the latter port, is more than five
weeks. Nearly everybody, therefore, chooses the Atlantic route from
Southampton or London to the Cape. The Atlantic voyage, which lasts from
sixteen to twenty days, is, on the whole, a pleasant and healthful one.
The steamers, both those of the Castle Line and those of the Union
Line--and the same may be said for the New Zealand Line and the Aberdeen
Line which plies to Australia, both of these touching at the Cape--are
comfortable and well appointed, and I cannot imagine any navigation more
scrupulously careful than that which I saw on board the _Hawarden
Castle_, by which I went out and returned. During the winter and spring
months there is often pretty rough weather from England as far as
Madeira. But from that island onward, or at any rate from the Canaries
onward, one has usually a fairly smooth sea with moderate breezes till
within two or three days of Cape Town, when head winds are frequently
encountered. Nor is the heat excessive. Except during the two days
between Cape Verde and the equator, it is never more than what one can
enjoy during the day and tolerate during the night. One sees land only
at Madeira, where the steamer coals for a few hours; at the picturesque
Canary Islands, between which she passes, gaining, if the weather be
clear, a superb view of the magnificent Peak of Teneriffe; and at Cape
Verde, where she runs (in the daytime) within a few miles of the African
coast. Those who enjoy the colours of the sea and of the sea skies, and
to whom the absence of letters, telegrams, and newspapers is welcome,
will find few more agreeable ways of passing a fortnight. After Cape
Finisterre very few vessels are seen. After Madeira every night reveals
new stars rising from the ocean as our own begin to vanish.

Tutte le stolle gia dell' altro polo
Vedea la notte, e il nostro tanto basso
Che non sorgeva fuor del marin suolo,[40]

as Ulysses says, in Dante's poem, of his voyage to the southern
hemisphere. The pleasure of watching unfamiliar constellations rise from
the east and sweep across the sky, is a keen one, which often kept us
late from sleep.

For a few hours only before reaching Cape Town does one discern on the
eastern horizon the stern grey mountains that rise along the barren
coast. A nobler site for a city and a naval stronghold than that of the
capital of South Africa can hardly be imagined. It rivals Gibraltar and
Constantinople, Bombay and San Fra