CHAP. I. CTTILDEEN'S FEAST AT CAPE TOWN. 13 



carrying flags, on which were inscribed the name of their 

 school, with some appropriate motto or device. One flag, a 

 very striking one to me, exhibited two hands — a black and a 

 white one — clasped together. \Mien the children had walked 

 past the assembled authorities, they united in singing the 

 National Anthem, after which the Lieutenant-Grovernor re- 

 tired, and the children were conducted to their respective 

 tents pitched in different parts of the ground. There they 

 were regaled with an abundant supply of suitable refresh- 

 ments, liberally furnished at the expense of the municipality, 

 a pleasing evidence of the estimation in which the education 

 of the poorer classes was held by the authorities of the place. 

 But a still more gratifying fact was the entire absence among 

 the children themselves of anything like estrangement or 

 aversion on account of colour. The majority of the children 

 w^ere Africans, but there w^as also a considerable number of 

 the children of Europeans, and many times my attention was 

 attracted by a little sturdy w^oolly-haired negress holding the 

 hand of a blue-eyed flaxen-haired girl, and both looking up 

 with laughing faces and apparently loving hearts as they 

 passed along. The same perfect cordiality was manifest 

 when they gathered round the refreshments in the tents, or 

 joined in the hymns which they sung before departing from 

 the ground. 



Mr. Cameron, who to my great satisfaction had consented 

 to join me in my expedition to JN^adagascar, soon completed 

 his necessary preparations, and we left Table Bay on the 26th 

 of May. In passing the southern extremity of the African 

 continent, we found the sea higher than I had ever seen it, 

 except in passing Cape Horn, and we now experienced greater 

 inconvenience from the motion of the vessel than at any other 

 part of the voyage. 



\\Tiile passing the Mozambique Channel we had a heavy 

 gale of wind, which our captain called a " regular Mozam- 



