[Copy.] Distrioution of Land to Settlers per Sir George Osborne Transport, for the Guidance of the Landdrost of Uitenhage. Director: Mr. D. P. Francis. Number of Men entitled to Land: 7. Lands to be granted: 1000 acres. These Settlers must be located upon Spots in the rear (or Westward) of those per last arrivals. Care must however be taken that upon each Spot to be located there be some Spring or fresh water. Colonial Office, Cape of Good Hope, 31st August 1820. By Command of His Excellency the Acting Governor. (Signed) [Original.] Letter from the REVEREND C. I. LATROBE to EARL BATHURST. NEVIL'S COURT, FETTER LANE, September 4th 1820. MY LORD, The Mission of the United Brethren among the Hottentots at the Cape of Good Hope requiring more assistance, I take the liberty of requesting Your Lordship's kind permission for the following persons to proceed thither. They are natives of Saxony. Henry Nicholas Voigt and his wife Mary Dorothy, Mary Elisabeth Richter, Mary Brenyer, both single, and to direct a recommendatory letter to be given them to His Excellency the Governor for a favourable reception. With the sincerest esteem and gratitude, I remain &c. (Signed) CHRIST. IGNATS. LATROBE, Secretary of the Unitas Fratrum. [Original.] Note from the REVEREND C. I. LATROBE to 10 NEVIL'S COURT, FETTER LANE, September 4th 1820. Mr. Latrobe presents his best compliments to Mr. Goulburn, and takes the liberty of sending him the enclosed petition for a recommendatory letter to the Governor at the Cape. Mr. Latrobe is sorry to have received accounts rather unfavourable respecting the Emigrants to the Cape, which however he wishes to believe are statements of only partial disappointments. Gnadenthal is constantly improving, and the Hottentots, under the direction of the Missionaries have built a bridge with substantial stone piers over the river Sonderend, which is an effort greatly admired, as the first operation of that kind in the transactions of Hottentots, and a proof what a change is wrought in the minds and manners of this degraded people by the introduction of Christianity. [Copy.] Letter from the COLONIAL SECRETARY to CAPTAIN TRAPPES, Provisional Magistrate, Bathurst. COLONIAL OFFICE, September 8th 1820. SIR, I have received and laid before His Excellency the Acting Governor your Letter of the 27th Ultimo enclosing a Copy of one you had addressed to Mr. Assistant Deputy Commissary Johnstone in reply to his communication to you on the subject of the third instalment of the Deposits of the Settlers having been now expended in the Amount of Rations issued for their subsistence. His Excellency entirely approves of the line you have taken; he feels that it will be impossible to discontinue the aid of Rations as hitherto made to the Settlers, until after the ensuing harvest when each party shall have reaped the fruit of his exertions, but as it is not to be expected that the charge of this supply can be ultimately borne by the public, it is necessary and just that the Commissary should apprize each head of Party that he will be XIII. R debited with the Amount of whatever he may draw in the Shape of Rations, and that he will be called upon to give Bond at the termination of the harvest for the value of what he shall up to that period have received, and that these Bonds (a form of which will be furnished to the Commissariat) will be secured in the nature of Mortgage upon and first claim against the Lands (with all they may contain) of the respective Holders, to the defrayment of which the subsequent Grants will be made subject. As soon as the period of Harvest shall have arrived, it is His Excellency's intention that an accurate Return shall be made to him of the Produce raised upon each location, and of the means the heads of parties may possess for the approvisionment of the respective Individuals of their several parties. From a view of this document His Excellency will be able to decide in what manner, to what persons, and to what extent the aid of the Public stores is to be continued, subsequent to the period in question; as it must be obvious that from that moment furnishing daily Rations should stop, and the several Heads of parties be only supplied from time to time according to their numbers and means with what upon the lowest scale of calculation shall be absolutely requisite to the support of the people. As however His Excellency conceives that many of the Settlers might relax in their exertions were they aware that it is in the contemplation of this Government to continue to support them in any shape, he desires that I will caution you not to make any of this communication public that is not immediately necessary to be acted upon; and I am further to acquaint you that His Excellency has instructed the