Port Sites and Perception: The Development of the Southern and Eastern Capecoast in the Nineteenth Century

This paper examines the perception of the coast of the newly settled part of the Cape of Good Hope in the nineteenth century, and focuses on the selection of port sites. The approach of Prince (1971 Pinder, D. A. and Witherick, M. E. 1975. “A modification of nearest–neighbour analysis for use in linear situations”. In Geography Vol. 60, 16–23. [Google Scholar]) to the historical geography of perceived landscapes is followed, and the real and imagined worlds of the past are reconstructed. A conceptual schema is outlined which emphasizes the roles of the active observer, structuring a complex perceptual field, and of socio-cultural 'sets' and attitudes, which act as filters. A review of the perception of port possibilities by contemporaries is foJlowed by a consideration of the role of random, environmental, perceptual and spatial factors in the distribution of port sites. The conclusion is that cognitive behaviouralism and random factors are important in explaining the choice of landing places, but that physical and spatial a'ttributes were the major factors in the emergence of some of these sites as commercial ports.