Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Cape of Good Hope or Cape Colony
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Cape Colony, an important British colony at the southern point of Africa. Settlements were begun by the Dutch in 1652. The British took possession in 1795 and forced a sale to themselves at $30,000. The colony has been enlarged by successive additions, until it comprises not only the territory lying south of the Orange River, but a considerable interior tract north of that river, in all an area of 276,995 square miles. It is now larger than Texas. The former and seemingly more appropriate name of Cape colony has been changed to Cape of Good Hope Colony. The population in 1904 was returned at 2,409,804, an average of 8.7 per square mile. Three-fourths of the inhabitants are colored. Half of the white people are Dutch. The government consists of a governor and an elective parliament of two houses. English is the official language, but members may address the house in Dutch if they so prefer. Elections are by ballot. Electors must be householders, occupying a house worth $350, or be earners of a salary of not less than $250 a year. In addition, a voter must be able to write his own name. These precautions are taken to shut out the ignorant natives; but the line, as enforced, is an educational and property line, not a color line. Attendance at school is not compulsory. White children are provided with public and private schools. About one-sixth of the negro children are in school. The principal towns are Cape Town and Kimberley. The surface is rugged and elevated; large portions of the country are still in a state of nature. The forest still shelters the African elephant. The baboon still haunts the rocks. The leopard, jackal, and antelope are found in the plains. The lion and giraffe are extinct. The ostrich is now bred in captivity for the sake of its feathers. Over $9,000,000 worth were exported in 1907. Diamonds, gold, copper, valuable woods, grain, fruits, wool, sheep, feathers, and hides are the chief exports. In 1907 colonial products to the amount of $220,000,000 were exported, chiefly to London. The mean temperature at Cape Town is sixty-two degrees. Generally speaking, the colony is lacking in rainfall. Irrigation is carried on extensively. One reservoir covers nineteen square miles and holds 35,000,000,000,000 gallons of water. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, oat-hay, and wine are produced. There were in 1904 1,954,000 cattle, 420,000 horses, 12,000,000 sheep, 7,000,000 goats, 385,000 pigs, and 357,970 ostriches. The colony maintains a university of seven colleges. There are 131 public libraries, 1,800 churches, over 2,000 schools, and 100 newspapers. See Boers ; Hottentots ; Bushmen ; Ostrich ; Cape Town ; Kimberley ; Cape To Cairo Railway
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a province in the Union of South Africa, which, up to 1910, was known as Cape Colony. It is located at the southern extremity of the African continent, surrounded by the ocean on W., S., and E., and on the N. by Southwest Africa and on the N. and N. E. by Bechuanaland, the Orange Free State, Basutoland, and the province of Natal. The area is 276,000 square miles. The country is fertile in sections, but arid in others. There are several mountain ranges that divide the country into great plateaux or terraces. The most important rivers are the Orange, Olifants, Gauritz, Gamtoos, and Great Fish. The country is rich in minerals, its most 1902. He was lecturer on sociological valuable product being diamonds. More subjects on the American Board of For- of these are produced here than in any other part of the world. The famous Kimberley and DeBeers mines are located in the province. There are also large mines of copper, coal, gold, and iron, while amethysts and agates are frequently found. The climate is healthful and, except in certain sections, the heat is not great. The mean temperature for the year at the capital, Cape Town, is about 62 degrees. Grain is raised in considerable quantity as well as vegetables and a wonderful variety of fruits, such as apples, pears, plums, peaches, melons, oranges, etc., which form important articles of commerce. The country, however, is better adapted for grazing than agriculture, and sheep-raising is the most important industry. The value of the wool exported is little less than the value of the diamonds. Cattle breeding also is extensively carried on along the coast and in the northern and eastern districts. The exports in 1919 were about $45,000,000, and the imports over $75,- 000,000. Th The figures for exports es for exports do not include diamonds which, in themselves, have an annual value of $60,000,000. There are nearly 4,000 miles of railway in operation in the province. The chief towns are Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Kimberley. On May 31, 1910, the colony, under its present name, was merged into the Union of South Africa. The population is about 3,000,000, of which about 600,000 are Europeans. See SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF.
Cape of Good Hope a promontory near the southern extremity of Africa
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a promontory near the southern extremity of Africa. Cape Agulhas, 100 miles to the southeast, is the extremity of the continent. Cape of Good Hope is situated in latitude 34 degree 21' S.; longitude 18 degree 30' E. It was discovered in 1487 by the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, and doubled again by Vasco da Gama in 1497. These navigators were exploring the coast in search of a sea route from western Europe to India. Diaz named it "Cape of Storms," but King John of Portugal, who had high hopes of commercial advantage from the new route, insisted on the present name. The promontory follows a curve perhaps thirty miles in length. The very tip is known as Vasco da Gama Hill. Table Mountain , a flat-topped elevation, 3,585 feet high, is about thirty miles from the tip. The name is taken from the flat table-like top, but it is rendered still more appropriate by the mists and clouds which not infrequently spread over the surface and hang over the sides like a table cloth. A British naval station is maintained within the eastern shelter of the Cape. Cape Town nestles at the foot of Table Mountain, fronting a bay that opens to the west. See Vasco Da Gama
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a promontory near the S. extremity of Africa, at the termination of a small peninsula extending S. from Table mountain, which overlooks Cape Town. This peninsula forms the W. side of False Bay, and on its inner coast is Simon's Bay and Simon's Town, where there is a safe anchorage and a British naval station. Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered the Cape in 1487, called it Cape of Storms; but John II. of Portugal changed this this to its present designation. It was first doubled by Vasco da Gama in 1497. Here is one of the principal astronomical institutions of the world. About the middle of the 16th century the French astronomer, Lacaille, made an exceedingly valuable series of observations at the Cape. Ever since the English have had a colony there they have kept up astronomical work, the Cape having been the scene of the labors of several celebrated English astronomers, among them Sir John Herschel.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 franchise, with its property test and requirement that a voter "be able to write his own name," was progressively narrowed rather than widened: Black voters were removed from the common roll in 1936 and Coloured voters in the 1950s, and universal suffrage arrived only with the election of April 1994. Collier's 1921 "province in the Union of South Africa" survived until that same year, when the new constitution abolished Cape Province and divided it into the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape. The ostrich-feather trade that earned over $9,000,000 in 1907 collapsed with the fashion change and the outbreak of war in 1914 and never recovered, while Kimberley's diamonds long ago ceased to be the world's leading source. The cape itself is unchanged in geography — Cape Agulhas is still the true southern tip — and now sits inside Table Mountain National Park; Dias is generally dated to 1488 rather than Aiton's 1487.
Written for this edition, 2026.