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 flourish 
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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