Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
During the sail from Brazil to the Cape of Good Hope nothing occurred
deserving special mention. On the 7th March the _Uranie_ anchored in
Table Bay. After a quarantine of three days, the travellers obtained
permission to land, and were received with a hearty welcome by Governor
Somerset. As soon as a place suitable for their reception had been
found, the scientific instruments were brought on shore, and the usual
experiments were made with the pendulum, and the variations of the
magnetic needle observed.
MM. Quoy and Gaimard, the naturalists, in company with several officers
of the staff, made scientific excursions to Table Mountain and to the
famous vineyards of Constantia. M. Gaimard observes, "The vines that we
rode amongst are in the midst of alleys of oak and of pine; and the
vine-stems, planted at the distance of four feet from one another, are
not supported by props. Every year the vines are pruned, and the earth
about them, which is of a sandy nature, is turned up. We noticed here
and there plenty of peaches, apricots, apples, pears, citrons, as well
as small plots cultivated as kitchen-gardens. On our return, M. Colyn
insisted on our tasting the several sorts of wine which he
produces,--Constantia properly so-called, both red and white, Pontac,
Pierre, and Frontignac. The wine produced in other localities, which is
called _Cape wine par excellence_, is manufactured from a muscatel
grape of a dark straw colour, which seemed to me in flavour preferable
to the grape of Provence. We have just said that there are two sorts of
Constantia, the red and the white; they are both produced from muscatel
grapes of different colours. People at the Cape generally prefer
Frontignac to all the other wines produced from the vintages of
Constantia."
Exactly a month after quitting the southern extremity of Africa, the
_Uranie_ cast anchor off Port Louis in the Isle of France, which, since
the Treaties of 1815, has been in the hands of the English. The
necessity for careening the ship, that it might be thoroughly examined,
and the copper sheathing repaired, led to a much longer stay in this
port than Freycinet had calculated upon; but our travellers found no
cause to regret the delay, for the society of Port Louis fully
sustained its old reputation for generous hospitality. The time passed
quickly in excursions, receptions, dinners, balls, horse-races, and all
sorts of festivities. It was, therefore, not without some regret that
the French guests bade adieu to a place where they had been received
with so much kindness both by their old compatriots and by those who
had so lately been their bitter enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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