86 A SPIVENDID CLIMATE. 



of vegetation is as true of some parts too in the centre 

 of South America as of Australia ; and the cause of the 

 difference holds out a probability for the success of artesian 

 wells in extensive tracts of Africa now unpeopled solely 

 on account of the want of surface water. We may be 

 allowed to speculate a little at least on the fact of much 

 greater vegetation, which, from whatever source it comes, 

 presents for South Africa prospects of future greatness 

 which we cannot hope for in Central Australia. As the 

 Interior districts of the Cape Colony are daily becoming 

 of higher value, offering to honest industry a fair re- 

 muneration for capital, and having a climate unequalled 

 in salubrity for consumptive patients, I should unhesi- 

 tatingly recommend any farmer at all afraid of that 

 complaint in his family to try this colony. With the means 

 of education already possessed, and the onward and 

 upward movement of the Cape population, he need enter- 

 tain no apprehensions of his family sinking into barbarism. 



The route we at this time followed ran along the middle, 

 or skirted the western zone before alluded to, until we 

 reached the latitude of Lake Ngami, where a totally 

 different country begins. While in the colony, we passed 

 through districts inhabited by the descendants of Dutch 

 and French refugees who had fled from religious persecu- 

 tion. Those living near the capital differ but little from 

 the middle classes in English counties, and are distin- 

 guished by public spirit and general intelligence ; while 

 those situated far from the centres of civilization are less 

 informed, but are a body of frugal, industrious, and 

 hospitable peasantry. A most efficient system of public 

 instruction was established in the time of Governor 

 Sir George Napier, on a plan drawn up in a great measure 

 by that accomplished philosopher, Sir John Herschel. 

 The system had to contend with less sectarian rancour 

 than elsewhere ; indeed, until quite recentl} 7 , that spirit, 

 except in a mild form, was unknown. 



The population here described ought not to be con- 

 founded with some Boers who fled from British rule on 

 account of the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, 

 and perhaps never would have been so, had not every 

 now and then some Rip Van Winkle started forth at the 

 Cape to justify in the public prints the deeds of blood 

 and slave-hunting in the far interior. It is therefore not 

 to be wondered at if the whole race is confounded and 



