Another appalling scourge of the settlers in the south-west district of Cape Colony is a minute, almost imperceptible insect, of terrible omen, the tsetse-fly (Glossina morsitans), a puncture from which produces such terrible destruction among horses and cattle, that several runs of land are uninhabitable—nay, even the mere passing through districts which they frequent, proves fatal to the draught beasts of the caravans. This insect is principally encountered in copses and brushwood, very seldom in the open country, and is about the size of a common house fly, but with wings a little longer. In colour it resembles the honey bee. The tsetse is uncommonly active, and usually escapes all attempts to catch it with the hand; but in the cool of the morning or evening it is less active and quick in its movements. The poison which it carries is so powerful that the bite of three or four individuals is sufficient to kill the most powerful ox. Many animals, especially such as appear perfectly sound or in the best condition, die speedily after being bitten, but the majority are ill for an entire week, and usually become blind before death. One remarkable circumstance is that the bite of these insects is fatal to dogs, even when fed with milk, while calves and other young animals, so long as they are sucking, remain perfectly exempt from the malefic powers of the tsetse. It is especially noticed that the danger seems to be confined to domesticated animals, while such as are wild or only half reclaimed, such as buffaloes, zebras, jackals, oxen, horses, and wild dogs, have not the slightest occasion to dread this insect; nay more, it attacks man himself without the least ill consequences. The sensation which their bite produces on the hand, or other portion of the human frame, would be confounded by any one travelling in the tsetse district, with that of another minute and most troublesome, though by no means dangerous insect, the flea. Fortunately the tsetse-fly has an appointed circuit to range in, in the south-west of the Cape Colony, which it never changes or extends. The landowner may erect his cattle-pound on one side of the stream in perfect security, although the opposite bank may resound with the hum of swarms of these insects. When the natives, who are acquainted with the localities in which the tsetse-fly abides, are compelled, as they constantly are, to shift their ground, and, in changing their pastures, to transgress upon the district of the tsetse, they usually select the moonlight nights of winter, when the insect, during the quiet hours of the cold season, is not likely to molest their charge.

Many travellers whose draught oxen and horses have been killed by the ravages of this insect, are annually not merely frustrated in their journey, but, it appears, have their personal safety seriously imperilled by being deprived of all means of locomotion. Anderson, in his admirable work upon "Lake Ngami," relates that some twenty aborigines of the Griqua race, who had been elephant-hunting in the north-west of that lake, and were provided with three large waggons and numerous oxen and horses, found, on their return to their encampment, that they had lost the whole of their cattle-team by the bite of the tsetse. So, too, Dr. Livingstone, during a short journey over a district frequented by the tsetse, lost forty-three strong and useful oxen, although by dint of great vigilance scarcely twenty flies had been able to settle among the entire herd. We have dwelt at length on the description of the ravages caused by this so much dreaded insect, with the view of pointing out the numerous and amazing difficulties which present themselves to the traveller or settler in certain localities, and how often not only wild and rapacious animals, but even small, hardly perceptible insects endanger the life of the wanderer, and render large tracts of lands valueless for settlement.[55]

[55] Most valuable comprehensive details, as to the natural history of the tsetse-fly, its ravages, and its migration into the districts which it frequents, are to be found in the "Transactions of the Royal Society," Volume XX., page 148; "Proceedings of the London Geological Society," page 217; Charles John Anderson's "Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries during Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of Western Africa," London, 1856; Dr. Livingstone's "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa," London, 1857. The agent of the London Missionary Society at the Cape of Good Hope, the estimable, highly respected Dr. Thompson, gave us a small piece of a root called fly-root, which is considered to grow from a parasite, and a decoction of which is reckoned by the aborigines an antidote to the bite of the tsetse-fly. Unfortunately the requisite material was not in sufficient quantity to admit of determining the plant itself, or of instituting further researches with it.

