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""TOHF — T"
339015 01812700 l.b
\2V
HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA
HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA
tlNDEB TIE IDMniSTSAIIOII
THE DCTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY
[1653 TO 1795]
GEOEGE M'CALL THEAL, LL.D.
or TEi QDEntB mnnRSTTT, EnroaroN, Canada
VOBSION aniBKB OF THi botal aoadur or BCKHom, AXSTiHii&ii, oOBanFomnra
OOLORIAL BOTOBIOamAPHKR
WITH MAPS
LONDON
SWAN SONNBNSCHEIN & CO., Limited
FATEBNOSTEB SQUASE
1897
Fan EDTnoir, March, 1888 ;
SiooiO) EomoN (B«yiMd and Enlarged), September, 1897
PEEFACK
Ebom the official records preserved in the archives of the
Gape Colony and of the Netherlands much the greater
portion of the information contained in this history has
been drawn. These documents are so voluminous that it
has been necessary to devote many years to their exami-
nation. Before I entered upon the task, only two indi-
viduals, so far as is known, had done more than look
over them in a very cursory manner. One of these was
Mr. Donald Hoodie, whose valuable work is referred to
among the notices of books relating to South Africa at
the close of Volume II, the other was the late Advocate
De Wet, who spent much time in collecting material,
with a view of preparing a faithful history of the Dutch
settlement. It is to be hoped that the manuscript
which he left at his death will some day be published.
The documents in the Cape archives may be classified
as follows : —
I. Proceedings and resolutions of the council of policy
from 1652 to 1795. With the exception of one volume
containing the records from May to July 1793, these
important documents are complete. When I held the
position of keeper of the archives I made an abstract of
those from 1651 to 1687, as the originals are not indexed,
and in addition to being somewhat bulky are not easily
read by persons unaccustomed to the writing of the
seventeenth century. This abstract has been printed
by the Cape government, and forms a compact volume
of two hundred and thirty-three pages.
382871
vj Preface.
W, Tho Cftpe journal. A diary^ in which records of
all ffVfintM of importance were entered, was commenced by
Mr. Van Itiebeek when he embarked at Amsterdam, and
waM (}(intinun<l with only a break of an occasional day nntil
tN()H. l^ho oconrronces of each year originally formed a
voltunn of thrcie or four hundred pages of foolscap. By
Hotnn tnoanii botwoen 1806 and 1830 a large proportion of
ihoMo voluninH disappeared from the Gape archives. Eor-
(tttmloly, thore were duplicates of most of them in the
arohivt^N of the Netherlands, of which copies have been
prttourml by tho Gape government. The journal is now
ooniplc^to to 1788, except for the years 1675, 1688, and
IQUl. From 1788 to 1705 it is missing, except for 1794.
\\V rHwpatchet from the Gape government to the
tUr«H^ti>r« and several chambers of the East India Gom-
|VMiyi to the f(0\*«mor-generaI and council of India, to
Ihfi^ gOY«imm«nt ot Ceylon, and letters to various officers
in th^ Mirvic«« foreigners calling here, and others. The
Y\\)umtM ivt thia eeriM after 1786 have been lost from the
Ca|^ MK'hiv^^ and aome of those* of an earlier date are
IVv l>Mipalieih«» wceiv^ by the Cape government from
l)^ auU^orilM in the Xeth^lands and in India, and
Mum w<^x^l lh>m xwous piearsons. These are not quite
\\Mi\^|iM^ in thi^ Oa|>e awhivw^
\\ Journals of iexpk«tn$ panaets.. Copies of the
WV>irin^ aw in the Otj>e aiv^ve? : — Joaireal kept by Jan
I^Janv ttvvm :iMJi S^ywr-xbifS' lo Sri CVaolia' Itoi Kepi
^>i* ^''^yij^w T^ftrwr^ frooe: il55 Ortoher to 14tii Xcvember
l^VS^ K^ Vy »NO«ev^ Y«^ci^, free: ilsi Ociotitj to
I4;>i N^^^^^rtfftWc Itfii. aM ir^ien ibi I>f05=.rer ito^ to
1^. ,'ia»:tia?j aW* Kara Vx CvcyaraZ TTilis:!. M^i^isr,
Preface. vii
1657. Of the exploring expedition under Sergeant Jan
van Harwarden, from 27th February to 2l8t March
1658. Of the expedition under Jan Danckert in search
of Monomotapa, from 12th November 1660 to 20th
January 1661. Of the expedition under Pieter Cruythof
to the Namaguas, from 30th January to 11th March
1661. Of the expedition under Pieter van Meerhof,
from 21st March to 23rd April 1661. Of the expedition
under Pieter Everaert, from 14th November 1661 to 13th
February 1662. Of Ensign Cruse's expedition against
Gonnema, from 12th to 2Sth July 1673. Of the expedition
under Commander Van der Stel to Namaqualand, from
25th August 1685 to 26th January 1686. Kept on board
the Centaurus, from 10th November 1687 to 19th Feb-
ruary 1688. Kept on board the galiot Noord, from 19th
October 1688 to 6th February 1689. Of the expedition
under Ensign Schrjrver to the Inqua Hottentots, from
4th January to 6th April 1689. And of others in the
eighteenth century, of which special mention is made in
the body of this work.
VI. Instructions. These are papers of considerable
historical value. There are in the Gape archives : In-
structions of the chamber of Amsterdam for the heads of
the party proceeding in the service of the Netherlands
chartered East India Company to the Cape of Good
Hope, 25th March 1651. Further instructions of the
same for the same, 12th December 1651. Of the directors
for the guidance of the return fleet, 20th August 1652.
Of Mr. Van Eiebeek for the officers of the yacht Goede
Hoop, 14th October and 22nd November 1652 and 21st
January 1653; for the officers of the galiot Zwarte Vos,
3rd February, 13th May, and 9th June 1653; for the
officers of the galiot Boode Vos, 26th July, 4th August,
3rd and 13th October, and December 1653, and
viii Preface.
21st Febraary and 6th April 1654; for the officers of
the galiot Tulpy 26th June 1654. Of the commissioner
tlyklof van Goens for the commander and conncil of the
iort Good Hope, 16th April 1657. Of the commissioner
Joan Cnneas for Commander Van Biebeek, 18th March
1658. Of the commissioner Pieter Sterthemias for Com-
mander Van Biebeek, 12th March 1660. Of Commander
Van Biebeek for the exploring party under Jan Danckert,
10th November 1660. Of Commander Van Biebeek for
the exploring party under Pieter Cruythof, 29th January
1661. Of the commissioner Andries Frisius for Com-
mander Van Biebeek, 11th March 1661. Of Commander
Van Biebeek for the expedition under Pieter van Meerhof ,
21st March 1661. Of Commander Van Biebeek for the
expedition under Pieter Everaert, 10th November 1661.
Of the commissioner Hubert de Lairesse for Commander
Wagenaar, 22nd and 27th September 1662. Of Com-
mander Wagenaar for the exploring expedition under
Corporal Pieter Cruythof, 19th October 1662. Of the
commissioner Herman Klencke for Commander Wagenaar,
16th April 1663. Of the assembly of seventeen for the
party proceeding to Madagascar, with addenda by Com-
mander Wagenaar, 26th May 1663. Of the commissioner
P. A. Overtwater for Commander Wagenaar, 7th Sep-
tember 1663. Of Commander Wagenaar for the exploring
expedition under Sergeant Jonas de la Guerre, 10th
October 1663. Of Commander Wagenaar for the assistant
Joachim Blank, head of the Madagascar party, 19th May
1664 Of Commander Wagenaar for the assistant Jacobus
van Nieuwland, head of the Mauritius party, — May 1664.
Of the commissioner Mattheus van der Broeck for Com-
mander Jacob Borghorst and his successor Pieter Hackius,
14th March 1670. Of the commissioner Isbrand Goske
for Commander Hackius, 23rd February 1671. Of the
Preface. ix
•commissioner Nicolaas Verburg for Governor Bax, 15th
March 1676. Of the commissioner Sybrand Abbema for
•Commander Simon van der Stel, 27th March 1680. Of
the commissioner Byklof van Goens the younger for
Commander Simon van der Stel and the council, 20th
March 1681. Of the retired governor-general Eyklof van
Goens the elder for Commander Simon van der Stel and
the council, 24th April 1682. Of the high commissioner
Hendrik Adriaan van Bheede for the commander and
council, 16th July 1685. And others of a later date,
which are referred to in the body of this work.
VIL Beports to the directors. From the commissioner
Byklof van Goens, 16th April 1657. From the conmiis-
sioner Andries Frisius, 4th July 1661. From the commis-
sioner Hubert de Lairesse, 22nd September 1662. From
the conmiissioner Joan Thyssen,. 25th June 1669. From
the commissioner Byklof van Goens the younger, March
and April 1685. From the high commissioner Hendrik
Adriaan van Bheede, 14th May 1685.
Vni. Proclamations, placaats, and notices issued by
the Cape government. The first volume of the original
record of these in the Cape archives is slightly damaged,
but nothing of any consequence seems to be missing.
The other volumes are perfect.
IX. Transactions of the conmiissioners-general Neder-
burgh and Frykenius at the Cape. These volumes are of
great historical value. They contain also, as annexures,
many important papers.
X. Burgher rolls or census returns. Every year a list
was framed, giving the names of the burghers and their
wives, the number of their children, slaves, guns, horses,
oxen, sheep, vines, morgen of cultivated ground, etc.
Such of the returns before 1795 as are not in the Cape
archives I examined in the archives of the Nether-
X Preface.
lands, but there is not one that can be relied npon as
accurate.
XL Besolntions of the assembly of seventeen, the
chamber of Amsterdam, the states-provincial of Holland
and West Friesland, and other governing bodies, referring-
to the Cape in early times. The originals are to be seen
only in the archives of the Netherlands, but while at the
Hague I made copies for the Gape government of such of
them as are of any importance.
Xn. Declarations concerning crime, and records of the
high court of justice. I have examined only the volumes,
of these papers which contain particulars concerning im-
portant cases. It would require a hfetime to read them all.
Xm. District records, which comprise proceedings of
the boards of landdrost and heemraden at the various
seats of magistracy and correspondence between the gov-
ernment and officials in the country. I have examined
these documents carefully in cases when noteworthy
events were transpiring, and have otherwise glanced through
them, but have not actually read them all.
XIV. Miscellaneous documents during the period 1652
to 1795. Under this heading there is an enormous mass
of manuscript at the Gape and at the Hague, among^
which there are a few papers of considerable value. Such
are the following : — (1) Statement, dated at Amsterdam
26th July 1649, in which is briefly shown what service,
advantages, and profit the United Netherlands chartered
East India Company might derive from building a fort
and making a garden at the Cape of Good Hope. (2)
Further considerations upon certain points in the state-
ment submitted by Mr. Leendert Janssen, concerning the
project of constructing a fort and planting a garden at
the Cape of Good Hope, Amsterdam, June 1651. (3) Ex-
tract of a letter from the chamber of Middelburg to the
Preface. xi
chamber of Amsterdam, 5th December 1651. (4) State-
ment of the condition of affairs at the Cape, drawn up by
Mr. Van Biebeek for the use of his successor, 5th May
1662. (5) Queries concerning Cape affairs by the com-
missioner Hubert de Lairesse, and replies of Commander
Wagenaar, 15th September 1662. (6) Statement of the
condition of affairs at the Cape, drawn up by Mr. Wagenaar
for the use of his successor, 24th September 1666. (7)
Memorandum for the use of Governor Bax, drawn up
by the retiring governor Isbrand Goske, March 1676.
The greater number of the miscellaneous documents
in the Cape archives are, however, of little or no
value for historical purposes. There are sailing
directions, directions for signalling, ships' log books,
etc., etc.
XY. In the surveyor-general's office are records of land
grants, and in the registry of deeds are records of all
transfers of ground and mortgages since 1685. In the
archives of the Netherlands there are full details of the
East India Company's accounts with the Cape, embracing
salaries, expenses of all kinds, sales of goods, etc., etc.
I have only glanced through these papers for the purpose
of selecting such as are of most importance. A single
lifetime is too short to read all the manuscript that is
referred to in this and the preceding three paragraphs.
In the archives of the Netherlands there are over fifty
unpublished charts referring to South Africa, but many
of them are of little or no value. I copied the following
on tracing linen for the Cape government: —
One of the fort and garden in Table Valley in 1654.
One of the fort and garden in Table Valley in 1656.
One of th^ route of the exploring parties of 1661.
One of the castle, garden, and town in Table Valley
in 1693.
xii Preface.
An elaborate chart of the journey of Commander
Simon van der Stel to the copper mines of Namaqnaland
in 1685, being the first map upon which any indication
of the Orange river appears.
I also examined carefully the maps and atlases of the
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in the
libraries of the British museum and of the university of
Leiden. In the collection of atlases in the South African
public library the following works, purchased by me at
the Hague, are to be seen: —
Ortelius, Abraham : Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This
work, so celebrated in its day, is in one great volume.
It contains a large map of Africa, engraved at Antwerp
in 1570.
Mercator, Gerard, et Hondius, Jodocus: Atlas, sive
CosmograpMcoB Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabri-
eati Figura. The fourth edition, published at Amster-
dam in 1619, contains two maps of Africa, both full-sized,
or covering a double page. One is taken from Gerard
Mercator's map and description of the world, and is the
work of his son ; the other is by Jodocus Hondius
himself.
Hondius, Henry: Atlas ou Bepresentation du Monde
Universel This is an edition of the last-named work,
improved by means of the discoveries made in the
interval. Though the title is French, the work is in
Dutch, and was published at Amsterdam in 1633 by a
son of the celebrated Jodocus Hondius. It contains one
large map of Africa, drawn by Henry Hondius, and
engraved in 1631.
Doncker, Hendrick : Zee Atlas of Water Wcerelt,
published at Amsterdam in 1666. This volume contains
a chart of the west coast of Africa from the equator to
the Cape of Good Hope, engraved in 1659; and one of
Preface. xiii
the east coast from the Cape of Good Hope to the Bed
sea, engraved in 1660.
Blaeu, Joan : Grooten Atlas, oft Werelt Beschryving.
This was the standard atlas of its day, and is still of the
greatest value as an unerring guide to the knowledge
possessed by the most eminent geographers in the middle
of the seventeenth century. Seven enormous volumes
and part of the eighth are devoted to Europe; Africa and
America are described in the remainder of the eighth ;
and the ninth is given to Asia. Among the African maps
is one of that portion of the continent south of the tenth
parallel of latitude, engraved in 1665. A copy, reduced
in size, appears in the first volume of this history.
Goos, Pieter: Zee Atlas ofte Water WerelcL After the
great atlas of Blaeu, it would be unnecessary to mention
any other, if it were not for the estimation in which the
marine charts of Goos as well as of Doncker were held
in their day. This volume, splendidly engraved, orna-
mented, and printed in colours, was issued at Amsterdam
in 1668. It contains a large chart of the coast from Cape
Verde to the Cape of Good Hope; another from Cape
Negro to Mossel Bay, with cartoons of the coast and
country from St. Helena Bay to Cape False, and Ylees
Bay or Agoa de S. Bras ; and a large chart of the coast
from the Cape of Good Hope to the head of the Bed sea.
The manuscript records preserved in Capetown, the
Hague, and London, are the only authentic sources from
which the history of South Africa can be extracted, and
as such they have been used by me. But I found it
necessary also to know how events, as they transpired,
appeared to visitors. For this purpose I consulted a large
number of books relating to the country, printed in
various languages. Most of them proved worthless, but
they had to be read before this could be known. A list
xiv Preface.
of the printed books referring to the period embraced in
these volomes is given at the end, with a short note
indicating the value of each.
An intimate acquaintance with the traditions and
customs of the southern Bantu tribes, obtained during a
residence of seventeen years among them, has been of
inestimable service to me ; but, to leave nothing unused
that could contribute to the correctness of the narrative,
an outline of nearly everything that concerns the Xosas
in these volumes has been submitted to their most cele-
brated antiquaries, whose comments have been carefully
considered.
In order to simplify the narrative, where money is
mentioned it has been reduced to English coinage at the
rate of twelve gulden of Holland to the pound sterling,
the present rate of exchange. The rixdollar of the records
has been computed at four shillings and two pence before
1770, at four shillings from that date until the issue of a
paper currency, and thereafter according to the rate of
exchange for gold ; the Cape gulden before 1790 at one
shilling and four pence or one shilling four pence and
two-thirds of a penny, according to circumstances. Ex-
planations will be found in the body of the work. Weights
have been reduced to English pounds at the rate of nine
hundred and eighteen Amsterdam pounds to one thou-
sand pounds avoirdupois. Unless otherwise stated in each
instance, the muid of grain, as used in the records and
in these volumes, weighs one hundred and ninety and
three-fifths pounds avoirdupois. The legger of wine con-
tains four aams or one hundred and twenty-six and one-
tenth imperial gallons. The morgen of ground is equal
to rather more than two and one-tenth English acres.
The muid, legger, and morgen, being still in use in South
Africa, I have retained; but Dutch money and weights
Preface. xv
having been replaced by English, I have reduced these to
the terms now generally employed.
In the statistics of shipping I have not included vessels
employed as coasters or packets kept for the use of the
Cape government.
Throughout the work I have tried to use simple lan-
guage and to relate occurrences just as they took place,
without favour towards one class of people or prejudice
against another. I have no interests to serve with any
party, and I am on equally friendly terms with all.
Though a resident in South Africa for nearly forty
years, I am by birth a Canadian, the descendant of a
family that sided with the king at the time of the
American revolution and afterwards removed from New
York to New Brunswick with other loyalists. The early
years of my life after boyhood were spent in the United
States and in Sierra Leone. Thus no ties of blood, no
prejudices acquired in youth, stand as barriers to my
forming an impartial judgment of occurrences in South
Africa in bygone times.
I have not tried to draw lessons from past events, or
to give a polish to my writing, because I feel that for me
to attempt to do so would be like a quarryman attempting
to give the finishing touches to a statue. The duties of
the various offices which I have held under the Cape
government, the labour of research among such a quan-
tity of records as South Africa possesses, and in past
years the prolonged personal intercourse with natives
needed for investigation into the traditions and oral his-
tories of the numerous tribes, would have unfitted me
for putting a gloss on literary work, if ever I had the
requisite ability. In this respect I am like the farmers
whose wanderings I have followed, who had plain food
m abundance, but no means of decorating their dinner
xvi Preface.
tables. Eecognising this, what I have kept constantly
before me was to relate all events of importance, to
arrange them generally in chronological order, to give
dates for every occurrence— even if they should cause the
narrative to be heavy and dull, — to furnish minute de-
tails of all subjects of interest to South African readers,
and to prepare an index that would make reference aa
easy as possible.
A great part of this history has passed through three
editions, though the present issue is termed on the title
page the second, because only one other has been
published in England in a complete form. It has been
carefully revised, advantage having been taken of criti-
cisms and reviews pointing out where improvements could
be made, and many details — perhaps wearisome to readers
in Europe but that will be valued by colonists — have been
added. For this purpose I spent the winter of 1896-7
at the Hague, where there is the greatest facility for veri-
fying dates and obtaining such additional information
as I needed. The winter of 1881-2 I had spent there in
the same pursuit, consequently I had not to lose time in
making myself familiar with the record department.
To the government of the Cape Colony I am indebted
for encouragement to carry out this work, to the author-
ities of the archive department at the Hague for assist-
ance in research, and to the late Mr. C. A. Fairbridge,
of Capetown, for the use of books and pamphlets from
his unique collection. To the many others who have
rendered me kindly aid I can only express my obligations
in general terms.
GEO. M. THEAL.
London, Jtt/^, 1897.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAOB
JAN VAN RTEBEEK, COMMANDER, LANDED IN SOUTH
AFBIOA 7th APRIL 1652, RETIRED 6th MAY 1662 - - 1
Cause of the greater importance of Table Bay to the Dutch
than to the Portngaese — Presentation of a document to the
chamber of Amsterdam, setting forth the advantages to be
gained by forming a settlement in Table Valley — Account of
the wreck of the Haarlem — Deliberations of the directors of
the East India Company — ^Decision to form a victualling
station at the Cape^Instructions to the skippers of the
Dromedaris, Reiger, and Goede Hoop — Character and previous
occupations of Jan van Riebeek, commander of the expedition
— Instructions of the directors to the commander — Departure
of the expedition from Amsterdam — Events during the passage
— ^Arrival of the expedition in Table Bay — Condition of Table
Valley— Description of the natives residing there and roaming
about in the nei^bourhood — Selection of a site for a fort-
Description of the ground plan of the fort Gkx)d Hope — ^Land-
ing of the expedition — Quarrels between the Gknringhaiquas
and the Goringfaaikonas — ^Distress of the Europeans — ^Arrival
of ships with many sick men — Elflfects of the winter rains —
Account of the sick-visitor Willem Barents Wylant — Birth of
the first Dutch child in South Africa — ^Abundance of game —
Project of a whale fishery — Productions of Bobben Island —
Inspection of the country back of the Devil's peak — ^Descrip-
tion of forests in the kloofs of the mountain — ^Desertion of
four workmen and their adventures — Cooomencement of
gardening in Table Valley — ^Voyage of the Goedt Hoop to
Saldanha Bay — Cattle barter with the Goringhaiquas —
Account of the interpreter "Ebucry and his niece Eva — ^De-
paHure of the Goringhaiquas from the neighbourhood of the
Ga|>e — Efieets of the south-east winds — FrodactiKMis d the
gardens — Diet oi the wodoneiL
VOL. L b
xviii Contents.
CHAPTER 11.
PA0K
MB. VAN BIEBEEK'S ADMINISTBATION (wntimied) - . - 81
War between England and the Netherlands — Condition of the fort
Good Hope — Arrival of ships — Trade with natives — ^Damage
cansed by wild animals — Appointment of the first secunde —
Dealings with a French ship in Saldanha Bay — Bobbery by
Harry and the beachrangers of the Company's cattle and
murder of one of the herdsmen — Unsuccessful pursuit of
the robbers — Discovery of an unknown ore — Betum of the
Kaapmans and beachrangers — Celebration of the anniversary
of the arrival of the Europeans — ^Despatch of a galiot to St.
Helena for provisions — Appointment of the second secunde —
Account of the south-eastern coast by a missionary of the
Society of Jesus — ^Despatch of a galiot to explore the south-
eastern coast — Commencement of trade with Madagascar —
Arrival of the first Asiatic banished to the Cape — Celebration
of a day of prayer and thanksgiving — Conclusion of peace
between England and the Netherlands — Treatment of the
crews of English ships — Arrival of a large fleet — Formation
of sealing establishments at Dassen Island and Saldanha Bay
— ^Introduction of the vine — Instructions of the directors re-
garding the natives — Views of the commander as to the
best method of dealing with the natives — Hostile acts of
the Goringhaiquas — Account of the first exploring expedition
inland — Betum of Harry to the fort — Benewal of the cattle
trade — ^Bartering expedition of Harry and Corporal Muller —
Arrival of a large Hottentot horde under the chief Gonnema
— Account of the interpreter Doman — First shipbuilding at
the Cape — Disastrous expedition to Madagascar — Allotment of
garden ground to married servants of the Company — Arrange-
ment with Annetje de boerin — Completion of a hospital —
Construction of a jetty — Project of Byklof van Goens to
convert the Cape peninsula into an island — Description of
plants and animals introduced — Occupation of the first farm
at Bondebosch — Thefts by Hottentots — Dealings with Harry —
Efforts to destroy ravenous animals — Begulations for the
preservation of herbivorous animals — Outbreak of sickness —
Appointment of day of fasting and prayer — Constitution of
the council of policy — Particulars concerning marriages —
Treatment of Christian blacks — Instructions regarding the
treatment of the crews of foreign ships.
Contents. xix
OHAPTBB in.
BfR. VAN RIEBEEK'S ADMINISTRATION (txmtvmed) - - - 60
Conditions under which some of the Company's servants became
colonists — Visit of the commissioner Byklof van Goens —
Alterations in the conditions — Appointment of the first
burgher councillor — Names of the first colonists — Regulations
of the conmiissioner Byklof van Goens — ^Appointment of
Boelof de Man as secimde — ^Expedition to Hottentots-Holland
— Information concerning the natives — Exploration by a party
under the leadership of Abraham Gabbema — Discovery of the
Berg river — Accoimt of various public works — Exploration by
a party imder the leadership of Jan van Hafwarden — Dis-
covery of the Little Berg river — ^Inspection of the Tulbagh
basin — Importation of slaves from Angola and Ghiinea — De-
sertion of the slaves — Seizure of Hottentots as hostages for
the restoration of the slaves — General panic of the Hottentots
— Arrangements between the Europeans and the Hottentots —
Banishment of Harry to Bobben Island — Opening of trade
with the Cochoquas imder the chief Oedasoa — Bemonstrances
of the farmers against new restrictions — Price of wheat—
Planting of a vineyard by the commander at Protea — Intro-
duction of maize — Appointment of two burgher councillors
— Begulations concerning sheepbreeding — ^Instance of great
loss of life by scurvy — Increase in the nimiber of colonists
— Unsuccessful attempt to visit the Namaquas — Conunence-
ment of wine making in South Africa — Manufacture of ale
— Enrolment of the burghers as militia — Constitution of the
militia council — Changes in the council of policy.
CHAPTEE IV.
MB. VAN BIEBEEE'S ADMINISTBATION {continued) ... 92
War with the Hottentot clans nearest the settlement — Conspiracy
of some soldiers and slaves to seize a vessel in the bay — Con-
clusion of peace with the Goringhaiquas and Gorachouquas —
Duties of the secretary to the council — Wreck of a French
ship in Table Bay — Illicit dealing in cattle — Manner of con-
ducting trade with the Hottentots — Traits of native charac-
ter — Search for the fabulous island of St. Helena Nova —
Expedition under Jan Danckert in search of Monomotapa
— Exploring expedition under Pieter Cruythof — Naming of
Eiebeek's Easteel — Discovery of the Namaquas — ^Description
Contents.
PAffll
of the Namaqnas — Exploring expedition nnder Pieter van Meer-
hof— Efforts of Pieter van der Stael to teach the Cape Hot-
tentots the principles of Christianity — Exploring expedition
nnder Pieter Everaert — Feuds of the Hottentots — Conflict-
ing accounts of the condition of the settlement — Appointment
of Gerrit van Ham as Mr. Van Biebeek's successor — Death
of Mr. Van Ham at sea — Appointment of Zacharias Wagenaar
as commander — ^Disposal of Mr. Van Riebeek's farm — Arrival
of Mr. Wagenaar — Ceremony of his induction — ^Departure of
Mr. Van Biebeek for Batavia — Condition of the settlement —
Privileges of the burghers — Treatment of foreigners — Anticipa-
tions regarding the ohve — Actual knowledge concerning the
natives — Fabulous accounts of distant tribes — Neglect of the
government to keep a record of land grants — Character of
Commander Van Biebeek as delineated in his writings — Offices
which he held after leaving South Africa.
CHAPTEB V.
ZACHABIAS WAQENAAB, COMMANDEB, INSTALLED 6th MAY
1662, BETIBED 27th SEPTEMBEB 1666 130
Character of Commander Wagenaar — Deputation from Hottentot
clans to the new commander — Visit of the commander to the
Cochoquas — Accoimt of the Hessequas — Exploration by a party
under Pieter Cruythof — Expedition imder Admiral De Lairesse
against Mozambique — Litercourse with Madagascar — Explora-
tion by a party under Jonas de la Guerre — Occupation of the
island of Mauritius as a dependency of the Cape settlement
— Account df George Frederick Wreede — Outbreak of war
between England and the Netherlands — Besolution of the
directors of the East Lidia Company to construct a stone
fortress in Table Valley — Selection of the site for the new
fortress by the commissioner Isbrand Goske — Ceremony of
laying the foundation stone — Construction of a church in
the castle — Attempt to capture an English ship in Table
Bay — Succession of sick-visitors — Account of the first clergy-
man of the Cape — Constitution of the consistory — Disputes
concerning baptism — Scene at an afternoon service in the
church — Subjects taught in the school — Succession of school-
masters — Amount of school fees — DeiJings with Hottentots —
Outbreak of a plague among the Hottentots — DeiJings with
the beachrangers in Table Valley — Marriage of Eva with a
European — Prices of various kinds of grain — Wages of farm
Contents. xxi
PAOK
labourers — Price of horses — Occupations of burghers in
Table Valley — Desire of the commander to be relieved — Ap-
pointment of his successor — Arrival of Mr. Van Quaelberg —
Installation of the new commander — Changes in the council
of policy — Departure of Mr. Wagenaar for Batavia — Knowledge
of the country at the time of his departure — Condition of
the colony — Subsequent visit of Mr. Wagenaaa: to the Cape —
Bequest by Mr. Wagenaar of a sum of money for the benefit
of the poor.
CHAPTEB VI.
CORNELIS VAN QUAELBERG, COMMANDER, INSTALLED
27th SEPTEMBER 1666, DISMISSED 18th JUNE 1668.
JACOB BORQHORST, COMMANDER, INSTALLED 18th JUNE
1668, RETIRED 26th MARCH 1670.
PIETER HACKIUS, COMMANDER, INSTALLED 26th MARCH
1670, DIED 80th NOVEMBER 1671.
THE COUNCIL OF POLICY, 80th NOVEMBER 1671 TO 26th
MARCH 1672.
ALBERT VAN BREUGEL, SECUNDE, ACTING COMMANDER,
PROM 26th march TO 2nd OCTOBER 1672 - - - - 160
Character of Commander Van Quaelberg — Destruction of forests —
Establishment of a French East India Company — Assistance
given to the French by Commander Van Quaelberg — Action
of the French at Saldanha Bay — Exploration of the coim-
try — Discontinuance of work on the castle — Expedition to
Mauritius and Madagascar — Conclusion of peace between
Englfuid and Holland — Dealings with the Hottentots — Harsh
regulations of Commander Van Quaelberg — ^Dismissal of Mr.
Van Quaelberg from the Company's service — Appointment of
Jacob Borghorst as commander — Succession of clergymen —
Increase of the burghers — Removal of the French beacons at
Saldanha Bay — Survey of the coimtry about Mossel Bay —
Visit to the Attaqua tribe — Cruel custom of the Hottentots —
Liberty of the Company's servants to trade to a small ex-
tent on their own account— Incidents in the career of George
Frederick Wreede — Expeditions of the Grundel along the
western and south-eastern coasts — Search for metals — Visit of
the commissioner Mattheus van der Broeck — Desire of Mr.
Borghorst to be relieved — Appointment of Pieter Hackius as
his successor — Arrival of a French fleet under Admiral De la
xxii Contents.
PAOB
Haye — Hostile conduct of the French at Saldanha Bay —
Begolations concerning slaves — Misfortunes of the seounde
De Cretzer — ^Arrival of a few families of immigrants — Ideas of
the day as to good government — Cause of so few inuni-
grants arriving in South Africa — Death of Commander Hackius
— Resolution of the directors to complete the castle and
strengthen the garrison — Position of the castle — Selection of
officers to conduct the government — Statistics of ships that
put into Table Bay — Account of wrecks — Number of visitors
yearly — Dealings with Gonnema*s people^Arrival of the
secunde Van Breugel — ^Yisit of the conmiissioner Aemout van
Overbeke^Purchase of territory from Hottentot chiefs — First
distillation of brandy at the Cape — Intelligence of war with
England and France — Arrangements for defence — Arrival of
Gbvemor Gk>ske.
CHAPTBB VIL
ISBRAND GOSKE, GOVERNOR, INSTALLED 2nd OCTOBER
1672, RETIRED 14th MARCH 1676.
JOHAN BAX, ENTITLED VAN HERENTALS, GOVERNOR,
INSTALLED 14th MARCH 1676, DIED 29th JUNE 1678.
HENDRIK CRUDOP, SEOUNDE, ACTING COMMANDER, 29th
JUNE 1678 TO 12th OCTOBER 1679 201
Statistics of population — Influence of the war in Europe upon
Cape afi&drs — Progress of the construction of the castle —
Establishment of an outpost at Hottentots-Holland — ^Expedi-
tion against St. Helena— Career of Lieutenant Van Breitenbach
— ^Trade with the Chalnouquas — ^Accoimt of Captain Elaas —
Account of Captain Gonnema — ^The second Hottentot war —
Wreck of the Qrundel and of the Zoetendal — Method of
raising revenue by farming out privileges — Occupation of the
castle by the garrison — Conclusion of peace between England
and the Netherlands — Career of the first baptized Hottentot
— Account of the church fund for the support of the poor
— ^Establishment of an orphan chamber — Regulations concern-
ing ecclesiastical a£hirs — Visit of the commissioner Nioolaas
Verburg — ^Terms of a petition of the colonists to the com-
missioner — ^Position of the island of Mauritius with regard
to the Cape government— Appointment of Johan Bax as suc-
cessor to Mr. Goske — Measures for the protection of the
farmers — Murder of three burghers by Bushmen — Condition
of Hottentot clans when the Dutch settled in South Africa
Contents. xxiii
PAOK
— Condition of the Bushmen — Unsuocessfol expedition against
Gbnnema — Pnniflhment of Captain Eees— Conclusion of peace
with the Cochoquas — Effects of the war with Gonnema upon
the European settlement — Stringent regulations concerning
intercourse between burghers and Hottentots — Account of
WiUem Willems — Condition of the beachrangers — Measures
for the suppression of robberies — Execution of five Bushmen
— Principles of the government in its intercourse with the
natives — ^Establishment of a matrimonial court — Particulars
concerning slaves — Exploration of the western and south-
eastern coasts — Selection of a site for a new church — Death
of the reverend Mr. Hulsenaar — Bemoval of bodies from the
old church to the site of the new one — Account of the first
colonists beyond the Cape peninsula — Particulars concerning
the first customs regulations — Arrival of a few families of
immigrants — Death of Governor Bax — Assumption of the
government by the secunde as acting commander — Appoint-
ment of the reverend Johannes Ovemey as clergyman of
the Cape — Conclusion of peace between the Netherlands
and France — Naming of the five bastions of the castle — Posi-
tion of the burghers beyond the Cape peninsula — Particulars
of the census of 1679 — ^Appointment of Simon van der Stel
as commander.
CHAPTEE VIIL
SIMON VAN DER STEL, COMMANDER, INSTALLED 12th
OCTOBER 1679, RAISED TO THE RANK OF GOVERNOR
1st JUNE 1691, RETIRED 11th FEBRUARY 1699 - • - 244
Particulars concerning Simon van der Stel — Condition of the
settlement — ^Visit of the commander to Hottentots-HoUand —
Particulars concerning the naming of Stellenbosch — Occupa-
tion of the Stellenbosch valley by Europeans— Improvement
of the Company's garden in Table Valley — ^Account of Hen-
drik Bernard Oldenland — Intercourse with the Hottentots —
Visit of some Namaquas to the castle with specimens of
copper ore — First information concerning the Orange river —
Treatment of foreigners at the Cape — Method of taxing
foreigners — Growth of Stellenbosch — Destruction of crops by
insects — Establishment of a court of heemraden at Stellen-
bosch — Particulars concerning the first school at Stellenbosch
— ^Various duties of the teacher of the school — Resolution of
the East India Company to make use of South Africa ag a
xxiv Contents.
PAftB
place of banishment for Indian political prisoners — Fartionlars
concerning the Bantamese civil war and the banishment of
Sheikh Joseph to the Cape — ^Visit of the retired governor-
general Byklof van Gbens — ^Instructions issued by Mr. Van
Goens — ^Account of the wreck of an English ship — Establish-
ment of a court for the adjudication of petty cases — Un-
successful exploring expeditions of 1682 and 1688 — ^Receipt
of more copper ore from Namaqualand — ^Formation of a
number of outposts — ^Visit of Byklof van Goens the younger
— Transactions of Mr. Van Goens at the Cape — ^First expor-
tation of grain — Visit of the high commissioner Hendrik
Adriaan van Bheede — Reconstruction of the council of policy
and the high court of justice — ^Appointment of a landdrost
to Stellenbosch — Constitution and powers of the court of
landdrost and heemraden — Regulations concerning slaves
and Hottentots — Grant of the farm Constantia by the high
conmiissioner to Conmiander Van der Stel — Search for
minerals of value^Imposition of transfer dues on sales of
fixed property — Price of grain — Departure of the high com-
missioner.
CHAPTER IX.
SIMON VAN DER STEL'S ADMINISTRATION (cantMVued). EX-
PLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AFRICA - 276
Journey of Commander Van der Stel to Namaqualand — Particulars
concerning Hottentots and Bushmen along the route —
Description of the country along the south-western coast
— Effects of rain and of drought — Discovery of the Copper
mountain — Results of the commander's journey — ^Account of
the wreck of the Dutch ship Stavenisae on the coast of Natal
— Adventures of the shipwrecked crew — Account of the wreck
of the English ketch Good Hope at the bay of Natal —
Particulars concerning the building of the Centaurus at Natal
— ^Account of the loss of the English ketch Bona Ventura at
St. Lucia Bay — ^Escape of some of the wrecked men in the
Centaurus — Search along the coast for the others — Rescue of
many of them — Adventures of Guillaimie Chenut — ^Voyage of
the galiot Noord along the southern and south-eastern coasts
— Survey of Delagoa Bay — Occurrences at Natal — Particulars
concerning the Bantu tribes between Natal and the Eeis-
kama river — ^Account of the expedition under Ensign Schryver
to the Inqua tribe of Hottentots — Information concerning the
tribes between the Inquas and the Amaxosa — Second voyage
Contents. xxv
Pies
of the galiot Noord along the south-eastern coast — ^Purchase
by the Dutch East India Company of the country around
the bay of Natal from a native chief — ^Account of the loss
of the Noord on Elippen Point — Suffering of the shipwrecked
crew before reaching the Cape — ^Hospitality of Captain Elaas
— Causes of the hostility of all other races towards the
Bushmen.
CHAPTER X.
SIMON VAN DEB STEL*S ADMINISTRATION [continued) . . 808
Visit of French astronomers to the Cape — Particulars concerning
emigration from the Netherlands to South Africa — Establish-
ment of a yearly fair at Stellenbosch — Mode of target shooting
in the seventeenth century — Arrangement for divine service at
Stellenbosch — ^Erection of various public buildings at Stellen-
bosch — Extension of vineyards — Experiments with the olive —
Particulars concerning tree planting — Wreck of the Portuguese
ship Nossa Senhora dos Milagros — Treatment of shipwrecked
Siamese ambassadors to the king of Portugal — Particulars cbn-
ceming the struggle with the Bushmen — Specimens of local
regulations — Establishment of a deeds registry — Outbreak of
a destructive epidemic — ^Visit of a French fleet of war —
Extension of the settlement to Drakenstein — Survey of False
Bay — Account of the naming of Simon's Bay — Condition of
the colonists — Particulars concerning sumptuary regulations ~
Damage caused by locusts — Progress of agriculture — Particu-
lars concerning the census of 1687 — Emigration from the
southern to the northern Netherland provinces after the
pacification of Ghent — Emigration from France after 1670 —
Desire of the directors of the East India Company to
obtain some of the refugees as colonists — Arrival at the
Cape of various small parties of Huguenots — Account of
the clergyman Simond — Assistance given to the Huguenots
after their arrival — Location of the Huguenots at Stellen-
bosch and Drakenstein — Arrangements for public worship —
Establishment of a school at Drakenstein — Beceipt of assist-
ance from Batavia — Names of the Huguenots in South Africa
in 1690 — Failure of a project to send out a party of Vaudois
to the colony — Grievances of the immigrants — HI feeling
between the French and Dutch colonists — Establishment of
a church at Drakenstein — Instructions regarding schools —
Method of locating immigrants — Blending of the different
nationalities.
VOL. I. b*
xxvi Contents.
CHAPTBB XI.
PAOB
SIMON VAN DER STEL'S ADMINISTRATION (contmueO^ . - 345
Arriyal of a number of Dutch immigrants — Intercourse between
the Europeans and the Hottentots — Strife between the
different Hottentot clans — Hostility towards the Bushmen —
Progress of agriculture — Improvements in the breed of cattle
— Introduction of Persian horses and asses and of Spanish
rams — Intelligence of war between Holland and France —
Capture in Table Bay of the French ships N<yrmands and
Coche — Rapacity of the East India Company's servants in the
Asiatic dependencies — Creation of the office of independent
fiscal — Plans of the directors for reducing their expenditure
at the Cape — Experiments with vines and olive trees — De-
scription of Capetown in 1691— Elevation of the colony to the
rank of a government — ^Names of the chief officials in 1091 —
Names of the principal burghers in 1691 — Census returns of
1691 — Particulars concerning revenue — Statistics of shipping —
Improvements in the town — ^Experiments in the cultivation of
various plants — Damage caused by wild animals — Shocks of
earthquake in Table Valley — Changes in the staff of officials
— Erection of a large hospital — Instances of dreadful ravages
of scurvy — Various shipwrecks — Danger from pirates — Seizure
of the brigantine Amy in Saldanha Bay — Contemplated
abandonment of farming operations by the Company — Names
of new colonists — Ghradual alienation of sympathy between
Governor Simon van der Stel and the colonists — High opinion
of the governor held by the directors — Resignation of his
office by Simon van der Stel — Appointment by the directors
of his eldest son as his successor — His retirement to
Constantia and subsequent career.
CHAPTER XIL
WILHEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL, GOVERNOR, INSTALLED
llTH FEBRUARY 1699, RECALLED 8rd JUNE 1707 • - 879
Appointment of Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel as governor — Search
for islands with forests on them — Extensive planting of trees
— Tour of the governor — Inspection of the Tulbagh basin —
Naming of the Witsenberg — Occupation by graziers of the
country about Riebeek*s Easteel and the Tulbagh basin —
Formation of a small military outpost in the Tulbagh
basin — Permission to the burghers to purchase cattle from
1.
\
Contents. xxvii
PAGE
the Hottentots — Contract for supply of meat — Cattle breeding
henceforth a favourite pursuit of colonists — Troubles with
Bushmen — Dealings with Hottentots — Church matters — Dis-
continuance of the use of the French language in the
church at Drakenstein — Proceedings of a marauding party —
Wreck of the Meresteyn — Expedition to Natal — Account of
an English resident at Natal — Fruitless efiforts of the
directors and the Cape government to make South Africa
a wool-producing country — Experiment in silk culture —
Placing of partridges and pheasants on Bobben Island —
Long drought —Increase of population — Want of sympathy
between the government and the colonists — Extensive
farming operations by the governor and other officials —
Complaints of the colonists to the supreme authorities —
Violent action of the governor — Arrest of various burghers
and their committal to prison — Banishment of a burgher
to Batavia and of four others to Europe — Defiance of the
government by the country people — ^Action of the directors
in the Netherlands — Becall of the governor and other officials
— Arrival of the newly appointed secunde Johan Comelis
d'Ableing and transfer of the administration to him — Views
of the colonists and of the directors as to the rights of
burghers.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHAN CORNELIS D'ABLEING, SECUNDE, ACTING GOVER-
NOB, 3bd JUNE 1707 TO 1st FEBRUARY 1708.
liOUIS VAN ASSENBUBGH, GOVEBNOB, INSTALLED 1st
FBBBUABY 1708, DIED 27th DEOEMBEB 1711.
WHiLEM HELOT, SECUNDE, ACTING GOVEBNOB, 28th
DECEMBEB 1711 TO 28th MABCH 1714.
MAUBITS BASQUES DE CHAVONNES, GOVEBNOB, IN-
STALLED 28th MABCH 1714, DIED 8th SEPTEMBEB 1724 410
Matters connected with the different churches and clergymen —
Arrival of Governor Van Assenburgh — Proceedings against the
late officials in Amsterdam — Division and sale of Vergelegen
— ^Visit of the commissioner Simons — Begulations concerning
the manumission of slaves — ^Abandonment of the island
of Mauritius by the Dutch — ^Visit of the retired governor-
general Van Hoom — Instructions concerning the tithes of
grain — Damage to the village of Stellenbosch by fire — Placaat
xxviii Contents.
PAOB
against destruction of trees — Neglect of tree planting —
Definition of a boundary between the Cape and Stellenbosch
districts — Death of Gk>Yemor Van Assenburgh — ^Election of the
secnnde Willem Helot to act as governor — Enlargement of
the colony — False alarm concerning an inroad of the Ghreat
Namaqnas — First appecurance of small-pox in South Africa —
Appointment of Colonel Maurits Basques de Chavonnes as
governor — Efiforts to equalise revenue and expenditure — New
taxes — Basis of colonial law — Dismissal of the secunde Helot
— Hostilities with the Bushmen — The first colonial commando
— ^Trouble caused by fugitive slaves — Struggle for place and
rank — Important questions submitted by the directors to the
council of policy — Experiments in the production of wool,
indigo, tobacco, and olives — Efforts to find a market for Cape
wine — New diseases among homed cattle and sheep — Scarcity
of butcher's meat — Prohibition of sale of meat and vegetables
to foreigners — Buin of the Namaqua tribe — Outbreak of horse
sickness — Expansion of the Company's trade after the peace
of Utrecht — Befusal of supplies to private traders — ^Establish*
ment of a factory at Delagoa Bay — Shipwrecks on the coast
and in Table Bay — ^Erection of church buildings at the
Paarl and Stellenbosch — Death of the governor — ^Appointment
by the council of Jan de la Fontaine to act as governor —
Good and bad seasons and exportation of farm produce —
Names of new colonists.
I.
MAPS.
1
II. 286
ni. 388
BISTORT OF SOUTH AFEICA.
CHAPTER I.
AN TAN RIEBEBK, GOMUANDBR, LANDED IN SOUTH APHIOA
7th APRIL 1693, RETIRED era MAY lOlil.
EB Portagaese, who were the first Europeans to visit
le shores of Soathem Africa, did not attempt oitlior to
nn a settlement or to carry on commerce below l>(4ai;oa
ay, and a centiuy and a half after their occu)>Ation ot
i^ala had never penetrated beyond the coast lK>lt of any
lit of the present Cape Colony west of the Sundfty rivot.
h^ were mere traders, and the Hottentots had iiolliinH
liich they wanted to porcbase. Tho Dutch, who wrcHtml
om them the traffic of the East, for a 1011)^ time had no
tonght of colonisation either, but from the first appoaraiico
I these people in the Indian seas tlie soutti-wuHtorn part ot
le African continent acquired an iniportanco it novor lim)
3fore. The Portuguese ocean road was wimt ot Mndn-
iBcar, consequently they did not need a rofrnHltniMiit Htiitinii
9tweeD St. Helena and Mozambique, hut tho Dntcli, who
used south of the great island, required one at tho turning
[>int of the long sea jouruey between Holland and Batavia.
■wing to this, their fleets were in tho habit of putting into
'aiile Bay for the purpose of obtaining news, taking in fnmh
'ater, catching fish, and trying to barter cattle from the
atives, which they were not always fortunate enough to
rocnre.
On the 26th of July 1649 a document setting forth tho
ivantages that might be derived from the occupation of
'able Valley was presented to the directors of the Amster-
am chamber of the United Netherlands chartered East
adia Company. It was written by Leendert Jansz — ot
VOL. I. I
2 History of South Africa. [1649
Janssen as the name would be spelt now, — and bore his
signature and that of Nicolaas Proot. The style and word-
ing of the document show that its author was a man of
observation, but it contains no clue by which his position
in the Company's service can be ascertained. He and Proot
had resided in Table Valley more than five months, and they
could therefore speak from experience of its capabilities.
The Haarlem, one of the finest of the Company's ships,
had put into Table Bay for fresh water and whatever else
could be obtained, and in a gale had been driven on the
Blueberg beach. The strongly timbered vessel held to-
gether, and the crew succeeded in saving not only their
own effects but the ship's stores and the cargo. The
neighbourhood of the wreck was not a desirable site for
a camping-ground, and therefore when the Company's goods
were secured against the weather, and a small fort had
been constructed in which a few soldiers could be left,
Janssen and Proot with the rest of the crew removed to
Table Valley. Close by a stream of pure sweet water, on
a site somewhere near the centre of the present city of
Capetown, they threw up a bank of earth for protection,
and encamped vnthin it.
They had saved some vegetable seeds and garden tools
which chanced to be on board the wreck, and soon a plot
of groimd was placed under cultivation. Cabbages, pump-
kins, turnips, onions, and various other vegetables throve as
well as they had seen in any part of the world, and among
them were men who had visited many lands. The natives
came in friendship to trade with them, and brought homed
cattle and sheep in such numbers for sale that they were
amply supplied with meat for themselves and had sufficient
to spare for a ship that put in with eighty or ninety sick.
Gskme in abundance fell under their guns, and fish was
equally plentiful. They were here in spring and early
summer, when the cUmate is perhaps the most deUghtful
in the world.
At length, after they had spent between five and six
1649] y<^^ ^^^ Riebeek, 3
months very happily, the return fleet of 1648, under conl-
mand of WoUebrant Geleynsen, put into Table Bay. The
cargo of the Haarlem was conveyed to Salt Kiver, and
thence re-shipped for Europe. And when the fleet set sail,
it bore awav from South Africa men whose reminiscences
were of a pleasant and fruitful land, in which they had en-
joyed health and peace and plenty. The document which
Janssen and Proot laid before the directors of the East India
-Company took its tone from their experience. It pointed
out many and great advantages, and overlooked all diffi-
culties in the way of forming a settlement in Table Valley.
The author considered it beyond doubt that fruit trees of
every kind would thrive as well as vegetables had done in
the garden made by the Haarlem's crew, that horned cattle
and sheep could be purchased in plenty, that cows could
be bred and cheese and butter made, and that hogs could
be reared and fattened in numbers sufficient to supply the
needs of the Company's ships. Then there were birds to
be shot, and fish to be caught, and salt to be gathered.
He pointed out how Uttle was to be had at St. Helena,
and how necessary for the refreshment of the sick was a
victualling station between the Netherlands and the sources
of trade in the East. Already there was ample experience of
the benefits derived by the purchase of a few head of cattle
and the gathering of wild herbs at the Cape.
There were sources of wealth also. Whales put into
Table Bay at times in shoals, and could easily be made
prize of. Seals were to be had in hundreds, and their oil
and skins were valuable. The hides of the large antelopes
would also in time readily find a market. The sickness
caused in getting fresh water, by the men being compelled to
wade in the surf at all seasons of the year, was referred to,
and, as a contrast, a jetty and wooden pipes were pointed
out. The natives were spoken of as a people indeed without
such institutions or forms of government as those of India,
but peaceably disposed and capable of being taught. It was
true that Netherlanders had sometimes been killed by them,
4 History of South Africa, [165 1
but that was because other Europeans had taken their cattle
by force. There was no doubt that they could learn the
Dutch language, and in course of time could be educated in
the Christian religion. Finally, the author expressed siu:-
prise that the enemies of the Netherlands had not already
formed a settlement at the Cape, and with a small war fleet
captured all of the Company's ships as they were about to
pass.
The memorial of Janssen and Proot was referred by the
chamber of Amsterdam to the supreme directory of the
Company, who, after calling for the opinions of the other
chskmbers, and finding them favourable, on the 30th of
August 1650 resolved to establish such a victualling station
as was proposed. The deputies at the Hague,^ who were in-
structed to draw up a plan for this purpose, availed them-
selves further of the experience of Nioolaas Proot, who was
then residing at Delft, and to whom the post of commander
of the expedition was oiSfered. On the 20th of the following
March the supreme directory approved of the plan sub-
mitted by the deputies at the Hague, and the chamber of
Amsterdam was empowered to put it in execution. Thus
twenty months were occupied in discussion before anything
else was done towards carrying out the project.
Five days later, instructions concerning the expedition
were issued to the skippers of the ships Dromedaris and
BeigeVy and of the yacht Goede Hoop. These vessels, which
were destined to bring the party of occupation to our shores,
were then lying in the harbour of Amsterdam. The Drome-
daris was one of those old-fashioned Indiamen with broad
square sterns and poops nearly as high as their maintops,
such as can be seen depicted upon the great seal of the Com-
1 Four deputies from the chamber of Amsterdam, two from the chamber
of Zeeland, and one from each of the small chambers formed a committee
called the Haagsche Besoignes, whose duty it was to arrange docimients for
the assembly of seventeen. The Indian correspondence, in particular, was
prepared by this body for submission to the supreme directory. The com>
mittee had no power to issue orders or instructions of any kind.
