24 



CAPE-TOWN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 



Cape-Town is generally described as a clean and neat 

 place. With all due deference, I must dissent widely from 

 this opinion. All the streets, for instance, are unpaved, and 

 are, moreover, half filled with rubbish, swept from the shops 

 and warehouses, until some friendly shower carries it away. 

 Undoubtedly the town is regularly built, with broad streets, 

 laid out at right angles to each other ; but as almost every 

 person of property resides in the country, few handsome 

 dwelling-houses are to be met with — and by far the greater 

 number are in the Dutch style. Here, however, as every 

 where else where the English have obtained firm footing, 

 improvements are very apparent ; and, doubtless, now that 

 the colony has obtained its own Legislature, such improve- 

 ments will become still more visible. 



No one can be at Cape-Town for a single day without 

 being struck by the infinite variety of the human race en- 

 countered in the streets : Indians, Chinese, Malays, CafFres, 

 Bechuanas, Hottentots, Creoles, "Afrikanders," half-castes of 

 many kinds, negroes of every variety from the east and west 

 coasts of Africa, and Europeans of all countries, form the 



motley population of the place. 



Of all these, with the exception 

 of the Europeans, the Malays are 

 by far the most conspicuous and 

 important. They comprise, indeed, 

 no inconsiderable portion of the in- 

 habitants, and are, moreover, dis- 

 tinguished for their industry and 

 sobriety. Many of them are ex- 

 ceedingly well off, and, not unfre- 

 quently, keep their carriages and 

 horses. They profess the Moham- 

 medan religion, and have their own 

 clergy and places of worship. Two 

 thirds of the week they work hard, 



