1810. FIRST VIEW OF CAPE TOWN. 9 
dearly for our experience and knowledge of the nature of that cloud, 
it was with no small satisfaction that we beheld Table Mountain 
in its true outline, presenting its broad, flat, and horizontal summit, 
unobscured by mist or haze. Although we approached the land but 
slowly, we were confident in not meeting at present, on entering 
Table Bay, so ungracious a reception as we had experienced the 
first time. 
The next day, (26th,) by three in the afternoon, we were close in 
with the Lions Head; but being nearly becalmed, we made but slow 
progress round Green Point, which, as we sailed along, was very 
close on our right hand. Various buildings began to make their 
appearance ; the Jutty and Castle came in sight ; and, as soon as we 
had passed the Chavonne and Amsterdam batteries, Cape Town 
itself, backed by the immense precipice of Table Mountain, rising 
like an enormous wall, opened full to view. 
At first no object attracted my notice till I had sufficiently admired 
the majestic amphitheatre of mountains in which the town reposes. 
Every thing wore, to my eye at least, a pleasing aspect : it was the 
charm of novelty which cast an agreeable hue over the whole scene ; 
even the smallest object interested me, and whatever I beheld seemed 
to present itself as a subject for my future investigation. On the 
first arriving at a foreign country, there is a sensation so delightful 
and so peculiar to an inquisitive mind, that language can convey but 
little of it to a reader. To many these sentiments must remain unin- 
telligible ; to those, at least, who see no other difference in the 
countries they may have had the opportunities of visiting, than that 
which arises from the language or dress of the inhabitants, or from 
the heat or cold of the climate. The strange features which an 
attentive observer instantly discovers, in animated as well as in in- 
animated nature ; the various shades of human character and man- 
ners ; the complexion of the mountains and valleys ; the ground we 
tread upon ; all open to us gratuitously an inexhaustible source of 
knowledge and of ideas, and an infinite variety of amusement of the 
most rational kind. To that cold mind which can look at Nature 
with insensibility, nearly the whole of the creation exists in vain, 
c 
