It appears probable, that but for that regulation which disqualifies persons who unnecessarily put into harbours deemed at certain periods unsafe, from recovering their insurances in case of loss, few ships would resort to False Bay. The distance, the badness of the road to Cape Town, the difficulty of procuring supplies and stores, with various other inconveniences, combine to give the preference to Table Bay, notwithstanding the reputed hazard. At Cape Town abundance of accommodation, of every description, may be had; whereas, at Seamon’s Bay, there are not more than two or three houses where persons of respectability could lodge. In saying this, I exempt the quarters allotted to the officers, which are very comfortable. After all that can be urged in favour of Seamon’s Bay, it is by no means a safe harbour; as the bones of several vessels, deep buried in the sandy beach, at the most retired part, which is a perfect _cul de sac_, sufficiently corroborate. There are, besides, sunken rocks near its mouth, on which several ships have struck: one, called the Anvil, from its flat surface, caused the loss of the Colebrook, Indiaman, some years ago. Another, designated the Bellows, from the perpetual roar it occasions, stands about two miles from the southernmost point of the Cape: it is not so dangerous as the others; being discernible full ten miles off, owing to the immense surfs, arising from a strong current towards the westward, which are perpetually breaking over it. The Cape, considered as a colony, cannot be said, at present, to be valuable in any respect, except as an asylum for shipping, homeward or outward bound. The supplies requisite for the town are derived from the labors of a few boors, settled at some distance. Hence, provisions are by no means cheap; nor would they be so, even if the demands of St. Helena could be answered from any other quarter; since the indolence of the Dutch agriculturists would, it is to be feared, cause them to limit their operations in proportion as the consumption might decrease. It is, doubtless, owing to some such cause, that the greater part of the slaves are maintained upon a very black, heavy kind of bread, on which the fat of sheeps’ tails is smeared, as a substitute for butter; and that the lower classes of the population live in the most wretched manner. This should seem inexcusable, where thousands of acres of good soil lie unheeded, within such a moderate distance of the town as could scarcely fail to repay the ordinary expences of cultivation.