On March 8th, we anchored in Simon's Bay; our passage from Rio de Janeiro, contrary to expectation, had thus occupied upwards of five weeks, owing to the prevalence of light easterly winds (from north-east to south-east) instead of the westerly breezes to be looked for to the southward of latitude 35 degrees South. We were fortunate, however, in having fine weather during the greater part of that time.
The period of our stay at the Cape of Good Hope was devoted to the construction of a chart of Simon's Bay and its neighbourhood, which has since been incorporated with the previous survey of Captain Sir Edward Belcher in H.M.S. Samarang, and published without acknowledgment. The requisite shore observations were made by Captain Stanley and Mr. Obree, while Lieutenants Dayman and Simpson conducted the sounding. Our detention was lengthened by a succession of south-east gales, and the state of the weather throughout was such that during the period of twenty-one days the sounding boats were able to work on six only--the other fine days were devoted to swinging the ships for magnetical purposes. It was also intended to survey the Whittle shoal in False Bay, but when we sailed, the weather was so thick and unsettled, that Captain Stanley was reluctantly obliged to give it up.
SIMON'S TOWN.
Simon's Town is a small straggling place of scarcely any importance, except in connection with the naval establishment kept up here--dockyard, hospital, etc.--this being the headquarters of the Cape station. It is distant from Cape Town twenty-three miles. The neighbourhood is singularly dreary and barren, with comparatively little level ground, and scarcely any susceptible of cultivation. I have often been struck with the great general similarity between the barren and sandy tracts of this district, and many parts of New South Wales, where sandstone is the prevailing rock. In both countries there are the same low scrubby bushes, at the Cape consisting of Heaths and Proteae, and in Australia of Epacridae and Banksiae--the last the honeysuckles of the Colonists. Even the beautiful sunbirds of the Cape, frequenting especially the flowers of the Proteae, are represented by such of the Australian honeysuckers as resort to the Banksiae.
CAFFRE WAR.
We found the Cape Colony suffering from the long continuance of the Caffre war. As a natural consequence, the price of everything had risen, and there was little specie left in Cape Town. All the troops had been sent to the frontier; a party of bluejackets from the flagship at one time performed garrison duty at Cape Town; the emergency was so great that even some detachments of troops on their way back to England after long service in India, having put in at the Cape for refreshments, were detained and sent to Algoa Bay. We were all heartily tired of Simon's Bay long before leaving it; not the less so from having this all engrossing Caffre war dinned into our ears from morning to night as an excuse for high prices, and sometimes for extortions, which I had before supposed to be peculiar to new colonies.
On April 10th we left Simon's Bay for Mauritius. Our passage of twenty-four days presented little remarkable. We experienced every gradation between a calm and a heavy north-east gale; during the continuance of one of the latter, we passed near the Slot Van Capel bank of the old charts, the existence of which it was of importance to verify; * but the heavy confused sea, such as one would expect to find on a bank during a gale, rendered it dangerous to heave-to to try for soundings.
(*Footnote. I have since learned that H.M.S. Meander, Captain the Honourable H. Keppel, struck soundings on this bank, but have not been able to procure the particulars.)
OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAVES.
During this passage some important observations were made by Captain Stanley and Lieutenant Dayman to determine the height, length, and velocity of the waves. The results will be apparent from the following tabular view.*