30 CAFFRE WAR. 



there was little specie left in Cape Town. All the 

 troops had been sent to the frontier ; a party of 

 blue jackets from the flag-ship at one time per- 

 formed g*arrison duty at Cape Town ; the emerg-ency 

 was so gTeat that even some detachments of troops 

 on their way back to England after long- service in 

 India^ having* put in at the Cape for refreshments^ 

 were detained and sent to Alg'oa Ba}". We were 

 all heartily tired of Simon's Bay long* before leaving- 

 it ; not the less so from having- this all engrossing- 

 ^^ Caffre war '' dinned into our ears from morning- 

 to nig-ht as an excuse for high prices^ and some- 

 times for various extortions^ which I had before sup- 

 posed to be peculiar to new colonies. 



On April 10th we left Simon's Bay for Mauritius. 

 Our passag-e of twenty-four days presented little 

 remarkable. We experienced every g-radation 

 between a calm and a heavy N.E. gale, during- 

 the continuance of one of the latter^ we passed 

 near the '' Slot Van Capel '' bank of the old charts^ 

 the existence of which it was of importance to 

 verify;* but the heavy confused sea^ such as one 

 would expect to find on a bank during- a gale^ 

 rendered it dangerous to heave-to to try for 

 soundings. 



During- this passag-e some important observations 

 were made by Capt. Stanley and Lieut. Dayman to 



* I have since learned that H.M.S. Moeander, Capt. the 

 Hon. H. Keppel, struck soundings on^this bank, but have not 

 been able to procure the particulars. 



