visited by all the beauty of the place, who animated them by their smiles from the balcony of the town-hall, and if the weather was favourable accompanied them to the exercising ground, where tents were pitched for their reception, and whence they beheld these patriotic Africans (for few of them knew Holland but by name) enuring themselves to the tolls of war, ‘pro aris et focis’.  We were however told, that at the least idea of an enemy coming on the coast, the women were immediately sent to a distance in the country.

The militia throughout the whole district of the Cape were assembled at this time of the year, exercised for a week, and reviewed by the governor or his deputy, commencing with the militia of the Capetown.

The present governor of the Cape, Mr. Van de Graaf, though a colonel of engineers in the service of the States, yet holds his commission as governor under the authority of the Dutch East India Company, to which body the settlement wholly belongs.  Every ship or vessel wearing a pendant of the States, be her rate what it may, is on entering the harbour saluted by the fort, which salute she returns with an inferior number of guns.  The governor, at the landing-place, with his officers and carriages, attends the coming on shore of her captain or senior officer, to receive his commands, and escort him to his lodgings in the town, treating him with every mark of respect in his power.  Such an humiliation of the Company’s principal servant and officers in a commercial community bore, it must be confessed, rather an extraordinary appearance; but such, as we were informed, was the distinction between the two services; and Mr. Van de Graaf was obliged to obtain his prince’s permission before he could accept of the government of the Cape from the East India Company.

Residence at the Cape would be highly agreeable, were it not for the south-east wind.  This during the summer season blows with such violence, and drives every where such clouds of sand before it, that the inhabitants at certain times dare not stir out of their houses.  Torrents of dust and sand, we were told, had been frequently known to fall on board of ships in the road.  This circumstance accounted for every thing we got here being gritty to the taste; sand mixing with their flour, their rice, their sugar, and with whatever was capable of receiving it, finding its way in at doors, windows, and wherever there was an entrance for it.  From the great height of the Table Mountain*, whatever clouds are within its influence are attracted when the south-east wind prevails; and as it increases in violence, these clouds hang over the side of the mountain, and descend into the valley, sometimes rolling down very near the town.  From the curling of the vapour over the mountain, the inhabitants predict the arrival of the south-easter, and say, ’The Table-cloth is spread;’ but with all its violence, and the inconvenience of the dust and sand, it has a good effect, for the climate and air of the Cape Town (though wonderfully beneficial and refreshing to strangers after a long voyage) is not reckoned salubrious by the inhabitants, who, we understood, were at times visited by pains in the chest, sore throats, and putrid fevers; and the place would certainly be still more unhealthy were it not for this south-east wind, which burns as it blows, and while it sweeps disorder before it purifies the air.