THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
53 
The stony mountain crests and white sandhills which overlook the bay showed that we were 
once m6re upon the confines of Africa. We found here H.M.S. “ Flora,” H.M.S. “ Rattle¬ 
snake,” just returned from the scene of the Ashantee war, and a Dutch war-vessel, the “Djambi.” 
To our surprise we were put into quarantine, and for the second and happily the last time the 
ominous yellow flag waved from our foremast. When, however, on the second day, it was 
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
ascertained that no case of fever had occurred on board since our departure from Bahia, we 
were released. Leaving our good ship stripped of yards and topmasts, and prepared to undergo 
a thorough overhauling previous to her next cruise towards the south polar regions, we lost no 
time in starting for Capetown. The road—if a mere track over the sands can be so called— 
runs for a distance of about eight miles along the shore of False Bay. After rounding 
Muisenberg, one enters upon the broad level isthmus connecting the peninsula of the Cape 
n 
MOWBRAY. 
with the mainland. At every step vegetation becomes more abundant; soon the far-famed 
vineyards of Constantia are passed on the left, and a drive of a few miles brings us to Wynberg, 
the present terminus of a short railway which joins the latter to Capetown. Too short a time 
has elapsed since this colony passed under British rule to have effaced the numerous traces of 
its original founders. While the names which meet the travellers eye as he journeys up to 
Capetown remind him of the nation which preceded England as mistress of the seas, the 
