114 
CBUISE OF H.M.S. CEA LLENGEB. 
comfortable quarters at tbe Masonic Hotel in Plein 
Street, facing a large square planted with pines. 
Remaining here for several days, we had oppor- 
tunities of seeing the town. It is destitute of any 
imposing buildings ; even the metropolitan cathedral 
and the other churches are very plain. * * * The 
Museum deserves more than a passing mention ; it 
contains a very good collection of natural history 
and other interesting curiosities ; also the South 
African Public Library, the Literary, Scientific, and 
Mechanics’ Institutions, besides many other establish- 
ments and societies for religious, benevolent, and 
industrial purposes, attesting the public spirit and 
enterprise of the inhabitants. The Botanical Gardens 
are a most agreeable resort ; they are well cared for, 
and tastily and prettily laid out, containing many 
rare, interesting, and useful plants from all quarters 
of the globe. 
There is scarcely anything remaining to indicate 
that Cape Town was founded by the Dutch, and 
were it not for the yellow Malay faces, with their 
gaudy head-covering or umbrella-shaped hats, and 
the tawny Mestizos, who remind us of the aboriginal 
inhabitants, and give a complete foreign colouring, 
one might easily fancy we are in an old English 
provincial town. Generally speaking, any one ar- 
riving here with preconceived notions of finding 
himself amongst Hottentots and Bushmen, or in a 
state of society differing materially from that ol 
