ANOTHER VIEW OF CAPE COLONY.
Cape Colony has now a population of three hundred and sixty-six thousand Europeans and seven hundred and fifty-five thousand colored people. This does not include the people occupying the various annexed territories. The colored population includes several native tribes, more than half of which are Bantu, and various mixed races of Asiatics, descendants of freed slaves and Hottentots.
The missionaries have been laboring for many years among the Bantu. Taken as a whole, the results of their labors are discouraging, though a portion of the people have made a considerable advance in civilization. Great efforts have been made to give them a good education.
The system of public schools is excellent. Those of the first and second class are attended almost exclusively by white children. There are several colleges where the higher branches of education are taught, and many private schools of excellent standing are maintained by the various religious societies. There is also a university, but with rather limited advantages. The towns and villages are well supplied with public libraries; these are aided by the government. There is scarcely a town or a village that has not two or three churches, banks, insurance offices, newspaper printing offices, and various benevolent institutions.
Good roads have been made throughout the colony, even in the wildest sections. The rivers, on the principal routes, have been bridged. Scarcely a hamlet can be found that is not connected by postal service and telegraph wire with all parts of South Africa.
The railway lines form an important feature in the colony. One from Cape Town passes through the Orange Free State to Pretoria in the South African Republic, while lines from Cape Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and East London connect these ports with important towns in both of the above sections. These lines were all constructed by the government, under very liberal conditions and terms.
Numerous improvements have been made in the harbors, particularly in Table Bay. Here, a long time ago, the beach, after winter storms, was frequently strewn with the wrecks of costly fleets; now ships lie in a dock in perfect safety, and are protected by a magnificent breakwater.
On the coast are many lighthouses, which stand as sentinels to warn seamen of danger by night, and the ancient terror of stormy seas off the Cape of Good Hope has long since been forgotten.
The colony is connected with Europe by two submarine cables; so that everything of importance that occurs there one day is known in England through the newspapers on the next. Splendid steamships, carrying mails and passengers, arrive from, and leave for, England weekly. They make the run of six thousand miles in less than fifteen days; and the passage is certainly one of the pleasantest in the world.
Cape Town, the capital of Cape Colony, has a pleasant situation on the south side of Table Bay. It is a flourishing city of forty-five thousand inhabitants. It has many fine buildings and pretty villas, lighted by gas.
Tramways and railways pour into it the rich agricultural products of the adjacent countries. There is little, indeed, to remind the visitor that he is in a colonial capital founded, and for a long time inhabited, solely by Dutch settlers.
Cape Town is, in many respects, very unlike any city seen in Europe. No two houses can be found of the same size or architecture. The finest stores and other buildings stand in close proximity to the humblest and poorest homes and shanties of galvanized iron. Here the shedlike shop of a grocer or provision dealer stands side by side with the almost palatial building which shelters the display of a wealthy jeweler.
Here may be seen Kaffirs clothed in the rags of a uniform; Chinamen in their clean blue frocks; lanky Boers in brown velveteens, with their wives in black gowns, with thick black veils and huge poke bonnets; merchants in gray silk coats and white hats; officers in uniform; Parsee washerwomen; Moslem Malays, all passing, in a quick procession, the hotel door.
Hansoms and two-horse broughams are used here; and in the hotels accommodations can be obtained equal to anything found in towns of the same size in Europe and America.
Cape Town is the point of departure for two lines of railways. The one line runs to Worcester, and is to be extended across the Karroo; the other ends in the center of the Constantia wine district.
The atmosphere of Cape Colony is so clear and dry that objects can be distinctly seen even at great distances. The first object which attracts the attention of the traveler, as he approaches the colony from the sea, is Table Mountain. Its massive walls rise to the height of thirty-five hundred feet.
The colonists look with interest upon Table Mountain and watch the clouds as they assume fantastic shapes about and above it. Sometimes a snowy, fleecy vapor seems to spread over its top. This the colonists, not inappropriately, call the tablecloth. When, under the potent rays of the sun, this vapor disappears, they say, "The tablecloth has been rolled up and put away for some other time."
Here and there on some of the mountain spurs may be seen the remains of the blockhouses of the early colonial days. These were stout structures erected by the early settlers to protect themselves from native tribes with whom they disputed the possession of the soil. But let us return to the capital.
It is of interest to read that early in this century Cape Town contained only about one thousand houses. It had a Dutch castle, a Government House, and a couple of churches, together with a government slave pen; for the colonists were strongly in favor of the sale of slaves.
The town of to-day presents strong contrasts to the old town. The suburbs alone have an extent of some fourteen miles.
There are broad, open streets lined with handsome modern buildings, and various shops, stores, and banks, together with Houses of Parliament, an art museum, and a university, which give a prosperous and modern appearance to the town.
Gas lights the town, cabs rattle over the streets, trams and railways are actively at work. Along the beach stretches a straggling line of buildings. Some of these are used for the drying of skins, the pressing of wool, the curing of fish, and boat building, soap making, and other industries.
The Botanical Gardens are kept in beautiful order. They furnish not only a charming promenade for the people, but serve as a nursery for young plants and trees. On every side the town presents an appearance of thrift and industry.
A walk through the street offers many an attractive picture. The gay and picturesque dress of the people must needs attract the eye of the stranger. Women with faces of every hue, from tawny black to olive brown, may be seen with their headdresses of gayly colored handkerchiefs, while their shoulders are draped with others of still gayer hues, to lend a finish to the stiffly starched, beflowered cotton gown of gorgeous coloring.
On every side sturdy, healthy children romp about, laughing and displaying their glistening white teeth, as they engage in their various sports.