THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, AND ISLAND OF ST. HELENA. LETTER I. DESCRIPTION OF CAPE TOWN. U.S. Ship Vincennes, Table Bay, AFTER a voyage of fifty-six days from Manilla, including two at anchor in the Straits of Sunda, we yesterday doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and before night ran thirty miles north of it to the bay, in which we now are, without however securing an entrance to it before nightfall. I was roused this morning at four o'clock by the dropping our anchors abreast of Cape Town, and went early afterwards on deck. We were within less than a mile of the town, lying closely along the water's edge, directly beneath the Table Mountain, which rises seemingly from its very outskirts like a perpendicular wall of granite, three thousand five hundred feet high. It is perfectly level on the top for a stretch of some miles, and in its face towards the water presents much the aspect, with the exception of the tuft 324 CALL ON THE GOVERNOR, ing of wood and shrubbery, of the palisade cliff on the Hudson, near New York. It is flanked on one side by a lofty peak-from which it is separated by a barren and narrow valley-and an adjoining round hill called respectively the Lion's Head and Back; and on the other, by a naked cone of equal height, called the Devil's Peak; all so close to the town as to exclude every other view in that direction. The town, containing twenty thousand inhabitants, is compactly and regularly built on wide streets, crossing each other at right angles; presenting a neat and agreeable appearance from the water, the prevailing color of the buildings being white or light stone. Many of the houses are low and flat-roofed, especially those skirting the borders of the town. These are the most conspicuous; and, surrounded by gardens and shrubbery, have a rural and tasteful aspect. Every thing adjoining, however, is sunburnt and dreary; though in the winter, or rainy season, the whole country is said to be beautifully verdant, and gaily enamelled with flowers. We early exchanged salutes with a fortress on shore. The effect of our guns against the cliffs of Table Mountain was grand beyond any thing of the kind I ever heard-echo after echo of the deepest toned thunder-intermingled with reverberations, like the discharge of a rapid feu de joie-rolled round and round the bay between every gun, as if a whole fleet were in action. At twelve, I accompanied Captain Finch, Lieut. Stribling, Mr. Buchanan, and Dr. Malone, in a call, under the guidance of James Bance, Esquire, Port SIR LOWRY COLE. 325 Captain, on His Excellency, Lieutenant General the Honorable Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, G. C. B., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony. The government house is at present undergoing repairs, and we were received at the colonial office. The general is an able and popular ruler, of commanding figure, and plain and unaffected manners; and, after giving us a cordial welcome to Cape Town; expressing the gratification it afforded him to see the American flag in Table Bay; regretting that the government house was in a state to deny him the happiness of entertaining us as he could desire, &c., &c., entered into general conversation for half an hour, with much intelligence and courtesy. On passing from the governor's rooms, we paid our respects for a moment to Lieutenant Colonel Bell, colonial secretary, a brother-in-law of the governor, the ladies of both being daughters of the distinguished diplomatist, the late Earl of Malmesbury, and were afterwards introduced by Captain Bance to the family of Mr. Ebden, a principal merchant of the place. In the afternoon I accompanied my friend Lieut. Magruder on shore, and, joined by Mr. Buchanan, took a more full survey of the place. It is well built and beautiful-more like some of our American towns, especially those originally settled by the Dutch, than any I have seen in a foreign country. The general style of architecture is much the same; the apparent equality of wealth and rank similar; and the mixture of the population of British and Dutch extraction in a like proportion; while the household servants, coachmen, teamsters, &c., of |