HOTTENTOT S — C A F F E E S — F I N G E S . 101 



from the acorn. The vineyard visited was of limited extent and the culture of a character that 

 somewhat disappointed the expectations of the visitors. 



The proprietor accounted for the inferior condition of his vineyard on the score of being 

 unable to provide himself with the necessary supply of laborers, and remarked that he should 

 be obliged to abandon the cultivation of the grape altogether had he not supplied himself with 

 an American cultivator, which he had recently imported from the United States, and which 

 simple plough, as he stated, drawn by a single horse, actually accomjdished the labor of fifty 

 men, according to the usual mode of working and cultivating the vine with a hoe. The grape 

 is cultivated at Constantia, as in Sicily, by trimming the vine close to the ground, and not 

 permitting it to grow higher than a gooseberry bush. The richness of the wine is dependent 

 upon the condition of the grape when it goes to the press. Although the grape begins to ripen 

 in the early part of February, it is not gathered until the middle of March, when the fruit has 

 assumed almost the appearance of the dried raisin, in which condition it is pressed. The prices 

 of these Constantia wines vary from two to six dollars a gallon, according to their qualitv. 



The census of 1848 gives 200,546 as the jjopulation of Cape Colony. Of these 76,827 whites 

 and 101,176 colored inhabitants make up the whole number of the inhabitants of the various 

 parts of the colony, with the exception of Cape Town, which contains a poj)ulation of 22,543. 

 There are but few of the aboriginal Hottentots of pure race to be found, as their blood has been 

 intermingled with that of the Dutch, the Negro, or the Malay. The first European discoverer 

 of the southern promontory of Africa found it tolerably well peopled, and the natives, in some 

 respects, in better condition than many of the more northern tribes. They were in possession 

 of herds of cattle and sheep, and led a pastoral life. They were a comparatively happy people, 

 divided into tribes under a patriarchal government, and wandered about with their flocks and 

 herds, taking with them their moveable huts, constructed of boughs and poles, which were 

 conveyed from pasture to pasture on the backs of oxen. Their tribes, however, have been 

 mostly exterminated by the cruelty of the Europeans, although a wretched remnant have 

 survived and live as miserable outcasts in the fastnesses of the desert and the forest, and are 

 known as Bushmen. They are still savage in character, and disgusting in their persons and 

 habits, having received but little benefit from the civilization of their white conquerors, who 

 have always pursued them with a cruel wantonness, "though we, as Americans," remarks 

 Commodore Perry, " have no right to rail at other nations for the wrong they have inflicted 

 upon the aborigines of countries seized upon by them, for though hardly equal to the English 

 in the disgusting hypocrisy with which they excuse their acts, we are not far behind them in 

 the frauds and cruelties committed upon our native tribes." 



The warlike CafFres still retain their characteristic wildness, and pursue their predatory life. 

 They are in many respects inferior to the ordinary African, and have some of the p)eculiarities 

 of the Egyptian races. They are of greater height and strength than the inferior negro ; their 

 color is browner, and though their hair is black and woolly they have fuller beards. Their 

 noses are more prominent, but they have the thick negro lip, and with the prominent cheek bone 

 of the Hottentots they possess the high European forehead. The Fingoes, though traced in 

 origin to some scattered tribes of the Caffres, differ from them in some degree, and althouoh 

 spirited and brave in battle, are of a less savage nature, and have the character of being a 

 comparatively good natured people. The Fingoes are pastoral like the CafFres, but more given 



