Our voyagers found provisions less plentiful and less reasonable in price at Cape Town than they had been taught to expect.  Board and lodging, which are to be had only in private houses, stood the officers in two rix-dollars a day, which is near nine shillings sterling.  This town, the only place in the whole colony to which that title can be applied with propriety, is of no great extent; it does not in any part exceed two miles:  and the country, colonized here by the Dutch, is in general so unfavourable to cultivation, that it is not without some astonishment that we find them able to raise provisions from it in sufficient abundance to supply themselves, and the ships of so many nations which constantly resort to the Cape.

When we consider the vast advantages derived by the Dutch colonists from this traffic, and the almost indispensible necessity by which navigators of all nations are driven to seek refreshment there, it cannot but appear extraordinary, that from the discovery of the Cape in 1493, by Barthelemi Diaz, to the year 1650, when, at the suggestion of John Van Riebeck, the first Dutch colony was sent, a spot so very favourable to commerce and navigation should have remained unoccupied by Europeans.  Perhaps all the perseverance of the Dutch character was necessary even to suggest the idea of maintaining an establishment in a soil so burnt by the sun, and so little disposed to repay the toil of the cultivator.  The example and success of this people may serve, however, as an useful instruction to all who in great undertakings are deterred by trifling obstacles; and who, rather than contend with difficulties, are inclined to relinquish the most evident advantages.

But though the country near the Cape had not charms enough to render it as pleasing as that which surrounds Rio de Janeiro, yet the Governor, Mynheer Van Graaffe, was not far behind the Viceroy of Brazil in attention to the English officers.  They were admitted to his table, where they were elegantly entertained, and had reason to be pleased in all respects with his behaviour and disposition.  Yet the minds of his people were not at this time in a tranquil state; the accounts from Holland were such as occasioned much uneasiness, and great preparations were making at the fort, from apprehension of a rupture with some other power.

In the course of a month, the live stock and other provisions were procured; and the ships, having on board not less than five hundred animals of different kinds, but chiefly poultry, put on an appearance which naturally enough excited the idea of Noah’s ark.  This supply, considering that the country had previously suffered from a dearth, was very considerable; but it was purchased of course at a higher expence considerably than it would have been in a time of greater plenty.

12 November 1787

On the 12th of November the fleet set sail, and was for many days much delayed by strong winds from the south-east.