Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Description and travel
We got to Caledon at eleven, and drove to the place the Doctor
recommended—formerly a country house of the Dutch Governor. It is in a
lovely spot; but do you remember the Schloss in Immermann’s Neuer
Münchausen? Well, it is that. A ruin;—windows half broken and boarded
up, the handsome steps in front fallen in, and all _en suite_. The rooms
I saw were large and airy; but mud floors, white-washed walls, one chair,
one stump bedstead, and _præterea nihil_. It has a sort of wild,
romantic look; I hear, too, it is wonderfully healthy, and not so bad as
it looks. The long corridor is like the entrance to a great stable, or
some such thing; earth floors and open to all winds. But you can’t
imagine it, however I may describe; it is so huge and strange, and
ruinous. Finding that the mistress of the house was ill, and nothing
ready for our reception, I drove on to the inn. Rain, like a Scotch
mist, came on just as we arrived, and it is damp and chilly, to the
delight of all the dwellers in the land, who love bad weather. It makes
me cough a little more; but they say it is quite unheard of, and can’t
last. Altogether, I suppose this summer here is as that of ’60 was in
England.
I forgot, in describing my journey, the regal-looking Caffre housemaid at
Eerste River. ‘Such a dear, good creature,’ the landlady said; and, oh,
such a ‘noble savage’!—with a cotton handkerchief folded tight like a
cravat and tied round her head with a bow behind, and the short curly
wool sticking up in the middle;—it looked like a royal diadem on her
solemn brow; she stepped like Juno, with a huge tub full to the brim, and
holding several pailfuls, on her head, and a pailful in each hand,
bringing water for the stables from the river, across a large field.
There is nothing like a Caffre for power and grace; and the face, though
very African, has a sort of grandeur which makes it utterly unlike that
of the negro. That woman’s bust and waist were beauty itself. The
Caffres are also very clean and very clever as servants, I hear, learning
cookery, &c., in a wonderfully short time. When they have saved money
enough to buy cattle in Kaffraria, off they go, cast aside civilization
and clothes, and enjoy life in naked luxury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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