Caledon,Feb.22d.
Yesterday Captain D-gave me a very nice caross of blessbok skins,which he got from some travelling trader.The excellence of the Caffre skin-dressing and sewing is,I fancy,unequalled;the bok-skins are as soft as a kid glove,and have no smell at all.
In the afternoon the young doctor drove me,in his little gig-cart and pair (the lightest and swiftest of conveyances),to see a wine-farm.The people were not at work,but we saw the tubs and vats,and drank 'most'.The grapes are simply trodden by a Hottentot,in a tub with a sort of strainer at the bottom,and then thrown -skins,stalks,and all -into vats,where the juice ferments for twice twenty-four hours;after which it is run into casks,which are left with the bung out for eight days;then the wine is drawn off into another cask,a little sulphur and brandy are added to it,and it is bunged down.Nothing can be conceived so barbarous.Ihave promised Mr.M-to procure and send him an exact account of the process in Spain.It might be a real service to a most worthy and amiable man.Dr.M-also would be glad of a copy.They literally know nothing about wine-making here,and with such matchless grapes I am sure it ought to be good.Altogether,'der alte Schlendrian'prevails at the Cape to an incredible degree.
If two 'Heeren M-'call on you,please be civil to them.I don't know them personally,but their brother is the doctor here,and the most good-natured young fellow I ever saw.If I were returning by Somerset instead of Worcester,I might put up at their parents'
house and be sure of a welcome;and I can tell you civility to strangers is by no means of course here.I don't wonder at it;for the old Dutch families ARE GENTLEFOLKS of the good dull old school,and the English colonists can scarcely suit them.In the few instances in which I have succeeded in THAWING a Dutchman,I have found him wonderfully good-natured;and the different manner in which I was greeted when in company with the young doctor showed the feeling at once.The dirt of a Dutch house is not to be conceived.I have had sights in bedrooms in very respectable houses which I dare not describe.The coloured people are just as clean.The young doctor (who is much Anglicised)tells me that,in illness,he has to break the windows in the farmhouses -they are built not to open!The boers are below the English in manners and intelligence,and hate them for their 'go-ahead'ways,though THEYseem slow enough to me.As to drink,I fancy it is six of one and half a dozen of the other;but the English are more given to eternal drams,and the Dutch to solemn drinking bouts.I can't understand either,in this climate,which is so stimulating,that Imore often drink ginger-beer or water than wine -a bottle of sherry lasted me a fortnight,though I was ordered to drink it;somehow,I had no mind to it.
27th.-The cart could not be got till the day before yesterday,and yesterday Mrs.D-arrived in it with two new Irish maids;it saved her 3L.,and I must have paid equally.The horses were very tired,having been hard at work carrying Malays all the week to Constantia and back,on a pilgrimage to the tomb of a Mussulman saint;so to-day they rest,and to-morrow I go to Villiersdorp.
Choslullah has been appointed driver of a post-cart;he tried hard to be allowed to pay a REMPLACANT,and to fetch 'his missis',but was refused leave;and so a smaller and blacker Malay has come,whom Choslullah threatened to curse heavily if he failed to take great care of 'my missis'and be a 'good boy'.Ramadan begins on Sunday,and my poor driver can't even prepare for it by a good feast,as no fowls are to be had here just now,and he can't eat profanely-killed meat.Some pious Christian has tried to burn a Mussulman martyr's tomb at Eerste River,and there were fears the Malays might indulge in a little revenge;but they keep quiet.Iam to go with my driver to eat some of the feast (of Bairam,is it not?)at his priest's when Ramadan ends,if I am in Capetown,and also am asked to a wedding at a relation of Choslullah's.It was quite a pleasure to hear the kindly Mussulman talk,after these silent Hottentots.The Malays have such agreeable manners;so civil,without the least cringing or Indian obsequiousness.I dare say they can be very 'insolent'on provocation;but I have always found among them manners like old-fashioned French ones,but quieter;and they have an affectionate way of saying 'MY missis'
when they know one,which is very nice to hear.It is getting quite chilly here already;COLD night and morning;and I shall be glad to descend off this plateau into the warmer regions of Worcester,&c.I have just bought EIGHT splendid ostrich feathers for 1L.of my old Togthandler friend.In England they would cost from eighteen to twenty-five shillings each.I have got a reebok and a klipspringer skin for you;the latter makes a saddle-cloth which defies sore backs;they were given me by Klein and a farmer at Palmiet River.The flesh was poor stuff,white and papery.The Hottentots can't 'bray'the skins as the Caffres do;and the woman who did mine asked me for a trifle beforehand,and got so drunk that she let them dry halfway in the process,consequently they don't look so well.
Worcester,Sunday,March 2d.
Oh,such a journey!Such country!Pearly mountains and deep blue sky,and an impassable pass to walk down,and baboons,and secretary birds,and tortoises!I couldn't sleep for it all last night,tired as I was with the unutterably bad road,or track rather.
Well,we left Caledon on Friday,at ten o'clock,and though the weather had been cold and unpleasant for two days,I had a lovely morning,and away we went to Villiersdorp (pronounced Filjeesdorp).
It is quite a tiny village,in a sort of Rasselas-looking valley.
