Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/177

 of Table Bay. Few sailing vessels, however, venture to visit its port, and nearly all its trade is carried on by steamers, many of which sail directly for England without even calling at Cape Town. It is still inferior in population to the capital, but boasts of possessing finer buildings, of being better administered and more abundantly provided with the resources of modern civilisation. In the colony it is pre-eminently the English city, and on the least occasion its inhabitants make

it a point of honour to display their loyalty for the mother country in the most enthusiastic manner.

Port Elizabeth covers a considerable space on a gently sloping hill, at the foot of which its main thoroughfare runs for nearly 3 miles parallel with the beach. Its growing suburbs stretch along the roads leading inland, while beyond the upper town a bare plateau is covered by the tents of the "location," or native