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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/886-0.txt b/886-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3db9c52 --- /dev/null +++ b/886-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3961 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters from the Cape, by Lady Duff Gordon, +Edited by John Purves + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Letters from the Cape + + +Author: Lady Duff Gordon + +Editor: John Purves + +Release Date: March 11, 2013 [eBook #886] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 1997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM THE CAPE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1921 Humphrey Milford edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org. Second proof by Margaret Price. + + + + + + LETTERS + FROM THE + CAPE + + + BY + + LADY DUFF GORDON + + Edited by + + JOHN PURVES + + * * * * * + + LONDON + + HUMPHREY MILFORD + + 1921 + + * * * * * + + PRINTED IN ENGLAND + AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + +EDITOR’S FOREWORD + + +IF Lady Duff Gordon’s ‘Letters from the Cape’ are less familiar to the +present generation of readers than those of the Lady Anne Barnard, the +neglect is due in great part to the circumstances of their publication. +After appearing in a now-forgotten miscellany of Victorian travel, +Galton’s _Vacation Tourists_, third series (1864), where their simplicity +and delicate unprofessional candour gave them a brief hour of public +esteem, they were first issued separately as a supplement to Lady Duff +Gordon’s _Last Letters from Egypt_, occupying the latter portion of a +volume to which the writer’s daughter, Mrs. Ross, contributed a short but +vivid memoir, which touched but lightly on her South African experiences; +and they have never appeared, we believe, in any other form. Yet they +are inferior in nothing but political interest to those of the authoress +of ‘Auld Robin Gray’. Indeed, in her intellectual equipment, her +temperament, and her gift of style, Lady Duff Gordon was a far rarer +creature than the jovial and managing Scotswoman who was the +correspondent of Dundas. And in human sympathy—the quality that has kept +Lady Anne Barnard’s letters alive—Lady Duff Gordon shows a still wider +range and a yet keener sensibility. Her letters are the fine flower of +the English epistolary literature of the Cape. Few books of their class +have better deserved reprinting. + +The daughter of John and Sarah Austin ran every risk of growing up a +blue-stocking. Yet she escaped every danger of the kind—the proximity of +Bentham, her childish friendships with Henry Reeve and the Mills, and the +formidable presence of the learned friends of both her parents—by the +force of a triumphant naturalness and humour which remained with her to +the end of her life. Although her schooling was in Germany and her +sympathy with German character was remarkable, her own personality was +rather French in its grace and gaiety. It was characteristic of her, +then, to defend as she did ‘la vieille gaieté française’ against Heine on +his death-bed. But the truth is that her sympathies were nearly perfect. +She was one of those rare characters that see the best in every +nationality without aping cosmopolitanism, simply because they are +content everywhere to be human. Convention and prejudice vex them as +little as pedantry can. Their clear eyes look out each morning on a +fresh world, and their experiences are a perpetual school of sympathy and +never the sad routine of disillusionment. + +When Lady Duff Gordon came to the Cape in search of health in 1861, she +brought with her, young though she was, a wealth of recollection and +experience such as perhaps no other observer of South Africa has known. +She had been the friend of nearly every prominent man-of-letters from +Rogers to Tennyson. She was intimate with half the intellectual world of +England and Germany, and admired for her beauty and grace of character in +the salons of Paris as much as in the drawing-rooms of London. And she +had shown the quality of her womanly sympathy in the most famous of her +literary friendships, that with Heinrich Heine, when she visited the poet +and soothed him in his last sad days in Paris—an episode perhaps better +known to present-day readers from Mr. Zangwill’s story of _A Mattrass +Grave_ than in the moving narrative of Lady Duff Gordon herself, on which +the story is based. + +It was into the little world of Caledon and Simonstown and Worcester, +drowsy, sun-steeped villages of the old colony—for Cape Town had little +attraction for her and the climate proved unsuitable—that this rare and +exquisite being descended. But the test of the true letter-writer, the +letter-writer of genius, is the skill and ease with which he brings +variety out of seeming monotony. The letters of Lady Duff Gordon answer +this test. She had not been many days in the country before she had +discovered (if she required to discover) the excellent principle: ‘Avoid +_engelsche hoogmoedigheid_ in dealing with the Dutch’; and by the time +she reaches Caledon she is on the best of terms with her new friends. +‘The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old Pylades, Heer Ley, are great +cronies of mine’—she writes—‘stout old grey-beards, toddling down the +hill together. I sometimes go and sit on the stoep with the two old +bachelors and they take it as a great compliment; and Heer Klein gave me +my letters all decked with flowers, and wished “vrolyke tydings, +Mevrouw”, most heartily.’ She has a keen eye for the fine shades of +national character, and the modifications that spring from differences of +upbringing: the English farmer, ‘educated in Belgium’, the young Dutch +doctor with English manners, the German basket-maker’s wife in Cape Town. +A whole chapter might be written on her friendship with the Malays, whose +hearts she won as completely as she afterwards did those of their +Mohammedan brothers in Egypt. Mr. Ian Colvin has since opened up afresh +the field she was here almost the first to survey. In another direction, +in her remarks on the Eastern Province Jew of 1860, Lady Duff Gordon has +given us some notes which are of distinct value for social history. The +following passage, for example, deserves to be quoted as a ‘point de +repère’ in the evolution of a type. ‘These Colonial Jews’—says the +writer—‘are a new _Erscheinung_ to me. They have the features of their +race, but many of their peculiarities are gone. Mr. L—, who is very +handsome and gentlemanly, eats ham and patronises a good breed of pigs on +the “model farm” on which he spends his money. He is (he says) a +thorough Jew in faith, and evidently in charitable works; but he wants to +say his prayers in English and not to “dress himself up” in a veil and +phylacteries for the purpose; and he and his wife talk of England as +“home”, and care as much for Jerusalem as their neighbours. They have +not forgotten the old persecutions, and are civil to the coloured people, +and speak of them in quite a different tone from other English colonists. +Moreover, they are far better mannered and more ‘human’, in the German +sense of the word, in all respects; in short, less “colonial”.’ It was a +lady of this party who described Prince Albert’s funeral to Lady Duff +Gordon. ‘The people mourned for him’—she said—‘as much as for Hezekiah; +and, indeed, he deserved it a great deal better.’ + +There is not much attempt to describe scenery in Lady Duff Gordon’s +Letters, but just enough to show that her eye was as sensitive to +landscape as to the shades of racial character and feeling. She +indicates delicately yet effectively the difference between the +atmosphere at the coast and that inland. ‘It is the difference between a +pretty pompadour beauty and a Greek statue. Those pale opal mountains as +distinct in every detail as the map on your table and so cheerful and +serene; no melodramatic effects of clouds and gloom.’ But, as a rule, it +is the human pageant that engrosses her, and here her sense of values is +extraordinarily keen. There is no better instance than the portrait of +the German basket-maker’s wife, who confided to the writer her timidity +on landing in Africa. ‘I had never—she said—been out of the city of +Berlin and knew nothing.’ She spoke of the natives as well-bred +(_anständig_), and Lady Duff Gordon’s comment is: ‘The use of the word +was characteristic. She could recognize an _Anständigkeit_ not of +Berlin.’ But one might quote from every second page of these letters. +Lady Duff Gordon was less than a year in South Africa; but in that time +she brought more happiness to those around her than many have done in a +lifetime. And her bounties live after her. + +A last remark may not be out of place here, although it will doubtless +occur to every reader who approaches these letters with sympathy and +discretion. They must be read as true letters and the spontaneous +delineation of a personality, and not as a considered contribution to +South African history. Freer even than Stevenson himself from ‘le +romantisme des poitrinaires’, and singularly clear-sighted in all that +comes under her personal observation, Lady Duff Gordon does not wholly +escape the nemesis which overtakes the traveller who accepts his history +from hearsay. And in South Africa, as we know, such nemesis is well-nigh +unfailing. Few, however, have been the travellers, as the following +pages will show, who could meet such a charge with so great evidence of +candour, disinterestedness, and love of human nature in its simplest and +most innocent forms. + + J. P. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +THE following letters were written, as the reader will readily perceive, +without the remotest view to publication. They convey in the most +unreserved manner the fresh and vivid impressions of the moment, to the +two persons with whom, of all others, the writer felt the least necessity +for reserve in the expression of her thoughts, or care about the form in +which those thoughts were conveyed. + +Such letters cannot be expected to be free from mistakes. The writer is +misinformed; or her imagination, powerfully acted upon by new and strange +objects, colours and magnifies, to a certain extent, what she sees. If +these are valid objections, they are equally so to every description of a +country that has not been corrected by long experience. + +It has been thought, however, that their obvious and absolute +genuineness, and a certain frank and high-toned originality, hardly to be +found in what is written for the public, would recommend them to the +taste of many. + +But this was not the strongest motive to their publication. + +The tone of English travellers is too frequently arrogant and +contemptuous, even towards peoples whose pretensions on the score of +civilization are little inferior to their own. When they come in contact +with communities or races inferior to them in natural organization or in +acquired advantages, the feeling of a common humanity often seems +entirely to disappear. No attempt is made to search out, under external +differences, the proofs of a common nature; no attempt to trace the +streams of human affections in their course through channels unlike those +marked out among ourselves; no attempt to discover what there may be of +good mingled with obvious evil, or concealed under appearances which +excite our surprise and antipathy. + +It is the entire absence of the exclusive and supercilious spirit which +characterizes dominant races; the rare power of entering into new trains +of thought, and sympathizing with unaccustomed feelings; the tender pity +for the feeble and subject, and the courteous respect for their +prejudices; the large and purely human sympathies;—these, far more than +any literary or graphic merits, are the qualities which have induced the +possessors of the few following letters to give them to the public. + +They show, what a series of letters from Egypt, since received from the +same writer, prove yet more conclusively; that even among so-called +barbarians are to be found hearts that open to every touch of kindness, +and respond to every expression of respect and sympathy. + +If they should awaken any sentiments like those which inspired them, on +behalf of races of men who come in contact with civilization only to feel +its resistless force and its haughty indifference or contempt, it will be +some consolation to those who are enduring the bitterness of the +separation to which they owe their existence. + + SARAH AUSTIN. + +WEYBRIDGE, + _Feb._ 24, 1864. + + + + +LETTER I +THE VOYAGE + + + Wednesday, 24th July. + Off the Scilly Isles, 6 P.M. + +WHEN I wrote last Sunday, we put our pilot on shore, and went down +Channel. It soon came on to blow, and all night was squally and rough. +Captain on deck all night. Monday, I went on deck at eight. Lovely +weather, but the ship pitching as you never saw a ship pitch—bowsprit +under water. By two o’clock a gale came on; all ordered below. Captain +left dinner, and, about six, a sea struck us on the weather side, and +washed a good many unconsidered trifles overboard, and stove in three +windows on the poop; nurse and four children in fits; Mrs. T— and babies +afloat, but good-humoured as usual. Army-surgeon and I picked up +children and bullied nurse, and helped to bale cabin. Cuddy window stove +in, and we were wetted. Went to bed at nine; could not undress, it +pitched so, and had to call doctor to help me into cot; slept sound. The +gale continues. My cabin is water-tight as to big splashes, but damp and +dribbling. I am almost ashamed to like such miseries so much. The +forecastle is under water with every lurch, and the motion quite +incredible to one only acquainted with steamers. If one can sit this +ship, which bounds like a tiger, one should sit a leap over a haystack. +Evidently, I can never be sea-sick; but holding on is hard work, and +writing harder. + +Life is thus:—Avery—my cuddy boy—brings tea for S—, and milk for me, at +six. S— turns out; when she is dressed, I turn out, and sing out for +Avery, who takes down my cot, and brings a bucket of salt water, in which +I wash with vast danger and difficulty; get dressed, and go on deck at +eight. Ladies not allowed there earlier. Breakfast solidly at nine. +Deck again; gossip; pretend to read. Beer and biscuit at twelve. The +faithful Avery brings mine on deck. Dinner at four. Do a little +carpentering in cabin, all the outfitters’ work having broken loose. I +am now in the captain’s cabin, writing. We have the wind as ever, dead +against us; and as soon as we get unpleasantly near Scilly, we shall tack +and stand back to the French coast, where we were last night. Three +soldiers able to answer roll-call, all the rest utterly sick; three +middies helpless. Several of crew, ditto. Passengers very fairly +plucky; but only I and one other woman, who never was at sea before, +well. The food on board our ship is good as to meat, bread, and beer; +everything else bad. Port and sherry of British manufacture, and the +water with an incredible _borachio_, essence of tar; so that tea and +coffee are but derisive names. + +To-day, the air is quite saturated with wet, and I put on my clothes damp +when I dressed, and have felt so ever since. I am so glad I was not +persuaded out of my cot; it is the whole difference between rest, and +holding on for life. No one in a bunk slept at all on Monday night; but +then it blew as heavy a gale as it can blow, and we had the Cornish coast +under our lee. So we tacked and tumbled all night. The ship being new, +too, has the rigging all wrong; and the confusion and disorder are beyond +description. The ship’s officers are very good fellows. The mizen is +entirely worked by the ‘young gentlemen’; so we never see the sailors, +and, at present, are not allowed to go forward. All lights are put out +at half-past ten, and no food allowed in the cabin; but the latter +article my friend Avery makes light of, and brings me anything when I am +laid up. The young soldier-officers bawl for him with expletives; but he +says, with a snigger, to me, ‘They’ll just wait till their betters, the +ladies, is looked to.’ I will write again some day soon, and take the +chance of meeting a ship; you may be amused by a little scrawl, though it +will probably be very stupid and ill-written, for it is not easy to see +or to guide a pen while I hold on to the table with both legs and one +arm, and am first on my back and then on my nose. Adieu, till next time. +I have had a good taste of the humours of the Channel. + +29_th_ _July_, 4 _Bells_, i.e. 2 _o’clock_, _p.m._—When I wrote last, I +thought we had had our share of contrary winds and foul weather. Ever +since, we have beaten about the bay with the variety of a favourable gale +one night for a few hours, and a dead calm yesterday, in which we almost +rolled our masts out of the ship. However, the sun was hot, and I sat +and basked on deck, and we had morning service. It was a striking sight, +with the sailors seated on oars and buckets, covered with signal flags, +and with their clean frocks and faces. To-day is so cold that I dare not +go on deck, and am writing in my black-hole of a cabin, in a green light, +with the sun blinking through the waves as they rush over my port and +scuttle. The captain is much vexed at the loss of time. I persist in +thinking it a very pleasant, but utterly lazy life. I sleep a great +deal, but don’t eat much, and my cough has been bad; but, considering the +real hardship of the life—damp, cold, queer food, and bad drink—I think I +am better. When we can get past Finisterre, I shall do very well, I +doubt not. + +The children swarm on board, and cry unceasingly. A passenger-ship is no +place for children. Our poor ship will lose her character by the +weather, as she cannot fetch up ten days’ lost time. But she is +evidently a race-horse. We overhaul everything we see, at a wonderful +rate, and the speed is exciting and pleasant; but the next long voyage I +make, I’ll try for a good wholesome old ‘monthly’ tub, which will roll +along on the top of the water, instead of cutting through it, with the +waves curling in at the cuddy skylights. We tried to signal a barque +yesterday, and send home word ‘all well’; but the brutes understood +nothing but Russian, and excited our indignation by talking ‘gibberish ‘ +to us; which we resented with true British spirit, as became us. + +It is now blowing hard again, and we have just been taken right aback. +Luckily, I had lashed my desk to my washing-stand, or that would have +flown off, as I did off my chair. I don’t think I shall know what to +make of solid ground under my feet. The rolling and pitching of a ship +of this size, with such tall masts, is quite unlike the little niggling +sort of work on a steamer—it is the difference between grinding along a +bad road in a four-wheeler, and riding well to hounds in a close country +on a good hunter. I was horribly tired for about five days, but now I +rather like it, and never know whether it blows or not in the night, I +sleep so soundly. The noise is beyond all belief; the creaking, +trampling, shouting, clattering; it is an incessant storm. We have not +yet got our masts quite safe; the new wire-rigging stretches more than +was anticipated (of course), and our main-topmast is shaky. The crew +have very hard work, as incessant tacking is added to all the extra work +incident to a new ship. On Saturday morning, everybody was shouting for +the carpenter. My cabin was flooded by a leak, and I superintended the +baling and swabbing from my cot, and dressed sitting on my big box. +However, I got the leak stopped and cabin dried, and no harm done, as I +had put everything up off the floor the night before, suspicious of a +dribble which came in. Then my cot frame was broken by my cuddy boy and +I lurching over against S—’s bunk, in taking it down. The carpenter has +given me his own, and takes my broken one for himself. Board ship is a +famous place for tempers. Being easily satisfied, I get all I want, and +plenty of attention and kindness; but I cannot prevail on my cuddy boy to +refrain from violent tambourine-playing with a tin tray just at the ear +of a lady who worries him. The young soldier-officers, too, I hear +mentioned as ‘them lazy gunners’, and they struggle for water and tea in +the morning long after mine has come. We have now been ten days at sea, +and only three on which we could eat without the ‘fiddles’ (transverse +pieces of wood to prevent the dishes from falling off). Smooth water +will seem quite strange to me. I fear the poor people in the forecastle +must be very wet and miserable, as the sea is constantly over it, not in +spray, but in tons of green water. + +3_d_ _Aug._—We had two days of dead calm, then one or two of a very +light, favourable breeze, and yesterday we ran 175 miles with the wind +right aft. We saw several ships, which signalled us, but we would not +answer, as we had our spars down for repairs and looked like a wreck, and +fancied it would be a pity to frighten you all with a report to that +effect. + +Last night we got all right, and spread out immense studding-sails. We +are now bowling along, wind right aft, dipping our studding-sail booms +into the water at every roll. The weather is still surprisingly cold, +though very fine, and I have to come below quite early, out of the +evening air. The sun sets before seven o’clock. I still cough a good +deal, and the bad food and drink are trying. But the life is very +enjoyable; and as I have the run of the charts, and ask all sorts of +questions, I get plenty of amusement. S— is an excellent traveller; no +grumbling, and no gossiping, which, on board a ship like ours, is a great +merit, for there is _ad nauseam_ of both. + +Mr. — is writing a charade, in which I have agreed to take a part, to +prevent squabbling. He wanted to start a daily paper, but the captain +wisely forbade it, as it must have led to personalities and quarrels, and +suggested a play instead. My little white Maltese goat is very well, and +gives plenty of milk, which is a great resource, as the tea and coffee +are abominable. Avery brings it me at six, in a tin pannikin, and again +in the evening. The chief officer is well-bred and agreeable, and, +indeed, all the young gentlemen are wonderfully good specimens of their +class. The captain is a burly foremast man in manner, with a heart of +wax and every feeling of a gentleman. He was in California, ‘_hide +droghing_’ with Dana, and he says every line of _Two Years before the +Mast_ is true. He went through it all himself. He says that I am a +great help to him, as a pattern of discipline and punctuality. People +are much inclined to miss meals, and then want things at odd hours, and +make the work quite impossible to the cook and servants. Of course, I +get all I want in double-quick time, as I try to save my man trouble; and +the carpenter leaves my scuttle open when no one else gets it, quite +willing to get up in his time of sleep to close it, if it comes on to +blow. A maid is really a superfluity on board ship, as the men rather +like being ‘_aux petits soins_’. The boatswain came the other day to say +that he had a nice carpet and a good pillow; did I want anything of the +sort? He would be proud that I should use anything of his. You would +delight in Avery, my cuddy man, who is as quick as ‘greased lightning’, +and full of fun. His misery is my want of appetite, and his efforts to +cram me are very droll. The days seem to slip away, one can’t tell how. +I sit on deck from breakfast at nine, till dinner at four, and then again +till it gets cold, and then to bed. We are now about 100 miles from +Madeira, and shall have to run inside it, as we were thrown so far out of +our course by the foul weather. + +9_th_ _Aug._—Becalmed, under a vertical sun. Lat. 17°, or thereabouts. +We saw Madeira at a distance like a cloud; since then, we had about four +days trade wind, and then failing or contrary breezes. We have sailed so +near the African shore that we get little good out of the trades, and +suffer much from the African climate. Fancy a sky like a pale February +sky in London, no sun to be seen, and a heat coming, one can’t tell from +whence. To-day, the sun is vertical and invisible, the sea glassy and +heaving. I have been ill again, and obliged to lie still yesterday and +the day before in the captain’s cabin; to-day in my own, as we have the +ports open, and the maindeck is cooler than the upper. The men have just +been holystoning here, singing away lustily in chorus. Last night I got +leave to sling my cot under the main hatchway, as my cabin must have +killed me from suffocation when shut up. Most of the men stayed on deck, +but that is dangerous after sunset on this African coast, on account of +the heavy dew and fever. They tell me that the open sea is quite +different; certainly, nothing can look duller and dimmer than this +specimen of the tropics. The few days of trade wind were beautiful and +cold, with sparkling sea, and fresh air and bright sun; and we galloped +along merrily. + +We are now close to the Cape de Verd Islands, and shall go inside them. +About lat. 4° N. we expect to catch the S.E. trade wind, when it will be +cold again. In lat. 24°, the day before we entered the tropics, I sat on +deck in a coat and cloak; the heat is quite sudden, and only lasts a week +or so. The sea to-day is littered all round the ship with our floating +rubbish, so we have not moved at all. + +I constantly long for you to be here, though I am not sure you would like +the life as well as I do. All your ideas of it are wrong; the +confinement to the poop and the stringent regulations would bore you. +But then, sitting on deck in fine weather is pleasure enough, without +anything else. In a Queen’s ship, a yacht, or a merchantman with fewer +passengers, it must be a delightful existence. + +17_th_ _Aug._—Since I wrote last, we got into the south-west monsoon for +one day, and I sat up by the steersman in intense enjoyment—a bright sun +and glittering blue sea; and we tore along, pitching and tossing the +water up like mad. It was glorious. At night, I was calmly reposing in +my cot, in the middle of the steerage, just behind the main hatchway, +when I heard a crashing of rigging and a violent noise and confusion on +deck. The captain screamed out orders which informed me that we were in +the thick of a collision—of course I lay still, and waited till the row, +or the ship, went down. I found myself next day looked upon as no better +than a heathen by all the women, because I had been cool, and declined to +get up and make a noise. Presently the officers came and told me that a +big ship had borne down on us—we were on the starboard tack, and all +right—carried off our flying jib-boom and whisker (the sort of yard to +the bowsprit). The captain says he was never in such imminent danger in +his life, as she threatened to swing round and to crush into our waist, +which would have been certain destruction. The little dandy +soldier-officer behaved capitally; he turned his men up in no time, and +had them all ready. He said, ‘Why, you know, I must see that my fellows +go down decently.’ S— was as cool as an icicle, offered me my +pea-jacket, &c., which I declined, as it would be of no use for me to go +off in boats, even supposing there were time, and I preferred going down +comfortably in my cot. Finding she was of no use to me, she took a +yelling maid in custody, and was thought a brute for begging her to hold +her noise. The first lieutenant, who looks on passengers as odious +cargo, has utterly mollified to me since this adventure. I heard him +report to the captain that I was ‘among ’em all, and never sung out, nor +asked a question the while’. This he called ‘beautiful’. + +Next day we got light wind S.W. (which ought to be the S.E. trades), and +the weather has been, beyond all description, lovely ever since. Cool, +but soft, sunny and bright—in short, perfect; only the sky is so pale. +Last night the sunset was a vision of loveliness, a sort of Pompadour +paradise; the sky seemed full of rose-crowned _amorini_, and the moon +wore a rose-coloured veil of bright pink cloud, all so light, so airy, so +brilliant, and so fleeting, that it was a kind of intoxication. It is +far less grand than northern colour, but so lovely, so shiny. Then the +flying fish skimmed like silver swallows over the blue water. Such a +sight! Also, I saw a whale spout like a very tiny garden fountain. The +Southern Cross is a delusion, and the tropical moon no better than a +Parisian one, at present. We are now in lat. 31° about, and have been +driven halfway to Rio by this sweet southern breeze. I have never yet +sat on deck without a cloth jacket or shawl, and the evenings are chilly. +I no longer believe in tropical heat at sea. Even during the calm it was +not so hot as I have often felt it in England—and that, under a vertical +sun. The ship that nearly ran us and herself down, must have kept no +look-out, and refused to answer our hail. She is supposed to be from +Glasgow by her looks. We may speak a ship and send letters on board; so +excuse scrawl and confusion, it is so difficult to write at all. + +30_th_ _August_.—About 25° S. lat. and very much to the west. We have +had all sorts of weather—some beautiful, some very rough, but always +contrary winds—and got within 200 miles of the coast of South America. +We now have a milder breeze from the _soft_ N.E., after a _bitter_ S.W., +with Cape pigeons and mollymawks (a small albatross), not to compare with +our gulls. We had private theatricals last night—ill acted, but +beautifully got up as far as the sailors were concerned. I did not act, +as I did not feel well enough, but I put a bit for Neptune into the +Prologue and made the boatswain’s mate speak it, to make up for the +absence of any shaving at the Line, which the captain prohibited +altogether; I thought it hard the men should not get their ‘tips’. The +boatswain’s mate dressed and spoke it admirably; and the old carpenter +sang a famous comic song, dressed to perfection as a ploughboy. + +I am disappointed in the tropics as to warmth. Our thermometer stood at +82° one day only, under the vertical sun, N. of the Line; _on_ the Line +at 74°; and at sea it _feels_ 10° colder than it is. I have never been +hot, except for two days 4° N. of the Line, and now it is very cold, but +it is very invigorating. All day long it looks and feels like early +morning; the sky is pale blue, with light broken clouds; the sea an +inconceivably pure opaque blue—lapis lazuli, but far brighter. I saw a +lovely dolphin three days ago; his body five feet long (some said more) +is of a _fiery_ blue-green, and his huge tail golden bronze. I was glad +he scorned the bait and escaped the hook; he was so beautiful. This is +the sea from which Venus rose in her youthful glory. All is young, +fresh, serene, beautiful, and cheerful. + +We have not seen a sail for weeks. But the life at sea makes amends for +anything, to my mind. I am never tired of the calms, and I enjoy a stiff +gale like a Mother Carey’s chicken, so long as I can be on deck or in the +captain’s cabin. Between decks it is very close and suffocating in rough +weather, as all is shut up. We shall be still three weeks before we +reach the Cape; and now the sun sets with a sudden plunge before six, and +the evenings are growing too cold again for me to go on deck after +dinner. As long as I could, I spent fourteen hours out of the +twenty-four in my quiet corner by the wheel, basking in the tropical sun. +Never again will I believe in the tales of a burning sun; the vertical +sun just kept me warm—no more. In two days we shall be bitterly cold +again. + +Immediately after writing the above it began to blow a gale (favourable, +indeed, but more furious than the captain had ever known in these +seas),—about lat. 34° S. and long. 25°. For three days we ran under +close-reefed (four reefs) topsails, before a sea. The gale in the Bay of +Biscay was a little shaking up in a puddle (a dirty one) compared to that +glorious South Atlantic in all its majestic fury. The intense blue +waves, crowned with fantastic crests of bright emeralds and with the +spray blowing about like wild dishevelled hair, came after us to swallow +us up at a mouthful, but took us up on their backs, and hurried us along +as if our ship were a cork. Then the gale slackened, and we had a dead +calm, during which the waves banged us about frightfully, and our masts +were in much jeopardy. Then a foul wind, S.E., increased into a gale, +lasting five days, during which orders were given in dumb show, as no +one’s voice could be heard; through it we fought and laboured and dipped +under water, and I only had my dry corner by the wheel, where the kind +pleasant little third officer lashed me tight. It was far more +formidable than the first gale, but less beautiful; and we made so much +lee-way that we lost ten days, and only arrived here yesterday. I +recommend a fortnight’s heavy gale in the South Atlantic as a cure for a +_blasé_ state of mind. It cannot be described; the sound, the sense of +being hurled along without the smallest regard to ‘this side uppermost’; +the beauty of the whole scene, and the occasional crack and bear-away of +sails and spars; the officer trying to ‘sing out’, quite in vain, and the +boatswain’s whistle scarcely audible. I remained near the wheel every +day for as long as I could bear it, and was enchanted. + +Then the mortal perils of eating, drinking, moving, sitting, lying; +standing can’t be done, even by the sailors, without holding on. _The_ +night of the gale, my cot twice touched the beams of the ship above me. +I asked the captain if I had dreamt it, but he said it was quite +possible; he had never seen a ship so completely on her beam ends come up +all right, masts and yards all sound. + +There is a middy about half M—’s size, a very tiny ten-year-older, who +has been my delight; he is so completely ‘the officer and the gentleman’. +My maternal entrails turned like old Alvarez, when that baby lay out on +the very end of the cross-jack yard to reef, in the gale; it was quite +voluntary, and the other newcomers all declined. I always called him +‘Mr. —, sir’, and asked his leave gravely, or, on occasions, his +protection and assistance; and his little dignity was lovely. He is +polite to the ladies, and slightly distant to the passenger-boys, bigger +than himself, whom he orders off dangerous places; ‘Children, come out of +that; you’ll be overboard.’ + +A few days before landing I caught a bad cold, and kept my bed. I caught +this cold by ‘sleeping with a damp man in my cabin’, as some one said. +During the last gale, the cabin opposite mine was utterly swamped, and I +found the Irish soldier-servant of a little officer of eighteen in +despair; the poor lad had got ague, and eight inches of water in his bed, +and two feet in the cabin. I looked in and said, ‘He can’t stay +there—carry him into my cabin, and lay him in the bunk’; which he did, +with tears running down his honest old face. So we got the boy into S—’s +bed, and cured his fever and ague, caught under canvas in Romney Marsh. +Meantime S— had to sleep in a chair and to undress in the boy’s wet +cabin. As a token of gratitude, he sent me a poodle pup, born on board, +very handsome. The artillery officers were generally well-behaved; the +men, deserters and ruffians, sent out as drivers. We have had five +courts-martial and two floggings in eight weeks, among seventy men. They +were pampered with food and porter, and would not pull a rope, or get up +at six to air their quarters. The sailors are an excellent set of men. +When we parted, the first lieutenant said to me, ‘Weel, ye’ve a wonderful +idee of discipline for a leddy, I will say. You’ve never been reported +but once, and that was on sick leave, for your light, and all in order.’ + + Cape Town, Sept. 18. + +We anchored yesterday morning, and Captain J—, the Port Captain, came off +with a most kind letter from Sir Baldwin Walker, his gig, and a boat and +crew for S— and the baggage. So I was whipped over the ship’s side in a +chair, and have come to a boarding house where the J—s live. I was tired +and dizzy and landsick, and lay down and went to sleep. After an hour or +so I woke, hearing a little _gazouillement_, like that of chimney +swallows. On opening my eyes I beheld four demons, ‘sons of the obedient +Jinn’, each bearing an article of furniture, and holding converse over me +in the language of Nephelecoecygia. Why has no one ever mentioned the +curious little soft voices of these coolies?—you can’t hear them with the +naked ear, three feet off. The most hideous demon (whose complexion had +not only the colour, but the precise metallic lustre of an ill +black-leaded stove) at last chirruped a wish for orders, which I gave. I +asked the pert, active, cockney housemaid what I ought to pay them, as, +being a stranger, they might overcharge me. Her scorn was sublime, ‘Them +nasty blacks never asks more than their regular charge.’ So I asked the +black-lead demon, who demanded ‘two shilling each horse in waggon’, and a +dollar each ‘coolie man’. He then glided with fiendish noiselessness +about the room, arranged the furniture to his own taste, and finally +said, ‘Poor missus sick’; then more chirruping among themselves, and +finally a fearful gesture of incantation, accompanied by ‘God bless poor +missus. Soon well now’. The wrath of the cockney housemaid became +majestic: ‘There, ma’am; you see how saucy they have grown—a nasty black +heathen Mohamedan a blessing of a white Christian!’ + +These men are the Auvergnats of Africa. I was assured that bankers +entrust them with large sums in gold, which they carry some hundred and +twenty miles, by unknown tracks, for a small gratuity. The pretty, +graceful Malays are no honester than ourselves, but are excellent +workmen. + +To-morrow, my linen will go to a ravine in the giant mountain at my back, +and there be scoured in a clear spring by brown women, bleached on the +mountain top, and carried back all those long miles on their heads, as it +went up. + +My landlady is Dutch; the waiter is an Africander, half Dutch, half +Malay, very handsome, and exactly like a French gentleman, and as civil. + +Enter ‘Africander’ lad with a nosegay; only one flower that I +know—heliotrope. The vegetation is lovely; the freshness of spring and +the richness of summer. The leaves on the trees are in all the beauty of +spring. Mrs. R— brought me a plate of oranges, ‘just gathered’, as soon +as I entered the house—and, oh! how good they were! better even than the +Maltese. They are going out, and _dear_ now—two a penny, very large and +delicious. I am wild to get out and see the glorious scenery and the +hideous people. To-day the wind has been a cold south-wester, and I have +not been out. My windows look N. and E. so I get all the sun and warmth. +The beauty of Table Bay is astounding. Fancy the Undercliff in the Isle +of Wight magnified a hundred-fold, with clouds floating halfway up the +mountain. The Hottentot mountains in the distance have a fantastic +jagged outline, which hardly looks real. The town is like those in the +south of Europe; flat roofs, and all unfinished; roads are simply +non-existent. At the doors sat brown women with black hair that shone +like metal, very handsome; they are Malays, and their men wear conical +hats a-top of turbans, and are the chief artisans. At the end of the +pier sat a Mozambique woman in white drapery and the most majestic +attitude, like a Roman matron; her features large and strong and harsh, +but fine; and her skin blacker than night. + +I have got a couple of Cape pigeons (the storm-bird of the South +Atlantic) for J—’s hat. They followed us several thousand miles, and +were hooked for their pains. The albatrosses did not come within hail. + +The little Maltese goat gave a pint of milk night and morning, and was a +great comfort to the cow. She did not like the land or the grass at +first, and is to be thrown out of milk now. She is much admired and +petted by the young Africander. My room is at least eighteen feet high, +and contains exactly a bedstead, one straw mattrass, one rickety table, +one wash-table, two chairs, and broken looking-glass; no carpet, and a +hiatus of three inches between the floor and the door, but all very +clean; and excellent food. I have not made a bargain yet, but I dare say +I shall stay here. + +_Friday_.—I have just received your letter; where it has been hiding, I +can’t conceive. To-day is cold and foggy, like a baddish day in June +with you; no colder, if so cold. Still, I did not venture out, the fog +rolls so heavily over the mountain. Well, I must send off this yarn, +which is as interminable as the ‘sinnet’ and ‘foxes’ which I twisted with +the mids. + + + + +LETTER II + + + Cape Town, Oct. 3. + +I CAME on shore on a very fine day, but the weather changed, and we had a +fortnight of cold and damp and S.W. wind (equivalent to our east wind), +such as the ‘oldest inhabitant’ never experienced; and I have had as bad +an attack of bronchitis as ever I remember, having been in bed till +yesterday. I had a very good doctor, half Italian, half Dane, born at +the Cape of Good Hope, and educated at Edinburgh, named Chiappini. He +has a son studying medicine in London, whose mother is Dutch; such is the +mixture of bloods here. + +Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; the blessed sun shone out, +and the weather was lovely at once. The mountain threw off his cloak of +cloud, and all was bright and warm. I got up and sat in the verandah +over the stoep (a kind of terrace in front of every house here). They +brought me a tortoise as big as half a crown and as lively as a cricket +to look at, and a chameleon like a fairy dragon—a green fellow, five +inches long, with no claws on his feet, but suckers like a fly—the most +engaging little beast. He sat on my finger, and caught flies with great +delight and dexterity, and I longed to send him to M—. To-day, I went a +long drive with Captain and Mrs. J—: we went to Rondebosch and +Wynberg—lovely country; rather like Herefordshire; red earth and +oak-trees. Miles of the road were like Gainsborough-lane, {27} on a +large scale, and looked quite English; only here and there a hedge of +prickly pear, or the big white aruns in the ditches, told a different +tale; and the scarlet geraniums and myrtles growing wild puzzled one. + +And then came rattling along a light, rough, but well-poised cart, with +an Arab screw driven by a Malay, in a great hat on his kerchiefed head, +and his wife, with her neat dress, glossy black hair, and great gold +earrings. They were coming with fish, which he had just caught at Kalk +Bay, and was going to sell for the dinners of the Capetown folk. You +pass neat villas, with pretty gardens and stoeps, gay with flowers, and +at the doors of several, neat Malay girls are lounging. They are the +best servants here, for the emigrants mostly drink. Then you see a group +of children at play, some as black as coals, some brown and very pretty. +A little black girl, about R—’s age, has carefully tied what little +petticoat she has, in a tight coil round her waist, and displays the most +darling little round legs and behind, which it would be a real pleasure +to slap; it is so shiny and round, and she runs and stands so strongly +and gracefully. + +Here comes another Malay, with a pair of baskets hanging from a stick +across his shoulder, like those in Chinese pictures, which his hat also +resembles. Another cart full of working men, with a Malay driver; and +inside are jumbled some red-haired, rosy-cheeked English navvies, with +the ugliest Mozambiques, blacker than Erebus, and with faces all knobs +and corners, like a crusty loaf. As we drive home we see a span of +sixteen noble oxen in the market-place, and on the ground squats the +Hottentot driver. His face no words can describe—his cheek-bones are up +under his hat, and his meagre-pointed chin halfway down to his waist; his +eyes have the dull look of a viper’s, and his skin is dirty and sallow, +but not darker than a dirty European’s. + +Capetown is rather pretty, but beyond words untidy and out of repair. As +it is neither drained nor paved, it won’t do in hot weather; and I shall +migrate ‘up country’ to a Dutch village. Mrs. J—, who is Dutch herself, +tells me that one may board in a Dutch farm-house very cheaply, and with +great comfort (of course eating with the family), and that they will +drive you about the country and tend your horses for nothing, if you are +friendly, and don’t treat them with _Engelsche hoog-moedigheid_. + +_Oct._ 19_th_.—The packet came in last night, but just in time to save +the fine of 50_l._ per diem, and I got your welcome letter this morning. +I have been coughing all this time, but I hope I shall improve. I came +out at the very worst time of year, and the weather has been (of course) +‘unprecedentedly’ bad and changeable. But when it _is_ fine it is quite +celestial; so clear, so dry, so light. Then comes a cloud over Table +Mountain, like the sugar on a wedding-cake, which tumbles down in +splendid waterfalls, and vanishes unaccountably halfway; and then you run +indoors and shut doors and windows, or it portends a ‘south-easter’, i.e. +a hurricane, and Capetown disappears in impenetrable clouds of dust. But +this wind coming off the hills and fields of ice, is the Cape doctor, and +keeps away cholera, fever of every sort, and all malignant or infectious +diseases. Most of them are unknown here. Never was so healthy a place; +but the remedy is of the heroic nature, and very disagreeable. The +stones rattle against the windows, and omnibuses are blown over on the +Rondebosch road. + +A few days ago, I drove to Mr. V—’s farm. Imagine St. George’s Hill, +{30} and the most beautiful bits of it, sloping gently up to Table +Mountain, with its grey precipices, and intersected with Scotch burns, +which water it all the year round, as they come from the living rock; and +sprinkled with oranges, pomegranates, and camelias in abundance. You +drive through a mile or two as described, and arrive at a square, planted +with rows of fine oaks close together; at the upper end stands the house, +all on the ground-floor, but on a high stoep: rooms eighteen feet high; +the old slave quarters on each side; stables, &c., opposite; the square +as big as Belgrave Square, and the buildings in the old French style. + +We then went on to Newlands, a still more beautiful place. Immense +trenching and draining going on—the foreman a Caffre, black as ink, six +feet three inches high, and broad in proportion, with a staid, dignified +air, and Englishmen working under him! At the streamlets there are the +inevitable groups of Malay women washing clothes, and brown babies +sprawling about. Yesterday, I should have bought a black woman for her +beauty, had it been still possible. She was carrying an immense weight +on her head, and was far gone with child; but such stupendous physical +perfection I never even imagined. Her jet black face was like the +Sphynx, with the same mysterious smile; her shape and walk were +goddess-like, and the lustre of her skin, teeth, and eyes, showed the +fulness of health;—Caffre of course. I walked after her as far as her +swift pace would let me, in envy and admiration of such stately humanity. + +The ordinary blacks, or Mozambiques, as they call them, are hideous. +Malay here seems equivalent to Mohammedan. They were originally Malays, +but now they include every shade, from the blackest nigger to the most +blooming English woman. Yes, indeed, the emigrant-girls have been known +to turn ‘Malays’, and get thereby husbands who know not billiards and +brandy—the two diseases of Capetown. They risked a plurality of wives, +and professed Islam, but they got fine clothes and industrious husbands. +They wear a very pretty dress, and all have a great air of independence +and self-respect; and the real Malays are very handsome. I am going to +see one of the Mollahs soon, and to look at their schools and mosque; +which, to the distraction of the Scotch, they call their ‘Kerk.’ + +I asked a Malay if he would drive me in his cart with the six or eight +mules, which he agreed to do for thirty shillings and his dinner (i.e. a +share of my dinner) on the road. When I asked how long it would take, he +said, ‘Allah is groot’, which meant, I found, that it depended on the +state of the beach—the only road for half the way. + +The sun, moon, and stars are different beings from those we look upon. +Not only are they so large and bright, but you _see_ that the moon and +stars are _balls_, and that the sky is endless beyond them. On the other +hand, the clear, dry air dwarfs Table Mountain, as you seem to see every +detail of it to the very top. + +Capetown is very picturesque. The old Dutch buildings are very handsome +and peculiar, but are falling to decay and dirt in the hands of their +present possessors. The few Dutch ladies I have seen are very pleasing. +They are gentle and simple, and naturally well-bred. Some of the Malay +women are very handsome, and the little children are darlings. A little +parti-coloured group of every shade, from ebony to golden hair and blue +eyes, were at play in the street yesterday, and the majority were pretty, +especially the half-castes. Most of the Caffres I have seen look like +the perfection of human physical nature, and seem to have no diseases. +Two days ago I saw a Hottentot girl of seventeen, a housemaid here. You +would be enchanted by her superfluity of flesh; the face was very queer +and ugly, and yet pleasing, from the sweet smile and the rosy cheeks +which please one much, in contrast to all the pale yellow faces—handsome +as some of them are. + +I wish I could send the six chameleons which a good-natured parson +brought me in his hat, and a queer lizard in his pocket. The chameleons +are charming, so monkey-like and so ‘_caressants_’. They sit on my +breakfast tray and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by their tails, and +reach out after my hand. + +I have had a very kind letter from Lady Walker, and shall go and stay +with them at Simon’s Bay as soon as I feel up to the twenty-two miles +along the beaches and bad roads in the mail-cart with three horses. The +teams of mules (I beg pardon, spans) would delight you—eight, ten, +twelve, even sixteen sleek, handsome beasts; and oh, such oxen! noble +beasts with humps; and hump is very good to eat too. + +_Oct._ 21_st._—The mail goes out to-morrow, so I must finish this letter. +I feel better to-day than I have yet felt, in spite of the south-easter. + + Yours, &c. + + + + +LETTER III + + +28_th_ _Oct._—Since I wrote, we have had more really cold weather, but +yesterday the summer seems to have begun. The air is as light and clear +as if _there were none_, and the sun hot; but I walk in it, and do not +find it oppressive. All the household groans and perspires, but I am +very comfortable. + +Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour or more, in the hot dust of +the Malay burial-ground. They buried the head butcher of the Mussulmans, +and a most strange poetical scene it was. The burial-ground is on the +side of the Lion Mountain—on the Lion’s rump—and overlooks the whole bay, +part of the town, and the most superb mountain panorama beyond. I never +saw a view within miles of it for beauty and grandeur. Far down, a fussy +English steamer came puffing and popping into the deep blue bay, and the +‘Hansom’s’ cabs went tearing down to the landing place; and round me sat +a crowd of grave brown men chanting ‘Allah il Allah’ to the most +monotonous but musical air, and with the most perfect voices. The chant +seemed to swell, and then fade, like the wind in the trees. + +I went in after the procession, which consisted of a bier covered with +three common Paisley shawls of gay colours; no one looked at me; and when +they got near the grave, I kept at a distance, and sat down when they +did. But a man came up and said, ‘You are welcome.’ So I went close, +and saw the whole ceremony. They took the corpse, wrapped in a sheet, +out of the bier, and lifted it into the grave, where two men received it; +then a sheet was held over the grave till they had placed the dead man; +and then flowers and earth were thrown in by all present, the grave +filled in, watered out of a brass kettle, and decked with flowers. Then +a fat old man, in printed calico shirt sleeves, and a plaid waistcoat and +corduroy trousers, pulled off his shoes, squatted on the grave, and +recited endless ‘Koran’, many reciting after him. Then they chanted +‘Allah-il-Allah’ for twenty minutes, I think: then prayers, with ‘Ameens’ +and ‘Allah il-Allahs’ again. Then all jumped up and walked off. There +were eighty or a hundred men, no women, and five or six ‘Hadjis’, draped +in beautiful Eastern dresses, and looking very supercilious. The whole +party made less noise in moving and talking than two Englishmen. + +A white-complexioned man spoke to me in excellent English (which few of +them speak), and was very communicative and civil. He told me the dead +man was his brother-in-law, and he himself the barber. I hoped I had not +taken a liberty. ‘Oh, no; poor Malays were proud when noble English +persons showed such respect to their religion. The young Prince had done +so too, and Allah would not forget to protect him. He also did not laugh +at their prayers, praise be to God!’ I had already heard that Prince +Alfred is quite the darling of the Malays. He insisted on accepting +their _fête_, which the Capetown people had snubbed. I have a friendship +with one Abdul Jemaalee and his wife Betsy, a couple of old folks who +were slaves to Dutch owners, and now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort, +with ‘Betsy, fruiterer,’ painted on the back of an old tin tray, and hung +up by the door of the house. Abdul first bought himself, and then his +wife Betsy, whose ‘missus’ generously threw in her bed-ridden mother. He +is a fine handsome old man, and has confided to me that £5,000 would not +buy what he is worth now. I have also read the letters written by his, +son, young Abdul Rachman, now a student at Cairo, who has been away five +years—four at Mecca. The young theologian writes to his ‘_hoog eerbare +moeder_’ a fond request for money, and promises to return soon. I am +invited to the feast wherewith he will be welcomed. Old Abdul Jemaalee +thinks it will divert my mind, and prove to me that Allah will take me +home safe to my children, about whom he and his wife asked many +questions. Moreover, he compelled me to drink herb tea, compounded by a +Malay doctor for my cough. I declined at first, and the poor old man +looked hurt, gravely assured me that it was not true that Malays always +poisoned Christians, and drank some himself. Thereupon I was obliged, of +course, to drink up the rest; it certainly did me good, and I have drunk +it since with good effect; it is intensely bitter and rather sticky. The +white servants and the Dutch landlady where I lodge shake their heads +ominously, and hope it mayn’t poison me a year hence. ‘Them nasty Malays +can make it work months after you take it.’ They also possess the evil +eye, and a talent for love potions. As the men are very handsome and +neat, I incline to believe that part of it. + +_Rathfelder’s Halfway House_, 6_th_ _November_.—I drove out here +yesterday in Captain T—’s drag, which he kindly brought into Capetown for +me. He and his wife and children came for a change of air for whooping +cough, and advised me to come too, as my cough continues, though less +troublesome. It is a lovely spot, six miles from Constantia, ten from +Capetown, and twelve from Simon’s Bay. I intend to stay here a little +while, and then to go to Kalk Bay, six miles from hence. This inn was +excellent, I hear, ‘in the old Dutch times’. Now it is kept by a young +Englishman, Cape-born, and his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay +twelve shillings a day for S— and self, without a sitting-room, and my +bed is a straw paillasse; but the food is plentiful, and not very bad. +That is the cheapest rate of living possible here, and every trifle costs +double what it would in England, except wine, which is very fair at +fivepence a bottle—a kind of hock. The landlord pays £1 a day rent for +this house, which is the great resort of the Capetown people for Sundays, +and for change of air, &c.—a rude kind of Richmond. His cook gets £3 +10_s._ a month, besides food for himself and wife, and beer and sugar. +The two (white) housemaids get £1 15_s._ and £1 10_s._ respectively +(everything by the month). Fresh butter is 3_s._ 6_d._ a pound, mutton +7_d._; washing very dear; cabbages my host sells at 3_d._ a piece, and +pumpkins 8_d._ He has a fine garden, and pays a gardener 3_s._ 6_d._ a +day, and black labourers 2_s._ _They_ work three days a week; then they +buy rice and a coarse fish, and lie in the sun till it is eaten; while +their darling little fat black babies play in the dust, and their black +wives make battues in the covers in their woolly heads. But the little +black girl who cleans my room is far the best servant, and smiles and +speaks like Lalage herself, ugly as the poor drudge is. The voice and +smile of the negroes here is bewitching, though they are hideous; and +neither S— nor I have yet heard a black child cry, or seen one naughty or +quarrelsome. You would want to lay out a fortune in woolly babies. +Yesterday I had a dreadful heartache after my darling, on her little +birthday, and even the lovely ranges of distant mountains, coloured like +opals in the sunset, did not delight me. This is a dreary place for +strangers. Abdul Jemaalee’s tisanne, and a banana which he gave me each +time I went to his shop, are the sole offer of ‘Won’t you take +something?’ or even the sole attempt at a civility that I have received, +except from the J—s, who, are very civil and kind. + +When I have done my visit to Simon’s Bay, I will go ‘up country’, to +Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester, perhaps. If I can find people going +in a bullock-waggon, I will join them; it costs £1 a day, and goes twenty +miles. If money were no object, I would hire one with Caffres to hunt, +as well as outspan and drive, and take a saddle-horse. There is plenty +of pleasure to be had in travelling here, if you can afford it. The +scenery is quite beyond anything you can imagine in beauty. I went to a +country house at Rondebosch with the J—s, and I never saw so lovely a +spot. The possessor had done his best to spoil it, and to destroy the +handsome Dutch house and fountains and aqueducts; but Nature was too much +for him, and the place lovely in neglect and shabbiness. + +Now I will tell you my impressions of the state of society here, as far +as I have been able to make out by playing the inquisitive traveller. I +dare say the statements are exaggerated, but I do not think they are +wholly devoid of truth. The Dutch round Capetown (I don’t know anything +of ‘up country’) are sulky and dispirited; they regret the slave days, +and can’t bear to pay wages; they have sold all their fine houses in town +to merchants, &c., and let their handsome country places go to pieces, +and their land lie fallow, rather than hire the men they used to own. +They hate the Malays, who were their slaves, and whose ‘insolent +prosperity’ annoys them, and they don’t like the vulgar, bustling +English. The English complain that the Dutch won’t die, and that they +are the curse of the colony (a statement for which they can never give a +reason). But they, too, curse the emancipation, long to flog the +niggers, and hate the Malays, who work harder and don’t drink, and who +are the only masons, tailors, &c., and earn from 4_s._ 6_d._ to 10_s._ a +day. The Malays also have almost a monopoly of cart-hiring and +horse-keeping; an Englishman charges £4 10_s._ or £5 for a carriage to do +what a Malay will do quicker in a light cart for 30_s._ S— says, ‘The +English here think the coloured people ought to do the work, and they to +get the wages. Nothing less would satisfy them.’ Servants’ wages are +high, but other wages not much higher than in England; yet industrious +people invariably make fortunes, or at least competencies, even when they +begin with nothing. But few of the English will do anything but lounge; +while they abuse the Dutch as lazy, and the Malays as thieves, and feel +their fingers itch to be at the blacks. The Africanders (Dutch and negro +mixed in various proportions) are more or less lazy, dirty, and dressy, +and the beautiful girls wear pork-pie hats, and look very winning and +rather fierce; but to them the philanthropists at home have provided +formidable rivals, by emptying a shipload of young ladies from a +‘Reformatory’ into the streets of Capetown. + +I am puzzled what to think of the climate here for invalids. The air is +dry and clear beyond conception, and light, but the sun is scorching; +while the south-east wind blows an icy hurricane, and the dust obscures +the sky. These winds last all the summer, till February or March. I am +told when they don’t blow it is heavenly, though still cold in the +mornings and evenings. No one must be out at, or after sunset, the chill +is so sudden. Many of the people here declare that it is death to weak +lungs, and send their _poitrinaires_ to Madeira, or the south of France. +They also swear the climate is enervating, but their looks, and above all +the blowsy cheeks and hearty play of the English children, disprove that; +and those who come here consumptive get well in spite of the doctors, who +won’t allow it possible. I believe it is a climate which requires great +care from invalids, but that, with care, it is good, because it is +bracing as well as warm and dry. It is not nearly so warm as I expected; +the southern icebergs are at no great distance, and they ice the +south-east wind for us. If it were not so violent, it would be +delicious; and there are no unhealthy winds—nothing like our east wind. +The people here grumble at the north-wester, which sometimes brings rain, +and call it damp, which, as they don’t know what damp is, is excusable; +it feels like a _dry_ south-wester in England. It is, however, quite a +delusion to think of living out of doors, here; the south-easters keep +one in nearly, if not quite, half one’s time, and in summer they say the +sun is too hot to be out except morning and evening. But I doubt that, +for they make an outcry about heat as soon as it is not cold. The +transitions are so sudden, that, with the thermometer at 76°, you must +not go out without taking a thick warm cloak; you may walk into a +south-easter round the first spur of the mountain, and be cut in two. In +short, the air is cold and bracing, and the sun blazing hot; those whom +that suits, will do well. I should like a softer air, but I may be +wrong; when there is only a moderate wind, it is delicious. You walk in +the hot sun, which makes you perspire a very little; but you dry as you +go, the air is so dry; and you come in untired. I speak of slow walking. +There are no hot-climate diseases; no dysentery, fever, &c. + +_Simon’s Bay_, 18_th_ _Nov._—I came on here in a cart, as I felt ill from +the return of the cold weather. While at Rathfelder we had a superb day, +and the J—s drove me over to Constantia, which deserves all its +reputation for beauty. What a divine spot!—such kloofs, with silver +rills running down them! It is useless to describe scenery. It was a +sort of glorified Scotland, with sunshine, flowers, and orange-groves. +We got home hungry and tired, but in great spirits. Alas! next day came +the south-easter—blacker, colder, more cutting, than ever—and lasted a +week. + +The Walkers came over on horseback, and pressed me to go to them. They +are most kind and agreeable people. The drive to Simon’s Bay was lovely, +along the coast and across five beaches of snow-white sand, which look +like winter landscapes; and the mountains and bay are lovely. + +Living is very dear, and washing, travelling, chemist’s bills—all +enormous. Thirty shillings a cart and horse from Rathfelder here—twelve +miles; and then the young English host wanted me to hire another cart for +one box and one bath! But I would not, and my obstinacy was stoutest. +If I want cart or waggon again, I’ll deal with a Malay, only the fellows +drive with forty Jehu-power up and down the mountains. + +A Madagascar woman offered to give me her orphan grandchild, a sweet +brown fairy, six years old, with long silky black hair, and gorgeous +eyes. The child hung about me incessantly all the time I was at +Rathfelder, and I had a great mind to her. She used to laugh like baby, +and was like her altogether, only prettier, and very brown; and when I +told her she was like my own little child, she danced about, and laughed +like mad at the idea that she could look like ‘pretty white Missy’. She +was mighty proud of her needlework and A B C performances. + +It is such a luxury to sleep on a real mattrass—not stuffed with dirty +straw; to eat clean food, and live in a nice room. But my cough is very +bad, and the cruel wind blows on and on. I saw the doctor of the Naval +Hospital here to-day. If I don’t mend, I will try his advice, and go +northward for warmth. If you can find an old Mulready envelope, send it +here to Miss Walker, who collects stamps and has not got it, and write +and thank dear good Lady Walker for her kindness to me. + +You will get this about the new year. God bless you all, and send us +better days in 1862. + + + + +LETTER IV +JOURNEY TO CALEDON + + + Caledon, Dec. 10th. + +I DID not feel at all well at Simon’s Bay, which is a land of hurricanes. +We had a ‘south-easter’ for fourteen days, without an hour’s lull; even +the flag-ship had no communication with the shore for eight days. The +good old naval surgeon there ordered me to start off for this high +‘up-country’ district, and arranged my departure for the first _possible_ +day. He made a bargain for me with a Dutchman, for a light Malay cart (a +capital vehicle with two wheels) and four horses, for 30_s._ a day—three +days to Caledon from Simon’s Bay, about a hundred miles or so, and one +day of back fare to his home in Capetown. + +Luckily, on Saturday the wind dropped, and we started at nine o’clock, +drove to a place about four miles from Capetown, when we turned off on +the ‘country road’, and outspanned at a post-house kept by a nice old +German with a Dutch wife. Once well out of Capetown, people are civil, +but inquisitive; I was strictly cross-questioned, and proved so +satisfactory, that the old man wished to give me some English porter +gratis. We then jogged along again at a very good pace to another +wayside public, where we outspanned again and ate, and were again +questioned, and again made much of. By six o’clock we got to the Eerste +River, having gone forty miles or so in the day. It was a beautiful day, +and very pleasant travelling. We had three good little half-Arab bays, +and one brute of a grey as off-wheeler, who fell down continually; but a +Malay driver works miracles, and no harm came of it. The cart is small, +with a permanent tilt at top, and moveable curtains of waterproof all +round; harness of raw leather, very prettily put together by Malay +workmen. We sat behind, and our brown coachman, with his mushroom hat, +in front, with my bath and box, and a miniature of himself about seven +years old—a nephew,—so small and handy that he would be worth his weight +in jewels as a tiger. At Eerste River we slept in a pretty old Dutch +house, kept by an English woman, and called the Fox and Hound, ‘to sound +like home, my lady.’ Very nice and comfortable it was. + +I started next day at ten; and never shall I forget that day’s journey. +The beauty of the country exceeds all description. Ranges of mountains +beyond belief fantastic in shape, and between them a rolling country, +desolate and wild, and covered with gorgeous flowers among the ‘scrub’. +First we came to Hottentot’s Holland (now called Somerset West), the +loveliest little old Dutch village, with trees and little canals of +bright clear mountain water, and groves of orange and pomegranate, and +white houses, with incredible gable ends. We tried to stop here; but +forage was ninepence a bundle, and the true Malay would rather die than +pay more than he can help. So we pushed on to the foot of the mountains, +and bought forage (forage is oats _au natural_, straw and all, the only +feed known here, where there is no grass or hay) at a farm kept by +English people, who all talked Dutch together; only one girl of the +family could speak English. They were very civil, asked us in, and gave +us unripe apricots, and the girl came down with seven flounces, to talk +with us. Forage was still ninepence—half a dollar a bundle—and +Choslullah Jaamee groaned over it, and said the horses must have less +forage and ‘more plenty roll’ (a roll in the dust is often the only +refreshment offered to the beasts, and seems to do great good). + +We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to the place the Doctor +recommended—formerly a country house of the Dutch Governor. It is in a +lovely spot; but do you remember the Schloss in Immermann’s Neuer +Münchausen? Well, it is that. A ruin;—windows half broken and boarded +up, the handsome steps in front fallen in, and all _en suite_. The rooms +I saw were large and airy; but mud floors, white-washed walls, one chair, +one stump bedstead, and _præterea nihil_. It has a sort of wild, +romantic look; I hear, too, it is wonderfully healthy, and not so bad as +it looks. The long corridor is like the entrance to a great stable, or +some such thing; earth floors and open to all winds. But you can’t +imagine it, however I may describe; it is so huge and strange, and +ruinous. Finding that the mistress of the house was ill, and nothing +ready for our reception, I drove on to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch +mist, came on just as we arrived, and it is damp and chilly, to the +delight of all the dwellers in the land, who love bad weather. It makes +me cough a little more; but they say it is quite unheard of, and can’t +last. Altogether, I suppose this summer here is as that of ’60 was in +England. + +I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal-looking Caffre housemaid at +Eerste River. ‘Such a dear, good creature,’ the landlady said; and, oh, +such a ‘noble savage’!—with a cotton handkerchief folded tight like a +cravat and tied round her head with a bow behind, and the short curly +wool sticking up in the middle;—it looked like a royal diadem on her +solemn brow; she stepped like Juno, with a huge tub full to the brim, and +holding several pailfuls, on her head, and a pailful in each hand, +bringing water for the stables from the river, across a large field. +There is nothing like a Caffre for power and grace; and the face, though +very African, has a sort of grandeur which makes it utterly unlike that +of the negro. That woman’s bust and waist were beauty itself. The +Caffres are also very clean and very clever as servants, I hear, learning +cookery, &c., in a wonderfully short time. When they have saved money +enough to buy cattle in Kaffraria, off they go, cast aside civilization +and clothes, and enjoy life in naked luxury. + +I can’t tell you how I longed for you in my journey. You would have been +so delighted with the country and the queer turn-out—the wild little +horses, and the polite and delicately-clean Moslem driver. His +description of his sufferings from ‘louses’, when he slept in a Dutch +farm, were pathetic, and ever since, he sleeps in his cart, with the +little boy; and they bathe in the nearest river, and eat their lawful +food and drink their water out of doors. They declined beer, or meat +which had been unlawfully killed. In Capetown _all_ meat is killed by +Malays, and has the proper prayer spoken over it, and they will eat no +other. I was offered a fowl at a farm, but Choslullah thought it ‘too +much money for Missus’, and only accepted some eggs. He was gratified at +my recognising the propriety of his saying ‘Bismillah’ over any animal +killed for food. Some drink beer, and drink a good deal, but Choslullah +thought it ‘very wrong for Malay people, and not good for Christian +people, to be drunk beasties;—little wine or beer good for Christians, +but not too plenty much.’ I gave him ten shillings for himself, at which +he was enchanted, and again begged me to write to his master for him when +I wanted to leave Caledon, and to be sure to say, ‘Mind send same +coachman.’ He planned to drive me back through Worcester, Burnt Vley, +Paarl, and Stellenbosch—a longer round; but he could do it in three days +well, so as ‘not cost Missus more money’, and see a different country. + +This place is curiously like Rochefort in the Ardennes, only the hills +are mountains, and the sun is far hotter; not so the air, which is fresh +and pleasant. I am in a very nice inn, kept by an English ex-officer, +who went through the Caffre war, and found his pay insufficient for the +wants of a numerous family. I quite admire his wife, who cooks, cleans, +nurses her babes, gives singing and music lessons,—all as merrily as if +she liked it. I dine with them at two o’clock, and Captain D— has a +_table d’hôte_ at seven for travellers. I pay only 10_s._ 6_d._ a day +for myself and S—; this includes all but wine or beer. The air is very +clear and fine, and my cough is already much better. I shall stay here +as long as it suits me and does me good, and then I am to send for +Choslullah again, and go back by the road he proposed. It rains here now +and then, and blows a good deal, but the wind has lost its bitter chill, +and depressing quality. I hope soon to ride a little and see the +country, which is beautiful. + +The water-line is all red from the iron stone, and there are hot +chalybeate springs up the mountain which are very good for rheumatism, +and very strengthening, I am told. The boots here is a Mantatee, very +black, and called Kleenboy, because he is so little; he is the only sleek +black I have seen here, but looks heavy and downcast. One maid is Irish +(they make the best servants here), a very nice clean girl, and the +other, a brown girl of fifteen, whose father is English, and married to +her mother. Food here is scarce, all but bread and mutton, both good. +Butter is 3_s._ a pound; fruit and vegetables only to be had by chance. +I miss the oranges and lemons sadly. Poultry and milk uncertain. The +bread is good everywhere, from the fine wheat: in the country it is +brownish and sweet. The wine here is execrable; this is owing to the +prevailing indolence, for there is excellent wine made from the Rhenish +grape, rather like Sauterne, with a _soupçon_ of Manzanilla flavour. The +sweet Constantia is also very good indeed; not the expensive sort, which +is made from grapes half dried, and is a liqueur, but a light, sweet, +straw-coloured wine, which even I liked. We drank nothing else at the +Admiral’s. The kind old sailor has given me a dozen of wine, which is +coming up here in a waggon, and will be most welcome. I can’t tell you +how kind he and Lady Walker were; I was there three weeks, and hope to go +again when the south-easter season is over and I can get out a little. I +could not leave the house at all; and even Lady Walker and the girls, who +are very energetic, got out but little. They are a charming family. + +I have no doubt that Dr. Shea was right, and that one must leave the +coast to get a fine climate. Here it seems to me nearly perfect—too +windy for my pleasure, but then the sun would be overpowering without a +fresh breeze. Every one agrees in saying that the winter in Capetown is +delicious—like a fine English summer. In November the south-easters +begin, and they are ‘fiendish’; this year they began in September. The +mornings here are always fresh, not to say cold; the afternoons, from one +to three, broiling; then delightful till sunset, which is deadly cold for +three-quarters of an hour; the night is lovely. The wind rises and falls +with the sun. That is the general course of things. Now and then it +rains, and this year there is a little south-easter, which is quite +unusual, and not odious, as it is near the sea; and there is seldom a hot +wind from the north. I am promised that on or about Christmas-day; then +doors and windows are shut, and you gasp. Hitherto we have had nothing +nearly so hot as Paris in summer, or as the summer of 1859 in England; +and they say it is no hotter, except when the hot wind blows, which is +very rare. Up here, snow sometimes lies, in winter, on the mountain +tops; but ice is unknown, and Table Mountain is never covered with snow. +The flies are pestilent—incredibly noisy, intrusive, and disgusting—and +oh, such swarms! Fleas and bugs not half so bad as in France, as far as +my experience goes, and I have poked about in queer places. + +I get up at half-past five, and walk in the early morning, before the sun +and wind begin to be oppressive; it is then dry, calm, and beautiful; +then I sleep like a Dutchman in the middle of the day. At present it +tires me, but I shall get used to it soon. The Dutch doctor here advised +me to do so, to avoid the wind. + +When all was settled, we climbed the Hottentot’s mountains by Sir Lowry’s +Pass, a long curve round two hill-sides; and what a view! Simon’s Bay +opening out far below, and range upon range of crags on one side, with a +wide fertile plain, in which lies Hottentot’s Holland, at one’s feet. +The road is just wide enough for one waggon, i.e. very narrow. Where the +smooth rock came through, Choslullah gave a little grunt, and the three +bays went off like hippogriffs, dragging the grey with them. By this +time my confidence in his driving was boundless, or I should have +expected to find myself in atoms at the bottom of the precipice. At the +top of the pass we turned a sharp corner into a scene like the crater of +a volcano, only reaching miles away all round; and we descended a very +little and drove on along great rolling waves of country, with the +mountain tops, all crags and ruins, to our left. At three we reached +Palmiet River, full of palmettos and bamboos, and there the horses had ‘a +little roll’, and Choslullah and his miniature washed in the river and +prayed, and ate dry bread, and drank their tepid water out of a bottle +with great good breeding and cheerfulness. Three bullock-waggons had +outspanned, and the Dutch boers and Bastaards (half Hottentots) were all +drunk. We went into a neat little ‘public’, and had porter and ham +sandwiches, for which I paid 4_s._ 6_d._ to a miserable-looking English +woman, who was afraid of her tipsy customers. We got to Houw Hoek, a +pretty valley at the entrance of a mountain gorge, about half-past five, +and drove up to a mud cottage, half inn, half farm, kept by a German and +his wife. It looked mighty queer, but Choslullah said the host was a +good old man, and all clean. So we cheered up, and asked for food. +While the neat old woman was cooking it, up galloped five fine lads and +two pretty flaxen-haired girls, with real German faces, on wild little +horses; and one girl tucked up her habit, and waited at table, while +another waved a green bough to drive off the swarms of flies. The chops +were excellent, ditto bread and butter, and the tea tolerable. The +parlour was a tiny room with a mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, +and the two bedrooms still tinier and darker, each with two huge beds +which filled them entirely. But Choslullah was right; they were +perfectly clean, with heaps of beautiful pillows; and not only none of +the creatures of which he spoke with infinite terror, but even no fleas. +The man was delighted to talk to me. His wife had almost forgotten +German, and the children did not know a word of it, but spoke Dutch and +English. A fine, healthy, happy family. It was a pretty picture of +emigrant life. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry, and pigeons +innumerable, all picked up their own living, and cost nothing; and +vegetables and fruit grow in rank abundance where there is water. I +asked for a book in the evening, and the man gave me a volume of +Schiller. A good breakfast,—and we paid ninepence for all. + +This morning we started before eight, as it looked gloomy, and came +through a superb mountain defile, out on to a rich hillocky country, +covered with miles of corn, all being cut as far as the eye could reach, +and we passed several circular threshing-floors, where the horses tread +out the grain. Each had a few mud hovels near it, for the farmers and +men to live in during harvest. Altogether, I was most lucky, had two +beautiful days, and enjoyed the journey immensely. It was most +‘_abentheuerlich_’; the light two-wheeled cart, with four wild little +horses, and the marvellous brown driver, who seemed to be always going to +perdition, but made the horses do apparently impossible things with +absolute certainty; and the pretty tiny boy who came to help his uncle, +and was so clever, and so preternaturally quiet, and so very small: then +the road through the mountain passes, seven or eight feet wide, with a +precipice above and below, up which the little horses scrambled; while +big lizards, with green heads and chocolate bodies, looked pertly at us, +and a big bright amber-coloured cobra, as handsome as he is deadly, +wriggled across into a hole. + +Nearly all the people in this village are Dutch. There is one Malay +tailor here, but he is obliged to be a Christian at Caledon, though +Choslullah told me with a grin, he was a very good Malay when he went to +Capetown. He did not seem much shocked at this double religion, staunch +Mussulman as he was himself. I suppose the blacks ‘up country’ are what +Dutch slavery made them—mere animals—cunning and sulky. The real +Hottentot is extinct, I believe, in the Colony; what one now sees are all +‘Bastaards’, the Dutch name for their own descendants by Hottentot women. +These mongrel Hottentots, who do all the work, are an affliction to +behold—debased and _shrivelled_ with drink, and drunk all day long; +sullen wretched creatures—so unlike the bright Malays and cheery pleasant +blacks and browns of Capetown, who never pass you without a kind word and +sunny smile or broad African grin, _selon_ their colour and shape of +face. I look back fondly to the gracious soft-looking Malagasse woman +who used to give me a chair under the big tree near Rathfelders, and a +cup of ‘bosjesthée’ (herb tea), and talk so prettily in her soft +voice;—it is such a contrast to these poor animals, who glower at one +quite unpleasantly. All the hovels I was in at Capetown were very fairly +clean, and I went into numbers. They almost all contained a handsome +bed, with, at least, eight pillows. If you only look at the door with a +friendly glance, you are implored to come in and sit down, and usually +offered a ‘coppj’ (cup) of herb tea, which they are quite grateful to one +for drinking. I never saw or heard a hint of ‘backsheesh’, nor did I +ever give it, on principle and I was always recognised and invited to +come again with the greatest eagerness. ‘An indulgence of talk’ from an +English ‘Missis’ seemed the height of gratification, and the pride and +pleasure of giving hospitality a sufficient reward. But here it is quite +different. I suppose the benefits of the emancipation were felt at +Capetown sooner than in the country, and the Malay population there +furnishes a strong element of sobriety and respectability, which sets an +example to the other coloured people. + +Harvest is now going on, and the so-called Hottentots are earning 2_s._ +6_d._ a day, with rations and wine. But all the money goes at the +‘canteen’ in drink, and the poor wretched men and women look wasted and +degraded. The children are pretty, and a few of them are half-breed +girls, who do very well, unless a white man admires them; and then they +think it quite an honour to have a whitey-brown child, which happens at +about fifteen, by which age they look full twenty. + +We had very good snipe and wild duck the other day, which Capt. D— +brought home from a shooting party. I have got the moth-like wings of a +golden snipe for R—’s hat, and those of a beautiful moor-hen. They got +no ‘boks’, because of the violent south-easter which blew where they +were. The game is fast decreasing, but still very abundant. I saw +plenty of partridges on the road, but was not early enough to see boks, +who only show at dawn; neither have I seen baboons. I will try to bring +home some cages of birds—Cape canaries and ‘roode bekjes’ (red bills), +darling little things. The sugar-birds, which are the humming-birds of +Africa, could not be fed; but Caffre finks, which weave the pendent +nests, are hardy and easily fed. + +To-day the post for England leaves Caledon, so I must conclude this yarn. +I wish R— could have seen the ‘klip springer’, the mountain deer of South +Africa, which Capt. D— brought in to show me. Such a lovely little +beast, as big as a small kid, with eyes and ears like a hare, and a nose +so small and dainty. It was quite tame and saucy, and belonged to some +man _en route_ for Capetown. + + + + +LETTER V +CALEDON + + + Caledon, Dec. 29th. + +I AM beginning now really to feel better: I think my cough is less, and I +eat a great deal more. They cook nice clean food here, and have some +good claret, which I have been extravagant enough to drink, much to my +advantage. The Cape wine is all so fiery. The climate is improving too. +The glorious African sun blazes and roasts one, and the cool fresh +breezes prevent one from feeling languid. I walk from six till eight or +nine, breakfast at ten, and dine at three; in the afternoon it is +generally practicable to saunter again, now the weather is warmer. I +sleep from twelve till two. On Christmas-eve it was so warm that I lay +in bed with the window wide open, and the stars blazing in. Such stars! +they are much brighter than our moon. The Dutchmen held high jinks in +the hall, and danced and made a great noise. On New Year’s-eve they will +have another ball, and I shall look in. Christmas-day was the hottest +day—indeed, the only _hot_ day we have had—and I could not make it out at +all, or fancy you all cold at home. + +I wish you were here to see the curious ways and new aspect of +everything. This village, which, as I have said, is very like Rochefort, +but hardly so large, is the _chef lieu_ of a district the size of +one-third of England. A civil commander resides here, a sort of +_préfet_; and there is an embryo market-place, with a bell hanging in a +brick arch. When a waggon arrives with goods, it draws up there, they +ring the bell, everybody goes to see what is for sale, and the goods are +sold by auction. My host bought potatoes and brandy the other day, and +is looking out for ostrich feathers for me, out of the men’s hats. + +The other day, while we sat at dinner, all the bells began to ring +furiously, and Capt. D— jumped up and shouted ‘_Brand_!’ (fire), rushed +off for a stout leather hat, and ran down the street. Out came all the +population, black, white, and brown, awfully excited, for it was blowing +a furious north-wester, right up the town, and the fire was at the +bottom; and as every house is thatched with a dry brown thatch, we might +all have to turn out and see the place in ashes in less than an hour. +Luckily, it was put out directly. It is supposed to have been set on +fire by a Hottentot girl, who has done the same thing once before, on +being scolded. There is no water but what runs down the streets in the +_sloot_, a paved channel, which brings the water from the mountain and +supplies the houses and gardens. A garden is impossible without +irrigation, of course, as it never rains; but with it, you may have +everything, all the year round. The people, however, are too careless to +grow fruit and vegetables. + +How the cattle live is a standing marvel to me. The whole _veld_ +(common), which extends all over the country (just dotted with a few +square miles of corn here and there), is covered with a low thin scrub, +about eighteen inches high, called _rhenoster-bosch_—looking like meagre +arbor vitæ or pale juniper. The cattle and sheep will not touch this nor +the juicy Hottentot fig; but under each little bush, I fancy, they crop a +few blades of grass, and on this they keep in very good condition. The +noble oxen, with their huge horns (nine or ten feet from tip to tip), are +never fed, though they work hard, nor are the sheep. The horses get a +little forage (oats, straw and all). I should like you to see eight or +ten of these swift wiry little horses harnessed to a waggon,—a mere flat +platform on wheels. In front stands a wild-looking Hottentot, all +patches and feathers, and drives them best pace, all ‘in hand’, using a +whip like a fishing-rod, with which he touches them, not savagely, but +with a skill which would make an old stage-coachman burst with envy to +behold. This morning, out on the veld, I watched the process of +breaking-in a couple of colts, who were harnessed, after many struggles, +second and fourth in a team of ten. In front stood a tiny foal cuddling +its mother, one of the leaders. When they started, the foal had its neck +through the bridle, and I hallooed in a fright; but the Hottentot only +laughed, and in a minute it had disengaged itself quite coolly and +capered alongside. The colts tried to plunge, but were whisked along, +and couldn’t, and then they stuck out all four feet and _skidded_ along a +bit; but the rhenoster bushes tripped them up (people drive regardless of +roads), and they shook their heads and trotted along quite subdued, +without a blow or a word, for the drivers never speak to the horses, only +to the oxen. Colts here get no other breaking, and therefore have no +paces or action to the eye, but their speed and endurance are wonderful. +There is no such thing as a cock-tail in the country, and the waggon +teams of wiry little thoroughbreds, half Arab, look very strange to our +eyes, going full tilt. There is a terrible murrain, called the +lung-sickness, among horses and oxen here, every four or five years, but +it never touches those that are stabled, however exposed to wet or wind +on the roads. + +I must describe the house I inhabit, as all are much alike. It is +whitewashed, with a door in the middle and two windows on each side; +those on the left are Mrs. D—’s bed and sitting rooms. On the right is a +large room, which is mine; in the middle of the house is a spacious hall, +with doors into other rooms on each side, and into the kitchen, &c. +There is a yard behind, and a staircase up to the _zolder_ or loft, under +the thatch, with partitions, where the servants and children, and +sometimes guests, sleep. There are no ceilings; the floor of the zolder +is made of yellow wood, and, resting on beams, forms the ceiling of my +room, and the thatch alone covers that. No moss ever grows on the +thatch, which is brown, with white ridges. In front is a stoep, with +‘blue gums’ (Australian gum-trees) in front of it, where I sit till +twelve, when the sun comes on it. These trees prevail here greatly, as +they want neither water nor anything else, and grow with incredible +rapidity. + +We have got a new ‘boy’ (all coloured servants are ‘boys,’—a remnant of +slavery), and he is the type of the nigger slave. A thief, a liar, a +glutton, a drunkard—but you can’t resent it; he has a _naïf_, +half-foolish, half-knavish buffoonery, a total want of self-respect, +which disarms you. I sent him to the post to inquire for letters, and +the postmaster had been tipsy over-night and was not awake. Jack came +back spluttering threats against ‘dat domned Dutchman. Me no _want_ +(like) him; me go and kick up dom’d row. What for he no give Missis +letter?’ &c. I begged him to be patient; on which he bonneted himself in +a violent way, and started off at a pantomime walk. Jack is the product +of slavery: he pretends to be a simpleton in order to do less work and +eat and drink and sleep more than a reasonable being, and he knows his +buffoonery will get him out of scrapes. Withal, thoroughly good-natured +and obliging, and perfectly honest, except where food and drink are +concerned, which he pilfers like a monkey. He worships S—, and won’t +allow her to carry anything, or to dirty her hands, if he is in the way +to do it. Some one suggested to him to kiss her, but he declined with +terror, and said he should be hanged by my orders if he did. He is a +hideous little negro, with a monstrous-shaped head, every colour of the +rainbow on his clothes, and a power of making faces which would enchant a +schoolboy. The height of his ambition would be to go to England with me. + +An old ‘bastaard’ woman, married to the Malay tailor here, explained to +me my popularity with the coloured people, as set forth by ‘dat Malay +boy’, my driver. He told them he was sure I was a ‘very great Missis’, +because of my ‘plenty good behaviour’; that I spoke to him just as to a +white gentleman, and did not ‘laugh and talk nonsense talk’. ‘Never say +“Here, you black fellow”, dat Misses.’ The English, when they mean to be +good-natured, are generally offensively familiar, and ‘talk nonsense +talk’, i.e. imitate the Dutch English of the Malays and blacks; the +latter feel it the greatest compliment to be treated _au sérieux_, and +spoken to in good English. Choslullah’s theory was that I must be +related to the Queen, in consequence of my not ‘knowing bad behaviour’. +The Malays, who are intelligent and proud, of course feel the annoyance +of vulgar familiarity more than the blacks, who are rather awe-struck by +civility, though they like and admire it. + +Mrs. D— tells me that the coloured servant-girls, with all their faults, +are immaculately honest in these parts; and, indeed, as every door and +window is always left open, even when every soul is out, and nothing +locked up, there must be no thieves. Captain D— told me he had been in +remote Dutch farmhouses, where rouleaux of gold were ranged under the +thatch on the top of the low wall, the doors being always left open; and +everywhere the Dutch boers keep their money by them, in coin. + +_Jan._ 3_d._—We have had tremendous festivities here—a ball on New +Year’s-eve, and another on the 1st of January—and the shooting for Prince +Alfred’s rifle yesterday. The difficulty of music for the ball was +solved by the arrival of two Malay bricklayers to build the new +parsonage, and I heard with my own ears the proof of what I had been told +as to their extraordinary musical gifts. When I went into the hall, a +Dutchman was _screeching_ a concertina hideously. Presently in walked a +yellow Malay, with a blue cotton handkerchief on his head, and a +half-bred of negro blood (very dark brown), with a red handkerchief, and +holding a rough tambourine. The handsome yellow man took the concertina +which seemed so discordant, and the touch of his dainty fingers +transformed it to harmony. He played dances with a precision and feeling +quite unequalled, except by Strauss’s band, and a variety which seemed +endless. I asked him if he could read music, at which he laughed +heartily, and said, music came into the ears, not the eyes. He had +picked it all up from the bands in Capetown, or elsewhere. + +It was a strange sight,—the picturesque group, and the contrast between +the quiet manners of the true Malay and the grotesque fun of the +half-negro. The latter made his tambourine do duty as a drum, rattled +the bits of brass so as to produce an indescribable effect, nodded and +grinned in wild excitement, and drank beer while his comrade took water. +The dancing was uninteresting enough. The Dutchmen danced badly, and +said not a word, but plodded on so as to get all the dancing they could +for their money. I went to bed at half-past eleven, but the ball went on +till four. + +Next night there was genteeler company, and I did not go in, but lay in +bed listening to the Malay’s playing. He had quite a fresh set of tunes, +of which several were from the ‘Traviata’! + +Yesterday was a real African summer’s day. The D—s had a tent and an +awning, one for food and the other for drink, on the ground where the +shooting took place. At twelve o’clock Mrs. D— went down to sell cold +chickens, &c., and I went with her, and sat under a tree in the bed of +the little stream, now nearly dry. The sun was such as in any other +climate would strike you down, but here _coup de soleil_ is unknown. It +broils you till your shoulders ache and your lips crack, but it does not +make you feel the least languid, and you perspire very little; nor does +it tan the skin as you would expect. The light of the sun is by no means +‘golden’—it is pure white—and the slightest shade of a tree or bush +affords a delicious temperature, so light and fresh is the air. They +said the thermometer was at about 130° where I was walking yesterday, but +(barring the scorch) I could not have believed it. + +It was a very amusing day. The great tall Dutchmen came in to shoot, and +did but moderately, I thought. The longest range was five hundred yards, +and at that they shot well; at shorter ranges, poorly enough. The best +man made ten points. But oh! what figures were there of negroes and +coloured people! I longed for a photographer. Some coloured lads were +exquisitely graceful, and composed beautiful _tableaux vivants_, after +Murillo’s beggar-boys. + +A poor little, very old Bosjesman crept up, and was jeered and bullied. +I scolded the lad who abused him for being rude to an old man, whereupon +the poor little old creature squatted on the ground close by (for which +he would have been kicked but for me), took off his ragged hat, and sat +staring and nodding his small grey woolly head at me, and jabbering some +little soliloquy very _sotto voce_. There was something shocking in the +timidity with which he took the plate of food I gave him, and in the way +in which he ate it, with the _wrong_ side of his little yellow hand, like +a monkey. A black, who had helped to fetch the hamper, suggested to me +to give him wine instead of meat and bread, and make him drunk _for fun_ +(the blacks and Hottentots copy the white man’s manners _to them_, when +they get hold of a Bosjesman to practise upon); but upon this a handsome +West Indian black, who had been cooking pies, fired up, and told him he +was a ‘nasty black rascal, and a Dutchman to boot’, to insult a lady and +an old man at once. If you could see the difference between one negro +and another, you would be quite convinced that education (i.e. +circumstances) makes the race. It was hardly conceivable that the +hideous, dirty, bandy-legged, ragged creature, who looked down on the +Bosjesman, and the well-made, smart fellow, with his fine eyes, jaunty +red cap, and snow-white shirt and trousers, alert as the best German +Kellner, were of the same blood; nothing but the colour was alike. + +Then came a Dutchman, and asked for six penn’orth of ‘brood en kaas’, and +haggled for beer; and Englishmen, who bought chickens and champagne +without asking the price. One rich old boer got three lunches, and then +‘trekked’ (made off) without paying at all. Then came a Hottentot, +stupidly drunk, with a fiddle, and was beaten by a little red-haired +Scotchman, and his fiddle smashed. The Hottentot hit at his aggressor, +who then declared he _had been_ a policeman, and insisted on taking him +into custody and to the ‘Tronk’ (prison) on his own authority, but was in +turn sent flying by a gigantic Irishman, who ‘wouldn’t see the poor baste +abused’. The Irishman was a farmer; I never saw such a Hercules—and +beaming with fun and good nature. He was very civil, and answered my +questions, and talked like an intelligent man; but when Captain D— asked +him with an air of some anxiety, if he was coming to the hotel, he +replied, ‘No, sir, no; I wouldn’t be guilty of such a misdemeanour. I am +aware that I was a disgrace and opprobrium to your house, sir, last time +I was there, sir. No, sir, I shall sleep in my cart, and not come into +the presence of ladies.’ Hereupon he departed, and I was informed that +he had been drunk for seventeen days, _sans désemparer_, on his last +visit to Caledon. However, he kept quite sober on this occasion, and +amused himself by making the little blackies scramble for halfpence in +the pools left in the bed of the river. Among our customers was a very +handsome black man, with high straight nose, deep-set eyes, and a small +mouth, smartly dressed in a white felt hat, paletot, and trousers. He is +the shoemaker, and is making a pair of ‘Veldschoen’ for you, which you +will delight in. They are what the rough boers and Hottentots wear, +buff-hide barbarously tanned and shaped, and as soft as woollen socks. +The Othello-looking shoemaker’s name is Moor, and his father told him he +came of a ‘good breed’; that was all he knew. + +A very pleasing English farmer, who had been educated in Belgium, came +and ordered a bottle of champagne, and shyly begged me to drink a glass, +whereupon we talked of crops and the like; and an excellent specimen of a +colonist he appeared: very gentle and unaffected, with homely good sense, +and real good breeding—such a contrast to the pert airs and vulgarity of +Capetown and of the people in (colonial) high places. Finding we had no +carriage, he posted off and borrowed a cart of one man and harness of +another, and put his and his son’s riding horses to it, to take Mrs. D— +and me home. As it was still early, he took us a ‘little drive’; and oh, +ye gods! what a terrific and dislocating pleasure was that! At a hard +gallop, Mr. M— (with the mildest and steadiest air and with perfect +safety) took us right across country. It is true there were no fences; +but over bushes, ditches, lumps of rock, watercourses, we jumped, flew, +and bounded, and up every hill we went racing pace. I arrived at home +much bewildered, and feeling more like Bürger’s Lenore than anything +else, till I saw Mr. M—’s steady, pleasant face quite undisturbed, and +was informed that such was the way of driving of Cape farmers. + +We found the luckless Jack in such a state of furious drunkenness that he +had to be dismissed on the spot, not without threats of the ‘Tronk’, and +once more Kleenboy fills the office of boots. He returned in a ludicrous +state of penitence and emaciation, frankly admitting that it was better +to work hard and get ‘plenty grub’, than to work less and get +none;—still, however, protesting against work at all. + +_January_ 7_th_.—For the last four days it has again been blowing a +wintry hurricane. Every one says that the continuance of these winds so +late into the summer (this answers to July) is unheard of, and _must_ +cease soon. In Table Bay, I hear a good deal of mischief has been done +to the shipping. + +I hope my long yarns won’t bore you. I put down what seems new and +amusing to me at the moment, but by the time it reaches you, it will seem +very dull and commonplace. I hear that the Scotchman who attacked poor +Aria, the crazy Hottentot, is a ‘revival lecturer’, and was ‘simply +exhorting him to break his fiddle and come to Christ’ (the phrase is a +clergyman’s, I beg to observe); and the saints are indignant that, after +executing the pious purpose as far as the fiddle went, he was prevented +by the chief constable from dragging him to the Tronk. The ‘revival’ +mania has broken out rather violently in some places; the infection was +brought from St. Helena, I am told. At Capetown, old Abdool Jemaalee +told me that English Christians were getting more like Malays, and had +begun to hold ‘Kalifahs’ at Simon’s Bay. These are festivals in which +Mussulman fanatics run knives into their flesh, go into convulsions, &c, +to the sound of music, like the Arab described by Houdin. Of course the +poor blacks go quite demented. + +I intend to stay here another two or three weeks, and then to go to +Worcester—stay a bit; Paarl, ditto; Stellenbosch, ditto—and go to +Capetown early in March, and in April to embark for home. + +_January_ 15_th_.—No mail in yet. We have had beautiful weather the last +three days. Captain D— has been in Capetown, and bought a horse, which +he rode home seventy-five miles in a day and a half,—the beast none the +worse nor tired. I am to ride him, and so shall see the country if the +vile cold winds keep off. + +This morning I walked on the Veld, and met a young black shepherd leading +his sheep and goats, and playing on a guitar composed of an old tin mug +covered with a bit of sheepskin and a handle of rough wood, with pegs, +and three strings of sheep-gut. I asked him to sing, and he flung +himself at my feet in an attitude that would make Watts crazy with +delight, and _crooned_ queer little mournful ditties. I gave him +sixpence, and told him not to get drunk. He said, ‘Oh no; I will buy +bread enough to make my belly stiff—I almost never had my belly stiff.’ +He likewise informed me he had just been in the Tronk (prison), and on my +asking why, replied: ‘Oh, for fighting, and telling lies;’ Die liebe +Unschuld! (Dear innocence!) + +Hottentot figs are rather nice—a green fig-shaped thing, containing about +a spoonful of _salt-sweet_ insipid glue, which you suck out. This does +not sound nice, but it is. The plant has a thick, succulent, triangular +leaf, creeping on the ground, and growing anywhere, without earth or +water. Figs proper are common here, but tasteless; and the people pick +all their fruit green, and eat it so too. The children are all crunching +hard peaches and plums just now, particularly some little half-breeds +near here, who are frightfully ugly. Fancy the children of a black woman +and a red-haired man; the little monsters are as black as the mother, and +have _red_ wool—you never saw so diabolical an appearance. Some of the +coloured people are very pretty; for example, a coal-black girl of +seventeen, and my washerwoman, who is brown. They are wonderfully +slender and agile, and quite old hard-working women have waists you could +span. They never grow thick and square, like Europeans. + +I could write a volume on Cape horses. Such valiant little beasts, and +so composed in temper, I never saw. They are nearly all bays—a few very +dark grey, which are esteemed; _very_ few white or light grey. I have +seen no black, and only one dark chestnut. They are not cobs, and look +‘very little of them’, and have no beauty; but one of these little +brutes, ungroomed, half-fed, seldom stabled, will carry a +six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles a day, day after day, at a +shuffling easy canter, six miles an hour. You ‘off saddle’ every three +hours, and let him roll; you also let him drink all he can get; his coat +shines and his eye is bright, and unsoundness is very rare. They are +never properly broke, and the soft-mouthed colts are sometimes made +vicious by the cruel bits and heavy hands; but by nature their temper is +perfect. + +Every morning all the horses in the village are turned loose, and a +general gallop takes place to the water tank, where they drink and lounge +a little; and the young ones are fetched home by their niggers, while the +old stagers know they will be wanted, and saunter off by themselves. I +often attend the Houyhnhnm _conversazione_ at the tank, at about seven +o’clock, and am amused by their behaviour; and I continually wish I could +see Ned’s face on witnessing many equine proceedings here. To see a +farmer outspan and turn the team of active little beasts loose on the +boundless veld to amuse themselves for an hour or two, sure that they +will all be there, would astonish him a little; and then to offer a horse +nothing but a roll in the dust to refresh himself withal! + +One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of horses and oxen along the +roadside; or at times a fresh carcase surrounded by a convocation of huge +serious-looking carrion crows, with neat white neck-cloths. The +skeletons look like wrecks, and make you feel very lonely on the wide +veld. In this district, and in most, I believe, the roads are mere +tracks over the hard, level earth, and very good they are. When one gets +rutty, you drive parallel to it, till the bush is worn out and a new +track is formed. + +_January_ 17_th_.