1651] Jan van Riebeek. 5
pany. In size she was but a fourth rate. Like all of her
class, she was fitted for war as well as for trade, and carried
an armament of eighteen great guns. The Beiger was
smaller, with only one deck, which was flush. She was
armed also, but the number of her guns is not stated. The
Goede Hoop, was merely a large decked-boat, and was in-
tended to remain at the Cape to perform any services that
might be required of her.
The skippers were directed to proceed to Table Bay, and
to construct close to the Fresh river a wooden building, the
materials for which they were to take with them. They
were then to select a suitable site for a fort, to contain space
for the accommodation of seventy or eighty men, and to
this fort when finished they were to give the name Good
Hope. Four iron culverins were to be placed on each of
its angles. As soon as they were in a condition to defend
themselves, they were to take possession of sufficient rich and
fertile ground for gardens, and also of suitable pasture land
for cattle. The framework of some boats was to be taken
out, and the boats when put together were to be employed
in looking for passing ships and conducting them to the
anchorage. All this being accomplished, the ships were to
proceed to Batavia, leaving seventy men at the Cape. These
men were to pay special attention to the cultivation of the
gardens, so that the object might be attained for which* the
settlement was intended, which was to provide the crews of
the Company's fleets with refreshments. They were to take
care not to injure any of the natives in their persons or their
cattle, but were to endeavour to gain their attachment by
friendly treatment. A diary of all events was to be kept,
and enquiries were to be made for anything that could tend
to reduce the expense or be of profit to the Company. A
copy of the document signed by Janssen and Proot was an-
nexed to these instructions for the guidance of the expedition.
Nicolaas Proot having declined the offer of the directors,
they selected as the head of the settlement about to be
formed in South Africa an officer who had been previously a
6 History of South Africa, [165 1
surgeon in their service. His name, according to modem
spelling, was Jan van Biebeek, but he himself wrote it
Johan van Biebeeck, and it is found in the records of bis
time also spelt Biebeecq and Bietbeeck, the last of which
forms shows the origin of the word. A ship's surgeon of
those days was required to possess some skill in dressing
wounds and to have a sUght knowledge of medicine, but
was not educated as a physician is now. Very often a
copying clerk or a soldier, with no other training than that
of an assistant in a hospital, if he had aptitude for the duties
of a surgeon, was promoted to the oflBce. Mr. Van Biebeek
was of this class, but he was nevertheless a man of con-
siderable ability, who let no opportimity of acquiring
knowledge escape him. A little, fiery-tempered, resolute
man, in the prime of Ufe, with perfect health, untiring
energy, and unbounded zeal, he was capable of performing
a great amount of useful work. No better officer indeed
could have been selected for the task that was to be taken
in hand, where culture and refinement would have been out
of place.
He had been a great voyager, and had seen many
countries. The directors placed in his hands the document
drawn up by Janssen, that he might comment upon it»
which he did at some length. He thought that the settle-
ment could be enclosed with hedges of thorn bushes, such
as he had seen in the Caribbees, and which constituted the
chief defence of the islanders. He had noticed how hides
were preserved in Siam, and how arrack was made in
Batavia. He remembered what was the price of antelope
skins in Japan when he was there, and he had seen a good
deal of Northern China, and believed that its vjuied pro-
ductions would flourish at the Cape. In Greenland he had
observed the process of procuring oil from whales and seals,
and saw no difficulty in carrying it out in South Africa.
At the Cape he had resided three weeks on shore, during
the time the cargo of the Haarlem was being transferred
from the beach to the fleet under WoUebrant Geleynsen.
1651] Jan van Riedeek. 7
His opinions concerning the advantages of a settlement
and the resources of the country coincided with those of
Janssen, but they diiSfered with respect to the character of
the natives. Van Kiebeek had frequently heard of white
men being beaten to death by them, and he considered that
it would be necessary in building the fort to provide for
defence against them as well as against European enemies.
He did not deny that they could learn the Dutch language,
or that Christianity could be propagated among them, but
he spoke very cautiously on these points. If it were as
Janssen appeared to beUeve, it would be a good thing, he
observed. In this respect a clergjonan would be able to
perform the best service, and if the Company chose to be at
the expense of maintaining one, his presence would tend to
the improvement of the Europeans also.
In those days ships were not despatched on long voyages
with such expedition as at present, and hence it need not
cause any surprise to find the Dromedaris and her consorts
still in Netherland waters in December 1651. On the
4th of that month the directors resolved that Mr. Van
Biebeek should have power to convene the broad council of
the ships, and should preside therein, or, in other words, he
was appointed commander-in-chief of the little fleet.
On the 12th additional instructions were issued concern-
ing the expedition. Precautions were to be observed against
surprise by an enemy. No offence whatever was to be given
to any one calling at the Cape, except to subjects of the
king of Portugal residing within the Umits of the Company's
charter, who were open and declared foes. No representa-
tives of any nation were to be interfered with who should
attempt to form a settlement beyond the Company's bound-
aries, but marks of occupation were to be set up without
delay wherever the ground was serviceable. The Beiger
was to be sent to Batavia as soon as her cargo for the Cape
should be landed. The Dromedaris was to remain in Table
Bay until the completion of the fort. There were strange
rumours concerning the designs of Prince Bupert, and
8 History of South Africa. [1651
although the directors did not credit all they heard, it was
necessary to be constantly on guard. Ships returning home-
ward from beyond the Cape were therefore to be warned to
sail in company and to be always prepared for battle.
Attached to these instructions was an extract from a
despatch of the chamber of Middelburg, giving an account
of Prince Kupert. One Captain Aldert, who had been cruis-
ing off the coast of Portugal, had just arrived at Flushing,
and stated that he had frequently met the prince's fleet
of eight ships, all of heavy burden, and had seen them
plunder a vessel of Castile in which was a large amount of
specie. The prince had prevented him from making prize
of a Portuguese ship laden with sugar. It was supposed
that he intended to proceed to St. Helena, and he in wait
there for the return fleet of the EngUsh East India
Company.
On the 15th of December the directors named David
Coninck, skipper of the Dromedaris, to succeed the com-
mander in case of any accident. The day following, Mr.
Van Eiebeek, with his family and some relatives of whom he
was guardian, embarked in the Dromedaris, which vessel
was still taking in stores for the voyage. Among the com-
mander's relatives who accompanied him were two nieces,
EUzabeth and Sebastiana van Opdorp, both of whom were
afterwards married in South Africa. In those days, when
the United Provinces possessed the largest mercantile
marine in the world, Dutch women often lived on board ship
with their husbands, and children were born and grew up
almost as in a village on shore. Hence the young ladies of
Mr. Van Kiebeek's family probably did not look upon coming
to South Africa as much of a hardship, especially as they
were accompanied by others of their sex. On the 17th the
family of the chief gardener, Hendrik Boom, went on board,
and a small cabin was assigned for their use. Shortly after
this, everything being at last in readiness, the little fleet
dropped down to Texel and cast anchor there, waiting for
a favourable wind.
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 9
On Sunday the 24th of December 1651 an easterly breeze
sprang up, and about noon the Dromedaris, Beiger, and
Croede Hoop, in company with a great fleet of merchant
ships, hove up their anchors and stood out to sea. The
Dromedaris was now found to be so topheavy from bad
stowage and want of ballast that in squally weather it was
dangerous to show much canvas, and it was even feared at
times that she would overturn. In consequence of this, the
commander signalled to the other vessels, and on the 30th
their skippers went on board and a coimcil was held. There
were present Jan van Biebeek, senior merchant, David
Coninck, skipper of the Dromedaris, Jan Hoochsaet, skipper
of the Beiger, and Simon Pieter Turver, skipper of the
Goede Hoop. Pieter van der Helm was the secretary. The
council resolved to put into a port on the English coast and
procure some ballast, but the skippers had hardly returned
to their own vessels when the wind set in dead oS the
EngUsh shore, and they were obliged to face the bay of
Biscay as they were. Fortunately they had fair weather, and
as soon as they got beyond the ordinary cruising ground of
the privateers, the Dromedaris sent nine of her heavy guns
below, which put her in better trim. The fear of Prince
Bupert alone prevented them from reducing her available
armskment still further. They beUeved he would not make
much distinction between a Dutch ship and an English one,
and for aught they knew, he might have a Portuguese com-
mission. Very likely he was somewhere between them and
St. Helena or Table Bay, on the watch for Indiamen, and
therefore it was necessary to be constantly on guard and
ready for defence.
The weather continued favourable, and the vessels
seldom parted company. On the 20th of January 1652 they
were oflf the Cape Verde islands, and the commander sum-
moned the council again. The skippers met, and decided
that as there was no sickness on board any of the vessels
they would continue the voyage without calling. From this
time until the 29th of March nothing of any note occurred.
lo History of South Africa. [1652
Then, for the third time during the passage, the council
assembled on board the Dromedaris. The probable lati-
tude and longitude they were in was first determined
by the very simple method of striking the mean between
their different calculations, and they then resolved to use
every exertion to reach 34** 20' S., after which they would
direct their course eastward to the Cape.
On the 5th of April, about the fifth glass of the after-
noon watch, the chief mate of the Dromedaris caught sight
of Table Mountain rising above the eastern horizon, and
won the reward of sixteen shillings which had been
promised to the first who should discover land. A gun was
at once fired and the flags were hoisted to make the fact
known to the crews of the Beiger and Goede Soop, which
vessels were some distance to leeward. During the night
the little fleet drew in close to the land, somewhat to the
southward of the entrance to Table Bay. The 6th opened
with calm weather, and as the vessels lay idle on the sea,
a boat was sent in advance with the bookkeeper Adam
Hulster and the mate Arent van leveren, who had orders
to peer cautiously round the Lion's rump, and report if
any ships were at anchor. About two hours before dark
the boat returned with the welcome intelligence that the
bay was empty, and, as a breeze sprang up just then,
the Dromedaris and Goede Hoop stood in, and shortly after
sunset dropped their anchors in five fathoms of water, off
the mouth of the Fresh river. The Beiger remained out-
side all night, but early next morning she came running
in before a light breeze, and at eight o'clock dropped anchor
close to her consorts.
And so, after a passage of one hundred and four days
from Texel, on the morning of Sunday the 7th of April 1652
Mr. Van Kiebeek and his party looked upon the site of their
future home. The passage for those days was a remarkably
quick one. The oflicers of every ship that made Batavia
Boads within six months of leaving Texel were entitled to
a premium of fifty poimds sterling, and the Cape was
1652] Jan van Riebeek, 1 1
considered two-thirds of the sailing distance outwards. So
that in 1652, and indeed for more than another century,
anything below one hundred and twenty days was con-
sidered a short passage between the Netherlands and South
Africa.
The people on board having been so long without fresh
food were somewhat sickly, but the death rate had been
unusually small. The Dromedaris had lost only two in-
dividuals, one being a child of the ship's surgeon, who had
his family with him, and the other a carpenter who was
ill when he left the fatherland. No deaths are mentioned
as having occurred on board the Beiger or Goede Hoop,
At daybreak Skipper Coninck landed for the purpose
of looking for letters and to get some herbs and fresh fish.
It was usual for the masters of ships that called at Table
Bay to leave journals of events and other documents con-
cealed in secure places, and to mark on prominent stones
directions for iSnding them. This had been' the practice
for nearly half a century, so that a fleet arriving from home
always expected to get here the latest news from the East.
In time of war great caution had to be taken, so as to leave
no information that could be made use of by an enemy,
but otherwise the practice was found to be very convenient.
The skipper took with him six armed soldiers and a boat's
crew with a seine. A box containing three letters was
discovered, and a good haul of fish was made.
The letters had been written by Jan van Teylingen,
admiral of the last return fleet, who had left Table Bay on
the 26th of February with three ships out of the eleven
under his flag. The others had been lost sight of soon after
passing the strait of Sunda. The admiral had waited here
eleven days, and had then gone on to St. Helena, in hope
of finding the missing ships there. But in case they should
still be behind and should arrive in Table Bay after his
departure, he had left a letter addressed to their com-
manders, informing them of his movements. In it he
stated that he had only been able to procure one bullock
12 History of South Africa. [1652
and one sheep from the natives, though many cattle were
seen inland. There were on board the missing ships some
horses intended for the use of the people who were coming
to form a victualling station, and he directed that these
should be landed and placed in charge of a certain Hottentot
who could speak English. The other two letters were
addressed to the governor-general and councillors of India,
and were left here to be taken on by any ship that might
call.
In the evening Mr. Van Riebeek and some others went
ashore to examine the valley and select a site for the fort.
It was towards the close of the dry season, and the land
was everywhere parched with drought. The sources of the
little streamlets which in winter ran into the Fresh river
were all dried up, and their channels were gaping to the
sun. The wild flowers of many hues, which at other sea-
sons of the year delighted the eyes of visitors, were now to
be sought in vain. The summer heat was past, but no
rains had yet fallen to clothe the ground with a mantle of
beauty, and make it what Janssen and Proot had seen.
In many of the minor outlines of the vale the hand of
man has effected a striking change since that day. The
stream of sweet water, which the early voyagers called the
Fresh river, then ran down its centre from the mountain to
the sea. In the neighbourhood of the present Church-
square there was in winter a great swamp fed by the stream,
where hippopotami often disported themselves. All vestiges
of this have long since disappeared. In other parts of the
valley hollows have been filled up and hillocks levelled down,
and along the flank of the Lion's rump a slight alteration in
the contour has been made. The grand features of Table
Mountain in the background, the Devil's peak on one hand
and the Lion mount on the other, are all unchangeable save
by untold ages of time. As Antonio de Saldanha, first of
Europeans to enter the bay, saw them in 1503, and as they
are under our eyes to-day, so were they seen by Commander
Van Riebeek on that Sunday in April 1652.
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 13
When the boat returned, two natives of the Cape
peninsula went on board the Dromedaris, One of them
was a man who was closely connected with the Europeans
for the remainder of his life, and was the same in whose
charge the horses were to have been left, if the missing
ships of Van Teylingen's fleet had put into Table Bay
instead of passing on to St. Helena. His native name
was Autshumao, but he was better known afterwards
as Harry, or Herry as Mr. Van Eiebeek wrote it. He
had spent some time on board an English ship, in which
he had visited Bantam, and had acquired a smattering
of the language of those among whom he had lived. This
knowledge, very imperfect though it was, made him
useful as an interpreter between the Europeans and his
countrymen. The few families — fifty or sixty souls all
told — forming the little clan of which Harry was the
leading member, were then the only permanent inhabitants
of the Cape peninsula. They had no cattle, and main-
tained a wretched existence by fishing and gathering wild
roots. Mussels and periwinkles also made up a portion
of their diet, for they were in that stage of culture
which is marked by the kitchen middens along the coast,
though they were acquainted with the pastoral form of
living. They called themselves Goringhaikonas, but were
usually entitled Beachrangers by the Dutch. An im-
poverished, famine-stricken, half-naked band of savages,
hardly any conceivable mode of existence could be more
miserable than theirs.
There were two large clans, which were possessed of
herds of homed cattle and sheep, and which visited Table
Valley and its neighbourhood periodically when the pastur-
age was good. One of these clans, known to natives as
the Goringhaiquas and to the Dutch first as the Saldanhars
and afterwards as the Kaapmans, had a fighting force of
five or six hundred men. They were under a chief named
Gogosoa, who had attained a very great age and was so
stout that he was commonly called the Fat Captain. The
14 History of South Africa. [1652
other clan was the Gorachouqua, nicknamed the Tobacco
Thieves by the Dutch. They had a force of three or four
hundred fighting men, and obeyed a chief named Choro.
The Goringhaiquas and the Gorachouquas wandered about
with their flocks and herds, sometimes pitching their mat
huts beside Table Mountain, sometimes at the foot of
Eiebeek's Kasteel, or in the vale now known as French
Hoek. The smoke of their fires might at times be seen
rising anywhere within the farthest mountains visible on
the north and the east. The Goringhaiquas, being the
most numerous and wealthy, were 'looked upon by Mr.
Van Eiebeek as better entitled than the others to be
called the owners of this part of the country. They were
feeding their herds on the opposite side of the bay when
the party of occupation arrived.
On the 8th the council, consisting of the commander
and the three skippers, met on board the Dromedaris to
arrange for commencing the work on shore. It was re-
solved that they should land at once and mark out a site
for the fortress. Exclusive of officers, there were one hun-
dred and eighty-one men on board the three vessels, and
of these, one hundred were to be set to work in raising
the walls. The carpenters were to put up a wooden
dwelling-house and a store-shed for temporary use. The
men left on board the ships were to be employed in dis-
charging the goods and in catching fish.
This custom of bringing all matters of importance before
a council for decision was the usual method of procedure in
the Company's service. Every ship had its council, nomi-
nated by the authorities before she left port. When several
ships sailed in company, the principal men in each formed a
broad council for the squadron. A settlement such as that
in South Africa was regarded as similar to a single ship in a
fleet. It had its own council, which was here for a long
course of years a very elastic body, adapted to meet the
circumstances of the times. It consisted of the presiding
officer, who had no higher title until 1672 than that of
1652] Jan van Riebeek, 15
commander, and a number of officers of inferior rank, who
were usually appointed by some commissioner on his way to
or from India. When there were ships belonging to the
Company lying in the bay, their principal officers and those
of the Cape settlement formed a broad council, which was
presided over by the highest in rank, who might be the
commander here or a stranger to the place. These broad
councils passed resolutions concerning the most important
matters in South Africa as well as concerning the affairs of
fleets.
The gradation of authority in the Company's service was
very clearly defined. The assembly of seventeen was su-
preme. Next came the governor-general and council of
India, whose orders and instructions were issued from the
castle of Batavia. Then its authority was spread out
among a vast number of admirals and governors and com-
manders, each with his council, but wherever these came in
contact, the lower in rank gave way to the higher. The
Company's servants scattered over the eastern world were
like a regiment of soldiers. The assembly of seventeen was
the commander-in-chief. The governor-general and council
of India was the colonel. The admirals and governors and
commanders were the captains and lieutenants and ensigns,
and wherever a captain appeared the lieutenants without
question submitted to him. If the officers of a regiment
were stationed in many different posts and were in the
habit of assembling councils of war on all occasions,
the parallel would be complete. This circumstance must
be borne in mind, as it gives a clear insight into the
mode of government under which the occupation took
place.
Mr. Van Riebeek and the three skippers, having made
an inspection of Table Valley, selected a site for the fort on
the ground close behind the present general post office.
The outhnes were then marked out, and the labourers
commenced the work without delay. The fort was in the
form of a square, with bastions at its angles. The length of
1 6 History of South Africa, [1652
each of its faces was two hundred and fifty- two Bhynland
feet. The walls were constructed of earth, twenty feet in
thickness at the base and tapering to sixteen feet at the top.
They were twelve feet in height, and were surmounted by a
parapet. Bound the whole structure there was a moat, into
which the water of the Fresh river could be conducted.
Within, there were some wooden buildings and a square
stone tower rising above the walls. The tower had a flat
roof, from which its defenders could fire down upon an
enemy who should attempt to scramble over the banks
of earth. The buildings were used as dwelling-houses,
barracks, and storehouses. In front, that is on the side
facing the sea, a large space beyond the moat was enclosed
with an earthen wall so constructed as to give additional
strength to the whole. In this enclosure were the work-
shops and the hospital, which was a large building, as the
Company intended that sick men from the fleets should be
left here to recover. At the back there was a similar en-
closure, which was used as a cattle kraal. The plan was
altered several times during the course of construction, in
such respects as the thickness and height of the walls, but
the general design remained as it was laid out on the 9th of
April. Such was the original fort Good Hope, when it was
completed.
As soon as the tents were pitched ashore, the Goringhai-
konas, or beachrangers, brought their famihes to the en-
campment, where they afterwards remained pretty con-
stantly. Occasionally they would wander along the beach
seeking shell-fish, but as far as food was concerned they
were now better off than they had ever been before. Mr.
Van Eiebeek had instructions to conciliate the natives, and
in everything he did his utmost to carry out the orders of
his superiors in authority. He believed that Harry
especially would be of great service in communicating with
the inland hordes, and therefore he tried to gain his attach-
ment by liberal presents of food and clothing. The others
were often supplied at meal-times with such provisions as
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 17
were given to the labourers, but Harry always had a share
of whatever was on the commander's own table.
About noon on the 10th, as some of the workmen were
busy with their spades and wheelbarrows, and others were
beating down bushes and earth in the walls, nine or ten of
the Groringhaiquas made their appearance. To the surprise
of the Dutch, Harry's people immediately seized their
assagais and bows, and attacked the strangers with great
fury. Skipper Hoochsaet with a corporal and a party of
itrmed soldiers ran in between them, but had some difficulty
in separating the combatants and restoring peace. It was
not four days since the expedition had arrived, and already *
the Europeans had learned of the bitter hostility existing
between the different Hottentot clans. At no distant date
they were to discover that the scene they had witnessed was
typical of the ordinary existence of the savage tribes of
Africa.
On the 15th the Salamander, one of the missing ships of
Van Teylingen's fleet, came into the bay. She reported that
the horses and various Indian plants and seeds which had
been sent from Batavia were on board the other vessels, and
must have passed the Cape before this date. It was after-
wards ascertained that the ships had gone on to St. Helena,
which was then an uninhabited island, and that the horses
had been turned loose there. The Salamander left here
a clerk, named Frederik Verburg, and two workmen, and
sailed on the 20th for the fatherland.
On the 24th Mr. Van Eiebeek and his family left the
Dromedaris and took up their residence on land, in a build-
ing roughly constructed of planks and standing close to the
beach. One of the walls of the fort was already in such a
condition that the cannon had been mounted upon it. Yet
the commander frequently complained of the slowness with
which the work was being carried on. The labourers were
enfeebled by the sea voyage, and they had been disappointed
in the expectation of being able to procure fresh food. The
pastoral clans were encamped at a distance, and hitherto
VOL. I. 2
1 8 History of South Africa. [1652
tbey had sent only one cow and a calf to be exchanged for
copper bars. The wild herbs and mustard leaves and
Bcurvy-graHa, for which they were longing so much, had
almost disappeared in the drought. The earth was like iron
under their picks, so that they were not digging but quarry-
ing it. And to add to their troubles, the south-east wind
blew frequently with such violence that they were nearly
blinded with dust, and could hardly stand upon the walls.
Their principal relief came from the sea. The bay was
swarming with flsh, and they had only to go as far as Salt
Biver to oast their soinoa. So weary were their palates of
sbip*s meat that they believed some kinds of Cape fish were
the most delicious in the world. There was nothing to ap-
proach them in flavour, they said, even in the waters of the
fatherland. On the night l)efore Mr. Van Biebeek's family
landed, they killed a great hippopotamus, as heavy as two
fat oxen, with a monstrous head and teeth five-eighths of an
ell in length. Its hide was an inch in thickness, and so
tough that their musket balls would not penetrate it. They
fired in vain behind its ears, but at last killed it with shots
in the forehead. To the people its flesh tasted as a delicacy,
and they rejoiced accordingly.
On the 7th of May the ships WaXvisch and Olifant
dropped their anchors in the bay, having left Texel on the
3rd of January. They had lost one hundred and thirty men
on the passage, and their crews were in a dreadful condition
from scurvy when they reached this port. On the 11th the
broad council met on board the Dromedaris, and resolved
that the fifty weakest invalids belonging to these two ships
should be brought ashore and left here. Provisions suffi-
cient to last for three months were to be landed for their
use, and all who should recover were to be sent to Batavia
with the first opportunity. The names of the four ships in
the bay were given to the bastions of the still unfinished
fort. That to the south was called the Dromedaris, to the
north the Beiger, to the east the Walvisch, and to the west
the Olifant. The little yacht had the same name as the
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 19
whole fort. As there were no refreshments except water
and fish to be had here, the ships sailed again as soon as
possible, and with them the Beiger left for Batavia.
On the 25th there arrived the ship Hof van Zeeland,
which sailed from home on the 31st of January, and had
lost thirty-seven men by death on the passage. She took in
water, and sailed again in a few days.
On the 28th the Dromedaris sailed, and the party of
occupation was left to its own resources. The cold stormy
weather of winter was beginning to set in, and the misery
of Mr. Van Biebeek and his people was daily increasing.
The rain could not be kept out of the tents and the wooden
buildings which they had run up for temporary use, and it
was with difficulty that they could preserve their bread and
perishable stores. With the change of weather came sick-
ness, which they were too weak to resist, and now almost
every day there was a death from dysentery or scurvy. On
the 3rd of June, out of one hundred and sixteen men, only
sixty were able to perform any labour. Fresh meat and
vegetables and proper shelter would have saved them, but
these things were not to be obtained. They had killed a
second hippopotamus, and its flesh was so much to their
Uking that they described it as tasting like veal ; but what
was one even of these huge beasts among so many mouths ?
There was no other game in Table Valley, though four men
who went out with guns saw many antelopes behind the
mountains.
They were almost as solitary as if they had been frozen
up in the Arctic sea. For weeks together they saw none of
the natives of the land but Harry's miserable followers, from
whom no assistance of any kind was to be had. The en-
campment was like a great hospital, in which the attendants
staggered about among the sick and the dying. The work
on the walls of the fort almost ceased, for they had enough to
do to take care of themselves.
But the rains, which had brought on the dysentery, in
an incredibly short time brought them also reUef. Grass
20 History of South Africa. [1652
sprang into existence as if by magic, and with it sprang up
rarions plants of a nutritious kind. They were all correc-
tives of scurvy, and that was mainly what was needed. The
sick and feeble went about gathering wild herbs and roots,
and declaring there was nothing in the world half so palat-
able. God had looked down in compassion upon them and
relieved them in their sore distress. With the grass ap-
peared game, great and small, but as yet they had not
learned to be successful as hunters. As soon as the first
showers fell a piece of ground was dug over, in which
Hendrik Boom, the gardener, planted seeds, and soon the
sick were enjoying such delicacies as radishes, lettuce, and
cress. Then they found good reeds for thatch, and when the
buildings were covered in with these instead of boards and
torn sails, they could almost bid defiance to the heavy rains.
Those were days in which the observances ordinarily
connected with a profession of religion were very strictly
adhered to. No one was permitted to be absent from public
prayers without good and suflBcient reasons, but no one was
allowed to worship God publicly in any other manner than
that the government approved of. Eeligious phrases were
constantly in people's mouths, and their correspondence was
charged with quotations from Scripture and ejaculatory
prayers. A great deal of this was as much mere form as
the words * God save the Queen * at the foot of a proclama-
tion against evading the customs are at the present day, but
it is certain that matters connected with pubhc worship
then occupied more of the people's attention than they do
now.
lu these, its most prosperous days, the Netherlands East
India Company provided for the religious needs of its ser-
vants in a very liberal manner. Its largest ships and its
most important possessions were all furnished with chap-
lains paid from its funds. Its smaller vessels and such
stations as the Cape for some years after its formation were
provided with men of lower ecclesiastical rank. They were
called comforters of the sick, or sick-visitors, and held offices
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 21
similar to those of catechists in the English church and
evangelists in various Presbyterian bodies. They instructed
the children and conducted religious services, but did not
administer the sacraments.
A sick-visitor, Willem Barents Wylant by name, came
to South Africa in the Dromedaris with Mr. Van Eiebeek.
His family was the first to whom quarters were assigned
within the walls of the fort, where on the 6th of June his
wife gave birth to a son, the first child of European blood
bom in the Cape Colony. The chaplains of ships that called
conducted services during their stay, and usually adminis-
tered the sacraments. The reverend Mr. Backerius, chap-
lain of the WcUvisch, was the first who is recorded to have
done so in South Africa, but it is possible that the Haarlem
had a clergyman on board, in which case the rites of the
church would certainly have been attended to during the
time the crew of that vessel remained in Table Valley.
The duties of the sick-visitors were strictly defined, and
in the Company's service no one was permitted to go beyond
his assigned sphere of labour. Every one had his place,
knew it, and was kept to it. During the time of greatest
trouble, however, the sick-visitor Wylant took upon himself
to address the people in his own words, instead of reading a
printed sermon as he was bound to do. In the following
year information of this was carried to Batavia, and
reached the ears of the clergy there. No fault was found
with the doctrines which he preached, but that an unor-
dained man should venture to address a congregation was
considered a scandal to the Christian church. The ecclesi-
astical court of Batavia addressed the governor-general and
council of India on the subject, and forthwith a despatch was
sent to Mr. Van Eiebeek requiring him to prohibit such
irregular proceedings. A letter from the ecclesiastical court
was also sent to the commander to the same effect, in which
it is stated that the sick-visitor should have known better
than to put his sickle into another's harvest and take to
himself honour which did not belong to him. This incident
22 History of South Africa. [1652
shows what importance the Dutch clergy then attached to a
strict adherence to the established order of things, and how
they objected to anything like innovation.
During the winter there were many heavy storms, and so
much rain fell that on several occasions the valley was quite
flooded. The ground that was prepared for gardens was
twice washed away. But as soon as a storm was over, the
people set to work again and laid fresh plots under cultiva-
tion. The land was now swarming with elands and harte-
beests and steenbucks, but the hunters with their clumsy
firelocks could not get within range of them. Mr. Van
Biebeek caused pitfalls to be made and snares to be set, but
all this labour was in vain, for during the whole season only
one young hartebeest was secured, and that was run down
by dogs. As soon as the workmen regained a little strength
the fort and the buildings it enclosed were taken in hand
again, so that by the 3rd of August the whole party managed
to get shelter within the walls. The heavy rains were found
not to damage the earthworks in the least, for the whole had
been faced with sods as soon as the ground was soft enough
to dig them.
At times the bay seemed to be filled with whales. They
came spouting in front of the commander's quarters nearly
every day, and caused him to reflect with regret upon the
loss which the Company was sustaining by his inabihty to
secure their oil. He had no men to spare to follow them up,
nor casks to preserve the oil in. On the 13th of August he
summoned his council, principally to take this matter into
consideration, and endeavour to devise and arrange some
plan for getting possession of the wealth before their eyes.
There were present at the council board the commander
himself, Simon Pieter Turver and Gerrit Abelsen, master
and mate of the yacht Goed^ Hoop, and the corporal Joost
van der Laeck. Pieter van der Helm kept a record of the
proceedings. They discussed the situation of affairs gener-
ally, and expressed their hope that assistance to finish the
fort would soon be furnished by the crews of the ships
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 23
expected from Europe. They then decided to represent to
the admiral of the outward-bomid fleet, as soon as he should
arrive in Table Bay, that in their opinion a good profit could
be made out of oil, and to request assistance from him to
establish a whale fishery. Without help they could do noth-
ing, as even if they had all the requisite materials at hand
the labourers were still so feeble and sickly that anything
beyond the necessary work in the gardens and on the build-
ings could not be undertaken.
In the second week of September the Goede Hoop was
sent to Eobben Island on a cruise of observation. She
returned with more than a hundred sea-birds and three
thousand eggs, a supply of food which was very welcome as
a change. The commander immediately resolved to visit the
island in person. He found that the gulls had destroyed all
the eggs which had been left in the nests disturbed by the
Goede Hoop's crew. The seals, from which the island has
its name, were not seen in very great numbers. The sailors
drove a flock of penguins like so many sheep to the water's
edge, where they were secured and put on board the yacht.
Soon after his return from Bobben Island, the com-
mander proceeded to inspect the country back of the Devil's
peak. He was fairly enraptured with the beauty and fer-
tility of the land there, and drew a bright mental picture of
what it might become if an industrious Chinese population
were introduced and located upon it. In such a case, there
would be an unlimited supply of fresh provisions always to
be obtained. The Chinese seem to have been favourites of
Mr. Van Biebeek, for he often wrote of them as the most
suitable people to carry out the Company's designs in South
Africa. He addressed the governor-general and council of
India on the subject, and represented his views to the
assembly o^ seventeen, but fortunately for this country there
were no Chinese emigrants then to be got hold of. If there
had been a hundred convicts of that race in the Company's
eastern possessions in 1653 or 1654, the whole future of the
Cape Colony would have been changed.
24 History of South Africa. [1652
During this inspection of the country, the commander
and his party visited the forests then to be found along the
base of the mountains and extending into all the kloofs.
There were trees of great size in them, and some so straight
that they seemed well adapted for ships* masts. The variety
of timber was considerable. Mr. Van Biebeek observed that
these forests had been visited long before, as on some of the
trees the dates 1604, 1620, and 1622 were found carved, but
no names or initials were seen.
Toward the close of September a party of four men set
out from the fort with the intention of making their way
overland to Mozambique, from which place they hoped to be
able to obtain a passage to Europe. So little knowledge had
they of the distance of the Portuguese possessions and of the
dangers of such a journey, or so utterly reckless had their
past sufferings made them, that they left provided with no
other food than four biscuits and a few fish. Following the
Dutch custom in every voyage or journey, the leader of the
Uttle band of fugitives kept a diary of occurrences, which he
wrote with red chalk. It commences * In the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ/ and tells of adventures with wild animals
and how God preserved them, until at last Willem Hujrt-
jens, Gerrit Dircksen, and Jan Verdonck could go no farther.
Then the leader, Jan Blanx, not being able to continue the
journey alone, was obliged to abandon hope of success, and
they all returned to the fort and gave themselves up, praying
for mercy. They had been absent eight days. During this
time the commander discovered that a spirit of disaffection
was widely spread among the workmen. They had been
looking forward to the arrival of the outward-bound fleet of
1652 for some relief, but it was now almost certain that the
ships had passed by, and they were beginning to entertain
feelings of despair. Mr. Van Eiebeek believed that severity
was necessary to meet such difSculties, and he therefore
caused some individuals who had uttered hasty expressions
to be arrested and tried for sedition. Under such circum-
stances, the return of the fugitives and their admission that
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 25
escape by land was impossible gave him great satisfaction.
When brought to trial, they all pleaded guilty and asked for
mercy, but they were condemned to two years* hard labour
in chains and their leader to suffer severe corporal punish-
ment. The last part of this sentence was carried out, but
on the following new year's day the culprits were released
upon promise of future good behaviour.
The fort was yet far from completed, but it was considered
by the commander to be capable of defence, and he was
therefore turning his attention to other matters. A party
of men was told off daily to assist Hendrik Boom in the
gardens. Preparations were made for forming a whaling
estabhshment near the mouth of Salt Biver as soon as men
and materials for the purpose could be obtained. The coun-
try for a few miles around was well explored. The fine
forests at Hout Bay were inspected, and the facility with
which fuel could be procured there was noted down. Then
the yacht Goede Hoop, which had been lying idle all the
winter and on several occasions had narrowly escaped being
driven on shore in the gales, was made ready for a short
voyage to the northward.
So little did the commander and council then know of the
south-west coast of Africa that they discussed the hkehhood
of gold, ambergris, musk, and ivory being obtainable in trade
at Saldanha Bay. They considered it at any rate certain
that people would be found there, because Admiral Joris van
Spilbergen saw the smoke of many fires inland when he
passed by in November 1601. From the journal of Spil-
bergen's voyage they ascertained that be had seen great
numbers of seals and conies on Dassen Island. And Simon
Pieter Turver himself, when last he was at St. Helena with
a return fleet from the Indies, had heard a French skipper
who arrived there at the same time boast that his cargo of
sealskins and oil, which he had obtained on this coast, was
worth over eight thousand pounds sterling.
The yacht was detained by contrary winds until the 21st
of October, when she stood out of Table Bay with a fair
26 History of South Africa. [1652
breeze, and in a few hours anchored off Elizabeth or Dassen
Island. The skipper with a party of sailors and the clerk
Frederik Verburg then went ashore. There was evidence
that the island had been used very recently as a sealing
station, for they saw some huts still standing, which had
been constructed of sealskins and ribs of whales, and found
some of the implements required in that pursuit. They
killed twenty conies, the flesh of which they described after-
wards as the most delicious meat they had ever tasted.
They saw a great many seals, and wild fowl innumerable, of
whose eggs they took on board about twelve thousand, and
then set sail for Saldanha Bay. The description which
they have left on record of this splendid sheet of water is
fairly accurate, though they believed that a great river
emptied into its southern end. It extends so far into the
land that they did not explore it thoroughly. A few
wretched Hottentots, of the same stamp as Harry's beach-
rangers, were found on its shores, but there were none
possessed of cattle living there at the time. After they had
been in the bay several days, however, a party of pastoral
Hottentots arrived and brought a couple of sheep which they
bartered to the strangers, but beyond these, a handful of
ostrich feathers, and three antelopes shot with arrows,
nothing whatever was to be obtained in trade. Some fish
were caught with a seine, and the advantages which the bay
offered for this pursuit were duly noted.
Skipper Turver, having venison, fish, and abundance of
eggs, deemed it prudent not to slaughter the two sheep, but
to put them upon an islet where they could graze until
needed. For this purpose he landed upon Schapen Island,
where as they were roaming about some of the men came
upon a great heap of dried sealskins. Upon examination, it
was found that a few on the top had been partly destroyed
by the action of the weather, but there were over two
thousand seven hundred in excellent condition. Scattered
about were various articles which explained the matter. A
French vessel had been there the previous season, and
1652] Jan van Riebeek. 27
having secured more than she could take away, had left the
heap of skins behind. Some of the islands were then
swarming with seals, so that Skipper Turver concluded the
French ship would speedily return for another cargo. In
his opinion the Netherlands East India Company, having
built a fort at the Cape, was now entitled to the exclusive
enjoyment of this source of profit. He therefore caused all
the good skins to be removed to the hold of the yacht, and
set up a mark of possession on behalf of the Company where
the heap had been. After this the Goede Hoop examined
the coast round St. Helena Bay, visited Dassen Island again,
and then returned to her old anchorage off the fort, where
she arrived safely on the 14th of November.
About the 1st of October the fires of the Eaapmans
began to be visible far away to the northward, and on the
9th of that month two of their scouts arrived at the fort
with news that the whole clan with its flocks and herds was
approaching, to which Mr. Van Riebeek responded heartily,
'God grant it. Amen.* The two strangers were much finer
specimens of the Hottentot race than any of the famine-
stunted beachrangers. They were naked, but each carried over
his arm a kaross of prepared skins, just as a European dandy
of those days would carry his mantle. As ornaments they wore
solid ivory armlets and various decorations made of copper.
The conmiander had positive orders to conciliate the
natives, and his own necessities at this moment were so
great that, apart from duty or inclination, he would have
been obliged to show them every mark of friendship. The
provisions which he had brought from the fatherland were
getting low, the outward-bound fleet had evidently passed by,
and it would be many months before the return fleet could
be expected. The very existence of his party might depend
upon obtaining a supply of cattle. The visitors were there-
fore treated with the utmost hospitaUty; they were shown
the stores of copper plates, brass wire, and tobacco, which
had been brought for trade, and when they left they carried
presents and messages of friendship with them.
28 History of South Africa, [1652
The Kaapmans were moving slowly with their cattle, as
it was their custom to seek change of pasture only when the
grass in any place was eaten ofiT. Their scouts and mes-
sengers after this came often to the fort, but it was not until
the 20th that they brought anything for sale. On that day
the trade of the season commenced by Mr. Van Biebeek
obtaining in barter three head of horned cattle, four sheep,
three tusks of ivory, and two young ostriches. Shortly after
this, the main body of Gogosoa's people reached the penin-
sula, and thousands of cattle were grazing in sight of the fort
and at the back of the mountain, where the villages of
Bondebosch and Claremont now stand. The Europeans and
the natives met together openly on the best of terms, but
there are evidences that they were suspicious of each other.
The conunander caused the guards at the fort to be doubled
during the time the Kaapmans remained in the neighbour-
hood, and often when a smaJl party of Europeans approached
the Hottentots, these would scamper away in fear. A brisk
trade was, however, opened up, and soon Mr. Van Biebeek
had the satisfaction of seeing a goodly herd in his possession.
All intercourse was prohibited between the workmen and
the natives. The trade was carried on by the commander
himself, assisted by one of the clerks, Verburg or Van der
Helm. It was arranged that flat copper bars and tobacco
should be exchanged for homed cattle, and brass wire and
tobacco for sheep, so that bartering consisted principally in
fixing the quantities of these articles. The Hottentots
brought ostrich eggs, tortoise shells, and occasionally an
ostrich feather or two, which the workmen seemed desirous
of obtaining in return for bits of tobacco, but the commander
threatened to punish any of his people very severely who
should attempt to infringe his regulations. He had no
notion of permitting anything that might hamper the Com-
pany's trade, even in the slightest degree, and he feared also
that the sailors and soldiers might hghtly provoke a quarrel
with those whom he wished to conciUate. He thought that
large quantities of ivory and ostrich feathers might in time
1652] Jan van Riebetk. 29
be obtained if the Hottentots could be assured of a safe
mazket, bat veiy soon he foond that they were too indolent
to hunt elephants and ostriches expressly for this purpose,
and only Ixonght in what they picked up. It was not in his
power to create among them new wants, for the gratification
of which they would be willing to make any unusual exertion.
The Eaapmans, though they were very fond of European
food and ate heartily of anything that was given to them»
were observed to be living in their own encampments almost
^itirely upon milk. This they kept in leather bags, just as
many of the Bantu do at the present day, and they partook
of it by dipping a little swab into the bag and then sucking
it Children sacked the ewes, which the mothers held ibsX
for them. There was nothing which they coveted from the
Europeans so much as tobacco, and without this no trade
whatever could be dona
Harry, who had his food from the commander's own
table and who was dressed as a European, was the inter-
preter between the two races. But whenever the cattle
trade slackened or anything went wrong, Mr. Van Biebeek
attributed it to the bad advice given by him to the oth^r
Hottentots. He gave oflfence also by frequently expressing a
wish for the arrival of an English fleet, and boasting of the
favours he had received from people of that nation. His
services could not well be dispensed with, but Mr. Van
Biebeek was already endeavouring to educate interpreters to
take his placa When the Goede Hoop was sent to Sal-
danha Bay, a Hottentot boy was sent in her purposely that
he might learn the Dutch language, and the commander had
taken into his own house one of Harry's nieces, a girl who
was called Eva by the Europeans, and who was being
trained to civilised habits.
In December the Kaapmans set fire to the dry grass
everywhere except in the pastures which Mr. Van Biebeek
requested them to spare for bis use, and they then moved
away from Table Valley with their cattle. Before they left
they made a proposal which shows forcibly the savage con-
30 History of South Africa. [1653
dition of the Hottentot clans. They asked the commander
to join them in an attack upon their enemies, offering to let
him take all the spoil in return for his assistance. Mr. Van
Biebeek replied that he had come to trade in friendship with
all, and declined to take any part in their dissensions. But
while thus preserving the appearance of dealing justly and
amicably, his correspondence shows how ready he was to act
in a different manner if he had not been bound down by
strict orders from the directors. It would be so easy, he
observed, to seize ten or twelve thousand head of cattle for
the use of the Company, and to send their owners to India
to be sold as slaves, that it was a pity he was prohibited
from doing it.
Parties of the Eaapmaus remained in the neighbourhood
for some time after the main body left, so that Mr. Van
Biebeek was enabled to continue the trade with them by
sending out a few men furnished with such goods as were in
demand. By the end of January 1653, when the last of the
stragglers had moved away, he had obtained altogether two
hundred and thirty head of homed cattle and five hundred
and eighty sheep.
The strong south-east winds had nearly destroyed the
wheat and peas, but the cabbages, turnips, and carrots had
thriven wonderfully well, and there was a good supply of
these in readiness for the return fleet. Bread and other pro-
visions brought from home were nearly exhausted. In order
to spare the cattle for the use of the fleet, the resources of
the islands and the sea were still drawn upon. Conies,
young seals, penguins and other sea-birds, eggs, and fish
formed a large portion of the diet of the labourers. Natur-
ally they were constantly complaining, and some of them
even carried on a system of plundering the gardens at night,
stealing and kilhng sheep, pretending to be sick, and other-
wise setting at nought the general articles by which they
were governed. Very severe punishments were inflicted, but
all to no purpose, for the disorder continued until the cause
was removed.
31
CHAPTEE II.
MR. VAN RIEBEEK'S ADMINISTRATION (conUnued),
For nearly eight months there had been no vessel but the
little yacht in the bay, when on the 18th of January 1653
the galiot Zwarte Vos, Skipper Theunis Eyssen, arrived.
She had sailed from Texel on the 4th of the preceding
September, and was sent to convey intelligence that war
had commenced between the Netherlands and the Common-
wealth of England. Two other vessels, the yacht Haas
and the galiot Boode Vos, had been despatched on the same
errand, but the Zwarte Vos had outstripped them both.
The Haus, indeed, did not arrive in Table Bay until the
26th of March, and the Boode Vos made her first appear-
ance on the 2nd of June.
The despatches brought by the Zwarte Vos are still in
a perfect state of preservation in our archives. There are
three documents dated on the 24th of July 1652, and five
supplementary dated on the 20th and 21st of August.
The first are addressed to the governor-general and coun-
cillors of India, to the ofl&cers of the Company's establish-
ments at Gambroon and Surat, and to the conmiander of
the fort Good Hope. They all bear the original signatures
of a committee of the directors, as several copies of each
document were made and signed at the same time. The
purport of these despatches is that since the English had
beheaded their king and adopted a new form of government,
they had determined not to live in friendship with their
neighbours. The Dutch ambassadors in London had pro-
posed every arrangement that was reasonable to maintain
32 History of South Africa, [1653
peace, but vnthout any effect. It was plain that England
was bent upon appropriating all trade to herself, upon
acquiring the dmmnium marisj the sovereignty and property
of the high seas, and this no nation, especially the free
Netherlands, could ever again submit to. The paths of the
wide ocean must be open alike to every flag. For eighty
years the States had fought for freedom, and had acquired
renown not only for the generation then hving but for
posterity. They were at war with Portugal, and the
Almighty knew that they did not seek another enemy, but
they could not submit to the pretensions of England, and
depending on God's blessing on their good cause they were
resolved to oppose such claims with all their power.
It was believed that the EngUsh would send a fleet to
St. Helena to lie in wait for the Company's vessels return-
ing home with rich cargoes from India. Instructions were
therefore given that the ships were to keep together and
avoid that part of the Atlantic. Their course was laid
down west and north of the British Islands to the coast of
Norway, and then along the European shore to the havens
of the fatherland. The commander of the fort Good Hope
was directed to strengthen his garrison by detaining twenty-
five or thirty soldiers from the first ships that should call,
and he was to guard carefully against surprise by the enemy.
The council at once resolved to detain the galiot here,
and to send the Goede Hoop, as the better vessel of the
two, to Batavia with the intelligence. The yacht had been
for the second time to Saldanha Bay and Dassen Island, but
was then at anchor off the fort. In five days she was ready
for sea, and on the 23rd she sailed.
Every exertion that was possible was now put forth to
strengthen the fort, so that an attempt might be made to
defend it in case of attack. There is no doubt that the
commander would have done all that a brave and faithful
officer could do to protect the post under his charge, but it
was well for him thit no enemy appeared. His cannon, he
states, were so Ught that they would not throw a ball more
1653] y<^« ^^« Rtebeek. 33
than halfway to the anchorage. The fort was commanded
by the flank of the Lion's ramp, so that if an enemy of even
trifling strength once landed, it must have surrendered.
Several of the garrison were disaffected, and a few were
ready to commit almost any crime. It is thus evident that
Mr. Van Biebeek's means of defence against any force more
formidable than a Hottentot horde were not at this time to
be depended on.
On the 2nd of March five ships from India, under the
flag of Admiral Gerard Demmer, arrived in the bay. That
very morning the last ration of bread had been issued to the
workmen, but there was then no fear of starvation, for Mr.
Van Riebeek was able to supply abundance of fresh meat
and vegetables to the crews of all the ships that called
during the next two months. On the 26th the Haas arrived
from the Netherlands, and on the 14th of April the yacht
Windhond followed her in. On the 17th of April the bay
was clear again, for on that day Admiral Demmer*s five
ships sailed for the fatherland and the two yachts proceeded
on their voyage to Batavia. But next morning the Muyden
arrived from Texel with news up to the 26th of December,
and within a few days three Indiamen from Batavia entered
the bay, where they remained until the 6th of the following
month. From these various ships the commander was able
to replenish his stores with everything that he needed,
except the material for carrying on a whale fishery, which
project he was obhged to defer still longer.
A few weeks after the departure of the Goringhaiquas,
some small parties of another clan living farther inland
arrived in Table Valley. They had heard that copper and
tobacco were to be obtained in exchange for cattle, and they
came therefore to trade. This was precisely what Mr. Van
Riebeek most desired. From them he obtained seventy-five
head of horned cattle and twenty-one sheep, besides a few
tusks of ivory. These figures added to those previously
given show the extent of trade here in the first year of the
European occupation.
VOL. I. 3
34 History of South Africa. [1653
On the 2nd of June the gahot Boode Vos, which had long
been given up for lost, made her appearance. Her skipper
and mate had died at sea, and for three months and a half
the galiot had been beating aboat off the Cape, looking for
Table Bay. She was kept here in order to bring shells from
Eobben Island to be burnt for lime, wood from Hout Bay for
fuel, eggs, birds, and conies from Dassen Island for provi-
sions, and other such purposes. The Zwa/rte VoSy which had
been employed in this service, was sent to Gambroon with
despatches.
The second winter spent in South Africa was uneventful.
There was plenty of food for all, and consequently not much
sickness. Building was carried on in a satisfactory manner,
oxen were trained to draw timber from the forests behind
the Devil's peak, and much new ground was broken up.
Wild animals gave more trouble than anything else. The
hons were so bold that they invaded the cattle kraal by
night, though armed men were always watching it, and the
leopards came down from the mountain in broad dayUght
and carried away sheep under the eyes of the herdsmen.
One morning before daybreak there was a great noise in the
poultry pens, and when the guards went to see what was the
matter, they found that all the ducks and geese had been
killed by wild cats. The country appeared to be swarming
vdth ravenous beasts of different kinds.
In August the ships Salamander, Phoenix, and Koning
David arrived from home, and were provided vnth fresh pro-
visions during the stay. On board the Phoenix was a young
man named Jacob Byniers, who held the rank of junior
merchant, and whom the commander was desirous of having
for an assistant. He therefore convened a broad council,
and represented that in case of his death or temporary
absence from the fort there was no one of higher rank than
a sergeant to perform his duties, in which event the Com-
pany's property would be exposed to much hazard. The
council thereupon agreed that Mr. Byniers should remain at
the Cape. He was the first who held the office of secunde,
1653] y<^^^ ^^« Riebeek. 35
or second in authority, in the settlement. Three months
later he was married to Miss EUzabeth van Opdorp, niece
and ward of Mr. Van Eiebeek.
On the 2nd of September a small party of Hottentots
came to the fort with a few cattle for sale, but as they were
not followed by others, the council resolved to send the
Boode Vos to Saldanha Bay to ascertain if the Goringhaiquas
were in that neighbourhood, and, if so, to try to open up a
trade with them. The galiot was just about to sail when
Harry informed the commander that he had heard from two
Hottentots that a large ship was lying in Saldanha Bay.
Thereupon it was resolved to send Mr. Ryniers and six
soldiers to ascertain particulars. After an absence of eight
days, the party returned overland, with intelhgence that the
ship was under the French flag and that her crew had been
engaged more than six months killing seals on the islands.
They had nearly completed a cargo of forty-eight thousand
skins and a good many casks of oil. The skipper intended to
sail shortly for Rochelle, and very pohtely offered to take
any letters or despatches, which he promised to forward
to Amsterdam.
The correspondence which is found concerning this event
shows how lightly falsehood was regarded by Mr. Van
Riebeek. We must remember, however, that duplicity was
in that age generally practised by men in his position every-
where throughout Europe. He had the ideas of the seven-
teenth century, not of the nineteenth, and one of those ideas
was that deceit was allowable in conducting public affairs.
The commander believed it to be to the interest of the East
India Company to keep foreigners away from South Africa,
and he did not scruple to practise fraud towards them. Mr.
R)miers represented that many of the French seamen wished
to desert, as they were provided with no other food than
what could be collected on the islands. Mr. Van Riebeek
thereupon caUed the council together, and suggested a plan
for damaging the Frenchman. It was resolved to send four
men overland to Saldanha Bay, with instructions to the
36 History of South Africa. [1653
officers of the galiot to entice as many as possible of the
French seamen to desert, as by so doing the ship might be
crippled and her owners discouraged from sending her back
again.
Frederik Verburg, who miderstood the French language,
was at the same time sent with a complimentary message to
the master of the French ship. He was to say that Mr.
