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HUMAN nature is happily so constituted, that if we cast our thoughts back upon a phase of our existence which is over and done with, we remember chiefly our happiest hours. Our great troubles, it is true, stand out like weird beacons, or finger posts, but even these are softened by time. The petty annoyances, which seemed to be very real anxieties, at the moment of their occurrence, cause but a regretful smile. We wonder how we could have been so weak as to have allowed them to disturb our equanimity so much, although we may be ever so conscious that the same result would accrue, from a similar effect, on any future occasion. The sanguine spirit of man accentuates past pleasures, while it makes light of the sorrows and pains of yesterday. Individually I look back upon my African experiences with the liveliest appreciation of the enjoyments thereof; but as the other side of the picture has not yet quite faded from my memory, and as the annoyances of which I became conscious at the time were of a general character, and such as other travellers into this far country may expect to be called upon to endure, it may not be unprofitable to note some of them.

In the first place, then, the misery of mal de mer, which most persons have to grin at and bear, during their journey to South Africa, is no insignificant penalty to pay, in return for whatever of a contrary nature the voyage may afford. But this is a thing of course. So may be styled the native annoyance, which of all others is the annoyance par excellence of the colonies. I am

speaking in general terms; I allude to no particular race; but I have no manner of doubt that the black population of South Africa constitutes the greatest thorn in its side. My first experience of the native was by no means a pleasant one. As soon as the ship which took me from England thither was safely alongside the harbour, my anxiety to find myself on terra firma was so urgent, that I forgot all about my luggage; and when I returned to appropriate my effects, I found that the smaller and consequently portable parcels had been annexed by some prowling Mozambiquer or other African.

But this incident forms a part of a very large subject, and I will therefore refrain from adducing further instances, until I have to deal with the native question at large.

An encounter with custom-house authorities is never calculated to sweeten one's temper. They are a hateful and churlish set all over the world, and those of the Cape Colony amply sustain this reputation.

Persons possessing an imperfect sense of smell, will have reason to be thankful to Providence for this deficiency during their sojourn in Cape Town, for whenever they have occasion to traverse the road leading from the docks to the custom-house, they will be spared much that the more sensitive have to experience. To judge by the disgusting odours that assail the nasal organ as one passes along this road, I should opine that the decomposition and deodorisation of the débris of the town-of which, by the way, the road was composed-have been unduly arrested at an important stage. Cape Town has been fitly, if somewhat coarsely, described as a "City of Stinks". It owes this well-earned appellation to imperfect sanitary arrangements, and to the bales of dried fish-chiefly a fish called snook-with which the sea-shore is bestrewn. The anathemas of the local press have been all too feeble to awaken the inhabitants to the necessity of improving the perfume of the town. I suppose the Malays have a long vested right to the beach as a drying ground for their fish, but surely much might, and could be done, in other directions to mitigate the nuisance. I only know two places characterized by the unpleasant odour of Cape Town-the city of

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York, and Nice in the dry season-though, to be sure, London in summer is by no means exempt from this reproach, to wit, a certain fashionable thoroughfare not far from Charing Cross, while there are many other cities which run Cape Town pretty close in this respect; but even if we allow the city of fifty distinct odours, Cologne, to come into competition, I think we must give the African capital the palm. The frequent, though happily decreasing, visitations of those terrible scourges, smallpox, fever, diphtheria, and cholera, may trace their origin to this source. Some years since a great scandal was caused by the slipshod manner in which the victims of a smallpox epidemic were consigned to their last resting-place. The burial ground became a hunting field for the mongrel nosing cur. I will not pursue this subject further, only to say that there can be little doubt that the late alarming prevalence of smallpox should be properly attributed to the neglect of the primary laws of sanitation.