—Lovely weather all the week. Summer well set in. + + + + +LETTER VI +CALEDON + + + Caledon, January 19th. + +DEAREST MOTHER, + +Till this last week, the weather was pertinaciously cold and windy; and I +had resolved to go to Worcester, which lies in a ‘Kessel’, and is really +hot. But now the glorious African summer is come, and I believe this is +the weather of Paradise. I got up at four this morning, when the +Dutchmen who had slept here were starting in their carts and waggons. It +was quite light; but the moon shone brilliantly still, and had put on a +bright rose-coloured veil, borrowed from the rising sun on the opposite +horizon. The freshness (without a shadow of cold or damp) of the air was +indescribable—no dew was on the ground. I went up the hill-side, along +the ‘Sloot’ (channel, which supplies all our water), into the ‘Kloof’ +between the mountains, and clambered up to the ‘Venster Klip’, from which +natural window the view is very fine. The flowers are all gone and the +grass all dead. Rhenoster boschjes and Hottentot fig are green +everywhere, and among the rocks all manner of shrubs, and far too much +‘Wacht een beetje’ (_Wait a bit_), a sort of series of natural +fish-hooks, which try the robustest patience. Between seven and eight, +the sun gets rather hot, and I came in and _tubbed_, and sat on the stoep +(a sort of terrace, in front of every house in South Africa). I +breakfast at nine, sit on the stoep again till the sun comes round, and +then retreat behind closed shutters from the stinging sun. The _air_ is +fresh and light all day, though the sun is tremendous; but one has no +languid feeling or desire to lie about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at +two or half-past, and at four or five the heat is over, and one puts on a +shawl to go out in the afternoon breeze. The nights are cool, so as +always to want one blanket. I still have a cough; but it is getting +better, so that I can always eat and walk. Mine host has just bought a +horse, which he is going to try with a petticoat to-day, and if he goes +well I shall ride. + +I like this inn-life, because I see all the ‘neighbourhood’—farmers and +traders—whom I like far better than the _gentility_ of Capetown. I have +given letters to England to a ‘boer’, who is ‘going home’, i.e. to +Europe, the _first of his race since the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes_, when some poor refugees were inveigled hither by the Dutch +Governor, and oppressed worse than the Hottentots. M. de Villiers has +had no education _at all_, and has worked, and traded, and farmed,—but +the breed tells; he is a pure and thorough Frenchman, unable to speak a +word of French. When I went in to dinner, he rose and gave me a chair +with a bow which, with his appearance, made me ask, ‘_Monsieur vient +d’arriver_?’ This at once put him out and pleased him. He is very +unlike a Dutchman. If you think that any of the French will feel as I +felt to this far-distant brother of theirs, pray give him a few letters; +but remember that he can speak only English and Dutch, and a little +German. Here his name is _called_ ‘Filljee’, but I told him to drop that +barbarism in Europe; De Villiers ought to speak for itself. He says they +came from the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. + +The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old Pylades, Heer Ley, are great +cronies of mine—stout old greybeards, toddling down the hill together. I +sometimes go and sit on the stoep with the two old bachelors, and they +take it as a great compliment; and Heer Klein gave me my letters all +decked with flowers, and wished ‘Vrolyke tydings, Mevrouw,’ most +heartily. He has also made his tributary mail-cart Hottentots bring from +various higher mountain ranges the beautiful everlasting flowers, which +will make pretty wreaths for J—. When I went to his house to thank him, +I found a handsome Malay, with a basket of ‘Klipkaus’, a shell-fish much +esteemed here. Old Klein told me they were sent him by a Malay who was +born in his father’s house, a slave, and had been _his_ ‘_boy_’ and +play-fellow. Now, the slave is far richer than the old young master, and +no waggon comes without a little gift—oranges, fish, &c.—for ‘Wilhem’. +When Klein goes to Capetown, the old Malay seats him in a grand chair and +sits on a little wooden stool at his feet; Klein begs him, as ‘Huisheer’, +to sit properly; but, ‘Neen Wilhem, Ik zal niet; ik kan niet vergeten.’ +‘Good boy!’ said old Klein; ‘good people the Malays.’ It is a relief, +after the horrors one has heard of Dutch cruelty, to see such an +‘idyllisches Verhältniss’. I have heard other instances of the same +fidelity from Malays, but they were utterly unappreciated, and only told +to prove the excellence of slavery, and ‘how well the rascals must have +been off’. + +I have fallen in love with a Hottentot baby here. Her mother is all +black, with a broad face and soft spaniel eyes, and the father is +Bastaard; but the baby (a girl, nine months old), has walked out of one +of Leonardo da Vinci’s pictures. I never saw so beautiful a child. She +has huge eyes with the spiritual look he gives to them, and is exquisite +in every way. When the Hottentot blood is handsome, it is beautiful; +there is a delicacy and softness about some of the women which is very +pretty, and the eyes are those of a _good_ dog. Most of them are +hideous, and nearly all drink; but they are very clean and honest. Their +cottages are far superior in cleanliness to anything out of England, +except in picked places, like some parts of Belgium; and they wash as +much as they can, with the bad water-supply, and the English outcry if +they strip out of doors to bathe. Compared to French peasants, they are +very clean indeed, and even the children are far more decent and cleanly +in their habits than those of France. The woman who comes here to clean +and scour is a model of neatness in her work and her person (quite +black), but she gets helplessly drunk as soon as she has a penny to buy a +glass of wine; for a penny, a half-pint tumbler of very strong and +remarkably nasty wine is sold at the canteens. + +I have many more ‘humours’ to tell, but A— can show you all the long +story I have written. I hope it does not seem very stale and _decies +repetita_. All being new and curious to the eye here, one becomes +long-winded about mere trifles. + +One small thing more. The first few shillings that a coloured woman has +to spend on her cottage go in—what do you think?—A grand toilet table of +worked muslin over pink, all set out with little ‘_objets_’—such as they +are: if there is nothing else, there is that here, as at Capetown, and +all along to Simon’s Bay. Now, what is the use or comfort of a +_duchesse_ to a Hottentot family? I shall never see those toilets again +without thinking of Hottentots—what a baroque association of ideas! I +intend, in a day or two, to go over to ‘Gnadenthal’, the Moravian +missionary station, founded in 1736—the ‘blühende Gemeinde von +Hottentoten’. How little did I think to see it, when we smiled at the +phrase in old Mr. Steinkopf’s sermon years ago in London! The +_missionarized_ Hottentots are not, as it is said, thought well of—being +even tipsier than the rest; but I may see a full-blood one, and even a +true Bosjesman, which is worth a couple of hours’ drive; and the place is +said to be beautiful. + +This climate is evidently a styptic of great power, I shall write a few +lines to the _Lancet_ about Caledon and its hot baths—‘Bad Caledon’, as +the Germans at Houw Hoek call it. The baths do not concern me, as they +are chalybeate; but they seem very effectual in many cases. Yet English +people never come here; they stay at Capetown, which must be a furnace +now, or at Wynberg, which is damp and chill (comparatively); at most, +they get to Stellenbosch. I mean visitors, not settlers; _they_ are +everywhere. I look the colour of a Hottentot. Now I _must_ leave off. + + Your most affectionate + L. D. G. + + + + +LETTER VII +GNADENTHAL + + + Caledon, Jan. 28th. + +WELL, I have been to Gnadenthal, and seen the ‘blooming parish’, and a +lovely spot it is. A large village nestled in a deep valley, surrounded +by high mountains on three sides, and a lower range in front. We started +early on Saturday, and drove over a mighty queer road, and through a +river. Oh, ye gods! what a shaking and pounding! We were rattled up +like dice in a box. Nothing but a Cape cart, Cape horses, and a +Hottentot driver, above all, could have accomplished it. Captain D— +rode, and had the best of it. On the road we passed three or four farms, +at all which horses were _galloping out_ the grain, or men were winnowing +it by tossing it up with wooden shovels to let the wind blow away the +chaff. We did the twenty-four miles up and down the mountain roads in +two hours and a half, with our valiant little pair of horses; it is +incredible how they go. We stopped at a nice cottage on the hillside +belonging to a _ci-devant_ slave, one Christian Rietz, a _white_ man, +with brown woolly hair, sharp features, grey eyes, and _not_ woolly +moustaches. He said he was a ‘Scotch bastaard’, and ‘le bon sang +parlait—très-haut même’, for a more thriving, shrewd, sensible fellow I +never saw. His _father_ and master had had to let him go when all slaves +were emancipated, and he had come to Gnadenthal. He keeps a little inn +in the village, and a shop and a fine garden. The cottage we lodged in +was on the mountain side, and had been built for his son, who was dead; +and his adopted daughter, a pretty coloured girl, exactly like a southern +Frenchwoman, waited on us, assisted by about six or seven other women, +who came chiefly to stare. Vrouw Rietz was as black as a coal, but _so_ +pretty!—a dear, soft, sleek, old lady, with beautiful eyes, and the kind +pleasant ways which belong to nice blacks; and, though old and fat, still +graceful and lovely in face, hands, and arms. The cottage was thus:—One +large hall; my bedroom on the right, S—’s on the left; the kitchen behind +me; Miss Rietz behind S—; mud floors daintily washed over with fresh +cow-dung; ceiling of big rafters, just as they had grown, on which rested +bamboo canes close together _across_ the rafters, and bound together +between each, with transverse bamboo—a pretty _beehivey_ effect; at top, +mud again, and then a high thatched roof and a loft or zolder for forage, +&c.; the walls of course mud, very thick and whitewashed. The bedrooms +tiny; beds, clean sweet melies (maize) straw, with clean sheets, and +eight good pillows on each; glass windows (a great distinction), +exquisite cleanliness, and hearty civility; good food, well cooked; +horrid tea and coffee, and hardly any milk; no end of fruit. In all the +gardens it hung on the trees thicker than the leaves. Never did I behold +such a profusion of fruit and vegetables. + +But first I must tell what struck me most, I asked one of the Herrenhut +brethren whether there were any _real_ Hottentots, and he said, ‘Yes, +one;’ and next morning, as I sat waiting for early prayers under the big +oak-trees in the Plaats (square), he came up, followed by a tiny old man +hobbling along with a long stick to support him. ‘Here’, said he, ‘is +the _last_ Hottentot; he is a hundred and seven years old, and lives all +alone.’ I looked on the little, wizened, yellow face, and was shocked +that he should be dragged up like a wild beast to be stared at. A +feeling of pity which felt like remorse fell upon me, and my eyes filled +as I rose and stood before him, so tall and like a tyrant and oppressor, +while he uncovered his poor little old snow-white head, and peered up in +my face. I led him to the seat, and helped him to sit down, and said in +Dutch, ‘Father, I hope you are not tired; you are old.’ He saw and heard +as well as ever, and spoke good Dutch in a firm voice. ‘Yes, I am above +a hundred years old, and alone—quite alone.’ I sat beside him, and he +put his head on one side, and looked curiously up at me with his faded, +but still piercing little wild eyes. Perhaps he had a perception of what +I felt—yet I hardly think so; perhaps he thought I was in trouble, for he +crept close up to me, and put one tiny brown paw into my hand, which he +stroked with the other, and asked (like most coloured people) if I had +children. I said, ‘Yes, at home in England;’ and he patted my hand +again, and said, ‘God bless them!’ It was a relief to feel that he was +pleased, for I should have felt like a murderer if my curiosity had added +a moment’s pain to so tragic a fate. + +This may sound like sentimentalism; but you cannot conceive the effect of +looking on the last of a race once the owners of all this land, and now +utterly gone. His look was not quite human, physically speaking;—a good +head, small wild-beast eyes, piercing and restless; cheek-bones strangely +high and prominent, nose _quite_ flat, mouth rather wide; thin shapeless +lips, and an indescribably small, long, pointed chin, with just a very +little soft white woolly beard; his head covered with extremely short +close white wool, which ended round the poll in little ringlets. Hands +and feet like an English child of seven or eight, and person about the +size of a child of eleven. He had all his teeth, and though shrunk to +nothing, was very little wrinkled in the face, and not at all in the +hands, which were dark brown, while his face was yellow. His manner, and +way of speaking were like those of an old peasant in England, only his +voice was clearer and stronger, and his perceptions not blunted by age. +He had travelled with one of the missionaries in the year 1790, or +thereabouts, and remained with them ever since. + +I went into the church—a large, clean, rather handsome building, +consecrated in 1800—and heard a very good sort of Litany, mixed with such +singing as only black voices can produce. The organ was beautifully +played by a Bastaard lad. The Herrenhuters use very fine chants, and the +perfect ear and heavenly voices of a large congregation, about six +hundred, all coloured people, made music more beautiful than any +chorus-singing I ever heard. + +Prayers lasted half an hour; then the congregation turned out of doors, +and the windows were opened. Some of the people went away, and others +waited for the ‘allgemeine Predigt’. In a quarter of an hour a much +larger congregation than the first assembled, the girls all with +net-handkerchiefs tied round their heads so as to look exactly like the +ancient Greek head-dress with a double fillet—the very prettiest and +neatest coiffure I ever saw. The gowns were made like those of English +girls of the same class, but far smarter, cleaner, and gayer in +colour—pink, and green, and yellow, and bright blue; several were all in +white, with white gloves. The men and women sit separate, and the +women’s side was a bed of tulips. The young fellows were very smart +indeed, with muslin or gauze, either white, pink, or blue, rolled round +their hats (that is universal here, on account of the sun). The +Hottentots, as they are called—that is, those of mixed Dutch and +Hottentot origin (correctly, ‘bastaards’)—have a sort of blackguard +elegance in their gait and figure which is peculiar to them; a mixture of +negro or Mozambique blood alters it altogether. The girls have the +elegance without the blackguard look; _all_ are slender, most are tall; +all graceful, all have good hands and feet; some few are handsome in the +face and many very interesting-looking. The complexion is a pale +olive-yellow, and the hair more or less woolly, face flat, and cheekbones +high, eyes small and bright. These are by far the most +intelligent—equal, indeed, to whites. A mixture of black blood often +gives real beauty, but takes off from the ‘air’, and generally from the +talent; but then the blacks are so pleasant, and the Hottentots are +taciturn and reserved. The old women of this breed are the grandest hags +I ever saw; they are clean and well dressed, and tie up their old faces +in white handkerchiefs like corpses,—faces like those of Andrea del +Sarto’s old women; they are splendid. Also, they are very clean people, +addicted to tubbing more than any others. The maid-of-all-work, who +lounges about your breakfast table in rags and dishevelled hair, has been +in the river before you were awake, or, if that was too far off, in a +tub. They are also far cleaner in their huts than any but the _very +best_ English poor. + +The ‘Predigt’ was delivered, after more singing, by a missionary +cabinet-maker, in Dutch, very ranting, and not very wise; the +congregation was singularly decorous and attentive, but did not seem at +all excited or impressed—just like a well-bred West-end audience, only +rather more attentive. The service lasted three-quarters of an hour, +including a short prayer and two hymns. The people came out and filed +off in total silence, and very quickly, the tall graceful girls draping +their gay silk shawls beautifully. There are seven missionaries, all in +orders but one, the blacksmith, and all married, except the resident +director of the boys’ boarding-school; there is a doctor, a carpenter, a +cabinet-maker, a shoe-maker, and a storekeeper—a very agreeable man, who +had been missionary in Greenland and Labrador, and interpreter to +MacClure. There is one ‘Studirter Theolog’. All are Germans, and so are +their wives. My friend the storekeeper married without having ever +beheld his wife before they met at the altar, and came on board ship at +once with her. He said it was as good a way of marrying as any other, +and that they were happy together. She was lying in, so I did not see +her. At eight years old, their children are all sent home to Germany to +be educated, and they seldom see them again. On each side of the church +are schools, and next to them the missionaries’ houses on one side of the +square, and on the other a row of workshops, where the Hottentots are +taught all manner of trades. I have got a couple of knives, made at +Gnadenthal, for the children. The girls occupy the school in the +morning, and the boys in the afternoon; half a day is found quite enough +of lessons in this climate. The infant school was of both sexes, but a +different set morning and afternoon. The missionaries’ children were in +the infant school; and behind the little blonde German ‘Mädels’ three jet +black niggerlings rolled over each other like pointer-pups, and grinned, +and didn’t care a straw for the spelling; while the dingy yellow little +bastaards were straining their black eyes out, with eagerness to answer +the master’s questions. He and the mistress were both Bastaards, and he +seemed an excellent teacher. The girls were learning writing from a +master, and Bible history from a mistress, also people of colour; and the +stupid set (mostly black) were having spelling hammered into their thick +skulls by another yellow mistress, in another room. At the boarding +school were twenty lads, from thirteen up to twenty, in training for +school-teachers at different stations. Gnadenthal supplies the Church of +England with them, as well as their own stations. There were Caffres, +Fingoes, a Mantatee, one boy evidently of some Oriental blood, with +glossy, smooth hair and a copper skin—and the rest Bastaards of various +hues, some mixed with black, probably Mozambique. The Caffre lads were +splendid young Hercules’. They had just printed the first book in the +Caffre language (I’ve got it for Dr. Hawtrey,)—extracts from the New +Testament,—and I made them read the sheets they were going to bind; it is +a beautiful language, like Spanish in tone, only with a queer ‘click’ in +it. The boys drew, like Chinese, from ‘copies’, and wrote like +copper-plate; they sang some of Mendelssohn’s choruses from ‘St. Paul’ +splendidly, the Caffres rolling out soft rich bass voices, like melodious +thunder. They are clever at handicrafts, and fond of geography and +natural history, incapable of mathematics, quick at languages, utterly +incurious about other nations, and would all rather work in the fields +than learn anything but music; good boys, honest, but ‘_trotzig_’. So +much for Caffres, Fingoes, &c. The Bastaards are as clever as whites, +and more docile—so the ‘rector’ told me. The boy who played the organ +sang the ‘Lorelei’ like an angel, and played us a number of waltzes and +other things on the piano, but he was too shy to talk; while the Caffres +crowded round me, and chattered away merrily. The Mantatees, whom I +cannot distinguish from Caffres, are scattered all over the colony, and +rival the English as workmen and labourers—fine stalwart, industrious +fellows. Our little ‘boy’ Kleenboy hires a room for fifteen shillings a +month, and takes in his compatriots as lodgers at half a crown a week—the +usurious little rogue! His chief, one James, is a bricklayer here, and +looks and behaves like a prince. It is fine to see his black arms, +ornamented with silver bracelets, hurling huge stones about. + +All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being well watered, but it is not +healthy for whites; I imagine, too hot and damp. There are three or four +thousand coloured people there, under the control of the missionaries, +who allow no canteens at all. The people may have what they please at +home, but no public drinking-place is allowed, and we had to take our own +beer and wine for the three days. The gardens and burial-ground are +beautiful, and the square is entirely shaded by about ten or twelve +superb oaks; nothing prettier can be conceived. It is not popular in the +neighbourhood. ‘You see it makes the d-d niggers cheeky’ to have homes +of their own—and the girls are said to be immoral. As to that, there are +no so-called ‘morals’ among the coloured people, and how or why should +there? It is an honour to one of these girls to have a child by a white +man, and it is a degradation to him to marry a dark girl. A pious stiff +old Dutchwoman who came here the other day for the Sacrament (which takes +place twice a year), had one girl with her, big with child by her son, +who also came for the Sacrament, and two in the straw at home by the +other son; this caused her exactly as much emotion as I feel when my cat +kittens. No one takes any notice, either to blame or to nurse the poor +things—they scramble through it as pussy does. The English are almost +equally contemptuous; but there is one great difference. My host, for +instance, always calls a black ‘a d-d nigger’; but if that nigger is +wronged or oppressed he fights for him, or bails him out of the Tronk, +and an English jury gives a just verdict; while a Dutch one simply finds +for a Dutchman, against any one else, and _always_ against a dark man. I +believe this to be true, from what I have seen and heard; and certainly +the coloured people have a great preference for the English. + +I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest Mozambiquer I have yet seen, +a bricklayer’s labourer, who can speak English, and says he was servant +to an English Captain—‘Oh, a good fellow he was, only he’s dead!’ He now +insists on my taking him as a servant. ‘I dessay your man at home is a +good chap, and I’ll be a good boy, and cook very nice.’ He is thick-set +and short and strong. Nature has adorned him with a cock eye and a yard +of mouth, and art, with a prodigiously tall white chimney-pot hat with +the crown out, a cotton nightcap, and a wondrous congeries of rags. He +professes to be cook, groom, and ‘walley’, and is sure you would be +pleased with his attentions. + +Well, to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered all over the village on +Sunday afternoon, and peeped into the cottages. All were neat and clean, +with good dressers of crockery, the _very_ poorest, like the worst in +Weybridge sandpits; but they had no glass windows, only a wooden shutter, +and no doors; a calico curtain, or a sort of hurdle supplying its place. +The people nodded and said ‘Good day!’ but took no further notice of me, +except the poor old Hottentot, who was seated on a doorstep. He rose and +hobbled up to meet me and take my hand again. He seemed to enjoy being +helped along and seated down carefully, and shook and patted my hand +repeatedly when I took leave of him. At this the people stared a good +deal, and one woman came to talk to me. + +In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, and saw the people go in +to ‘Abendsegen’. The church was lighted, and as I sat there and heard +the lovely singing, I thought it was impossible to conceive a more +romantic scene. On Monday I saw all the schools, and then looked at the +great strong Caffre lads playing in the square. One of them stood to be +pelted by five or six others, and as the stones came, he twisted and +turned and jumped, and was hardly ever hit, and when he was, he didn’t +care, though the others hurled like catapults. It was the most wonderful +display of activity and grace, and quite incredible that such a huge +fellow should be so quick and light. When I found how comfortable dear +old Mrs. Rietz made me, I was sorry I had hired the cart and kept it to +take me home, for I would gladly have stayed longer, and the heat did me +no harm; but I did not like to throw away a pound or two, and drove back +that evening. Mrs. Rietz, told me her mother was a Mozambiquer. ‘And +your father?’ said I. ‘Oh, I don’t know. _My mother was only a slave_.’ +She, too, was a slave, but said she ‘never knew it’, her ‘missus’ was so +good; a Dutch lady, at a farm I had passed, on the road, who had a +hundred and fifty slaves. I liked my Hottentot hut amazingly, and the +sweet brown bread, and the dinner cooked so cleanly on the bricks in the +kitchen. The walls were whitewashed and adorned with wreaths of +everlasting flowers and some quaint old prints from Loutherburg—pastoral +subjects, not exactly edifying. + +Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu for the present. + +_February_ 3_d_.—Many happy returns of your birthday, dear —. I had a +bottle of champagne to drink your health, and partly to swell the bill, +which these good people make so moderate, that I am half ashamed. I get +everything that Caledon can furnish for myself and S— for 15_l._ a month. + +On Saturday we got the sad news of Prince Albert’s death, and it created +real consternation here. What a thoroughly unexpected calamity! Every +one is already dressed in deep mourning. It is more general than in a +village of the same size at home—(how I have caught the colonial trick of +always saying ‘home’ for England! Dutchmen who can barely speak English, +and never did or will see England, equally talk of ‘news from home’). It +also seems, by the papers of the 24th of December, which came by a +steamer the other day, that war is imminent. I shall have to wait for +convoy, I suppose, as I object to walking the plank from a Yankee +privateer. I shall wait here for the next mail, and then go back to +Capetown, stopping by the way, so as to get there early in March, and +arrange for my voyage. The weather had a relapse into cold, and an +attempt at rain. Pity it failed, for the drought is dreadful this year, +chiefly owing to the unusual quantity of sharp drying winds—a most +unlucky summer for the country and for me. + +My old friend Klein, who told me several instances of the kindness and +gratitude of former slaves, poured out to me the misery he had undergone +from the ‘ingratitude’ of a certain Rosina, a slave-girl of his. She was +in her youth handsome, clever, the best horsebreaker, bullock-trainer and +driver, and hardest worker in the district. She had two children by +Klein, then a young fellow; six by another white man, and a few more by +two husbands of her own race! But she was of a rebellious spirit, and +took to drink. After the emancipation, she used to go in front of +Klein’s windows and read the statute in a loud voice on every anniversary +of the day; and as if that did not enrage him enough, she pertinaciously +(whenever she was a little drunk) kissed him by main force every time she +met him in the street, exclaiming, ‘Aha! when I young and pretty +slave-girl you make kiss me then; now I ugly, drunk, dirty old devil and +free woman, I kiss you!’ Frightful retributive justice! I struggled +hard to keep my countenance, but the fat old fellow’s good-humoured, +rueful face was too much for me. His tormentor is dead, but he retains a +painful impression of her ‘ingratitude ‘. + +Our little Mantatee ‘Kleenboy’ has again, like Jeshurun, ‘waxed fat and +kicked’, as soon as he had eaten enough to be once more plump and shiny. +After his hungry period, he took to squatting on the stoep, just in front +of the hall-door, and altogether declining to do anything; so he is +superseded by an equally ugly little red-headed Englishman. The Irish +housemaid has married the German baker (a fine match for her!), and a +dour little Scotch Presbyterian has come up from Capetown in her place. +Such are the vicissitudes of colonial house-keeping! The only +‘permanency’ is the old soldier of Captain D—’s regiment, who is barman +in the canteen, and not likely to leave ‘his honour’, and the coloured +girl, who improves on acquaintance. She wants to ingratiate herself with +me, and get taken to England. Her father is an Englishman, and of course +the brown mother and her large family always live in the fear of his +‘going home’ and ignoring their existence; a _marriage_ with the mother +of his children would be too much degradation for him to submit to. Few +of the coloured people are ever married, but they don’t separate oftener +than _really_ married folks. Bill, the handsome West Indian black, +married my pretty washerwoman Rosalind, and was thought rather assuming +because he was asked in church and lawfully married; and she wore a +handsome lilac silk gown and a white wreath and veil, and very well she +looked in them. She had a child of two years old, which did not at all +disconcert Bill; but he continues to be dignified, and won’t let her go +and wash clothes in the river, because the hot sun makes her ill, and it +is not fit work for women. + +_Sunday_, 9_th_.—Last night a dance took place in a house next door to +this, and a party of boers attempted to go in, but were repulsed by a +sortie of the young men within. Some of the more peaceable boers came in +here and wanted ale, which was refused, as they were already very +_vinous_; so they imbibed ginger-beer, whereof one drank thirty-four +bottles to his own share! Inspired by this drink, they began to quarrel, +and were summarily turned out. They spent the whole night, till five +this morning, scuffling and vociferating in the street. The constables +discreetly stayed in bed, displaying the true Dogberry spirit, which +leads them to take up Hottentots, drunk or sober, to show their zeal, but +carefully to avoid meddling with stalwart boers, from six to six and a +half feet high and strong in proportion. The jabbering of Dutch brings +to mind Demosthenes trying to outroar a stormy sea with his mouth full of +pebbles. The hardest blows are those given with the tongue, though much +pulling of hair and scuffling takes place. ‘Verdomde +Schmeerlap!’—‘Donder and Bliksem! am I a verdomde Schmeerlap?’—‘Ja, u +is,’ &c., &c. I could not help laughing heartily as I lay in bed, at +hearing the gambols of these Titan cubs; for this is a boer’s notion of +enjoying himself. This morning, I hear, the street was strewn with the +hair they had pulled out of each other’s heads. All who come here make +love to S—; not by describing their tender feelings, but by enumerating +the oxen, sheep, horses, land, money, &c., of which they are possessed, +and whereof, by the law of this colony, she would become half-owner on +marriage. There is a fine handsome Van Steen, who is very persevering; +but S— does not seem to fancy becoming Mevrouw at all. The demand for +English girls as wives is wonderful here. The nasty cross little ugly +Scotch maid has had three offers already, in one fortnight! + +_February_ 18_th_.—I expect to receive the letters by the English mail +to-morrow morning, and to go to Worcester on Thursday. On Saturday the +young doctor—good-humoured, jolly, big, young Dutchman—drove me, with his +pretty little greys, over to two farms; at one I ate half a huge melon, +and at the other, uncounted grapes. We poor Europeans don’t know what +fruit _can be_, I must admit. The melon was a foretaste of paradise, and +the grapes made one’s fingers as sticky as honey, and had a muscat +fragrance quite inconceivable. They looked like amber eggs. The best of +it is, too, that in this climate stomach-aches are not. We all eat +grapes, peaches, and figs, all day long. Old Klein sends me, for my own +daily consumption, about thirty peaches, three pounds of grapes, and +apples, pears, and figs besides—‘just a little taste of fruits’; only +here they will pick it all unripe. + +_February_ 19_th_.—The post came in late last night, and old Klein kindly +sent me my letters at near midnight. The post goes out this evening, and +the hot wind is blowing, so I can only write to you, and a line to my +mother. I feel really better now. I think the constant eating of grapes +has done me much good. + +The Dutch cart-owner was so extortionate, that I am going to wait a few +days, and write to my dear Malay to come up and drive me back. It is +better than having to fight the Dutch monopolist in every village, and +getting drunken drivers and bad carts after all. I shall go round all +the same. The weather has been beautiful; to-day there is a wind, which +comes about two or three times in the year: it is not depressing, but +hot, and a bore, because one must shut every window or be stifled with +dust. + +The people are burning the veld all about, and the lurid smoke by day and +flaming hill-sides by night are very striking. The ashes of the Bosh +serve as manure for the young grass, which will sprout in the autumn +rains. Such nights! Such a moon! I walk out after dark when it is mild +and clear, and can read any print by the moonlight, and see the distant +landscape as well as by day. + +Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, and the skin and hoofs, which +are pretty. + + + + +LETTER VIII + + + Caledon, Sunday. + +YOU must have fallen into second childhood to think of _printing_ such +rambling hasty scrawls as I write. I never could write a good letter; +and unless I gallop as hard as I can, and don’t stop to think, I can say +nothing; so all is confused and unconnected: only I fancy _you_ will be +amused by some of my ‘impressions’. I have written to my mother an +accurate account of my health. I am dressed and out of doors never later +than six, now the weather makes it possible. It is surprising how little +sleep one wants. I go to bed at ten and often am up at four. + +I made friends here the other day with a lively dried-up little old +Irishman, who came out at seven years old a pauper-boy. He has made a +fortune by ‘going on _Togt_’ (_German_, _Tausch_), as thus; he charters +two waggons, twelve oxen each, and two Hottentots to each waggon, leader +and driver. The waggons he fills with cotton, hardware, &c., &c.—an +ambulatory village ‘shop’,—and goes about fifteen miles a day, on and on, +into the far interior, swapping baftas (calico), punjums (loose +trowsers), and voerschitz (cotton gownpieces), pronounced ‘foossy’, +against oxen and sheep. When all is gone he swaps his waggons against +more oxen and a horse, and he and his four ‘totties’ drive home the +spoil; and he has doubled or trebled his venture. _En route_ home, each +day they kill a sheep, and eat it _all_. ‘What!’ says I; ‘the whole?’ +‘Every bit. I always take one leg and the liver for myself, and the +totties roast the rest, and melt all the fat and entrails down in an iron +pot and eat it with a wooden spoon.’ _Je n’en revenais pas_. ‘What! the +whole leg and liver at one meal?’ ‘Every bit; ay, and you’d do the same, +ma’am, if you were there.’ No bread, no salt, no nothing—mutton and +water. The old fellow was quite poetic and heroic in describing the joys +and perils of Togt. I said I should like to go too; and he bewailed +having settled a year ago in a store at Swellendam, ‘else he’d ha’ fitted +up a waggon all nice and snug for me, and shown me what going on togt was +like. Nothing like it for the health, ma’am; and beautiful shooting.’ +My friend had 700_l._ in gold in a carpet bag, without a lock, lying +about on the stoep. ‘All right; nobody steals money or such like here. +I’m going to pay bills in Capetown.’ + +Tell my mother that a man would get from 2_l._ to 4_l._ a month wages, +with board, lodging, &c., all found, and his wife from 1_l._ 10_s._ to +2_l._ a month and everything found, according to abilities and +testimonials. Wages are enormous, and servants at famine price; emigrant +ships are _cleared off_ in three days, and every ragged Irish girl in +place somewhere. Four pounds a month, and food for self, husband, and +children, is no uncommon pay for a good cook; and after all her cookery +may be poor enough. My landlady at Capetown gave that. The housemaid +had _only_ 1_l._ 5_s._ a month, but told me herself she had taken 8_l._ +in one week in ‘tips’. She was an excellent servant. Up country here +the wages are less, but the comfort greater, and the chances of ‘getting +on’ much increased. But I believe Algoa Bay or Grahamstown are by far +the best fields for new colonists, and (I am assured) the best climate +for lung diseases. The wealthy English merchants of Port Elizabeth +(Algoa Bay) pay best. It seems to me, as far as I can learn, that every +really _working_ man or woman can thrive here. + +My German host at Houw Hoek came out twenty-three years ago, he told me, +without a ‘heller’, and is now the owner of cattle and land and horses to +a large amount. But then the Germans work, while the Dutch dawdle and +the English drink. ‘New wine’ is a penny a glass (half a pint), enough +to blow your head off, and ‘Cape smoke’ (brandy, like vitriol) ninepence +a bottle—that is the real calamity. If the Cape had the grape disease as +badly as Madeira, it would be the making of the colony. + +I received a message from my Malay friends, Abdool Jemaalee and Betsy, +anxious to know ‘if the Misses had good news of her children, for bad +news would make her sick’. Old Betsy and I used to prose about young +Abdurrachman and his studies at Mecca, and about my children, with more +real heartiness than you can fancy. We were not afraid of boring each +other; and pious old Abdool sat and nodded and said, ‘May Allah protect +them all!’ as a refrain;—‘Allah, il Allah!’ + + + + +LETTER IX + + + Caledon, Feb. 21st. + +THIS morning’s post brought your packet, and the announcement of an extra +mail to-night—so I can send you a P.S. I hear that Capetown has been +pestilential, and as hot as Calcutta. It is totally undrained, and the +Mozambiquers are beginning to object to acting as scavengers to each +separate house. The ‘_vidanges_’ are more barbarous even than in Paris. +Without the south-easter (or ‘Cape doctor’) they must have fevers, &c.; +and though too rough a practitioner for me, he benefits the general +health. Next month the winds abate, but last week an omnibus was blown +over on the Rondebosch road, which is the most sheltered spot, and +inhabited by Capetown merchants. I have received all the _Saturday +Reviews_ quite safe, likewise the books, Mendelssohn’s letters, and the +novel. I have written for my dear Choslullah to fetch me. The Dutch +farmers don’t know how to charge enough; moreover, the Hottentot drivers +get drunk, and for two lone women that is not the thing. I pay my gentle +Malay thirty shillings a day, which, for a cart and four and such a jewel +of a driver, is not outrageous; and I had better pay that for the few +days I wait on the road, than risk bad carts, tipsy Hottentots, and +extortionate boers. + +This intermediate country between the ‘Central African wilderness’ and +Capetown has been little frequented. I went to the Church Mission School +with the English clergyman yesterday. You know I don’t believe in every +kind of missionaries, but I do believe that, in these districts, kind, +judicious English clergymen are of great value. The Dutch pastors still +remember the distinction between ‘Christenmenschen’ and ‘Hottentoten’; +but the Church Mission Schools teach the Anglican Catechism to every +child that will learn, and the congregation is as piebald as Harlequin’s +jacket. A pretty, coloured lad, about eleven years old, answered my +questions in geography with great quickness and some wit. I said, ‘Show +me the country you belong to.’ He pointed to England, and when I +laughed, to the cape. ‘This is where we are, but that is the country I +_belong to_.’ I asked him how we were governed, and he answered quite +right. ‘How is the Cape governed?’ ‘Oh, we have a Parliament too, and +Mr. Silberbauer is the man _we_ send.’ Boys and girls of all ages were +mixed, but no blacks. I don’t think they will learn, except on +compulsion, as at Gnadenthal. + +I regret to say that Bill’s wife has broken his head with a bottle, at +the end of the honeymoon. I fear the innovation of being _married at +church_ has not had a good effect, and that his neighbours may quote Mr. +Peachum. + +I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I hardly think it would be an +agreeable addition to the household at Esher. + +I hear that Worcester, Paarl, and Stellenbosch are beautiful, and the +road very desolate and grand: one mountain pass takes six hours to cross. +I should not return to Capetown so early, but poor Captain J— has had his +leg smashed and amputated, so I must look out for myself in the matter of +ships. Whenever it is hot, I am well, for the heat here is so _light_ +and dry. The wind tries me, but we have little here compared to the +coast. I hope that the voyage home will do me still more good; but I +will not sail till April, so as to arrive in June. May, in the Channel, +would not do. + +How I wish I could send you the fruit now on my table—amber-coloured +grapes, yellow waxen apples streaked with vermillion in fine little +lines, huge peaches, and tiny green figs! I must send dear old Klein a +little present from England, to show that I don’t forget my Dutch adorer. +I wish I could bring you the ‘Biltong ‘ he sent me—beef or bok dried in +the sun in strips, and slightly salted; you may carry enough in your +pocket to live on for a fortnight, and it is very good as a little +‘relish’. The partridges also have been welcome, and we shall eat the +tiny haunch of bok to-day. + +Mrs. D— is gone to Capetown to get servants (the Scotch girl having +carried on her amours too flagrantly), and will return in my cart. S— is +still keeping house meanwhile, much perturbed by the placid indolence of +the brown girl. The stableman cooks, and very well too. This is +colonial life—a series of makeshifts and difficulties; but the climate is +fine, people feel well and make money, and I think it is not an unhappy +life. I have been most fortunate in my abode, and can say, without +speaking cynically, that I have found ‘my warmest welcome at an inn’. +Mine host is a rough soldier, but the very soul of good nature and good +feeling; and his wife is a very nice person—so cheerful, clever, and +kindhearted. + +I should like to bring home the little Madagascar girl from Rathfelders, +or a dear little mulatto who nurses a brown baby here, and is so clean +and careful and ‘pretty behaved’,—but it would be a great risk. The +brown babies are ravishing—so fat and jolly and funny. + +One great charm of the people here is, that no one expects money or +gifts, and that all civility is gratis. Many a time I finger small coin +secretly in my pocket, and refrain from giving it, for fear of spoiling +this innocence. I have not once seen a _look_ implying ‘backsheesh’, and +begging is unknown. But the people are reserved and silent, and have not +the attractive manners of the darkies of Capetown and the neighbourhood. + + + + +LETTER X + + + Caledon, Feb. 22d. + +Yesterday Captain D— gave me a very nice caross of blessbok skins, which +he got from some travelling trader. The excellence of the Caffre +skin-dressing and sewing is, I fancy, unequalled; the bok-skins are as +soft as a kid glove, and have no smell at all. + +In the afternoon the young doctor drove me, in his little gig-cart and +pair (the lightest and swiftest of conveyances), to see a wine-farm. The +people were not at work, but we saw the tubs and vats, and drank ‘most’. +The grapes are simply trodden by a Hottentot, in a tub with a sort of +strainer at the bottom, and then thrown—skins, stalks, and all—into vats, +where the juice ferments for twice twenty-four hours; after which it is +run into casks, which are left with the bung out for eight days; then the +wine is drawn off into another cask, a little sulphur and brandy are +added to it, and it is bunged down. Nothing can be conceived so +barbarous. I have promised Mr. M— to procure and send him an exact +account of the process in Spain. It might be a real service to a most +worthy and amiable man. Dr. M— also would be glad of a copy. They +literally know nothing about wine-making here, and with such matchless +grapes I am sure it ought to be good. Altogether, ‘der alte Schlendrian’ +prevails at the Cape to an incredible degree. + +If two ‘Heeren M—’ call on you, please be civil to them. I don’t know +them personally, but their brother is the doctor here, and the most +good-natured young fellow I ever saw. If I were returning by Somerset +instead of Worcester, I might put up at their parents’ house and be sure +of a welcome; and I can tell you civility to strangers is by no means of +course here. I don’t wonder at it; for the old Dutch families _are +gentlefolks_ of the good dull old school, and the English colonists can +scarcely suit them. In the few instances in which I have succeeded in +_thawing_ a Dutchman, I have found him wonderfully good-natured; and the +different manner in which I was greeted when in company with the young +doctor showed the feeling at once. The dirt of a Dutch house is not to +be conceived. I have had sights in bedrooms in very respectable houses +which I dare not describe. The coloured people are just as clean. The +young doctor (who is much Anglicised) tells me that, in illness, he has +to break the windows in the farmhouses—they are built not to open! The +boers are below the English in manners and intelligence, and hate them +for their ‘go-ahead’ ways, though _they_ seem slow enough to me. As to +drink, I fancy it is six of one and half a dozen of the other; but the +English are more given to eternal drams, and the Dutch to solemn drinking +bouts. I can’t understand either, in this climate, which is so +stimulating, that I more often drink ginger-beer or water than wine—a +bottle of sherry lasted me a fortnight, though I was ordered to drink it; +somehow, I had no mind to it. + +27_th_.—The cart could not be got till the day before yesterday, and +yesterday Mrs. D— arrived in it with two new Irish maids; it saved her +3_l._, and I must have paid equally. The horses were very tired, having +been hard at work carrying Malays all the week to Constantia and back, on +a pilgrimage to the tomb of a Mussulman saint; so to-day they rest, and +to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp. Choslullah has been appointed driver of +a post-cart; he tried hard to be allowed to pay a _remplaçant_, and to +fetch ‘his missis’, but was refused leave; and so a smaller and blacker +Malay has come, whom Choslullah threatened to curse heavily if he failed +to take great care of ‘my missis’ and be a ‘good boy’. Ramadan begins on +Sunday, and my poor driver can’t even prepare for it by a good feast, as +no fowls are to be had here just now, and he can’t eat profanely-killed +meat. Some pious Christian has tried to burn a Mussulman martyr’s tomb +at Eerste River, and there were fears the Malays might indulge in a +little revenge; but they keep quiet. I am to go with my driver to eat +some of the feast (of Bairam, is it not?) at his priest’s when Ramadan +ends, if I am in Capetown, and also am asked to a wedding at a relation +of Choslullah’s. It was quite a pleasure to hear the kindly Mussulman +talk, after these silent Hottentots. The Malays have such agreeable +manners; so civil, without the least cringing or Indian obsequiousness. +I dare say they can be very ‘insolent’ on provocation; but I have always +found among them manners like old-fashioned French ones, but quieter; and +they have an affectionate way of saying ‘_my_ missis’ when they know one, +which is very nice to hear. It is getting quite chilly here already; +_cold_ night and morning; and I shall be glad to descend off this plateau +into the warmer regions of Worcester, &c. I have just bought _eight_ +splendid ostrich feathers for 1_l._ of my old Togthandler friend. In +England they would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings each. I +have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you; the latter makes a +saddle-cloth which defies sore backs; they were given me by Klein and a +farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh was poor stuff, white and papery. +The Hottentots can’t ‘bray’ the skins as the Caffres do; and the woman +who did mine asked me for a trifle beforehand, and got so drunk that she +let them dry halfway in the process, consequently they don’t look so +well. + + Worcester, Sunday, March 2d. + +Oh, such a journey! Such country! Pearly mountains and deep blue sky, +and an impassable pass to walk down, and baboons, and secretary birds, +and tortoises! I couldn’t sleep for it all last night, tired as I was +with the unutterably bad road, or track rather. + +Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten o’clock, and though the weather +had been cold and unpleasant for two days, I had a lovely morning, and +away we went to Villiersdorp (pronounced Filjeesdorp). It is quite a +tiny village, in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley. We were four hours +on the road, winding along the side of a mountain ridge, which we finally +crossed, with a splendid view of the sea at the far-distant end of a huge +amphitheatre formed by two ridges of mountains, and on the other side the +descent into Filjeesdorp. The whole way we saw no human being or +habitation, except one shepherd, from the time we passed Buntje’s kraal, +about two miles out of Caledon. The little drinking-shop would not hold +travellers, so I went to the house of the storekeeper (as the clergyman +of Caledon had told me I might), and found a most kind reception. Our +host was English, an old man-of-war’s man, with a gentle, kindly Dutch +wife, and the best-mannered children I have seen in the colony. They +gave us clean comfortable beds and a good dinner, and wine ten years in +the cellar; in short, the best of hospitality. I made an effort to pay +for the entertainment next morning, when, after a good breakfast, we +started loaded with fruit, but the kind people would not hear of it, and +bid me good-bye like old friends. At the end of the valley we went a +little up-hill, and then found ourselves at the top of a pass down into +the level below. S— and I burst out with one voice, ‘How beautiful!’ +Sabaal, our driver, thought the exclamation was an ironical remark on the +road, which, indeed, appeared to be exclusively intended for goats. I +suggested walking down, to which, for a wonder, the Malay agreed. I was +really curious to see him get down with two wheels and four horses, where +I had to lay hold from time to time in walking. The track was +excessively steep, barely wide enough, and as slippery as a flagstone +pavement, being the naked mountain-top, which is bare rock. However, all +went perfectly right. + +How shall I describe the view from that pass? In front was a long, long +level valley, perhaps three to five miles broad (I can’t judge distance +in this atmosphere; a house that looks a quarter of a mile off is two +miles distant). At the extreme end, in a little gap between two low +brown hills that crossed each other, one could just see Worcester—five +hours’ drive off. Behind it, and on each side the plain, mountains of +every conceivable shape and colour; the strangest cliffs and peaks and +crags toppling every way, and tinged with all the colours of opal; +chiefly delicate, pale lilac and peach colour, but varied with red brown +and Titian green. In spite of the drought, water sparkled on the +mountain-sides in little glittering threads, and here and there in the +plain; and pretty farms were dotted on either side at the very bottom of +the slopes toward the mountain-foot. The sky of such a blue! (it is +deeper now by far than earlier in the year). In short, I never did see +anything so beautiful. It even surpassed Hottentot’s Holland. On we +went, straight along the valley, crossing drift after drift;—a drift is +the bed of a stream more or less dry; in which sometimes you are drowned, +sometimes only _pounded_, as was our hap. The track was incredibly bad, +except for short bits, where ironstone prevailed. However, all went +well, and on the road I chased and captured a pair of remarkably swift +and handsome little ‘Schelpats’. That you may duly appreciate such a +feat of valour and activity, I will inform you that their English name is +‘tortoise’. On the strength of this effort, we drank a bottle of beer, +as it was very hot and sandy; and our Malay was a _wet_ enough Mussulman +to take his full share in a modest way, though he declined wine or ‘Cape +smoke Soopjes’ (drams) with aversion. No sooner had we got under weigh +again, than Sabaal pulled up and said, ‘There _are_ the Baviāans Missis +want to see!’ and so they were. At some distance by the river was a +great brute, bigger than a Newfoundland dog, stalking along with the +hideous baboon walk, and tail vehemently cocked up; a troop followed at a +distance, hiding and dodging among the palmiets. They were evidently _en +route_ to rob a garden close to them, and had sent a great stout fellow +ahead to reconnoitre. ‘He see Missis, and feel sure she not got a gun; +if man come on horseback, you see ’em run like devil.’ We had not that +pleasure, and left them, on felonious thoughts intent. + +The road got more and more beautiful as we neared Worcester, and the +mountains grew higher and craggier. Presently, a huge bird, like a stork +on the wing, pounced down close by us. He was a secretary-bird, and had +caught sight of a snake. We passed ‘Brant Vley’ (_burnt_ or hot spring), +where sulphur-water bubbles up in a basin some thirty feet across and ten +or twelve deep. The water is clear as crystal, and is hot enough just +_not_ to boil an egg, I was told. At last, one reaches the little gap +between the brown hills which one has seen for four hours, and drives +through it into a wide, wide flat, with still craggier and higher +mountains all round, and Worcester in front at the foot of a towering +cliff. The town is not so pretty, to my taste, as the little villages. +The streets are too wide, and the market-place too large, which always +looks dreary, but the houses and gardens individually are charming. Our +inn is a very nice handsome old Dutch house; but we have got back to +‘civilization’, and the horrid attempts at ‘style’ which belong to +Capetown. The landlord and lady are too genteel to appear at all, and +the Hottentots, who are disguised, according to their sexes, in pantry +jacket and flounced petticoat, don’t understand a word of English or of +real Dutch. At Gnadenthal they understood Dutch, and spoke it tolerably; +but here, as in most places, it is three-parts Hottentot; and then they +affect to understand English, and bring everything wrong, and are sulky: +but the rooms are very comfortable. The change of climate is +complete—the summer was over at Caledon, and here we are into it +again—the most delicious air one can conceive; it must have been a +perfect oven six weeks ago. The birds are singing away merrily still; +the approach of autumn does not silence them here. The canaries have a +very pretty song, like our linnet, only sweeter; the rest are very +inferior to ours. The sugar-bird is delicious when close by, but his +pipe is too soft to be heard at any distance. + +To those who think voyages and travels tiresome, my delight in the new +birds and beasts and people must seem very stupid. I can’t help it if it +does, and am not ashamed to confess that I feel the old sort of enchanted +wonder with which I used to read Cook’s voyages, and the like, as a +child. It is very coarse and unintellectual of me; but I would rather +see this now, at my age, than Italy; the fresh, new, beautiful nature is +a second youth—or _childhood_—_si vous voulez_. To-morrow we shall cross +the highest pass I have yet crossed, and sleep at Paarl—then +Stellenbosch, then Capetown. For any one _out_ of health, and _in_ +pocket, I should certainly prescribe the purchase of a waggon and team of +six horses, and a long, slow progress in South Africa. One cannot walk +in the midday sun, but driving with a very light roof over one’s head is +quite delicious. When I looked back upon my dreary, lonely prison at +Ventnor, I wondered I had survived it at all. + + Capetown, March 7th. + +After writing last, we drove out, on Sunday afternoon, to a deep alpine +valley, to see a _new bridge_—a great marvel apparently. The old Spanish +Joe Miller about selling the bridge to buy water occurred to me, and made +Sabaal laugh immensely. The Dutch farmers were tearing home from Kerk, +in their carts—well-dressed, prosperous-looking folks, with capital +horses. Such lovely farms, snugly nestled in orange and pomegranate +groves! It is of no use to describe this scenery; it is always +mountains, and always beautiful opal mountains; quite without the gloom +of European mountain scenery. The atmosphere must make the charm. I +hear that an English traveller went the same journey and found all barren +from Dan to Beersheba. I’m sorry for him. + +In the morning of Sunday, early, I walked along the road with Sabaal, and +saw a picture I shall never forget. A little Malabar girl had just been +bathing in the Sloot, and had put her scanty shift on her lovely little +wet brown body; she stood in the water with the drops glittering on her +brown skin and black, satin hair, the perfection of youthful loveliness—a +naiad of ten years old. When the shape and features are _perfect_, as +hers were, the coffee-brown shows it better than our colour, on account +of its perfect _evenness_—like the dead white of marble. I shall never +forget her as she stood playing with the leaves of the gum-tree which +hung over her, and gazing with her glorious eyes so placidly. + +On Monday morning, I walked off early to the old _Drosdy_ (Landdrost’s +house), found an old gentleman, who turned out to be the owner, and who +asked me my name and all the rest of the Dutch ‘litanei’ of questions, +and showed me the pretty old Dutch garden and the house—a very handsome +one. I walked back to breakfast, and thought Worcester the prettiest +place I had ever seen. We then started for Paarl, and drove through +‘Bain’s Kloof’, a splendid mountain-pass, four hours’ long, constant +driving. It was glorious, but more like what one had seen in pictures—a +deep, narrow gorge, almost dark in places, and, to my mind, lacked the +_beauty_ of the yesterday’s drive, though it is, perhaps, grander; but +the view which bursts on one at the top, and the descent, winding down +the open mountain-side, is too fine to describe. Table Mountain, like a +giant’s stronghold, seen far distant, with an immense plain, half +fertile, half white sand; to the left, Wagenmaker’s Vley; and further on, +the Paarl lying scattered on the slope of a mountain topped with two +_domes_, just the shape of the cup which Lais (wasn’t it?) presented to +the temple of Venus, moulded on her breast. The horses were tired, so we +stopped at Waggon-maker’s Valley (or Wellington, as the English try to +get it called), and found ourselves in a true Flemish village, and under +the roof of a jolly Dutch hostess, who gave us divine coffee and +bread-and-butter, which seemed ambrosia after being deprived of those +luxuries for almost three months. Also new milk in abundance, besides +fruit of all kinds in vast heaps, and pomegranates off the tree. I asked +her to buy me a few to take in the cart, and got a ‘muid’, the third of a +sack, for a shilling, with a bill, ‘U bekomt 1 muid 28 granaeten dat +Kostet 1_s._’ The old lady would walk out with me and take me into the +shops, to show the ‘vrow uit Engelland’ to her friends. It was a lovely +place, intensely hot, all glowing with sunshine. Then the sun went down, +and the high mountains behind us were precisely the colour of a Venice +ruby glass—really, truly, and literally;—not purple, not crimson, but +glowing ruby-red—and the quince-hedges and orange-trees below looked +_intensely_ green, and the houses snow-white. It was a +transfiguration—no less. + +I saw Hottentots again, four of them, from some remote corner, so the +race is not quite extinct. These were youngish, two men and two women, +quite light yellow, not darker than Europeans, and with little tiny black +knots of wool scattered over their heads at intervals. They are hideous +in face, but exquisitely shaped—very, very small though. One of the men +was drunk, poor wretch, and looked the picture of misery. You can see +the fineness of their senses by the way in which they dart their glances +and prick their ears. Every one agrees that, when tamed, they make the +best of servants—gentle, clever, and honest; but the penny-a-glass wine +they can’t resist, unless when caught and tamed young. They work in the +fields, or did so as long as any were left; but even here, I was told, it +was a wonder to see them. + +We went on through the Paarl, a sweet pretty place, reminding one vaguely +of Bonchurch, and still through fine mountains, with Scotch firs growing +like Italian stone pines, and farms, and vineyard upon vineyard. At +Stellenbosch we stopped. I had been told it was the prettiest town in +the colony, and it _is_ very pretty, with oak-trees all along the street, +like those at Paarl and Wagenmakkers Vley; but I was disappointed. It +was less beautiful than what I had seen. Besides, the evening was dull +and cold. The south-easter greeted us here, and I could not go out all +the afternoon. The inn was called ‘Railway Hotel’, and kept by low +coarse English people, who gave us a filthy dinner, dirty sheets, and an +atrocious breakfast, and charged 1_l._ 3_s._ 6_d._ for the same meals and +time as old Vrow Langfeldt had charged 12_s._ for, and had given +civility, cleanliness, and abundance of excellent food;—besides which, +she fed Sabaal gratis, and these people fleeced him as they did me. So, +next morning, we set off, less pleasantly disposed, for Capetown, over +the flat, which is dreary enough, and had a horrid south-easter. We +started early, and got in before the wind became a hurricane, which it +did later. We were warmly welcomed by Mrs. R—; and here I am in my old +room, looking over the beautiful bay, quite at home again. It blew all +yesterday, and having rather a sore-throat I stayed in bed, and to-day is +all bright and beautiful. But Capetown looks murky after Caledon and +Worcester; there is, to my eyes, quite a haze over the mountains, and +they look far off and indistinct. All is comparative in this world, even +African skies. At Caledon, the most distant mountains, as far as your +eye can reach, look as clear in every detail as the map on your table—an +appearance utterly new to European eyes. + +I gave Sabaal 1_l._ for his eight days’ service as driver, as a +Drinkgelt, and the worthy fellow was in ecstasies of gratitude. Next +morning early, he appeared with a present of bananas, and his little girl +dressed from head to foot in brand-new clothes, bought out of my money, +with her wool screwed up extremely tight in little knots on her black +little head (evidently her mother is the blackest of Caffres or +Mozambiques). The child looked like a Caffre, and her father considers +her quite a pearl. I had her in, and admired the little thing loud +enough for him to hear outside, as I lay in bed. You see, I too was to +have my share in the pleasure of the new clothes. This readiness to +believe that one will sympathize with them, is very pleasing in the +Malays. + + March 15. + +I went to see my old Malay friends and to buy a water-melon. They were +in all the misery of Ramadan. Betsy and pretty Nassirah very thin and +miserable, and the pious old Abdool sitting on a little barrel waiting +for ‘gun-fire’—i.e. sunset, to fall to on the supper which old Betsy was +setting out. He was silent, and the corners of his mouth were drawn down +just like —’s at an evening party. + +I shall go to-morrow to bid the T—s good-bye, at Wynberg. I was to have +spent a few days there, but Wynberg is cold at night and dampish, so I +declined that. She is a nice woman—Irish, and so innocent and frank and +well-bred. She has been at Cold Bokke Veld, and shocked her puritanical +host by admiring the naked Caffres who worked on his farm. He wanted +them to wear clothes. + +We have been amused by the airs of a naval captain and his wife, who are +just come here. They complained that the merchant-service officers spoke +_familiarly_ to their children on board. _Quel audace_! When I think of +the excellent, modest, manly young fellows who talked very familiarly and +pleasantly to me on board the _St. Lawrence_, I long to reprimand these +foolish people. + +_Friday_, 21_st_.—I am just come from prayer, at the Mosque in Chiappini +Street, on the outskirts of the town. A most striking sight. A large +room, like a county ball-room, with glass chandeliers, carpeted with +common carpet, all but a space at the entrance, railed off for shoes; the +Caaba and pulpit at one end; over the niche, a crescent painted; and over +the entrance door a crescent, an Arabic inscription, and the royal arms +of England! A fat jolly Mollah looked amazed as I ascended the steps; +but when I touched my forehead and said, ‘Salaam Aleikoom’, he laughed +and said, ‘Salaam, Salaam, come in, come in.’ The faithful poured in, +all neatly dressed in their loose drab trousers, blue jackets, and red +handkerchiefs on their heads; they left their wooden clogs in company, +with my shoes, and proceeded, as it appeared, to strip. Off went +jackets, waistcoats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a pantomime +transformation; the red handkerchief was replaced by a white skullcap, +and a long large white shirt and full white drawers flowed around them. +How it had all been stuffed into the trim jacket and trousers, one could +not conceive. Gay sashes and scarves were pulled out of a little bundle +in a clean silk handkerchief, and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In a +moment the whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I had come in +existed no more. Women suckled their children, and boys played among the +clogs and shoes all the time, and I sat on the floor in a remote corner. +The chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony very decorous and +solemn. It lasted an hour; and then the little heaps of garments were +put on, and the congregation dispersed, each man first laying a penny on +a very curious little old Dutch-looking, heavy, iron-bound chest, which +stood in the middle of the room. + +I have just heard that the post closes to-night and must say farewell—_a +rivederci_. + + + + +LETTER XI + + + Capetown, March 20th. + +DEAREST MOTHER, + +Dr. Shea says he fears I must not winter in England yet, but that I am +greatly improved—as, indeed, I could tell him. He is another of the kind +‘sea doctors’ I have met with; he came all the way from Simon’s Bay to +see me, and then said, ‘What nonsense is that?’ when I offered him a fee. +This is a very nice place up in the ‘gardens’, quite out of the town and +very comfortable. But I regret Caledon. A— will show you my account of +my beautiful journey back. Worcester is a fairy-land; and then to catch +tortoises walking about, and to see ‘baviāans’, and snakes and secretary +birds eating them! and then people have the impudence to think I must +have been ‘very dull!’ _Sie merken’s nicht_, that it is _they_ who are +dull. + +Dear Dr. Hawtrey! he must have died just as I was packing up the first +Caffre Testament for him! I felt his death very much, in connexion with +my father; their regard for each other was an honour to both. I have the +letter he wrote me on J—’s marriage, and a charming one it is. + +I took Mrs. A— a drive in a Hansom cab to-day out to Wynberg, to see my +friends Captain and Mrs. T—, who have a cottage under Table Mountain in a +spot like the best of St. George’s Hill. Very dull too; but as she is +really a lady, it suits her, and Capetown does not. I was to have stayed +with them, but Wynberg is cold at night. Poor B—’s wife is very ill and +won’t leave Capetown for a day. The people here are _wunderlich_ for +that. A lady born here, and with 7,000_l._ a year, has never been +further than Stellenbosch, about twenty miles. I am asked how I lived +and what I ate during my little excursion, as if I had been to Lake +Ngami. If only I had known how easy it all is, I would have gone by sea +to East London and seen the Knysna and George district, and the primæval +African forest, the yellow wood, and other giant trees. However, ‘For +what I have received,’ &c., &c. No one can conceive what it is, after +two years of prison and utter languor, to stand on the top of a mountain +pass, and enjoy physical existence for a few hours at a time. I felt as +if it was quite selfish to enjoy anything so much when you were all so +anxious about me at home; but as that is the best symptom of all, I do +not repent. + +S— has been an excellent travelling servant, and really a better +companion than many more educated people; for she is always amused and +curious, and is friendly with the coloured people. She is quite +recovered. It is a wonderful climate—_sans que celà paraisse_. It feels +chilly and it blows horridly, and does not seem genial, but it gives new +life. + +To-morrow I am going with old Abdool Jemaalee to prayers at the Mosque, +and shall see a school kept by a Malay priest. It is now Ramadan, and my +Muslim friends are very thin and look glum. Choslullah sent a message to +ask, ‘Might he see the Missis once more? He should pray all the time she +was on the sea.’ Some pious Christians here would expect such horrors to +sink the ship. I can’t think why Mussulmans are always gentlemen; the +Malay coolies have a grave courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with +both European vulgarity and negro jollity. It is very curious, for they +only speak Dutch, and know nothing of oriental manners. I fear I shall +not see the Walkers again. Simon’s Bay is too far to go and come in a +day, as one cannot go out before ten or eleven, and must be in by five or +half-past. Those hours are gloriously bright and hot, but morning and +night are cold. + +I am so happy in the thought of sailing now so very soon and seeing you +all again, that I can settle to nothing for five minutes. I now feel how +anxious and uneasy I have been, and how I shall rejoice to get home. I +shall leave a letter for A—, to go in April, and tell him and you what +ship I am in. I shall choose the _slowest_, so as not to reach England +and face the Channel before June, if possible. So don’t be alarmed if I +do not arrive till late in June. Till then good-bye, and God bless you, +dearest mother—_Auf frohes Wiedersehn_. + + + + +LETTER XII + + + Capetown, Sunday, March 23d. + +IT has been a _real_ hot day, and threatened an earthquake and a +thunderstorm; but nothing has come of it beyond sheet lightning to-night, +which is splendid over the bay, and looks as if repeated in a grand +bush-fire on the hills opposite. The sunset was glorious. That rarest +of insects, the praying mantis, has just dropped upon my paper. I am +thankful that, not being an entomologist, I am dispensed from the sacred +duty of impaling the lovely green creature who sits there, looking quite +wise and human. Fussy little brown beetles, as big as two lady-birds, +keep flying into my eyes, and the musquitoes are rejoicing loudly in the +prospect of a feast. You will understand by this that both windows are +wide open into the great verandah,—very unusual in this land of cold +nights. + +_April_ 4_th_.—I have been trying in vain to get a passage home. The +_Camperdown_ has not come. In short, I am waiting for a chance vessel, +and shall pack up now and be ready to go on board at a day’s notice. + +I went on the last evening of Ramadan to the Mosque, having heard there +was a grand ‘function’; but there were only little boys lying about on +the floor, some on their stomachs, some on their backs, higgledy-piggledy +(if it be not profane to apply the phrase to young Islam), all shouting +their prayers _à tue tête_. Priests, men, women, and English crowded in +and out in the exterior division. The English behaved _à +l’Anglaise_—pushed each other, laughed, sneered, and made a disgusting +display of themselves. I asked a stately priest, in a red turban, to +explain the affair to me, and in a few minutes found myself supplied by +one Mollah with a chair, and by another with a cup of tea—was, in short, +in the midst of a Malay _soirée_. They spoke English very little, but +made up for it by their usual good breeding and intelligence. On Monday, +I am going to see the school which the priest keeps at his house, and to +‘honour his house by my presence’. The delight they show at any friendly +interest taken in them is wonderful. Of course, I am supposed to be +poisoned. A clergyman’s widow here gravely asserts that her husband went +mad _three years_ after drinking a cup of coffee handed to him by a +Malay!—and in consequence of drinking it! It is exactly like the +mediæval feeling about the Jews. I saw that it was quite a +_demonstration_ that I drank up the tea unhesitatingly. Considering that +the Malays drank it themselves, my courage deserves less admiration. But +it was a quaint sensation to sit in a Mosque, behaving as if at an +evening party, in a little circle of poor Moslim priests. + +I am going to have a photograph of my cart done. I was to have gone to +the place to-day, but when Choslullah (whom I sent for to complete the +picture) found out what I wanted, he implored me to put it off till +Monday, that he might be better dressed, and was so unhappy at the notion +of being immortalized in an old jacket, that I agreed to the delay. Such +a handsome fellow may be allowed a little vanity. + +The colony is torn with dissensions as to Sunday trains. Some of the +Dutch clergy are even more absurd than our own on that point. A certain +Van der Lingen, at Stellenbosch, calls Europe ‘one vast Sodom’, and so +forth. There is altogether a nice kettle of religious hatred brewing +here. The English Bishop of Capetown appoints all the English clergy, +and is absolute monarch of all he surveys; and he and his clergy are +carrying matters with a high hand. The Bishop’s chaplain told Mrs. J— +that she could not hope for salvation in the Dutch Church, since her +clergy were not ordained by any bishop, and therefore they could only +administer the sacrament ‘_unto damnation_’. All the physicians in a +body, English as well as Dutch, have withdrawn from the Dispensary, +because it was used as a means of pressure to draw the coloured people +from the Dutch to the English Church. + +This High-Church tyranny cannot go on long. Catholics there are few, but +their bishop plays the same game; and it is a losing one. The Irish maid +at the Caledon inn was driven by her bishop to be married at the Lutheran +church, just as a young Englishman I know (though a fervent Puseyite) was +driven to be married at the Scotch kirk. The colonial bishops are +despots in their own churches, and there is no escape from their tyranny +but by dissent. The Admiral and his family have been anathematized for +going to a fancy bazaar given by the Wesleyans for their chapel. + +_April_ 8_th_.—Yesterday, I failed about my cart photograph. First, the +owner had sent away the cart, and when Choslullah came dressed in all his +best clothes, with a lovely blue handkerchief setting off his beautiful +orange-tawny face, he had to rush off to try to borrow another cart. As +ill luck would have it, he met a ‘serious young man’, with no front +teeth, and a hideous wen on his eyebrow, who informed the priest of +Choslullah’s impious purpose, and came with him to see that he did _not_ +sit for his portrait. I believe it was half envy; for my handsome driver +was as pleased, and then as disappointed, as a young lady about her first +ball, and obviously had no religious scruples of his own on the subject. +The weather is very delightful now—hot, but beautiful; and the +south-easters, though violent, are short, and not cold. As in all other +countries, autumn is the best time of year. + +_April_ 15_th_.—Your letters arrived yesterday, to my great delight. I +have been worrying about a ship, and was very near sailing to-day by the +_Queen of the South_ at twenty-four hours’ notice, but I have resolved to +wait for the _Camperdown_. The _Queen of the South_ is a steamer,—which +is odious, for they pitch the coal all over the lower deck, so that you +breathe coal-dust for the first ten days; then she was crammed—only one +cabin vacant, and that small, and on the lower deck—and fifty-two +children on board. Moreover, she will probably get to England too soon, +so I resign myself to wait. The _Camperdown_ has only upper-deck cabins, +and I shall have fresh air. I am not as well as I was at Caledon, so I +am all the more anxious to have a voyage likely to do me good instead of +harm. + +I got my cart and Choslullah photographed after all. Choslullah came +next day (having got rid of his pious friend), quite resolved that ‘the +Missis’ should take his portrait, so I will send or bring a few copies of +my beloved cart. After the photograph was done, we drove round the +Kloof, between Table and Lion Mountain. The road is cut on the side of +Lion Mountain, and overhangs the sea at a great height. Camp Bay, which +lies on the further side of the ‘Lion’s Head’, is most lovely; never was +sea so deeply blue, rocks so warmly brown, or sand and foam so glittering +white; and down at the mountain-foot the bright green of the orange and +pomegranate trees throws it all out in greater relief. But the +atmosphere here won’t do after that of the ‘Ruggings’, as the Caledon +line of country is called. I shall never lose the impression of the view +I had when Dr. Morkel drove me out on a hill-side, where the view seemed +endless and without a vestige of life; and yet in every valley there were +farms; but it looked a vast, utter solitude, and without the least haze. +You don’t know what that utter clearness means—the distinctness is quite +awful. Here it is always slightly hazy; very pretty and warm, but it +takes off from the grandeur. It is the difference between a pretty +Pompadour beauty and a Greek statue. Those pale opal mountains, as +distinct in every detail as the map on your table, are so cheerful and +serene; no melodramatic effects of clouds and gloom. I suppose it is not +really so beautiful as it seemed to me, for other people say it is bare +and desolate, and certainly it is; but it seemed to me anything but +dreary. + +I am persuaded that Capetown is not healthy; indeed, the town can’t be, +from its stench and dirt; but I believe the whole seashore is more or +less bad, compared to the upper plateaux, of which I know only the first. +I should have gone back to Paarl, only that ships come and go within +twenty-four hours, so one has the pleasure of living in constant +expectation, with packed trunks, wondering when one shall get away. A +clever Mr. M—, who has lived _all over_ India, and is going back to +Singapore, with his wife and child, are now in the house; and some very +pleasant Jews, bound for British Caffraria—one of them has a lovely +little wife and three children. She is very full of Prince Albert’s +death, and says there was not a dry eye in the synagogues in London, +which were all hung with black on the day of his funeral, and prayer went +on the whole day. ‘_The people_ mourned for him as much as for Hezekiah; +and, indeed, he deserved it a great deal better,’ was her rather +unorthodox conclusion. These colonial Jews are a new ‘Erscheinung’ to +me. They have the features of their race, but many of their +peculiarities are gone. Mr. L—, who is very handsome and gentlemanly, +eats ham and patronises a good breed of pigs on the ‘model farm’ on which +he spends his money. He is (he says) a thorough Jew in faith, and +evidently in charitable works; but he wants to say his prayers in English +and not to ‘dress himself up’ in a veil and phylacteries for the purpose; +and he and his wife talk of England as ‘home’, and care as much for +Jerusalem as their neighbours. They have not forgotten the old +persecutions, and are civil to the coloured people, and speak of them in +quite a different tone from other English colonists. Moreover, they are +far better mannered, and more ‘_human_’, in the German sense of the word, +in all respects;—in short, less ‘colonial’. + +I have bought some Cape ‘confeyt’; apricots, salted and then sugared, +called ‘mebos’—delicious! Also pickled peaches, ‘chistnee’, and quince +jelly. I have a notion of some Cherupiga wine for ourselves. I will +inquire the cost of bottling, packing, &c.; it is about one shilling and +fourpence a bottle here, sweet red wine, unlike any other I ever drank, +and I think very good. It is very tempting to bring a few things so +unknown in England. I have a glorious ‘Velcombers’ for you, a blanket of +nine Damara sheepskins, sewn by the Damaras, and dressed so that moths +and fleas won’t stay near them. It will make a grand railway rug and +‘outside car’ covering. The hunters use them for sleeping out of doors. +I have bought three, and a springbok caross for somebody. + +_April_ 17_th_.—The winter has set in to-day. It rains steadily, at the +rate of the heaviest bit of the heaviest shower in England, and is as +cold as a bad day early in September. One can just sit without a fire. +Presently, all will be green and gay; for winter is here the season of +flowers, and the heaths will cover the country with a vast Turkey carpet. +Already the green is appearing where all was brown yesterday. To-day is +Good Friday; and if Christmas seemed odd at Midsummer, Easter in autumn +seems positively unnatural. Our Jewish party made their exodus to-day, +by the little coasting steamer, to Algoa Bay. I rather condoled with the +pretty little woman about her long rough journey, with three babies; but +she laughed, and said they had had time to get used to it ever since the +days of Moses. All she grieved over was not being able to keep Passover, +and she described their domestic ceremonies quite poetically. We heard +from our former housemaid, Annie, the other day, announcing her marriage +and her sister’s. She wrote such a pretty, merry letter to S—, saying +‘the more she tried not to like him, the better she loved him, and had to +say, “Aha, Annie, you’re caught at last.”’ A year and a half is a long +time to remain single in this country. + +_Monday_, _April_ 21_st_, _Easter Monday_.—The mail goes out in an hour, +so I will just add, good-bye. The winter is now fairly set in, and I +long to be off. I fear I shall have a desperately cold week or so at +first sailing, till we catch the south-east trades. This weather is +beautiful in itself, but I feel it from the suddenness of the change. We +passed in one night from hot summer to winter, which is like _fine_ +English April, or October, only brighter than anything in Europe. There +is properly, no autumn or spring here; only hot, dry, brown summer, with +its cold wind at times, and fresh green winter, all fragrance and +flowers, and much less wind. Mr. M—, of whom I told you, has been in +every corner of the far East—Java, Sumatra, everywhere—and is extremely +amusing. He has brought his wife here for her health, and is as glad to +talk as I am. The conversation of an educated, clever person, is quite a +new and delightful sensation to me now. He appears to have held high +posts under the East India Company, is learned in Oriental languages, and +was last resident at Singapore. He says that no doubt Java is Paradise, +it is so lovely, and such a climate; but he does not look as if it had +agreed with him. I feel quite heart-sick at seeing these letters go off +before me, instead of leaving them behind, as I had hoped. + +Well, I must say good-bye—or rather, ‘_auf Wiedersehn_’—and God knows how +glad I shall be when that day comes! + + + + +LETTER XIII + + + Capetown, April 19th. + +DEAREST MOTHER, + +Here I am, waiting for a ship; the steamer was too horrid: and I look so +much to the good to be gained by the voyage that I did not like to throw +away the chance of two months at sea at this favourable time of year, and +under favourable circumstances; so I made up my mind to see you all a +month later. The sea just off the Cape is very, very cold; less so now +than in spring, I dare say. The weather to-day is just like _very_ warm +April at home—showery, sunshiny, and fragrant; most lovely. It is so odd +to see an autumn without dead leaves: only the oaks lose theirs, the old +ones drop without turning brown, and the trees bud again at once. The +rest put on a darker green dress for winter, and now the flowers will +begin. I have got a picture for you of my ‘cart and four’, with sedate +Choslullah and dear little Mohammed. The former wants to go with me, +‘anywhere’, as he placidly said, ‘to be the missis’ servant’. What a +sensation his thatchlike hat and handsome orange-tawny face would make at +Esher! Such a stalwart henchman would be very creditable. I shall +grieve to think I shall never see my Malay friends again; they are the +only people here who are really interesting. I think they must be like +the Turks in manner, as they have all the eastern gentlemanly +‘Gelassenheit’ (ease) and politeness, and no eastern ‘Geschmeidigkeit’ +(obsequiousness), and no idea of Baksheesh; withal frugal, industrious, +and money-making, to an astonishing degree. The priest is a bit of a +proselytiser, and amused me much with an account of how he had converted +English girls from their evil courses and made them good _Mussulwomen_. +I never heard a _naïf_ and sincere account of conversions _from_ +Christianity before, and I must own it was much milder than the Exeter +Hall style. + +I have heard a great many expressions of sorrow for the Queen from the +Malays, and always with the ‘hope the people will take much care of her, +now she is alone’. Of course Prince Albert was only the Queen’s husband +to them, and all their feeling is about her. It is very difficult to see +anything of them, for they want nothing of you, and expect nothing but +dislike and contempt. It would take a long time to make many friends, as +they are naturally distrustful. I found that eating or drinking +anything, if they offer it, made most way, as they know they are accused +of poisoning all Christians indiscriminately. Of course, therefore, they +are shy of offering things. I drank tea in the Mosque at the end of +Ramadan, and was surrounded by delighted faces as I sipped. The little +boy who waits in this house here had followed us, and was horrified: he +is still waiting to see the poison work. + +No one can conceive what has become of all the ships that usually touch +here about this time. I was promised my choice of Green’s and Smith’s, +and now only the heavy old _Camperdown_ is expected with rice from +Moulmein. A lady now here, who has been Heaven only knows _where not_, +praises Alexandria above all other places, after Suez. Her lungs are +bad, and she swears by Suez, which she says is the dreariest and +healthiest (for lungs) place in the world. You can’t think how soon one +learns to ‘annihilate space’, if not time, in one’s thoughts, by daily +reading advertisements for every port in India, America, Australia, &c., +&c., and conversing with people who have just come from the ‘ends of the +earth’. Meanwhile, I fear I shall have to fly from next winter again, +and certainly will go with J— to Egypt, which seems to me like next door. + +I have run on, and not thanked you for your letter and M. Mignet’s +beautiful _éloge_ of Mr. Hallam, which pleased me greatly. I wish +Englishmen could learn to speak with the same good taste and _mésure_. + +Mr. Wodehouse, who has been very civil to me, kindly tried to get me a +passage home in a French frigate lying here, but in vain. I am now sorry +I let the Jack tars here persuade me not to go in the little barque; but +they talked so much of the heat and damp of such tiny cabins in an iron +vessel, that I gave her up, though I liked the idea of a good tossing in +such a tiny cockboat. I will leave a letter for the May mail, unless I +sail within a week of to-morrow, or go by the _Jason_, which would be +home far sooner than the mail. I only hope you and A— won’t be uneasy; +the worst that can happen is delay, and the long voyage will be all gain +to health, which would not be the case in a steamer. + +All I hear of R— makes me wild to see her again. The little darkies are +the only pleasing children here, and a fat black toddling thing is +‘allerliebst’. I know a boy of four, literally jet black, whom I long to +steal as he follows his mother up to the mountain to wash. Little Malays +are lovely, but _too_ well-behaved and quiet. I tried to get a real +‘_tottie_’, or ‘Hotentotje’, but the people were too drunk to remember +where they had left their child. _C’est assez dire_, that I should have +had no scruple in buying it for a bottle of ‘smoke’ (the spirit made from +grape husks). They are clever and affectionate when they have a chance, +poor things,—and so strange to look at. + +By the bye, a Bonn man, Dr. Bleek, called here with ‘Grüsse’ from our old +friends, Professor Mendelssohn and his wife. He is devoting himself to +Hottentot and aboriginal literature!—and has actually mastered the Caffre +_click_, which I vainly practised under Kleenboy’s tuition. He wanted to +teach me to say ‘Tkorkha’, which means ‘you lie’, or ‘you have missed’ +(in shooting or throwing a stone, &c.)—a curious combination of meanings. +He taught me to throw stones or a stick at him, which he always avoided, +however close they fell, and cried ‘Tkorkha!’ The Caffres ask for a +present, ‘Tkzeelah Tabak’, ‘a gift for tobacco’. + +The Farnese Hercules is a living _truth_. I saw him in the street two +days ago, and he was a Caffre coolie. The proportions of the head and +throat were more wonderful in flesh, or muscle rather, than in marble. I +know a Caffre girl of thirteen, who is a noble model of strength and +beauty; such an arm—larger than any white woman’s—with such a dimple in +her elbow, and a wrist and hand which no glove is small enough to fit—and +a noble countenance too. She is ‘apprenticed’, a name for temporary +slavery, and is highly spoken of as a servant, as the Caffres always are. +They are a majestic race, but with just the stupid conceit of a certain +sort of Englishmen; the women and girls seem charming. + +_Easter Sunday_.—The weather continues beautifully clear and bright, like +the finest European spring. It seems so strange for the floral season to +be the winter. But as the wind blows the air is quite cold to-day; +nevertheless, I feel much better the last two days. The brewing of the +rain made the air very oppressive and heavy for three weeks, but now it +is as light as possible. + +I must say good-bye, as the mail closes to-morrow morning. Easter in +autumn is preposterous, only the autumn looks like spring. The +consumptive young girl whom I packed off to the Cape, and her sister, are +about to be married—of course. Annie has had a touch of Algoa Bay fever, +a mild kind of ague, but no sign of chest disease, or even delicacy. My +‘hurrying her off’, which some people thought so cruel, has saved her. +Whoever comes _soon enough_ recovers, but for people far gone it is too +bracing. + + + + +LETTER XIV + + + Capetown, Saturday, May 3d. + +DEAREST MOTHER, + +After five weeks of waiting and worry, I have, at last, sent my goods on +board the ship _Camperdown_, now discharging her cargo, and about to take +a small party of passengers from the Cape. I offered to take a cabin in +a Swedish ship, bound for Falmouth; but the captain could not decide +whether he would take a passenger; and while he hesitated the old +_Camperdown_ came in. I have the best cabin after the stern cabins, +which are occupied by the captain and his wife and the Attorney-General +of Capetown, who is much liked. The other passengers are quiet people, +and few of them, and the captain has a high character; so I may hope for +a comfortable, though slow passage. I will let you know the day I sail, +and leave this letter to go by post. I may be looked for three weeks or +so after this letter. I am crazy to get home now; after the period was +over for which I had made up my mind, home-sickness began. + +Mrs. R— has offered me a darling tiny monkey, which loves me; but I fear +A— would send me away again if I returned with her in my pocket. +Nassirah, old Abdool’s pretty granddaughter, brought me a pair of Malay +shoes or clogs as a parting gift, to-day. Mr. M—, the resident at +Singapore, tells me that his secretary’s wife, a Malay lady, has made an +excellent translation of the _Arabian Nights_, from Arabic into Malay. +Her husband is an Indian Mussulman, who, Mr. M— said, was one of the +ablest men he ever knew. Curious! + +I sat, yesterday, for an hour, in the stall of a poor German basket-maker +who had been long in Caffre-land. His wife, a Berlinerin, was very +intelligent, and her account of her life here most entertaining, as +showing the different _Ansicht_ natural to Germans. ‘I had never’, she +said, ‘been out of the city of Berlin, and _knew nothing_.’ (Compare +with London cockney, or genuine Parisian.) Thence her fear, on landing +at Algoa Bay and seeing swarms of naked black men, that she had come to a +country where no clothes were to be had; and what should she do when hers +were worn out? They had a grant of land at Fort Peddie, and she dug +while her husband made baskets of cane, and carried them hundreds of +miles for sale; sleeping and eating in Caffre huts. ‘Yes, they are good, +honest people, and very well-bred (_anständig_), though they go as naked +as God made them. The girls are pretty and very delicate (_fein_), and +they think no harm of it, the dear innocents.’ If their cattle strayed, +it was always brought back; and they received every sort of kindness. +‘Yes, madam, it is shocking how people here treat the blacks. They call +quite an old man ‘Boy’, and speak so scornfully, and yet the blacks have +very nice manners, I assure you.’ When I looked at the poor little +wizened, pale, sickly Berliner, and fancied him a guest in a Caffre hut, +it seemed an odd picture. But he spoke as coolly of his long, lonely +journeys as possible, and seemed to think black friends quite as good as +white ones. The use of the words _anständig_ and _fein_ by a woman who +spoke very good German were characteristic. She could recognise an +‘_Anständigkeit_’ _not_ of Berlin. I need not say that the Germans are +generally liked by the coloured people. Choslullah was astonished and +Pleased at my talking German; he evidently had a preference for Germans, +and put up, wherever he could, at German inns and ‘publics’. + +I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. We talked of our dear old +Cornish friends. The Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse have been very kind to +me. I dined there twice; last time, with all the dear good Walkers. I +missed seeing the opening of the colonial parliament by a mistake about a +ticket, which I am sorry for. + +If I could have dreamed of waiting here so long, I would have run up to +Algoa Bay or East London by sea, and had a glimpse of Caffreland. +Capetown makes me very languid—there is something depressing in the +air—but my cough is much better. I can’t walk here without feeling +knocked-up; and cab-hire is so dear; and somehow, nothing is worth while, +when one is waiting from day to day. So I have spent more money than +when I was most amused, in being bored. + +Mr. J— drove me to the Capetown races, at Green Point, on Friday. As +races, they were _nichts_, but a queer-looking little Cape farmer’s +horse, ridden by a Hottentot, beat the English crack racer, ridden by a +first-rate English jockey, in an unaccountable way, twice over. The +Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing, and the crowd was fully +half Malay: there were dozens of carts crowded with the bright-eyed +women, in petticoats of every most brilliant colour, white muslin +jackets, and gold daggers in their great coils of shining black hair. +All most ‘anständig’, as they always are. Their pleasure is driving +about _en famille_; the men have no separate amusements. Every spare +corner in the cart is filled by the little soft round faces of the +intelligent-looking quiet children, who seem amused and happy, and never +make a noise or have the fidgets. I cannot make out why they are so well +behaved. It favours A—’s theory of the expediency of utter spoiling, for +one never hears any educational process going on. Tiny Mohammed never +spoke but when he was spoken to, and was always happy and alert. I +observed that his uncle spoke to him like a grown man, and never ordered +him about, or rebuked him in the least. I like to go up the hill and +meet the black women coming home in troops from the washing place, most +of them with a fat black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and a few +rather older trotting alongside, and if small, holding on by the mother’s +gown. She, poor soul, carries a bundle on her head, which few men could +lift. If I admire the babies, the poor women are enchanted;—_du reste_, +if you look at blacks of any age or sex, they _must_ grin and nod, as a +good-natured dog must wag his tail; they can’t help it. The blacks here +(except a very few Caffres) are from the Mozambique—a short, thick-set, +ugly race, with wool in huge masses; but here and there one sees a very +pretty face among the women. The men are beyond belief hideous. There +are all possible crosses—Dutch, Mozambique, Hottentot and English, ‘alles +durcheinander’; then here and there you see that a Chinese or a Bengalee +_a passé par là_. The Malays are also a mixed race, like the Turks—i.e. +they marry women of all sorts and colours, provided they will embrace +Islam. A very nice old fellow who waits here occasionally is married to +an Englishwoman, _ci-devant_ lady’s-maid to a Governor’s wife. I fancy, +too, they brought some Chinese blood with them from Java. I think the +population of Capetown must be the most motley crew in the world. + +_Thursday_, May 8_th_.—I sail on Saturday, and go on board to-morrow, so +as not to be hurried off in the early fog. How glad I am to be ‘homeward +bound’ at last, I cannot say. I am very well, and have every prospect of +a pleasant voyage. We are sure to be well found, as the Attorney-General +is on board, and is a very great man, ‘inspiring terror and respect’ +here. + +S— says we certainly _shall_ put in at St. Helena, so make up your minds +not to see me till I don’t know when. She has been on board fitting up +the cabin to-day. I have _such_ a rug for J—! a mosaic of skins as fine +as marqueterie, done by Damara women, and really beautiful; and a +sheep-skin blanket for you, the essence of warmth and softness. I shall +sleep in mine, and dream of African hill-sides wrapt in a ‘Veld combas’. +The poor little water-tortoises have been killed by drought, and I can’t +get any, but I have the two of my own catching for M—. + +Good-bye, dearest mother. + + * * * * * + +You would have been moved by poor old Abdool Jemaalee’s solemn +benediction when I took leave to-day. He accompanied it with a gross of +oranges and lemons. + + + + +LETTER XV + + + Capetown, Thursday, May 8th. + +AT last, after no end of ‘casus’ and ‘discrimina rerum’, I shall sail on +Saturday the 10th, per ship _Camperdown_, for East India Docks. + +These weary six weeks have cost no end of money and temper. I have been +eating my heart out at the delay, but it was utterly impossible to go by +any of the Indian ships. They say there have never been so few ships +sailing from the Cape as this year, yet crowds were expected on account +of the Exhibition. The Attorney-General goes by our ship, so we are sure +of good usage; and I hear he is very agreeable. I have the best cabin +next to the stern cabin, in both senses of _next_. S— has come back from +the ship, where she has spent the day with the carpenter; and I am to go +on board to-morrow. Will you ask R— to cause inquiries to be made among +the Mollahs of Cairo for a Hadji, by name Abdool Rachman, the son of +Abdool Jemaalee, of Capetown, and, if possible, to get the inclosed +letter sent him? The poor people are in sad anxiety for their son, of +whom they have not heard for four months, and that from an old letter. +Henry will thus have a part of all the blessings which were solemnly +invoked on me by poor old Abdool, who is getting very infirm, but toddled +up and cracked his old fingers over my head, and invoked the protection +of Allah with all form; besides that Betsy sent me twelve dozen oranges +and lemons. Abdool Rachman is about twenty-six, a Malay of Capetown, +speaks Dutch and English, and is supposed to be studying theology at +Cairo. The letter is written by the prettiest Malay girl in Capetown. + +I won’t enter upon my longings to be home again, and to see you all. I +must now see to my last commissions and things, and send this to go by +next mail. + +God bless you all, and kiss my darlings, all three. + + + + +LETTER XVI + + + Friday, May 16th. + On board the good ship _Camperdown_, + 500 miles North-west of Table-Bay. + +I EMBARKED this day week, and found a good airy cabin, and all very +comfortable. Next day I got the carpenter’s services, by being on board +before all the rest, and relashed and cleeted everything, which the +‘Timmerman’, of course, had left so as to get adrift the first breeze. +At two o’clock the Attorney-General, Mr. Porter, came on board, escorted +by bands of music and all the volunteers of Capetown, _quorum pars maxima +fuit_; i.e. Colonel. It was quite what the Yankees call an ‘ovation’. +The ship was all decked with flags, and altogether there was _le diable à +quatre_. The consequence was, that three signals went adrift in the +scuffle; and when a Frenchman signalled us, we had to pass for _brutaux +Anglais_, because we could not reply. I found means to supply the +deficiency by the lining of that very ancient anonymous cloak, which did +the red, while a bandanna handkerchief of the Captain’s furnished the +yellow, to the sailmaker’s immense amusement. On him I bestowed the blue +outside of the cloak for a pair of dungaree trowsers, and in signalling +now it is, ‘up go 2.41, and my lady’s cloak, which is 7.’ + +We have had lovely weather, and on Sunday such a glorious farewell sight +of Table Mountain and my dear old Hottentot Hills, and of Kaap Goed Hoop +itself. There was little enough wind till yesterday, when a fair +southerly breeze sprang up, and we are rolling along merrily; and the fat +old _Camperdown does_ roll like an honest old ‘wholesome’ tub as she is. +It is quite a _bonne fortune_ for me to have been forced to wait for her, +for we have had a wonderful spell of fine weather, and the ship is the +_ne plus ultra_ of comfort. We are only twelve first-class upper-deck +passengers. The captain is a delightful fellow, with a very charming +young wife. There is only one child (a great comfort), a capital cook, +and universal civility and quietness. It is like a private house +compared to a railway hotel. Six of the passengers are invalids, more or +less. Mr. Porter, over-worked, going home for health to Ireland; two +men, both with delicate chests, and one poor young fellow from Capetown +in a consumption, who, I fear, will not outlive the voyage. The doctor +is very civil, and very kind to the sick; but I stick to the cook, and am +quite greedy over the good fare, after the atrocious food of the Cape. +Said cook is a Portuguese, a distinguished artist, and a great +bird-fancier. One can wander all over the ship here, instead of being a +prisoner on the poop; and I even have paid my footing on the forecastle. +S— clambers up like a lively youngster. You may fancy what the weather +is, that I have only closed my cabin-window once during half of a very +damp night; but no one else is so airy. The little goat was as rejoiced +to be afloat again as her mistress, and is a regular pet on board, with +the run of the quarter-deck. She still gives milk—a perfect Amalthæa. +The butcher, who has the care of her, cockers her up with dainties, and +she begs biscuit of the cook. I pay nothing for her fare. M—’s +tortoises are in my cabin, and seem very happy. Poor Mr. Porter is very +sick, and so are the two or three coloured passengers, who won’t ‘make an +effort’ at all. Mrs. H— (the captain’s wife), a young Cape lady, and I +are the only ‘female ladies’ of the party. The other day we saw a shoal +of porpoises, amounting to many hundreds, if not some thousands, who came +frisking round the ship. When we first saw them they looked like a line +of breakers; they made such a splash, and they jumped right out of the +water three feet in height, and ten or twelve in distance, glittering +green and bronze in the sun. Such a pretty, merry set of fellows! + +We shall touch at St. Helena, where I shall leave this letter to go by +the mail steamer, that you may know a few weeks before I arrive how +comfortably my voyage has begun. + +We see no Cape pigeons; they only visit outward ships—is not that +strange?