PORT ELIZABETH, a seaport town of Cape Colony, at the head of an electoral division of the south-eastern province, lies in 33° 55' S. lat. on Algoa Bay, about 7 miles south of the mouth of the Zwartkop river. Built along the base and up the rocky slopes of the hills that rise for a height of 200 feet above the bay, it has rather a bare appearance as seen from the water, but on landing the stranger finds himself in the midst of a prosperous European town with substantial buildings and fine streets. A small and somewhat muddy stream, Baker’s River, divides it into two parts, that to the east being mainly occupied by Malay fishermen. The whole length of the place is about 2 miles, and its breadth varies from a quarter to 1 mile. The main street runs up from the harbour, with its large wool and other warehouses, to the market-place, which is adorned with a handsome granite obelisk. Port Elizabeth owes its prosperity to the fact that it has become the great emporium for the whole interior of the country to the south of the Zambesi, being the terminus of the Eastern and Midland Railways which run inland to Graaff Reinet, Cradock (182 miles, since 1880), and Grahamstown (since 1879). The two great hindrances to development have been want of drinking-water and want of protection and convenient landing-places in the harbour. The former has been fully met by an aqueduct (28 miles) from Van Staanden’s River (1878; see J. G. Gamble’s Report to Inst. Civ. Eng., 1883), and the harbour was improved in 1881 by extending the old landing-pier to a total length of 900 feet and constructing a similar pier 800 feet long. The value of the imports has increased from £376,638 in 1855 to £4,001,658 in 1881 and £2,364,891 in 1883; that of the exports from £584,447 in 1855 to ...