THE CAPE. 19 



common occurrence, not only at Constantia, but at and near 

 all the celebrated vineyards of Europe, although, perhaps, 

 the extraordinary difference of quality is nowhere so sen- 

 sibly felt as in this locality, where there exists only the space 

 of a few feet between a grape producing perhaps the richest, 

 most racy, and delicate wine in the world, a,nd (to all appear* 

 ances) a similar vine from which is manufactured the coarsest 

 and most earthy of vinous beverages. 



Cape Town, I remember, was rather a dull residence ; and 

 long before the month of our detention had expired, we had 

 exhausted nearly all its resources. We regretted the dollars 

 we had spent, and longed to be again ploughing the stormy 

 deep on our way to our destination. These wishes were soon 

 realized. The old Orient, repainted, retarred, and revictualled, 

 seemed fully capable of performing the remaining portion of 

 the voyage ; and aided by a stiff south-wester, and our course 

 directed towards the spicy regions of Ceylon, we commenced 

 our voyage through the Indian Ocean under tolerably 

 auspicious circumstances. It is superfluous to relate all the 

 different wiles that were employed by a party of mischievous 

 boys to entrap hungry albatrosses or innocent Cape pigeons, 

 or the cruel experiments tried upon the vitality of sharks 

 after they were captured; circumstances concomitant on all 

 voyages to India before and since. Two little anecdotes, 

 however, the one tragic, and the other comic, remain vividly 

 impressed on my mind, after the lapse of so many years. 



I remember one cold raw night, shortly after leaving the 

 Cape, we were sailing under reefed top-sails, with half a gale 

 of wind on our quarter, and in that tremendous long and 

 swelling sea, peculiar to those latitudes in stormy weather, 

 a very fine young man, named Hard man, an artillery 

 cadet, was pacing up and down the poop in conversation with 

 me, wrapped up in a thick boat-cloak. The life ropes, that 

 served as a railing around the poop, were very low; and some 



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