When a ship is to touch at the Cape, it is very desirable, on every account, that her arrival should take place during the summer season; so that she may come to anchor in Table Bay, about half a mile distant from the wharf. The convenience, thus afforded, of going immediately into comfortable lodgings, where nothing is wanting that can tend to the refreshment of persons fatigued by those narrow limits within which they have been confined, probably for ten or twelve weeks, is not to be calculated. The Dutch, it is true, are most offensively avaricious; but that must be compounded for, in consideration of the satisfaction attendant upon the liberty of taking exercise in a fine climate, abounding with the most delicious fruits, the choicest vegetables, and that kind of social intercourse, which, chasing away the recollection of former langour, gives energy to meet succeeding dulness and inactivity. The British visitor will, however, experience considerable disappointment if he expects to witness the performance of dramatic pieces, or that jocund hilarity which with us prevails among persons long resident together. On the contrary, the inhabitants of Cape Town think of nothing but money-making; in which they are neither inexpert, nor very scrupulous. In public, they are so awkward, stiff, and unsociable, that I have often been surprised they did not go to sleep at their visits. If such was the state of society only a few years ago, what must it have been previous to the occupation of the Cape, during the American war, by two French regiments; which, according to the confession of the Dutch themselves, made a very considerable improvement in their breed?
Few of those who take lodgers will admit such as do not board with them: the rates are not in any instance fixed, but the average may be taken at from three to four rix-dollars for each lady or gentleman, half-price for young children, and one dollar for each servant, per diem. From this it may be collected, that a single gentleman must be an economist if he manages to pay his expences of board, washing, horse-hire, &c. under thirty shillings daily.—The rix-dollar is fixed at four shillings; but is an imaginary sum. Notes of any value may be had; but gold and silver currency are scarcely ever seen; the Dutch being extremely eager to obtain guineas at twenty-one shillings currency, and re-selling them at the rate generally of six and a half, or seven rix-dollars. Persons visiting the Cape should be careful to reserve their cash until about to pay their bills, and then to account their guineas at their current value, as above shewn. Such is the estimation in which bullion is held, that no small coins are any where to be seen; even shillings, and stivers are paid in paper currency. Passengers from India ought to take a bag of rupees of the worst description; for, whether sicca or tersooly, each will be gladly received, without distinction, at two shillings and sixpence.
The cookery of the Dutch is pretty nearly on a par with their flesh-meats; their beef, mutton, veal, and pork, being rarely of tolerable quality, and invariably made to float in strong sauce, of which butter and spices are the chief ingredients. The table is, in most houses, laid in a central hall, looking into a garden; the floors are all painted, that they may not absorb the damp when washed, as they are almost daily: the beds are tolerably good, and the apartments of a moderate size. Before every house, is an elevated terrace, on a level with the ground-floor, having at each end a seat, usually of masonry also. On this terrace, called the steupe, the Dutch promenade half the day in fair weather, enjoying their pipes, and occasionally taking their sopkies; which are small glasses of raw spirits, for the most part hollands, their servants tender to them at intervals, as a matter of course.
The extensive gardens of the late Dutch Company, through the centre of which is a broad gravel-walk full half a mile in length, are crowded every Sunday evening, and on all festive days, by a promiscuous group, who walk in parties, to and fro, under the shade of the oaks and other trees planted on either side. There is also an institution, but of a more private nature, and frequented, with few exceptions, by the Dutch only. It is held at a neat house, where wines, &c. are sold, having attached to it a spacious garden; not unlike some of our tea-drinking places in the vicinity of London. This is called Concordia; a name perfectly unsuited to the scenes occasionally disgracing the interior, which has more than once excited the attention of our government, in consequence of the seditious principles of its visitors.
