CHAPTEE XIX 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ENGLAND 



Account of the Cape of Good Hope Its settlement by the Dutch Cape 

 Town Dutch customs Government Climate General healthiness 

 Animals Wines Cost of living Botanical garden Menagerie Settle- 

 ments in the interior Barrenness of the country Hottentots : their 

 appearance, language, dancing, customs, etc. Money Leave Table 

 Bay Robben Island St. Helena Volcanic rocks Cultivation 

 Provisions Introduced plants Natural productions Ebony Specula- 

 tions as to how plants and animals originally reached so remote an 

 island Leave St. Helena Ascension Island Ascension to England 

 Land at Deal. 



NOTWITHSTANDING that hydrographers limit the Cape of 

 Good Hope to a single point of land on the S.W. end of 

 Africa, which is not the southernmost part of that immense 

 continent, I shall under this name speak of the southern 

 parts of Africa in general, as far as latitude 30 at least. 

 The country was originally inhabited by the Hottentots 

 alone, but is now settled by the Dutch, and from the 

 convenience of its situation as a place of refreshment for 

 ships sailing to and from India, is perhaps visited by 

 Europeans oftener than any other distant part of the globe. 



The Dutch, if their accounts can be credited, have 

 also people much farther inland. They have upon the 

 whole of this vast tract, however, only one town, which 

 is generally known by the name of Cape Town: it is 

 situated on the Atlantic side about twenty miles to the 

 north of the real Cape, on the banks of a bay sheltered 

 from the S.E. wind by a large mountain level at the 

 top, from whence both itself and the bay have got the 