Van Biebeek regretted very much that he had no convey-
ance by which he could send a supply of fresh provisions to
Saldanha Bay, but if Monsieur would do him the honour of
coming to Table Bay he would be very happy to furnish
him with abundance of everything, including geese, ducks,
partridges, and salad, for his own table. A letter was sent
for the directors, but the most important paragraph in it
was written in a strange language, which only two or three
persons in Amsterdam were able to interpret.
There was nothing gained, however, by this double deal-
ing, for the French skipper suspected that hostile designs
were entertained against him, and took such precautions
that only four of his men managed to escape. With these
the Roode Vos returned to Table Bay, having had no com-
munication with any Hottentots from whom cattle were to
be obtained. The parties who had travelled overland saw
many rhinoceroses, and on two occasions were obUged to
make a detour to avoid troops of elephants.
On the 18th of October the second child of European
parentage was born in the fort Good Hope. The infant
was a son of Commander Van Kiebeek, and was destined to
become a man of distinction. In 1709, when he was fifty-
six years of age, he attained the rank of governor-general of
Netherlands India, which he held until his death in 1713.
On the morning of Sunday the 19th of October the
garrison was assembled in the great hall of the commander's
residence, where religious services were regularly held. The
sentries were at their posts on the ramparts, and Hendrik
Wilders and David Janssen, the two cattle herds, were
tending the oxen and cows, but nearly every one else was
1653] Jccn van Riebeek. 37
listening to a sermon which Dominie Wylant, the sick-com-
forter, was reading. Ever since the Europeans landed, the
beachranger Hottentots had been living mostly with them,
the men idling about all day and the women and children
carrying firewood and performing other trifling services in
return for their food. They were now well clothed after
their fashion, for the skins of the cattle that had been
slaughtered were given to them to be made into karosses.
As for Harry, the principal man among them, he lived in a
hut not a pistol shot from the gate of the fort, but he had
his food from the commander's own table, and was sup-
plied with bread and other provisions for his family in return
for his services as an interpreter. When the Europeans
went to their devotions that morning, all was still and quiet
as usual. There were no strangers in Table Valley, and no
one was moving about, for a drizzUng rain was drifting
up from the Atlantic before a westerly breeze.
When the sermon was over, one of the guards reported
to the commander that Harry, with his whole family carry-
ing his household effects, had left his hut during the service,
but no notice was taken of this at the time. In a few
minutes it was observed that Eva was missing, and then,
just as the commander was sitting down to dinner, came
Hendrik Wilders, the herdsman, with information that his
companion had been murdered and that the beachrangers
had driven off forty-two of the cattle, leaving only two
behind them. His story was that he had come to the fort
for some food, leaving the youth David Janssen in charge
of the cattle, which were grazing at the end of the Lion's
rump. Upon his return he found the corpse of the lad,
who had been murdered vsrith assagais, and saw the cattle
being driven hastily round the mountain.
Mr. Van Biebeek had three Javanese horses, which
had been sent from Batavia in the last ships that arrived
here. Upon these, soldiers were mounted and sent round
by Sea Point to follow up the robbers, while another
party proceeded over the low neck l^etween Table Moun-
38 History of South Africa. [1653
tain and the Lion's head in hope of intercepting them.
But the pursuit was a failure, though it was continued for
several days. On one occasion Corporal Jan van Har-
warden with his company of seventeen soldiers nearly over-
took the fugitives at the head of False Bay, but the sand
was so heavy that the Europeans became exhausted, and
though all the cattle were then in sight, only one cow was
recovered.
Since 1653 this scene has been repeated a thousand
times in South Africa, but it was new to Mr. Van Riebeek's
experience. Its immediate effect was to incite an intense
hatred of the Hottentots among the soldiers and other
workmen. In consequence of this, the commander was
compelled to make the regulations prohibiting intercourse
with them more stringent even than they were before.
During the next two months very few Hottentots
visited Table Valley. Harry's people made their peace with
the Goringhaiquas, among whom they took refuge, and
probably persuaded them not to go near the fort. The
supply of flat copper bars, the only sort in demand, was
exhausted, and without this article in stock very few cattle
were to be had at any tima And so there was httle trade
done, and a great deal of suffering was the result. In
place of beef, the labourers were obliged to eat penguins,
and even salted seals' flesh. The theft of the oxen imposed
additional toil upon them also. The fort was being enclosed
with palisades, cut in the forest behind the Devil's peak,
and instead of being drawn on a waggon these had now to
be carried on the shoulders of the men. Besides this work,
a sealing establishment was formed at Dassen Island, and
a redoubt, which was first called Tranenburg and after-
wards Duynhoop, was commenced at the mouth of Salt
Eiver.
In December the ships Naarden, Breda, and Lam arrived
from Texel, and were supplied with vegetables in plenty,
but only three oxen could be obtained for them. They
were followed early in 1654 by the Vrede, Kalf, and Draak,
1653] Jcin van Riebeek. 39
these six ships forming the outward bound fleet of the
season. The Vrede belied her name, for her olB&cers were
quarrelling so violently with each other that the council
considered it necessary to place some one in authority over
them all. For this purpose the secunde Jacob Ryniers was
chosen, and to enable him to fill such a position, the rank
of merchant was given to him provisionally. After his
departure, the ofl&ce which he had held here remained
vacant for some time.
When exploring along the base of the mountain, one
day a stone was discovered which contained some glittering
specks, and on quarrying deeper it was found in large
quantities. The commander was nearly certain that the
specks were silver, and to enable him to test the mineral,
he sent a party of men to a Hottentot horde encamped
close by to purchase some earthenware pots, which would
stand exposure to intense heat. It is by casual references
of this kind that a good deal of information is often con-
veyed. These naked Hottentots, it seems, understood how
to make earthenware jars, and Mr. Van Biebeek had ob-
served that the jars were so well tempered that they could
be used as crucibles. Not one, however, was to be obtained.
The commander then caused several crucibles to be made
by one of the workmen who knew something of that busi-
ness, and had a small quantity of charcoal prepared. The
experiments made here vdth the mineral proved nothing,
but specimens were afterwards sent to Batavia and to
the Netherlands, when it was ascertained not to contain
silver.
The return fleet was now beginning to be anxiously
looked for, as supplies were expected from Batavia, and
various necessaries were almost exhausted. Of vegetables
there was abundance, but of nothing else. The few sheep,
which the commander was reserving for the fleet, were
placed upon Bobben Island, where the pasture was ex-
ceedingly good. Some European rabbits and a number of
conies were also turned loose there. A small party of men
40 History of South Africa, [1654
was stationed on the island to collect seal skins and oil,
and look after the sheep.
Bepeated efforts were made to induce the Hottentots to
re-open the cattle trade, but without success. One large
horde had been plundered by Bushmen of neaxly the whole
of its stock, and therefore had nothing to spare. Others
wanted flat copper, the supply of which was exhausted.
Harry was said to be somewhere inland, but the remaining
beachrangers were seen with Gogosoa's people, and the
Company's cattle were recognised among herds grazing at
the back of the mountains. The sailors and soldiers were
eager to recover the stolen property and to take vengeance
for the murder of the youth David Janssen, but the com-
mander would not permit any hostility whatever. He had
received instructions to inspire confidence by kindness, and
though he would gladly have seized a herd of cattle and
made slaves of "their owners, he would not disobey his
orders. He states that it was hard to do so, but he allowed
the very robbers to shake hands with him, and actuaUy re-
purchased from them two or three of the cows which they
had stolen.
This kind of treatment dispelled the fears of the Goring-
haiquas so completely that by midsummer they came about
the fort as freely as before, but would not barter their cattle
for anything in the magazine. Most of the beachrangers
also returned, and finding that they were not to be punished,
took up their residence near the fort again. Their principal
service, as stated by the commander, was to collect fire-
wood, but as that was a great relief to the labourers, he was
very glad to encourage them.
The 6th of April 1654, being the second anniversary of
the arrival of the party of occupation, was kept as a day of
thanksgiving to God for the measure of success which had
been attained. It was Mr. Van Riebeek's desire that this
anniversary should be observed as a holiday in perpetuity,
but it seems to have been forgotten as soon as prosperity
returned. Probably the distress in which they were, owing
1654] Jan van Riebeek. 41
to the scarcity of bread and meat, and the anxiety with
which they were looking for the return fleet, caused them
to keep this as a sacred day, for they had not so kept the
6th of April 1653. It was impossible for them to have a
feast, but they abstained from labour and listened to a long
sermon, and thus made the most they could of the occasion.
By the 15th of April the supply of imported provisions
was so nearly exhausted that the people were reduced to
two meals a day. All eyes were turned seaward for rehef,
but not a sail appeared from the east. On the 18th the
gaUot Tulp arrived from home, with information that secret
orders had been sent to Batavia in 1653 that this year's
return fleet was not to call at the Cape, but to push on to
St. Helena and wait there for instructions. There was then
only sufficient bread to last five or six weeks on the reduced
scale, and no peas, beans, barley, or rice. It was therefore
immediately resolved to send the Tul'p to St. Helena to pro-
cure a supply of food from the return ships. The ^aliot
was hastily got ready for the voyage, and sailed, taking
with her the clerk Frederik Verburg, who was to represent
the condition of the garrison to the officers of the fleet, and
the assistant gardener Willem Gerrits, who was sent to
bring some young apple and orange trees from the island.
The Tulp returned from St. Helena on the 11th of June,
having been only forty-one days absent. She had found
the return fleet at anchor there, and had obtained a supply
of rice and other provisions sufficient to meet immediate
wants. Frederik Verburg, who left a clerk, returned a
junior merchant, having been raised to that rank by the
admiral and council of the fleet, by whom he had also been
appointed secunde at the Cape. The gardener brought back
some young fruit trees, which he had obtained from those
long since planted and at this time growing nearly wild
upon the island.
After this the Tulp was sent to explore the coast of
Africa from the Fish river to Delagoa Bay, and then to pro-
ceed to Madagascar, where her officers were to endeavour
42 Histoiy of South Africa, [1654
to procure a cargo of rice. In one of the ships that called
here in 1653 there was a missionary of the Society of Jesus,
Martinus Martini by name, a German by birth, who was
returning as a passenger from China to Europe. This man
professed to have obtained from others of his order much
knowledge concerning the country along the south-eastern
coast, and he informed Mr. Van Eiebeek that gold, amber-
gris, ivory, ebony, and slaves were to be obtained there in
trade. He stated that the Portuguese obtained slaves and
gold at Eio dos Eeys and Os Medaos do Ouro, for which
purpose they sent two or three small vessels yearly from
Mozambique. Very few Portuguese, he affirmed, were at
any time to be found south of Cape Correntes. In his
instructions to the secunde Frederik Verburg, who was sent
to ascertain if Father Martini's account was correct, Mr.
Van Eiebeek quoted Linschoten's description of the country
as generally believed to be accurate.
The galiot ran along the coast, but did nothing to rectify
the errors on the chart. It was during the winter sea-
son, and stormy weather was often encountered. A heavy
surf was rolling in on the land, so that after leaving Mossel
Bay no communication was had with the shore, and upon
reaching the latitude of Delagoa Bay, the Tulp stood east-
ward for Madagascar. At the bay of Antongil the natives
were foimd to be friendly, and a considerable quantity of
rice was purchased, with which the galiot returned to the
Cape.
In July two vessels arrived with supplies. The first
was the yacht Goudshloemy from home, bringing with her
an English sloop of seventy tons, which she had captured
on the passage. The name of this vessel was changed
from the Merchant to the Kaap Vogel, and as she was
too lightly timbered for use on this coast, she was sent to
Java. A few days later the yacht Haas arrived from
Batavia with a quantity of rice. With her came the first
of a class of persons afterwards numerous in South Africa,
and whose descendants form at the present day an im-
1654] J(tn van Riebeek. 43
portant element in the population of Capetown. Four
Asiatics had been sentenced by the high court of justice
at Batavia to banishment and hard labour for life, of whom
three were sent in the Haas to the island of Mauritius,
which was then in the Company's possession, and one
was brought to the fort Good Hope.
On account of the war with England, the governor-
general and council of India ordered a day to be set apart
for prayer that the Almighty would bless their righteous
cause and thanksgiving for the mercies vouchsafed to them.
In the Indian seas they had secured five rich prizes, and
had not lost as yet a single ship. Mr. Van Eiebeek con-
sidered that in the case of the dwellers in the fort Good
Hope there was cause for special thanksgiving. They had
been in sore distress for want of food, and God had sent
them abundance. He had so favoured the Tulp that she
made the voyage to St. Helena and back in only forty-
one days. Then He had given to the Gotcdsbloem such
success that she had not only reached her destination safely
and speedily, but also brought an English prize with her.
And lastly He had filled the sails of the Haas with a
favouring breeze, so that now there was plenty in their
stores. The 23rd of July was for all these reasons set
apart and observed as a holy day.
On the 15th of August the yacht Vlieland arrived from
Texel, having made a very rapid passage, for she brought
news to the 19th of May. She was sent by the directors
to convey tidings of the peace which had been concluded
between the States and the Lord Protector of England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Hereafter the English were to be
treated as friends, for one of the articles of peace was that
ships of either nation visiting the harbours of the other were
to be permitted freely to purchase stores, provisions, or any
other necessaries.
A few months after this, the English ship East India
Merchant, bound to Bantam, put into Table Bay, and was
liberally supplied with vegetables. Her ofl&cers were enter-
44 History of South Africa. [1655
tained on several occasions by the commander, and in return
the officers of the fort were invited on board, where they
were very well received. An exchange of presents took
place, and a little trade was carried on between them.
The conclusion of peace with their great maritime rival
enabled the Company to send out this season without risk a
large fleet to India, and in a short time no fewer than
twenty-one vessels called at Table Bay on their way east-
ward. All were supplied with vegetables in abundance.
Some of these ships had lost as many as fifty men on the
passage, and when they dropped anchor had over a hundred
helpless with scurvy. It would have been impossible for a
little state hke the United Provinces to keep great fleets
afloat with such a terrible loss of life occurring year after
year, if it had not been that the lower ranks of the service
were very largely recruited from foreign countries. The
advantage of the Cape as a port of refreshment can hardly
be realised without a knowledge of the ravages caused by
scurvy in those days. The fresh provisions obtained here
saved hundreds of lives yearly, and the detention was not so
very great, for it was usual to put the feeblest men ashore
and to take healthy ones in their place. The officers, in
order to gain the premium of fifty pounds sterling for mak-
ing the passage to Batavia within six months, at first some-
times ran past without calling, but when this became known
the temptation was removed by adding to the six months
the time spent here.
During this summer from twenty to thirty men were
kept employed at Dassen Island and Saldanha Bay in con-
nection with the sealing establishments, and the gahot Boode
V08 was engaged pretty constantly in going backwards and
forwards. The commander believed that the profits on the
seal skins alone would more than defray the Company's
expenses at the Cape, but the directors did not endorse his
o]ainion. The Tulp was sent to 8t Helena for some horses
'which were taken past in a ship from Batavia, and to try
to zeoover those set ashore there from Van Teyhngen's fleet,
1655] y^w ^^« Riebeek. 45
but she returned with only two. It was in this season that
the first vine stocks were introduced. They came from the
borders of the Bhine, and were received by one of the out-
ward bound ships.
Since the robbery of the Company's cattle by the beach-
rangers in October 1663, very Uttle trade had been done
with the Hottentots. These people were still treated by
the commander with kindness, but it was only because he
had no choice in the matter. In this early stage of the
colony's existence, the policy to be pursued towards the
natives was already regarded differently in the mother
country and in South Africa. The directors wrote to Mr.
Van Eiebeek that the actual murderer of the youth David
Janssen should be put to death, if he could be discovered,
and that if necessary Harry could be sent as a prisoner to
Batavia, but none of the other beachrangers were to be
molested. Only the same number of cattle as were stolen
should be seized in reprisal, and none were to be taken
except from the robbers.
The commander replied that it would be impossible to
detect the real perpetrator of the murder, and that the
robbers had nothing to be seized. He admitted that to
retaliate upon their allies would cause a war, unless the
whole were made prisoners at once. The correct way of
relieving the settlement of a horde of idle and useless
robbers would be to reduce them to servitude. lie main-
tained that the provocation received was ample to justify
such a proceeding, while the advantages of obtaining ten
or twelve hundred head of cattle to breed from, and a large
number of slaves for service on the islands and in Batavia,
would be very great.
The Kaapmans had of late visited Table Valley in large
parties, and their conduct had every appearance of hostility.
The Europeans were replacing their frail wooden houses
with substantial brick buildings, they had turned about
twelve morgen of ground into gardens, and dull as the
Hottentots were, they could not but see that all this in-
46 History of South Africa. [1655
dnstry meant permanent occupation. This was not what
they desired. They were willing for Europeans to come
and trade with them, even to remain for months, as the
Haarlem's crew had done, but to be excluded for ever from
any portion of their pastures was not to then: Uking. They
came and made their huts on the very margin of the moat,
and when they were requested to move a little farther away
they rephed that the ground was theirs and they would
build wherever they chose. Everything that was left un-
guarded was stolen by them. They even cut the brass
buttons off the clothing of some children who were playing
outside the fort. The workmen could only move about in
companies and with arms in their hands. So apprehensive
was the commander that they would proceed to the length
of attacking the fort, that he caused the sentries to be
doubled and extraordinary precautions to be observed. He
was under the impression that Harry was at the bottom
of all the mischief, and that the Kaapmans were following
his advice. If he could be communicated with and induced
to return to the fort all might yet be well, but where he
was no one would say.
Meantime it was with difficulty that the workmen were
restrained from avenging the insults daily received. It was
evident also that as long as the Kaapmans remained here,
the natives farther inland would not bring cattle for sale,
because there were constant feuds between them. Mr.
Van Eiebeek at this time began to conceive the idea of
entering into a treaty of friendship with some of the distant
clans, enemies of those who were giving him so much
trouble. But nothing was then known of such clans beyond
the fact that they were in existence. Their names,
strength, relationship to each other, and places of abode,
were yet to be discovered. The commander had, however,
no difficulty in finding men ready to go in quest of the
knowledge required, and as soon as he expressed his wishes
a party of volimteers came forward.
In the service of the East India Company, recruited as it
1655] Jan van Riebeek, 47
was in all the Protestant countries of Europe, there were
never wanting adventurers ready for any enterprise of
hazard or daring. And it was a feat almost of rashness in
the autumn of 1655 for a few men to attempt to penetrate
the interior of this country. It was certain that there were
enemies behind, and who was to say what foes and dangers
there might not be in front ? Serving in the garrison of the
fort Good Hope, in a capacity only one step higher than
that of a common soldier, was a man named Jan Winter-
vogel. He had been the leader of a band of explorers in
the service of the Netherlands West India Company in
Brazil, and had assisted in the discovery of a silver mine in
that country. Then, starting westward from the Atlantic
shore of the continent, he had travelled until he looked out
upon the waters of the Great South sea. How he came
into the East India Company's service is not stated, but
here he was on the 15th of March 1655 ready to repeat in
Africa his exploits in South America. Seven soldiers volun-
teered to accompany him.
The party was supplied with provisions for three weeks,
and took six pounds of tobacco, six pounds of copper bars,
and some beads, as samples of goods to be obtained at the
fort in exchange for cattle. Their instructions were to learn
as much as they could of the country, to try to induce some
of the inland clans to come to the fort for the purpose of
entering into alliance with the Europeans, and to search for
precious metals.
The route taken by the exploring party cannot be accu-
rately laid down, but it appears to have been in the direction
of the present village of Malmesbury, that course being
chosen to avoid the mountain barrier that extended north
and south on their right hand as far as the eye could reach.
The travellers came in contact with a party of diminutive
Bushmen, who were making ready to assail the strangers
with bows and arrows when Wintervogel went towards them
with some tobacco in his hands and beckoning in a friendly
manner. The savages thereupon dropped their arrows, and
48 History of South Africa, [1655
accepted the tobacco, with the use of which they seem to
have been acquainted. Wintervogel ascertained nothing
more than that they had neither cattle nor huts, and that
they were enemies of all their neighbours. He afterwards
met several small parties of Hottentots, by all of whom he
was treated in a friendly manner, and a large horde with
great herds of cattle, of which they seemed disposed to part
with some for flat copper bars and tobacco. None of them
could be induced to come to the fort while the Goringhai-
quas were in the neighbourhood. One of the party, named
Jan de Yos, died from having eaten too many bitter
almonds, but the others met with no accident. The ex-
plorers were absent from the fort nineteen days. They
brought back some useful knowledge, but the most im-
portant result of the expedition was in proving that such
undertakings could be conducted with safety.
The native difficulty came to an end for a time by the
unexpected return of Harry to the fort. On the 23rd of
June he made his appearance with fifty strancjers, who
brought forty head of cattle for sale. He made some very
lame excuses for his long absence, and denied flatly that
he had taken part in the robbery of the Company's cattle
or the murder of Janssen. The commander was so well
satisfied with his return that he received him in a friendly
manner and pretended to believe all that he said. From
what occurred afterwards, it seems probable that Mr. Van
Eiebeek's suspicions of the mischief caused by Harry during
his absence were correct, for a brisk cattle trade at once
commenced and continued during the winter. Towards
spring the natives by whom it was carried on removed
from the peninsula, and Harry then proposed that he should
be sent with a trading party to the interior.
The commander called together a council to consider this
proposal. Frederik Verburg was absent in the TwZjp, so that
there was no one of the rank of a junior merchant at the
fort, and the council consisted, besides the commander, of
the pilot, the sergeant, and two corporals. The clerk Boelof
1655] Jem van Riebeek. 49
de Man kept a record of the debates. It was resolved to
send inland a trading party, to consist of the interpreter
Harry and nine soldiers under command of Corporal Willem
Muller. They were to take a good quantity of provisions,
and for trading purposes flat copper bars, brass wire, beads,
pipes, and tobacco, all of which was to be carried by four
pack oxen.
The party left the fort on the 7th of September, and
was accompanied by a number of Hottentots, men, women,
and children. They crossed over to the shore of False
Bay, and then continued for some distance close to the sea
coast, travelling a few miles every day. When the pro-
visions were nearly exhausted, the Europeans were obliged
to turn back, but they left Harry to continue the journey,
and gave the merchandise over to him. They were absent
four weeks, but made no discovery of importance. The
journal kept by Corporal Muller contains only one item
that is of interest.
He says that they came to a certain great flat rock
which was in their way, when the Hottentot women
gathered some green branches, and holding these in their
hands fell prostrate upon the stone with their faces to it,
at the same time giving utterance to some words which
the Europeans could not understand. When asked what
this meant, the women pointed upwards, as if to signify
that it was an act of worship.
Harry did not return until the 8th of December, when
he brought thirteen head of cattle to the fort, but it was
discovered soon afterwards that he had acquired a large
herd in exchange for the merchandise, and had reserved
the best of them for himself. During his absence a clan
that was very rich in cattle visited the peninsula. They
came from the country about the north and east of Sal-
danha Bay, and were under a chief named Gonnema, who,
on account of his using soot instead of clay to paint himself
with, was usually called the Black Captain by the Europeans.
During the month of November there were not less than
VOL. I. 4
50 History of South Africa. [1655
ten or twelve thousand head of homed cattle grazing with-
in an hour's walk of the fort. One of Gonnema's encamp-
ments at Rondebosch contained fully two hundred huts,
which were ranged in a great circle, according to the usual
Hottentot custom. The spaces between the huts were closed
in with thickly wattled fences, so that the whole formed an
enormous corral, in which the cattle were secured at night.
From this circumstance, a native village as well as an
enclosure for cattle soon came to be spoken of in South
Africa as a corral or kraal, a word then in common use
in India and America, though unknown to the Dutch and
to native languages.
From Gonnema's people three or four hundred head of
homed cattle and as many sheep were obtained in barter,
and a thousand of each could have been secured if the
supply of copper had not become exhausted. The sheep
were placed on Robben Island as a reserve stock, the pas-
ture there being exceedingly good. The trade was carried
on through the medium of two Hottentots who had picked
up a smattering of the Dutch language. One of these was
a beachranger called E^aas Das, because he had been sent
to Dassen Island to learn Dutch from the seal hunters. The
other was a Eaapman who was called Doman, because Mr.
Van Biebeek said he looked as innocent and honest as a
Dominie. He had been for some time living with the
Europeans, and was believed to be attached to them and
faithful to their interests. Four years later they had reason
to change their opinions concerning him.
In September a cutter of eighteen or twenty tons
burden was launched and named the Bobbejacht, She was
built almost entirely of Gape timber, and was intended to
be used in connection with the sealing establishments.
The galiot Boode Vos was sent to Batavia, as she was
needed there. During the winter the other galiot belonging
to this place made a voyage to St. Helena, from which
island she brought some more fruit trees, some pigs, and
two horses. Then she was sent to Madagascar to re-open
1655] J(^^ ^^« Riebeek. 51
the trade which had been commenced in the bay of Anton-
gil. The secunde Frederik Verburg went in her, leaving
here his wife, to whom he had been married only five months.
The Tulp never returned to the Cape. In the following
year tidings were received by a French ship which put into
Saldanha Bay that she had taken on board fourteen slaves
and some rice at Madagascar. From that date nothing
more was heard until March 1657, when four of her crew
returned in the French ship Marichal They reported that
the galiot was wrecked in a hurricane on the 2nd of Decem-
ber 1655. The crew got safely to shore, and proceeded to
the French settlement on the island of St. Mary, where
they were attacked by fever, of which Frederik Verburg
and eleven others died.
It was in this year 1655 that the directors first resolved
to locate free families on ground about the fort, as a means
of reducing the Company'^s expenditure. The plan had been
found to answer well in India, and there was reason to
believe that it would be equally successful here. Freemen
would assist to defend the station, so that the garrison
could be reduced, and they would grow food for sale at as
cheap rates as the Company could raise it with hired
servants.
But as it would take some Uttle time to make the
necessary arrangements, the commander bethought him of
a scheme by which a few of the most respectable of the
Company's servants might be induced ultimately to make
South Africa their home. He gave them permission to
cultivate httle gardens for themselves, with the right freely
to sell their produce whenever there were ships in the bay.
The wife of the chief gardener Hendrik Boom having been
accustomed to dairy work at home, it was resolved at a
meeting of the council to lease the Company's cows to her,
by way of encouraging individual enterprise. Boom had a
house in the great garden, and was a steady industrious
man. EUs wife, after the custom of those days, was called
from her occupation Annetje de boerin. The arrangement
52 History of South Africa, \^^S^
made with her was that she was to pay yearly twenty
shiUings and ten pence for the lease of each cow, that she
was to supply milk and batter at fixed charges to the com-
mander, — who was not, however, to demand all, — and that
she could sell freely to the ships' people at the best prices
which she could obtain. This lease of cows was the first
transaction of the kind in South Africa, and it is so fully
recorded in the documents of the time, together with the
reasons for entering into it, that it merits a sUght notice
still.
Besides the ships previously mentioned, before the close
of 1655 eleven bound outward and twelve bound homeward
called at the Cape, and were amply provided with refresh-
ments. There were more vegetables, indeed, than could
be made use of. Two English ships also called, both of
which were liberally supplied with fresh food. One of
them was eight months from London, and after losing
many of her crew reached this port with the remainder
almost helpless from scurvy. The weakest of her men
were taken into the hospital on shore, where the same
attention was paid to them as if they had been servants of
the Company. The officers were frequent guests at the
fort. And it may serve to show the price of garden pro-
duce in 1655, to state that the charge made ,for as great a
quantity of vegetables as the men chose to consume was
at the rate of two pence a day for each individual.
One of the principal objects of the Company in form-
ing the station was to have a hospital in which sick soldiers
and sailors could be left, thus doing away with the necessity
of detaining the ships until their recovery, as they could
be drafted into the next fleets that called and needed men.
Early in 1656 a large building for this purpose was com-
pleted near the seaside in the enclosure in front of the fort,
an objectionable situation in a military and, as afterwards
appeared, in a sanitary point of view. Still it answered
for more than forty years the purpose for which it was
intended.
1656] Jan van Riebeek. 53
The attention of the commander was then turned to
the construction of a wooden jetty, to facihtate communi-
cation with the shipping and to enable seamen easily to
get water to their boats. Large and heavy beams were
cut in the forests behind the mountain and transported to
the beach. There they were formed into square trunks,
by fitting their ends across one another in the same way
that log huts are built in Canada. The trunks were placed
fifteen feet apart in a straight line out into the bay, and
as each one was put together it was filled with stones
80 as to form a pier. Upon these piers a heavy staging
was laid down, and when, after two years' labour and by
assistance from the crews of calling ships, the jetty was
completed, it was an exceedingly solid structure.
After the Boode Vos was sent to India, the galiot
Nachtglas was kept here for general purposes. Among
other services she was sent to examine the islands of
Tristan da Cunha, to ascertain if they could be made use
of in time of war. The report upon them was unfavour-
able, as no harbour was found.
There was at this time a considerable amount of cor-
respondence concerning the feasibility of converting the
Cape promontory into an island, by cutting a wide and
deep canal across the isthmus between Table Bay and
False Bay. The idea originated with Mr. Eyklof van
Goens, admiral of one of the return fleets, who spent a short
time at the Cape. After close inspection, the commander
reported that to carry out the plan would cost millions of
money, and that it would be of very little use as a means
of confining the natives to the mainland and leaving the
Europeans undisturbed in the island.
Nearly every garden plant of Europe and India was
already cultivated at the Cape, though potatoes and maize
were not yet introduced. It was ascertained that seeds
attained great perfection here, and on this account large
quantities were forwarded yearly to Batavia. Fruit trees of
many kinds had also been introduced. Young oaks and firs
54 History of South Africa, [1656
were sent growing in boxes from Europe, and various kinds
of vines from the Ehine provinces and from France were
sent out in the same way. Even strawberries and black-
berries had been brought from the fatherland. The foreign
animals that had been introduced were horses from Java,
and pigs, sheep, dogs, and rabbits from Europe. Some
rams and ewes were selected from the best flocks in Holland,
and were sent here to see how they would answer. Babbits
were sent out on several occasions, and the commander
was instructed to have them turned loose upon the islands,
but to take care not to allow them to become wild on the
mainland, as they increased very rapidly and could do
enormous damage to crops.
Every season wheat and barley had been sown, but the
crop had invariably failed. Just as it was getting ripe, the
south-east winds came sweeping through the valley and
utterly destroyed it. But it was noticed that even when a
perfect storm was blowing at the fort, there was nothing
more than a pleasant breeze back of the Devil's peak. The
woodcutters in the forests there reported that the wind
never rose to a gale, and the conunander himself, after fre-
quently visiting the locality, was able to verify the state-
ment. He determined then to try if grain could not be
raised there. At a place where a round grove of thorn trees
was standing, — from which it was called at first Bonde
Doom Bossien and afterwards Bondebosch, — a plot of
ground was laid under the plough, and some wheat, oats,
and barley were sown as an experiment. A small guard
house was built of sods, in which a couple of men were
stationed to look after the ground. The experiment was
most successful, for the grain throve wonderfully well and
yielded a very large return.
The pilfering habits of the Hottentots had always been
a source of annoyance to the Europeans, but hitherto the
commander had not proceeded to the length of punishing
the offenders. The beachrangers in Table Valley were sup-
posed to be under the jurisdiction of Harry, who was now
1656] Ja7i van Riebeek, 55
a rich captain, having a large herd of cattle piu'chased, so
the commander states, with the Company's goods. One
day a plough was left in the garden, with a chain attached
to it, which was soon missing. This article could not be of
any use to the thieves, and must therefore have been stolen
purposely to annoy the Europeans. Mr. Van Eiebeek here-
upon caused three head of cattle belonging to Harry to be
seized, and announced that he intended to keep them until
the chain was restored. Harry protested that he was inno-
cent of the theft, but the commander was firm in his refusal
to give up the cattle. This course of action had the desired
effect, for it was not long before the stolen article was
brought back, when the cattle were released.
The next difficulty with Harry was concerning the pas-
ture. There was not sufficient grass in the neighbourhood
of the fort for his cattle and those of the Company, and so
Mr. Van Kiebeek informed him that he must move. Harry
replied that the ground was his. The commander answered
that the Company had taken possession of it, and would not
permit him to remain unless he would sell some of his oxen.
Mr. Van Biebeek then proposed a plan which would be ad-
vantageous to both parties. Harry should become a
cattle dealer, and undertake to supply ten head for
large and five for each small ship entering the bay,
one ox and one sheep every fourth day for the use of
garrison. For these, which he was to purchase
countr}rmen inland, he was to be paid such qi
copper and tobacco as would leave him a fair ptofiiL
consented, but after the very first delivery he bcid
tract by moving away. Many of the poorest of
people as well as the beachrangers were at Hoe
in Table Valley, where they managed to
and carr}dng fuel and occasionally
labour in return for food.
The settlement was beginning to
council resolved to offer to all the rnmm wwr m«- ^j^. - ^
with them as much garden ground 1
56 History of South Africa. [1656
vate, free of rent or tax for the first three years. At the
same time the women and children were struck off rations
and a money payment instead was made to the heads of
famiUes, according to the custom in India. This was a
great incentive to gardening, poultry rearing, and other
industries. Annetje de boerin, wife of Hendrik Boom,
who was farming the Company's cows, was ' privileged to
open a house of accommodation, chiefly for visitors from
the ships. A similar Ucense was granted shortly after-
wards to the wife of Sergeant Jan van Harwarden.
The damage caused by wild animals was very great.
The carnivora destroyed oxen, sheep, and poultry, and the
grysbucks, besides trampUng down the beds in the gardens,
ate the young sprouts off the vines. It was not safe for
people to go out at night. On one occasion two guards
at the cattle kraal were badly wounded by a leopard, and
once as the commander was Walking in the garden a Hon
was seen at no great distance. A fine large stud horse,
the only one in the settlement, was torn to pieces and
devoured close to the fort.
The council then decided to offer premiums for the de-
struction of these ravenous animals. Twenty-five shilhngs
was the reward offered for a lion, sixteen shilhngs and
eight pence for a hyena, and twelve shilhngs and six pence
for a leopard. In every case the dead animal was to be
exhibited to the commander. These premiums, be it re-
membered, represent a much greater purchasing power
than the same amounts nowadays. At that time twenty-
five shillings was a larger sum of money than a labourer
earned in a month, and there were very few individuals
at the Cape who were getting such wages. The com-
mander himself was in receipt of only 7Z. IO5. until 1656,
when his monthly salary was raised to lOZ. 16s. 8d.
Such large rewards as these show, therefore, how destruc-
tive the Uons and leopards must have been. The skin of
the first lion that was shot was hung up as a trophy in
the great hall of the commander's residence, where
1656] Jan van Riebeek, 57
religious services were held. The next laws in reference
to game were made for the preservation of herbivorous
animals. The Company kept two hunters employed in
procuring venison for the use of the garrison. Every one
else was prohibited from shooting other animals than
those for which a reward was offered, under penalty of a
fine equal to forty shillings of our money and the for-
feiture of the gim if it was private property.
During the winter of 1656 there was a good deal of
sickness among the people, which the council considered to
be beyond doubt a punishment inflicted upon them for
their sins. It was therefore resolved to set apart Thursday
the 29th of June as a day of fasting and prayer to the
Almighty to have mercy upon them. The people were ad-
monished not to sit down to their meals, as some of them
had been in the habit of doing, without asking a blessing
from God before eating and returning thanks afterwards.
Those who disobeyed this injunction were to be fined a
shilling for the first offence, two shillings for the second,
and so on, in addition to arbitrary correction. A few
weeks later a placaat was issued against bathing or wash-
ing clothes in the river above the place from which water
for culinary purposes was taken, so it may be inferred
that perhaps the particular sin of which the people had
been guilty was a disregard of the laws of health.
In October it was arranged that for the present the
council should consist on ordinary occasions of the com-
mander Jan van Riebeek, the sergeant Jan van Harwarden,
and the bookkeeper Boelof de Man. When sitting as a
court of justice or as a military tribunal, the constable of
the fortress and the two corporals were also to have seats.
The records of proceedings were to be kept by the clerk
Caspar van Weede, who was also to perform the duty of
fiscal.
On account of there being no clergyman here, marriages
at this time took place before the secretary of the council,
but it was necessary that the banns should be published
58 History of South Africa, [1656
three times by the sick-comforter. The ceremony was
usually performed on Sunday mornings after the reading of
the sermon. One or two marriages were solemnised by the
chaplains of ships that called, as for instance that of the
late secunde Frederik Verburg, whose bride was the clergy-
man's sister. Up to the end of 1656 the marriages that
took place in the fort were as follows: — Adolphus Benge-
voort and Janneken Willems, Jacob Ryniers and Elizabeth
van Opdorp, Pieter van Dujme and Sebastiana van Opdorp,
Jacobus van der Kerkhoven and Elizabeth Stadtlanders,
and Jan Wouters and Catharina, a freed slave, daughter
of Anthonie, of Bengal.
• Marriages such as this last were encouraged in those
days. Mr. Van Biebeek has left on record his opinion of
the advantages derived by the Portuguese from the large
mixed population of their possessions in the East, without
whose assistance their fortresses could not have been held
so long, and he thought it advisable that the Netherlanders
should have a similar link between themselves and the
coloured inhabitants of their dominions. A hundred years
later very different views were held, but in the middle of
the seventeenth century no distinction whatever appears
to have been made between people on account of colour.
A profession of Christianity placed black and white upon
the same level. The possessions of the heathen were the
inheritance of God's people, and could be taken from them
without sin. The heathen themselves could be enslaved,
but Christians could not be kept in bondage. The archives
of the Cape Colony contain numerous illustrations of this
doctrine. A black professing Christianity was spoken of in
identically the same language as a white. Thus Catharina,
the Bengalese slave girl, who was placed in freedom by
Admiral Bogaert, as soon as she was baptized was styled
' de eerbare jonge dochter,' and the commander's own niece
was spoken of in precisely the same words.
The number of foreign ships that touched at the Cape
was very small Mr. Van Biebeek asked the directors to give
1656] Jan van Riebeek. 59
him explicit instructions as to the treatment of strangers,
and was informed that they were to be allowed to catch
fish and to take in water freely, but they were not to be
supplied with refreshments, as the Company needed all
that could be obtained for its own ships. Courtesy was
to be observed, and the commander was to use discretion
and not give offence needlessly. But the expense of keeping
up an establishment at the Cape was incurred solely for
the Company's own benefit and not for the accommodation
of strangers. In the year 1666 forty-four vessels put into
Table Bay. Of these, thirty-five belonged to the Company,
five were English, and four were French. The English
and French were treated in as friendly a manner as could
have been expected under the circumstances. They were
permitted to purchase vegetables from those individuals
who had gardens, and exchanges of presents were made,
though the conmiander in writing to the directors excused
his liberality by stating that the beef which on two occasions
he sent on board was of unsound cattle.
6o
CHAPTEE III.
MR. VAN RIEBEEK'S ADMINISTRATION {amimued).
The preliminary arrangements for releasing some of the
Company's servants from their engagements and helping
them to become farmers were at length completed, and on
the 21st of February 1657 ground was allotted to the first
burghers in the Cape Colony. Before that date individuals
had been permitted to make gardens for their own private
benefit, but these persons stiU remained in the Company's
service. They were mostly petty ofl&cers with families, who
drew money instead of rations, and who could derive a
portion of their food from their gardens, as well as make
a trifle occasionally by the sale of vegetables. The free
burghers, as they were afterwards termed, formed a very
different class, as they were subjects, not servants, of the
Company.
For more than a year the workmen as well as the
officers had been meditating upon the project, and revolv-
ing in their minds whether they would be better oflf as free
men or as servants. At length nine of them determined
to make the trial. They formed themselves into two parties,
and after selecting ground for occupation, presented them-
selves before the council and concluded the final arrange-
ments. There were present that day at the council table
in the conmiander's hall, Mr. Van Eiebeek, Sergeant Jan
van Harwarden, and the bookkeeper Eoelof de Man. The
proceedings were taken down at great length by the secre-
tary Caspar van Weede.
The first party consisted of five men, named Herman
1657] Jdi^n van Riebeek. 61
Eemajenne, Jan de Wacht, Jan van Passel, Wamar Cor-
nelissen, and Boelof Janssen. They had selected a tract
of land just beyond the Liesbeek, and had given to it the
name of Groeneveld, or the Green Country. There they
intended to apply themselves chiefly to the cultivation of
wheat. And as Bemajenne was the principal person among
them, they called themselves Herman's Colony.
The second party was composed of four men, named
Stephen Botma,^ Hendrik Elbrechts,^ Otto Janssen, and
Jacob Comelissen. The ground of their selection was on
this side of the Liesbeek, and they had given it the name
of HoUandsche Thuin, or the Dutch garden. They stated
that it was their intention to cultivate tobacco as well as
grain. Henceforth this party was known as Stephen's
Colony. Both companies were desirous of growing vege-
tables and of breeding cattle, pigs, and poultry.
The conditions under which these men were released
from the Company's service were as follow : —
They were to have in full possession all the ground
which they could bring under cultivation within three years,
during which time they were to be free of taxes.
After the expiration of three years they were to pay a
reasonable land tax. They were then to be at liberty to
sell, lease, or otherwise alienate their ground, but not
without first communicating with the commander or his
representative.
Such provisions as they should require out of the maga-
zine were to be suppUed to them at the same price as to
the Company's married servants. .
They were to be at liberty to catch as much fish in the
rivers as they should require for their own consumption.
^ Galled Stephen Janssen, that is, Stephen the son of John, in the records
of the time. More than twenty years later he first appears as Stephen Botma.
From him sprang the present South African family of that name.
'Also written Elberts and Elbers in the records of the period. His de-
scendants in the male line died out at an early date, hut in the female line
they are stiU to be found in South Africa. He and Bo^tma were the only per-
manent colonists among the nine.
62 History of South Africa. [i^S?
They were to be at liberty to sell freely to the crews
of ships any vegetables which the Company might not
require for the garrison, but they were not to go on board
ships until three days after arrival, and were not to bring
any strong drink on shore.
They were not to keep taps, but were to devote them-
selves to the cultivation of the ground and the rearing of
cattle.
They were not to purchase homed cattle, sheep, or any-
thing else from the natives, under penalty of forfeiture of
all their possessions.
They were to purchase such cattle as they needed from
the Company, at the rate of thirty-four shillings and nine
pence for an ox or cow and four shillings and two pence for
a sheep. They were to sell cattle only to the Company,
but all they offered were to be taken at the above prices.
They were to pay to the Company for pasture one-tenth
of all the cattle reared, but under this clause no pigs or
poultry were to be claimed.
The Company was to furnish them upon credit, at cost
price in the fatherland, with all such implements as were
necessary to carry on their work, with food, and with guns,
powder, and lead for their defence. In payment they were
to deUver the produce of their ground, and the Company
was to hold a mortgage upon all their possessions.
They were to be subject to such laws as were in force in
the fatherland and in India, and to such as should there-
after be made for the service of the Company and the
welfare of the community.
These regulations could be altered or amended at will by ";
the supreme authorities.
The two parties immediately took possession of their
ground, and commenced to build themselves houses. They
had very little more than two months to spare before the
rainy season would set in, but that was sufficient time to
run up sod walls and cover them with roofs of thatch. The
forests from which timber was obtained were at no great
1657] y<^« van Riebeek, 63
distance, and all the other materials needed were close at
hand. And so they were under shelter and ready to turn
over the ground when the first rains of the season fell.
There was a scarcity of farming implements at first, but
that was soon remedied.
On the 17th of March a ship arrived from home, having
on board an officer of high rank, named Eyklof van Goens,
who was afterwards governor-general of Netherlands India.
This ship had sighted the South American coast and had
then run down to the fortieth parallel of latitude in oi^der
to get the west wind, but ii) the middle of February she fell
in with icebergs and very cold stormy weather, so that all
on board were delighted when the anchors were dropped in
Table Bay.
Mr. Van Goens had been instructed to rectify anything
that he might find amiss here, and he thought the con-
ditions under which the burghers held their ground could
be improved. He therefore made several alterations in
them, and also inserted some fresh clauses, the most impor-
tant of which were as follow : —
The freemen were to have plots of land along the Lies-
beek, in size forty roods by two hundred — equal id thirteen
morgen and a third — free of taxes for twelve years.
All farming utensils were to be repaired fi:ee of charge
for three years.
In order to procure a good stock of breeding cattle, the
freemen were to be at liberty to purchase from the natives,
until further instructions should be received, but they were
not to pay more than the Company. The price of homed
cattle between the freemen and the Company was reduced
from thirty-four shiUings and nine pence to sixteen shillings
and eight pence.
The penalty to be paid by a burgher for selling cattle
except to the Company was fixed at eighty-three shillings
and four pence.
That they might direct their attention chiefly to the
cultivation of grain, the freemen were not to plant tobacco.
64 History of South Africa. [1657
or even more vegetables than were needed for their own
consumption.
The bmrghers were to keep gaard by turns in any re-
doubts which should be built for their protection.
They were not to shoot any wild animals except such
as were noxious. To promote the destruction of ravenous
animals the premiums were increased, viz., for a lion to
thirty-four shillings and nine pence, for a hyena to twenty-
seven shillings and nine pence, and for a leopard to thirteen
shillings and ten pence.
None but married men of good character and of Dutch
or German birth were to have ground allotted to them.
Upon their request, their wives and children were to be
sent to them from Europe. In every case they were to
agree to remain twenty years in South Africa.
Unmarried men could be released from service to work
as mechanics, or if they were specially adapted for any
useful employment, or if they would engage themselves for
a term of years to the holders of ground.
One of the most respectable burghers was to have a seat
and a vote in the court of justice whenever cases affecting
freemen or their interests were being tried. He was to
have the title of burgher councillor, and was to hold ofl&ce
for a year, when another should be selected and have the
honour transferred to him. To this oflBce Stephen Botma
was appointed for the first term.
The commissioner drew up lengthy instructions for the
guidance of the Cape government, in which the commander
was directed to encourage and assist the burghers, as they
would relieve the Company of the payment of a large
amount of wages. There were then exactly one hundred
persons in the settlement in receipt of wages, and as soon
as the farmers were sufficiently numerous, this number was
to be reduced to seventy.
Many of the restrictions under which the Company*s
servants became burghers were vexatious, and would be
deemed intolerable at the present day. But in 1657 men
\
1657] Jan van Riebeek, 65
heard very little of individual rights or of nnrestricted trade.
They were accustomed to the interference of the govern-
ment in almost everjrthing, and as to free trade, it was
simply impossible. The Netherlands could only carry on
commerce with the East by means of a powerful Company,
able to conduct expensive wars and maintain great fleets
without drawing upon the resources of the State. Indi-
vidual interests were therefore lost sight of even at home,
much more so in such a settlement as that at the Cape,
which was called into existence by the Company solely
and entirely for its own benefit.
A conGonencement having been made, there were a good
many persons desurous of becoming comgrowers and garden-
ers. Most of them, however, soon found such occupations
unsuited to their habits, and either re-entered the Company's
service, or went back to the fatherland. The names of
some who remained in South Africa have died out, but
others have numerous descendants in this country at the
present day. There are even instances in which tlie same
christian name has been transmitted from father to son in
unbroken succession. In addition to those already men-
tioned, the following individuals received free papers within
the next twelvemonth : —
Wouter Mostert, who was for many years one of the
leading men in the settlement. He had been a miller in
the fatherland, and followed the same occupation here after
becoming a burgher. The Company had imported a corn
mill to be worked by horses, but after a short time it was
decided to make use of the water of the Fresh river as a
motive power. Mostert contracted to build the new mill,
and when it was in working order he took charge of it on
shares of the payments made for grinding.
Hendrik Boom, the gardener, whose name has already
been frequently mentioned.
Caspar Brinkman, Pieter Visagie,^ Hans Faesbenger,
Jacob Cloete,^ Jan Beyniers, Jacob Theunissen, Jan Bietvelt,
^Numerous descendants now in South Africa.
VOL. L 5
66 History of South Africa. [1657
Otto van Yrede, and Simon Janssen, who had land as-
signed to them as farmers.
Herman Ernst, Cornelis Claasen/ Thomas Eobertson
(an Englishman), Isaac Manget, Klaas Frederiksen, Klaas
Schriever, and Hendrik Fransen, who took service with
farmers.
Christian Janssen and Pieter Cornelissen, who received
free papers because they had been expert hunters in the
Company's service. It was arranged that they should
continue to follow that employment, in which they were
granted a monopoly, and prices were fixed at which they
were to sell all kinds of game. They were also privileged
to keep a tap for the sale of strong drink.
Leendert Cornelissen, a ship's carpenter, who received a
grant of a strip of forest at the foot of the mountain. His
object was to cut timber for sale, for all kinds of which
prices were fixed by the council.
Elbert Dirksen and Hendrik van Surwerden, who were
to get a living as tailors.
Jan Vetteman, the surgeon of the fort. He arranged for
a monopoly of practice in his profession and for various
other privileges.
Eoelof Zieuwerts, who was to get his hving as a waggon
and plough maker, and to whom a small piece of forest was
granted.
Martin Vlockaart, Pieter Jacobs, and Jan Adriansen,
who were to maintain themselves as fishermen.
Pieter Kley, Dirk Vreem, and Pieter Heynse, who were
to saw yellow wood planks for sale, as well as to work at
their occupation as carpenters.
Hendrik Schaik, Willem Petersen, Dirk Einkes, Michiel
van Swol, Dirk Noteboom, Frans Gerritsen, and Jan Zacha-
rias, who are mentioned merely as having become burghers.
Besides the regulations concerning the burghers, the
commissioner Van Goens drew up copious instructions on
general subjects for the guidance of the government. He
^ NuznerouB desoendants now in South Africa.
1657] Jan van Riebeek, 67
prohibited the Company's servants from cultivating larger
gardens than they required for their own use, but he ex-
cepted the commander, to whom he granted the whole of
the ground at Green Point as a private farm. As a rule,
the crews of foreign ships were not to be provided with
vegetables or meat, but were to be permitted to take in
water freely. The conmiander was left some discretion in
deahng with them, but the tenor of the instructions was
that they were not to be encouraged to visit Table Bay.
Eegarding the natives, they were to be treated kindly,
so as to obtain their goodwill. If any of them assaulted or
robbed a burgher, those suspected should be seized and
placed upon Eobben Island until they made known the
offenders, when they should be released and the guilty
persons be banished to the island for two or three years.
If any of them committed murder, the criminal should be
put to death, but the conmiander should endeavour to have
the execution performed by the natives themselves.
Caution was to be observed that no foreign language
should continue to be spoken by any slaves who might here-
after be brought into the country. Equal care was to be
taken that no other weights or measures than those in
use in the fatherland should be introduced. The measure
of length was laid down as twelve Ehynland inches to the
foot, twelve feet to the rood, and two thousand roods to
the mile, so that fifteen miles would be equal to a degree
of latitude. In measuring land, six hundred square roods
were to make a morgen. The land measure thus intro-
duced is used in the Cape Colony to the present day. In
calculating with it, it must be remembered that one thou-
sand Ehynland feet are equal to one thousand and thirty-
three British imperial feet.
The oflBce of secunde, now for a long time vacant, wa&
filled by the promotion of the bookkeeper Eoelof de Man.
Caspar van Weede was sent to Batavia, and the clerk
Abraham Gabbema was appointed secretary of the council
in his stead.
68 History of South Africa. [1657
In April 1657, when these instractions were issued, the
European population consisted of one hundred and thirty-
four individuals, Company's servants and burghers, men,
women, and children all told. There were at the Cape
three male and eight female slaves.
Concerning the protection of the settlement from the
natives there was much discussion between Mr. Van Goens
and the commander Van Biebeek. Regarding the Cape
peninsula as ample territory for the needs of the Com-
pany, — for as yet there was no intention to do more than
raise grain, vegetables, fruit, pork, and poultry, together
with a few sheep and the horses and horned cattle required
for working, the Hottentots being depended upon for most
of the beef and mutton needed for the garrison and the
fleets, — ^both considered that if the isthmus could be made
impassable the dwellers in Table Valley and along the
Liesbeek would enjoy complete security. Mr. Van Goens
brought forward again his old scheme of a canal, which
the commander had written so unfavourably of to the
directors. The land between Table Bay and False Bay he
observed was as flat as Holland, and the soil was easily dug.
