North Cape

“ A few extend their journey to the North Cape, and, once a year, on an average, perhaps, some one is adventurous enough to strike across Lapland to Torneå. The steamers, nevertheless, pass the North Cape, and during the summer make weekly trips to the Varanger Fjord, the extreme eastern limit of the Norwegian territory. We were divided in opinion whether to devote our week of sunshine to the North Cape, or to make the entire trip and see something of the northern coast of Europe, but finally decided that the latter, on the whole, as being unfamiliar ground, would be most interesting. ”

“ The North Cape, which is finally reached, is an island projecting itself far into the Polar Sea, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. The highest point which has ever been reached by the daring Arctic explorer, is 83° 24 ́ north latitude; this cape is in latitude 71° 10 ́ north. The island is named Mageröe, which signifies a barren place, and it is certainly well named, for a wilder, bleaker, or more desolate spot cannot be found on the face of the earth. Only a few hares, ermine, and sea-birds manage to subsist upon its sterile soil. ”

“ East Cape, Bering Straits, practically "the end of the end of the world," is about the last place where you would expect to find a white man, especially in springtime, which, in this far North, answers to the depth of winter in England. When we arrived there, East Cape had been cut off by ice from the world ever since the previous summer, which rendered the presence of "Billy," as the natives called him, the more remarkable. ”

“ A floating tower of Babel this steamer "Capella" with about fifty or sixty tourists belonging to all nationalities of Europe! The American tourists of course predominated in number as they do everywhere, but there were English and Germans and French and Swiss and Norwegians and Swedes and Dutch and Hungarians, all bound for the North Cape to see the midnight sun! The presence of three tourists from far off India in these northern seas struck many on board. ”

“ At this time the North Cape bore East 3/4 North and was just open of a point that lies 3 Leagues West by South from it, being now well assured that it is the Northermost Extremity of this Country and is the East point of a Peninsula which Stretches out North-West and North-West by North 17 or 18 Leagues, and as I have before observed is for the most part low and narrow except its Extremity where the land is Tollerable high and Extends 4 or 5 Leagues every way. Cape Maria Van Diemen is the West point of the Peninsula and lies in the Latitude of 34 degrees 30 minutes South ”

“ Now it defies Cape tradition by facing north instead of south, but as the family room is now exposed to the sun, and the refreshing southwest breezes of summer, the break with tradition seems practical. It is easy to trace the structural changes that have taken place within the house to satisfy the taste of succeeding generations. ”

“ Cape Town, the capital of the Cape Province, South Africa, in 33° 56′ S., 18° 28′ E. It is at the north-west extremity of the Cape Peninsula on the south shore of Table Bay, is 6181 m. by sea from London and 957 by rail south-west of Johannesburg. Few cities are more magnificently situated. Behind the bay the massive wall of Table Mountain, 2 m. in length, rises to a height of over 3500 ft., while on the east and west projecting mountains enclose the plain in which the city lies. The mountain to the east, 3300 ft. ”

“ North-west Cape was visible at noon, bearing east three-quarters north, distant twenty-five miles; our latitude being 22 degrees south; and longitude 113 degrees 18 minutes east. The Cape appears to have an elevation of 500 or 600 feet, and to be of a sandstone formation; the soil back of the hills appearing good, and clothed at this period of the year with an abundance of grass, wattles of large growth and flooded-gum trees growing on the slopes; the character of some of the lower hills and valleys is that of a mineral district. ”

“ While the development of the north occupied much of his attention, no colonial premier did so much to raise and broaden Cape politics. He carried through important reforms, notably in local education and in native policy, and went far to unite to their own consciousness the interests of British and Dutch in South Africa. The formidable Dutch political organisation, the Afrikander Bond, which sought openly the dominance of the Dutch in Cape politics and furtively the establishment of a Dutch republic, with the Transvaal as basis, was coaxed into his service. ”

“ Cape Colony.—Bounded by the Orange River and Orange Colony on the north, by Natal on the north-east; and by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on the west, south, and south-east. Area about 277,150 miles. Population in 1896 (exclusive of Pondoland and British Bechuanaland) about 1,822,000—one-fifth of whom are whites. The climate is highly esteemed and is said by some to have upon the constitution the effect of champagne. ”

“ Inland the Cape is bounded E. and N.E. by Natal, Basutoland, Orange Free State and the Transvaal; N. by the Bechuanaland Protectorate and N.W. by Great Namaqualand (German S.W. Africa) . From N.W. to S.E. the colony has a breadth of 800 m., from S.W. to N.E. 750 m. Its area is 276,995 sq. m.—more than five times the size of England. Walfish Bay (q.v.) on the west coast north of the Orange river is a detached part of Cape Colony. ”

“ The point of the main which forms the side of the channel through which we passed, opposite to the island, is the northern promontory of the country, and I called it York Cape. Its longitude is 218° 24' W., the latitude of the north point is 10° 37', and of the east point 10° 42' S. The land over the east point, and to the southward of it, is rather low, and as far as the eye can reach, very flat, and of a barren appearance. To the southward of the Cape the shore forms a large open bay, which I called Newcastle Bay, and in which are some small low islands and shoals ”

“ The coast beyond it must take a very westerly direction; for we could see no land to the northward of it, though the horizon was there pretty clear. Being desirous of seeing more of the coast to the westward, we tacked again at two o'clock in the afternoon, thinking we could weather Cape North. But finding we could not, the wind freshening, a thick fog coming on, with much snow, and being fearful of the ice coming down upon us, I gave up the design I had formed of plying to the westward, and stood off shore again. ”

