llustration: Decorative]

[Illustration: Decorative]

CAPE TOWN.

To produce the most favourable impression of any new place, it is
essential that it should be seen for the first time in fine weather.
Places look so very different under a canopy of cloud, and, perhaps, a
deluge of rain, or when they are bathed in the sunshine of a beautiful
day. Happily for me, my first view of Cape Town was under the latter
genial aspect. I need scarcely say, that I was, in consequence, quite
charmed with my first sight of this celebrated town, the seat of
Government of the Cape Colony. What made the scene more than usually
striking to a traveller, fresh from the sea, was, that it was the
Queen's birthday, and the day dawned with a most perfect specimen of
"Queen's weather." Cape Town was literally _en fete_. The inhabitants
thronged the streets. I was astonished at the great variety of gay
costumes among the motley crowd--English, Dutch, Germans and French,
Malays, Indian Coolies, Kafirs, and Hottentots--a tremendous gathering,
in fact, of all nations, and "all sorts and conditions of men." There
was a grand review of all the military branches of the Service, in which
His Excellency the Administrator, General Smyth, surrounded by a
brilliant staff, received the homage due to the British flag; and, as
her representative on this occasion, to Her Majesty's honoured name. The
review was followed by a regatta in the afternoon. It was quite
refreshing to a new arrival, like myself, to observe the enthusiastic
evidences of loyal feeling everywhere exhibited in the capital of the
Colony to our Queen, the beloved and venerated head of the British
Empire.

[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN.]

Before commencing my long and interesting tour "up country," I spent a
few most pleasant, days at Cape Town. My impressions of it, and of its
beautiful surroundings, could not fail to be most favourable. The
panoramic view of its approach from Table Bay, at the foot of Table
Mountain, is very fine. The town itself appeared to me much cleaner, and
brighter than I expected to see it, although, it must be admitted, there
is still considerable room for improvement in its sanitary arrangements,
and also in the accommodation, and condition of its hotels, to make them
as attractive as they ought to be. The best of them do not come at all
up to our standard at home, nor to our English ideas of comfort and
convenience. A great improvement in