He caused the distance to be measured, when it was found
to be five thousand one hundred and twenty-five roods, or
a little more than twelve English miles. Jan van Har-
warden, who had served long in the army under the prince
of Orange and was well acquainted with digging and delv-
ing, was called upon for an estimate of the labour required,
the canal to be twelve feet wide and six feet deep. The
sergeant did not take long to consider the question. He
would undertake to complete the work in three months, he
stated, with seventy good men.
Mr. Van Goens believed that if there were plenty of
tools it could be done within two months by the crews
of the ships Orangien, Malacca^ and PhceniXy then in port,
and without detaining the last two longer than fourteen
days beyond the time they must in any case remain.
The sea in winter, driven before the north-west wind, he
1657] Jd'f^ van Riebeek. 69
thought, would then widen and deepen the canal, it might
be even suflBciently to permit a ship to sail through or
anchor within it. The only diflBculty that was apparent
was the drifting sand that would be carried to and fro, and
that he regarded as a real danger, for in time it might even
destroy Table Bay. Still, upon the whole, it would be worth
risking, for there was no other way of securing the peninsula
except by Mr. Van Biebeek's plan of a line of at least fifteen
redoubts connected with walls, which would be vastly more
expensive.
Ultimately the matter was left for the decision of the
directors, before whom both schemes were laid ; but they
chose rather to endeavour to avert trouble with the natives
than to undertake either.
In the meantime, until instructions could be received
from the Netherlands, the commissioner deemed it prudent
to strengthen the fort Good Hope by enlarging the moat
around it. Mr. Van Biebeek was of opinion that a width
of ten feet would be ample, but Mr. Van Goens had seen
how nimble-footed the Hottentots were, and he believed
that they could spring over such a moat without difficulty.
In his view it should be sixteen feet vdde, which would
ensure safety, for though the Hottentots were so agile on
dry land they were very indifferent swimmers. This vddth
was settled upon, but the work was postponed for more
pressing duties, and eventually it dropped out of sight.
Commissioner Van Goens permitted the burghers to
purchase cattle from the natives, provided they gave in
exchange no more than the Company was offering. A few
weeks after he left South Africa, three of the farmers turned
this Ucense to account, by equipping themselves and going
upon a trading journey inland. TraveUing in an easterly
direction, they soon reached a district in which five or six
hundred Hottentots were found, by whom they were re-
ceived in a friendly manner. ^The Europeans could not
sleep in the huts on account of vermin and filth, neither
could they pass the night vnthout some shelter, as lions and
JO History of South Africa. [1657
other wild animals were numerous in that part of the
country. The Hottentots came to their assistance by col-
lecting a great quantity of thorn bushes, with which they
formed a high circular hedge, inside of which the strangers
slept in safety. Being already well supplied with copper,
the residents were not disposed to part with cattle, and the
burghers were obliged to return with only two oxen and
three sheep. They understood the natives to say that the
district in which they were living was the choicest portion
of the whole country, for which reason they gave it the
name of Hottentots-Holland.
For many months none of the pastoral Hottentots had
been at the fort, when one day in July Harry presented
himself before the commander. He had come, he said, to
ask where they could let their cattle graze, as they observed
that the Europeans were cultivating the ground along the
Liesbeek.^ Mr. Van Kiebeek replied that they had better
remain where they were, which was at a distance of eight
or ten hours' journey on foot from the fort. Harry in-
formed him that it was not their custom to remain long in
one place, and that if they were deprived of a retreat here
they would soon be ruined by their enemies. The com-
mander then stated that they might come and Uve behind
the mountains, along by Hout Bay, or on the slope of the
Lion's head, if they would trade with him. But to this
Harry would not consent, as he said they lived upon the
produce of their cattle.
The native difficulty had already become, what it has
been ever since, a most important question for solution.
Mr. Van Kiebeek was continually devising some scheme
for its settlement, and a large portion of his despatches
Tiad reference to the subject. At this time his favourite
plan was to build a chain of redoubts across the isthmus
and to connect them with a wall. A large party of the
Kaapmans was then to be enticed within the line, with their
families and cattle, and when once on this side none but
men were ever to be allowed to go beyond it again. They
1657] Jan van Riebeek, 71
were to be compelled to sell their cattle, but were to be
provided with goods so that the men could purchase more,
and they were to be allowed a fair profit on trading trans-
actions. The women and children were to be kept as
guarantees for the return of the men. In this manner,
the commander thought, a good supply of cattle could be
secured, and all difficulties with the natives be removed.
But the directors would not give him an opportunity to
make the experiment, for the expense frightened them.
During the five years of their residence at the Cape, the
Europeans had acquired some knowledge of the condition
of the natives. They had ascertained that all the little
clans in the neighbourhood, whether Goringhaikonas, Gora-
chouquas, or Goringhaiquas, were i^embers of one tribe, of
which Gogosoa was the principal chief. The clans were
often at war, as the Goringhaikonas and the Goringhaiquas
in 1652, but they showed a common front against the next
tribe or great division of people whose chiefs owned rela-
tionship to each other. The wars between the clans usually
seemed to be mere forays with a view of getting possession
of women and cattle, while between the tribes hostilities
were often waged with great bitterness. Of the inland
tribes, Mr. Van Eiebeek knew nothing more than a few
names. Clans calUng themselves the Grigriqua, the Cocho-
qua, and the Chainouqua had been to the fort, and from the
last of these one hundred and thirty head of cattle had
recently been purchased, but as yet their position with
regard to others was not made out. The predatory habits
of the Bushmen were well known, as also that they were
enemies of every one else, but it was supposed that they
were merely another Hottentot clan.^
^ There is great confusion of names in the early records whenever native
clans are spoken of. Sometimes it is stated that Gogosoa's people called them-
selves the Groringhaiqua or Gk}ringhaina, at other times the same clan is
called the Goringhaikona. Harry's people were sometimes termed the Water-
mans, sometimes the Strandloopers (beachrangers). The Bushmen were at
first caUed Visman by Mr. Van Biebeek, but he soon adopted the word Sonqua,
72 History of South Africa. [1657
Some stories which Eva told greatly interested the com-
mander. After the return of the beachrangers to Table
Valley she had gone back to live in Mr. Van Biebeek's
house, and was now at the age of fifteen or sixteen years
able to speak Dutch fluently. The ordinary interpreter,
Doman with the honest face, was so attached to the Euro-
peans that he had gone to Batavia with Commissioner Van
Goens, and Eva was now employed in his stead. She told
the commander that the Namaquas were a people living in
the interior, who had white skins and long hair, that they
wore clothing and made their black slaves cultivate the
ground, and that they built stone houses and had religious
services just the same as Netherlanders. There were others,
she said, who had gold and precious stones in abundance,
and a Hottentot who brought some cattle for sale corro-
borated her statement, and asserted that he was familiar
with everything of the kind that was exhibited to him
except a diamond. He stated that one of his wives had
been brought up in the house of a great lord named Gho-
bona, and that she was in possession of abundance of gold
ornaments and jewels. Mr. Van Biebeek invited him press-
ingly to return at once and bring her to the fort, but he
replied that, being accustomed to sit at home and be waited
upon by numerous servants, she would be unable to travel
so far. An offer to send a waggon for her was rejected on
the ground that the sight of Europeans would frighten her
to death. All that could be obtained firom this ingenious
storyteller was a promise to bring his wife to the fort on
some future occasion.
After this the commander was more than ever anxious
which he spelt in various ways. This is evidently a form of the Hottentot
name for these people, as may be seen from the following words, which are
used by a Hottentot clan at the present day : — Nominative singular, iSop, a
Bushman ; dual, Sakara, two Bushmen ; plural, Sakoa^ more than two Bush-
men. Nominative singular, Sas^ a Bushwoman ; dual, Scuara, two Bush-
women; plural, Sadif more than two Bushwomen. Conmion plural, Sana^
Bnshmen and Bushwomen. When the tribes became better known the titles
given in the text were used.
1657] Jan van Riebeek. 73
to have the interior of the country explored, to open np a
road to the capital city of Monomotapa, as laid down on
the best maps of the time, and to the river Espirito Santo,
where he believed gold was certainly to be fomid, to make
the acquaintance of Chobona and the Namaqaas, and to
induce the people of Benguela to bring the products of their
country to the fort Good Hope for sale. The commissioner
Van Goens saw very little difficulty in the way of accom-
pUshing these designs, and instructed Mr. Van Biebeek to
use all reasonable exertion to carry them out.
The innnediate object of the next party which left the
fort to penetrate the interior was, however, to procure cattle
rather than to find Ophir or Monomotapa. A large fleet
was expected, and the commander was anxious to have a
good herd of oxen in readiness to refresh the crews. The
party, which left on the 19th of October, consisted of
seven servants of the Company, eight freemen, and four
Hottentots. They took pack oxen to carry provisions
and the usual articles of merchandise. Abraham Gabbema,
fiscal and secretary of the council, was the leader. They
shaped their course at first towards a mountain which was
visible from the Cape, and which, on account of its having
a buttress surmounted by a dome resembling a flat night-
cap such as was then in common use, had already received
the name Elapmuts. Passing round this mountain and over
the low watershed beyond, they came to a stream run-
ning northward along the base of a seemingly impassable
chain of mountains, and for this reason they gave it the
name of the Berg river. In its waters they found barbels,
and by- some means they managed to catch as many as
they needed to refresh themselves.
They were now in one of the fairest of all South African
vales. To the west lay a long isolated mountain, its face
covered with verdure and here and there furrowed by little
streamlets which ran down to the river below. Its top
was crowned with domes of bare grey granite, and as the
rising sun poured a flood of light upon them, they sparkled
74 History of South Africa. [1657
like gigantic gems, so that the travellers named them the
Paarl and the Diamant. In the evening, when the valley
lay in deepening shadow, the range on the east was lit up
with tints more charming than pen or pencil can describe,
for nowhere is the glow of light upon rock more varied or
more beautiful. Between the mountains the surface of the
ground was dotted over with trees, and in the month of
October it was carpeted with grass and flowers. Wild
animals shared with man the possession of this lovely
domain. In the river great numbers of hippopotami were
seen ; on the mountain side herds of zebras were browsing ;
and trampling down the grass, which in places was so tall
that Gabbema described it as fit to make hay ot were
many rhinoceroses.
There were little kraals of Hottentots all along the Berg
river, but the people were not disposed to barter away their
cattle. Gabbema and his party moved about among them
for more than a week, but only succeeded in obtaining ten
oxen and forty-one sheep, with which they returned to
the fort. And so, gradually, geographical knowledge was
being gained, and Monomotapa and the veritable Ophir
where Solomon got his gold were moved farther backward
on the charts.
During the year 1657 several public works of importance
were undertaken. A platform was erected upon the highest
point of Kobben Island, upon which a fire was kept up
at night whenever ships belonging to the Company were
seen off the port. At the Company's farm at Eondebosch
the erection of a magazine for grain was commenced, in
size one hundred and eight by forty feet. This building,
afterwards known as the Groote Schuur, was of very sub-
stantial construction. In Table Valley the lower course
of the Fresh river was altered. In its ancient channel it
was apt to damage the gardens in winter by overflowing
its banks. A new and broader channel was therefore cut,
so that it should enter the sea some distance to the south-
east of the fort. The old channel was turned into a canal,
1658] Jan van Riebeek, 75
and sluices were made in order that the moat might still
be filled at pleasure.
In February 1658 it was resolved to send another trad-
ing party inland, as the stock of cattle was insufficient to
meet the wants of the fleets shortly expected. Of late there
had been an unusual demand for meat. The Amhem and
Slot van Honingen, two large Indiamen, had put into Table
Bay in the utmost distress, and in a short time their crews
had consumed forty head of horned cattle and fifty sheep.
This expedition was larger and better equipped than
any yet sent from the fort Good Hope. The leader was
Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, and under him were fifteen
Europeans and two Hottentots, with six pack oxen to carry
provisions and the usual articles of barter. The land sur-
veyor Pieter Potter accompanied the party for the purpose
of observing the features of the country, so that a correct
map could be made. To him was also entrusted the task
of keeping the journal of the expedition. The sergeant
was instructed to learn all that he could concerning the
tribes, to ascertain if ivory, ostrich feathers, musk, civet,
gold, and precious stones, were obtainable, and, if so, to
look out for a suitable place for the establishment of a
trading station.
The party passed the Paarl mountain on their right,
and crossing the Berg river beyond, proceeded in a north-
easterly direction until they reached the great wall which
bounds the coast belt of South Africa. In searching along
it for a passage to the interior, they discovered a stream
which came foaming down through an enormous cleft in
the mountain, but they could not make their way along it,
as the sides of the ravine appeared to rise in almost per-
pendicular precipices. It was the Little Berg river, and
through the winding gorge the railway to the interior passes
to-day, but when in 1658 Europeans first looked into its
deep recesses it seemed to defy an entrance.
The travellers kept on their course along the great bar-
rier, but no pathway opened to the regions beyond. Then
History of South A/nca. [1658
' dyeentery attacked some of them, probably brought on by
fatigue, and they were compelled to retrace their steps.
Near the Little Berg river they halted and formed a tem-
\ porary camp, while the surveyor Potter with three Nether-
IdanderB and the two Hottentots attempted to cross the
e. It may have been at the very spot known a hundred
years later as the Roodezand pass, and at any rate it was
not far from it that Potter and his little band toiled wearily
up the heights, and were rewarded by being the first of
Christian blood to look down into the secladed dell now
called the Tulbagh basin. Standing on the summit of the
range, their view extended away for an immense distance
along the valley of the Breede river, but it was a desolate
scene that met their gaze. Under the glowing sua the
ground lay bare of verdure, and in all that wide expanse
which to-day is dotted thickly with cornfields and groves
and homesteads, there was then no sign of human life. li
was only necessary to rmi the eye over it to be assared
that the expedition was a failure in that direction. And
BO they returned to their companions and resumed t^e
homeward march.
The increasing weakness of some of the party caused
them frequently to halt, but now they came across sonae
small encampments of Grigriquas. and managed to obtain
few oxen and sheep in barter. One man died, and
\ another could hardly bear to be carried along for a day or
I two, when he followed his companion to the grave. The
I night before they reached the fort they were all sittiikf;
I down partaking of the fast ration of bread, when withoat
any warning an enormous lion sprang upon one of them.
Sergeant Van Harwarden fortunately had his firelock at his
side, and raising the piece he presented the muzzle to the
lion's forehead and instantly shot him dead. The man upon
whom the beast sprang saved his life, but lost his right
arm. Such were some of the perils attending exploration
I in those days.
Previous to the year 1658 the only slaves in the settle-
1658] Jan van Riebeek, yy
ment were some ten or twelve individuals, brought from
Batavia and Madagascar. But as labourers were now
urgently needed, the Company sent out the yachts Hasselt
and Maria to endeavour to obtain some negros on the
west coast of Africa. These two vessels cruised for some
time off St. Paul de Loanda, in hope of obtaining a Portu-
guese prize, and when that scheme failed the Maria came
to the Cape, and the Hasselt sailed to the gulf of Guinea.
In the meantime, on the 28th of March, the Indiaman
Amersfoort arrived in Table Bay with one hundred and
seventy negros. On the passage from Holland,^ she had
fallen in with a Portuguese ship bound from Angola to
Brazil, with more than five hundred captives on board.
The ship was old, and upon examination it was found that
she could not be brought to the Cape. The ofl&cers of the
Indiaman, therefore, permitted her to proceed on her voyage,
after they had selected and removed to their own vessel
two hundred and fifty of the most valuable slaves, including
all the big boys and girls. Of these, eighty died before
the Amersfoort reached Table Bay, and the remaining hun-
dred and seventy were landed in a miserable condition.
A few weeks later the Hasselt arrived with two hun-
dred and twenty-eight slaves, out of two hundred and
seventy-one which her ofl&cers had purchased at Popo, the
remainder having died on the passage. The number at the
Cape was now greater than was considered necessary, and
one hundred and seventy-two were sent to Batavia. Of
those that were left, eighty-nine were sold on credit to
the burghers at prices ranging from 4Z. 3s. 4i. to 8Z. 6s. Si.
each, and the Company retained the remainder in its own
service.
One of the first regulations concerning them was that
they were to be taught the doctrines of Christianity. On
the 17th of April a school for their instruction was opened
by the commander's brother-in-law, Pieter van der Stael,
who in 1656 had succeeded Willem Barents Wylant aa
sick-comforter of the settlement. To all of them pronounce-
78 History of South Africa. [1658
able names were given, and they were then sent to school
for a short time every day. The reward of diligence which
was held out was not exactly in accordance with modern
ideas, for it consisted of a glass of brandy and a little
tobacco. For some days after the opening of the school
the commander himself attended, for the purpose of seeing
that everything was conducted in strict order. He has
left on record that the prize offered was observed to stimu-
late the pupils to application.
As to their food, it consisted principally of seabirds
and seals* flesh. Mr. Van Kiebeek'*s testimony is that they
were very fond of seals* meat, and there is no reason to
doubt the accuracy of the statement. It was procured in
large quantities from Saldanha Bay. Fomr burghers, named
Thomas Christofifel MuUer, Jurien Appel,^ Joachim Elberts,
and Gerrit Harmanssen, took out free papers upon condition
of becoming coast traders. They purchased a large boat
from the Company, with which they plied between Saldanha-
Bay, Dassen Island, and Table Bay, bringing eggs, fish,,
oil, seals' skins, salted birds, and dried seals* flesh for dis-
posal. They had liberty to sell freely to any one who chose
to purchase, at the highest price which they could obtain,
and the surplus was delivered to the Company at fixed
rates, — the seals' flesh at 4s. 2d the hundred pounds.
The captives were subject to the caprice of their owners,
though regulations were issued to protect them against gross
ill-usage. But whether treated well or ill, the natives of
Guinea and Angola could not be reconciled to a state of
slavery at the Cape, and as soon as they recovered from
the effects of the sea voyage they commenced to run away.
They knew that their own country was somewhere to the
north, and in that direction they set their faces. Their
desertion caused no little alarm among the burghers, who
had purchased them upon credit, and who now saw no
hope of freeing themselves of debt. They at once jumped
to the conclusion that the Hottentots — a good many of
1 Descendants now in South Africa.
1658] Jan van Riebeek, 79
whom were then in the neighbourhood — were enticing the
slaves from service, an opinion which was shared by Mr.
Van Riebeek. Some Hottentot women, he observed, had
often been detected giving them trifling presents of food,
the object of which must have been to induce them to
desert, and doubtless the Kaapmans were disposing of them
by sale to people living farther inland.
A few weeks before this the burgher Hendrik Boom
had lost seven head of cattle, which had either strayed
away or been stolen from the pasture in open daylight.
Old Gogosoa, the fat captain of the Kaapmans, happened at
the time to be vdthin reach, and Jan Keyniers with some
other friends of Boom immediately arrested him and de-
clared they would keep him in custody until the cattle were
brought back. This bold act at first alarmed the com-
mander, who feared that it would create enmity far and
wide, but no other consequence seemed to follow than that
the whole Kaapman clan instantly set about searching for
the lost cattle, so that they were recovered vdthin a few
hours.
Upon the desertion of the slaves, the principal burghers
came to the fort and urged the commander to adopt the
same course to insure their restitution. Thereupon Mr. Van
Riebeek called together a council, consisting of the senior
merchant Willem Bastink, of the ship PHns Willem, the
secunde Roelof de Man, and the sergeant Jan van Har-
warden, when it was resolved to seize the son and heir of
Gogosoa, who was called Osingkima by the Hottentots and
Schacher by the Dutch, his brother Otegno alias Pieter,
and another named Osaoa. These persons were sitting in
the courtyard of the fort, unsuspicious of any danger, when
they were arrested and conducted to the surgeon's kitchen,
where a guard was placed over them. It was then an-
nounced that the prisoners would be kept in confinement
until the runaway slaves were brought back.
Next morning, Sunday the 23rd of June, there was much
excitement among the Hottentots near the fort, and matters
8o History of South Africa. [1658
seemed so perplexing that the commander called the council
together again. As soon as it assembled, came the inter-
preter Doman with the simple face, and tendered his advica
This individaal had recently returned from Batavia, where
he had picked up more knowledge than the commander at
first was disposed to give him credit for. However, he came
back apparently as much attached to the Europeans as
before, and even requested to be called Anthony, so that he
might have a name like a Hollander. He now recom-
mended the seizure and detention of Jan Gou, one of the
chief men among the beachrangers, in order that they as
well as the Kaapmans might be compelled to go in search
of the fugitive slaves. No one suspected the beachrangers
of having had anything to do with their disappearance, still
it was resolved to have Jan Gou arrested, that all men
might see that the council did not favour one clan more
than another. No time was lost in carrying out the resolu-
tion, for Jan Gou, who was with his people in the court-
yard, was immediately seized and confined with the othera
A strange scene then took place in the council chamber.
Eva presented herself, and passionately protested that the
beachrangers were innocent of crime, but she accused the
. Kaapmans of all manner of roguery. Doman retorted, and
repeated an old story of Jan Gou having stolen fourteen
of the Gompany^s sheep, besides bringing to remembrance
the murder of David Janssen and the robbery of the cattle
five years previously. Each abused the other and the clan
to which the other belonged. Then Harry entered and
informed the commander that the prisoner Schacher wished
one of the principal men of the Gorachouquas also to be
seized, so that all three of the clans might be interested
in the restoration of the runaway slaves. The council at
once resolved that the leading men of the Gorachouquas
should be enticed into the fort with fair words, and that
the chief should then be seized and confined with the
others.
This resolution could not be carried into effect, however.
1658] Jan van Riebeek, 81
for as soon as the detention of Jan Con became known the
Gorachouqnas fled from the neighbonrhood. The Kaapmans
and beachrangers scoured the country in search of the
slaves, but only succeeded in recovering two of them. Three
others returned of their own accord, having been compelled
by hunger to give up their hope of freedom. Then the
Hottentots abandoned the pursuit, and reported that they
could do nothing more.
On the 3rd of July the council met again, and as the
position of affairs was critical, two officers of ships in the
bay were invited to assist in the deliberations. All were
by this time convinced that the Hottentots had nothing to
do with the desertion of the slaves. It was believed that
the Gorachouqnas, who had fled inland, would cause mis-
chief, and that the seizure of Schacher, becoming gener-
ally known throughout the country, would deter others
from bringing cattle to the fort for sale. The prisoners
were becoming desperate, for they feared that they would
be put to death. They made an offer to purchase their
liberty with cattle, and gave it as their opinion that Harry
was the proper person to be kept in prison.
Then the misdeeds of the old interpreter were all gone
over, and it was asserted that the stock in his possession
belonged of right to the honourable Company, having been
purchased with goods entrusted to his care. It was resolved
to entice him into the fort with fair words, to seize him,
and then to take possession of his cattle, which were grazing
near the old redoubt. An hour later Harry was in prison
with the others, and Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, with
a party of soldiers, was on the way to Salt River.
That evening the council was hastily called together
again, for it was feared that the Hottentots would attack
the settlement. Sergeant Van Harwarden, upon reaching
Harry's kraal, had found the natives hostile, assagais had
been hurled at him, and before the cattle could be driven
away one Hottentot was shot dead and another was
wounded.
VOL. I. 6
82 History of South Africa. [1658
The sergeant succeeded in bringing in one hundred and
ten head of homed cattle and two hundred and sixty
sheep, but it was feared that the natives would retaliate
upon the farmers. There were then only ninety-seven
European men, all told, resident at the Gape, and twenty
of these were invalids who had been left behind by the
last fleet. It was therefore resolved to land from the
'Prins Willem without delay twenty soldiers with a thou-
sand pounds of gunpowder and two hundred hand grenades,
and to mount two pieces of artillery upon the redoubt Koren-
hoop, which had recently been built to protect the grounds
of the farmers at Bondebosch. The burghers were also to
be armed, and any one who did not possess a gun was to
apply for such a weapon at once under penalty of being
fined eight shillings and four pence.
The next morning Pieter Otegno was released and sent
with a friendly message to Gogosoa, requesting him to
come to the fort and make an imperishable alliance, as
the commander was disposed to settle all differences between
them amicably. The chief of the Kaapmans with fourteen
of the leading men of the clan returned with the messenger,
and stated that on their part they were most anxious for
peace. This being the case on both sides, the terms of a
treaty were arranged without any difficulty. The clauses
were in substance as follow : —
Past offences on both sides were to be forgotten.
In future, offenders on each side were to be punished
by their own countrymen.
The Kaapmans were to move to the east of the Salt
and Liesbeek rivers, and to leave the pasture on the Cape
side for the use of the Dutch. But if they were attacked
by enemies they were to be at hberty to remove to the
back of the Lion's head, where they would be under the
protection of the Europeans.
The Kaapmans were to see that their cattle did not
trespass upon the cultivated grounds of the Company or
of the burghers.
1658] Jan van Riebeek. 83
The Kaapmans agreed to do their utmost to recover
fugitive slaves, and for each slave brought back they were
to receive as much copper and tobacco as for the purchase
of an ox.
The Kaapmans were not to prevent other Hottentots
from coming to the fort to trade.
The Kaapmans agreed to sell for copper and tobacco ten
head of homed cattle and ten sheep for every large ship
that arrived, five of each for every small ship, and two of
each every Sunday for the garrison.
One of the Kaapmans with the interpreter Doman should
go on board every ship that arrived, and there should be
given to him two sacks of bread or rice, two or three
pieces of pork, and a small keg of brandy.
These terms having been' agreed to, Schacher and Osaoa
were released from confinement, when to ratify the treaty
the Kaapmans presented the commander with ten cows and
nine sheep, and received from him Uberal gifts in return.
The beachrangers desired to make terms of peace at the
same time, but the council declined their proposals. Doman
and others of his clan were inveterate in their animosity
against these people, and, acting upon their advice, the coun-
cil finally resolved to transport Harry to Eobben Island and
detain him there. With him were sent two others, named
Elhamy alias Jan Cou, and Boubo alias Simon, who were
informed that they would be kept upon the island until
the murderers of David Janssen were surrendered by their
clan, when they would be released. After a detention of
about two months, however, these last were restored to
hberty, upon the urgent soUcitation of their friends. As
for Harry, he remained upon the island, no one excepting
Eva pleading for him. He might have had his wives and
children with him if he wished, but he preferred to be
without them.
In the meantime the slaves, the original cause of all this
trouble, continued to desert from service. Some were re-
covered by the Hottentots, but many made good their
84 History of South Africa. [165
escape, probably to die in the wilderness. The bnrghei
were kept in such a state of anxiety that at length man
brought back those they had purchased, and requested tfa
commander to take them off their hands. They preferrei
they said, to employ only such Europeans as the Compan
chose to release for that purpose, rather than be worrie
by slaves. Finally the council resolved to place all th
males except infants and very old men in chains, as th
only means of keeping them in service.
For some months after the settlement of the difficult
with the Eaapmans, matters went on smoothly betweei
the Europeans and the natives. They did not come mud
in contact with each other. Gogosoa and his people kep
at a distance, and so evaded the fulfilment of the clans
concerning the sale of cattle. The Gorachouquas avoidei
the neighbourhood of the fort, and only the beachrangere
who were few in number, remained. They were permittee
to make a kraal at the foot of the Lion's head, and ther
they lived in a miserable manner. Sometimes they wer
induced to collect a little firewood in return for brands
■
and tobacco, but no other reward was tempting enougl
to overcome their aversion to labour.
Occasionally a party belonging to one of the inlan<
clans brought a few cattle for sale, but the number of oxei
so obtained was insufficient to meet the needs of the Com
pany. In October a large and powerful clan of the Cocho
qua migrated to within a few homrs* journey from the fori
when it was resolved to open up a trade with them. Thi
resolution was carried into effect through the instrumen
taUty of Eva, one of whose sisters was a wife of Oedasos
chief of the Cochoquas. The Hottentot girl acted so faith
fully in the interests of the Europeans that a large suppl;
of cattle was obtained in barter, and the Cochoquas wer
brought to regard the Dutch with great favour. There wai
a perpetual feud between them and the Kaapmans. Evi
visited the clan on several occasions, the first time alone
and afterwards accompanied by Sergeant Van Harwarder
1658] Jan van Riebeek. 85
and a trading party. She gave them an account of the
Christian faith, as she had learned it in the commander's
household, to which they listened with attention. Mr. Van
Eiebeek was greatly pleased when she informed him that
though she left her Dutch clothes behind and put on the
greasy skins of the Hottentots when she visited her sister,
yet she never forgot what she had been taught nor omitted
to say her prayers night and morning.
In December the farmers presented a remonstrance
against some restrictions which had recently been placed
upon them. The commissioner Van Goens had accorded
them the privilege of purchasing cattle from the natives,
but at Mr. Van Kiebeek's instigation the assembly of
seventeen had withdrawn that liberty. The local council
thereupon made stringent regulations against such traffic,
and as the law now stood a burgher purchasing any animal,
dead or alive, directly or indirectly, from a Hottentot, was
liable to a fine of hi, for the first offence, lOZ. for the second,
and for the third to be prosecuted for persistent opposition
to the government. All intercourse between the two races
was so strictly prohibited that a burgher could be punished
for permitting a Hottentot to enter his house. The privi-
lege of going on board vessels three days after their arrival
was also withdrawn, because some freemen had secreted
themselves in the last return fleet, and special permission
from the commander was now necessary to enable a burgher
to visit a ship. Against these restrictions the burghers
remonstrated, but to no purpose, for they were informed
by Mr. Van Eiebeek that not a letter of the regulations
would be altered or withdrawn.
In the same document the farmers complained that the
price of wheat was so low as not to pay for its cultivation,
and desired that it might be fixed at I65. 8(2. the muid.
The commander promised to support this request, which he
considered reasonable, when a commissioner should arrive,
but for the present he was unable to raise the price, as
it had been laid down by higher authority than his at
86 History of South Africa. [1658
from 5Z. 165. 8d. to 8Z. 65. 8d. the load of three thousand
six hundred pounds. The remonstrance was referred to
the Batavian authorities, who instructed Mr. Van Kiebeek to
pay for wheat at the rate of 65. 11(2. the hundred pounds.
In this year, 1658, the culture of the vine was extended
beyond Table Valley. The first plants introduced had
thriven so well that cuttings were plentiful, of which the
commander himself now set out twelve hundred on a plot of
land that he had recently received as a grant from Commis-
sioner Cuneus. The ground given to him by Mr. Van Goens
at Green Point was found not to be capable of cultivation,
und besides it was needed as pasture for the Company's
cattle, 80 that at his request Mr. Cuneus exchanged it for
a freehold farm one hundred and one morgen in extent,
situated on the south-eastern bank of the Liesbeek, near
its source. On account of the vineyard planted by the
commander, this farm was at first called Wynberg, but
that name was shortly afterwards transferred to the ele-
vated ground on the south and east, and Mr. Van Eie-
beek*s property was then termed Boschheuvel.
The burghers were encouraged to follow the commander's
example, but most of them merely set out a few cuttings
round their houses. The first maize was brought in the
Hasselt from the coast of Guinea. The farmers were
directed to plant considerable quantities of it, because the
slaves understood its culture, but they set about it very
reluctantly. They preferred the fruit and grain of the
fatherland to such foreign plants as the vine and maize,
as of the manner of cultivating these they professed them-
selves absolutely ignorant.
When the time arrived to elect a burgher councillor,
the freemen were called upon to nominate some of their
number, from whom a choice would be made by the council
of poUcy. They put forward Hendrik Boom, Jan Reyniers,
Herman Bemajenne^ and Jacob Comelissen. Of these, the
council selected Hendrik Boom, but resolved to retain also
the services of Stephen Botma for another twelvemonth, so
1658] Jan van Riebeek, 87
that in future there should be two burgher councillors, one
of whom was to retire every year.
It had been ascertained that half-breed sheep throve
better and increased more rapidly than those of pure Cape
blood. The burghers were therefore prohibited from keep-
ing any other than imported rams. As soon as the Com-
pany had sufficient stock, each farmer had his flock made up
to fifty Cape ewes and one European ram, all other sheep
being taken in part payment. The Company at this time
kept about five hundred breeding ewes upon Kobben Island,
where a couple of men were stationed to look after them
and to keep a fire burning at night when ships were oflf
the harbour.
Among the ships that called in this year was one nstmed
the West Friesland, which left Holland for Batavia with
three hundred and fifty-one healthy men on board. A hun-
dred and forty-eight days after sailing she put into Saldanha
Bay, when her crew was unable to furl her sails. Seventy-
two men had died, and more than half the living were then
in such a condition from scurvy that they could not walk.
In Saldanha Bay they received assistance from the free
traders, and supplies of fresh provisions were forwarded
from the Cape, so that the crew soon recovered.
In all countries where land is easily obtained, where
population is sparse, and the products of the soil bring
fair prices, labour will be in demand. It has been so in
South Africa ever since the day when freemen were first
located on small farms at Bondebosch. The intention of
the Company was to create a body of peasant proprietors,
who would till the ground with their own hands, or at
most with the assistance of a couple of European servants
or heathen slaves, and for this reason the largest grant of
land to any individual was only twenty morgen. But the
faxmers alresidy began to aspire to a position in which
their work would consist merely in directing others, and
everything in the circumstances of the country favoured
such a desire. There was thus a constant call upon the
88 History of South Africa. [1659
government, which may be summed up in the words protnde
us with cheap labour. The Company had imported slaves
from the West Coast, but that scheme had not been satis-
factory, as has been seen, and now only European servants
were asked for. Any soldiers in the garrison who were
disposed to enter the service of the farmers were therefore
permitted to do so, but the number who took their dis-
charge for that purpose was not very great. About twenty-
five names are mentioned, but they need not be given, as
none of these men remained long in the colony.
At this time also several mechanics took out free papers,
and ground was assigned to three farmers, named Jan
Louw,^ Philip van Eoon, and Jan Coenraad Visser.^ The
council requested the assembly of seventeen to send out
some families of poor but industrious farming people, to
which a reply was received that efforts would be made to
do so, but that it was very difficult to induce such persons
to emigrate to a country of which nothing beyond the
name was known. A few were occasionally obtained for
India, and if any of them chose to remain at the Cape
when the ships called, they could do so. Any resident in
South Africa could have his friends sent out to him; and
proper care of females, whether wives, daughters, or affianced
brides, would be taken on the passage.
The supreme authorities were desirous of having the
country explored, in order to ascertain what prospects there
were of pushing trade in the interior, and Mr. Van Kiebeek
was instructed to offer premiums for any discovery of note.
The reward held out was sufficient to induce a party of
seven burghers to go in search of the powerful nation of
Namaquas, of whose wealth and civilisation Eva told very
wonderful stories. It was believed that these people could
be reached in from twenty to thirty days. The party left
the Cape on the 3rd of February 1659, taking with them
on pack oxen a supply of provisions sufficient to last three
months. They travelled northward for twenty days, suffer-
1 NumerooB descendants now in South Africa.
1659] Jdft van Riebeek. 89
ing mnch from thirst, for they did not know where to look
for water, and from heat, for it was the sultriest month
of the year. They reached the Berg river not far from
where it empties into St. Helena Bay, and noticed the
ebb and flow of the tide in its channel. Their pack oxen
were by this time so worn that they gave up the intention
of proceeding farther, and turned back to the fort, where
they arrived on the 7th of April, without adding anything
to the existing knowledge concerning the interior of the
country.
From the vintage of this season a small quantity of wine
was made, for the first time in South Africa. The fruit used
was Muscadel and other round white grapes, and the manu-
facturer was the commander himself, who was the only
person in the settlement with any knowledge of the manner
in which the work should be performed. The event is
recorded on the 2nd of February, and it is stated that the
Spanish grapes were not then ripe, though the vines were
thriving. There is no mention now to be found of the
introduction of vine-stocks from Spain, but this observation
appears to verify the common opinion that the hanepoot was
brought from that country. This was not the only importa-
tion of plants of which the record has been lost, for the
introduction of European flowers is not mentioned in any of
the documents of that date still existing, though the rose
and the tulip are incidentally spoken of as blooming at this
time in South African gardens. Similarly, olive and mul-
berry trees are stated to be thriving wonderfully well, and
currant bushes of three varieties are said to have died.
Much trouble was taken with the manufacture of ale, as
that beverage was used more generally than wine by the
people of the Netherlands, and was considered indispensable
for scurvy patients in the hospital. Barley throve well, and
there was no difficulty in making malt, but the hop was
planted again and again without success, though the greatest
care was bestowed upon it. This industry was persevered
in for many years, and samples of ale were often sent to
90 History of South Africa. [1659
Batavia and to Holland, bnt always became soar before their
destination was reached. At length it was found that the
heat of the climate prevented ale being made for exporta-
tion, and the efforts were then relaxed.
Every burgher was required to have a gun in his posses-
sion, and was at all times liable to be called upon to per-
form military service. Early in this year the freemen were
formed into a company of miUtia, so as to keep them
practised in the necessary drilL They were enrolled in a
corps with one sergeant, two corporals, and one drummer,
exactly the same as the garrison of the fort. For the first
year the council of poUcy selected Stephen Botma to be
sergeant and commander of the militia, and Herman Bema-
jenne and Wouter Mostert to be corporals, but subsequently
all appointments were made according to the established
custom of the fifttherland. A council of militia was created
—consisting of the two burgher councillors, the sergeant,
and one of the corporals — and to this body was entrusted
the regulation of all petty matters. Every year the council
of militia submitted a double list of names to the council
of policy, from which list the appointments for the following
twelve months were made.
Election by the masses was not favoured in the Nether-
lands at this period, and the nearest approach to such a
system at the Cape was in the form of nomination of
burgher councillors, which was observed for a short time
while the freemen were few in number and lived close
together. The burghers met in a body and put forward
their favourites, from whom the council of policy made a
selection. In 1659 they nominated in this manner Jan
Beyniers, Jacob ComelisseD, Wouter Mostert, and Jan Eiet-
velt, of whom the council of policy selected Jan Beyniers
to take the place vacated by Stephen Botma.
In the council of policy a change was effected by the
death in February of Jan van Harwarden, who only a few
months before had been promoted to the rank of ensign by
the admiral and brosid council of the return fleet. The
1 6s 9] Jdft van Riebeek. 91
fiscal Abraham Gabbema was allowed to have a voice and
vote, and was released from his duty as secretary, to which
office the clerk Gysbert van Campen was appointed. Ser-
geant Pieter Everaert, in right of his office as head of the
military, took his seat at the board.
92
CHAPTEE IV.
MR. VAN RIEBEEK'S ADMINISTRATION (continued).
Early in the year 1659, when the Kaapmans moved with
their herds to the peninsula, they found large tracts of
ground at Wynberg and Kondebosch dotted over with the
houses of the settlers. They could no longer graze their
cattle on the rich herbage at the foot of the mountains,
as they had been wont to do in days gone by, and their
hearts swelled with bitter hostility towards the strangers.
The white men, though few in number, possessed weapons
so destructive that the Hottentots feared to attack them
openly, but there was a possibility of driving them from
the country by systematic plunder. The Kaapmans and
Gorachouquas tried this plan. They came down upon the
farmers' kraals at night and drove the cattle away, while
by day they were nowhere to be seen. One night Doman
disappeared from the fort. He left his European clothes
behind, and the next that was heard of him was that he
had been recognised as the leader of a party of plunderers.
From that time he made his presence felt in the neighbour-
hood. He knew that in wet weather it was difficult for
the Europeans to use their firelocks, and so he selected
rainy days and nights for his cattle-hfting excursions.
The harassed farmers soon grew tired of acting on the
defensive only, and sent a petition to the commander to
be allowed to take revenge. Mr. Van Biebeek met them
assembled in a body on the Company's farm at Bondebosch,
and tried to argue the question with them, for his orders
from the directors were emphatic, that he was not to do
i6s9] Jdn van Riebeek. 93
the natives harm. He considered also that part of the
freemen's losses should be attributed to their own negli-
gence, as some of them often sent their cattle out to graze
without a herd to look after them. He warned the burghers
that the Company would not give them a second start in
life, much less compensate them for any losses which they
might sustain in war, but they asserted their willingness
to take all the risk upon themselves rather than remain
longer in a state of insecurity. They asked that the soldiers
should be employed against the Hottentots, or otherwise
that they might be permitted to avenge themselves, for
which purpose they believed they were strong enough.
The commander then summoned the council to discuss
the serious aspect of afhirs, and invited the burgher coun-
cillors to take part in the proceedings. On this occasion
there were present : Commander Van Kiebeek ; the secunde,
Boelof de Man ; the sergeant, Pieter Everaert ; the burgher
councillors, Hendrik Boom and Jan Keyniers; and the
fiscal, Abraham Gabbema. They placed on record that
the desire of the Europeans was to live in peace and friend-
ship with the natives, but it was impossible to do so as
matters were going then. If messengers were sent to the
Hottentots they would at once conclude that they were
masters of the situation, and this could not be tolerated.
The council considered that there was ample cause to
attack the Eaapmans and to do them as much injury as
possible ; that this course would be righteous before God,
and such as they could be responsible for. The true object
of attacking their enemies was not booty in cattle, nor
revenge, for that belonged to God alone; but to enable
them afterwards to live in peace, and that the Company's
designs of discovery by means of exploring expeditions
shoT^d not be frustrated. They then resolved, that as there
appeared to be no other means of attaining quietness and
peace with the Cape people, advantage should be taken of
the first opportunity to fall upon them suddenly with a
strong force, and to seize as many cattle and men as pos-
94 History of South Africa. [1659
sible, avoiding all unnecessary bloodshed, but keeping the
prisoners as hostages so as to hold in check those who
should escape.
In the settlement at that time there was one Simon
Janssen, usually known as * Simon in't velt/ a nickname
given to distinguish him from numerous other Janssens —
or sons of men named Jan — who had no surnames. This
* Simon in't velt ' was looking after some cattle when Doman
and a party of Hottentots suddenly came upon him. He
tried to prevent his cattle being driven away, but was
overpowered and murdered with assagais. The news of
this occurrence reached the fort within an hour after the
council had broken up, and it was followed by a panic.
The beachrangers immediately fled from Table Valley, and
some of the more timid burghers began to remove their
families to the fort for safety. A few commenced to place
their houses in a condition for defence, the example being
set by Hendrik Boom, who had the best building at the
Cape. Among the burghers, who so recently had been
clamouring for revenge, there was nothing but confusion.
Each one wished to have his own way, and the wildest
schemes were suggested, so that the commander found it
impossible to do anything with them as a militia corps.
In this state of affairs the council resolved to release the
slaves from their chains and to employ them in military
operations against the Hottentots. A few days later those
burghers who had ceased to carry on their ordinary employ-
ment were formed into a corps, with pay at the rate of ten
pence a day each, in addition to rewards that were offered
for the heads of marauders. Some soldiers were sent to
assist those who remained upon their farms, and ambuscades
were planned for the enemy. But it was in vain that
attempts were made to surprise them or to draw them into
an engagement, for the Hottentots were as difficult to be
reached as birds in the air.
A virulent sickness at this time appeared among the
homed cattle and sheep, so that of some flocks and herds
1659] Jd'^ van Riebeek, 95
not less than four out of five died. On Kobben Island only
thirty-five sheep remained out of a flock of five hundred.
The nature of the disease is not stated ; it is only recorded
that famine was not the cause, for stall-fed sheep perished
like the others. The council attributed this plague to the
direct action of the Almighty, and recorded their belief that
it V7as sent as a punishment for their sins. They therefore
resolved to hold a prayer-meeting every Wednesday after-
noon at four o'clock, to pray that God would withdraw His
wrath from them and help them against their enemies.
Those enemies were certainly doing much mischief. The
Europeans were harassed and worn out in looking for them,
while they were never seen except where no resistance could
be ofiered. At last the council thought of Harry, the pris-
oner on Eobben Island, and resolved to make use of him as
a guide to the secret retreats of his countrymen. For that
purpose they decided to oflfer him great rewards, but they
placed on record that they had no intention of fulfilUng
their promises. A boat was accordingly sent for Harry,
with a suit of clothes and a friendly message from the com-
mander, but before its return the condition of affairs had
assmned a new and entirely different phase.
Oedasoa, chief of the Cochoquas, having heard that the
Europeans were at war with his enemies the Cape clans, had
moved towards the fort, and was now encamped on the
opposite shore of the bay with many thousand people.
From his kraals there he sent messengers to the commander,
offering a close and firm alUance, which the council imme-
diately agreed to enter into with him. Eva and thirteen
Europeans were sent with a present and instructions to
discuss with him the method of ruining the Kaapmans and
Gorachouquas, these being the common enemy. And so
when the boat from Bobben Island reached the jetty, before
Harry could put his foot on land, orders were given to the
boatmen to take him back to his place of exile.
The assistance which the Europeans desired of Oedasoa
was merely a party of guides, for they felt themselves strong
96 History of South Africa. [1659
enough to win a victory if they could only be brought face
to face with their enemies. But the chief of the Cochoquas
either could not supply such men as were wanted, or was
not so fast a friend as he wished the commander to believe,
for though deputations and presents were frequently sent to
him, he did nothing more than make promises. In the
accounts which are given of interviews of the Dutch mes-
sengers with him, his council is more than once mentioned,
and it is stated that this council consisted of old and experi-
enced men. From this it may be inferred that the govern-
ment of the Hottentot clans was similar in form to that of
the Bantu of the present day.
The arrival of a large Indiaman enabled the commander
to strengthen the garrison with twenty-five additional soldiers,
and to exchange some of his old hands for more useful
ones. From another Indiaman he obtained eighty soldiers
to assist in an expedition into the country. A Gora-
chouqua spy was captured, and through the interpretation
of Harry, who was brought from Kobben Island for the
purpose, was compelled by threats of death to lead the
way to the camping-place of the Kaapmans. The party
marched only at night, so as to avoid being seen, and
intended to fall upon the enemy at break of day. To
encourage the members of the expedition they were promised
a share of any captured cattle, a reward of fifty-five shillings
for each prisoner, and twenty-seven shillings and six pence
for each one of the enemy killed. A premium of one hun-
dred and thirty seven shillings and six pence was offered
to any one who should apprehend Doman. But the expedi-
tion was a failure, though every precaution was taken to
insure success. The enemy always escaped in time, and
at last Harry pointed out that the attempt to pursue them
was useless, for they had men posted as sentinels on every
hill.
Shortly after this failure, the fiscal Gabbema, with three
horsemen, almost by accident encountered a party of five
Hottentots, and killed three of them. The remaining two
i6s9] Jdn van Riebeek, 97
were wounded, one of them being Doman, who managed to
escape, but the other was taken prisoner and conveyed to
the fort. A fortnight later Corporal Elias Giers, with eleven
soldiers, came across a camp of beachrangers, which they
quickly dispersed, kilUng three and wounding many. The
beachrangers then solicited peace, and were permitted to
return to their old location in Table Valley, while the Kaap-
mans and Gorachouquas removed from the neighbourhood,
and for some months nothing was heard of them. Harry
was sent back to Bobben Island, and with him was sent the
captured Gorachouqua spy. One night the prisoners suc-
ceeded in launching an old and leaky boat, with which they
put to sea, and though the chances were all against them,
they were driven ashore on the coast below Saldanha Bay
and safely effected their escape.
As soon as the field was deserted by the enemy, the
council began to debate schemes for protecting the settle-
ment from future attacks. Mr. Van Biebeek brought to
mind what he had seen in the Caribbee islands, and favoured
the plan of a thick hedge of thorn trees beyond the culti-
vated grounds. It was decided finally, as a temporary
measure, to deepen the fords of the Liesbeek, to build three
watch-houses along the outer line, and to put up a strong
fence, through which cattle could not be driven. A thick
hedge or belt of thorn bushes was afterwards to be set out.
The watch-houses were built, and received the names of
Turn the Cow, Hold the Bull, and Look Out (Keert de Koe,
Houdt den Bui, ende Kyck uijt). Between them a strong
fence was made, and in them were stationed a few horsemen,
whose duty it was to patrol along the line. This force was
the frontier armed and mounted police of the day, for the
line was the colonial border. At the commencement of
hostilities Mr. Van Biebeek urged the Batavian authorities
to supply him with a few more horses, as he had then only
about twenty, including young foals, and with the return
fleet sixteen were forwarded from Java. Some powerful
dogs were also received at the same time, so that the
VOL. I. 7
98 History of South Africa, [1659
Europeans now felt themselves more than a match for a
legion of Hottentots.
Towards the close of the year a plot was discovered,
just in time to save a richly-laden vessel lying in the bay.
The surgeon of the fort, William Eobertson by name, a
native of Dundee, came to learn one Sunday at noon that
a large party of men intended to run away with the yacht
Erasmus that same night, and he at once gave information
to the commander. Thereupon some of the conspirators
were arrested, when they confessed that they had planned
to desert and march overland to Angola, but that when
the Erasnms arrived in Table Bay they changed their views
and resolved to seize that vessel. Twenty-nine men in all
were ascertained to have agreed to this project, of whom
fifteen were slaves, and among the remainder were indi-
viduals with such names as Colin Lawson, John Brown>
John Beck, and Alexander Crawford, all of Dundee, Jacob
Bom, of Glasgow, and Peter Barber, of Hampstead. The
principal conspirators were sent to Batavia for trial, and
those who were implicated in a lower degree were heavily
punished here. A result of this plot was that the council
resolved to send all the English and Scotch from the Cape
to Batavia, so as to rid this place as much as possible of
rubbish (omme soo veel doenlijck dese plaetse van alls
oncruijt te suijveren). An exception was of course made
in favour of the surgeon, who received a reward equal to
10/. for having detected and made known the conspiracy.
The losses from cattle sickness and the Hottentot war
were to some extent compensated by a remarkably good
season for agriculture. The crops exceeded the utmost
hopes, and never before had food been so plentiful. During
the short time the Cochoquas remained in the neighbour-
hood a great many cattle were obtained in barter, so that
notwithstanding the mortality the commander was able to
supply the farmers with fresh stock.
One of the regulations made during this year was to
the effect that every burgher was to be at liberty to buy
i66o] Jan van Riebeek. 99
or sell anything whatever except com and cattle, but the
prices of all articles likely to be brought into the market
were fixed by the government. The fiscal and the two
burgher councillors were required to go round at least
once a month and see that everything was sold at the
legal rates.
In the early months of 1660 the settlement was appa-
rently in a state of peace, but this was only because the
Cape clans had removed inland for a time. With their
return to the peninsula, it was anticipated that hostiUties
would be renewed, unless some arrangement with them
could be entered into beforehand. For such a settlement
as would allow the Europeans to pursue their avocations
unmolested, Mr. Van Biebeek and the members of his
council were most sincerely anxious. There was not a
doubt on the mind of any one as to the cause of the war.
The wounded Hottentot, who had been made prisoner and
brought to the fort by the fiscal, spoke Dutch well enough
to be understood, and upon being asked why his country-
\ men were stealing the farmers' cattle, he replied that it
was because the farmers were occupying, without their
leave, land which had from time immemorial belonged to
them. They could no longer even drive their cattle to
the river to drink, said he, without crossing cultivated
ground, which they were not permitted to do, and they
hsA therefore determined to try to force the intruders to
leave the country. Soon after making this statement the
prisoner died, and from that time Mr. Van Eiebeek always
gave this as the true origin of the war.
Yet admitting that the natives had natural cause for
enmity, as the authorities at Batavia candidly did, it was
not possible to grant them redress. The question was very
simple : — Was the right of the nomad Hottentot clans to
the soil to be admitted so far that Europeans ought not
to deprive them of any portion of it, or was the European
justified in planting his outposts in such positions as the
Cape? Assuredly there could be but one answer, though :
• w
lOO History of South Africa. [1660
it could be admitted at the same time that it was natural
for the natives to resist the intruders.
The Kaapmans were the first to make overtures for
peace. Early in the year 1660 they sent a message to the
commander from Saldanha Bay by the coast traders, pro-
posing a treaty of friendship. They asked for a written
safe conduct, to be signed by the commander, the secunde,
and the fiscal, that their delegates might visit the fort.
This proposal emanated from Harry and Doman, who had
observed that a bond was preferable to a verbal promise.
The safe conduct was sent as desired, and under its protec-
tion the two former interpreters presented themselves before
the commander and settled the preliminary arrangements.
