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Page 6
Some of the most beautiful coast scenery I have ever seen is to be found
in that very lovely drive by Sea Point to Hout's Bay, and thence back to
Cape Town by Constantia and Wynberg. This is a celebrated excursion,
and well deserves the praises bestowed upon it. The road has been
admirably constructed by convict labour.
A very convenient short line of railway also brings within easy reach of
the inhabitants of Cape Town the pretty villages of Mowbray, Rondebosch,
Rosebank, Newlands, Wynberg, Constantia, &c., where, in charming villas
and other residences, so many of the wealthier classes reside. At
Constantia the principal wine farms are situated, the most noted being
the Groot Constantia (the Government farm) and High Constantia.
Constantia wine can only be produced on these farms. Another farm in
this neighbourhood is Witteboomen, which is particularly noted for its
peaches, there being over one thousand trees on the farm, in addition to
many other kinds of fruit. Another one, and probably the largest in the
district, is named "Sillery." Here not many years ago the ground was a
wilderness, but it has now attained a high state of perfection, there
being at least 140,000 vines and hundreds of fruit trees of all kinds,
under cultivation.
At Cape Town I received the first proofs of the kind and lavish
attentions which everywhere in South Africa were subsequently bestowed
upon me. From everyone, without exception--from His Excellency the
Administrator and Mrs. Smyth, and the members of his staff--from all the
public men and high officials--from members of the Cape Government, and
from the leaders of the Opposition, besides from innumerable private
friends, Dutch and English alike, I received such cordial tokens of
goodwill, that I can only express my deep sense of appreciation of their
most genial and friendly hospitality. I bid adieu to Cape Town (which I
was visiting for the first time in my life) with the conviction that I
was truly in a land, not of strangers, but of real friends, who desired
to do everything in their power to make my visit to South Africa
pleasant and agreeable to me; and this impression I carried with me ever
afterwards at every place I visited during the whole of my tour.
On Wednesday, May 29, I left Cape Town at 6.30 p.m. for Kimberley,
passing Beaufort West, the centre of an extensive pastoral district, and
De Aar, the railway junction from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. This
journey is a long one, of between 600 and 700 miles, and of some
forty-two hours by railway. I travelled all through that night, and the
whole of the next day, through the most remarkable kind of country I
ever saw. Flat, and apparently as level, as a bowling-green (although we
were continually rising from our starting-point at Cape Town to a
height at Kimberley of about 3,800 feet above the sea), a sandy and
dreary desert, with occasionally low, and barren hills in the far
distance--not a tree to be seen, and scarcely any vestige of vegetation,
excepting now and then, a few of the indigenous Mimosa shrubs, which,
for hundreds of miles, grow fitfully on this desolate soil. This is the
wonderful tract of country called the Great Karoo. Not a sign of animal
life is to be detected, at this period of the year. During the summer
months it affords pasturage for large flocks of sheep. It is a vast
interminable _sea of lone land_, over which the eye wanders unceasingly
during the whole of the daylight hours.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Footnote A: The First Series was published in 1887.]
[Illustration: Decorative]
KIMBERLEY.
After another long night in the railway train, at noon on the second
day, after leaving Cape Town, I reached the celebrated diamond town of
Kimberley, the population of which consists of about 6,000 Europeans,
with a native population estimated at about 10,000, chiefly concentrated
in the mining area.
On my arrival at the railway station, I was met by the Mayor, and a
deputation of the residents of the town. At a conversazione held later,
and which was attended by over four hundred ladies and gentlemen, the
following address was presented to me by the Fellows of the Royal
Colonial Institute resident at Kimberley and Beaconsfield:--
"Kimberley, _June 1st_, 1889.
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