The late Lord Macartney did not fail to keep a watchful eye over Concordia, as well as to check, in their infancy, whatever attempts might be made to spread, and to inculcate, revolutionary principles. A large portion of the inhabitants being descended from delinquents who had quitted their native country, as Gil Blas says, ‘not without good reason,’ and having rarely paid much deference to their rulers in Europe, it is not to be wondered at, that those doctrines of the mountain, which condemned Louis the XVI. should have been adopted at the Cape. Such was the advance made in the cant of the day, and so numerous were the meetings at Concordia, that Lord Macartney judged it necessary to adopt measures for bringing his Dutch subjects to their senses; which he did in a manner that reflected the greatest credit on himself, and evinced with what facility traitors may be subdued under a just and energetic government. Among the many who resorted to Concordia every evening, was a great farmer, known at the Cape under the designation of Boor, who was particularly smitten with the new-fangled terms of gallic civism: if I err not, his name was Van Clootz. He was of immense stature, and ordinarily wore a round slouched hat, about the diameter of a gentleman’s umbrella; and as he paraded through the streets, sitting on the front board of his waggon, drawn by eight Spanish horses, always appeared like some enormous wild beast belonging to Mr. Pidcock’s menagerie.
This monstrous great man (long considered the key-stone of the arch-traitors of Constantia) was summoned, in a civil manner, by Lord Macartney; who, in becoming terms, rebuked him for his folly, and explained the whole extent of what had been reported, regarding the proceedings of those who visited the garden. Mynheer was not to be talked out of his veneration for the Revolution in France; and declared, that, in his opinion, it would be equal to a martyrdom to die in so glorious a cause. It was in vain his Lordship depicted the horrors attendant upon so great a reverse; the boor’s enthusiasm rendered him blind to such trifles, and to all those excesses which inseparably accompany civil convulsion.
In the course of a few days, Van Clootz was informed, that a troop of cavalry had arrived at a farm he had on the borders of Hottentot Holland, about thirty miles from the Cape, and that it was supposed they would remain some time in that neighborhood. The boor was delighted at the prospect of a long bill for hay, corn, &c. &c. folio after folio; every day’s stay was joyfully noted! It was not long, however, before complaints were made that the troopers behaved in a licentious manner, killing his poultry, destroying his fences, plundering his garden, kissing his maids, and the Lord knows what! Now, as most of his stock was consumed, it was no longer an object for Mynheer to court the stay of the cavalry; therefore he went boldly to Lord Macartney with a long list of damages, and his bill for corn, &c. demanding, in a very haughty manner, that the farm should be evacuated by his now unwelcome visitors.
‘Bless me, Mr. Van Clootz,’ said his lordship, ‘why, I thought you was delighted with revolutionary principles?’—‘Yes, my lord, I am so; the acts of the French nation should be written in characters of gold!’—‘And yet, Mr. Van Clootz, you complain against the troop I sent to be quartered upon you—no, no, Sir; you have been so fond of the sweets of revolution, that I am resolved you shall taste some of its bitters also: therefore the cavalry shall remain at your farm, until you acknowledge the benefits of British protection, and retire peaceably to your lands, there to cultivate corn, instead of sowing sedition at Constantia.’
The result may be easily guessed: Constantia was depopulated, and Mynheer Van Clootz was held in derision throughout the Cape. It should not remain untold, that, however strict Lord Macartney might have been during the time he governed at the Cape, such was the impression made by his equitable, liberal, and firm conduct, that, when he embarked for Europe, the inhabitants were truly grieved; but consoled themselves under the hope, that a petition they sent to his Majesty, for the re-appointment of his lordship, might prove successful.
Many of the farms, within the compass of a morning’s ride, are well worth seeing; not as objects of imitation, but as displaying much novelty, and tending to afford a just idea of the character of a Dutch agriculturist in that quarter. The vineyards, and depôts of wine at Constantia, are certainly curious; especially when it is considered, that the soil which produces that luscious wine, is confined to a very few acres, I believe not more than forty, beyond which, sets from the same vines, under circumstances of perfect equality, in regard to site and culture, produce a very different liquor, little superior to that sold at the several wine-houses at sixpence per quart, and possessing a peculiar terraceous flavor, which does not diminish by keeping. The stranger not habituated to the use of the Cape wines, either white or red, should be extremely cautious on his first arrival to avoid them; drinking port in their stead. A neglect of this precaution will produce considerable inconvenience, and may be attended with habitual diarrhœa. I was one of four, who, on landing at False Bay, drank about three or four glasses each, and were violently affected by it during the whole of the following night.