On the 6th of April the fat captain Gogosoa, accom-
panied by Harry, Doman, and forty of the leading men of
the Kaapman clan, arrived at the fort and concluded a
treaty. The terms were that neither party was to molest
the other in future, that the Kaapmans were to endeavour
to induce the inland clans to bring cattle for sale to make
up for those which they had stolen, that the Europeans
were to retain possession of the land occupied by them,
that roads were to be pointed out along which the Kaap-
mans could come to the fort, and that Europeans doing
wrong to the natives were to be severely punished. These
terms were not arranged until after long discussion and
much argument, which was only ended by Mr. Van Kie-
beek's plain declaration that the ground would be held by
the sword. The Kaapmans, after ceding the point of
possession of the land under cultivation, entreated permis-
sion to be allowed to come within the boundaries to gather
bitter almonds and edible roots, but this request was re-
fused, l)ecause the bitter almonds were needed for the
hedge which was to enclose the settlement. They brought
forward numerous instances of ill-treatment from burghers,
but were fain to be contented with an assurance that if
they reported any such cases to the Dutch authorities
thereafter they would receive ample redress.
i66o] Jan van Riebeek. loi
Soon after the conclusion of peace with the Kaapmans,
the Gorachoaquas sent three delegates to the fort to ask
if terms would be entered into with them also. The answer
was in the affirmative, and on the 5th of May Choro, with
Harry and Doman as his interpreters, and about a hundred
followers, appeared at the fort. Ankaisoa, a petty chief
of Gogosoa's clan, but who was not included in the treaty
of the 6th of April, was there also. They wanted to enter
into a discussion about the ownership of the ground along
the Liesbeek, but the commander abruptly informed them
that nothing must be said on this subject again. Terms
of peace similar to those with Gogosoa were then agreed
upon, in ratification of which Choro presented the com-
mander with thirteen head of cattle, and received in return
a gift of copper, beads, pipes, and tobacco.
The Gorachouquas were entertained, as the Kaapmans
had been, with a feast of rice and bread, and as much
spirits as they chose to drink. A tub was placed in the
courtyard of the fort, and was filled with a mixture of
arrack and brandy. The Gorachouquas then prepared to
celebrate the conclusion of peace with a grand dance after
their manner. The men ranged in order, while the women
seated themselves on the ground and set up a monotonous
chant, clapping their hands sharply at the same time.
The dancing, or rather springing up and down and quiver-
ing the body, continued for two hours, while one after
another the Gorachouquas fell to the ground, overcome by
exertion and the strength of the mixture in the tub. As
each man fell he was picked up and carried outside of the
fort, where he was laid down in the grass to sleep. When
at last the dance ended, only three or four men were able
to keep their feet. This was the concluding festivity, and
the commander was thereafter able to say that he was at
peace vnth all the people of Africa.
About this time the secretary Gysbert van Campen left
the Gape for Batavia, and the clerk Hendrik Laciis was
promoted to the vacant post. The duties of this officer
I02 History of South Africa. [1660
were then differ ent from what they were at a later period,
as the government changed to some extent with the growth
of the colony. He kept a record of the proceedings of the
council of policy, but had neither vote nor voice in the
debates ; in the absence of a clergyman he performed the
marriage ceremony ; he drew up contracts and agreements ;
before him declarations concerning crime were made, though
prosecutions were conducted by the fiscal ; and a great
amount of work in copying letters, journals, and other
documents, was performed by his hands. One of his most
necessary qualifications was that his penmanship should
be good; and now, after the lapse of more than two cen-
turies, the beautiful black letter which the early secretaries
wrote can be read by those who know its characters
almost as easily as print. The paper which they used
was rougher in surface, but tougher and stronger than
that of our times. Age has altered its colour, but the
characters upon it, traced with a quill dipped in the black-
est of ink, stand out in bold clear lines as evenly arranged
as if the work had been done by machinery. They used
fine sand to dry their writing, and to-day, if the pages are
held aslant in the rays of the sun, the finishing flourishes
are seen to sparkle in the light. Yet the great-grandsons
of the great-grandchildren of those who in early manhood
traced those flourishes may have been in their graves long
before any of the readers of these pages were bom.
It was necessary in this year to appoint two new
burgher councillors, as Jan Reyniers, having been ruined by
i;he war, had returned into the Company's service, and Hen-
drik Boom had served the full term. The freemen nomin-
ated Jacob Cloete, Leendert Cornelissen, Wouter Mostert,
and tlurien Appel, of whom the council of policy selected
the second and third. The council of militia at the same
time presented a list of six names, out of which Hendrik
van Surwerden was appointed sergeant, and Herman Bema-
jenne and Elbert Dirksen were chosen to be corporals for
the ensuing year.
i66o] Jan van Riebeek. 103
On the 9th of May 1660 the French ship Marichal,
Captain Simon Yesron, from Nantes bomid to Madagascar,
pnt into Table Bay. She had, all told, one hundred and
forty-eight souls on board, among whom were Lieutenant
Pierre Gtelton, who was going out to assume the govern-
ment of one of the French factories at Madagascar, a bishop,
and three minor ecclesiastics of the church of Eome. On
the morning of the 16th the wind set in from the north-
west with rain, and gradually increased in force until on
the 18th it was blowing a gale, while a heavy sea was
rolling into the bay. The Marichal was riding with three
anchors out, but her ground tackle was much weaker than
that of a Dutch Indiaman of her size. Before daylight on
the 19th the cables parted, and then, as there was no
possibility of saving the ship, the fore-sail was dropped to
cause her to swing, so that she struck the beach with her
bows on near the mouth of Salt Eiver. Some of her spars
were then cut away, and a boat was got out, but was
swamped and broken on the beach.
When day dawned, the people on the wreck were seen
to be making rafts, but they did not succeed in getting
any of them to land. In the afternoon they sent two letters
on shore in a cask, in which they earnestly prayed for help,
and a whale-boat was then mounted on a waggon and
conveyed to the beach. A line was floated in, and a strong
rope followed, along which the whale-boat plied once or
twice, but only half a dozen men reached the shore that
afternoon. In the night the gale abated and the sea went
down, 80 that there was no longer any danger of loss of
life. A place was then assigned to the shipwrecked crew,
where they could put up tents and store the cargo. Several
testrictions were imposed upon their liberty. One was that
all munitions of war, except the arms of the six officers
highest in rank, should be given into the custody of the
commander; another, that they should not go beyond as-
signed limits; a third, that no meetings should be held
for the celebration of worship according to the ritual of
I04 History of South Africa. [1660
the church of Eome. A proclamation was also issued by
Mr. Van Eiebeek, one clause of which prohibited all re-
ligious ceremonies in the settlement, except those of the
reformed church of Holland. This seemed to every one
so reasonable that no demur was made to it, but Lieutenant
Gelton objected in forcible language to the surrender of
the arms. The commander was firm, however, and the
lieutenant was compelled to submit.
Captain Vesron and forty-four of the crew were Hugue-
nots, and the sympathy between them and the Nether-
landers seems to have been stronger than between them
and their own countrymen of the other faith. Thirty-five
of the Frenchmen entered the Company's service at the
Cape, and the remainder of the crew did the same as soon
as they reached Batavia, to which place they were sent in
the first ships that left South Africa after the disaster.
The ecclesiastics remained here neajrly a year, and then
took passage for Europe, after having in vain endeavoured
to engage a conveyance to Madagascar. The bishop, Es-
tienne by name, was a man of great wealth and of good
family, who had suddenly exchanged a career of profligacy
for a hfe of fervent piety. He had devoted himself to the
establishment of missions in Madagascar, and though this
was the third time he had been thwarted in the attempt
to reach that island, he informed Mr. Van Biebeek that
he intended as soon as he arrived in Europe to charter a
vessel at his own cost, if none were being sent out by
the owners of the factories.
It has frequently been observed in South Africa that
an individual European has acquired enormous influence
with the natives. This has sometimes been the result of
confidence on the part of the weaker race in the good
judgment, truthftihiess, and friendly feeling of some parti-
cular European ; sometimes it has been the result of the
white man's descent to the level of the native in everything
but energy, daring, and skill. An instance of this occurred
in the earliest days of the settlement. It was discovered
i66o] Jan van Riebeek. 105
in 1660 that Herman Eemajenne, the man whose name
heads the Ust of South A&ican settlers, had long been
carrying on an illicit trade with the Hottentots. Dming
the period of hostilities, when the government was making
every effort to find the Kaapmans, he had twice visited
their camp secretly. When the Marichal was lost, he
managed by night to supply the crew with abundance of
fresh beef in exchange for articles saved from the wreck.
He was carrying on a large cattle trade unobserved under
the very eye of Mr. Van Biebeek's government, and when
he was at last taken red-handed, it appeared that he had
few other accomplices or assistants than natives. One
night he was detected with a party of Hottentots driving
a herd of bartered cattle to his kraal, and then the whole
of his past transactions became known. His punishment,
taking into consideration the circumstances of his case and
the ideas of that period, was very light. The bartered
cattle were forfeited to the Company, and a small fine
was inflicted upon him.
Large herds of cattle were at this time frequently
brought for sale by the chiefs of inland clans. The
natives were very eager to obtain beads, and parted with
many hundreds of oxen and cows to gratify their fondness
for these trifles. The quantity of beads given for an ox cost
only firom eight to ten pence, but there were other and
larger expenses connected with the trade. Presents, con-
sisting of copper plates, iron rods, axes, tobacco, pipes, and
other articles, were continually being made to the chiefs to
secure their friendship, while all who came to the fort were
hberally entertained. The mode of conducting the barter
was somewhat ceremonious.
A party approaching from the interior sent a couple of
messengers in advance to inform the commander of the
number of cattle on the way. At the gate close to the
watch-house Keert de Koe, the party was met by a horse-
man and escorted to the fort. The leader was perhaps
Oedasoa, chief of the Cochoqua, a tribe estimated to consist
io6 History of South Africa. [1660
of seventeen or eighteen thousand souls. If so, he was
mounted on an ox, and at his side rode his favourite
daughter Namies, who was his constant attendant. Behind
came a third draught ox laden with mats and necessaries
for the journey, while forty or fifty men brought up the
reaj: and drove the cattle for sale. Or perhaps it was
Sousoa, chief of the Chainouqua, a tribe even more numer-
ous and powerful than the Cochoqua. In that case, he
was accompanied by his son Goeboe, and the train behind
was similar to Oedasoa's.
Arrived at the fort, the chiefs dismounted, and were
conducted to the commander's own apartments, where they
were seated upon mats spread on the floor. For Oedasoa,
Eva, or Krotoa as she was called by the natives, always
interpreted, but when any other chief was the commander's
guest, Doman or Harry attended. After being seated, a
complimentary conversation was carried on for a short
time, and then an entertainment of bread, rice, cheese,
sugar, and wine was served up in tin dishes and cans,
which the guests were informed were used only by persons
of rank in Holland, never by common people. Sometimes
they were treated to music from the virginals, and if it
happened to be Sunday the military and burgher infantry
were reviewed after divine service, and salutes were fired in
their honour. While the chiefs were entertained in this
manner in the commander's quarters, their retainers were
feasting in the courtyard of the fort on bread, rice, and
' brandy. As a rule, no trade was done on the day of
their arrival, but on the following morning the cattle barter
took place. This was followed by another entertainment,
which sometimes lasted for two or three days. When the
visitors left, their pack oxen carried presents which had
been made to the chiefs and a good supply of biscuits and
brandy for use on the road.
The behaviour of the Hottentots on these visits was
always satisfactory, and pleasing traits in their character
were often noticed. If a present was made to one, it was by
i66o] Jan van Riebeek. 107
him immediately divided among them all. The attachment
of Oedasoa to his daughter Namies has been mentioned.
Once when the Cochoqua chief with a party of his followers
was endeavouring to secure some young zebras for the
oonamander, who wished to try if they could be tamed and
used as horses, a great lion sprang upon him and dreadfully
mangled one of his arms. His followers rushed to the
rescue, and after killing the lion with their assagais, carried
the bleeding chief to his hut. Namies then proved her
filial affection. She would permit no one else to dress the
wounds, and watched day and night by her father's side
till he was able again to assist himself. Once she was ill,
and then we are told nothing would tempt her father to
leave her, though the commander sent most pressing in-
vitations to hiuL An attachment such as this shows that
the natives were by no means destitute of humanity.
Yet events are recorded which are in strange contrast
veith these. The mother of Namies was an elder sister of
Eva. When she was a girl the Chainouquas visited the
Cape, and she was carried away by one of them. After
^ time the Cochoquas made a foray upon the Chainou-
quas, and among the spoil was this young woman, who
then attracted the attention of Oedasoa and became his
wife. In a state of society where such events were of
common occurrence, it might be thought that family ties
would not be very strong. It seems to have been other-
veise.
It frequently happened that ships were blown past the
Gape without being able to put into Table Bay, and
sometimes vessels were actually at the mouth of the har-
bour when a strong south-east gale sent them to sea
again. It was therefore considered advisable by the direc-
tors to have a second place of refreshment somewhere in
the Atlantic, and as by order of the Protector Cromwell
in 1659 the English had taken possession of the island of
St. Helena, search was at this time being made for
another equally convenient station. It was believed that
io8 History of South Africa. [1660
there was a beautiful and fertile island, well adapted for
this purpose, somewhere between St. Helena and the
African coast.
One Lodewyk Claessen, of Delft, who was serving a&
master ship's carpenter at Batavia, gave out that in the
year 1652 he had been twice on St. Helena Nova, as-
the Portuguese named the island. Hereupon he was re-
quested by the governor-general and council of India to
tell them all that he knew of it, and a very pretty story
he put together for their gratification. For four years, he
said, he had been a prisoner in the hands of the Portu-
guese, and during a portion of that time had been com-
pelled to serve in a ship of theirs which was cruising
about the Atlantic. They came once to a very fertile
and lovely island, abounding with fruit, vegetables, and
cattle. He knew nothing of navigation, and consequently
could not tell its position, but he had heard from the
sailors on board that it was half a degree south of old
St. Helena. He went ashore twice, and observed that
the Portuguese had two small fortresses there, and were
building a third and larger one. In his opinion, the
island would make an admirable station for refreshment,,
as it had a good harbour and everything else that could
be desired.
It was not only from Claessen's account that the exist-
ence of St. Helena Nova was believed in, for it was laid
down in various charts long before his story was told.
Various expeditions were sent from the Cape to search for
this island, but all to no purpose. The fleets, when they
left for Europe, sailed in a long line with the ships a few
miles apaxt, and so the ocean was scoured for years, until
St. Helena Nova was erased from the maps.
An attempt to reach the fabulous empire of Monomo-
tapa was also made from the Cape in this year 1660.
Under the stimulus of large rewards, which were offered
for any discoveries of importance, a number of volunteers
offered their services to the commander. Since the return
i66o] Jan van Riebeek, 109
of the last exploring expedition, Mr. Van Eiebeek had
been diligently studying different books and atlases which
treated of the geography of South Africa, and he believed,
therefore, that he could now fix the exact position of
Monomotapa and its chief cities. As authorities he had
liinschoten's celebrated work, Father Martinus Martini's
verbal description of the country, a number of maps, and
several Portuguese books, though certainly neither the
great histories of De Barros and De Couto nor the volume
of the Dominican friar Joao dos Santos. The commander
was of course famiUar with the Portuguese language, which
was then the common medium of conversation between
Europeans of different nationahties in the east, and it must
have been frequently used at the fort Good Hope, for it is
stated that Eva could speak it tolerably well.
From the sources of information at his command, Mr.
Van Eiebeek laid down the city of Davagul, in which the
emperor of Monomotapa was believed to keep his trea-
sures, as eight hundred and twenty-eight English miles in
a north-easterly direction from the Cape of Good Hope,
and three hundred and twenty-two miles westward from
the coast of the Indian sea, that is, in the neighbourhood
of the present town of Pretoria. It was built on the bank
of the river Espirito Santo. The city of Cortado on Eio
Infante was beheved to be in the same direction, but much
nearer than Davagul. The inhabitants on the route are
stated to be the Cochoqua, the Chainouqua, and the Han-
cumqua. Next to these last were the Chobona, who were
believed to be the civiUsed people of Monomotapa.
The volunteers were thirteen in number, and were under
the leadership of an intelligent petty officer named Jan
Danckert. Two of them were men whose names will fre-
quently be met with again. One of these was George
Frederick Wreede, a German of good education, who had
by some means got into the lower ranks of the East India
Company's service. The other was Pieter van Meerhof, a
Dane, who came to this country as a soldier, but as he
no History of South Africa. [1661
possessed some skill in dressing wounds, was soon after-
wards promoted to the rank of under-surgeon. With the
party went also the interpreter Doman, who had been
living at the fort since the peace, and was now doing his
utmost to regain the confidence of the commander. They
left the fort on the 12th of November, taking with them a
supply of bread and other food on three pack oxen, and
trusting to obtain a sufficiency of meat with their muskets.
The explorers travelled northward, keeping along the
base of the mountain range which separates the western
coast belt from the interior. Here and there they en-
countered small parties of Bushmen, some of whom dropped
their arms and fled in consternation at sight of the strang-
ers, while others held friendly communication with them.
They passed through a region which they described as the
veritable kingdom of the moles, where travelling was most
difficult, as at every step the ground gave way beneath
them. At length they came to a river flowing towards
the Atlantic, and on its banks were two or three hundred
elephants feeding, from which circumstance they gave it
the name which it still bears.
At the Elephant river some of the party rested, while
the leader and a few others pushed on a little farther to
the north. At the most distant point reached they saw
smoke rising a long way ahead, and were informed by some
Bushmen that it was from the fires of a Namaqua encamp-
ment. Most of the party were by this time so fatigued
that they were indisposed to go farther, and the leader
was therefore compelled to turn homeward. They made
no discoveries of importance on the return march to the
fort, which they reached safely on the 20th of January
1661.
The intelligence which they brought of having seen
the fires of the Namaquas called forth such a spirit of ad-
venture that in ten days another exploring party was ready
to set out. It consisted of thirteen Europeans and two
Hottentots, under the leadership of Corporal Pieter Cruyt-
i66i] Jan van Riebeek. iii
hof, with the tmder-surgeon Pieter van Meerhof as journal-
ist and second in command. This party followed the same
route as the last, along by a mountain to which they gave
the name Biebeek's Kasteel, and then selecting the least
rugged pathway to the north. Not far beyond the Elephant
river they fell in with eighteen or twenty Namaqua hunters,
who, after some hesitation and repeated invitations given
through the interpreters, approached in a friendly manner.
Presents of trinkets were made to them, and in a few
minutes confidence on both sides was fully established.
Some of the natives remained with the Europeans that
night, and on the following morning conducted them to
a kraal at no great distance.
This encampment of the Namaquas, under the chief
Akembie, consisted of seventy-three huts ranged in a circle,
with a few others in a group outside. Meerhof estimated
the owners of the huts at three hundred men and four
hxmdred women and children, the proportion of these last
being small because the kraal was only a temporary out-
post. They had about four thousand head of homed cattle
and three thousand sheep, with which they were moving
from place to place wherever pasture was to be found.
The travellers were welcomed with many demonstrations
of joy. A calf and a sheep were presented to them for
food, and the leaders were invited into the chiefs hut,
where a kaross was spread upon the ground for them to
sit upon while they were regaled with milk.
In the evening a grand dance took place in their honour.
A ring was formed of between one and two hundred men,
each of whom held in his hand a hollow reed differing in
length or thickness from that of his neighbour. In the
centre stood a man with a long stick, singing and giving
directions. Those in the ring blew into their reeds and
went through various evolutions, while outside of the circle
the women were dancing vigorously. This entertainment
lasted about two hours.
Meerhof describes the Namaquas as larger in person
112 History of South Africa. [1661
than other Hottentots, and as being better dressed. They
wore karosses of leather, or of leopard, wild cat, or
cony skins. Their hair was the same as that of the Cape
clans, but by attaching copper ornaments to some of the
tufts, they managed to stretch them out so as to fall round
their heads. On their arms they wore ivory and copper
rings. They were acquainted with the art of smelting
copper and iron, of which metals they manufactured orna-
ments and weapons. Their habitations, like those of their
race elsewhere, were merely hemispherical frame-works of
wood covered with mats, and could be moved from place
to place almost as readily as canvas tents. The most
important article of their food was milk, which they kept
in large calabashes and in vessels hollowed out of wood.
The Namaqua warriors carried shields of double oxhide,
so large that they could conceal their persons behind them.
As arms of offence they used the assagai, clubbed stick,
and bow and arrow. At the time of Cruythof's visit there
was a feud between them and the Cochoquas. Some Bush-
men had recently robbed them of a lot of cattle, and they
were seeking an opportunity for vengeance upon that plun-
dering race. Presents of beads, copper plates, tobacco,
and other articles, were made to these people, but that
which seemed to please them most was a red nightcap.
The strangers were well treated as long as they remained,
and when they left presents were made to them, of which
they took to the fort a young ox and also a goat, the first
animal of the kind seen at the Cape. They reached the
fort on the 11th of March, having been absent only forty
days.
It has more than once been mentioned that the Hot-
tentot clans were generally at war with each other when
Europeans became acquainted with them. Some of their
feuds appear to have been hereditary, but others were only
petty quarrels. The ill-feeling between the Namaquas and
the Cochoquas at this time was not very deep-seated. It
had its origin in a deed of spoliation, such as is common
i66i] Jan van Riebeek. 113
among all uncivilised people. Oedasoa, the Cochoqua chief,
had fallen upon the clan known as the Great Grigriquas,
and had taken their cattle, upon which they fled to the
Namaquas. These espoused their cause, but were so luke-
warm in the matter that Akembie informed Corporal Cruyt-
hof he would make peace at once if Oedasoa would send
messengers for that purpose.
The conmiander was anxious that the clans in the in-
terior should be on good terms with each other, so that
all might come unmolested to the fort with cattle for sale.
He therefore no sooner heard Cruythof s report, and read
the journal of the expedition, than he paid a visit to
Oedasoa, whom he addressed and spoke of as the ally of
the honourable East India Company. The Cochoqua chief
was requested to observe that the Netherlanders were the
friends of all people, their desire being that all should live
in peace and trade in friendship. For this reason he,
Conmiander Van Biebeek, requested his good friend and
ally to appoint delegates to enter into a treaty with the
Namaquas, when a party of Europeans would be sent with
them and the tranquillity of the country be secured. Oeda-
soa replied that he knew the conmiander wished all people
to live in peace, but he was not so good himself. His
followers were more numerous and more powerful than the
Namaquas and the Great Grigriquas combined, and he was
disposed to make them feel his strength. He was per-
suaded, however, to change his views, and after a short
delay three delegates of the Cochoquas were appointed to
arrange for peace.
Volxmteers offered again, and on the 21st of March a
party consisting of nine Europeans, the three Cochoqua
delegates, and two interpreters, under the leadership of
Pieter van Meerhof, left the fort for the country of the
Namaquas. They took with them large presents for Akem-
bie, his three grown-up sons, and the leading men of his
clan. The country as far as the Elephant river was now
well known, and when Meerhof reached that stream for
VOL. I. 8
114 History of South Africa. [1661
the third time he was not sorry to find no Namaquas near
its banks, as their absence gave him an opportunity to
lead his party into regions where no explorers had pre-
viously been.
Six days longer he pushed on northward, through a
country more barren and desolate than he had ever before
seen or had any conception of. On the sixth day of this
wearisome march the party came upon an encampment of
the Great Grigriquas, and found in it some of Akembie's
people, who had been left there purposely to receive any
Europeans that might arrive during the chiefs absence.
The main body of the Namaquas had migrated to the
north. The object of the expedition was attained, how-
ever, for peace was concluded between the belligerent clans
by their representatives, and Meerhof's party returned to
the fort Good Hope, where they arrived on the 23rd of
April, bringing with them every prospect of a large increase
to the Company's cattle trade.
While efforts were thus being made to open up South
Africa to conmierce, the improvement of the natives was
not altogether unthought of. There were indeed no mission-
aries, in the present meaning of that word, sent from the
Netherlands, but there was at least one man at the Cape
who was doing the work of an evangelist. His name was
Pieter van der Stael, and the office which he filled was
that of sick-comforter. He was brother-in-law of the com-
mander Van Kiebeek. In 1661 his term of service expired,
and a new engagement was entered into for three years, of
which the original record is still in existence. In this
dooument it is stated that the sick-comforter had been very
lalooB in trying to teach the Hottentots and slaves the
atoh language and the principles of Christianity. His
[mdnct in this respect having been brought to the notice
! the directors in the fatherland, they entirely approved
! it, and to signify their satisfaction they issued instruc-
118 that his pay was to be increased to 3Z. 15^. a month,
ah was then considered a very large salary for his office.
i66i] Jan van Riebeek. 115
In the agreement, the work in which he had been engaged
was recognised as part of his future duty, though he was
Btill to attend to the sick in the hospital, and conduct the
Sunday services. The whole number of Hottentots within
the settlement at this time did not exceed fifty souls, so that
the Dominie, as he was usually called, had not many of
that people to labour among. Their manner of living,
also, was such that any efforts to improve their mental
faculties must have been almost hopeless.
Already there was a suspicion in the minds of some
observers that the only method of civilising the Hotten-
tots was the plan followed in the case of Eva. She had
grown up in the commander's household, where she had
acquired European habits and tastes, and where she had
learned to read and to act outwardly as a Christian^
though as yet she was unbaptized. It appeared as if
two systems were upon their trial, each of which finds
advocates to this day. Pieter van der Stael exhorting
the beachrangers among their wretched hovels under the
Lion's head, trying to make them comprehend the Chris-
tian faith, teaching naked and half-famished savages the
ABC, would be regarded as a model missionary by
many great evangelising societies of the nineteenth cen-
tury. And the individuals are not few who would have
greater hopes fi:om the plan adopted with Eva, who was
to as great an extent as possible weaned in childhood
from the customs of her race, and who underwent a train-
ing in habits of industry and conformity with civilised
modes of living, before any purely religious teaching was
attempted.
Mr. Van Riebeek was desirous of entering into a treaty
of alliance vdth the Namaquas, as he anticipated great ad-
vantages to the Company from trade with that tribe. The
old belief concerning their high civilisation had been broken
by personal intercourse, and it was now known that they
were merely ordinary Hottentots, far even from being so
numerous or so powerful as the Cochoquas. But it wa&
ii6 History of South Africa. [1661
also known that they were very rich in cattle, and it was
hoped that by their means those golden regions laid down
in the charts might at length be reached. As yet, the com-
mander's faith in the accuracy of the maps of the time was
unshaken. He still spoke of Vigiti Magna and of the great
river which ran past it as if they were well-known geo-
graphical facts. Beyond this river was the land of wealth,
and to get to that land it was necessary to have the Nama-
quas as friends.
A party was therefore made ready to visit Akembie for
the purpose of inviting him and his three sons to the
fort. Most friendly messages were to be conveyed to them,
and such presents as were known to be acceptable were
to be taken. In the outfits for journeys such as this we
can see the style of hving of the Company's servants at
that time. The food was ample, though coarse; tea and
coffee were unused ; arrack or brandy formed part of the
ration ; but that which would strike as strangest any one
unacquainted with colonial tastes was the large quantity
of spice — cloves, nutmegs, and especially cinnamon — which
was consumed.
The expedition to the Namaquas consisted of thirteen
volunteers, of whom Sergeant Pieter Everaert was leader,
Pieter van Meerhof second in command, and Comelis
de Cretzer journalist. They left the fort on the 14th of
November 1661, /jjid did not return before the 13th of
February 1662. • North of the Elephant river they suffered
greatly from Poarcity of water, and even when they found
a little, it /veas so bitter that they could hardly drink it.
The country was a dreary desolate wilderness, burnt up
by the rays of a fiery sun, a vast expanse of sand in which
they wandered for days together without encountering a
sign of . human Ufe. At length they learned from some
Bushmen that the Namaquas were far away to the north,
and though they tried to follow, they did not succeed in
reaching any members of the tribe. By this expedition
no discove:ry of any importance was made, nor did anything
i66i] Jan van Riebeek. 117
transpire on the journey more worthy of record than the
tramphng to death of one of the volunteers by an elephant.^
In the settlement at this time only a few trifling events
occurred. The burgher councillor, Leendert Cornelissen,
had suffered heavy losses by the desertion of his slaves,
the disturbance with the Hottentots, and mishaps in his
business as a dealer in timber. These troubles had driven
him to habits of carelessness and intemperance unbecom-
ing his position. It was then the custom for the court of
justice, of which he was a member, to meet every alternate
Saturday afternoon at two o'clock. On one occasion when
a case came on for hearing he was found in a tavern unfit
to make his appearance. Hereupon the council of policy
deprived him of office, and from a double nomination by
the freemen appointed Hendrik Boom in his stead.
The two burghers who had an exclusive privilege to
shoot and sell game had also become dissipated in their
habits, so that a supply of venison was only procurable at
irregular and uncertain intervals. The commander here-
upon gave permission to all the freemen to kill wild animals
for the consumption of their own families, but not for
sale, on the ground that the pubhc welfare demanded such
a modification of the privileges of the licensed hunters.
The farmers, instead of attending to their work when
ships were in the bay, were frequently visiting the port,
on such occasions generally bringing in a waggon load of
firewood for disposal. To prevent this waste of time, the
council enacted that no firewood should be brought for
sale except on Saturday afternoons or on Sunday mornings
before nine o'clock, and an official was sent to Eondebosch
to compel the farmers to plough their lands. But such
enactments were by no means confined to the Cape Colony.
In England, for instance, at this date labourers were not
^ The original chart of this expedition is in the archives of Holland, and
a copy of it on tracing linen, made by me, is in possession of the colonial
government. The bearings are very inaccurately laid down. The point aimed
at is shown to be the town of Yigiti Magna.
li8 History of South Africa. [1662
permitted to receive more than an arbitrary rate of wages
fixed by the county authorities. A dozen regulations of
as despotic a nature as any enforced in South Africa could
probably be selected from the records of the freest country
in Europe.
Early in 1662 the ancient feud between the Cape clans
and the Cochoquas under the chief Oedasoa, which had been
dormant for a short time, was revived, when the Cape clans
drove their cattle as close as they could to the European
settlement, and sent messengers to the commander to im-
plore his protection. Hereupon Mr. Van Kiebeek with a
small guard rode out to see for himself how matters stood,
and just beyond Wynberg found four kraals containing in all
one hundred and four huts, occupied by fully two thousand
Goringhaiquas and Gorachouquas. The commander dis-
mounted and sat down under a screen which the natives
hastily made by planting poles in the ground and spreading
a mat upon them.
The chiefs then informed him that fi:om Oedasoa they
did not expect mercy, that unless they could fall back upon
the mountains they were unable to defend themselves, and
as the Europeans now held those mountains they thought
they were entitled to protection. Mr. Van Eiebeek replied
that if they would undertake to dehver ten head of homed
cattle and ten sheep for every vessel that entered the bay he
would take them under the guardianship of the honourable
dompany. The chiefs requested the commander to allow
ihem to consult with their people about this important
matter, and asked him to remain till the consultation was
over. This being agreed to, an old man was sent round to
•call the sages together. They met, and imder the presi-
dency of Choro discussed the question for fully four hours,
when a small committee of the leading men went apart and
finally arranged an answer for the commander. This was,
that it would be impossible for them to dispose of so many
cattle without destroying their breeding stock, but they were
willing to sell all that could be spared, without, however.
1662] Jan van Riebeek. 119
binding themselves to any number. Mr. Van Eiebeek tried
to persuade them that by his plan they could easily enrich
themselves through barter with their countrymen inland,
but his reasonings were of no avail. Finding that his terms
would not be agreed to, he at last left the Hottentot encamp-
ment, affcei; informing the chiefs that as the grass was then
becoming scarce in that neighbourhood they must at once
move away.
Yet at that moment Mr. Van Eiebeek had no intention
of leaving the Qoringhaiquas and the Gorachouquas to the
mercy of the Cochoquas. He says that although Oedasoa
was the friend and ally of the honourable Company, he was
so powerful that it would not be judicious to allow him to
destroy the others and to become the immediate neighbour
of the settlement. In that case he would probably soon
become troublesome, and would cei-tainly prevent intercourse
between the fort and the tribes inland. The commander
chose therefore to watch the course of events and to main-
tain the balance of power. On the morning after the con-
ference Gogosoa and Choro with Harry and a troop of
followers, in hope of appeasing him, brought fourteen oxen
and eleven sheep for sale, when they were liberally enter-
tained and given to understand that the Europeans were
friendly to them, though no promise of protection by means
of arms would be made.
The vision of obtaining control over rich gold mines and
stores of ivory if possession were taken of the eastern coast
of Africa, which had dazzled the Company in the early years
of its existence, was still floating before' the eyes of the
directors in Holland. At this time they were preparing a
fleet to attack Mozambique, and orders were sent out to the
Cape to detain two hundred and fifty soldiers from homeward
bound ships and to hold this force in readiness to embark
upon the arrival of the expedition. In April the soldiers
were landed, and were placed under command of Lieuten-
ant Fran9ois Tulleken, who, during the short period of his
residence here, took mihtary precedence of Sergeant Everaert.
I20 History of South Africa. [1662
The accounts of the condition of the settlement given
verbally to the directors by the skippers of their vessels
did not always accord with the despatches prepared by Mr.
Van Eiebeek. There was a tendency on the part of the
commander to overrate the advantages of the Cape station,
and a tendency on the part of the skippers to underrate
them. It was, said the commander, a place abounding
with fresh meat and vegetables, and having a certainty
immediately before it of an equally plentiful supply of fruit
It was, said the skippers, the dreariest place in the world,
where the meat was so tough and lean that they could
hardly eat it, and where often the ships were straining and
chafing their cables half the time of their stay, riding in
a heavy sea with a farious gale blowing. It was, said the
commander, a place with many conveniences and comforts
for the officers and sailors whenever they wanted to take
a run ashore. It was, said the skippers, a place where the
town burghers obtained a living by keeping lodging houses
and brandy shops, and selling poultry and eggs, without
having the fear of God before their eyes when making
charges, but as for such comforts as could be procured in
the smallest village of Europe or India, they were entirely
wanting. On board every return fleet some of the garrison
or freemen managed to secrete themselves, and these run-
aways, upon arriving in the fatherland, naturally supported
the statements of the skippers.
The directors called the commander's attention to the
complaints of the skippers, which, they observed, they were
inclined to believe must rest upon a good foundation, as
in one instance beyond dispute he had misled them. He
had often held out prospects of the Cape being able to
furnish its own food, and still the Company was compelled
to import rice. Most certainly this charge was unjust, for
the imported rice was a very small item to be placed as a
set-off against the supplies of provisions to the fleets. But
the belief had come to be general in the fatherland that
the resources of the Cape were by no means so great as
1662] Jan van Riebeek. 121
Mr. Van Biebeek was constantly representing. Strict orders
were therefore sent out that no more men were to be
released from service to become town burghers. We do
not see, said the directors, of what advantage they are in
a country that does not raise its own food. Farmers are
needed first of all.
Mr. Van Eiebeek had long been anxious for removal
from South Africa. He had a high opinion of his own
abilities, and believed that he deserved promotion. Further
advancement here being impossible, he had more than
once requested an appointment in India, though he always
added that he was content to abide by the decision of his
superiors. In 1660 the directors resolved upon his removal,
and appointed Mr. Gerrit van Ham as his successor, with-
out intimating their intentions regarding himself further
than that he was to proceed to Batavia and there receive
instructions.
Mr. Van Ham sailed from Texel in the Wwpen van
'Holland^ a first-class Indiaman of which David Coninck,
formerly of the Dromedaris, was then skipper. Soon after
leaving home sickness broke out among the crew, and
before they had been many weeks at sea the ship was Uke
a hospital. Twenty-five corpses had already been com-
mitted to the deep, when, on the 17th of March 1661, Mr.
Van Ham died.
As soon as inteUigence of the decease of the commander
designate reached Batavia, the council of India appointed
in his stead Mr. Zacharias Wagenaar, who was then serv-
ing as a merchant in the Company's service, and with the
first return ship Mr. Van Eiebeek was apprised that he
might shortly expect his successor. He received the an-
nouncement with satisfaction, for his arrangements to leave
South Africa had been sometime made. His two sons
had been sent to the Latin school at Eotterdam to receive
their education. His farm had been handed over to the
council as representing the honourable Company, and it
had been arranged that the next commissioner who should
122 History of South Africa. [1662
call at the Cape should appraise the amount to be allowed
him for improvements. On this farm a good deal of labour
must have been bestowed, for there were then growing
upon it one thousand one hundred and sixty-two yoimg
orange, lemon, and citron trees, ten banana plants, two
olive, three walnut, five apple, two pear, nineteen plum,
and forty-one other fruit trees, besides some thousands of
vines.^
^A list of the saccessive owners of this estate and the sams paid for it
will show the value of landed property in the Cape peninsula at different
periods. Unlike nearly every other plot of ground originally given out in
this part of the colony, Mr. Van Biebeek's farm has never been sub-
divided, but remains intact to the present day, with the same boundaries
as were assigned to it in 1658. The council was of opinion that it would
make a good garden for the use of the Company, and agreed to keep it
for that purpose; but the directors decided against this arrangement, and
issued instructions that it should be sold by public auction for Mr. Van
Kiebeek's benefit. It was purchased by Jacob Bosendaal for 1102., to be
paid in yearly instalments extending over a long period. The next person
who is found in possession of it is Tobias Marquart, but what he gave for
it cannot be ascertained, as there was no registry of deeds before 1686,
and no mention is made of the transaction elsewhere. In 1686 titles
were issued to the individuals who were then in possession of estates, and
an accurate record of transfers began to be kept. In Marquart*s title it is
stated that the ground was the same hundred and one morgen that had
been first granted to Mr. Van Biebeek, and it is termed Boschheuvel, but
no particulars are given as to when or how it came into his possession.
In August 1690 Cornells Linnes purchased it from the executors of Mar-
quart's estate for 4872., and in June 1691 he sold it to Willem Heems for
500/. The next purchaser was also named Willem Heems, who in July
1726 bought it for 9202. from the estate of the heirs of the former pro-
prietor. In February 1758 Jacob van Beenen bought it from the heirs of
Heems for 2672., and in September of the same year sold it to Jacob
Neethling for 4002. In February 1773 Jan Boep bought it from Neethling
for the same sum that the latter had paid for it, and in May 1783 he sold
it to Pieter Henkes for 2,2672. In June 1804 Henkes sold it to Justus
Keer for 2,8672., and in August 1805 Keer sold it to Honoratus Christiaan
David Maynier for the same amount, 2,8672. Maynier changed the name
of the fatrm from Boschheuvel to Protea. On the 10th of June 1818 he
received from Lord Charles Somerset a grant of seventy-seven morgen and
one hundred square roods of waste land adjoining the old estate, at a
yearly quitrent of 12. lis. 6^., and in subsequent transfers this ground
was included. After his death his widow became insolvent, and under an
order of the supreme court the property was sold at public auction on the
Jt662] Jan van Riebeek. 123
On the 2nd of April 1662 Mr. Wagenaar arrived at the
Oape, having come from Batavia in the capacity of com-
modore of the two ships Angelier and Ojevaer, which formed
part of the return fleet of 1662 under command of Arnold
de Vlaming, ordinary councillor of India. Three other
ships of the same fleet, with Joan van der Laen as com-
modore, were already lying at the rendezvous in Table
Bay. There were four others still behind, one of which
was afterwards known to have gone down at sea in a gale,
and the remaining three were never again heard of.
Mr. Wagenaar was warmly welcomed upon landing,
but the reins of government were not handed over to him
before the 6th of May. On the afternoon of that day the
freemen were all assembled at the fort, where the garrison
was drawn up under arms before a temporary platform.
•The ceremony of inducting the new commander was very
simple. Hendrik Lacus, the secretary, read the commission
of the governor-general and council of India, the troops
presented arms, the secunde Roelof de Man, the Ueutenant
JPran9ois Tulleken, the fiscal Abraham Gabbema, and the
minor ofl&cers of the government engaged to support the
Authority of the new commander, the freemen repeated a
formula promising obedience to his lawful orders, and the
whole ceremony was over.
On the 7th Mr. Van Riebeek with his family embarked
in the Mars^ and early on the following morning he sailed
for Batavia. He had governed the settlement ten years
and one month. A lengthy document which by order of
the directors he drew up for the use of his successor con-
tains a statement of the condition of the infant colony,
drd of May 1886. It was purchased by Andries Brink, who received
transfer on the 14th of March 1837. Brink sold it to Honoratus Christiaan
David Maynier, a grandson of the former proprietor, and transfer was
passed on the 23rd of August 1842. This Maynier sold it in June 1851 to
the trustees of the colonial bishopric fund — one of them being the right
honourable William Ewart Gladstone — for 3,100Z. Since that time the
.bishop of the English church has resided on the estate.
124 History of South Africa. [i66»
remarks upon planting at various seasons of the year, an
account of all the Hottentot clans that were then known^
and a great deal of hearsay information, much of which
was afterwards discovered to be inaccurate.
The settlement was then in a fairly prosperous con-
dition. The Javanese horses had increased to over forty^
old and young, so that a body of eighteen mounted men
could be kept patrolUng the border. The hedge was grow-
ing well, and promised in the course of three or four
years to be so high and thick that nothing could be driven
through it, consequently from the Hottentots there was
little or no cause to fear trouble. Of homed cattle, sheep^
and pigs, there was a good stock on hand. Every farmer
had at least twelve working oxen and six cows, every one
whose wife had arrived from Europe had at least twelve
cows, and as they were permitted to exchange any inferior
animals for the best that the Company purchased from
the natives, their stock was the choicest in the country.
Each had his Uttle freehold farm marked out, and beyond
the agricultural lands the whole open coimtry was common
pasture.
The directors had reproved Mr. Van Eiebeek for the
severity of his regulations, and by their order many re-
strictions upon trade had been removed. The farmers
could not legally purchase cattle from the natives, they
could not legally sell a muid of wheat, an ox, or a sheep,
except to the Company, but they could dispose of anything
else freely, even to the master of a foreign vessel, at the
best price which they could obtain. The town burghers,
were dependent upon strangers for their living. During
the decade 1652-1661 twenty-five of the Company's ships
on an average put into Table Bay yearly. One with
another, there were on board each of these ships about
two hundred men, so that every twelvemonth there were
five thousand visitors, remaining usually ten or twelve
days. In addition to these, during the period of Mr. Van
Biebeek's government seventeen English and six French
1662] Jan van Riebeek. 125
ships dropped anchor in Table Bay, and their crews were
customers for many articles which the freemen had for
sale. It is true that foreign ships were not encouraged
by the government to make this a port of call, but it is
no less true that in none of the colonial possessions of
England or France were Dutch seamen better treated at
that time than English and French seamen were treated
here.
That was an age in which foreigners had nowhere the
same commercial privileges as the owners of a country.
At the Cape the government would sell them nothing, but
they had the use of all the lodging-houses and taverns,
they could purchase vegetables, pigs, and poultry from the
burghers, and in some instances at least the authorities
closed their eyes to sales of cattle. The instructions of the
directors were to give the burghers a helping hand, not to
enforce harsh regulations when imnecessary. It was fre-
quently considered unnecessary to enforce the regulations
against the sale of cattle, if the Company was fully supplied
and a foreigner offered a high price to a burgher.
This mode of procuring a livelihood was somewhat
precarious, and was adapted to form a class of petty
traders not over scrupulous in their transactions, rather
than such a body of colonists as the Company was desir-
ous of establishing at the Cape. Mr. Van Eiebeek re-
ported that many of them were doing so well that they
were never seen with their shirt sleeves rolled up, but
only a few years later another commander stated that
some were in extreme poverty. Both were right.
When Mr. Van Eiebeek left South Africa he antici-
pated great profit from the cultivation of a particular plant.
That plant was the oUve. Nowhere in the world could
there be a finer specimen of a young olive tree than on the
farm which had once been his. In the preceding year it
had been overloaded with fruit, which had ripened well,
and now he had himdreds of young trees ready for trans-
planting in July and August. Yet to the present day it
126 History of South Africa, [1662^
is an open question whether the olive can be cultivated
with profit in South Africa.
Among matters to which Mr. Van Eiebeek directed his
successor's attention were the taming of young ostriches
and the stocking of the islands in Saldanha Bay with
rabbits. On several occasions tame ostriches had been sent
to the Indies, where they had proved acceptable presents
to native potentates, and it was for this purpose alone that
they were needed. Their feathers were saleable, but it
does not seem to have occurred to any one in those days
that it would pay to tame the bird for the sake of its
plumaga The object of stocking the islands in Saldanha
Bay with rabbits was to increase the food supply there for
the crew of any ship that might arrive in distress. These
animals were already swarming on Bobben Island, but it
was noticed that a species of snake, harmless to men, had
of late so greatly multiplied that the rabbits would likely
not increase further.
The native clans that were known in 1662 were the
Goringhaikonas, the Goringhaiquas, and the Gorachouquas,
inhabiting the country in the immediate vicinity of the fort ;
the Cochoquas, in two divisions under the chiefs Oedasoa
and Gonnema, and the Little Grigriquas, occupying the
country along the coast from the neighbourhood of the
Cape to the Elephant river ; the Namaquas and the Great
Grigriquas, north of the Elephant river ; and the Chainou-
quas, to the east of the Cochoquas. Altogether, these well-
known clans were supposed to number from forty-five to
fifty thousand souls.^ Scattered over the whole country,
>I have arrived at this estimate, not from any single statement of
Mr. Van Riebcek, but from observations scattered throughout his writings.
Where ho has given only the number of fighting men in a clan, I have
multiplied that number by five to represent the total of men, women, and
children. In two instances he has given no information further than say-
ing the clans were about as strong as some others which he had previously
named. The spelling of these tribal names is that generally, though by
no means uniformly, employed in the early records. The letters g and
ch were in those days used for each other apparently at the pleasure of
1662] y^^^ van Riebeek. 127
wherever it had been explored, were a few diminutive Bush-
men living by plunder and the chase, but of their number
the commander did not venture to give an estimate.
The Hessequas, whose pastures were next to the east-
ward of the Chainouquas, had sent a messenger to the
fort to ascertain all that he could of the strangers who
had come from over the sea and made themselves homes
at the end of the land. But of the Hessequas only the
name was known. Mr. Van Eiebeek had heard of the
Hancumquas, whose chief, called Choebaha, was believed
by him to be the head of all the Hottentot race, of the
Chamaquas, the Omaquas, the Attaquas, the Houteniquas,
and the Chauquas, but he had never seen any one be-
longing to any of these clans. The boundary of the
Chauquas he believed to be the great river on which
Vigiti Magna was built, and beyond that stream he
thought an entirely different people from the Hottentots
would be found. These he called the Chobonas. They
wore clothing, dwelt in substantial houses, were in pos-
session of gold and jewels, — in short, were the civilised
people of Monomotapa. Besides all these, Mr. Van Rie-
beek had been told of amazons, of cannibals with hair
80 long that it reached the ground, and of a race that
tamed lions^ and used them in war; but of their exact
place of abode he professed himself ignorant.
Within the last three years several farmers had taken
out free papers, but though each man's ground was sur-
veyed, a neat chart of it framed, and a title deed issued
every writer, e.^., Gorachouquas, Ghorachouquas, dag, dach, etc. Tribal
names given in the text, and also the names of individuals, must be taken
to represent the closest approximation to the sounds as spoken by Hotten-
tots, which could be written in the letters of the Dutch alphabet. That
these words contained clicks, which could not be represented by Mr. Van
Riebeek and the early secretaries, is certain. It would doubtless be of
advantage to an ethnologist if they were written in all instances in their
correct Hottentot form, but as in that case they would be utterly un-
pronoonceable by English tongue, in a book such as this it seems prefer-
able to retain the Dutch spelling.
128 History of South Africa. [1662
as soon as the terms of occupation were completed, the
most methodical of all governments — the government which
has left detailed information concerning every ship that
entered the bay — neglected by some unaccountable oversight
to keep an accurate record of its land grants. This is
not, however, a matter of any great importance, as out
of all those who became burghers at this time, only
three men remained and left descendants behind them in
South Africa. Those three were Willem van der Merwe,
Hans Eas, and Pieter van der Westhuizen, ancestors of
colonial famiUes now widely spread.
The character of the first commander of the colony is
delineated in the thousands of pages of manuscript which
he left behind. A more dutiful servant no government
ever had, for he endeavoured to the utmost to carry out
in spirit and in letter the instructions which were given
him. He was sanguine in temperament, energetic in action.
So active was he that he accomphshed, in addition to all
his other duties, more mere writing than any ordinary
clerk would care to imdertake.
On the other hand, his judgment was weak, and his
ideas of justice were often obscured by the one object ever
present in his mind, — the gain of the honourable Company.
He was inclined to be tyrannical, and, as is not unusual
with men who rise above the rank in which they are bom,
he treated with contempt the class from which he sprang
whenever he could do so with impunity. He was reUgi-
ous after the fashion of his day, but his religion did not
prevent him from acting falsely and treacherously when-
ever there was any immediate gain to the Company to be
made by a falsehood or a treacherous act.
Perhaps this was rather a vice of the age than of the
man. He, at any rate, did not regard it as a vice at all,
for he recorded with the utmost simplicity how on one
occasion he sent a false message, on another made a pro-
mise with no intention of fulfilling it, on a third entrapped
a Hottentot by means of fair words. Nor did any of the
1 662] Jan van Riebeek. 129
directors, or commissioners, or Indian authorities, ever pen
a line of censure on account of such doings. In addition
to these remarks upon the most prominent features of his
character, it may be added that the first commander was
a man of no great delicacy of feeling, and that in refine-
ment of mind he compared unfavourably with most of his
successors.
After his arrival in Batavia, Mr. Van Eiebeek was ap-
pointed head of the Company's estabhshment at Malacca,
which post he fiUed until 1665. Subsequently he became
secretary of the council of India, and remained in that
situation for many years, but never had a voice in the
debates or proceedings.
VOL. I.
I30
CHAPTEE V.
ZAGHABUS WAGENAAB, GOMMANDEB, INSTALLED 6th MAT 1662,
BETIBED 27th SBPTEMBEB 1666.
CoMHANDEB Wagbnaab was a man whose habits and dis-
positdon formed a strikiDg contrast with those of his pre-
decessor. Mr. Van Eiebeek was a little man of restless
energy and fiery temper, who got into a passion whenever
he fancied a slight was offered to his dignity. His con-
temporaries called him ' the little thomback ' (de Inttel
rogh), and the nickname was decidedly appropriate. Mr.
Wagenaar, on the contrary, was an elderly man of grave
demeanour, who never allowed a passion to disturb him.
He possessed no ability, either mental or physical, natural
or acquired, in any high degree. He was dull, impassive,
averse to exertion. If he had ever been ambitious of
fame or rank, the feeling had died before he came to
South Africa.
He was not, however, without considerable experience
in the management of business, and he had once filled a
post as important as that of head of the Company's fac-
tories in Japan. Long residence in different parts of
India had shattered his health, and at times he was laid
up for weeks together, unable to do anything beyond at-
taching his signature to official documents. There was
no fear of such a man .pushing the settlement forward too
rapidly, as some of the commissioners thought Mr. Van
Biebeek had been doing. Bather, he was one under
whom it was unlikely that any expense not specially
authorised by superior authority would be incurred. The
1662] Zacharias Wagenaar. 131
only relatives who accompanied him to the Cape were his
wife and a widowed daughter-in-law.
Shortly after his assmnption of office, deputations from
the various Hottentot clans with which his predecessor
had been acquainted waited upon him to ascertain if the
relationship in which the Europeans stood towards them
was likely to continue as before. They were received
with every mark of kindness, were hberally entertained,
and were assured that the commander desired nothing
more than that the firm friendship between the two races
should be unbroken. Sufficient merchandise would con-
stantly be kept on hand, that when they brought cattle
for sale all their wants could be supplied.
The first coimcil over which Mr. Wagenaar presided
renewed the regulations forbidding every one from molest-
ing or insulting a Hottentot. The Cape clans were de-
clared to have a perfect right to come and go where and
when they chose, the only exception being that within
the boundaries of the settlement they were required to
keep to the recognised thoroughfares.
When the rainy season was over, the commander re-
solved to visit the Cochoquas in person, as by so doing
he thought they would be flattered and very likely could
be induced to sell cattle more freely. A fleet was then
expected for which a large supply was requisite, and as
the encampments of Oedasoa and Gonnema were within
a day's ride of the fort the enterprise did not seem very
formidable. Mr. Wagenaar took Eva with him to act as
interpreter, and ten horsemen and twelve foot 'soldiers as
a guard. He was absent from his quarters eight days,
and his observations show that these were days of little
enjoyment.
