23rd.—Bought four rings of ivory, which the Kaffirs wear as bracelets and anklets, formed after a very simple fashion. From the hollow end of the elephant’s tusk, where it is three-quarters of an inch in thickness, a circle is cut off one inch in breadth; in this rude state it is worn as an ornament, three or four on each leg and arm. Purchased a pair of bullocks’ horns, well polished, for four shillings; but the enormous price asked for specimens in Cape Town deterred me from making as many purchases as I should otherwise have done.
July 5th.—Heavy rain and very unpleasant weather: the people are suffering from colds and sore throats; which illness, they say, has been brought by the wind that blows over from the sea between Table Mountain and the Lion’s Head.
6th.—An illness, called by the Capers the Sinkings, is very prevalent; it appears to be a swelling or inflammation of the glands of the throat.
7th.—The middle of the Cape winter. Auctions are conducted on a curious principle, the lowest bidder being the purchaser: it is a Dutch practice, and rather difficult to comprehend.
9th.—Walked beyond the hospital on the shore, where several wrecks lie scattered—found some pretty shells. Robberies are daily committed during the night in Cape Town by the Malays. At this time of the year it is their custom to make presents to their priests: the presents must be made, whether the men have it in their power to offer them or not. In the latter case they commit robbery to satisfy the demands of their spiritual advisers—several houses have been broken into.
14th.—Walked towards Camp’s Bay over the Lion Mountain; sketched some Cape aloes which were growing most luxuriantly on the road-side, where they had been planted as a hedge—the stem was of the most brilliant crimson tint—the prickly pear in full bloom, with its white and crimson flower, and its deep crimson buds mixed beautifully with the aloes in the foreground; and in the distance beyond lay the sea and the Blueberg Mountains. I found a great variety of the most beautiful heaths, also a number of bulbs. The Africander was in bloom, as well as those bulbs that give forth their scent at sunset. The Malays are extremely partial to these sweet night-scented flowers, and collect them by the handful.
17th.—From the foot of the Devil’s Peak I sketched the Lion Mountain; it was covered with a deep driving fog that hung in wreaths not unlike a mane around it; the fog covered the shipping that was just visible below it, and the town looked indistinct: it was a most cold and unwholesome day; but I gathered beautiful flowers; the arums and prickly pears were in full bloom.
29th.—Ascended the Lion’s Rump, and arrived at the signal-post in time to see a magnificent sunset: took a sketch of the Lion’s Head, to the right of which was the back of Table Mountain, and the Southern Ocean to the left. The town and the bay from this mountain are seen to great advantage; the regularity of the plan on which the town was built by the Dutch is excellent. The walk this evening delighted me; my young companions and I sat down many times, and employed ourselves with digging up the bulbs with which the mountain is literally covered. The size of some of the bulbous roots is surprising, one weighed three pounds and a quarter, and measured in circumference twenty inches and a half; the height of the bulb was five inches and a half, and the leaves were eleven inches long. The fragrance of the flowers of the night-scented bulbs became delicious as we descended the mountain very late in the evening; it is rich in fine grass, and bulbs innumerable.
Aug. 4th.—Visited the Botanical Garden under the Lion’s Head; a number of trees and plants from Australia are collected there. The most brilliant African plant in blossom was the Strelitzia regina, with its orange and purple blossom, and its long wand-like leaves. The Kaffir bread-tree (Zamia horrida) and the Zamia longifolia are very remarkable; grass trees from Australia were there, but they had perished from the cold. When on the Lion’s Head we saw a very curious bulb, the hæmanthus or blood-flower; the bulb is of large size, and produces only two leaves, which turn back and lie open upon the ground; they have no stalk, and lie close upon the earth, the colour a bright green; some of this class have spotted leaves. The gardener told me that the Bushmen use the juice of the spotted hæmanthus as poison for their arrows; and my young companions said, when they were on the frontier they saw a Bushman stick his arrow between the two leaves down into the bulb, and he told them, in that manner the Bushmen poisoned their weapons[40].
In India the Hill-men from Rajmal use poison on their arrows; it is most powerful and fatal, but they will not disclose from what plant they obtain it. The Hill-men at Almorah preserve the same secrecy on the subject. The hæmanthus toxicaria has spotted leaves; of these plants there were many in the garden, newly placed there, and they had not been there long enough to flower.