—but, _en revanche_, many more albatrosses than in coming; and we +also enjoy the advantage of seeing all the homeward-bound ships, as they +all _pass_ us—a humiliating fact. The captain laughed heartily because I +said, ‘Oh, all right; I shall have the more sea for my money’,—when the +prospect of a slow voyage was discussed. It is very provoking to be so +much longer separated from you all than I had hoped, but I really believe +that the bad air and discomfort of the other ships would have done me +serious injury; while here I have every chance of benefiting to the +utmost, and having mild weather the whole way, besides the utmost amount +of comfort possible on board ship. There are some cockroaches, indeed, +but that is the only drawback. The _Camperdown_ is fourteen years old, +and was the crack ship to India in her day. Now she takes cargo and +poop-passengers only, and, of course, only gets invalids and people who +care more for comfort than speed. + +_Monday Evening_, May 26_th_.—Here we are, working away still to reach +St. Helena. We got the tail of a terrific gale and a tremendous sea all +night in our teeth, which broke up the south-east trades for a week. Now +it is all smooth and fair, with a light breeze again right aft; the old +trade again. Yesterday a large shark paid us a visit, with his suite of +three pretty little pilot-fish, striped like zebras, who swam just over +his back. He tried on a sailor’s cap which fell overboard, tossed it +away contemptuously, snuffed at the fat pork with which a hook was +baited, and would none of it, and finally ate the fresh sheep-skin which +the butcher had in tow to clean it, previous to putting it away as a +perquisite. It is a beautiful fish in shape and very graceful in motion. + +To-day a barque from Algoa Bay came close to us, and talked with the +speaking trumpet. She was a pretty, clipper-built, sharp-looking craft, +but had made a slower run even than ourselves. I dare say we shall have +her company for a long time, as she is bound for St. Helena and London. +My poor goat died suddenly the other day, to the general grief of the +ship; also one of the tortoises. The poor consumptive lad is wonderfully +better. But all the passengers were very sick during the rough weather, +except S— and I, who are quite old salts. Last week we saw a young +whale, a baby, about thirty feet long, and had a good view of him as he +played round the ship. We shall probably be at St. Helena on Wednesday, +but I cannot write from thence, as, if there is time, I shall get a run +on shore while the ship takes in water. But this letter will tell you of +my well-being so far, and in about six weeks after the date of it I hope +to be with you. I hope you won’t expect too much in the way of +improvement in my health. I look forward, oh, so eagerly, to be with you +again, and with my brats, big and little. God bless you all. + + Yours ever, + L. D. G. + +_Wednesday_, 28_th_.—Early morning, off St. Helena, James Town. + +Such a lovely _unreal_ view of the bold rocks and baby-house forts on +them! Ship close in. Washer-woman come on board, and all hurry. + +_Au revoir_. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{27} A lane near Esher. + +{30} Near Walton-on-Thames. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM THE CAPE*** + + +******* This file should be named 886-0.txt or 886-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/8/8/886 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Letters from the Cape + + +Author: Lady Duff Gordon + +Editor: John Purves + +Release Date: March 11, 2013 [eBook #886] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 1997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM THE CAPE*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1921 Humphrey Milford edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org. Second proof by Margaret +Price.</p> +<h1>LETTERS<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">FROM THE</span><br /> +CAPE</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="GutSmall">BY</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">LADY DUFF GORDON</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Edited by</p> +<p style="text-align: center">JOHN PURVES</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON</p> +<p style="text-align: center">HUMPHREY MILFORD</p> +<p style="text-align: center">1921</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">PRINTED IN ENGLAND<br /> +AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS</p> +<h2><a name="pageiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iii</span>EDITOR’S FOREWORD</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> Lady Duff Gordon’s +‘Letters from the Cape’ are less familiar to the +present generation of readers than those of the Lady Anne +Barnard, the neglect is due in great part to the circumstances of +their publication. After appearing in a now-forgotten +miscellany of Victorian travel, Galton’s <i>Vacation +Tourists</i>, third series (1864), where their simplicity and +delicate unprofessional candour gave them a brief hour of public +esteem, they were first issued separately as a supplement to Lady +Duff Gordon’s <i>Last Letters from Egypt</i>, occupying the +latter portion of a volume to which the writer’s daughter, +Mrs. Ross, contributed a short but vivid memoir, which touched +but lightly on her South African experiences; and they have never +appeared, we believe, in any other form. Yet they are +inferior in nothing but political interest to those of the +authoress of ‘Auld Robin Gray’. Indeed, in her +intellectual equipment, her temperament, and her gift of style, +Lady Duff Gordon was a far rarer creature than the jovial and +managing Scotswoman who was the correspondent of Dundas. +And in human sympathy—the quality that has kept Lady Anne +Barnard’s letters alive—Lady Duff Gordon shows a +still wider range and a yet keener sensibility. Her letters +are the fine flower of the English epistolary literature of <a +name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. iv</span>the +Cape. Few books of their class have better deserved +reprinting.</p> +<p>The daughter of John and Sarah Austin ran every risk of +growing up a blue-stocking. Yet she escaped every danger of +the kind—the proximity of Bentham, her childish friendships +with Henry Reeve and the Mills, and the formidable presence of +the learned friends of both her parents—by the force of a +triumphant naturalness and humour which remained with her to the +end of her life. Although her schooling was in Germany and +her sympathy with German character was remarkable, her own +personality was rather French in its grace and gaiety. It +was characteristic of her, then, to defend as she did ‘la +vieille gaieté française’ against Heine on +his death-bed. But the truth is that her sympathies were +nearly perfect. She was one of those rare characters that +see the best in every nationality without aping cosmopolitanism, +simply because they are content everywhere to be human. +Convention and prejudice vex them as little as pedantry +can. Their clear eyes look out each morning on a fresh +world, and their experiences are a perpetual school of sympathy +and never the sad routine of disillusionment.</p> +<p>When Lady Duff Gordon came to the Cape in search of health in +1861, she brought with her, young though she was, a wealth of +recollection and experience such as perhaps no other observer of +South Africa has known. She had been the friend <a +name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. v</span>of nearly every +prominent man-of-letters from Rogers to Tennyson. She was +intimate with half the intellectual world of England and Germany, +and admired for her beauty and grace of character in the salons +of Paris as much as in the drawing-rooms of London. And she +had shown the quality of her womanly sympathy in the most famous +of her literary friendships, that with Heinrich Heine, when she +visited the poet and soothed him in his last sad days in +Paris—an episode perhaps better known to present-day +readers from Mr. Zangwill’s story of <i>A Mattrass +Grave</i> than in the moving narrative of Lady Duff Gordon +herself, on which the story is based.</p> +<p>It was into the little world of Caledon and Simonstown and +Worcester, drowsy, sun-steeped villages of the old +colony—for Cape Town had little attraction for her and the +climate proved unsuitable—that this rare and exquisite +being descended. But the test of the true letter-writer, +the letter-writer of genius, is the skill and ease with which he +brings variety out of seeming monotony. The letters of Lady +Duff Gordon answer this test. She had not been many days in +the country before she had discovered (if she required to +discover) the excellent principle: ‘Avoid <i>engelsche +hoogmoedigheid</i> in dealing with the Dutch’; and by the +time she reaches Caledon she is on the best of terms with her new +friends. ‘The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old +Pylades, Heer Ley, are great cronies of mine’—she +writes—‘stout old grey-beards, toddling <a +name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>down the hill +together. I sometimes go and sit on the stoep with the two +old bachelors and they take it as a great compliment; and Heer +Klein gave me my letters all decked with flowers, and wished +“vrolyke tydings, Mevrouw”, most +heartily.’ She has a keen eye for the fine shades of +national character, and the modifications that spring from +differences of upbringing: the English farmer, ‘educated in +Belgium’, the young Dutch doctor with English manners, the +German basket-maker’s wife in Cape Town. A whole +chapter might be written on her friendship with the Malays, whose +hearts she won as completely as she afterwards did those of their +Mohammedan brothers in Egypt. Mr. Ian Colvin has since +opened up afresh the field she was here almost the first to +survey. In another direction, in her remarks on the Eastern +Province Jew of 1860, Lady Duff Gordon has given us some notes +which are of distinct value for social history. The +following passage, for example, deserves to be quoted as a +‘point de repère’ in the evolution of a +type. ‘These Colonial Jews’—says the +writer—‘are a new <i>Erscheinung</i> to me. +They have the features of their race, but many of their +peculiarities are gone. Mr. L—, who is very handsome +and gentlemanly, eats ham and patronises a good breed of pigs on +the “model farm” on which he spends his money. +He is (he says) a thorough Jew in faith, and evidently in +charitable works; but he wants to say his prayers in English and +not to <a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vii</span>“dress himself up” in a veil and +phylacteries for the purpose; and he and his wife talk of England +as “home”, and care as much for Jerusalem as their +neighbours. They have not forgotten the old persecutions, +and are civil to the coloured people, and speak of them in quite +a different tone from other English colonists. Moreover, +they are far better mannered and more ‘human’, in the +German sense of the word, in all respects; in short, less +“colonial”.’ It was a lady of this party +who described Prince Albert’s funeral to Lady Duff +Gordon. ‘The people mourned for him’—she +said—‘as much as for Hezekiah; and, indeed, he +deserved it a great deal better.’</p> +<p>There is not much attempt to describe scenery in Lady Duff +Gordon’s Letters, but just enough to show that her eye was +as sensitive to landscape as to the shades of racial character +and feeling. She indicates delicately yet effectively the +difference between the atmosphere at the coast and that +inland. ‘It is the difference between a pretty +pompadour beauty and a Greek statue. Those pale opal +mountains as distinct in every detail as the map on your table +and so cheerful and serene; no melodramatic effects of clouds and +gloom.’ But, as a rule, it is the human pageant that +engrosses her, and here her sense of values is extraordinarily +keen. There is no better instance than the portrait of the +German basket-maker’s wife, who confided to the writer her +timidity on landing in Africa. <a name="pageviii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. viii</span>‘I had never—she +said—been out of the city of Berlin and knew +nothing.’ She spoke of the natives as well-bred +(<i>anständig</i>), and Lady Duff Gordon’s comment is: +‘The use of the word was characteristic. She could +recognize an <i>Anständigkeit</i> not of +Berlin.’ But one might quote from every second page +of these letters. Lady Duff Gordon was less than a year in +South Africa; but in that time she brought more happiness to +those around her than many have done in a lifetime. And her +bounties live after her.</p> +<p>A last remark may not be out of place here, although it will +doubtless occur to every reader who approaches these letters with +sympathy and discretion. They must be read as true letters +and the spontaneous delineation of a personality, and not as a +considered contribution to South African history. Freer +even than Stevenson himself from ‘le romantisme des +poitrinaires’, and singularly clear-sighted in all that +comes under her personal observation, Lady Duff Gordon does not +wholly escape the nemesis which overtakes the traveller who +accepts his history from hearsay. And in South Africa, as +we know, such nemesis is well-nigh unfailing. Few, however, +have been the travellers, as the following pages will show, who +could meet such a charge with so great evidence of candour, +disinterestedness, and love of human nature in its simplest and +most innocent forms.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">J. P.</p> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>INTRODUCTORY</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> following letters were written, +as the reader will readily perceive, without the remotest view to +publication. They convey in the most unreserved manner the +fresh and vivid impressions of the moment, to the two persons +with whom, of all others, the writer felt the least necessity for +reserve in the expression of her thoughts, or care about the form +in which those thoughts were conveyed.</p> +<p>Such letters cannot be expected to be free from +mistakes. The writer is misinformed; or her imagination, +powerfully acted upon by new and strange objects, colours and +magnifies, to a certain extent, what she sees. If these are +valid objections, they are equally so to every description of a +country that has not been corrected by long experience.</p> +<p>It has been thought, however, that their obvious and absolute +genuineness, and a certain frank and high-toned originality, +hardly to be found in what is written for the public, would +recommend them to the taste of many.</p> +<p>But this was not the strongest motive to their +publication.</p> +<p>The tone of English travellers is too frequently <a +name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>arrogant and +contemptuous, even towards peoples whose pretensions on the score +of civilization are little inferior to their own. When they +come in contact with communities or races inferior to them in +natural organization or in acquired advantages, the feeling of a +common humanity often seems entirely to disappear. No +attempt is made to search out, under external differences, the +proofs of a common nature; no attempt to trace the streams of +human affections in their course through channels unlike those +marked out among ourselves; no attempt to discover what there may +be of good mingled with obvious evil, or concealed under +appearances which excite our surprise and antipathy.</p> +<p>It is the entire absence of the exclusive and supercilious +spirit which characterizes dominant races; the rare power of +entering into new trains of thought, and sympathizing with +unaccustomed feelings; the tender pity for the feeble and +subject, and the courteous respect for their prejudices; the +large and purely human sympathies;—these, far more than any +literary or graphic merits, are the qualities which have induced +the possessors of the few following letters to give them to the +public.</p> +<p>They show, what a series of letters from Egypt, since received +from the same writer, prove yet more conclusively; that even +among so-called barbarians <a name="page3"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 3</span>are to be found hearts that open to +every touch of kindness, and respond to every expression of +respect and sympathy.</p> +<p>If they should awaken any sentiments like those which inspired +them, on behalf of races of men who come in contact with +civilization only to feel its resistless force and its haughty +indifference or contempt, it will be some consolation to those +who are enduring the bitterness of the separation to which they +owe their existence.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Sarah +Austin</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Weybridge</span>,<br /> + <i>Feb.</i> 24, 1864.</p> +<h2><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>LETTER +I<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE VOYAGE</span></h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Wednesday, 24th July.<br /> +Off the Scilly Isles, 6 <span class="GutSmall">P.M.</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I wrote last Sunday, we put +our pilot on shore, and went down Channel. It soon came on +to blow, and all night was squally and rough. Captain on +deck all night. Monday, I went on deck at eight. +Lovely weather, but the ship pitching as you never saw a ship +pitch—bowsprit under water. By two o’clock a +gale came on; all ordered below. Captain left dinner, and, +about six, a sea struck us on the weather side, and washed a good +many unconsidered trifles overboard, and stove in three windows +on the poop; nurse and four children in fits; Mrs. T— and +babies afloat, but good-humoured as usual. Army-surgeon and +I picked up children and bullied nurse, and helped to bale +cabin. Cuddy window stove in, and we were wetted. +Went to bed at nine; could not undress, it pitched so, and had to +call doctor to help me into cot; slept sound. The gale +continues. My cabin is water-tight as to big splashes, but +damp and dribbling. I am almost ashamed to like such +miseries so much. The forecastle is under water with every +lurch, and the motion quite incredible to one only acquainted +with steamers. If one can sit this ship, which bounds like +a tiger, one should sit a leap over a haystack. Evidently, +I can never be sea-sick; but holding on is hard work, and writing +harder.</p> +<p>Life is thus:—Avery—my cuddy boy—brings tea +for S—, and milk for me, at six. S— turns out; +when she is dressed, I turn out, and sing out for Avery, who +takes down my cot, and brings a bucket of salt water, in which I +wash with vast danger and difficulty; get dressed, and go on deck +at eight. Ladies not allowed there earlier. Breakfast +solidly at nine. Deck again; gossip; pretend to read. +Beer and biscuit at twelve. The faithful Avery brings mine +on deck. Dinner at four. Do a little carpentering in +cabin, all the outfitters’ work having broken loose. +I am now in the captain’s cabin, writing. We have the +wind as ever, dead against us; and as soon as we get unpleasantly +near Scilly, we shall tack and stand back to the French coast, +where we were last night. Three soldiers able to answer +roll-call, all the rest utterly sick; three middies +helpless. Several of crew, ditto. Passengers very +fairly plucky; but only I and one other woman, who never was at +sea before, well. The food on board our ship is good as to +meat, bread, and beer; everything else bad. Port and sherry +of British manufacture, and the water with an incredible +<i>borachio</i>, essence of tar; so that tea and coffee are but +derisive names.</p> +<p>To-day, the air is quite saturated with wet, and I put on my +clothes damp when I dressed, and have felt so ever since. I +am so glad I was not persuaded out of my cot; it is the whole +difference between rest, and holding on for life. No one in +a bunk slept at all on Monday night; but then it blew as heavy a +gale as it can blow, and we had the Cornish coast under our +lee. So we tacked and tumbled all night. The ship +being new, too, has the rigging all wrong; and the confusion and +disorder are beyond description. The ship’s officers +are very good fellows. The mizen is entirely worked by the +‘young gentlemen’; so we never see the sailors, and, +at present, are not allowed to go forward. All lights are +put out at half-past ten, and no food allowed in the cabin; but +the latter article my friend Avery makes light of, and brings me +anything when I am laid up. The young soldier-officers bawl +for him with expletives; but he says, with a snigger, to me, +‘They’ll just wait till their betters, the ladies, is +looked to.’ I will write again some day soon, and +take the chance of meeting a ship; you may be amused by a little +scrawl, though it will probably be very stupid and ill-written, +for it is not easy to see or to guide a pen while I hold on to +the table with both legs and one arm, and am first on my back and +then on my nose. Adieu, till next time. I have had a +good taste of the humours of the Channel.</p> +<p>29<i>th</i> <i>July</i>, 4 <i>Bells</i>, i.e. 2 +<i>o’clock</i>, <i>p.m.</i>—When I wrote last, I +thought we had had our share of contrary winds and foul +weather. Ever since, we have beaten about the bay with the +variety of a favourable gale one night for a few hours, and a +dead calm yesterday, in which we almost rolled our masts out of +the ship. However, the sun was hot, and I sat and basked on +deck, and we had morning service. It was a striking sight, +with the sailors seated on oars and buckets, covered with signal +flags, and with their clean frocks and faces. To-day is so +cold that I dare not go on deck, and am writing in my black-hole +of a cabin, in a green light, with the sun blinking through the +waves as they rush over my port and scuttle. The captain is +much vexed at the loss of time. I persist in thinking it a +very pleasant, but utterly lazy life. I sleep a great deal, +but don’t eat much, and my cough has been bad; but, +considering the real hardship of the life—damp, cold, queer +food, and bad drink—I think I am better. When we can +get past Finisterre, I shall do very well, I doubt not.</p> +<p>The children swarm on board, and cry unceasingly. A +passenger-ship is no place for children. Our poor ship will +lose her character by the weather, as she cannot fetch up ten +days’ lost time. But she is evidently a +race-horse. We overhaul everything we see, at a wonderful +rate, and the speed is exciting and pleasant; but the next long +voyage I make, I’ll try for a good wholesome old +‘monthly’ tub, which will roll along on the top of +the water, instead of cutting through it, with the waves curling +in at the cuddy skylights. We tried to signal a barque +yesterday, and send home word ‘all well’; but the +brutes understood nothing but Russian, and excited our +indignation by talking ‘gibberish ‘ to us; which we +resented with true British spirit, as became us.</p> +<p>It is now blowing hard again, and we have just been taken +right aback. Luckily, I had lashed my desk to my +washing-stand, or that would have flown off, as I did off my +chair. I don’t think I shall know what to make of +solid ground under my feet. The rolling and pitching of a +ship of this size, with such tall masts, is quite unlike the +little niggling sort of work on a steamer—it is the +difference between grinding along a bad road in a four-wheeler, +and riding well to hounds in a close country on a good +hunter. I was horribly tired for about five days, but now I +rather like it, and never know whether it blows or not in the +night, I sleep so soundly. The noise is beyond all belief; +the creaking, trampling, shouting, clattering; it is an incessant +storm. We have not yet got our masts quite safe; the new +wire-rigging stretches more than was anticipated (of course), and +our main-topmast is shaky. The crew have very hard work, as +incessant tacking is added to all the extra work incident to a +new ship. On Saturday morning, everybody was shouting for +the carpenter. My cabin was flooded by a leak, and I +superintended the baling and swabbing from my cot, and dressed +sitting on my big box. However, I got the leak stopped and +cabin dried, and no harm done, as I had put everything up off the +floor the night before, suspicious of a dribble which came +in. Then my cot frame was broken by my cuddy boy and I +lurching over against S—’s bunk, in taking it +down. The carpenter has given me his own, and takes my +broken one for himself. Board ship is a famous place for +tempers. Being easily satisfied, I get all I want, and +plenty of attention and kindness; but I cannot prevail on my +cuddy boy to refrain from violent tambourine-playing with a tin +tray just at the ear of a lady who worries him. The young +soldier-officers, too, I hear mentioned as ‘them lazy +gunners’, and they struggle for water and tea in the +morning long after mine has come. We have now been ten days +at sea, and only three on which we could eat without the +‘fiddles’ (transverse pieces of wood to prevent the +dishes from falling off). Smooth water will seem quite +strange to me. I fear the poor people in the forecastle +must be very wet and miserable, as the sea is constantly over it, +not in spray, but in tons of green water.</p> +<p>3<i>d</i> <i>Aug.</i>—We had two days of dead calm, then +one or two of a very light, favourable breeze, and yesterday we +ran 175 miles with the wind right aft. We saw several +ships, which signalled us, but we would not answer, as we had our +spars down for repairs and looked like a wreck, and fancied it +would be a pity to frighten you all with a report to that +effect.</p> +<p>Last night we got all right, and spread out immense +studding-sails. We are now bowling along, wind right aft, +dipping our studding-sail booms into the water at every +roll. The weather is still surprisingly cold, though very +fine, and I have to come below quite early, out of the evening +air. The sun sets before seven o’clock. I still +cough a good deal, and the bad food and drink are trying. +But the life is very enjoyable; and as I have the run of the +charts, and ask all sorts of questions, I get plenty of +amusement. S— is an excellent traveller; no +grumbling, and no gossiping, which, on board a ship like ours, is +a great merit, for there is <i>ad nauseam</i> of both.</p> +<p>Mr. — is writing a charade, in which I have agreed to +take a part, to prevent squabbling. He wanted to start a +daily paper, but the captain wisely forbade it, as it must have +led to personalities and quarrels, and suggested a play +instead. My little white Maltese goat is very well, and +gives plenty of milk, which is a great resource, as the tea and +coffee are abominable. Avery brings it me at six, in a tin +pannikin, and again in the evening. The chief officer is +well-bred and agreeable, and, indeed, all the young gentlemen are +wonderfully good specimens of their class. The captain is a +burly foremast man in manner, with a heart of wax and every +feeling of a gentleman. He was in California, +‘<i>hide droghing</i>’ with Dana, and he says every +line of <i>Two Years before the Mast</i> is true. He went +through it all himself. He says that I am a great help to +him, as a pattern of discipline and punctuality. People are +much inclined to miss meals, and then want things at odd hours, +and make the work quite impossible to the cook and +servants. Of course, I get all I want in double-quick time, +as I try to save my man trouble; and the carpenter leaves my +scuttle open when no one else gets it, quite willing to get up in +his time of sleep to close it, if it comes on to blow. A +maid is really a superfluity on board ship, as the men rather +like being ‘<i>aux petits soins</i>’. The +boatswain came the other day to say that he had a nice carpet and +a good pillow; did I want anything of the sort? He would be +proud that I should use anything of his. You would delight +in Avery, my cuddy man, who is as quick as ‘greased +lightning’, and full of fun. His misery is my want of +appetite, and his efforts to cram me are very droll. The +days seem to slip away, one can’t tell how. I sit on +deck from breakfast at nine, till dinner at four, and then again +till it gets cold, and then to bed. We are now about 100 +miles from Madeira, and shall have to run inside it, as we were +thrown so far out of our course by the foul weather.</p> +<p>9<i>th</i> <i>Aug.</i>—Becalmed, under a vertical +sun. Lat. 17°, or thereabouts. We saw Madeira at +a distance like a cloud; since then, we had about four days trade +wind, and then failing or contrary breezes. We have sailed +so near the African shore that we get little good out of the +trades, and suffer much from the African climate. Fancy a +sky like a pale February sky in London, no sun to be seen, and a +heat coming, one can’t tell from whence. To-day, the +sun is vertical and invisible, the sea glassy and heaving. +I have been ill again, and obliged to lie still yesterday and the +day before in the captain’s cabin; to-day in my own, as we +have the ports open, and the maindeck is cooler than the +upper. The men have just been holystoning here, singing +away lustily in chorus. Last night I got leave to sling my +cot under the main hatchway, as my cabin must have killed me from +suffocation when shut up. Most of the men stayed on deck, +but that is dangerous after sunset on this African coast, on +account of the heavy dew and fever. They tell me that the +open sea is quite different; certainly, nothing can look duller +and dimmer than this specimen of the tropics. The few days +of trade wind were beautiful and cold, with sparkling sea, and +fresh air and bright sun; and we galloped along merrily.</p> +<p>We are now close to the Cape de Verd Islands, and shall go +inside them. About lat. 4° N. we expect to catch the +S.E. trade wind, when it will be cold again. In lat. +24°, the day before we entered the tropics, I sat on deck in +a coat and cloak; the heat is quite sudden, and only lasts a week +or so. The sea to-day is littered all round the ship with +our floating rubbish, so we have not moved at all.</p> +<p>I constantly long for you to be here, though I am not sure you +would like the life as well as I do. All your ideas of it +are wrong; the confinement to the poop and the stringent +regulations would bore you. But then, sitting on deck in +fine weather is pleasure enough, without anything else. In +a Queen’s ship, a yacht, or a merchantman with fewer +passengers, it must be a delightful existence.</p> +<p>17<i>th</i> <i>Aug.</i>—Since I wrote last, we got into +the south-west monsoon for one day, and I sat up by the steersman +in intense enjoyment—a bright sun and glittering blue sea; +and we tore along, pitching and tossing the water up like +mad. It was glorious. At night, I was calmly reposing +in my cot, in the middle of the steerage, just behind the main +hatchway, when I heard a crashing of rigging and a violent noise +and confusion on deck. The captain screamed out orders +which informed me that we were in the thick of a +collision—of course I lay still, and waited till the row, +or the ship, went down. I found myself next day looked upon +as no better than a heathen by all the women, because I had been +cool, and declined to get up and make a noise. Presently +the officers came and told me that a big ship had borne down on +us—we were on the starboard tack, and all +right—carried off our flying jib-boom and whisker (the sort +of yard to the bowsprit). The captain says he was never in +such imminent danger in his life, as she threatened to swing +round and to crush into our waist, which would have been certain +destruction. The little dandy soldier-officer behaved +capitally; he turned his men up in no time, and had them all +ready. He said, ‘Why, you know, I must see that my +fellows go down decently.’ S— was as cool as an +icicle, offered me my pea-jacket, &c., which I declined, as +it would be of no use for me to go off in boats, even supposing +there were time, and I preferred going down comfortably in my +cot. Finding she was of no use to me, she took a yelling +maid in custody, and was thought a brute for begging her to hold +her noise. The first lieutenant, who looks on passengers as +odious cargo, has utterly mollified to me since this +adventure. I heard him report to the captain that I was +‘among ’em all, and never sung out, nor asked a +question the while’. This he called +‘beautiful’.</p> +<p>Next day we got light wind S.W. (which ought to be the S.E. +trades), and the weather has been, beyond all description, lovely +ever since. Cool, but soft, sunny and bright—in +short, perfect; only the sky is so pale. Last night the +sunset was a vision of loveliness, a sort of Pompadour paradise; +the sky seemed full of rose-crowned <i>amorini</i>, and the moon +wore a rose-coloured veil of bright pink cloud, all so light, so +airy, so brilliant, and so fleeting, that it was a kind of +intoxication. It is far less grand than northern colour, +but so lovely, so shiny. Then the flying fish skimmed like +silver swallows over the blue water. Such a sight! +Also, I saw a whale spout like a very tiny garden fountain. +The Southern Cross is a delusion, and the tropical moon no better +than a Parisian one, at present. We are now in lat. 31° +about, and have been driven halfway to Rio by this sweet southern +breeze. I have never yet sat on deck without a cloth jacket +or shawl, and the evenings are chilly. I no longer believe +in tropical heat at sea. Even during the calm it was not so +hot as I have often felt it in England—and that, under a +vertical sun. The ship that nearly ran us and herself down, +must have kept no look-out, and refused to answer our hail. +She is supposed to be from Glasgow by her looks. We may +speak a ship and send letters on board; so excuse scrawl and +confusion, it is so difficult to write at all.</p> +<p>30<i>th</i> <i>August</i>.—About 25° S. lat. and +very much to the west. We have had all sorts of +weather—some beautiful, some very rough, but always +contrary winds—and got within 200 miles of the coast of +South America. We now have a milder breeze from the +<i>soft</i> N.E., after a <i>bitter</i> S.W., with Cape pigeons +and mollymawks (a small albatross), not to compare with our +gulls. We had private theatricals last night—ill +acted, but beautifully got up as far as the sailors were +concerned. I did not act, as I did not feel well enough, +but I put a bit for Neptune into the Prologue and made the +boatswain’s mate speak it, to make up for the absence of +any shaving at the Line, which the captain prohibited altogether; +I thought it hard the men should not get their +‘tips’. The boatswain’s mate dressed and +spoke it admirably; and the old carpenter sang a famous comic +song, dressed to perfection as a ploughboy.</p> +<p>I am disappointed in the tropics as to warmth. Our +thermometer stood at 82° one day only, under the vertical +sun, N. of the Line; <i>on</i> the Line at 74°; and at sea it +<i>feels</i> 10° colder than it is. I have never been +hot, except for two days 4° N. of the Line, and now it is +very cold, but it is very invigorating. All day long it +looks and feels like early morning; the sky is pale blue, with +light broken clouds; the sea an inconceivably pure opaque +blue—lapis lazuli, but far brighter. I saw a lovely +dolphin three days ago; his body five feet long (some said more) +is of a <i>fiery</i> blue-green, and his huge tail golden +bronze. I was glad he scorned the bait and escaped the +hook; he was so beautiful. This is the sea from which Venus +rose in her youthful glory. All is young, fresh, serene, +beautiful, and cheerful.</p> +<p>We have not seen a sail for weeks. But the life at sea +makes amends for anything, to my mind. I am never tired of +the calms, and I enjoy a stiff gale like a Mother Carey’s +chicken, so long as I can be on deck or in the captain’s +cabin. Between decks it is very close and suffocating in +rough weather, as all is shut up. We shall be still three +weeks before we reach the Cape; and now the sun sets with a +sudden plunge before six, and the evenings are growing too cold +again for me to go on deck after dinner. As long as I +could, I spent fourteen hours out of the twenty-four in my quiet +corner by the wheel, basking in the tropical sun. Never +again will I believe in the tales of a burning sun; the vertical +sun just kept me warm—no more. In two days we shall +be bitterly cold again.</p> +<p>Immediately after writing the above it began to blow a gale +(favourable, indeed, but more furious than the captain had ever +known in these seas),—about lat. 34° S. and long. +25°. For three days we ran under close-reefed (four +reefs) topsails, before a sea. The gale in the Bay of +Biscay was a little shaking up in a puddle (a dirty one) compared +to that glorious South Atlantic in all its majestic fury. +The intense blue waves, crowned with fantastic crests of bright +emeralds and with the spray blowing about like wild dishevelled +hair, came after us to swallow us up at a mouthful, but took us +up on their backs, and hurried us along as if our ship were a +cork. Then the gale slackened, and we had a dead calm, +during which the waves banged us about frightfully, and our masts +were in much jeopardy. Then a foul wind, S.E., increased +into a gale, lasting five days, during which orders were given in +dumb show, as no one’s voice could be heard; through it we +fought and laboured and dipped under water, and I only had my dry +corner by the wheel, where the kind pleasant little third officer +lashed me tight. It was far more formidable than the first +gale, but less beautiful; and we made so much lee-way that we +lost ten days, and only arrived here yesterday. I recommend +a fortnight’s heavy gale in the South Atlantic as a cure +for a <i>blasé</i> state of mind. It cannot be +described; the sound, the sense of being hurled along without the +smallest regard to ‘this side uppermost’; the beauty +of the whole scene, and the occasional crack and bear-away of +sails and spars; the officer trying to ‘sing out’, +quite in vain, and the boatswain’s whistle scarcely +audible. I remained near the wheel every day for as long as +I could bear it, and was enchanted.</p> +<p>Then the mortal perils of eating, drinking, moving, sitting, +lying; standing can’t be done, even by the sailors, without +holding on. <i>The</i> night of the gale, my cot twice +touched the beams of the ship above me. I asked the captain +if I had dreamt it, but he said it was quite possible; he had +never seen a ship so completely on her beam ends come up all +right, masts and yards all sound.</p> +<p>There is a middy about half M—’s size, a very tiny +ten-year-older, who has been my delight; he is so completely +‘the officer and the gentleman’. My maternal +entrails turned like old Alvarez, when that baby lay out on the +very end of the cross-jack yard to reef, in the gale; it was +quite voluntary, and the other newcomers all declined. I +always called him ‘Mr. —, sir’, and asked his +leave gravely, or, on occasions, his protection and assistance; +and his little dignity was lovely. He is polite to the +ladies, and slightly distant to the passenger-boys, bigger than +himself, whom he orders off dangerous places; ‘Children, +come out of that; you’ll be overboard.’</p> +<p>A few days before landing I caught a bad cold, and kept my +bed. I caught this cold by ‘sleeping with a damp man +in my cabin’, as some one said. During the last gale, +the cabin opposite mine was utterly swamped, and I found the +Irish soldier-servant of a little officer of eighteen in despair; +the poor lad had got ague, and eight inches of water in his bed, +and two feet in the cabin. I looked in and said, ‘He +can’t stay there—carry him into my cabin, and lay him +in the bunk’; which he did, with tears running down his +honest old face. So we got the boy into S—’s +bed, and cured his fever and ague, caught under canvas in Romney +Marsh. Meantime S— had to sleep in a chair and to +undress in the boy’s wet cabin. As a token of +gratitude, he sent me a poodle pup, born on board, very +handsome. The artillery officers were generally +well-behaved; the men, deserters and ruffians, sent out as +drivers. We have had five courts-martial and two floggings +in eight weeks, among seventy men. They were pampered with +food and porter, and would not pull a rope, or get up at six to +air their quarters. The sailors are an excellent set of +men. When we parted, the first lieutenant said to me, +‘Weel, ye’ve a wonderful idee of discipline for a +leddy, I will say. You’ve never been reported but +once, and that was on sick leave, for your light, and all in +order.’</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Cape Town, Sept. 18.</p> +<p>We anchored yesterday morning, and Captain J—, the Port +Captain, came off with a most kind letter from Sir Baldwin +Walker, his gig, and a boat and crew for S— and the +baggage. So I was whipped over the ship’s side in a +chair, and have come to a boarding house where the J—s +live. I was tired and dizzy and landsick, and lay down and +went to sleep. After an hour or so I woke, hearing a little +<i>gazouillement</i>, like that of chimney swallows. On +opening my eyes I beheld four demons, ‘sons of the obedient +Jinn’, each bearing an article of furniture, and holding +converse over me in the language of Nephelecoecygia. Why +has no one ever mentioned the curious little soft voices of these +coolies?—you can’t hear them with the naked ear, +three feet off. The most hideous demon (whose complexion +had not only the colour, but the precise metallic lustre of an +ill black-leaded stove) at last chirruped a wish for orders, +which I gave. I asked the pert, active, cockney housemaid +what I ought to pay them, as, being a stranger, they might +overcharge me. Her scorn was sublime, ‘Them nasty +blacks never asks more than their regular charge.’ So +I asked the black-lead demon, who demanded ‘two shilling +each horse in waggon’, and a dollar each ‘coolie +man’. He then glided with fiendish noiselessness +about the room, arranged the furniture to his own taste, and +finally said, ‘Poor missus sick’; then more +chirruping among themselves, and finally a fearful gesture of +incantation, accompanied by ‘God bless poor missus. +Soon well now’. The wrath of the cockney housemaid +became majestic: ‘There, ma’am; you see how saucy +they have grown—a nasty black heathen Mohamedan a blessing +of a white Christian!’</p> +<p>These men are the Auvergnats of Africa. I was assured +that bankers entrust them with large sums in gold, which they +carry some hundred and twenty miles, by unknown tracks, for a +small gratuity. The pretty, graceful Malays are no honester +than ourselves, but are excellent workmen.</p> +<p>To-morrow, my linen will go to a ravine in the giant mountain +at my back, and there be scoured in a clear spring by brown +women, bleached on the mountain top, and carried back all those +long miles on their heads, as it went up.</p> +<p>My landlady is Dutch; the waiter is an Africander, half Dutch, +half Malay, very handsome, and exactly like a French gentleman, +and as civil.</p> +<p>Enter ‘Africander’ lad with a nosegay; only one +flower that I know—heliotrope. The vegetation is +lovely; the freshness of spring and the richness of summer. +The leaves on the trees are in all the beauty of spring. +Mrs. R— brought me a plate of oranges, ‘just +gathered’, as soon as I entered the house—and, oh! +how good they were! better even than the Maltese. They are +going out, and <i>dear</i> now—two a penny, very large and +delicious. I am wild to get out and see the glorious +scenery and the hideous people. To-day the wind has been a +cold south-wester, and I have not been out. My windows look +N. and E. so I get all the sun and warmth. The beauty of +Table Bay is astounding. Fancy the Undercliff in the Isle +of Wight magnified a hundred-fold, with clouds floating halfway +up the mountain. The Hottentot mountains in the distance +have a fantastic jagged outline, which hardly looks real. +The town is like those in the south of Europe; flat roofs, and +all unfinished; roads are simply non-existent. At the doors +sat brown women with black hair that shone like metal, very +handsome; they are Malays, and their men wear conical hats a-top +of turbans, and are the chief artisans. At the end of the +pier sat a Mozambique woman in white drapery and the most +majestic attitude, like a Roman matron; her features large and +strong and harsh, but fine; and her skin blacker than night.</p> +<p>I have got a couple of Cape pigeons (the storm-bird of the +South Atlantic) for J—’s hat. They followed us +several thousand miles, and were hooked for their pains. +The albatrosses did not come within hail.</p> +<p>The little Maltese goat gave a pint of milk night and morning, +and was a great comfort to the cow. She did not like the +land or the grass at first, and is to be thrown out of milk +now. She is much admired and petted by the young +Africander. My room is at least eighteen feet high, and +contains exactly a bedstead, one straw mattrass, one rickety +table, one wash-table, two chairs, and broken looking-glass; no +carpet, and a hiatus of three inches between the floor and the +door, but all very clean; and excellent food. I have not +made a bargain yet, but I dare say I shall stay here.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>.—I have just received your letter; where +it has been hiding, I can’t conceive. To-day is cold +and foggy, like a baddish day in June with you; no colder, if so +cold. Still, I did not venture out, the fog rolls so +heavily over the mountain. Well, I must send off this yarn, +which is as interminable as the ‘sinnet’ and +‘foxes’ which I twisted with the mids.</p> +<h2><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>LETTER +II</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Cape Town, Oct. 3.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">came</span> on shore on a very fine day, +but the weather changed, and we had a fortnight of cold and damp +and S.W. wind (equivalent to our east wind), such as the +‘oldest inhabitant’ never experienced; and I have had +as bad an attack of bronchitis as ever I remember, having been in +bed till yesterday. I had a very good doctor, half Italian, +half Dane, born at the Cape of Good Hope, and educated at +Edinburgh, named Chiappini. He has a son studying medicine +in London, whose mother is Dutch; such is the mixture of bloods +here.</p> +<p>Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; the blessed sun +shone out, and the weather was lovely at once. The mountain +threw off his cloak of cloud, and all was bright and warm. +I got up and sat in the verandah over the stoep (a kind of +terrace in front of every house here). They brought me a +tortoise as big as half a crown and as lively as a cricket to +look at, and a chameleon like a fairy dragon—a green +fellow, five inches long, with no claws on his feet, but suckers +like a fly—the most engaging little beast. He sat on +my finger, and caught flies with great delight and dexterity, and +I longed to send him to M—. To-day, I went a long +drive with Captain and Mrs. J—: we went to Rondebosch and +Wynberg—lovely country; rather like Herefordshire; red +earth and oak-trees. Miles of the road were like +Gainsborough-lane, <a name="citation27"></a><a href="#footnote27" +class="citation">[27]</a> on a large scale, and looked quite +English; only here and there a hedge of prickly pear, or the big +white aruns in the ditches, told a different tale; and the +scarlet geraniums and myrtles growing wild puzzled one.</p> +<p>And then came rattling along a light, rough, but well-poised +cart, with an Arab screw driven by a Malay, in a great hat on his +kerchiefed head, and his wife, with her neat dress, glossy black +hair, and great gold earrings. They were coming with fish, +which he had just caught at Kalk Bay, and was going to sell for +the dinners of the Capetown folk. You pass neat villas, +with pretty gardens and stoeps, gay with flowers, and at the +doors of several, neat Malay girls are lounging. They are +the best servants here, for the emigrants mostly drink. +Then you see a group of children at play, some as black as coals, +some brown and very pretty. A little black girl, about +R—’s age, has carefully tied what little petticoat +she has, in a tight coil round her waist, and displays the most +darling little round legs and behind, which it would be a real +pleasure to slap; it is so shiny and round, and she runs and +stands so strongly and gracefully.</p> +<p>Here comes another Malay, with a pair of baskets hanging from +a stick across his shoulder, like those in Chinese pictures, +which his hat also resembles. Another cart full of working +men, with a Malay driver; and inside are jumbled some red-haired, +rosy-cheeked English navvies, with the ugliest Mozambiques, +blacker than Erebus, and with faces all knobs and corners, like a +crusty loaf. As we drive home we see a span of sixteen +noble oxen in the market-place, and on the ground squats the +Hottentot driver. His face no words can describe—his +cheek-bones are up under his hat, and his meagre-pointed chin +halfway down to his waist; his eyes have the dull look of a +viper’s, and his skin is dirty and sallow, but not darker +than a dirty European’s.</p> +<p>Capetown is rather pretty, but beyond words untidy and out of +repair. As it is neither drained nor paved, it won’t +do in hot weather; and I shall migrate ‘up country’ +to a Dutch village. Mrs. J—, who is Dutch herself, +tells me that one may board in a Dutch farm-house very cheaply, +and with great comfort (of course eating with the family), and +that they will drive you about the country and tend your horses +for nothing, if you are friendly, and don’t treat them with +<i>Engelsche hoog-moedigheid</i>.</p> +<p><i>Oct.</i> 19<i>th</i>.—The packet came in last night, +but just in time to save the fine of 50<i>l.</i> per diem, and I +got your welcome letter this morning. I have been coughing +all this time, but I hope I shall improve. I came out at +the very worst time of year, and the weather has been (of course) +‘unprecedentedly’ bad and changeable. But when +it <i>is</i> fine it is quite celestial; so clear, so dry, so +light. Then comes a cloud over Table Mountain, like the +sugar on a wedding-cake, which tumbles down in splendid +waterfalls, and vanishes unaccountably halfway; and then you run +indoors and shut doors and windows, or it portends a +‘south-easter’, i.e. a hurricane, and Capetown +disappears in impenetrable clouds of dust. But this wind +coming off the hills and fields of ice, is the Cape doctor, and +keeps away cholera, fever of every sort, and all malignant or +infectious diseases. Most of them are unknown here. +Never was so healthy a place; but the remedy is of the heroic +nature, and very disagreeable. The stones rattle against +the windows, and omnibuses are blown over on the Rondebosch +road.</p> +<p>A few days ago, I drove to Mr. V—’s farm. +Imagine St. George’s Hill, <a name="citation30"></a><a +href="#footnote30" class="citation">[30]</a> and the most +beautiful bits of it, sloping gently up to Table Mountain, with +its grey precipices, and intersected with Scotch burns, which +water it all the year round, as they come from the living rock; +and sprinkled with oranges, pomegranates, and camelias in +abundance. You drive through a mile or two as described, +and arrive at a square, planted with rows of fine oaks close +together; at the upper end stands the house, all on the +ground-floor, but on a high stoep: rooms eighteen feet high; the +old slave quarters on each side; stables, &c., opposite; the +square as big as Belgrave Square, and the buildings in the old +French style.</p> +<p>We then went on to Newlands, a still more beautiful +place. Immense trenching and draining going on—the +foreman a Caffre, black as ink, six feet three inches high, and +broad in proportion, with a staid, dignified air, and Englishmen +working under him! At the streamlets there are the +inevitable groups of Malay women washing clothes, and brown +babies sprawling about. Yesterday, I should have bought a +black woman for her beauty, had it been still possible. She +was carrying an immense weight on her head, and was far gone with +child; but such stupendous physical perfection I never even +imagined. Her jet black face was like the Sphynx, with the +same mysterious smile; her shape and walk were goddess-like, and +the lustre of her skin, teeth, and eyes, showed the fulness of +health;—Caffre of course. I walked after her as far +as her swift pace would let me, in envy and admiration of such +stately humanity.</p> +<p>The ordinary blacks, or Mozambiques, as they call them, are +hideous. Malay here seems equivalent to Mohammedan. +They were originally Malays, but now they include every shade, +from the blackest nigger to the most blooming English +woman. Yes, indeed, the emigrant-girls have been known to +turn ‘Malays’, and get thereby husbands who know not +billiards and brandy—the two diseases of Capetown. +They risked a plurality of wives, and professed Islam, but they +got fine clothes and industrious husbands. They wear a very +pretty dress, and all have a great air of independence and +self-respect; and the real Malays are very handsome. I am +going to see one of the Mollahs soon, and to look at their +schools and mosque; which, to the distraction of the Scotch, they +call their ‘Kerk.’</p> +<p>I asked a Malay if he would drive me in his cart with the six +or eight mules, which he agreed to do for thirty shillings and +his dinner (i.e. a share of my dinner) on the road. When I +asked how long it would take, he said, ‘Allah is +groot’, which meant, I found, that it depended on the state +of the beach—the only road for half the way.</p> +<p>The sun, moon, and stars are different beings from those we +look upon. Not only are they so large and bright, but you +<i>see</i> that the moon and stars are <i>balls</i>, and that the +sky is endless beyond them. On the other hand, the clear, +dry air dwarfs Table Mountain, as you seem to see every detail of +it to the very top.</p> +<p>Capetown is very picturesque. The old Dutch buildings +are very handsome and peculiar, but are falling to decay and dirt +in the hands of their present possessors. The few Dutch +ladies I have seen are very pleasing. They are gentle and +simple, and naturally well-bred. Some of the Malay women +are very handsome, and the little children are darlings. A +little parti-coloured group of every shade, from ebony to golden +hair and blue eyes, were at play in the street yesterday, and the +majority were pretty, especially the half-castes. Most of +the Caffres I have seen look like the perfection of human +physical nature, and seem to have no diseases. Two days ago +I saw a Hottentot girl of seventeen, a housemaid here. You +would be enchanted by her superfluity of flesh; the face was very +queer and ugly, and yet pleasing, from the sweet smile and the +rosy cheeks which please one much, in contrast to all the pale +yellow faces—handsome as some of them are.</p> +<p>I wish I could send the six chameleons which a good-natured +parson brought me in his hat, and a queer lizard in his +pocket. The chameleons are charming, so monkey-like and so +‘<i>caressants</i>’. They sit on my breakfast +tray and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by their tails, and +reach out after my hand.</p> +<p>I have had a very kind letter from Lady Walker, and shall go +and stay with them at Simon’s Bay as soon as I feel up to +the twenty-two miles along the beaches and bad roads in the +mail-cart with three horses. The teams of mules (I beg +pardon, spans) would delight you—eight, ten, twelve, even +sixteen sleek, handsome beasts; and oh, such oxen! noble beasts +with humps; and hump is very good to eat too.</p> +<p><i>Oct.</i> 21<i>st.</i>—The mail goes out to-morrow, so +I must finish this letter. I feel better to-day than I have +yet felt, in spite of the south-easter.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Yours, &c.</p> +<h2><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>LETTER +III</h2> +<p>28<i>th</i> <i>Oct.</i>—Since I wrote, we have had more +really cold weather, but yesterday the summer seems to have +begun. The air is as light and clear as if <i>there were +none</i>, and the sun hot; but I walk in it, and do not find it +oppressive. All the household groans and perspires, but I +am very comfortable.</p> +<p>Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour or more, in the +hot dust of the Malay burial-ground. They buried the head +butcher of the Mussulmans, and a most strange poetical scene it +was. The burial-ground is on the side of the Lion +Mountain—on the Lion’s rump—and overlooks the +whole bay, part of the town, and the most superb mountain +panorama beyond. I never saw a view within miles of it for +beauty and grandeur. Far down, a fussy English steamer came +puffing and popping into the deep blue bay, and the +‘Hansom’s’ cabs went tearing down to the +landing place; and round me sat a crowd of grave brown men +chanting ‘Allah il Allah’ to the most monotonous but +musical air, and with the most perfect voices. The chant +seemed to swell, and then fade, like the wind in the trees.</p> +<p>I went in after the procession, which consisted of a bier +covered with three common Paisley shawls of gay colours; no one +looked at me; and when they got near the grave, I kept at a +distance, and sat down when they did. But a man came up and +said, ‘You are welcome.’ So I went close, and +saw the whole ceremony. They took the corpse, wrapped in a +sheet, out of the bier, and lifted it into the grave, where two +men received it; then a sheet was held over the grave till they +had placed the dead man; and then flowers and earth were thrown +in by all present, the grave filled in, watered out of a brass +kettle, and decked with flowers. Then a fat old man, in +printed calico shirt sleeves, and a plaid waistcoat and corduroy +trousers, pulled off his shoes, squatted on the grave, and +recited endless ‘Koran’, many reciting after +him. Then they chanted ‘Allah-il-Allah’ for +twenty minutes, I think: then prayers, with ‘Ameens’ +and ‘Allah il-Allahs’ again. Then all jumped up +and walked off. There were eighty or a hundred men, no +women, and five or six ‘Hadjis’, draped in beautiful +Eastern dresses, and looking very supercilious. The whole +party made less noise in moving and talking than two +Englishmen.</p> +<p>A white-complexioned man spoke to me in excellent English +(which few of them speak), and was very communicative and +civil. He told me the dead man was his brother-in-law, and +he himself the barber. I hoped I had not taken a +liberty. ‘Oh, no; poor Malays were proud when noble +English persons showed such respect to their religion. The +young Prince had done so too, and Allah would not forget to +protect him. He also did not laugh at their prayers, praise +be to God!’ I had already heard that Prince Alfred is +quite the darling of the Malays. He insisted on accepting +their <i>fête</i>, which the Capetown people had +snubbed. I have a friendship with one Abdul Jemaalee and +his wife Betsy, a couple of old folks who were slaves to Dutch +owners, and now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort, with +‘Betsy, fruiterer,’ painted on the back of an old tin +tray, and hung up by the door of the house. Abdul first +bought himself, and then his wife Betsy, whose +‘missus’ generously threw in her bed-ridden +mother. He is a fine handsome old man, and has confided to +me that £5,000 would not buy what he is worth now. I +have also read the letters written by his, son, young Abdul +Rachman, now a student at Cairo, who has been away five +years—four at Mecca. The young theologian writes to +his ‘<i>hoog eerbare moeder</i>’ a fond request for +money, and promises to return soon. I am invited to the +feast wherewith he will be welcomed. Old Abdul Jemaalee +thinks it will divert my mind, and prove to me that Allah will +take me home safe to my children, about whom he and his wife +asked many questions. Moreover, he compelled me to drink +herb tea, compounded by a Malay doctor for my cough. I +declined at first, and the poor old man looked hurt, gravely +assured me that it was not true that Malays always poisoned +Christians, and drank some himself. Thereupon I was +obliged, of course, to drink up the rest; it certainly did me +good, and I have drunk it since with good effect; it is intensely +bitter and rather sticky. The white servants and the Dutch +landlady where I lodge shake their heads ominously, and hope it +mayn’t poison me a year hence. ‘Them nasty +Malays can make it work months after you take it.’ +They also possess the evil eye, and a talent for love +potions. As the men are very handsome and neat, I incline +to believe that part of it.</p> +<p><i>Rathfelder’s Halfway House</i>, 6<i>th</i> +<i>November</i>.—I drove out here yesterday in Captain +T—’s drag, which he kindly brought into Capetown for +me. He and his wife and children came for a change of air +for whooping cough, and advised me to come too, as my cough +continues, though less troublesome. It is a lovely spot, +six miles from Constantia, ten from Capetown, and twelve from +Simon’s Bay. I intend to stay here a little while, +and then to go to Kalk Bay, six miles from hence. This inn +was excellent, I hear, ‘in the old Dutch +times’. Now it is kept by a young Englishman, +Cape-born, and his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay +twelve shillings a day for S— and self, without a +sitting-room, and my bed is a straw paillasse; but the food is +plentiful, and not very bad. That is the cheapest rate of +living possible here, and every trifle costs double what it would +in England, except wine, which is very fair at fivepence a +bottle—a kind of hock. The landlord pays £1 a +day rent for this house, which is the great resort of the +Capetown people for Sundays, and for change of air, +&c.—a rude kind of Richmond. His cook gets +£3 10<i>s.</i> a month, besides food for himself and wife, +and beer and sugar. The two (white) housemaids get £1 +15<i>s.</i> and £1 10<i>s.</i> respectively (everything by +the month). Fresh butter is 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a pound, +mutton 7<i>d.</i>; washing very dear; cabbages my host sells at +3<i>d.</i> a piece, and pumpkins 8<i>d.</i> He has a fine +garden, and pays a gardener 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a day, and +black labourers 2<i>s.</i> <i>They</i> work three days a +week; then they buy rice and a coarse fish, and lie in the sun +till it is eaten; while their darling little fat black babies +play in the dust, and their black wives make battues in the +covers in their woolly heads. But the little black girl who +cleans my room is far the best servant, and smiles and speaks +like Lalage herself, ugly as the poor drudge is. The voice +and smile of the negroes here is bewitching, though they are +hideous; and neither S— nor I have yet heard a black child +cry, or seen one naughty or quarrelsome. You would want to +lay out a fortune in woolly babies. Yesterday I had a +dreadful heartache after my darling, on her little birthday, and +even the lovely ranges of distant mountains, coloured like opals +in the sunset, did not delight me. This is a dreary place +for strangers. Abdul Jemaalee’s tisanne, and a banana +which he gave me each time I went to his shop, are the sole offer +of ‘Won’t you take something?’ or even the sole +attempt at a civility that I have received, except from the +J—s, who, are very civil and kind.</p> +<p>When I have done my visit to Simon’s Bay, I will go +‘up country’, to Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester, +perhaps. If I can find people going in a bullock-waggon, I +will join them; it costs £1 a day, and goes twenty +miles. If money were no object, I would hire one with +Caffres to hunt, as well as outspan and drive, and take a +saddle-horse. There is plenty of pleasure to be had in +travelling here, if you can afford it. The scenery is quite +beyond anything you can imagine in beauty. I went to a +country house at Rondebosch with the J—s, and I never saw +so lovely a spot. The possessor had done his best to spoil +it, and to destroy the handsome Dutch house and fountains and +aqueducts; but Nature was too much for him, and the place lovely +in neglect and shabbiness.</p> +<p>Now I will tell you my impressions of the state of society +here, as far as I have been able to make out by playing the +inquisitive traveller. I dare say the statements are +exaggerated, but I do not think they are wholly devoid of +truth. The Dutch round Capetown (I don’t know +anything of ‘up country’) are sulky and dispirited; +they regret the slave days, and can’t bear to pay wages; +they have sold all their fine houses in town to merchants, +&c., and let their handsome country places go to pieces, and +their land lie fallow, rather than hire the men they used to +own. They hate the Malays, who were their slaves, and whose +‘insolent prosperity’ annoys them, and they +don’t like the vulgar, bustling English. The English +complain that the Dutch won’t die, and that they are the +curse of the colony (a statement for which they can never give a +reason). But they, too, curse the emancipation, long to +flog the niggers, and hate the Malays, who work harder and +don’t drink, and who are the only masons, tailors, &c., +and earn from 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to 10<i>s.</i> a day. +The Malays also have almost a monopoly of cart-hiring and +horse-keeping; an Englishman charges £4 10<i>s.</i> or +£5 for a carriage to do what a Malay will do quicker in a +light cart for 30<i>s.</i> S— says, ‘The +English here think the coloured people ought to do the work, and +they to get the wages. Nothing less would satisfy +them.’ Servants’ wages are high, but other +wages not much higher than in England; yet industrious people +invariably make fortunes, or at least competencies, even when +they begin with nothing. But few of the English will do +anything but lounge; while they abuse the Dutch as lazy, and the +Malays as thieves, and feel their fingers itch to be at the +blacks. The Africanders (Dutch and negro mixed in various +proportions) are more or less lazy, dirty, and dressy, and the +beautiful girls wear pork-pie hats, and look very winning and +rather fierce; but to them the philanthropists at home have +provided formidable rivals, by emptying a shipload of young +ladies from a ‘Reformatory’ into the streets of +Capetown.</p> +<p>I am puzzled what to think of the climate here for +invalids. The air is dry and clear beyond conception, and +light, but the sun is scorching; while the south-east wind blows +an icy hurricane, and the dust obscures the sky. These +winds last all the summer, till February or March. I am +told when they don’t blow it is heavenly, though still cold +in the mornings and evenings. No one must be out at, or +after sunset, the chill is so sudden. Many of the people +here declare that it is death to weak lungs, and send their +<i>poitrinaires</i> to Madeira, or the south of France. +They also swear the climate is enervating, but their looks, and +above all the blowsy cheeks and hearty play of the English +children, disprove that; and those who come here consumptive get +well in spite of the doctors, who won’t allow it +possible. I believe it is a climate which requires great +care from invalids, but that, with care, it is good, because it +is bracing as well as warm and dry. It is not nearly so +warm as I expected; the southern icebergs are at no great +distance, and they ice the south-east wind for us. If it +were not so violent, it would be delicious; and there are no +unhealthy winds—nothing like our east wind. The +people here grumble at the north-wester, which sometimes brings +rain, and call it damp, which, as they don’t know what damp +is, is excusable; it feels like a <i>dry</i> south-wester in +England. It is, however, quite a delusion to think of +living out of doors, here; the south-easters keep one in nearly, +if not quite, half one’s time, and in summer they say the +sun is too hot to be out except morning and evening. But I +doubt that, for they make an outcry about heat as soon as it is +not cold. The transitions are so sudden, that, with the +thermometer at 76°, you must not go out without taking a +thick warm cloak; you may walk into a south-easter round the +first spur of the mountain, and be cut in two. In short, +the air is cold and bracing, and the sun blazing hot; those whom +that suits, will do well. I should like a softer air, but I +may be wrong; when there is only a moderate wind, it is +delicious. You walk in the hot sun, which makes you +perspire a very little; but you dry as you go, the air is so dry; +and you come in untired. I speak of slow walking. +There are no hot-climate diseases; no dysentery, fever, +&c.</p> +<p><i>Simon’s Bay</i>, 18<i>th</i> <i>Nov.</i>—I came +on here in a cart, as I felt ill from the return of the cold +weather. While at Rathfelder we had a superb day, and the +J—s drove me over to Constantia, which deserves all its +reputation for beauty. What a divine spot!—such +kloofs, with silver rills running down them! It is useless +to describe scenery. It was a sort of glorified Scotland, +with sunshine, flowers, and orange-groves. We got home +hungry and tired, but in great spirits. Alas! next day came +the south-easter—blacker, colder, more cutting, than +ever—and lasted a week.</p> +<p>The Walkers came over on horseback, and pressed me to go to +them. They are most kind and agreeable people. The +drive to Simon’s Bay was lovely, along the coast and across +five beaches of snow-white sand, which look like winter +landscapes; and the mountains and bay are lovely.</p> +<p>Living is very dear, and washing, travelling, chemist’s +bills—all enormous. Thirty shillings a cart and horse +from Rathfelder here—twelve miles; and then the young +English host wanted me to hire another cart for one box and one +bath! But I would not, and my obstinacy was stoutest. +If I want cart or waggon again, I’ll deal with a Malay, +only the fellows drive with forty Jehu-power up and down the +mountains.</p> +<p>A Madagascar woman offered to give me her orphan grandchild, a +sweet brown fairy, six years old, with long silky black hair, and +gorgeous eyes. The child hung about me incessantly all the +time I was at Rathfelder, and I had a great mind to her. +She used to laugh like baby, and was like her altogether, only +prettier, and very brown; and when I told her she was like my own +little child, she danced about, and laughed like mad at the idea +that she could look like ‘pretty white Missy’. +She was mighty proud of her needlework and A B C +performances.</p> +<p>It is such a luxury to sleep on a real mattrass—not +stuffed with dirty straw; to eat clean food, and live in a nice +room. But my cough is very bad, and the cruel wind blows on +and on. I saw the doctor of the Naval Hospital here +to-day. If I don’t mend, I will try his advice, and +go northward for warmth. If you can find an old Mulready +envelope, send it here to Miss Walker, who collects stamps and +has not got it, and write and thank dear good Lady Walker for her +kindness to me.</p> +<p>You will get this about the new year. God bless you all, +and send us better days in 1862.</p> +<h2><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>LETTER +IV<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">JOURNEY TO CALEDON</span></h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Dec. 10th.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">did</span> not feel at all well at +Simon’s Bay, which is a land of hurricanes. We had a +‘south-easter’ for fourteen days, without an +hour’s lull; even the flag-ship had no communication with +the shore for eight days. The good old naval surgeon there +ordered me to start off for this high ‘up-country’ +district, and arranged my departure for the first <i>possible</i> +day. He made a bargain for me with a Dutchman, for a light +Malay cart (a capital vehicle with two wheels) and four horses, +for 30<i>s.</i> a day—three days to Caledon from +Simon’s Bay, about a hundred miles or so, and one day of +back fare to his home in Capetown.</p> +<p>Luckily, on Saturday the wind dropped, and we started at nine +o’clock, drove to a place about four miles from Capetown, +when we turned off on the ‘country road’, and +outspanned at a post-house kept by a nice old German with a Dutch +wife. Once well out of Capetown, people are civil, but +inquisitive; I was strictly cross-questioned, and proved so +satisfactory, that the old man wished to give me some English +porter gratis. We then jogged along again at a very good +pace to another wayside public, where we outspanned again and +ate, and were again questioned, and again made much of. By +six o’clock we got to the Eerste River, having gone forty +miles or so in the day. It was a beautiful day, and very +pleasant travelling. We had three good little half-Arab +bays, and one brute of a grey as off-wheeler, who fell down +continually; but a Malay driver works miracles, and no harm came +of it. The cart is small, with a permanent tilt at top, and +moveable curtains of waterproof all round; harness of raw +leather, very prettily put together by Malay workmen. We +sat behind, and our brown coachman, with his mushroom hat, in +front, with my bath and box, and a miniature of himself about +seven years old—a nephew,—so small and handy that he +would be worth his weight in jewels as a tiger. At Eerste +River we slept in a pretty old Dutch house, kept by an English +woman, and called the Fox and Hound, ‘to sound like home, +my lady.’ Very nice and comfortable it was.</p> +<p>I started next day at ten; and never shall I forget that +day’s journey. The beauty of the country exceeds all +description. Ranges of mountains beyond belief fantastic in +shape, and between them a rolling country, desolate and wild, and +covered with gorgeous flowers among the +‘scrub’. First we came to Hottentot’s +Holland (now called Somerset West), the loveliest little old +Dutch village, with trees and little canals of bright clear +mountain water, and groves of orange and pomegranate, and white +houses, with incredible gable ends. We tried to stop here; +but forage was ninepence a bundle, and the true Malay would +rather die than pay more than he can help. So we pushed on +to the foot of the mountains, and bought forage (forage is oats +<i>au natural</i>, straw and all, the only feed known here, where +there is no grass or hay) at a farm kept by English people, who +all talked Dutch together; only one girl of the family could +speak English. They were very civil, asked us in, and gave +us unripe apricots, and the girl came down with seven flounces, +to talk with us. Forage was still ninepence—half a +dollar a bundle—and Choslullah Jaamee groaned over it, and +said the horses must have less forage and ‘more plenty +roll’ (a roll in the dust is often the only refreshment +offered to the beasts, and seems to do great good).</p> +<p>We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to the place the Doctor +recommended—formerly a country house of the Dutch +Governor. It is in a lovely spot; but do you remember the +Schloss in Immermann’s Neuer Münchausen? Well, +it is that. A ruin;—windows half broken and boarded +up, the handsome steps in front fallen in, and all <i>en +suite</i>. The rooms I saw were large and airy; but mud +floors, white-washed walls, one chair, one stump bedstead, and +<i>præterea nihil</i>. It has a sort of wild, +romantic look; I hear, too, it is wonderfully healthy, and not so +bad as it looks. The long corridor is like the entrance to +a great stable, or some such thing; earth floors and open to all +winds. But you can’t imagine it, however I may +describe; it is so huge and strange, and ruinous. Finding +that the mistress of the house was ill, and nothing ready for our +reception, I drove on to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch mist, +came on just as we arrived, and it is damp and chilly, to the +delight of all the dwellers in the land, who love bad +weather. It makes me cough a little more; but they say it +is quite unheard of, and can’t last. Altogether, I +suppose this summer here is as that of ’60 was in +England.</p> +<p>I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal-looking Caffre +housemaid at Eerste River. ‘Such a dear, good +creature,’ the landlady said; and, oh, such a ‘noble +savage’!—with a cotton handkerchief folded tight like +a cravat and tied round her head with a bow behind, and the short +curly wool sticking up in the middle;—it looked like a +royal diadem on her solemn brow; she stepped like Juno, with a +huge tub full to the brim, and holding several pailfuls, on her +head, and a pailful in each hand, bringing water for the stables +from the river, across a large field. There is nothing like +a Caffre for power and grace; and the face, though very African, +has a sort of grandeur which makes it utterly unlike that of the +negro. That woman’s bust and waist were beauty +itself. The Caffres are also very clean and very clever as +servants, I hear, learning cookery, &c., in a wonderfully +short time. When they have saved money enough to buy cattle +in Kaffraria, off they go, cast aside civilization and clothes, +and enjoy life in naked luxury.</p> +<p>I can’t tell you how I longed for you in my +journey. You would have been so delighted with the country +and the queer turn-out—the wild little horses, and the +polite and delicately-clean Moslem driver. His description +of his sufferings from ‘louses’, when he slept in a +Dutch farm, were pathetic, and ever since, he sleeps in his cart, +with the little boy; and they bathe in the nearest river, and eat +their lawful food and drink their water out of doors. They +declined beer, or meat which had been unlawfully killed. In +Capetown <i>all</i> meat is killed by Malays, and has the proper +prayer spoken over it, and they will eat no other. I was +offered a fowl at a farm, but Choslullah thought it ‘too +much money for Missus’, and only accepted some eggs. +He was gratified at my recognising the propriety of his saying +‘Bismillah’ over any animal killed for food. +Some drink beer, and drink a good deal, but Choslullah thought it +‘very wrong for Malay people, and not good for Christian +people, to be drunk beasties;—little wine or beer good for +Christians, but not too plenty much.’ I gave him ten +shillings for himself, at which he was enchanted, and again +begged me to write to his master for him when I wanted to leave +Caledon, and to be sure to say, ‘Mind send same +coachman.’ He planned to drive me back through +Worcester, Burnt Vley, Paarl, and Stellenbosch—a longer +round; but he could do it in three days well, so as ‘not +cost Missus more money’, and see a different country.</p> +<p>This place is curiously like Rochefort in the Ardennes, only +the hills are mountains, and the sun is far hotter; not so the +air, which is fresh and pleasant. I am in a very nice inn, +kept by an English ex-officer, who went through the Caffre war, +and found his pay insufficient for the wants of a numerous +family. I quite admire his wife, who cooks, cleans, nurses +her babes, gives singing and music lessons,—all as merrily +as if she liked it. I dine with them at two o’clock, +and Captain D— has a <i>table d’hôte</i> at +seven for travellers. I pay only 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a +day for myself and S—; this includes all but wine or +beer. The air is very clear and fine, and my cough is +already much better. I shall stay here as long as it suits +me and does me good, and then I am to send for Choslullah again, +and go back by the road he proposed. It rains here now and +then, and blows a good deal, but the wind has lost its bitter +chill, and depressing quality. I hope soon to ride a little +and see the country, which is beautiful.</p> +<p>The water-line is all red from the iron stone, and there are +hot chalybeate springs up the mountain which are very good for +rheumatism, and very strengthening, I am told. The boots +here is a Mantatee, very black, and called Kleenboy, because he +is so little; he is the only sleek black I have seen here, but +looks heavy and downcast. One maid is Irish (they make the +best servants here), a very nice clean girl, and the other, a +brown girl of fifteen, whose father is English, and married to +her mother. Food here is scarce, all but bread and mutton, +both good. Butter is 3<i>s.</i> a pound; fruit and +vegetables only to be had by chance. I miss the oranges and +lemons sadly. Poultry and milk uncertain. The bread +is good everywhere, from the fine wheat: in the country it is +brownish and sweet. The wine here is execrable; this is +owing to the prevailing indolence, for there is excellent wine +made from the Rhenish grape, rather like Sauterne, with a +<i>soupçon</i> of Manzanilla flavour. The sweet +Constantia is also very good indeed; not the expensive sort, +which is made from grapes half dried, and is a liqueur, but a +light, sweet, straw-coloured wine, which even I liked. We +drank nothing else at the Admiral’s. The kind old +sailor has given me a dozen of wine, which is coming up here in a +waggon, and will be most welcome. I can’t tell you +how kind he and Lady Walker were; I was there three weeks, and +hope to go again when the south-easter season is over and I can +get out a little. I could not leave the house at all; and +even Lady Walker and the girls, who are very energetic, got out +but little. They are a charming family.</p> +<p>I have no doubt that Dr. Shea was right, and that one must +leave the coast to get a fine climate. Here it seems to me +nearly perfect—too windy for my pleasure, but then the sun +would be overpowering without a fresh breeze. Every one +agrees in saying that the winter in Capetown is +delicious—like a fine English summer. In November the +south-easters begin, and they are ‘fiendish’; this +year they began in September. The mornings here are always +fresh, not to say cold; the afternoons, from one to three, +broiling; then delightful till sunset, which is deadly cold for +three-quarters of an hour; the night is lovely. The wind +rises and falls with the sun. That is the general course of +things. Now and then it rains, and this year there is a +little south-easter, which is quite unusual, and not odious, as +it is near the sea; and there is seldom a hot wind from the +north. I am promised that on or about Christmas-day; then +doors and windows are shut, and you gasp. Hitherto we have +had nothing nearly so hot as Paris in summer, or as the summer of +1859 in England; and they say it is no hotter, except when the +hot wind blows, which is very rare. Up here, snow sometimes +lies, in winter, on the mountain tops; but ice is unknown, and +Table Mountain is never covered with snow. The flies are +pestilent—incredibly noisy, intrusive, and +disgusting—and oh, such swarms! Fleas and bugs not +half so bad as in France, as far as my experience goes, and I +have poked about in queer places.</p> +<p>I get up at half-past five, and walk in the early morning, +before the sun and wind begin to be oppressive; it is then dry, +calm, and beautiful; then I sleep like a Dutchman in the middle +of the day. At present it tires me, but I shall get used to +it soon. The Dutch doctor here advised me to do so, to +avoid the wind.</p> +<p>When all was settled, we climbed the Hottentot’s +mountains by Sir Lowry’s Pass, a long curve round two +hill-sides; and what a view! Simon’s Bay opening out +far below, and range upon range of crags on one side, with a wide +fertile plain, in which lies Hottentot’s Holland, at +one’s feet. The road is just wide enough for one +waggon, i.e. very narrow. Where the smooth rock came +through, Choslullah gave a little grunt, and the three bays went +off like hippogriffs, dragging the grey with them. By this +time my confidence in his driving was boundless, or I should have +expected to find myself in atoms at the bottom of the +precipice. At the top of the pass we turned a sharp corner +into a scene like the crater of a volcano, only reaching miles +away all round; and we descended a very little and drove on along +great rolling waves of country, with the mountain tops, all crags +and ruins, to our left. At three we reached Palmiet River, +full of palmettos and bamboos, and there the horses had ‘a +little roll’, and Choslullah and his miniature washed in +the river and prayed, and ate dry bread, and drank their tepid +water out of a bottle with great good breeding and +cheerfulness. Three bullock-waggons had outspanned, and the +Dutch boers and Bastaards (half Hottentots) were all drunk. +We went into a neat little ‘public’, and had porter +and ham sandwiches, for which I paid 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to a +miserable-looking English woman, who was afraid of her tipsy +customers. We got to Houw Hoek, a pretty valley at the +entrance of a mountain gorge, about half-past five, and drove up +to a mud cottage, half inn, half farm, kept by a German and his +wife. It looked mighty queer, but Choslullah said the host +was a good old man, and all clean. So we cheered up, and +asked for food. While the neat old woman was cooking it, up +galloped five fine lads and two pretty flaxen-haired girls, with +real German faces, on wild little horses; and one girl tucked up +her habit, and waited at table, while another waved a green bough +to drive off the swarms of flies. The chops were excellent, +ditto bread and butter, and the tea tolerable. The parlour +was a tiny room with a mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, +and the two bedrooms still tinier and darker, each with two huge +beds which filled them entirely. But Choslullah was right; +they were perfectly clean, with heaps of beautiful pillows; and +not only none of the creatures of which he spoke with infinite +terror, but even no fleas. The man was delighted to talk to +me. His wife had almost forgotten German, and the children +did not know a word of it, but spoke Dutch and English. A +fine, healthy, happy family. It was a pretty picture of +emigrant life. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry, and +pigeons innumerable, all picked up their own living, and cost +nothing; and vegetables and fruit grow in rank abundance where +there is water. I asked for a book in the evening, and the +man gave me a volume of Schiller. A good +breakfast,—and we paid ninepence for all.</p> +<p>This morning we started before eight, as it looked gloomy, and +came through a superb mountain defile, out on to a rich hillocky +country, covered with miles of corn, all being cut as far as the +eye could reach, and we passed several circular threshing-floors, +where the horses tread out the grain. Each had a few mud +hovels near it, for the farmers and men to live in during +harvest. Altogether, I was most lucky, had two beautiful +days, and enjoyed the journey immensely. It was most +‘<i>abentheuerlich</i>’; the light two-wheeled cart, +with four wild little horses, and the marvellous brown driver, +who seemed to be always going to perdition, but made the horses +do apparently impossible things with absolute certainty; and the +pretty tiny boy who came to help his uncle, and was so clever, +and so preternaturally quiet, and so very small: then the road +through the mountain passes, seven or eight feet wide, with a +precipice above and below, up which the little horses scrambled; +while big lizards, with green heads and chocolate bodies, looked +pertly at us, and a big bright amber-coloured cobra, as handsome +as he is deadly, wriggled across into a hole.</p> +<p>Nearly all the people in this village are Dutch. There +is one Malay tailor here, but he is obliged to be a Christian at +Caledon, though Choslullah told me with a grin, he was a very +good Malay when he went to Capetown. He did not seem much +shocked at this double religion, staunch Mussulman as he was +himself. I suppose the blacks ‘up country’ are +what Dutch slavery made them—mere animals—cunning and +sulky. The real Hottentot is extinct, I believe, in the +Colony; what one now sees are all ‘Bastaards’, the +Dutch name for their own descendants by Hottentot women. +These mongrel Hottentots, who do all the work, are an affliction +to behold—debased and <i>shrivelled</i> with drink, and +drunk all day long; sullen wretched creatures—so unlike the +bright Malays and cheery pleasant blacks and browns of Capetown, +who never pass you without a kind word and sunny smile or broad +African grin, <i>selon</i> their colour and shape of face. +I look back fondly to the gracious soft-looking Malagasse woman +who used to give me a chair under the big tree near Rathfelders, +and a cup of ‘bosjesthée’ (herb tea), and talk +so prettily in her soft voice;—it is such a contrast to +these poor animals, who glower at one quite unpleasantly. +All the hovels I was in at Capetown were very fairly clean, and I +went into numbers. They almost all contained a handsome +bed, with, at least, eight pillows. If you only look at the +door with a friendly glance, you are implored to come in and sit +down, and usually offered a ‘coppj’ (cup) of herb +tea, which they are quite grateful to one for drinking. I +never saw or heard a hint of ‘backsheesh’, nor did I +ever give it, on principle and I was always recognised and +invited to come again with the greatest eagerness. +‘An indulgence of talk’ from an English +‘Missis’ seemed the height of gratification, and the +pride and pleasure of giving hospitality a sufficient +reward. But here it is quite different. I suppose the +benefits of the emancipation were felt at Capetown sooner than in +the country, and the Malay population there furnishes a strong +element of sobriety and respectability, which sets an example to +the other coloured people.</p> +<p>Harvest is now going on, and the so-called Hottentots are +earning 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a day, with rations and wine. +But all the money goes at the ‘canteen’ in drink, and +the poor wretched men and women look wasted and degraded. +The children are pretty, and a few of them are half-breed girls, +who do very well, unless a white man admires them; and then they +think it quite an honour to have a whitey-brown child, which +happens at about fifteen, by which age they look full twenty.</p> +<p>We had very good snipe and wild duck the other day, which +Capt. D— brought home from a shooting party. I have +got the moth-like wings of a golden snipe for R—’s +hat, and those of a beautiful moor-hen. They got no +‘boks’, because of the violent south-easter which +blew where they were. The game is fast decreasing, but +still very abundant. I saw plenty of partridges on the +road, but was not early enough to see boks, who only show at +dawn; neither have I seen baboons. I will try to bring home +some cages of birds—Cape canaries and ‘roode +bekjes’ (red bills), darling little things. The +sugar-birds, which are the humming-birds of Africa, could not be +fed; but Caffre finks, which weave the pendent nests, are hardy +and easily fed.</p> +<p>To-day the post for England leaves Caledon, so I must conclude +this yarn. I wish R— could have seen the ‘klip +springer’, the mountain deer of South Africa, which Capt. +D— brought in to show me. Such a lovely little beast, +as big as a small kid, with eyes and ears like a hare, and a nose +so small and dainty. It was quite tame and saucy, and +belonged to some man <i>en route</i> for Capetown.</p> +<h2><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>LETTER +V<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">CALEDON</span></h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Dec. 29th.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> beginning now really to feel +better: I think my cough is less, and I eat a great deal +more. They cook nice clean food here, and have some good +claret, which I have been extravagant enough to drink, much to my +advantage. The Cape wine is all so fiery. The climate +is improving too. The glorious African sun blazes and +roasts one, and the cool fresh breezes prevent one from feeling +languid. I walk from six till eight or nine, breakfast at +ten, and dine at three; in the afternoon it is generally +practicable to saunter again, now the weather is warmer. I +sleep from twelve till two. On Christmas-eve it was so warm +that I lay in bed with the window wide open, and the stars +blazing in. Such stars! they are much brighter than our +moon. The Dutchmen held high jinks in the hall, and danced +and made a great noise. On New Year’s-eve they will +have another ball, and I shall look in. Christmas-day was +the hottest day—indeed, the only <i>hot</i> day we have +had—and I could not make it out at all, or fancy you all +cold at home.</p> +<p>I wish you were here to see the curious ways and new aspect of +everything. This village, which, as I have said, is very +like Rochefort, but hardly so large, is the <i>chef lieu</i> of a +district the size of one-third of England. A civil +commander resides here, a sort of <i>préfet</i>; and there +is an embryo market-place, with a bell hanging in a brick +arch. When a waggon arrives with goods, it draws up there, +they ring the bell, everybody goes to see what is for sale, and +the goods are sold by auction. My host bought potatoes and +brandy the other day, and is looking out for ostrich feathers for +me, out of the men’s hats.</p> +<p>The other day, while we sat at dinner, all the bells began to +ring furiously, and Capt. D— jumped up and shouted +‘<i>Brand</i>!’ (fire), rushed off for a stout +leather hat, and ran down the street. Out came all the +population, black, white, and brown, awfully excited, for it was +blowing a furious north-wester, right up the town, and the fire +was at the bottom; and as every house is thatched with a dry +brown thatch, we might all have to turn out and see the place in +ashes in less than an hour. Luckily, it was put out +directly. It is supposed to have been set on fire by a +Hottentot girl, who has done the same thing once before, on being +scolded. There is no water but what runs down the streets +in the <i>sloot</i>, a paved channel, which brings the water from +the mountain and supplies the houses and gardens. A garden +is impossible without irrigation, of course, as it never rains; +but with it, you may have everything, all the year round. +The people, however, are too careless to grow fruit and +vegetables.</p> +<p>How the cattle live is a standing marvel to me. The +whole <i>veld</i> (common), which extends all over the country +(just dotted with a few square miles of corn here and there), is +covered with a low thin scrub, about eighteen inches high, called +<i>rhenoster-bosch</i>—looking like meagre arbor vitæ +or pale juniper. The cattle and sheep will not touch this +nor the juicy Hottentot fig; but under each little bush, I fancy, +they crop a few blades of grass, and on this they keep in very +good condition. The noble oxen, with their huge horns (nine +or ten feet from tip to tip), are never fed, though they work +hard, nor are the sheep. The horses get a little forage +(oats, straw and all). I should like you to see eight or +ten of these swift wiry little horses harnessed to a +waggon,—a mere flat platform on wheels. In front +stands a wild-looking Hottentot, all patches and feathers, and +drives them best pace, all ‘in hand’, using a whip +like a fishing-rod, with which he touches them, not savagely, but +with a skill which would make an old stage-coachman burst with +envy to behold. This morning, out on the veld, I watched +the process of breaking-in a couple of colts, who were harnessed, +after many struggles, second and fourth in a team of ten. +In front stood a tiny foal cuddling its mother, one of the +leaders. When they started, the foal had its neck through +the bridle, and I hallooed in a fright; but the Hottentot only +laughed, and in a minute it had disengaged itself quite coolly +and capered alongside. The colts tried to plunge, but were +whisked along, and couldn’t, and then they stuck out all +four feet and <i>skidded</i> along a bit; but the rhenoster +bushes tripped them up (people drive regardless of roads), and +they shook their heads and trotted along quite subdued, without a +blow or a word, for the drivers never speak to the horses, only +to the oxen. Colts here get no other breaking, and +therefore have no paces or action to the eye, but their speed and +endurance are wonderful. There is no such thing as a +cock-tail in the country, and the waggon teams of wiry little +thoroughbreds, half Arab, look very strange to our eyes, going +full tilt. There is a terrible murrain, called the +lung-sickness, among horses and oxen here, every four or five +years, but it never touches those that are stabled, however +exposed to wet or wind on the roads.</p> +<p>I must describe the house I inhabit, as all are much +alike. It is whitewashed, with a door in the middle and two +windows on each side; those on the left are Mrs. D—’s +bed and sitting rooms. On the right is a large room, which +is mine; in the middle of the house is a spacious hall, with +doors into other rooms on each side, and into the kitchen, +&c. There is a yard behind, and a staircase up to the +<i>zolder</i> or loft, under the thatch, with partitions, where +the servants and children, and sometimes guests, sleep. +There are no ceilings; the floor of the zolder is made of yellow +wood, and, resting on beams, forms the ceiling of my room, and +the thatch alone covers that. No moss ever grows on the +thatch, which is brown, with white ridges. In front is a +stoep, with ‘blue gums’ (Australian gum-trees) in +front of it, where I sit till twelve, when the sun comes on +it. These trees prevail here greatly, as they want neither +water nor anything else, and grow with incredible rapidity.</p> +<p>We have got a new ‘boy’ (all coloured servants are +‘boys,’—a remnant of slavery), and he is the +type of the nigger slave. A thief, a liar, a glutton, a +drunkard—but you can’t resent it; he has a +<i>naïf</i>, half-foolish, half-knavish buffoonery, a total +want of self-respect, which disarms you. I sent him to the +post to inquire for letters, and the postmaster had been tipsy +over-night and was not awake. Jack came back spluttering +threats against ‘dat domned Dutchman. Me no +<i>want</i> (like) him; me go and kick up dom’d row. +What for he no give Missis letter?’ &c. I begged +him to be patient; on which he bonneted himself in a violent way, +and started off at a pantomime walk. Jack is the product of +slavery: he pretends to be a simpleton in order to do less work +and eat and drink and sleep more than a reasonable being, and he +knows his buffoonery will get him out of scrapes. Withal, +thoroughly good-natured and obliging, and perfectly honest, +except where food and drink are concerned, which he pilfers like +a monkey. He worships S—, and won’t allow her +to carry anything, or to dirty her hands, if he is in the way to +do it. Some one suggested to him to kiss her, but he +declined with terror, and said he should be hanged by my orders +if he did. He is a hideous little negro, with a +monstrous-shaped head, every colour of the rainbow on his +clothes, and a power of making faces which would enchant a +schoolboy. The height of his ambition would be to go to +England with me.</p> +<p>An old ‘bastaard’ woman, married to the Malay +tailor here, explained to me my popularity with the coloured +people, as set forth by ‘dat Malay boy’, my +driver. He told them he was sure I was a ‘very great +Missis’, because of my ‘plenty good behaviour’; +that I spoke to him just as to a white gentleman, and did not +‘laugh and talk nonsense talk’. ‘Never +say “Here, you black fellow”, dat +Misses.’ The English, when they mean to be +good-natured, are generally offensively familiar, and ‘talk +nonsense talk’, i.e. imitate the Dutch English of the +Malays and blacks; the latter feel it the greatest compliment to +be treated <i>au sérieux</i>, and spoken to in good +English. Choslullah’s theory was that I must be +related to the Queen, in consequence of my not ‘knowing bad +behaviour’. The Malays, who are intelligent and +proud, of course feel the annoyance of vulgar familiarity more +than the blacks, who are rather awe-struck by civility, though +they like and admire it.</p> +<p>Mrs. D— tells me that the coloured servant-girls, with +all their faults, are immaculately honest in these parts; and, +indeed, as every door and window is always left open, even when +every soul is out, and nothing locked up, there must be no +thieves. Captain D— told me he had been in remote +Dutch farmhouses, where rouleaux of gold were ranged under the +thatch on the top of the low wall, the doors being always left +open; and everywhere the Dutch boers keep their money by them, in +coin.</p> +<p><i>Jan.</i> 3<i>d.</i>—We have had tremendous +festivities here—a ball on New Year’s-eve, and +another on the 1st of January—and the shooting for Prince +Alfred’s rifle yesterday. The difficulty of music for +the ball was solved by the arrival of two Malay bricklayers to +build the new parsonage, and I heard with my own ears the proof +of what I had been told as to their extraordinary musical +gifts. When I went into the hall, a Dutchman was +<i>screeching</i> a concertina hideously. Presently in +walked a yellow Malay, with a blue cotton handkerchief on his +head, and a half-bred of negro blood (very dark brown), with a +red handkerchief, and holding a rough tambourine. The +handsome yellow man took the concertina which seemed so +discordant, and the touch of his dainty fingers transformed it to +harmony. He played dances with a precision and feeling +quite unequalled, except by Strauss’s band, and a variety +which seemed endless. I asked him if he could read music, +at which he laughed heartily, and said, music came into the ears, +not the eyes. He had picked it all up from the bands in +Capetown, or elsewhere.</p> +<p>It was a strange sight,—the picturesque group, and the +contrast between the quiet manners of the true Malay and the +grotesque fun of the half-negro. The latter made his +tambourine do duty as a drum, rattled the bits of brass so as to +produce an indescribable effect, nodded and grinned in wild +excitement, and drank beer while his comrade took water. +The dancing was uninteresting enough. The Dutchmen danced +badly, and said not a word, but plodded on so as to get all the +dancing they could for their money. I went to bed at +half-past eleven, but the ball went on till four.</p> +<p>Next night there was genteeler company, and I did not go in, +but lay in bed listening to the Malay’s playing. He +had quite a fresh set of tunes, of which several were from the +‘Traviata’!</p> +<p>Yesterday was a real African summer’s day. The +D—s had a tent and an awning, one for food and the other +for drink, on the ground where the shooting took place. At +twelve o’clock Mrs. D— went down to sell cold +chickens, &c., and I went with her, and sat under a tree in +the bed of the little stream, now nearly dry. The sun was +such as in any other climate would strike you down, but here +<i>coup de soleil</i> is unknown. It broils you till your +shoulders ache and your lips crack, but it does not make you feel +the least languid, and you perspire very little; nor does it tan +the skin as you would expect. The light of the sun is by no +means ‘golden’—it is pure white—and the +slightest shade of a tree or bush affords a delicious +temperature, so light and fresh is the air. They said the +thermometer was at about 130° where I was walking yesterday, +but (barring the scorch) I could not have believed it.</p> +<p>It was a very amusing day. The great tall Dutchmen came +in to shoot, and did but moderately, I thought. The longest +range was five hundred yards, and at that they shot well; at +shorter ranges, poorly enough. The best man made ten +points. But oh! what figures were there of negroes and +coloured people! I longed for a photographer. Some +coloured lads were exquisitely graceful, and composed beautiful +<i>tableaux vivants</i>, after Murillo’s beggar-boys.</p> +<p>A poor little, very old Bosjesman crept up, and was jeered and +bullied. I scolded the lad who abused him for being rude to +an old man, whereupon the poor little old creature squatted on +the ground close by (for which he would have been kicked but for +me), took off his ragged hat, and sat staring and nodding his +small grey woolly head at me, and jabbering some little soliloquy +very <i>sotto voce</i>. There was something shocking in the +timidity with which he took the plate of food I gave him, and in +the way in which he ate it, with the <i>wrong</i> side of his +little yellow hand, like a monkey. A black, who had helped +to fetch the hamper, suggested to me to give him wine instead of +meat and bread, and make him drunk <i>for fun</i> (the blacks and +Hottentots copy the white man’s manners <i>to them</i>, +when they get hold of a Bosjesman to practise upon); but upon +this a handsome West Indian black, who had been cooking pies, +fired up, and told him he was a ‘nasty black rascal, and a +Dutchman to boot’, to insult a lady and an old man at +once. If you could see the difference between one negro and +another, you would be quite convinced that education (i.e. +circumstances) makes the race. It was hardly conceivable +that the hideous, dirty, bandy-legged, ragged creature, who +looked down on the Bosjesman, and the well-made, smart fellow, +with his fine eyes, jaunty red cap, and snow-white shirt and +trousers, alert as the best German Kellner, were of the same +blood; nothing but the colour was alike.</p> +<p>Then came a Dutchman, and asked for six penn’orth of +‘brood en kaas’, and haggled for beer; and +Englishmen, who bought chickens and champagne without asking the +price. One rich old boer got three lunches, and then +‘trekked’ (made off) without paying at all. +Then came a Hottentot, stupidly drunk, with a fiddle, and was +beaten by a little red-haired Scotchman, and his fiddle +smashed. The Hottentot hit at his aggressor, who then +declared he <i>had been</i> a policeman, and insisted on taking +him into custody and to the ‘Tronk’ (prison) on his +own authority, but was in turn sent flying by a gigantic +Irishman, who ‘wouldn’t see the poor baste +abused’. The Irishman was a farmer; I never saw such +a Hercules—and beaming with fun and good nature. He +was very civil, and answered my questions, and talked like an +intelligent man; but when Captain D— asked him with an air +of some anxiety, if he was coming to the hotel, he replied, +‘No, sir, no; I wouldn’t be guilty of such a +misdemeanour. I am aware that I was a disgrace and +opprobrium to your house, sir, last time I was there, sir. +No, sir, I shall sleep in my cart, and not come into the presence +of ladies.’ Hereupon he departed, and I was informed +that he had been drunk for seventeen days, <i>sans +désemparer</i>, on his last visit to Caledon. +However, he kept quite sober on this occasion, and amused himself +by making the little blackies scramble for halfpence in the pools +left in the bed of the river. Among our customers was a +very handsome black man, with high straight nose, deep-set eyes, +and a small mouth, smartly dressed in a white felt hat, paletot, +and trousers. He is the shoemaker, and is making a pair of +‘Veldschoen’ for you, which you will delight +in. They are what the rough boers and Hottentots wear, +buff-hide barbarously tanned and shaped, and as soft as woollen +socks. The Othello-looking shoemaker’s name is Moor, +and his father told him he came of a ‘good breed’; +that was all he knew.