At the Hottentot kraals he found no one from the
chiefs down to the poorest individuals ashamed to beg.
From small and great there was an unceasing request for
tobacco and brandy as long as he had any to give. It is
true, the chiefs made him presents of cattle and sheep,
132 History of South Africa. [1662
and offered abundance of such food as they had, but they
looked for ample gifts in return. As for the milk, it was
served in such filthy utensils that he could not touch
it, and he was therefore in doubt whether he had not
offended them. His only satisfaction arose from the fact
that his people were getting together a ^ood flock of
sheep by barter. For this purpose he remained at each
of the kraals a couple of days, but upon the whole his
experience of life among the Hottentots left such a dis-
agreeable impression upon him that he never again paid
them a visit.
Soon after his return to the fort a party of Hessequas
arrived, bringiug with them a goodly herd of cattle for sala
These strangers stated that the country in which they fed
their flocks was far away to the eastward, beyond a range
of lofty mountains, where no European had ever been. It
was a district somewhere between the present villages of
Caledon and Swellendam, and the mountain range was the
nearest of those seen from the Cape peninsula, or the one
which is now crossed by the high road over Sir Lowry's
pass. The Hessequas knew of no other people than pas-
toral clans like their own in that direction. Mr. Wage-
naar did not gain much geographical knowledge from these
visitors, nor did he question them very closely after he as-
certained that they were ignorant of any place which would
correspond with Yigiti Magna.
In hope of discovering that long-sought town, thirteen
volunteers left the fort on the 21st of October 1662. They
were under command of Corporal Pieter Crujrthof, with
Pieter van Meerhof as assistant. The party followed up
the old northern path until they reached an encampment of
the Namaquas deep in the wilderness beyond the Elephant
river. This should have been their real starting point, for
the country through which they had passed was already
well known, but the Namaquas would not permit them to
go farther. The clan was at war with its neighbours, and
therefore gave the Europeans only the choice of assisting
1662] Zacharias Wagenaar. 133
them or of turning back. They chose the last, and thus
the expedition was a failure. It was, however, attended
by an occurrence which deserves mention.
One night as the travellers were sleeping round their
watchfire a shower of darts was poured upon them by an
unseen foe, and four of them were severely wounded. The
assailants were believed to be Bushmen, though who they
were could not be positively ascertained, as they fled be-
fore the white men recovered from their surprise. Not
long after this event the expedition suddenly came upon a
Bushman encampment in which were some women and
children. Corporal Cruythof hereupon gave orders that
these should be put to death, and that all their effects
should be destroyed in revenge for the injuries which the
Europeans had sustained. But he met with an indignant
and unanimous refusal from the volunteers, who stood by
Pieter van Meerhof and replied that they would not shed
innocent blood. Cruythof was therefore compelled to aban-
don his atrocious design. Upon the return of the party to
the fort, which they reached on the 1st of February 1663,
the authorities expressed approval of what under other
circumstances would have been treated as mutiny, and
Cruythof, though he underwent no trial, at once lost favour.
Shortly afterwards he committed a trivial offence, of which
advantage was taken to degrade him in rank. Being a
good soldier he was restored at a later period, and even
rose to a higher military position, but he was never again
employed in deaUngs with natives.
Towards the close of the year 1662 another expedition,
but of a different nature, left the Cape. A fleet of six large
ships and a tender, under command of Admiral Hubert
de Lairesse, put into Table Bay, where the soldiers who had
been waiting some months were taken on board, and the
fleet then left for the purpose of trying to wrest Mozam-
bique from the Portuguese. All went well until the lati-
tude of Delagoa Bay was reached. Then stormy weather
was encountered, with a head wind which blew violently
134 History of South Africa. [1663
for nearly two months. The crews at length became ex-
hausted, scurvy broke out, and the admiral was compelled
to seek a place of refreshment. The ships were put about,
and by the following noon were as far south as they had
been five weeks before. They were then close to the coast
some distance above Delagoa Bay. Here good holding
ground was found in a haven or bight, so they let go their
anchors and sent some men ashore to ascertain if any re-
fceshments were to be had.
In a short time it was known that cattle in plenty
were to be obtained from the natives in exchange for iron
or other articles of merchandise which they had on board.
Every one now thought that all would yet be well, for as
soon as they were assured of refreshment they considered
their troubles as past, and anticipated the time when the
monsoon should change and permit them to renew their
design against Mozambique. But their joy was of short
duration. The scurvy had not left them when the fever
which is endemic on that coast suddenly made its appear-
ance, prostrating whole companies at once. One hundred
and fourteen men died within a few days, and half the
remainder were laid up when the admiral gave orders to
raise the anchors and set sail for Batavia.
At this time another effort was made to open com-
mercial intercourse between the Cape and the island of
Madagascar. By order of the directors a small vessel was
fitted out and sent to the bay of St. Augustine, with a
trading party and a wooden house ready for putting up,
as it was intended to form a permanent establishment
there if the prospects should be found at all good. The
directors appointed the secunde Eoelof de Man head of
the expedition, but that faithful and deserving officer died
on the 5th of March 1663, before the vessel was ready to
sail. The council of policy then selected Joachim Blank,
the ablest clerk on the Cape establishment, for the com-
mand. In December Blank returned to the Cape with a
report of failure. He stated that there was very little
1663] Zacharias Wagenaar. 135
trade to be done either at the bay of St. Augastine or
at other places which he had visited, as the inhabitants
were impoverished by constant wars which they carried
on among themselves. He had only been able to obtain
eight or nine tons of rice and seven slaves.
The many failures in the efforts to find Yigiti Magna
by a northern route had not yet caused the Cape authori-
ties to try in another direction. Accordingly, the explor-
ing expedition of 1663 followed the path of those which
had preceded it. The leader was Sergeant Jonas de la
Guerre, Pieter van Meerhof was second in command, and
there were besides these fourteen European volunteers and
three Hottentots. Among the volunteers was a soldier
named Hieronymus Cruse,^ who was for many years after-
wards a prominent person at the Cape. The instructions
given to De la Guerre were that he was to take no part
in any native quarrels, but to endeavour to induce the
interior clans to make peace with each other and to come
to the fort to trade. If the Namaquas should act as they
had done towards Cruythof's party, he was first to threaten
them with the enmity of the commander, and if that had
no effect he was to march his men forward, when if they
attacked him he was to pour a volley of small shot in
among them. The sixteen men with firearms in their
hands, it was believed, would be more than a match for
the Namaqua horde.
They had with them a waggon,^ in which their stores
were conveyed as far as the Elephant river, where they
^ Descendants in the female line now in South Afrioa.
^The Cape tent waggon is nothing more than the waggon in common
use in the Low Gonntries when the first settlers came to South Africa,
except that the wheels are somewhat higher. When the first waggon makers
set to work in this colony, they modelled axle and schamel, draaiboard
and tongue, disselboom and longwaggon, precisely as they had done in the
ftttherland. The rivers and the sand fiats necessitated higher wheels, then
long journeys called for enlargement of the vehicle, but the model remained
unaltered in aU other respects down to the days of iron axles and patent
brakes.
136
History of South Africa.
[1664
took it to pieces and boried it in the gronnd, together
with eome provisioos. Starting iresh from thie point with
pack oxen, and having a supply of food in reserve againet
their return, they had hardly a doubt that they would be
able to reach the great river of the map. But the want
of water in that arid region destroyed all their hopes.
They pushed on bravely, though their sufferings were in-
tense, but at length they were compelled either to turn
back or to lie down and die. Fainting with thirst they
reached the Elephant river again, and found that during
their absence their stores had been discovered and removed.
The waggon had been burnt, probably for the sake of the
iron work. Still the oxen were left, so that they were in
no danger of starvation, but they arrived at the fort after
an absence of more than three months in a very different
condition from that in which they left it.
In this year a public work of considerable importance
was completed. A water tank one hundred and seventy-
eight feet long, fifty feet wide, and from four to five feet
deep, was constructed about a stone's throw westward of
the fort and near the margin of the bay. It was intended
for the convenience of the shipping.
Shortly after the establishment of a residency at the
Cape, the East India Company had withdrawn its garrison
from Mauritius, as that island was not in a good position
for a victualling station and nothing of commercial value
except ebony and a small quantity of ambergris was pro-
curable there. Before they embarked the Dutch turned
loose a number of cows, goats, and pigs, which in a few
years multiplied into large herds. Mauritius remained un-
peopled from this date until 1664, when the directors
resolved to take possession of it again, more for the pur-
pose of keeping other nations away than for any direct
profit which they could draw from it,
Just then the French were making strenuous efforts to
form settlements in that part of the world. Their king
had taken into his own hands the direction of the factories
1664] Zacharias Wagenaar. lyj
at Madagascar, and that great island seemed likely under
his guidance to become a place of importance. Bishop
Estienne had at length succeeded in reaching the field
upon which his hopes had so long been set, and now
with a large staff of ecclesiastics he was engaged in erect*
ing a monastery near Port Dauphin, from which niission-
aries were to be sent out to convert the natives. The
French had also just taken possession of Mascarenhas,
and placed a small garrison upon that island, which they
named Bourbon. It was evident therefore that Mauritius
must be reoccupied, or the Company would be excluded
from a large portion of the Indian sea. It was not in-
tended, however, to form an expensive establishment there,
but merely to keep a few men upon the island, which was
to be an outpost of the Cape residency.
In May 1664 a small party was sent from this place
under the leadership of Jacobus van Nieuwland, an officer
selected in Holland and sent out for the purpose. On the
26th of June they landed on the island and resumed pos-
session on behalf of the honourable Company. They had
with them a wooden house, a quantity of seeds and tools,
and a twelve months' supply of provisions. These were
put on shore, and then the vessel in which they arrived
set sail, leaving the little garrison in loneliness.
For a whole year after this the island remained unvisit-
ed. Then a cutter was sent from the Cape with supplies,
and in case the garrison had in the meantime met with
any disaster, a fresh party of men and a new command-
ant were sent also. This party found the establishment
at Mauritius completely disorganised. Jacobus van Nieuw-
land was dead, and the soldiers had thrown off all restraint.
Most of them had left the residency as soon as the last
keg of spirits was drawn off, and were then leading a half
savage life, depending upon wild goats for food, though
the stock of foreign provisions was still ample and the
garden only wanted attending to. The new commandant
was unable to restore order until three of the chief mutineers
138 History of South Africa. [1664
were Reized and put in irons on board the cutter. They
were brought to the Cape, where they were tried and
punished, one of them very severely.
From this time matters went on smoothly at Mauri-
tius, though the growth of the estabUshment there was
very slow. Every year a vessel sailed from Table Bay
with supplies, and brought back ebony logs. Sometimes
a soldier would request to be discharged there, when he
became a burgher just as at the Cape. Once, three families
were forcibly transported from Bondebosch to that island
by Commander Wagenaar, because their heads were worth-
less characters, and the council of policy thought a change
of residence might bring them to their senses. In process
of time councils were formed there similar to those in this
country, but all were subordinate to the Cape authorities.
Thus a man who lost a case in the court of justice at
Mauritius could appeal to the court of justice at the Gape.
Mauritius, in fact, stood in the same relationship to this
coimtry as this country did to Batavia.
The commandant who was sent to that island in 1665
was a man who deserves more than mere passing notice.
His name was George Frederick Wreede. A runaway
German student, like many others in similar circumstances
he enlisted as a soldier, and came to South Africa in 1659.
At that time no government in Europe offered such oppor-
tunities of advancement to men of merit as did the East
India Company of the Netherlands. Many of its foremost
commanders and governors had risen from the ranks, and
the directors were always ready to make use of ability
wherever they could find it. Whatever the fault was which
caused Wreede to leave Germany, it could not have been
connected with want of brain power or distaste of study.
He was no sooner in Africa among a strange race of sav-
ages, of whose inner life absolutely nothing was known,
than he set himself to the task of studying their character-
istics. In a few years he had acquired a thorough know-
ledge of their language, so that after the death of the old
1664] Zacharias Wagenaar. 139
interpreters Harry and Doman the commander employed
him on all important occasions as his messenger to chiefs
at a distance. He was at this time utiUsing his spare
hoars by arranging a vocabulary of Dutch and Hottentot
words, two copies of which he sent to the directors, to
whom he dedicated it, in November 1663. The command-
er, when forwarding the work, requested that it might be
printed, and asked that some copies might be sent to the
*Cape, where it would be useful. What became of these
manuscripts cannot be ascertained from any documents
hitherto found in South Africa or in the archives of Hol-
land, but there is strong reason to believe that they were
lent to the historian Ludolf, and were among his papers
.at the time of his death. The directors, though they
deemed it more advisable that the natives should learn
the language of the Dutch than that the Europeans should
learn that of the Hottentots, promised to have the work
printed, but whether that promise was carried out appears
to be doubtful.
The first Cape author had no reason to complain of his
labour not being remunerated. The directors instructed
the commander to present him in their name with a sum
of money equal to twenty pounds sterling, and they ordered
him to be promoted to a good situation in any branch of
their service that he should select. There was then a
design to establish a residency on one of the islands of
Martin Vaz, which were believed to be suitable for a vic-
tualling station in time of war. A vessel was being fitted
out at the Cape for that purpose when the despatch of the
directors was received, and upon the order being com-
municated to Wreede he asked for the commandantship of
the new station. His request was at once acceded to, but
upon arriving with his party at Martin Vaz, he found that
his government comprised nothing more than a group of
bare and almost inaccessible rocks. It was impossible to
form a station, and as the master of the vessel objected
to cruise about in search of a habitable island, he was
140 History of South Africa. [1664
obliged to return disappointed to the Cape. His journal
of the voyage to Martin Vaz and his report to Commander
Wagenaar are still to be seen in the colonial archives.
Upon his return from this expedition he was sent to Mauri-
tius, and assumed the command there.
In September 1664 intelUgence was received at the Cape
of the likehhood of war between England and the Nether-
lands. The directors wrote that the government of Charles
II seemed bent upon a rupture, though the States were
anxiously striving to maintain peace, if that was possible
without loss of honour. It would appear that conmiercial
rivalry was at the bottom of this ill-feeling, and that the
English government could not suppress the war spirit of
the people. But though it is usual for historians of all
nations to throw the blame of the humiliating war which
followed entirely upon the English, there is proof extant
that outrages were by no means confined to one side.
Piratical acts were committed in distant seas by Dutch
and EngUsh ahke, without the perpetrators being punished.
In the colonial archives there is a detailed account of
one such act, which was committed by the crew of an
Indiaman that put into Table Bay. On the passage out
they overhauled two English vessels and searched them
for treasure. The officers of one they tortured with burn-
ing ropeyam to make them confess whether they had any-
thing of value on board.
For many months matters remained in a state of sus-
pense. On the 24th of October the directors wrote that
news had been received at the Hague of the capitulation
of the West India Company's possessions in North America
to ah English fleet. The Dutch factories on the coast of
Guinea had also been attacked, though war was not yet
formally declared. At length, on the 9th of June 1665,
tidings reached South Africa that the EngUsh had seized
a great number of ships in the Channel, that the Dutch
wepe retaliating, and that the two nations were openly at
war.
1665] Zacharias Wagenaar. 141
Daring the period of uncertainty preceding the formal
declaration of hostilities, the directors took into considera-
tion the importance of their residency at the Cape, as
commanding the highway to India, and its defenceless
condition in the event of a sudden attack. The old earthen
fort was indeed sufficient protection against the largest
force that the natives could bring against it, but it could
not be held against a European enemy of any strength.
Its walls were frequently falling, especially after heavy
rains, and the guns mounted upon it were harmless to a
ship at the usual anchorage.
After much consideration the directors resolved to ere<;t
in Table Valley a strong stone fortress capable of suh
taining heavy guns, and sufficiently commodious for t)i<;
acconmiodation of a large garrison. With this view t)j«;y
caused plans to be prepared, and having approved of th*;
one which seemed most suitable, they gave the nw;i5bbary
orders for putting their design into execution, luhtrii^
tions were sent to Commander Wagenaar to detain th/M,
hundred soldiers from passing ships, and to employ ti^/;.
in getting materials ready. Pieter Dombaer, an i'Aiv^s,t:^
was appointed to superintend the work. The wAi'/iU*^ y
a site for the new fortress, being a matter of ti^, j^^
importance, was entrusted to the commissioner Mr,«^v
Goske,^ one of the ablest officers in the Company 'k ^.^^
A scene of unwonted activity was now prewsaj^ ^ ^^
Cape. The three hundred soldiers were landw *^ ^.^.^
immediately set to work quarrying stone. A y^,. ^ .^^^
victs and slaves was sent to Bobben Island tc. ^
and three or four large decked boats wen^. k^ _ ^
porting these shells, as well as fuel from Jfe^ ^
Jhe Umekilns. On the 18th of August M/ %
in the Niemo Middelburg. and after eigU 4
of the valley, with the approval of a U« ^,
the ordinary council o Poli^^J ^nd a n«a4^ ^
military officers he selected the site ol ^
1 Saelt variouBly in the documents of tU ^
142 History of South Africa. [1666
spot chosen was two hundred and forty-eight imperial yards
south-east of the old fort.
It was supposed that solid rock would be found near
the surface, but upon opening trenches this supposition
was proved to be incorrect. At no point could the foun-
dation walls be commenced nearer to the surface than
eleven feet, while in some parts excavations more than
double that depth were needed. All the waggons in the
settlement which were not required for agriculture were
engaged in the transport of building material. The farmers
were paid at the rate of six shillings and three pence a
day for each waggon with oxen and one man, whether a
hired servant or a slave.
On Saturday the 2nd of January 1666 the ceremony
of laying the first stones took place. The trenches of only
one of the five points were completed, for as the founda-
tions were to be twelve feet in thickness the excavation
of itself was a work of some magnitude. It was a gala
day at the Cape. At an early hour the farmers with their
wives and children came in from Bondebosch and Wyn-
berg, the sailors came ashore from the cutters, and all
the Company's servants and other residents in Table Valley
appeared in their best attire. There were four large hewn
stones ready to be lowered to the bottom of the trench
where during the years which have since sped away they
have supported the walls of the castle of Gt)od Hope. The
first was laid by the commander Zacharias Wagenaar, the
second by the clergyman Johan van Arckel, the third by
the secunde Abraham Gkibbema, and the last by the fiscal
Hendrik Lacus.
When they were all laid, a sum of money equal to six
pounds sterling was presented by the commander on be-
half of the Company to the master mechanics. This
concluded the formal part of the proceedings, and the
remainder of the day was devoted to pleasure.
Two oxen and six sheep, the choicest in the Com-
pany's herds, were slaughtered for the occasion, and a him-
1 666] Zacharias Wagenaar. 143
dred huge loaves of bread had been specially baked. Eight
casks of Cape ale stood ready for tapping. The tables were
spread on the levelled ground inside the trenches, and if
they were not covered with such delicacies as are essen-
tial to a modem public dinner, those who sat round them
were probably quite as happy and contented as if the fare
had been a feast for kings.
A holiday was not properly kept in the opinion of the
people of the Netherlands without a recitation of poetry
specially composed and containing allusions to the event
which was being celebrated. Such a time-honoured ob-
servance in the fatherland could not with propriety be
omitted in its South African dependency. Accordingly,
some lines had been prepared — ^by an amateur poet says
Commander Wagenaar, without mentioning his name —
which were considered so appropriate that after they were
recited a copy was placed for preservation with the re-
cords of the colony. Whether they display poetic genius
may be questioned, but that they clearly record the event
celebrated is beyond dispute.^
^Th« following are the lines referred to. It will be obflerved that the
poet has taken care to record the date, though in a rather unusual man-
ner; —
Den Eersten Steen Van't NIeuwe CasteeL Goede Hope
Heeft VVagenaer gelecht Met hoop van goede hope.
Ampliatie.
Soo worden voort en Toort de rijcken uijtgespreijt,
Soo worden al de swart en geluwen gespreijt.
Soo doet men uijtter aerd een steene wall oprechten,
Daer't donderend metael seer weijnigh can ophechten.
Voor Hottentosen warent altijts eerde wallen,
Nu oomt men hier met steen voor anderen oook brallen.
Dus maeckt men dan een schrich soowel d' Europiaen,
Als Toor den Aes- Ameer- en wilden Africaen.
Bus wort beroemt gemaeokt 't geheijligst Christendom,
Die zetels stellen in het woeste heijdendom.
Wij loven 't groot bestier en seggen met malcander,
Augustus heerschappij, noch winnend Alexander,
Noch Caesars groot beleijd, zijn noijt daermee geswaerd
Met 't leggen van een steen op 't eijnde van de Aerd.
144 History of South Africa. [1665
Just a fortnight later there was another gathering of
the Cape community on the same ground. In the centre
of the area inside the trenches the framework of a wooden
building was being put together, part of which was in-
tended for use as a place of worship. To that framework
the cofiGin of the man who laid the second stone of the
castle was borne, and there in the ground beneath the
spot where the pulpit was to stand was placed what was
mortal of Johan van Arckel. It was a custom of those
days to bury persons of note within the walls of churches,
so that the minister's was not long the only grave there.
Within a few months the wife of Commander Wagenaar
found a last resting-place in that ground, and soon the
walls were studded thickly with the memorial escutcheons^
of those who lay beneath.
In the afternoon of the 20th of September 1666 an
Indiaman with the red flag of England floating at her
mizen peak stood into Table Bay and dropped an anchor
without farling her sails. The Loosduynen, a clumsily rig-
ged, slow sailing flute, just in port after a long passage
from Texel, was the only vessel Ijring in the roadstead at
the time. The stranger sent ashore a small boat with a
petty ofiGicer, who informed the conmiander that the ship
was the Boyal CharleSy of thirty-six guns, bound home-
ward from Surat with a cargo of pepper and calico. The
captain, James Barker by name, requested permission to
take in a supply of water and to purchase some fresh pro-
visions.
The English had not the faintest suspicion that their
country was at war with the Netherlands, and as soon as
Conmiander Wagenaar became aware of this he determined
^At the head of the funeral procession a small framed board was
carried, upon which the coat-of-arms of the deceased was painted, which
board was afterwards hung on the walls of the church. It was often care-
fully prepared and kept in readiness for years before it was used. It was
customary for every notary and every one who rose to the rank of a mer-
chant to choose a coat-of-arms for himself.
X
i66s] Zacharias Wagenaar. 145
to take advantage of their ignorance and get possession of
their ship by strategy. The four men who had come on
shore were therefore hospitably entertained, their request
was apparently acceded to, and when they returned to
their ship a present of fruit and wine was sent to Captain
Barker. The object of this was to induce the captain to
visit the fort, so that he could be detained as a prisoner
without any trouble or danger.
The scheme was nearly thwarted by a drunken mate
of the Loosduynen, who happened to be coming on shore
with a strong crew as the English were going oflf. He
pulled alongside of them, took their boat in tow, and
forced them to return to the fort. There he was instantly
committed to prison for his trouble, and many apologies
were offered to the Englishmen for the rudeness and vio-
lence to which they had been subjected.
During the night arrangements were made to carry the
Boyal Charles by surprise as soon as the captain should
land. About two hundred and fifty men were armed and
distributed in the Loosduynen and the large decked boats
which were employed to bring shells from Bobben Island.
It was intended that these should approach as if by chance,
and suddenly board the unsuspecting stranger.
At daybreak next morning the Boyal Charles sent her
empty water casks ashore in the longboat, with the cap-
tain's brother and ten seamen, who took a present of some
value for the commander in return for his courtesy of the
preceding evening. The Enghshmen were invited into the
courtyard of the fort, when to their astonishment the gate
was closed upon them and they were informed that they
were prisoners of war.
Meantime all the non-combatants of the settlement,
male and female, betook themselves to the side of the Lion's
rump to witness the capture of the Indiaman. About seven
in the morning Captain Barker became suddenly aware
that something was wrong. There was no sign of the re-
turn of his longboat, a couple of cutters were evidently
VOL. I. 10
146 History of South Africa. [1665
creeping alongside, the Loosduynen was shaking out her
canvas, and two or three shallops full of men were seen
at different points along the shore. The sails of the Boyal
Charles were still hanging loose from her yards, and a
light breeze from the north-west was rippling the surface
of the bay. There was not a moment to be lost. In a
few seconds the topsails were sheeted home, the hempen
cable was severed by a couple of strokes from an axe, and
the Indiaman, gathering way as her canvas was spread to
the breeze, was soon standing over towards the Blueberg
shore.
All hope of carrying her by surprise being now dis-
pelled, the Loosduynen and the cutters hoisted their colours
and followed in pursuit, keeping close together. Then com-
menced a chase which may have seemed exciting to the
onlookers from the Lion's rump, but the story of which is
calculated only to create mirth at the present day. The
Boyal Charles had the weather-gauge and was the fastest
sailer, but she could not beat out of the bay, and so she
kept tacking about for three or four hours, the pursuers
in vain attempting to get alongsida About eleven o'clock
the breeze died away, and then she let go an anchor and
fired several shots of defiance. There were not enough
rowing boats in the bay to attack her with, so she was
safe as long as the calm should last.
At noon Captain Barker waved a white flag as a signal
that he would like to communicate with his pursuers. A
boat was sent alongside, when he demanded to know the
cause of all the commotion, and why his men were detained
on shore. He was informed that he would learn all par-
ticulars if he would go on board the Loosduynen^ and
he was then requested to strike his flag. To this request
his reply was more emphatic than polite. It was to the
effect that he had no intention of doing anything of the
kind. He was so obliging, however, as to throw to the
boat a package of letters he had brought from Surat but
added to it a scornful message for the commander.
1665] Zacharias Wagenaar. 147
Towards evening the breeze sprang up again, and the
chase began once more. After a couple of tacks, howevtsr,
the Boyal Charles was fortunate enough to weather Green
Point, passing close to the hostile squadron as she did so.
The pursuers and the pursued had not been within range
of each other during the whole day, but at last there wa&
a chance for a shot. It was getting dusk when the Loos-
duynen fired a broadside, to which the Boyal Charles re-
pUed with her four stern guns. Nobody was hurt on either
side, and before the culverins could be loaded again the
Englishman had disappeared in the darkness.
Commander Wagenaar was disappointed, but he made
the most of what had fallen to him. That evening he
calculated to a gulden the value of the longboat and the
water casks, the present that the captives had brought
ashore, and the two anchors and cables in the bay, allow-
ing, of course, a reasoflable margin for the expense of
searching for these last and fishing them up when found.
The prisoners offered to work without payment if the
commander would promise to send them to Europe with
the first return fleet. This offer was decUned, and they
were sent to Batavia, after having been provided with a
very scanty outfit
For thirteen years after its foundation the settlement
was considered too small to demand the services of a
resident clergyman. A sermon and prayers were read
regularly every Sunday and on special occasions by the
sick-comforter, and the other rites of the church were
performed occasionally by ships' chaplains. Marriages were
usually celebrated before the secretary of the council. The
first sick-comforter, Willem Barents Wylant, and his suc-^
cesser, Pieter van der Stael, have already been mentioned.
Van der Stael left the Cape for Batavia in September
1663, when Ernestus Back, who had previously held the
same office on board a ship, was appointed to the vacant
place.
This man was so addicted to intemperance that at ti^x^l^
■t *
148 History of South Africa. [1665
he was unfit to perform his duties. He was repeatedly
suspended, on which occasions the fiscal conducted the
services, but punishment and disgrace seemed only to har-
den him« The commander was fearful that his conduct
would bring down divine vengeance upon the community,
all the members of which by some method of reasoning
were considered subject to the consequences of his guilt.
Mr, Wagenaar's alium was increased by the appearance
of a comet, which for two months was seen nightly in
the sky. He and his council did not doubt that the ter-
rible star with a tail was put there by God as a threat
of righteous punishment, and therefore they considered it
high time to get rid of the chief offender.^ A yacht was
lying in the bay ready to sail for Batavia. Back and
his family were unceremoniously hurried on board, and
the office was once more vacant. A fortnight later it was
filled by the transfer of a sick-comforter named Jan Joris
Graa from a ship that called. This man was giving every
promise of a useful and honourable career, when he was
removed by death in June 1665. Thus there had always
been some one whose special duty it was to represent
the church, though in a very humble capacity.
But when it was decided to replace the old earthen
fort with a substantial stone castle, it was also decided to
provide a resident clerg3m[ian who should attend to the
spiritual instruction of the constantly growing congrega-
tion. The reverend Johan van Arckel, who received the
appointment, arrived in South Africa in the ship Nieuw
^ ' Omdat ons Godt alreede met sijn reohtvaerdige straff over onse vaijll
en Bondich bedrijff nu wel twee maenden alle nachten achter een door een
ijzelioken steert sterre aen den hemel is comen te dreijgen, weswegen dan
nu oock hooch noodich geacht hebben ons de gemelte onwaerdige leeraer
quijt te maken en de selve nevens sijn familie per dit jacht mede na Bata-
via vertrecken te laten.' Despatch of the Cape council to Governor-Gene-
ral Joan Maetsuijker and the councillors of India, of date 7th February
1665. Stringent regulations against sabbath breaking also followed the ap-
pearance of this comet, and wore attributable to it. — Proclamation of 15th
J^ituary 1665.
1665] Zacharias Wagenaar. 149
Middelburg^ which cast anchor in Table Bay on the 18th
of August 1665. A few days later an ecclesiastical court
was established, the constitution of which shows the in-
timate relationship that then existed between the church
and the state. The court consisted of a member of the
council of policy, who was termed the political commis-
sioner (commissaris politicque), the clergyman, who was
a servant of the Company, the deacons, who were se-
lected by the council of policy from a double list of names
furnished yearly by the court itself, and the elders, who
were indeed elected by the court as representatives of the
congregation, but who could perform no duties until the
elections were confirmed by the temporal authorities.
Such was the constitution of the consistory or ecclesi-
astical court, which had primary control of all purely re-
ligious observances, and the direction in the first instance
of all educational institutions during the ^hole period of
the East India Company's government of the colony. It
was in one sense merely an engine of the state, and it
was always and in every case subordinate to the council
of policy. In practice it was guided by the decrees of the
sjmod of Dort and by precedents of the courts of the father-
land, which were never disputed, and its decisions appear
generally to have been in accord with pubhc opinion.
Not long before this time a fierce dispute had arisen
among the clergy of the reformed church in India, and
the strife was hotly carried on in every congregation and
often in the very households of the laity. The question
debated was whether the children of unbelieving parents
should be baptized or not. At the Cape the custom had
been for the ships' chaplains to baptize all slave children
that were brought to them for that purpose, at the same
time admonishing the owners that it was their duty to
have such children educated in Christian principles. Many
of these children were half-breeds, and on that account en-
titled by law to freedom ; but even in the case of pure
blacks baptism and a profession of Christianity wereJaJ--^ .
4 • <«
150 History of South Africa. [1665
ways at this time considered substantial grounds for claim-
ing emancipation. Yet it does not seem to have been a
mercenary spirit so much as a genuine conviction that
the act was not in accordance with the teaching of the
bible which induced many persons at the Cape to object
to such baptisms. The members of the council of poUcy
as well as the burghers were divided in opinion, and as
no agreement could be come to here, reference was made
to Batavia.
A reply was received from the governor-general and
council of India, dated 25th of January 1664, in which the
authorities at the Cape were informed that the ecclesias-
tical court at Batavia, in conjunction with the classis of
Amsterdam, had decided that the children of unbelieving
slaves ought to be baptized, provided that those with whom
they lived bound themselves to have such children edu-
cated in the Christian religion. They had arrived at this
opinion, it was stated, from the precedent furnished by the
patriarch Abraham, all the males of whose household had
been circumcised on account of their master's faith. In
<5onfomiity with this decision, the honourable Company
had estabhshed a school at Batavia for the education of
the children of its own slaves, all of whom were baptized
in infancy, and the Cape government was directed to act
in the same manner.
In some of the Company's possessions, however, the
burning question could not be set at rest even by all the
authority of the Indian government and the Amsterdam
classis, supported by the precedent of the Hebrew patri-
arch. Many clergymen took a different view of that pre-
cedent. The laity continued to be divided, so much so
that not a few congregations were rent asunder and were
ranged anew in hostile order. The strife even extended
into famiUes and created bitterness between the nearest
relatives.
Mr. Van Arckel embraced the views held by the classis,
atid baptized all the children that were brought to him.
4
1 666] Zacharias Wagenaar. 151
whether they were of believing or unbelieving parents.
The Company's own slave children were sent to school,
where they were taught to say their prayers and to repeat
the Heidelberg catechism. For a time all strife ceased in
matters ecclesiastical, for the clergyman had won the affec-
tion of the people by his gentleness and piety. But he
had hardly time to do more than take his work well in
hand when, on the 12th of January 1666, less than six
months from the date of his arrival, he died after a very
brief illness. To supply his place temporarily the council
detained the chaplain of the next ship that called, pend-
ing the appointment of a permanent successor by the su-
preme authorities. The chaplain so detained, Johannes de
Voocht^ by name, remained at the Cape for several months,
during which time he followed the same course as Mr.
Van Arckel. The recent burning question of the day was
nearly forgotten, when an incident occurred which revived
it for a moment.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 21st of March 1666
the congregation was assembled for worship in the great
hall of the commander's house in the old fort. The room
did not much resemble the interior of a church in its fit-
tings, but as yet the building which was to be specially set
apart for religious services was not completed, and this
apartment had always been used for the purpose. Bound
the walls hung various trophies of the chase, chiefly skins of
slaughtered lions and leopards, and over the end windows
and the doors which on each side opened into smaller
rooms were polished horns of some of the larger antelopes.
At the end opposite the entrance usually stood the figure
of a zebra made by stufiGLng the hide of one of those animals
with straw, but this was removed before the service com-
menced. When Commander Wagenaar came to the colony
the windows of the hall like those of the private rooms
were unglazed, Mr. Van Biebeek having been satisfied
iThis name is spelt variously in the doouments of that date Voooht,
Vooght, and Voogt.
152 History of South Africa. [1666
with calico screens, but this defect had been remedied,
and now the congregation had plenty of light to read their
bibles and psalm books.
The preacher was the reverend Johannes de Voocht.
Occupying an elevated seat just in front of the httle plat-
form which served for a pulpit was the commander, behind
whom sat the secmide and the fiscal. The elders and the
deacons had stools to themselves on one side of the plat-
form, and on the other side sat the reverend Philippns
Baldens, chaplain of the ship Venenhurg, the same man
who six years later published at Amsterdam a large and
beautiful folio volume descriptive of Malabar, Coromandel,
and Ceylon. The body of the hall was filled with people
of less note.
After the sermon a child of European parentage was
brought forward and baptized. Then a slave woman went
up to the platform with her infant in her arms, but be-
fore Mr. De Voocht could dip his fingers in the water up
rose the reverend Mr. Baldens and protested against the
performance of the rite. The commander was astonished
at the audacity of the man who dared in such a manner
to interfere with a service conducted with the approval of
the Indian authorities in one of their own forts, but he
chose to remain silent. Mr. Baldeus went on to say that
he was better informed in such matters than any one
here, and that the practice in vogue was decidedly wrong.
Upon this interruption, the officiating clergyman desisted
from performing the baptism, and the service was abruptly
terminated.
Next morning the council met and went over in de-
bate the whole history of the dispute. It was then unani-
mously resolved that the orders received be implicitly
obeyed, so as to preserve harmony and peace in religious
as well as in political matters, and that therefore the
reverend Mr. De Voocht be instructed to baptize the slave
child on the following Sunday, together with any others
brought to him for that purpose. This settled the ques-
1 666] Zacharias Wagenaar. 153
tion for a time at the Cape, but some years subsequently
it came to the surface again, and down to a recent date
continued to cause disruptions, happily however not at-
tended by the violent animosities of a bygone age.
Subsidiary to the church was the school of the period,
in which the children were taught to read and write, to
cast up accounts in gulden and stivers, to sing psalms,
and to repeat the catechism and sundry prayers. The
first school at the Cape was that opened by Pieter van
der Stael for the instruction of the slave children from
the west coast. It was closed after a few weeks, owing
to events that have been related. Towards the end of
1668 a school was again opened, with Emestus Back as
teacher. The fees were at first fixed at two shillings a
month for each child of a burgher, but this charge was
shortly reduced to one half. Slave and Hottentot children
were to be taught without charge, for God (pro Deo), as
stated in the regulations. The school was commenced
vnth seventeen pupils, four being slave children, one a
youthful Hottentot, and the remaining twelve Europeans.
Back's misconduct, however, soon necessitated his suspen-
sion as a teacher of youth, when a steady well-behaved
soldier named Daniel Engelgraeff was appointed school-
master. Under his care the pupils increased in number,
and nothing occurred until his death to interrupt the
work.
The early settlers at the Cape showed even by their
school regulations how thoroughly practical a people they
were. Thus, there was no fixed time for holidays, be-
cause the loft in which the school was kept was needed
for the accommodation of visitors if a fleet was in the
bay, when the children were of necessity released.
During the period of Mr. Wagenaar's government the
Europeans and Hottentots Uved generally on the best of
terms with each other. Once only an event occurred
which caused a little unpleasantness. A party of Cocho-
quas with cattle for sale encamped one evening close to
154 History of South Africa, [1666
the watch-house Eeert de Eoe, where the gate was through
which they must pass to enter the Company's territory.
There a soldier on guard detected some of them in the
act of breaking down the fence to make a fire, and upon
his ordering them off they belaboured him severely with
their sticks.^ Next morning they came on to the fort as
if nothing had happened, but the soldier was there before
them, and upon making his complaint two of them were
arrested and placed in confinement. The others were in-
formed that upon their producing the actual assailants the
prisoners would be released, but not until then. There-
upon they returned to their clan to arrange as to what
should be done, and after a short delay ten good oxen
and as many sheep were sent to the commander as a
recompense for what had occurred. Mr. Wagenaar ac-
cepted the cattle insteaki of the hostages, with a promise
on his part that they would be returned at any time
upon the production of the disturbers of the peace. These
never were produced, and so after waiting some months
a pecuniary award was made to the soldier and the
cattle were slaughtered for the benefit of the Company.
The Cochoquas and Chainouquas* were by this time
80 well supplied with copper and trinkets that they seldom
brought cattle for sale except when they were in want of
tobacco, but from the Hessequas large herds were fre-
quently bartered. All were anxious to procure iron, and
the commander could at any time have obtained from the
^The word kerie, by which this weapon is now generally known to
Dutch and English alike in South Africa, had not yet come into general
use. This word closely resembles in sound the native name for a short
stick with a jackal's tail attached to it, used for brushing away flies and
other purposes, and which the Hottentot men carried about with them
just as the Betshuana do now. There being no Dutch name for either
this or the fighting stick with a clubbed head, the latter may easily have
had the native name of the former given to it.
^ About this time the Chainouquas began to be called Soeswas by the
Europeans, though the old chief Sousoa, from whom the new name was
derived, died in 1664. In the same manner, one branch of the Cochoquas
kad now the name Gonnemas given to it.
1 666] Zacharias Wagenaar. 155
nearest Cape clans as many oxen as he required in ex-
change for the much-coveted article, had he chosen to
supply it. But under no circumstances would he part
with as much iron as would make an assagai, for fear of
the ultimate consequences to the Europeans. Some of the
natives understood how to smelt this metal for themselves,
but the quantity in general use was very small
In the disputes between the clans the policy of Mr.
Wagenaar was that of strict neutrality whenever he could
not mediate so as to preserve peace. In 1664 the Cocho-
quas and the Hessequas were at war with each other,
when Oedasoa offered to pay six hundred head of good
cattle in advance for military assistance, and as many
more after the return of an expedition which he was plan-
ning, if it should succeed in crushing his enemy. The
-offer was declined without hesitation, and Oedasoa was in-
formed that the Dutch were determined to quarrel with
no one unless they were compelled in defence to do so.
In the following year the Hottentots suffered very
severely from a disease which broke out among them.
What its nature was is not stated, but as the Europeans
were not attacked by it, it is improbable that it was in-
troduced by them. It was certainly not small-pox. Mr.
Wagenaar computed the loss of the Goringhaiquas and
Gorachouquas at one-fifth of their original number, so that
they were left with only about eight hundred fighting
men. The Cochoquas suffered even more. In the words
of the commander, they melted away. Whether other
clans were affected is not mentioned, but the disease,
whatever it was, can hardly have been confined only to
those nearest the Cape.
The number of Hottentots residing permanently in Table
Valley increased during Mr. Wagenaar's administration to
about eighty souls. This increase was owing to an influx
of some of the most worthless individuals from the pastoral
clans. They had a kraal of their own on the slope under
the Lion's head, where after Harry's death in 1663 they
156 History of South Africa. [1666
were nominally under the government of Jan Cou. The
commander never interfered in any quarrel among them*
selves, but he gave them notice that if any were caught
steaUng from Europeans he would have them soundly
flogged. They lived, according to Mr. Wagenaar, by send-
ing their women to collect firewood for sale, placing their
little daughters in service, and further by fishing occasion-
ally and begging constantly. The men could seldom be
induced to do any other work than tend cattle, and that
only in return for spirits and tobacco. They could all
understand Dutch so well that an interpreter was no
longer needed.
Eva, who had been brought up in Mr. Van Biebeek's
house, was baptized soon after the arrival of Mr. Wage-
naar, and two years later was married to that sturdy ex-
plorer Pieter van Meerhof. The commander and council
beUeved that this union would tend to promote goodwill
between the two races, and they resolved to show their
approbation of it in a substantial manner. Eva was con-
sidered a child of the Company, having served as an in-
terpreter for many years without other pajonent than food
and clothing. A bridal feast was therefore prepared for
her at the Company's expense in the commander's house,
and a wedding present of ten pounds in money was made
to her. The bridegroom was promoted to the full rank
of a surgeon, with pay at the rate of three pounds a.
month. In the following year he was further advanced to»
the office of overseer on Eobben Island, where in addition
to the old establishment a party of men was placed to
collect shells and dress stones for particular work in the
castle.
The prices paid by the Company for grain were raised
at this time, as the burghers complained that the old rates
allowed them no profit. Wheat was raised to eleven shil-
lings and eight pence, rye and barley to nine shillings
and two pence, and oats to six shillings and eight pence
the muid. The farmers were paying from sixteen shillings.
1 666] Zacharias Wagenaar, 157
and eight pence to twenty-five shillings a month to Euro-
pean men-servants as wages. The Javanese horses had
increased so greatly in number that the Company began
now to supply the farmers with them. In 1665 the first
troop of sixteen were sold by public auction, and brought
on an average four pounds five shillings each.^
In 1666 there were sixteen free families living in Table
Valley. Of these, four kept canteens, one had a retail
grocery, one was a baker, and the remainder were me-
chcuiics. The government fixed the price of everything
that was sold. An ofl&cer went round periodically to test
all weights and measures. Such as were correct were
stamped by him, and such as were not according to the
Amsterdam standard were destroyed.
Commander Wagenaar had not been two years in South
Africa when he requested the directors to reheve him of
the cares of government, owing to his ill health. In De-
cember 1664 his request was so far compUed with that he
was informed of the appointment of a successor in the
person of Cornells van Quaelberg, who, however, was un-
able to leave Europe just then. It was intended that the
commissioner Isbrand Goske should remain here until Mr.
Van Quaelberg*s arrival, but when he reached the colony
the commander's health was so improved that it was un-
necessary for him to stay after the site of the castle was
fixed.
Mr. Van Quaelberg left Holland in the ship Dordrecht
^It was the custom to post up copies of proclamations and notices in
a public plaoe, where every one could see them. The wording of the notice
of the first sale of horses in the colony may amuse some readers: — Men
adverteert en laat een ijgelijck mits desen weten dat den commandeur en
Baedt van't fort de goede hoope voomemen is eenige Jonge paerden die
hier te lande Toortgeteelt zijn soo hengsten als merrijen aen meestbiedende
off nijt de hant te vercoopen, die daer gadinge in heeft die come op
woensdagh aenstaende des achtermiddaegs te drie uijren zijnde den 25en
deser in des E Gomps Paerdestal en doe goet coop.
In*t fort de goede Hoope adij 21en Februarij 1665.
Sboobt voobth.
158 History of South Afrua. [1666
on the 19th of December 1665, bat did not zeach South
Africa until the 25th of Angnst 1666. Dnring the war
ships sailing from the Netherlands for the Indies did not
attempt to pass through the Enghsh channel, but stood
away to the north-west and rounded the British islands.
In midwinter the 'Dordrecht was so battered and tossed
about in the stormy North sea that she was compelled to
put into the Faroe isles, where she lay for nine weeks.
After leaving those isles she lost by death one hmidred
and ten sailors and soldiers, and when she at last entered
Table Bay hands had to be sent from shore to drop her
anchors and farl her sails, for there was not a single
person in sound health on board. Mr. Van Quaelberg
landed at once with his family, but he did not take over
the government until the 27th of September. On that
day a ceremony took place similar to that with which Mr.
Wagenaar assumed office. Four years and a half had
gone by since that event, and only one of the old mem-
bers of the government was present on this occasion.
Boelof de Man and Pieter Everaert had died in the in-
terval Abraham Gabbema, who followed the first named
of these as secunde, had left for Batavia high in favour
with the directors only a few months before. Hendrik
Lacus, secretary when Mr. Van Eiebeek left, was now
secunde, and beneath him at the council board sat the
lieutenant Abraham Schut, the fiscal Comelis de Cretzer,
the ensign Johannes Coon, and the chief surgeon Pieter
van Clinkenberg.
On the 1st of October Mr. Wagenaar with his daughter-
in-law sailed in the Dordrecht for Batavia. He knew,
when he left, very little more of the country and its peo-
ple than what his predecessor had taught him. After the
return of the party under Sergeant Jonas de la Guerre,
he sent out no more exploring expeditions, and no new
clans except the Hessequas had visited the fort during his
government. The boundary of the settlement remained
exactly where Mr. Van Eiebeek had left it. Two of the
1 666]. Zacharias Wagenaar. 159
old watch-houses, Houdt den Bui and Koren Hoop, had
been broken down; the other three, Duynhoop, Keert de
Koe, and Kyck ujrt, were kept in good repair.
The number of men to whom free papers were given
during this period was very small. There were only four
whose descendants are in South Africa at the present day:
Dirk Bosch, Elbert Diemer, Jan Pretorius, and Jacob
Bosendaal. Further, too or three women, either wives
of or betrothed to men already in the colony, arrived from
the Netherlands, and were added to the settled popula-
tion.^ Mr. Wagenaar seems to have been prejudiced
against the burghers, for the statistics which he was
obliged to famish show that they were far from being
as idle as on more than one occasion he pronounced them
to be. In the last official document which bears his name
he wrote that in his opinion twenty-five industrious Chinese
families would be of as much service to the Company as
fifty families of such Europeans as were estabhshed here,
and regretted that they could not be procured. The poor
opinion which he entertained of his countrymen was pro-
bably a reflection of their feehngs regarding him, for there
is no trace of the slightest sign of regret shown by any one
on his departure.
Two years later Mr. Wagenaar*s name occurs again
in the colonial archives. He was vice-admiral of the re-
turn fleet of 1668, and in that capacity spent a few days
in the settlement. Not long after this it is found once
more, when information arrived of his death, and that
he had bequeathed a sum of money for the use of the
guardians of the poor at the Cape, so that this outwardly
cold impassive man was at heart a philanthropist.
^ On the 22nd of April 1664 the directors authorised the different ohambera
to send to the Gape two or three respectable girls, from orphan houses or
elsewhere, with suitable families proceeding to India, in whose service and
Tinder whose care they were to be regarded while on board ship. Before
leaving the Netherlands the girls were to bind themselves to remain fifteen
years in the colony. None, however, availed themselves of the ofier at the
time, except one or two who were affianced to men living here.
i6o
CHAPTEB VL
CORSnSLIS TAS QUA£LBEBG. COlOCAIfDER. INSTALLED 37th
SEFTE3CBEB IfiG6» DISaOSSED Idn JU5E 1668^
XACOB BOBGHOBST, COmCANDEB, INSTALLED l»rH JUNE 1668,
BETIBED SSCH XABCH IfiTa
PIETEB HACSIUS, COMMANDEB» INSTALLED S»n MABCH 1670,
DIED 90kh NOVEMBEB 1671.
THE COUNCIL OF POLICY, 90kh NOTESCBEB 1671 TO 3&eh
MABCH 1673.
ALBEBT van BBEUGEL, SECUNDE, ACTING COMMANDEB, FBOM
S9TH MABCH TO 3an> OCTOBEB 1673.
Of Commander Van Qoaelbei^, previous to his arrival in
South Africa, no information is given in the colonial ar-
chives, except that he was the head of the Company's
factory at Masnlipatam from 1652 to 1657, and that he
had amassed considerable property. He was a younger
and more active but in many respects a less estimable
man than Mr. Wagenaar. It is impossible to read a dozen
pages of the mass of documents bearing his signature
without observing that he was intensely selfish, hursh to-
wards his dependents, cringing towards his superiors, a
man who studied no one's happiness but his own. He
was a skilful naval commander, however, and must have
possessed some special qualifications for the post he now
filled, or the directors of the East India Company would
not have selected him for it, though what these were
cannot be ascertained from his writings. In his letters
be was fond of calling attention to the mistakes of his
predecessor, and of boasting of the different way in which
he was managing affairs, but neither the supreme author-
1 666] Comelis van Quaelberg, i6i
ities nor the residents at the Cape looked upon that differ-
ent way as a better way. To the burghers he was a
tyrant, who acted on the principle that prosperous subjects
are insolent subjects and therefore they should be kept
poor. The freemen were not long in finding out that if
Commander Wagenaar had personified King Log, Com-
mander Van Quaelberg knew well the part of King Stork.
As soon as the Hottentot clans in the neighbourhood
heard that the Europeans had a new head, their chiefs
sent complimentary messages and presents of oxen and
sheep to him, as was customary among themselves. These
friendly greetings were replied to in the same manner, for
upon the cattle trade rested to a large extent the utility of
the Cape residency, and the instructions of the directors
were emphatic that the natives were to be conciliated
in every possible way.
Mr. Van Quaelberg found the walls of the point of
the castle nearest the anchorage rising slowly out of the
ground. One of the difficulties which the workmen com-
plained of was the scarcity of timber such as they needed
for a variety of purposes at the quarries as well as at the
walls. The forests which Mr. Van Eiebeek had found in
the kloofs of the mountain side above Eondebosch were
already exhausted, so that no timber was obtainable closer
at hand than Wynberg. The government issued orders
against reckless waste, but as the wood-cutters were left
without supervision, the orders were constantly neglected.
The forests — hke all others in South Africa — were com-
posed of a variety of trees mingled together, in which it
rarely happened that half a dozen of one kind were found
growing side by side. Often the kind of timber required
at the time was far from the outer border, and then, to
get the log out, a pathway was opened broad enough for
a team of oxen to move in and straight enough to prevent
jamming. For this purpose great numbers of small trees
were cut down, and left either to decay or to furnish
material for a destructive fire. With such a system of
VOL. I. II
1 62 History of South Africa. [1666
working, the forests, which were at first of no great size,
soon disappeared altogether.
About three months after Mr. Van Quaelberg took over
the government a fleet of twelve ships, under command of
the marquis De Montdevergue, viceroy of the French pos-
sessions in the East, put into Table Bay. The equipment
of this fleet had been watched vnth unusual anxiety in
the Netherlands. During the preceding sixty years the
French had made frequent but fruitless efforts to form a
powerful East India Company, but now the minister
Colbert had organised an association which Louis XIV
was determined should prove successful It was modelled
generally after that of the Netherlands, but the share-
holders had various privileges which those in the Low
Countries did not enjoy. They had a guarantee from the
government against loss during the first ten years, their
fleets were to be convoyed by national war ships free of
charge, everything needed by them for shipbuilding was
to be admitted into France duty free. In addition to
these and other substantial aids, honours and titles were
freely offered by the court to those who should display
the greatest zeal in the new Company's service. With
these odds against them, the traders of Holland and Zee-
land felt that they had cause for alarm.
