The imperfeCt and partial accounts that have been given of
the Cape may, in fome meafure, explain the jarring and con-
tradidlory opinions that have been held with regard to its importance,
as connedted with our Indian trade and fettlements,
and as a territorial acquifition. This remarkable promontory,
the doubling of which formed a new air a in the annals of navigation,
and on that account alone ought to be well known,
has been varioufly reprefented.- Whilft fome have held it out
as aterreftrial paradife, where nature fpontaneoufly yielded all
that was neeeffary, not only for the fupply of the ordinary
wants and conveniences, but alfo of the luxuries and fuperflui-
ties of life; others have defcribed it as a barren peninfular
promontory, conneded by a fandy ifthmus to a ftill more barren
continent.
Inthisinftance, as in moil cafes, we may, perhaps, difcover
the truth to lie in the middle. It offers nothing very peculiar,
either in the produdive quality of the foil, or m its ffenhty.
Where there is moifture the warmth of the climate promotes
vegetation, without the preparation of an artificial foil-by . the
aid of eompofts or manures; hence, one crop of grain in the
year may be procured from the ihalloweft foil and even in
Iheer fand. B u t , unfortunately for the country, in the hotteft
months of the year, from the beginning of December to the
end of March, and fometimes to the middle of April, there
fcarcely falls ’ a fingle ihower of rain. In thefe months, the
verdure totally difappears; and the whole furface of the country
prefents to the eye either large trads of white fand dotted with
flirivelled heaths and other fhrubs, ftruggling as it were, to
, maintain
maintain the living principle, or regions covered with that
brown fickly hue in which an angry poet, with more wit than
juftice, has dreffed the furface of that part of our ifland to the
northward of the Tweed :
'< Far as the eye could reach no tree was feen,
«‘ Earth clad in ruffet, {corn’d the lively green.”
To perfons arriving from a long fea voyage, and immediately
meeting with moil of the European, and fome of the tropical,
fruits, the Gape muft, no doubt, appear a moil delightful fpot; and
filch perfons, making afliort flay, and loaded with refreihments
for the fucceeding. part of their voyage, are apt to extol and to
exaggerate the pleafantnefs and the value of the country. Bo-
tanifts, alfo, and florifts, are fo taken up with the beauty, and
vail variety, of flowering ilirubs and bulbous rooted plants,
that they are apt to overlook the fandy furface out of which
they grow, entirely bare of any. kind of grafs, and deftitute of
that- verdant turf which is fo| diftinguiihing a feature of our
happy ifland. Beautiful as the heaths of the Cape moil un-
queftionftbly are, ye| thofe who have been accuftomed to look
at them nurtured in the green-houfes of England, where all or
moil of the numerous fpecies, and variety of the fpecies, are
collected into one groupe, and arranged fo as to convey the
moil ftriking effeCt, would be greatly difappointed if they ex-
peCted to meet with .them, in the. fame Jla.te .9f perfection, in
their nativeToil. They would here behold whole trails of
country covered, in the fame planner as our heath lands, with
one or two fpecies, ihattered and jagged by the force of the
e 2 winds,