</p> +<p>A very pleasing English farmer, who had been educated in +Belgium, came and ordered a bottle of champagne, and shyly begged +me to drink a glass, whereupon we talked of crops and the like; +and an excellent specimen of a colonist he appeared: very gentle +and unaffected, with homely good sense, and real good +breeding—such a contrast to the pert airs and vulgarity of +Capetown and of the people in (colonial) high places. +Finding we had no carriage, he posted off and borrowed a cart of +one man and harness of another, and put his and his son’s +riding horses to it, to take Mrs. D— and me home. As +it was still early, he took us a ‘little drive’; and +oh, ye gods! what a terrific and dislocating pleasure was +that! At a hard gallop, Mr. M— (with the mildest and +steadiest air and with perfect safety) took us right across +country. It is true there were no fences; but over bushes, +ditches, lumps of rock, watercourses, we jumped, flew, and +bounded, and up every hill we went racing pace. I arrived +at home much bewildered, and feeling more like +Bürger’s Lenore than anything else, till I saw Mr. +M—’s steady, pleasant face quite undisturbed, and was +informed that such was the way of driving of Cape farmers.</p> +<p>We found the luckless Jack in such a state of furious +drunkenness that he had to be dismissed on the spot, not without +threats of the ‘Tronk’, and once more Kleenboy fills +the office of boots. He returned in a ludicrous state of +penitence and emaciation, frankly admitting that it was better to +work hard and get ‘plenty grub’, than to work less +and get none;—still, however, protesting against work at +all.</p> +<p><i>January</i> 7<i>th</i>.—For the last four days it has +again been blowing a wintry hurricane. Every one says that +the continuance of these winds so late into the summer (this +answers to July) is unheard of, and <i>must</i> cease soon. +In Table Bay, I hear a good deal of mischief has been done to the +shipping.</p> +<p>I hope my long yarns won’t bore you. I put down +what seems new and amusing to me at the moment, but by the time +it reaches you, it will seem very dull and commonplace. I +hear that the Scotchman who attacked poor Aria, the crazy +Hottentot, is a ‘revival lecturer’, and was +‘simply exhorting him to break his fiddle and come to +Christ’ (the phrase is a clergyman’s, I beg to +observe); and the saints are indignant that, after executing the +pious purpose as far as the fiddle went, he was prevented by the +chief constable from dragging him to the Tronk. The +‘revival’ mania has broken out rather violently in +some places; the infection was brought from St. Helena, I am +told. At Capetown, old Abdool Jemaalee told me that English +Christians were getting more like Malays, and had begun to hold +‘Kalifahs’ at Simon’s Bay. These are +festivals in which Mussulman fanatics run knives into their +flesh, go into convulsions, &c, to the sound of music, like +the Arab described by Houdin. Of course the poor blacks go +quite demented.</p> +<p>I intend to stay here another two or three weeks, and then to +go to Worcester—stay a bit; Paarl, ditto; Stellenbosch, +ditto—and go to Capetown early in March, and in April to +embark for home.</p> +<p><i>January</i> 15<i>th</i>.—No mail in yet. We +have had beautiful weather the last three days. Captain +D— has been in Capetown, and bought a horse, which he rode +home seventy-five miles in a day and a half,—the beast none +the worse nor tired. I am to ride him, and so shall see the +country if the vile cold winds keep off.</p> +<p>This morning I walked on the Veld, and met a young black +shepherd leading his sheep and goats, and playing on a guitar +composed of an old tin mug covered with a bit of sheepskin and a +handle of rough wood, with pegs, and three strings of +sheep-gut. I asked him to sing, and he flung himself at my +feet in an attitude that would make Watts crazy with delight, and +<i>crooned</i> queer little mournful ditties. I gave him +sixpence, and told him not to get drunk. He said, ‘Oh +no; I will buy bread enough to make my belly stiff—I almost +never had my belly stiff.’ He likewise informed me he +had just been in the Tronk (prison), and on my asking why, +replied: ‘Oh, for fighting, and telling lies;’ Die +liebe Unschuld! (Dear innocence!)</p> +<p>Hottentot figs are rather nice—a green fig-shaped thing, +containing about a spoonful of <i>salt-sweet</i> insipid glue, +which you suck out. This does not sound nice, but it +is. The plant has a thick, succulent, triangular leaf, +creeping on the ground, and growing anywhere, without earth or +water. Figs proper are common here, but tasteless; and the +people pick all their fruit green, and eat it so too. The +children are all crunching hard peaches and plums just now, +particularly some little half-breeds near here, who are +frightfully ugly. Fancy the children of a black woman and a +red-haired man; the little monsters are as black as the mother, +and have <i>red</i> wool—you never saw so diabolical an +appearance. Some of the coloured people are very pretty; +for example, a coal-black girl of seventeen, and my washerwoman, +who is brown. They are wonderfully slender and agile, and +quite old hard-working women have waists you could span. +They never grow thick and square, like Europeans.</p> +<p>I could write a volume on Cape horses. Such valiant +little beasts, and so composed in temper, I never saw. They +are nearly all bays—a few very dark grey, which are +esteemed; <i>very</i> few white or light grey. I have seen +no black, and only one dark chestnut. They are not cobs, +and look ‘very little of them’, and have no beauty; +but one of these little brutes, ungroomed, half-fed, seldom +stabled, will carry a six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles a +day, day after day, at a shuffling easy canter, six miles an +hour. You ‘off saddle’ every three hours, and +let him roll; you also let him drink all he can get; his coat +shines and his eye is bright, and unsoundness is very rare. +They are never properly broke, and the soft-mouthed colts are +sometimes made vicious by the cruel bits and heavy hands; but by +nature their temper is perfect.</p> +<p>Every morning all the horses in the village are turned loose, +and a general gallop takes place to the water tank, where they +drink and lounge a little; and the young ones are fetched home by +their niggers, while the old stagers know they will be wanted, +and saunter off by themselves. I often attend the Houyhnhnm +<i>conversazione</i> at the tank, at about seven o’clock, +and am amused by their behaviour; and I continually wish I could +see Ned’s face on witnessing many equine proceedings +here. To see a farmer outspan and turn the team of active +little beasts loose on the boundless veld to amuse themselves for +an hour or two, sure that they will all be there, would astonish +him a little; and then to offer a horse nothing but a roll in the +dust to refresh himself withal!</p> +<p>One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of horses and oxen +along the roadside; or at times a fresh carcase surrounded by a +convocation of huge serious-looking carrion crows, with neat +white neck-cloths. The skeletons look like wrecks, and make +you feel very lonely on the wide veld. In this district, +and in most, I believe, the roads are mere tracks over the hard, +level earth, and very good they are. When one gets rutty, +you drive parallel to it, till the bush is worn out and a new +track is formed.</p> +<p><i>January</i> 17<i>th</i>.—Lovely weather all the +week. Summer well set in.</p> +<h2><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>LETTER +VI<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">CALEDON</span></h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, January 19th.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mother</span>,</p> +<p>Till this last week, the weather was pertinaciously cold and +windy; and I had resolved to go to Worcester, which lies in a +‘Kessel’, and is really hot. But now the +glorious African summer is come, and I believe this is the +weather of Paradise. I got up at four this morning, when +the Dutchmen who had slept here were starting in their carts and +waggons. It was quite light; but the moon shone brilliantly +still, and had put on a bright rose-coloured veil, borrowed from +the rising sun on the opposite horizon. The freshness +(without a shadow of cold or damp) of the air was +indescribable—no dew was on the ground. I went up the +hill-side, along the ‘Sloot’ (channel, which supplies +all our water), into the ‘Kloof’ between the +mountains, and clambered up to the ‘Venster Klip’, +from which natural window the view is very fine. The +flowers are all gone and the grass all dead. Rhenoster +boschjes and Hottentot fig are green everywhere, and among the +rocks all manner of shrubs, and far too much ‘Wacht een +beetje’ (<i>Wait a bit</i>), a sort of series of natural +fish-hooks, which try the robustest patience. Between seven +and eight, the sun gets rather hot, and I came in and +<i>tubbed</i>, and sat on the stoep (a sort of terrace, in front +of every house in South Africa). I breakfast at nine, sit +on the stoep again till the sun comes round, and then retreat +behind closed shutters from the stinging sun. The +<i>air</i> is fresh and light all day, though the sun is +tremendous; but one has no languid feeling or desire to lie +about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at two or half-past, +and at four or five the heat is over, and one puts on a shawl to +go out in the afternoon breeze. The nights are cool, so as +always to want one blanket. I still have a cough; but it is +getting better, so that I can always eat and walk. Mine +host has just bought a horse, which he is going to try with a +petticoat to-day, and if he goes well I shall ride.</p> +<p>I like this inn-life, because I see all the +‘neighbourhood’—farmers and traders—whom +I like far better than the <i>gentility</i> of Capetown. I +have given letters to England to a ‘boer’, who is +‘going home’, i.e. to Europe, the <i>first of his +race since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes</i>, when some +poor refugees were inveigled hither by the Dutch Governor, and +oppressed worse than the Hottentots. M. de Villiers has had +no education <i>at all</i>, and has worked, and traded, and +farmed,—but the breed tells; he is a pure and thorough +Frenchman, unable to speak a word of French. When I went in +to dinner, he rose and gave me a chair with a bow which, with his +appearance, made me ask, ‘<i>Monsieur vient +d’arriver</i>?’ This at once put him out and +pleased him. He is very unlike a Dutchman. If you +think that any of the French will feel as I felt to this +far-distant brother of theirs, pray give him a few letters; but +remember that he can speak only English and Dutch, and a little +German. Here his name is <i>called</i> +‘Filljee’, but I told him to drop that barbarism in +Europe; De Villiers ought to speak for itself. He says they +came from the neighbourhood of Bordeaux.</p> +<p>The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old Pylades, Heer Ley, are +great cronies of mine—stout old greybeards, toddling down +the hill together. I sometimes go and sit on the stoep with +the two old bachelors, and they take it as a great compliment; +and Heer Klein gave me my letters all decked with flowers, and +wished ‘Vrolyke tydings, Mevrouw,’ most +heartily. He has also made his tributary mail-cart +Hottentots bring from various higher mountain ranges the +beautiful everlasting flowers, which will make pretty wreaths for +J—. When I went to his house to thank him, I found a +handsome Malay, with a basket of ‘Klipkaus’, a +shell-fish much esteemed here. Old Klein told me they were +sent him by a Malay who was born in his father’s house, a +slave, and had been <i>his</i> ‘<i>boy</i>’ and +play-fellow. Now, the slave is far richer than the old +young master, and no waggon comes without a little +gift—oranges, fish, &c.—for +‘Wilhem’. When Klein goes to Capetown, the old +Malay seats him in a grand chair and sits on a little wooden +stool at his feet; Klein begs him, as ‘Huisheer’, to +sit properly; but, ‘Neen Wilhem, Ik zal niet; ik kan niet +vergeten.’ ‘Good boy!’ said old Klein; +‘good people the Malays.’ It is a relief, after +the horrors one has heard of Dutch cruelty, to see such an +‘idyllisches Verhältniss’. I have heard +other instances of the same fidelity from Malays, but they were +utterly unappreciated, and only told to prove the excellence of +slavery, and ‘how well the rascals must have been +off’.</p> +<p>I have fallen in love with a Hottentot baby here. Her +mother is all black, with a broad face and soft spaniel eyes, and +the father is Bastaard; but the baby (a girl, nine months old), +has walked out of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s +pictures. I never saw so beautiful a child. She has +huge eyes with the spiritual look he gives to them, and is +exquisite in every way. When the Hottentot blood is +handsome, it is beautiful; there is a delicacy and softness about +some of the women which is very pretty, and the eyes are those of +a <i>good</i> dog. Most of them are hideous, and nearly all +drink; but they are very clean and honest. Their cottages +are far superior in cleanliness to anything out of England, +except in picked places, like some parts of Belgium; and they +wash as much as they can, with the bad water-supply, and the +English outcry if they strip out of doors to bathe. +Compared to French peasants, they are very clean indeed, and even +the children are far more decent and cleanly in their habits than +those of France. The woman who comes here to clean and +scour is a model of neatness in her work and her person (quite +black), but she gets helplessly drunk as soon as she has a penny +to buy a glass of wine; for a penny, a half-pint tumbler of very +strong and remarkably nasty wine is sold at the canteens.</p> +<p>I have many more ‘humours’ to tell, but A— +can show you all the long story I have written. I hope it +does not seem very stale and <i>decies repetita</i>. All +being new and curious to the eye here, one becomes long-winded +about mere trifles.</p> +<p>One small thing more. The first few shillings that a +coloured woman has to spend on her cottage go in—what do +you think?—A grand toilet table of worked muslin over pink, +all set out with little ‘<i>objets</i>’—such as +they are: if there is nothing else, there is that here, as at +Capetown, and all along to Simon’s Bay. Now, what is +the use or comfort of a <i>duchesse</i> to a Hottentot +family? I shall never see those toilets again without +thinking of Hottentots—what a baroque association of +ideas! I intend, in a day or two, to go over to +‘Gnadenthal’, the Moravian missionary station, +founded in 1736—the ‘blühende Gemeinde von +Hottentoten’. How little did I think to see it, when +we smiled at the phrase in old Mr. Steinkopf’s sermon years +ago in London! The <i>missionarized</i> Hottentots are not, +as it is said, thought well of—being even tipsier than the +rest; but I may see a full-blood one, and even a true Bosjesman, +which is worth a couple of hours’ drive; and the place is +said to be beautiful.</p> +<p>This climate is evidently a styptic of great power, I shall +write a few lines to the <i>Lancet</i> about Caledon and its hot +baths—‘Bad Caledon’, as the Germans at Houw +Hoek call it. The baths do not concern me, as they are +chalybeate; but they seem very effectual in many cases. Yet +English people never come here; they stay at Capetown, which must +be a furnace now, or at Wynberg, which is damp and chill +(comparatively); at most, they get to Stellenbosch. I mean +visitors, not settlers; <i>they</i> are everywhere. I look +the colour of a Hottentot. Now I <i>must</i> leave off.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Your most affectionate<br /> +L. D. G.</p> +<h2><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>LETTER +VII<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">GNADENTHAL</span></h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Jan. 28th.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Well</span>, I have been to Gnadenthal, +and seen the ‘blooming parish’, and a lovely spot it +is. A large village nestled in a deep valley, surrounded by +high mountains on three sides, and a lower range in front. +We started early on Saturday, and drove over a mighty queer road, +and through a river. Oh, ye gods! what a shaking and +pounding! We were rattled up like dice in a box. +Nothing but a Cape cart, Cape horses, and a Hottentot driver, +above all, could have accomplished it. Captain D— +rode, and had the best of it. On the road we passed three +or four farms, at all which horses were <i>galloping out</i> the +grain, or men were winnowing it by tossing it up with wooden +shovels to let the wind blow away the chaff. We did the +twenty-four miles up and down the mountain roads in two hours and +a half, with our valiant little pair of horses; it is incredible +how they go. We stopped at a nice cottage on the hillside +belonging to a <i>ci-devant</i> slave, one Christian Rietz, a +<i>white</i> man, with brown woolly hair, sharp features, grey +eyes, and <i>not</i> woolly moustaches. He said he was a +‘Scotch bastaard’, and ‘le bon sang +parlait—très-haut même’, for a more +thriving, shrewd, sensible fellow I never saw. His +<i>father</i> and master had had to let him go when all slaves +were emancipated, and he had come to Gnadenthal. He keeps a +little inn in the village, and a shop and a fine garden. +The cottage we lodged in was on the mountain side, and had been +built for his son, who was dead; and his adopted daughter, a +pretty coloured girl, exactly like a southern Frenchwoman, waited +on us, assisted by about six or seven other women, who came +chiefly to stare. Vrouw Rietz was as black as a coal, but +<i>so</i> pretty!—a dear, soft, sleek, old lady, with +beautiful eyes, and the kind pleasant ways which belong to nice +blacks; and, though old and fat, still graceful and lovely in +face, hands, and arms. The cottage was thus:—One +large hall; my bedroom on the right, S—’s on the +left; the kitchen behind me; Miss Rietz behind S—; mud +floors daintily washed over with fresh cow-dung; ceiling of big +rafters, just as they had grown, on which rested bamboo canes +close together <i>across</i> the rafters, and bound together +between each, with transverse bamboo—a pretty +<i>beehivey</i> effect; at top, mud again, and then a high +thatched roof and a loft or zolder for forage, &c.; the walls +of course mud, very thick and whitewashed. The bedrooms +tiny; beds, clean sweet melies (maize) straw, with clean sheets, +and eight good pillows on each; glass windows (a great +distinction), exquisite cleanliness, and hearty civility; good +food, well cooked; horrid tea and coffee, and hardly any milk; no +end of fruit. In all the gardens it hung on the trees +thicker than the leaves. Never did I behold such a +profusion of fruit and vegetables.</p> +<p>But first I must tell what struck me most, I asked one of the +Herrenhut brethren whether there were any <i>real</i> Hottentots, +and he said, ‘Yes, one;’ and next morning, as I sat +waiting for early prayers under the big oak-trees in the Plaats +(square), he came up, followed by a tiny old man hobbling along +with a long stick to support him. ‘Here’, said +he, ‘is the <i>last</i> Hottentot; he is a hundred and +seven years old, and lives all alone.’ I looked on +the little, wizened, yellow face, and was shocked that he should +be dragged up like a wild beast to be stared at. A feeling +of pity which felt like remorse fell upon me, and my eyes filled +as I rose and stood before him, so tall and like a tyrant and +oppressor, while he uncovered his poor little old snow-white +head, and peered up in my face. I led him to the seat, and +helped him to sit down, and said in Dutch, ‘Father, I hope +you are not tired; you are old.’ He saw and heard as +well as ever, and spoke good Dutch in a firm voice. +‘Yes, I am above a hundred years old, and alone—quite +alone.’ I sat beside him, and he put his head on one +side, and looked curiously up at me with his faded, but still +piercing little wild eyes. Perhaps he had a perception of +what I felt—yet I hardly think so; perhaps he thought I was +in trouble, for he crept close up to me, and put one tiny brown +paw into my hand, which he stroked with the other, and asked +(like most coloured people) if I had children. I said, +‘Yes, at home in England;’ and he patted my hand +again, and said, ‘God bless them!’ It was a +relief to feel that he was pleased, for I should have felt like a +murderer if my curiosity had added a moment’s pain to so +tragic a fate.</p> +<p>This may sound like sentimentalism; but you cannot conceive +the effect of looking on the last of a race once the owners of +all this land, and now utterly gone. His look was not quite +human, physically speaking;—a good head, small wild-beast +eyes, piercing and restless; cheek-bones strangely high and +prominent, nose <i>quite</i> flat, mouth rather wide; thin +shapeless lips, and an indescribably small, long, pointed chin, +with just a very little soft white woolly beard; his head covered +with extremely short close white wool, which ended round the poll +in little ringlets. Hands and feet like an English child of +seven or eight, and person about the size of a child of +eleven. He had all his teeth, and though shrunk to nothing, +was very little wrinkled in the face, and not at all in the +hands, which were dark brown, while his face was yellow. +His manner, and way of speaking were like those of an old peasant +in England, only his voice was clearer and stronger, and his +perceptions not blunted by age. He had travelled with one +of the missionaries in the year 1790, or thereabouts, and +remained with them ever since.</p> +<p>I went into the church—a large, clean, rather handsome +building, consecrated in 1800—and heard a very good sort of +Litany, mixed with such singing as only black voices can +produce. The organ was beautifully played by a Bastaard +lad. The Herrenhuters use very fine chants, and the perfect +ear and heavenly voices of a large congregation, about six +hundred, all coloured people, made music more beautiful than any +chorus-singing I ever heard.</p> +<p>Prayers lasted half an hour; then the congregation turned out +of doors, and the windows were opened. Some of the people +went away, and others waited for the ‘allgemeine +Predigt’. In a quarter of an hour a much larger +congregation than the first assembled, the girls all with +net-handkerchiefs tied round their heads so as to look exactly +like the ancient Greek head-dress with a double fillet—the +very prettiest and neatest coiffure I ever saw. The gowns +were made like those of English girls of the same class, but far +smarter, cleaner, and gayer in colour—pink, and green, and +yellow, and bright blue; several were all in white, with white +gloves. The men and women sit separate, and the +women’s side was a bed of tulips. The young fellows +were very smart indeed, with muslin or gauze, either white, pink, +or blue, rolled round their hats (that is universal here, on +account of the sun). The Hottentots, as they are +called—that is, those of mixed Dutch and Hottentot origin +(correctly, ‘bastaards’)—have a sort of +blackguard elegance in their gait and figure which is peculiar to +them; a mixture of negro or Mozambique blood alters it +altogether. The girls have the elegance without the +blackguard look; <i>all</i> are slender, most are tall; all +graceful, all have good hands and feet; some few are handsome in +the face and many very interesting-looking. The complexion +is a pale olive-yellow, and the hair more or less woolly, face +flat, and cheekbones high, eyes small and bright. These are +by far the most intelligent—equal, indeed, to whites. +A mixture of black blood often gives real beauty, but takes off +from the ‘air’, and generally from the talent; but +then the blacks are so pleasant, and the Hottentots are taciturn +and reserved. The old women of this breed are the grandest +hags I ever saw; they are clean and well dressed, and tie up +their old faces in white handkerchiefs like corpses,—faces +like those of Andrea del Sarto’s old women; they are +splendid. Also, they are very clean people, addicted to +tubbing more than any others. The maid-of-all-work, who +lounges about your breakfast table in rags and dishevelled hair, +has been in the river before you were awake, or, if that was too +far off, in a tub. They are also far cleaner in their huts +than any but the <i>very best</i> English poor.</p> +<p>The ‘Predigt’ was delivered, after more singing, +by a missionary cabinet-maker, in Dutch, very ranting, and not +very wise; the congregation was singularly decorous and +attentive, but did not seem at all excited or +impressed—just like a well-bred West-end audience, only +rather more attentive. The service lasted three-quarters of +an hour, including a short prayer and two hymns. The people +came out and filed off in total silence, and very quickly, the +tall graceful girls draping their gay silk shawls +beautifully. There are seven missionaries, all in orders +but one, the blacksmith, and all married, except the resident +director of the boys’ boarding-school; there is a doctor, a +carpenter, a cabinet-maker, a shoe-maker, and a +storekeeper—a very agreeable man, who had been missionary +in Greenland and Labrador, and interpreter to MacClure. +There is one ‘Studirter Theolog’. All are +Germans, and so are their wives. My friend the storekeeper +married without having ever beheld his wife before they met at +the altar, and came on board ship at once with her. He said +it was as good a way of marrying as any other, and that they were +happy together. She was lying in, so I did not see +her. At eight years old, their children are all sent home +to Germany to be educated, and they seldom see them again. +On each side of the church are schools, and next to them the +missionaries’ houses on one side of the square, and on the +other a row of workshops, where the Hottentots are taught all +manner of trades. I have got a couple of knives, made at +Gnadenthal, for the children. The girls occupy the school +in the morning, and the boys in the afternoon; half a day is +found quite enough of lessons in this climate. The infant +school was of both sexes, but a different set morning and +afternoon. The missionaries’ children were in the +infant school; and behind the little blonde German +‘Mädels’ three jet black niggerlings rolled over +each other like pointer-pups, and grinned, and didn’t care +a straw for the spelling; while the dingy yellow little bastaards +were straining their black eyes out, with eagerness to answer the +master’s questions. He and the mistress were both +Bastaards, and he seemed an excellent teacher. The girls +were learning writing from a master, and Bible history from a +mistress, also people of colour; and the stupid set (mostly +black) were having spelling hammered into their thick skulls by +another yellow mistress, in another room. At the boarding +school were twenty lads, from thirteen up to twenty, in training +for school-teachers at different stations. Gnadenthal +supplies the Church of England with them, as well as their own +stations. There were Caffres, Fingoes, a Mantatee, one boy +evidently of some Oriental blood, with glossy, smooth hair and a +copper skin—and the rest Bastaards of various hues, some +mixed with black, probably Mozambique. The Caffre lads were +splendid young Hercules’. They had just printed the +first book in the Caffre language (I’ve got it for Dr. +Hawtrey,)—extracts from the New Testament,—and I made +them read the sheets they were going to bind; it is a beautiful +language, like Spanish in tone, only with a queer +‘click’ in it. The boys drew, like Chinese, +from ‘copies’, and wrote like copper-plate; they sang +some of Mendelssohn’s choruses from ‘St. Paul’ +splendidly, the Caffres rolling out soft rich bass voices, like +melodious thunder. They are clever at handicrafts, and fond +of geography and natural history, incapable of mathematics, quick +at languages, utterly incurious about other nations, and would +all rather work in the fields than learn anything but music; good +boys, honest, but ‘<i>trotzig</i>’. So much for +Caffres, Fingoes, &c. The Bastaards are as clever as +whites, and more docile—so the ‘rector’ told +me. The boy who played the organ sang the +‘Lorelei’ like an angel, and played us a number of +waltzes and other things on the piano, but he was too shy to +talk; while the Caffres crowded round me, and chattered away +merrily. The Mantatees, whom I cannot distinguish from +Caffres, are scattered all over the colony, and rival the English +as workmen and labourers—fine stalwart, industrious +fellows. Our little ‘boy’ Kleenboy hires a room +for fifteen shillings a month, and takes in his compatriots as +lodgers at half a crown a week—the usurious little +rogue! His chief, one James, is a bricklayer here, and +looks and behaves like a prince. It is fine to see his +black arms, ornamented with silver bracelets, hurling huge stones +about.</p> +<p>All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being well watered, +but it is not healthy for whites; I imagine, too hot and +damp. There are three or four thousand coloured people +there, under the control of the missionaries, who allow no +canteens at all. The people may have what they please at +home, but no public drinking-place is allowed, and we had to take +our own beer and wine for the three days. The gardens and +burial-ground are beautiful, and the square is entirely shaded by +about ten or twelve superb oaks; nothing prettier can be +conceived. It is not popular in the neighbourhood. +‘You see it makes the d-d niggers cheeky’ to have +homes of their own—and the girls are said to be +immoral. As to that, there are no so-called +‘morals’ among the coloured people, and how or why +should there? It is an honour to one of these girls to have +a child by a white man, and it is a degradation to him to marry a +dark girl. A pious stiff old Dutchwoman who came here the +other day for the Sacrament (which takes place twice a year), had +one girl with her, big with child by her son, who also came for +the Sacrament, and two in the straw at home by the other son; +this caused her exactly as much emotion as I feel when my cat +kittens. No one takes any notice, either to blame or to +nurse the poor things—they scramble through it as pussy +does. The English are almost equally contemptuous; but +there is one great difference. My host, for instance, +always calls a black ‘a d-d nigger’; but if that +nigger is wronged or oppressed he fights for him, or bails him +out of the Tronk, and an English jury gives a just verdict; while +a Dutch one simply finds for a Dutchman, against any one else, +and <i>always</i> against a dark man. I believe this to be +true, from what I have seen and heard; and certainly the coloured +people have a great preference for the English.</p> +<p>I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest Mozambiquer I have +yet seen, a bricklayer’s labourer, who can speak English, +and says he was servant to an English Captain—‘Oh, a +good fellow he was, only he’s dead!’ He now +insists on my taking him as a servant. ‘I dessay your +man at home is a good chap, and I’ll be a good boy, and +cook very nice.’ He is thick-set and short and +strong. Nature has adorned him with a cock eye and a yard +of mouth, and art, with a prodigiously tall white chimney-pot hat +with the crown out, a cotton nightcap, and a wondrous congeries +of rags. He professes to be cook, groom, and +‘walley’, and is sure you would be pleased with his +attentions.</p> +<p>Well, to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered all over the +village on Sunday afternoon, and peeped into the cottages. +All were neat and clean, with good dressers of crockery, the +<i>very</i> poorest, like the worst in Weybridge sandpits; but +they had no glass windows, only a wooden shutter, and no doors; a +calico curtain, or a sort of hurdle supplying its place. +The people nodded and said ‘Good day!’ but took no +further notice of me, except the poor old Hottentot, who was +seated on a doorstep. He rose and hobbled up to meet me and +take my hand again. He seemed to enjoy being helped along +and seated down carefully, and shook and patted my hand +repeatedly when I took leave of him. At this the people +stared a good deal, and one woman came to talk to me.</p> +<p>In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, and saw the +people go in to ‘Abendsegen’. The church was +lighted, and as I sat there and heard the lovely singing, I +thought it was impossible to conceive a more romantic +scene. On Monday I saw all the schools, and then looked at +the great strong Caffre lads playing in the square. One of +them stood to be pelted by five or six others, and as the stones +came, he twisted and turned and jumped, and was hardly ever hit, +and when he was, he didn’t care, though the others hurled +like catapults. It was the most wonderful display of +activity and grace, and quite incredible that such a huge fellow +should be so quick and light. When I found how comfortable +dear old Mrs. Rietz made me, I was sorry I had hired the cart and +kept it to take me home, for I would gladly have stayed longer, +and the heat did me no harm; but I did not like to throw away a +pound or two, and drove back that evening. Mrs. Rietz, told +me her mother was a Mozambiquer. ‘And your +father?’ said I. ‘Oh, I don’t know. +<i>My mother was only a slave</i>.’ She, too, was a +slave, but said she ‘never knew it’, her +‘missus’ was so good; a Dutch lady, at a farm I had +passed, on the road, who had a hundred and fifty slaves. I +liked my Hottentot hut amazingly, and the sweet brown bread, and +the dinner cooked so cleanly on the bricks in the kitchen. +The walls were whitewashed and adorned with wreaths of +everlasting flowers and some quaint old prints from +Loutherburg—pastoral subjects, not exactly edifying.</p> +<p>Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu for the +present.</p> +<p><i>February</i> 3<i>d</i>.—Many happy returns of your +birthday, dear —. I had a bottle of champagne to +drink your health, and partly to swell the bill, which these good +people make so moderate, that I am half ashamed. I get +everything that Caledon can furnish for myself and S— for +15<i>l.</i> a month.</p> +<p>On Saturday we got the sad news of Prince Albert’s +death, and it created real consternation here. What a +thoroughly unexpected calamity! Every one is already +dressed in deep mourning. It is more general than in a +village of the same size at home—(how I have caught the +colonial trick of always saying ‘home’ for +England! Dutchmen who can barely speak English, and never +did or will see England, equally talk of ‘news from +home’). It also seems, by the papers of the 24th of +December, which came by a steamer the other day, that war is +imminent. I shall have to wait for convoy, I suppose, as I +object to walking the plank from a Yankee privateer. I +shall wait here for the next mail, and then go back to Capetown, +stopping by the way, so as to get there early in March, and +arrange for my voyage. The weather had a relapse into cold, +and an attempt at rain. Pity it failed, for the drought is +dreadful this year, chiefly owing to the unusual quantity of +sharp drying winds—a most unlucky summer for the country +and for me.</p> +<p>My old friend Klein, who told me several instances of the +kindness and gratitude of former slaves, poured out to me the +misery he had undergone from the ‘ingratitude’ of a +certain Rosina, a slave-girl of his. She was in her youth +handsome, clever, the best horsebreaker, bullock-trainer and +driver, and hardest worker in the district. She had two +children by Klein, then a young fellow; six by another white man, +and a few more by two husbands of her own race! But she was +of a rebellious spirit, and took to drink. After the +emancipation, she used to go in front of Klein’s windows +and read the statute in a loud voice on every anniversary of the +day; and as if that did not enrage him enough, she pertinaciously +(whenever she was a little drunk) kissed him by main force every +time she met him in the street, exclaiming, ‘Aha! when I +young and pretty slave-girl you make kiss me then; now I ugly, +drunk, dirty old devil and free woman, I kiss you!’ +Frightful retributive justice! I struggled hard to keep my +countenance, but the fat old fellow’s good-humoured, rueful +face was too much for me. His tormentor is dead, but he +retains a painful impression of her ‘ingratitude +‘.</p> +<p>Our little Mantatee ‘Kleenboy’ has again, like +Jeshurun, ‘waxed fat and kicked’, as soon as he had +eaten enough to be once more plump and shiny. After his +hungry period, he took to squatting on the stoep, just in front +of the hall-door, and altogether declining to do anything; so he +is superseded by an equally ugly little red-headed +Englishman. The Irish housemaid has married the German +baker (a fine match for her!), and a dour little Scotch +Presbyterian has come up from Capetown in her place. Such +are the vicissitudes of colonial house-keeping! The only +‘permanency’ is the old soldier of Captain +D—’s regiment, who is barman in the canteen, and not +likely to leave ‘his honour’, and the coloured girl, +who improves on acquaintance. She wants to ingratiate +herself with me, and get taken to England. Her father is an +Englishman, and of course the brown mother and her large family +always live in the fear of his ‘going home’ and +ignoring their existence; a <i>marriage</i> with the mother of +his children would be too much degradation for him to submit +to. Few of the coloured people are ever married, but they +don’t separate oftener than <i>really</i> married +folks. Bill, the handsome West Indian black, married my +pretty washerwoman Rosalind, and was thought rather assuming +because he was asked in church and lawfully married; and she wore +a handsome lilac silk gown and a white wreath and veil, and very +well she looked in them. She had a child of two years old, +which did not at all disconcert Bill; but he continues to be +dignified, and won’t let her go and wash clothes in the +river, because the hot sun makes her ill, and it is not fit work +for women.</p> +<p><i>Sunday</i>, 9<i>th</i>.—Last night a dance took place +in a house next door to this, and a party of boers attempted to +go in, but were repulsed by a sortie of the young men +within. Some of the more peaceable boers came in here and +wanted ale, which was refused, as they were already very +<i>vinous</i>; so they imbibed ginger-beer, whereof one drank +thirty-four bottles to his own share! Inspired by this +drink, they began to quarrel, and were summarily turned +out. They spent the whole night, till five this morning, +scuffling and vociferating in the street. The constables +discreetly stayed in bed, displaying the true Dogberry spirit, +which leads them to take up Hottentots, drunk or sober, to show +their zeal, but carefully to avoid meddling with stalwart boers, +from six to six and a half feet high and strong in +proportion. The jabbering of Dutch brings to mind +Demosthenes trying to outroar a stormy sea with his mouth full of +pebbles. The hardest blows are those given with the tongue, +though much pulling of hair and scuffling takes place. +‘Verdomde Schmeerlap!’—‘Donder and +Bliksem! am I a verdomde Schmeerlap?’—‘Ja, u +is,’ &c., &c. I could not help laughing +heartily as I lay in bed, at hearing the gambols of these Titan +cubs; for this is a boer’s notion of enjoying +himself. This morning, I hear, the street was strewn with +the hair they had pulled out of each other’s heads. +All who come here make love to S—; not by describing their +tender feelings, but by enumerating the oxen, sheep, horses, +land, money, &c., of which they are possessed, and whereof, +by the law of this colony, she would become half-owner on +marriage. There is a fine handsome Van Steen, who is very +persevering; but S— does not seem to fancy becoming Mevrouw +at all. The demand for English girls as wives is wonderful +here. The nasty cross little ugly Scotch maid has had three +offers already, in one fortnight!</p> +<p><i>February</i> 18<i>th</i>.—I expect to receive the +letters by the English mail to-morrow morning, and to go to +Worcester on Thursday. On Saturday the young +doctor—good-humoured, jolly, big, young +Dutchman—drove me, with his pretty little greys, over to +two farms; at one I ate half a huge melon, and at the other, +uncounted grapes. We poor Europeans don’t know what +fruit <i>can be</i>, I must admit. The melon was a +foretaste of paradise, and the grapes made one’s fingers as +sticky as honey, and had a muscat fragrance quite +inconceivable. They looked like amber eggs. The best +of it is, too, that in this climate stomach-aches are not. +We all eat grapes, peaches, and figs, all day long. Old +Klein sends me, for my own daily consumption, about thirty +peaches, three pounds of grapes, and apples, pears, and figs +besides—‘just a little taste of fruits’; only +here they will pick it all unripe.</p> +<p><i>February</i> 19<i>th</i>.—The post came in late last +night, and old Klein kindly sent me my letters at near +midnight. The post goes out this evening, and the hot wind +is blowing, so I can only write to you, and a line to my +mother. I feel really better now. I think the +constant eating of grapes has done me much good.</p> +<p>The Dutch cart-owner was so extortionate, that I am going to +wait a few days, and write to my dear Malay to come up and drive +me back. It is better than having to fight the Dutch +monopolist in every village, and getting drunken drivers and bad +carts after all. I shall go round all the same. The +weather has been beautiful; to-day there is a wind, which comes +about two or three times in the year: it is not depressing, but +hot, and a bore, because one must shut every window or be stifled +with dust.</p> +<p>The people are burning the veld all about, and the lurid smoke +by day and flaming hill-sides by night are very striking. +The ashes of the Bosh serve as manure for the young grass, which +will sprout in the autumn rains. Such nights! Such a +moon! I walk out after dark when it is mild and clear, and +can read any print by the moonlight, and see the distant +landscape as well as by day.</p> +<p>Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, and the skin and +hoofs, which are pretty.</p> +<h2><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>LETTER VIII</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Sunday.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">You</span> must have fallen into second +childhood to think of <i>printing</i> such rambling hasty scrawls +as I write. I never could write a good letter; and unless I +gallop as hard as I can, and don’t stop to think, I can say +nothing; so all is confused and unconnected: only I fancy +<i>you</i> will be amused by some of my +‘impressions’. I have written to my mother an +accurate account of my health. I am dressed and out of +doors never later than six, now the weather makes it +possible. It is surprising how little sleep one +wants. I go to bed at ten and often am up at four.</p> +<p>I made friends here the other day with a lively dried-up +little old Irishman, who came out at seven years old a +pauper-boy. He has made a fortune by ‘going on +<i>Togt</i>’ (<i>German</i>, <i>Tausch</i>), as thus; he +charters two waggons, twelve oxen each, and two Hottentots to +each waggon, leader and driver. The waggons he fills with +cotton, hardware, &c., &c.—an ambulatory village +‘shop’,—and goes about fifteen miles a day, on +and on, into the far interior, swapping baftas (calico), punjums +(loose trowsers), and voerschitz (cotton gownpieces), pronounced +‘foossy’, against oxen and sheep. When all is +gone he swaps his waggons against more oxen and a horse, and he +and his four ‘totties’ drive home the spoil; and he +has doubled or trebled his venture. <i>En route</i> home, +each day they kill a sheep, and eat it <i>all</i>. +‘What!’ says I; ‘the whole?’ +‘Every bit. I always take one leg and the liver for +myself, and the totties roast the rest, and melt all the fat and +entrails down in an iron pot and eat it with a wooden +spoon.’ <i>Je n’en revenais pas</i>. +‘What! the whole leg and liver at one meal?’ +‘Every bit; ay, and you’d do the same, ma’am, +if you were there.’ No bread, no salt, no +nothing—mutton and water. The old fellow was quite +poetic and heroic in describing the joys and perils of +Togt. I said I should like to go too; and he bewailed +having settled a year ago in a store at Swellendam, ‘else +he’d ha’ fitted up a waggon all nice and snug for me, +and shown me what going on togt was like. Nothing like it +for the health, ma’am; and beautiful shooting.’ +My friend had 700<i>l.</i> in gold in a carpet bag, without a +lock, lying about on the stoep. ‘All right; nobody +steals money or such like here. I’m going to pay +bills in Capetown.’</p> +<p>Tell my mother that a man would get from 2<i>l.</i> to +4<i>l.</i> a month wages, with board, lodging, &c., all +found, and his wife from 1<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i> to 2<i>l.</i> a +month and everything found, according to abilities and +testimonials. Wages are enormous, and servants at famine +price; emigrant ships are <i>cleared off</i> in three days, and +every ragged Irish girl in place somewhere. Four pounds a +month, and food for self, husband, and children, is no uncommon +pay for a good cook; and after all her cookery may be poor +enough. My landlady at Capetown gave that. The +housemaid had <i>only</i> 1<i>l.</i> 5<i>s.</i> a month, but told +me herself she had taken 8<i>l.</i> in one week in +‘tips’. She was an excellent servant. Up +country here the wages are less, but the comfort greater, and the +chances of ‘getting on’ much increased. But I +believe Algoa Bay or Grahamstown are by far the best fields for +new colonists, and (I am assured) the best climate for lung +diseases. The wealthy English merchants of Port Elizabeth +(Algoa Bay) pay best. It seems to me, as far as I can +learn, that every really <i>working</i> man or woman can thrive +here.</p> +<p>My German host at Houw Hoek came out twenty-three years ago, +he told me, without a ‘heller’, and is now the owner +of cattle and land and horses to a large amount. But then +the Germans work, while the Dutch dawdle and the English +drink. ‘New wine’ is a penny a glass (half a +pint), enough to blow your head off, and ‘Cape smoke’ +(brandy, like vitriol) ninepence a bottle—that is the real +calamity. If the Cape had the grape disease as badly as +Madeira, it would be the making of the colony.</p> +<p>I received a message from my Malay friends, Abdool Jemaalee +and Betsy, anxious to know ‘if the Misses had good news of +her children, for bad news would make her sick’. Old +Betsy and I used to prose about young Abdurrachman and his +studies at Mecca, and about my children, with more real +heartiness than you can fancy. We were not afraid of boring +each other; and pious old Abdool sat and nodded and said, +‘May Allah protect them all!’ as a +refrain;—‘Allah, il Allah!’</p> +<h2><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>LETTER IX</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Feb. 21st.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> morning’s post brought +your packet, and the announcement of an extra mail +to-night—so I can send you a P.S. I hear that +Capetown has been pestilential, and as hot as Calcutta. It +is totally undrained, and the Mozambiquers are beginning to +object to acting as scavengers to each separate house. The +‘<i>vidanges</i>’ are more barbarous even than in +Paris. Without the south-easter (or ‘Cape +doctor’) they must have fevers, &c.; and though too +rough a practitioner for me, he benefits the general +health. Next month the winds abate, but last week an +omnibus was blown over on the Rondebosch road, which is the most +sheltered spot, and inhabited by Capetown merchants. I have +received all the <i>Saturday Reviews</i> quite safe, likewise the +books, Mendelssohn’s letters, and the novel. I have +written for my dear Choslullah to fetch me. The Dutch +farmers don’t know how to charge enough; moreover, the +Hottentot drivers get drunk, and for two lone women that is not +the thing. I pay my gentle Malay thirty shillings a day, +which, for a cart and four and such a jewel of a driver, is not +outrageous; and I had better pay that for the few days I wait on +the road, than risk bad carts, tipsy Hottentots, and extortionate +boers.</p> +<p>This intermediate country between the ‘Central African +wilderness’ and Capetown has been little frequented. +I went to the Church Mission School with the English clergyman +yesterday. You know I don’t believe in every kind of +missionaries, but I do believe that, in these districts, kind, +judicious English clergymen are of great value. The Dutch +pastors still remember the distinction between +‘Christenmenschen’ and ‘Hottentoten’; but +the Church Mission Schools teach the Anglican Catechism to every +child that will learn, and the congregation is as piebald as +Harlequin’s jacket. A pretty, coloured lad, about +eleven years old, answered my questions in geography with great +quickness and some wit. I said, ‘Show me the country +you belong to.’ He pointed to England, and when I +laughed, to the cape. ‘This is where we are, but that +is the country I <i>belong to</i>.’ I asked him how +we were governed, and he answered quite right. ‘How +is the Cape governed?’ ‘Oh, we have a +Parliament too, and Mr. Silberbauer is the man <i>we</i> +send.’ Boys and girls of all ages were mixed, but no +blacks. I don’t think they will learn, except on +compulsion, as at Gnadenthal.</p> +<p>I regret to say that Bill’s wife has broken his head +with a bottle, at the end of the honeymoon. I fear the +innovation of being <i>married at church</i> has not had a good +effect, and that his neighbours may quote Mr. Peachum.</p> +<p>I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I hardly think it +would be an agreeable addition to the household at Esher.</p> +<p>I hear that Worcester, Paarl, and Stellenbosch are beautiful, +and the road very desolate and grand: one mountain pass takes six +hours to cross. I should not return to Capetown so early, +but poor Captain J— has had his leg smashed and amputated, +so I must look out for myself in the matter of ships. +Whenever it is hot, I am well, for the heat here is so +<i>light</i> and dry. The wind tries me, but we have little +here compared to the coast. I hope that the voyage home +will do me still more good; but I will not sail till April, so as +to arrive in June. May, in the Channel, would not do.</p> +<p>How I wish I could send you the fruit now on my +table—amber-coloured grapes, yellow waxen apples streaked +with vermillion in fine little lines, huge peaches, and tiny +green figs! I must send dear old Klein a little present +from England, to show that I don’t forget my Dutch +adorer. I wish I could bring you the ‘Biltong ‘ +he sent me—beef or bok dried in the sun in strips, and +slightly salted; you may carry enough in your pocket to live on +for a fortnight, and it is very good as a little +‘relish’. The partridges also have been +welcome, and we shall eat the tiny haunch of bok to-day.</p> +<p>Mrs. D— is gone to Capetown to get servants (the Scotch +girl having carried on her amours too flagrantly), and will +return in my cart. S— is still keeping house +meanwhile, much perturbed by the placid indolence of the brown +girl. The stableman cooks, and very well too. This is +colonial life—a series of makeshifts and difficulties; but +the climate is fine, people feel well and make money, and I think +it is not an unhappy life. I have been most fortunate in my +abode, and can say, without speaking cynically, that I have found +‘my warmest welcome at an inn’. Mine host is a +rough soldier, but the very soul of good nature and good feeling; +and his wife is a very nice person—so cheerful, clever, and +kindhearted.</p> +<p>I should like to bring home the little Madagascar girl from +Rathfelders, or a dear little mulatto who nurses a brown baby +here, and is so clean and careful and ‘pretty +behaved’,—but it would be a great risk. The +brown babies are ravishing—so fat and jolly and funny.</p> +<p>One great charm of the people here is, that no one expects +money or gifts, and that all civility is gratis. Many a +time I finger small coin secretly in my pocket, and refrain from +giving it, for fear of spoiling this innocence. I have not +once seen a <i>look</i> implying ‘backsheesh’, and +begging is unknown. But the people are reserved and silent, +and have not the attractive manners of the darkies of Capetown +and the neighbourhood.</p> +<h2><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>LETTER X</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Caledon, Feb. 22d.</p> +<p>Yesterday Captain D— gave me a very nice caross of +blessbok skins, which he got from some travelling trader. +The excellence of the Caffre skin-dressing and sewing is, I +fancy, unequalled; the bok-skins are as soft as a kid glove, and +have no smell at all.</p> +<p>In the afternoon the young doctor drove me, in his little +gig-cart and pair (the lightest and swiftest of conveyances), to +see a wine-farm. The people were not at work, but we saw +the tubs and vats, and drank ‘most’. The grapes +are simply trodden by a Hottentot, in a tub with a sort of +strainer at the bottom, and then thrown—skins, stalks, and +all—into vats, where the juice ferments for twice +twenty-four hours; after which it is run into casks, which are +left with the bung out for eight days; then the wine is drawn off +into another cask, a little sulphur and brandy are added to it, +and it is bunged down. Nothing can be conceived so +barbarous. I have promised Mr. M— to procure and send +him an exact account of the process in Spain. It might be a +real service to a most worthy and amiable man. Dr. M— +also would be glad of a copy. They literally know nothing +about wine-making here, and with such matchless grapes I am sure +it ought to be good. Altogether, ‘der alte +Schlendrian’ prevails at the Cape to an incredible +degree.</p> +<p>If two ‘Heeren M—’ call on you, please be +civil to them. I don’t know them personally, but +their brother is the doctor here, and the most good-natured young +fellow I ever saw. If I were returning by Somerset instead +of Worcester, I might put up at their parents’ house and be +sure of a welcome; and I can tell you civility to strangers is by +no means of course here. I don’t wonder at it; for +the old Dutch families <i>are gentlefolks</i> of the good dull +old school, and the English colonists can scarcely suit +them. In the few instances in which I have succeeded in +<i>thawing</i> a Dutchman, I have found him wonderfully +good-natured; and the different manner in which I was greeted +when in company with the young doctor showed the feeling at +once. The dirt of a Dutch house is not to be +conceived. I have had sights in bedrooms in very +respectable houses which I dare not describe. The coloured +people are just as clean. The young doctor (who is much +Anglicised) tells me that, in illness, he has to break the +windows in the farmhouses—they are built not to open! +The boers are below the English in manners and intelligence, and +hate them for their ‘go-ahead’ ways, though +<i>they</i> seem slow enough to me. As to drink, I fancy it +is six of one and half a dozen of the other; but the English are +more given to eternal drams, and the Dutch to solemn drinking +bouts. I can’t understand either, in this climate, +which is so stimulating, that I more often drink ginger-beer or +water than wine—a bottle of sherry lasted me a fortnight, +though I was ordered to drink it; somehow, I had no mind to +it.</p> +<p>27<i>th</i>.—The cart could not be got till the day +before yesterday, and yesterday Mrs. D— arrived in it with +two new Irish maids; it saved her 3<i>l.</i>, and I must have +paid equally. The horses were very tired, having been hard +at work carrying Malays all the week to Constantia and back, on a +pilgrimage to the tomb of a Mussulman saint; so to-day they rest, +and to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp. Choslullah has been +appointed driver of a post-cart; he tried hard to be allowed to +pay a <i>remplaçant</i>, and to fetch ‘his +missis’, but was refused leave; and so a smaller and +blacker Malay has come, whom Choslullah threatened to curse +heavily if he failed to take great care of ‘my +missis’ and be a ‘good boy’. Ramadan +begins on Sunday, and my poor driver can’t even prepare for +it by a good feast, as no fowls are to be had here just now, and +he can’t eat profanely-killed meat. Some pious +Christian has tried to burn a Mussulman martyr’s tomb at +Eerste River, and there were fears the Malays might indulge in a +little revenge; but they keep quiet. I am to go with my +driver to eat some of the feast (of Bairam, is it not?) at his +priest’s when Ramadan ends, if I am in Capetown, and also +am asked to a wedding at a relation of Choslullah’s. +It was quite a pleasure to hear the kindly Mussulman talk, after +these silent Hottentots. The Malays have such agreeable +manners; so civil, without the least cringing or Indian +obsequiousness. I dare say they can be very +‘insolent’ on provocation; but I have always found +among them manners like old-fashioned French ones, but quieter; +and they have an affectionate way of saying ‘<i>my</i> +missis’ when they know one, which is very nice to +hear. It is getting quite chilly here already; <i>cold</i> +night and morning; and I shall be glad to descend off this +plateau into the warmer regions of Worcester, &c. I +have just bought <i>eight</i> splendid ostrich feathers for +1<i>l.</i> of my old Togthandler friend. In England they +would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings each. I +have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you; the latter +makes a saddle-cloth which defies sore backs; they were given me +by Klein and a farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh was poor +stuff, white and papery. The Hottentots can’t +‘bray’ the skins as the Caffres do; and the woman who +did mine asked me for a trifle beforehand, and got so drunk that +she let them dry halfway in the process, consequently they +don’t look so well.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Worcester, Sunday, March 2d.</p> +<p>Oh, such a journey! Such country! Pearly mountains +and deep blue sky, and an impassable pass to walk down, and +baboons, and secretary birds, and tortoises! I +couldn’t sleep for it all last night, tired as I was with +the unutterably bad road, or track rather.</p> +<p>Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten o’clock, and +though the weather had been cold and unpleasant for two days, I +had a lovely morning, and away we went to Villiersdorp +(pronounced Filjeesdorp). It is quite a tiny village, in a +sort of Rasselas-looking valley. We were four hours on the +road, winding along the side of a mountain ridge, which we +finally crossed, with a splendid view of the sea at the +far-distant end of a huge amphitheatre formed by two ridges of +mountains, and on the other side the descent into +Filjeesdorp. The whole way we saw no human being or +habitation, except one shepherd, from the time we passed +Buntje’s kraal, about two miles out of Caledon. The +little drinking-shop would not hold travellers, so I went to the +house of the storekeeper (as the clergyman of Caledon had told me +I might), and found a most kind reception. Our host was +English, an old man-of-war’s man, with a gentle, kindly +Dutch wife, and the best-mannered children I have seen in the +colony. They gave us clean comfortable beds and a good +dinner, and wine ten years in the cellar; in short, the best of +hospitality. I made an effort to pay for the entertainment +next morning, when, after a good breakfast, we started loaded +with fruit, but the kind people would not hear of it, and bid me +good-bye like old friends. At the end of the valley we went +a little up-hill, and then found ourselves at the top of a pass +down into the level below. S— and I burst out with +one voice, ‘How beautiful!’ Sabaal, our driver, +thought the exclamation was an ironical remark on the road, +which, indeed, appeared to be exclusively intended for +goats. I suggested walking down, to which, for a wonder, +the Malay agreed. I was really curious to see him get down +with two wheels and four horses, where I had to lay hold from +time to time in walking. The track was excessively steep, +barely wide enough, and as slippery as a flagstone pavement, +being the naked mountain-top, which is bare rock. However, +all went perfectly right.</p> +<p>How shall I describe the view from that pass? In front +was a long, long level valley, perhaps three to five miles broad +(I can’t judge distance in this atmosphere; a house that +looks a quarter of a mile off is two miles distant). At the +extreme end, in a little gap between two low brown hills that +crossed each other, one could just see Worcester—five +hours’ drive off. Behind it, and on each side the +plain, mountains of every conceivable shape and colour; the +strangest cliffs and peaks and crags toppling every way, and +tinged with all the colours of opal; chiefly delicate, pale lilac +and peach colour, but varied with red brown and Titian +green. In spite of the drought, water sparkled on the +mountain-sides in little glittering threads, and here and there +in the plain; and pretty farms were dotted on either side at the +very bottom of the slopes toward the mountain-foot. The sky +of such a blue! (it is deeper now by far than earlier in the +year). In short, I never did see anything so +beautiful. It even surpassed Hottentot’s +Holland. On we went, straight along the valley, crossing +drift after drift;—a drift is the bed of a stream more or +less dry; in which sometimes you are drowned, sometimes only +<i>pounded</i>, as was our hap. The track was incredibly +bad, except for short bits, where ironstone prevailed. +However, all went well, and on the road I chased and captured a +pair of remarkably swift and handsome little +‘Schelpats’. That you may duly appreciate such +a feat of valour and activity, I will inform you that their +English name is ‘tortoise’. On the strength of +this effort, we drank a bottle of beer, as it was very hot and +sandy; and our Malay was a <i>wet</i> enough Mussulman to take +his full share in a modest way, though he declined wine or +‘Cape smoke Soopjes’ (drams) with aversion. No +sooner had we got under weigh again, than Sabaal pulled up and +said, ‘There <i>are</i> the Baviāans Missis want to +see!’ and so they were. At some distance by the river +was a great brute, bigger than a Newfoundland dog, stalking along +with the hideous baboon walk, and tail vehemently cocked up; a +troop followed at a distance, hiding and dodging among the +palmiets. They were evidently <i>en route</i> to rob a +garden close to them, and had sent a great stout fellow ahead to +reconnoitre. ‘He see Missis, and feel sure she not +got a gun; if man come on horseback, you see ’em run like +devil.’ We had not that pleasure, and left them, on +felonious thoughts intent.</p> +<p>The road got more and more beautiful as we neared Worcester, +and the mountains grew higher and craggier. Presently, a +huge bird, like a stork on the wing, pounced down close by +us. He was a secretary-bird, and had caught sight of a +snake. We passed ‘Brant Vley’ (<i>burnt</i> or +hot spring), where sulphur-water bubbles up in a basin some +thirty feet across and ten or twelve deep. The water is +clear as crystal, and is hot enough just <i>not</i> to boil an +egg, I was told. At last, one reaches the little gap +between the brown hills which one has seen for four hours, and +drives through it into a wide, wide flat, with still craggier and +higher mountains all round, and Worcester in front at the foot of +a towering cliff. The town is not so pretty, to my taste, +as the little villages. The streets are too wide, and the +market-place too large, which always looks dreary, but the houses +and gardens individually are charming. Our inn is a very +nice handsome old Dutch house; but we have got back to +‘civilization’, and the horrid attempts at +‘style’ which belong to Capetown. The landlord +and lady are too genteel to appear at all, and the Hottentots, +who are disguised, according to their sexes, in pantry jacket and +flounced petticoat, don’t understand a word of English or +of real Dutch. At Gnadenthal they understood Dutch, and +spoke it tolerably; but here, as in most places, it is +three-parts Hottentot; and then they affect to understand +English, and bring everything wrong, and are sulky: but the rooms +are very comfortable. The change of climate is +complete—the summer was over at Caledon, and here we are +into it again—the most delicious air one can conceive; it +must have been a perfect oven six weeks ago. The birds are +singing away merrily still; the approach of autumn does not +silence them here. The canaries have a very pretty song, +like our linnet, only sweeter; the rest are very inferior to +ours. The sugar-bird is delicious when close by, but his +pipe is too soft to be heard at any distance.</p> +<p>To those who think voyages and travels tiresome, my delight in +the new birds and beasts and people must seem very stupid. +I can’t help it if it does, and am not ashamed to confess +that I feel the old sort of enchanted wonder with which I used to +read Cook’s voyages, and the like, as a child. It is +very coarse and unintellectual of me; but I would rather see this +now, at my age, than Italy; the fresh, new, beautiful nature is a +second youth—or <i>childhood</i>—<i>si vous +voulez</i>. To-morrow we shall cross the highest pass I +have yet crossed, and sleep at Paarl—then Stellenbosch, +then Capetown. For any one <i>out</i> of health, and +<i>in</i> pocket, I should certainly prescribe the purchase of a +waggon and team of six horses, and a long, slow progress in South +Africa. One cannot walk in the midday sun, but driving with +a very light roof over one’s head is quite delicious. +When I looked back upon my dreary, lonely prison at Ventnor, I +wondered I had survived it at all.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, March 7th.</p> +<p>After writing last, we drove out, on Sunday afternoon, to a +deep alpine valley, to see a <i>new bridge</i>—a great +marvel apparently. The old Spanish Joe Miller about selling +the bridge to buy water occurred to me, and made Sabaal laugh +immensely. The Dutch farmers were tearing home from Kerk, +in their carts—well-dressed, prosperous-looking folks, with +capital horses. Such lovely farms, snugly nestled in orange +and pomegranate groves! It is of no use to describe this +scenery; it is always mountains, and always beautiful opal +mountains; quite without the gloom of European mountain +scenery. The atmosphere must make the charm. I hear +that an English traveller went the same journey and found all +barren from Dan to Beersheba. I’m sorry for him.</p> +<p>In the morning of Sunday, early, I walked along the road with +Sabaal, and saw a picture I shall never forget. A little +Malabar girl had just been bathing in the Sloot, and had put her +scanty shift on her lovely little wet brown body; she stood in +the water with the drops glittering on her brown skin and black, +satin hair, the perfection of youthful loveliness—a naiad +of ten years old. When the shape and features are +<i>perfect</i>, as hers were, the coffee-brown shows it better +than our colour, on account of its perfect +<i>evenness</i>—like the dead white of marble. I +shall never forget her as she stood playing with the leaves of +the gum-tree which hung over her, and gazing with her glorious +eyes so placidly.</p> +<p>On Monday morning, I walked off early to the old <i>Drosdy</i> +(Landdrost’s house), found an old gentleman, who turned out +to be the owner, and who asked me my name and all the rest of the +Dutch ‘litanei’ of questions, and showed me the +pretty old Dutch garden and the house—a very handsome +one. I walked back to breakfast, and thought Worcester the +prettiest place I had ever seen. We then started for Paarl, +and drove through ‘Bain’s Kloof’, a splendid +mountain-pass, four hours’ long, constant driving. It +was glorious, but more like what one had seen in pictures—a +deep, narrow gorge, almost dark in places, and, to my mind, +lacked the <i>beauty</i> of the yesterday’s drive, though +it is, perhaps, grander; but the view which bursts on one at the +top, and the descent, winding down the open mountain-side, is too +fine to describe. Table Mountain, like a giant’s +stronghold, seen far distant, with an immense plain, half +fertile, half white sand; to the left, Wagenmaker’s Vley; +and further on, the Paarl lying scattered on the slope of a +mountain topped with two <i>domes</i>, just the shape of the cup +which Lais (wasn’t it?) presented to the temple of Venus, +moulded on her breast. The horses were tired, so we stopped +at Waggon-maker’s Valley (or Wellington, as the English try +to get it called), and found ourselves in a true Flemish village, +and under the roof of a jolly Dutch hostess, who gave us divine +coffee and bread-and-butter, which seemed ambrosia after being +deprived of those luxuries for almost three months. Also +new milk in abundance, besides fruit of all kinds in vast heaps, +and pomegranates off the tree. I asked her to buy me a few +to take in the cart, and got a ‘muid’, the third of a +sack, for a shilling, with a bill, ‘U bekomt 1 muid 28 +granaeten dat Kostet 1<i>s.</i>’ The old lady would +walk out with me and take me into the shops, to show the +‘vrow uit Engelland’ to her friends. It was a +lovely place, intensely hot, all glowing with sunshine. +Then the sun went down, and the high mountains behind us were +precisely the colour of a Venice ruby glass—really, truly, +and literally;—not purple, not crimson, but glowing +ruby-red—and the quince-hedges and orange-trees below +looked <i>intensely</i> green, and the houses snow-white. +It was a transfiguration—no less.</p> +<p>I saw Hottentots again, four of them, from some remote corner, +so the race is not quite extinct. These were youngish, two +men and two women, quite light yellow, not darker than Europeans, +and with little tiny black knots of wool scattered over their +heads at intervals. They are hideous in face, but +exquisitely shaped—very, very small though. One of +the men was drunk, poor wretch, and looked the picture of +misery. You can see the fineness of their senses by the way +in which they dart their glances and prick their ears. +Every one agrees that, when tamed, they make the best of +servants—gentle, clever, and honest; but the penny-a-glass +wine they can’t resist, unless when caught and tamed +young. They work in the fields, or did so as long as any +were left; but even here, I was told, it was a wonder to see +them.</p> +<p>We went on through the Paarl, a sweet pretty place, reminding +one vaguely of Bonchurch, and still through fine mountains, with +Scotch firs growing like Italian stone pines, and farms, and +vineyard upon vineyard. At Stellenbosch we stopped. I +had been told it was the prettiest town in the colony, and it +<i>is</i> very pretty, with oak-trees all along the street, like +those at Paarl and Wagenmakkers Vley; but I was +disappointed. It was less beautiful than what I had +seen. Besides, the evening was dull and cold. The +south-easter greeted us here, and I could not go out all the +afternoon. The inn was called ‘Railway Hotel’, +and kept by low coarse English people, who gave us a filthy +dinner, dirty sheets, and an atrocious breakfast, and charged +1<i>l.</i> 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> for the same meals and time as +old Vrow Langfeldt had charged 12<i>s.</i> for, and had given +civility, cleanliness, and abundance of excellent +food;—besides which, she fed Sabaal gratis, and these +people fleeced him as they did me. So, next morning, we set +off, less pleasantly disposed, for Capetown, over the flat, which +is dreary enough, and had a horrid south-easter. We started +early, and got in before the wind became a hurricane, which it +did later. We were warmly welcomed by Mrs. R—; and +here I am in my old room, looking over the beautiful bay, quite +at home again. It blew all yesterday, and having rather a +sore-throat I stayed in bed, and to-day is all bright and +beautiful. But Capetown looks murky after Caledon and +Worcester; there is, to my eyes, quite a haze over the mountains, +and they look far off and indistinct. All is comparative in +this world, even African skies. At Caledon, the most +distant mountains, as far as your eye can reach, look as clear in +every detail as the map on your table—an appearance utterly +new to European eyes.</p> +<p>I gave Sabaal 1<i>l.</i> for his eight days’ service as +driver, as a Drinkgelt, and the worthy fellow was in ecstasies of +gratitude. Next morning early, he appeared with a present +of bananas, and his little girl dressed from head to foot in +brand-new clothes, bought out of my money, with her wool screwed +up extremely tight in little knots on her black little head +(evidently her mother is the blackest of Caffres or +Mozambiques). The child looked like a Caffre, and her +father considers her quite a pearl. I had her in, and +admired the little thing loud enough for him to hear outside, as +I lay in bed. You see, I too was to have my share in the +pleasure of the new clothes. This readiness to believe that +one will sympathize with them, is very pleasing in the +Malays.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">March 15.</p> +<p>I went to see my old Malay friends and to buy a +water-melon. They were in all the misery of Ramadan. +Betsy and pretty Nassirah very thin and miserable, and the pious +old Abdool sitting on a little barrel waiting for +‘gun-fire’—i.e. sunset, to fall to on the +supper which old Betsy was setting out. He was silent, and +the corners of his mouth were drawn down just like +—’s at an evening party.</p> +<p>I shall go to-morrow to bid the T—s good-bye, at +Wynberg. I was to have spent a few days there, but Wynberg +is cold at night and dampish, so I declined that. She is a +nice woman—Irish, and so innocent and frank and +well-bred. She has been at Cold Bokke Veld, and shocked her +puritanical host by admiring the naked Caffres who worked on his +farm. He wanted them to wear clothes.</p> +<p>We have been amused by the airs of a naval captain and his +wife, who are just come here. They complained that the +merchant-service officers spoke <i>familiarly</i> to their +children on board. <i>Quel audace</i>! When I think +of the excellent, modest, manly young fellows who talked very +familiarly and pleasantly to me on board the <i>St. Lawrence</i>, +I long to reprimand these foolish people.</p> +<p><i>Friday</i>, 21<i>st</i>.—I am just come from prayer, +at the Mosque in Chiappini Street, on the outskirts of the +town. A most striking sight. A large room, like a +county ball-room, with glass chandeliers, carpeted with common +carpet, all but a space at the entrance, railed off for shoes; +the Caaba and pulpit at one end; over the niche, a crescent +painted; and over the entrance door a crescent, an Arabic +inscription, and the royal arms of England! A fat jolly +Mollah looked amazed as I ascended the steps; but when I touched +my forehead and said, ‘Salaam Aleikoom’, he laughed +and said, ‘Salaam, Salaam, come in, come in.’ +The faithful poured in, all neatly dressed in their loose drab +trousers, blue jackets, and red handkerchiefs on their heads; +they left their wooden clogs in company, with my shoes, and +proceeded, as it appeared, to strip. Off went jackets, +waistcoats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a pantomime +transformation; the red handkerchief was replaced by a white +skullcap, and a long large white shirt and full white drawers +flowed around them. How it had all been stuffed into the +trim jacket and trousers, one could not conceive. Gay +sashes and scarves were pulled out of a little bundle in a clean +silk handkerchief, and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In +a moment the whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I +had come in existed no more. Women suckled their children, +and boys played among the clogs and shoes all the time, and I sat +on the floor in a remote corner. The chanting was very +fine, and the whole ceremony very decorous and solemn. It +lasted an hour; and then the little heaps of garments were put +on, and the congregation dispersed, each man first laying a penny +on a very curious little old Dutch-looking, heavy, iron-bound +chest, which stood in the middle of the room.</p> +<p>I have just heard that the post closes to-night and must say +farewell—<i>a rivederci</i>.</p> +<h2><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +132</span>LETTER XI</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, March 20th.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mother</span>,</p> +<p>Dr. Shea says he fears I must not winter in England yet, but +that I am greatly improved—as, indeed, I could tell +him. He is another of the kind ‘sea doctors’ I +have met with; he came all the way from Simon’s Bay to see +me, and then said, ‘What nonsense is that?’ when I +offered him a fee. This is a very nice place up in the +‘gardens’, quite out of the town and very +comfortable. But I regret Caledon. A— will show +you my account of my beautiful journey back. Worcester is a +fairy-land; and then to catch tortoises walking about, and to see +‘baviāans’, and snakes and secretary birds +eating them! and then people have the impudence to think I must +have been ‘very dull!’ <i>Sie merken’s +nicht</i>, that it is <i>they</i> who are dull.</p> +<p>Dear Dr. Hawtrey! he must have died just as I was packing up +the first Caffre Testament for him! I felt his death very +much, in connexion with my father; their regard for each other +was an honour to both. I have the letter he wrote me on +J—’s marriage, and a charming one it is.</p> +<p>I took Mrs. A— a drive in a Hansom cab to-day out to +Wynberg, to see my friends Captain and Mrs. T—, who have a +cottage under Table Mountain in a spot like the best of St. +George’s Hill. Very dull too; but as she is really a +lady, it suits her, and Capetown does not. I was to have +stayed with them, but Wynberg is cold at night. Poor +B—’s wife is very ill and won’t leave Capetown +for a day. The people here are <i>wunderlich</i> for +that. A lady born here, and with 7,000<i>l.</i> a year, has +never been further than Stellenbosch, about twenty miles. I +am asked how I lived and what I ate during my little excursion, +as if I had been to Lake Ngami. If only I had known how +easy it all is, I would have gone by sea to East London and seen +the Knysna and George district, and the primæval African +forest, the yellow wood, and other giant trees. However, +‘For what I have received,’ &c., &c. No +one can conceive what it is, after two years of prison and utter +languor, to stand on the top of a mountain pass, and enjoy +physical existence for a few hours at a time. I felt as if +it was quite selfish to enjoy anything so much when you were all +so anxious about me at home; but as that is the best symptom of +all, I do not repent.</p> +<p>S— has been an excellent travelling servant, and really +a better companion than many more educated people; for she is +always amused and curious, and is friendly with the coloured +people. She is quite recovered. It is a wonderful +climate—<i>sans que celà paraisse</i>. It +feels chilly and it blows horridly, and does not seem genial, but +it gives new life.</p> +<p>To-morrow I am going with old Abdool Jemaalee to prayers at +the Mosque, and shall see a school kept by a Malay priest. +It is now Ramadan, and my Muslim friends are very thin and look +glum. Choslullah sent a message to ask, ‘Might he see +the Missis once more? He should pray all the time she was +on the sea.’ Some pious Christians here would expect +such horrors to sink the ship. I can’t think why +Mussulmans are always gentlemen; the Malay coolies have a grave +courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with both European +vulgarity and negro jollity. It is very curious, for they +only speak Dutch, and know nothing of oriental manners. I +fear I shall not see the Walkers again. Simon’s Bay +is too far to go and come in a day, as one cannot go out before +ten or eleven, and must be in by five or half-past. Those +hours are gloriously bright and hot, but morning and night are +cold.</p> +<p>I am so happy in the thought of sailing now so very soon and +seeing you all again, that I can settle to nothing for five +minutes. I now feel how anxious and uneasy I have been, and +how I shall rejoice to get home. I shall leave a letter for +A—, to go in April, and tell him and you what ship I am +in. I shall choose the <i>slowest</i>, so as not to reach +England and face the Channel before June, if possible. So +don’t be alarmed if I do not arrive till late in +June. Till then good-bye, and God bless you, dearest +mother—<i>Auf frohes Wiedersehn</i>.</p> +<h2><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>LETTER XII</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, Sunday, March 23d.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> has been a <i>real</i> hot day, +and threatened an earthquake and a thunderstorm; but nothing has +come of it beyond sheet lightning to-night, which is splendid +over the bay, and looks as if repeated in a grand bush-fire on +the hills opposite. The sunset was glorious. That +rarest of insects, the praying mantis, has just dropped upon my +paper. I am thankful that, not being an entomologist, I am +dispensed from the sacred duty of impaling the lovely green +creature who sits there, looking quite wise and human. +Fussy little brown beetles, as big as two lady-birds, keep flying +into my eyes, and the musquitoes are rejoicing loudly in the +prospect of a feast. You will understand by this that both +windows are wide open into the great verandah,—very unusual +in this land of cold nights.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 4<i>th</i>.—I have been trying in vain to +get a passage home. The <i>Camperdown</i> has not +come. In short, I am waiting for a chance vessel, and shall +pack up now and be ready to go on board at a day’s +notice.</p> +<p>I went on the last evening of Ramadan to the Mosque, having +heard there was a grand ‘function’; but there were +only little boys lying about on the floor, some on their +stomachs, some on their backs, higgledy-piggledy (if it be not +profane to apply the phrase to young Islam), all shouting their +prayers <i>à tue tête</i>. Priests, men, +women, and English crowded in and out in the exterior +division. The English behaved <i>à +l’Anglaise</i>—pushed each other, laughed, sneered, +and made a disgusting display of themselves. I asked a +stately priest, in a red turban, to explain the affair to me, and +in a few minutes found myself supplied by one Mollah with a +chair, and by another with a cup of tea—was, in short, in +the midst of a Malay <i>soirée</i>. They spoke +English very little, but made up for it by their usual good +breeding and intelligence. On Monday, I am going to see the +school which the priest keeps at his house, and to ‘honour +his house by my presence’. The delight they show at +any friendly interest taken in them is wonderful. Of +course, I am supposed to be poisoned. A clergyman’s +widow here gravely asserts that her husband went mad <i>three +years</i> after drinking a cup of coffee handed to him by a +Malay!—and in consequence of drinking it! It is +exactly like the mediæval feeling about the Jews. I +saw that it was quite a <i>demonstration</i> that I drank up the +tea unhesitatingly. Considering that the Malays drank it +themselves, my courage deserves less admiration. But it was +a quaint sensation to sit in a Mosque, behaving as if at an +evening party, in a little circle of poor Moslim priests.</p> +<p>I am going to have a photograph of my cart done. I was +to have gone to the place to-day, but when Choslullah (whom I +sent for to complete the picture) found out what I wanted, he +implored me to put it off till Monday, that he might be better +dressed, and was so unhappy at the notion of being immortalized +in an old jacket, that I agreed to the delay. Such a +handsome fellow may be allowed a little vanity.</p> +<p>The colony is torn with dissensions as to Sunday trains. +Some of the Dutch clergy are even more absurd than our own on +that point. A certain Van der Lingen, at Stellenbosch, +calls Europe ‘one vast Sodom’, and so forth. +There is altogether a nice kettle of religious hatred brewing +here. The English Bishop of Capetown appoints all the +English clergy, and is absolute monarch of all he surveys; and he +and his clergy are carrying matters with a high hand. The +Bishop’s chaplain told Mrs. J— that she could not +hope for salvation in the Dutch Church, since her clergy were not +ordained by any bishop, and therefore they could only administer +the sacrament ‘<i>unto damnation</i>’. All the +physicians in a body, English as well as Dutch, have withdrawn +from the Dispensary, because it was used as a means of pressure +to draw the coloured people from the Dutch to the English +Church.</p> +<p>This High-Church tyranny cannot go on long. Catholics +there are few, but their bishop plays the same game; and it is a +losing one. The Irish maid at the Caledon inn was driven by +her bishop to be married at the Lutheran church, just as a young +Englishman I know (though a fervent Puseyite) was driven to be +married at the Scotch kirk. The colonial bishops are +despots in their own churches, and there is no escape from their +tyranny but by dissent. The Admiral and his family have +been anathematized for going to a fancy bazaar given by the +Wesleyans for their chapel.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 8<i>th</i>.—Yesterday, I failed about my +cart photograph. First, the owner had sent away the cart, +and when Choslullah came dressed in all his best clothes, with a +lovely blue handkerchief setting off his beautiful orange-tawny +face, he had to rush off to try to borrow another cart. As +ill luck would have it, he met a ‘serious young man’, +with no front teeth, and a hideous wen on his eyebrow, who +informed the priest of Choslullah’s impious purpose, and +came with him to see that he did <i>not</i> sit for his +portrait. I believe it was half envy; for my handsome +driver was as pleased, and then as disappointed, as a young lady +about her first ball, and obviously had no religious scruples of +his own on the subject. The weather is very delightful +now—hot, but beautiful; and the south-easters, though +violent, are short, and not cold. As in all other +countries, autumn is the best time of year.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 15<i>th</i>.—Your letters arrived +yesterday, to my great delight. I have been worrying about +a ship, and was very near sailing to-day by the <i>Queen of the +South</i> at twenty-four hours’ notice, but I have resolved +to wait for the <i>Camperdown</i>. The <i>Queen of the +South</i> is a steamer,—which is odious, for they pitch the +coal all over the lower deck, so that you breathe coal-dust for +the first ten days; then she was crammed—only one cabin +vacant, and that small, and on the lower deck—and fifty-two +children on board. Moreover, she will probably get to +England too soon, so I resign myself to wait. The +<i>Camperdown</i> has only upper-deck cabins, and I shall have +fresh air. I am not as well as I was at Caledon, so I am +all the more anxious to have a voyage likely to do me good +instead of harm.</p> +<p>I got my cart and Choslullah photographed after all. +Choslullah came next day (having got rid of his pious friend), +quite resolved that ‘the Missis’ should take his +portrait, so I will send or bring a few copies of my beloved +cart. After the photograph was done, we drove round the +Kloof, between Table and Lion Mountain. The road is cut on +the side of Lion Mountain, and overhangs the sea at a great +height. Camp Bay, which lies on the further side of the +‘Lion’s Head’, is most lovely; never was sea so +deeply blue, rocks so warmly brown, or sand and foam so +glittering white; and down at the mountain-foot the bright green +of the orange and pomegranate trees throws it all out in greater +relief. But the atmosphere here won’t do after that +of the ‘Ruggings’, as the Caledon line of country is +called. I shall never lose the impression of the view I had +when Dr. Morkel drove me out on a hill-side, where the view +seemed endless and without a vestige of life; and yet in every +valley there were farms; but it looked a vast, utter solitude, +and without the least haze. You don’t know what that +utter clearness means—the distinctness is quite +awful. Here it is always slightly hazy; very pretty and +warm, but it takes off from the grandeur. It is the +difference between a pretty Pompadour beauty and a Greek +statue. Those pale opal mountains, as distinct in every +detail as the map on your table, are so cheerful and serene; no +melodramatic effects of clouds and gloom. I suppose it is +not really so beautiful as it seemed to me, for other people say +it is bare and desolate, and certainly it is; but it seemed to me +anything but dreary.</p> +<p>I am persuaded that Capetown is not healthy; indeed, the town +can’t be, from its stench and dirt; but I believe the whole +seashore is more or less bad, compared to the upper plateaux, of +which I know only the first. I should have gone back to +Paarl, only that ships come and go within twenty-four hours, so +one has the pleasure of living in constant expectation, with +packed trunks, wondering when one shall get away. A clever +Mr. M—, who has lived <i>all over</i> India, and is going +back to Singapore, with his wife and child, are now in the house; +and some very pleasant Jews, bound for British +Caffraria—one of them has a lovely little wife and three +children. She is very full of Prince Albert’s death, +and says there was not a dry eye in the synagogues in London, +which were all hung with black on the day of his funeral, and +prayer went on the whole day. ‘<i>The people</i> +mourned for him as much as for Hezekiah; and, indeed, he deserved +it a great deal better,’ was her rather unorthodox +conclusion. These colonial Jews are a new +‘Erscheinung’ to me. They have the features of +their race, but many of their peculiarities are gone. Mr. +L—, who is very handsome and gentlemanly, eats ham and +patronises a good breed of pigs on the ‘model farm’ +on which he spends his money. He is (he says) a thorough +Jew in faith, and evidently in charitable works; but he wants to +say his prayers in English and not to ‘dress himself +up’ in a veil and phylacteries for the purpose; and he and +his wife talk of England as ‘home’, and care as much +for Jerusalem as their neighbours. They have not forgotten +the old persecutions, and are civil to the coloured people, and +speak of them in quite a different tone from other English +colonists. Moreover, they are far better mannered, and more +‘<i>human</i>’, in the German sense of the word, in +all respects;—in short, less ‘colonial’.</p> +<p>I have bought some Cape ‘confeyt’; apricots, +salted and then sugared, called +‘mebos’—delicious! Also pickled peaches, +‘chistnee’, and quince jelly. I have a notion +of some Cherupiga wine for ourselves. I will inquire the +cost of bottling, packing, &c.; it is about one shilling and +fourpence a bottle here, sweet red wine, unlike any other I ever +drank, and I think very good. It is very tempting to bring +a few things so unknown in England. I have a glorious +‘Velcombers’ for you, a blanket of nine Damara +sheepskins, sewn by the Damaras, and dressed so that moths and +fleas won’t stay near them. It will make a grand +railway rug and ‘outside car’ covering. The +hunters use them for sleeping out of doors. I have bought +three, and a springbok caross for somebody.</p> +<p><i>April</i> 17<i>th</i>.—The winter has set in +to-day. It rains steadily, at the rate of the heaviest bit +of the heaviest shower in England, and is as cold as a bad day +early in September. One can just sit without a fire. +Presently, all will be green and gay; for winter is here the +season of flowers, and the heaths will cover the country with a +vast Turkey carpet. Already the green is appearing where +all was brown yesterday. To-day is Good Friday; and if +Christmas seemed odd at Midsummer, Easter in autumn seems +positively unnatural. Our Jewish party made their exodus +to-day, by the little coasting steamer, to Algoa Bay. I +rather condoled with the pretty little woman about her long rough +journey, with three babies; but she laughed, and said they had +had time to get used to it ever since the days of Moses. +All she grieved over was not being able to keep Passover, and she +described their domestic ceremonies quite poetically. We +heard from our former housemaid, Annie, the other day, announcing +her marriage and her sister’s. She wrote such a +pretty, merry letter to S—, saying ‘the more she +tried not to like him, the better she loved him, and had to say, +“Aha, Annie, you’re caught at +last.”’ A year and a half is a long time to +remain single in this country.</p> +<p><i>Monday</i>, <i>April</i> 21<i>st</i>, <i>Easter +Monday</i>.—The mail goes out in an hour, so I will just +add, good-bye. The winter is now fairly set in, and I long +to be off. I fear I shall have a desperately cold week or +so at first sailing, till we catch the south-east trades. +This weather is beautiful in itself, but I feel it from the +suddenness of the change. We passed in one night from hot +summer to winter, which is like <i>fine</i> English April, or +October, only brighter than anything in Europe. There is +properly, no autumn or spring here; only hot, dry, brown summer, +with its cold wind at times, and fresh green winter, all +fragrance and flowers, and much less wind. Mr. M—, of +whom I told you, has been in every corner of the far +East—Java, Sumatra, everywhere—and is extremely +amusing. He has brought his wife here for her health, and +is as glad to talk as I am. The conversation of an +educated, clever person, is quite a new and delightful sensation +to me now. He appears to have held high posts under the +East India Company, is learned in Oriental languages, and was +last resident at Singapore. He says that no doubt Java is +Paradise, it is so lovely, and such a climate; but he does not +look as if it had agreed with him. I feel quite heart-sick +at seeing these letters go off before me, instead of leaving them +behind, as I had hoped.</p> +<p>Well, I must say good-bye—or rather, ‘<i>auf +Wiedersehn</i>’—and God knows how glad I shall be +when that day comes!</p> +<h2><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>LETTER XIII</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, April 19th.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mother</span>,</p> +<p>Here I am, waiting for a ship; the steamer was too horrid: and +I look so much to the good to be gained by the voyage that I did +not like to throw away the chance of two months at sea at this +favourable time of year, and under favourable circumstances; so I +made up my mind to see you all a month later. The sea just +off the Cape is very, very cold; less so now than in spring, I +dare say. The weather to-day is just like <i>very</i> warm +April at home—showery, sunshiny, and fragrant; most +lovely. It is so odd to see an autumn without dead leaves: +only the oaks lose theirs, the old ones drop without turning +brown, and the trees bud again at once. The rest put on a +darker green dress for winter, and now the flowers will +begin. I have got a picture for you of my ‘cart and +four’, with sedate Choslullah and dear little +Mohammed. The former wants to go with me, +‘anywhere’, as he placidly said, ‘to be the +missis’ servant’. What a sensation his +thatchlike hat and handsome orange-tawny face would make at +Esher! Such a stalwart henchman would be very +creditable. I shall grieve to think I shall never see my +Malay friends again; they are the only people here who are really +interesting. I think they must be like the Turks in manner, +as they have all the eastern gentlemanly +‘Gelassenheit’ (ease) and politeness, and no eastern +‘Geschmeidigkeit’ (obsequiousness), and no idea of +Baksheesh; withal frugal, industrious, and money-making, to an +astonishing degree. The priest is a bit of a proselytiser, +and amused me much with an account of how he had converted +English girls from their evil courses and made them good +<i>Mussulwomen</i>. I never heard a <i>naïf</i> and +sincere account of conversions <i>from</i> Christianity before, +and I must own it was much milder than the Exeter Hall style.</p> +<p>I have heard a great many expressions of sorrow for the Queen +from the Malays, and always with the ‘hope the people will +take much care of her, now she is alone’. Of course +Prince Albert was only the Queen’s husband to them, and all +their feeling is about her. It is very difficult to see +anything of them, for they want nothing of you, and expect +nothing but dislike and contempt. It would take a long time +to make many friends, as they are naturally distrustful. I +found that eating or drinking anything, if they offer it, made +most way, as they know they are accused of poisoning all +Christians indiscriminately. Of course, therefore, they are +shy of offering things. I drank tea in the Mosque at the +end of Ramadan, and was surrounded by delighted faces as I +sipped. The little boy who waits in this house here had +followed us, and was horrified: he is still waiting to see the +poison work.</p> +<p>No one can conceive what has become of all the ships that +usually touch here about this time. I was promised my +choice of Green’s and Smith’s, and now only the heavy +old <i>Camperdown</i> is expected with rice from Moulmein. +A lady now here, who has been Heaven only knows <i>where not</i>, +praises Alexandria above all other places, after Suez. Her +lungs are bad, and she swears by Suez, which she says is the +dreariest and healthiest (for lungs) place in the world. +You can’t think how soon one learns to ‘annihilate +space’, if not time, in one’s thoughts, by daily +reading advertisements for every port in India, America, +Australia, &c., &c., and conversing with people who have +just come from the ‘ends of the earth’. +Meanwhile, I fear I shall have to fly from next winter again, and +certainly will go with J— to Egypt, which seems to me like +next door.</p> +<p>I have run on, and not thanked you for your letter and M. +Mignet’s beautiful <i>éloge</i> of Mr. Hallam, which +pleased me greatly. I wish Englishmen could learn to speak +with the same good taste and <i>mésure</i>.</p> +<p>Mr. Wodehouse, who has been very civil to me, kindly tried to +get me a passage home in a French frigate lying here, but in +vain. I am now sorry I let the Jack tars here persuade me +not to go in the little barque; but they talked so much of the +heat and damp of such tiny cabins in an iron vessel, that I gave +her up, though I liked the idea of a good tossing in such a tiny +cockboat. I will leave a letter for the May mail, unless I +sail within a week of to-morrow, or go by the <i>Jason</i>, which +would be home far sooner than the mail. I only hope you and +A— won’t be uneasy; the worst that can happen is +delay, and the long voyage will be all gain to health, which +would not be the case in a steamer.</p> +<p>All I hear of R— makes me wild to see her again. +The little darkies are the only pleasing children here, and a fat +black toddling thing is ‘allerliebst’. I know a +boy of four, literally jet black, whom I long to steal as he +follows his mother up to the mountain to wash. Little +Malays are lovely, but <i>too</i> well-behaved and quiet. I +tried to get a real ‘<i>tottie</i>’, or +‘Hotentotje’, but the people were too drunk to +remember where they had left their child. <i>C’est +assez dire</i>, that I should have had no scruple in buying it +for a bottle of ‘smoke’ (the spirit made from grape +husks). They are clever and affectionate when they have a +chance, poor things,—and so strange to look at.</p> +<p>By the bye, a Bonn man, Dr. Bleek, called here with +‘Grüsse’ from our old friends, Professor +Mendelssohn and his wife. He is devoting himself to +Hottentot and aboriginal literature!—and has actually +mastered the Caffre <i>click</i>, which I vainly practised under +Kleenboy’s tuition. He wanted to teach me to say +‘Tkorkha’, which means ‘you lie’, or +‘you have missed’ (in shooting or throwing a stone, +&c.)—a curious combination of meanings. He taught +me to throw stones or a stick at him, which he always avoided, +however close they fell, and cried ‘Tkorkha!’ +The Caffres ask for a present, ‘Tkzeelah Tabak’, +‘a gift for tobacco’.</p> +<p>The Farnese Hercules is a living <i>truth</i>. I saw him +in the street two days ago, and he was a Caffre coolie. The +proportions of the head and throat were more wonderful in flesh, +or muscle rather, than in marble. I know a Caffre girl of +thirteen, who is a noble model of strength and beauty; such an +arm—larger than any white woman’s—with such a +dimple in her elbow, and a wrist and hand which no glove is small +enough to fit—and a noble countenance too. She is +‘apprenticed’, a name for temporary slavery, and is +highly spoken of as a servant, as the Caffres always are. +They are a majestic race, but with just the stupid conceit of a +certain sort of Englishmen; the women and girls seem +charming.</p> +<p><i>Easter Sunday</i>.—The weather continues beautifully +clear and bright, like the finest European spring. It seems +so strange for the floral season to be the winter. But as +the wind blows the air is quite cold to-day; nevertheless, I feel +much better the last two days. The brewing of the rain made +the air very oppressive and heavy for three weeks, but now it is +as light as possible.</p> +<p>I must say good-bye, as the mail closes to-morrow +morning. Easter in autumn is preposterous, only the autumn +looks like spring. The consumptive young girl whom I packed +off to the Cape, and her sister, are about to be married—of +course. Annie has had a touch of Algoa Bay fever, a mild +kind of ague, but no sign of chest disease, or even +delicacy. My ‘hurrying her off’, which some +people thought so cruel, has saved her. Whoever comes +<i>soon enough</i> recovers, but for people far gone it is too +bracing.</p> +<h2><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +153</span>LETTER XIV</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, Saturday, May 3d.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Mother</span>,</p> +<p>After five weeks of waiting and worry, I have, at last, sent +my goods on board the ship <i>Camperdown</i>, now discharging her +cargo, and about to take a small party of passengers from the +Cape. I offered to take a cabin in a Swedish ship, bound +for Falmouth; but the captain could not decide whether he would +take a passenger; and while he hesitated the old +<i>Camperdown</i> came in. I have the best cabin after the +stern cabins, which are occupied by the captain and his wife and +the Attorney-General of Capetown, who is much liked. The +other passengers are quiet people, and few of them, and the +captain has a high character; so I may hope for a comfortable, +though slow passage. I will let you know the day I sail, +and leave this letter to go by post. I may be looked for +three weeks or so after this letter. I am crazy to get home +now; after the period was over for which I had made up my mind, +home-sickness began.</p> +<p>Mrs. R— has offered me a darling tiny monkey, which +loves me; but I fear A— would send me away again if I +returned with her in my pocket. Nassirah, old +Abdool’s pretty granddaughter, brought me a pair of Malay +shoes or clogs as a parting gift, to-day. Mr. M—, the +resident at Singapore, tells me that his secretary’s wife, +a Malay lady, has made an excellent translation of the <i>Arabian +Nights</i>, from Arabic into Malay. Her husband is an +Indian Mussulman, who, Mr. M— said, was one of the ablest +men he ever knew. Curious!</p> +<p>I sat, yesterday, for an hour, in the stall of a poor German +basket-maker who had been long in Caffre-land. His wife, a +Berlinerin, was very intelligent, and her account of her life +here most entertaining, as showing the different <i>Ansicht</i> +natural to Germans. ‘I had never’, she said, +‘been out of the city of Berlin, and <i>knew +nothing</i>.’ (Compare with London cockney, or +genuine Parisian.) Thence her fear, on landing at Algoa Bay +and seeing swarms of naked black men, that she had come to a +country where no clothes were to be had; and what should she do +when hers were worn out? They had a grant of land at Fort +Peddie, and she dug while her husband made baskets of cane, and +carried them hundreds of miles for sale; sleeping and eating in +Caffre huts. ‘Yes, they are good, honest people, and +very well-bred (<i>anständig</i>), though they go as naked +as God made them. The girls are pretty and very delicate +(<i>fein</i>), and they think no harm of it, the dear +innocents.’ If their cattle strayed, it was always +brought back; and they received every sort of kindness. +‘Yes, madam, it is shocking how people here treat the +blacks. They call quite an old man ‘Boy’, and +speak so scornfully, and yet the blacks have very nice manners, I +assure you.’ When I looked at the poor little +wizened, pale, sickly Berliner, and fancied him a guest in a +Caffre hut, it seemed an odd picture. But he spoke as +coolly of his long, lonely journeys as possible, and seemed to +think black friends quite as good as white ones. The use of +the words <i>anständig</i> and <i>fein</i> by a woman who +spoke very good German were characteristic. She could +recognise an ‘<i>Anständigkeit</i>’ <i>not</i> +of Berlin. I need not say that the Germans are generally +liked by the coloured people. Choslullah was astonished and +Pleased at my talking German; he evidently had a preference for +Germans, and put up, wherever he could, at German inns and +‘publics’.</p> +<p>I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. We talked of +our dear old Cornish friends. The Governor and Mrs. +Wodehouse have been very kind to me. I dined there twice; +last time, with all the dear good Walkers. I missed seeing +the opening of the colonial parliament by a mistake about a +ticket, which I am sorry for.</p> +<p>If I could have dreamed of waiting here so long, I would have +run up to Algoa Bay or East London by sea, and had a glimpse of +Caffreland. Capetown makes me very languid—there is +something depressing in the air—but my cough is much +better. I can’t walk here without feeling knocked-up; +and cab-hire is so dear; and somehow, nothing is worth while, +when one is waiting from day to day. So I have spent more +money than when I was most amused, in being bored.