Fete Chnmjjetre at Constcmtia. 255 



No stranger can well leave Cape Town without having 

 visited Constantia, the chief seat of the wine cultivation of 

 the country. Accordingly we had a day of exceedingly plea- 

 sant relaxation while visiting Higrh Constantia. Mr. James 

 Mosenthal, the very hospitable Austrian Consul, had carefully 

 selected the most beautiful spot in the immediate vicinity of 

 Cape Town, the charming residence of his friend Mynheer 

 Van Reenen, at which to get up a splendid fete champetre 

 on an extensive scale, in honour of the visit of this 

 the first man-of-war that had borne the flag of our country 

 into these remote seas. The entire staff of our frigate 

 was invited, and over a hundred guests, comprising the flower 

 of the fair sex of Cape Town, took part in the festivities. 

 Immense four-horse coaches conveyed the company in the fore- 

 noon to the hill of Constantia. The company wandered at 

 leisure under the gigantic oak trees, or in the beautifully laid- 

 out garden of this extensive domain, and after a sumptuous 

 dejeuner, the majority set to dancing. A small orchestra 

 of stringed instruments played alternately with the ship's band 

 in the garden, and in the tastefully decorated apartment. 

 Those who did not care to dance, or whom a burning afternoon 



Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries during Fomr Years' Wanderings in the 

 WUds of Western Afi-ica," London, 1856 ; Dr. Livingstone's " INIissionary Travels 

 and Researches in South AMca," London, 1857. The agent of the London Mis- 

 sionary Society at tlie Cape of Good Hope, the estimable, laighly respected Dr. Thomp- 

 son, gave us a small piece of a root called fly-root, which is considered to grow from 

 a parasite, and a decoction of which is reckoned by the aborigines an antidote to the 

 bite of the tsetse-fly. Unfortunately the requisite material was not in sufficient 

 quantity to admit of determining the plant itself, or of instituting fiu'ther researches 

 with it. 



