TKE IA-ST AND CONGEST JOURNEY. 8$ 



CHAPTER V. 



Haying sent my family home to England, I started, in 

 the begirining of June 1852, on my last journey from 

 Cape Town. This journey extended from the southern 

 extremity of the continent to St. Paul de Loando, the 

 capital of Angola, on the west coast, and thence across 

 South Central Africa in an oblique direction to Kilimane 

 (Quilimane) in Eastern Africa. I proceeded in the usual 

 conveyance of the country, the heavy lumbering Cape 

 waggon drawn by ten oxen, and was accompanied by 

 two Christian Bechuanas from Kuruman, — than whom 

 I never saw better servants anywhere, — by two Bakwain 

 men, and two young girls, who, having come as nurses 

 with our children to the Cape, were returning to their 

 home at Kolobeng. Waggon-travelling in Africa has 

 been so often described, that I need say no more than that 

 it is a prolonged system of picnicking, excellent for the 

 health, and agreeable to those who are not over fastidious 

 about trifles, and who delight in being in the open air. 



Our route to the north lay near the centre of the cone- 

 shaped mass of land which constitutes the promontory 

 of the Cape. If we suppose this cone to be divided into 

 three zones or longitudinal bands, we find each presenting 

 distinct peculiarities of climate, physical appearance, 

 and population. These are more marked beyond then 

 within the colony. At some points one district seems to 

 be continued in and to merge into the other, but the 

 general dissimilarity warrants the division, as an aid to 

 memory. The eastern zone is often furnished with 

 mountains, well wooded with evergreen succulent trees, 

 on which neither fire nor droughts can have the smallest 

 effect (Strelitzia, Zamia horrida, Portulacaria afra, Schotia 

 speciosa, Euphorbias, and Aloes arborescens) ; and its sea- 

 board gorges are clad with gigantic timber. It is also 

 comparatively well watered with streams and flowing 

 rivers. The annual supply of rain is considerable, and 

 the inhabitants (Qaffres or Zulus) are tall, muscular, and 

 well made ; they are shrewd, energetic, and brave ; 

 altogether they merit the character given them by military 

 authorities, of being " magnificent savages." Their 

 splendid physical development and form of skull show 