</p> +<p>Mr. J— drove me to the Capetown races, at Green Point, +on Friday. As races, they were <i>nichts</i>, but a +queer-looking little Cape farmer’s horse, ridden by a +Hottentot, beat the English crack racer, ridden by a first-rate +English jockey, in an unaccountable way, twice over. The +Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing, and the crowd was +fully half Malay: there were dozens of carts crowded with the +bright-eyed women, in petticoats of every most brilliant colour, +white muslin jackets, and gold daggers in their great coils of +shining black hair. All most ‘anständig’, +as they always are. Their pleasure is driving about <i>en +famille</i>; the men have no separate amusements. Every +spare corner in the cart is filled by the little soft round faces +of the intelligent-looking quiet children, who seem amused and +happy, and never make a noise or have the fidgets. I cannot +make out why they are so well behaved. It favours +A—’s theory of the expediency of utter spoiling, for +one never hears any educational process going on. Tiny +Mohammed never spoke but when he was spoken to, and was always +happy and alert. I observed that his uncle spoke to him +like a grown man, and never ordered him about, or rebuked him in +the least. I like to go up the hill and meet the black +women coming home in troops from the washing place, most of them +with a fat black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and a few +rather older trotting alongside, and if small, holding on by the +mother’s gown. She, poor soul, carries a bundle on +her head, which few men could lift. If I admire the babies, +the poor women are enchanted;—<i>du reste</i>, if you look +at blacks of any age or sex, they <i>must</i> grin and nod, as a +good-natured dog must wag his tail; they can’t help +it. The blacks here (except a very few Caffres) are from +the Mozambique—a short, thick-set, ugly race, with wool in +huge masses; but here and there one sees a very pretty face among +the women. The men are beyond belief hideous. There +are all possible crosses—Dutch, Mozambique, Hottentot and +English, ‘alles durcheinander’; then here and there +you see that a Chinese or a Bengalee <i>a passé par +là</i>. The Malays are also a mixed race, like the +Turks—i.e. they marry women of all sorts and colours, +provided they will embrace Islam. A very nice old fellow +who waits here occasionally is married to an Englishwoman, +<i>ci-devant</i> lady’s-maid to a Governor’s +wife. I fancy, too, they brought some Chinese blood with +them from Java. I think the population of Capetown must be +the most motley crew in the world.</p> +<p><i>Thursday</i>, May 8<i>th</i>.—I sail on Saturday, and +go on board to-morrow, so as not to be hurried off in the early +fog. How glad I am to be ‘homeward bound’ at +last, I cannot say. I am very well, and have every prospect +of a pleasant voyage. We are sure to be well found, as the +Attorney-General is on board, and is a very great man, +‘inspiring terror and respect’ here.</p> +<p>S— says we certainly <i>shall</i> put in at St. Helena, +so make up your minds not to see me till I don’t know +when. She has been on board fitting up the cabin +to-day. I have <i>such</i> a rug for J—! a mosaic of +skins as fine as marqueterie, done by Damara women, and really +beautiful; and a sheep-skin blanket for you, the essence of +warmth and softness. I shall sleep in mine, and dream of +African hill-sides wrapt in a ‘Veld combas’. +The poor little water-tortoises have been killed by drought, and +I can’t get any, but I have the two of my own catching for +M—.</p> +<p>Good-bye, dearest mother.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>You would have been moved by poor old Abdool Jemaalee’s +solemn benediction when I took leave to-day. He accompanied +it with a gross of oranges and lemons.</p> +<h2><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span>LETTER XV</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Capetown, Thursday, May 8th.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> last, after no end of +‘casus’ and ‘discrimina rerum’, I shall +sail on Saturday the 10th, per ship <i>Camperdown</i>, for East +India Docks.</p> +<p>These weary six weeks have cost no end of money and +temper. I have been eating my heart out at the delay, but +it was utterly impossible to go by any of the Indian ships. +They say there have never been so few ships sailing from the Cape +as this year, yet crowds were expected on account of the +Exhibition. The Attorney-General goes by our ship, so we +are sure of good usage; and I hear he is very agreeable. I +have the best cabin next to the stern cabin, in both senses of +<i>next</i>. S— has come back from the ship, where +she has spent the day with the carpenter; and I am to go on board +to-morrow. Will you ask R— to cause inquiries to be +made among the Mollahs of Cairo for a Hadji, by name Abdool +Rachman, the son of Abdool Jemaalee, of Capetown, and, if +possible, to get the inclosed letter sent him? The poor +people are in sad anxiety for their son, of whom they have not +heard for four months, and that from an old letter. Henry +will thus have a part of all the blessings which were solemnly +invoked on me by poor old Abdool, who is getting very infirm, but +toddled up and cracked his old fingers over my head, and invoked +the protection of Allah with all form; besides that Betsy sent me +twelve dozen oranges and lemons. Abdool Rachman is about +twenty-six, a Malay of Capetown, speaks Dutch and English, and is +supposed to be studying theology at Cairo. The letter is +written by the prettiest Malay girl in Capetown.</p> +<p>I won’t enter upon my longings to be home again, and to +see you all. I must now see to my last commissions and +things, and send this to go by next mail.</p> +<p>God bless you all, and kiss my darlings, all three.</p> +<h2><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>LETTER XVI</h2> +<p style="text-align: right">Friday, May 16th.<br /> +On board the good ship <i>Camperdown</i>,<br /> +500 miles North-west of Table-Bay.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">embarked</span> this day week, and found +a good airy cabin, and all very comfortable. Next day I got +the carpenter’s services, by being on board before all the +rest, and relashed and cleeted everything, which the +‘Timmerman’, of course, had left so as to get adrift +the first breeze. At two o’clock the +Attorney-General, Mr. Porter, came on board, escorted by bands of +music and all the volunteers of Capetown, <i>quorum pars maxima +fuit</i>; i.e. Colonel. It was quite what the Yankees call +an ‘ovation’. The ship was all decked with +flags, and altogether there was <i>le diable à +quatre</i>. The consequence was, that three signals went +adrift in the scuffle; and when a Frenchman signalled us, we had +to pass for <i>brutaux Anglais</i>, because we could not +reply. I found means to supply the deficiency by the lining +of that very ancient anonymous cloak, which did the red, while a +bandanna handkerchief of the Captain’s furnished the +yellow, to the sailmaker’s immense amusement. On him +I bestowed the blue outside of the cloak for a pair of dungaree +trowsers, and in signalling now it is, ‘up go 2.41, and my +lady’s cloak, which is 7.’</p> +<p>We have had lovely weather, and on Sunday such a glorious +farewell sight of Table Mountain and my dear old Hottentot Hills, +and of Kaap Goed Hoop itself. There was little enough wind +till yesterday, when a fair southerly breeze sprang up, and we +are rolling along merrily; and the fat old <i>Camperdown does</i> +roll like an honest old ‘wholesome’ tub as she +is. It is quite a <i>bonne fortune</i> for me to have been +forced to wait for her, for we have had a wonderful spell of fine +weather, and the ship is the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of +comfort. We are only twelve first-class upper-deck +passengers. The captain is a delightful fellow, with a very +charming young wife. There is only one child (a great +comfort), a capital cook, and universal civility and +quietness. It is like a private house compared to a railway +hotel. Six of the passengers are invalids, more or +less. Mr. Porter, over-worked, going home for health to +Ireland; two men, both with delicate chests, and one poor young +fellow from Capetown in a consumption, who, I fear, will not +outlive the voyage. The doctor is very civil, and very kind +to the sick; but I stick to the cook, and am quite greedy over +the good fare, after the atrocious food of the Cape. Said +cook is a Portuguese, a distinguished artist, and a great +bird-fancier. One can wander all over the ship here, +instead of being a prisoner on the poop; and I even have paid my +footing on the forecastle. S— clambers up like a +lively youngster. You may fancy what the weather is, that I +have only closed my cabin-window once during half of a very damp +night; but no one else is so airy. The little goat was as +rejoiced to be afloat again as her mistress, and is a regular pet +on board, with the run of the quarter-deck. She still gives +milk—a perfect Amalthæa. The butcher, who has +the care of her, cockers her up with dainties, and she begs +biscuit of the cook. I pay nothing for her fare. +M—’s tortoises are in my cabin, and seem very +happy. Poor Mr. Porter is very sick, and so are the two or +three coloured passengers, who won’t ‘make an +effort’ at all. Mrs. H— (the captain’s +wife), a young Cape lady, and I are the only ‘female +ladies’ of the party. The other day we saw a shoal of +porpoises, amounting to many hundreds, if not some thousands, who +came frisking round the ship. When we first saw them they +looked like a line of breakers; they made such a splash, and they +jumped right out of the water three feet in height, and ten or +twelve in distance, glittering green and bronze in the sun. +Such a pretty, merry set of fellows!</p> +<p>We shall touch at St. Helena, where I shall leave this letter +to go by the mail steamer, that you may know a few weeks before I +arrive how comfortably my voyage has begun.</p> +<p>We see no Cape pigeons; they only visit outward ships—is +not that strange?—but, <i>en revanche</i>, many more +albatrosses than in coming; and we also enjoy the advantage of +seeing all the homeward-bound ships, as they all <i>pass</i> +us—a humiliating fact. The captain laughed heartily +because I said, ‘Oh, all right; I shall have the more sea +for my money’,—when the prospect of a slow voyage was +discussed. It is very provoking to be so much longer +separated from you all than I had hoped, but I really believe +that the bad air and discomfort of the other ships would have +done me serious injury; while here I have every chance of +benefiting to the utmost, and having mild weather the whole way, +besides the utmost amount of comfort possible on board +ship. There are some cockroaches, indeed, but that is the +only drawback. The <i>Camperdown</i> is fourteen years old, +and was the crack ship to India in her day. Now she takes +cargo and poop-passengers only, and, of course, only gets +invalids and people who care more for comfort than speed.</p> +<p><i>Monday Evening</i>, May 26<i>th</i>.—Here we are, +working away still to reach St. Helena. We got the tail of +a terrific gale and a tremendous sea all night in our teeth, +which broke up the south-east trades for a week. Now it is +all smooth and fair, with a light breeze again right aft; the old +trade again. Yesterday a large shark paid us a visit, with +his suite of three pretty little pilot-fish, striped like zebras, +who swam just over his back. He tried on a sailor’s +cap which fell overboard, tossed it away contemptuously, snuffed +at the fat pork with which a hook was baited, and would none of +it, and finally ate the fresh sheep-skin which the butcher had in +tow to clean it, previous to putting it away as a +perquisite. It is a beautiful fish in shape and very +graceful in motion.</p> +<p>To-day a barque from Algoa Bay came close to us, and talked +with the speaking trumpet. She was a pretty, clipper-built, +sharp-looking craft, but had made a slower run even than +ourselves. I dare say we shall have her company for a long +time, as she is bound for St. Helena and London. My poor +goat died suddenly the other day, to the general grief of the +ship; also one of the tortoises. The poor consumptive lad +is wonderfully better. But all the passengers were very +sick during the rough weather, except S— and I, who are +quite old salts. Last week we saw a young whale, a baby, +about thirty feet long, and had a good view of him as he played +round the ship. We shall probably be at St. Helena on +Wednesday, but I cannot write from thence, as, if there is time, +I shall get a run on shore while the ship takes in water. +But this letter will tell you of my well-being so far, and in +about six weeks after the date of it I hope to be with you. +I hope you won’t expect too much in the way of improvement +in my health. I look forward, oh, so eagerly, to be with +you again, and with my brats, big and little. God bless you +all.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Yours ever,<br /> +L. D. G.</p> +<p><i>Wednesday</i>, 28<i>th</i>.—Early morning, off St. +Helena, James Town.</p> +<p>Such a lovely <i>unreal</i> view of the bold rocks and +baby-house forts on them! Ship close in. Washer-woman +come on board, and all hurry.</p> +<p><i>Au revoir</i>.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote27"></a><a href="#citation27" +class="footnote">[27]</a> A lane near Esher.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30"></a><a href="#citation30" +class="footnote">[30]</a> Near Walton-on-Thames.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM THE CAPE***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 886-h.htm or 886-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/8/8/886 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Letters from the Cape + +Author: Lady Duff Gordon + +Release Date: April, 1997 [EBook #886] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 1997] +[Most recently updated: May 11, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LETTERS FROM THE CAPE *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1921 edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk. Second proof by Margaret Price. + + + + +LETTERS FROM THE CAPE + + + + +LETTER I--THE VOYAGE + + + +Wednesday, 24th July. +Off the Scilly Isles, 6 P.M. + +When I wrote last Sunday, we put our pilot on shore, and went down +Channel. It soon came on to blow, and all night was squally and +rough. Captain on deck all night. Monday, I went on deck at +eight. Lovely weather, but the ship pitching as you never saw a +ship pitch--bowsprit under water. By two o'clock a gale came on; +all ordered below. Captain left dinner, and, about six, a sea +struck us on the weather side, and washed a good many unconsidered +trifles overboard, and stove in three windows on the poop; nurse +and four children in fits; Mrs. T- and babies afloat, but good- +humoured as usual. Army-surgeon and I picked up children and +bullied nurse, and helped to bale cabin. Cuddy window stove in, +and we were wetted. Went to bed at nine; could not undress, it +pitched so, and had to call doctor to help me into cot; slept +sound. The gale continues. My cabin is water-tight as to big +splashes, but damp and dribbling. I am almost ashamed to like such +miseries so much. The forecastle is under water with every lurch, +and the motion quite incredible to one only acquainted with +steamers. If one can sit this ship, which bounds like a tiger, one +should sit a leap over a haystack. Evidently, I can never be sea- +sick; but holding on is hard work, and writing harder. + +Life is thus:- Avery--my cuddy boy--brings tea for S-, and milk for +me, at six. S- turns out; when she is dressed, I turn out, and +sing out for Avery, who takes down my cot, and brings a bucket of +salt water, in which I wash with vast danger and difficulty; get +dressed, and go on deck at eight. Ladies not allowed there +earlier. Breakfast solidly at nine. Deck again; gossip; pretend +to read. Beer and biscuit at twelve. The faithful Avery brings +mine on deck. Dinner at four. Do a little carpentering in cabin, +all the outfitters' work having broken loose. I am now in the +captain's cabin, writing. We have the wind as ever, dead against +us; and as soon as we get unpleasantly near Scilly, we shall tack +and stand back to the French coast, where we were last night. +Three soldiers able to answer roll-call, all the rest utterly sick; +three middies helpless. Several of crew, ditto. Passengers very +fairly plucky; but only I and one other woman, who never was at sea +before, well. The food on board our ship is good as to meat, +bread, and beer; everything else bad. Port and sherry of British +manufacture, and the water with an incredible borachio, essence of +tar; so that tea and coffee are but derisive names. + +To-day, the air is quite saturated with wet, and I put on my +clothes damp when I dressed, and have felt so ever since. I am so +glad I was not persuaded out of my cot; it is the whole difference +between rest, and holding on for life. No one in a bunk slept at +all on Monday night; but then it blew as heavy a gale as it can +blow, and we had the Cornish coast under our lee. So we tacked and +tumbled all night. The ship being new, too, has the rigging all +wrong; and the confusion and disorder are beyond description. The +ship's officers are very good fellows. The mizen is entirely +worked by the 'young gentlemen'; so we never see the sailors, and, +at present, are not allowed to go forward. All lights are put out +at half-past ten, and no food allowed in the cabin; but the latter +article my friend Avery makes light of, and brings me anything when +I am laid up. The young soldier-officers bawl for him with +expletives; but he says, with a snigger, to me, 'They'll just wait +till their betters, the ladies, is looked to.' I will write again +some day soon, and take the chance of meeting a ship; you may be +amused by a little scrawl, though it will probably be very stupid +and ill-written, for it is not easy to see or to guide a pen while +I hold on to the table with both legs and one arm, and am first on +my back and then on my nose. Adieu, till next time. I have had a +good taste of the humours of the Channel. + +29th July, 4 Bells, i.e. 2 o'clock, p.m.--When I wrote last, I +thought we had had our share of contrary winds and foul weather. +Ever since, we have beaten about the bay with the variety of a +favourable gale one night for a few hours, and a dead calm +yesterday, in which we almost rolled our masts out of the ship. +However, the sun was hot, and I sat and basked on deck, and we had +morning service. It was a striking sight, with the sailors seated +on oars and buckets, covered with signal flags, and with their +clean frocks and faces. To-day is so cold that I dare not go on +deck, and am writing in my black-hole of a cabin, in a green light, +with the sun blinking through the waves as they rush over my port +and scuttle. The captain is much vexed at the loss of time. I +persist in thinking it a very pleasant, but utterly lazy life. I +sleep a great deal, but don't eat much, and my cough has been bad; +but, considering the real hardship of the life--damp, cold, queer +food, and bad drink--I think I am better. When we can get past +Finisterre, I shall do very well, I doubt not. + +The children swarm on board, and cry unceasingly. A passenger-ship +is no place for children. Our poor ship will lose her character by +the weather, as she cannot fetch up ten days' lost time. But she +is evidently a race-horse. We overhaul everything we see, at a +wonderful rate, and the speed is exciting and pleasant; but the +next long voyage I make, I'll try for a good wholesome old +'monthly' tub, which will roll along on the top of the water, +instead of cutting through it, with the waves curling in at the +cuddy skylights. We tried to signal a barque yesterday, and send +home word 'all well'; but the brutes understood nothing but +Russian, and excited our indignation by talking 'gibberish ' to us; +which we resented with true British spirit, as became us. + +It is now blowing hard again, and we have just been taken right +aback. Luckily, I had lashed my desk to my washing-stand, or that +would have flown off, as I did off my chair. I don't think I shall +know what to make of solid ground under my feet. The rolling and +pitching of a ship of this size, with such tall masts, is quite +unlike the little niggling sort of work on a steamer--it is the +difference between grinding along a bad road in a four-wheeler, and +riding well to hounds in a close country on a good hunter. I was +horribly tired for about five days, but now I rather like it, and +never know whether it blows or not in the night, I sleep so +soundly. The noise is beyond all belief; the creaking, trampling, +shouting, clattering; it is an incessant storm. We have not yet +got our masts quite safe; the new wire-rigging stretches more than +was anticipated (of course), and our main-topmast is shaky. The +crew have very hard work, as incessant tacking is added to all the +extra work incident to a new ship. On Saturday morning, everybody +was shouting for the carpenter. My cabin was flooded by a leak, +and I superintended the baling and swabbing from my cot, and +dressed sitting on my big box. However, I got the leak stopped and +cabin dried, and no harm done, as I had put everything up off the +floor the night before, suspicious of a dribble which came in. +Then my cot frame was broken by my cuddy boy and I lurching over +against S-'s bunk, in taking it down. The carpenter has given me +his own, and takes my broken one for himself. Board ship is a +famous place for tempers. Being easily satisfied, I get all I +want, and plenty of attention and kindness; but I cannot prevail on +my cuddy boy to refrain from violent tambourine-playing with a tin +tray just at the ear of a lady who worries him. The young soldier- +officers, too, I hear mentioned as 'them lazy gunners', and they +struggle for water and tea in the morning long after mine has come. +We have now been ten days at sea, and only three on which we could +eat without the 'fiddles' (transverse pieces of wood to prevent the +dishes from falling off). Smooth water will seem quite strange to +me. I fear the poor people in the forecastle must be very wet and +miserable, as the sea is constantly over it, not in spray, but in +tons of green water. + +3d Aug.--We had two days of dead calm, then one or two of a very +light, favourable breeze, and yesterday we ran 175 miles with the +wind right aft. We saw several ships, which signalled us, but we +would not answer, as we had our spars down for repairs and looked +like a wreck, and fancied it would be a pity to frighten you all +with a report to that effect. + +Last night we got all right, and spread out immense studding-sails. +We are now bowling along, wind right aft, dipping our studding-sail +booms into the water at every roll. The weather is still +surprisingly cold, though very fine, and I have to come below quite +early, out of the evening air. The sun sets before seven o'clock. +I still cough a good deal, and the bad food and drink are trying. +But the life is very enjoyable; and as I have the run of the +charts, and ask all sorts of questions, I get plenty of amusement. +S- is an excellent traveller; no grumbling, and no gossiping, +which, on board a ship like ours, is a great merit, for there is ad +nauseam of both. + +Mr.--is writing a charade, in which I have agreed to take a part, +to prevent squabbling. He wanted to start a daily paper, but the +captain wisely forbade it, as it must have led to personalities and +quarrels, and suggested a play instead. My little white Maltese +goat is very well, and gives plenty of milk, which is a great +resource, as the tea and coffee are abominable. Avery brings it me +at six, in a tin pannikin, and again in the evening. The chief +officer is well-bred and agreeable, and, indeed, all the young +gentlemen are wonderfully good specimens of their class. The +captain is a burly foremast man in manner, with a heart of wax and +every feeling of a gentleman. He was in California, 'HIDE +DROGHING' with Dana, and he says every line of Two Years before the +Mast is true. He went through it all himself. He says that I am a +great help to him, as a pattern of discipline and punctuality. +People are much inclined to miss meals, and then want things at odd +hours, and make the work quite impossible to the cook and servants. +Of course, I get all I want in double-quick time, as I try to save +my man trouble; and the carpenter leaves my scuttle open when no +one else gets it, quite willing to get up in his time of sleep to +close it, if it comes on to blow. A maid is really a superfluity +on board ship, as the men rather like being 'aux petits soins'. +The boatswain came the other day to say that he had a nice carpet +and a good pillow; did I want anything of the sort? He would be +proud that I should use anything of his. You would delight in +Avery, my cuddy man, who is as quick as 'greased lightning', and +full of fun. His misery is my want of appetite, and his efforts to +cram me are very droll. The days seem to slip away, one can't tell +how. I sit on deck from breakfast at nine, till dinner at four, +and then again till it gets cold, and then to bed. We are now +about 100 miles from Madeira, and shall have to run inside it, as +we were thrown so far out of our course by the foul weather. + +9th Aug.--Becalmed, under a vertical sun. Lat. 17 degrees, or +thereabouts. We saw Madeira at a distance like a cloud; since +then, we had about four days trade wind, and then failing or +contrary breezes. We have sailed so near the African shore that we +get little good out of the trades, and suffer much from the African +climate. Fancy a sky like a pale February sky in London, no sun to +be seen, and a heat coming, one can't tell from whence. To-day, +the sun is vertical and invisible, the sea glassy and heaving. I +have been ill again, and obliged to lie still yesterday and the day +before in the captain's cabin; to-day in my own, as we have the +ports open, and the maindeck is cooler than the upper. The men +have just been holystoning here, singing away lustily in chorus. +Last night I got leave to sling my cot under the main hatchway, as +my cabin must have killed me from suffocation when shut up. Most +of the men stayed on deck, but that is dangerous after sunset on +this African coast, on account of the heavy dew and fever. They +tell me that the open sea is quite different; certainly, nothing +can look duller and dimmer than this specimen of the tropics. The +few days of trade wind were beautiful and cold, with sparkling sea, +and fresh air and bright sun; and we galloped along merrily. + +We are now close to the Cape de Verd Islands, and shall go inside +them. About lat. 4 degrees N. we expect to catch the S.E. trade +wind, when it will be cold again. In lat. 24 degrees, the day +before we entered the tropics, I sat on deck in a coat and cloak; +the heat is quite sudden, and only lasts a week or so. The sea to- +day is littered all round the ship with our floating rubbish, so we +have not moved at all. + +I constantly long for you to be here, though I am not sure you +would like the life as well as I do. All your ideas of it are +wrong; the confinement to the poop and the stringent regulations +would bore you. But then, sitting on deck in fine weather is +pleasure enough, without anything else. In a Queen's ship, a +yacht, or a merchantman with fewer passengers, it must be a +delightful existence. + +17th Aug.--Since I wrote last, we got into the south-west monsoon +for one day, and I sat up by the steersman in intense enjoyment--a +bright sun and glittering blue sea; and we tore along, pitching and +tossing the water up like mad. It was glorious. At night, I was +calmly reposing in my cot, in the middle of the steerage, just +behind the main hatchway, when I heard a crashing of rigging and a +violent noise and confusion on deck. The captain screamed out +orders which informed me that we were in the thick of a collision-- +of course I lay still, and waited till the row, or the ship, went +down. I found myself next day looked upon as no better than a +heathen by all the women, because I had been cool, and declined to +get up and make a noise. Presently the officers came and told me +that a big ship had borne down on us--we were on the starboard +tack, and all right--carried off our flying jib-boom and whisker +(the sort of yard to the bowsprit). The captain says he was never +in such imminent danger in his life, as she threatened to swing +round and to crush into our waist, which would have been certain +destruction. The little dandy soldier-officer behaved capitally; +he turned his men up in no time, and had them all ready. He said, +'Why, you know, I must see that my fellows go down decently.' S- +was as cool as an icicle, offered me my pea-jacket, &c., which I +declined, as it would be of no use for me to go off in boats, even +supposing there were time, and I preferred going down comfortably +in my cot. Finding she was of no use to me, she took a yelling +maid in custody, and was thought a brute for begging her to hold +her noise. The first lieutenant, who looks on passengers as odious +cargo, has utterly mollified to me since this adventure. I heard +him report to the captain that I was 'among 'em all, and never sung +out, nor asked a question the while'. This he called 'beautiful'. + +Next day we got light wind S.W. (which ought to be the S.E. +trades), and the weather has been, beyond all description, lovely +ever since. Cool, but soft, sunny and bright--in short, perfect; +only the sky is so pale. Last night the sunset was a vision of +loveliness, a sort of Pompadour paradise; the sky seemed full of +rose-crowned amorini, and the moon wore a rose-coloured veil of +bright pink cloud, all so light, so airy, so brilliant, and so +fleeting, that it was a kind of intoxication. It is far less grand +than northern colour, but so lovely, so shiny. Then the flying +fish skimmed like silver swallows over the blue water. Such a +sight! Also, I saw a whale spout like a very tiny garden fountain. +The Southern Cross is a delusion, and the tropical moon no better +than a Parisian one, at present. We are now in lat. 31 degrees +about, and have been driven halfway to Rio by this sweet southern +breeze. I have never yet sat on deck without a cloth jacket or +shawl, and the evenings are chilly. I no longer believe in +tropical heat at sea. Even during the calm it was not so hot as I +have often felt it in England--and that, under a vertical sun. The +ship that nearly ran us and herself down, must have kept no look- +out, and refused to answer our hail. She is supposed to be from +Glasgow by her looks. We may speak a ship and send letters on +board; so excuse scrawl and confusion, it is so difficult to write +at all. + +30th August.--About 25 degrees S. lat. and very much to the west. +We have had all sorts of weather--some beautiful, some very rough, +but always contrary winds--and got within 200 miles of the coast of +South America. We now have a milder breeze from the SOFT N.E., +after a BITTER S.W., with Cape pigeons and mollymawks (a small +albatross), not to compare with our gulls. We had private +theatricals last night--ill acted, but beautifully got up as far as +the sailors were concerned. I did not act, as I did not feel well +enough, but I put a bit for Neptune into the Prologue and made the +boatswain's mate speak it, to make up for the absence of any +shaving at the Line, which the captain prohibited altogether; I +thought it hard the men should not get their 'tips'. The +boatswain's mate dressed and spoke it admirably; and the old +carpenter sang a famous comic song, dressed to perfection as a +ploughboy. + +I am disappointed in the tropics as to warmth. Our thermometer +stood at 82 degrees one day only, under the vertical sun, N. of the +Line; ON the Line at 74 degrees; and at sea it FEELS 10 degrees +colder than it is. I have never been hot, except for two days 4 +degrees N. of the Line, and now it is very cold, but it is very +invigorating. All day long it looks and feels like early morning; +the sky is pale blue, with light broken clouds; the sea an +inconceivably pure opaque blue--lapis lazuli, but far brighter. I +saw a lovely dolphin three days ago; his body five feet long (some +said more) is of a FIERY blue-green, and his huge tail golden +bronze. I was glad he scorned the bait and escaped the hook; he +was so beautiful. This is the sea from which Venus rose in her +youthful glory. All is young, fresh, serene, beautiful, and +cheerful. + +We have not seen a sail for weeks. But the life at sea makes +amends for anything, to my mind. I am never tired of the calms, +and I enjoy a stiff gale like a Mother Carey's chicken, so long as +I can be on deck or in the captain's cabin. Between decks it is +very close and suffocating in rough weather, as all is shut up. We +shall be still three weeks before we reach the Cape; and now the +sun sets with a sudden plunge before six, and the evenings are +growing too cold again for me to go on deck after dinner. As long +as I could, I spent fourteen hours out of the twenty-four in my +quiet corner by the wheel, basking in the tropical sun. Never +again will I believe in the tales of a burning sun; the vertical +sun just kept me warm--no more. In two days we shall be bitterly +cold again. + +Immediately after writing the above it began to blow a gale +(favourable, indeed, but more furious than the captain had ever +known in these seas),--about lat. 34 degrees S. and long. 25 +degrees. For three days we ran under close-reefed (four reefs) +topsails, before a sea. The gale in the Bay of Biscay was a little +shaking up in a puddle (a dirty one) compared to that glorious +South Atlantic in all its majestic fury. The intense blue waves, +crowned with fantastic crests of bright emeralds and with the spray +blowing about like wild dishevelled hair, came after us to swallow +us up at a mouthful, but took us up on their backs, and hurried us +along as if our ship were a cork. Then the gale slackened, and we +had a dead calm, during which the waves banged us about +frightfully, and our masts were in much jeopardy. Then a foul +wind, S.E., increased into a gale, lasting five days, during which +orders were given in dumb show, as no one's voice could be heard; +through it we fought and laboured and dipped under water, and I +only had my dry corner by the wheel, where the kind pleasant little +third officer lashed me tight. It was far more formidable than the +first gale, but less beautiful; and we made so much lee-way that we +lost ten days, and only arrived here yesterday. I recommend a +fortnight's heavy gale in the South Atlantic as a cure for a blase +state of mind. It cannot be described; the sound, the sense of +being hurled along without the smallest regard to 'this side +uppermost'; the beauty of the whole scene, and the occasional crack +and bear-away of sails and spars; the officer trying to 'sing out', +quite in vain, and the boatswain's whistle scarcely audible. I +remained near the wheel every day for as long as I could bear it, +and was enchanted. + +Then the mortal perils of eating, drinking, moving, sitting, lying; +standing can't be done, even by the sailors, without holding on. +THE night of the gale, my cot twice touched the beams of the ship +above me. I asked the captain if I had dreamt it, but he said it +was quite possible; he had never seen a ship so completely on her +beam ends come up all right, masts and yards all sound. + +There is a middy about half M-'s size, a very tiny ten-year-older, +who has been my delight; he is so completely 'the officer and the +gentleman'. My maternal entrails turned like old Alvarez, when +that baby lay out on the very end of the cross-jack yard to reef, +in the gale; it was quite voluntary, and the other newcomers all +declined. I always called him 'Mr. -, sir', and asked his leave +gravely, or, on occasions, his protection and assistance; and his +little dignity was lovely. He is polite to the ladies, and +slightly distant to the passenger-boys, bigger than himself, whom +he orders off dangerous places; 'Children, come out of that; you'll +be overboard.' + +A few days before landing I caught a bad cold, and kept my bed. I +caught this cold by 'sleeping with a damp man in my cabin', as some +one said. During the last gale, the cabin opposite mine was +utterly swamped, and I found the Irish soldier-servant of a little +officer of eighteen in despair; the poor lad had got ague, and +eight inches of water in his bed, and two feet in the cabin. I +looked in and said, 'He can't stay there--carry him into my cabin, +and lay him in the bunk'; which he did, with tears running down his +honest old face. So we got the boy into S-'s bed, and cured his +fever and ague, caught under canvas in Romney Marsh. Meantime S- +had to sleep in a chair and to undress in the boy's wet cabin. As +a token of gratitude, he sent me a poodle pup, born on board, very +handsome. The artillery officers were generally well-behaved; the +men, deserters and ruffians, sent out as drivers. We have had five +courts-martial and two floggings in eight weeks, among seventy men. +They were pampered with food and porter, and would not pull a rope, +or get up at six to air their quarters. The sailors are an +excellent set of men. When we parted, the first lieutenant said to +me, 'Weel, ye've a wonderful idee of discipline for a leddy, I will +say. You've never been reported but once, and that was on sick +leave, for your light, and all in order.' + + +Cape Town, Sept. 18. + + +We anchored yesterday morning, and Captain J-, the Port Captain, +came off with a most kind letter from Sir Baldwin Walker, his gig, +and a boat and crew for S- and the baggage. So I was whipped over +the ship's side in a chair, and have come to a boarding house where +the J-s live. I was tired and dizzy and landsick, and lay down and +went to sleep. After an hour or so I woke, hearing a little +gazouillement, like that of chimney swallows. On opening my eyes I +beheld four demons, 'sons of the obedient Jinn', each bearing an +article of furniture, and holding converse over me in the language +of Nephelecoecygia. Why has no one ever mentioned the curious +little soft voices of these coolies?--you can't hear them with the +naked ear, three feet off. The most hideous demon (whose +complexion had not only the colour, but the precise metallic lustre +of an ill black-leaded stove) at last chirruped a wish for orders, +which I gave. I asked the pert, active, cockney housemaid what I +ought to pay them, as, being a stranger, they might overcharge me. +Her scorn was sublime, 'Them nasty blacks never asks more than +their regular charge.' So I asked the black-lead demon, who +demanded 'two shilling each horse in waggon', and a dollar each +'coolie man'. He then glided with fiendish noiselessness about the +room, arranged the furniture to his own taste, and finally said, +'Poor missus sick'; then more chirruping among themselves, and +finally a fearful gesture of incantation, accompanied by 'God bless +poor missus. Soon well now'. The wrath of the cockney housemaid +became majestic: 'There, ma'am; you see how saucy they have grown- +-a nasty black heathen Mohamedan a blessing of a white Christian!' + +These men are the Auvergnats of Africa. I was assured that bankers +entrust them with large sums in gold, which they carry some hundred +and twenty miles, by unknown tracks, for a small gratuity. The +pretty, graceful Malays are no honester than ourselves, but are +excellent workmen. + +To-morrow, my linen will go to a ravine in the giant mountain at my +back, and there be scoured in a clear spring by brown women, +bleached on the mountain top, and carried back all those long miles +on their heads, as it went up. + +My landlady is Dutch; the waiter is an Africander, half Dutch, half +Malay, very handsome, and exactly like a French gentleman, and as +civil. + +Enter 'Africander' lad with a nosegay; only one flower that I know- +-heliotrope. The vegetation is lovely; the freshness of spring and +the richness of summer. The leaves on the trees are in all the +beauty of spring. Mrs. R- brought me a plate of oranges, 'just +gathered', as soon as I entered the house--and, oh! how good they +were! better even than the Maltese. They are going out, and DEAR +now--two a penny, very large and delicious. I am wild to get out +and see the glorious scenery and the hideous people. To-day the +wind has been a cold south-wester, and I have not been out. My +windows look N. and E. so I get all the sun and warmth. The beauty +of Table Bay is astounding. Fancy the Undercliff in the Isle of +Wight magnified a hundred-fold, with clouds floating halfway up the +mountain. The Hottentot mountains in the distance have a fantastic +jagged outline, which hardly looks real. The town is like those in +the south of Europe; flat roofs, and all unfinished; roads are +simply non-existent. At the doors sat brown women with black hair +that shone like metal, very handsome; they are Malays, and their +men wear conical hats a-top of turbans, and are the chief artisans. +At the end of the pier sat a Mozambique woman in white drapery and +the most majestic attitude, like a Roman matron; her features large +and strong and harsh, but fine; and her skin blacker than night. + +I have got a couple of Cape pigeons (the storm-bird of the South +Atlantic) for J-'s hat. They followed us several thousand miles, +and were hooked for their pains. The albatrosses did not come +within hail. + +The little Maltese goat gave a pint of milk night and morning, and +was a great comfort to the cow. She did not like the land or the +grass at first, and is to be thrown out of milk now. She is much +admired and petted by the young Africander. My room is at least +eighteen feet high, and contains exactly a bedstead, one straw +mattrass, one rickety table, one wash-table, two chairs, and broken +looking-glass; no carpet, and a hiatus of three inches between the +floor and the door, but all very clean; and excellent food. I have +not made a bargain yet, but I dare say I shall stay here. + +Friday.--I have just received your letter; where it has been +hiding, I can't conceive. To-day is cold and foggy, like a baddish +day in June with you; no colder, if so cold. Still, I did not +venture out, the fog rolls so heavily over the mountain. Well, I +must send off this yarn, which is as interminable as the 'sinnet' +and 'foxes' which I twisted with the mids. + + + +LETTER II + + + +Cape Town, Oct. 3. + +I came on shore on a very fine day, but the weather changed, and we +had a fortnight of cold and damp and S.W. wind (equivalent to our +east wind), such as the 'oldest inhabitant' never experienced; and +I have had as bad an attack of bronchitis as ever I remember, +having been in bed till yesterday. I had a very good doctor, half +Italian, half Dane, born at the Cape of Good Hope, and educated at +Edinburgh, named Chiappini. He has a son studying medicine in +London, whose mother is Dutch; such is the mixture of bloods here. + +Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; the blessed sun shone +out, and the weather was lovely at once. The mountain threw off +his cloak of cloud, and all was bright and warm. I got up and sat +in the verandah over the stoep (a kind of terrace in front of every +house here). They brought me a tortoise as big as half a crown and +as lively as a cricket to look at, and a chameleon like a fairy +dragon--a green fellow, five inches long, with no claws on his +feet, but suckers like a fly--the most engaging little beast. He +sat on my finger, and caught flies with great delight and +dexterity, and I longed to send him to M-. To-day, I went a long +drive with Captain and Mrs. J-: we went to Rondebosch and Wynberg- +-lovely country; rather like Herefordshire; red earth and oak- +trees. Miles of the road were like Gainsborough-lane, on a large +scale, and looked quite English; only here and there a hedge of +prickly pear, or the big white aruns in the ditches, told a +different tale; and the scarlet geraniums and myrtles growing wild +puzzled one. + +And then came rattling along a light, rough, but well-poised cart, +with an Arab screw driven by a Malay, in a great hat on his +kerchiefed head, and his wife, with her neat dress, glossy black +hair, and great gold earrings. They were coming with fish, which +he had just caught at Kalk Bay, and was going to sell for the +dinners of the Capetown folk. You pass neat villas, with pretty +gardens and stoeps, gay with flowers, and at the doors of several, +neat Malay girls are lounging. They are the best servants here, +for the emigrants mostly drink. Then you see a group of children +at play, some as black as coals, some brown and very pretty. A +little black girl, about R-'s age, has carefully tied what little +petticoat she has, in a tight coil round her waist, and displays +the most darling little round legs and behind, which it would be a +real pleasure to slap; it is so shiny and round, and she runs and +stands so strongly and gracefully. + +Here comes another Malay, with a pair of baskets hanging from a +stick across his shoulder, like those in Chinese pictures, which +his hat also resembles. Another cart full of working men, with a +Malay driver; and inside are jumbled some red-haired, rosy-cheeked +English navvies, with the ugliest Mozambiques, blacker than Erebus, +and with faces all knobs and corners, like a crusty loaf. As we +drive home we see a span of sixteen noble oxen in the marketplace, +and on the ground squats the Hottentot driver. His face no words +can describe--his cheek-bones are up under his hat, and his meagre- +pointed chin halfway down to his waist; his eyes have the dull look +of a viper's, and his skin is dirty and sallow, but not darker than +a dirty European's. + +Capetown is rather pretty, but beyond words untidy and out of +repair. As it is neither drained nor paved, it won't do in hot +weather; and I shall migrate 'up country' to a Dutch village. Mrs. +J-, who is Dutch herself, tells me that one may board in a Dutch +farm-house very cheaply, and with great comfort (of course eating +with the family), and that they will drive you about the country +and tend your horses for nothing, if you are friendly, and don't +treat them with Engelsche hoog-moedigheid. + +Oct. 19th.--The packet came in last night, but just in time to save +the fine of 50l. per diem, and I got your welcome letter this +morning. I have been coughing all this time, but I hope I shall +improve. I came out at the very worst time of year, and the +weather has been (of course) 'unprecedentedly' bad and changeable. +But when it IS fine it is quite celestial; so clear, so dry, so +light. Then comes a cloud over Table Mountain, like the sugar on a +wedding-cake, which tumbles down in splendid waterfalls, and +vanishes unaccountably halfway; and then you run indoors and shut +doors and windows, or it portends a 'south-easter', i.e. a +hurricane, and Capetown disappears in impenetrable clouds of dust. +But this wind coming off the hills and fields of ice, is the Cape +doctor, and keeps away cholera, fever of every sort, and all +malignant or infectious diseases. Most of them are unknown here. +Never was so healthy a place; but the remedy is of the heroic +nature, and very disagreeable. The stones rattle against the +windows, and omnibuses are blown over on the Rondebosch road. + +A few days ago, I drove to Mr. V-'s farm. Imagine St. George's +Hill, and the most beautiful bits of it, sloping gently up to Table +Mountain, with its grey precipices, and intersected with Scotch +burns, which water it all the year round, as they come from the +living rock; and sprinkled with oranges, pomegranates, and camelias +in abundance. You drive through a mile or two as described, and +arrive at a square, planted with rows of fine oaks close together; +at the upper end stands the house, all on the ground-floor, but on +a high stoep: rooms eighteen feet high; the old slave quarters on +each side; stables, &c., opposite; the square as big as Belgrave +Square, and the buildings in the old French style. + +We then went on to Newlands, a still more beautiful place. Immense +trenching and draining going on--the foreman a Caffre, black as +ink, six feet three inches high, and broad in proportion, with a +staid, dignified air, and Englishmen working under him! At the +streamlets there are the inevitable groups of Malay women washing +clothes, and brown babies sprawling about. Yesterday, I should +have bought a black woman for her beauty, had it been still +possible. She was carrying an immense weight on her head, and was +far gone with child; but such stupendous physical perfection I +never even imagined. Her jet black face was like the Sphynx, with +the same mysterious smile; her shape and walk were goddess-like, +and the lustre of her skin, teeth, and eyes, showed the fulness of +health;--Caffre of course. I walked after her as far as her swift +pace would let me, in envy and admiration of such stately humanity. + +The ordinary blacks, or Mozambiques, as they call them, are +hideous. Malay here seems equivalent to Mohammedan. They were +originally Malays, but now they include every shade, from the +blackest nigger to the most blooming English woman. Yes, indeed, +the emigrant-girls have been known to turn 'Malays', and get +thereby husbands who know not billiards and brandy--the two +diseases of Capetown. They risked a plurality of wives, and +professed Islam, but they got fine clothes and industrious +husbands. They wear a very pretty dress, and all have a great air +of independence and self-respect; and the real Malays are very +handsome. I am going to see one of the Mollahs soon, and to look +at their schools and mosque; which, to the distraction of the +Scotch, they call their 'Kerk.' + +I asked a Malay if he would drive me in his cart with the six or +eight mules, which he agreed to do for thirty shillings and his +dinner (i.e. a share of my dinner) on the road. When I asked how +long it would take, he said, 'Allah is groot', which meant, I +found, that it depended on the state of the beach--the only road +for half the way. + +The sun, moon, and stars are different beings from those we look +upon. Not only are they so large and bright, but you SEE that the +moon and stars are BALLS, and that the sky is endless beyond them. +On the other hand, the clear, dry air dwarfs Table Mountain, as you +seem to see every detail of it to the very top. + +Capetown is very picturesque. The old Dutch buildings are very +handsome and peculiar, but are falling to decay and dirt in the +hands of their present possessors. The few Dutch ladies I have +seen are very pleasing. They are gentle and simple, and naturally +well-bred. Some of the Malay women are very handsome, and the +little children are darlings. A little parti-coloured group of +every shade, from ebony to golden hair and blue eyes, were at play +in the street yesterday, and the majority were pretty, especially +the half-castes. Most of the Caffres I have seen look like the +perfection of human physical nature, and seem to have no diseases. +Two days ago I saw a Hottentot girl of seventeen, a housemaid here. +You would be enchanted by her superfluity of flesh; the face was +very queer and ugly, and yet pleasing, from the sweet smile and the +rosy cheeks which please one much, in contrast to all the pale +yellow faces--handsome as some of them are. + +I wish I could send the six chameleons which a good-natured parson +brought me in his hat, and a queer lizard in his pocket. The +chameleons are charming, so monkey-like and so 'caressants'. They +sit on my breakfast tray and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by +their tails, and reach out after my hand. + +I have had a very kind letter from Lady Walker, and shall go and +stay with them at Simon's Bay as soon as I feel up to the twenty- +two miles along the beaches and bad roads in the mail-cart with +three horses. The teams of mules (I beg pardon, spans) would +delight you--eight, ten, twelve, even sixteen sleek, handsome +beasts; and oh, such oxen! noble beasts with humps; and hump is +very good to eat too. + +Oct. 21st.--The mail goes out to-morrow, so I must finish this +letter. I feel better to-day than I have yet felt, in spite of the +south-easter. + +Yours, &c. + + + +LETTER III + + + +28th Oct.--Since I wrote, we have had more really cold weather, but +yesterday the summer seems to have begun. The air is as light and +clear as if THERE WERE NONE, and the sun hot; but I walk in it, and +do not find it oppressive. All the household groans and perspires, +but I am very comfortable. + +Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour or more, in the hot +dust of the Malay burial-ground. They buried the head butcher of +the Mussulmans, and a most strange poetical scene it was. The +burial-ground is on the side of the Lion Mountain--on the Lion's +rump--and overlooks the whole bay, part of the town, and the most +superb mountain panorama beyond. I never saw a view within miles +of it for beauty and grandeur. Far down, a fussy English steamer +came puffing and popping into the deep blue bay, and the 'Hansom's' +cabs went tearing down to the landing place; and round me sat a +crowd of grave brown men chanting 'Allah il Allah' to the most +monotonous but musical air, and with the most perfect voices. The +chant seemed to swell, and then fade, like the wind in the trees. + +I went in after the procession, which consisted of a bier covered +with three common Paisley shawls of gay colours; no one looked at +me; and when they got near the grave, I kept at a distance, and sat +down when they did. But a man came up and said, 'You are welcome.' +So I went close, and saw the whole ceremony. They took the corpse, +wrapped in a sheet, out of the bier, and lifted it into the grave, +where two men received it; then a sheet was held over the grave +till they had placed the dead man; and then flowers and earth were +thrown in by all present, the grave filled in, watered out of a +brass kettle, and decked with flowers. Then a fat old man, in +printed calico shirt sleeves, and a plaid waistcoat and corduroy +trousers, pulled off his shoes, squatted on the grave, and recited +endless 'Koran', many reciting after him. Then they chanted +'Allah-il-Allah' for twenty minutes, I think: then prayers, with +'Ameens' and 'Allah il-Allahs' again. Then all jumped up and +walked off. There were eighty or a hundred men, no women, and five +or six 'Hadjis', draped in beautiful Eastern dresses, and looking +very supercilious. The whole party made less noise in moving and +talking than two Englishmen. + +A white-complexioned man spoke to me in excellent English (which +few of them speak), and was very communicative and civil. He told +me the dead man was his brother-in-law, and he himself the barber. +I hoped I had not taken a liberty. 'Oh, no; poor Malays were proud +when noble English persons showed such respect to their religion. +The young Prince had done so too, and Allah would not forget to +protect him. He also did not laugh at their prayers, praise be to +God!' I had already heard that Prince Alfred is quite the darling +of the Malays. He insisted on accepting their fete, which the +Capetown people had snubbed. I have a friendship with one Abdul +Jemaalee and his wife Betsy, a couple of old folks who were slaves +to Dutch owners, and now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort, with +'Betsy, fruiterer,' painted on the back of an old tin tray, and +hung up by the door of the house. Abdul first bought himself, and +then his wife Betsy, whose 'missus' generously threw in her bed- +ridden mother. He is a fine handsome old man, and has confided to +me that 5,000 pounds would not buy what he is worth now. I have +also read the letters written by his, son, young Abdul Rachman, now +a student at Cairo, who has been away five years--four at Mecca. +The young theologian writes to his 'hoog eerbare moeder' a fond +request for money, and promises to return soon. I am invited to +the feast wherewith he will be welcomed. Old Abdul Jemaalee thinks +it will divert my mind, and prove to me that Allah will take me +home safe to my children, about whom he and his wife asked many +questions. Moreover, he compelled me to drink herb tea, compounded +by a Malay doctor for my cough. I declined at first, and the poor +old man looked hurt, gravely assured me that it was not true that +Malays always poisoned Christians, and drank some himself. +Thereupon I was obliged, of course, to drink up the rest; it +certainly did me good, and I have drunk it since with good effect; +it is intensely bitter and rather sticky. The white servants and +the Dutch landlady where I lodge shake their heads ominously, and +hope it mayn't poison me a year hence. 'Them nasty Malays can make +it work months after you take it.' They also possess the evil eye, +and a talent for love potions. As the men are very handsome and +neat, I incline to believe that part of it. + +Rathfelder's Halfway House, 6th November.--I drove out here +yesterday in Captain T-'s drag, which he kindly brought into +Capetown for me. He and his wife and children came for a change of +air for whooping cough, and advised me to come too, as my cough +continues, though less troublesome. It is a lovely spot, six miles +from Constantia, ten from Capetown, and twelve from Simon's Bay. I +intend to stay here a little while, and then to go to Kalk Bay, six +miles from hence. This inn was excellent, I hear, 'in the old +Dutch times'. Now it is kept by a young Englishman, Cape-born, and +his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay twelve shillings a +day for S- and self, without a sitting-room, and my bed is a straw +paillasse; but the food is plentiful, and not very bad. That is +the cheapest rate of living possible here, and every trifle costs +double what it would in England, except wine, which is very fair at +fivepence a bottle--a kind of hock. The landlord pays 1 pound a +day rent for this house, which is the great resort of the Capetown +people for Sundays, and for change of air, &c.--a rude kind of +Richmond. His cook gets 3 pounds 10s. a month, besides food for +himself and wife, and beer and sugar. The two (white) housemaids +get 1 pound 15s. and 1 pound 10s. respectively (everything by the +month). Fresh butter is 3s. 6d. a pound, mutton 7d.; washing very +dear; cabbages my host sells at 3d. a piece, and pumpkins 8d. He +has a fine garden, and pays a gardener 3s. 6d. a day, and black +labourers 2s. THEY work three days a week; then they buy rice and +a coarse fish, and lie in the sun till it is eaten; while their +darling little fat black babies play in the dust, and their black +wives make battues in the covers in their woolly heads. But the +little black girl who cleans my room is far the best servant, and +smiles and speaks like Lalage herself, ugly as the poor drudge is. +The voice and smile of the negroes here is bewitching, though they +are hideous; and neither S- nor I have yet heard a black child cry, +or seen one naughty or quarrelsome. You would want to lay out a +fortune in woolly babies. Yesterday I had a dreadful heartache +after my darling, on her little birthday, and even the lovely +ranges of distant mountains, coloured like opals in the sunset, did +not delight me. This is a dreary place for strangers. Abdul +Jemaalee's tisanne, and a banana which he gave me each time I went +to his shop, are the sole offer of 'Won't you take something?' or +even the sole attempt at a civility that I have received, except +from the J-s, who, are very civil and kind. + +When I have done my visit to Simon's Bay, I will go 'up country', +to Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester, perhaps. If I can find +people going in a bullock-waggon, I will join them; it costs 1 +pound a day, and goes twenty miles. If money were no object, I +would hire one with Caffres to hunt, as well as outspan and drive, +and take a saddle-horse. There is plenty of pleasure to be had in +travelling here, if you can afford it. The scenery is quite beyond +anything you can imagine in beauty. I went to a country house at +Rondebosch with the J-s, and I never saw so lovely a spot. The +possessor had done his best to spoil it, and to destroy the +handsome Dutch house and fountains and aqueducts; but Nature was +too much for him, and the place lovely in neglect and shabbiness. + +Now I will tell you my impressions of the state of society here, as +far as I have been able to make out by playing the inquisitive +traveller. I dare say the statements are exaggerated, but I do not +think they are wholly devoid of truth. The Dutch round Capetown (I +don't know anything of 'up country') are sulky and dispirited; they +regret the slave days, and can't bear to pay wages; they have sold +all their fine houses in town to merchants, &c., and let their +handsome country places go to pieces, and their land lie fallow, +rather than hire the men they used to own. They hate the Malays, +who were their slaves, and whose 'insolent prosperity' annoys them, +and they don't like the vulgar, bustling English. The English +complain that the Dutch won't die, and that they are the curse of +the colony (a statement for which they can never give a reason). +But they, too, curse the emancipation, long to flog the niggers, +and hate the Malays, who work harder and don't drink, and who are +the only masons, tailors, &c., and earn from 4s. 6d. to 10s. a day. +The Malays also have almost a monopoly of cart-hiring and horse- +keeping; an Englishman charges 4 pounds 10s. or 5 pounds for a +carriage to do what a Malay will do quicker in a light cart for +30s. S- says, 'The English here think the coloured people ought to +do the work, and they to get the wages. Nothing less would satisfy +them.' Servants' wages are high, but other wages not much higher +than in England; yet industrious people invariably make fortunes, +or at least competencies, even when they begin with nothing. But +few of the English will do anything but lounge; while they abuse +the Dutch as lazy, and the Malays as thieves, and feel their +fingers itch to be at the blacks. The Africanders (Dutch and negro +mixed in various proportions) are more or less lazy, dirty, and +dressy, and the beautiful girls wear pork-pie hats, and look very +winning and rather fierce; but to them the philanthropists at home +have provided formidable rivals, by emptying a shipload of young +ladies from a 'Reformatory' into the streets of Capetown. + +I am puzzled what to think of the climate here for invalids. The +air is dry and clear beyond conception, and light, but the sun is +scorching; while the south-east wind blows an icy hurricane, and +the dust obscures the sky. These winds last all the summer, till +February or March. I am told when they don't blow it is heavenly, +though still cold in the mornings and evenings. No one must be out +at, or after sunset, the chill is so sudden. Many of the people +here declare that it is death to weak lungs, and send their +poitrinaires to Madeira, or the south of France. They also swear +the climate is enervating, but their looks, and above all the +blowsy cheeks and hearty play of the English children, disprove +that; and those who come here consumptive get well in spite of the +doctors, who won't allow it possible. I believe it is a climate +which requires great care from invalids, but that, with care, it is +good, because it is bracing as well as warm and dry. It is not +nearly so warm as I expected; the southern icebergs are at no great +distance, and they ice the south-east wind for us. If it were not +so violent, it would be delicious; and there are no unhealthy +winds--nothing like our east wind. The people here grumble at the +north-wester, which sometimes brings rain, and call it damp, which, +as they don't know what damp is, is excusable; it feels like a DRY +south-wester in England. It is, however, quite a delusion to think +of living out of doors, here; the south-easters keep one in nearly, +if not quite, half one's time, and in summer they say the sun is +too hot to be out except morning and evening. But I doubt that, +for they make an outcry about heat as soon as it is not cold. The +transitions are so sudden, that, with the thermometer at 76 +degrees, you must not go out without taking a thick warm cloak; you +may walk into a south-easter round the first spur of the mountain, +and be cut in two. In short, the air is cold and bracing, and the +sun blazing hot; those whom that suits, will do well. I should +like a softer air, but I may be wrong; when there is only a +moderate wind, it is delicious. You walk in the hot sun, which +makes you perspire a very little; but you dry as you go, the air is +so dry; and you come in untired. I speak of slow walking. There +are no hot-climate diseases; no dysentery, fever, &c. + +Simon's Bay, 18th Nov.--I came on here in a cart, as I felt ill +from the return of the cold weather. While at Rathfelder we had a +superb day, and the J-s drove me over to Constantia, which deserves +all its reputation for beauty. What a divine spot!--such kloofs, +with silver rills running down them! It is useless to describe +scenery. It was a sort of glorified Scotland, with sunshine, +flowers, and orange-groves. We got home hungry and tired, but in +great spirits. Alas! next day came the south-easter--blacker, +colder, more cutting, than ever--and lasted a week. + +The Walkers came over on horseback, and pressed me to go to them. +They are most kind and agreeable people. The drive to Simon's Bay +was lovely, along the coast and across five beaches of snow-white +sand, which look like winter landscapes; and the mountains and bay +are lovely. + +Living is very dear, and washing, travelling, chemist's bills--all +enormous. Thirty shillings a cart and horse from Rathfelder here-- +twelve miles; and then the young English host wanted me to hire +another cart for one box and one bath! But I would not, and my +obstinacy was stoutest. If I want cart or waggon again, I'll deal +with a Malay, only the fellows drive with forty Jehu-power up and +down the mountains. + +A Madagascar woman offered to give me her orphan grandchild, a +sweet brown fairy, six years old, with long silky black hair, and +gorgeous eyes. The child hung about me incessantly all the time I +was at Rathfelder, and I had a great mind to her. She used to +laugh like baby, and was like her altogether, only prettier, and +very brown; and when I told her she was like my own little child, +she danced about, and laughed like mad at the idea that she could +look like 'pretty white Missy'. She was mighty proud of her +needlework and A B C performances. + +It is such a luxury to sleep on a real mattrass--not stuffed with +dirty straw; to eat clean food, and live in a nice room. But my +cough is very bad, and the cruel wind blows on and on. I saw the +doctor of the Naval Hospital here to-day. If I don't mend, I will +try his advice, and go northward for warmth. If you can find an +old Mulready envelope, send it here to Miss Walker, who collects +stamps and has not got it, and write and thank dear good Lady +Walker for her kindness to me. + +You will get this about the new year. God bless you all, and send +us better days in 1862. + + + +LETTER IV--JOURNEY TO CALEDON + + + +Caledon, Dec. 10th. + +I did not feel at all well at Simon's Bay, which is a land of +hurricanes. We had a 'south-easter' for fourteen days, without an +hour's lull; even the flag-ship had no communication with the shore +for eight days. The good old naval surgeon there ordered me to +start off for this high 'up-country' district, and arranged my +departure for the first POSSIBLE day. He made a bargain for me +with a Dutchman, for a light Malay cart (a capital vehicle with two +wheels) and four horses, for 30s. a day--three days to Caledon from +Simon's Bay, about a hundred miles or so, and one day of back fare +to his home in Capetown. + +Luckily, on Saturday the wind dropped, and we started at nine +o'clock, drove to a place about four miles from Capetown, when we +turned off on the 'country road', and outspanned at a post-house +kept by a nice old German with a Dutch wife. Once well out of +Capetown, people are civil, but inquisitive; I was strictly cross- +questioned, and proved so satisfactory, that the old man wished to +give me some English porter gratis. We then jogged along again at +a very good pace to another wayside public, where we outspanned +again and ate, and were again questioned, and again made much of. +By six o'clock we got to the Eerste River, having gone forty miles +or so in the day. It was a beautiful day, and very pleasant +travelling. We had three good little half-Arab bays, and one brute +of a grey as off-wheeler, who fell down continually; but a Malay +driver works miracles, and no harm came of it. The cart is small, +with a permanent tilt at top, and moveable curtains of waterproof +all round; harness of raw leather, very prettily put together by +Malay workmen. We sat behind, and our brown coachman, with his +mushroom hat, in front, with my bath and box, and a miniature of +himself about seven years old--a nephew,--so small and handy that +he would be worth his weight in jewels as a tiger. At Eerste River +we slept in a pretty old Dutch house, kept by an English woman, and +called the Fox and Hound, 'to sound like home, my lady.' Very nice +and comfortable it was. + +I started next day at ten; and never shall I forget that day's +journey. The beauty of the country exceeds all description. +Ranges of mountains beyond belief fantastic in shape, and between +them a rolling country, desolate and wild, and covered with +gorgeous flowers among the 'scrub'. First we came to Hottentot's +Holland (now called Somerset West), the loveliest little old Dutch +village, with trees and little canals of bright clear mountain +water, and groves of orange and pomegranate, and white houses, with +incredible gable ends. We tried to stop here; but forage was +ninepence a bundle, and the true Malay would rather die than pay +more than he can help. So we pushed on to the foot of the +mountains, and bought forage (forage is oats au natural, straw and +all, the only feed known here, where there is no grass or hay) at a +farm kept by English people, who all talked Dutch together; only +one girl of the family could speak English. They were very civil, +asked us in, and gave us unripe apricots, and the girl came down +with seven flounces, to talk with us. Forage was still ninepence-- +half a dollar a bundle--and Choslullah Jaamee groaned over it, and +said the horses must have less forage and 'more plenty roll' (a +roll in the dust is often the only refreshment offered to the +beasts, and seems to do great good). + +We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to the place the Doctor +recommended--formerly a country house of the Dutch Governor. It is +in a lovely spot; but do you remember the Schloss in Immermann's +Neuer Munchausen? Well, it is that. A ruin;--windows half broken +and boarded up, the handsome steps in front fallen in, and all en +suite. The rooms I saw were large and airy; but mud floors, white- +washed walls, one chair, one stump bedstead, and praeterea nihil. +It has a sort of wild, romantic look; I hear, too, it is +wonderfully healthy, and not so bad as it looks. The long corridor +is like the entrance to a great stable, or some such thing; earth +floors and open to all winds. But you can't imagine it, however I +may describe; it is so huge and strange, and ruinous. Finding that +the mistress of the house was ill, and nothing ready for our +reception, I drove on to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch mist, came +on just as we arrived, and it is damp and chilly, to the delight of +all the dwellers in the land, who love bad weather. It makes me +cough a little more; but they say it is quite unheard of, and can't +last. Altogether, I suppose this summer here is as that of '60 was +in England. + +I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal-looking Caffre +housemaid at Eerste River. 'Such a dear, good creature,' the +landlady said; and, oh, such a 'noble savage'!--with a cotton +handkerchief folded tight like a cravat and tied round her head +with a bow behind, and the short curly wool sticking up in the +middle;--it looked like a royal diadem on her solemn brow; she +stepped like Juno, with a huge tub full to the brim, and holding +several pailfuls, on her head, and a pailful in each hand, bringing +water for the stables from the river, across a large field. There +is nothing like a Caffre for power and grace; and the face, though +very African, has a sort of grandeur which makes it utterly unlike +that of the negro. That woman's bust and waist were beauty itself. +The Caffres are also very clean and very clever as servants, I +hear, learning cookery, &c., in a wonderfully short time. When +they have saved money enough to buy cattle in Kaffraria, off they +go, cast aside civilization and clothes, and enjoy life in naked +luxury. + +I can't tell you how I longed for you in my journey. You would +have been so delighted with the country and the queer turn-out--the +wild little horses, and the polite and delicately-clean Moslem +driver. His description of his sufferings from 'louses', when he +slept in a Dutch farm, were pathetic, and ever since, he sleeps in +his cart, with the little boy; and they bathe in the nearest river, +and eat their lawful food and drink their water out of doors. They +declined beer, or meat which had been unlawfully killed. In +Capetown ALL meat is killed by Malays, and has the proper prayer +spoken over it, and they will eat no other. I was offered a fowl +at a farm, but Choslullah thought it 'too much money for Missus', +and only accepted some eggs. He was gratified at my recognising +the propriety of his saying 'Bismillah' over any animal killed for +food. Some drink beer, and drink a good deal, but Choslullah +thought it 'very wrong for Malay people, and not good for Christian +people, to be drunk beasties;--little wine or beer good for +Christians, but not too plenty much.' I gave him ten shillings for +himself, at which he was enchanted, and again begged me to write to +his master for him when I wanted to leave Caledon, and to be sure +to say, 'Mind send same coachman.' He planned to drive me back +through Worcester, Burnt Vley, Paarl, and Stellenbosch--a longer +round; but he could do it in three days well, so as 'not cost +Missus more money', and see a different country. + +This place is curiously like Rochefort in the Ardennes, only the +hills are mountains, and the sun is far hotter; not so the air, +which is fresh and pleasant. I am in a very nice inn, kept by an +English ex-officer, who went through the Caffre war, and found his +pay insufficient for the wants of a numerous family. I quite +admire his wife, who cooks, cleans, nurses her babes, gives singing +and music lessons,--all as merrily as if she liked it. I dine with +them at two o'clock, and Captain D- has a table d'hote at seven for +travellers. I pay only 10s. 6d. a day for myself and S-; this +includes all but wine or beer. The air is very clear and fine, and +my cough is already much better. I shall stay here as long as it +suits me and does me good, and then I am to send for Choslullah +again, and go back by the road he proposed. It rains here now and +then, and blows a good deal, but the wind has lost its bitter +chill, and depressing quality. I hope soon to ride a little and +see the country, which is beautiful. + +The water-line is all red from the iron stone, and there are hot +chalybeate springs up the mountain which are very good for +rheumatism, and very strengthening, I am told. The boots here is a +Mantatee, very black, and called Kleenboy, because he is so little; +he is the only sleek black I have seen here, but looks heavy and +downcast. One maid is Irish (they make the best servants here), a +very nice clean girl, and the other, a brown girl of fifteen, whose +father is English, and married to her mother. Food here is scarce, +all but bread and mutton, both good. Butter is 3s. a pound; fruit +and vegetables only to be had by chance. I miss the oranges and +lemons sadly. Poultry and milk uncertain. The bread is good +everywhere, from the fine wheat: in the country it is brownish and +sweet. The wine here is execrable; this is owing to the prevailing +indolence, for there is excellent wine made from the Rhenish grape, +rather like Sauterne, with a soupcon of Manzanilla flavour. The +sweet Constantia is also very good indeed; not the expensive sort, +which is made from grapes half dried, and is a liqueur, but a +light, sweet, straw-coloured wine, which even I liked. We drank +nothing else at the Admiral's. The kind old sailor has given me a +dozen of wine, which is coming up here in a waggon, and will be +most welcome. I can't tell you how kind he and Lady Walker were; I +was there three weeks, and hope to go again when the south-easter +season is over and I can get out a little. I could not leave the +house at all; and even Lady Walker and the girls, who are very +energetic, got out but little. They are a charming family. + +I have no doubt that Dr. Shea was right, and that one must leave +the coast to get a fine climate. Here it seems to me nearly +perfect--too windy for my pleasure, but then the sun would be +overpowering without a fresh breeze. Every one agrees in saying +that the winter in Capetown is delicious--like a fine English +summer. In November the southeasters begin, and they are +'fiendish'; this year they began in September. The mornings here +are always fresh, not to say cold; the afternoons, from one to +three, broiling; then delightful till sunset, which is deadly cold +for three-quarters of an hour; the night is lovely. The wind rises +and falls with the sun. That is the general course of things. Now +and then it rains, and this year there is a little south-easter, +which is quite unusual, and not odious, as it is near the sea; and +there is seldom a hot wind from the north. I am promised that on +or about Christmas-day; then doors and windows are shut, and you +gasp. Hitherto we have had nothing nearly so hot as Paris in +summer, or as the summer of 1859 in England; and they say it is no +hotter, except when the hot wind blows, which is very rare. Up +here, snow sometimes lies, in winter, on the mountain tops; but ice +is unknown, and Table Mountain is never covered with snow. The +flies are pestilent--incredibly noisy, intrusive, and disgusting-- +and oh, such swarms! Fleas and bugs not half so bad as in France, +as far as my experience goes, and I have poked about in queer +places. + +I get up at half-past five, and walk in the early morning, before +the sun and wind begin to be oppressive; it is then dry, calm, and +beautiful; then I sleep like a Dutchman in the middle of the day. +At present it tires me, but I shall get used to it soon. The Dutch +doctor here advised me to do so, to avoid the wind. + +When all was settled, we climbed the Hottentot's mountains by Sir +Lowry's Pass, a long curve round two hill-sides; and what a view! +Simon's Bay opening out far below, and range upon range of crags on +one side, with a wide fertile plain, in which lies Hottentot's +Holland, at one's feet. The road is just wide enough for one +waggon, i.e. very narrow. Where the smooth rock came through, +Choslullah gave a little grunt, and the three bays went off like +hippogriffs, dragging the grey with them. By this time my +confidence in his driving was boundless, or I should have expected +to find myself in atoms at the bottom of the precipice. At the top +of the pass we turned a sharp corner into a scene like the crater +of a volcano, only reaching miles away all round; and we descended +a very little and drove on along great rolling waves of country, +with the mountain tops, all crags and ruins, to our left. At three +we reached Palmiet River, full of palmettos and bamboos, and there +the horses had 'a little roll', and Choslullah and his miniature +washed in the river and prayed, and ate dry bread, and drank their +tepid water out of a bottle with great good breeding and +cheerfulness. Three bullock-waggons had outspanned, and the Dutch +boers and Bastaards (half Hottentots) were all drunk. We went into +a neat little 'public', and had porter and ham sandwiches, for +which I paid 4s. 6d. to a miserable-looking English woman, who was +afraid of her tipsy customers. We got to Houw Hoek, a pretty +valley at the entrance of a mountain gorge, about half-past five, +and drove up to a mud cottage, half inn, half farm, kept by a +German and his wife. It looked mighty queer, but Choslullah said +the host was a good old man, and all clean. So we cheered up, and +asked for food. While the neat old woman was cooking it, up +galloped five fine lads and two pretty flaxen-haired girls, with +real German faces, on wild little horses; and one girl tucked up +her habit, and waited at table, while another waved a green bough +to drive off the swarms of flies. The chops were excellent, ditto +bread and butter, and the tea tolerable. The parlour was a tiny +room with a mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, and the two +bedrooms still tinier and darker, each with two huge beds which +filled them entirely. But Choslullah was right; they were +perfectly clean, with heaps of beautiful pillows; and not only none +of the creatures of which he spoke with infinite terror, but even +no fleas. The man was delighted to talk to me. His wife had +almost forgotten German, and the children did not know a word of +it, but spoke Dutch and English. A fine, healthy, happy family. +It was a pretty picture of emigrant life. Cattle, pigs, sheep, and +poultry, and pigeons innumerable, all picked up their own living, +and cost nothing; and vegetables and fruit grow in rank abundance +where there is water. I asked for a book in the evening, and the +man gave me a volume of Schiller. A good breakfast,--and we paid +ninepence for all. + +This morning we started before eight, as it looked gloomy, and came +through a superb mountain defile, out on to a rich hillocky +country, covered with miles of corn, all being cut as far as the +eye could reach, and we passed several circular threshing-floors, +where the horses tread out the grain. Each had a few mud hovels +near it, for the farmers and men to live in during harvest. +Altogether, I was most lucky, had two beautiful days, and enjoyed +the journey immensely. It was most 'abentheuerlich'; the light +two-wheeled cart, with four wild little horses, and the marvellous +brown driver, who seemed to be always going to perdition, but made +the horses do apparently impossible things with absolute certainty; +and the pretty tiny boy who came to help his uncle, and was so +clever, and so preternaturally quiet, and so very small: then the +road through the mountain passes, seven or eight feet wide, with a +precipice above and below, up which the little horses scrambled; +while big lizards, with green heads and chocolate bodies, looked +pertly at us, and a big bright amber-coloured cobra, as handsome as +he is deadly, wriggled across into a hole. + +Nearly all the people in this village are Dutch. There is one +Malay tailor here, but he is obliged to be a Christian at Caledon, +though Choslullah told me with a grin, he was a very good Malay +when he went to Capetown. He did not seem much shocked at this +double religion, staunch Mussulman as he was himself. I suppose +the blacks 'up country' are what Dutch slavery made them--mere +animals--cunning and sulky. The real Hottentot is extinct, I +believe, in the Colony; what one now sees are all 'Bastaards', the +Dutch name for their own descendants by Hottentot women. These +mongrel Hottentots, who do all the work, are an affliction to +behold--debased and SHRIVELLED with drink, and drunk all day long; +sullen wretched creatures--so unlike the bright Malays and cheery +pleasant blacks and browns of Capetown, who never pass you without +a kind word and sunny smile or broad African grin, SELON their +colour and shape of face. I look back fondly to the gracious soft- +looking Malagasse woman who used to give me a chair under the big +tree near Rathfelders, and a cup of 'bosjesthee' (herb tea), and +talk so prettily in her soft voice;--it is such a contrast to these +poor animals, who glower at one quite unpleasantly. All the hovels +I was in at Capetown were very fairly clean, and I went into +numbers. They almost all contained a handsome bed, with, at least, +eight pillows. If you only look at the door with a friendly +glance, you are implored to come in and sit down, and usually +offered a 'coppj' (cup) of herb tea, which they are quite grateful +to one for drinking. I never saw or heard a hint of 'backsheesh', +nor did I ever give it, on principle and I was always recognised +and invited to come again with the greatest eagerness. 'An +indulgence of talk' from an English 'Missis' seemed the height of +gratification, and the pride and pleasure of giving hospitality a +sufficient reward. But here it is quite different. I suppose the +benefits of the emancipation were felt at Capetown sooner than in +the country, and the Malay population there furnishes a strong +element of sobriety and respectability, which sets an example to +the other coloured people. + +Harvest is now going on, and the so-called Hottentots are earning +2s. 6d. a day, with rations and wine. But all the money goes at +the 'canteen' in drink, and the poor wretched men and women look +wasted and degraded. The children are pretty, and a few of them +are half-breed girls, who do very well, unless a white man admires +them; and then they think it quite an honour to have a whitey-brown +child, which happens at about fifteen, by which age they look full +twenty. + +We had very good snipe and wild duck the other day, which Capt. D- +brought home from a shooting party. I have got the moth-like wings +of a golden snipe for R-'s hat, and those of a beautiful moor-hen. +They got no 'boks', because of the violent south-easter which blew +where they were. The game is fast decreasing, but still very +abundant. I saw plenty of partridges on the road, but was not +early enough to see boks, who only show at dawn; neither have I +seen baboons. I will try to bring home some cages of birds--Cape +canaries and 'roode bekjes' (red bills), darling little things. +The sugar-birds, which are the humming-birds of Africa, could not +be fed; but Caffre finks, which weave the pendent nests, are hardy +and easily fed. + +To-day the post for England leaves Caledon, so I must conclude this +yarn. I wish R- could have seen the 'klip springer', the mountain +deer of South Africa, which Capt. D- brought in to show me. Such a +lovely little beast, as big as a small kid, with eyes and ears like +a hare, and a nose so small and dainty. It was quite tame and +saucy, and belonged to some man en route for Capetown. + + + +LETTER V--CALEDON + + + +Caledon, Dec. 29th. + +I am beginning now really to feel better: I think my cough is +less, and I eat a great deal more. They cook nice clean food here, +and have some good claret, which I have been extravagant enough to +drink, much to my advantage. The Cape wine is all so fiery. The +climate is improving too. The glorious African sun blazes and +roasts one, and the cool fresh breezes prevent one from feeling +languid. I walk from six till eight or nine, breakfast at ten, and +dine at three; in the afternoon it is generally practicable to +saunter again, now the weather is warmer. I sleep from twelve till +two. On Christmas-eve it was so warm that I lay in bed with the +window wide open, and the stars blazing in. Such stars! they are +much brighter than our moon. The Dutchmen held high jinks in the +hall, and danced and made a great noise. On New Year's-eve they +will have another ball, and I shall look in. Christmas-day was the +hottest day--indeed, the only HOT day we have had--and I could not +make it out at all, or fancy you all cold at home. + +I wish you were here to see the curious ways and new aspect of +everything. This village, which, as I have said, is very like +Rochefort, but hardly so large, is the chef lieu of a district the +size of one-third of England. A civil commander resides here, a +sort of prefet; and there is an embryo market-place, with a bell +hanging in a brick arch. When a waggon arrives with goods, it +draws up there, they ring the bell, everybody goes to see what is +for sale, and the goods are sold by auction. My host bought +potatoes and brandy the other day, and is looking out for ostrich +feathers for me, out of the men's hats. + +The other day, while we sat at dinner, all the bells began to ring +furiously, and Capt. D- jumped up and shouted 'Brand!' (fire), +rushed off for a stout leather hat, and ran down the street. Out +came all the population, black, white, and brown, awfully excited, +for it was blowing a furious north-wester, right up the town, and +the fire was at the bottom; and as every house is thatched with a +dry brown thatch, we might all have to turn out and see the place +in ashes in less than an hour. Luckily, it was put out directly. +It is supposed to have been set on fire by a Hottentot girl, who +has done the same thing once before, on being scolded. There is no +water but what runs down the streets in the sloot, a paved channel, +which brings the water from the mountain and supplies the houses +and gardens. A garden is impossible without irrigation, of course, +as it never rains; but with it, you may have everything, all the +year round. The people, however, are too careless to grow fruit +and vegetables. + +How the cattle live is a standing marvel to me. The whole veld +(common), which extends all over the country (just dotted with a +few square miles of corn here and there), is covered with a low +thin scrub, about eighteen inches high, called rhenoster-bosch-- +looking like meagre arbor vitae or pale juniper. The cattle and +sheep will not touch this nor the juicy Hottentot fig; but under +each little bush, I fancy, they crop a few blades of grass, and on +this they keep in very good condition. The noble oxen, with their +huge horns (nine or ten feet from tip to tip), are never fed, +though they work hard, nor are the sheep. The horses get a little +forage (oats, straw and all). I should like you to see eight or +ten of these swift wiry little horses harnessed to a waggon,--a +mere flat platform on wheels. In front stands a wild-looking +Hottentot, all patches and feathers, and drives them best pace, all +'in hand', using a whip like a fishing-rod, with which he touches +them, not savagely, but with a skill which would make an old stage- +coachman burst with envy to behold. This morning, out on the veld, +I watched the process of breaking-in a couple of colts, who were +harnessed, after many struggles, second and fourth in a team of +ten. In front stood a tiny foal cuddling its mother, one of the +leaders. When they started, the foal had its neck through the +bridle, and I hallooed in a fright; but the Hottentot only laughed, +and in a minute it had disengaged itself quite coolly and capered +alongside. The colts tried to plunge, but were whisked along, and +couldn't, and then they stuck out all four feet and SKIDDED along a +bit; but the rhenoster bushes tripped them up (people drive +regardless of roads), and they shook their heads and trotted along +quite subdued, without a blow or a word, for the drivers never +speak to the horses, only to the oxen. Colts here get no other +breaking, and therefore have no paces or action to the eye, but +their speed and endurance are wonderful. There is no such thing as +a cock-tail in the country, and the waggon teams of wiry little +thoroughbreds, half Arab, look very strange to our eyes, going full +tilt. There is a terrible murrain, called the lung-sickness, among +horses and oxen here, every four or five years, but it never +touches those that are stabled, however exposed to wet or wind on +the roads. + +I must describe the house I inhabit, as all are much alike. It is +whitewashed, with a door in the middle and two windows on each +side; those on the left are Mrs. D-'s bed and sitting rooms. On +the right is a large room, which is mine; in the middle of the +house is a spacious hall, with doors into other rooms on each side, +and into the kitchen, &c. There is a yard behind, and a staircase +up to the zolder or loft, under the thatch, with partitions, where +the servants and children, and sometimes guests, sleep. There are +no ceilings; the floor of the zolder is made of yellow wood, and, +resting on beams, forms the ceiling of my room, and the thatch +alone covers that. No moss ever grows on the thatch, which is +brown, with white ridges. In front is a stoep, with 'blue gums' +(Australian gum-trees) in front of it, where I sit till twelve, +when the sun comes on it. These trees prevail here greatly, as +they want neither water nor anything else, and grow with incredible +rapidity. + +We have got a new 'boy' (all coloured servants are 'boys,'--a +remnant of slavery), and he is the type of the nigger slave. A +thief, a liar, a glutton, a drunkard--but you can't resent it; he +has a naif, half-foolish, half-knavish buffoonery, a total want of +self-respect, which disarms you. I sent him to the post to inquire +for letters, and the postmaster had been tipsy over-night and was +not awake. Jack came back spluttering threats against 'dat domned +Dutchman. Me no WANT (like) him; me go and kick up dom'd row. +What for he no give Missis letter?' &c. I begged him to be +patient; on which he bonneted himself in a violent way, and started +off at a pantomime walk. Jack is the product of slavery: he +pretends to be a simpleton in order to do less work and eat and +drink and sleep more than a reasonable being, and he knows his +buffoonery will get him out of scrapes. Withal, thoroughly good- +natured and obliging, and perfectly honest, except where food and +drink are concerned, which he pilfers like a monkey. He worships +S-, and won't allow her to carry anything, or to dirty her hands, +if he is in the way to do it. Some one suggested to him to kiss +her, but he declined with terror, and said he should be hanged by +my orders if he did. He is a hideous little negro, with a +monstrous-shaped head, every colour of the rainbow on his clothes, +and a power of making faces which would enchant a schoolboy. The +height of his ambition would be to go to England with me. + +An old 'bastaard' woman, married to the Malay tailor here, +explained to me my popularity with the coloured people, as set +forth by 'dat Malay boy', my driver. He told them he was sure I +was a 'very great Missis', because of my 'plenty good behaviour'; +that I spoke to him just as to a white gentleman, and did not +'laugh and talk nonsense talk'. 'Never say "Here, you black +fellow", dat Misses.' The English, when they mean to be good- +natured, are generally offensively familiar, and 'talk nonsense +talk', i.e. imitate the Dutch English of the Malays and blacks; the +latter feel it the greatest compliment to be treated au serieux, +and spoken to in good English. Choslullah's theory was that I must +be related to the Queen, in consequence of my not 'knowing bad +behaviour'. The Malays, who are intelligent and proud, of course +feel the annoyance of vulgar familiarity more than the blacks, who +are rather awe-struck by civility, though they like and admire it. + +Mrs. D- tells me that the coloured servant-girls, with all their +faults, are immaculately honest in these parts; and, indeed, as +every door and window is always left open, even when every soul is +out, and nothing locked up, there must be no thieves. Captain D- +told me he had been in remote Dutch farmhouses, where rouleaux of +gold were ranged under the thatch on the top of the low wall, the +doors being always left open; and everywhere the Dutch boers keep +their money by them, in coin. + +Jan. 3d.--We have had tremendous festivities here--a ball on New +Year's-eve, and another on the 1st of January--and the shooting for +Prince Alfred's rifle yesterday. The difficulty of music for the +ball was solved by the arrival of two Malay bricklayers to build +the new parsonage, and I heard with my own ears the proof of what I +had been told as to their extraordinary musical gifts. When I went +into the hall, a Dutchman was SCREECHING a concertina hideously. +Presently in walked a yellow Malay, with a blue cotton handkerchief +on his head, and a half-bred of negro blood (very dark brown), with +a red handkerchief, and holding a rough tambourine. The handsome +yellow man took the concertina which seemed so discordant, and the +touch of his dainty fingers transformed it to harmony. He played +dances with a precision and feeling quite unequalled, except by +Strauss's band, and a variety which seemed endless. I asked him if +he could read music, at which he laughed heartily, and said, music +came into the ears, not the eyes. He had picked it all up from the +bands in Capetown, or elsewhere. + +It was a strange sight,--the picturesque group, and the contrast +between the quiet manners of the true Malay and the grotesque fun +of the half-negro. The latter made his tambourine do duty as a +drum, rattled the bits of brass so as to produce an indescribable +effect, nodded and grinned in wild excitement, and drank beer while +his comrade took water. The dancing was uninteresting enough. The +Dutchmen danced badly, and said not a word, but plodded on so as to +get all the dancing they could for their money. I went to bed at +half-past eleven, but the ball went on till four. + +Next night there was genteeler company, and I did not go in, but +lay in bed listening to the Malay's playing. He had quite a fresh +set of tunes, of which several were from the 'Traviata'! + +Yesterday was a real African summer's day. The D-s had a tent and +an awning, one for food and the other for drink, on the ground +where the shooting took place. At twelve o'clock Mrs. D- went down +to sell cold chickens, &c., and I went with her, and sat under a +tree in the bed of the little stream, now nearly dry. The sun was +such as in any other climate would strike you down, but here coup +de soleil is unknown. It broils you till your shoulders ache and +your lips crack, but it does not make you feel the least languid, +and you perspire very little; nor does it tan the skin as you would +expect. The light of the sun is by no means 'golden'--it is pure +white--and the slightest shade of a tree or bush affords a +delicious temperature, so light and fresh is the air. They said +the thermometer was at about 130 degrees where I was walking +yesterday, but (barring the scorch) I could not have believed it. + +It was a very amusing day. The great tall Dutchmen came in to +shoot, and did but moderately, I thought. The longest range was +five hundred yards, and at that they shot well; at shorter ranges, +poorly enough. The best man made ten points. But oh! what figures +were there of negroes and coloured people! I longed for a +photographer. Some coloured lads were exquisitely graceful, and +composed beautiful tableaux vivants, after Murillo's beggar-boys. + +A poor little, very old Bosjesman crept up, and was jeered and +bullied. I scolded the lad who abused him for being rude to an old +man, whereupon the poor little old creature squatted on the ground +close by (for which he would have been kicked but for me), took off +his ragged hat, and sat staring and nodding his small grey woolly +head at me, and jabbering some little soliloquy very sotto voce. +There was something shocking in the timidity with which he took the +plate of food I gave him, and in the way in which he ate it, with +the WRONG side of his little yellow hand, like a monkey. A black, +who had helped to fetch the hamper, suggested to me to give him +wine instead of meat and bread, and make him drunk FOR FUN (the +blacks and Hottentots copy the white man's manners TO THEM, when +they get hold of a Bosjesman to practise upon); but upon this a +handsome West Indian black, who had been cooking pies, fired up, +and told him he was a 'nasty black rascal, and a Dutchman to boot', +to insult a lady and an old man at once. If you could see the +difference between one negro and another, you would be quite +convinced that education (i.e. circumstances) makes the race. It +was hardly conceivable that the hideous, dirty, bandy-legged, +ragged creature, who looked down on the Bosjesman, and the well- +made, smart fellow, with his fine eyes, jaunty red cap, and snow- +white shirt and trousers, alert as the best German Kellner, were of +the same blood; nothing but the colour was alike. + +Then came a Dutchman, and asked for six penn'orth of 'brood en +kaas', and haggled for beer; and Englishmen, who bought chickens +and champagne without asking the price. One rich old boer got +three lunches, and then 'trekked' (made off) without paying at all. +Then came a Hottentot, stupidly drunk, with a fiddle, and was +beaten by a little red-haired Scotchman, and his fiddle smashed. +The Hottentot hit at his aggressor, who then declared he HAD BEEN a +policeman, and insisted on taking him into custody and to the +'Tronk' (prison) on his own authority, but was in turn sent flying +by a gigantic Irishman, who 'wouldn't see the poor baste abused'. +The Irishman was a farmer; I never saw such a Hercules--and beaming +with fun and good nature. He was very civil, and answered my +questions, and talked like an intelligent man; but when Captain D- +asked him with an air of some anxiety, if he was coming to the +hotel, he replied, 'No, sir, no; I wouldn't be guilty of such a +misdemeanour. I am aware that I was a disgrace and opprobrium to +your house, sir, last time I was there, sir. No, sir, I shall +sleep in my cart, and not come into the presence of ladies.' +Hereupon he departed, and I was informed that he had been drunk for +seventeen days, sans desemparer, on his last visit to Caledon. +However, he kept quite sober on this occasion, and amused himself +by making the little blackies scramble for halfpence in the pools +left in the bed of the river. Among our customers was a very +handsome black man, with high straight nose, deep-set eyes, and a +small mouth, smartly dressed in a white felt hat, paletot, and +trousers. He is the shoemaker, and is making a pair of +'Veldschoen' for you, which you will delight in. They are what the +rough boers and Hottentots wear, buff-hide barbarously tanned and +shaped, and as soft as woollen socks. The Othello-looking +shoemaker's name is Moor, and his father told him he came of a +'good breed'; that was all he knew. + +A very pleasing English farmer, who had been educated in Belgium, +came and ordered a bottle of champagne, and shyly begged me to +drink a glass, whereupon we talked of crops and the like; and an +excellent specimen of a colonist he appeared: very gentle and +unaffected, with homely good sense, and real good breeding--such a +contrast to the pert airs and vulgarity of Capetown and of the +people in (colonial) high places. Finding we had no carriage, he +posted off and borrowed a cart of one man and harness of another, +and put his and his son's riding horses to it, to take Mrs. D- and +me home. As it was still early, he took us a 'little drive'; and +oh, ye gods! what a terrific and dislocating pleasure was that! At +a hard gallop, Mr. M- (with the mildest and steadiest air and with +perfect safety) took us right across country. It is true there +were no fences; but over bushes, ditches, lumps of rock, +watercourses, we jumped, flew, and bounded, and up every hill we +went racing pace. I arrived at home much bewildered, and feeling +more like Burger's Lenore than anything else, till I saw Mr. M-'s +steady, pleasant face quite undisturbed, and was informed that such +was the way of driving of Cape farmers. + +We found the luckless Jack in such a state of furious drunkenness +that he had to be dismissed on the spot, not without threats of the +'Tronk', and once more Kleenboy fills the office of boots. He +returned in a ludicrous state of penitence and emaciation, frankly +admitting that it was better to work hard and get 'plenty grub', +than to work less and get none;--still, however, protesting against +work at all. + +January 7th.--For the last four days it has again been blowing a +wintry hurricane. Every one says that the continuance of these +winds so late into the summer (this answers to July) is unheard of, +and MUST cease soon. In Table Bay, I hear a good deal of mischief +has been done to the shipping. + +I hope my long yarns won't bore you. I put down what seems new and +amusing to me at the moment, but by the time it reaches you, it +will seem very dull and commonplace. I hear that the Scotchman who +attacked poor Aria, the crazy Hottentot, is a 'revival lecturer', +and was 'simply exhorting him to break his fiddle and come to +Christ' (the phrase is a clergyman's, I beg to observe); and the +saints are indignant that, after executing the pious purpose as far +as the fiddle went, he was prevented by the chief constable from +dragging him to the Tronk. The 'revival' mania has broken out +rather violently in some places; the infection was brought from St. +Helena, I am told. At Capetown, old Abdool Jemaalee told me that +English Christians were getting more like Malays, and had begun to +hold 'Kalifahs' at Simon's Bay. These are festivals in which +Mussulman fanatics run knives into their flesh, go into +convulsions, &c, to the sound of music, like the Arab described by +Houdin. Of course the poor blacks go quite demented. + +I intend to stay here another two or three weeks, and then to go to +Worcester--stay a bit; Paarl, ditto; Stellenbosch, ditto--and go to +Capetown early in March, and in April to embark for home. + +January 15th.