April.] BRIG COLUMBINE — TABLE BAY. 



307 



We continued plying to the southward, taking advantage of the land- 

 breezes by night and the sea-breezes by day, stretching along the coast, 

 and carefully examining every rock and island on which fur-seals were 

 likely to be found, for more than three months, when we found our- 

 selves once more in the thirty-second degree of south latitude. 



April 19^, 1829. — On Sunday, the 19th of April, we arrived at Point 

 St. Helena, where we found the English brig Columbine, Captain Stew- 

 art, in a situation that precluded the hope of the vessel's ultimate safety. 

 She was on shore, and her valuable cargo in imminent danger of being 

 totally lost. Captain S. had sailed from England, bound for Van Die- 

 man's Land, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. Lieut. Mitchell 

 of the royal navy was on board as passenger. Him I took on board 

 the Antarctic, and proceeded to Table Bay with all possible expedi- 

 tion, to obtain permission to save the brig's cargo, and become entitled 

 to the salvage, which would have amounted to at least twenty-five 

 thousand dollars. 



My proposition was rejected on account of the Antarctic being 

 American bottom ; though Lieutenant Mitchell and Messrs. Nisbot and 

 Dixon, three as worthy men as any country can boast of, exerted all 

 their influence with the government in my favour. Several other highly 

 respectable merchants also interceded for me ; but Sir Lowery Cole 

 refused to accede to the proposition. The only reason assigned for 

 this refusal was, that he had enemies, and the moment that he varied from 

 the strict letter of the British laws, he should be censured for taking 

 such a responsibility on his own shoulders. The consequence was, 

 that property was lost to the amount of about seventy-five thousand 

 dollars' value, the whole of which I might have saved, if I could have 

 obtained permission from the government, the Antarctic being the only 

 vessel then in port that was calculated for such an undertaking. It 

 was lost. 



April 21st. — "We arrived at Table Bay on Tuesday, the 21st, and 

 anchored abreast of Cape Town, in four fathoms of water, muddy 

 bottom, about half a mile from the landing-place, which is at a kind of 

 bridge or jetty which runs out to the eastward about two hundred yards, 

 and has from eight to ten feet of water at its outer end. Large cranes 

 are erected on this landing for the convenience of discharging cargoes 

 from boats. Ships may fill their water here with a great deal of 

 facility, as it is conducted from springs under the high land to the end 

 of the jetty by leaden and iron pipes, to each of which is fitted a 

 leathern hose to conduct the water into the boats, where the casks 

 may be filled with the greatest ease and expedition, even if the sea 

 should be quite rough. 



In addition to what I have already said of Cape Town in a pre- 

 ceding chapter, I can now state from my own observations, that it is 

 handsomely built, the houses in general being from two to four stories 

 in height, built of stone, whitewashed, and disposed in straight and 

 parallel streets. Several beautiful squares give the whole town an 

 open, airy, and picturesque appearance. 



To the north-west of the town are three strong batteries, which com- 

 mand the anchorage, and on the east side is the citadel. Half a mile 



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