In Capetown the white people, who consisted chiefly of government officials, professional men, traders, mechanics, and lodging- house keepers, lived just as in a European city of the same size, with the exception that their only domestics were slaves. Those who could afford to do so kept many slaves to perform the housework that in Europe would have been better done by one or two paid servants, others hired their slaves to farmers, others again allowed them to work for themselves upon payment of a fixed sum monthly or weekly. In this way temporary residents could always obtain servants, and contractors to carry out work of any kind were able to procure the labourers they needed. Nearly every stranger who visited Capetown and left his impressions on record was pleased with the place and its people, and thought life could be passed very happily there, though the government found no admirers.

The streets in the town were laid out at right angles with each other, and were perfectly straight from end to end. Those running upward from the shore were very wide, and were provided with deep open drains like miniature canals. The houses bordering on them were usually whitewashed, single or at most double storied, flat roofed, and provided in front with high and broad stoeps extending to the carriage way. They were all built of brick, and covered with plaster.