“ Once back “home” in my gully I had to make immediate plans for a trip to Cape Town, not only to arrange for further development north, but to make preparations for working in German territory if needs be, which I believed could be managed better through the German Consulate-General in [Page 317] Cape Town than by a personal application in Windhuk.
AN INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY BEACON BETWEEN GERMAN (LATE) SOUTH-WEST AFRICA TERRITORY AND BRITISH (GORDONIA) . ”

“ There are some fine pieces of wood and water scenery along the south coast of Cape Colony, and one of singular charm in the adjoining colony of Natal, where the suburbs of Durban, the principal port, though they lack the grandeur which its craggy [Pg 52] heights give to the neighbourhood of Cape Town have, with a warmer climate, a richer and more tropically luxuriant vegetation. In the great range of mountains which runs some seventeen hundred miles from Cape Town almost to the banks of the Zambesi, the scenery becomes striking in three districts only. ”

“ I have seen the kingdoms of the world, and am satisfied—a wondrous state of mind and body! I have sat on a ledge of crassula-covered rock and looked down upon Cape Town—Lion's Head far below us, the green slopes scarred by innumerable red roads, the bay clear and calm beneath us, and a gentle south-east breeze with the coolness of water behind us. ”

“ The contrast is great between the Cape flats as a dreary waste of drifting sand and a succession of little farms with comfortable houses and hard roads, with screens of trees and green fields and gardens, with even a railway to convey produce to market as is seen to-day, and it depicts what can be effected in South Africa by the industry and; patience of such men and women as these immigrants. ”

“ A homogeneous Dutch community grew up in this remote region—for the Cape was, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of the least-explored and most out-of-the-way parts of the earth—which knew no literature but the Bible, which preserved the manners and traditions of the seventeenth century, and which from its frequent disputes with the Dutch East India Company's tyrannical government imbibed a rooted aversion to all laws and restraints. ”

“ Cape Colony and Natal, the two British colonies on the coast, are the direct opposites of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in physical and climatic conditions. The colonies are comfortably settled, the soil is marvellously productive, negro labour is cheap, and everything combines to form the foundation for a great nation.
Cape Town, the city where every one is continually awaiting the arrival of the next mail steamer from England, and the capital of Cape Colony, is a modern city of fifty thousand inhabitants, mostly English. ”

“ All the persons of consequence in these places know one another and follow one another's doings. All mix frequently, because the Cape Town people are apt to be called by business to the inland cities, and the residents of the inland cities come to Cape Town for sea air in the summer, or to embark thence for Europe. ”

“ Admiral Rio d’Infanté landed there in 1498, and fixing upon the mouth of a river for the site of a settlement, recommended his countrymen to establish a colony there; his advice was, however, not followed, and other Portuguese navigators failed in some [5] slight attempts which they made to colonize this interesting part of Africa.
The Cape forms one of the great landmarks of the globe, separating the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean, and dividing the voyage to Hindoostan into two nearly equal portions ”

“ But the Dutch in South Africa and the French in Canada resembled each other in this, that they were and remained very few in number, planted in an unlimited area, and that men lived in either case under a rigid system. The restrictive rule of the Netherlands East India Company in South Africa led to trekking, to wandering in the wilderness, and the difficulties of communication increased the wandering tendency, because the wanderers, who wished no longer to be controlled by the government at Cape Town, could not easily be followed up. ”

“ The English element, which, with the stereotyped customs of its life and its equitable laws, possesses, wherever it obtains a footing, so powerful an influence, has almost entirely superseded the Dutch, which continues to exist only in the lonely farmhouses far in the interior. There is scarcely anything remaining to indicate that Cape Town was founded by the Dutch ”

“ This I have witnessed in South Africa to a most wonderful and pleasing extent, how from one solitary member of a family who has gone abroad to the Cape there has been diffused, from his success, through his whole family connection, improved well-being, new hopes, higher aspirations, and the whole family has risen, not merely in what may be named comfort, but even in habit and character as well. ”

“ Everywhere green foliage and abundant vegetation, which, combined with the setting of the bluest sky that can be imagined, make the drives round Cape Town some of the most beautiful in the world. At Newlands, the Governor's summer residence, a pretty but unpretentious abode, Sir Hercules and Lady Robinson then dispensed generous hospitality, only regretting their house was too small to accommodate visitors, besides their married daughters. ”

“ The Dutch, French, and English were now living on very friendly terms with each other. The Cape colony, with its clean, well-laid-out English capital, its Table Mountain and Table Cloth, its vineyards, its industrious and sturdy Boers, its Hottentot slaves, and its warlike Kaffirs, is too well-known to require a description. I did a good deal of trading—a matter of private interest to Garrard, Janrin and Company, so I will not speak of it. The ship was put to rights, we enjoyed ourselves very much on shore, and were once more at sea. ”

“ The heaths and other flowers and shrubs that grow profusely over the wide top, which is not flat, as he who looks at it from the sea fancies, but cut up by glens, with here and there lake reservoirs in the hollows, are very lovely, and give a novel and peculiar charm to this ascent. [42] Nor is the excursion to Cape Point, the real Cape of Storms of Bartholomew Diaz, and the Cape of Good Hope of Vasco da Gama, less beautiful. An hour in the railway brings one to Simon's Bay, the station of the British naval squadron, a small but fairly well sheltered inlet under high hills. ”

“ As a centre of colonisation and of higher culture, the EurojHan colony of the Cape, with its natural dependencies of ^'atal and the Dutch republics, already exercises an independent influence, apart altogether from the support it derives from its relations with the metropolis. The Cape is the natural centre for the organisation and equipment of expeditions for the exploration of the whole of South Africa. The capital, almost as much as Europe itself, has given the first impulse to the scientitic labours and industrial development of the surrounding regions ”