Commissary General upon such parts of this reply as concerns his department. I have &c. [Original.] (Signed) C. BIRD. Letter from REAR ADMIRAL PLAMPIN to JOHN WILLIAM CROKER, ESQRE. HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP Conqueror, SPITHEAD, 9th September 1820. SIR, I beg leave to acquaint you for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that His Majesty's Ship Vigo, having Rear Admiral Lambert on board, arrived at St. Helena on the evening of the 14th of July last, and on the 20th I gave up the command of His Majesty's Squadron under my orders to him, and left the Island of St. Helena in His Majesty's Ship Conqueror the same afternoon. On the 25th July I arrived at Ascension where I remained till the afternoon of the following day for the purpose of having a correct survey taken on the provisions and victualling stores there, the late Purser (Mr. Martyn) being dead, in whose place I appointed Mr. James Hawken Secretary's Clerk. I have further to acquaint you for their Lordship's information that I this day anchored at Spithead. I have &c. (Signed) ROBT. PLAMPIN, Rear Admiral. [Copy.] Letter from SIR JAHLEEL BRENTON to SIR RUFANE SIMONS TOWN YARD, 9th September 1820, SIR,-The repeated delays and inconveniences which attend the restrictions placed upon the Transports and other vessels in H. M. Service by His Excellency Lord Charles Somerset in December 1818 induce me to request your Excellency would be pleased to take the circumstances attending this case into your consideration, and should you find it practicable and consistent with the interest of the Colonial revenues to relieve the Crown from the unavoidable expenses and delays attending a mode of procedure which I believe remains in this Colony alone respecting H. M. Vessels and Stores. Anticipating the inconveniences which have resulted, I wrote to the Secretary of the Admiralty requesting instructions on the subject from their Lordships. My letter was referred to the Solicitor of the Admiralty, who was of opinion that the restrictions complained of had arisen from a misconstruction of the Acts of 13 and 14 Carolus 2nd and 7 and 8 Wm. 3rd. And their Lordships' Secretary in forwarding a copy of this opinion to me, added that their Lordships had requested Lord Bathurst to give such directions as might obviate the inconveniences I appre hended. Various instances have occurred by which the Service has been greatly impeded by these restrictions. Transports have been kept more than 24 hours without being able to land their Stores or to embark them for want of a permit, and I have myself witnessed the interruption of a Boat's Crew on the same account, whilst employed in taking down provisions to supply the Men of War fitting for Sea, the provisions being left on the wharf whilst the boat was sent off to communicate their detention to the Commanding Officer. It had been at the same time expressly stated by the Comptroller of the Customs that the new regulations were not intended in any manner to include H. M. ships refitting in Port &c. On the arrival of the Sir George Osborne Transport in Simon's Bay on the 1st ultimo, a request was made for her to convey a quantity of Military Stores from that place to Cape Town. They were put on board accordingly, and she arrived in Table Bay on the evening of the 17th. It was not until half past nine o'clock on the 18th that permission could be procured to land the Military Stores, and the Custom House regulations again interfered to prevent her continuing to discharge them after three o'clock in the afternoon, the boatmen alledging that the Custom House would be shut by four. I need not point out to your Excellency the absolute necessity of all possible exertion being made by vessels in Table Bay, particularly during the Winter Season, to take advantage of every moment when the weather is moderate to discharge their cargoes, as mornings and evenings are in general particularly favorable for this purpose. Even in Summer, when the Bay has the advantage of a weather shore, all communication with the shipping is frequently suspended in the middle of the day from the violence of the S.E. wind. It is also notorious that in either Bay the loss of one fine day may occasion more than a week's detention. The Comptroller of the Customs it appears impressed upon the mind of His Excellency Lord Charles Somerset the necessity of subjecting Naval Stores to this regulation, but he did not do this until after the Colony had been twelve years in possession of His Majesty, during the whole of which period no demand had ever been made for permits, or any remark respecting their being landed without them; but the Comptroller had, a short time previous to his suggesting the new regulations, seized a quantity of Gun |