A Breath from the Veldt 7 



of the voyage Messrs. Donald Currie and Company engage only stewards who 

 are skilled musicians, forming in this way a good band to play every evening on 

 deck. Indeed, everything on their ships is first-class, and a more comfortable 

 craft than the Norham Castle, or a more pleasant set of officers and men, I have 

 never come across. The cuisine, too, is excellent, notwithstanding its condemna- 

 tion by Lord Randolph Churchill, whose letters in the Daily Graphic met with 

 a response on board ship which his Lordship could hardly have anticipated. 

 On the return voyage of the ship in which he had sailed, the first-class passengers, 

 sympathising with the wounded feelings of the chef, for a Frenchman is nothing 

 if not an artist, subscribed amongst themselves nearly fj]0, and presented this 

 amount as a douceur to the Knight of the Kitchen. 



In a voyage of three weeks life is abridged into a nutshell. A delicious 

 sense of laziness takes possession of all on board, disposing everybody to be 

 friendly and communicative ; and many a lifelong friendship has its origin in a 

 cruise like this. The permanent results, too, of a voyage to the Cape can 

 hardly be over-estimated. After a few days the fine air and regular hours, and 

 the appetite they engender, work wonders on a toil-worn or weakened frame. 

 Experto crede ! When I left England last February I was utterly incapacitated 

 from work by sleeplessness following on influenza ; but before the voyage had 

 ended the habit of sleep returned, and on my return voyage in November it 

 generally took two stewards, a bath attendant, several bells, and the sarcastic 

 remarks of my fellow-passengers to arouse me in the morning. 



On the morning of the eighteenth day after leaving England the Norham 

 Castle was steaming her last few miles in the lovely bay on which Cape Town 

 rests. The glorious African sun was out in all his splendour, lighting up one 

 of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. The great bald headland of 

 Table Mountain, flanked on either hand by the barren crags of Lion's Head and 

 Devil's Peak, looms above the mist, seeming quite near to the spectator in the 

 crystalline clearness of the atmosphere. Shaggy woods climb its slopes for over 

 a thousand feet, their mass of form and colour contrasting finely with the bare 

 grandeur of the higher precipices, whilst the town itself, with its low, white 

 walls, nestles at the foot of this superb piece of nature's handiwork. In itself 

 Cape Town is hardly perhaps a thing of beauty ; but with its environments, 

 with the sea in front, and behind it the everlasting hills, it forms the brightest 

 gem in South African scenery. Nature has it all her own way here. Round 

 the majestic monument of Table Mountain still soar the eagle, the buzzard, 

 and the white -necked raven ; whilst in the surf, regardless of boats and 



