The astronomical observatory, under the superintendence of Mr. Maclear, has preserved the celebrity which it attained by the great work on the constellations of the southern hemisphere, the materials for which were collected by Sir John Herschel during his residence here some twenty years since. There is now a transit instrument, which in accuracy excels even that of the Observatory at Greenwich, and which is said to have cost upwards of £2000.
The South African Museum, containing collections of natural history, is now under the superintendence of Mr. L. Layard (brother of the celebrated investigator of Nineveh). This institution, as well as the South African public library, the literary, scientific, and mechanics' institutions, besides nearly fifty other establishments and societies for religious, benevolent and industrial purposes, owe their foundation and flourishing condition to the public spirit and the charitable disposition of the inhabitants of the colony. In 69 schools scattered over its surface, upwards of 18,000 pupils are educated according to a system introduced in 1841 by Sir John Herschel.
The Botanical Gardens, likewise founded and kept up by private subscription, are not only a most agreeable resort, but also afford much instruction, arising from the many interesting and useful plants gathered here from all quarters of the world. To those which are adapted for cultivation in the sandy plains of the Cape, great attention is devoted. Some of them have been found available in forming as it were vegetable walls of protection against the inroads of the sand, so destructive to all cultivation. As particularly serviceable for this purpose, were mentioned to us Fabricia variegata, a sea-shore shrub of from 6 to 10 feet high; Protea myrtifera; the so-called Hottentot fig: Mesembryanthemum edulis; and the Cape wax-myrtle Myricacordifolia;—all these are found to thrive in the sand without cultivation, put a stop to its ravages, and in some respects may be considered as the pioneers of all other plants, which do not thrive before the sandy soil has been prepared for them. Nay, singularly enough, some of these (as for instance the Hottentot fig), become extinct as soon as others make their appearance, just in the same way as the pioneer of civilization, the backwoodsman in the west of the United States, leaves his lonely blockhouse and hurries on as soon as overtaken by the peaceful settler. The wax-berry shrub is also otherwise useful to the inhabitants; from its berries a substance is prepared well suited for making candles. According to a treatise on its culture two workmen are able to realize with a defecator daily 100 lbs. of white wax from the berries gathered by six persons. The expense of labour, &c., does not exceed 18s. per 100 lbs., or about 2d. per pound. A large quantity of this vegetable substance has lately been sent to London, where it is said to have met with a profitable market. In the Botanical Garden of Cape Town we first met the two celebrated grasses known as Holcus Caffrorum and Holcus saccharatum, which, by their usefulness in domestic life, have more extensively, and perhaps quickly, than any other plant, spread over the world. We are indebted to the Secretary of the Board of Public Roads, W. De Smidt, Esq., for some seeds of these and other plants, as also to Mr. McGibbon, manager of the Botanical Gardens, for similar favours.
Considering the deficiency of labour, and the large sections of fertile land as yet uncultivated in the colony, Sir George Grey has directed great attention to the immigration of German emigrants of respectable characters, of all trades, as well as those attached to agricultural pursuits. The plan adopted is an excellent and thoroughly honest one. Every emigrant, if single, obtains from the Government thirty acres of good land, and, if married, fifty; five for each child above one, and ten for every one exceeding ten years of age. The rate of the land is to be fixed by Government at a fair and reasonable sum, and, together with the passage-money, to be paid four years after the location of the emigrant, in five annual instalments. From the moment the colonist steps on African ground he is an independent owner of land, although not entitled to sell his property until his obligations to the Government are liquidated. The local parliament has granted a sum of £50,000 to promote emigration. The Cape probably offers to an industrious emigrant a more advantageous field for active energy than any other country in the world. Some of the German colonists, the remnant of the British Legion engaged in the Crimean war, who, under General Stuttersheim, have settled in British Caffraria, are thriving prosperously. They are the first pioneers of the German element in South Africa, and, under the protection of a liberal and free government, are increasing in number annually in consequence of the favourable reports which they transmit to their native country.
An emigration of a peculiar kind has unexpectedly taken place. An impostor amongst the Caffres, who had assumed the character of a prophet, pronounced the end of the world as imminent, in consequence of which large numbers of them slaughtered their cattle and left their fields uncultivated. Being thus, in a short time, reduced to a state of perfect destitution, not less than 19,000 of starving Caffres sought help and an asylum in the British territory during the year 1857, and before its close the number had increased to 30,000. The colonial Government, out of consideration to the welfare of the colonists, admitted only those Caffres who bound themselves to act as servants, for at least one year, at reasonable wages, and in order to prevent any danger arising from being congregated in too large numbers, they were located by the Government officers in various detached parts of the colony.
A very active society of philanthropists exists here, under the title of "The Committee of Emigration from Holland." Its object is to bring over orphans and children of the poor from the overpopulated Dutch provinces. These useful emigrants are partly located as apprentices to farmers, and remain until they are of age under the care of the Committee. During our stay a party of seventy boys and girls just arrived from Holland assembled, with their conductors, in one of the large avenues of the Botanical Garden, to be inspected by the Governor-General. They all looked healthy and cheerful, and seemed to have but little suffered from the fatigues of a long voyage. When Sir George Grey made his appearance the children sang the English National Anthem, translated into Dutch, and afterwards the sweet, affectionate song, "When the swallows homewards fly." Some young emigrants, who, two years ago, had come under similar circumstances from Holland, had already obtained good situations, and greeted their little compatriots most heartily. Being asked if they wished to return to Holland, they replied, without the slightest hesitation, in the negative, declaring that they felt very happy where they were,—an announcement of course peculiarly agreeable to the new-comers.