There was yet another reason for them to regard vinith
anxiety the first large fleet fitted out by the Company
which was trying to wrest from them a portion of the
eastern trade. France had enormous wealth and resources,
her king had inspired his nobles and his people with en-
thusiasm for the new enterprise, but she had no men with
the knowledge and training necessary to conduct it suc-
cessfully. The alarm of the directors was therefore in-
creased when they learned that an officer who had grown
grey in their service, and whose ability was unquestioned,
had taken employment with their rivals. Fran9ois Caron,
the officer here alluded to, was of French descent, but had
long held positions of trust under the Batavian govern-
1 666] Cornells van Quaelberg. 163
ment. He was intimately acquainted with every branch
of the Indian trade and with the pohtics of the various
eastern courts. And now, stung to the quick by some
slight, fancied or real, he had left the Dutch service, and
offered himself to Colbert and the French Company.
But in the post assigned to him a blunder was made
such as the ministers of Louis XIY can seldom be charged
with. He should have had the chief command in the East,
instead of which the title and power of viceroy were given
to a man of high rank but with no qualifications for the
post, and Caron was forced to take the second place. The
mistake of giving the authority to one man when another
had the ability was discovered only after the expedition
had undergone ahnost incredible suffering and disaster in
endeavouring to form settlements at Madagascar, but not
too late for Caron to form the first French factory on the
coast of Hindostan.
Notvnthstanding all the trouble that was taken in France
to equip the fleet, it was sent to sea ill-conditioned for a
long voyage. The ships were crowded vnth landsmen and
soldiers, but of seamen there was great lack. Order was
wanting on board, and although they left Bochelle vnth
large supplies of provisions, the waste was so great that
when the fleet put into Pemambuco for refireshment symp-
toms of distress were beginning to be apparent. A Dutch
sailor who was there at the time visited the admiral's
ship, and immediately aiterwards wrote to the directors at
Amsterdam a description of what he saw. He described
the ship as so filthy that it would be a wonder if pesti-
lence did not break out, and so ill-provided with every-
thing requisite that he did not believe she could ever reach
Madagascar.
From Pemambuco the fleet sailed for Table Bay.
Though the French could not be regarded as allies of the
Dutch, they were also at this time at' war with England,
and therefore De Montdevergue might reasonably have
looked forward to a friendly reception here, in outward
164 History of South Africa, [1666
fonn at least. His fleet was scattered on the passage, and
his own ship was the first to reach Soath Africa. As
soon as he let go his anchors he sainted the fort with
fire gons, which courtesy was promptly returned with
three, according to the custom of the day. Mr. Van
Quaelberg inmiediately sent a messenger on board to
welcome the French viceroy and to in^^te him to land.
The viceroy excused himself for that afternoon, upon
which the conmiander himself visited the St Jean and
tendered his services to supply the fleet with anything
that was to be had in the settlement
Of this offer De Montdevergue availed himself to its
fullest extent. He not only thoroughly refreshed his
people, but he drew a considerable quantity of sea stores
from the Company's magazines. One of his vessels
was so leaky that it was considered dangerous for her to
proceed farther. Mr. Van Quaelberg had her repaired
with materials kept for the Company's own use and
by carpenters maintained for the Company's own service.
Upon the whole as much was done to assist this French
fleet as if it had been the property of the owners of the
settlement and not of their declared rivals, so that by the
aid thus given the viceroy was enabled to reach Madagascar
with his forces undiminished.
The commanding position of the Cape of Grood Hope
had not escaped the observation of Louis XIV, and he
had accordingly instructed his deputy to take possession
of Saldanha Bay and establish a residency there. Against
this design the council of policy entered a protest, on the
rand that the honourable Company was already in occu-
on. A dozen men were sent overland with all haste
^danha Bay, where two were stationed on each of
■dots Jutten, Marcus, and Schapen, and five with a
officer formed a camp at the watering place. The
. surveyed the bay and set up landmarks with their
i^Km them, but left; without forming any establish-
1667] Cornells van Quaelberg, 165
As soon as bis visitors bad gone, Mr. Van Quaelberg
took a careful view of tbe situation. Tbey bad eaten
nearly everytbing, so tbat little was left for tbe return
fleet from Batavia, wbicb migbt be expected in tbree or
four montbs. Tbe cbief want was slaugbter cattle, and
witbout loss of time trading parties were organised and
sent to tbe different clans. Scbacber, wbo bad succeeded
bis fatber tbe fat captain Gogosoa as bead of tbe Kaap-
mans, appears now in tbe cbaracter of a trader. He was
entrusted vntb a good stock of mercbandise, witb wbicb be
went inland bartering cattle on commission for tbe bonour-
able Company. Tbe commander's wife beaded anotber
party, wbicb took a Cocboqua encampment across tbe
bay for its field of operations. Mrs. Van Quaelberg was
out tbree days, and returned boasting of a fair measure
of success.
Hieronymus Cruse, now promoted to tbe rank of cor-
poral, witb a tbird party struck away to tbe eastward,
crossed tbe Hottentots-Holland mountains, and collected
some bundreds of oxen and sbeep among tbe kraals of
tbe Hessequas. Fusbing still fartber on bis next journey
be encountered a tribe called tbe Gouriquas, from wbom
be bartered tbe finest berds yet seen in tbe settlement.
Tbe kraals of tbese people were on tbe banks of tbe river
wbicb bas since tbat time been called from tbem tbe
Counts. Tbe corporal went as far as tbe bend in tbe
coast to wbicb Paulus van Caerden sixty-five years earlier
bad given tbe name Mossel Bay. Tbere tbe Gouriquas
informed bim tbat tbeir next neighbours were tbe Atta-
quasy wbo were also ricb in cattle, but tbere was now no
necessity for bim to go fartber.
In May 1667 letters were received from bome witb an
account of tbe victorious career of tbe Dutcb fleet and of
the memorable exploits of De Euyter in tbe Thames.
The directors believed tbat there was no longer anything
to be feared from the naval power of England, and there-
fore deemed it unnecessary to be at the cost of completing
i66 History of South Africa. [1667
the castle in Table Valley. They gave orders that the
work was to be suspended forthwith, ajid that all the
soldiers who could be spared were to be sent to Batavia.
When these instructions were received, four out of the
five points of the castle had not been commenced, and
the one which had absorbed the labour of nearly three
hundred men for more than twenty-one months was not
fully completed. Its walls were a little higher than the
stone bearing the date 1667 which can be seen from the
side of the bay a few feet from the angle nearest the
present railway station.
It was intended that the vessel which took the sup-
plies for Mauritius in 1667 should call at Madagascar for
trading purposes and then explore the south-east coast
of Africa, but the last design was frustrated by a tragic
event.
Pieter van Meerhof, the most energetic of early South
African travellers, was sent as director of trade and ex-
ploration. It will be remembered that he had married
the interpreter Eva, to whom some interest attaches on
account of her being the first Hottentot to profess Chris-
tianity and to conform to European habits of hving. By
the time of her marriage her services as interpreter could
be dispensed with, as nearly all the children of the beach-
rangers, and particularly the girls who were in service,
could speak Dutch fluently. Soon afterwards Van Meer-
hof was appointed superintendent of the party on Eobben
Island, and she went there with him. Then for a couple
of years her name disappears from the documents of the
period, excepting in a brief paragraph concerning her com-
ing from the island to the fort with a child to be bap-
tized. In 1667 it occurs again to record the particulars of
an injury which she sustained by an accidental fall, after
which for another twelvemonth her name is not men-
tioned.
When the building of the castle was suspended there
was no longer any need for the establishment at Eobben
1 668] Cornells van Quaelberg. 167
Island, and so Van Meerhof was appointed head of the
expedition to Mauritius and Madagascar. At the bay of
Antongil he went ashore with eight men to see what
trade could be done, and while unsuspicious of danger the
little party was attacked by natives and all were mur-
dered.
In February 1668 news was received from the Nether-
lands that a treaty of peace vnth England had been signed
on the 24th of the preceding August, but that it was not
to have effect south of the equator until the 24th of April.
A large Enghsh fleet had put to sea shortly before the
letter was written, and as the directors were unable to
ascertain its destination they gave instructions to detain
all of their ships that should call at Table Bay, and to
keep a good watch until the period of possible hostilities
Wis ended.
Mr. Van Quaelberg maintained the same attitude as
his predecessors towards the natives. They were not per-
mitted to be molested, nor was there any interference with
thex domestic affairs. Even the beachrangers living in
TaUe Valley were left to themselves, and were not made
8ubJ3ct to the Dutch tribunals except when they com-
mitt^ offences against Europeans. There are only two
instances on record of Hottentots being punished at this
tima The first offender was convicted of theft, and was
soundy flogged and sent as a prisoner to Bobben Island,
but vas released soon afterwards upon payment by his
Mends of two oxen and eight sheep. The second was
found guilty of assault, but compromised by the payment
of ei^t fat sheep. If these punishments be compared
with those inflicted upon Europeans for similar offences,
they vill be found exceedingly mild.
Diring this commander's administration only one other
event occurred which is worthy of mention in connection
with :he natives. In May 1668 a strong band of Nama-
quas made a foray upon some small Cochoqua kraals at
Saldaiha Bay, and seized their herds. A few oxen and
1 68 History of South Africa. [1668
sheep belonging to the Company which were running in
the neighbourhood of the post fell a prey to the raiders,
and two or three of the Europeans who attempted a res-
cue were wounded with arrows. Thereupon they opened
fire with their muskets, with the result that three of the
Namaquas were shot dead. The remainder escaped with
the booty. But next morning they sent messengers back
to ask for peace with the white men, whom, they said,
they had no desire to offend. This was at once granted,
and in the course of the day the Europeans sent out a
trading party and bartered as many of the plundered cattle
as they had copper and beads to pay for. A messengei
was despatched in haste to the commander, who approved
of this proceeding and immediately sent a reinforcement
of men to the outpost with a large stock of merchandise,
but the Namaquas had by that time fallen back too fix
to be reached. This transaction was referred to in after
years by the plundered natives as an unfriendly proceed-
ing. They could never be made to understand that it
was fair for their allies the white men to become pos-
sessed of their sheep in this manner.
The regulations forbidding trade between the fireenen
and the natives were very rigidly enforced by Commaader
Van Quaelberg. Some of the farmers were suspected of
purchasing sheep privately at prices greatly in advance of
those which the Company was giving. To prevent this,
the burghers were required to surrender at a valuatim all
the African sheep in their possession, and were proKbited
firom keeping any other than those showing Euopean
blood, so that if they persisted in setting the law it de-
fiance they would be easily detected. The old reguktions
prohibiting the burghers from selhng cattle to each other,
which had been nearly dormant during Mr. Wagmaar's
government, were hkewise revived. These oppressive laws
caused much discontent in the settlement, which wis in-
creased when a proclamation was issued forbidding the
freemen to carry firearms without special permission. The
1 668] Comelis van Quaelberg. 169
commander was treating the burghers and their complaints
with utter contempt, and writing of them in most dis-
paraging terms, when his connection with them and with
South Africa was abruptly brought to an end.
In those days news travelled slowly. The French fleet
under the viceroy De Montdevergue was in Table Bay
in December 1666, and it was not until the following
November that what had occurred here became known
in Amsterdam. It may be imagined that the directors
were not a httle incensed to find that the fleet whose
outfit had caused them such uneasiness had been as-
sisted so greatly by one of their own servants. They
considered that there could be no excuse for his conduct
either in leaving the fort and placing his person in
the power of the foreigners, or in furnishing strangers
and rivals with stores kept at the Cape for their own
service. There were sixteen out of the seventeen di-
rectors present when this subject was discussed, and
they resolved unanimously to dismiss Mr. Van Quaelberg
from their employment. A successor was inmiediately
appointed and instructed to proceed to South Africa
and take over the government as soon as possible. In
the letter of dismissal (20th of November 1667) Mr. Van
Quaelberg was required to transfer everything without de-
lay to the new commander, Jacob Borghorst, and either
to return to the fatherland or to proceed to Batavia as a
free man by the first opportunity. Instructions were laid
down in the most positive terms that in future foreign
vessels were not to be supplied with the Company's stores,
but were to be left to their own resources.
Mr. Borghorst sailed from Texel in the Hof van Breda,
and after a wearisome passage arrived in Table Bay in
the evening of the 16th of June 1668. Next morning he
landed, but as it was Sunday he did not produce his com-
mission. On Monday the 18th the council of policy was
assembled, ajid the two burgher councillors were invited
to be present. Then the authority of the directors was
170 History of South Africa. [1668
produced, and without further ceremony Mr. Borghorst
assumed the control of affairs.
Of the leading men whom Mr. Wagenaar left in the
settlement, few now remained. The secunde Hendrik La-
cus had been suspended from office on account of a defi-
ciency in the stores under his charge, and was at this
time a prisoner on Eobben Island. Comelis de Cretzer,
formerly secretary, was now fiscal. The ensign Smient
was on the point of leaving South Africa for a better situa-
tion elsewhere. In November 1666 the reverend Johan-
nes de Yoocht left for Batavia, and was succeeded as
acting chaplain by the reverend Petrus Wachtendorp. Mr.
Wachtendorp died on the 15th of the following February,
just before the arrival of the reverend Adriaan de Voocht,
who had been appointed by the directors permanent clergy-
man of the settlement. To the burgher population had
been added seven names now well known in and far beyond
the colony: Gerrit van der Byl, Theunis van Schalkwyk,
Amoldus Basson, Gysbert Verwey, Wynand Bezuiden-
hout, Douw Gerbrand Ste3m, and Gerrit Victor.
Mr. Van Quaelberg left for Batavia on the 12th of
August. He sent a petition to the directors to be rein-
stated, and on the 21st of May 1670 they resolved that
the governor-general and council of India might give him
employment again. In time he rose to be governor of
Malacca, but was never afterwards connected with South
Africa.
Commander Borghorst was in ill health when he landed,
and he remained an invalid during the whole period of
his stay, so that practically the government was for three-
fourths of the time carried on by his subordinates. Of
these, the ablest was the fiscal, Cornelis de Cretzer. The
secunde, Hendrik Lacus, remained in the settlement, but
under suspension of office, until March 1670, when he
was at length brought to trial, and though the greater
part of the deficiency in his stores was satisfactorily ac-
counted for, he was sentenced to be reduced to the rank
1 668] Jacob Borghorst. 171
of a common soldier and in that capacity to be sent to
Batavia. During the long period that he was kept await-
ing trial the situation was virtually vacant, except for a
few months in 1669, when it was provisionally filled by
an officer named Abraham Zeeuw, who was detained from
a passing ship. The lieutenant, Abraham Schut, was a
man without weight of character, and was even deprived
of his seat in the council soon after Mr. Borghorst's
arrival for having slandered the widow of the late act-
ing chaplain. The office of the secretary, Jacob G-ranaat,
gave him little or no authority in the direction of affairs.
Upon De Cretzer therefore rested the oversight of nearly
everything, but as the times were quiet there was very
little to look after beyond the cattle trade and the gar-
dens.
Some of the landmarks which had been set up around
Saldanha Bay by order of the viceroy De Montdevergue
were still standing. They consisted of the French coat
of arms painted on boards attached to posts, and were
so firail that one had been destroyed by a rhinoceros and
another had been used by a party of Hottentots to make
a fire of. The commander lost no time in removing those
that were left and causing all traces of the offensive
beacons to be obliterated. Where they had stood shields
bearing the Company's monogram were placed.
By this time the country along the coast had been
thoroughly explored northward to some distance beyond
the mouth of the Elephant river, and eastward as far as
»
Mossel Bay. The Berg river had been traced from its
source to the sea, and Europeans had been in the Tulbagh
basin and the valley of the Breede river. But no white
man had yet climbed the formidable wall which skirts
the Bokkeveld and the Karoo. No one had sought en-
trance to the unknown interior through the gorge where
now a carriage-drive amid the grand scenery of Michell's
Pass leads to pleasant Ceres, or had entered the valley of
the Hex river where to-day the railway winds upward from
172 History of South Africa. [1668
fair and fertile fields to a dreary and desolate wilderness.
So, too, the opening known to us as Cogman's Kloof,
through which a waggon-road now leads from the valley
of the Breede river past the village of Montagu, was still
untrodden by the white man's foot.
Beyond the outer line of their own discoveries the
maps of the period were yet relied upon vnth almost as
much faith as if they had been compiled from actual
survey. No one doubted the existence of the great river,
which was laid down in them as forming the western
boundary of Monomotapa. And by some chance, which
cannot be accounted for, the hue it made on the maps
was in reality a tolerably correct boundary between the
Bantu and Hottentot races.
The bartering parties that went inland no longer kept
careful journals as they had done at first, because now
there was nothing novel to be noted. Unfortunately, too,
they had given Dutch names or nicknames to most of
the chiefs in the country explored, so that in many in-
stances it is quite impossible to follow them. A state-
ment, for instance, that fifty sheep had been purchased
from Captain Thickhead, gives no clue by which to follow
the traders, unless the circumstance under which that
name was given to some chief happens to have been
mentioned previously. This is less to be regretted, how-
ever, as fresh discoveries were still carefully reported.
In August 1668 the yacht Voerman was sent to ex-
amine the east coast carefully as far as Natal. Corporal
Cruse and fifteen men were sent in her, with instructions
to land at Mossel Bay and explore the country in that
neighbourhood. The Voerman got no farther eastward
than St. Francis Bay, where she put about on account
of springing a leak in a storm. Her officers discovered
nothing, but they must have been incompetent or faith-
less, for there is no part of the South African seaboard
more worthy of close attention. They should at least
have noticed the grand cleft in the lofty coast line by
1 668] Jacob Borgkorst. 173
which the Knysna basin communicates with the sea, and
have looked through it upon the charming scenery beyond.
Farther eastward they ought to have observed the bight
known to us as Plettenberg's Bay, and farther still the
forest-clad hills and vales of the Zitzikama.
The party put ashore at Mossel Bay did much better.
Corporal Cruse visited for the first time a tribe called the
Attaqua, of whom he had heard during his previous
journey. He found them very wealthy in cattle, and was
able to exchange his merchandise to such advantage that
he returned to the fort with some hundreds of oxen and
sheep. The Attaquas occupied the country between Mos-
sel Bay and the present village of George, and had as
their eastern neighbours a tribe called the Outeniqua.
Corporal Cruse's success induced the commander to
send him back without delay at the head of another trad-
ing party. On the way he encountered a company of
Bushmen, having in their possession a great herd of cattle
which they had stolen from the Hottentots of those parts.
This Bushman band appears to have been a perfect pest
to the pastoral clans between the Breede and the Gourits.
The Hottentots called them the Hobiqua, and in the jour-
nals they are spoken of by that name as if it was the
title of a clan, though in one place the commander states
expressly that they were Sonqua. But the Hottentot
word Hobiqua means simply the murderers, which accounts
for all that would otherwise be obscure in the records.
Upon the appearance of the Europeans, the Bushmen,
having no conception of firearms and believing the little
party of strangers to be at their mercy, attempted to
seize their merchandise. Cruse tried to conciliate them
by offering presents, but in vain. There was then only
one course open to him, and that was to resist, which he
did effectually. In a few seconds all of the plunderers
who were not stretched on the ground were fleeing in
wild dismay, leaving their families and cattle in the hands
of the incensed Europeans. No harm whatever was done
174 History of South Africa. [1668
to the women and children, but the corporal took pos-
session of the whole of the cattle as lawful spoil of war,
and with them returned to the fort. It was a valuable
herd, for there were many breeding cows in it, such as it
was hardly ever possible to obtain in barter. This exploit
raised the Europeans high in the estimation of the Hes-
sequas and their neighbours. They sent complimentary
messages, and expressed their thanks in grateful language
for the service rendered by the chastisement of the Bush-
men.
There is in the journal of this date a notice of a cruel
custom prevalent among the Hottentots. These people,
unlike some other African races, did not expose their
dead, but buried them in any cavity in the ground that
they could find. When the mother of a helpless infant
died, the living child was buried with its parent, because
no one would be at the trouble of nourishing it, and this
was the customary method of ending its existence. Some
Dutch women happened one afternoon to observe a party
of Hottentots working in the ground, ajid were attracted
by curiosity to the spot. They found that a corpse had
been thrust into an excavation made by some vnld animal
and that an infant was about to be placed vnth it. The
women were shocked at such barbarity, but they could
not prevail upon any of the natives to rescue the child.
No one however objected to their taking it themselves,
as they seemed so interested in its fate, and with a view
of saving its life they carried it home vnth them.
Among the means adopted by the Netherlands East
India Company to attach its officers to the service was a
regulation which gave each one liberty to trade to a cer-
tain extent on his own account, except in spices, which
were strictly excluded from this arrajigement. Hardly a
skipper left Europe or the Indies without some httle ven-
ture of his own on board, and even the mates and sailors
often took articles of merchandise with them to barter at
any port they might put into. The officers on shore had
1669] Jacob Borghorst. 175
corresponding privileges whenever it was possible to grant
them without detriment to the pubhc welfare. The first
commander at the Cape, for instance, had a farm of his
own, and his immediate successors heui also landed pro-
perties which they cultivated for their exclusive benefit.
But the Company was at this time anxious to encourage
the freemen, whose largest gains were derived from the
sale of produce to visitors ; ^ so, to prevent rivalry, instruc-
tions were issued that none of the members of the council
of policy were to keep cattle or to cultivate gardens
beyond the requirements of their households.
In 1669 a small vessel named the Grundel was sent
out by the supreme authorities to explore the coasts of
Southern Africa. On the way she visited the rocks of
Martin Vaz, and searched in vain in their neighbour-
hood for a fertile island suitable for the establishment
of a residency. George Frederick Wreede, the same who
visited Martin Vaz in the Pimpel in 1665, was on board
the Orundel on this occasion. It vrill be remembered that
he had been appointed conunander of the party occupy-
ing Mauritius, but, on account of some of the people
there being mutinous, he was unable to carry out his
instructions. For this he was held responsible by Com-
mander Van Quaelberg, who not only recalled him, but
caused him to be tried by the council of a fleet on a
charge of neglect of duty. He was sentenced to be re-
duced again to the rank of a soldier, with pay at the
^One of the oonditions under which free papers were granted was that
the fanners were to be at liberty to sell their produce (but not homed
cattle, sheep, or grain) to the crews of vessels three days after arrival.
After Mr. Van Quaelberg's dismissal, captains of foreign vessels were in-
variably referred to the freemen, under the plea that the Company had
nothing to spare. There is at this period no instance of the farmers being
debarred from selling vegetables, poultry, eggs, milk, butter, and similar
articles, to the crews of any ships, Dutch or foreign, but frequent men-
tion is made of their having disposed of such articles. Grain and cattle
were reserved for the Company's own use, and could not be sold without
special permission, which was however sometimes granted.
176 History of South Africa, [1669
rate of fifteen shillings a month. But Wreede found
means of getting to Europe and of bringing his case be-
fore the directors, who annulled the sentence of the court
that tried him, gave him the rank and pay of a junior
merchant, and sent him out again to be head of the
estabhshment at Mauritius.
The Grundel arrived in Table Bay some months before
the time fixed for the sailing of the Mauritius packet.
Letters were shortly afterwards received from the direc-
tors vnth instructions to station a party of men perma-
nently at Saldanha Bay, to prevent any other European
power taking possession of that port. It was beheved
that the French had at last resolved to abandon Mada-
gascar, where they had met with nothing but loss, and it
was suspected that they had an intention of establishing
themselves somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Cape
of Good Hope. Wreede was accordingly sent with four-
teen men to fix a site for the outpost and to put up the
necessary buildings. He was relieved when the Mauri-
tius packet was ready to sail, but a day or two before she
was to have left a party of convicts managed to get pos-
session of her. The leader of these convicts was an old
mate of a ship, who had been sentenced to a long term
of imprisonment for insubordination. Under his guidance
the Lepelaar was captured, and the next that was heard
of her was that she had safely reached Pernambuco. A
few weeks later a yacht that called was laden vnth stores
for Mauritius, and Wreede sailed to resume the position
of commandant of the island. On the 29th of February
1672 he went oilt in a boat to explore some islets, the
boat was overturned in a squall, and he was drowned.
The Grundel was sent first to examine the coast to the
northward beyond St. Helena Bay, but brought back no
information except that the greatest part of the country
as far as she sailed along it appeared to be an unin-
habited desert. South of the tropic there were no other
people than Hottentots. Her skipper wished to change
1670] Jacob Borghorst. 177
the name of the inlet in latitude SG"" 36' from Angra
Pequena to Gnmdel Bay, but his desire was not gratified.
In the following year she was sent to the eastward, but
discovered nothing worthy of note. The farthest point
reached was the bay Os Medaos do Ouro, in latitude 26''
4(y S. Here an officer and sixteen men went ashore to
examine the country, but never returned, and owing to
this disaster the Grundel pat about and sailed for the
Cape.
In 1669 a party of experienced miners and assayers
was sent from Europe to search for metals in the neigh-
bourhood of the Cape. They examined Table Valley care-
fully, and then proceeded to the Paarl mountain and
Biebeek's Kasteel. For several years they were busy
making excavations over the country, sometimes believing
they were in a fair way of finding valuable ores, though
always disappointed in the end. In one of their reports
the Windberg is called the Duyvelsberg, which is the first
instance in the records of that name being used.
The arrival of the commissioner Mattheus van der
Broeck early in the year 1670 was an important event
in the history of the infant settlement. The commissioner
was one of the ablest of the Company's officers, and was
then acting as admiral of a richly laden return fleet of
fifteen ships. His instructions from the Indian authorities
were to rectify anything that he should find amiss at the
Cape after due investigation. Upon his arrival, Mr. Van
der Broeck handed to Commander Borghorst a list of
questions, to which he desired written replies, and he
added to the ordinary council of policy five of the .chief
officers of the fleet to assist in its deUberations.
One of the questions had reference to the growth of
com. Hitherto there had not been sufficient grain raised
at the Cape for the consumption of the garrison and the
inhabitants, so that it had been necessary to import a
quantity of rice yearly. This expense the Company wished
to be relieved ol Commander Borghorst proposed to form
VOL. L 12
178
History of South Afri
[1670
a large farming eBtablishment at Hottentots-Holland, a
part of the country to which be had once paid a visit,
and where he believed unusual facilities existed for both
agricultural and pastoral pursuits. He suggested also that
the freemen should be encouraged by an offer of higher
prices for grain than those previously given. His views
were adopted by the council, and with the commissioner's
sanction it was resolved that the Company's cultivated
ground at Kondebosch should be leased by public auction,
and the staff of servants there be removed to Hottentots-
Holland. The price of wheat was raised to 7s. hd.. and of
rye to 5s. 1\d. the hundred pounds.
A great evil existed, in the commissioner's opinion, in
the number of canteens that had been recently established.
They were even to be found at Kondebosch and Wynberg,
■where they were a sore temptation to the farmers to
spend their substance in dissipation. On the other hand,
each paid for its license, and all provided board and lodg-
ing for strangers when ships were in the bay. The com-
missioner and council reduced the number to nine for the
whole settlement, but in addition permitted Jacob Bosen-
daet, who had enlarged the vineyard planted by Mr. Van
Biebeek, to sell by retail wine of bis own making.
Some samples of Cape -wine had been sent to Batavia,
but had not been received there with much favour. It
was therefore a question what was to be done with the
produce of the vineyards. The coimcil decided that each
individual could send his wine to Batavia, to be sold
there on his own account, upon payment of 12s. 6d.
freight on every half aom, and such duties as the Indian
government should impose. This was practically throwing
the Eastern markets open to Cape wine farmers to make
the most they could in. But so far from being viewed as
a privilege or a concession by the colonists of those days,
it was held by them to he equivalent to a prohibition of
wine-making. They wanted a market on the spot, for
they were too poor to wait a twelvemonth for the price
1670] Jacob Borghorst. 179
of their produce. Neither were they a people inclined to
run any risk, and therefore their idea of a good market
was a market where the price of everything was fixed,
where a man could reckon to a stiver what his wine
would bring before it left his farm. The freedom of sell-
ing in India was thus no inducement to them to increase
their vineyards.
In the matter of public works, the council resolved to
construct a stone watercourse from the reservoir to the
jetty, and to plant twenty-four morgen of ground vrith
trees, half alders for timber and half kreupel bushes for
fuel.^ The watercourse was thrown open to tender, and
a contract for its construction was entered into by the
burgher Wouter Mostert for the sum of 625Z. It was
farther resolved that in future all bricks and tiles re-
quired by the Company should be purchased from free-
men by public tender.
The duties of each member of the government were
accurately defined. Comelis de Cretzer was promoted from
fiscal to be secunde, and Jacob Granaat from secretary to
be fiscal. In the council of poUcy, the secunde, Comelis
de Cretzer, the heutenant, Johannes Coon, the fiscal,
Jacob Granaat, and the bookkeeper, Anthonie de Baaf,
were to have seats, while liberty was left to the com-
mander to admit one or two other fit persons, if he
should deem it necessary to do so.
In the written instructions of the commissioner the
Cape authorities were directed to encourage and assist
the farmers, not alone on account of the produce of their
fields, but because of the assistance to be derived from
them in time of war. The freemen then constituted a
company of mihtia eighty-nine strong. Mr. Van der
Broeck, in ordering the lease of the Company's farm at
'The plantations were never laid out, however, as upon further con-
sideration the commander came to the conclusion that they would he
dangerous in Tahle Valley on account of the shelter they would afford to
ravenous animals.
i8o Histmj of SnUk AfruA. [1670
fiondebotdi, htA m riew an iimnwHaae inoease c^ this
immber. Hedirectad also that as socm as the C<»npaiiT
had made a good stait at Hottoitots-HoUaiid. that tract
oC eooDtiy sbcmld Ekewise be piren cot to freemen.
During Commander B(HghoEst*s administraticm licenses
were 6at granted to the boig^iezs to hunt bLrge game
wfaererer they chose. Hippopotami abomided at that time
in the Berg rirer, and parties were freqnently fitted ont
for the purpose of shooting th^n. The flesh of these
animals was brought in large qoantities to the settlement,
where it was used for food, and the hides were soon
found to be useful for making whips. During these ex-
peditions the burghers were exposed to the temptation
of bartering cattle from the natives, but the government
kept a watchful eye upon their flocks and herds, and con-
fiscated every hoof that could not be satisfsMstorily ac-
counted for.
Owing to the commander's ill-health he had no desire
to remain long in South Africa, and only a few months
after his arrival the directors sent out instructions that
the merchant Jan van Aelmonden, who was expected with
the next return fleet, should be detained here as his suc-
ceBBor. But that officer was not on board the fleet, and
Mr. Borghorst then sent a pressing request for the ap-
pointment of some one else to relieve him. The directors
selected Pieter Hackius, another of their old servants
whose health was completely shattered by long residence
in India, and who was then on furlough in Europe. Mr.
Haokius and his family sailed from home in the Sticht
van Utrecht on the 7th of December 1669, and reached
Table Bay on the 18th of the following March. The
new commander lauded a more confirmed invalid even
than the officer whom he had come to relieve. But he
tt)t). like Mr. Borghorst, hoped that after a short term of
Korvioo in this country he would be permitted to return
to the fatherland to end his days there. On the 25th of
March 1070 the government was formally transferred, and
1670] Pieter Hackius. 181
a few weeks later Mr. Borghorst embarked in the Beem-
ster and returned to Europe.
For several months after the arrival of Mr. Hackius
nothing beyond the ordinary quiet routine of life occurred
in the settlement. The commander himself was for some
time unable to take an active part in the administration
of affairs, and it was not until June that he held his
first council meeting. It had become necessary to make
greater efforts to destroy the lions and leopards, which
were prejdng upon the flocks and herds in the settlement,
and the hyenas, which had even scraped up dead bodies
in the churchyard and devoured them. As this was a
matter affecting the taxation of the burghers, their coun-
cillors were invited to assist in the deliberations. It was
resolved that the premiums for the destruction of raven-
ous animals should be increased, and that in general half
the rewards should be paid out of fimds raised by the
burghers. In the particular case of lions killed between
Table Mountain and the Tigerberg the premium was
raised to 6Z. 5*. for each, two-thirds of which was to be
paid by the freemen.
In September the second large fleet fitted out by the
French Company put into South African waters on its
way to the east. Admiral De la Haye saluted the fort
with five guns, and was answered with only one, which
he complained of as an insult to his king. He expected
to be able to get here whatever fresh provisions and sea
stores he needed, but he was soon undeceived. Com-
mander Hackius made no objection to his purchasing
vegetables from the farmers, but informed him that the
Company could not furnish him with anything from its
own gardens or magazines. The admiral was indignant
at receiving such treatment, but at the very time he was
asking for supplies he was acting towards the Dutch as
enemies.
Six of his ships had put into Saldanha Bay. They
found at the place now called the old post a station
1 82 History of South Africa. [167 1
occupied by a few soldiers under command of Sergeant
Hieronymus Cruse. Of this station they took forcible
possession, and made prisoners of the soldiers. Some
burgher fishermen who were carrying on their ordinary
employment in the bay were also seized and made prison-
ers. The Company's flag was taken down and its beacons
were destroyed, the French substituting the flag and arms
of their king. The council of policy entered a formal
protest against these acts of violence, but they had no
force with which to resist, and so they prudently did
nothing to provoke the French farther. After a short de-
tention. Admiral De la Haye was good enough to release
his prisoners, and he sailed without leaving any of his
people behind. The French flag was not disturbed for
four months. Then the garrison at the Cape was rein-
forced with three hundred men, and the station at Sal-
danha Bay was again occupied.
At this period there was less distinction made between
black men and white than between professing Christians
and heathens. A baptized black, indeed, enjoyed all the
rights and privileges of a European, but a heathen could
hardly be said to have any rights at all. At the Cape
there were a few Mohamedan slaves, natives of the Indian
islands, who had been banished to this country as a
punishment for crime. The first of this particular class
arrived on the 21st of May 1667, but at an earlier date
one or two Asiatic convicts who were not Mohamedans
were sent from India. Some of these were sentenced to
slavery for a limited number of years, after which they
becajne free, others were condemned for life. The great
majority of the slaves were negros from Madagascar or
the mainland of Africa, mostly males, who had been made
prisoners in war and had been sold by the chiefs of vic-
torious tribes. Of the children bom here of slave mothers
only about one-fourth were black, the remainder being
half-breeds. The commissioner Isbrand Goske, who visited
the settlement in February 1671, considered this circum-
1671] Pieter Hackius, 183
stance so scandalous and demoralising to the whites that
he attempted to legislate against it.
The commissioner had no idea that heathen Africans
understood the obligations of marriag^e or respected fidelity
between man and wife. In his opinion, therefore, the
slaves could not be married as long as they remained
heathens, but he issued instructions that the females
should be matched with males of their own class. They
were all to be sent to church twice on Sundays, and every
evening they were to be assembled for instruction. The
sick-comforter was then to recite prayers slowly, which
they were to repeat after him. As soon as they should
be sufficiently advanced in knowledge and should profess
belief in Christianity, they were to be baptized and
married. All the children were as heretofore to be sent
to school, so that none might grow up heathens. And,
lastly, special care was to be taken that no half-breeds
were retained in slavery.
For a long time the secunde Cornelis de Cretzer had
been the most active member of the Cape government.
He was a favourite with the burghers and stood high in
the estimation of the superior officers with whom he had
come in contact, for he was able, honest, and attentive
to his duties. From being a copying clerk he had suc-
cessively held the offices of secretary to the council, fiscal,
and secunde, and had now the title of merchant and a
good prospect of being commander of the settlement at no
very distant date.
It was customary for the principal officers of ships in
the bay to be invited frequently to dine on shore, and as
both Mr. Borghorst and Mr. Hackius were confirmed in-
vahds, the duty of receiving and entertaining guests was
sometimes undertaken by Mr. De Cretzer. On the 10th
of April 1671 the skipper of an Indiaman and a passenger
by the same ship dined at the secunde's house, where
they revived an old quarrel between them. De Cretzer
endeavoured to pacify them, but the skipper at length
184 History of South Africa. [167 1
became so violent that he assanlted the passenger, and it
was necessary to employ force to remove him. He went
out of the house, but presently returned using threaten-
ing language, when the secunde, giving way to passion,
drew his rapier and ran the brawler through the body.
It was the act of an instant, but its penalty was life-
long.
De Cretzer at once fled from his home and concealed
himself somewhere in the settlement. As a matter of
form the government cited him to appear before the court
of justice and offered rewards for his apprehension, but
no one wished to see him brought to trial, and he was
never arrested. After a time he left the colony quietly
in a homeward bound ship, and returned to Amsterdam.
There the case was investigated, and he was pronounced
free of blame. The directors then restored him to the
position of secunde at the Cape, but the ship in which he
took passage was captured at sea by a Moorish corsair,
and the last that is known of De Cretzer is that he was
sold as a slave in Algiers.
This unfortunate event left the Cape without any man
of note to direct affairs. The commander was so feeble
that he seldom appeared abroad. Jacob Granaat had gone
to Batavia some time before. The three offices of se-
cunde, fiscal, and dispenser of the magazines, had all been
filled by De Cretzer, and there was no one to succeed to
any of them. The chief military officer was Lieutenant
Coenraad van Breitenbach, who had only been a month
in the settlement, and whose experience was confined
to matters connected with his own profession. Next to
him was Brevet-Lieutenant Johannes Coon, who was little
more than a cipher.
The two ablest men at the Cape were both in sub-
ordinate situations. One of these, by name Hendrik Cru-
dop, was a young man of good birth and education, who
had taken service with the East India Company as a means
of pushing his fortune. He had passed through the
1671] Pieter Hackms. 185
stages of copying clerk and bookkeeper, and was at this
time secretary of the council, with the rank of junior mer-
chant and the address of sieur, but had no voice or vote
in the proceedings. The other was Sergeant Hieronymus
Cruse, a man with Uttle education, but intelUgent, active,
and capable of carrjdng through any business that he
undertook. He was the explorer of the day, the man
who knew most of the interior of the country and of the
native tribes. But, though his opinions had weight out-
side the council, and men of lower rank were often ad-
mitted in an emergency, he had no voice given to him in
the management of affairs. Such being the personnel of
the government, it was fortunate that no disturbing ele-
ment was at this time brought to bear upon the harmony
of the settlement.
For ten or a dozen years the authorities of the East
India Company had been endeavouring to induce garden-
ers and small farmers to migrate from Europe to South
Africa, but with little success. Now and again they were
able to send out to their eastern possessions a few families
who were attracted by the glowing tales told of those
wondrous isles from which wealth was being poured into
the Netherlands. But the Cape had no charms of this
kind, for its inhabitants were savages and it contributed
nothing to commerce. Of all the Dutch dependencies it
was the one that possessed least attraction for emigrants.
In October 1670, however, the chamber of Amsterdam
was able to announce that it had secured a few families
who would be sent in the next fleet, and in the following
December another party is spoken of as being about to
leave for the Cape and Mauritius.^
1 These ^uoailies numbered in all sixty-one individuals, and at the time
they accepted the proposals of the Company were engaged as agriculturists in
the county of Meurs, which was not annexed to Prussia until 1707. How
they came there, or what led them to wish to emigrate, is not stated in the
documents of the time, but all of those among them whose birthplaces are
given were Dutch. See Besolutions of the Assembly of Seventeen of 21st May
and 28th August 1670.
1 86 History of South Africa. [1671
The families were dispersed among the ships in such
a manner as best to secure their comfortable acconmio-
dation. Some vessels had only one spare cabin, and thus
took only one family as passengers, others took two or
three. Among the new names of burghers at this time
are fomid those of Jan van As, Jacobus van den Berg,
Adriaan van Brakel, Jan van Eeden, Albertus Gilden-
hnyzen, Hans Helm, Matthys Michiels, Jan Mostert,^ Jan
Lambert Myburgh, Jacob and Dirk van Niekerk,* Her-
manns Potgieter, Abraham Pyl, Gerrit Romond, Hendrik
Verschuur, and Fran9ois Villion (now Viljoen).*
To the tjrranny of the government has usually been
ascribed the small number of free inmiigrants that arrived
in South Africa between the years 1652 and 1820. But
upon close examination this will be found incorrect. It
is true that if we judge by the standard of the present
day, and take representation of the people by election and
parliamentary institutions into consideration, the govern-
ment of that period will appear to be an arbitrary des-
potism. But before the French revolution the nations
of Europe judged by a very different standard.
The people of the United Netherlands were in name
and reahty the freest on the continent of Europe, yet the
great majority of them had no direct voice in the govern-
ment. The municipalities, which were the seats of power,
I The founder of the large Mostert family of the present day. He
was a younger brother of Wouter Mostert, who has been frequently men-
tioned in these pages, and who left no children.
'Comelis van Niekerk, the founder of the large South African family
of that name, was probably either a younger brother or a son of one of
these. His name is first found in the records of 1691. Neither Jacob
nor Dirk van Niekerk left children, unless Comelis was a son of one of
them. All the others named above have numerous descendants either in
the male or in the female line scattered over South Africa now.
'Olof Bergh, the founder of the South African family of that name,
was at this time a military officer in the Company's service in Capetown.
Among the burghers there was one named Jan Botha, who may have
been the father of Frederik Botha, the founder of the present widely dis-
persed family of that name; but this is doubtful
1671] Pieter Hackius. 187
-were self-perpetuating corporations. On the part of the
masses the idea of good government was light taxation,
•coupled with the making and administration of laws that
agreed with their views and prejudices. They did not
care to be at the trouble of assisting to make the laws
themselves. That was in their opinion the duty of the
authorities as constituted by the customs and traditions
of time immemorial The veto of the citizens consisted
in the right of protest, a right which they sometimes
exercised in the form of an armed and clamorous body.
The requests of burghers made in this manner were not
to be disregarded, and hence in a country where prudence
is the commonest of virtues, those in authority usually
took care to avoid any action which might lead to dis-
content. Without being a representative government, the
government of the United Netherlands existed for the
good of the people and by the will of the people. It was
their ideal of what a good government ought to be.
The directories of commercial bodies were modelled
after this pattern. In the first charter of the East India
Company, which was signed at the Hague on the 20th
of March 1602, the directors of the different chambers
were appointed by name, and provision was made for
filing any vacancies that might thereafter occur by the
states-provincial selecting from a triple number nominated
by the remaining directors. Yet the capital of the Com-
pany was subscribed at once, no shareholder imagining
that his interests would be safer if he had a direct voice
in the management. The charter terminated in 1623, and
when it was renewed some fresh clauses were added. By
one of these the shareholders were empowered to assist
in certain elections, but in no manner resembling the pro-
ceedings of a commercial association of the present day.
Such then was the ideal of good government, and to sus-
tain this ideal there was the plain fact that the people
of the United Netherlands were the most prosperous on
the face of the globe.
1 88 History of South Africa. [1671
It was taken for granted that the institutions of the
parent country would as far as practicable be transplanted
to the colonies. No Netherlander thought then that by
going abroad he would lose the rights to which he was
bom, any more that an Englishman of the present day
thinks he forfeits his privileges by residing in a crown
colony. Looking back upon those times it is easy to see
that the colonial institutions were but shadows of those
to which they corresponded in name in Holland, that the
power of the colonial authorities was infinitely greater
than that of the Dutch town governments, because they
had not the fear of an offended and indignant populace
always before their eyes. But these simple truths were
only discovered after long experience, and could not have
been predicted in 1671. Modern colonisation was then
in its infancy. The most advanced nations, among which
were England and Holland, had as yet no conception of
colonies governed as they now are. There was no ma-
chinery in their systems either to build up or to regulate:
distant dependencies, hence all of them created powerful
trading companies for the purpose.
The Netherlands East India Company was then the
greatest and most powerful trading association in the
world, and it was even more than that. It was the
owner of vast and wealthy provinces. Yet it was itself
subject and responsible to the states-general, and its ad-
ministration was watched with a jealous eye by all wha
were not shareholders in it. There was always a strongs
party ready to arraign it when guilty of oppression or
abuse of power. That in later years it was on many
occasions oppressive and often did abuse its power is na
less true, but at this time such charges could not fairly
be made against it. The dread of its tyranny probably
did not prevent a single individual from settling in its
dependencies.
The cause of so few Dutch families settling in South
Africa at this period was the absence of any necessity for
1671] Pieter Hackius, 189
a large number of the people of the Netherlands to leave
their homes. A prosperous country, where there is abun-
dance of employment for all, is not a country from which
men and women migrate. The people of the Netherlands
were attached to their fatherland, there was no sectarian
persecution to drive them into exile, and so they did not
choose to remove to far-away regions, where the condi-
tions of life were uncertain or unknown. Their territory
is small, and though it was thickly populated it could not
send forth large bands of colonists without exhausting the
parent state. The Cape was but one of its many depen-
dencies, and received its fair share of the few Dutchmen
of that period who chose to settle abroad. Foreigners, in-
deed, could have been obtained, but no nation has ever
yet chosen to plant colonies of alien blood. The Dutch
went as far in this direction as prudence would permit,
by settling in their dependencies as many foreigners as
could be absorbed without danger of losing their own
language and predilections.
There was little communication between the Europeans
and the natives at this time, and that little was not alto-
gether friendly. In December 1670 the branch of the
Cochoquas under the chief Gonnema paid a visit to the
settlement. Their presence caused quite a panic among
the frontier farmers at Wynberg, some of whom abandoned
their houses, which the Hottentots afterwards broke into.
Happily they did not remain long in the neighbourhood.
In the following year a war broke out between the Cocho-
quas and the Chainouquas, and the first-named tribe was
nearly ruined. While the clans were fighting with each
other, two burghers who went into the country to shoot
game were surprised by some Bushmen and murdered.
An account of this event was brought to the fort by a
party of Chainouquas, who asserted that the obiquas had
been instigated by Gonnema to commit the crime. Their
statement was believed, but the accusations of their
enemies by savages can seldom be received as trustworthy
190 History of South Africa. [1671
evidence, and there is no other proof of Gronnema's guilt
in this matter.
The iUness of Commander Hackius at length assmned
a form which forbade all hope of recoyery. For some
months after his arrival he had bnoyed himself up with
the prospect of a speedy retnm to the fatherland, bat as
time wore on this comfort failed him. The spring of
1671 found him bedridden and hardly conscious of what
was transpiring about him, and in this condition he
lingered until his death on the night of the 30th of
November. The funeral took place three days later. It
was attended by all the inhabitants of the settlement,
but could not be conducted with much pomp owing to
the circumstances of the tim& The body was laid be-
neath the floor of the building used as a church, in the
ground now enclosed by the castle walls. Another escut-
cheon was added to those already hanging there, but in
the course of a few years grave and escutcheon were alike
undistinguishable, and nothing was left to perpetuate the
memory of Commander Hackius.
On the morning after his death the council assembled
for the purpose of making arrangements to carry on the
government. There were present the two mihtary officers,
Coenraad van Breitenbach and Johannes Coon, a junior
merchant named Daniel Frojrmanteau, who had been de-
tained from a ship some time before to act as issuer of
stores, and the secretary, Hendrik Crudop, to whom a
vote in the proceedings was now for the first time given.
There was no one in the settlement whose rank would
warrant the council in placing the administration of affairs
temporarily in his hands. It was therefore arranged that
each member of the government should retain the exact
position which he held before the late commander s death,
and that there should be no other distinction between the
councillors than that reports of unusual occurrences were
to be made by the officers at the outposts to Lieu-
tenant Van Breitenbach, who was immediately to lay
1672] The Council of Policy, 191
them before his colleagues. The settlement was thus for
a few months governed by a board of ofl&cers without any
local head or chief.
There was at this time throughout the United Nether-
lands a general feeling of impending danger. Hostilities
with France were beUeved to be inevitable at no distant
date, and it was beginning to be suspected that England
would not much longer abide by the Triple AUiance.
That the conquest and partition of the Free Netherlands
had actually been arranged by Charles 11 and Louis XIV
as long before as May 1670 was unknown to the Dutch
people. But, though the treaty of Dover was a secret
to the intended victims, the unfriendly conduct of the
SngUsh court gave abundant cause for alarm. With so
gloomy an outlook the directors of the East India Com-
pany considered it advisable to strengthen the defences of
their possessions, and the Cape was one of the points
which they resolved to secure more firmly. The castle,
the building of which had been for some time suspended,
was to be completed according to the original design, the
garrison was to be increased, and the administration of
affairs was to be confided to a class of men superior to
those hitherto employed.
Instructions were received here in February 1672 to
utilise all the available force of the settlement in collect-
ing shells, quarrying stone, and conveying these materials
to the site of the new fortress. The woodwork for the
various buildings connected with the castle was being
prepared in Amsterdam, and was sent out as opportunities
offered in the fleets that followed. Large quantities of
bricks and tiles were also sent out, and in the same ships
came skilled mechanics to do the work. The position of
the castle is considered so faulty by modem engineers
that it is difficult to realise that when it was built it was
beheved to be almost impregnable. Yet that it was so
considered is beyond all question.
A few years after its completion, a constable ventured
192 History of South Africa. [1672
to express an opinion that if the French were to land
and take possession of the slope of the Devil's peak they
would be able to shell the garrison out. The governor
came to hear of this, and as he considered that if such a
belief gained ground among the burgher militia it would
cause them to lose confidence, he ordered the constable
to be placed in confinement. His Honour, with Lieu-
tenant Cruse and Surveyor Wittebol, then measured the
distance carefully, and came to the conclusion that no
cannon which could be brought out in a ship and landed
here could harm the castle. After a few days the con-
stable's wife went * to the governor, and asked that her
husband might be set at liberty. Everybody knew, she
said, that he was a man who allowed his tongue to run
too freely, but just on that account no one paid any
attention to what he said, and so there was no harm
done. He was a sober and diligent person, and if his
Honour would but pardon him this time she would
guarantee that he would never again be guilty of talking
so foolishly of the Company's stronghold. 'He does not
get drunk, I will admit,' replied the governor, 'and he
does his duty reasonably well, but this is a serious matter
of which he has been guilty. He must be brought before
the council.' The council decided to be lenient with him,
but that he must counteract the mischief which his sedi-
tious language might have occasioned. He was there-
foze to select the two best cannons at the Cape, which
should be conveyed to the place that he had asserted
eommanded the castle. There he was to load them with
fall dhargeS) and if he could throw a ball into the fortress
6 was to be free of fine or punishment. The experiment
I* ouxied out, and the castle remained unscathed. The
liable was then compelled to proclaim himself a fool-
felloWy ^d was fined three months' wages to cover
npense of removing the cannon.^
jMzs later the authorities admitted that their predecessors
In 1686 a oommissioner of high standing informed
if-rs" ^ /It ZDViKn .'- .^" -..'.-.
V.
Brencei. and P'let-e: ir Z^-ftl Tii- nrs- Tra- *. nija: rr:-.
had £LLed Tranonf resr rrjEiDc- Ermai.-.iif :l n- ir.i^?^ ^.r.-
nad arwwyt acnumriL .mit.r=i- 2:-i:u».:.:-. B- r:>v: v- -.:
XL I.-^i'DX ar.: :r iirr ':-»its: -.: ;\ii.;a':»i:
who ssiBCsed xnt sit-*: z: iirr s^^n^ vrii^i. ::. r^ tt* -
pacTt 'cradf' xhert aiiL icra::- 'F-ir=i ^^ - t .j -t - - i^-.^jr ::
1671 he ^VTBs f'fia^rqrc ttih -ll-t in— -j r-.^iirir::: ai— i:.::i^
here nhfia TmxrnT i>t aim==. Zuiis^i n* iite siaiidarc ':: Ui^
nineZf&eDxh oeirrnry hs "^irvrr -v^'^L r-r 2kl:-x narr^v ;l
fTic c^wii OHj he intr litnc t' irr 1.T: -:i.- i ^-.:il ru: £
"wisje and libera, niaz. li. r&:.i li* vrsii Lirr^ir* i*irij's:
^VtB-Ti a camniancisi azic v-nei. ire "vraf rraiiejcreL !■ as^un-r
the dxTBCsiaZ: af afiairf a" iii* I E7?t iiit resiaeiir* T-tf
nased lo he & irJ^emniSin. aiiL it*- vtif erini-e-c ^r»"'en.''j:
At xhe saxDe linnt he va* a]TT»iiin-rL l-:»i:ii2I!jx *:rm>'jri.-
nsTT at T^^yria^ Hjtt siufiTT' vfef i: r»* a* tiit n^Tf .c -^>
B rr' nT^*^^ or ODHuie t'tie: r£ t :•:■?: TiiKii^e: vtil t ^er'
cahie aarn^Ttiice. ani lesjitf riajrerf ::_ "iij* ''-r:
cixjffliisnial siTQer: at ir'iiifrir'aL-i. viierf i:r I'-'iiJi e-.L^r:-
main of "i fwg experisiiSr xiiki. Zsst >-fj:r :»r: vtf :»f:ir-e:
to be a saii igm&i fc::c t-r-Jt rfi-ittr.
isz«£7 at Nfn-. tti: ''^t.f ?»tfi": rr* fc^? r.?-:-t.
rijg nir-riJ i-hLra:ir^i "wk? i.:: ii-T.'i'r-tirr
and pob&bed afcff r^ rrrzn: :: -r-^:T»r resr? i-^ ~
vol* I.
