CHAPTER IV.

THE CAPE.

"Once more upon the waters! yet once more, And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar!

Swift be their guidance wheresoe'er it lead! Though the strain'd mast should quiver as a reed, And the rent canvas, fluttering, stem the gale, Still must I on; for I am as a weed

Flung from the rock, on ocean's foam to sail

Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath

prevail."

BYRON.

WE left the little Iris floating quietly at rest on the now smooth and tranquil waters of False Bay, under the walls of Simon's Town. Before landing her passengers, and whilst they are all collected together on the quarter-deck gazing at the novel scene around, I will e'en say a few words of my shipmates from the

Mauritius, who, besides myself, were only three in number. First, there was Captain Lane of the Company's Service, returning home from the Madras Presidency; secondly, a youngster of the name of Miller, whose father held some civil appointment at Port Louis, whilst the promising youth in question was proceeding to England with the hopes of obtaining an ensigncy in the army, and last, though not least, appeared the gaunt ungainly form of Dr. Jonas,* the hero of the following pages. This individual, who might be some three or four-and-forty years of age, had long been employed in a medical capacity at Calcutta, and was returning to his native land to enjoy the fruits of his labours, with a disposition, the natural amiability of which was sweetened, in the same proportion that his personal charms had been increased, by a protracted residence of some twenty-five years under the tropics. The whole of this interesting group, with the skipper at our head, were soon ashore, and

* For obvious reasons, many of the names mentioned in this and the following chapters are assumed, though the circumstances detailed are founded on facts.

rapidly proceeding to the Clarence Hotel, not a little struck with the novelty of every surrounding object.

Caffre.

With the very name of "Africa" is conveyed to the mind the association of boundless burning deserts-the tinkling of the camel's bell-the roar of the lion-or the fleeting form of the ostrich pursued by the swarthy Bedouin, the woolly-headed negro, or savage Slavery cannibalism - long and slender canoes-tall waving palm-trees, or mangroves, fanned by the sea-breeze, and nodding o'er the margin of the deep, were ever the pictures coupled in my thoughts with the sound of that magic name. How different from these airy visions was the reality presented by the southernmost extremity of this great and still partly unknown continent! Here the still early spring of these southern latitudes for the period of our visit was about the middle of August-had not yet brought forth the green budding of vegetation, whilst the white and snowy tops of the Hottentot mountains distantly glittering in the sun, the

CLARENCE HOTEL.

73

keen breeze, the smoke issuing from the comfortable-looking English-like habitations all proclaimed us no longer within the influence of the tropics, but that we were now inhaling the fresh air of a less glowing though far healthier clime!

Such were our impressions as we strolled slowly up towards the hotel, and our associations of home were still more strongly awakened on entering its solidly-built and substantial walls. Fire-places, curtains, and carpets―objects long since forgotten, now reminded us of childhood's home-of days long gone by, recalling many sweet, and maybe a few bitter reflections, whilst hope and fear, aroused by long dormant associations, were likewise fluttering their pinions, and anxiously—at least in one breast-peering into futurity!

*

After bespeaking a good dinner of mine. rubicund-faced host of the Clarence, and having provided ourselves with horses, the whole party, with the exception of the doctor, set out to explore. His physiognomy looked, if possible,

more yellow and bilious than ever, and, as he skulked away from our cheerful party, something very ominous was strongly marked in his forbidding countenance, and downcast though searching cat-like grey eye.

In high glee and spirits at being released from our long confinement, we gaily cantered over the rough and rock-bestrewn roads in the neighbourhood of the bay, now admiring the, to us novel, and European* look of the variety of heaths and shrubs with which the surrounding hills were beautifully clad; then, galloping along the smooth sand of the beach, we were lost in wonder at the strange shapes of the numerous dead penguins washed ashore, and thickly scattered along its margin, or at the huge bones of the Leviathan of the deep, which were here applied to useful purposes by forming enclosures around the humble huts be

* The frequent repetition of this word, so fascinating to the "old Indian" will be excused when the reader reflects for how long a period the author had come under that denomination. The Cape is celebrated for the variety and luxuriance of the heaths with which its hills are thickly covered.