IN SOUTH AFRICA. 35 
exception) neat and well-built, and of the most cheerful ap- 
pearance, are placed at some distance apart from one 
another, with well-stocked gardens, orchards, and green fields 
intervening. There is scarcely a sign of poverty to be dis- 
cerned in the whole place. It enjoys also the advantage 
(inestimable in this country) of a copious and never-failing 
supply of good water. The surrounding country, though not 
beautiful, is certainly pleasing. The Zwartkops, which flows 
near the town, is a beautiful little river, slow, still, and clear, 
winding gracefully through the valley, and fringed with 
thickets of tail reeds, fern, Acacia (Note H), and a pretty 
kind of willow. High and broken banks of red clay rise im- 
mediately behind these thickets, on the S. side, and set off 
their delicate verdure to advantage. The surface of the river 
is most beautifully decorated with a profusion of the sky- 
blue water-lily,* one of the loveliest plants of Southern 
Africa. On each side of the valley are steep but rounded 
clay hills, covered with the succulent and thorny bushes 
which characterize this part of the country. 
The inn at Uitenhage is by far the best I met with in the 
colony. 
It was proposed by the late Governor of the Cape, Sir 
Benjamin D’Urban, to remove the seat of government to this 
place from Cape Town, a measure which would certainly be 
attended with many advantages, now that the Eastern 
province is become the most important part of the colony, | 
and that which most requires the constant and vigilant 
superintendence of the authorities. But the dissatisfaction 
Which this scheme created at Cape Town, probably caused it 
to be laid aside. At any rate, however, Uitenhage seems 
to have a better claim to be the metropolis of the Eastern 
province than Graham's Town, which is too far from the 
port, and too much within the reach of the Caffers in case of 
a war. 
April 12.—The 12th was another immi day. We bu 
* Nymphea scutifolia DeC. N. cerulea of the Bot, Mag. - 
-p 2 
