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A NIGHT ON THE TABLE MOUNTAIN.

IN the month of April, 18—, I was lounging at the Cape of Good Hope, reposing myself after a very unpleasant three months' voyage, and waiting to take the command of the good ship the, then daily expected in the harbour. I had made the acquaintance of some pleasant people in Cape Town, and what with visiting, riding, driving, shooting, reading, and parties of pleasure, time jogged on agreeably enough. We sailors, however, are seldom happy long in one spot, and I was beginning to feel the tædium vitæ, and to look often and wistfully upon the blue waves of my native element as they rolled and sparkled so temptingly beneath the serene sun of these balmy latitudes. Moreover, it was long since I had seen England, and there were soft cheeks there which I longed to press, bright eyes I wished to gaze into, and honest kindly hands I yearned to grasp again. In this frame of mind anything in the shape of novelty or excitement was acceptable, and a proposition, made by a gentleman with whom I was intimate, that we should make up a party to explore the Table Mountain, came very opportunely to kill the ennui of at least a day.

It is well known that this mountain takes its name from its remarkable shape, the summit presenting a flat surface like that of a table. On two sides the mountain is perpendicular, and perfectly inaccessible: at what may be termed the back, or the side farthest from Cape Town, there is a circuitous road by which the summit may be gained on horseback, and, on the side fronting the bay, there is a rugged ravine, thickly lined by the shrubs peculiar to the climate-the sugar-trees, silver bushes, &c. This last was the route chosen by our party. We mustered sixteen in all-some of whom were ladies-and we were attended by three black fellows, or coolies, as they are called at the Cape as well as in India, who carried our provisions in baskets slung on their shoulders by bamboos. We had laid in a good stock of ham, beef, bread, coffee, wine, brandy, &c., and were likewise provided with a huge copper kettle. Several of the gentlemen carried guns, and telescopes were of course not omitted.

We began the ascent at 3 A.M., and two hours' rough walking brought us to what may be termed the summit of the base. Here there is a fine waterfall, and a cottage, called the half-way house, in which resides a respectable Hottentot, luxuriating in a state of polygamy with no fewer than three frows. We paid our respects to this interesting family, and paused to admire the grandeur of the rising sun, throwing his rays upon the mountains of Blue Berg and Hottentot Holland on the opposite side of the bay, and producing effects of colour, light, and shade, far too magnificent for me to attempt to describe. Proceeding a little farther we fell in with a flock of fine pigeons, some of which we did incontinently shoot, without the ceremony of stopping to conjecture whether they might or might not be the property of the unfortunate Hottentot we had left behind in his cottage. After bagging our game, however, one of the party started a surmise to that effect, but the ladies put our remorseful scruples immediately to flight, by deciding that, even if the birds were the property of the individual aforesaid, he richly merited to lose them, as some slight visitation for the enormity of his conduct in appropriating more than one wife to himself. Justified then by such

indisputable authority, we contentedly added the pigeons to our stock of provisions, and went on. Our labour now became serious. A little past the Hottentot's hut the mountain assumes a more rugged and precipitous character; the ascent becomes nearly perpendicular, and the path, if such it may be called, is strewn with rocks, loose stones, and various impediments which it is no easy matter to surmount. We pushed on for two hours more, alternately scrambling, climbing, creeping, and sliding, to the great dismay of the ladies, and of the more timid among the masculine members of our party, and to the amusement of those who were blessed with tougher nerves and stronger muscles. We arrived at last at a niche, or orifice, for it is not of importance enough to be designated a cave, called by the natives "The Oven ;" and here, while the ladies and some others paused to rest awhile under the shade of an overhanging rock, I joined the more robust of my companions in a chase after rock rabbits, which abounded near this spot, and several of which we brought down with our fowling-pieces, and deposited in the capacious baskets which formed our temporary larder.

