to be wandering the Lord knows where, to Jup or Ammon, perhaps, or on a
voyage to the moon, as an Indian chief once said to Captain Cook.

But, for my part, I was far more successful than Alexander; I drove on
with the most amazing rapidity, and thinking to halt on shore at the
Cape, I unfortunately drove too close, and shattered the right side
wheels of my vehicle against the rock, now called the Table Mountain.
The machine went against it with such impetuosity as completely shivered
the rock in a horizontal direction; so that the summit of the mountain,
in the form of a semi-sphere, was knocked into the sea, and the steep
mountain becoming thereby flattened at the top, has since received
the name of the Table Mountain, from its similarity to that piece of
furniture.

Just as this part of the mountain was knocked off, the ghost of the
Cape, that tremendous sprite which cuts such a figure in the Lusiad, was
discovered sitting squat in an excavation formed for him in the centre
of the mountain. He seemed just like a young bee in his little cell
before he comes forth, or like a bean in a bean-pod; and when the upper
part of the mountain was split across and knocked off, the superior half
of his person was discovered. He appeared of a bottle-blue colour, and
started, dazzled with the unexpected glare of the light: hearing the
dreadful rattle of the wheels, and the loud chirping of the crickets,
he was thunder-struck, and instantly giving a shriek, sunk down ten
thousand fathoms into the earth, while the mountain, vomiting out some
smoke, silently closed up, and left not a trace behind!



CHAPTER XXIV