A writer in the columns of the Eastern Province Herald thus describes his arrival in Cape Town :-" Dashing along the dusty Dock road, in the reckless manner characteristic of the Cape Town cabman, by the grass-covered Amsterdam Battery, and up Adderley street to the George Hotel, numerous new buildings and improvements that have been completed during the last three years attracted attention, but the same old peculiar smells are still there, only, perhaps, they do seem a little more intense, a sensation probably caused by my long absence. Peculiar institution those smells, and one Cape Town is very proud of, or, at all events, very fond of. The George Hotel reached, followed by a bath and change of clothes, occupy the time until tiffin is ready, and then an attempt is made to make up for the enforced fast endured on ship-board, afterwards a walk round to hunt up old friends; an occupation taking the time pretty well up until dinner, when justice having been done to Mr. Pitman's wellserved table, a visit to the theatre is made, where Miss Mabel Hayes, looking younger and prettier than three years before, assists to pass away a very pleasant evening, then back to the hotel, and, with a determination to be up very early next morning to see all that can be seen, the virtuous pillow is sought,

and in the arms of Murphy, Morpheus, or whatever the fellow's name is, oblivion follows."

Now for a friendly hint. Do not indulge too freely in Cape beer or wine if you wish to escape dyspepsia. Of these, however, when I have to deliver myself upon South African provisions, I shall have much of a more complimentary nature to say.

The stoeps, which from an æsthetic standpoint (I use this word. in its original, not in its travestied sense), no less than from the point of view of comfort, impressed me so favourably, are, as far as the town houses are concerned, by no means unmitigated boons. These raised platforms, varying from six inches to three feet in height, render the pathway undulating to a degree, which, however much it may commend itself to the picturesque eye, has its drawbacks to the unhappy stranger, who, on returning from a nocturnal bacchanalia, should endeavour to wend his way in the place where his way ought to go. This should be conducive to temperance, but it isn't. I suppose the inhabitants from long use become too cunning to run the risk of breaking their necks in this fashion.

The south-easterly winds, commonly called the "south-easters," which drive everything before them, would feel slighted were I to exclude them from my list of Colonial thorns. The Nubian, which brought me home, was detained three days in the harbour, not being able to get out on the score of this wind. When the south easter is gathering up, the top of the mountain is enveloped in haze. The Colonists always know what they have to expect when Table Mountain "puts on its nightcap, and begins to smoke". The mist also which descends from the mountain at night is by no means a welcome visitor. It is called the Table Cloth. While I am speaking of the natural drawbacks to life in Africa, I may as well mention, en passant, the absence of navigable rivers, the abominable bars of sand which collect at the mouths of the said rivers, and render some of the finest harbours in the world useless, the heavy and constant thunderstorms of more than ordinary violence which are more or less peculiar to Natal during six months of the year, and in Maritzburg, are so repeated, and so long in duration, that they try the strongest nerves, while cattle

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and human beings fall victims thereto. The continued droughts of the warmer seasons are more serious still in their consequences, while now and again rude Boreas vents its fury upon land and sea. Some years since five vessels anchoring in the bay (Durban) were driven into shore and became total wrecks. These meteorological disturbances are erratic in their nature, and spring up with little or no premonitory symptoms. Hence the most experienced mariners are often unable to get their ships out to sea in time, to escape being cast on to the breakers, and in consequence this part of the coast has the reputation of being very dangerous. Apropos of winds, the hot wind, a burning breeze, laden with the baked atmosphere of the tropics, sweeps over the colony (Natal) about once during the year, and is prevalent for three or four days.

I was in the saddle the whole of one day during the visitation of this unpleasant phenomenon, and the agony which I had to endure is still fresh in my memory.

As to the horses of Natal, they are unreliable creatures. In the first place, they affect an illness—a sickness even unto death-at certain seasons of the year. Their value at this period is purely nominal; for a man may go to bed at night with a dozen healthy horses in his stables, and awaken in the morning to find that he has not one. Further, they partake of the nature of their superiors in the animal world. They are a very mixed lot. Some are underbred and stubborn. It is a common thing to see a riderless horse canter down the Berea. The brute has succeeded in bucking his master. Natalians, though by no means graceful riders, know how to manage a horse as well as most men, for they are always in the saddle. There is much risk and loss attached to bringing horses from England. a penchant for good horseflesh. equitation, I almost regret having been guilty of so ungracious an act as to include the horse in the catalogue of Natalian annoy

ances.

The colonists, however, have
Despite these drawbacks to

Natalians all do a little in the horse-dealing way, and there is nothing which they pride themselves so much upon as their real or imagined cuteness in driving a bargain in the sale or purchase

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