We soon resumed our journey, and the ascent became now so precipitous, and, indeed, perpendicular, that, after the gentlemen had by climbing gained the tops of the beetling crags, they were obliged to haul up the ladies by means of shawls, handkerchiefs, &c., tied round their waists, somewhat after the fashion by which the gentler sex is hoisted up the side of a lofty ship. As one or two of the fair ones, be it spoken with all due respect, certainly did not weigh less than ten or eleven stones, our labour was not of the lightest; more particularly as they deemed it incumbent upon them either to giggle or scream through the entire process, according to the orthodox custom of all ladies placed in a novel situation. Most of the party now began to get tired, and to declare that the top of the mountain receded as we advanced up the ravine. A little more labour and perseverance, however, brought us within a few yards of the summit and, anxious as we all were to gain it, we could not forbear pausing awhile to look at some of the numerous names which are here inscribed upon the wall of rock on either side of the ravine. Here were recorded all possible varieties of appellation, family and baptismal, belonging to almost every European nation, from those so familiar to our ears, appertaining to the innumerable tribes of Smiths, Jacksons, and Thompsons, to the unpronounceable patronymics of some worthy denizens of Amsterdam, or of the colder regions of the Autocrat. Here, too, carved or painted with greater care than the rest, were Marys, Julias, Rosas, and Isabellas, inscribed by lovers who had borne the images of their mistresses in their hearts, and stamped their names in these wild solitudes in characters which would probably endure longer than the ephemeral beings whose hands had so fondly traced them. Here, also, might occasionally be seen a couplet, an apophthegm, or a sentiment, rudely written, and half obliterated, but which some of the unfrequent passengers in the wilderness endeavour to decipher with a greater avidity than that with which a new novel is seized and devoured by the fashionable subscribers to a circulating library in Paris or London. And here I recognised two names, familiar and dear to me, of two of my playfellows, schoolmates, and companions of maturer years, who, some ten years before, had sought their fortunes in the East, and, touching at the Cape, had left this faint record of their presence. I

shall not attempt to describe the emotions that seized me, the flood of old and most dear associations that rushed thick upon my heart during the little space I remained abstracted and behind my companions.

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'In that moment, o'er my soul

Winters of mem'ry seemed to roll:"

and, as I gazed upon the characters traced by the familiar friends of gone years, there were pictured before me on the rough wall of rock, vividly as in the wizard mirror in the fable, my childhood's home, the scenes of youth, and the parting with the two whose names had called up these reminiscences, and whom, in the world's jostle, I may never meet again. I saw the faces of other days; and the voices of my companions who had preceded me in the mountain-path echoed in my ear as the voices heard in past times-the voices of the absent and the dead. I was moved, and I confess it, willingly; for why should a man be ashamed of those moments, few and far between in a stirring life, when the mother's part in his nature subdues for a while by its gentle influence his sterner and prouder attributes? How long my reverie might have lasted I know not, but I was awakened from it by a loud shouting of my name. I shouldered my gun and started forward to join the party, though at the time scarcely in a fitting mood for partaking its festivity.

It was now about six hours from the time of commencing the ascent of the mountain, and our party had arrived at the end of the ravine of rocks and emerged upon the broad flat table-land of the summit, which is covered with a fine green turf. Most of the party being sufficiently tired threw themselves down upon "Nature's carpet,' "" as it was poetically designated by one of the young ladies, and here, after a few minutes' breathing space, it was unanimously agreed we should investigate our larder. Accordingly the ladies set themselves to unpack the stores and arrange them on a table-cloth spread on the grass; some of the gentlemen, shouldering the big kettle, went in search of water, whilst others were busily engaged with corkscrews and bottles; and meanwhile the coolies were occupied in constructing a primitive fire place with square stones, and in collecting fuel from the low brushwood which grew in large quantities near the spot. For myself, I joined the water party, and, in a few minutes, we fell in with a beautiful miniature cataract, falling from a height of about thirty-six inches into a pool or basin six feet in circumference. While the kettle was boiling we manufactured a rude gridiron out of forked green sticks and ramrods, on which we broiled steaks and rashers of ham; and, I will venture to assert that no alderman at a civic feed in Guildhall ever devoured his luxurious viands with so keen a relish as that with which we discussed our simple fare on the summit of the Table Mountain. It was well for the ladies that Lord Byron was not of the party; for it is certain that the dexterity with which they caused ham and beef to disappear would have irrevocably confirmed his fastidious Lordship in his holy horror of seeing women eat.

Our breakfast concluded, we of the masculine gender betook ourselves to cheroots, whilst the ladies amused themselves by washing the cups and plates in a natural basin hollowed in the rock. We then proceeded to explore the Table Land, leaving instructions to our coolies to prepare dinner against our return. And here I wish I could present

