®hc .farmer's illontfjli} faisitor. 



39 



n visit to this country : lie has brought along 

 wiih liini, a lusus natiirai of the human species, 

 an individual of the African rage, of the tribe 

 called Bosejesman or Bushman, which Mr. C. 

 represents as almost as great a euriosiiy at the 

 Cape as in this country. This tribe exists some 

 thousand miles distant from Cape Town, to the 

 north-east, towards the equatorial line: they live 

 without either houses or clothing.io cover them. 

 The tallest of them, when full grown, do not ex- 

 ceed four feet and two inches : Henry, (or Onto, 

 his forest name,) has lived as a pet in the family 

 Of Mr. Chase for five years, in which time he has 

 h en taught lo speak English words and express 

 short sentences. The most sensible answer he 

 made while in our hearing, was the answer to a 

 question put by the venerable Madam Hamilton 

 at the President's — whether he liked this country : 

 shivering, he said, " too cold." lie is three feet 

 six inches tall, having grown only an inch ortwo 

 in five years. Mr. Chase supposes him to be 

 seventeen years old: he has the playful simplici- 

 ty of a child of six or seven years. His cotn- 

 pli xion is swarthy, one remove beyond that of 

 the Italian. The features of his face seem to be 

 the reversesof Ours : it is like the mould in which 

 vie might suppose an English face to be cast, the 

 nose being a hallow instead of a prominent 

 ridge. The head is of a most singular conform- 

 ation, contracted in width in the forehead, and 

 the skull widened out much on each side of the 

 crown over to the ears. This specimen of hu- 

 manity, under the training of Mr. Chase, has not 

 the intelligence to carry out an order: he begins 

 as directed, but soon leaves off Directed to 

 watch two cows feeding upon the commons of 

 Cape Town, with no conscious or vicious diso- 

 bedience, the uoy soon leaves them to be arrested 

 by the pound-keepers. Many give in to the 

 opinion that the Bushman tribe is cf the brute 

 species, between the man and the ape. We in- 

 cline to the belief that the Bushman is to be ra- 

 ted on the side of the "man immortal, whose 

 soul shall never die": if much inferior lo our 

 own race, the divine impress, not to he found 

 upon the monkey or ape — not at all disagreeable, 

 when it becomes familiar — is upon the face of 

 the Bushman. 



The Bushman, while in the drawing-room of 

 the President's mansion, was much and steadily 

 engaged in gazing around, and touching the faces 

 upon the white marble mantle, and feeling the 

 damask curtains and other matters of attraction, 

 not peculiar to ordinary rooms. He had been 

 fold in ue ! i about the character of Washington, as 

 the first great and good man of the country: 

 when pointed to the full length portrait, by 

 Stewart, which adorns this room, he gazed some- 

 time with animation and apparent wonder. To 

 fhe lady Hamilton, who, coming in to visit Mrs. 

 Folk with her son and daughter, sought after 

 him to take bis hand, he turned away, not as of 

 fear or disgust, hut as if desirous to avoid 

 without offending. His singular shaped head is 

 the more curious from having the skin of the 

 scalp under the hair, for the most part, purely 

 white. It is said, his hair, viewed through a mi- 

 croscope, is flat as a ribbon : it i.; elastic as india 

 rubber, but cannot bo said to be curly like the 

 wool of the pure negro: it is entirely black. 



Turning to other subjects in relation to the 

 Consulate at Cape Town of Africa, Mr. Chase 

 describes the place as a city of twenty-five thou- 

 sand inhabitants. In the arrangement of the 

 European crowned heads, this ancient Dutch 

 colony was turned over to the English about 



thirty years ago: the British army officers of the 

 Bast Indies, as half-way between Europe and 

 the immense countries dependent on Britain in 

 the East, make the Cape their pleasant residence 

 while on furlough after long duty. The society 

 at the Cape has the polish of London and other 

 British cities : the Governor and bis court are of 

 the home nobility — the officers of the native 

 troops of the East, are generally the younger 

 sons of peers and lords at home. Mr. Chase 

 mentions one English public library at Cape 

 Town, numbering thirty thousand volumes. 



In the rear of the Cape the country is moun- 

 tainous: the Cape itself, seems to have been 

 formerly an island, from which the waters have 

 receeded, narrowing down as the main hind is 

 approached, in a plain of lower elevation be- 

 tween Table bay on one side and False bay on 

 the other. Over this plain the road communi- 

 cates off the island of higher elevation and in- 

 creased width, being some ten or twenty miles 

 broad, and more than thirty miles in length. 

 The main laid or continent itself, is elevated 

 and mountainous, as well on the Atlantic side as 

 along down the coast north-east many miles, to 

 the island of Mozambique and the African moun- 

 tains of the main land, bearing the same name. 

 Mr. Chase, in virtue of his office of Consul, 

 stands as the representative of the United States 

 not only at the port of the Cape, but at several 

 harbors further east, on the African coast of the 

 Indian ocean, to which our trading ships some- 

 times find access. Stretching down still further 

 south, between Africa and Asia, to the Arabian 

 sea, there has been a small coasting trade for 

 many years of a few American ships, principally 

 from the port of Salem, in Massachusetts. As 

 the western coast of Africa has had its gold dust 

 and ivory, so the eastern has been fumed for its 

 coffee and its spices, which are brought off by 

 the natives, with whom little interior intercourse 

 can he had. Ever since the revolutionary war, 

 Yankee ships have visited and explored every 

 known island and continent of the distant seas. 

