88 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



that were inflicted in Cape Town, by order of 

 the police. 



It is to be obferved, that this officer, having the 

 charge of the public money, has a right of in- 

 spection of all the perfons employed by the 

 Company : his functions are bendes independent. 

 It is monfirous to fee fuch a title conferred on 

 the head of the police, who may with im- 

 punity commit extortions, for which his place 

 gives him all opportunities ; for he fixes the 

 punifhments, and receives their produce : thus 

 a pecuniary penalty only is inflicted on thofc 

 who can pay, and a beating on thofe who cannot. 



I employed the 25th in vifiting Table Moun- 

 tain, fo called from the horizontal plane which 

 its fummit prefents when feen from a dis- 

 tance. 



I feveral times croflfed a brook that runs from 

 this mountain. The large fmooth flones which 

 are to be met with on its banks, prove that the 

 waters rum down there in torrents in the rainy 

 fcafon. 



I had reached the middle of the moun- 

 tain, when I found the thefium JlriRwn. When 

 I ban afcended a little farther I met with the 

 fine fpecies of umbellu, known to botanifts 

 tinder the name of hennas depauperata ; then 

 rame the pretty heath called acroftichum fefli- 

 nutim, the bubon galbanum , the rejllo /implex, &c. 



I had 



