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every kind are at an enormous price. We were much deceivd in our hopes of procuring many articles here cheap such as tea, china, [?] & coffee. Better could be bought in England & much cheaper. Their beef is tolerable, mutton very good & fat, the sheep are remarkable for their large fat tails, a lump of solid fat which serves for butter & candles, weighing from 8 to 16 pounds. At the end of the wharf stands an old fort of little use now but to hold the Dutch India Company's troops about 300 men. Close to this for is the place for the execution or punishment of criminals. It stands on a rising ground, a low wall round it which you ascend by steps. On the inside is a house where the officers & jury [?] to see the punishment properly executed. Near this place is an hospital soldiers barracks, containing at present a regiment of [Swiss?] who have not yet been relievd since teh late war & these had been the principal defence of the Cape agains Commodore Johnstone. The town runs from these barracks about a mile in length & half a mile in breadth. At the back part of the town are the company's gardens, in the middle of which the Governor resides. The only entrance is by a very handsome stone gate where two sentrys always attend. Any comany wether inhabitants or foreigners are admitted to walk in them at pleasure. Indeed it is the only comfortable or pleasant walk at the Cape. From the gate goes a broad gravel walk in a direct line about a mile in length on an easy [?] a row of lofty oaks on each side the walk whose tops join & form an arch & behind the oaks hedges of myrtle. At the upper end is the aviary & some dens of wild beasts. They at present consisted of a beautifull tyger cat about 3 feet high, two tyger wolves, a most mischievous & fierce animal, a large & very ugly baboon, a very beautifull zebra, some foxes & two jackalls. Two dens were preparing for lionswith which the interior parts of the country near the Cape abounds. A variety of curious & beautifull birds, particularly the ostrich, balearic crane, & birds of paradise.
The inhabitants of the Cape consist of Dutch merchants from Holland & the native Dutch. Their servants are Dutch, their slaves are Malays, African & Madagascar Indians. The whole include upwards of 8000. The gentlemen here take very little exercise. Most of their business being carryd on by their clerks & servants. At the west end of the town is a new fort, very strong consisting of two bastions of 10 guns each, joind by a long wall in the form of a crescent on the top of which is a battery of 19 guns with embrazures at the bottom for as many more. At our arrival here their militia was embodied which happens annualy. They consisted of 180 [?] horse & 266 foot the 20th of Octr was the last day of their performing their excercise this year on this occassion the principal inhabitants were assembled as spectators