Ixxii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



such a comparison would lead to a conclusion, that the Cape of 

 Good Hope is not only inferior to St. Helena as a rendezvous, 

 but is of all places the most unsafe, and the most improper for 

 the resort of valuable fleets. 



In order, however, that the reader may form his own judgment 

 on this question, I shall here present him with an account of 

 the climate of the Cape, as given in a recent publication.* 



" For nearly half the year the south-east wind prevails, and at 

 thnes rages with the most desperate violence. The inhabitants 

 of Cape Town are apprised of its approach, by observing at first 

 a small white cloud, or mist, rising between the mountains called 

 the Devil's head and the Table mountain ; soon after the Table 

 mountain itself becomes enveloped in thick cloud or mist, and 

 the stoim almost instantly begins, and roars in the most terrific 

 manner, without ceasing, many days together. At its height 

 nothing can scarcely stand against it. Waggons drawn by 

 twelve or fourteen oxen are frequently blown out of the road." 



" Those dreadful storms continue, for different periods, from 

 three or four, to nine or ten days ; and between the periods the 

 heat is very intense. The spring opens about the end of August, 

 and the two hottest days I ever remember, were the Christmas 

 days of the years 1811 and 1812 ; on the former of which, by a 

 thermometer in Cape Town, the degree of heat was, at half-past 

 nine in the morning, at 120 degrees, and was thought to be 

 still more in the advance of the day." 



" During the prevalence of those hurricanes, not only the 

 sensations of invalids are acute to an extreme, but even the 

 robust and the healthy feel its dreadful effects. The frequent and 

 almost momentary transitions from heat to cold are extremely 

 unpleasant and dangerous to an English or European constitu- 

 * The Importance of the Cape of Good Hope, published in 1814, by R. B. Fisher, Esq. 



