In 1829 the eastern boundaries of the colony were the Keiskama River (although the space between the Keiskama and the Fish river was practically a no-man's land) the Zwart Kei and Stormberg Spruit. The northern boundaries were defined by the Orange river as far as 24 deg 10' and then by a line running SW to Pramberg and thence through the junction of the Zak and Riet Rivers to Buffels River and the sea. It was not long before the emigrant boers were to lay the foundations of the Orange Free State, Natal and the Transvaal, but as yet these regions were almost completely terra incognita.

The colony was in 1829 divided up into 10 districts - the Cape, Stellenbosch, Swellendam, George, Uitenhage, Albany, Worcester, Beaufort, Graaff Reinet and Somerset.

1. The Cape district ran up to St Helena Bay and included Piquetberg and part of Malmesbury;
2. Stellenbsoch included Paarl and part of Malmesbury
3. Swellendam included Caledon, Bredasdorp, Riversdale, Ladismith, as well as the present Swellendam
4. George included Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Uniondale, part of Willowmore and Humansdorp, as well as George
5. Uitenhage included, besides Uitenhage, part of Jansenville, most of Humansdorp, Port Elizabeth and Alexandria
6. Albany included Bathurst
7. Worcester was a huge ill-defined district including part of Namaqualand, Van Rynsdorp, part of Calvinia, Sutherland, Clanwilliam, Ceres, Tulbagh, Laingsburg, part of Fraserburg, Montagu and Robertson, besides the present Worcester
8. Beaufort included Beaufort West, Prince Albert and parts of Fraserburg, Victoria West and Willowmore
9. Graaff Reinet included Aberdeen and Graaff reinet and parts of Willowmore, Murraysburg, Richmond and Jansenville
10. Somerset included Somerset East, Bedford, Cradock, Steynsburg, Tarkastad, and parts of Middelburg, Jansenville and Queenstown.

Population in Cape of Good Hope Almanack 1830: 119 756, not including garrison: 55 355 whites, 31 958 'free' blacks, 32 243 slaves.

Extracted from A History of the South African College by W. Richmond, 1918
supplied by Sharon Marshall