--No mail in yet. We have had beautiful weather the +last three days. Captain D- has been in Capetown, and bought a +horse, which he rode home seventy-five miles in a day and a half,-- +the beast none the worse nor tired. I am to ride him, and so shall +see the country if the vile cold winds keep off. + +This morning I walked on the Veld, and met a young black shepherd +leading his sheep and goats, and playing on a guitar composed of an +old tin mug covered with a bit of sheepskin and a handle of rough +wood, with pegs, and three strings of sheep-gut. I asked him to +sing, and he flung himself at my feet in an attitude that would +make Watts crazy with delight, and CROONED queer little mournful +ditties. I gave him sixpence, and told him not to get drunk. He +said, 'Oh no; I will buy bread enough to make my belly stiff--I +almost never had my belly stiff.' He likewise informed me he had +just been in the Tronk (prison), and on my asking why, replied: +'Oh, for fighting, and telling lies;' Die liebe Unschuld! (Dear +innocence!) + +Hottentot figs are rather nice--a green fig-shaped thing, +containing about a spoonful of SALT-SWEET insipid glue, which you +suck out. This does not sound nice, but it is. The plant has a +thick, succulent, triangular leaf, creeping on the ground, and +growing anywhere, without earth or water. Figs proper are common +here, but tasteless; and the people pick all their fruit green, and +eat it so too. The children are all crunching hard peaches and +plums just now, particularly some little half-breeds near here, who +are frightfully ugly. Fancy the children of a black woman and a +red-haired man; the little monsters are as black as the mother, and +have RED wool--you never saw so diabolical an appearance. Some of +the coloured people are very pretty; for example, a coal-black girl +of seventeen, and my washerwoman, who is brown. They are +wonderfully slender and agile, and quite old hard-working women +have waists you could span. They never grow thick and square, like +Europeans. + +I could write a volume on Cape horses. Such valiant little beasts, +and so composed in temper, I never saw. They are nearly all bays-- +a few very dark grey, which are esteemed; VERY few white or light +grey. I have seen no black, and only one dark chestnut. They are +not cobs, and look 'very little of them', and have no beauty; but +one of these little brutes, ungroomed, half-fed, seldom stabled, +will carry a six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles a day, day +after day, at a shuffling easy canter, six miles an hour. You 'off +saddle' every three hours, and let him roll; you also let him drink +all he can get; his coat shines and his eye is bright, and +unsoundness is very rare. They are never properly broke, and the +soft-mouthed colts are sometimes made vicious by the cruel bits and +heavy hands; but by nature their temper is perfect. + +Every morning all the horses in the village are turned loose, and a +general gallop takes place to the water tank, where they drink and +lounge a little; and the young ones are fetched home by their +niggers, while the old stagers know they will be wanted, and +saunter off by themselves. I often attend the Houyhnhnm +conversazione at the tank, at about seven o'clock, and am amused by +their behaviour; and I continually wish I could see Ned's face on +witnessing many equine proceedings here. To see a farmer outspan +and turn the team of active little beasts loose on the boundless +veld to amuse themselves for an hour or two, sure that they will +all be there, would astonish him a little; and then to offer a +horse nothing but a roll in the dust to refresh himself withal! + +One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of horses and oxen along +the roadside; or at times a fresh carcase surrounded by a +convocation of huge serious-looking carrion crows, with neat white +neck-cloths. The skeletons look like wrecks, and make you feel +very lonely on the wide veld. In this district, and in most, I +believe, the roads are mere tracks over the hard, level earth, and +very good they are. When one gets rutty, you drive parallel to it, +till the bush is worn out and a new track is formed. + +January 17th.--Lovely weather all the week. Summer well set in. + + + +LETTER VI--CALEDON + + + +Caledon, January 19th. + +Dearest Mother, + +Till this last week, the weather was pertinaciously cold and windy; +and I had resolved to go to Worcester, which lies in a 'Kessel', +and is really hot. But now the glorious African summer is come, +and I believe this is the weather of Paradise. I got up at four +this morning, when the Dutchmen who had slept here were starting in +their carts and waggons. It was quite light; but the moon shone +brilliantly still, and had put on a bright rose-coloured veil, +borrowed from the rising sun on the opposite horizon. The +freshness (without a shadow of cold or damp) of the air was +indescribable--no dew was on the ground. I went up the hill-side, +along the 'Sloot' (channel, which supplies all our water), into the +'Kloof' between the mountains, and clambered up to the 'Venster +Klip', from which natural window the view is very fine. The +flowers are all gone and the grass all dead. Rhenoster boschjes +and Hottentot fig are green everywhere, and among the rocks all +manner of shrubs, and far too much 'Wacht een beetje' (Wait a bit), +a sort of series of natural fish-hooks, which try the robustest +patience. Between seven and eight, the sun gets rather hot, and I +came in and TUBBED, and sat on the stoep (a sort of terrace, in +front of every house in South Africa). I breakfast at nine, sit on +the stoep again till the sun comes round, and then retreat behind +closed shutters from the stinging sun. The AIR is fresh and light +all day, though the sun is tremendous; but one has no languid +feeling or desire to lie about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at +two or half-past, and at four or five the heat is over, and one +puts on a shawl to go out in the afternoon breeze. The nights are +cool, so as always to want one blanket. I still have a cough; but +it is getting better, so that I can always eat and walk. Mine host +has just bought a horse, which he is going to try with a petticoat +to-day, and if he goes well I shall ride. + +I like this inn-life, because I see all the 'neighbourhood'-- +farmers and traders--whom I like far better than the GENTILITY of +Capetown. I have given letters to England to a 'boer', who is +'going home', i.e. to Europe, the FIRST OF HIS RACE SINCE THE +REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, when some poor refugees were +inveigled hither by the Dutch Governor, and oppressed worse than +the Hottentots. M. de Villiers has had no education AT ALL, and +has worked, and traded, and farmed,--but the breed tells; he is a +pure and thorough Frenchman, unable to speak a word of French. +When I went in to dinner, he rose and gave me a chair with a bow +which, with his appearance, made me ask, 'Monsieur vient +d'arriver?' This at once put him out and pleased him. He is very +unlike a Dutchman. If you think that any of the French will feel +as I felt to this far-distant brother of theirs, pray give him a +few letters; but remember that he can speak only English and Dutch, +and a little German. Here his name is CALLED 'Filljee', but I told +him to drop that barbarism in Europe; De Villiers ought to speak +for itself. He says they came from the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. + +The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old Pylades, Heer Ley, are +great cronies of mine--stout old greybeards, toddling down the hill +together. I sometimes go and sit on the stoep with the two old +bachelors, and they take it as a great compliment; and Heer Klein +gave me my letters all decked with flowers, and wished 'Vrolyke +tydings, Mevrouw,' most heartily. He has also made his tributary +mail-cart Hottentots bring from various higher mountain ranges the +beautiful everlasting flowers, which will make pretty wreaths for +J-. When I went to his house to thank him, I found a handsome +Malay, with a basket of 'Klipkaus', a shell-fish much esteemed +here. Old Klein told me they were sent him by a Malay who was born +in his father's house, a slave, and had been HIS 'BOY' and play- +fellow. Now, the slave is far richer than the old young master, +and no waggon comes without a little gift--oranges, fish, &c.--for +'Wilhem'. When Klein goes to Capetown, the old Malay seats him in +a grand chair and sits on a little wooden stool at his feet; Klein +begs him, as 'Huisheer', to sit properly; but, 'Neen Wilhem, Ik zal +niet; ik kan niet vergeten.' 'Good boy!' said old Klein; 'good +people the Malays.' It is a relief, after the horrors one has +heard of Dutch cruelty, to see such an 'idyllisches Verhaltniss'. +I have heard other instances of the same fidelity from Malays, but +they were utterly unappreciated, and only told to prove the +excellence of slavery, and 'how well the rascals must have been +off'. + +I have fallen in love with a Hottentot baby here. Her mother is +all black, with a broad face and soft spaniel eyes, and the father +is Bastaard; but the baby (a girl, nine months old), has walked out +of one of Leonardo da Vinci's pictures. I never saw so beautiful a +child. She has huge eyes with the spiritual look he gives to them, +and is exquisite in every way. When the Hottentot blood is +handsome, it is beautiful; there is a delicacy and softness about +some of the women which is very pretty, and the eyes are those of a +GOOD dog. Most of them are hideous, and nearly all drink; but they +are very clean and honest. Their cottages are far superior in +cleanliness to anything out of England, except in picked places, +like some parts of Belgium; and they wash as much as they can, with +the bad water-supply, and the English outcry if they strip out of +doors to bathe. Compared to French peasants, they are very clean +indeed, and even the children are far more decent and cleanly in +their habits than those of France. The woman who comes here to +clean and scour is a model of neatness in her work and her person +(quite black), but she gets helplessly drunk as soon as she has a +penny to buy a glass of wine; for a penny, a half-pint tumbler of +very strong and remarkably nasty wine is sold at the canteens. + +I have many more 'humours' to tell, but A- can show you all the +long story I have written. I hope it does not seem very stale and +decies repetita. All being new and curious to the eye here, one +becomes long-winded about mere trifles. + +One small thing more. The first few shillings that a coloured +woman has to spend on her cottage go in--what do you think?--A +grand toilet table of worked muslin over pink, all set out with +little 'objets'--such as they are: if there is nothing else, there +is that here, as at Capetown, and all along to Simon's Bay. Now, +what is the use or comfort of a duchesse to a Hottentot family? I +shall never see those toilets again without thinking of Hottentots- +-what a baroque association of ideas! I intend, in a day or two, +to go over to 'Gnadenthal', the Moravian missionary station, +founded in 1736--the 'bluhende Gemeinde von Hottentoten'. How +little did I think to see it, when we smiled at the phrase in old +Mr. Steinkopf's sermon years ago in London! The MISSIONARIZED +Hottentots are not, as it is said, thought well of--being even +tipsier than the rest; but I may see a full-blood one, and even a +true Bosjesman, which is worth a couple of hours' drive; and the +place is said to be beautiful. + +This climate is evidently a styptic of great power, I shall write a +few lines to the Lancet about Caledon and its hot baths--'Bad +Caledon', as the Germans at Houw Hoek call it. The baths do not +concern me, as they are chalybeate; but they seem very effectual in +many cases. Yet English people never come here; they stay at +Capetown, which must be a furnace now, or at Wynberg, which is damp +and chill (comparatively); at most, they get to Stellenbosch. I +mean visitors, not settlers; THEY are everywhere. I look the +colour of a Hottentot. Now I MUST leave off. + +Your most affectionate + +L. D. G. + + + +LETTER VII--GNADENTHAL + + + +Caledon, Jan. 28th. + +Well, I have been to Gnadenthal, and seen the 'blooming parish', +and a lovely spot it is. A large village nestled in a deep valley, +surrounded by high mountains on three sides, and a lower range in +front. We started early on Saturday, and drove over a mighty queer +road, and through a river. Oh, ye gods! what a shaking and +pounding! We were rattled up like dice in a box. Nothing but a +Cape cart, Cape horses, and a Hottentot driver, above all, could +have accomplished it. Captain D- rode, and had the best of it. On +the road we passed three or four farms, at all which horses were +GALLOPING OUT the grain, or men were winnowing it by tossing it up +with wooden shovels to let the wind blow away the chaff. We did +the twenty-four miles up and down the mountain roads in two hours +and a half, with our valiant little pair of horses; it is +incredible how they go. We stopped at a nice cottage on the +hillside belonging to a ci-devant slave, one Christian Rietz, a +WHITE man, with brown woolly hair, sharp features, grey eyes, and +NOT woolly moustaches. He said he was a 'Scotch bastaard', and 'le +bon sang parlait--tres-haut meme', for a more thriving, shrewd, +sensible fellow I never saw. His FATHER and master had had to let +him go when all slaves were emancipated, and he had come to +Gnadenthal. He keeps a little inn in the village, and a shop and a +fine garden. The cottage we lodged in was on the mountain side, +and had been built for his son, who was dead; and his adopted +daughter, a pretty coloured girl, exactly like a southern +Frenchwoman, waited on us, assisted by about six or seven other +women, who came chiefly to stare. Vrouw Rietz was as black as a +coal, but SO pretty!--a dear, soft, sleek, old lady, with beautiful +eyes, and the kind pleasant ways which belong to nice blacks; and, +though old and fat, still graceful and lovely in face, hands, and +arms. The cottage was thus:- One large hall; my bedroom on the +right, S-'s on the left; the kitchen behind me; Miss Rietz behind +S-; mud floors daintily washed over with fresh cow-dung; ceiling of +big rafters, just as they had grown, on which rested bamboo canes +close together ACROSS the rafters, and bound together between each, +with transverse bamboo--a pretty BEEHIVEY effect; at top, mud +again, and then a high thatched roof and a loft or zolder for +forage, &c.; the walls of course mud, very thick and whitewashed. +The bedrooms tiny; beds, clean sweet melies (maize) straw, with +clean sheets, and eight good pillows on each; glass windows (a +great distinction), exquisite cleanliness, and hearty civility; +good food, well cooked; horrid tea and coffee, and hardly any milk; +no end of fruit. In all the gardens it hung on the trees thicker +than the leaves. Never did I behold such a profusion of fruit and +vegetables. + +But first I must tell what struck me most, I asked one of the +Herrenhut brethren whether there were any REAL Hottentots, and he +said, 'Yes, one;' and next morning, as I sat waiting for early +prayers under the big oak-trees in the Plaats (square), he came up, +followed by a tiny old man hobbling along with a long stick to +support him. 'Here', said he, 'is the LAST Hottentot; he is a +hundred and seven years old, and lives all alone.' I looked on the +little, wizened, yellow face, and was shocked that he should be +dragged up like a wild beast to be stared at. A feeling of pity +which felt like remorse fell upon me, and my eyes filled as I rose +and stood before him, so tall and like a tyrant and oppressor, +while he uncovered his poor little old snow-white head, and peered +up in my face. I led him to the seat, and helped him to sit down, +and said in Dutch, 'Father, I hope you are not tired; you are old.' +He saw and heard as well as ever, and spoke good Dutch in a firm +voice. 'Yes, I am above a hundred years old, and alone--quite +alone.' I sat beside him, and he put his head on one side, and +looked curiously up at me with his faded, but still piercing little +wild eyes. Perhaps he had a perception of what I felt--yet I +hardly think so; perhaps he thought I was in trouble, for he crept +close up to me, and put one tiny brown paw into my hand, which he +stroked with the other, and asked (like most coloured people) if I +had children. I said, 'Yes, at home in England;' and he patted my +hand again, and said, 'God bless them!' It was a relief to feel +that he was pleased, for I should have felt like a murderer if my +curiosity had added a moment's pain to so tragic a fate. + +This may sound like sentimentalism; but you cannot conceive the +effect of looking on the last of a race once the owners of all this +land, and now utterly gone. His look was not quite human, +physically speaking;--a good head, small wild-beast eyes, piercing +and restless; cheek-bones strangely high and prominent, nose QUITE +flat, mouth rather wide; thin shapeless lips, and an indescribably +small, long, pointed chin, with just a very little soft white +woolly beard; his head covered with extremely short close white +wool, which ended round the poll in little ringlets. Hands and +feet like an English child of seven or eight, and person about the +size of a child of eleven. He had all his teeth, and though shrunk +to nothing, was very little wrinkled in the face, and not at all in +the hands, which were dark brown, while his face was yellow. His +manner, and way of speaking were like those of an old peasant in +England, only his voice was clearer and stronger, and his +perceptions not blunted by age. He had travelled with one of the +missionaries in the year 1790, or thereabouts, and remained with +them ever since. + +I went into the church--a large, clean, rather handsome building, +consecrated in 1800--and heard a very good sort of Litany, mixed +with such singing as only black voices can produce. The organ was +beautifully played by a Bastaard lad. The Herrenhuters use very +fine chants, and the perfect ear and heavenly voices of a large +congregation, about six hundred, all coloured people, made music +more beautiful than any chorus-singing I ever heard. + +Prayers lasted half an hour; then the congregation turned out of +doors, and the windows were opened. Some of the people went away, +and others waited for the 'allgemeine Predigt'. In a quarter of an +hour a much larger congregation than the first assembled, the girls +all with net-handkerchiefs tied round their heads so as to look +exactly like the ancient Greek head-dress with a double fillet--the +very prettiest and neatest coiffure I ever saw. The gowns were +made like those of English girls of the same class, but far +smarter, cleaner, and gayer in colour--pink, and green, and yellow, +and bright blue; several were all in white, with white gloves. The +men and women sit separate, and the women's side was a bed of +tulips. The young fellows were very smart indeed, with muslin or +gauze, either white, pink, or blue, rolled round their hats (that +is universal here, on account of the sun). The Hottentots, as they +are called--that is, those of mixed Dutch and Hottentot origin +(correctly, 'bastaards')--have a sort of blackguard elegance in +their gait and figure which is peculiar to them; a mixture of negro +or Mozambique blood alters it altogether. The girls have the +elegance without the blackguard look; ALL are slender, most are +tall; all graceful, all have good hands and feet; some few are +handsome in the face and many very interesting-looking. The +complexion is a pale olive-yellow, and the hair more or less +woolly, face flat, and cheekbones high, eyes small and bright. +These are by far the most intelligent--equal, indeed, to whites. A +mixture of black blood often gives real beauty, but takes off from +the 'air', and generally from the talent; but then the blacks are +so pleasant, and the Hottentots are taciturn and reserved. The old +women of this breed are the grandest hags I ever saw; they are +clean and well dressed, and tie up their old faces in white +handkerchiefs like corpses,--faces like those of Andrea del Sarto's +old women; they are splendid. Also, they are very clean people, +addicted to tubbing more than any others. The maid-of-all-work, +who lounges about your breakfast table in rags and dishevelled +hair, has been in the river before you were awake, or, if that was +too far off, in a tub. They are also far cleaner in their huts +than any but the VERY BEST English poor. + +The 'Predigt' was delivered, after more singing, by a missionary +cabinet-maker, in Dutch, very ranting, and not very wise; the +congregation was singularly decorous and attentive, but did not +seem at all excited or impressed--just like a well-bred West-end +audience, only rather more attentive. The service lasted three- +quarters of an hour, including a short prayer and two hymns. The +people came out and filed off in total silence, and very quickly, +the tall graceful girls draping their gay silk shawls beautifully. +There are seven missionaries, all in orders but one, the +blacksmith, and all married, except the resident director of the +boys' boarding-school; there is a doctor, a carpenter, a cabinet- +maker, a shoe-maker, and a storekeeper--a very agreeable man, who +had been missionary in Greenland and Labrador, and interpreter to +MacClure. There is one 'Studirter Theolog'. All are Germans, and +so are their wives. My friend the storekeeper married without +having ever beheld his wife before they met at the altar, and came +on board ship at once with her. He said it was as good a way of +marrying as any other, and that they were happy together. She was +lying in, so I did not see her. At eight years old, their children +are all sent home to Germany to be educated, and they seldom see +them again. On each side of the church are schools, and next to +them the missionaries' houses on one side of the square, and on the +other a row of workshops, where the Hottentots are taught all +manner of trades. I have got a couple of knives, made at +Gnadenthal, for the children. The girls occupy the school in the +morning, and the boys in the afternoon; half a day is found quite +enough of lessons in this climate. The infant school was of both +sexes, but a different set morning and afternoon. The +missionaries' children were in the infant school; and behind the +little blonde German 'Madels' three jet black niggerlings rolled +over each other like pointer-pups, and grinned, and didn't care a +straw for the spelling; while the dingy yellow little bastaards +were straining their black eyes out, with eagerness to answer the +master's questions. He and the mistress were both Bastaards, and +he seemed an excellent teacher. The girls were learning writing +from a master, and Bible history from a mistress, also people of +colour; and the stupid set (mostly black) were having spelling +hammered into their thick skulls by another yellow mistress, in +another room. At the boarding school were twenty lads, from +thirteen up to twenty, in training for school-teachers at different +stations. Gnadenthal supplies the Church of England with them, as +well as their own stations. There were Caffres, Fingoes, a +Mantatee, one boy evidently of some Oriental blood, with glossy, +smooth hair and a copper skin--and the rest Bastaards of various +hues, some mixed with black, probably Mozambique. The Caffre lads +were splendid young Hercules'. They had just printed the first +book in the Caffre language (I've got it for Dr. Hawtrey,)-- +extracts from the New Testament,--and I made them read the sheets +they were going to bind; it is a beautiful language, like Spanish +in tone, only with a queer 'click' in it. The boys drew, like +Chinese, from 'copies', and wrote like copper-plate; they sang some +of Mendelssohn's choruses from 'St. Paul' splendidly, the Caffres +rolling out soft rich bass voices, like melodious thunder. They +are clever at handicrafts, and fond of geography and natural +history, incapable of mathematics, quick at languages, utterly +incurious about other nations, and would all rather work in the +fields than learn anything but music; good boys, honest, but +'trotzig'. So much for Caffres, Fingoes, &c. The Bastaards are as +clever as whites, and more docile--so the 'rector' told me. The +boy who played the organ sang the 'Lorelei' like an angel, and +played us a number of waltzes and other things on the piano, but he +was too shy to talk; while the Caffres crowded round me, and +chattered away merrily. The Mantatees, whom I cannot distinguish +from Caffres, are scattered all over the colony, and rival the +English as workmen and labourers--fine stalwart, industrious +fellows. Our little 'boy' Kleenboy hires a room for fifteen +shillings a month, and takes in his compatriots as lodgers at half +a crown a week--the usurious little rogue! His chief, one James, +is a bricklayer here, and looks and behaves like a prince. It is +fine to see his black arms, ornamented with silver bracelets, +hurling huge stones about. + +All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being well watered, but it +is not healthy for whites; I imagine, too hot and damp. There are +three or four thousand coloured people there, under the control of +the missionaries, who allow no canteens at all. The people may +have what they please at home, but no public drinking-place is +allowed, and we had to take our own beer and wine for the three +days. The gardens and burial-ground are beautiful, and the square +is entirely shaded by about ten or twelve superb oaks; nothing +prettier can be conceived. It is not popular in the neighbourhood. +'You see it makes the d-d niggers cheeky' to have homes of their +own--and the girls are said to be immoral. As to that, there are +no so-called 'morals' among the coloured people, and how or why +should there? It is an honour to one of these girls to have a +child by a white man, and it is a degradation to him to marry a +dark girl. A pious stiff old Dutchwoman who came here the other +day for the Sacrament (which takes place twice a year), had one +girl with her, big with child by her son, who also came for the +Sacrament, and two in the straw at home by the other son; this +caused her exactly as much emotion as I feel when my cat kittens. +No one takes any notice, either to blame or to nurse the poor +things--they scramble through it as pussy does. The English are +almost equally contemptuous; but there is one great difference. My +host, for instance, always calls a black 'a d-d nigger'; but if +that nigger is wronged or oppressed he fights for him, or bails him +out of the Tronk, and an English jury gives a just verdict; while a +Dutch one simply finds for a Dutchman, against any one else, and +ALWAYS against a dark man. I believe this to be true, from what I +have seen and heard; and certainly the coloured people have a great +preference for the English. + +I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest Mozambiquer I have yet +seen, a bricklayer's labourer, who can speak English, and says he +was servant to an English Captain--'Oh, a good fellow he was, only +he's dead!' He now insists on my taking him as a servant. 'I +dessay your man at home is a good chap, and I'll be a good boy, and +cook very nice.' He is thick-set and short and strong. Nature has +adorned him with a cock eye and a yard of mouth, and art, with a +prodigiously tall white chimney-pot hat with the crown out, a +cotton nightcap, and a wondrous congeries of rags. He professes to +be cook, groom, and 'walley', and is sure you would be pleased with +his attentions. + +Well, to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered all over the village on +Sunday afternoon, and peeped into the cottages. All were neat and +clean, with good dressers of crockery, the VERY poorest, like the +worst in Weybridge sandpits; but they had no glass windows, only a +wooden shutter, and no doors; a calico curtain, or a sort of hurdle +supplying its place. The people nodded and said 'Good day!' but +took no further notice of me, except the poor old Hottentot, who +was seated on a doorstep. He rose and hobbled up to meet me and +take my hand again. He seemed to enjoy being helped along and +seated down carefully, and shook and patted my hand repeatedly when +I took leave of him. At this the people stared a good deal, and +one woman came to talk to me. + +In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, and saw the people +go in to 'Abendsegen'. The church was lighted, and as I sat there +and heard the lovely singing, I thought it was impossible to +conceive a more romantic scene. On Monday I saw all the schools, +and then looked at the great strong Caffre lads playing in the +square. One of them stood to be pelted by five or six others, and +as the stones came, he twisted and turned and jumped, and was +hardly ever hit, and when he was, he didn't care, though the others +hurled like catapults. It was the most wonderful display of +activity and grace, and quite incredible that such a huge fellow +should be so quick and light. When I found how comfortable dear +old Mrs. Rietz made me, I was sorry I had hired the cart and kept +it to take me home, for I would gladly have stayed longer, and the +heat did me no harm; but I did not like to throw away a pound or +two, and drove back that evening. Mrs. Rietz, told me her mother +was a Mozambiquer. 'And your father?' said I. 'Oh, I don't know. +MY MOTHER WAS ONLY A SLAVE.' She, too, was a slave, but said she +'never knew it', her 'missus' was so good; a Dutch lady, at a farm +I had passed, on the road, who had a hundred and fifty slaves. I +liked my Hottentot hut amazingly, and the sweet brown bread, and +the dinner cooked so cleanly on the bricks in the kitchen. The +walls were whitewashed and adorned with wreaths of everlasting +flowers and some quaint old prints from Loutherburg--pastoral +subjects, not exactly edifying. + +Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu for the present. + +February 3d.--Many happy returns of your birthday, dear -. I had a +bottle of champagne to drink your health, and partly to swell the +bill, which these good people make so moderate, that I am half +ashamed. I get everything that Caledon can furnish for myself and +S- for 15l. a month. + +On Saturday we got the sad news of Prince Albert's death, and it +created real consternation here. What a thoroughly unexpected +calamity! Every one is already dressed in deep mourning. It is +more general than in a village of the same size at home--(how I +have caught the colonial trick of always saying 'home' for England! +Dutchmen who can barely speak English, and never did or will see +England, equally talk of 'news from home'). It also seems, by the +papers of the 24th of December, which came by a steamer the other +day, that war is imminent. I shall have to wait for convoy, I +suppose, as I object to walking the plank from a Yankee privateer. +I shall wait here for the next mail, and then go back to Capetown, +stopping by the way, so as to get there early in March, and arrange +for my voyage. The weather had a relapse into cold, and an attempt +at rain. Pity it failed, for the drought is dreadful this year, +chiefly owing to the unusual quantity of sharp drying winds--a most +unlucky summer for the country and for me. + +My old friend Klein, who told me several instances of the kindness +and gratitude of former slaves, poured out to me the misery he had +undergone from the 'ingratitude' of a certain Rosina, a slave-girl +of his. She was in her youth handsome, clever, the best +horsebreaker, bullock-trainer and driver, and hardest worker in the +district. She had two children by Klein, then a young fellow; six +by another white man, and a few more by two husbands of her own +race! But she was of a rebellious spirit, and took to drink. +After the emancipation, she used to go in front of Klein's windows +and read the statute in a loud voice on every anniversary of the +day; and as if that did not enrage him enough, she pertinaciously +(whenever she was a little drunk) kissed him by main force every +time she met him in the street, exclaiming, 'Aha! when I young and +pretty slave-girl you make kiss me then; now I ugly, drunk, dirty +old devil and free woman, I kiss you!' Frightful retributive +justice! I struggled hard to keep my countenance, but the fat old +fellow's good-humoured, rueful face was too much for me. His +tormentor is dead, but he retains a painful impression of her +'ingratitude '. + +Our little Mantatee 'Kleenboy' has again, like Jeshurun, 'waxed fat +and kicked', as soon as he had eaten enough to be once more plump +and shiny. After his hungry period, he took to squatting on the +stoep, just in front of the hall-door, and altogether declining to +do anything; so he is superseded by an equally ugly little red- +headed Englishman. The Irish housemaid has married the German +baker (a fine match for her!), and a dour little Scotch +Presbyterian has come up from Capetown in her place. Such are the +vicissitudes of colonial house-keeping! The only 'permanency' is +the old soldier of Captain D-'s regiment, who is barman in the +canteen, and not likely to leave 'his honour', and the coloured +girl, who improves on acquaintance. She wants to ingratiate +herself with me, and get taken to England. Her father is an +Englishman, and of course the brown mother and her large family +always live in the fear of his 'going home' and ignoring their +existence; a MARRIAGE with the mother of his children would be too +much degradation for him to submit to. Few of the coloured people +are ever married, but they don't separate oftener than REALLY +married folks. Bill, the handsome West Indian black, married my +pretty washerwoman Rosalind, and was thought rather assuming +because he was asked in church and lawfully married; and she wore a +handsome lilac silk gown and a white wreath and veil, and very well +she looked in them. She had a child of two years old, which did +not at all disconcert Bill; but he continues to be dignified, and +won't let her go and wash clothes in the river, because the hot sun +makes her ill, and it is not fit work for women. + +Sunday, 9th.--Last night a dance took place in a house next door to +this, and a party of boers attempted to go in, but were repulsed by +a sortie of the young men within. Some of the more peaceable boers +came in here and wanted ale, which was refused, as they were +already very vinous; so they imbibed ginger-beer, whereof one drank +thirty-four bottles to his own share! Inspired by this drink, they +began to quarrel, and were summarily turned out. They spent the +whole night, till five this morning, scuffling and vociferating in +the street. The constables discreetly stayed in bed, displaying +the true Dogberry spirit, which leads them to take up Hottentots, +drunk or sober, to show their zeal, but carefully to avoid meddling +with stalwart boers, from six to six and a half feet high and +strong in proportion. The jabbering of Dutch brings to mind +Demosthenes trying to outroar a stormy sea with his mouth full of +pebbles. The hardest blows are those given with the tongue, though +much pulling of hair and scuffling takes place. 'Verdomde +Schmeerlap!'--'Donder and Bliksem! am I a verdomde Schmeerlap?'-- +'Ja, u is,' &c., &c. I could not help laughing heartily as I lay +in bed, at hearing the gambols of these Titan cubs; for this is a +boer's notion of enjoying himself. This morning, I hear, the +street was strewn with the hair they had pulled out of each other's +heads. All who come here make love to S-; not by describing their +tender feelings, but by enumerating the oxen, sheep, horses, land, +money, &c., of which they are possessed, and whereof, by the law of +this colony, she would become half-owner on marriage. There is a +fine handsome Van Steen, who is very persevering; but S- does not +seem to fancy becoming Mevrouw at all. The demand for English +girls as wives is wonderful here. The nasty cross little ugly +Scotch maid has had three offers already, in one fortnight! + +February 18th.--I expect to receive the letters by the English mail +to-morrow morning, and to go to Worcester on Thursday. On Saturday +the young doctor--good-humoured, jolly, big, young Dutchman--drove +me, with his pretty little greys, over to two farms; at one I ate +half a huge melon, and at the other, uncounted grapes. We poor +Europeans don't know what fruit CAN BE, I must admit. The melon +was a foretaste of paradise, and the grapes made one's fingers as +sticky as honey, and had a muscat fragrance quite inconceivable. +They looked like amber eggs. The best of it is, too, that in this +climate stomach-aches are not. We all eat grapes, peaches, and +figs, all day long. Old Klein sends me, for my own daily +consumption, about thirty peaches, three pounds of grapes, and +apples, pears, and figs besides--'just a little taste of fruits'; +only here they will pick it all unripe. + +February 19th.--The post came in late last night, and old Klein +kindly sent me my letters at near midnight. The post goes out this +evening, and the hot wind is blowing, so I can only write to you, +and a line to my mother. I feel really better now. I think the +constant eating of grapes has done me much good. + +The Dutch cart-owner was so extortionate, that I am going to wait a +few days, and write to my dear Malay to come up and drive me back. +It is better than having to fight the Dutch monopolist in every +village, and getting drunken drivers and bad carts after all. I +shall go round all the same. The weather has been beautiful; to- +day there is a wind, which comes about two or three times in the +year: it is not depressing, but hot, and a bore, because one must +shut every window or be stifled with dust. + +The people are burning the veld all about, and the lurid smoke by +day and flaming hill-sides by night are very striking. The ashes +of the Bosh serve as manure for the young grass, which will sprout +in the autumn rains. Such nights! Such a moon! I walk out after +dark when it is mild and clear, and can read any print by the +moonlight, and see the distant landscape as well as by day. + +Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, and the skin and hoofs, +which are pretty. + + + +LETTER VIII + + + +Caledon, Sunday. + +You must have fallen into second childhood to think of PRINTING +such rambling hasty scrawls as I write. I never could write a good +letter; and unless I gallop as hard as I can, and don't stop to +think, I can say nothing; so all is confused and unconnected: only +I fancy YOU will be amused by some of my 'impressions'. I have +written to my mother an accurate account of my health. I am +dressed and out of doors never later than six, now the weather +makes it possible. It is surprising how little sleep one wants. I +go to bed at ten and often am up at four. + +I made friends here the other day with a lively dried-up little old +Irishman, who came out at seven years old a pauper-boy. He has +made a fortune by 'going on Togt' (German, Tausch), as thus; he +charters two waggons, twelve oxen each, and two Hottentots to each +waggon, leader and driver. The waggons he fills with cotton, +hardware, &c., &c.--an ambulatory village 'shop',--and goes about +fifteen miles a day, on and on, into the far interior, swapping +baftas (calico), punjums (loose trowsers), and voerschitz (cotton +gownpieces), pronounced 'foossy', against oxen and sheep. When all +is gone he swaps his waggons against more oxen and a horse, and he +and his four 'totties' drive home the spoil; and he has doubled or +trebled his venture. En route home, each day they kill a sheep, +and eat it ALL. 'What!' says I; 'the whole?' 'Every bit. I +always take one leg and the liver for myself, and the totties roast +the rest, and melt all the fat and entrails down in an iron pot and +eat it with a wooden spoon.' Je n'en revenais pas. 'What! the +whole leg and liver at one meal?' 'Every bit; ay, and you'd do the +same, ma'am, if you were there.' No bread, no salt, no nothing-- +mutton and water. The old fellow was quite poetic and heroic in +describing the joys and perils of Togt. I said I should like to go +too; and he bewailed having settled a year ago in a store at +Swellendam, 'else he'd ha' fitted up a waggon all nice and snug for +me, and shown me what going on togt was like. Nothing like it for +the health, ma'am; and beautiful shooting.' My friend had 700l. in +gold in a carpet bag, without a lock, lying about on the stoep. +'All right; nobody steals money or such like here. I'm going to +pay bills in Capetown.' + +Tell my mother that a man would get from 2l. to 4l. a month wages, +with board, lodging, &c., all found, and his wife from 1l. 10s. to +2l. a month and everything found, according to abilities and +testimonials. Wages are enormous, and servants at famine price; +emigrant ships are CLEARED OFF in three days, and every ragged +Irish girl in place somewhere. Four pounds a month, and food for +self, husband, and children, is no uncommon pay for a good cook; +and after all her cookery may be poor enough. My landlady at +Capetown gave that. The housemaid had ONLY 1l. 5s. a month, but +told me herself she had taken 8l. in one week in 'tips'. She was +an excellent servant. Up country here the wages are less, but the +comfort greater, and the chances of 'getting on' much increased. +But I believe Algoa Bay or Grahamstown are by far the best fields +for new colonists, and (I am assured) the best climate for lung +diseases. The wealthy English merchants of Port Elizabeth (Algoa +Bay) pay best. It seems to me, as far as I can learn, that every +really WORKING man or woman can thrive here. + +My German host at Houw Hoek came out twenty-three years ago, he +told me, without a 'heller', and is now the owner of cattle and +land and horses to a large amount. But then the Germans work, +while the Dutch dawdle and the English drink. 'New wine' is a +penny a glass (half a pint), enough to blow your head off, and +'Cape smoke' (brandy, like vitriol) ninepence a bottle--that is the +real calamity. If the Cape had the grape disease as badly as +Madeira, it would be the making of the colony. + +I received a message from my Malay friends, Abdool Jemaalee and +Betsy, anxious to know 'if the Misses had good news of her +children, for bad news would make her sick'. Old Betsy and I used +to prose about young Abdurrachman and his studies at Mecca, and +about my children, with more real heartiness than you can fancy. +We were not afraid of boring each other; and pious old Abdool sat +and nodded and said, 'May Allah protect them all!' as a refrain;-- +'Allah, il Allah!' + + + +LETTER IX + + + +Caledon, Feb. 21st. + +This morning's post brought your packet, and the announcement of an +extra mail to-night--so I can send you a P.S. I hear that Capetown +has been pestilential, and as hot as Calcutta. It is totally +undrained, and the Mozambiquers are beginning to object to acting +as scavengers to each separate house. The 'vidanges' are more +barbarous even than in Paris. Without the south-easter (or 'Cape +doctor') they must have fevers, &c.; and though too rough a +practitioner for me, he benefits the general health. Next month +the winds abate, but last week an omnibus was blown over on the +Rondebosch road, which is the most sheltered spot, and inhabited by +Capetown merchants. I have received all the Saturday Reviews quite +safe, likewise the books, Mendelssohn's letters, and the novel. I +have written for my dear Choslullah to fetch me. The Dutch farmers +don't know how to charge enough; moreover, the Hottentot drivers +get drunk, and for two lone women that is not the thing. I pay my +gentle Malay thirty shillings a day, which, for a cart and four and +such a jewel of a driver, is not outrageous; and I had better pay +that for the few days I wait on the road, than risk bad carts, +tipsy Hottentots, and extortionate boers. + +This intermediate country between the 'Central African wilderness' +and Capetown has been little frequented. I went to the Church +Mission School with the English clergyman yesterday. You know I +don't believe in every kind of missionaries, but I do believe that, +in these districts, kind, judicious English clergymen are of great +value. The Dutch pastors still remember the distinction between +'Christenmenschen' and 'Hottentoten'; but the Church Mission +Schools teach the Anglican Catechism to every child that will +learn, and the congregation is as piebald as Harlequin's jacket. A +pretty, coloured lad, about eleven years old, answered my questions +in geography with great quickness and some wit. I said, 'Show me +the country you belong to.' He pointed to England, and when I +laughed, to the cape. 'This is where we are, but that is the +country I BELONG TO.' I asked him how we were governed, and he +answered quite right. 'How is the Cape governed?' 'Oh, we have a +Parliament too, and Mr. Silberbauer is the man WE send.' Boys and +girls of all ages were mixed, but no blacks. I don't think they +will learn, except on compulsion, as at Gnadenthal. + +I regret to say that Bill's wife has broken his head with a bottle, +at the end of the honeymoon. I fear the innovation of being +MARRIED AT CHURCH has not had a good effect, and that his +neighbours may quote Mr. Peachum. + +I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I hardly think it would +be an agreeable addition to the household at Esher. + +I hear that Worcester, Paarl, and Stellenbosch are beautiful, and +the road very desolate and grand: one mountain pass takes six +hours to cross. I should not return to Capetown so early, but poor +Captain J- has had his leg smashed and amputated, so I must look +out for myself in the matter of ships. Whenever it is hot, I am +well, for the heat here is so LIGHT and dry. The wind tries me, +but we have little here compared to the coast. I hope that the +voyage home will do me still more good; but I will not sail till +April, so as to arrive in June. May, in the Channel, would not do. + +How I wish I could send you the fruit now on my table--amber- +coloured grapes, yellow waxen apples streaked with vermillion in +fine little lines, huge peaches, and tiny green figs! I must send +dear old Klein a little present from England, to show that I don't +forget my Dutch adorer. I wish I could bring you the 'Biltong ' he +sent me--beef or bok dried in the sun in strips, and slightly +salted; you may carry enough in your pocket to live on for a +fortnight, and it is very good as a little 'relish'. The +partridges also have been welcome, and we shall eat the tiny haunch +of bok to-day. + +Mrs. D- is gone to Capetown to get servants (the Scotch girl having +carried on her amours too flagrantly), and will return in my cart. +S- is still keeping house meanwhile, much perturbed by the placid +indolence of the brown girl. The stableman cooks, and very well +too. This is colonial life--a series of makeshifts and +difficulties; but the climate is fine, people feel well and make +money, and I think it is not an unhappy life. I have been most +fortunate in my abode, and can say, without speaking cynically, +that I have found 'my warmest welcome at an inn'. Mine host is a +rough soldier, but the very soul of good nature and good feeling; +and his wife is a very nice person--so cheerful, clever, and +kindhearted. + +I should like to bring home the little Madagascar girl from +Rathfelders, or a dear little mulatto who nurses a brown baby here, +and is so clean and careful and 'pretty behaved',--but it would be +a great risk. The brown babies are ravishing--so fat and jolly and +funny. + +One great charm of the people here is, that no one expects money or +gifts, and that all civility is gratis. Many a time I finger small +coin secretly in my pocket, and refrain from giving it, for fear of +spoiling this innocence. I have not once seen a LOOK implying +'backsheesh', and begging is unknown. But the people are reserved +and silent, and have not the attractive manners of the darkies of +Capetown and the neighbourhood. + + + +LETTER X + + + +Caledon, Feb. 22d. + +Yesterday Captain D- gave me a very nice caross of blessbok skins, +which he got from some travelling trader. The excellence of the +Caffre skin-dressing and sewing is, I fancy, unequalled; the bok- +skins are as soft as a kid glove, and have no smell at all. + +In the afternoon the young doctor drove me, in his little gig-cart +and pair (the lightest and swiftest of conveyances), to see a wine- +farm. The people were not at work, but we saw the tubs and vats, +and drank 'most'. The grapes are simply trodden by a Hottentot, in +a tub with a sort of strainer at the bottom, and then thrown-- +skins, stalks, and all--into vats, where the juice ferments for +twice twenty-four hours; after which it is run into casks, which +are left with the bung out for eight days; then the wine is drawn +off into another cask, a little sulphur and brandy are added to it, +and it is bunged down. Nothing can be conceived so barbarous. I +have promised Mr. M- to procure and send him an exact account of +the process in Spain. It might be a real service to a most worthy +and amiable man. Dr. M- also would be glad of a copy. They +literally know nothing about wine-making here, and with such +matchless grapes I am sure it ought to be good. Altogether, 'der +alte Schlendrian' prevails at the Cape to an incredible degree. + +If two 'Heeren M-' call on you, please be civil to them. I don't +know them personally, but their brother is the doctor here, and the +most good-natured young fellow I ever saw. If I were returning by +Somerset instead of Worcester, I might put up at their parents' +house and be sure of a welcome; and I can tell you civility to +strangers is by no means of course here. I don't wonder at it; for +the old Dutch families ARE GENTLEFOLKS of the good dull old school, +and the English colonists can scarcely suit them. In the few +instances in which I have succeeded in thawing a Dutchman, I have +found him wonderfully good-natured; and the different manner in +which I was greeted when in company with the young doctor showed +the feeling at once. The dirt of a Dutch house is not to be +conceived. I have had sights in bedrooms in very respectable +houses which I dare not describe. The coloured people are just as +clean. The young doctor (who is much Anglicised) tells me that, in +illness, he has to break the windows in the farmhouses--they are +built not to open! The boers are below the English in manners and +intelligence, and hate them for their 'go-ahead' ways, though THEY +seem slow enough to me. As to drink, I fancy it is six of one and +half a dozen of the other; but the English are more given to +eternal drams, and the Dutch to solemn drinking bouts. I can't +understand either, in this climate, which is so stimulating, that I +more often drink ginger-beer or water than wine--a bottle of sherry +lasted me a fortnight, though I was ordered to drink it; somehow, I +had no mind to it. + +27th.--The cart could not be got till the day before yesterday, and +yesterday Mrs. D- arrived in it with two new Irish maids; it saved +her 3l., and I must have paid equally. The horses were very tired, +having been hard at work carrying Malays all the week to Constantia +and back, on a pilgrimage to the tomb of a Mussulman saint; so to- +day they rest, and to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp. Choslullah has +been appointed driver of a post-cart; he tried hard to be allowed +to pay a remplacant, and to fetch 'his missis', but was refused +leave; and so a smaller and blacker Malay has come, whom Choslullah +threatened to curse heavily if he failed to take great care of 'my +missis' and be a 'good boy'. Ramadan begins on Sunday, and my poor +driver can't even prepare for it by a good feast, as no fowls are +to be had here just now, and he can't eat profanely-killed meat. +Some pious Christian has tried to burn a Mussulman martyr's tomb at +Eerste River, and there were fears the Malays might indulge in a +little revenge; but they keep quiet. I am to go with my driver to +eat some of the feast (of Bairam, is it not?) at his priest's when +Ramadan ends, if I am in Capetown, and also am asked to a wedding +at a relation of Choslullah's. It was quite a pleasure to hear the +kindly Mussulman talk, after these silent Hottentots. The Malays +have such agreeable manners; so civil, without the least cringing +or Indian obsequiousness. I dare say they can be very 'insolent' +on provocation; but I have always found among them manners like +old-fashioned French ones, but quieter; and they have an +affectionate way of saying 'MY missis' when they know one, which is +very nice to hear. It is getting quite chilly here already; COLD +night and morning; and I shall be glad to descend off this plateau +into the warmer regions of Worcester, &c. I have just bought EIGHT +splendid ostrich feathers for 1l. of my old Togthandler friend. In +England they would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings +each. I have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you; the +latter makes a saddle-cloth which defies sore backs; they were +given me by Klein and a farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh was +poor stuff, white and papery. The Hottentots can't 'bray' the +skins as the Caffres do; and the woman who did mine asked me for a +trifle beforehand, and got so drunk that she let them dry halfway +in the process, consequently they don't look so well. + +Worcester, Sunday, March 2d. + +Oh, such a journey! Such country! Pearly mountains and deep blue +sky, and an impassable pass to walk down, and baboons, and +secretary birds, and tortoises! I couldn't sleep for it all last +night, tired as I was with the unutterably bad road, or track +rather. + +Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten o'clock, and though the +weather had been cold and unpleasant for two days, I had a lovely +morning, and away we went to Villiersdorp (pronounced Filjeesdorp). +It is quite a tiny village, in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley. +We were four hours on the road, winding along the side of a +mountain ridge, which we finally crossed, with a splendid view of +the sea at the far-distant end of a huge amphitheatre formed by two +ridges of mountains, and on the other side the descent into +Filjeesdorp. The whole way we saw no human being or habitation, +except one shepherd, from the time we passed Buntje's kraal, about +two miles out of Caledon. The little drinking-shop would not hold +travellers, so I went to the house of the storekeeper (as the +clergyman of Caledon had told me I might), and found a most kind +reception. Our host was English, an old man-of-war's man, with a +gentle, kindly Dutch wife, and the best-mannered children I have +seen in the colony. They gave us clean comfortable beds and a good +dinner, and wine ten years in the cellar; in short, the best of +hospitality. I made an effort to pay for the entertainment next +morning, when, after a good breakfast, we started loaded with +fruit, but the kind people would not hear of it, and bid me good- +bye like old friends. At the end of the valley we went a little +up-hill, and then found ourselves at the top of a pass down into +the level below. S- and I burst out with one voice, 'How +beautiful!' Sabaal, our driver, thought the exclamation was an +ironical remark on the road, which, indeed, appeared to be +exclusively intended for goats. I suggested walking down, to +which, for a wonder, the Malay agreed. I was really curious to see +him get down with two wheels and four horses, where I had to lay +hold from time to time in walking. The track was excessively +steep, barely wide enough, and as slippery as a flagstone pavement, +being the naked mountain-top, which is bare rock. However, all +went perfectly right. + +How shall I describe the view from that pass? In front was a long, +long level valley, perhaps three to five miles broad (I can't judge +distance in this atmosphere; a house that looks a quarter of a mile +off is two miles distant). At the extreme end, in a little gap +between two low brown hills that crossed each other, one could just +see Worcester--five hours' drive off. Behind it, and on each side +the plain, mountains of every conceivable shape and colour; the +strangest cliffs and peaks and crags toppling every way, and tinged +with all the colours of opal; chiefly delicate, pale lilac and +peach colour, but varied with red brown and Titian green. In spite +of the drought, water sparkled on the mountain-sides in little +glittering threads, and here and there in the plain; and pretty +farms were dotted on either side at the very bottom of the slopes +toward the mountain-foot. The sky of such a blue! (it is deeper +now by far than earlier in the year). In short, I never did see +anything so beautiful. It even surpassed Hottentot's Holland. On +we went, straight along the valley, crossing drift after drift;--a +drift is the bed of a stream more or less dry; in which sometimes +you are drowned, sometimes only POUNDED, as was our hap. The track +was incredibly bad, except for short bits, where ironstone +prevailed. However, all went well, and on the road I chased and +captured a pair of remarkably swift and handsome little +'Schelpats'. That you may duly appreciate such a feat of valour +and activity, I will inform you that their English name is +'tortoise'. On the strength of this effort, we drank a bottle of +beer, as it was very hot and sandy; and our Malay was a WET enough +Mussulman to take his full share in a modest way, though he +declined wine or 'Cape smoke Soopjes' (drams) with aversion. No +sooner had we got under weigh again, than Sabaal pulled up and +said, 'There ARE the Baviaans Missis want to see!' and so they +were. At some distance by the river was a great brute, bigger than +a Newfoundland dog, stalking along with the hideous baboon walk, +and tail vehemently cocked up; a troop followed at a distance, +hiding and dodging among the palmiets. They were evidently en +route to rob a garden close to them, and had sent a great stout +fellow ahead to reconnoitre. 'He see Missis, and feel sure she not +got a gun; if man come on horseback, you see 'em run like devil.' +We had not that pleasure, and left them, on felonious thoughts +intent. + +The road got more and more beautiful as we neared Worcester, and +the mountains grew higher and craggier. Presently, a huge bird, +like a stork on the wing, pounced down close by us. He was a +secretary-bird, and had caught sight of a snake. We passed 'Brant +Vley' (burnt or hot spring), where sulphur-water bubbles up in a +basin some thirty feet across and ten or twelve deep. The water is +clear as crystal, and is hot enough just NOT to boil an egg, I was +told. At last, one reaches the little gap between the brown hills +which one has seen for four hours, and drives through it into a +wide, wide flat, with still craggier and higher mountains all +round, and Worcester in front at the foot of a towering cliff. The +town is not so pretty, to my taste, as the little villages. The +streets are too wide, and the market-place too large, which always +looks dreary, but the houses and gardens individually are charming. +Our inn is a very nice handsome old Dutch house; but we have got +back to 'civilization', and the horrid attempts at 'style' which +belong to Capetown. The landlord and lady are too genteel to +appear at all, and the Hottentots, who are disguised, according to +their sexes, in pantry jacket and flounced petticoat, don't +understand a word of English or of real Dutch. At Gnadenthal they +understood Dutch, and spoke it tolerably; but here, as in most +places, it is three-parts Hottentot; and then they affect to +understand English, and bring everything wrong, and are sulky: but +the rooms are very comfortable. The change of climate is complete- +-the summer was over at Caledon, and here we are into it again--the +most delicious air one can conceive; it must have been a perfect +oven six weeks ago. The birds are singing away merrily still; the +approach of autumn does not silence them here. The canaries have a +very pretty song, like our linnet, only sweeter; the rest are very +inferior to ours. The sugar-bird is delicious when close by, but +his pipe is too soft to be heard at any distance. + +To those who think voyages and travels tiresome, my delight in the +new birds and beasts and people must seem very stupid. I can't +help it if it does, and am not ashamed to confess that I feel the +old sort of enchanted wonder with which I used to read Cook's +voyages, and the like, as a child. It is very coarse and +unintellectual of me; but I would rather see this now, at my age, +than Italy; the fresh, new, beautiful nature is a second youth--or +CHILDHOOD--si vous voulez. To-morrow we shall cross the highest +pass I have yet crossed, and sleep at Paarl--then Stellenbosch, +then Capetown. For any one OUT of health, and IN pocket, I should +certainly prescribe the purchase of a waggon and team of six +horses, and a long, slow progress in South Africa. One cannot walk +in the midday sun, but driving with a very light roof over one's +head is quite delicious. When I looked back upon my dreary, lonely +prison at Ventnor, I wondered I had survived it at all. + +Capetown, March 7th. + +After writing last, we drove out, on Sunday afternoon, to a deep +alpine valley, to see a NEW BRIDGE--a great marvel apparently. The +old Spanish Joe Miller about selling the bridge to buy water +occurred to me, and made Sabaal laugh immensely. The Dutch farmers +were tearing home from Kerk, in their carts--well-dressed, +prosperous-looking folks, with capital horses. Such lovely farms, +snugly nestled in orange and pomegranate groves! It is of no use +to describe this scenery; it is always mountains, and always +beautiful opal mountains; quite without the gloom of European +mountain scenery. The atmosphere must make the charm. I hear that +an English traveller went the same journey and found all barren +from Dan to Beersheba. I'm sorry for him. + +In the morning of Sunday, early, I walked along the road with +Sabaal, and saw a picture I shall never forget. A little Malabar +girl had just been bathing in the Sloot, and had put her scanty +shift on her lovely little wet brown body; she stood in the water +with the drops glittering on her brown skin and black, satin hair, +the perfection of youthful loveliness--a naiad of ten years old. +When the shape and features are PERFECT, as hers were, the coffee- +brown shows it better than our colour, on account of its perfect +EVENNESS--like the dead white of marble. I shall never forget her +as she stood playing with the leaves of the gum-tree which hung +over her, and gazing with her glorious eyes so placidly. + +On Monday morning, I walked off early to the old Drosdy +(Landdrost's house), found an old gentleman, who turned out to be +the owner, and who asked me my name and all the rest of the Dutch +'litanei' of questions, and showed me the pretty old Dutch garden +and the house--a very handsome one. I walked back to breakfast, +and thought Worcester the prettiest place I had ever seen. We then +started for Paarl, and drove through 'Bain's Kloof', a splendid +mountain-pass, four hours' long, constant driving. It was +glorious, but more like what one had seen in pictures--a deep, +narrow gorge, almost dark in places, and, to my mind, lacked the +BEAUTY of the yesterday's drive, though it is, perhaps, grander; +but the view which bursts on one at the top, and the descent, +winding down the open mountain-side, is too fine to describe. +Table Mountain, like a giant's stronghold, seen far distant, with +an immense plain, half fertile, half white sand; to the left, +Wagenmaker's Vley; and further on, the Paarl lying scattered on the +slope of a mountain topped with two DOMES, just the shape of the +cup which Lais (wasn't it?) presented to the temple of Venus, +moulded on her breast. The horses were tired, so we stopped at +Waggon-maker's Valley (or Wellington, as the English try to get it +called), and found ourselves in a true Flemish village, and under +the roof of a jolly Dutch hostess, who gave us divine coffee and +bread-and-butter, which seemed ambrosia after being deprived of +those luxuries for almost three months. Also new milk in +abundance, besides fruit of all kinds in vast heaps, and +pomegranates off the tree. I asked her to buy me a few to take in +the cart, and got a 'muid', the third of a sack, for a shilling, +with a bill, 'U bekomt 1 muid 28 granaeten dat Kostet 1s.' The old +lady would walk out with me and take me into the shops, to show the +'vrow uit Engelland' to her friends. It was a lovely place, +intensely hot, all glowing with sunshine. Then the sun went down, +and the high mountains behind us were precisely the colour of a +Venice ruby glass--really, truly, and literally;--not purple, not +crimson, but glowing ruby-red--and the quince-hedges and orange- +trees below looked INTENSELY green, and the houses snow-white. It +was a transfiguration--no less. + +I saw Hottentots again, four of them, from some remote corner, so +the race is not quite extinct. These were youngish, two men and +two women, quite light yellow, not darker than Europeans, and with +little tiny black knots of wool scattered over their heads at +intervals. They are hideous in face, but exquisitely shaped--very, +very small though. One of the men was drunk, poor wretch, and +looked the picture of misery. You can see the fineness of their +senses by the way in which they dart their glances and prick their +ears. Every one agrees that, when tamed, they make the best of +servants--gentle, clever, and honest; but the penny-a-glass wine +they can't resist, unless when caught and tamed young. They work +in the fields, or did so as long as any were left; but even here, I +was told, it was a wonder to see them. + +We went on through the Paarl, a sweet pretty place, reminding one +vaguely of Bonchurch, and still through fine mountains, with Scotch +firs growing like Italian stone pines, and farms, and vineyard upon +vineyard. At Stellenbosch we stopped. I had been told it was the +prettiest town in the colony, and it IS very pretty, with oak-trees +all along the street, like those at Paarl and Wagenmakkers Vley; +but I was disappointed. It was less beautiful than what I had +seen. Besides, the evening was dull and cold. The south-easter +greeted us here, and I could not go out all the afternoon. The inn +was called 'Railway Hotel', and kept by low coarse English people, +who gave us a filthy dinner, dirty sheets, and an atrocious +breakfast, and charged 1l. 3s. 6d. for the same meals and time as +old Vrow Langfeldt had charged 12s. for, and had given civility, +cleanliness, and abundance of excellent food;--besides which, she +fed Sabaal gratis, and these people fleeced him as they did me. +So, next morning, we set off, less pleasantly disposed, for +Capetown, over the flat, which is dreary enough, and had a horrid +south-easter. We started early, and got in before the wind became +a hurricane, which it did later. We were warmly welcomed by Mrs. +R-; and here I am in my old room, looking over the beautiful bay, +quite at home again. It blew all yesterday, and having rather a +sore-throat I stayed in bed, and to-day is all bright and +beautiful. But Capetown looks murky after Caledon and Worcester; +there is, to my eyes, quite a haze over the mountains, and they +look far off and indistinct. All is comparative in this world, +even African skies. At Caledon, the most distant mountains, as far +as your eye can reach, look as clear in every detail as the map on +your table--an appearance utterly new to European eyes. + +I gave Sabaal 1l. for his eight days' service as driver, as a +Drinkgelt, and the worthy fellow was in ecstasies of gratitude. +Next morning early, he appeared with a present of bananas, and his +little girl dressed from head to foot in brand-new clothes, bought +out of my money, with her wool screwed up extremely tight in little +knots on her black little head (evidently her mother is the +blackest of Caffres or Mozambiques). The child looked like a +Caffre, and her father considers her quite a pearl. I had her in, +and admired the little thing loud enough for him to hear outside, +as I lay in bed. You see, I too was to have my share in the +pleasure of the new clothes. This readiness to believe that one +will sympathize with them, is very pleasing in the Malays. + +March 15. + +I went to see my old Malay friends and to buy a water-melon. They +were in all the misery of Ramadan. Betsy and pretty Nassirah very +thin and miserable, and the pious old Abdool sitting on a little +barrel waiting for 'gun-fire'--i.e. sunset, to fall to on the +supper which old Betsy was setting out. He was silent, and the +corners of his mouth were drawn down just like -'s at an evening +party. + +I shall go to-morrow to bid the T-s good-bye, at Wynberg. I was to +have spent a few days there, but Wynberg is cold at night and +dampish, so I declined that. She is a nice woman--Irish, and so +innocent and frank and well-bred. She has been at Cold Bokke Veld, +and shocked her puritanical host by admiring the naked Caffres who +worked on his farm. He wanted them to wear clothes. + +We have been amused by the airs of a naval captain and his wife, +who are just come here. They complained that the merchant-service +officers spoke FAMILIARLY to their children on board. Quel audace! +When I think of the excellent, modest, manly young fellows who +talked very familiarly and pleasantly to me on board the St. +Lawrence, I long to reprimand these foolish people. + +Friday, 21st.--I am just come from prayer, at the Mosque in +Chiappini Street, on the outskirts of the town. A most striking +sight. A large room, like a county ball-room, with glass +chandeliers, carpeted with common carpet, all but a space at the +entrance, railed off for shoes; the Caaba and pulpit at one end; +over the niche, a crescent painted; and over the entrance door a +crescent, an Arabic inscription, and the royal arms of England! A +fat jolly Mollah looked amazed as I ascended the steps; but when I +touched my forehead and said, 'Salaam Aleikoom', he laughed and +said, 'Salaam, Salaam, come in, come in.' The faithful poured in, +all neatly dressed in their loose drab trousers, blue jackets, and +red handkerchiefs on their heads; they left their wooden clogs in +company, with my shoes, and proceeded, as it appeared, to strip. +Off went jackets, waistcoats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a +pantomime transformation; the red handkerchief was replaced by a +white skullcap, and a long large white shirt and full white drawers +flowed around them. How it had all been stuffed into the trim +jacket and trousers, one could not conceive. Gay sashes and +scarves were pulled out of a little bundle in a clean silk +handkerchief, and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In a moment the +whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I had come in +existed no more. Women suckled their children, and boys played +among the clogs and shoes all the time, and I sat on the floor in a +remote corner. The chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony +very decorous and solemn. It lasted an hour; and then the little +heaps of garments were put on, and the congregation dispersed, each +man first laying a penny on a very curious little old Dutch- +looking, heavy, iron-bound chest, which stood in the middle of the +room. + +I have just heard that the post closes to-night and must say +farewell--a rivederci. + + + +LETTER XI + + + +Capetown, March 20th. + +Dearest mother, + +Dr. Shea says he fears I must not winter in England yet, but that I +am greatly improved--as, indeed, I could tell him. He is another +of the kind 'sea doctors' I have met with; he came all the way from +Simon's Bay to see me, and then said, 'What nonsense is that?' when +I offered him a fee. This is a very nice place up in the +'gardens', quite out of the town and very comfortable. But I +regret Caledon. A- will show you my account of my beautiful +journey back. Worcester is a fairy-land; and then to catch +tortoises walking about, and to see 'baviaans', and snakes and +secretary birds eating them! and then people have the impudence to +think I must have been 'very dull!' Sie merken's nicht, that it is +THEY who are dull. + +Dear Dr. Hawtrey! he must have died just as I was packing up the +first Caffre Testament for him! I felt his death very much, in +connexion with my father; their regard for each other was an honour +to both. I have the letter he wrote me on J-'s marriage, and a +charming one it is. + +I took Mrs. A- a drive in a Hansom cab to-day out to Wynberg, to +see my friends Captain and Mrs. T-, who have a cottage under Table +Mountain in a spot like the best of St. George's Hill. Very dull +too; but as she is really a lady, it suits her, and Capetown does +not. I was to have stayed with them, but Wynberg is cold at night. +Poor B-'s wife is very ill and won't leave Capetown for a day. The +people here are wunderlich for that. A lady born here, and with +7,000l. a year, has never been further than Stellenbosch, about +twenty miles. I am asked how I lived and what I ate during my +little excursion, as if I had been to Lake Ngami. If only I had +known how easy it all is, I would have gone by sea to East London +and seen the Knysna and George district, and the primaeval African +forest, the yellow wood, and other giant trees. However, 'For what +I have received,' &c., &c. No one can conceive what it is, after +two years of prison and utter languor, to stand on the top of a +mountain pass, and enjoy physical existence for a few hours at a +time. I felt as if it was quite selfish to enjoy anything so much +when you were all so anxious about me at home; but as that is the +best symptom of all, I do not repent. + +S- has been an excellent travelling servant, and really a better +companion than many more educated people; for she is always amused +and curious, and is friendly with the coloured people. She is +quite recovered. It is a wonderful climate--sans que cela +paraisse. It feels chilly and it blows horridly, and does not seem +genial, but it gives new life. + +To-morrow I am going with old Abdool Jemaalee to prayers at the +Mosque, and shall see a school kept by a Malay priest. It is now +Ramadan,. and my Muslim friends are very thin and look glum. +Choslullah sent a message to ask, 'Might he see the Missis once +more? He should pray all the time she was on the sea.' Some pious +Christians here would expect such horrors to sink the ship. I +can't think why Mussulmans are always gentlemen; the Malay coolies +have a grave courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with both +European vulgarity and negro jollity. It is very curious, for they +only speak Dutch, and know nothing of oriental manners. I fear I +shall not see the Walkers again. Simon's Bay is too far to go and +come in a day, as one cannot go out before ten or eleven, and must +be in by five or half-past. Those hours are gloriously bright and +hot, but morning and night are cold. + +I am so happy in the thought of sailing now so very soon and seeing +you all again, that I can settle to nothing for five minutes. I +now feel how anxious and uneasy I have been, and how I shall +rejoice to get home. I shall leave a letter for A-, to go in +April, and tell him and you what ship I am in. I shall choose the +SLOWEST, so as not to reach England and face the Channel before +June, if possible. So don't be alarmed if I do not arrive till +late in June. Till then good-bye, and God bless you, dearest +mother--Auf frohes Wiedersehn. + + + +LETTER XII + + + +Capetown, Sunday, March 23d. + +It has been a REAL hot day, and threatened an earthquake and a +thunderstorm; but nothing has come of it beyond sheet lightning to- +night, which is splendid over the bay, and looks as if repeated in +a grand bush-fire on the hills opposite. The sunset was glorious. +That rarest of insects, the praying mantis, has just dropped upon +my paper. I am thankful that, not being an entomologist, I am +dispensed from the sacred duty of impaling the lovely green +creature who sits there, looking quite wise and human. Fussy +little brown beetles, as big as two lady-birds, keep flying into my +eyes, and the musquitoes are rejoicing loudly in the prospect of a +feast. You will understand by this that both windows are wide open +into the great verandah,--very unusual in this land of cold nights. + +April 4th.--I have been trying in vain to get a passage home. The +Camperdown has not come. In short, I am waiting for a chance +vessel, and shall pack up now and be ready to go on board at a +day's notice. + +I went on the last evening of Ramadan to the Mosque, having heard +there was a grand 'function'; but there were only little boys lying +about on the floor, some on their stomachs, some on their backs, +higgledy-piggledy (if it be not profane to apply the phrase to +young Islam), all shouting their prayers a tue tete. Priests, men, +women, and English crowded in and out in the exterior division. +The English behaved a l'Anglaise--pushed each other, laughed, +sneered, and made a disgusting display of themselves. I asked a +stately priest, in a red turban, to explain the affair to me, and +in a few minutes found myself supplied by one Mollah with a chair, +and by another with a cup of tea--was, in short, in the midst of a +Malay soiree. They spoke English very little, but made up for it +by their usual good breeding and intelligence. On Monday, I am +going to see the school which the priest keeps at his house, and to +'honour his house by my presence'. The delight they show at any +friendly interest taken in them is wonderful. Of course, I am +supposed to be poisoned. A clergyman's widow here gravely asserts +that her husband went mad THREE YEARS after drinking a cup of +coffee handed to him by a Malay!--and in consequence of drinking +it! It is exactly like the mediaeval feeling about the Jews. I +saw that it was quite a DEMONSTRATION that I drank up the tea +unhesitatingly. Considering that the Malays drank it themselves, +my courage deserves less admiration. But it was a quaint sensation +to sit in a Mosque, behaving as if at an evening party, in a little +circle of poor Moslim priests. + +I am going to have a photograph of my cart done. I was to have +gone to the place to-day, but when Choslullah (whom I sent for to +complete the picture) found out what I wanted, he implored me to +put it off till Monday, that he might be better dressed, and was so +unhappy at the notion of being immortalized in an old jacket, that +I agreed to the delay. Such a handsome fellow may be allowed a +little vanity. + +The colony is torn with dissensions as to Sunday trains. Some of +the Dutch clergy are even more absurd than our own on that point. +A certain Van der Lingen, at Stellenbosch, calls Europe 'one vast +Sodom', and so forth. There is altogether a nice kettle of +religious hatred brewing here. The English Bishop of Capetown +appoints all the English clergy, and is absolute monarch of all he +surveys; and he and his clergy are carrying matters with a high +hand. The Bishop's chaplain told Mrs. J- that she could not hope +for salvation in the Dutch Church, since her clergy were not +ordained by any bishop, and therefore they could only administer +the sacrament 'unto damnation'. All the physicians in a body, +English as well as Dutch, have withdrawn from the Dispensary, +because it was used as a means of pressure to draw the coloured +people from the Dutch to the English Church. + +This High-Church tyranny cannot go on long. Catholics there are +few, but their bishop plays the same game; and it is a losing one. +The Irish maid at the Caledon inn was driven by her bishop to be +married at the Lutheran church, just as a young Englishman I know +(though a fervent Puseyite) was driven to be married at the Scotch +kirk. The colonial bishops are despots in their own churches, and +there is no escape from their tyranny but by dissent. The Admiral +and his family have been anathematized for going to a fancy bazaar +given by the Wesleyans for their chapel. + +April 8th.--Yesterday, I failed about my cart photograph. First, +the owner had sent away the cart, and when Choslullah came dressed +in all his best clothes, with a lovely blue handkerchief setting +off his beautiful orange-tawny face, he had to rush off to try to +borrow another cart. As ill luck would have it, he met a 'serious +young man', with no front teeth, and a hideous wen on his eyebrow, +who informed the priest of Choslullah's impious purpose, and came +with him to see that he did NOT sit for his portrait. I believe it +was half envy; for my handsome driver was as pleased, and then as +disappointed, as a young lady about her first ball, and obviously +had no religious scruples of his own on the subject. The weather +is very delightful now--hot, but beautiful; and the south-easters, +though violent, are short, and not cold. As in all other +countries, autumn is the best time of year. + +April 15th.--Your letters arrived yesterday, to my great delight. +I have been worrying about a ship, and was very near sailing to-day +by the Queen of the South at twenty-four hours' notice, but I have +resolved to wait for the Camperdown. The Queen of the South is a +steamer,--which is odious, for they pitch the coal all over the +lower deck, so that you breathe coal-dust for the first ten days; +then she was crammed--only one cabin vacant, and that small, and on +the lower deck--and fifty-two children on board. Moreover, she +will probably get to England too soon, so I resign myself to wait. +The Camperdown has only upper-deck cabins, and I shall have fresh +air. I am not as well as I was at Caledon, so I am all the more +anxious to have a voyage likely to do me good instead of harm. + +I got my cart and Choslullah photographed after all. Choslullah +came next day (having got rid of his pious friend), quite resolved +that 'the Missis' should take his portrait, so I will send or bring +a few copies of my beloved cart. After the photograph was done, we +drove round the Kloof, between Table and Lion Mountain. The road +is cut on the side of Lion Mountain, and overhangs the sea at a +great height. Camp Bay, which lies on the further side of the +'Lion's Head', is most lovely; never was sea so deeply blue, rocks +so warmly brown, or sand and foam so glittering white; and down at +the mountain-foot the bright green of the orange and pomegranate +trees throws it all out in greater relief. But the atmosphere here +won't do after that of the 'Ruggings', as the Caledon line of +country is called. I shall never lose the impression of the view I +had when Dr. Morkel drove me out on a hill-side, where the view +seemed endless and without a vestige of life; and yet in every +valley there were farms; but it looked a vast, utter solitude, and +without the least haze. You don't know what that utter clearness +means--the distinctness is quite awful. Here it is always slightly +hazy; very pretty and warm, but it takes off from the grandeur. It +is the difference between a pretty Pompadour beauty and a Greek +statue. Those pale opal mountains, as distinct in every detail as +the map on your table, are so cheerful and serene; no melodramatic +effects of clouds and gloom. I suppose it is not really so +beautiful as it seemed to me, for other people say it is bare and +desolate, and certainly it is; but it seemed to me anything but +dreary. + +I am persuaded that Capetown is not healthy; indeed, the town can't +be, from its stench and dirt; but I believe the whole seashore is +more or less bad, compared to the upper plateaux, of which I know +only the first. I should have gone back to Paarl, only that ships +come and go within twenty-four hours, so one has the pleasure of +living in constant expectation, with packed trunks, wondering when +one shall get away. A clever Mr. M-, who has lived ALL OVER India, +and is going back to Singapore, with his wife and child, are now in +the house; and some very pleasant Jews, bound for British +Caffraria--one of them has a lovely little wife and three children. +She is very full of Prince Albert's death, and says there was not a +dry eye in the synagogues in London, which were all hung with black +on the day of his funeral, and prayer went on the whole day. 'THE +PEOPLE mourned for him as much as for Hezekiah; and, indeed, he +deserved it a great deal better,' was her rather unorthodox +conclusion. These colonial Jews are a new 'Erscheinung' to me. +They have the features of their race, but many of their +peculiarities are gone. Mr. L-, who is very handsome and +gentlemanly, eats ham and patronises a good breed of pigs on the +'model farm' on which he spends his money. He is (he says) a +thorough Jew in faith, and evidently in charitable works; but he +wants to say his prayers in English and not to 'dress himself up' +in a veil and phylacteries for the purpose; and he and his wife +talk of England as 'home', and care as much for Jerusalem as their +neighbours. They have not forgotten the old persecutions, and are +civil to the coloured people, and speak of them in quite a +different tone from other English colonists. Moreover, they are +far better mannered, and more 'HUMAN', in the German sense of the +word, in all respects;--in short, less 'colonial'. + +I have bought some Cape 'confeyt'; apricots, salted and then +sugared, called 'mebos'--delicious! Also pickled peaches, +'chistnee', and quince jelly. I have a notion of some Cherupiga +wine for ourselves. I will inquire the cost of bottling, packing, +&c.; it is about one shilling and fourpence a bottle here, sweet +red wine, unlike any other I ever drank, and I think very good. It +is very tempting to bring a few things so unknown in England. I +have a glorious 'Velcombers' for you, a blanket of nine Damara +sheepskins, sewn by the Damaras, and dressed so that moths and +fleas won't stay near them. It will make a grand railway rug and +'outside car' covering. The hunters use them for sleeping out of +doors. I have bought three, and a springbok caross for somebody. + +April 17th.--The winter has set in to-day. It rains steadily, at +the rate of the heaviest bit of the heaviest shower in England, and +is as cold as a bad day early in September. One can just sit +without a fire. Presently, all will be green and gay; for winter +is here the season of flowers, and the heaths will cover the +country with a vast Turkey carpet. Already the green is appearing +where all was brown yesterday. To-day is Good Friday; and if +Christmas seemed odd at Midsummer, Easter in autumn seems +positively unnatural. Our Jewish party made their exodus to-day, +by the little coasting steamer, to Algoa Bay. I rather condoled +with the pretty little woman about her long rough journey, with +three babies; but she laughed, and said they had had time to get +used to it ever since the days of Moses. All she grieved over was +not being able to keep Passover, and she described their domestic +ceremonies quite poetically. We heard from our former housemaid, +Annie, the other day, announcing her marriage and her sister's. +She wrote such a pretty, merry letter to S-, saying 'the more she +tried not to like him, the better she loved him, and had to say, +"Aha, Annie, you're caught at last."' A year and a half is a long +time to remain single in this country. + +Monday, April 21st, Easter Monday.--The mail goes out in an hour, +so I will just add, good-bye. The winter is now fairly set in, and +I long to be off. I fear I shall have a desperately cold week or +so at first sailing, till we catch the south-east trades. This +weather is beautiful in itself, but I feel it from the suddenness +of the change. We passed in one night from hot summer to winter, +which is like FINE English April, or October, only brighter than +anything in Europe. There is properly, no autumn or spring here; +only hot, dry, brown summer, with its cold wind at times, and fresh +green winter, all fragrance and flowers, and much less wind. Mr. +M-, of whom I told you, has been in every corner of the far East-- +Java, Sumatra, everywhere--and is extremely amusing. He has +brought his wife here for her health, and is as glad to talk as I +am. The conversation of an educated, clever person, is quite a new +and delightful sensation to me now. He appears to have held high +posts under the East India Company, is learned in Oriental +languages, and was last resident at Singapore. He says that no +doubt Java is Paradise, it is so lovely, and such a climate; but he +does not look as if it had agreed with him. I feel quite heart- +sick at seeing these letters go off before me, instead of leaving +them behind, as I had hoped. + +Well, I must say good-bye--or rather, 'auf Wiedersehn'--and God +knows how glad I shall be when that day comes! + + + +LETTER XIII + + + +Capetown, April 19th. + +Dearest mother, + +Here I am, waiting for a ship; the steamer was too horrid: and I +look so much to the good to be gained by the voyage that I did not +like to throw away the chance of two months at sea at this +favourable time of year, and under favourable circumstances; so I +made up my mind to see you all a month later. The sea just off the +Cape is very, very cold; less so now than in spring, I dare say. +The weather to-day is just like VERY warm April at home--showery, +sunshiny, and fragrant; most lovely. It is so odd to see an autumn +without dead leaves: only the oaks lose theirs, the old ones drop +without turning brown, and the trees bud again at once. The rest +put on a darker green dress for winter, and now the flowers will +begin. I have got a picture for you of my 'cart and four', with +sedate Choslullah and dear little Mohammed. The former wants to go +with me, 'anywhere', as he placidly said, 'to be the missis' +servant'. What a sensation his thatchlike hat and handsome orange- +tawny face would make at Esher! Such a stalwart henchman would be +very creditable. I shall grieve to think I shall never see my +Malay friends again; they are the only people here who are really +interesting. I think they must be like the Turks in manner, as +they have all the eastern gentlemanly 'Gelassenheit' (ease) and +politeness, and no eastern 'Geschmeidigkeit' (obsequiousness), and +no idea of Baksheesh; withal frugal, industrious, and money-making, +to an astonishing degree. The priest is a bit of a proselytiser, +and amused me much with an account of how he had converted English +girls from their evil courses and made them good Mussulwomen. I +never heard a naif and sincere account of conversions FROM +Christianity before, and I must own it was much milder than the +Exeter Hall style. + +I have heard a great many expressions of sorrow for the Queen from +the Malays, and always with the 'hope the people will take much +care of her, now she is alone'. Of course Prince Albert was only +the Queen's husband to them, and all their feeling is about her. +It is very difficult to see anything of them, for they want nothing +of you, and expect nothing but dislike and contempt. It would take +a long time to make many friends, as they are naturally +distrustful. I found that eating or drinking anything, if they +offer it, made most way, as they know they are accused of poisoning +all Christians indiscriminately. Of course, therefore, they are +shy of offering things. I drank tea in the Mosque at the end of +Ramadan, and was surrounded by delighted faces as I sipped. The +little boy who waits in this house here had followed us, and was +horrified: he is still waiting to see the poison work. + +No one can conceive what has become of all the ships that usually +touch here about this time. I was promised my choice of Green's +and Smith's, and now only the heavy old Camperdown is expected with +rice from Moulmein. A lady now here, who has been Heaven only +knows WHERE NOT, praises Alexandria above all other places, after +Suez. Her lungs are bad, and she swears by Suez, which she says is +the dreariest and healthiest (for lungs) place in the world. You +can't think how soon one learns to 'annihilate space', if not time, +in one's thoughts, by daily reading advertisements for every port +in India, America, Australia, &c., &c., and conversing with people +who have just come from the 'ends of the earth'. Meanwhile, I fear +I shall have to fly from next winter again, and certainly will go +with J- to Egypt, which seems to me like next door. + +I have run on, and not thanked you for your letter and M. Mignet's +beautiful eloge of Mr. Hallam, which pleased me greatly. I wish +Englishmen could learn to speak with the same good taste and +mesure. + +Mr. Wodehouse, who has been very civil to me, kindly tried to get +me a passage home in a French frigate lying here, but in vain. I +am now sorry I let the Jack tars here persuade me not to go in the +little barque; but they talked so much of the heat and damp of such +tiny cabins in an iron vessel, that I gave her up, though I liked +the idea of a good tossing in such a tiny cockboat. I will leave a +letter for the May mail, unless I sail within a week of to-morrow, +or go by the Jason, which would be home far sooner than the mail. +I only hope you and A- won't be uneasy; the worst that can happen +is delay, and the long voyage will be all gain to health, which +would not be the case in a steamer. + +All I hear of R- makes me wild to see her again. The little +darkies are the only pleasing children here, and a fat black +toddling thing is 'allerliebst'. I know a boy of four, literally +jet black, whom I long to steal as he follows his mother up to the +mountain to wash. Little Malays are lovely, but TOO well-behaved +and quiet. I tried to get a real 'tottie', or 'Hotentotje', but +the people were too drunk to remember where they had left their +child. C'est assez dire, that I should have had no scruple in +buying it for a bottle of 'smoke' (the spirit made from grape +husks). They are clever and affectionate when they have a chance, +poor things,--and so strange to look at. + +By the bye, a Bonn man, Dr. Bleek, called here with 'Grusse' from +our old friends, Professor Mendelssohn and his wife. He is +devoting himself to Hottentot and aboriginal literature!--and has +actually mastered the Caffre click, which I vainly practised under +Kleenboy's tuition. He wanted to teach me to say 'Tkorkha', which +means 'you lie', or 'you have missed' (in shooting or throwing a +stone, &c.)--a curious combination of meanings. He taught me to +throw stones or a stick at him, which he always avoided, however +close they fell, and cried 'Tkorkha!' The Caffres ask for a +present, 'Tkzeelah Tabak', 'a gift for tobacco'. + +The Farnese Hercules is a living TRUTH. I saw him in the street +two days ago, and he was a Caffre coolie. The proportions of the +head and throat were more wonderful in flesh, or muscle rather, +than in marble. I know a Caffre girl of thirteen, who is a noble +model of strength and beauty; such an arm--larger than any white +woman's--with such a dimple in her elbow, and a wrist and hand +which no glove is small enough to fit--and a noble countenance too. +She is 'apprenticed', a name for temporary slavery, and is highly +spoken of as a servant, as the Caffres always are. They are a +majestic race, but with just the stupid conceit of a certain sort +of Englishmen; the women and girls seem charming. + +Easter Sunday.--The weather continues beautifully clear and bright, +like the finest European spring. It seems so strange for the +floral season to be the winter. But as the wind blows the air is +quite cold to-day; nevertheless, I feel much better the last two +days. The brewing of the rain made the air very oppressive and +heavy for three weeks, but now it is as light as possible. + +I must say good-bye, as the mail closes to-morrow morning. Easter +in autumn is preposterous, only the autumn looks like spring. The +consumptive young girl whom I packed off to the Cape, and her +sister, are about to be married--of course. Annie has had a touch +of Algoa Bay fever, a mild kind of ague, but no sign of chest +disease, or even delicacy. My 'hurrying her off', which some +people thought so cruel, has saved her. Whoever comes SOON ENOUGH +recovers, but for people far gone it is too bracing. + + + +LETTER XIV + + + +Capetown, Saturday, May 3d. + +Dearest mother, + +After five weeks of waiting and worry, I have, at last, sent my +goods on board the ship Camperdown, now discharging her cargo, and +about to take a small party of passengers from the Cape. I offered +to take a cabin in a Swedish ship, bound for Falmouth; but the +captain could not decide whether he would take a passenger; and +while he hesitated the old Camperdown came in. I have the best +cabin after the stern cabins, which are occupied by the captain and +his wife and the Attorney-General of Capetown, who is much liked. +The other passengers are quiet people, and few of them, and the +captain has a high character; so I may hope for a comfortable, +though slow passage. I will let you know the day I sail, and leave +this letter to go by post. I may be looked for three weeks or so +after this letter. I am crazy to get home now; after the period +was over for which I had made up my mind, home-sickness began. + +Mrs. R- has offered me a darling tiny monkey, which loves me; but I +fear A- would send me away again if I returned with her in my +pocket. Nassirah, old Abdool's pretty granddaughter, brought me a +pair of Malay shoes or clogs as a parting gift, to-day. Mr. M-, +the resident at Singapore, tells me that his secretary's wife, a +Malay lady, has made an excellent translation of the Arabian +Nights, from Arabic into Malay. Her husband is an Indian +Mussulman, who, Mr. M- said, was one of the ablest men he ever +knew. Curious! + +I sat, yesterday, for an hour, in the stall of a poor German +basket-maker who had been long in Caffre-land. His wife, a +Berlinerin, was very intelligent, and her account of her life here +most entertaining, as showing the different Ansicht natural to +Germans. 'I had never', she said, 'been out of the city of Berlin, +and KNEW NOTHING.' (Compare with London cockney, or genuine +Parisian.) Thence her fear, on landing at Algoa Bay and seeing +swarms of naked black men, that she had come to a country where no +clothes were to be had; and what should she do when hers were worn +out? They had a grant of land at Fort Peddie, and she dug while +her husband made baskets of cane, and carried them hundreds of +miles for sale; sleeping and eating in Caffre huts. 'Yes, they are +good, honest people, and very well-bred (anstandig), though they go +as naked as God made them. The girls are pretty and very delicate +(fein), and they think no harm of it, the dear innocents.' If +their cattle strayed, it was always brought back; and they received +every sort of kindness. 'Yes, madam, it is shocking how people +here treat the blacks. They call quite an old man 'Boy', and speak +so scornfully, and yet the blacks have very nice manners, I assure +you.' When I looked at the poor little wizened, pale, sickly +Berliner, and fancied him a guest in a Caffre hut, it seemed an odd +picture. But he spoke as coolly of his long, lonely journeys as +possible, and seemed to think black friends quite as good as white +ones. The use of the words anstandig and fein by a woman who spoke +very good German were characteristic. She could recognise an +'Anstandigkeit' not of Berlin. I need not say that the Germans are +generally liked by the coloured people. Choslullah was astonished +and Pleased at my talking German; he evidently had a preference for +Germans, and put up, wherever he could, at German inns and +'publics'. + +I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. We talked of our dear +old Cornish friends. The Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse have been +very kind to me. I dined there twice; last time, with all the dear +good Walkers. I missed seeing the opening of the colonial +parliament by a mistake about a ticket, which I am sorry for. + +If I could have dreamed of waiting here so long, I would have run +up to Algoa Bay or East London by sea, and had a glimpse of +Caffreland. Capetown makes me very languid--there is something +depressing in the air--but my cough is much better. I can't walk +here without feeling knocked-up; and cab-hire is so dear; and +somehow, nothing is worth while, when one is waiting from day to +day. So I have spent more money than when I was most amused, in +being bored. + +Mr. J- drove me to the Capetown races, at Green Point, on Friday. +As races, they were nichts, but a queer-looking little Cape +farmer's horse, ridden by a Hottentot, beat the English crack +racer, ridden by a first-rate English jockey, in an unaccountable +way, twice over. The Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing, +and the crowd was fully half Malay: there were dozens of carts +crowded with the bright-eyed women, in petticoats of every most +brilliant colour, white muslin jackets, and gold daggers in their +great coils of shining black hair. All most 'anstandig', as they +always are. Their pleasure is driving about en famille; the men +have no separate amusements. Every spare corner in the cart is +filled by the little soft round faces of the intelligent-looking +quiet children, who seem amused and happy, and never make a noise +or have the fidgets. I cannot make out why they are so well +behaved. It favours A-'s theory of the expediency of utter +spoiling, for one never hears any educational process going on. +Tiny Mohammed never spoke but when he was spoken to, and was always +happy and alert. I observed that his uncle spoke to him like a +grown man, and never ordered him about, or rebuked him in the +least. I like to go up the hill and meet the black women coming +home in troops from the washing place, most of them with a fat +black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and a few rather older +trotting alongside, and if small, holding on by the mother's gown. +She, poor soul, carries a bundle on her head, which few men could +lift. If I admire the babies, the poor women are enchanted;--du +reste, if you look at blacks of any age or sex, they MUST grin and +nod, as a good-natured dog must wag his tail; they can't help it. +The blacks here (except a very few Caffres) are from the +Mozambique--a short, thick-set, ugly race, with wool in huge +masses; but here and there one sees a very pretty face among the +women. The men are beyond belief hideous. There are all possible +crosses--Dutch, Mozambique, Hottentot and English, 'alles +durcheinander'; then here and there you see that a Chinese or a +Bengalee a passe par la. The Malays are also a mixed race, like +the Turks--i.e. they marry women of all sorts and colours, provided +they will embrace Islam. A very nice old fellow who waits here +occasionally is married to an Englishwoman, ci-devant lady's-maid +to a Governor's wife. I fancy, too, they brought some Chinese +blood with them from Java. I think the population of Capetown must +be the most motley crew in the world. + +Thursday, May 8th.--I sail on Saturday, and go on board to-morrow, +so as not to be hurried off in the early fog. How glad I am to be +'homeward bound' at last, I cannot say. I am very well, and have +every prospect of a pleasant voyage. We are sure to be well found, +as the Attorney-General is on board, and is a very great man, +'inspiring terror and respect' here. + +S- says we certainly SHALL put in at St. Helena, so make up your +minds not to see me till I don't know when. She has been on board +fitting up the cabin to-day. I have SUCH a rug for J-! a mosaic of +skins as fine as marqueterie, done by Damara women, and really +beautiful; and a sheep-skin blanket for you, the essence of warmth +and softness. I shall sleep in mine, and dream of African hill- +sides wrapt in a 'Veld combas'. The poor little water-tortoises +have been killed by drought, and I can't get any, but I have the +two of my own catching for M-. + +Good-bye, dearest mother. + +You would have been moved by poor old Abdool Jemaalee's solemn +benediction when I took leave to-day. He accompanied it with a +gross of oranges and lemons. + + + +LETTER XV + + + +Capetown, Thursday, May 8th. + +At last, after no end of 'casus' and 'discrimina rerum', I shall +sail on Saturday the 10th, per ship Camperdown, for East India +Docks. + +These weary six weeks have cost no end of money and temper. I have +been eating my heart out at the delay, but it was utterly +impossible to go by any of the Indian ships. They say there have +never been so few ships sailing from the Cape as this year, yet +crowds were expected on account of the Exhibition. The Attorney- +General goes by our ship, so we are sure of good usage; and I hear +he is very agreeable. I have the best cabin next to the stern +cabin, in both senses of NEXT. S- has come back from the ship, +where she has spent the day with the carpenter; and I am to go on +board to-morrow. Will you ask R- to cause inquiries to be made +among the Mollahs of Cairo for a Hadji, by name Abdool Rachman, the +son of Abdool Jemaalee, of Capetown, and, if possible, to get the +inclosed letter sent him? The poor people are in sad anxiety for +their son, of whom they have not heard for four months, and that +from an old letter. Henry will thus have a part of all the +blessings which were solemnly invoked on me by poor old Abdool, who +is getting very infirm, but toddled up and cracked his old fingers +over my head, and invoked the protection of Allah with all form; +besides that Betsy sent me twelve dozen oranges and lemons. Abdool +Rachman is about twenty-six, a Malay of Capetown, speaks Dutch and +English, and is supposed to be studying theology at Cairo. The +letter is written by the prettiest Malay girl in Capetown. + +I won't enter upon my longings to be home again, and to see you +all. I must now see to my last commissions and things, and send +this to go by next mail. + +God bless you all, and kiss my darlings, all three. + + + +LETTER XVI + + + +Friday, May 16th. + +On board the good ship Camperdown, 500 miles North-west of Table- +Bay. + +I embarked this day week, and found a good airy cabin, and all very +comfortable. Next day I got the carpenter's services, by being on +board before all the rest, and relashed and cleeted everything, +which the 'Timmerman', of course, had left so as to get adrift the +first breeze. At two o'clock the Attorney-General, Mr. Porter, +came on board, escorted by bands of music and all the volunteers of +Capetown, quorum pars maxima fuit; i.e. Colonel. It was quite what +the Yankees call an 'ovation'. The ship was all decked with flags, +and altogether there was le diable a quatre. The consequence was, +that three signals went adrift in the scuffle; and when a Frenchman +signalled us, we had to pass for brutaux Anglais, because we could +not reply. I found means to supply the deficiency by the lining of +that very ancient anonymous cloak, which did the red, while a +bandanna handkerchief of the Captain's furnished the yellow, to the +sailmaker's immense amusement. On him I bestowed the blue outside +of the cloak for a pair of dungaree trowsers, and in signalling now +it is, 'up go 2.41, and my lady's cloak, which is 7.' + +We have had lovely weather, and on Sunday such a glorious farewell +sight of Table Mountain and my dear old Hottentot Hills, and of +Kaap Goed Hoop itself. There was little enough wind till +yesterday, when a fair southerly breeze sprang up, and we are +rolling along merrily; and the fat old Camperdown DOES roll like an +honest old 'wholesome' tub as she is. It is quite a bonne fortune +for me to have been forced to wait for her, for we have had a +wonderful spell of fine weather, and the ship is the ne plus ultra +of comfort. We are only twelve first-class upper-deck passengers. +The captain is a delightful fellow, with a very charming young +wife. There is only one child (a great comfort), a capital cook, +and universal civility and quietness. It is like a private house +compared to a railway hotel. Six of the passengers are invalids, +more or less. Mr. Porter, over-worked, going home for health to +Ireland; two men, both with delicate chests, and one poor young +fellow from Capetown in a consumption, who, I fear, will not +outlive the voyage. The doctor is very civil, and very kind to the +sick; but I stick to the cook, and am quite greedy over the good +fare, after the atrocious food of the Cape. Said cook is a +Portuguese, a distinguished artist, and a great bird-fancier. One +can wander all over the ship here, instead of being a prisoner on +the poop; and I even have paid my footing on the forecastle. S- +clambers up like a lively youngster. You may fancy what the +weather is, that I have only closed my cabin-window once during +half of a very damp night; but no one else is so airy. The little +goat was as rejoiced to be afloat again as her mistress, and is a +regular pet on board, with the run of the quarter-deck. She still +gives milk--a perfect Amalthaea. The butcher, who has the care of +her, cockers her up with dainties, and she begs biscuit of the +cook. I pay nothing for her fare. M-'s tortoises are in my cabin, +and seem very happy. Poor Mr. Porter is very sick, and so are the +two or three coloured passengers, who won't 'make an effort' at +all. Mrs. H- (the captain's wife), a young Cape lady, and I are +the only 'female ladies' of the party. The other day we saw a +shoal of porpoises, amounting to many hundreds, if not some +thousands, who came frisking round the ship. When we first saw +them they looked like a line of breakers; they made such a splash, +and they jumped right out of the water three feet in height, and +ten or twelve in distance, glittering green and bronze in the sun. +Such a pretty, merry set of fellows! + +We shall touch at St. Helena, where I shall leave this letter to go +by the mail steamer, that you may know a few weeks before I arrive +how comfortably my voyage has begun. + +We see no Cape pigeons; they only visit outward ships--is not that +strange?