A cape cart is a two-wheeled four-seater

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

drawn by two horses and formerly used in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Equipped with a bowed canvas or leather hood, it was used to carry passengers and mail in the days before

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s and was one of the fastest means of transport available in the region. Cape carts were developed during the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

as a safe way to travel across even rough terrain. The name comes from the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

. Known in Afrikaans from before the 1820s as a ''kapkar'' (a cart with a hood) its name was mistakenly rendered by English-speaking people as Cape cart.Dictionary of South African English
online accessed 10 March 2021

References

Carriages {{Vehicle-stub

See also

References