The Cape sheep is distinguished by its hairy fleece and the enormous accumulation of fat in the tail-sometimes amounting to twenty pounds weight. This kind of sheep, however, is now in progress of supersession by the saxo-merino breed, and a trade in wool has thus been commenced which promises to be of great importance to the colony. In 1824 the number of sheep of all kinds at the Cape was one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand three hundred and two; and in 1841 the returns were three million eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and seventy. Up to 1834 the exports of wool were under a hundred thousand pounds: at present they are a million and a half or about one-eighth part of the exports of the Australian colonies. In consequence of the rapid increase of colonial wool, the supplies Great Britain was in the habit of receiving from Germany (in 1836 amounting to nearly thirty-two million pounds!) have now greatly fallen off, and eventually the trade will perhaps be extinguished altogether. In order to show the vast industrial field there is before our Australian and Cape settlers and our Indian farmers, we may add on this subject that, independently of the fleeces of thirty-two million sheep of her own, Great Britain imports from fifty to sixty million pounds of wool per annum. The trade, notwithstanding, may still be said to be in its infancy, as it has gradually increased to that amount from nine hundred thousand pounds imported in the year 1800.

Goats are likewise a considerable stock at the Cape; and horses of a mixed breed are rising in numbers and value. These animals, it is said, are capable of bearing so much fatigue that a journey of one hundred and twenty miles on two successive days is a common occurrence. There are likewise swine, poultry of all kinds, and bees

on every farm. Besides wool, hides, and horns, the other principal exports are goat and sheep skins, salted beef, pork, and fish, aloes, ivory, tallow, flour, whale oil, whale bone, and wine.

The capital embarked in wine cultivation was said in 1843 to be nearly two millions sterling; and the quantity exported to England averages from five to six hundred thousand gallons. The liqueur wine, Constantia, is well known, or rather well talked about, for it is too scarce and too dear to be within the reach of more than a few; but, with this exception, the wines of the Cape, pronounced execrable by the first English conquerors, retain their character to the present day. It should not be said that they are entirely unimproved, for they have lost in some measure their peculiar earthy taste; but still they are so inferior to the wines of Europe that they are never seen upon the table -under their own name. It is curious that no one asks in parliament what becomes of the half million gallons which are imported, since there is not an individual of that august body who ever saw a bottle of " Cape Madeira" in his life! The fact is, the British Government could not conceive why we should not have as good wine from Southern Africa as from continental Europe, since it is well known that the grapes of the former country are among the finest in the world; and in order to encourage the colonists to turn their attention to the article, they gave them a discriminative duty of about fifty per cent. in their favour. The consequence is, that the same quality of wine continues to be made at the Cape, and imported into England; where, as nobody will drink it pure, the dealers are compelled to mix it with other wines, and sell it at twice its value. The difference of duty is thus taken out of the pockets of the people in another shape, and government pays it over again in the loss sustained by the

revenue.

The trade with the Kafirs commenced in 1822, and in two years ivory and hides were received by the colonists, to the amount of nearly 30,000l. in exchange for beads, buttons, and brass wire. Commerce, however, had its usual effect; and having tasted of the fruit of knowledge, the eyes of the African barbarians were opened, and they saw that they wanted duffels, blankets, iron-pots, and other manufactures. The mother country, therefore, came to participate in the advantages of the trade, which, at the time of the outbreak in 1834, amounted to 40,000l. per annum in imports alone, for the value sent into Kafir land had not been ascertained. This traffic, of course, disappeared during the war and for some time after, but is now gradually recovering, and is at present estimated at about half the above amount. But the war was not without its advantages even so far as industry was concerned, for it released from Kafir slavery, and threw upon the British frontier, a people called Fingos, who supplied the most important desideratum of the colonists-labour. The Fingos numbered altogether about 10,000 souls, and proved to be a quiet, temperate, provident, and industrious race. Some of the tribes dispersed by the Zoolahs have likewise been found useful as herdsmen; and the phrensied tumults among the northern nations are perpetually driving refugees across the Gariep to take service with the colonists.

It is curious that Barrow, who wrote in 1798, is still the great authority as to the productive capabilities of the country. The tea plant thrives as well as in China; successful experiments have been tried with coffee; sugar, he tells us, would likewise succeed; and Percival (1804) mentions that the cane grows spontaneously in many parts of the colony. The soil is exactly suited to the mulberry; and "remembering wool, let it not be thought a rash expectation that Cape silk

will yet vie with China, India, Modena, or Valencia, or Brussa." Besides the common silkworm, Barrow mentions, likewise, a large moth nearly as large as the atlas, resembling the Indian insect which spins the strong silk known by the name of tussack. Cotton, indigo, tobacco, all have been tried, and tried successfully; but we need hardly add to this enumeration that experiments on a small scale, however fortunate, give no pledge as to the adaptation of the article for the purposes of the merchant.

There is at the Cape, as in all the other colonies, a great outcry for Labour; but government perhaps acts wisely in yielding nothing to enthusiasm. The experiment tried on so liberal a scale in 1820 proves that the progress of this settlement will not be brilliant, but that, if moderately slow, it will be sure. One of the most distinguished of the emigrants, both for talent and virtue, was the late Thomas Pringle,-a name which the author of these pages cannot recall without feelings of admiration and regret,-and his Narrative, to which the beautiful truthfulness of the man gives a Crusoe-like interest, traces the destiny of the colony in that of the small family band of which he was the leader. "Without having any pretensions to wealth," he concludes, “and with very little money among them, the Glen Lynden settlers (with some exceptions) may be said to be in a thriving, and, on the whole, in a very enviable condition. They are no longer molested by either predatory Bushmen or Kafirs; they have abundance of all that life requires for competence and for comfort; and they have few causes for anxiety about the future. Some of them who have now acquired considerable flocks of merino sheep have even a fair prospect of attaining to moderate wealth."

CHAPTER III.

ISLANDS OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN-RETROSPECT AND CONCLUSION.

IN 1502, nineteen years after Diaz doubled the Cape of Storms, another Portuguese navigator when returning from India, discovered a small barren rock in the South Atlantic Ocean, twelve hundred miles from the African shore, and bestowed upon it the name of the divinity to whom the day belonged, Saint Helena. The coast was rugged and bare, rising in almost perpendicular precipices; though at a distance some central eminences appeared to be covered with vegetation, while the peepul tree of Bengal grew everywhere in the glens and interstices, and mantled the cliffs with its perennial verdure. The shores were alive with turtles, seals, and sea-lions; and myriads of wild fowl hovered screaming around the rocks.

In 1513 a vessel was passing this uninviting rock, having on board a Portuguese nobleman who had been mutilated for his crimes, and sent away ignominiously from India, by the great Albuquerque. The prisoner, dreading the idea of returning to his country under such