No stranger can well leave Cape Town without having visited Constantia, the chief seat of the wine cultivation of the country. Accordingly we had a day of exceedingly pleasant relaxation while visiting High Constantia. Mr. James Mosenthal, the very hospitable Austrian Consul, had carefully selected the most beautiful spot in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, the charming residence of his friend Mynheer Van Reenen, at which to get up a splendid fête champêtre on an extensive scale, in honour of the visit of this the first man-of-war that had borne the flag of our country into these remote seas. The entire staff of our frigate was invited, and over a hundred guests, comprising the flower of the fair sex of Cape Town, took part in the festivities. Immense four-horse coaches conveyed the company in the forenoon to the hill of Constantia. The company wandered at leisure under the gigantic oak trees, or in the beautifully laid-out garden of this extensive domain, and after a sumptuous déjeuner, the majority set to dancing. A small orchestra of stringed instruments played alternately with the ship's band in the garden, and in the tastefully decorated apartment. Those who did not care to dance, or whom a burning afternoon sun prevented from walking in the open air, might escape into cool and most elegant cellars, where our hospitable entertainer had stored large quantities of "spiritual treasures." The costly nectar which the Cape, and especially High Constantia, produces, finds its way but seldom to European tables, because the quantity produced is very much below the demand; for although the first cultivation of the grape for wine dates in Cape Colony so far back as 1668, the wine manufacture has only of late years expanded in a marked degree,—viz., 45 per cent. from 1855 to 1856, and 70 per cent. from 1856 to 1857, so that at present the entire quantity produced of red and white Cape wine (Pontac and Frontignac) may be stated at 24,000 pipes, worth £380,000 sterling.

At the conclusion of the fête we sat down to a splendid banquet in the open air, in a shady avenue, so as to admit of all the guests sitting at one long table. At the upper end, under the umbrageous boughs of some venerable oaks, that towered like a canopy overhead, fluttered the flags of England and Austria. The mayor of Cape Town occupied the chair; the toasts customary on such occasions were given and responded to, allusion being made to the pleasure felt at the arrival of an Austrian man-of-war, as also to the gratitude of the members of the Expedition for the hearty welcome prepared for them, and expressing an earnest hope that both Governments may ever continue faithfully allied, as both nations are, by descent, sympathy, and intellectual pursuits. A few days after this splendid entertainment, we returned to Simon's Bay, whence the Novara was already preparing to sail. The several weeks' stay of the frigate at the little settlement of Simon's Bay, together with a certain quantity of repairs, had called forth a most unwonted briskness of business. Amid so circumscribed a population, the sudden influx of more than three hundred additional consumers, with their varying wants, speedily made itself perceptible in every class of the community, the more so as most of the heavy stores for the voyage were bought here, so that the sum set in circulation during these few weeks amounted to some £2,000. At the same time the Expedition were readily permitted to contribute a mite towards building the Catholic Church in Simon's Town, and to present some priests' garments, altar cloths, and church fittings, which had been intended by the Austrian Government for distribution among four Catholic Missionaries in the various quarters of the globe visited.

Some members of the Expedition also set out on an excursion some thirty nautical miles, to where the peninsula of the Cape stretches out to the real Cape of Good Hope itself—a longer, more difficult, but also more interesting expedition, which gave fresher impressions, and conveyed a pretty accurate and more just idea of the physical features of the Peninsula of the Cape, its vegetation, zoology, and geological structure, than could be obtained by a cursory examination, of the natural features of a large portion of South Africa. For whoever has clambered up the torn, broken, rocky masses of Table Mountain, worn out and eaten away by the atmosphere, and has scrambled among its wild hollows, with its forests of the greyish green Pratea Gargentea at his feet, amid its far extending rocky plateaux, full of stagnant water-pools; whoever has strayed thence among the wine-producing terraced hills of Constantia, with their rich vegetation; over the sandy table-lands backed by rocky ridges, over streams of copper-coloured water, and the boggy tracts that extend to the extreme south-west point, as far as the Sandstone rocks, 800 feet high, which, descending sheer into the tempest-tossed, fearsome, boiling ocean, constitutes the actual Cape of Good Hope—obtains a tolerably just and correct idea of the appearance of Southern Africa for one hundred miles into the interior, and along the coast line, 400 English miles in length, which stretches from St. Helena Bay as far as the River Samtoos, west of Algoa Bay. All is sandstone or clay-slate, with occasional granitic knobs cropping out; no trees, but such as are planted in clumps around the sparsely scattered farms, conspicuous from an immense distance; while, on the other hand, in spring, an indescribable flush of blossoms and flowers, and instead of trees, millions of ant-hills, with their regularly shaped cones from three to four feet high, impart a peculiar character to the landscape of South Africa. But on the so-called Lowlands of Algoa Bay, beyond the River Samtoos, Nature assumes an entirely different character in her forest vegetation. Unfortunately, the original designs of the geologists of the Expedition, of Examining the petrified treasures of this renowned district, fell through, which was all the more to be regretted as this geological Eldorado promised a great accession to our collection.

During our stay at Simon's Town, we also experimented with our astronomical instruments, which, at our next station, St. Paul's Island, were to be brought fully into requisition for the first time. On this occasion, as on many others, the unfailing courtesy and kindness of the renowned astronomer and director of the Observatory of Cape Town, Mr. Thomas Maclear, assisted us most materially in the observations for comparison with our own physical instruments.

PLATE IV.—FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ST. PAUL'S ISLAND.
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