 Not more enterprising under government aid, 

 have been the British marine, than the American 

 merchant sailors carrying on and keeping up trade 

 without government patronage in distant coun- 

 tries and seas. The difference has been marked 

 with the British owning every uncivilized island 

 and country, where they have first touched and 

 traded : the Americans have claimed nothing of 

 ownership or sovereignty, even where they have 

 made the first discovery. The policy of free and 

 open trade to all parts of the world, now con- 

 ceded by the most enlightened British statesmen 

 themselves to be for the advantage of their gov- 

 ernment, will he of eminent advantage to Amer- 

 ican trade: as it progresses, this extension of 

 trade will open a market to any desirable e:-:tent, 

 of manufactures, as well as of agricultural pro- 

 ductions, not often leaving such a surplus as in 

 time of money-scarcity sacrifices in a few months, 

 the gains of the hard labor of years. 



The American trade with tin- Cape of Cood 

 Hope has mainly, if not altogether grown up 

 viiice Air. Chase settled down there in the con- 

 sulate : the African productions imported to 

 America are not of great value, but are mode- 

 rately increasing: goat skins, wool, and some 

 wine come to America from that country. Mr. 

 Chase, communicating through the British au- 

 thorities at the Capo, after several years of perse- 

 verance, was uble to procure, an order in council 

 of the home government, admitting the introduc- 

 tion at. the Cape of American beef and per!;, and 



train oil. This regulation enables the American 

 South sea whalers to renew at the Cape their 

 supplies of provisions from the United States, 

 and at the same time land and dispose of their 

 cargoes of oil, saving in some instances, a voy- 

 age of five months out and home, refitting for a 

 protracted voyage. 



The land cultivation beyond the peninsula 

 which forms the Cape Town, is mostly in a rude 

 state. Mr. C. represents the country as moun- 

 tainous and naked of wood : the rocks are in 

 some instances, of the primitive granite, partici- 

 pating less than many of the islands in evidences 

 of recent volcanic origin. The vallies are fer- 

 tile : there are plantations here for the produc- 

 tion of the grape. Slavery existed here in form 

 prior to the act of British emancipation by the 

 Parliament: between one and two millions of 

 pounds sterling were advanced to the colon;, for 

 its ownership in slaves. These slaves were not 

 Africans, but Malays, from the Asiatic countries 

 eastward of the Cape: they were of the swarthy, 

 but not black eomplexiou. Employed upon the 

 plantations, their work was badly done. The 

 grape vines run not upon trellises or other sup- 

 ports, falling over when risen a little out of the 

 ground, leaving the fruit to be dirtied: the wine 

 was of very ordinary quality, having a ground 

 taste. Recently, in some instances, the growth 

 has been improved by a more careful attention. 

 Mr. C. 3ays they have a wine made there called 

 Cape Madeira, equal to the best of that celebra- 

 ted wine of the island : there are three planta- 

 tions only which produce the ConstantiH wine, 

 or ladies' cordial : this is made from grapes 

 ripened half way to become raisins — it is sold 

 upon the plantations for five dollars the gallon. 



Until within a few years, the cultivation of land 

 in this part of South Africa was generally by 

 hand. They had a plough or machine for break- 

 ing up ground, some fifteen or twenty feet long, 

 requiring a dozen or more yokes of their cattle 

 to draw it. In a consignment of articles to his 

 house from Boston, came half a dozen of the 

 Ruggles ploughs. Mr. C. kept them' on hand 

 many months, as being in no demand, or of any- 

 possible use, until trading with an up-country 

 planter, he asked him to take the smallest plough 

 of the lot, and showed' him how with a single 

 mule or horse, it might be used between the 

 rows of grapes instead of the baud-digging that 

 had been used. The trial was made with the 

 understanding that nothing would he asked for 

 the plough if it did not succeed. It succeeded 

 so completely, that the man returned and paid 

 the price for it, and bought up for his own use 

 and that of bis neighbors, the remaining five: he 

 said he had better pay. the price of five hundred 

 dollars for such a plough than not have one. Mr. 

 C, by the first ship afterwards, ordered out a 

 hundred ploughs, all of which were bespoken 

 before they arrived. Since then the market had 

 extended to the, sale of thousands at the Cape- 

 This curious incident is among the facts going to 

 prove the decided superiority of that most im- 

 portant farmer's implement, the New England 

 American plough. This is among those wooden 

 wares of the Yankees which are finding their 

 way, as cheapest and best for use, into the distant 

 corners of the earth. 



Mr. Burke, the Commissioner of Patents, esti- 

 mates the corn crop in the United States, for the 

 last year, at 540,000,000 bushels— equal, at fifty 

 cents per bushel, to 270,000,000 dollars— or about 

 four times the value of fhe whole production of 

 cotton. 



