The sun, moon, and stars are different beings from those we look
upon. Not only are they so large and bright, but you SEE that the
moon and stars are BALLS, and that the sky is endless beyond them.
On the other hand, the clear, dry air dwarfs Table Mountain, as you
seem to see every detail of it to the very top.

Capetown is very picturesque. 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-