Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872, Volume 1 (4th ed, 1915).djvu/63

1798] leave of their own accord they would be expelled by force; but the warning was as unheeded as the requests.

In March 1798 the first post-office in the colony was established. Previously, letters for private individuals were sent as a favour with government dispatches, or were given in charge of people on board ships. The office was at first intended only for an ocean mail, as there was no thought yet of a post within the colony. The charge on letters was at the rate of a shilling a sheet, and on books or newspaper packets four shillings a pound (453.59 grammes). Mr. John Holland was appointed postmaster-general, with an office in the castle. The revenue derived from this source was for some time about £200 a year.

The northern boundary of the colony had never been defined by the East India Company. On the 14th of July 1798 Lord Macartney issued a proclamation, which added to the district of Graaff-Reinet a small piece of territory beyond the Tarka river, and declared the following to be the boundaries: the Fish river from its mouth up to Esterhuis's Poort at the end of the Kaga mountain, the Kaga mountain to the Tarka mountain, the Tarka mountain to the Bamboes mountain, the Bamboes mountain to the Zuur mountain, the Zuur mountain to Plettenberg's beacon on the Zeekoe river, Plettenberg's beacon to Great Table Mountain, thence to the Nieuwveld mountains, along the Nieuwveld mountains to the source of the Riet river, the Riet and Fish rivers behind the Roggeveld mountain, the Spioen mountain, the Kabiskow peak, the Long mountain, the northern point of the Kamies mountain, and the river Koussie or Buffalo to the Atlantic. In the proclamation, all persons were forbidden to settle or graze their stock beyond these limits, under penalty of banishment and confiscation of their cattle, or to hunt game or travel there without a pass from the governor, under penalty of corporal punishment.

But, in point of fact, colonists were then living and paying rent for farms north of the Nieuwveld mountains,