Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth, a seaport of the British colony of the Cape of Good Hope, stands on the western shore of Algoa Bay, by rail 85 miles SW. of Graham's Town and 350 S. of Kimberley. It is the principal seaport of the east part of Cape Colony, and also of the Orange River Free State. Its public buildings, solid and substantial edifices, are the town-house, the provincial hospital, churches, the Grey Institute, a college, a library (20,000 volumes), a museum, &c. There are two parks and several tree-planted squares. The town was founded in 1820, and the population, which was not much above 4000 in 1855, had grown to 13,049 in 1875, and to 23,266 in 1891. Two piers were constructed to protect the harbour in 1881; and an aqueduct, 28 miles long, has brought good water to the town since 1878. The value of the imports has increased from £376,638 in 1855 to an average of about £3,000,000; that of the exports (mainly wool, with ostrich-feathers, Angora goats' hair, and diamonds) from £584,447 in 1855 to an average of some £2,000,000.