the resolutions of the Society to appoint me to Cape Town, as Missionary. I think it right to apologize to you for the trouble which I gave you by writing; and I take this opportunity of again thanking you for your attention to my application which has so happily terminated. I have &c. [Office Copy.] Letter from LORD BATHURST to MAJOR GENERAL SIR LONDON, 31st May 1820. SIR,-I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th of February last, recommending for favourable Consideration the Memorial of Mrs. Baumgardt, who prays to receive one Moiety of the pension which was enjoyed by her late husband. The system of continuing to the Widow or families of pensioners the allowance enjoyed by the head of the family, has been productive of so much inconvenience and expence in other Colonies that I cannot recommend to His Majesty to hold out any encouragement to the Establishment of such a practice at the Cape of Good Hope. I am therefore under the necessity of declining to sanction the proposed pension to Mrs. Baumgardt for any period subsequent to the date of the Arrival of this Communication at the Cape. Letter from LIEUTENANT STOCKER to HENRY GOULBURN, ESQRE. GUY'S HOSPITAL, 6th June 1820. SIR,-Availing myself of the introduction of Lord C. Somerset to you when accompanying His Lordship to present a chart and report upon the Country of Kaffraria in Southern Africa, I presume on the liberty of addressing myself by letter to your notice, to acquaint you that I have just completed a finished map of the above country on a more extended and detailed scale, annexing to it a small chart of the whole Colony of the Cape to elucidate the relative position &c. of the newly acquired territory and line of frontier with the Settlement. The above I have executed expressly for the Duke of Wellington as Master General of the Ordnance, and should be most happy, and feel highly flattered by bringing it previous to presentation under the eye of Earl Bathurst through the medium of your interposition for His Lordship's approval. I have been mentioned I believe in favorable terms to Earl B. and it is my proudest hope His Lordship will (if consistent with his judgment) condescend to honor me with his public approbation of the body of statistical information and desired Chart of that part of the Colony it has been my fortune to present at the Colonial Office. My object is directed to obtain some pecuniary remuneration for the labor incurred in compiling and executing the above alluded to, and as the subjects are said to be of moment and never before brought under the view of Government, my submitting them might fairly entitle me to some distinction. To Earl Bathurst my best and strongest hopes incline, as the highest testimony my claims can present to notice, and as an Officer very dependant on my profession I trust earnestly my wishes will not be defeated or my liberty deemed intrusive. I have &c. (Signed) I. STOCKER, Lieut. Royal Engineers. P. S. I omitted to take off the magnetic Line on my Chart, may I be allowed to trace it from the one in your possession. [Copy.] Letter from the LANDDROST OF UITENHAGE to LAND UITENHAGE, 8th June 1820. MY DEAR SIR,-His Excellency who left this place this day has made some alteration with respect to the Location of some of the Settlers per Zoroaster and Belle Alliance, as you will perceive by his note on the back of his Distribution Papers herewith enclosed. His Excellency hopes the Land intended for Mr. Wilson's party may not be located upon already. The Stream here meant is that scarcely a mile from where we lay at Piet Campher's kraal in the direction towards Waayplaats, the stream empties in the Kleine Mond's River, in fact the ground where the kraal was is meant in Mr. Wilson's Location; and Mr. Thornhill to be on the East Side of that same stream, towards the Cornplaats, Waayplaats, &c., &c. Let me know by express if you can if this Ground is still vacant, as I wish to know it before the Party set off from the Bay, where they are now only waiting waggons to take them on. If that land is already occupied, I am then desired by the Governor to select one of the best vacant places to locate them on, with the exception of Joel Smuts' place, which is reserved for Major General Campbell's party. Herewith the Diagram of Major Fraser's place. His Excellency further desires that 1500 acres, a good situation near Bathurst, be reserved for a person in England, and 500 acres at some convenient place for Town Major Johnstone. Pray inform me if you can put such apart, and where it may be. As I have not time to write Captain Somerset fully by this opportunity, I send this open for him to read and forward to you. Perhaps you should inform Captain Trappes about these alterations in the location of these Settlers, and show him where the 1500 and 500 acres for Sir Rufane's friends are. I remain &c. P. S. I am sorry to inform you that I can't find the Diagram of Major Fraser's Farm here. The Governor is anxious to get your further Sketch. [Original.] Letter from GEORGE HARRISON, ESQRE., to HENRY TREASURY CHAMBERS, 9th June 1820. SIR,-Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 8th ulto. transmitting a copy of His Majesty's Advocate's Report on the subject of the sale of the French Slave Schooner La Sylphe detained by H.M.S. Redwing whilst proceeding to the West Indies with a cargo of slaves, and carried into Sierra Leone, and requesting that directions may be given for impresting to the Colonial Agent of the Cape of Good Hope the sum of Rix Dollars 16,112 5sks., the amount of disbursements applied to the purchase of the Sylphe, I am commanded by their Lordships to acquaint you that they have directed a warrant to be prepared for issuing to Mr. Courtenay, the Agent for the Cape, the sum of £1432 4s. 5d. being the sterling value of rix dollars 16,112 5sks, as recommended. I am Sir &c. GEO. HARRISON. (Signed) [Copy.] Letter from CAPTAIN WALTER SYNNOT to his brother CLANWILLIAM, 9th June 1820. I deferred writing to you until I had seen the grant of land allotted me by Government; it is situated under a vast chain of mountains as wild and rugged as nature could form them, in a narrow valley, of which a very small part can be cultivated; that granted to me is a tongue of land formed by the junction of Jan Dyssel's River with the Elephants River, the greater part of it is an arid mountain composed of rock and sand, covered or rather intersected with shrubs, which is the universal character of the country between this and Saldanha Bay. There is a proportion of level ground which can be cultivated, and water conducted to, without which everything is burned up in Summer. The hills are consequently of no use for agricultural purposes. I do not think the plot of level ground contains more than one hundred acres, and a very small proportion of that is of a good quality, but on this spot, which is a mere garden, everything may be produced, rice, sugar, vines, oranges, corn of all kinds, fruits both European and Tropical. The hills are of no other use than to feed cattle. The roads in every direction are deep sand for fifty miles from this, it is impossible for the farmer to send anything to Cape Town, the distance is 6 or 7 days journey with a waggon, and the roads wretched. In short there is neither a means of improvement, nor a prospect of advantage, indeed there is nothing to recommend this country but the climate. We set out from Saldanha Bay in 12 waggons on the 26th May, and arrived all in good health at Clan William on the 1st June. The weather |