574 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. Juiie^ 1836. 



lands^ but at the opposite extremities of a range of moun- 

 tains, which extending parallel to the mainland, is joined 

 to it by a low sandy flat. The road skirted the base of these 

 mountains : for the first fourteen miles the country is very 

 desert, and with the exception of the pleasure which the 

 sight of an entirely new vegetation never fails to communi- 

 cate, there was very little of interest. The view however of 

 the mountains on the opposite side of the flat, brightened 

 by the declining sun, was fine. Within seven miles of Cape 

 Town, in the neighbourhood of Wynberg, a great improve- 

 ment was visible, and here the country-houses of the more 

 wealthy residents of the capital are situated. The numerous 

 woods of young Scotch firs and stunted oak-trees form the 

 chief attraction of this locality. There is, indeed, a great 

 charm in shade and retirement, after the unconcealed bleak- 

 ness of so open a country as this. The houses and planta- 

 tions are backed by a grand wall of mountains, which gives 

 the scene a degree of uncommon beauty. I arrived late 

 in the evening in Cape Town, and had a good deal of diffi- 

 culty in finding quarters. In the morning several ships from 

 India had arrived at this great inn on the great highway of 

 nations, and they had disgorged on shore a host of pas- 

 sengers, all longing to enjoy the delights of a temperate 

 climate. There is only one good hotel, so that strangers 

 generally live in boarding-houses; — a very uncomfortable 

 fashion to which I was obliged to conform, although I was 

 fortunate in my quarters. 



In the morning I walked to a neighbouring hill to look at 

 the town. It is laid out with the rectangular precision of a 

 Spanish city : the streets are in good order, and Mac- 

 adamized, and some of them have rows of trees on each 

 side ; the houses are all whitewashed, and look clean. In 

 several trifling particulars the town had a foreign air, but 

 it is daily becoming more English. There is scarcely a resi- 

 dent, excepting amongst the lowest order, who does not speak 

 some English. In this facility in becoming Anglefied, there 

 appears to exist a wide difference between this colony and 



