fpirits from the fruit have produced brandy o f a very good
quality. 1 his article is here in general very bad, evidently
owing, in a great degree, to the manner in which it is manufactured.
In order to get as much fpirit as poflible, the materials
thrown into the ftill are o f the groffeft kind, the greateft
part being the expreffed hufks and ftalks of the grapes.} the
apparatus is bad } the conducting o f the proceis is committed
to the hands o f a Have, who has little knowledge of, and lefs
intereft in, the bulinefs he is commanded to perform: he falls
alleep; the fire goes out; a rapid blaze fucceeds to make up
for lofs of time; the fpirit carries over with it a ftrong empy-
reumatic flavor which it never lofes. There is, however, not-
withftanding every precaution that has hitherto been taken, a
very peculiar tafte in all the wines and brandies of the Cape,
arifing probably from the circumftance of the grapes growing
fo very near the ground. It is well known that the exhalations
from the earth are fo much imbibed by the leaves of the
tobacco plant which grow neareil to it, that thofe leaves are
always rejefled as unfit for ufe} and it is natural to fuppofe
that the fruit o f the vine hanging very near to, or even refting
upon, the ground, will alfo receive the prevailing flavor exhaling
from the foil. It is indolence alone that has hitherto prevented
the colonifts from leading their vines along ftandards, in
which cafe they would not only improve the quality of the
grape, but would alfo receive a double quantity from the fame
ground. The raifins o f the Cape are of fo good a quality, and
can be afforded at fo reafonable a rate, that, in all probability,
they will hereafter form an article of confiderable export, Almonds
are alfo plentiful, large, and good.
The
The whole valley is convertible into excellent arable land;
yet very little com is cultivated except for home confumption.
The trad: of country that ftretches along the feet o f the great
chain of mountains from the Paarl to Falfe Bay, including the
two Drakenfteens, Franfche Hoek, the Drofdy of Stellenbofch,
and Hottentots Holland, is chiefly employed in raifing wine
and fruits for the Cape-market. The quantity of the former
amounts annually to about 6000 leaguers;
Hitherto there have been few fpeculators among the Dutch
planters : the fpirit o f improvement and experiment never entered
into their minds; and it may be a matter of doubt, had
not the French Proteftants, who fought an afylum here from
the religious perfeeutions of their once bigoted countrymen,
introduced and cultivated the vine, whether at this time the
whole colony would have produced a fingle leaguer of wine.
The fugar-cane grows with health and vigor in feveral parts of
the colony; yet none o f the planters have yet procured a
pound of fugar. On aiking a farmer, who complained that
the canes had overrun his garden, why he did not turn them
to fome account, he replied with that nonchalance which characterizes
the nation, that it ferved to amufe the women and
children ; but that he ihould not be the firft to try it, as long
as he could buy that article in the Gape for fix fchillings, or
three Engliih ihillings, a pound.
Among the thick fhrubbery that covers the uncultivated parts
o f the valley, is an abundance o f game, particularly of the Cape
partridges, which, fearlefs o f man, run about nearly as tame as
K 2 poultry