of the Cape of Good Hope. ! S5 



^miiig. LTndcr the diaxrion of the churcli is a librarv, 

 which was left by an individual for the use of the public, 

 but the public seldom troui)le it. In this collcetion are sonic 

 excellent books, particularly rare and valuable editions of 

 the daisies, books of travels and general historv, acts of 

 learned s'ocieties, dictionaries, and jhurch b.istory. Books 

 arc rarely found iu Cape To >vn to constitute any part of the 

 furniture of a house. So little value do ihav set on educa- 

 tion, that neither governnient nor the church, nor their 

 combined efforts, by persuasion or extortion, could raise a 

 sum sutiicient to establish a pi'opcr public school in the co- 

 lony; and few of the natives arc iu circumstances to enable 

 them to send their children for education to Europe. But 

 those few who have had this advantage generally, on their 

 return, relapse into the common habus ol" the colonists. I 

 repeat, that if the nicasuj-e of general prosperity was to be 

 estimated according to the ease of procuring abundance of 

 food, the people of the Cape may be considered as the most 

 pros[XTOus on earth ; for there is not a beggar in the u hole 

 colony, and no example of any person suffering for want of 

 the conmson necessaries of life. 



2. The wine-growers, or as they are usually called at the 

 Cape the wine-boors, are a class of people who, to the bles- 

 sings of plenty, add a sort of comfort which is unknown tr> 

 the rest of the peasantry. They have not only the best 

 iio'uses and the most valuable estates, but, in general, thcnr 

 domestic economy is managed in a more comfortable man- 

 ner than is usually found among the country farmers. Most 

 of them are descendants of the French families who first 

 introduced the vine. Their estates are mostly freehold, in 

 extent about one hundred and twenty English acres, and 

 the greater part is employed in vine^-ards and garden - 

 grounds. Their corn they usually purchase for money or in 

 exchange for wine. Their sheep also, for family use', they 

 must purchase, though many of them hold loan farms on 

 the other side of the mountains. The produce of their 

 farms, however, is sufik-ient for keeping as many milch 

 cows as are necessary for the family, and they have abun- 

 dance of poultry. The season for bringing their wine to 

 market is from September to the new viiuag-e in March, but 

 generally in the four concluding mouths of the year; after 

 which their draught oxen are sent away cither to their own 

 farms or others in the country till they are again wanted. 

 The deep sandy roads oyer the Cape isthmus require fourteen 

 or sixteen oxen to draw two leggcrs of v.inc;, whose vei"-ht 

 is not '21- I'ous, 



