U WALFISCH BAY. [chap. i. 



to transportation for life, I obtained him also. I had 

 a fancy to take a small dog which could be carried in 

 the waggon all day, and would be wakeful at night, so I 

 bought a spaniel, on which I lavished infinite affection, 

 and who rejoiced in the name of Dinah. 



Andersson was most busy in packing and arranging 

 my things. I don't know how I should have got 

 through the work myself : the confusion seemed endless. 

 At length, after we had been for three weeks or a month 

 in Cape Town, the schooner was brought close into 

 shore ; the kicking mules were boated into her ; the 

 heaps of wheels, axletrees, &c., that belonged to the 

 four vehicles of the Missionary and myself disappeared 

 off the quay ; all the boxes were on board, and, last 

 of aU, a cab -full of lamenting curs were embarked and 

 sent away. 



In the second week of August, 1850, we set sail, and 

 on tlie eve of the 20th the low sandy shore of the land 

 we were bound for came in sight. We rounded Pelican 

 Point (on which pehcans were certainly sitting), and 

 came into a wide bay, the shores of wliich were dancing 

 with mirage, and presented the appearance of the utmost 

 desolation. The store-house was a wretched affair to 

 have received so grand a name — being a wooden shanty, 

 about the size of a small one-storied cottage — which 

 we could not for a long time see from on board our 

 ship. The name of the bay, " Walfisch," is Dutch, and 

 means whale-fish : the sailors have corrupted it to 

 Walwich, and, lastly, to Woolwich Bay, all which aliases 

 may be fomid in different maps. There are a great many 

 whales of the sort called "humpbacks" all about this 



