The colonists, especially the agricultural part of them, complain bitterly of hasty legislation in depriving them of slave labor. They had offered to submit to a gradual manumission, so that by degrees they might be able to supply the place of the negro operatives, but the English government would set them free at once, and the result has been injurious to the freedman and ruinous to the farmer. Was told that land could be purchased about Constantia at the low rate of _one shilling the acre_, altogether owing to the inability to procure labor to cultivate it; and to bring about this state of things here and elsewhere, some £20,060,000 was expended!
Returning from Constantia, our spanking team of four well proportioned iron grays, attracted considerable attention. It ought to have, for the expense of its hire was two pounds ten shillings. Stopped at the "Crown Inn," upon the road, for refreshments, and on handing a ragged little urchin a shilling for his voluntary service of standing at the door of our barouche, on starting off were saluted by a hiss for our generosity. A greater _douceur_ was expected from the drivers of such a magnificent turnout.
The road, a greater part of it, was a turnpike, very even and smooth; paid toll, one shilling. Drove through an avenue of large oak trees, their topmost branches meeting overhead, to the extent of one fourth of a mile, forming a fine shade in summer. The seasons, of which there are but two, winter and summer, are reversed in Southern Africa; July being a cool month, and Christmas coming in _midsummer_ at the Cape.
Returned to dinner at the hotel at seven o'clock, and ate some splendid Cape mutton. The caudal arrangements of the sheep at the Cape bear a great similarity to those at Shanghae.
After supper set out for a walk, in which were disappointed by a shower. It rains only in the winter season here, but heavy dews in the summer make up this deficiency of nature's nourishment, and the colony is carpeted with herbage of the most delicious fragrance, so that the paths of the colonists may then be said to be strewn with flowers.
The winters at the Cape are extremely mild; no snow falls there; and if at night ice is formed, it does not long withstand the rays of the sun. The season corresponds in its general features with our autumn. In the interior the winters are said to be more severe, and streams are sometimes frozen over.