3rd June 1836

Cape Town
In Cape town it is said the present number of inhabitants is about 15,000, and in the whole colony, including coloured people, 200,000. Many different nations are here mingled together; the Europæans consist of Dutch, French & English, & scattered people from other parts. The Malays, descendants of slaves brought from the East Indian archipelago, form a large body; they appear a fine set of men; they can always be distinguished by conical hats, like the roof of a circular thatched cottage, or by a red handkerchief on their heads. — The number of Negroes is not very great, & the Hottentots, the ill treated aboriginals of the country, are, I should think, in a still smaller proportion. The first object in Cape town which strikes the eye of a stranger, is the number of bullock waggons; several times I saw eighteen & heard of twenty four oxen being all yoked together in one team;2 Besides these, in all parts waggons with four, six, & eight horses in hand, go trotting about the streets.— I have as yet not mentioned the well known Table mountain; this great mass of horizontally stratified sandstone rises quite dose behind the town to a height of 3500 feet; the upper part forms an absolute wall, often reaching into the region of the clouds. I should think so high a mountain, not forming part of a platform & yet being composed of horizontal strata, must be a rare phenomenon; it certainly gives the landscape a very peculiar, & from some points of view, a grand character.

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