An interesting opportunity was afforded to us of seeing a large number of Caffres, of both sexes, who had been brought in as prisoners in consequence of having made predatory incursions into the British territory. They all arrived in a state of nudity, and in most wretched plight, but were immediately provided with European clothes—blue striped shirts, sheepskin trousers, shoes, a Scotch cap, and a blanket which served during the day as a cloak, and at night as a covering. Their food was tolerably good, but their abode during night, in the damp casemates of the fort, seemed not to agree with them, and many were visibly in a diseased state of health. Nearly all were muscular, and some were really specimens of manly beauty. Not one of them knew his age. Their only mode of calculating is by certain important events, as by the death of a chieftain, or the various wars with the English. The superintendent, Mr. Walsh, a very obliging Irishman, had the kindness to cause them to perform some of their national dances, wild exercises which served the purpose of exciting their warlike spirit. The first dance they performed they called "Ukutenga." Six handsomely-built dancers advanced, whilst about thirty men closed in a circle around them, and, by their howlings and clapping of hands, formed as it were a musical accompaniment to this singular performance. The dancers sighed, groaned, hissed, and made the most extravagant grimaces and contortions, in order to arouse in themselves an artificial excitement. One, a lad twelve years of age, engaged so earnestly in the sports, that he perspired from his whole body. There is another dance, called "Tklombo," performed in the presence of diseased persons whilst the quack doctor practises his deceptive remedies; and a third, called "Umduta," which is only practised at weddings and other festive occasions. This last seemed to be the most characteristic. The semi-nude, slender men hopped, their arms clung together, in ranks of six, hissing with scorn, occasionally uttering a cry, then suddenly separating and marching one after the other in slow time, in a circle, uttering the most singular sounds. Now they bent forward the whole upper part of the body, and then back again, each of them making the same violent gestures as in the former dance, and pronouncing some words to excite their companions, such as, "Be active!" "Be alert!" until they all trembled and became fearfully and feverishly excited. The surrounding Caffres, who were at first mere spectators, by degrees were seized with this singular dancing mania, till at last the entire number, as if stung by a tarantula, lashed themselves into a wild and apparently ungovernable frenzy. The great difference in the colour of the skin of these Caffres was particularly striking, as they evidently belong to one and the same race. From the blackness of coal to bronze, all tints and shades were observed, and one of them, called "Ngduba" (Sea-shell), appeared to be even of a reddish yellow. He belonged to the tribe of the Fingoes, and said that both his parents were of the same colour.
The governor permitted five young Caffres to be engaged on board the Novara, with their own consent, as apprentices, and although they were prisoners sentenced for several years, yet the Government took every care to secure their welfare. An agreement was signed to provide that their return, should they desire it, might be facilitated in every possible way. Faithful subjects could not be cared for with more anxiety than were these legally-sentenced Caffre prisoners by the colonial Government. Two of them went one day on shore, during our stay at Auckland, in New Zealand, and never came back; the other three made the whole voyage with the Novara, and are now sailors on board the imperial yacht Fancy. They, of course, understood, at their embarkation, only their own singular mother-tongue; yet the chaplain of the expedition, the Rev. E. Marochini, after having made himself acquainted with their idiom, succeeded in instructing these black youths, by means of their own language, in the doctrines of Christianity, and, by degrees, imparted some knowledge of the Italian and German languages, the happy results of these endeavours being a complete vocabulary and a small catechism in the Caffre language, which the reverend gentlemen composed during the voyage; and such progress did his three pupils make, that, on our return to Trieste, they were so far prepared as to be fit for reception, by baptism, into the Christian community.
In the house of correction there were a number of female Caffres who had been made prisoners at the same time with their brothers and husbands, some belonging to the family of chiefs. One, the sister of the chieftain Sandilli, was a handsome, tall and slender woman, with mild features and piercing small black eyes; another, by the name of Mnovenkeli, the sister of the chieftain Mkoseni, was an imposing and earnest-looking figure. Several of these women bore a long stripe tattooed on their breasts as an ornament. Several were deficient of a little finger of the left hand: this mutilation is the effect of superstition, as it often occurs that, in case of the severe illness of the child, the distressed mother causes a finger of her offspring to be cut off and sacrificed to the evil spirit, in order that the rest of the body may be saved and permitted by the evil spirit to recover.
One of these young Caffre women had her child wrapped up in a piece of linen tied to her back, and endeavoured to lull it to sleep by continually moving the left elbow, by which the baby was kept in a swinging motion, and an effect was produced like that of a cradle. Various questions were put, through an interpreter, to several of these females, who, after their timidity was overcome, answered with great readiness. Polygamy is said to prevail amongst them. Many women have from ten to twelve children. The children are suckled sometimes from two to three years. A numerous progeny is the pride of a family. As a proof of the legitimacy of a child, there is said to exist a kind of milk trial. Notwithstanding considerable trouble in endeavouring to procure information, we were unable to obtain a very lucid idea of this singular experiment: it consists in the father giving the infant, in the bottom of his hand, directly after its birth, some cow's milk to drink, and if the child refuses the draught it is considered illegitimate. Caffre women very rarely salute their husbands with a kiss, except after a long separation, and even then only on the cheek—never on the lips.