[Copy.]

Government Advertisement.

His Excellency the Governor and commander in chief has been pleased to direct, and it is therefore hereby ordered, that the regulations enacted by the proclamation of the 17th instant, and the subsequent regulations published on the following day under the direction of his Majesty's fiscal, shall be in force in the country districts in as far as they may be applicable, should it unfortunately happen that any cases of small pox make their appearance therein.

Castle of Good Hope, 20th March 1812.

By Command of His Excellency the Governor.

Letter from SIR JOHN CRADOCK to the EARL OF LIVERPOOL.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN, March 21st 1812.

MY LORD, It is with much concern that I have to submit to your Lordship that the small pox has made its appearance in Cape Town. The first symptoms arose on the 5th inst., and the cases have encreased to forty-one on this day, but among them there are some doubtful. Of this number seven only are in the town, as the remainder have been removed to Paarden Island on the first appearance of the disorder. The disease has been hitherto confined to the slaves and two or three children of the lower order.

Every exertion has been made from the earliest period to the present to check the progress of the disorder, and I have the most sanguine hopes, from the measures taken, and the zeal with which they have been pursued by all the civil and medical persons concerned, that the most favorable results may be the consequence. Since yesterday but a single instance has been reported, and even that one is doubtful. The disease itself appears to be of a very lenient nature, and no mortality has taken place.

I submit to your Lordship the series of the precautions that have been adopted. They might have been perhaps a little more coercive, and to a greater extent, by the peremptory separation of all sick persons from those in health, to whatever class of inhabitants the disorder might in the event reach, but, as the entire consideration of the subject was Dutch, as all the English inhabitants here are without apprehension, I felt myself obliged, in a great measure, to subscribe to Dutch feeling, and yield to the opinions of the most respectable persons, who feared that nothing short of open force could effect so strong a measure.

The vaccination has been pursued with unremitting zeal and activity, and at this moment there is not a person in Cape Town or in the adjacent district who requires that operation.

All the same measures have been enjoined in the country, and if the termination be as favorable as I indulge the hopes, the present alarm may ultimately prove the source of happiness and security, as much as the first apprehensions carried with them danger and misery.

The introduction of this disease into the colony will require a more certain and detailed account than at present it is in my power to give. The chief circumstances however are, that it proceeded from a Portuguese ship which came in here from want of provisions with a cargo of slaves. The captain gave in a clean bill of health, and she was duly visited by the medical officers of health, who made no report to the contrary. She was also put under quarantine, and remained in that state till taken possession of by a naval officer, when the captain and crew came on shore.

The vessel then became a subject of litigation in the Vice Admiralty Court, and after six weeks' detention was condemned as prize or forfeiture.

From the long confinement many of the slaves perished, and more were falling every day. The medical officers again inspected them, and made a favorable report without exception.

In consequence they were landed, and proceeded with according to the regulations of the act of parliament.

Among them after some days one was discovered in the small pox, who since died, and singular to state, no other case has occurred in these slaves. They were all instantly removed to

Paarden Island, a completely isolated spot, and it was declared a

Lazaretto. This took place on the 5th Inst., and until the 14th no further consequences arose.

It must remain in doubt whether the infection was spread through these slaves, or whether it was not communicated by the intercourse from the captain and crew, who were permitted to come on shore, as I have before stated to your Lordship. If any more material information arise, I shall have the honor to submit it. Upon so interesting a subject I shall not fail to give the earliest intelligence in my power. I have etc.

Letter from LIEUTENANT COLONEL GRAHAM to

HENRY ALEXANDER, ESQRE.

UITENHAGE, 21st March 1812.

SIR,-The necessity of filling up the abandoned country with the least possible delay is so obvious that I shall forbear to remark upon the benefits which must consequently ensue from such a measure, but have the honor to acquaint you, for His Excellency the Governor's information, that with a view to accomplish so desirable an end I have written to the Landdrosts of Swellendam, Tulbagh, Graaff Reinet, and George respectively, a letter, copy of which is herewith enclosed.

