76 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



But I am resolved, and surely will drive my resolution into 

 practice, that if ever I get back from this Cape expedition, I 

 will take to some honest calling, and try to rise beyond my 

 present position. 



I have had the pleasure of seeing a superb specimen of Disa 

 grandiflora in blow, a truly noble flower, Avhich grows only on 

 the top of Table Mountain, where I have no hope of being. 

 I shall bring home seeds of several Proteas, very handsome 

 both in foliage and blossoms. P. argentea, our common firewood, 

 is on the whole, from the seed to the full-grown tree, one of 

 the loveliest objects I have seen in Africa. P. mellifera is 

 also exquisitely beautiful. Fancy a bush like an arbutus, covered 

 when in flower with large scalloped cups, variegated with the 

 purest rose colour and white. The)' are easily grown, and 

 merely want protection in the winter. 



With regard to returning here, my thoughts and wishes have 

 changed. I shall certainly try to secure the situation, though I 

 should return more from duty than for pleasure. I should never 

 murmur aloud at my lot, though I confess I do not find it 

 pleasant to be separated from those belonging to me. 



• On the 10th of April, 1836, the sorrowful party sailed on 

 their homeward voyage. William thus records his mingled 

 feeliugs. " I begin another diary, but cannot promise to make 

 it so good as the last, for when I wrote that, I was full of high 

 hopes and visions of future adventure, and trusted those pages 

 might be but a preface to future discoveries of forest scenes and 

 habitats. But alas! fate willed otherwise, and so here I am, 

 after six months' quietness, trotting back the same old road, as 

 fast as the gentle S.E. trade-wind will permit. It has always 

 been part of my creed not to grumble at necessity. 



" I took an outline of the last view of Table Mountain, but it 

 was long after we had passed Bobben Island, and were standing 

 into the open sea. I did not jjweep ; perhaps I sighed. If so, 

 let the sigh be smothered. Then said I : — 



" Away, away ! — my native land 



Lies o'er the waters blue ; 

 Good-bye to Afric's heaps of sand, 

 Good-bye to Table Mountain, and, 



Sweet Stellenberg, to you ! 



