Letters from the Cape | Page 8

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.