Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/756

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746 CAPE COLONY CAPE FAKEWELL til nearly 2,100 years later, when the Portu- guese Bartolotneu Diaz reached it (1487). In 1497 Vaseo da Gama rounded the cape on his voyage to India; but no serious attempt at settlement was made till 1650, when the Dutch East India company established a colony for the purpose of raising provisions for their ves- sels to and from India. They found the coun- try in possession of a people calling themselves Quaquas, but to whom the Dutch gave the name of Hottentots, from hot en (and) tot, two syllables of frequent occurrence in their lan- guage. The Dutch colony for a considerable time was confined to the neighborhood of the cape, but the limits were gradually extended, the natives being driven back or reduced to slavery. They also introduced many Malay and negro slaves. Besides the Dutch settlers there were many Germans, Flemings, and Por- tuguese. In 1686 there was a considerable immigration of Huguenots who left France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. In 1795 the colonists attempted to free them- selves from the Dutch rule, but the British government sent a fleet, and took possession of the colony in the name of the prince of Orange ; and it was ruled by British govern- ors till 1802, when it was restored to Holland. Upon the renewal of the European wars in 1806, the British again took possession ; and the colony was formally ceded to them by the king of the Netherlands at the general peace of 1815. There have been several wars with the Caffres. The first was in 1811 ; the second in 1819, when the boundary was extended to the Kei, the present eastern limit ; but the re- gion between that river and the Keiskamma was soon restored to the Caffres. The third war took place in 1835, at the close of which the territory as far as the Kei river was again given up to the British, the inhabitants being declared subjects of the crown; this district formed till 1865 the colony of British Caffraria. The fourth Caffre war lasted from 1846 to 1848. In 1850 another war broke out, which lasted till 1852. The final result of this was to establish the present boundary of Cape Colony, the British abandoning all claim to the region N. E. of the Nu Gariep, or S. W. branch of the Orange river. In 1820 5,000 Scotch emigrants sent out by the government landed at Algoa bay, and laid the foundation of the settlements on the eastern borders, which have been push- ed much further into the interior than any others, and now form the most flourishing por- tion of the colony. In 1834 the slaves were emancipated. The troubles with the Boers, commencing in 1835, resulted in the establish- ment of . two independent republics border- ing on Cape Colony. (See BOERS.) In 1848 the British government undertook to make the Cape a penal colony, mostly for political offend- ers. The colonists opposed this, and formed an anti-convict association, the members of which pledged themselves to hold no inter- course of any kind with any person who should in any way be connected with the landing, supplying, or employing of convicts. The as- sociation included nearly all the people near Cape Town. On Sept. 19, 1849, a vessel enter- ed Simon bay having on board 289 convicts, mostly persons who had been implicated in the Irish insurrection. Great indignation was aroused, and the governor agreed not to land the convicts, but to keep them on board the ship until he should receive orders to send them elsewhere. They were finally sent to Tasmania/ The agitation thus aroused continued, its pur- pose being now to secure a representative gov- ernment for the colony. This was granted in 1853, and a constitution was framed, essentially the same as that which is now in force. CAPE COMORIN, the southern extremity of Hindostan, in the state of Travancore, lat. 8 5' N., Ion. 77 30' E., forming a circular, low, sandy point, which is not discernible above the distance of .12 to 16 m. from the deck of a large ship. A bold summit called Comorin peak, 18 Cape Comorin. m. N. of the cape, is the southern termination of the Western Ghauts, and has from a distance been often taken for the cape itself. Within a short distance of the cape lies a rocky islet. high above water ; and about 3 m. from this islet are a fort and a village, a church, and I some ancient temples, being the remains of the j once famous town of Cape Comorin. CAPE ELIZABETH, a rocky headland on the S. E. coast of Maine, in Cumberland co., at the S. E. extremity of a town to which it gives its name, 6 m. S. by E. of Portland, in lat. 43 33' N., Ion. 70 11' W. It rises to the height of about 50 ft. above the ocean, and on it have been erected two lighthouses about 300 yards apart, j their lights being 140 ft. above sea level. CAPE FAREWELL, a lofty, rugged, and pre- cipitous headland forming the southern ex- | tremity of Greenland, and projecting into the I north Atlantic from the small island of Cape