--but, en revanche, many more albatrosses than in coming; +and we also enjoy the advantage of seeing all the homeward-bound +ships, as they all PASS us--a humiliating fact. The captain +laughed heartily because I said, 'Oh, all right; I shall have the +more sea for my money',--when the prospect of a slow voyage was +discussed. It is very provoking to be so much longer separated +from you all than I had hoped, but I really believe that the bad +air and discomfort of the other ships would have done me serious +injury; while here I have every chance of benefiting to the utmost, +and having mild weather the whole way, besides the utmost amount of +comfort possible on board ship. There are some cockroaches, +indeed, but that is the only drawback. The Camperdown is fourteen +years old, and was the crack ship to India in her day. Now she +takes cargo and poop-passengers only, and, of course, only gets +invalids and people who care more for comfort than speed. + +Monday Evening, May 26th.--Here we are, working away still to reach +St. Helena. We got the tail of a terrific gale and a tremendous +sea all night in our teeth, which broke up the south-east trades +for a week. Now it is all smooth and fair, with a light breeze +again right aft; the old trade again. Yesterday a large shark paid +us a visit, with his suite of three pretty little pilot-fish, +striped like zebras, who swam just over his back. He tried on a +sailor's cap which fell overboard, tossed it away contemptuously, +snuffed at the fat pork with which a hook was baited, and would +none of it, and finally ate the fresh sheep-skin which the butcher +had in tow to clean it, previous to putting it away as a +perquisite. It is a beautiful fish in shape and very graceful in +motion. + +To-day a barque from Algoa Bay came close to us, and talked with +the speaking trumpet. She was a pretty, clipper-built, sharp- +looking craft, but had made a slower run even than ourselves. I +dare say we shall have her company for a long time, as she is bound +for St. Helena and London. My poor goat died suddenly the other +day, to the general grief of the ship; also one of the tortoises. +The poor consumptive lad is wonderfully better. But all the +passengers were very sick during the rough weather, except S- and +I, who are quite old salts. Last week we saw a young whale, a +baby, about thirty feet long, and had a good view of him as he +played round the ship. We shall probably be at St. Helena on +Wednesday, but I cannot write from thence, as, if there is time, I +shall get a run on shore while the ship takes in water. But this +letter will tell you of my well-being so far, and in about six +weeks after the date of it I hope to be with you. I hope you won't +expect too much in the way of improvement in my health. I look +forward, oh, so eagerly, to be with you again, and with my brats, +big and little. God bless you all. + +Yours ever, + +L. D. G. + +Wednesday, 28th.--Early morning, off St. Helena, James Town. + +Such a lovely UNREAL view of the bold rocks and baby-house forts on +them! Ship close in. Washer-woman come on board, and all hurry. + +Au revoir. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LETTERS FROM THE CAPE *** + +This file should be named lddfg10.txt or lddfg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, lddfg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lddfg10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/lddfg10.zip b/old/lddfg10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0aa6565 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lddfg10.zip diff --git a/old/lddfg10h.htm b/old/lddfg10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67885a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lddfg10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3621 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Letters from the Cape</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Letters from the Cape, by Lady Duff Gordon</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from the Cape, by Lady Duff Gordon + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Letters from the Cape + +Author: Lady Duff Gordon + +Release Date: April, 1997 [EBook #886] +[This file was first posted on April 24, 1997] +[Most recently updated: May 11, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1921 edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk. Second proof by Margaret Price.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>LETTERS FROM THE CAPE</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER I—THE VOYAGE</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Wednesday, 24th July.<br />Off the Scilly Isles, 6 P.M.</p> +<p>When I wrote last Sunday, we put our pilot on shore, and went down +Channel. It soon came on to blow, and all night was squally and +rough. Captain on deck all night. Monday, I went on deck +at eight. Lovely weather, but the ship pitching as you never saw +a ship pitch—bowsprit under water. By two o’clock +a gale came on; all ordered below. Captain left dinner, and, about +six, a sea struck us on the weather side, and washed a good many unconsidered +trifles overboard, and stove in three windows on the poop; nurse and +four children in fits; Mrs. T- and babies afloat, but good-humoured +as usual. Army-surgeon and I picked up children and bullied nurse, +and helped to bale cabin. Cuddy window stove in, and we were wetted. +Went to bed at nine; could not undress, it pitched so, and had to call +doctor to help me into cot; slept sound. The gale continues. +My cabin is water-tight as to big splashes, but damp and dribbling. +I am almost ashamed to like such miseries so much. The forecastle +is under water with every lurch, and the motion quite incredible to +one only acquainted with steamers. If one can sit this ship, which +bounds like a tiger, one should sit a leap over a haystack. Evidently, +I can never be sea-sick; but holding on is hard work, and writing harder.</p> +<p>Life is thus:- Avery—my cuddy boy—brings tea for S-, +and milk for me, at six. S- turns out; when she is dressed, I +turn out, and sing out for Avery, who takes down my cot, and brings +a bucket of salt water, in which I wash with vast danger and difficulty; +get dressed, and go on deck at eight. Ladies not allowed there +earlier. Breakfast solidly at nine. Deck again; gossip; +pretend to read. Beer and biscuit at twelve. The faithful +Avery brings mine on deck. Dinner at four. Do a little carpentering +in cabin, all the outfitters’ work having broken loose. +I am now in the captain’s cabin, writing. We have the wind +as ever, dead against us; and as soon as we get unpleasantly near Scilly, +we shall tack and stand back to the French coast, where we were last +night. Three soldiers able to answer roll-call, all the rest utterly +sick; three middies helpless. Several of crew, ditto. Passengers +very fairly plucky; but only I and one other woman, who never was at +sea before, well. The food on board our ship is good as to meat, +bread, and beer; everything else bad. Port and sherry of British +manufacture, and the water with an incredible <i>borachio</i>, essence +of tar; so that tea and coffee are but derisive names.</p> +<p>To-day, the air is quite saturated with wet, and I put on my clothes +damp when I dressed, and have felt so ever since. I am so glad +I was not persuaded out of my cot; it is the whole difference between +rest, and holding on for life. No one in a bunk slept at all on +Monday night; but then it blew as heavy a gale as it can blow, and we +had the Cornish coast under our lee. So we tacked and tumbled +all night. The ship being new, too, has the rigging all wrong; +and the confusion and disorder are beyond description. The ship’s +officers are very good fellows. The mizen is entirely worked by +the ‘young gentlemen’; so we never see the sailors, and, +at present, are not allowed to go forward. All lights are put +out at half-past ten, and no food allowed in the cabin; but the latter +article my friend Avery makes light of, and brings me anything when +I am laid up. The young soldier-officers bawl for him with expletives; +but he says, with a snigger, to me, ‘They’ll just wait till +their betters, the ladies, is looked to.’ I will write again +some day soon, and take the chance of meeting a ship; you may be amused +by a little scrawl, though it will probably be very stupid and ill-written, +for it is not easy to see or to guide a pen while I hold on to the table +with both legs and one arm, and am first on my back and then on my nose. +Adieu, till next time. I have had a good taste of the humours +of the Channel.</p> +<p>29th July, 4 Bells, i.e. 2 o’clock, p.m.—When I wrote +last, I thought we had had our share of contrary winds and foul weather. +Ever since, we have beaten about the bay with the variety of a favourable +gale one night for a few hours, and a dead calm yesterday, in which +we almost rolled our masts out of the ship. However, the sun was +hot, and I sat and basked on deck, and we had morning service. +It was a striking sight, with the sailors seated on oars and buckets, +covered with signal flags, and with their clean frocks and faces. +To-day is so cold that I dare not go on deck, and am writing in my black-hole +of a cabin, in a green light, with the sun blinking through the waves +as they rush over my port and scuttle. The captain is much vexed +at the loss of time. I persist in thinking it a very pleasant, +but utterly lazy life. I sleep a great deal, but don’t eat +much, and my cough has been bad; but, considering the real hardship +of the life—damp, cold, queer food, and bad drink—I think +I am better. When we can get past Finisterre, I shall do very +well, I doubt not.</p> +<p>The children swarm on board, and cry unceasingly. A passenger-ship +is no place for children. Our poor ship will lose her character +by the weather, as she cannot fetch up ten days’ lost time. +But she is evidently a race-horse. We overhaul everything we see, +at a wonderful rate, and the speed is exciting and pleasant; but the +next long voyage I make, I’ll try for a good wholesome old ‘monthly’ +tub, which will roll along on the top of the water, instead of cutting +through it, with the waves curling in at the cuddy skylights. +We tried to signal a barque yesterday, and send home word ‘all +well’; but the brutes understood nothing but Russian, and excited +our indignation by talking ‘gibberish ‘ to us; which we +resented with true British spirit, as became us.</p> +<p>It is now blowing hard again, and we have just been taken right aback. +Luckily, I had lashed my desk to my washing-stand, or that would have +flown off, as I did off my chair. I don’t think I shall +know what to make of solid ground under my feet. The rolling and +pitching of a ship of this size, with such tall masts, is quite unlike +the little niggling sort of work on a steamer—it is the difference +between grinding along a bad road in a four-wheeler, and riding well +to hounds in a close country on a good hunter. I was horribly +tired for about five days, but now I rather like it, and never know +whether it blows or not in the night, I sleep so soundly. The +noise is beyond all belief; the creaking, trampling, shouting, clattering; +it is an incessant storm. We have not yet got our masts quite +safe; the new wire-rigging stretches more than was anticipated (of course), +and our main-topmast is shaky. The crew have very hard work, as +incessant tacking is added to all the extra work incident to a new ship. +On Saturday morning, everybody was shouting for the carpenter. +My cabin was flooded by a leak, and I superintended the baling and swabbing +from my cot, and dressed sitting on my big box. However, I got +the leak stopped and cabin dried, and no harm done, as I had put everything +up off the floor the night before, suspicious of a dribble which came +in. Then my cot frame was broken by my cuddy boy and I lurching +over against S-’s bunk, in taking it down. The carpenter +has given me his own, and takes my broken one for himself. Board +ship is a famous place for tempers. Being easily satisfied, I +get all I want, and plenty of attention and kindness; but I cannot prevail +on my cuddy boy to refrain from violent tambourine-playing with a tin +tray just at the ear of a lady who worries him. The young soldier-officers, +too, I hear mentioned as ‘them lazy gunners’, and they struggle +for water and tea in the morning long after mine has come. We +have now been ten days at sea, and only three on which we could eat +without the ‘fiddles’ (transverse pieces of wood to prevent +the dishes from falling off). Smooth water will seem quite strange +to me. I fear the poor people in the forecastle must be very wet +and miserable, as the sea is constantly over it, not in spray, but in +tons of green water.</p> +<p>3d Aug.—We had two days of dead calm, then one or two of a +very light, favourable breeze, and yesterday we ran 175 miles with the +wind right aft. We saw several ships, which signalled us, but +we would not answer, as we had our spars down for repairs and looked +like a wreck, and fancied it would be a pity to frighten you all with +a report to that effect.</p> +<p>Last night we got all right, and spread out immense studding-sails. +We are now bowling along, wind right aft, dipping our studding-sail +booms into the water at every roll. The weather is still surprisingly +cold, though very fine, and I have to come below quite early, out of +the evening air. The sun sets before seven o’clock. +I still cough a good deal, and the bad food and drink are trying. +But the life is very enjoyable; and as I have the run of the charts, +and ask all sorts of questions, I get plenty of amusement. S- +is an excellent traveller; no grumbling, and no gossiping, which, on +board a ship like ours, is a great merit, for there is <i>ad nauseam</i> +of both.</p> +<p>Mr.—is writing a charade, in which I have agreed to take a +part, to prevent squabbling. He wanted to start a daily paper, +but the captain wisely forbade it, as it must have led to personalities +and quarrels, and suggested a play instead. My little white Maltese +goat is very well, and gives plenty of milk, which is a great resource, +as the tea and coffee are abominable. Avery brings it me at six, +in a tin pannikin, and again in the evening. The chief officer +is well-bred and agreeable, and, indeed, all the young gentlemen are +wonderfully good specimens of their class. The captain is a burly +foremast man in manner, with a heart of wax and every feeling of a gentleman. +He was in California, ‘<i>hide droghing</i>’ with Dana, +and he says every line of <i>Two Years</i> <i>before the Mast</i> is +true. He went through it all himself. He says that I am +a great help to him, as a pattern of discipline and punctuality. +People are much inclined to miss meals, and then want things at odd +hours, and make the work quite impossible to the cook and servants. +Of course, I get all I want in double-quick time, as I try to save my +man trouble; and the carpenter leaves my scuttle open when no one else +gets it, quite willing to get up in his time of sleep to close it, if +it comes on to blow. A maid is really a superfluity on board ship, +as the men rather like being ‘<i>aux petits soins</i>’. +The boatswain came the other day to say that he had a nice carpet and +a good pillow; did I want anything of the sort? He would be proud +that I should use anything of his. You would delight in Avery, +my cuddy man, who is as quick as ‘greased lightning’, and +full of fun. His misery is my want of appetite, and his efforts +to cram me are very droll. The days seem to slip away, one can’t +tell how. I sit on deck from breakfast at nine, till dinner at +four, and then again till it gets cold, and then to bed. We are +now about 100 miles from Madeira, and shall have to run inside it, as +we were thrown so far out of our course by the foul weather.</p> +<p>9th Aug.—Becalmed, under a vertical sun. Lat. 17 degrees, +or thereabouts. We saw Madeira at a distance like a cloud; since +then, we had about four days trade wind, and then failing or contrary +breezes. We have sailed so near the African shore that we get +little good out of the trades, and suffer much from the African climate. +Fancy a sky like a pale February sky in London, no sun to be seen, and +a heat coming, one can’t tell from whence. To-day, the sun +is vertical and invisible, the sea glassy and heaving. I have +been ill again, and obliged to lie still yesterday and the day before +in the captain’s cabin; to-day in my own, as we have the ports +open, and the maindeck is cooler than the upper. The men have +just been holystoning here, singing away lustily in chorus. Last +night I got leave to sling my cot under the main hatchway, as my cabin +must have killed me from suffocation when shut up. Most of the +men stayed on deck, but that is dangerous after sunset on this African +coast, on account of the heavy dew and fever. They tell me that +the open sea is quite different; certainly, nothing can look duller +and dimmer than this specimen of the tropics. The few days of +trade wind were beautiful and cold, with sparkling sea, and fresh air +and bright sun; and we galloped along merrily.</p> +<p>We are now close to the Cape de Verd Islands, and shall go inside +them. About lat. 4 degrees N. we expect to catch the S.E. trade +wind, when it will be cold again. In lat. 24 degrees, the day +before we entered the tropics, I sat on deck in a coat and cloak; the +heat is quite sudden, and only lasts a week or so. The sea to-day +is littered all round the ship with our floating rubbish, so we have +not moved at all.</p> +<p>I constantly long for you to be here, though I am not sure you would +like the life as well as I do. All your ideas of it are wrong; +the confinement to the poop and the stringent regulations would bore +you. But then, sitting on deck in fine weather is pleasure enough, +without anything else. In a Queen’s ship, a yacht, or a +merchantman with fewer passengers, it must be a delightful existence.</p> +<p>17th Aug.—Since I wrote last, we got into the south-west monsoon +for one day, and I sat up by the steersman in intense enjoyment—a +bright sun and glittering blue sea; and we tore along, pitching and +tossing the water up like mad. It was glorious. At night, +I was calmly reposing in my cot, in the middle of the steerage, just +behind the main hatchway, when I heard a crashing of rigging and a violent +noise and confusion on deck. The captain screamed out orders which +informed me that we were in the thick of a collision—of course +I lay still, and waited till the row, or the ship, went down. +I found myself next day looked upon as no better than a heathen by all +the women, because I had been cool, and declined to get up and make +a noise. Presently the officers came and told me that a big ship +had borne down on us—we were on the starboard tack, and all right—carried +off our flying jib-boom and whisker (the sort of yard to the bowsprit). +The captain says he was never in such imminent danger in his life, as +she threatened to swing round and to crush into our waist, which would +have been certain destruction. The little dandy soldier-officer +behaved capitally; he turned his men up in no time, and had them all +ready. He said, ‘Why, you know, I must see that my fellows +go down decently.’ S- was as cool as an icicle, offered +me my pea-jacket, &c., which I declined, as it would be of no use +for me to go off in boats, even supposing there were time, and I preferred +going down comfortably in my cot. Finding she was of no use to +me, she took a yelling maid in custody, and was thought a brute for +begging her to hold her noise. The first lieutenant, who looks +on passengers as odious cargo, has utterly mollified to me since this +adventure. I heard him report to the captain that I was ‘among +‘em all, and never sung out, nor asked a question the while’. +This he called ‘beautiful’.</p> +<p>Next day we got light wind S.W. (which ought to be the S.E. trades), +and the weather has been, beyond all description, lovely ever since. +Cool, but soft, sunny and bright—in short, perfect; only the sky +is so pale. Last night the sunset was a vision of loveliness, +a sort of Pompadour paradise; the sky seemed full of rose-crowned <i>amorini</i>, +and the moon wore a rose-coloured veil of bright pink cloud, all so +light, so airy, so brilliant, and so fleeting, that it was a kind of +intoxication. It is far less grand than northern colour, but so +lovely, so shiny. Then the flying fish skimmed like silver swallows +over the blue water. Such a sight! Also, I saw a whale spout +like a very tiny garden fountain. The Southern Cross is a delusion, +and the tropical moon no better than a Parisian one, at present. +We are now in lat. 31 degrees about, and have been driven halfway to +Rio by this sweet southern breeze. I have never yet sat on deck +without a cloth jacket or shawl, and the evenings are chilly. +I no longer believe in tropical heat at sea. Even during the calm +it was not so hot as I have often felt it in England—and that, +under a vertical sun. The ship that nearly ran us and herself +down, must have kept no look-out, and refused to answer our hail. +She is supposed to be from Glasgow by her looks. We may speak +a ship and send letters on board; so excuse scrawl and confusion, it +is so difficult to write at all.</p> +<p>30th August.—About 25 degrees S. lat. and very much to the +west. We have had all sorts of weather—some beautiful, some +very rough, but always contrary winds—and got within 200 miles +of the coast of South America. We now have a milder breeze from +the <i>soft</i> N.E., after a <i>bitter</i> S.W., with Cape pigeons +and mollymawks (a small albatross), not to compare with our gulls. +We had private theatricals last night—ill acted, but beautifully +got up as far as the sailors were concerned. I did not act, as +I did not feel well enough, but I put a bit for Neptune into the Prologue +and made the boatswain’s mate speak it, to make up for the absence +of any shaving at the Line, which the captain prohibited altogether; +I thought it hard the men should not get their ‘tips’. +The boatswain’s mate dressed and spoke it admirably; and the old +carpenter sang a famous comic song, dressed to perfection as a ploughboy.</p> +<p>I am disappointed in the tropics as to warmth. Our thermometer +stood at 82 degrees one day only, under the vertical sun, N. of the +Line; <i>on</i> the Line at 74 degrees; and at sea it <i>feels</i> 10 +degrees colder than it is. I have never been hot, except for two +days 4 degrees N. of the Line, and now it is very cold, but it is very +invigorating. All day long it looks and feels like early morning; +the sky is pale blue, with light broken clouds; the sea an inconceivably +pure opaque blue—lapis lazuli, but far brighter. I saw a +lovely dolphin three days ago; his body five feet long (some said more) +is of a <i>fiery</i> blue-green, and his huge tail golden bronze. +I was glad he scorned the bait and escaped the hook; he was so beautiful. +This is the sea from which Venus rose in her youthful glory. All +is young, fresh, serene, beautiful, and cheerful.</p> +<p>We have not seen a sail for weeks. But the life at sea makes +amends for anything, to my mind. I am never tired of the calms, +and I enjoy a stiff gale like a Mother Carey’s chicken, so long +as I can be on deck or in the captain’s cabin. Between decks +it is very close and suffocating in rough weather, as all is shut up. +We shall be still three weeks before we reach the Cape; and now the +sun sets with a sudden plunge before six, and the evenings are growing +too cold again for me to go on deck after dinner. As long as I +could, I spent fourteen hours out of the twenty-four in my quiet corner +by the wheel, basking in the tropical sun. Never again will I +believe in the tales of a burning sun; the vertical sun just kept me +warm—no more. In two days we shall be bitterly cold again.</p> +<p>Immediately after writing the above it began to blow a gale (favourable, +indeed, but more furious than the captain had ever known in these seas),—about +lat. 34 degrees S. and long. 25 degrees. For three days we ran +under close-reefed (four reefs) topsails, before a sea. The gale +in the Bay of Biscay was a little shaking up in a puddle (a dirty one) +compared to that glorious South Atlantic in all its majestic fury. +The intense blue waves, crowned with fantastic crests of bright emeralds +and with the spray blowing about like wild dishevelled hair, came after +us to swallow us up at a mouthful, but took us up on their backs, and +hurried us along as if our ship were a cork. Then the gale slackened, +and we had a dead calm, during which the waves banged us about frightfully, +and our masts were in much jeopardy. Then a foul wind, S.E., increased +into a gale, lasting five days, during which orders were given in dumb +show, as no one’s voice could be heard; through it we fought and +laboured and dipped under water, and I only had my dry corner by the +wheel, where the kind pleasant little third officer lashed me tight. +It was far more formidable than the first gale, but less beautiful; +and we made so much lee-way that we lost ten days, and only arrived +here yesterday. I recommend a fortnight’s heavy gale in +the South Atlantic as a cure for a <i>blasé</i> state of mind. +It cannot be described; the sound, the sense of being hurled along without +the smallest regard to ‘this side uppermost’; the beauty +of the whole scene, and the occasional crack and bear-away of sails +and spars; the officer trying to ‘sing out’, quite in vain, +and the boatswain’s whistle scarcely audible. I remained +near the wheel every day for as long as I could bear it, and was enchanted.</p> +<p>Then the mortal perils of eating, drinking, moving, sitting, lying; +standing can’t be done, even by the sailors, without holding on. +<i>The</i> night of the gale, my cot twice touched the beams of the +ship above me. I asked the captain if I had dreamt it, but he +said it was quite possible; he had never seen a ship so completely on +her beam ends come up all right, masts and yards all sound.</p> +<p>There is a middy about half M-’s size, a very tiny ten-year-older, +who has been my delight; he is so completely ‘the officer and +the gentleman’. My maternal entrails turned like old Alvarez, +when that baby lay out on the very end of the cross-jack yard to reef, +in the gale; it was quite voluntary, and the other newcomers all declined. +I always called him ‘Mr. -, sir’, and asked his leave gravely, +or, on occasions, his protection and assistance; and his little dignity +was lovely. He is polite to the ladies, and slightly distant to +the passenger-boys, bigger than himself, whom he orders off dangerous +places; ‘Children, come out of that; you’ll be overboard.’</p> +<p>A few days before landing I caught a bad cold, and kept my bed. +I caught this cold by ‘sleeping with a damp man in my cabin’, +as some one said. During the last gale, the cabin opposite mine +was utterly swamped, and I found the Irish soldier-servant of a little +officer of eighteen in despair; the poor lad had got ague, and eight +inches of water in his bed, and two feet in the cabin. I looked +in and said, ‘He can’t stay there—carry him into my +cabin, and lay him in the bunk’; which he did, with tears running +down his honest old face. So we got the boy into S-’s bed, +and cured his fever and ague, caught under canvas in Romney Marsh. +Meantime S- had to sleep in a chair and to undress in the boy’s +wet cabin. As a token of gratitude, he sent me a poodle pup, born +on board, very handsome. The artillery officers were generally +well-behaved; the men, deserters and ruffians, sent out as drivers. +We have had five courts-martial and two floggings in eight weeks, among +seventy men. They were pampered with food and porter, and would +not pull a rope, or get up at six to air their quarters. The sailors +are an excellent set of men. When we parted, the first lieutenant +said to me, ‘Weel, ye’ve a wonderful idee of discipline +for a leddy, I will say. You’ve never been reported but +once, and that was on sick leave, for your light, and all in order.’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Cape Town, Sept. 18.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>We anchored yesterday morning, and Captain J-, the Port Captain, +came off with a most kind letter from Sir Baldwin Walker, his gig, and +a boat and crew for S- and the baggage. So I was whipped over +the ship’s side in a chair, and have come to a boarding house +where the J-s live. I was tired and dizzy and landsick, and lay +down and went to sleep. After an hour or so I woke, hearing a +little <i>gazouillement</i>, like that of chimney swallows. On +opening my eyes I beheld four demons, ‘sons of the obedient Jinn’, +each bearing an article of furniture, and holding converse over me in +the language of Nephelecoecygia. Why has no one ever mentioned +the curious little soft voices of these coolies?—you can’t +hear them with the naked ear, three feet off. The most hideous +demon (whose complexion had not only the colour, but the precise metallic +lustre of an ill black-leaded stove) at last chirruped a wish for orders, +which I gave. I asked the pert, active, cockney housemaid what +I ought to pay them, as, being a stranger, they might overcharge me. +Her scorn was sublime, ‘Them nasty blacks never asks more than +their regular charge.’ So I asked the black-lead demon, +who demanded ‘two shilling each horse in waggon’, and a +dollar each ‘coolie man’. He then glided with fiendish +noiselessness about the room, arranged the furniture to his own taste, +and finally said, ‘Poor missus sick’; then more chirruping +among themselves, and finally a fearful gesture of incantation, accompanied +by ‘God bless poor missus. Soon well now’. The +wrath of the cockney housemaid became majestic: ‘There, ma’am; +you see how saucy they have grown—a nasty black heathen Mohamedan +a blessing of a white Christian!’</p> +<p>These men are the Auvergnats of Africa. I was assured that +bankers entrust them with large sums in gold, which they carry some +hundred and twenty miles, by unknown tracks, for a small gratuity. +The pretty, graceful Malays are no honester than ourselves, but are +excellent workmen.</p> +<p>To-morrow, my linen will go to a ravine in the giant mountain at +my back, and there be scoured in a clear spring by brown women, bleached +on the mountain top, and carried back all those long miles on their +heads, as it went up.</p> +<p>My landlady is Dutch; the waiter is an Africander, half Dutch, half +Malay, very handsome, and exactly like a French gentleman, and as civil.</p> +<p>Enter ‘Africander’ lad with a nosegay; only one flower +that I know—heliotrope. The vegetation is lovely; the freshness +of spring and the richness of summer. The leaves on the trees +are in all the beauty of spring. Mrs. R- brought me a plate of +oranges, ‘just gathered’, as soon as I entered the house—and, +oh! how good they were! better even than the Maltese. They are +going out, and <i>dear</i> now—two a penny, very large and delicious. +I am wild to get out and see the glorious scenery and the hideous people. +To-day the wind has been a cold south-wester, and I have not been out. +My windows look N. and E. so I get all the sun and warmth. The +beauty of Table Bay is astounding. Fancy the Undercliff in the +Isle of Wight magnified a hundred-fold, with clouds floating halfway +up the mountain. The Hottentot mountains in the distance have +a fantastic jagged outline, which hardly looks real. The town +is like those in the south of Europe; flat roofs, and all unfinished; +roads are simply non-existent. At the doors sat brown women with +black hair that shone like metal, very handsome; they are Malays, and +their men wear conical hats a-top of turbans, and are the chief artisans. +At the end of the pier sat a Mozambique woman in white drapery and the +most majestic attitude, like a Roman matron; her features large and +strong and harsh, but fine; and her skin blacker than night.</p> +<p>I have got a couple of Cape pigeons (the storm-bird of the South +Atlantic) for J-’s hat. They followed us several thousand +miles, and were hooked for their pains. The albatrosses did not +come within hail.</p> +<p>The little Maltese goat gave a pint of milk night and morning, and +was a great comfort to the cow. She did not like the land or the +grass at first, and is to be thrown out of milk now. She is much +admired and petted by the young Africander. My room is at least +eighteen feet high, and contains exactly a bedstead, one straw mattrass, +one rickety table, one wash-table, two chairs, and broken looking-glass; +no carpet, and a hiatus of three inches between the floor and the door, +but all very clean; and excellent food. I have not made a bargain +yet, but I dare say I shall stay here.</p> +<p>Friday.—I have just received your letter; where it has been +hiding, I can’t conceive. To-day is cold and foggy, like +a baddish day in June with you; no colder, if so cold. Still, +I did not venture out, the fog rolls so heavily over the mountain. +Well, I must send off this yarn, which is as interminable as the ‘sinnet’ +and ‘foxes’ which I twisted with the mids.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER II</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Cape Town, Oct. 3.</p> +<p>I came on shore on a very fine day, but the weather changed, and +we had a fortnight of cold and damp and S.W. wind (equivalent to our +east wind), such as the ‘oldest inhabitant’ never experienced; +and I have had as bad an attack of bronchitis as ever I remember, having +been in bed till yesterday. I had a very good doctor, half Italian, +half Dane, born at the Cape of Good Hope, and educated at Edinburgh, +named Chiappini. He has a son studying medicine in London, whose +mother is Dutch; such is the mixture of bloods here.</p> +<p>Yesterday, the wind went to the south-east; the blessed sun shone +out, and the weather was lovely at once. The mountain threw off +his cloak of cloud, and all was bright and warm. I got up and +sat in the verandah over the stoep (a kind of terrace in front of every +house here). They brought me a tortoise as big as half a crown +and as lively as a cricket to look at, and a chameleon like a fairy +dragon—a green fellow, five inches long, with no claws on his +feet, but suckers like a fly—the most engaging little beast. +He sat on my finger, and caught flies with great delight and dexterity, +and I longed to send him to M-. To-day, I went a long drive with +Captain and Mrs. J-: we went to Rondebosch and Wynberg—lovely +country; rather like Herefordshire; red earth and oak-trees. Miles +of the road were like Gainsborough-lane, on a large scale, and looked +quite English; only here and there a hedge of prickly pear, or the big +white aruns in the ditches, told a different tale; and the scarlet geraniums +and myrtles growing wild puzzled one.</p> +<p>And then came rattling along a light, rough, but well-poised cart, +with an Arab screw driven by a Malay, in a great hat on his kerchiefed +head, and his wife, with her neat dress, glossy black hair, and great +gold earrings. They were coming with fish, which he had just caught +at Kalk Bay, and was going to sell for the dinners of the Capetown folk. +You pass neat villas, with pretty gardens and stoeps, gay with flowers, +and at the doors of several, neat Malay girls are lounging. They +are the best servants here, for the emigrants mostly drink. Then +you see a group of children at play, some as black as coals, some brown +and very pretty. A little black girl, about R-’s age, has +carefully tied what little petticoat she has, in a tight coil round +her waist, and displays the most darling little round legs and behind, +which it would be a real pleasure to slap; it is so shiny and round, +and she runs and stands so strongly and gracefully.</p> +<p>Here comes another Malay, with a pair of baskets hanging from a stick +across his shoulder, like those in Chinese pictures, which his hat also +resembles. Another cart full of working men, with a Malay driver; +and inside are jumbled some red-haired, rosy-cheeked English navvies, +with the ugliest Mozambiques, blacker than Erebus, and with faces all +knobs and corners, like a crusty loaf. As we drive home we see +a span of sixteen noble oxen in the marketplace, and on the ground squats +the Hottentot driver. His face no words can describe—his +cheek-bones are up under his hat, and his meagre-pointed chin halfway +down to his waist; his eyes have the dull look of a viper’s, and +his skin is dirty and sallow, but not darker than a dirty European’s.</p> +<p>Capetown is rather pretty, but beyond words untidy and out of repair. +As it is neither drained nor paved, it won’t do in hot weather; +and I shall migrate ‘up country’ to a Dutch village. +Mrs. J-, who is Dutch herself, tells me that one may board in a Dutch +farm-house very cheaply, and with great comfort (of course eating with +the family), and that they will drive you about the country and tend +your horses for nothing, if you are friendly, and don’t treat +them with <i>Engelsche hoog-moedigheid.</i></p> +<p>Oct. 19th.—The packet came in last night, but just in time +to save the fine of 50<i>l</i>. per diem, and I got your welcome letter +this morning. I have been coughing all this time, but I hope I +shall improve. I came out at the very worst time of year, and +the weather has been (of course) ‘unprecedentedly’ bad and +changeable. But when it <i>is</i> fine it is quite celestial; +so clear, so dry, so light. Then comes a cloud over Table Mountain, +like the sugar on a wedding-cake, which tumbles down in splendid waterfalls, +and vanishes unaccountably halfway; and then you run indoors and shut +doors and windows, or it portends a ‘south-easter’, i.e. +a hurricane, and Capetown disappears in impenetrable clouds of dust. +But this wind coming off the hills and fields of ice, is the Cape doctor, +and keeps away cholera, fever of every sort, and all malignant or infectious +diseases. Most of them are unknown here. Never was so healthy +a place; but the remedy is of the heroic nature, and very disagreeable. +The stones rattle against the windows, and omnibuses are blown over +on the Rondebosch road.</p> +<p>A few days ago, I drove to Mr. V-’s farm. Imagine St. +George’s Hill, and the most beautiful bits of it, sloping gently +up to Table Mountain, with its grey precipices, and intersected with +Scotch burns, which water it all the year round, as they come from the +living rock; and sprinkled with oranges, pomegranates, and camelias +in abundance. You drive through a mile or two as described, and +arrive at a square, planted with rows of fine oaks close together; at +the upper end stands the house, all on the ground-floor, but on a high +stoep: rooms eighteen feet high; the old slave quarters on each side; +stables, &c., opposite; the square as big as Belgrave Square, and +the buildings in the old French style.</p> +<p>We then went on to Newlands, a still more beautiful place. +Immense trenching and draining going on—the foreman a Caffre, +black as ink, six feet three inches high, and broad in proportion, with +a staid, dignified air, and Englishmen working under him! At the +streamlets there are the inevitable groups of Malay women washing clothes, +and brown babies sprawling about. Yesterday, I should have bought +a black woman for her beauty, had it been still possible. She +was carrying an immense weight on her head, and was far gone with child; +but such stupendous physical perfection I never even imagined. +Her jet black face was like the Sphynx, with the same mysterious smile; +her shape and walk were goddess-like, and the lustre of her skin, teeth, +and eyes, showed the fulness of health;—Caffre of course. +I walked after her as far as her swift pace would let me, in envy and +admiration of such stately humanity.</p> +<p>The ordinary blacks, or Mozambiques, as they call them, are hideous. +Malay here seems equivalent to Mohammedan. They were originally +Malays, but now they include every shade, from the blackest nigger to +the most blooming English woman. Yes, indeed, the emigrant-girls +have been known to turn ‘Malays’, and get thereby husbands +who know not billiards and brandy—the two diseases of Capetown. +They risked a plurality of wives, and professed Islam, but they got +fine clothes and industrious husbands. They wear a very pretty +dress, and all have a great air of independence and self-respect; and +the real Malays are very handsome. I am going to see one of the +Mollahs soon, and to look at their schools and mosque; which, to the +distraction of the Scotch, they call their ‘Kerk.’</p> +<p>I asked a Malay if he would drive me in his cart with the six or +eight mules, which he agreed to do for thirty shillings and his dinner +(i.e. a share of my dinner) on the road. When I asked how long +it would take, he said, ‘Allah is groot’, which meant, I +found, that it depended on the state of the beach—the only road +for half the way.</p> +<p>The sun, moon, and stars are different beings from those we look +upon. Not only are they so large and bright, but you <i>see</i> +that the moon and stars are <i>balls</i>, and that the sky is endless +beyond them. On the other hand, the clear, dry air dwarfs Table +Mountain, as you seem to see every detail of it to the very top.</p> +<p>Capetown is very picturesque. The old Dutch buildings are very +handsome and peculiar, but are falling to decay and dirt in the hands +of their present possessors. The few Dutch ladies I have seen +are very pleasing. They are gentle and simple, and naturally well-bred. +Some of the Malay women are very handsome, and the little children are +darlings. A little parti-coloured group of every shade, from ebony +to golden hair and blue eyes, were at play in the street yesterday, +and the majority were pretty, especially the half-castes. Most +of the Caffres I have seen look like the perfection of human physical +nature, and seem to have no diseases. Two days ago I saw a Hottentot +girl of seventeen, a housemaid here. You would be enchanted by +her superfluity of flesh; the face was very queer and ugly, and yet +pleasing, from the sweet smile and the rosy cheeks which please one +much, in contrast to all the pale yellow faces—handsome as some +of them are.</p> +<p>I wish I could send the six chameleons which a good-natured parson +brought me in his hat, and a queer lizard in his pocket. The chameleons +are charming, so monkey-like and so ‘<i>caressants</i>’. +They sit on my breakfast tray and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by +their tails, and reach out after my hand.</p> +<p>I have had a very kind letter from Lady Walker, and shall go and +stay with them at Simon’s Bay as soon as I feel up to the twenty-two +miles along the beaches and bad roads in the mail-cart with three horses. +The teams of mules (I beg pardon, spans) would delight you—eight, +ten, twelve, even sixteen sleek, handsome beasts; and oh, such oxen! +noble beasts with humps; and hump is very good to eat too.</p> +<p>Oct. 21st.—The mail goes out to-morrow, so I must finish this +letter. I feel better to-day than I have yet felt, in spite of +the south-easter.</p> +<p>Yours, &c.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER III</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>28th Oct.—Since I wrote, we have had more really cold weather, +but yesterday the summer seems to have begun. The air is as light +and clear as if <i>there were none</i>, and the sun hot; but I walk +in it, and do not find it oppressive. All the household groans +and perspires, but I am very comfortable.</p> +<p>Yesterday I sat in the full broil for an hour or more, in the hot +dust of the Malay burial-ground. They buried the head butcher +of the Mussulmans, and a most strange poetical scene it was. The +burial-ground is on the side of the Lion Mountain—on the Lion’s +rump—and overlooks the whole bay, part of the town, and the most +superb mountain panorama beyond. I never saw a view within miles +of it for beauty and grandeur. Far down, a fussy English steamer +came puffing and popping into the deep blue bay, and the ‘Hansom’s’ +cabs went tearing down to the landing place; and round me sat a crowd +of grave brown men chanting ‘Allah il Allah’ to the most +monotonous but musical air, and with the most perfect voices. +The chant seemed to swell, and then fade, like the wind in the trees.</p> +<p>I went in after the procession, which consisted of a bier covered +with three common Paisley shawls of gay colours; no one looked at me; +and when they got near the grave, I kept at a distance, and sat down +when they did. But a man came up and said, ‘You are welcome.’ +So I went close, and saw the whole ceremony. They took the corpse, +wrapped in a sheet, out of the bier, and lifted it into the grave, where +two men received it; then a sheet was held over the grave till they +had placed the dead man; and then flowers and earth were thrown in by +all present, the grave filled in, watered out of a brass kettle, and +decked with flowers. Then a fat old man, in printed calico shirt +sleeves, and a plaid waistcoat and corduroy trousers, pulled off his +shoes, squatted on the grave, and recited endless ‘Koran’, +many reciting after him. Then they chanted ‘Allah-il-Allah’ +for twenty minutes, I think: then prayers, with ‘Ameens’ +and ‘Allah il-Allahs’ again. Then all jumped up and +walked off. There were eighty or a hundred men, no women, and +five or six ‘Hadjis’, draped in beautiful Eastern dresses, +and looking very supercilious. The whole party made less noise +in moving and talking than two Englishmen.</p> +<p>A white-complexioned man spoke to me in excellent English (which +few of them speak), and was very communicative and civil. He told +me the dead man was his brother-in-law, and he himself the barber. +I hoped I had not taken a liberty. ‘Oh, no; poor Malays +were proud when noble English persons showed such respect to their religion. +The young Prince had done so too, and Allah would not forget to protect +him. He also did not laugh at their prayers, praise be to God!’ +I had already heard that Prince Alfred is quite the darling of the Malays. +He insisted on accepting their <i>fête</i>, which the Capetown +people had snubbed. I have a friendship with one Abdul Jemaalee +and his wife Betsy, a couple of old folks who were slaves to Dutch owners, +and now keep a fruit-shop of a rough sort, with ‘Betsy, fruiterer,’ +painted on the back of an old tin tray, and hung up by the door of the +house. Abdul first bought himself, and then his wife Betsy, whose +‘missus’ generously threw in her bed-ridden mother. +He is a fine handsome old man, and has confided to me that £5,000 +would not buy what he is worth now. I have also read the letters +written by his, son, young Abdul Rachman, now a student at Cairo, who +has been away five years—four at Mecca. The young theologian +writes to his ‘<i>hoog</i> <i>eerbare moeder</i>’ a fond +request for money, and promises to return soon. I am invited to +the feast wherewith he will be welcomed. Old Abdul Jemaalee thinks +it will divert my mind, and prove to me that Allah will take me home +safe to my children, about whom he and his wife asked many questions. +Moreover, he compelled me to drink herb tea, compounded by a Malay doctor +for my cough. I declined at first, and the poor old man looked +hurt, gravely assured me that it was not true that Malays always poisoned +Christians, and drank some himself. Thereupon I was obliged, of +course, to drink up the rest; it certainly did me good, and I have drunk +it since with good effect; it is intensely bitter and rather sticky. +The white servants and the Dutch landlady where I lodge shake their +heads ominously, and hope it mayn’t poison me a year hence. +‘Them nasty Malays can make it work months after you take it.’ +They also possess the evil eye, and a talent for love potions. +As the men are very handsome and neat, I incline to believe that part +of it.</p> +<p>Rathfelder’s Halfway House, 6th November.—I drove out +here yesterday in Captain T-’s drag, which he kindly brought into +Capetown for me. He and his wife and children came for a change +of air for whooping cough, and advised me to come too, as my cough continues, +though less troublesome. It is a lovely spot, six miles from Constantia, +ten from Capetown, and twelve from Simon’s Bay. I intend +to stay here a little while, and then to go to Kalk Bay, six miles from +hence. This inn was excellent, I hear, ‘in the old Dutch +times’. Now it is kept by a young Englishman, Cape-born, +and his wife, and is dirty and disorderly. I pay twelve shillings +a day for S- and self, without a sitting-room, and my bed is a straw +paillasse; but the food is plentiful, and not very bad. That is +the cheapest rate of living possible here, and every trifle costs double +what it would in England, except wine, which is very fair at fivepence +a bottle—a kind of hock. The landlord pays £1 a day +rent for this house, which is the great resort of the Capetown people +for Sundays, and for change of air, &c.—a rude kind of Richmond. +His cook gets £3 10<i>s</i>. a month, besides food for himself +and wife, and beer and sugar. The two (white) housemaids get £1 +15<i>s</i>. and £1 10<i>s</i>. respectively (everything by the +month). Fresh butter is 3<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. a pound, mutton +7<i>d</i>.; washing very dear; cabbages my host sells at 3<i>d</i>. +a piece, and pumpkins 8<i>d</i>. He has a fine garden, and pays +a gardener 3<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. a day, and black labourers 2<i>s</i>. +<i>They</i> work three days a week; then they buy rice and a coarse +fish, and lie in the sun till it is eaten; while their darling little +fat black babies play in the dust, and their black wives make battues +in the covers in their woolly heads. But the little black girl +who cleans my room is far the best servant, and smiles and speaks like +Lalage herself, ugly as the poor drudge is. The voice and smile +of the negroes here is bewitching, though they are hideous; and neither +S- nor I have yet heard a black child cry, or seen one naughty or quarrelsome. +You would want to lay out a fortune in woolly babies. Yesterday +I had a dreadful heartache after my darling, on her little birthday, +and even the lovely ranges of distant mountains, coloured like opals +in the sunset, did not delight me. This is a dreary place for +strangers. Abdul Jemaalee’s tisanne, and a banana which +he gave me each time I went to his shop, are the sole offer of ‘Won’t +you take something?’ or even the sole attempt at a civility that +I have received, except from the J-s, who, are very civil and kind.</p> +<p>When I have done my visit to Simon’s Bay, I will go ‘up +country’, to Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester, perhaps. +If I can find people going in a bullock-waggon, I will join them; it +costs £1 a day, and goes twenty miles. If money were no +object, I would hire one with Caffres to hunt, as well as outspan and +drive, and take a saddle-horse. There is plenty of pleasure to +be had in travelling here, if you can afford it. The scenery is +quite beyond anything you can imagine in beauty. I went to a country +house at Rondebosch with the J-s, and I never saw so lovely a spot. +The possessor had done his best to spoil it, and to destroy the handsome +Dutch house and fountains and aqueducts; but Nature was too much for +him, and the place lovely in neglect and shabbiness.</p> +<p>Now I will tell you my impressions of the state of society here, +as far as I have been able to make out by playing the inquisitive traveller. +I dare say the statements are exaggerated, but I do not think they are +wholly devoid of truth. The Dutch round Capetown (I don’t +know anything of ‘up country’) are sulky and dispirited; +they regret the slave days, and can’t bear to pay wages; they +have sold all their fine houses in town to merchants, &c., and let +their handsome country places go to pieces, and their land lie fallow, +rather than hire the men they used to own. They hate the Malays, +who were their slaves, and whose ‘insolent prosperity’ annoys +them, and they don’t like the vulgar, bustling English. +The English complain that the Dutch won’t die, and that they are +the curse of the colony (a statement for which they can never give a +reason). But they, too, curse the emancipation, long to flog the +niggers, and hate the Malays, who work harder and don’t drink, +and who are the only masons, tailors, &c., and earn from 4<i>s</i>. +6<i>d</i>. to 10<i>s</i>. a day. The Malays also have almost a +monopoly of cart-hiring and horse-keeping; an Englishman charges £4 +10<i>s</i>. or £5 for a carriage to do what a Malay will do quicker +in a light cart for 30<i>s</i>. S- says, ‘The English here +think the coloured people ought to do the work, and they to get the +wages. Nothing less would satisfy them.’ Servants’ +wages are high, but other wages not much higher than in England; yet +industrious people invariably make fortunes, or at least competencies, +even when they begin with nothing. But few of the English will +do anything but lounge; while they abuse the Dutch as lazy, and the +Malays as thieves, and feel their fingers itch to be at the blacks. +The Africanders (Dutch and negro mixed in various proportions) are more +or less lazy, dirty, and dressy, and the beautiful girls wear pork-pie +hats, and look very winning and rather fierce; but to them the philanthropists +at home have provided formidable rivals, by emptying a shipload of young +ladies from a ‘Reformatory’ into the streets of Capetown.</p> +<p>I am puzzled what to think of the climate here for invalids. +The air is dry and clear beyond conception, and light, but the sun is +scorching; while the south-east wind blows an icy hurricane, and the +dust obscures the sky. These winds last all the summer, till February +or March. I am told when they don’t blow it is heavenly, +though still cold in the mornings and evenings. No one must be +out at, or after sunset, the chill is so sudden. Many of the people +here declare that it is death to weak lungs, and send their <i>poitrinaires</i> +to Madeira, or the south of France. They also swear the climate +is enervating, but their looks, and above all the blowsy cheeks and +hearty play of the English children, disprove that; and those who come +here consumptive get well in spite of the doctors, who won’t allow +it possible. I believe it is a climate which requires great care +from invalids, but that, with care, it is good, because it is bracing +as well as warm and dry. It is not nearly so warm as I expected; +the southern icebergs are at no great distance, and they ice the south-east +wind for us. If it were not so violent, it would be delicious; +and there are no unhealthy winds—nothing like our east wind. +The people here grumble at the north-wester, which sometimes brings +rain, and call it damp, which, as they don’t know what damp is, +is excusable; it feels like a <i>dry</i> south-wester in England. +It is, however, quite a delusion to think of living out of doors, here; +the south-easters keep one in nearly, if not quite, half one’s +time, and in summer they say the sun is too hot to be out except morning +and evening. But I doubt that, for they make an outcry about heat +as soon as it is not cold. The transitions are so sudden, that, +with the thermometer at 76 degrees, you must not go out without taking +a thick warm cloak; you may walk into a south-easter round the first +spur of the mountain, and be cut in two. In short, the air is +cold and bracing, and the sun blazing hot; those whom that suits, will +do well. I should like a softer air, but I may be wrong; when +there is only a moderate wind, it is delicious. You walk in the +hot sun, which makes you perspire a very little; but you dry as you +go, the air is so dry; and you come in untired. I speak of slow +walking. There are no hot-climate diseases; no dysentery, fever, +&c.</p> +<p>Simon’s Bay, 18th Nov.—I came on here in a cart, as I +felt ill from the return of the cold weather. While at Rathfelder +we had a superb day, and the J-s drove me over to Constantia, which +deserves all its reputation for beauty. What a divine spot!—such +kloofs, with silver rills running down them! It is useless to +describe scenery. It was a sort of glorified Scotland, with sunshine, +flowers, and orange-groves. We got home hungry and tired, but +in great spirits. Alas! next day came the south-easter—blacker, +colder, more cutting, than ever—and lasted a week.</p> +<p>The Walkers came over on horseback, and pressed me to go to them. +They are most kind and agreeable people. The drive to Simon’s +Bay was lovely, along the coast and across five beaches of snow-white +sand, which look like winter landscapes; and the mountains and bay are +lovely.</p> +<p>Living is very dear, and washing, travelling, chemist’s bills—all +enormous. Thirty shillings a cart and horse from Rathfelder here—twelve +miles; and then the young English host wanted me to hire another cart +for one box and one bath! But I would not, and my obstinacy was +stoutest. If I want cart or waggon again, I’ll deal with +a Malay, only the fellows drive with forty Jehu-power up and down the +mountains.</p> +<p>A Madagascar woman offered to give me her orphan grandchild, a sweet +brown fairy, six years old, with long silky black hair, and gorgeous +eyes. The child hung about me incessantly all the time I was at +Rathfelder, and I had a great mind to her. She used to laugh like +baby, and was like her altogether, only prettier, and very brown; and +when I told her she was like my own little child, she danced about, +and laughed like mad at the idea that she could look like ‘pretty +white Missy’. She was mighty proud of her needlework and +A B C performances.</p> +<p>It is such a luxury to sleep on a real mattrass—not stuffed +with dirty straw; to eat clean food, and live in a nice room. +But my cough is very bad, and the cruel wind blows on and on. +I saw the doctor of the Naval Hospital here to-day. If I don’t +mend, I will try his advice, and go northward for warmth. If you +can find an old Mulready envelope, send it here to Miss Walker, who +collects stamps and has not got it, and write and thank dear good Lady +Walker for her kindness to me.</p> +<p>You will get this about the new year. God bless you all, and +send us better days in 1862.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER IV—JOURNEY TO CALEDON</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Dec. 10th.</p> +<p>I did not feel at all well at Simon’s Bay, which is a land +of hurricanes. We had a ‘south-easter’ for fourteen +days, without an hour’s lull; even the flag-ship had no communication +with the shore for eight days. The good old naval surgeon there +ordered me to start off for this high ‘up-country’ district, +and arranged my departure for the first <i>possible</i> day. He +made a bargain for me with a Dutchman, for a light Malay cart (a capital +vehicle with two wheels) and four horses, for 30<i>s</i>. a day—three +days to Caledon from Simon’s Bay, about a hundred miles or so, +and one day of back fare to his home in Capetown.</p> +<p>Luckily, on Saturday the wind dropped, and we started at nine o’clock, +drove to a place about four miles from Capetown, when we turned off +on the ‘country road’, and outspanned at a post-house kept +by a nice old German with a Dutch wife. Once well out of Capetown, +people are civil, but inquisitive; I was strictly cross-questioned, +and proved so satisfactory, that the old man wished to give me some +English porter gratis. We then jogged along again at a very good +pace to another wayside public, where we outspanned again and ate, and +were again questioned, and again made much of. By six o’clock +we got to the Eerste River, having gone forty miles or so in the day. +It was a beautiful day, and very pleasant travelling. We had three +good little half-Arab bays, and one brute of a grey as off-wheeler, +who fell down continually; but a Malay driver works miracles, and no +harm came of it. The cart is small, with a permanent tilt at top, +and moveable curtains of waterproof all round; harness of raw leather, +very prettily put together by Malay workmen. We sat behind, and +our brown coachman, with his mushroom hat, in front, with my bath and +box, and a miniature of himself about seven years old—a nephew,—so +small and handy that he would be worth his weight in jewels as a tiger. +At Eerste River we slept in a pretty old Dutch house, kept by an English +woman, and called the Fox and Hound, ‘to sound like home, my lady.’ +Very nice and comfortable it was.</p> +<p>I started next day at ten; and never shall I forget that day’s +journey. The beauty of the country exceeds all description. +Ranges of mountains beyond belief fantastic in shape, and between them +a rolling country, desolate and wild, and covered with gorgeous flowers +among the ‘scrub’. First we came to Hottentot’s +Holland (now called Somerset West), the loveliest little old Dutch village, +with trees and little canals of bright clear mountain water, and groves +of orange and pomegranate, and white houses, with incredible gable ends. +We tried to stop here; but forage was ninepence a bundle, and the true +Malay would rather die than pay more than he can help. So we pushed +on to the foot of the mountains, and bought forage (forage is oats <i>au +natural</i>, straw and all, the only feed known here, where there is +no grass or hay) at a farm kept by English people, who all talked Dutch +together; only one girl of the family could speak English. They +were very civil, asked us in, and gave us unripe apricots, and the girl +came down with seven flounces, to talk with us. Forage was still +ninepence—half a dollar a bundle—and Choslullah Jaamee groaned +over it, and said the horses must have less forage and ‘more plenty +roll’ (a roll in the dust is often the only refreshment offered +to the beasts, and seems to do great good).</p> +<p>We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to the place the Doctor recommended—formerly +a country house of the Dutch Governor. It is in a lovely spot; +but do you remember the Schloss in Immermann’s Neuer Münchausen? +Well, it is that. A ruin;—windows half broken and boarded +up, the handsome steps in front fallen in, and all <i>en suite</i>. +The rooms I saw were large and airy; but mud floors, white-washed walls, +one chair, one stump bedstead, and <i>praeterea nihil</i>. It +has a sort of wild, romantic look; I hear, too, it is wonderfully healthy, +and not so bad as it looks. The long corridor is like the entrance +to a great stable, or some such thing; earth floors and open to all +winds. But you can’t imagine it, however I may describe; +it is so huge and strange, and ruinous. Finding that the mistress +of the house was ill, and nothing ready for our reception, I drove on +to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch mist, came on just as we arrived, +and it is damp and chilly, to the delight of all the dwellers in the +land, who love bad weather. It makes me cough a little more; but +they say it is quite unheard of, and can’t last. Altogether, +I suppose this summer here is as that of ‘60 was in England.</p> +<p>I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal-looking Caffre housemaid +at Eerste River. ‘Such a dear, good creature,’ the +landlady said; and, oh, such a ‘noble savage’!—with +a cotton handkerchief folded tight like a cravat and tied round her +head with a bow behind, and the short curly wool sticking up in the +middle;—it looked like a royal diadem on her solemn brow; she +stepped like Juno, with a huge tub full to the brim, and holding several +pailfuls, on her head, and a pailful in each hand, bringing water for +the stables from the river, across a large field. There is nothing +like a Caffre for power and grace; and the face, though very African, +has a sort of grandeur which makes it utterly unlike that of the negro. +That woman’s bust and waist were beauty itself. The Caffres +are also very clean and very clever as servants, I hear, learning cookery, +&c., in a wonderfully short time. When they have saved money +enough to buy cattle in Kaffraria, off they go, cast aside civilization +and clothes, and enjoy life in naked luxury.</p> +<p>I can’t tell you how I longed for you in my journey. +You would have been so delighted with the country and the queer turn-out—the +wild little horses, and the polite and delicately-clean Moslem driver. +His description of his sufferings from ‘louses’, when he +slept in a Dutch farm, were pathetic, and ever since, he sleeps in his +cart, with the little boy; and they bathe in the nearest river, and +eat their lawful food and drink their water out of doors. They +declined beer, or meat which had been unlawfully killed. In Capetown +<i>all</i> meat is killed by Malays, and has the proper prayer spoken +over it, and they will eat no other. I was offered a fowl at a +farm, but Choslullah thought it ‘too much money for Missus’, +and only accepted some eggs. He was gratified at my recognising +the propriety of his saying ‘Bismillah’ over any animal +killed for food. Some drink beer, and drink a good deal, but Choslullah +thought it ‘very wrong for Malay people, and not good for Christian +people, to be drunk beasties;—little wine or beer good for Christians, +but not too plenty much.’ I gave him ten shillings for himself, +at which he was enchanted, and again begged me to write to his master +for him when I wanted to leave Caledon, and to be sure to say, ‘Mind +send same coachman.’ He planned to drive me back through +Worcester, Burnt Vley, Paarl, and Stellenbosch—a longer round; +but he could do it in three days well, so as ‘not cost Missus +more money’, and see a different country.</p> +<p>This place is curiously like Rochefort in the Ardennes, only the +hills are mountains, and the sun is far hotter; not so the air, which +is fresh and pleasant. I am in a very nice inn, kept by an English +ex-officer, who went through the Caffre war, and found his pay insufficient +for the wants of a numerous family. I quite admire his wife, who +cooks, cleans, nurses her babes, gives singing and music lessons,—all +as merrily as if she liked it. I dine with them at two o’clock, +and Captain D- has a <i>table d’hôte</i> at seven for travellers. +I pay only 10<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. a day for myself and S-; this includes +all but wine or beer. The air is very clear and fine, and my cough +is already much better. I shall stay here as long as it suits +me and does me good, and then I am to send for Choslullah again, and +go back by the road he proposed. It rains here now and then, and +blows a good deal, but the wind has lost its bitter chill, and depressing +quality. I hope soon to ride a little and see the country, which +is beautiful.</p> +<p>The water-line is all red from the iron stone, and there are hot +chalybeate springs up the mountain which are very good for rheumatism, +and very strengthening, I am told. The boots here is a Mantatee, +very black, and called Kleenboy, because he is so little; he is the +only sleek black I have seen here, but looks heavy and downcast. +One maid is Irish (they make the best servants here), a very nice clean +girl, and the other, a brown girl of fifteen, whose father is English, +and married to her mother. Food here is scarce, all but bread +and mutton, both good. Butter is 3<i>s</i>. a pound; fruit and +vegetables only to be had by chance. I miss the oranges and lemons +sadly. Poultry and milk uncertain. The bread is good everywhere, +from the fine wheat: in the country it is brownish and sweet. +The wine here is execrable; this is owing to the prevailing indolence, +for there is excellent wine made from the Rhenish grape, rather like +Sauterne, with a <i>soupçon</i> of Manzanilla flavour. +The sweet Constantia is also very good indeed; not the expensive sort, +which is made from grapes half dried, and is a liqueur, but a light, +sweet, straw-coloured wine, which even I liked. We drank nothing +else at the Admiral’s. The kind old sailor has given me +a dozen of wine, which is coming up here in a waggon, and will be most +welcome. I can’t tell you how kind he and Lady Walker were; +I was there three weeks, and hope to go again when the south-easter +season is over and I can get out a little. I could not leave the +house at all; and even Lady Walker and the girls, who are very energetic, +got out but little. They are a charming family.</p> +<p>I have no doubt that Dr. Shea was right, and that one must leave +the coast to get a fine climate. Here it seems to me nearly perfect—too +windy for my pleasure, but then the sun would be overpowering without +a fresh breeze. Every one agrees in saying that the winter in +Capetown is delicious—like a fine English summer. In November +the southeasters begin, and they are ‘fiendish’; this year +they began in September. The mornings here are always fresh, not +to say cold; the afternoons, from one to three, broiling; then delightful +till sunset, which is deadly cold for three-quarters of an hour; the +night is lovely. The wind rises and falls with the sun. +That is the general course of things. Now and then it rains, and +this year there is a little south-easter, which is quite unusual, and +not odious, as it is near the sea; and there is seldom a hot wind from +the north. I am promised that on or about Christmas-day; then +doors and windows are shut, and you gasp. Hitherto we have had +nothing nearly so hot as Paris in summer, or as the summer of 1859 in +England; and they say it is no hotter, except when the hot wind blows, +which is very rare. Up here, snow sometimes lies, in winter, on +the mountain tops; but ice is unknown, and Table Mountain is never covered +with snow. The flies are pestilent—incredibly noisy, intrusive, +and disgusting—and oh, such swarms! Fleas and bugs not half +so bad as in France, as far as my experience goes, and I have poked +about in queer places.</p> +<p>I get up at half-past five, and walk in the early morning, before +the sun and wind begin to be oppressive; it is then dry, calm, and beautiful; +then I sleep like a Dutchman in the middle of the day. At present +it tires me, but I shall get used to it soon. The Dutch doctor +here advised me to do so, to avoid the wind.</p> +<p>When all was settled, we climbed the Hottentot’s mountains +by Sir Lowry’s Pass, a long curve round two hill-sides; and what +a view! Simon’s Bay opening out far below, and range upon +range of crags on one side, with a wide fertile plain, in which lies +Hottentot’s Holland, at one’s feet. The road is just +wide enough for one waggon, i.e. very narrow. Where the smooth +rock came through, Choslullah gave a little grunt, and the three bays +went off like hippogriffs, dragging the grey with them. By this +time my confidence in his driving was boundless, or I should have expected +to find myself in atoms at the bottom of the precipice. At the +top of the pass we turned a sharp corner into a scene like the crater +of a volcano, only reaching miles away all round; and we descended a +very little and drove on along great rolling waves of country, with +the mountain tops, all crags and ruins, to our left. At three +we reached Palmiet River, full of palmettos and bamboos, and there the +horses had ‘a little roll’, and Choslullah and his miniature +washed in the river and prayed, and ate dry bread, and drank their tepid +water out of a bottle with great good breeding and cheerfulness. +Three bullock-waggons had outspanned, and the Dutch boers and Bastaards +(half Hottentots) were all drunk. We went into a neat little ‘public’, +and had porter and ham sandwiches, for which I paid 4<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. +to a miserable-looking English woman, who was afraid of her tipsy customers. +We got to Houw Hoek, a pretty valley at the entrance of a mountain gorge, +about half-past five, and drove up to a mud cottage, half inn, half +farm, kept by a German and his wife. It looked mighty queer, but +Choslullah said the host was a good old man, and all clean. So +we cheered up, and asked for food. While the neat old woman was +cooking it, up galloped five fine lads and two pretty flaxen-haired +girls, with real German faces, on wild little horses; and one girl tucked +up her habit, and waited at table, while another waved a green bough +to drive off the swarms of flies. The chops were excellent, ditto +bread and butter, and the tea tolerable. The parlour was a tiny +room with a mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, and the two bedrooms +still tinier and darker, each with two huge beds which filled them entirely. +But Choslullah was right; they were perfectly clean, with heaps of beautiful +pillows; and not only none of the creatures of which he spoke with infinite +terror, but even no fleas. The man was delighted to talk to me. +His wife had almost forgotten German, and the children did not know +a word of it, but spoke Dutch and English. A fine, healthy, happy +family. It was a pretty picture of emigrant life. Cattle, +pigs, sheep, and poultry, and pigeons innumerable, all picked up their +own living, and cost nothing; and vegetables and fruit grow in rank +abundance where there is water. I asked for a book in the evening, +and the man gave me a volume of Schiller. A good breakfast,—and +we paid ninepence for all.</p> +<p>This morning we started before eight, as it looked gloomy, and came +through a superb mountain defile, out on to a rich hillocky country, +covered with miles of corn, all being cut as far as the eye could reach, +and we passed several circular threshing-floors, where the horses tread +out the grain. Each had a few mud hovels near it, for the farmers +and men to live in during harvest. Altogether, I was most lucky, +had two beautiful days, and enjoyed the journey immensely. It +was most ‘<i>abentheuerlich</i>’; the light two-wheeled +cart, with four wild little horses, and the marvellous brown driver, +who seemed to be always going to perdition, but made the horses do apparently +impossible things with absolute certainty; and the pretty tiny boy who +came to help his uncle, and was so clever, and so preternaturally quiet, +and so very small: then the road through the mountain passes, seven +or eight feet wide, with a precipice above and below, up which the little +horses scrambled; while big lizards, with green heads and chocolate +bodies, looked pertly at us, and a big bright amber-coloured cobra, +as handsome as he is deadly, wriggled across into a hole.</p> +<p>Nearly all the people in this village are Dutch. There is one +Malay tailor here, but he is obliged to be a Christian at Caledon, though +Choslullah told me with a grin, he was a very good Malay when he went +to Capetown. He did not seem much shocked at this double religion, +staunch Mussulman as he was himself. I suppose the blacks ‘up +country’ are what Dutch slavery made them—mere animals—cunning +and sulky. The real Hottentot is extinct, I believe, in the Colony; +what one now sees are all ‘Bastaards’, the Dutch name for +their own descendants by Hottentot women. These mongrel Hottentots, +who do all the work, are an affliction to behold—debased and <i>shrivelled</i> +with drink, and drunk all day long; sullen wretched creatures—so +unlike the bright Malays and cheery pleasant blacks and browns of Capetown, +who never pass you without a kind word and sunny smile or broad African +grin, <i>selon</i> their colour and shape of face. I look back +fondly to the gracious soft-looking Malagasse woman who used to give +me a chair under the big tree near Rathfelders, and a cup of ‘bosjesthée’ +(herb tea), and talk so prettily in her soft voice;—it is such +a contrast to these poor animals, who glower at one quite unpleasantly. +All the hovels I was in at Capetown were very fairly clean, and I went +into numbers. They almost all contained a handsome bed, with, +at least, eight pillows. If you only look at the door with a friendly +glance, you are implored to come in and sit down, and usually offered +a ‘coppj’ (cup) of herb tea, which they are quite grateful +to one for drinking. I never saw or heard a hint of ‘backsheesh’, +nor did I ever give it, on principle and I was always recognised and +invited to come again with the greatest eagerness. ‘An indulgence +of talk’ from an English ‘Missis’ seemed the height +of gratification, and the pride and pleasure of giving hospitality a +sufficient reward. But here it is quite different. I suppose +the benefits of the emancipation were felt at Capetown sooner than in +the country, and the Malay population there furnishes a strong element +of sobriety and respectability, which sets an example to the other coloured +people.</p> +<p>Harvest is now going on, and the so-called Hottentots are earning +2<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. a day, with rations and wine. But all the +money goes at the ‘canteen’ in drink, and the poor wretched +men and women look wasted and degraded. The children are pretty, +and a few of them are half-breed girls, who do very well, unless a white +man admires them; and then they think it quite an honour to have a whitey-brown +child, which happens at about fifteen, by which age they look full twenty.</p> +<p>We had very good snipe and wild duck the other day, which Capt. D- +brought home from a shooting party. I have got the moth-like wings +of a golden snipe for R-’s hat, and those of a beautiful moor-hen. +They got no ‘boks’, because of the violent south-easter +which blew where they were. The game is fast decreasing, but still +very abundant. I saw plenty of partridges on the road, but was +not early enough to see boks, who only show at dawn; neither have I +seen baboons. I will try to bring home some cages of birds—Cape +canaries and ‘roode bekjes’ (red bills), darling little +things. The sugar-birds, which are the humming-birds of Africa, +could not be fed; but Caffre finks, which weave the pendent nests, are +hardy and easily fed.</p> +<p>To-day the post for England leaves Caledon, so I must conclude this +yarn. I wish R- could have seen the ‘klip springer’, +the mountain deer of South Africa, which Capt. D- brought in to show +me. Such a lovely little beast, as big as a small kid, with eyes +and ears like a hare, and a nose so small and dainty. It was quite +tame and saucy, and belonged to some man <i>en route</i> for Capetown.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER V—CALEDON</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Dec. 29th.</p> +<p>I am beginning now really to feel better: I think my cough is less, +and I eat a great deal more. They cook nice clean food here, and +have some good claret, which I have been extravagant enough to drink, +much to my advantage. The Cape wine is all so fiery. The +climate is improving too. The glorious African sun blazes and +roasts one, and the cool fresh breezes prevent one from feeling languid. +I walk from six till eight or nine, breakfast at ten, and dine at three; +in the afternoon it is generally practicable to saunter again, now the +weather is warmer. I sleep from twelve till two. On Christmas-eve +it was so warm that I lay in bed with the window wide open, and the +stars blazing in. Such stars! they are much brighter than our +moon. The Dutchmen held high jinks in the hall, and danced and +made a great noise. On New Year’s-eve they will have another +ball, and I shall look in. Christmas-day was the hottest day—indeed, +the only <i>hot</i> day we have had—and I could not make it out +at all, or fancy you all cold at home.</p> +<p>I wish you were here to see the curious ways and new aspect of everything. +This village, which, as I have said, is very like Rochefort, but hardly +so large, is the <i>chef lieu</i> of a district the size of one-third +of England. A civil commander resides here, a sort of <i>préfet</i>; +and there is an embryo market-place, with a bell hanging in a brick +arch. When a waggon arrives with goods, it draws up there, they +ring the bell, everybody goes to see what is for sale, and the goods +are sold by auction. My host bought potatoes and brandy the other +day, and is looking out for ostrich feathers for me, out of the men’s +hats.</p> +<p>The other day, while we sat at dinner, all the bells began to ring +furiously, and Capt. D- jumped up and shouted ‘<i>Brand</i>!’ +(fire), rushed off for a stout leather hat, and ran down the street. +Out came all the population, black, white, and brown, awfully excited, +for it was blowing a furious north-wester, right up the town, and the +fire was at the bottom; and as every house is thatched with a dry brown +thatch, we might all have to turn out and see the place in ashes in +less than an hour. Luckily, it was put out directly. It +is supposed to have been set on fire by a Hottentot girl, who has done +the same thing once before, on being scolded. There is no water +but what runs down the streets in the <i>sloot</i>, a paved channel, +which brings the water from the mountain and supplies the houses and +gardens. A garden is impossible without irrigation, of course, +as it never rains; but with it, you may have everything, all the year +round. The people, however, are too careless to grow fruit and +vegetables.</p> +<p>How the cattle live is a standing marvel to me. The whole <i>veld</i> +(common), which extends all over the country (just dotted with a few +square miles of corn here and there), is covered with a low thin scrub, +about eighteen inches high, called <i>rhenoster-bosch—</i>looking +like meagre arbor vitae or pale juniper. The cattle and sheep +will not touch this nor the juicy Hottentot fig; but under each little +bush, I fancy, they crop a few blades of grass, and on this they keep +in very good condition. The noble oxen, with their huge horns +(nine or ten feet from tip to tip), are never fed, though they work +hard, nor are the sheep. The horses get a little forage (oats, +straw and all). I should like you to see eight or ten of these +swift wiry little horses harnessed to a waggon,—a mere flat platform +on wheels. In front stands a wild-looking Hottentot, all patches +and feathers, and drives them best pace, all ‘in hand’, +using a whip like a fishing-rod, with which he touches them, not savagely, +but with a skill which would make an old stage-coachman burst with envy +to behold. This morning, out on the veld, I watched the process +of breaking-in a couple of colts, who were harnessed, after many struggles, +second and fourth in a team of ten. In front stood a tiny foal +cuddling its mother, one of the leaders. When they started, the +foal had its neck through the bridle, and I hallooed in a fright; but +the Hottentot only laughed, and in a minute it had disengaged itself +quite coolly and capered alongside. The colts tried to plunge, +but were whisked along, and couldn’t, and then they stuck out +all four feet and <i>skidded</i> along a bit; but the rhenoster bushes +tripped them up (people drive regardless of roads), and they shook their +heads and trotted along quite subdued, without a blow or a word, for +the drivers never speak to the horses, only to the oxen. Colts +here get no other breaking, and therefore have no paces or action to +the eye, but their speed and endurance are wonderful. There is +no such thing as a cock-tail in the country, and the waggon teams of +wiry little thoroughbreds, half Arab, look very strange to our eyes, +going full tilt. There is a terrible murrain, called the lung-sickness, +among horses and oxen here, every four or five years, but it never touches +those that are stabled, however exposed to wet or wind on the roads.</p> +<p>I must describe the house I inhabit, as all are much alike. +It is whitewashed, with a door in the middle and two windows on each +side; those on the left are Mrs. D-’s bed and sitting rooms. +On the right is a large room, which is mine; in the middle of the house +is a spacious hall, with doors into other rooms on each side, and into +the kitchen, &c. There is a yard behind, and a staircase up +to the <i>zolder</i> or loft, under the thatch, with partitions, where +the servants and children, and sometimes guests, sleep. There +are no ceilings; the floor of the zolder is made of yellow wood, and, +resting on beams, forms the ceiling of my room, and the thatch alone +covers that. No moss ever grows on the thatch, which is brown, +with white ridges. In front is a stoep, with ‘blue gums’ +(Australian gum-trees) in front of it, where I sit till twelve, when +the sun comes on it. These trees prevail here greatly, as they +want neither water nor anything else, and grow with incredible rapidity.</p> +<p>We have got a new ‘boy’ (all coloured servants are ‘boys,’—a +remnant of slavery), and he is the type of the nigger slave. A +thief, a liar, a glutton, a drunkard—but you can’t resent +it; he has a <i>naïf</i>, half-foolish, half-knavish buffoonery, +a total want of self-respect, which disarms you. I sent him to +the post to inquire for letters, and the postmaster had been tipsy over-night +and was not awake. Jack came back spluttering threats against +‘dat domned Dutchman. Me no <i>want</i> (like) him; me go +and kick up dom’d row. What for he no give Missis letter?’ +&c. I begged him to be patient; on which he bonneted himself +in a violent way, and started off at a pantomime walk. Jack is +the product of slavery: he pretends to be a simpleton in order to do +less work and eat and drink and sleep more than a reasonable being, +and he knows his buffoonery will get him out of scrapes. Withal, +thoroughly good-natured and obliging, and perfectly honest, except where +food and drink are concerned, which he pilfers like a monkey. +He worships S-, and won’t allow her to carry anything, or to dirty +her hands, if he is in the way to do it. Some one suggested to +him to kiss her, but he declined with terror, and said he should be +hanged by my orders if he did. He is a hideous little negro, with +a monstrous-shaped head, every colour of the rainbow on his clothes, +and a power of making faces which would enchant a schoolboy. The +height of his ambition would be to go to England with me.</p> +<p>An old ‘bastaard’ woman, married to the Malay tailor +here, explained to me my popularity with the coloured people, as set +forth by ‘dat Malay boy’, my driver. He told them +he was sure I was a ‘very great Missis’, because of my ‘plenty +good behaviour’; that I spoke to him just as to a white gentleman, +and did not ‘laugh and talk nonsense talk’. ‘Never +say “Here, you black fellow”, dat Misses.’ The +English, when they mean to be good-natured, are generally offensively +familiar, and ‘talk nonsense talk’, i.e. imitate the Dutch +English of the Malays and blacks; the latter feel it the greatest compliment +to be treated <i>au sérieux</i>, and spoken to in good English. +Choslullah’s theory was that I must be related to the Queen, in +consequence of my not ‘knowing bad behaviour’. The +Malays, who are intelligent and proud, of course feel the annoyance +of vulgar familiarity more than the blacks, who are rather awe-struck +by civility, though they like and admire it.</p> +<p>Mrs. D- tells me that the coloured servant-girls, with all their +faults, are immaculately honest in these parts; and, indeed, as every +door and window is always left open, even when every soul is out, and +nothing locked up, there must be no thieves. Captain D- told me +he had been in remote Dutch farmhouses, where rouleaux of gold were +ranged under the thatch on the top of the low wall, the doors being +always left open; and everywhere the Dutch boers keep their money by +them, in coin.</p> +<p>Jan. 3d.—We have had tremendous festivities here—a ball +on New Year’s-eve, and another on the 1st of January—and +the shooting for Prince Alfred’s rifle yesterday. The difficulty +of music for the ball was solved by the arrival of two Malay bricklayers +to build the new parsonage, and I heard with my own ears the proof of +what I had been told as to their extraordinary musical gifts. +When I went into the hall, a Dutchman was <i>screeching</i> a concertina +hideously. Presently in walked a yellow Malay, with a blue cotton +handkerchief on his head, and a half-bred of negro blood (very dark +brown), with a red handkerchief, and holding a rough tambourine. +The handsome yellow man took the concertina which seemed so discordant, +and the touch of his dainty fingers transformed it to harmony. +He played dances with a precision and feeling quite unequalled, except +by Strauss’s band, and a variety which seemed endless. I +asked him if he could read music, at which he laughed heartily, and +said, music came into the ears, not the eyes. He had picked it +all up from the bands in Capetown, or elsewhere.</p> +<p>It was a strange sight,—the picturesque group, and the contrast +between the quiet manners of the true Malay and the grotesque fun of +the half-negro. The latter made his tambourine do duty as a drum, +rattled the bits of brass so as to produce an indescribable effect, +nodded and grinned in wild excitement, and drank beer while his comrade +took water. The dancing was uninteresting enough. The Dutchmen +danced badly, and said not a word, but plodded on so as to get all the +dancing they could for their money. I went to bed at half-past +eleven, but the ball went on till four.</p> +<p>Next night there was genteeler company, and I did not go in, but +lay in bed listening to the Malay’s playing. He had quite +a fresh set of tunes, of which several were from the ‘Traviata’!</p> +<p>Yesterday was a real African summer’s day. The D-s had +a tent and an awning, one for food and the other for drink, on the ground +where the shooting took place. At twelve o’clock Mrs. D- +went down to sell cold chickens, &c., and I went with her, and sat +under a tree in the bed of the little stream, now nearly dry. +The sun was such as in any other climate would strike you down, but +here <i>coup de</i> <i>soleil</i> is unknown. It broils you till +your shoulders ache and your lips crack, but it does not make you feel +the least languid, and you perspire very little; nor does it tan the +skin as you would expect. The light of the sun is by no means +‘golden’—it is pure white—and the slightest +shade of a tree or bush affords a delicious temperature, so light and +fresh is the air. They said the thermometer was at about 130 degrees +where I was walking yesterday, but (barring the scorch) I could not +have believed it.</p> +<p>It was a very amusing day. The great tall Dutchmen came in +to shoot, and did but moderately, I thought. The longest range +was five hundred yards, and at that they shot well; at shorter ranges, +poorly enough. The best man made ten points. But oh! what +figures were there of negroes and coloured people! I longed for +a photographer. Some coloured lads were exquisitely graceful, +and composed beautiful <i>tableaux vivants</i>, after Murillo’s +beggar-boys.</p> +<p>A poor little, very old Bosjesman crept up, and was jeered and bullied. +I scolded the lad who abused him for being rude to an old man, whereupon +the poor little old creature squatted on the ground close by (for which +he would have been kicked but for me), took off his ragged hat, and +sat staring and nodding his small grey woolly head at me, and jabbering +some little soliloquy very <i>sotto voce</i>. There was something +shocking in the timidity with which he took the plate of food I gave +him, and in the way in which he ate it, with the <i>wrong</i> side of +his little yellow hand, like a monkey. A black, who had helped +to fetch the hamper, suggested to me to give him wine instead of meat +and bread, and make him drunk <i>for fun</i> (the blacks and Hottentots +copy the white man’s manners <i>to them</i>, when they get hold +of a Bosjesman to practise upon); but upon this a handsome West Indian +black, who had been cooking pies, fired up, and told him he was a ‘nasty +black rascal, and a Dutchman to boot’, to insult a lady and an +old man at once. If you could see the difference between one negro +and another, you would be quite convinced that education (i.e. circumstances) +makes the race. It was hardly conceivable that the hideous, dirty, +bandy-legged, ragged creature, who looked down on the Bosjesman, and +the well-made, smart fellow, with his fine eyes, jaunty red cap, and +snow-white shirt and trousers, alert as the best German Kellner, were +of the same blood; nothing but the colour was alike.</p> +<p>Then came a Dutchman, and asked for six penn’orth of ‘brood +en kaas’, and haggled for beer; and Englishmen, who bought chickens +and champagne without asking the price. One rich old boer got +three lunches, and then ‘trekked’ (made off) without paying +at all. Then came a Hottentot, stupidly drunk, with a fiddle, +and was beaten by a little red-haired Scotchman, and his fiddle smashed. +The Hottentot hit at his aggressor, who then declared he <i>had been</i> +a policeman, and insisted on taking him into custody and to the ‘Tronk’ +(prison) on his own authority, but was in turn sent flying by a gigantic +Irishman, who ‘wouldn’t see the poor baste abused’. +The Irishman was a farmer; I never saw such a Hercules—and beaming +with fun and good nature. He was very civil, and answered my questions, +and talked like an intelligent man; but when Captain D- asked him with +an air of some anxiety, if he was coming to the hotel, he replied, ‘No, +sir, no; I wouldn’t be guilty of such a misdemeanour. I +am aware that I was a disgrace and opprobrium to your house, sir, last +time I was there, sir. No, sir, I shall sleep in my cart, and +not come into the presence of ladies.’ Hereupon he departed, +and I was informed that he had been drunk for seventeen days, <i>sans</i> +<i>désemparer</i>, on his last visit to Caledon. However, +he kept quite sober on this occasion, and amused himself by making the +little blackies scramble for halfpence in the pools left in the bed +of the river. Among our customers was a very handsome black man, +with high straight nose, deep-set eyes, and a small mouth, smartly dressed +in a white felt hat, paletot, and trousers. He is the shoemaker, +and is making a pair of ‘Veldschoen’ for you, which you +will delight in. They are what the rough boers and Hottentots +wear, buff-hide barbarously tanned and shaped, and as soft as woollen +socks. The Othello-looking shoemaker’s name is Moor, and +his father told him he came of a ‘good breed’; that was +all he knew.</p> +<p>A very pleasing English farmer, who had been educated in Belgium, +came and ordered a bottle of champagne, and shyly begged me to drink +a glass, whereupon we talked of crops and the like; and an excellent +specimen of a colonist he appeared: very gentle and unaffected, with +homely good sense, and real good breeding—such a contrast to the +pert airs and vulgarity of Capetown and of the people in (colonial) +high places. Finding we had no carriage, he posted off and borrowed +a cart of one man and harness of another, and put his and his son’s +riding horses to it, to take Mrs. D- and me home. As it was still +early, he took us a ‘little drive’; and oh, ye gods! what +a terrific and dislocating pleasure was that! At a hard gallop, +Mr. M- (with the mildest and steadiest air and with perfect safety) +took us right across country. It is true there were no fences; +but over bushes, ditches, lumps of rock, watercourses, we jumped, flew, +and bounded, and up every hill we went racing pace. I arrived +at home much bewildered, and feeling more like Bürger’s Lenore +than anything else, till I saw Mr. M-’s steady, pleasant face +quite undisturbed, and was informed that such was the way of driving +of Cape farmers.</p> +<p>We found the luckless Jack in such a state of furious drunkenness +that he had to be dismissed on the spot, not without threats of the +‘Tronk’, and once more Kleenboy fills the office of boots. +He returned in a ludicrous state of penitence and emaciation, frankly +admitting that it was better to work hard and get ‘plenty grub’, +than to work less and get none;—still, however, protesting against +work at all.</p> +<p>January 7th.—For the last four days it has again been blowing +a wintry hurricane. Every one says that the continuance of these +winds so late into the summer (this answers to July) is unheard of, +and <i>must</i> cease soon. In Table Bay, I hear a good deal of +mischief has been done to the shipping.</p> +<p>I hope my long yarns won’t bore you. I put down what +seems new and amusing to me at the moment, but by the time it reaches +you, it will seem very dull and commonplace. I hear that the Scotchman +who attacked poor Aria, the crazy Hottentot, is a ‘revival lecturer’, +and was ‘simply exhorting him to break his fiddle and come to +Christ’ (the phrase is a clergyman’s, I beg to observe); +and the saints are indignant that, after executing the pious purpose +as far as the fiddle went, he was prevented by the chief constable from +dragging him to the Tronk. The ‘revival’ mania has +broken out rather violently in some places; the infection was brought +from St. Helena, I am told. At Capetown, old Abdool Jemaalee told +me that English Christians were getting more like Malays, and had begun +to hold ‘Kalifahs’ at Simon’s Bay. These are +festivals in which Mussulman fanatics run knives into their flesh, go +into convulsions, &c, to the sound of music, like the Arab described +by Houdin. Of course the poor blacks go quite demented.</p> +<p>I intend to stay here another two or three weeks, and then to go +to Worcester—stay a bit; Paarl, ditto; Stellenbosch, ditto—and +go to Capetown early in March, and in April to embark for home.</p> +<p>January 15th.—No mail in yet. We have had beautiful weather +the last three days. Captain D- has been in Capetown, and bought +a horse, which he rode home seventy-five miles in a day and a half,—the +beast none the worse nor tired. I am to ride him, and so shall +see the country if the vile cold winds keep off.</p> +<p>This morning I walked on the Veld, and met a young black shepherd +leading his sheep and goats, and playing on a guitar composed of an +old tin mug covered with a bit of sheepskin and a handle of rough wood, +with pegs, and three strings of sheep-gut. I asked him to sing, +and he flung himself at my feet in an attitude that would make Watts +crazy with delight, and <i>crooned</i> queer little mournful ditties. +I gave him sixpence, and told him not to get drunk. He said, ‘Oh +no; I will buy bread enough to make my belly stiff—I almost never +had my belly stiff.’ He likewise informed me he had just +been in the Tronk (prison), and on my asking why, replied: ‘Oh, +for fighting, and telling lies;’ Die liebe Unschuld! (Dear +innocence!)</p> +<p>Hottentot figs are rather nice—a green fig-shaped thing, containing +about a spoonful of <i>salt-sweet</i> insipid glue, which you suck out. +This does not sound nice, but it is. The plant has a thick, succulent, +triangular leaf, creeping on the ground, and growing anywhere, without +earth or water. Figs proper are common here, but tasteless; and +the people pick all their fruit green, and eat it so too. The +children are all crunching hard peaches and plums just now, particularly +some little half-breeds near here, who are frightfully ugly. Fancy +the children of a black woman and a red-haired man; the little monsters +are as black as the mother, and have <i>red</i> wool—you never +saw so diabolical an appearance. Some of the coloured people are +very pretty; for example, a coal-black girl of seventeen, and my washerwoman, +who is brown. They are wonderfully slender and agile, and quite +old hard-working women have waists you could span. They never +grow thick and square, like Europeans.</p> +<p>I could write a volume on Cape horses. Such valiant little +beasts, and so composed in temper, I never saw. They are nearly +all bays—a few very dark grey, which are esteemed; <i>very</i> +few white or light grey. I have seen no black, and only one dark +chestnut. They are not cobs, and look ‘very little of them’, +and have no beauty; but one of these little brutes, ungroomed, half-fed, +seldom stabled, will carry a six-and-a-half-foot Dutchman sixty miles +a day, day after day, at a shuffling easy canter, six miles an hour. +You ‘off saddle’ every three hours, and let him roll; you +also let him drink all he can get; his coat shines and his eye is bright, +and unsoundness is very rare. They are never properly broke, and +the soft-mouthed colts are sometimes made vicious by the cruel bits +and heavy hands; but by nature their temper is perfect.</p> +<p>Every morning all the horses in the village are turned loose, and +a general gallop takes place to the water tank, where they drink and +lounge a little; and the young ones are fetched home by their niggers, +while the old stagers know they will be wanted, and saunter off by themselves. +I often attend the Houyhnhnm <i>conversazione</i> at the tank, at about +seven o’clock, and am amused by their behaviour; and I continually +wish I could see Ned’s face on witnessing many equine proceedings +here. To see a farmer outspan and turn the team of active little +beasts loose on the boundless veld to amuse themselves for an hour or +two, sure that they will all be there, would astonish him a little; +and then to offer a horse nothing but a roll in the dust to refresh +himself withal!</p> +<p>One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of horses and oxen along +the roadside; or at times a fresh carcase surrounded by a convocation +of huge serious-looking carrion crows, with neat white neck-cloths. +The skeletons look like wrecks, and make you feel very lonely on the +wide veld. In this district, and in most, I believe, the roads +are mere tracks over the hard, level earth, and very good they are. +When one gets rutty, you drive parallel to it, till the bush is worn +out and a new track is formed.</p> +<p>January 17th.—Lovely weather all the week. Summer well +set in.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER VI—CALEDON</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, January 19th.</p> +<p>Dearest Mother,</p> +<p>Till this last week, the weather was pertinaciously cold and windy; +and I had resolved to go to Worcester, which lies in a ‘Kessel’, +and is really hot. But now the glorious African summer is come, +and I believe this is the weather of Paradise. I got up at four +this morning, when the Dutchmen who had slept here were starting in +their carts and waggons. It was quite light; but the moon shone +brilliantly still, and had put on a bright rose-coloured veil, borrowed +from the rising sun on the opposite horizon. The freshness (without +a shadow of cold or damp) of the air was indescribable—no dew +was on the ground. I went up the hill-side, along the ‘Sloot’ +(channel, which supplies all our water), into the ‘Kloof’ +between the mountains, and clambered up to the ‘Venster Klip’, +from which natural window the view is very fine. The flowers are +all gone and the grass all dead. Rhenoster boschjes and Hottentot +fig are green everywhere, and among the rocks all manner of shrubs, +and far too much ‘Wacht een beetje’ <i>(Wait a bit</i>), +a sort of series of natural fish-hooks, which try the robustest patience. +Between seven and eight, the sun gets rather hot, and I came in and +<i>tubbed</i>, and sat on the stoep (a sort of terrace, in front of +every house in South Africa). I breakfast at nine, sit on the +stoep again till the sun comes round, and then retreat behind closed +shutters from the stinging sun. The <i>air</i> is fresh and light +all day, though the sun is tremendous; but one has no languid feeling +or desire to lie about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at two or +half-past, and at four or five the heat is over, and one puts on a shawl +to go out in the afternoon breeze. The nights are cool, so as +always to want one blanket. I still have a cough; but it is getting +better, so that I can always eat and walk. Mine host has just +bought a horse, which he is going to try with a petticoat to-day, and +if he goes well I shall ride.</p> +<p>I like this inn-life, because I see all the ‘neighbourhood’—farmers +and traders—whom I like far better than the <i>gentility</i> of +Capetown. I have given letters to England to a ‘boer’, +who is ‘going home’, i.e. to Europe, the <i>first of his +race since the revocation</i> <i>of the Edict of Nantes</i>, when some +poor refugees were inveigled hither by the Dutch Governor, and oppressed +worse than the Hottentots. M. de Villiers has had no education +<i>at all</i>, and has worked, and traded, and farmed,—but the +breed tells; he is a pure and thorough Frenchman, unable to speak a +word of French. When I went in to dinner, he rose and gave me +a chair with a bow which, with his appearance, made me ask, <i>‘Monsieur +vient d’arriver</i>?’ This at once put him out and +pleased him. He is very unlike a Dutchman. If you think +that any of the French will feel as I felt to this far-distant brother +of theirs, pray give him a few letters; but remember that he can speak +only English and Dutch, and a little German. Here his name is +<i>called</i> ‘Filljee’, but I told him to drop that barbarism +in Europe; De Villiers ought to speak for itself. He says they +came from the neighbourhood of Bordeaux.</p> +<p>The postmaster, Heer Klein, and his old Pylades, Heer Ley, are great +cronies of mine—stout old greybeards, toddling down the hill together. +I sometimes go and sit on the stoep with the two old bachelors, and +they take it as a great compliment; and Heer Klein gave me my letters +all decked with flowers, and wished ‘Vrolyke tydings, Mevrouw,’ +most heartily. He has also made his tributary mail-cart Hottentots +bring from various higher mountain ranges the beautiful everlasting +flowers, which will make pretty wreaths for J-. When I went to +his house to thank him, I found a handsome Malay, with a basket of ‘Klipkaus’, +a shell-fish much esteemed here. Old Klein told me they were sent +him by a Malay who was born in his father’s house, a slave, and +had been <i>his ‘boy</i>’ and play-fellow. Now, the +slave is far richer than the old young master, and no waggon comes without +a little gift—oranges, fish, &c.