the two leaders, with which he guides them. The arrangement of the team
for an excursion of greater length is somewhat different, as then horsemen
accompany it. The wagon, however, is the same. The ox of the Cape is a
serviceable animal, which has a good deal of the general aspect of the buffalo,
with long horns, a compact body and tapering rump.
The Commodore, accompanied by some of his officers, took occasion to
visit one of the celebrated vineyards of Oonstantia, having provided
with a barouche drawn by four beautiful stallions, driven four-in-hand by a
negro boy, who evinced much skill in handling the reins. The drive was
through a picturesque country, with pretty villas scattered about, and
approached by beautiful avenues formed of the oak and the fir, which trees
are raised from the seed, and generally cultivated in the colony, not only
for ornamental purposes, but for fuel. Substantial hedges were also
observed, formed of the young oak, of only three years’ growth from the
acorn. The vineyard visited was of limited extent, and the culture of a
character that somewhat disappointed the expectations of the visitors.
The proprietor accounted for the inferior condition of his Vineyard on
the score of being unable to provide himself with the necessary supply of
laborers, and remarked that he should be obliged to abandon the cultivation
of the grape altogether had he not supplied himself with an American cultivator,
which he had recently imported from the United States, and which
simple plough, as he stated, drawn by a single horse, actually accomplished
the labor of fifty men, according to the usual mode of working and cultivating
the vine with a hoe. The grape is cultivated at Oonstantia, as in
Sicily, by trimming the vine close to the ground, and not permitting it to
grow higher than a gooseberry bush. The richness of the wine is dependent
upon the condition of the grape when it goes to the press. Although the
grape begins to ripen in the early part of February, it is not gathered until
the middle of March, when the fruit has assumed almost the appearance of
the dried raisin, in which condition it is pressed. The prices of these Con-
stantia wines vary from two to six dollars a gallon, according to their
quality.
The census of 1848 gives 200,546 as the population of Cape Colony.
Of these 76,827 whites, and 101,176 colored inhabitants, make up the
whole number of inhabitants of the various parts of the colony, with the
exception of Cape Town, which contains a population of 22,543. There
are but few of the aboriginal Hottentots of pure race to be found, as their
blood has been intermingled with that of the Dutch, the Negro, or the
Malay. The first European, discoverer of the southern promontory of
Africa found it tolerably well peopled, and the natives, in some respects, in
better condition than many of the more northern tribes. They were in possession
of herds of cattle and sheep, and led a pastoral life. They were a
comparatively happy people, divided into tribes under a patriarchal gov
TRAVELLERS IN SOUTH A F R IC A .