As I conceive that every encouragement should be held out to induce settlers to establish themselves in that most fertile tract of Country, and having been informed by Major Cuyler that the Earl of Caledon had been pleased to direct that credit should be given for the loan rents of the abandoned farms up to December 1808, thus enabling former occupants to resume possession (a right which I also understand they, by effect of a proclamation of General Janssens, forfeited in consequence of not reoccupying their places at a former period) I took upon me to grant an extension of such credit up to the period of the evacuation of the country by the Kaffir tribes, a measure that I trust will meet with His Excellency the Governor's approbation, and which I felt the more inclined to adopt from the circumstance of its being my

opinion that for the better encouragement of Settlers resorting to this part of the Colony the rents of loan farms occupied by them ought for at least some years to come to be so very trifling as to be considered more as an acknowledginent of tenure than a source of Revenue, or even done away with entirely, Government of course retaining the right of excluding the possessors in the event of misconduct.

I have the satisfaction to state that almost all the inhabitants who held loan farms on Bosjesman's river to the north of Zuurberg and the Noutai, which lies on a continuation of the same chain of hills, and which they were forced to abandon three years ago, have again returned to their places.

Permit me to urge the expediency of such measures as His Excellency the Governor shall think proper to adopt for the encouragement of inhabitants settling in the reacquired territory being made public without loss of time.

In consequence of several applications for loan farms from Major Cuyler and other Officers of the Cape Regiment, I beg to be informed whether His Excellency is pleased that I should grant their request, and if so, what extent of ground may be given to each. I have, &c.

(Signed) J. GRAHAM, Lt. Col.

[Office Copy.]

Letter from ROBERT PEEL, ESQRE., to SIR JOHN CRADOCK.

DOWNING STREET, 22nd March 1812.

MY DEAR SIR,-I did not fail to take the earliest opportunity of submitting to Lord Liverpool the inclosure in your Letter to me bearing date the 16th of December 1811.

The Appointment to which you refer rests with Lord Liverpool, but I have to regret that the Arrangements which his Lordship has made do not enable him to comply with your Request, that he would nominate Mr. J. Cradock to the situation vacant by the death of Mr. Truter. I have, &c.

(Signed) ROBERT PEEL.

[Original.]

Letter from JOHN BRUCE, ESQRE., to ROBERT PEEL, ESQRE.

WHITEHALL, 31 March 1812. SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th instant, enclosing copy of a letter to you from Mr. Willimot, agent for the Cape of Good Hope, dated the 29th of February 1812, with its enclosures relating to the extension of the trade of that colony, which I have laid before the commissioners for the affairs of India, by whom I am directed to acquaint you, for the information of Lord Liverpool, that as the subject of the commerce of the East India Company will in a short time be submitted to Parliament, the trade of the Cape of Good Hope with the countries subject to the Company will then be fully taken into consideration. I am, Sir, etc.

Proclamation by SIR JOHN CRADOCK.

Whereas by the good effects of vaccination, the majority of the inhabitants may now be considered secure against the infection of the small pox; and those in whom the process of vaccination may not as yet have been completely terminated, may likewise insure their own safety, by still refraining a few days from intermixing in society, without the necessity of the restrictions imposed by the proclamation of the 17th instant being on that account any longer continued, except such as are required for the purpose of preventing the immediate infection.

And whereas the provisions enacted for the preventing of this immediate infection, as long as the contagion itself exists, cannot cease without a certain degree of risk: His Excellency, having considered the opinion of the medical gentlemen forming the committee of the vaccine institution, which has been laid before him by His Majesty's fiscal, has thought proper to order, that from the date hereof the said restrictions, as recited in the 7th, 8th, and 9th articles of the aforesaid proclamation, of which prudence dictated

VIII.

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