| Reverse - Text |
Left section:
GRIND
YOUR COFFEE AT HOME
Right section: |
| CAPE TOWN, CAPE COLONY. |
| Cape Town, the Capital
of Cape Colony, was founded by
Van Riebeck in 1652. It lies on
the shore of Table Bay, at the
foot of Table Mountain, 30 miles
north of the Cape of Good Hope.
The discovery of the Cape of Good
Hope occurred in 1486, when a
Portugese navigator, after being
driven out to sea by a storm,
accidentally doubled the Cape,
and named it the "Cape of
Storms." This name, however,
was subsequently changed by the
King of Portugal, on account of
the hope it afforded of a new and
easier way of reaching India--at
that period the absorbing object
of maritime effort. The town at
first consisted of a few houses
under shelter of a fort at the
mouth of the Zoeta or "Sweet
Stream," on the site of
which the Castle was built. Great
commercial importance attaches to
the diamond fields--the richest
and most extensive in the
world--in Griqualand West, 610
miles from Cape Town. The famous
Kimberley mine was discovered in
1871, and this unique industry
grew so rapidly that up to the
end of 1885 the gross value of
diamonds exported (exclusively of
those illicitly suppressed)
amounted to $175,000,000,
justifying an annual outlay of
$10,000,000 for labor, materials,
etc., and by 1888, $20,000,000
worth of diamonds were being
annually extracted from the
mines. A railway, crossing the
desert of Karroo, connects Cape
Town with the diamond fields. The
method of the enterprise is very
scientific. |
| Table
Mountain rises in a massive wall
immediately at the back of the
town. During the prevalence of
S.E. winds it is covered by a
dense whitish cloud, partially
overlapping its side like a
tablecloth. Along the base of the
mountain are suburban villages,
with vineyards, villas, trees and
flower gardens. |
| The
population consists of Dutch and
British descendants, Hottentots,
Kaffres and Malays. The
aborigines had the generic name
of Qućquć, and received the
name Hottentot from the Dutch.
The Royal Observatory was
established in 1820 by the
British Government, three miles
east of Cape Town. |
| Population, (est.) 70,000. |
|
