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THUNBERG’s ACCOUNT OF THE CAPE OX' GOOD HOPE.

In the road we found, among others, a Swedifh fhip, which had arrived but a ffioritime before at this fouthernmoft point of Africa , and had brought my friend, ProfefforSparrman.

On the 17th, I went with the captain on ffiore, and took a lodging at M. HendrikFehrfen’s houfe.

Being fafely arrived at the Cape of Good Hope , my firlt care was to wait on thelieutenant-governor, Baron Joachim von Plettenberg, and the other gentlemen of theregency, to whom I was recommended* in order to deliver to them the letters I hadbrought with me. And as the refpettable and univerfally-beloved veteran, GovernorTulbagh, had, in confequence of age and gout, on the nth of Auguft in the preced-ing year, exchanged this life for a better, I delivered the letters directed for him toBaron Plettenberg, who received me with the-greateft kindnefs, and promifed to affiftme in my defign of travelling into the interior part of the country, during the term ofmy refidence in that quarter of the globe.

Whereas in my native country, to the northward of the equator, the moft delight-ful of the feafons, fpring, was now approaching ; here, to the fouth of the line, winterwas ftealing upon us, fo that I could not as yet, or for feveral months to come, travelto any advantage through the interior parts of the country, but mud wait till the be-ginning of September. The intervening months I employed in informing myfelf of theinternal economy and inftitutions of the Company, and examined the plants and ani-mals in the environs of the town, and in the neighbouring mountains, making alfofhort excurlions into the country, which I was in hopes of penetrating deeper intoafterwards, and of viewing it with a curious and obferving eye.

The Cape of Good Hope is the extreme point of Africa , and of the Old World, tothe fouthward, and is probably the moft capital promontory in the whole world.

Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguefe, was the firft who difcovered this promontory in 1487,and King Emanuel gave it the name of the Cape,of Good Hope. Vafco de Gama vifitedit next in 1497, by order of the fame monarch. According to the obfervations of M.de la Caille, it is fituated in latitude 33 0 35' S. and in longitude 35 0 %' E.

The fhips that anchor in Table Bay, in a confiderable extenfive road, are fomewhatabove a mile diftant from the town.

The day after our arrival our fick men were taken to the hofpital, attended by thefurgeon’s mate; and afterwards the foldiers, under the conduct of their commanding-officer, who was to ferve in the capacity of ferjeant after his arrival on ffiore.

The town is very regularly built, from the ffiore along the declivity formed by theTable Mountains, and its ftreets cut the quarters at right angles, the whole beingbounded at the back part by Table Mountain (Taffelberg), to the weftw'ard by LionMountain (Leuweberg), and towards the eaft, in fome meafure, by the Devil’s Moun-tain (Duyvelfberg). So that it is moft open towards the fouthern and eaftern Tides.

In difembarking, one is not incommoded here by the ffiutting of toll-gates, or byciiftom-houfe officers. The town has neither walls nor gates, and yet enjoys a perfectfecurity in a land of favages.

The houfes are all of brick, white-waffied, and one, feldom two, but very rarelythree ftories high, and covered in, for the moft part, with flat roofs of brick-work, ora kind of grafs indigenous to this country {reft 10 tedortm'), laid upon very low framework. On account of the violence of the wands that prevail here, the roofs cannot betiled over, nor raifed higher. The houfe of the lieutenant-governor, and the Company’swarehoufe, were the only houfes that were three ftories high.

The domeftics here do not confift of Europeans, but of black or tawny Haves fromMalabar, Madagafcar, or other parts of India . Thefe, in general, fpeak either broken

2 Portuguefe,