APR. 1771 CAPE TOWN 433 



name of Tafel or Table. It has of late years very much 

 increased in size, and consists of about a thousand houses, 

 neatly built of brick, and in general whitened over. The 

 streets in general are broad and commodious, all crossing 

 each other at right angles. In the chief of them is a canal, 

 on each side of which is a row of oak trees, which nourish 

 tolerably well, and yield an agreeable shade to walkers. 

 Besides this there is another canal running through the town, 

 but the slope of the ground is so great that both have to be 

 furnished with sluices, at intervals of little more than fifty 

 yards. 



In houses the same poverty of inventions exists here as 

 at Batavia. They are almost universally built upon one 

 and the same plan, whether small or large. In general they 

 are low, and universally covered with thatch ; precautions said 

 to be necessary against the violence of the S.E. winds, which 

 at some seasons of the year came down from the Table 

 Mountain with incredible violence. 



Of the inhabitants, a far larger proportion are real Dutch 

 than of those of Batavia; but as the whole town is in a 

 manner supported by entertaining and supplying strangers, 

 each man in some degree imitates the manners and customs 

 of the nation with which he is chiefly concerned. The ladies, 

 however, do not follow their husbands in this particular, but 

 so true are they to the customs of the fatherland, that 

 scarcely one of them will stir without a sooterkin or chauffette 

 ready to place under her feet, whenever she shall sit down. 

 The younger ones, though, do not in general put any fire in 

 them, but seem . to use them merely for show. In general 

 they are handsome, with clear skins and high complexions, 

 and when married (no reflections upon my country-women) 

 are the best housekeepers imaginable, and great child- 

 bearers. Had I been inclined for a wife, I think this is the 

 place of all others I have seen, where I could have best 

 suited myself. 



Their servants are in general Malay slaves, who are 

 brought here from Batavia; to these they behave much 

 better than the Batavians, in consequence of which these 



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