m of Egypt; and as I could not presume
to attempt another journey overland, and the great mountains of marble
beyond the source of the Nile, I thought it most eligible to make the
best way I could, by sea, to the Cape of Good Hope, where I supposed
I should get some Dutch smiths and carpenters, or perhaps some English
artists; and my vehicle being properly repaired, it was my intention
thence to proceed, overland, through the heart of Africa. The surface
of the water, I well knew, afforded less resistance to the wheels of the
machine--it passed along the waves like the chariot of Neptune; and in
short, having gotten upon the Red Sea, we scudded away to admiration
through the pass of Babelmandeb to the great Western coast of Africa,
where Alexander had not the courage to venture.

And really, my friends, if Alexander had ventured toward the Cape of
Good Hope he most probably would have never returned. It is difficult to
determine whether there were then any inhabitants in the more southern
parts of Africa or not; yet, at any rate, this conqueror of the world
would have made but a nonsensical adventure; his miserable ships, not
contrived for a long voyage, would have become leaky, and foundered,
before he could have doubled the Cape, and left his Majesty fairly
beyond the limits of the then known world. Yet it would have been an
august exit for an Alexander, after having subdued Persia and India,
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