The old Dutch buildings are very
handsome and peculiar, but are falling to decay and dirt in the
hands of their present possessors.
The few Dutch ladies I have
seen are very pleasing. They are gentle and simple, and naturally
well-bred. Some of the Malay women are very handsome, and the
little children are darlings. A little parti-coloured group of
every shade, from ebony to golden hair and blue eyes, were at play
in the street yesterday, and the majority were pretty, especially
the half-castes. Most of the Caffres I have seen look like the
perfection of human physical nature, and seem to have no diseases.
Two days ago I saw a Hottentot girl of seventeen, a housemaid here.
You would be enchanted by her superfluity of flesh; the face was
very queer and ugly, and yet pleasing, from the sweet smile and the
rosy cheeks which please one much, in contrast to all the pale
yellow faces - handsome as some of them are.
I wish I could send the six chameleons which a good-natured parson
brought me in his hat, and a queer lizard in his pocket. The
chameleons are charming, so monkey-like and so 'caressants'. They
sit on my breakfast tray and catch flies, and hang in a bunch by
their tails, and reach out after my hand.
I have had a very kind letter from Lady Walker, and shall go and
stay with them at Simon's Bay as soon as I feel up to the twenty-
two miles along the beaches and bad roads in the mail-cart with
three horses.
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