Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/28

8 £50. These premiums for speed had the effect that nearly every steamship built by either of the companies was an improvement upon the others then existing, and soon a passage of three weeks came to be looked upon as nothing unusual. Increase in the passenger and freight traffic necessitated ever and ever larger and more powerful ships, until before the close of the century the Cape mail steamers were among the finest in the world, and the passage between Southampton and Capetown was regularly made with the punctuality of an express train in sixteen days. Intermediate steamers of the same lines were running weekly, making the passage in twenty-one days, calling at Teneriffe or Grand Canary and at Saint Helena, and carrying passengers at cheaper rates than the more luxuriously furnished mailboats. Several other lines of steamers, that would once have been considered magnificent ships, were then conveying passengers and cargo to and from the Cape, usually making the run to and from England in twenty-one days, and some of them had accommodation but slightly inferior to that in the intermediate boats of the then united Union-Castle line. This enormous progress in ocean traffic was typical of the general progress of South Africa, from which it naturally resulted.

In the coastal service corresponding improvements were constantly going on, and Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth, and East London were as amply provided for as was Capetown.

The inland mails were conveyed in carts until railways were constructed, but these ran more frequently than formerly. From the beginning of 1874 there was a daily mail between Capetown and Port Elizabeth.

In October 1873 a good carriage road was completed through the Tradouw gorge in the mountain range skirting the karoo, near the town of Swellendam. It was formally opened by the governor, Sir Henry Barkly, who named it Southey's pass.