out any confideration of profit or hope of reward; or that every
advantage would not be taken which the fituation might offer.
Some of the members of the Burgher Senate fent their old and
infirm flaves to work at the public roads, and received for them,
the fame wages as were paid to able-bodied men; others had
teams of horfes and waggons that never wanted employ, Thefe
things are trifling in themfelves, but the public bufinefs fuffered
by it. When the Engliih took the place, the ftreets were in fo
ruinous a condition as fcarcely to be paffable with fafety. A fmall
additional affeffment was laid upon the inhabitants, and Jn the
courfe of five years they had nearly completed a thorough repair
of the ftreets to the great improvement of the town. If
they ihould be induced to light the ftreets with lamps, it would
not only add greatly to the embellifhment of the town, but prevent
a number of accidents that happen in the night time among
the flaves. It would alfo tend to the encouragement of the
whale fiihery there. But the greateft of all improvements, and
one eafily to be accompliihed, would be to conduit the water
into the houfes. The head of the fpring, where it flows into
the pipes which conduit it to the prefent fountains, is higher
than the roof of the higheft houfe in the town ; yet, by a ftrange
piece of ignorance or perverfenefs, they have carried it
down to the loweft point on the plain leading to the caftle,
fo that thofe who live at the upper end of the town have half
a mile to fetch water, which is done by two flaves, who con-
fume many hours in the day in this employ, and are a great annoyance
at the public fountain, where they are quarrelling and
fighting from morning till night.
The pleafures of the inhabitants are chiefly of the fenfual
kind, and thofe of eating, drinking, and fmoking predominate;
principally the two latter, which, without much intermiffion,
occupy the whole day. They have no relifh for public amufe-
ments. They have no exercife but that of dancing. Anew
theatre was ereCted, but plays were confidered to be the moft
ftupid of all entertainments, whether the performance was Engliih,
French, or German. To liften three hours to a converfa-
tion was of all punifhments the moft dreadful. I remember,
on one occafion only, to have obferved the audience highly entertained
; this was at an old German foldier fmoking his pipe;
and the encouragement he met with in this part of his character
was fo great, and his exertions proportioned to it, that the whole
houfe was prefently in a cloud of tobacco fmoke.
There is neither a bookfeller’s ihop in the whole town, nor a
book fociety. A club called the Concordia has lately afpired to a
collection of books, but the purfuits of the principal part of the-
members are drinking, fmoking, and gaming. Under the direction
of the church is a library, which was left by an individual
for the ufe of the public, but the public feldom trouble
it. In this collection are fome excellent books, particularly rare
and valuable editions of the daffies, books of travels, and general,
hiftory, aCts of learned focieties, dictionaries, and church hif-
tory. Books are rarely found in Cape Town to conftitute
any part of the furniture of a houfe. So little value, do they fet
on education, that neither Government nor the church, nor
their combined efforts, by perfuafion or extortion, could raife a
v o l . n. 3 e fun*