CAPE TOWN 149 



is the saving clause of Cape Town. This building contains 

 a fine reading room with every good paper in proper order 

 and at hand ; one wing, prettily planted round with rose 

 briars and climbing convolvuluses, contains a Library of 

 30,000 volumes, all in most excellent order, with the tables 

 covered with magazines. . . . 



I found the streets all narrow, ill-pav^d, hot and dusty, the 

 houses generally mean and irregular, some of the shops good 

 but little shade anywhere : most of the houses have a long 

 narrow terrace just before the door, with a seat for smoking 

 at each end and an ugly fir tree or stunted acacia planted 

 over each settee. Now these terraces cannot be walked 

 over, and as they take up all the room where the pavement 

 should be, there is walking straight on, but in the middle 

 of the street ; and then the poor advantage of the shady 

 side is lost, without you hug the wall and double every 

 terrace, crossing and recrossing the zigzag gutter, most 

 ingeniously contrived to go the shortest distance by the 

 longest way. The Natives are of mixed breed. Hottentots 

 are scarcely seen anywhere, Malays are very common, 

 both men and women, generally with a red Bandana hand- 

 kerchief round the head ; they have a separate meeting 

 house and burying place. Next are the Dutch breed, often 

 round built, especially the ladies, and inclined to be swarthy. 

 They roll handsomely along the streets, are plump and 

 often well looking, sometimes very handsome, —the men 

 are as often thin and smoke many cigars. All Dutch born 

 in the colony are called Africandoes as the colonial 

 Australians are called Currency and the St. Helenas Yam 

 stocks. Except the shopkeepers the English are not much 

 seen ; they compose the upper classes, generally Hve out 

 of town, and drive in to shop, etc. The Governor, though 

 viceroy of the Colony, keeps a very poor table and only 

 gives one ball a year ; the society is quite divided between 

 the Dutch and English ; they do not mingle much, though 

 I suspect much of the former class to be far superior to 

 the latter. Amongst the strangers and occasional visitors 

 none are so conspicuous as the Indians [i.e. officers of the 

 Indian army] ; they saunter about slowly with white jackets, 

 straw hats, and whips in their hands, though ten to one they 

 belong to foot regiments ; they may be descried at once by 



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