CHAPTER XIX
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ENGLAND
Account of the Cape of Good Hope—Its settlement by the Dutch—Cape Town—Dutch customs—Government—Climate—General healthiness—Animals—Wines—Cost of living—Botanical garden—Menagerie—Settlements in the interior—Barrenness of the country—Hottentots: their appearance, language, dancing, customs, etc.—Money—Leave Table Bay—Robben Island—St. Helena—Volcanic rocks—Cultivation—Provisions—Introduced plants—Natural productions—Ebony—Speculations as to how plants and animals originally reached so remote an island—Leave St. Helena—Ascension Island—Ascension to England—Land at Deal.
Notwithstanding that hydrographers limit the Cape of Good Hope to a single point of land on the S.W. end of Africa, which is not the southernmost part of that immense continent, I shall under this name speak of the southern parts of Africa in general, as far as latitude 30° at least. The country was originally inhabited by the Hottentots alone, but is now settled by the Dutch, and from the convenience of its situation as a place of refreshment for ships sailing to and from India, is perhaps visited by Europeans oftener than any other distant part of the globe.
The Dutch, if their accounts can be credited, have also people much farther inland. They have upon the whole of this vast tract, however, only one town, which is generally known by the name of Cape Town: it is situated on the Atlantic side about twenty miles to the north of the real Cape, on the banks of a bay sheltered from the S.E. wind by a large mountain level at the top, from whence both itself and the bay have got the