to the untravelled reader a vivid idea of the bird's-eye view of the surrounding country, which we enjoyed in all its perfection, elevated as we were 3588 feet above the level of the sea. Standing on the edge of the summit, and looking northward and eastward, we beheld the towering mountains of Blue Berg and Hottentot Holland-some of them not less than sixty or seventy miles off-and the dim outline of others in the background, much farther distant. The loftiest of these mountains, even though the summer had scarcely faded, were covered with snow; and between them were frequent patches of sand, which, by contrast with the verdure of the cultivated regions, imparted a most pleasing effect to the entire scene. At our feet was stretched Cape Town-which is the most regularly built I ever saw-whilst the bay slumbered in a dead calm, its glassy surface only disturbed by the oars of the boats employed in conveying the cargoes to and from the numerous ships of all descriptions loading and discharging at the anchorage. Looking again to the northward and westward we saw the telegraph station on the Lion's Rump, overhanging Green Point, a favourite spot for the rural residences of the good folks of the Cape. Near this was the racecourse, which, although the hour was so early, was thronged with carriages and persons of various classes inspecting the training of the horses and other preparations for the races which were to take place in the ensuing week. A little farther off was Roben island, seeming like a mere speck on the surface of the deep. Walking to the southern and eastern edge of the Table we beheld the broad expanse of False and Simon Bays, stretching inland from their seaward extremes of Hanglip, or False Cape, and the Cape Point itself, to the distance of fifteen or sixteen miles, and being in breadth at the widest part some twenty-five. The junction of the two bays is studded with several little islands, or rather rocks, which delight in the old-fashioned names of "Noah's Ark," the "Roman Rocks," &c.; but I am disposed to think, that if either our patriarchal ancestor or the conquerors of the world ever paid these places a visit, their stay must have been very short, for the surf constantly dashing upon the islands creates in them a very atmosphere of spray.

We gazed upon the glories of the scene with delight-on the part of some with awe, and of others with a rapture of admiration so intense, that "the sense ached." None were unmoved; and, indeed, that man must have been possessed with a brutish insensibility, or, to say the least, with a very unenviable stoicism, who could not have felt, or, feeling, could have desired to suppress, the emotions of the heart on contemplating the sublime and stupendous creations with which we were surrounded. I never was, nor do I desire to be, a disciple of the cold nil admirari school. It may be a fine word in that cramped and unnatural philosophy which would reduce the intellectual powers of man to mere syllogistical dexterity, the manufacture of sophisms, and the deduction of absurd conclusions from academic propositions; but it is a word that is a blight and a mildew upon the imagination, and withers up the poetry of the soul. But, avast! breakers ahead! I shall be upon a reef if I don't clap my helm down, and brace round on t'other tack. I have been too long in a rough trade to talk about philosophy.

I omitted to mention Simon's Town, and Musenberg Lake, with "The Gentle Shepherd of Salisbury Plain". -a house of entertainment on its

banks, which had often been our resting-place during country excursions -as being among the features of the view; but in truth it is utterly vain in me to attempt to convey even a vague idea of the magnificence of the scenery around us. Let the reader call up imagination to his aid, fancy himself in our position, and lament if an evil fate or an inert and spiritless nature has, by confining him within the dull monotony of a particular locality, cooped him from a view of the varied beauties of this glorious world. Not only is it the simple admiration of Nature's grandeur that stirs the soul of him who wanders into strange regions, but the associations, historical, poetical, or traditional, which memory furnishes as he progresses, and lends to each spot an interest and a charm. The impression of a tale of other times is always more vivid and forcible when we stand upon the very place which is recorded as the scene of its action. Cape Point was beneath us; that point of land which, until the bold Vasco de Gama doubled it, had so long shut out the gorgeous East, and "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind," from the treasureseeking and adventurous sons of Europe. What a chain of reflections is induced by this simple suggestion. Appropriately was this remarkable point christened "The Cape of Good Hope," if considered with relation to the peculiar anticipations indulged in by man on the prospect of discovering a new region; although a question might rise in the minds of some philosophers as to how far the aggregate happiness and moral condition of mankind has been benefited by these discoveries, and the consequent colonization and extension of empire. But I am off the wind again!-To our pic-nic once more.

Having spent as much time as we could afford in gazing at the different points of view-though, had we remained for days, we could scarce have "gazed our fill"-we turned our attention to the Table itself, which, as I have already said, is covered with grass: in many parts it is of a soft and swampy nature; and, in others, the soil is hard and stony, with quantities of heath and brushwood. The surface is perfectly level; and in length from nearly south-east to north-west it is a mile and a half; and its breadth from south-west to north-east is a quarter of a mile. We wandered about for some time amused by the chatterings and gambols of sundry monkeys, who, however, did not deem it expedient to give us a chance for a shot at them; and searching, of course, very eagerly for Noah's anchor, which tradition tells us that great diluvian navigator let go at this spot, when he sent forth the dove from the ark.

We then returned to dine at the spot where we had breakfasted, and found that the coolies had roasted or baked the pigeons-call it which you please, gentle reader, for the mode of preparation was this:-the birds were placed in one deep dish, and covered by another, and then deposited amidst fire within the area of four stones placed at right angles with one another. After our repast, wine and cheroots were produced, and we hobbed and nobbed, and drank to old friends in Old England, cracked old jokes, and some new ones, told old stories, and manufactured others :-then the ladies sang, and one of the young men "Breathed in his flute sad airs, so wild and slow."

In short, we were happy. The cares of life were left for a while in the world beneath us; sorrows were forgotten, rude passions hushed, and our hearts were filled only with the joyousness, the amenities, and the

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