On my return to Port Elizabeth, I spent another day or two there, and
left on the evening of Monday, the 26th of August, by railway for Cape
Town. This long journey of between eight hundred and nine hundred miles
occupies nearly two days and two nights. It was the last I took in South
Africa. The country, generally speaking, is very much of the same kind
as that northward, over the Karoo, and in the southern part of the
Transvaal. High land,--in the neighbourhood of Nieupoort 5,050 feet
above the sea level,--flat, bare, and treeless. It is certainly a very
desolate-looking country to travel over in winter. Nearing Cape Town,
however, I ought not to omit to mention the Hex River Pass. The scenery
here is certainly very grand, and is some of the best of its kind I have
seen in South Africa. The railway, which winds through it by a
succession of zigzags from a great height, is another of the many
triumphs of engineering skill which are to be found in all parts of the
world. The fine views of the Pass, when I traversed it, were heightened
by the tops of the mountains being tinged with a wreath of snow. From
Hex River the route to Cape Town lay through a rich and fertile valley,
conveying ample proofs of the agricultural value and resources of this
part of the Cape Colony. I arrived at Cape Town in the afternoon of the
following Wednesday. Here I spent another pleasant week, seeing various
friends.
[Illustration: HEX RIVER PASS.]
One of the last duties which devolved upon me before leaving South
Africa--at the urgent invitation of some of my friends--was to deliver
an address at Cape Town on Imperial Federation. This I did at the hall
of the Young Men's Christian Society, to a large and attentive
audience.[C]
On the 4th of September I left Cape Town in the s.s. _Athenian_; and,
after a pleasant and rapid voyage of eighteen days, touching only at
Madeira on the way, I landed safely at Southampton on Sunday the 22nd.
I have now given an account of the prominent features of my tour, during
which, in the course of five months, I travelled about twelve thousand
miles by sea, and four thousand by land.
I proceed to touch as briefly as I can, on a few of the public
questions, and other matters of interest which have arrested my
attention while I was in South Africa.
[Footnote C: See Appendix.]
[Illustration: Decorative]