—for ‘Wilhem’. +When Klein goes to Capetown, the old Malay seats him in a grand chair +and sits on a little wooden stool at his feet; Klein begs him, as ‘Huisheer’, +to sit properly; but, ‘Neen Wilhem, Ik zal niet; ik kan niet vergeten.’ +‘Good boy!’ said old Klein; ‘good people the Malays.’ +It is a relief, after the horrors one has heard of Dutch cruelty, to +see such an ‘idyllisches Verhältniss’. I have +heard other instances of the same fidelity from Malays, but they were +utterly unappreciated, and only told to prove the excellence of slavery, +and ‘how well the rascals must have been off’.</p> +<p>I have fallen in love with a Hottentot baby here. Her mother +is all black, with a broad face and soft spaniel eyes, and the father +is Bastaard; but the baby (a girl, nine months old), has walked out +of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s pictures. I never saw so beautiful +a child. She has huge eyes with the spiritual look he gives to +them, and is exquisite in every way. When the Hottentot blood +is handsome, it is beautiful; there is a delicacy and softness about +some of the women which is very pretty, and the eyes are those of a +<i>good</i> dog. Most of them are hideous, and nearly all drink; +but they are very clean and honest. Their cottages are far superior +in cleanliness to anything out of England, except in picked places, +like some parts of Belgium; and they wash as much as they can, with +the bad water-supply, and the English outcry if they strip out of doors +to bathe. Compared to French peasants, they are very clean indeed, +and even the children are far more decent and cleanly in their habits +than those of France. The woman who comes here to clean and scour +is a model of neatness in her work and her person (quite black), but +she gets helplessly drunk as soon as she has a penny to buy a glass +of wine; for a penny, a half-pint tumbler of very strong and remarkably +nasty wine is sold at the canteens.</p> +<p>I have many more ‘humours’ to tell, but A- can show you +all the long story I have written. I hope it does not seem very +stale and <i>decies repetita</i>. All being new and curious to +the eye here, one becomes long-winded about mere trifles.</p> +<p>One small thing more. The first few shillings that a coloured +woman has to spend on her cottage go in—what do you think?—A +grand toilet table of worked muslin over pink, all set out with little +‘<i>objets’</i>—such as they are: if there is nothing +else, there is that here, as at Capetown, and all along to Simon’s +Bay. Now, what is the use or comfort of a <i>duchesse</i> to a +Hottentot family? I shall never see those toilets again without +thinking of Hottentots—what a baroque association of ideas! +I intend, in a day or two, to go over to ‘Gnadenthal’, the +Moravian missionary station, founded in 1736—the ‘blühende +Gemeinde von Hottentoten’. How little did I think to see +it, when we smiled at the phrase in old Mr. Steinkopf’s sermon +years ago in London! The <i>missionarized</i> Hottentots are not, +as it is said, thought well of—being even tipsier than the rest; +but I may see a full-blood one, and even a true Bosjesman, which is +worth a couple of hours’ drive; and the place is said to be beautiful.</p> +<p>This climate is evidently a styptic of great power, I shall write +a few lines to the <i>Lancet</i> about Caledon and its hot baths—‘Bad +Caledon’, as the Germans at Houw Hoek call it. The baths +do not concern me, as they are chalybeate; but they seem very effectual +in many cases. Yet English people never come here; they stay at +Capetown, which must be a furnace now, or at Wynberg, which is damp +and chill (comparatively); at most, they get to Stellenbosch. +I mean visitors, not settlers; <i>they</i> are everywhere. I look +the colour of a Hottentot. Now I <i>must</i> leave off.</p> +<p>Your most affectionate</p> +<p>L. D. G.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER VII—GNADENTHAL</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Jan. 28th.</p> +<p>Well, I have been to Gnadenthal, and seen the ‘blooming parish’, +and a lovely spot it is. A large village nestled in a deep valley, +surrounded by high mountains on three sides, and a lower range in front. +We started early on Saturday, and drove over a mighty queer road, and +through a river. Oh, ye gods! what a shaking and pounding! +We were rattled up like dice in a box. Nothing but a Cape cart, +Cape horses, and a Hottentot driver, above all, could have accomplished +it. Captain D- rode, and had the best of it. On the road +we passed three or four farms, at all which horses were <i>galloping +out</i> the grain, or men were winnowing it by tossing it up with wooden +shovels to let the wind blow away the chaff. We did the twenty-four +miles up and down the mountain roads in two hours and a half, with our +valiant little pair of horses; it is incredible how they go. We +stopped at a nice cottage on the hillside belonging to a <i>ci-devant</i> +slave, one Christian Rietz, a <i>white</i> man, with brown woolly hair, +sharp features, grey eyes, and <i>not</i> woolly moustaches. He +said he was a ‘Scotch bastaard’, and ‘le bon sang +parlait—très-haut même’, for a more thriving, +shrewd, sensible fellow I never saw. His <i>father</i> and master +had had to let him go when all slaves were emancipated, and he had come +to Gnadenthal. He keeps a little inn in the village, and a shop +and a fine garden. The cottage we lodged in was on the mountain +side, and had been built for his son, who was dead; and his adopted +daughter, a pretty coloured girl, exactly like a southern Frenchwoman, +waited on us, assisted by about six or seven other women, who came chiefly +to stare. Vrouw Rietz was as black as a coal, but <i>so</i> pretty!—a +dear, soft, sleek, old lady, with beautiful eyes, and the kind pleasant +ways which belong to nice blacks; and, though old and fat, still graceful +and lovely in face, hands, and arms. The cottage was thus:- One +large hall; my bedroom on the right, S-’s on the left; the kitchen +behind me; Miss Rietz behind S-; mud floors daintily washed over with +fresh cow-dung; ceiling of big rafters, just as they had grown, on which +rested bamboo canes close together <i>across</i> the rafters, and bound +together between each, with transverse bamboo—a pretty <i>beehivey</i> +effect; at top, mud again, and then a high thatched roof and a loft +or zolder for forage, &c.; the walls of course mud, very thick and +whitewashed. The bedrooms tiny; beds, clean sweet melies (maize) +straw, with clean sheets, and eight good pillows on each; glass windows +(a great distinction), exquisite cleanliness, and hearty civility; good +food, well cooked; horrid tea and coffee, and hardly any milk; no end +of fruit. In all the gardens it hung on the trees thicker than +the leaves. Never did I behold such a profusion of fruit and vegetables.</p> +<p>But first I must tell what struck me most, I asked one of the Herrenhut +brethren whether there were any <i>real</i> Hottentots, and he said, +‘Yes, one;’ and next morning, as I sat waiting for early +prayers under the big oak-trees in the Plaats (square), he came up, +followed by a tiny old man hobbling along with a long stick to support +him. ‘Here’, said he, ‘is the <i>last</i> Hottentot; +he is a hundred and seven years old, and lives all alone.’ +I looked on the little, wizened, yellow face, and was shocked that he +should be dragged up like a wild beast to be stared at. A feeling +of pity which felt like remorse fell upon me, and my eyes filled as +I rose and stood before him, so tall and like a tyrant and oppressor, +while he uncovered his poor little old snow-white head, and peered up +in my face. I led him to the seat, and helped him to sit down, +and said in Dutch, ‘Father, I hope you are not tired; you are +old.’ He saw and heard as well as ever, and spoke good Dutch +in a firm voice. ‘Yes, I am above a hundred years old, and +alone—quite alone.’ I sat beside him, and he put his +head on one side, and looked curiously up at me with his faded, but +still piercing little wild eyes. Perhaps he had a perception of +what I felt—yet I hardly think so; perhaps he thought I was in +trouble, for he crept close up to me, and put one tiny brown paw into +my hand, which he stroked with the other, and asked (like most coloured +people) if I had children. I said, ‘Yes, at home in England;’ +and he patted my hand again, and said, ‘God bless them!’ +It was a relief to feel that he was pleased, for I should have felt +like a murderer if my curiosity had added a moment’s pain to so +tragic a fate.</p> +<p>This may sound like sentimentalism; but you cannot conceive the effect +of looking on the last of a race once the owners of all this land, and +now utterly gone. His look was not quite human, physically speaking;—a +good head, small wild-beast eyes, piercing and restless; cheek-bones +strangely high and prominent, nose <i>quite</i> flat, mouth rather wide; +thin shapeless lips, and an indescribably small, long, pointed chin, +with just a very little soft white woolly beard; his head covered with +extremely short close white wool, which ended round the poll in little +ringlets. Hands and feet like an English child of seven or eight, +and person about the size of a child of eleven. He had all his +teeth, and though shrunk to nothing, was very little wrinkled in the +face, and not at all in the hands, which were dark brown, while his +face was yellow. His manner, and way of speaking were like those +of an old peasant in England, only his voice was clearer and stronger, +and his perceptions not blunted by age. He had travelled with +one of the missionaries in the year 1790, or thereabouts, and remained +with them ever since.</p> +<p>I went into the church—a large, clean, rather handsome building, +consecrated in 1800—and heard a very good sort of Litany, mixed +with such singing as only black voices can produce. The organ +was beautifully played by a Bastaard lad. The Herrenhuters use +very fine chants, and the perfect ear and heavenly voices of a large +congregation, about six hundred, all coloured people, made music more +beautiful than any chorus-singing I ever heard.</p> +<p>Prayers lasted half an hour; then the congregation turned out of +doors, and the windows were opened. Some of the people went away, +and others waited for the ‘allgemeine Predigt’. In +a quarter of an hour a much larger congregation than the first assembled, +the girls all with net-handkerchiefs tied round their heads so as to +look exactly like the ancient Greek head-dress with a double fillet—the +very prettiest and neatest coiffure I ever saw. The gowns were +made like those of English girls of the same class, but far smarter, +cleaner, and gayer in colour—pink, and green, and yellow, and +bright blue; several were all in white, with white gloves. The +men and women sit separate, and the women’s side was a bed of +tulips. The young fellows were very smart indeed, with muslin +or gauze, either white, pink, or blue, rolled round their hats (that +is universal here, on account of the sun). The Hottentots, as +they are called—that is, those of mixed Dutch and Hottentot origin +(correctly, ‘bastaards’)—have a sort of blackguard +elegance in their gait and figure which is peculiar to them; a mixture +of negro or Mozambique blood alters it altogether. The girls have +the elegance without the blackguard look; <i>all</i> are slender, most +are tall; all graceful, all have good hands and feet; some few are handsome +in the face and many very interesting-looking. The complexion +is a pale olive-yellow, and the hair more or less woolly, face flat, +and cheekbones high, eyes small and bright. These are by far the +most intelligent—equal, indeed, to whites. A mixture of +black blood often gives real beauty, but takes off from the ‘air’, +and generally from the talent; but then the blacks are so pleasant, +and the Hottentots are taciturn and reserved. The old women of +this breed are the grandest hags I ever saw; they are clean and well +dressed, and tie up their old faces in white handkerchiefs like corpses,—faces +like those of Andrea del Sarto’s old women; they are splendid. +Also, they are very clean people, addicted to tubbing more than any +others. The maid-of-all-work, who lounges about your breakfast +table in rags and dishevelled hair, has been in the river before you +were awake, or, if that was too far off, in a tub. They are also +far cleaner in their huts than any but the <i>very best</i> English +poor.</p> +<p>The ‘Predigt’ was delivered, after more singing, by a +missionary cabinet-maker, in Dutch, very ranting, and not very wise; +the congregation was singularly decorous and attentive, but did not +seem at all excited or impressed—just like a well-bred West-end +audience, only rather more attentive. The service lasted three-quarters +of an hour, including a short prayer and two hymns. The people +came out and filed off in total silence, and very quickly, the tall +graceful girls draping their gay silk shawls beautifully. There +are seven missionaries, all in orders but one, the blacksmith, and all +married, except the resident director of the boys’ boarding-school; +there is a doctor, a carpenter, a cabinet-maker, a shoe-maker, and a +storekeeper—a very agreeable man, who had been missionary in Greenland +and Labrador, and interpreter to MacClure. There is one ‘Studirter +Theolog’. All are Germans, and so are their wives. +My friend the storekeeper married without having ever beheld his wife +before they met at the altar, and came on board ship at once with her. +He said it was as good a way of marrying as any other, and that they +were happy together. She was lying in, so I did not see her. +At eight years old, their children are all sent home to Germany to be +educated, and they seldom see them again. On each side of the +church are schools, and next to them the missionaries’ houses +on one side of the square, and on the other a row of workshops, where +the Hottentots are taught all manner of trades. I have got a couple +of knives, made at Gnadenthal, for the children. The girls occupy +the school in the morning, and the boys in the afternoon; half a day +is found quite enough of lessons in this climate. The infant school +was of both sexes, but a different set morning and afternoon. +The missionaries’ children were in the infant school; and behind +the little blonde German ‘Mädels’ three jet black niggerlings +rolled over each other like pointer-pups, and grinned, and didn’t +care a straw for the spelling; while the dingy yellow little bastaards +were straining their black eyes out, with eagerness to answer the master’s +questions. He and the mistress were both Bastaards, and he seemed +an excellent teacher. The girls were learning writing from a master, +and Bible history from a mistress, also people of colour; and the stupid +set (mostly black) were having spelling hammered into their thick skulls +by another yellow mistress, in another room. At the boarding school +were twenty lads, from thirteen up to twenty, in training for school-teachers +at different stations. Gnadenthal supplies the Church of England +with them, as well as their own stations. There were Caffres, +Fingoes, a Mantatee, one boy evidently of some Oriental blood, with +glossy, smooth hair and a copper skin—and the rest Bastaards of +various hues, some mixed with black, probably Mozambique. The +Caffre lads were splendid young Hercules’. They had just +printed the first book in the Caffre language (I’ve got it for +Dr. Hawtrey,)—extracts from the New Testament,—and I made +them read the sheets they were going to bind; it is a beautiful language, +like Spanish in tone, only with a queer ‘click’ in it. +The boys drew, like Chinese, from ‘copies’, and wrote like +copper-plate; they sang some of Mendelssohn’s choruses from ‘St. +Paul’ splendidly, the Caffres rolling out soft rich bass voices, +like melodious thunder. They are clever at handicrafts, and fond +of geography and natural history, incapable of mathematics, quick at +languages, utterly incurious about other nations, and would all rather +work in the fields than learn anything but music; good boys, honest, +but ‘<i>trotzig</i>’. So much for Caffres, Fingoes, +&c. The Bastaards are as clever as whites, and more docile—so +the ‘rector’ told me. The boy who played the organ +sang the ‘Lorelei’ like an angel, and played us a number +of waltzes and other things on the piano, but he was too shy to talk; +while the Caffres crowded round me, and chattered away merrily. +The Mantatees, whom I cannot distinguish from Caffres, are scattered +all over the colony, and rival the English as workmen and labourers—fine +stalwart, industrious fellows. Our little ‘boy’ Kleenboy +hires a room for fifteen shillings a month, and takes in his compatriots +as lodgers at half a crown a week—the usurious little rogue! +His chief, one James, is a bricklayer here, and looks and behaves like +a prince. It is fine to see his black arms, ornamented with silver +bracelets, hurling huge stones about.</p> +<p>All Gnadenthal is wonderfully fruitful, being well watered, but it +is not healthy for whites; I imagine, too hot and damp. There +are three or four thousand coloured people there, under the control +of the missionaries, who allow no canteens at all. The people +may have what they please at home, but no public drinking-place is allowed, +and we had to take our own beer and wine for the three days. The +gardens and burial-ground are beautiful, and the square is entirely +shaded by about ten or twelve superb oaks; nothing prettier can be conceived. +It is not popular in the neighbourhood. ‘You see it makes +the d-d niggers cheeky’ to have homes of their own—and the +girls are said to be immoral. As to that, there are no so-called +‘morals’ among the coloured people, and how or why should +there? It is an honour to one of these girls to have a child by +a white man, and it is a degradation to him to marry a dark girl. +A pious stiff old Dutchwoman who came here the other day for the Sacrament +(which takes place twice a year), had one girl with her, big with child +by her son, who also came for the Sacrament, and two in the straw at +home by the other son; this caused her exactly as much emotion as I +feel when my cat kittens. No one takes any notice, either to blame +or to nurse the poor things—they scramble through it as pussy +does. The English are almost equally contemptuous; but there is +one great difference. My host, for instance, always calls a black +‘a d-d nigger’; but if that nigger is wronged or oppressed +he fights for him, or bails him out of the Tronk, and an English jury +gives a just verdict; while a Dutch one simply finds for a Dutchman, +against any one else, and <i>always</i> against a dark man. I +believe this to be true, from what I have seen and heard; and certainly +the coloured people have a great preference for the English.</p> +<p>I am persecuted by the ugliest and blackest Mozambiquer I have yet +seen, a bricklayer’s labourer, who can speak English, and says +he was servant to an English Captain—‘Oh, a good fellow +he was, only he’s dead!’ He now insists on my taking +him as a servant. ‘I dessay your man at home is a good chap, +and I’ll be a good boy, and cook very nice.’ He is +thick-set and short and strong. Nature has adorned him with a +cock eye and a yard of mouth, and art, with a prodigiously tall white +chimney-pot hat with the crown out, a cotton nightcap, and a wondrous +congeries of rags. He professes to be cook, groom, and ‘walley’, +and is sure you would be pleased with his attentions.</p> +<p>Well, to go back to Gnadenthal. I wandered all over the village +on Sunday afternoon, and peeped into the cottages. All were neat +and clean, with good dressers of crockery, the <i>very</i> poorest, +like the worst in Weybridge sandpits; but they had no glass windows, +only a wooden shutter, and no doors; a calico curtain, or a sort of +hurdle supplying its place. The people nodded and said ‘Good +day!’ but took no further notice of me, except the poor old Hottentot, +who was seated on a doorstep. He rose and hobbled up to meet me +and take my hand again. He seemed to enjoy being helped along +and seated down carefully, and shook and patted my hand repeatedly when +I took leave of him. At this the people stared a good deal, and +one woman came to talk to me.</p> +<p>In the evening I sat on a bench in the square, and saw the people +go in to ‘Abendsegen’. The church was lighted, and +as I sat there and heard the lovely singing, I thought it was impossible +to conceive a more romantic scene. On Monday I saw all the schools, +and then looked at the great strong Caffre lads playing in the square. +One of them stood to be pelted by five or six others, and as the stones +came, he twisted and turned and jumped, and was hardly ever hit, and +when he was, he didn’t care, though the others hurled like catapults. +It was the most wonderful display of activity and grace, and quite incredible +that such a huge fellow should be so quick and light. When I found +how comfortable dear old Mrs. Rietz made me, I was sorry I had hired +the cart and kept it to take me home, for I would gladly have stayed +longer, and the heat did me no harm; but I did not like to throw away +a pound or two, and drove back that evening. Mrs. Rietz, told +me her mother was a Mozambiquer. ‘And your father?’ +said I. ‘Oh, I don’t know. <i>My mother was +only a slave</i>.’ She, too, was a slave, but said she ‘never +knew it’, her ‘missus’ was so good; a Dutch lady, +at a farm I had passed, on the road, who had a hundred and fifty slaves. +I liked my Hottentot hut amazingly, and the sweet brown bread, and the +dinner cooked so cleanly on the bricks in the kitchen. The walls +were whitewashed and adorned with wreaths of everlasting flowers and +some quaint old prints from Loutherburg—pastoral subjects, not +exactly edifying.</p> +<p>Well, I have prosed unconscionably, so adieu for the present.</p> +<p>February 3d.—Many happy returns of your birthday, dear -. +I had a bottle of champagne to drink your health, and partly to swell +the bill, which these good people make so moderate, that I am half ashamed. +I get everything that Caledon can furnish for myself and S- for 15<i>l</i>. +a month.</p> +<p>On Saturday we got the sad news of Prince Albert’s death, and +it created real consternation here. What a thoroughly unexpected +calamity! Every one is already dressed in deep mourning. +It is more general than in a village of the same size at home—(how +I have caught the colonial trick of always saying ‘home’ +for England! Dutchmen who can barely speak English, and never +did or will see England, equally talk of ‘news from home’). +It also seems, by the papers of the 24th of December, which came by +a steamer the other day, that war is imminent. I shall have to +wait for convoy, I suppose, as I object to walking the plank from a +Yankee privateer. I shall wait here for the next mail, and then +go back to Capetown, stopping by the way, so as to get there early in +March, and arrange for my voyage. The weather had a relapse into +cold, and an attempt at rain. Pity it failed, for the drought +is dreadful this year, chiefly owing to the unusual quantity of sharp +drying winds—a most unlucky summer for the country and for me.</p> +<p>My old friend Klein, who told me several instances of the kindness +and gratitude of former slaves, poured out to me the misery he had undergone +from the ‘ingratitude’ of a certain Rosina, a slave-girl +of his. She was in her youth handsome, clever, the best horsebreaker, +bullock-trainer and driver, and hardest worker in the district. +She had two children by Klein, then a young fellow; six by another white +man, and a few more by two husbands of her own race! But she was +of a rebellious spirit, and took to drink. After the emancipation, +she used to go in front of Klein’s windows and read the statute +in a loud voice on every anniversary of the day; and as if that did +not enrage him enough, she pertinaciously (whenever she was a little +drunk) kissed him by main force every time she met him in the street, +exclaiming, ‘Aha! when I young and pretty slave-girl you make +kiss me then; now I ugly, drunk, dirty old devil and free woman, I kiss +you!’ Frightful retributive justice! I struggled hard +to keep my countenance, but the fat old fellow’s good-humoured, +rueful face was too much for me. His tormentor is dead, but he +retains a painful impression of her ‘ingratitude ‘.</p> +<p>Our little Mantatee ‘Kleenboy’ has again, like Jeshurun, +‘waxed fat and kicked’, as soon as he had eaten enough to +be once more plump and shiny. After his hungry period, he took +to squatting on the stoep, just in front of the hall-door, and altogether +declining to do anything; so he is superseded by an equally ugly little +red-headed Englishman. The Irish housemaid has married the German +baker (a fine match for her!), and a dour little Scotch Presbyterian +has come up from Capetown in her place. Such are the vicissitudes +of colonial house-keeping! The only ‘permanency’ is +the old soldier of Captain D-’s regiment, who is barman in the +canteen, and not likely to leave ‘his honour’, and the coloured +girl, who improves on acquaintance. She wants to ingratiate herself +with me, and get taken to England. Her father is an Englishman, +and of course the brown mother and her large family always live in the +fear of his ‘going home’ and ignoring their existence; a +<i>marriage</i> with the mother of his children would be too much degradation +for him to submit to. Few of the coloured people are ever married, +but they don’t separate oftener than <i>really</i> married folks. +Bill, the handsome West Indian black, married my pretty washerwoman +Rosalind, and was thought rather assuming because he was asked in church +and lawfully married; and she wore a handsome lilac silk gown and a +white wreath and veil, and very well she looked in them. She had +a child of two years old, which did not at all disconcert Bill; but +he continues to be dignified, and won’t let her go and wash clothes +in the river, because the hot sun makes her ill, and it is not fit work +for women.</p> +<p>Sunday, 9th.—Last night a dance took place in a house next +door to this, and a party of boers attempted to go in, but were repulsed +by a sortie of the young men within. Some of the more peaceable +boers came in here and wanted ale, which was refused, as they were already +very <i>vinous</i>; so they imbibed ginger-beer, whereof one drank thirty-four +bottles to his own share! Inspired by this drink, they began to +quarrel, and were summarily turned out. They spent the whole night, +till five this morning, scuffling and vociferating in the street. +The constables discreetly stayed in bed, displaying the true Dogberry +spirit, which leads them to take up Hottentots, drunk or sober, to show +their zeal, but carefully to avoid meddling with stalwart boers, from +six to six and a half feet high and strong in proportion. The +jabbering of Dutch brings to mind Demosthenes trying to outroar a stormy +sea with his mouth full of pebbles. The hardest blows are those +given with the tongue, though much pulling of hair and scuffling takes +place. ‘Verdomde Schmeerlap!’—‘Donder +and Bliksem! am I a verdomde Schmeerlap?’—‘Ja, u is,’ +&c., &c. I could not help laughing heartily as I lay in +bed, at hearing the gambols of these Titan cubs; for this is a boer’s +notion of enjoying himself. This morning, I hear, the street was +strewn with the hair they had pulled out of each other’s heads. +All who come here make love to S-; not by describing their tender feelings, +but by enumerating the oxen, sheep, horses, land, money, &c., of +which they are possessed, and whereof, by the law of this colony, she +would become half-owner on marriage. There is a fine handsome +Van Steen, who is very persevering; but S- does not seem to fancy becoming +Mevrouw at all. The demand for English girls as wives is wonderful +here. The nasty cross little ugly Scotch maid has had three offers +already, in one fortnight!</p> +<p>February 18th.—I expect to receive the letters by the English +mail to-morrow morning, and to go to Worcester on Thursday. On +Saturday the young doctor—good-humoured, jolly, big, young Dutchman—drove +me, with his pretty little greys, over to two farms; at one I ate half +a huge melon, and at the other, uncounted grapes. We poor Europeans +don’t know what fruit <i>can be</i>, I must admit. The melon +was a foretaste of paradise, and the grapes made one’s fingers +as sticky as honey, and had a muscat fragrance quite inconceivable. +They looked like amber eggs. The best of it is, too, that in this +climate stomach-aches are not. We all eat grapes, peaches, and +figs, all day long. Old Klein sends me, for my own daily consumption, +about thirty peaches, three pounds of grapes, and apples, pears, and +figs besides—‘just a little taste of fruits’; only +here they will pick it all unripe.</p> +<p>February 19th.—The post came in late last night, and old Klein +kindly sent me my letters at near midnight. The post goes out +this evening, and the hot wind is blowing, so I can only write to you, +and a line to my mother. I feel really better now. I think +the constant eating of grapes has done me much good.</p> +<p>The Dutch cart-owner was so extortionate, that I am going to wait +a few days, and write to my dear Malay to come up and drive me back. +It is better than having to fight the Dutch monopolist in every village, +and getting drunken drivers and bad carts after all. I shall go +round all the same. The weather has been beautiful; to-day there +is a wind, which comes about two or three times in the year: it is not +depressing, but hot, and a bore, because one must shut every window +or be stifled with dust.</p> +<p>The people are burning the veld all about, and the lurid smoke by +day and flaming hill-sides by night are very striking. The ashes +of the Bosh serve as manure for the young grass, which will sprout in +the autumn rains. Such nights! Such a moon! I walk +out after dark when it is mild and clear, and can read any print by +the moonlight, and see the distant landscape as well as by day.</p> +<p>Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, and the skin and hoofs, +which are pretty.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER VIII</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Sunday.</p> +<p>You must have fallen into second childhood to think of <i>printing</i> +such rambling hasty scrawls as I write. I never could write a +good letter; and unless I gallop as hard as I can, and don’t stop +to think, I can say nothing; so all is confused and unconnected: only +I fancy <i>you</i> will be amused by some of my ‘impressions’. +I have written to my mother an accurate account of my health. +I am dressed and out of doors never later than six, now the weather +makes it possible. It is surprising how little sleep one wants. +I go to bed at ten and often am up at four.</p> +<p>I made friends here the other day with a lively dried-up little old +Irishman, who came out at seven years old a pauper-boy. He has +made a fortune by ‘going on <i>Togt’ (German, Tausch</i>), +as thus; he charters two waggons, twelve oxen each, and two Hottentots +to each waggon, leader and driver. The waggons he fills with cotton, +hardware, &c., &c.—an ambulatory village ‘shop’,—and +goes about fifteen miles a day, on and on, into the far interior, swapping +baftas (calico), punjums (loose trowsers), and voerschitz (cotton gownpieces), +pronounced ‘foossy’, against oxen and sheep. When +all is gone he swaps his waggons against more oxen and a horse, and +he and his four ‘totties’ drive home the spoil; and he has +doubled or trebled his venture. <i>En route</i> home, each day +they kill a sheep, and eat it <i>all</i>. ‘What!’ +says I; ‘the whole?’ ‘Every bit. I always +take one leg and the liver for myself, and the totties roast the rest, +and melt all the fat and entrails down in an iron pot and eat it with +a wooden spoon.’ <i>Je n’en revenais pas</i>. +‘What! the whole leg and liver at one meal?’ ‘Every +bit; ay, and you’d do the same, ma’am, if you were there.’ +No bread, no salt, no nothing—mutton and water. The old +fellow was quite poetic and heroic in describing the joys and perils +of Togt. I said I should like to go too; and he bewailed having +settled a year ago in a store at Swellendam, ‘else he’d +ha’ fitted up a waggon all nice and snug for me, and shown me +what going on togt was like. Nothing like it for the health, ma’am; +and beautiful shooting.’ My friend had 700<i>l</i>. in gold +in a carpet bag, without a lock, lying about on the stoep. ‘All +right; nobody steals money or such like here. I’m going +to pay bills in Capetown.’</p> +<p>Tell my mother that a man would get from 2<i>l</i>. to 4<i>l</i>. +a month wages, with board, lodging, &c., all found, and his wife +from 1<i>l</i>. 10<i>s</i>. to 2<i>l</i>. a month and everything found, +according to abilities and testimonials. Wages are enormous, and +servants at famine price; emigrant ships are <i>cleared off</i> in three +days, and every ragged Irish girl in place somewhere. Four pounds +a month, and food for self, husband, and children, is no uncommon pay +for a good cook; and after all her cookery may be poor enough. +My landlady at Capetown gave that. The housemaid had <i>only</i> +1<i>l</i>. 5<i>s</i>. a month, but told me herself she had taken 8<i>l</i>. +in one week in ‘tips’. She was an excellent servant. +Up country here the wages are less, but the comfort greater, and the +chances of ‘getting on’ much increased. But I believe +Algoa Bay or Grahamstown are by far the best fields for new colonists, +and (I am assured) the best climate for lung diseases. The wealthy +English merchants of Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) pay best. It seems +to me, as far as I can learn, that every really <i>working</i> man or +woman can thrive here.</p> +<p>My German host at Houw Hoek came out twenty-three years ago, he told +me, without a ‘heller’, and is now the owner of cattle and +land and horses to a large amount. But then the Germans work, +while the Dutch dawdle and the English drink. ‘New wine’ +is a penny a glass (half a pint), enough to blow your head off, and +‘Cape smoke’ (brandy, like vitriol) ninepence a bottle—that +is the real calamity. If the Cape had the grape disease as badly +as Madeira, it would be the making of the colony.</p> +<p>I received a message from my Malay friends, Abdool Jemaalee and Betsy, +anxious to know ‘if the Misses had good news of her children, +for bad news would make her sick’. Old Betsy and I used +to prose about young Abdurrachman and his studies at Mecca, and about +my children, with more real heartiness than you can fancy. We +were not afraid of boring each other; and pious old Abdool sat and nodded +and said, ‘May Allah protect them all!’ as a refrain;—‘Allah, +il Allah!’</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER IX</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Feb. 21st.</p> +<p>This morning’s post brought your packet, and the announcement +of an extra mail to-night—so I can send you a P.S. I hear +that Capetown has been pestilential, and as hot as Calcutta. It +is totally undrained, and the Mozambiquers are beginning to object to +acting as scavengers to each separate house. The ‘<i>vidanges’</i> +are more barbarous even than in Paris. Without the south-easter +(or ‘Cape doctor’) they must have fevers, &c.; and though +too rough a practitioner for me, he benefits the general health. +Next month the winds abate, but last week an omnibus was blown over +on the Rondebosch road, which is the most sheltered spot, and inhabited +by Capetown merchants. I have received all the <i>Saturday Reviews</i> +quite safe, likewise the books, Mendelssohn’s letters, and the +novel. I have written for my dear Choslullah to fetch me. +The Dutch farmers don’t know how to charge enough; moreover, the +Hottentot drivers get drunk, and for two lone women that is not the +thing. I pay my gentle Malay thirty shillings a day, which, for +a cart and four and such a jewel of a driver, is not outrageous; and +I had better pay that for the few days I wait on the road, than risk +bad carts, tipsy Hottentots, and extortionate boers.</p> +<p>This intermediate country between the ‘Central African wilderness’ +and Capetown has been little frequented. I went to the Church +Mission School with the English clergyman yesterday. You know +I don’t believe in every kind of missionaries, but I do believe +that, in these districts, kind, judicious English clergymen are of great +value. The Dutch pastors still remember the distinction between +‘Christenmenschen’ and ‘Hottentoten’; but the +Church Mission Schools teach the Anglican Catechism to every child that +will learn, and the congregation is as piebald as Harlequin’s +jacket. A pretty, coloured lad, about eleven years old, answered +my questions in geography with great quickness and some wit. I +said, ‘Show me the country you belong to.’ He pointed +to England, and when I laughed, to the cape. ‘This is where +we are, but that is the country I <i>belong to</i>.’ I asked +him how we were governed, and he answered quite right. ‘How +is the Cape governed?’ ‘Oh, we have a Parliament too, +and Mr. Silberbauer is the man <i>we</i> send.’ Boys and +girls of all ages were mixed, but no blacks. I don’t think +they will learn, except on compulsion, as at Gnadenthal.</p> +<p>I regret to say that Bill’s wife has broken his head with a +bottle, at the end of the honeymoon. I fear the innovation of +being <i>married at church</i> has not had a good effect, and that his +neighbours may quote Mr. Peachum.</p> +<p>I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I hardly think it would +be an agreeable addition to the household at Esher.</p> +<p>I hear that Worcester, Paarl, and Stellenbosch are beautiful, and +the road very desolate and grand: one mountain pass takes six hours +to cross. I should not return to Capetown so early, but poor Captain +J- has had his leg smashed and amputated, so I must look out for myself +in the matter of ships. Whenever it is hot, I am well, for the +heat here is so <i>light</i> and dry. The wind tries me, but we +have little here compared to the coast. I hope that the voyage +home will do me still more good; but I will not sail till April, so +as to arrive in June. May, in the Channel, would not do.</p> +<p>How I wish I could send you the fruit now on my table—amber-coloured +grapes, yellow waxen apples streaked with vermillion in fine little +lines, huge peaches, and tiny green figs! I must send dear old +Klein a little present from England, to show that I don’t forget +my Dutch adorer. I wish I could bring you the ‘Biltong ‘ +he sent me—beef or bok dried in the sun in strips, and slightly +salted; you may carry enough in your pocket to live on for a fortnight, +and it is very good as a little ‘relish’. The partridges +also have been welcome, and we shall eat the tiny haunch of bok to-day.</p> +<p>Mrs. D- is gone to Capetown to get servants (the Scotch girl having +carried on her amours too flagrantly), and will return in my cart. +S- is still keeping house meanwhile, much perturbed by the placid indolence +of the brown girl. The stableman cooks, and very well too. +This is colonial life—a series of makeshifts and difficulties; +but the climate is fine, people feel well and make money, and I think +it is not an unhappy life. I have been most fortunate in my abode, +and can say, without speaking cynically, that I have found ‘my +warmest welcome at an inn’. Mine host is a rough soldier, +but the very soul of good nature and good feeling; and his wife is a +very nice person—so cheerful, clever, and kindhearted.</p> +<p>I should like to bring home the little Madagascar girl from Rathfelders, +or a dear little mulatto who nurses a brown baby here, and is so clean +and careful and ‘pretty behaved’,—but it would be +a great risk. The brown babies are ravishing—so fat and +jolly and funny.</p> +<p>One great charm of the people here is, that no one expects money +or gifts, and that all civility is gratis. Many a time I finger +small coin secretly in my pocket, and refrain from giving it, for fear +of spoiling this innocence. I have not once seen a <i>look</i> +implying ‘backsheesh’, and begging is unknown. But +the people are reserved and silent, and have not the attractive manners +of the darkies of Capetown and the neighbourhood.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER X</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Caledon, Feb. 22d.</p> +<p>Yesterday Captain D- gave me a very nice caross of blessbok skins, +which he got from some travelling trader. The excellence of the +Caffre skin-dressing and sewing is, I fancy, unequalled; the bok-skins +are as soft as a kid glove, and have no smell at all.</p> +<p>In the afternoon the young doctor drove me, in his little gig-cart +and pair (the lightest and swiftest of conveyances), to see a wine-farm. +The people were not at work, but we saw the tubs and vats, and drank +‘most’. The grapes are simply trodden by a Hottentot, +in a tub with a sort of strainer at the bottom, and then thrown—skins, +stalks, and all—into vats, where the juice ferments for twice +twenty-four hours; after which it is run into casks, which are left +with the bung out for eight days; then the wine is drawn off into another +cask, a little sulphur and brandy are added to it, and it is bunged +down. Nothing can be conceived so barbarous. I have promised +Mr. M- to procure and send him an exact account of the process in Spain. +It might be a real service to a most worthy and amiable man. Dr. +M- also would be glad of a copy. They literally know nothing about +wine-making here, and with such matchless grapes I am sure it ought +to be good. Altogether, ‘der alte Schlendrian’ prevails +at the Cape to an incredible degree.</p> +<p>If two ‘Heeren M-’ call on you, please be civil to them. +I don’t know them personally, but their brother is the doctor +here, and the most good-natured young fellow I ever saw. If I +were returning by Somerset instead of Worcester, I might put up at their +parents’ house and be sure of a welcome; and I can tell you civility +to strangers is by no means of course here. I don’t wonder +at it; for the old Dutch families <i>are gentlefolks</i> of the good +dull old school, and the English colonists can scarcely suit them. +In the few instances in which I have succeeded in <i>thawing</i> a Dutchman, +I have found him wonderfully good-natured; and the different manner +in which I was greeted when in company with the young doctor showed +the feeling at once. The dirt of a Dutch house is not to be conceived. +I have had sights in bedrooms in very respectable houses which I dare +not describe. The coloured people are just as clean. The +young doctor (who is much Anglicised) tells me that, in illness, he +has to break the windows in the farmhouses—they are built not +to open! The boers are below the English in manners and intelligence, +and hate them for their ‘go-ahead’ ways, though <i>they</i> +seem slow enough to me. As to drink, I fancy it is six of one +and half a dozen of the other; but the English are more given to eternal +drams, and the Dutch to solemn drinking bouts. I can’t understand +either, in this climate, which is so stimulating, that I more often +drink ginger-beer or water than wine—a bottle of sherry lasted +me a fortnight, though I was ordered to drink it; somehow, I had no +mind to it.</p> +<p>27th.—The cart could not be got till the day before yesterday, +and yesterday Mrs. D- arrived in it with two new Irish maids; it saved +her 3<i>l</i>., and I must have paid equally. The horses were +very tired, having been hard at work carrying Malays all the week to +Constantia and back, on a pilgrimage to the tomb of a Mussulman saint; +so to-day they rest, and to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp. Choslullah +has been appointed driver of a post-cart; he tried hard to be allowed +to pay a <i>remplaçant</i>, and to fetch ‘his missis’, +but was refused leave; and so a smaller and blacker Malay has come, +whom Choslullah threatened to curse heavily if he failed to take great +care of ‘my missis’ and be a ‘good boy’. +Ramadan begins on Sunday, and my poor driver can’t even prepare +for it by a good feast, as no fowls are to be had here just now, and +he can’t eat profanely-killed meat. Some pious Christian +has tried to burn a Mussulman martyr’s tomb at Eerste River, and +there were fears the Malays might indulge in a little revenge; but they +keep quiet. I am to go with my driver to eat some of the feast +(of Bairam, is it not?) at his priest’s when Ramadan ends, if +I am in Capetown, and also am asked to a wedding at a relation of Choslullah’s. +It was quite a pleasure to hear the kindly Mussulman talk, after these +silent Hottentots. The Malays have such agreeable manners; so +civil, without the least cringing or Indian obsequiousness. I +dare say they can be very ‘insolent’ on provocation; but +I have always found among them manners like old-fashioned French ones, +but quieter; and they have an affectionate way of saying ‘<i>my</i> +missis’ when they know one, which is very nice to hear. +It is getting quite chilly here already; <i>cold</i> night and morning; +and I shall be glad to descend off this plateau into the warmer regions +of Worcester, &c. I have just bought <i>eight</i> splendid +ostrich feathers for 1<i>l</i>. of my old Togthandler friend. +In England they would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings each. +I have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you; the latter makes +a saddle-cloth which defies sore backs; they were given me by Klein +and a farmer at Palmiet River. The flesh was poor stuff, white +and papery. The Hottentots can’t ‘bray’ the +skins as the Caffres do; and the woman who did mine asked me for a trifle +beforehand, and got so drunk that she let them dry halfway in the process, +consequently they don’t look so well.</p> +<p>Worcester, Sunday, March 2d.</p> +<p>Oh, such a journey! Such country! Pearly mountains and +deep blue sky, and an impassable pass to walk down, and baboons, and +secretary birds, and tortoises! I couldn’t sleep for it +all last night, tired as I was with the unutterably bad road, or track +rather.</p> +<p>Well, we left Caledon on Friday, at ten o’clock, and though +the weather had been cold and unpleasant for two days, I had a lovely +morning, and away we went to Villiersdorp (pronounced Filjeesdorp). +It is quite a tiny village, in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley. +We were four hours on the road, winding along the side of a mountain +ridge, which we finally crossed, with a splendid view of the sea at +the far-distant end of a huge amphitheatre formed by two ridges of mountains, +and on the other side the descent into Filjeesdorp. The whole +way we saw no human being or habitation, except one shepherd, from the +time we passed Buntje’s kraal, about two miles out of Caledon. +The little drinking-shop would not hold travellers, so I went to the +house of the storekeeper (as the clergyman of Caledon had told me I +might), and found a most kind reception. Our host was English, +an old man-of-war’s man, with a gentle, kindly Dutch wife, and +the best-mannered children I have seen in the colony. They gave +us clean comfortable beds and a good dinner, and wine ten years in the +cellar; in short, the best of hospitality. I made an effort to +pay for the entertainment next morning, when, after a good breakfast, +we started loaded with fruit, but the kind people would not hear of +it, and bid me good-bye like old friends. At the end of the valley +we went a little up-hill, and then found ourselves at the top of a pass +down into the level below. S- and I burst out with one voice, +‘How beautiful!’ Sabaal, our driver, thought the exclamation +was an ironical remark on the road, which, indeed, appeared to be exclusively +intended for goats. I suggested walking down, to which, for a +wonder, the Malay agreed. I was really curious to see him get +down with two wheels and four horses, where I had to lay hold from time +to time in walking. The track was excessively steep, barely wide +enough, and as slippery as a flagstone pavement, being the naked mountain-top, +which is bare rock. However, all went perfectly right.</p> +<p>How shall I describe the view from that pass? In front was +a long, long level valley, perhaps three to five miles broad (I can’t +judge distance in this atmosphere; a house that looks a quarter of a +mile off is two miles distant). At the extreme end, in a little +gap between two low brown hills that crossed each other, one could just +see Worcester—five hours’ drive off. Behind it, and +on each side the plain, mountains of every conceivable shape and colour; +the strangest cliffs and peaks and crags toppling every way, and tinged +with all the colours of opal; chiefly delicate, pale lilac and peach +colour, but varied with red brown and Titian green. In spite of +the drought, water sparkled on the mountain-sides in little glittering +threads, and here and there in the plain; and pretty farms were dotted +on either side at the very bottom of the slopes toward the mountain-foot. +The sky of such a blue! (it is deeper now by far than earlier in the +year). In short, I never did see anything so beautiful. +It even surpassed Hottentot’s Holland. On we went, straight +along the valley, crossing drift after drift;—a drift is the bed +of a stream more or less dry; in which sometimes you are drowned, sometimes +only <i>pounded</i>, as was our hap. The track was incredibly +bad, except for short bits, where ironstone prevailed. However, +all went well, and on the road I chased and captured a pair of remarkably +swift and handsome little ‘Schelpats’. That you may +duly appreciate such a feat of valour and activity, I will inform you +that their English name is ‘tortoise’. On the strength +of this effort, we drank a bottle of beer, as it was very hot and sandy; +and our Malay was a <i>wet</i> enough Mussulman to take his full share +in a modest way, though he declined wine or ‘Cape smoke Soopjes’ +(drams) with aversion. No sooner had we got under weigh again, +than Sabaal pulled up and said, ‘There <i>are</i> the Baviäans +Missis want to see!’ and so they were. At some distance +by the river was a great brute, bigger than a Newfoundland dog, stalking +along with the hideous baboon walk, and tail vehemently cocked up; a +troop followed at a distance, hiding and dodging among the palmiets. +They were evidently en <i>route</i> to rob a garden close to them, and +had sent a great stout fellow ahead to reconnoitre. ‘He +see Missis, and feel sure she not got a gun; if man come on horseback, +you see ‘em run like devil.’ We had not that pleasure, +and left them, on felonious thoughts intent.</p> +<p>The road got more and more beautiful as we neared Worcester, and +the mountains grew higher and craggier. Presently, a huge bird, +like a stork on the wing, pounced down close by us. He was a secretary-bird, +and had caught sight of a snake. We passed ‘Brant Vley’ +(<i>burnt</i> or hot spring), where sulphur-water bubbles up in a basin +some thirty feet across and ten or twelve deep. The water is clear +as crystal, and is hot enough just <i>not</i> to boil an egg, I was +told. At last, one reaches the little gap between the brown hills +which one has seen for four hours, and drives through it into a wide, +wide flat, with still craggier and higher mountains all round, and Worcester +in front at the foot of a towering cliff. The town is not so pretty, +to my taste, as the little villages. The streets are too wide, +and the market-place too large, which always looks dreary, but the houses +and gardens individually are charming. Our inn is a very nice +handsome old Dutch house; but we have got back to ‘civilization’, +and the horrid attempts at ‘style’ which belong to Capetown. +The landlord and lady are too genteel to appear at all, and the Hottentots, +who are disguised, according to their sexes, in pantry jacket and flounced +petticoat, don’t understand a word of English or of real Dutch. +At Gnadenthal they understood Dutch, and spoke it tolerably; but here, +as in most places, it is three-parts Hottentot; and then they affect +to understand English, and bring everything wrong, and are sulky: but +the rooms are very comfortable. The change of climate is complete—the +summer was over at Caledon, and here we are into it again—the +most delicious air one can conceive; it must have been a perfect oven +six weeks ago. The birds are singing away merrily still; the approach +of autumn does not silence them here. The canaries have a very +pretty song, like our linnet, only sweeter; the rest are very inferior +to ours. The sugar-bird is delicious when close by, but his pipe +is too soft to be heard at any distance.</p> +<p>To those who think voyages and travels tiresome, my delight in the +new birds and beasts and people must seem very stupid. I can’t +help it if it does, and am not ashamed to confess that I feel the old +sort of enchanted wonder with which I used to read Cook’s voyages, +and the like, as a child. It is very coarse and unintellectual +of me; but I would rather see this now, at my age, than Italy; the fresh, +new, beautiful nature is a second youth—or <i>childhood—si +vous voulez</i>. To-morrow we shall cross the highest pass I have +yet crossed, and sleep at Paarl—then Stellenbosch, then Capetown. +For any one <i>out</i> of health, and <i>in</i> pocket, I should certainly +prescribe the purchase of a waggon and team of six horses, and a long, +slow progress in South Africa. One cannot walk in the midday sun, +but driving with a very light roof over one’s head is quite delicious. +When I looked back upon my dreary, lonely prison at Ventnor, I wondered +I had survived it at all.</p> +<p>Capetown, March 7th.</p> +<p>After writing last, we drove out, on Sunday afternoon, to a deep +alpine valley, to see a <i>new bridge—</i>a great marvel apparently. +The old Spanish Joe Miller about selling the bridge to buy water occurred +to me, and made Sabaal laugh immensely. The Dutch farmers were +tearing home from Kerk, in their carts—well-dressed, prosperous-looking +folks, with capital horses. Such lovely farms, snugly nestled +in orange and pomegranate groves! It is of no use to describe +this scenery; it is always mountains, and always beautiful opal mountains; +quite without the gloom of European mountain scenery. The atmosphere +must make the charm. I hear that an English traveller went the +same journey and found all barren from Dan to Beersheba. I’m +sorry for him.</p> +<p>In the morning of Sunday, early, I walked along the road with Sabaal, +and saw a picture I shall never forget. A little Malabar girl +had just been bathing in the Sloot, and had put her scanty shift on +her lovely little wet brown body; she stood in the water with the drops +glittering on her brown skin and black, satin hair, the perfection of +youthful loveliness—a naiad of ten years old. When the shape +and features are <i>perfect</i>, as hers were, the coffee-brown shows +it better than our colour, on account of its perfect <i>evenness</i>—like +the dead white of marble. I shall never forget her as she stood +playing with the leaves of the gum-tree which hung over her, and gazing +with her glorious eyes so placidly.</p> +<p>On Monday morning, I walked off early to the old <i>Drosdy</i> (Landdrost’s +house), found an old gentleman, who turned out to be the owner, and +who asked me my name and all the rest of the Dutch ‘litanei’ +of questions, and showed me the pretty old Dutch garden and the house—a +very handsome one. I walked back to breakfast, and thought Worcester +the prettiest place I had ever seen. We then started for Paarl, +and drove through ‘Bain’s Kloof’, a splendid mountain-pass, +four hours’ long, constant driving. It was glorious, but +more like what one had seen in pictures—a deep, narrow gorge, +almost dark in places, and, to my mind, lacked the <i>beauty</i> of +the yesterday’s drive, though it is, perhaps, grander; but the +view which bursts on one at the top, and the descent, winding down the +open mountain-side, is too fine to describe. Table Mountain, like +a giant’s stronghold, seen far distant, with an immense plain, +half fertile, half white sand; to the left, Wagenmaker’s Vley; +and further on, the Paarl lying scattered on the slope of a mountain +topped with two <i>domes</i>, just the shape of the cup which Lais (wasn’t +it?) presented to the temple of Venus, moulded on her breast. +The horses were tired, so we stopped at Waggon-maker’s Valley +(or Wellington, as the English try to get it called), and found ourselves +in a true Flemish village, and under the roof of a jolly Dutch hostess, +who gave us divine coffee and bread-and-butter, which seemed ambrosia +after being deprived of those luxuries for almost three months. +Also new milk in abundance, besides fruit of all kinds in vast heaps, +and pomegranates off the tree. I asked her to buy me a few to +take in the cart, and got a ‘muid’, the third of a sack, +for a shilling, with a bill, ‘U bekomt 1 muid 28 granaeten dat +Kostet 1<i>s</i>.’ The old lady would walk out with me and +take me into the shops, to show the ‘vrow uit Engelland’ +to her friends. It was a lovely place, intensely hot, all glowing +with sunshine. Then the sun went down, and the high mountains +behind us were precisely the colour of a Venice ruby glass—really, +truly, and literally;—not purple, not crimson, but glowing ruby-red—and +the quince-hedges and orange-trees below looked <i>intensely</i> green, +and the houses snow-white. It was a transfiguration—no less.</p> +<p>I saw Hottentots again, four of them, from some remote corner, so +the race is not quite extinct. These were youngish, two men and +two women, quite light yellow, not darker than Europeans, and with little +tiny black knots of wool scattered over their heads at intervals. +They are hideous in face, but exquisitely shaped—very, very small +though. One of the men was drunk, poor wretch, and looked the +picture of misery. You can see the fineness of their senses by +the way in which they dart their glances and prick their ears. +Every one agrees that, when tamed, they make the best of servants—gentle, +clever, and honest; but the penny-a-glass wine they can’t resist, +unless when caught and tamed young. They work in the fields, or +did so as long as any were left; but even here, I was told, it was a +wonder to see them.</p> +<p>We went on through the Paarl, a sweet pretty place, reminding one +vaguely of Bonchurch, and still through fine mountains, with Scotch +firs growing like Italian stone pines, and farms, and vineyard upon +vineyard. At Stellenbosch we stopped. I had been told it +was the prettiest town in the colony, and it <i>is</i> very pretty, +with oak-trees all along the street, like those at Paarl and Wagenmakkers +Vley; but I was disappointed. It was less beautiful than what +I had seen. Besides, the evening was dull and cold. The +south-easter greeted us here, and I could not go out all the afternoon. +The inn was called ‘Railway Hotel’, and kept by low coarse +English people, who gave us a filthy dinner, dirty sheets, and an atrocious +breakfast, and charged 1<i>l</i>. 3<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. for the same +meals and time as old Vrow Langfeldt had charged 12<i>s</i>. for, and +had given civility, cleanliness, and abundance of excellent food;—besides +which, she fed Sabaal gratis, and these people fleeced him as they did +me. So, next morning, we set off, less pleasantly disposed, for +Capetown, over the flat, which is dreary enough, and had a horrid south-easter. +We started early, and got in before the wind became a hurricane, which +it did later. We were warmly welcomed by Mrs. R-; and here I am +in my old room, looking over the beautiful bay, quite at home again. +It blew all yesterday, and having rather a sore-throat I stayed in bed, +and to-day is all bright and beautiful. But Capetown looks murky +after Caledon and Worcester; there is, to my eyes, quite a haze over +the mountains, and they look far off and indistinct. All is comparative +in this world, even African skies. At Caledon, the most distant +mountains, as far as your eye can reach, look as clear in every detail +as the map on your table—an appearance utterly new to European +eyes.</p> +<p>I gave Sabaal 1<i>l</i>. for his eight days’ service as driver, +as a Drinkgelt, and the worthy fellow was in ecstasies of gratitude. +Next morning early, he appeared with a present of bananas, and his little +girl dressed from head to foot in brand-new clothes, bought out of my +money, with her wool screwed up extremely tight in little knots on her +black little head (evidently her mother is the blackest of Caffres or +Mozambiques). The child looked like a Caffre, and her father considers +her quite a pearl. I had her in, and admired the little thing +loud enough for him to hear outside, as I lay in bed. You see, +I too was to have my share in the pleasure of the new clothes. +This readiness to believe that one will sympathize with them, is very +pleasing in the Malays.</p> +<p>March 15.</p> +<p>I went to see my old Malay friends and to buy a water-melon. +They were in all the misery of Ramadan. Betsy and pretty Nassirah +very thin and miserable, and the pious old Abdool sitting on a little +barrel waiting for ‘gun-fire’—i.e. sunset, to fall +to on the supper which old Betsy was setting out. He was silent, +and the corners of his mouth were drawn down just like -’s at +an evening party.</p> +<p>I shall go to-morrow to bid the T-s good-bye, at Wynberg. I +was to have spent a few days there, but Wynberg is cold at night and +dampish, so I declined that. She is a nice woman—Irish, +and so innocent and frank and well-bred. She has been at Cold +Bokke Veld, and shocked her puritanical host by admiring the naked Caffres +who worked on his farm. He wanted them to wear clothes.</p> +<p>We have been amused by the airs of a naval captain and his wife, +who are just come here. They complained that the merchant-service +officers spoke <i>familiarly</i> to their children on board. <i>Quel +audace</i>! When I think of the excellent, modest, manly young +fellows who talked very familiarly and pleasantly to me on board the +<i>St. Lawrence</i>, I long to reprimand these foolish people.</p> +<p>Friday, 21st.—I am just come from prayer, at the Mosque in +Chiappini Street, on the outskirts of the town. A most striking +sight. A large room, like a county ball-room, with glass chandeliers, +carpeted with common carpet, all but a space at the entrance, railed +off for shoes; the Caaba and pulpit at one end; over the niche, a crescent +painted; and over the entrance door a crescent, an Arabic inscription, +and the royal arms of England! A fat jolly Mollah looked amazed +as I ascended the steps; but when I touched my forehead and said, ‘Salaam +Aleikoom’, he laughed and said, ‘Salaam, Salaam, come in, +come in.’ The faithful poured in, all neatly dressed in +their loose drab trousers, blue jackets, and red handkerchiefs on their +heads; they left their wooden clogs in company, with my shoes, and proceeded, +as it appeared, to strip. Off went jackets, waistcoats, and trousers, +with the dexterity of a pantomime transformation; the red handkerchief +was replaced by a white skullcap, and a long large white shirt and full +white drawers flowed around them. How it had all been stuffed +into the trim jacket and trousers, one could not conceive. Gay +sashes and scarves were pulled out of a little bundle in a clean silk +handkerchief, and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In a moment +the whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I had come in existed +no more. Women suckled their children, and boys played among the +clogs and shoes all the time, and I sat on the floor in a remote corner. +The chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony very decorous and +solemn. It lasted an hour; and then the little heaps of garments +were put on, and the congregation dispersed, each man first laying a +penny on a very curious little old Dutch-looking, heavy, iron-bound +chest, which stood in the middle of the room.</p> +<p>I have just heard that the post closes to-night and must say farewell—<i>a +rivederci.</i></p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XI</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Capetown, March 20th.</p> +<p>Dearest mother,</p> +<p>Dr. Shea says he fears I must not winter in England yet, but that +I am greatly improved—as, indeed, I could tell him. He is +another of the kind ‘sea doctors’ I have met with; he came +all the way from Simon’s Bay to see me, and then said, ‘What +nonsense is that?’ when I offered him a fee. This is a very +nice place up in the ‘gardens’, quite out of the town and +very comfortable. But I regret Caledon. A- will show you +my account of my beautiful journey back. Worcester is a fairy-land; +and then to catch tortoises walking about, and to see ‘baviäans’, +and snakes and secretary birds eating them! and then people have the +impudence to think I must have been ‘very dull!’ <i>Sie +merken’s nicht</i>, that it is <i>they</i> who are dull.</p> +<p>Dear Dr. Hawtrey! he must have died just as I was packing up the +first Caffre Testament for him! I felt his death very much, in +connexion with my father; their regard for each other was an honour +to both. I have the letter he wrote me on J-’s marriage, +and a charming one it is.</p> +<p>I took Mrs. A- a drive in a Hansom cab to-day out to Wynberg, to +see my friends Captain and Mrs. T-, who have a cottage under Table Mountain +in a spot like the best of St. George’s Hill. Very dull +too; but as she is really a lady, it suits her, and Capetown does not. +I was to have stayed with them, but Wynberg is cold at night. +Poor B-’s wife is very ill and won’t leave Capetown for +a day. The people here are <i>wunderlich</i> for that. A +lady born here, and with 7,000<i>l</i>. a year, has never been further +than Stellenbosch, about twenty miles. I am asked how I lived +and what I ate during my little excursion, as if I had been to Lake +Ngami. If only I had known how easy it all is, I would have gone +by sea to East London and seen the Knysna and George district, and the +primaeval African forest, the yellow wood, and other giant trees. +However, ‘For what I have received,’ &c., &c. +No one can conceive what it is, after two years of prison and utter +languor, to stand on the top of a mountain pass, and enjoy physical +existence for a few hours at a time. I felt as if it was quite +selfish to enjoy anything so much when you were all so anxious about +me at home; but as that is the best symptom of all, I do not repent.</p> +<p>S- has been an excellent travelling servant, and really a better +companion than many more educated people; for she is always amused and +curious, and is friendly with the coloured people. She is quite +recovered. It is a wonderful climate—<i>sans que celà +paraisse</i>. It feels chilly and it blows horridly, and does +not seem genial, but it gives new life.</p> +<p>To-morrow I am going with old Abdool Jemaalee to prayers at the Mosque, +and shall see a school kept by a Malay priest. It is now Ramadan,. +and my Muslim friends are very thin and look glum. Choslullah +sent a message to ask, ‘Might he see the Missis once more? +He should pray all the time she was on the sea.’ Some pious +Christians here would expect such horrors to sink the ship. I +can’t think why Mussulmans are always gentlemen; the Malay coolies +have a grave courtesy which contrasts most strikingly with both European +vulgarity and negro jollity. It is very curious, for they only +speak Dutch, and know nothing of oriental manners. I fear I shall +not see the Walkers again. Simon’s Bay is too far to go +and come in a day, as one cannot go out before ten or eleven, and must +be in by five or half-past. Those hours are gloriously bright +and hot, but morning and night are cold.</p> +<p>I am so happy in the thought of sailing now so very soon and seeing +you all again, that I can settle to nothing for five minutes. +I now feel how anxious and uneasy I have been, and how I shall rejoice +to get home. I shall leave a letter for A-, to go in April, and +tell him and you what ship I am in. I shall choose the <i>slowest</i>, +so as not to reach England and face the Channel before June, if possible. +So don’t be alarmed if I do not arrive till late in June. +Till then good-bye, and God bless you, dearest mother—<i>Auf frohes +Wiedersehn.</i></p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XII</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Capetown, Sunday, March 23d.</p> +<p>It has been a <i>real</i> hot day, and threatened an earthquake and +a thunderstorm; but nothing has come of it beyond sheet lightning to-night, +which is splendid over the bay, and looks as if repeated in a grand +bush-fire on the hills opposite. The sunset was glorious. +That rarest of insects, the praying mantis, has just dropped upon my +paper. I am thankful that, not being an entomologist, I am dispensed +from the sacred duty of impaling the lovely green creature who sits +there, looking quite wise and human. Fussy little brown beetles, +as big as two lady-birds, keep flying into my eyes, and the musquitoes +are rejoicing loudly in the prospect of a feast. You will understand +by this that both windows are wide open into the great verandah,—very +unusual in this land of cold nights.</p> +<p>April 4th.—I have been trying in vain to get a passage home. +The <i>Camperdown</i> has not come. In short, I am waiting for +a chance vessel, and shall pack up now and be ready to go on board at +a day’s notice.</p> +<p>I went on the last evening of Ramadan to the Mosque, having heard +there was a grand ‘function’; but there were only little +boys lying about on the floor, some on their stomachs, some on their +backs, higgledy-piggledy (if it be not profane to apply the phrase to +young Islam), all shouting their prayers <i>à tue tête</i>. +Priests, men, women, and English crowded in and out in the exterior +division. The English behaved <i>à l’Anglaise—</i>pushed +each other, laughed, sneered, and made a disgusting display of themselves. +I asked a stately priest, in a red turban, to explain the affair to +me, and in a few minutes found myself supplied by one Mollah with a +chair, and by another with a cup of tea—was, in short, in the +midst of a Malay <i>soirée</i>. They spoke English very +little, but made up for it by their usual good breeding and intelligence. +On Monday, I am going to see the school which the priest keeps at his +house, and to ‘honour his house by my presence’. The +delight they show at any friendly interest taken in them is wonderful. +Of course, I am supposed to be poisoned. A clergyman’s widow +here gravely asserts that her husband went mad <i>three years</i> after +drinking a cup of coffee handed to him by a Malay!—and in consequence +of drinking it! It is exactly like the mediaeval feeling about +the Jews. I saw that it was quite a <i>demonstration</i> that +I drank up the tea unhesitatingly. Considering that the Malays +drank it themselves, my courage deserves less admiration. But +it was a quaint sensation to sit in a Mosque, behaving as if at an evening +party, in a little circle of poor Moslim priests.</p> +<p>I am going to have a photograph of my cart done. I was to have +gone to the place to-day, but when Choslullah (whom I sent for to complete +the picture) found out what I wanted, he implored me to put it off till +Monday, that he might be better dressed, and was so unhappy at the notion +of being immortalized in an old jacket, that I agreed to the delay. +Such a handsome fellow may be allowed a little vanity.</p> +<p>The colony is torn with dissensions as to Sunday trains. Some +of the Dutch clergy are even more absurd than our own on that point. +A certain Van der Lingen, at Stellenbosch, calls Europe ‘one vast +Sodom’, and so forth. There is altogether a nice kettle +of religious hatred brewing here. The English Bishop of Capetown +appoints all the English clergy, and is absolute monarch of all he surveys; +and he and his clergy are carrying matters with a high hand. The +Bishop’s chaplain told Mrs. J- that she could not hope for salvation +in the Dutch Church, since her clergy were not ordained by any bishop, +and therefore they could only administer the sacrament ‘<i>unto +damnation</i>’. All the physicians in a body, English as +well as Dutch, have withdrawn from the Dispensary, because it was used +as a means of pressure to draw the coloured people from the Dutch to +the English Church.</p> +<p>This High-Church tyranny cannot go on long. Catholics there +are few, but their bishop plays the same game; and it is a losing one. +The Irish maid at the Caledon inn was driven by her bishop to be married +at the Lutheran church, just as a young Englishman I know (though a +fervent Puseyite) was driven to be married at the Scotch kirk. +The colonial bishops are despots in their own churches, and there is +no escape from their tyranny but by dissent. The Admiral and his +family have been anathematized for going to a fancy bazaar given by +the Wesleyans for their chapel.</p> +<p>April 8th.—Yesterday, I failed about my cart photograph. +First, the owner had sent away the cart, and when Choslullah came dressed +in all his best clothes, with a lovely blue handkerchief setting off +his beautiful orange-tawny face, he had to rush off to try to borrow +another cart. As ill luck would have it, he met a ‘serious +young man’, with no front teeth, and a hideous wen on his eyebrow, +who informed the priest of Choslullah’s impious purpose, and came +with him to see that he did <i>not</i> sit for his portrait. I +believe it was half envy; for my handsome driver was as pleased, and +then as disappointed, as a young lady about her first ball, and obviously +had no religious scruples of his own on the subject. The weather +is very delightful now—hot, but beautiful; and the south-easters, +though violent, are short, and not cold. As in all other countries, +autumn is the best time of year.</p> +<p>April 15th.—Your letters arrived yesterday, to my great delight. +I have been worrying about a ship, and was very near sailing to-day +by the <i>Queen of the South</i> at twenty-four hours’ notice, +but I have resolved to wait for the <i>Camperdown</i>. The <i>Queen +of the South</i> is a steamer,—which is odious, for they pitch +the coal all over the lower deck, so that you breathe coal-dust for +the first ten days; then she was crammed—only one cabin vacant, +and that small, and on the lower deck—and fifty-two children on +board. Moreover, she will probably get to England too soon, so +I resign myself to wait. The <i>Camperdown</i> has only upper-deck +cabins, and I shall have fresh air. I am not as well as I was +at Caledon, so I am all the more anxious to have a voyage likely to +do me good instead of harm.</p> +<p>I got my cart and Choslullah photographed after all. Choslullah +came next day (having got rid of his pious friend), quite resolved that +‘the Missis’ should take his portrait, so I will send or +bring a few copies of my beloved cart. After the photograph was +done, we drove round the Kloof, between Table and Lion Mountain. +The road is cut on the side of Lion Mountain, and overhangs the sea +at a great height. Camp Bay, which lies on the further side of +the ‘Lion’s Head’, is most lovely; never was sea so +deeply blue, rocks so warmly brown, or sand and foam so glittering white; +and down at the mountain-foot the bright green of the orange and pomegranate +trees throws it all out in greater relief. But the atmosphere +here won’t do after that of the ‘Ruggings’, as the +Caledon line of country is called. I shall never lose the impression +of the view I had when Dr. Morkel drove me out on a hill-side, where +the view seemed endless and without a vestige of life; and yet in every +valley there were farms; but it looked a vast, utter solitude, and without +the least haze. You don’t know what that utter clearness +means—the distinctness is quite awful. Here it is always +slightly hazy; very pretty and warm, but it takes off from the grandeur. +It is the difference between a pretty Pompadour beauty and a Greek statue. +Those pale opal mountains, as distinct in every detail as the map on +your table, are so cheerful and serene; no melodramatic effects of clouds +and gloom. I suppose it is not really so beautiful as it seemed +to me, for other people say it is bare and desolate, and certainly it +is; but it seemed to me anything but dreary.</p> +<p>I am persuaded that Capetown is not healthy; indeed, the town can’t +be, from its stench and dirt; but I believe the whole seashore is more +or less bad, compared to the upper plateaux, of which I know only the +first. I should have gone back to Paarl, only that ships come +and go within twenty-four hours, so one has the pleasure of living in +constant expectation, with packed trunks, wondering when one shall get +away. A clever Mr. M-, who has lived <i>all over</i> India, and +is going back to Singapore, with his wife and child, are now in the +house; and some very pleasant Jews, bound for British Caffraria—one +of them has a lovely little wife and three children. She is very +full of Prince Albert’s death, and says there was not a dry eye +in the synagogues in London, which were all hung with black on the day +of his funeral, and prayer went on the whole day. ‘<i>The +people</i> mourned for him as much as for Hezekiah; and, indeed, he +deserved it a great deal better,’ was her rather unorthodox conclusion. +These colonial Jews are a new ‘Erscheinung’ to me. +They have the features of their race, but many of their peculiarities +are gone. Mr. L-, who is very handsome and gentlemanly, eats ham +and patronises a good breed of pigs on the ‘model farm’ +on which he spends his money. He is (he says) a thorough Jew in +faith, and evidently in charitable works; but he wants to say his prayers +in English and not to ‘dress himself up’ in a veil and phylacteries +for the purpose; and he and his wife talk of England as ‘home’, +and care as much for Jerusalem as their neighbours. They have +not forgotten the old persecutions, and are civil to the coloured people, +and speak of them in quite a different tone from other English colonists. +Moreover, they are far better mannered, and more ‘<i>human’</i>, +in the German sense of the word, in all respects;—in short, less +‘colonial’.</p> +<p>I have bought some Cape ‘confeyt’; apricots, salted and +then sugared, called ‘mebos’—delicious! Also +pickled peaches, ‘chistnee’, and quince jelly. I have +a notion of some Cherupiga wine for ourselves. I will inquire +the cost of bottling, packing, &c.; it is about one shilling and +fourpence a bottle here, sweet red wine, unlike any other I ever drank, +and I think very good. It is very tempting to bring a few things +so unknown in England. I have a glorious ‘Velcombers’ +for you, a blanket of nine Damara sheepskins, sewn by the Damaras, and +dressed so that moths and fleas won’t stay near them. It +will make a grand railway rug and ‘outside car’ covering. +The hunters use them for sleeping out of doors. I have bought +three, and a springbok caross for somebody.</p> +<p>April 17th.—The winter has set in to-day. It rains steadily, +at the rate of the heaviest bit of the heaviest shower in England, and +is as cold as a bad day early in September. One can just sit without +a fire. Presently, all will be green and gay; for winter is here +the season of flowers, and the heaths will cover the country with a +vast Turkey carpet. Already the green is appearing where all was +brown yesterday. To-day is Good Friday; and if Christmas seemed +odd at Midsummer, Easter in autumn seems positively unnatural. +Our Jewish party made their exodus to-day, by the little coasting steamer, +to Algoa Bay. I rather condoled with the pretty little woman about +her long rough journey, with three babies; but she laughed, and said +they had had time to get used to it ever since the days of Moses. +All she grieved over was not being able to keep Passover, and she described +their domestic ceremonies quite poetically. We heard from our +former housemaid, Annie, the other day, announcing her marriage and +her sister’s. She wrote such a pretty, merry letter to S-, +saying ‘the more she tried not to like him, the better she loved +him, and had to say, “Aha, Annie, you’re caught at last.”’ +A year and a half is a long time to remain single in this country.</p> +<p>Monday, April 21st, Easter Monday.—The mail goes out in an +hour, so I will just add, good-bye. The winter is now fairly set +in, and I long to be off. I fear I shall have a desperately cold +week or so at first sailing, till we catch the south-east trades. +This weather is beautiful in itself, but I feel it from the suddenness +of the change. We passed in one night from hot summer to winter, +which is like <i>fine</i> English April, or October, only brighter than +anything in Europe. There is properly, no autumn or spring here; +only hot, dry, brown summer, with its cold wind at times, and fresh +green winter, all fragrance and flowers, and much less wind. Mr. +M-, of whom I told you, has been in every corner of the far East—Java, +Sumatra, everywhere—and is extremely amusing. He has brought +his wife here for her health, and is as glad to talk as I am. +The conversation of an educated, clever person, is quite a new and delightful +sensation to me now. He appears to have held high posts under +the East India Company, is learned in Oriental languages, and was last +resident at Singapore. He says that no doubt Java is Paradise, +it is so lovely, and such a climate; but he does not look as if it had +agreed with him. I feel quite heart-sick at seeing these letters +go off before me, instead of leaving them behind, as I had hoped.</p> +<p>Well, I must say good-bye—or rather, ‘<i>auf Wiedersehn</i>’—and +God knows how glad I shall be when that day comes!</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XIII</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Capetown, April 19th.</p> +<p>Dearest mother,</p> +<p>Here I am, waiting for a ship; the steamer was too horrid: and I +look so much to the good to be gained by the voyage that I did not like +to throw away the chance of two months at sea at this favourable time +of year, and under favourable circumstances; so I made up my mind to +see you all a month later. The sea just off the Cape is very, +very cold; less so now than in spring, I dare say. The weather +to-day is just like <i>very</i> warm April at home—showery, sunshiny, +and fragrant; most lovely. It is so odd to see an autumn without +dead leaves: only the oaks lose theirs, the old ones drop without turning +brown, and the trees bud again at once. The rest put on a darker +green dress for winter, and now the flowers will begin. I have +got a picture for you of my ‘cart and four’, with sedate +Choslullah and dear little Mohammed. The former wants to go with +me, ‘anywhere’, as he placidly said, ‘to be the missis’ +servant’. What a sensation his thatchlike hat and handsome +orange-tawny face would make at Esher! Such a stalwart henchman +would be very creditable. I shall grieve to think I shall never +see my Malay friends again; they are the only people here who are really +interesting. I think they must be like the Turks in manner, as +they have all the eastern gentlemanly ‘Gelassenheit’ (ease) +and politeness, and no eastern ‘Geschmeidigkeit’ (obsequiousness), +and no idea of Baksheesh; withal frugal, industrious, and money-making, +to an astonishing degree. The priest is a bit of a proselytiser, +and amused me much with an account of how he had converted English girls +from their evil courses and made them good <i>Mussulwomen</i>. +I never heard a <i>naïf</i> and sincere account of conversions +<i>from</i> Christianity before, and I must own it was much milder than +the Exeter Hall style.</p> +<p>I have heard a great many expressions of sorrow for the Queen from +the Malays, and always with the ‘hope the people will take much +care of her, now she is alone’. Of course Prince Albert +was only the Queen’s husband to them, and all their feeling is +about her. It is very difficult to see anything of them, for they +want nothing of you, and expect nothing but dislike and contempt. +It would take a long time to make many friends, as they are naturally +distrustful. I found that eating or drinking anything, if they +offer it, made most way, as they know they are accused of poisoning +all Christians indiscriminately. Of course, therefore, they are +shy of offering things. I drank tea in the Mosque at the end of +Ramadan, and was surrounded by delighted faces as I sipped. The +little boy who waits in this house here had followed us, and was horrified: +he is still waiting to see the poison work.</p> +<p>No one can conceive what has become of all the ships that usually +touch here about this time. I was promised my choice of Green’s +and Smith’s, and now only the heavy old <i>Camperdown</i> is expected +with rice from Moulmein. A lady now here, who has been Heaven +only knows <i>where not</i>, praises Alexandria above all other places, +after Suez. Her lungs are bad, and she swears by Suez, which she +says is the dreariest and healthiest (for lungs) place in the world. +You can’t think how soon one learns to ‘annihilate space’, +if not time, in one’s thoughts, by daily reading advertisements +for every port in India, America, Australia, &c., &c., and conversing +with people who have just come from the ‘ends of the earth’. +Meanwhile, I fear I shall have to fly from next winter again, and certainly +will go with J- to Egypt, which seems to me like next door.</p> +<p>I have run on, and not thanked you for your letter and M. Mignet’s +beautiful <i>éloge</i> of Mr. Hallam, which pleased me greatly. +I wish Englishmen could learn to speak with the same good taste and +<i>mésure</i>.</p> +<p>Mr. Wodehouse, who has been very civil to me, kindly tried to get +me a passage home in a French frigate lying here, but in vain. +I am now sorry I let the Jack tars here persuade me not to go in the +little barque; but they talked so much of the heat and damp of such +tiny cabins in an iron vessel, that I gave her up, though I liked the +idea of a good tossing in such a tiny cockboat. I will leave a +letter for the May mail, unless I sail within a week of to-morrow, or +go by the <i>Jason</i>, which would be home far sooner than the mail. +I only hope you and A- won’t be uneasy; the worst that can happen +is delay, and the long voyage will be all gain to health, which would +not be the case in a steamer.</p> +<p>All I hear of R- makes me wild to see her again. The little +darkies are the only pleasing children here, and a fat black toddling +thing is ‘allerliebst’. I know a boy of four, literally +jet black, whom I long to steal as he follows his mother up to the mountain +to wash. Little Malays are lovely, but <i>too</i> well-behaved +and quiet. I tried to get a real ‘<i>tottie’</i>, +or ‘Hotentotje’, but the people were too drunk to remember +where they had left their child. <i>C’est assez dire</i>, +that I should have had no scruple in buying it for a bottle of ‘smoke’ +(the spirit made from grape husks). They are clever and affectionate +when they have a chance, poor things,—and so strange to look at.</p> +<p>By the bye, a Bonn man, Dr. Bleek, called here with ‘Grüsse’ +from our old friends, Professor Mendelssohn and his wife. He is +devoting himself to Hottentot and aboriginal literature!—and has +actually mastered the Caffre <i>click</i>, which I vainly practised +under Kleenboy’s tuition. He wanted to teach me to say ‘Tkorkha’, +which means ‘you lie’, or ‘you have missed’ +(in shooting or throwing a stone, &c.)—a curious combination +of meanings. He taught me to throw stones or a stick at him, which +he always avoided, however close they fell, and cried ‘Tkorkha!’ +The Caffres ask for a present, ‘Tkzeelah Tabak’, ‘a +gift for tobacco’.</p> +<p>The Farnese Hercules is a living <i>truth</i>. I saw him in +the street two days ago, and he was a Caffre coolie. The proportions +of the head and throat were more wonderful in flesh, or muscle rather, +than in marble. I know a Caffre girl of thirteen, who is a noble +model of strength and beauty; such an arm—larger than any white +woman’s—with such a dimple in her elbow, and a wrist and +hand which no glove is small enough to fit—and a noble countenance +too. She is ‘apprenticed’, a name for temporary slavery, +and is highly spoken of as a servant, as the Caffres always are. +They are a majestic race, but with just the stupid conceit of a certain +sort of Englishmen; the women and girls seem charming.</p> +<p>Easter Sunday.—The weather continues beautifully clear and +bright, like the finest European spring. It seems so strange for +the floral season to be the winter. But as the wind blows the +air is quite cold to-day; nevertheless, I feel much better the last +two days. The brewing of the rain made the air very oppressive +and heavy for three weeks, but now it is as light as possible.</p> +<p>I must say good-bye, as the mail closes to-morrow morning. +Easter in autumn is preposterous, only the autumn looks like spring. +The consumptive young girl whom I packed off to the Cape, and her sister, +are about to be married—of course. Annie has had a touch +of Algoa Bay fever, a mild kind of ague, but no sign of chest disease, +or even delicacy. My ‘hurrying her off’, which some +people thought so cruel, has saved her. Whoever comes <i>soon +enough</i> recovers, but for people far gone it is too bracing.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XIV</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Capetown, Saturday, May 3d.</p> +<p>Dearest mother,</p> +<p>After five weeks of waiting and worry, I have, at last, sent my goods +on board the ship <i>Camperdown</i>, now discharging her cargo, and +about to take a small party of passengers from the Cape. I offered +to take a cabin in a Swedish ship, bound for Falmouth; but the captain +could not decide whether he would take a passenger; and while he hesitated +the old <i>Camperdown</i> came in. I have the best cabin after +the stern cabins, which are occupied by the captain and his wife and +the Attorney-General of Capetown, who is much liked. The other +passengers are quiet people, and few of them, and the captain has a +high character; so I may hope for a comfortable, though slow passage. +I will let you know the day I sail, and leave this letter to go by post. +I may be looked for three weeks or so after this letter. I am +crazy to get home now; after the period was over for which I had made +up my mind, home-sickness began.</p> +<p>Mrs. R- has offered me a darling tiny monkey, which loves me; but +I fear A- would send me away again if I returned with her in my pocket. +Nassirah, old Abdool’s pretty granddaughter, brought me a pair +of Malay shoes or clogs as a parting gift, to-day. Mr. M-, the +resident at Singapore, tells me that his secretary’s wife, a Malay +lady, has made an excellent translation of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, +from Arabic into Malay. Her husband is an Indian Mussulman, who, +Mr. M- said, was one of the ablest men he ever knew. Curious!</p> +<p>I sat, yesterday, for an hour, in the stall of a poor German basket-maker +who had been long in Caffre-land. His wife, a Berlinerin, was +very intelligent, and her account of her life here most entertaining, +as showing the different <i>Ansicht</i> natural to Germans. ‘I +had never’, she said, ‘been out of the city of Berlin, and +<i>knew nothing</i>.’ (Compare with London cockney, or genuine +Parisian.) Thence her fear, on landing at Algoa Bay and seeing +swarms of naked black men, that she had come to a country where no clothes +were to be had; and what should she do when hers were worn out? +They had a grant of land at Fort Peddie, and she dug while her husband +made baskets of cane, and carried them hundreds of miles for sale; sleeping +and eating in Caffre huts. ‘Yes, they are good, honest people, +and very well-bred (<i>anständig</i>), though they go as naked +as God made them. The girls are pretty and very delicate (<i>fein</i>), +and they think no harm of it, the dear innocents.’ If their +cattle strayed, it was always brought back; and they received every +sort of kindness. ‘Yes, madam, it is shocking how people +here treat the blacks. They call quite an old man ‘Boy’, +and speak so scornfully, and yet the blacks have very nice manners, +I assure you.’ When I looked at the poor little wizened, +pale, sickly Berliner, and fancied him a guest in a Caffre hut, it seemed +an odd picture. But he spoke as coolly of his long, lonely journeys +as possible, and seemed to think black friends quite as good as white +ones. The use of the words <i>anständig</i> and <i>fein</i> +by a woman who spoke very good German were characteristic. She +could recognise an <i>‘Anständigkeit’ not</i> of Berlin. +I need not say that the Germans are generally liked by the coloured +people. Choslullah was astonished and Pleased at my talking German; +he evidently had a preference for Germans, and put up, wherever he could, +at German inns and ‘publics’.</p> +<p>I went on to bid Mrs. Wodehouse good-bye. We talked of our +dear old Cornish friends. The Governor and Mrs. Wodehouse have +been very kind to me. I dined there twice; last time, with all +the dear good Walkers. I missed seeing the opening of the colonial +parliament by a mistake about a ticket, which I am sorry for.</p> +<p>If I could have dreamed of waiting here so long, I would have run +up to Algoa Bay or East London by sea, and had a glimpse of Caffreland. +Capetown makes me very languid—there is something depressing in +the air—but my cough is much better. I can’t walk +here without feeling knocked-up; and cab-hire is so dear; and somehow, +nothing is worth while, when one is waiting from day to day. So +I have spent more money than when I was most amused, in being bored.</p> +<p>Mr. J- drove me to the Capetown races, at Green Point, on Friday. +As races, they were <i>nichts</i>, but a queer-looking little Cape farmer’s +horse, ridden by a Hottentot, beat the English crack racer, ridden by +a first-rate English jockey, in an unaccountable way, twice over. +The Malays are passionately fond of horse-racing, and the crowd was +fully half Malay: there were dozens of carts crowded with the bright-eyed +women, in petticoats of every most brilliant colour, white muslin jackets, +and gold daggers in their great coils of shining black hair. All +most ‘anständig’, as they always are. Their pleasure +is driving about <i>en famille</i>; the men have no separate amusements. +Every spare corner in the cart is filled by the little soft round faces +of the intelligent-looking quiet children, who seem amused and happy, +and never make a noise or have the fidgets. I cannot make out +why they are so well behaved. It favours A-’s theory of +the expediency of utter spoiling, for one never hears any educational +process going on. Tiny Mohammed never spoke but when he was spoken +to, and was always happy and alert. I observed that his uncle +spoke to him like a grown man, and never ordered him about, or rebuked +him in the least. I like to go up the hill and meet the black +women coming home in troops from the washing place, most of them with +a fat black baby hanging to their backs asleep, and a few rather older +trotting alongside, and if small, holding on by the mother’s gown. +She, poor soul, carries a bundle on her head, which few men could lift. +If I admire the babies, the poor women are enchanted;—<i>du reste</i>, +if you look at blacks of any age or sex, they <i>must</i> grin and nod, +as a good-natured dog must wag his tail; they can’t help it. +The blacks here (except a very few Caffres) are from the Mozambique—a +short, thick-set, ugly race, with wool in huge masses; but here and +there one sees a very pretty face among the women. The men are +beyond belief hideous. There are all possible crosses—Dutch, +Mozambique, Hottentot and English, ‘alles durcheinander’; +then here and there you see that a Chinese or a Bengalee <i>a passé +par là</i>. The Malays are also a mixed race, like the +Turks—i.e. they marry women of all sorts and colours, provided +they will embrace Islam. A very nice old fellow who waits here +occasionally is married to an Englishwoman, <i>ci-devant</i> lady’s-maid +to a Governor’s wife. I fancy, too, they brought some Chinese +blood with them from Java. I think the population of Capetown +must be the most motley crew in the world.</p> +<p>Thursday, May 8th.—I sail on Saturday, and go on board to-morrow, +so as not to be hurried off in the early fog. How glad I am to +be ‘homeward bound’ at last, I cannot say. I am very +well, and have every prospect of a pleasant voyage. We are sure +to be well found, as the Attorney-General is on board, and is a very +great man, ‘inspiring terror and respect’ here.</p> +<p>S- says we certainly <i>shall</i> put in at St. Helena, so make up +your minds not to see me till I don’t know when. She has +been on board fitting up the cabin to-day. I have <i>such</i> +a rug for J-! a mosaic of skins as fine as marqueterie, done by Damara +women, and really beautiful; and a sheep-skin blanket for you, the essence +of warmth and softness. I shall sleep in mine, and dream of African +hill-sides wrapt in a ‘Veld combas’. The poor little +water-tortoises have been killed by drought, and I can’t get any, +but I have the two of my own catching for M-.</p> +<p>Good-bye, dearest mother.</p> +<p>You would have been moved by poor old Abdool Jemaalee’s solemn +benediction when I took leave to-day. He accompanied it with a +gross of oranges and lemons.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XV</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Capetown, Thursday, May 8th.</p> +<p>At last, after no end of ‘casus’ and ‘discrimina +rerum’, I shall sail on Saturday the 10th, per ship <i>Camperdown</i>, +for East India Docks.</p> +<p>These weary six weeks have cost no end of money and temper. +I have been eating my heart out at the delay, but it was utterly impossible +to go by any of the Indian ships. They say there have never been +so few ships sailing from the Cape as this year, yet crowds were expected +on account of the Exhibition. The Attorney-General goes by our +ship, so we are sure of good usage; and I hear he is very agreeable. +I have the best cabin next to the stern cabin, in both senses of <i>next</i>. +S- has come back from the ship, where she has spent the day with the +carpenter; and I am to go on board to-morrow. Will you ask R- +to cause inquiries to be made among the Mollahs of Cairo for a Hadji, +by name Abdool Rachman, the son of Abdool Jemaalee, of Capetown, and, +if possible, to get the inclosed letter sent him? The poor people +are in sad anxiety for their son, of whom they have not heard for four +months, and that from an old letter. Henry will thus have a part +of all the blessings which were solemnly invoked on me by poor old Abdool, +who is getting very infirm, but toddled up and cracked his old fingers +over my head, and invoked the protection of Allah with all form; besides +that Betsy sent me twelve dozen oranges and lemons. Abdool Rachman +is about twenty-six, a Malay of Capetown, speaks Dutch and English, +and is supposed to be studying theology at Cairo. The letter is +written by the prettiest Malay girl in Capetown.</p> +<p>I won’t enter upon my longings to be home again, and to see +you all. I must now see to my last commissions and things, and +send this to go by next mail.</p> +<p>God bless you all, and kiss my darlings, all three.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>LETTER XVI</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Friday, May 16th.</p> +<p>On board the good ship <i>Camperdown</i>, 500 miles North-west of +Table-Bay.</p> +<p>I embarked this day week, and found a good airy cabin, and all very +comfortable. Next day I got the carpenter’s services, by +being on board before all the rest, and relashed and cleeted everything, +which the ‘Timmerman’, of course, had left so as to get +adrift the first breeze. At two o’clock the Attorney-General, +Mr. Porter, came on board, escorted by bands of music and all the volunteers +of Capetown, <i>quorum pars maxima fuit</i>; i.e. Colonel. It +was quite what the Yankees call an ‘ovation’. The +ship was all decked with flags, and altogether there was <i>le diable +à quatre</i>. The consequence was, that three signals went +adrift in the scuffle; and when a Frenchman signalled us, we had to +pass for <i>brutaux</i> <i>Anglais</i>, because we could not reply. +I found means to supply the deficiency by the lining of that very ancient +anonymous cloak, which did the red, while a bandanna handkerchief of +the Captain’s furnished the yellow, to the sailmaker’s immense +amusement. On him I bestowed the blue outside of the cloak for +a pair of dungaree trowsers, and in signalling now it is, ‘up +go 2.41, and my lady’s cloak, which is 7.’</p> +<p>We have had lovely weather, and on Sunday such a glorious farewell +sight of Table Mountain and my dear old Hottentot Hills, and of Kaap +Goed Hoop itself. There was little enough wind till yesterday, +when a fair southerly breeze sprang up, and we are rolling along merrily; +and the fat old <i>Camperdown</i> <i>does</i> roll like an honest old +‘wholesome’ tub as she is. It is quite a <i>bonne +fortune</i> for me to have been forced to wait for her, for we have +had a wonderful spell of fine weather, and the ship is the <i>ne plus +ultra</i> of comfort. We are only twelve first-class upper-deck +passengers. The captain is a delightful fellow, with a very charming +young wife. There is only one child (a great comfort), a capital +cook, and universal civility and quietness. It is like a private +house compared to a railway hotel. Six of the passengers are invalids, +more or less. Mr. Porter, over-worked, going home for health to +Ireland; two men, both with delicate chests, and one poor young fellow +from Capetown in a consumption, who, I fear, will not outlive the voyage. +The doctor is very civil, and very kind to the sick; but I stick to +the cook, and am quite greedy over the good fare, after the atrocious +food of the Cape. Said cook is a Portuguese, a distinguished artist, +and a great bird-fancier. One can wander all over the ship here, +instead of being a prisoner on the poop; and I even have paid my footing +on the forecastle. S- clambers up like a lively youngster. +You may fancy what the weather is, that I have only closed my cabin-window +once during half of a very damp night; but no one else is so airy. +The little goat was as rejoiced to be afloat again as her mistress, +and is a regular pet on board, with the run of the quarter-deck. +She still gives milk—a perfect Amalthaea. The butcher, who +has the care of her, cockers her up with dainties, and she begs biscuit +of the cook. I pay nothing for her fare. M-’s tortoises +are in my cabin, and seem very happy. Poor Mr. Porter is very +sick, and so are the two or three coloured passengers, who won’t +‘make an effort’ at all. Mrs. H- (the captain’s +wife), a young Cape lady, and I are the only ‘female ladies’ +of the party. The other day we saw a shoal of porpoises, amounting +to many hundreds, if not some thousands, who came frisking round the +ship. When we first saw them they looked like a line of breakers; +they made such a splash, and they jumped right out of the water three +feet in height, and ten or twelve in distance, glittering green and +bronze in the sun. Such a pretty, merry set of fellows!</p> +<p>We shall touch at St. Helena, where I shall leave this letter to +go by the mail steamer, that you may know a few weeks before I arrive +how comfortably my voyage has begun.</p> +<p>We see no Cape pigeons; they only visit outward ships—is not +that strange?—but, <i>en revanche</i>, many more albatrosses than +in coming; and we also enjoy the advantage of seeing all the homeward-bound +ships, as they all <i>pass</i> us—a humiliating fact. The +captain laughed heartily because I said, ‘Oh, all right; I shall +have the more sea for my money’,—when the prospect of a +slow voyage was discussed. It is very provoking to be so much +longer separated from you all than I had hoped, but I really believe +that the bad air and discomfort of the other ships would have done me +serious injury; while here I have every chance of benefiting to the +utmost, and having mild weather the whole way, besides the utmost amount +of comfort possible on board ship. There are some cockroaches, +indeed, but that is the only drawback. The <i>Camperdown</i> is +fourteen years old, and was the crack ship to India in her day. +Now she takes cargo and poop-passengers only, and, of course, only gets +invalids and people who care more for comfort than speed.</p> +<p>Monday Evening, May 26th.—Here we are, working away still to +reach St. Helena. We got the tail of a terrific gale and a tremendous +sea all night in our teeth, which broke up the south-east trades for +a week. Now it is all smooth and fair, with a light breeze again +right aft; the old trade again. Yesterday a large shark paid us +a visit, with his suite of three pretty little pilot-fish, striped like +zebras, who swam just over his back. He tried on a sailor’s +cap which fell overboard, tossed it away contemptuously, snuffed at +the fat pork with which a hook was baited, and would none of it, and +finally ate the fresh sheep-skin which the butcher had in tow to clean +it, previous to putting it away as a perquisite. It is a beautiful +fish in shape and very graceful in motion.</p> +<p>To-day a barque from Algoa Bay came close to us, and talked with +the speaking trumpet. She was a pretty, clipper-built, sharp-looking +craft, but had made a slower run even than ourselves. I dare say +we shall have her company for a long time, as she is bound for St. Helena +and London. My poor goat died suddenly the other day, to the general +grief of the ship; also one of the tortoises. The poor consumptive +lad is wonderfully better. But all the passengers were very sick +during the rough weather, except S- and I, who are quite old salts. +Last week we saw a young whale, a baby, about thirty feet long, and +had a good view of him as he played round the ship. We shall probably +be at St. Helena on Wednesday, but I cannot write from thence, as, if +there is time, I shall get a run on shore while the ship takes in water. +But this letter will tell you of my well-being so far, and in about +six weeks after the date of it I hope to be with you. I hope you +won’t expect too much in the way of improvement in my health. +I look forward, oh, so eagerly, to be with you again, and with my brats, +big and little. God bless you all.</p> +<p>Yours ever,</p> +<p>L. D. G.</p> +<p>Wednesday, 28th.—Early morning, off St. Helena, James Town.</p> +<p>Such a lovely <i>unreal</i> view of the bold rocks and baby-house +forts on them! Ship close in. Washer-woman come on board, +and all hurry.</p> +<p><i>Au revoir.</i></p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LETTERS FROM THE CAPE ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named lddfg10h.htm or lddfg10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, lddfg11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lddfg10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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