Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/99

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tainty of success, we likewise bought a water-spaniel here, in hopes that this animal would prove useful in fetching any game which fell out of our reach. It was with great difficulty we could meet with one, and we were obliged to pay an exhorbitant price for it; though it afterwards proved of little service. It may seem superfluous to mention so trifling an occurrence as this, but I believe it is hardly imagined, how great a number of little objects are to be attended to among many weightier concerns, by a traveller who means to improve his time to the utmost advantage.

On the 22d we brought all our baggage on board, and the same day we sailed from Table bay. Previous to the mention of farther occurrences, I shall here endeavour to give a succinct account of the state of this Dutch colony, which it is hoped will afford satisfactory instruction to my readers.

The southermost extremity of Africa, circumnavigated so early as the times of the Egyptian king Necho, and again in the reign of Ptolemæus Lathyrus, was once more