Africa:—"Truly," he says, "people who
brave the regions of a northern climate, who
expose their lives in dangerous proximity to
savages, who heed not agues in swamps, nor
thirst in deserts, forget there is such a place
as the Cape of Good Hope."

Although all this one-sided enthusiasm does
not prove either of the respective cases argued
by the different advocates; yet it shows in a
broad light the certain advantages of
emigration in general. To whatever quarter of
the globe the observer turns, he sees, amidst
occasional instances of disappointment and
loss, that emigration has, in general, answered
the expectations of the emigrants. But this
general success he does not attribute to the
soundness of the principle in the abstract,
but to the advantages of the particular
country in which he has witnessed the most
prosperity.

In, therefore, sifting and comparing with
other evidence the numerous papers which
we receive from, and relative to, the various
colonies, it is our aim to give such true
pictures of colonial life as enable the reader
to judge fairly of the pains, pleasures, losses
and gains of all the new homes which have
been established by and for Englishmen in
various parts of the globe.

We have been led into these remarks by a
communication now before us from the gentleman
already mentioned who has passed five
active years in the colony of the Cape of
Good Hope. His characteristic preface to
the amusing and instructive sketches of Cape
Life is as follows:—

"I cannot but think, that, in the present
rage for promoting emigration, too much
attention is paid to new and untried countries
whose resources are as yet doubtful and
undeveloped, to the detriment of the old
established colonies, whose constant cry is
for 'labour, labour, labour.' Amongst the
least popular of our old colonies is the Cape
of Good Hope. Yet I think, that most, if
not all, the objections usually raised against
it are erroneous; while many of its undoubted
advantages are overlooked. It is my desire,
if possible, to remove some of the prejudices
entertained against a land where I spent five
happy years of my life. My intention is
simply to give a few travelling sketches, and
to portray some of the characteristic features
of the country and its inhabitants."

Cape Wine enjoys a very unenviable
notoriety in England. Order a glass of sherry at
a fourth-rate tavern: taste it—it is very bad—
you turn up your nose and cry "Cape!"
Mr. Lazarus, a Hebrew dealer in wine and
money, "does a little bill" for you, and sends
you home as part payment a few dozen of
"excellent Madeira." Are you rash enough
to taste it? If so, as soon as you have
recovered from the sputtering caused by its
fearful acidity, you mutter a phrase never
mentioned to ears polite, and say again—
"Cape!" In fact, whenever you drink any
vile compound, under the name of wine, to
which you are at a loss to ascribe a native
land, you cry—"Cape!"

The old adage of "give a dog a bad name
and hang him," is fully exemplified here.
Still it must be admitted that the dog must
first have earned his bad name. So it is with
Cape Wine. It was very bad, and a great
part of it is so still; while decidedly the worst
of it is sent to England. I have often
endeavoured to persuade the wine farmers that
this is bad policy on their part; but they
will not be convinced. They say that Cape
Wine has a bad name in the market; that it
is bought only as "Cape Wine," without any
distinction of vintage or class; and that the
worst of it brings them as good a price as the
best. And yet there is a vast difference in
the various qualities; and even the best of
them are still susceptible of wonderful
improvement.

There is a similarity between the Cape and
the Madeira grape. Both are cultivated very
much in the same manner, but the grand
point of difference between the two is the
time of gathering the grapes. In Madeira
they are not gathered till so ripe that many
begin to fall, and many are withered from
over ripeness; these are of course rejected.
By this means a smaller amount of wine is
obtained from a vineyard than would have
been produced had the grapes been gathered
earlier: but the quality of the wine is
improved beyond conception. Every grape is
full, ripe, and luscious, and the wine partakes
of its quality. Nothing can prove more
clearly the necessity of the grape being fully,
and rather over ripe, than the difference of
the wine produced on the north side of the
Island of Madeira, where this perfection of
the grape can scarcely be attained, and that
grown on the south side: the latter is Nectar;
the former Cape; or little better.

Now at the Cape the object of the farmer is
always to get the greatest quantity of wine
from his vineyard; and consequently he
gathers his grapes when they are barely ripe,
and none have fallen or withered; whereby
he fills his storehouses with wine full of
acidity and of that vile twang which all who
have tasted shudder to recal.

Some of the wine-growers in the colony have
lately pursued a different plan, and with vast
success. This has been chiefly among the
English colonists; for a Dutch boor at the
Cape is a very intractable animal, and not
easily induced to swerve from old systems, be
they ever so bad. Probably, the principal
reason why the colony produced from the
very first such bad wines, was its having
been colonised by Dutchmen, who could
have had no experience at home in wine-
growing,

Who knows what might have been the case
had a colony from the plains of Champagne
or Bordeaux first settled there? Apropos of