William Strapps Diary Part 2

cliffs & headlands with little bays to break the monotony of the scene. The seabirds to-day are more numerous but very few albatrosses were to be seen on a/c I suppose of their being ashore busy of their bits of nests. A few more hours & Table mountain rises before us like a marine monster in the distance (Sea Serpent if you like to call it but with rather too large a head) We sailed into table bay and cast anchor about 3 pm as at St. Vincent a little fleet of boats were soon under weigh and crowded round ^for the first place about 30 of us got into a lugger & were soon landed on our first continent (Africa) Table mountain stands grim sentinel over the town & we were filled with high aspirations to ascend it but our zeal

was cooled by every person we asked information concerning it. It is some thing like the land of ice from whence very few travellers return. If you are overtaken by a fog up the mountain (and it often is foggy) you may give yourself up for lost as there are any amount of precipices and it is a case of life & death the next step Mefs Donald Curries boat the Edinburgh Castle lay in the docks & she took our letter dated Jany 24th written before we landed at cape Town There was a very fair quantity of shipping in the bay. When we land ed at the Pier head we found a tram line (for cape Town can boast of its city Tram Car Co but having been penned up for a few days we availed ourselves of riding on

Shanks Pony After traversing the dock & warehouse parade we came to a gate guarded by police This is the entrance to the town He we found peaches Pears grapes & apples for sale Passing a Dutch church (Reformed) we walked in as the doors were wide open & seemed to invite us in All the windows were open & it was delightfully cool It was a very neat place inside nice & plain and built after the style of our English chapels and having a very good organ. A Dutch gentleman coming pointed out the way to the Botanical gardens so we directed our steps thither It was a beautiful place Nearly in the centre was a hothouse filled with plants & ferns chiefly tropical the latter caused my desire to mutiny against conscience but was forced to

put him into prison. The tropical plants & trees outside are very numerous. We strolled into the gardens plucked a few leaves & flowers specimens of which you would get in our Cape letter wandering about some time we thought it time to be retracing our steps but found we were locked in a gentle man who was walking up the path came to us & let us out at a little side gate on the way he pointed out Several of the trees amongst which were the elephants Foot which was a most comical looking tree. Tall palms towered over the smaller trees like slave drivers Several cactus plants some of which he informed us grew to a height of 40 feet in their native soil on one side of the garden stood government house & on the other the Museum,

the latter place is far the prettier being of the later build the former being of Dutch build some 200 years old we found our way to the post office but it was shut up We fell in with a young scotchman belonging to the 91st Highlanders you will remember the battle of Ginghilova with the Zulus & that this regiment took part in the fray. We went into the barracks & had a look round We saw some of the gun taken from the Zulus & sat down & listened while some of them recounted their adventures Some of the captured rifles were very good ones and they said had the Zulus fired low instead of high as they did they would have cut them up badly. They said that the poor fellows they relieved at Eekowe commanded by Colonel Pearson were like a