1 69 1.] TABLE MOUNTAIN. 31 



There are two other Mountains near the Devil's, one call'd 

 the Lyon's Mountain; for that when we see it from the Bay, 

 some Men fansie it looks like a Lyon Couchant. On the top 

 of it there's always a Guard, and ten pieces of C«,non : And 

 when any Ships are discover'd at Sea, notice of it is giv'n to 

 the Port. 



The other Mountain is call'd the TaUe Mountain, and with 

 good reason : for its Summit being cut off Horizontally, it 

 naturally enough represents the figure of a Table. There's 

 a little Lake or Pond at the top of it, which supplies part of 

 the cultivated Lands in the bottom with Water : We had 

 several Charts, and took several views of the Bay, but this^ 

 seem'd to us to be the best. 



We found four Ships there, two Dutch (the Black Lion and 

 the Mountain of China), one English, and one Danish. Our 

 Guns being still in the Hold, we cou'd not Salute them at 

 first according to Custom. 'Twas the next day before they 

 were ready, and when fir'd, it had been better we had let it 

 alone, unless we cou'd have come off more luckily ; though, 

 as it happened, 'twas well it was no worse ; for one of our 

 Guns which was loaden with Ball ever since we came from 

 the Tcxel, and had not been discharg'd, was forgotten to be 

 loaden, and being fir'd struck the Wall of the Fort, after 



attends it, in that a dense, continuous mantle of cloud rests upon the 

 summits, and pouring down the precipitous sides like a cataract, dissolves 

 in vapour at about 1,000 feet. This majestic white cap is called by the 

 inhabitants " the table-cloth", and by the French La perruque (cf. 

 Findlay., op. cit., p. 211). 



1 Vide Voyage de Sia)7i, des Peres Jesuites., envoyez par le Roy aux hides 

 ^- a la Chine. Avec leurs Observations Astronomiques, et leurs Reniarques 

 de Physique, de Geogi-aphie, d'llydrographie §' d'Histoire. A Pai-is, 

 u.T>c.i,xxx\l., par Guy Tachard de la Compaytiie de Jesus. Plate of La 

 Baye da Cap de Bonne Esperance, p. 62, qto. edition; p. 53, r2mo 

 edition, 1687. C. Vermeulen fecit. The only difference betAveen Tachard's 

 charts and that in Leguat's volume is the difference of size, with the in- 

 sertion of four ships and the omission of four large fish, meant perhaps 

 for whales, in the Jesuit's drawin.^. 



