Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South AfricaDrayson, Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks)
History
Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa
Drayson, Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks)
Hunting -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
We entered Table Bay in the night, just in time to escape a strong
south-easter that sprung up at daybreak, enveloped the Table Mountain
with its dense white cloth of clouds, and sent volumes of dust from the
flats pouring into the town, to the blinding of every unfortunate
out-of-door individual. On disembarking in any foreign land, one is
naturally amused with the curious costumes of the people; and when the
country happens to be that of a coloured race, this peculiarity is still
more striking. The people here were of every colour and denomination,--
English, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinamen, Malays, Negroes, Kaffirs,
Hottentots, Fingoes, and Mohammedans, white and black, red and yellow,
with every intermediate shade.
The head-dresses showed in the greatest variety. Some heads had nothing
on them, not even hair; others had a small rag. Hottentot and Malay
women's heads were extensively got up with red and blue handkerchiefs;
some wore English straw hats or coverings shaped like rotundas; others
had plumes of ostrich-feathers, wide-awakes, etc. Most of the women and
boys danced round us when we first landed, and I felt like Sindbad the
sailor being welcomed by the beasts on the magician's island.
I rather liked Cape Town; there was a good library, very fair balls,
pretty women, and a pleasant country near, well sprinkled with good
houses, the hospitality of which might well be introduced in place of
the oyster-like seclusion of many homes in England.
Three months after landing in Table Bay I again embarked for Algoa Bay,
_en route_ for the frontier. We had a pleasant calm voyage, keeping the
coast in sight during the whole passage, and putting into two or three
bays, where a delay of a few hours enabled me to haul on board a good
dish of grotesque-looking fish, and some crayfish: the latter were
excellent eating.
On the sixth day we landed at Port Elizabeth, Algoa Bay, whence I
started without delay; sand, swindling horse-dealers, naked Fingoes, and
drunken Hottentots being my principal sights at this town. I managed to
obtain a mount from a friend who had voyaged from Cape Town with me, and
thus reserved my selection of a quadruped until I arrived at Graham's
Town. We examined the surrounding country for game, but saw only a
hare, a few quail, and one buck. I was told that ostriches were within
a few miles, and that elephants had been seen near the Sundays river a
day or so past.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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