Note 69 — Chapter XVI

About April of 1687, father Fray Alvaro sailed from Batavia in [one of the] galleons of the Company of Holanda, and after many and fearful tempests it reached the Cape of Good Hope, where the Dutch made a halt of two months at the great colony and settlement which that nation maintain there for this purpose; it is a very populous city, and well supplied with all that is necessary to human life, for it possesses a very healthful climate, at the latitude of 36° [on the side] of the tropic of Capricorn. In this city they have a large hospital for treating the sick, with very skilful physicians and surgeons, and with all the comfort that could be found in any other part of the world. Among the magnificent and delightful things which are in that city is a garden, the largest that is known, which, according to report, is only second to the earthly Paradise. It is many leguas in circumference, and is divided, like the world, into four parts. In the part called Europa, there are trees of all the fruits that grow in our Europa; in that called Asia, all those from Asia; and the same in those of Africa and America. This garden has a river, opened by hand-labor, which waters all the four divisions; and for its cultivation many Dutch gardeners and more than two thousand Cafres are kept there. In this place is produced very rich wine, which they call “Cape wine;” for the climate is the same as in Andalucía and Extremadura, although in the opposite zone [trópico], and is different only in having summer at Christmas and winter at St. John’s day.69