194 History of South Africa. [1672
press of a man of some genius, to whom close thinking
was familiar. Many of the verses are characterised by
the same peculiarities as the writings of Sterne, but the
expressions are coarser. He also prepared a work upon
the marriage customs of various nations, which gives
proof of extensive reading. The fiscal was the first of
the three new officers appointed, and when he arrived at
the Cape he experienced some difficulty in getting himself
recognised by the grave godfearing councillors who were
then ruling the settlement.
During the ten years fi:om the 1st of January 1662 to
the 31st of December 1671, three hundred and seventy of
the Company's ships put into Table Bay, either on the
outward or homeward passage, and all found ample re-
freshment. In the same period twenty-six French, nine
English, and two Danish ships cast anchor hera The
only other stranger was a small Portuguese vessel brought
in as a prize. There were no wrecks or losses in Table
Bay during this period, but on the coast nearly opposite
Dassen Island a cutter was run ashore by a drunken
skipper in June 1668, when two men were drowned, and
in May 1671 another small vessel was wrecked on the
FoundUngs, when the crew got safely away in the boat.
It was estimated that for the refreshment of the Com-
pany's ships three hundred and fifty head of homed cattle
and three thousand seven hundred sheep were required
yearly. This was exclusive of the hospital and the people
on shore. The average number of men on board each
vessel that called in time of peace was about one hundred
and eighty, but first-class Indiamen carried from three to
four hundred. It needed seventy or eighty hands to set
the enormous mainsail of such a ship, for they were igno-
rant of many of the modem appliances for multiplying
power. Shipbuilders were only beginning to learn that
by reducing the size of the sails and increasing the num-
ber they could do with fewer men. Large crews were
needed also for defence in case of attack by pirates, and
1672] The Council of Policy, 195
allowance had to be made for at least one-third of the
complement being laid up with scurvy in a passage ex-
ceeding four months. Thus, notwithstanding the number
of ships appears small, over seven thousand strangers
visited the Cape every year, who after consuming fresh
provisions for ten or twelve days carried away with them
as much as would keep good.
Nearly every year the branch of the Cochoquas under
Gonnema paid a visit to the Cape peninsula, where they
seldom failed to create trouble by their pilfering propensi-
ties. The normal condition of this particular clan was
that of a roving band, always at feud with its neighbours,
either plundering the Namaquas, or the Chainouquas, or
the Kaapmans of their cattle, or itself plundered and re-
duced to want. They had yet to leam that a European
settlement was not to be dealt with in this manner.
At this period the Europeans felt themselves more se-
cure than ever before. There was a garrison of three
hundred men in Table Valley. The burghers formed a
body of militia one hundred strong, a fair proportion of
them mounted on Javanese ponies. The council was in
no mood to brook either affront or wrong. The members
were plain men, who looked at the native question as a
VCTy simple one. They had no thought or desire of harm-
ing a Hottentot or of interfering in the slightest manner
with the internal government of the clans, but they were
determined to punish any one who should molest a Euro-
pean, and to do it in such a manner as to inspire all
others with a feeling of terror.
On the first opportunity that offered they put this
principle into practice. Five of Gonnema's people were
taken redhanded in the act of sheepstealing, three of the
number being guilty also of assaulting the herdsmen. They
were bound and carried to the fort, where shortly a party
of their friends appeared with cattle for their ransom.
The council declined to release the prisoners on any
terms. Day after day came messengers offering more and
196 History of South Africa. [1672
more cattle, but always without effect. The five prisoners
were brought to trial, and were sentenced all to be soundly
flogged, the three most guilty to be branded and to be
banished to Bobben Island for fifteen years to collect
shells for the public benefit in return for their food, the
other two to be banished for seven years. The first part
of the sentence was strictly carried out, and the latter
part would have been so Ukewise if the convicts had not
made their escape from the island in a boat.
On the 23rd of March 1672 the Macassar arrived from
Texel, having as passenger the secunde Albert van Breu-
gel. The councillors went on board to welcome him and
to escort him to the fort, but a strong south-easter
springing up suddenly, they were unable to return to
land before the 25th. Mr. Van BreugePs commission em-
powered him to act as commander in case of no one
higher in rank in the service being at the Cape, so that
he at once assumed the direction of affairs.
On the same day there arrived in a homeward bound
ship a commissioner of the Cape residency in the person
of Amout van Overbeke, member of the high court of
justice at Batavia and admiral of the return fleet of 1672.
The commissioner was received with the ordinary state
observed towards officers of his rank. The walls of the
old fort would not admit of the cannon being used too
freely, but the ships at anchor lent assistance with their
great guns. Amid the roar of their discharges Mr. Van
Overbeke landed on the jetty, where the officers of the
settlement met him. The troops, with as many of the
burgher mihtia as could be assembled, were drawn up and
presented arms as he passed along the lines, and as he
entered the fort his flag was hoisted and saluted.
After investigating the affairs of the settlement, the
commissioner Van Overbeke thought it would be expe-
dient in order to prevent future disputes to make a formal
purchase of the country about the Cape from the Hottentot
claimants. A negotiation was accordingly entered into
1672] The Council of Policy. 197
with the chief formerly called by bis countrymen Osing-
kima and now Mankagou, to whom tbe Dutch had given
the name Schacber.
When Mr. Van Eiebeek arrived in South Africa,
Schacher's father, tbe fat captain Gogosoa, was tbe princi-
pal chief of tbe three clans, Goringhaiquas, Gorachouquas,
and Gt)ringhaikona8, in occupation of tbe Cape peninsula
and the adjacent country. Since that time some changes
in the condition of these clans bad taken place. Tbe larg-
est of them bad been subdivided into several little bands.
The permanent residents of tbe peninsula bad increased
in number, owing to tbe facility of obtaining food afforded
by the presence of the European settlers. Tbe others had
not yet recovered from tbe loss sustained during the pesti-
lence of 1665. But to them all Schacher's position was
the same as his father's had been, so that if any one bad
a right to barter away the country, that one was be.
Tbe Hottentot chief, when applied to, readily con-
sented to tbe conditions proposed, for they took nothing
from him which he bad not already lost. The agreement,
which is still preserved in tbe registry of deeds in Cape-
town, contains eight clauses. In the first, the Hottentot
prince, as he is called, agrees for himself and his heirs in
perpetuity to sell to the honourable East India Company
the whole district of tbe Cape, including Table, Hout, and
Saldanha bays, with all the lands, rivers, and forests there-
in and pertaining thereto, to be cultivated and possessed
without remonstrance from any one. With this under-
standing, however, that be with his people and cattle
shall be free to come anywhere near the outermost farms
in the district, where neither tbe Company nor the free-
men require the pasture, and shall not be driven away
by force or without cause. In tbe second, he agrees for
himself and his people never to do harm of any kind to
the Company or its subjects, and to allow them tbe
rights of transit and trade not only in the ceded district,
but in his other possessions. In tbe third, he promises
198 History of South Africa. [1672
to repel all other Europeans who may attempt to settle
in the district. In the fourth, he engages that he and
his descendants for ever shall remain the good friends
and neighbours of the Company, and be the enemies of
all that seek to do the Company or its subjects harm.
On the other hand, the Company engages in the fifth
clause to pay to Prince Schacher goods and merchandise
such as he may select to the value of 8002. The sixth
clause guarantees to him and his people the peaceful pos-
session of his remaining territory, and gives them the right
of passage through the Company's ground wherever the
exercise of this privilege may not cause damage or an-
noyance to the Company or its subjects. The seventh
secures to Schacher the right of refuge in the Company's
territory in case of his being defeated by his Hottentot
enemies, and binds the Company to protect him. It also
refers tribal disputes to the decision of the Company, and
provides for a present to be made yearly to the protecting
power. The last clause is Schacher's acknowledgment
that the foregoing having been translated to him he
^agrees to all, and that he has received the amount stipu-
lated. The document is dated in the fortress of Good
Hope on the 19th of April 1672. It is signed on behalf
of the Company by Aemout van Overbeke, Albert van
Breugel, Coenrad van Breitenbach, and J. Coon, and has
upon it the marks of Prince Schacher and 'T Tachou,
who is stated to be the person next in authority to the
prince. The secretary, Hendrik CrUdop, signs as a wit-
ness.
The document is drawn up in precise legal language
and it is clear in its statements, but it cannot be held to
give the Company any claim to the Cape district not
possessed before. The seller had no choice in the matter.
If he had declined to agree to it, the result, so far as the
Company's retaining possession of the soil, would have
been precisely the same. Saldanha Bay is included in
the purchase, though the country thereabouts was known
1672] The Council of Policy. 199
to be occupied by the Cochoquas. The price paid is
stated to be 800Z. ; in a despatch to the directors the
value of the goods actually transferred to Schacher is put
down at 2Z. 16«. hd. It was not, and under the circum-
stances could not be, an honest open bargain made by
two parties who thoroughly comprehended what they were
doing and knew the value given and taken.
An agreement identical with that signed by Schacher
was concluded on the 3rd of May between Albert van
Breugel and Coenrad van Breitenbach on the part of the
Company, and the two leading men of the Chainouquas
on behalf of their minor chief Dhouw, wherein the district
of Hottentots-Holland adjoining the Cape, with all its
lands, streams, and forests, together with False Bay are
ceded to the Company in return for merchandise amount-
ing in value to 800Z. The goods actually transferred were
worth no more than 62. I65. 4e2.
At this time experiments were being made in the cul-
tivation of various useful plants from other parts of the
world. Sugarcanes and cocoanut trees were brought from
Ceylon, and cassava plants were introduced from the west
coast of Africa, but these all failed. The olive was still
i^arded as a tree that would untimately succeed. Some
seasons the fruit fell before it was ripe, in other seasons
it was small and of very inferior quality. But the trees
looked so well that the gardeners always maintained that
they had not yet procured the best kind for bearing, and
that if they could only get proper stocks or grafts the
plant would to a certainty answer here.
In this year the first brandy was distilled at the Cape.
It was made as an experiment to ascertain if the wine
of this country could not be turned to some account.
The general opinion of the quality of the brandy was,
however, even less favourable than of the wine of which
it was made.
On the 31st of July intelligence arrived that war had
commenced between France and England on one side and
200 History of South Africa. [1672
the United Provinces on the other. Orders were there-
fore sent out to take every possible precaution against
surprise. The council hereupon made the best arrange-
ments which they could for the defence of the settlement.
The establishment on Dassen Island was broken up, and
the five hundred sheep which were kept there were re-
moved to the mainland. At Saldanha Bay and Bobben
Island preparations were made for abandoning the posts
upon the first appearance of an enemy, and destroying
everything that could not be carried oflf. In case of need
the women and children with the cattle were to be sent
to Hottentots-Holland. The work at the castle was mean-
time diUgently carried on.
On the 2nd of October Governor Goske arrived in the
ship ZuiA PoUbroeky after a passage of five months from
Texel. The Zuii Pohhroek had lost eighteen men, and
there were sixty down with scurvy when she dropped her
anchors. The governor landed at once, and was received
by the garrison under arms. As soon as his flag was
distinguished on the ship the news was signalled to
Rondebosch and Wynberg, so that the burghers were fast
assembling on the ground which now forms the parade.
To them the governor was presented by the secunde Van
Breugel, and was saluted with loud acclamations of wel-
come, mingled with discharges of firearms from the troops
and the roar of cannon from the Zuid Polsbrock and the
finished point of the new fortress. The governor's com-
mission was then read, and the ceremony of induction was
over.
20I
CHAPTEE VII.
ISBRAND GOSKE, GOVERNOR, INSTALLED 2nd OCTOBER 1672,
RETIRED 14th MARCH 1676.
JOHAN BAX, ENTITLED VAN HERENTALS, GOVERNOR, IN-
STALLED 14th MARCH 1676, DIED 29th JUNE 1678.
HENDRIK CRUDOP, SECUNDE, ACTING COMMANDER, 29th JUNE
1678 TO 12th OCTOBER 1679.
At the time when the Cape settlement was raised tem-
porarily to the dignity of being called a government, the
European population consisted of sixty-four burghers,
thirty-nine of whom were married, sixty-five children,
fifty-three Dutch men-servants, and about three hundred
and seventy servants of the Company and soldiers, in all
not exceeding six hundred souls. But there are circum-
stances under which the deeds of six hundred individuals
may be of greater importance in an historical retrospect
than are ordinarily those of six hundred thousand. These
few white men were laying the foundations of a great
colony, they were exploring a country as yet very imper-
fectly known, they were deaUng with the first difficulties
of meeting a native population. Their situation was the
most commanding point on the surface of the earth, and
they knew its importance then as well as England does
now. The Cape castle, wrote the directors, is the frontier
fortress of India, an expression which shows the value
they attached to it.
At this time the Free Netherlands were engaged in
the most unequal struggle that modern Europe has wit-
nessed. The kings of England and France, the elector of
Cologne, and the bishop of Munster were allied together
202 History of South Africa. [1672
for the suppression of Batavian liberty. In May 1672
Louis XrV in person with a splendidly equipped army
invaded the provinces from the south and within twenty-
eight days no fewer than ninety-two cities and strongholds
fell into his hands. To Utrecht, in the very heart of
the repubhc, his march was one continued triumph. The
ecclesiastical princes poured their forces into Overyssel,
and completely subdued that province. Charles 11 fitted
out a large fleet, but fortunately for English Uberties the
Dutch were able to hold their own on the sea.
The unhappy country in its darkest hour was distracted
by rival factions. The Perpetual Edict, by which the
prince of Orange was excluded from supreme power, was
the law, but most men felt that the only hope left to the
republic was to place the guidance of affairs in his hands.
The towns called for the repeal of the edict, the states
obeyed, and William of Orange, destined at a later day to
wear the crown of England, was appointed stadtholder of
Holland and Zeeland and captain and admiral-general of
aJl the provinces. Then followed (20th of August 1672)
the murder by a furious mob of the two most eminent
men of the Loevestein party, Johan de Witt, pensionary
of Holland, and his brother Comelis de Witt, burgomaster
of Dordrecht.
Of the seven provinces three were at this time entirely
occupied by the enemy, but internal discord was at an
end. One clear head guided the forces of the country,
and hope began to take the place of despair. The sluices
were opened, and the dykes were cut. The whole of the
low lands in South Holland were laid under water. An
army sprang into existence, an army indeed of boors and
artisans, but animated by intense patriotism and capable of
meeting any dangers and any fatigues. In the harbours of
Zeeland and North Holland a great fleet was got together,
ready in the last extremity to convey two hundred thou-
sand free people to the islands of the East, to form a new
Batavian republic there.
167a] Isbrand Goske. 203
In the fiB.ce of such opposition the allies were compelled
to pause. Then a change in the situation took place. A
combination of great European powers was formed against
France. The English government, which had entered into
the war and carried it on against the wishes and interests
of the people, was obliged to make peace (February 1674).
Six months later the Dutch had recovered all their terri-
tory except the towns of Maestricht and Graave, their
fleet was keeping the coast of France in continual alarm,
and the prince of Orange with seventy thousand men, half
of them Germans and Spaniards, was preparing to attack
the prince of Conde at Charleroi.
The effect of the troubles of the mother country upon
the Cape settlement was felt for many years. The number
of ships that called fell off very considerably, for even
after the recovery of their territory by the Dutch, it took a
long time to estabUsh again their European trade. In the
East the Company suffered no reverses of importance, but
its commerce was crippled by the necessity of maintaining
a large fleet on a war footing. The high admiral there
was the elder Ryklof van Goens, subsequently governor-
general of Netherlands India, and associated both before
and after this date with Cape affairs. Under him, com-
manding a division of the fleet, was Cornelis van Quael-
berg, once commander of the Cape settlement. The best
contested battle fought in Indian waters during the war
was between Van Quaelberg's division of the fleet and a
squadron of ten English ships that met off Masulipatam.
The EngUsh were outnumbered, but they fought bravely,
and it was not until one of their ships went down and
two others were surrounded and reduced to wrecks that
the remaining seven made sail for the Hooghly.
The first and most important object that Governor
Goske had to attend to was to prepare the Cape for de-
fence in the event of its being attacked, and for this pur-
pose he had authority to land from passing ships as many
men as could be spared and he might require. But the
204 History of South Africa. [1672^
troubles in Europe caused a falling-off in the number
of ships sent out, and further made it so difficult to
obtain soldiers and seamen that for some years hardly a
vessel sailed with her full complement of hands. Urgent,
therefore, as was the necessity for completing the castle,
it was not possible at any time to employ more than two-
hundred and fifty to three hundred men upon it. What
the Free Netherlands did in those days cannot be com-
pared with what the present mother country is capable
of doing. But, if measured by their resources, and especi-
ally by the number of their inhabitants, the efforts which
they put forth are worthy of the warmest admiration of
all hberty-loving people.
The governor resolved as a temporary measure to re-
pair the old fort, the earthen walls of which had by this
time so crumbled away that he described it as being like-
a ruined molehill. It was hastily built up again, and
then every man that could be spared from ordinary duty
was set to work upon the castle.
Nearly three years had elapsed since the commissioner
Van der Broeck authorised the Cape government to form a
farming estabUshment at Hottentots-Holland, but, owing
to the illness of Commander Hackius and the absence of
any one of high authority after his death, nothing had yet
been done in the matter beyond surveying the ground^.
Now, however, besides the original object in view there was
a special reason for forming an outpost in the country;
as a place was needed to which the cattle could be sent,,
and upon which the garrison could fall back if compelled to
abandon the Cape. On the 18th of October 1672 Sergeant
Cruythof and twelve men left to put up the necessary
buildings, and thus the first step was taken to extend the-
settlement towards the interior.
The description of Hottentots-Holland which was sent
to the Netherlands for the information of the directors
would seem at the present day to be too highly colourr
if we did not know that within the period which
167a] Isbrand Goske. 205
since elapsed the face of the country has undergone a
change. Western valleys were then covered with long
rich grass, just as Kaffraria is now. Every summer a
party of men used to be sent out with sc}rthes to the
Tigerbergy and thirty or forty waggon loads of hay were
brought back to the Company's stables as forage for the
horses. The recesses in the moantain sides facing the
sea contained patches of evergreen forest, in which were
found great varieties of useful timber.
The grass at Hottentots-Holland and the forests in
the immediate neighbourhood were mentioned as being
superior to those of any other part of the country yet
visited. The soil was described as rich, and the south-
east wind, that scourge of the husbandman in Table
Valley, was far less violent there. It was a bountifully
watered land, its streams were stocked with fish, and on
its pastures at certain seasons browsed elands and harte-
beests and other game. It was easy of access by sea.
A cutter could run up to the head of False Bay, where
without any difficulty produce could be shipped, and thus
the journey through the heavy sand of the Cape flats be
avoided. It seems to have been almost a natural law in
South Africa that all the advantages of a locality should be
seen at first, and its defects only become known gradually
afterwards.
With a view of crippling the English East India Com-
pany, orders were at this time received from Holland to
fit out an expedition to attack and endeavour to destroy
its victualling station at St. Helena. For this purpose
the ships Vryheid, Zuid Polsbroek, Cattenburgh, and Vlie-
gende Swaan were made ready at the Cape, and a hundred
and eighty soldiers and a hundred and fifty sailors above
their ordinary crews were embarked in them. The ex-
pedition was placed under the direction of Jacob de Geus,
skipper of the Vri/heid, and subject to his general orders
Lieutenant Coenrad van Breitenbach had command of the
land forces.
2o6 History of South Africa, [1675
The little fleet sailed from Table Bay on the 13th of
December 1672, and arrived at St. Helena on the 29th,
but was miable to reach the usual anchorage off Chapel
Valley. Commander De Geus therefore anchored at a
place which is described in his report as off Apple Valley,
two or three leagues from the spot where two English
ships were lying. During the night of the 10th of January
1673 the Dutch forces landed and scrambled up a preci-
pice, as they termed it, no opposition being offered. In
the morning they set out for Chapel Valley, and without
any difficulty drove back some small patrols that were
met on the way. In the report there is no reference to
killed or wounded on either side, except an expression at
its close that almost without any bloodshed whatever the
island was taken.
On the 12th of January Commander De Geus appeared
in the rear of the English fort, when the garrison and
colonists, who were too few in number to attempt to
defend it, embarked in a ship and set sail, after spiking
their guns and destroying everything that could not be
carried away. On taking possession, the Dutch found on
the island only one woman, a negro slave, and five sick
men. A slave ship from Madagascar bound to Barbados,
with two hundred and forty negros on board, which had
put in for refreshment, was also abandoned, and was seized
by the Dutch.
Commander De Geus caused the spiked cannon to be
drilled, landed some munitions of war and provisions, and
then returned to the Cape, leaving a hundred soldiers
under Lieutenant Jan Coon in occupation. A few weeks
later intelligence reached the Cape that Lieutenant Coon
and the only other commissioned officer had died, and
that a man with no higher rank than sergeant was in
command of the garrison. Governor Goske and the coun-
cil then directed Lieutenant Coenrad van Breitenbach to
proceed to the island with the first opportunity, and
assume direction of affairs there.
1673] Isbrand Goske. 207
The ship in which the English residents of St. Helena
made their escape sailed towards the coast of Brazil,
where she fell in with a squadron under command of
Commodore Bichard Munden, who had been directed to
meet and convoy the homeward bound East India fleet.
Commodore Munden resolved to retake the island, and
with that object he made his way there and early in
the morning of the 15th of May 1673 landed two hundred
men under Captain Kedgwin without notice on the east-
em coast. Then, proceeding with his ships round to the
northern side, he appeared before the fort at the entrance
of Chapel Valley, where Jamestown was afterwards built,
just as Captain Kedgwin reached it behind. The Dutch
garrison, taken by surprise, immediately surrendered.
Lieutenant Van Breitenbach sailed from the Cape in
the ship Europay and reached St. Helena on the 21st of
May. The Europa ran round a point which concealed the
anchorage, and came unexpectedly within range of the
guns of Commodore Munden's war ships, when after a
futile attempt to escape and afterwards to resist a frigate
that chased her, she became a prize to the Assistance.
Lieutenant Van Breitenbach and the garrison were taken
to England as prisoners of war, and were there exchanged
for some Enghshmen detained in the Netherlands. The
lieutenant subsequently committed a military offence for
which he was cashiered, and he then went out to India
as a free colonist, calling at the Cape on the way. Just
at that time the Company was at war with some of the
native powers, and Van Breitenbach, who carried with him
excellent recommendations from Governor Goske, was re-
quested to return into the service, where he soon regained
his former rank.
For a considerable time no trading expeditions had been
sent inland, because the directors thought the Hottentots
would bring cattle to the Cape for sale if they could not
obtain tobacco, copper, and beads at their own kraals. But
in this expectation they were disappointed. The rich clans
2o8 History of South Africa. [1673
living at a distance were unable to come, owing to the
constant feuds in which they were engaged with others
nearer at hand. Those in the neighbourhood of the Cape
occasionally brought a lean cow or a few sheep for sale,
but they had become impoverished through being plun-
dered, and could not supply as many as were needed. It
was therefore determined to send a trading party of twelve
men to the kraal of the Chainouqua captain Dorha, who
had intimated a wish to obtain some tobacco and copper
in exchange for cattle.
This Captain Dorha, or Klaas as he was called by the
Europeans, who now appears for the first time, was for
many years to come intimately connected with the colony,
and regarded as its most faithful ally. The tribal govern-
ment of the Hottentots was so weak that the slightest
cause seems to have been sufficient to break them up into
little clans virtually independent of each other. This was
the case at least with all those who came into contact
with the white people. There was still in name a chief of
the Chainouquas, but in fact that tribe was now divided
into two clans under the captains Ellaas and Koopman.
Each of these was recognised as a ruler by the Cape
government, in proof of which staffs with brass heads,
upon which the Company's monogram was engraved, had
been presented to them, just as such symbols had pre-
viously been given to six or eight captains nearer the
settlement. These staffs soon came to be regarded by
the Hottentots not only as recognising, but as conferring
authority, and thenceforth it became an object of ambition
with every head of a few families to obtain one.
Klaas attached himself to the Europeans, but not from
any incUnation to acquire civilised habits, for he remained
a savage till his death. Successive governors, indeed,
maintained that he was a model of virtue and fidelity,
but the proofs they give are far from conclusive. As an
instance, he once brought a little Hottentot boy captured
in war, whom he offered as a present to the governor to
1673] Isbrand Goske. 209
be a slave. Hereupon the governor described him as
having the mercifol heart of a Christian, inasmuch as he
spared the life of an enemy.
Whatever his object may have been, he proved a firm
supporter of the European government, always ready to
take part with it against his own countrymen. On this
occasion he bartered away two hundred and fifty-six head
of horned cattle and three hundred and seventy sheep, a
very seasonable supply for the governor, whose slaughter
stock was nearly exhausted. Elaas was then requested to
furiiish fifty young oxen to draw stone to the castle, and
in less than a fortnight he collected them among his peo-
ple and sent a message that they were ready. Such con-
duct on his part naturally called for a return of favours.
The Chainouquas and the Cochoquas were at this time at
war, and whenever Klaas wished to visit the Cape an es-
cort was sent to Hottentots-Holland to protect him on the
journey. Presents were frequently sent to him with com-
plimentary messages, and he was provided with a showy
suit of European clothing, that he might appear at the
fort with such dignity as became a faithful ally of the
honourable Company. The attention paid to him may
partly explain the hostile conduct of Gonnema, chief of
the largest division of the Cochoquas.
Gonnema, who was known to the first settlers as the
black captain, usually had his kraals in the neighbourhood
of Riebeek's Kasteel and Twenty-four Rivers, but occa-
sionally he wandered to the shores of Saldanha Bay, or
eastward to Hottentots-Holland. All his neighbours were
in dread of him, for whenever there was an opportunity
he was in the habit of plundering them. It was from
him that the whole of the Hottentots in the neighbour-
hood of the Cape were fifty years later called Gunjemans
by the Dutch. The people of his own clan were even
at this time called Gonnemas, and the word gradually
became Gonnemans, Gonjemans, and Gunjemans. And as
the Goringhaiquas and others soon lost their distinguish-
VOL. I. 14
^lO History of South Africa. [1675
JQg tribal titles, they all became blended together under
this one name, by which alone Europeans knew them.
Among themselves the old names were preserved, but
when speaking to white men they employed the word in
common use. In precisely the same manner various bodies
of natives have lost the titles of their clans and acquired
more general ones from some corrupted name, down to
our own day.
In November 1672 the burghers Gerrit Cloete and
Ockert and Hendrik Olivier obtained permission from the
governor to shoot hippopotami, and for this purpose they
travelled along the banks of the Berg river down to
Riebeek's Kasteel. There Gonnema with forty or fifty
of his followers came upon them and seized their waggon,
oxen, provisions, and whatever else they had with them»
barely permitting them to escape with their lives. It
does not seem to have occurred to the governor that
Gt)nnema might object to the destruction of game in his
district, and so the act was attributed solely to his enmity
to the Company. But there was then no force that could
be spared to chastise the offender, and the injury was
therefore left unpunished.
In January 1673 the five Cochoquas who had been de-
tained on Bobben Island made their escape, and as among
them were some men of rank in the tribe, it may be as-
sumed that the feehng of hostility towards the Europeans
was increased. Five months afterwards eight burghers
and a slave went out with the governor's permission to
shoot large game. They had two waggons with them,
which it was their intention to load with skins and dried
meat for the sustenance of their famiUes and for sale.
Finding no antelopes this side of the Berg river, they
crossed at a ford near Biebeek's Kasteel and went up into
the mountains beyond Twenty-four Rivers. There, at &
place which long afterwards bore the name Moord Euil^
they were surrounded by G^nnema's people, who detained
them for several days and then murdered them all.
1673] Isbrand Goske. 211
On the 11th of July a rumour reached the fort that
the burghers were hemmed in, and the council immediately
resolved to send out a relief expedition. The freemen
were called upon to furnish a contingent of thirty-six men,,
who, with a like ntmiber of soldiers, were placed under
command of Ensign Hieronymus Cruse. Next morning
the expedition left the fort, provisioned for eight days,,
and with orders that if they should find violence had been
used towards the burghers they were to retahate upon
Qonnema and his people in such a manner that their
descendants would be too terrified ever to oflfend Nether-
landers again. At Captain Kuiper's kraal across the Cape
flats they found one of Gonnema's people, whom they
compelled under threat of death to act as guide. Passing
by Paardeberg and Biebeek's Kasteel they reached the
Berg river, which they found too deep to be forded, so
that they were detained until a raft could be made. They
were resting on the other side when they were joined by
a party of eighteen horsemen firom the fort, under com-
mand of the burgher officer Elbert Diemer.
These brought word that on the 6th of July some of
Gonnema's people under the petty captain Eees appeared
at the Company's post at Saldanha Bay, with the appar-
ent object of selling sheep. The post was occupied at the
time by only a corporal and two soldiers, but there was.
a fishing boat belonging to a freeman afloat close by, and
two of her crew were on shore. Suddenly and without
any warning the Hottentots rose upon the Europeans
and murdered four of them, only one soldier managing to
escape to the boat. The Hottentots then plundered the
post. The boat sailed for Table Bay, but owing to con-
trary winds was detained at Jutten and Dassen islands,
and did not reach her destination until the 14th. Upon
receipt of this intelligence the council at once despatched
the horsemen to Ensign Cruse's assistance, and they
brought instructions to attack Gonnema's people and en-
deavour to punish them severely, sparing none of the men.
:ft\^ History of South Africa. [1673
Th« oombined forces marched across the district of
Twtmty-foar Bivers, and on the 18th saw smoke rising at
11 distance among the mountains. They then halted and
•6ttt oat scouts, who returned in the evening with in-
formation that they had discovered the position of a kraal
and had observed a number of women digging bulbs.
Next morning before daylight Ensign Cruse marched upon
the kraal in hope of surprising its inmates, but upon
reaching it he found that they had fled with their cattle.
The huts were standing and the fires were still alight,
showing that the place had not been long abandoned. In
the huts were found the cooking utensils, clothing, and
other property of the murdered burghers.
At daybreak the horsemen followed the fugitives and
soon overtook them, when the Hottentots abandoned their
cattle and fled into the mountains with their women and
children. The cattle were then, taken possession of, and
without any further attempt to reach the enemy the expe-
dition commenced its homeward march. But they had not
proceeded far before they discovered that the Hottentots
were following them. At their first resting-place an
attempt was made to recover the cattle, and though it
failed the enemy kept hovering about for some time. The
casualties during the march were one burgher wounded
and two horses killed, while ten or twelve Hottentots
were shot. The expedition reached the fort again on the
25th, and dehvered to the governor eight hundred head
of horned cattle and niiie hundred sheep.
Captains Klaas, Schacher, and Kuiper now tendered
their services against Gonnema, Klaas especially being
delighted at the prospect of his enemy's ruin. The others
commenced scouring the country in search of stragglers.
On the 20th of August, Schacher and Kuiper with more
than a hundred of their people appeared again at the
fort, bringing with them four of Gonnema's followers
whom they had captured. They dehvered these prisoners
to the governor, who at once caused them to be tried by
1673] Isbrand Goske. 213
a committee of the council acting as a court martial.
They were found guilty of participation in the murder
of the burghers, and were thereupon delivered to their
captors to be put to death after their own manner of exe-
cution.
The scene that followed, as described in the documents
of the time, is highly illustrative of savage life. On the
open ground in front of the fort the Goringhaiqua and
Gorachouqua warriors assembled, each with a clubbed
stick in his hand. Then they commenced a war dance,
in which they leaped into the air and sprang about,
chanting and stamping, until they had worked themselves
into a state of frenzy. Then one would spring forward
and deal a blow with his stick upon a wretched captive
lying bound and helpless, at which there would rise a
general yell of exultation. Another would follow, and
another, until at length the mangled corpses were dragged
from the place of execution, and amid a deafening din of
shouting and yelling and stamping were cast into the
sea. After this barbarous scene the governor caused a
quantity of arrack and tobacco to be distributed among
the warriors, as a reward for their fidelity.
For several months after this event nothing was heard
of Gonnema or of his people, and no effort was made to
search for them, as a strange disease broke out among
the allies of the Europeans, especially among the followers
of Captain Elaas. What this disease was is not stated,
but it is certain that it was not small-pox. Though its
ravages were not very great, for a short time it kept the
Hottentots from moving, as they considered it a bad
omen. Governor Goske, in recording this circumstance,
adds that before coming into contact with Europeans the
Hottentots were not subject to any particular fatal mala-
dies. Many of them attained a very great aga War and
,ud& ., . jiMOuional famine kept their numbers down, the last kill-
: outright, but not producing pestilence as it does with
pettDS. In recent times the same peculiarity has been
214 History of SatUh Africa. [1674
observed with the Bantu. There have been periods of
famine, in which great numbers have perished, but those
who survived, though reduced to mere skeletons, suffered
from nothing else than weakness. As soon, however, as
they come into contact with white men, and particularly
when they begin to change their food and habits of hving,
they become subject to diseases from which they were
before exempt.
On the 24th of March 1674 Elaas paid a visit to the
governor, and reported that the sickness had left his
people. He had sent out spies who brought back infor-
mation that many of Gonnema's followers were encamped
«t the Little Berg river, where it issues from the gorge in
the mountains now called the Tulbagh kloof. It was im-
mediately resolved to send an expedition against them, for
which purpose a combined force of soldiers, burghers, and
Hottentots was made ready. There were fifty burghers
under command of Wouter Mostert, four hundred Hotten-
tots under the captains Elaas, Eoopman, Schacher, and
Euiper, and fifty soldiers under Ensign Cruse, who was
:also commandant-general of the expedition. The party
inarched along the line now traversed by the railway,
passing round Elapmuts, down the Paarl valley, and
following the base of the mountains to Vogel Vlei. There
they rested for a few hours, and planned their next march
so as to surround Gonnema's encampment before day-
Ught.
But, as on a former occasion, the people who were to
be attacked managed to make their escape just in time to
avoid the onslaught. They left all they possessed behind
them, and the commando seized without resistance eight
hundred head of homed cattle and four thousand sheep.
The Hottentot contingent stripped the huts of everything
that could be of use to them, and then set fire to what
remained. Upon arriving at the fort, the spoil was divided
among the members of the commando. The burghers re-
ceived three hundred cows and ninety young cattle. Each
1674] Isbrand Goske. 215
of the four Hottentot captains received a fair share of
homed cattle and three hundred sheep in full possession,
and a loan of three hundred sheep, to be returned when
required. The honourable Company kept the remainder.
The same thing happened when the Hottentots were
driving away their share of the cattle that usually occurs
with native allies on such occasions. The best of those
dealt out to the burghers and reserved for the Company
were whistled away, and if the governor had not taken
summary proceedings to recover them, the Europeans'
share of the spoil would have been very trifling indeed.
Gonnema now adopted a plan which greatly incom-
moded the Europeans. He retired to the strongholds of
the first mountain range, and by keeping scouts moving
up and down he completely cut off the trade in cattle
with the Hottentots beyond. The clans that were in
alliance with the white people were unable to supply as
many slaughter oxen and sheep as were needed, so that
in a few months the scarcity of meat began to be severely
felt. The settlement was in a state of blockade, and one
of the principal objects of its formation was being frus-
trated.
Neither side made any further movement until Novem-
ber 1675, when Gonnema one night surprised the kraals
of Schacher and Euiper at the Tigerberg, and succeeded
in killing several of the inmates and driving off most of
their cattle. As soon as this was reported at the castle a
strong party of mounted men was sent in pursuit, but the
Cochoqua chief retreated with his booty so hastily to the
mountains that only fifteen of his followers who were
lagging behind were captured. These were instantly put
to death by Schacher's people. After this occurrence the
blockade continued as before, and no method either of
subduing the enemy or of restoring peace could be
devised.
Meantime the farm work at Hottentots-Holland was
pushed on, and a guard of twenty-two men was kept
2i6 History of South Africa. [1673
there to protect the establishment. There was no other
outpost to care for, except the one on Bobben Island,
where a boat was always in readiness to bring the people
away in case of an enemy appearing. On the Lion's head
a good look-out was kept, so as to give due notice when-
ever a ship approached. Every man that could be spared
from other occupations was at work upon the castle walls,
or transporting building material to them.
In the year 1673 two wrecks occurred upon the south-
em coast. On the 20th of February the Grundel was
lost a little to the eastward of Cape Hangklip. She had
been sent from Batavia to Mauritius with supplies, but
her skipper was unable to find that island, and so en-
deavoured to reach Table Bay. All of her hands got
safely ashore and were taken on board a little vessel
which happened to be at anchor in False Bay. On the
23rd of September the homeward bound ship Zoetendal
was lost a short distance to the north-eastward of Gape
Agulhas. Four of her crew were drowned, the remainder
made their way to Hottentots-Holland, and thence to the
Cape. The name of the ship is still preserved in Zoe-
tendal's Vlei, close to the scene of the wreck.
At this time was introduced a system of raising
revenue by means of farming out certain privileges, a
system which remained in force as long as the East India
Company was the governing power in South Africa. In
principle it was precisely the same as the lease by public
auction to the highest bidder of the exclusive right to
gather guano on an island, or of the right to a toll, such
as is practised at the present day. But by the East
India Company the system was carried to such an ex-
treme length that every branch of business that could
be conducted in the colony was conducted as a monopoly.
It was the simplest plan to raise a revenue that could
be adopted, which is all that can be said in its favour.
That it was not intolerable to the colonists was owing
entirely to there being a maximum price fixed by law for
1674] Isbrand Goske. 217
everjrthing sold. The purchaser of a monopoly for deal-
ing in salt, for instance, could have oppressed the people
if he had been at liberty to make what charges he chose,
but as he was bound to sell at a fixed price he had no
power to practise extortion. The colonists did not object
to the system, which seemed to them fair and reason-
able. It was introduced by the disposal of the privilege
of selling spirituous liquors, the price at which all such
liquors were to be purchased for cash at the Company's
stores as well as the price at which they were to be
retailed being fixed in the conditions under which the
monopoly was put up at pubhc auction. In course of
time the exclusive right to sell wine, beer, tobacco, salt,
bread, meat, etc., was farmed out in the same manner.
By the beginning of the winter of 1674 the castle
was so far advanced as to be considered more capable
of defence than the old earthen fort. The garrison was
therefore moved into it, and the walls of the old fort
were broken down. On the 13th of July a despatch
vessel, gaily decorated with flags, sailed into Table Bay,
bringing intelligence that peace had been concluded with
England. The French naval power hardly gave the Com-
pany a thought, so there was no longer any necessity for
extraordinary exertions to complete the castle. From this
date, therefore, the work was carried on regularly, but
was not considered of such urgent importance as to
require a large staff of men to be kept here purposely
for it.
On the 29th of July of this year died Eva, the
Hottentot girl who had been brought up in Mr. Van Rie-
beek's household, and who was afterwards married to the
surgeon Van Meerhof. In her, as one reads the records,
may be traced the characteristics of her race down to our
own times. In childhood she was apt to learn, readily
acquired the Dutch and Portuguese languages, adopted
European customs, professed a belief in Christianity, and
gave promise of a hfe of usefulness. But no sooner was
History of South Africa. [1674
she free from control than she showed an utter absence of
stability, a want of self-respect and self-reliance, which left
her exposed to every temptation.
After Vau Meerhofs death she remained some time
npOQ Bobben Island, and then requested to be broaght
over to Table Valley. Here her manner of living attracted
the attention of the officers of governmeat, and after re-
peated warnings she was brought to acconnt. She had
been guilty of drunkenness and other misconduct, had
more than once gone to live at a Hottentot kraal and
while there had fallen into filthy practices, and had
neglected her helpless children. For these offences she
was sent back to the island, and her children were placed
under the care of the deacons. But there was no desire
to be harsh with her, and upon a promise of reformation
she was again permitted to reside in Table Valley. Then
the same thing happened as before, and so it continued,
removal to Eobben Island alternating with short periods
of scandalous conduct in Table Valley, during the re-
mainder of her lite.
The conclusion which Governor Goske arrived at from
a review of her career was that the hereditary disposition
of the Hottentots was too unstable to admit of their
adoption of civilisation otherwise than very slowly and
gradually. As Eva was the first baptized Hottentot, the
governor decided that she should have an honourable
funeral, and the day following her death she was buried
within the church in the castle.
Three years after this date a burgher who had been a
personal friend of Van Meerhof, when removing with hia
fotmily to Mauritius, requested of the council that he
might be allowed to take two of the children with him
aa apprentices. This was agreed to by the council and
by the church authorities, at whose expense the children
were being maintained. Formal contracts were entered
into by which the burgher bound himself to educate them
kod bring them up in a proper manner, and in which
1674] Isbrand Goske. 219
they were placed under the protection of the commander
of Mauritius. The boy when grown up returned to the
Cape, but fell into wild habits and died at an early age.
One of the girls subsequently became the wife of a well-
to-do Cape farmer. The fate of the others is unknown.
The duty of supporting destitute orphan children de-
Yol^^d, as has been seen, upon the deacons. There was a
fund at their disposal for the purpose of relieving the poor
of the congregation, out of which all such charges were
paid. This fund was raised partly by church collections,
partly by certain fines and fees, and was often augmented
by donations and bequests. The first person who be-
queathed money for this purpose to the Cape congregation
was Commander Wagenaar, but since his death other
contributions had been received in the same manner. In
the year 1674 the capital of this fund amounted to rather
more than a thousand pounds sterling, which was invested
as loans on mortgage of landed property, bearing interest
at the rate of six per cent per annum. The collections
were more than sufficient to meet the current expenses,
so that the fund was constantly increasing.^
For the protection of the rights of children of another
class, an orphan chamber was at this time estabhshed.
The necessity for such an institution was apparent from
the fact that recently several widows had remarried with-
out previously securing to the children their legitimate
portion of the property of the deceased parent. It was
enacted that in future no marriage of a widower or widow,
whether a servant of the Company or a burgher, could
take place in the colony without a certificate being first
obtained from the orphan chamber that the rights of the
children by the previous marriage were secured. The
chamber was empowered to invest money belonging to
orphans, and to collect interest therefor at the rate of six
per cent per annum. It was constituted guardian of
^orphans in all cases where none were named by the will
^In 1679 it was equal to 1,635^., and in 1684 to l,824i.
History of South Africa.
[1674
of the deceased parent, and was authorised to provide for
the maintecaoce of minors imder its care by a reasonable
allowance from the property belonging to them.
The orphan chamber thus created consisted of a presi-
dent appointed by the governor in council and four mem-
bers, two of whom were servants of the Company and
two burgbers. It was provided with a secretary, who
received payment for his services. The first president
was Hendrik Crudop, the first secretary Jan Pretorias,
formerly secunde at Mauritius and now a burgher at the
Cape. Every year one servant of the Company and one-
burgher retired, and were succeeded by two new member*
chosen by the council of pohcy from a list of four names
presented by the chamber itself. It was thus to some ex-
tent a self-perpetuating corporation. The large sums of
money which the orphan chamber had charge of were
commonly invested on mortgage of landed property, so that
it served the purpose of a loan bank.'
'In tha report of the president and members of the board of orphan-
niMterB prepared in 1824 for the conumasionerB of inquiry sent from Eng-
land it te stated that the chamber was created in 1691. As authority for
this statement, reference ia made to tbeir oldest ledger Ibeo in existence,
nbicb vpiLg comriieoced in that year. They report, however, that the book
opens with the accounts of twecty-Beven wards whose ioheritaiioes were
□f an earlier date ; but it does not eeem to have ocourred to them that a.
new set of hooka began then to bs used, to which previous ledger accoanle
were transferred. They enter into a series of speculations — aU wide of thr
muk — as to how these accounts could have arisen, and never once thought
of referring to the resolutions and debates of the council of policy for a.
correct explanation. But theirs is by far the best of ail the leporls Bupplied
to the commitsioners by locsJ boards. Conjecture evarymhere took the-
plaoe of that long and diligent reaearch in the ancient records of the colony
whiob alone could hare supplied accurate information. In 1834 the dnties-
of the orphan chamber were transferred to the master of the supreme-
couit, and the records of the institution are now in charge of that officer.
They are of considerable value for historical purposes. After 1699 tha
board consisted of six memberB, including the president, who was alvn^
a government official, and the vice. president, who was always a bnigbw.
conltDued to be perpetuated as described above. From that da'-
its instructions were carried out by a secretary, a dork, and >■
Since 1711 it has been requirtd by law that all willi ihc
x674] Isbrand Goske. 221
Some regulations regarding church matters which were
made in December 1674 show how complete was the
control exercised by the council of policy. The church
council submitted two names for the election of an elder
in place of the one retiring, but objections were taken
to both, and fresh nominations were called for. The
church council was informed that one of the elders should
be a servant of the Company and the other a burgher,
and that the officer who held the position of political
commissioner should not be nominated as an elder.
Another question which was referred to the council
of policy for decision had reference to baptism. Some
Boman catholics had settled in the colony, and though
they were at Uberty in their own houses to worship God
in the manner approved by their consciences, they could
not assemble together for public worship nor have the
services of their church performed by any clergyman who
might chance to call in a foreign ship. Under these
circumstances, one of them requested permission of the
consistory to have his children baptized in the Beformed
church, and offered sponsors who were also Boman catho-
lics. Hereupon the church council expressed its opinion
that the children should be baptized if other sponsors
were not forthcoming, but that the parents ought first
to be admonished to endeavour to procure sponsors of the
true reformed faith. Before taking action, however, they
submitted this opinion to the council of policy for ap-
proval. The council of policy referred them to the in-
structions concerning baptism which had been received
from Batavia in the time of Commander Wagenaar, which
accorded with the view they had taken, and informed
ibflm that the customs of India were to be observed in
^tiie reverend Budolphus Meerland was
% ftoted upon, and since 1746 testament-
nixed to register inventories of the estates
222 History of South Africa, [1676
clergyman of the Cape, having succeeded the reverend
Adriaan de Voocht on the 12th of February 1674, when
the last named left for Batavia.
The return fleet which put into Table Bay early in
the year 1676 waa under command of Nicolaas Verburg,
who occupied a position in the Company's service next
only to the governor-general of the Indies, and who,
upon his arrival, produced a commission from the Indian
authorities empowering him to examine into and arrange
the affairs of the Cape settlement. Mr. Goske had stipu-
lated when he accepted the appointment of governor that
no one should act as commissioner here during his stay,
but he cordially assented to an inspection of the various
departments of the public service and to the issue of
instructions for the guidance of his successor. The visit
of this commissioner had little effect upon the settlement
one way or other, but a petition which was presented to
him in the name of the whole body of freemen by the
burgher councillors, who had been increased in 1675 to
three in number, is deserving of mention, as showing
their view of the laws and regulations under which they
were hving.
In this petition the burghers enumerated their griev-
ances and asked for redress. Their first request was that
some cattle which had been taken from Gk)nnema and
lent to them might be given to them in fuU possession.
Next that they might be allowed to sell wine, grain, and
fruit to any one at the best price which they could ob-
tain, upon payment of such taxes as might be considered
proper. That they might be allowed the same rights of
trade in merchandise as the freemen enjoyed in Batavia.
That those among them who had no ground might have
freehold farms assigned to them at Hottentots-Holland,
and might be supplied with cattle on lease. And, lastly,
that for the comfort of those who were poor, rice should
be sold out of the Company's stores at reduced rates.
These requests were forwarded to the directors for
1676] Isbrtsaui Ooske^ 22
o
ooQsideraticm, as Cammisaooer Yeriyorg did not cdioose
to incar the rapcmfatalhy d ^p^nifn^^ iipoii them. In
oouise of tin^ the first leqfoest was folhr acodded to, the
secx^nd, third, aiid fomth were ptiiiy gruited, and the
fifth wms lefosed. The CcHnpanj, it was asserted, in-
tended to disocmtinue the iniportati<m of rice as soon
as possiUe, and to reduce its cost woold discourage the
cohiTation of wheat and thus fmstrate <Hie of the most
important objects kqpt in view.
Daring the last three years the officers at the head of
the several departments had been entirely r^aced The
seconde Albert van Brengel had been charged by the
governed with inattention to his duties, and though upon
investigation of the matter the Batavian authorities ac-
quitted him of carelessness, he was removed from the
post Hendrik Crudop, now advanced to the rank of mer*
chant, was appointed secunde in his stead. The fiscal De
Neyn had gone to Batavia in October 1674 The explorer
Hieronymas Cruse had climbed the ladder of promotion
in the army, and was now a lieutenant The council
of policy consisted of the governor, the secunde Hendrik
Crudop, the captain Dirk Smient, the lieutenant Hierony-
mus Cruse, the treasurer Anthonie de Vogel, and the chief
salesman Marthinus van Banchem, the last named being
also the secretary.
In 1671, when the Company was making preparations
for the defence of its Indian possessions, the island of
Mauritius was raised from being a dependency of the
Cape to a separate seat of government, and Mr. Hubert
Hugo, an officer of some note, was appointed commander.
But after the conclusion of peace with England the island
was reduced again to its old position. It was at this time
of very Uttle advantage to the Company, as except a httle
ebony, which was brought back to the Cape every year in
the despatch packet, it exported nothing. Very few ships
called there for supplies. A few burghers and a garrison
of thirty or forty men were its only inhabitants. So de-
224 History of South Africa. [1676
pendent were its authorities that they could not even
carry their sentences into execution, unless in cases of
extreme urgency, until they were reviewed by the court
of justice at the Cape.
The government of Mr. Goske is associated with the
building of the castle and the establishment of an out-
station and farm at Hottentots-Holland, but with little
else of interest now. He had no opportunity to originate
any improvements. He kept the large garden in Table
Valley in order by means of slave labour, bat to obtain
ten or twelve men to work on the castle he leased the
vineyard and garden Bustenburg, at Bondebosch, to free-
men, retaining only the lodge there for his own use.
With a like view he leased the com mill to a burgher.
One experiment, indeed, he made, which his predecessors
do not appear to have thought of. He caused oysters to
be brought froni the south coast and deposited in Table
Bay with a view to their propagation in a convenient
place. The experiment was twice made, and on each
occasion it failed. The fiGLrmers increased very slightly in
number during his administration. Only five new names
of burghers whose descendants are now in South Africa
are found in the records of his time: Jan Pretorius, two
brothers Hendrik and Ockert Olivier, Hendrik Smidt, and
Gerrit Visser, the last named being a younger brother of
Jan Coenraad Visser already mentioned. Immigration,
owing to the war, had ceased, and no one who could be
kept in the service was permitted to leave it.
Governor Goske was sent to the Cape for a particular
purpose, namely, to hold it for the Netherlands at a time
of great peril. That time wa>s now past. Peace had been
made with England, the only naval power capable of in-
juring the States, and, in addition, a special treaty had
been entered into (18th of March 1674) by the two East
India Companies, in which each engaged to ptt«««*» **»•
honour and profit of the other. There waf>
to retain here any longer an officer of
1676] Johan Box. 225
and ability, more especially as he reminded the directors
of their engagement to relieve him at an early date, and
requested permission to return to Europe.
In November 1674 the assembly of seventeen appointed
Johan Bax, the second officer in rank at \ the island of
Ceylon, to succeed Mr. Goske as governor of the Cape,
but without the additional title of councillor extraordinary
of India. At the same time they complimented the out-
going governor very highly upon his administration, and
issued directions that he was to supersede any officer of
lower rank who might be returning to Europe as admiral
of a fleet. The new governor embarked at Galle in the
Voorhouty and arrived in Simon'^s Bay on the 1st of
January 1676. Two days later he took part in the de-
hberations of the council at the Cape, bat as no ships
were then leaving for Europe Mr. Goske retained the
direction of affairs until the 14th of March, on which
day Governor Johan Bax was installed with the usual
ceremony.
The Netherlands were still at war with France, but
as no fear was entertained of an attack upon the Cape
by a hostile fleet, the attention of the authorities could
be directed to some other object than the completion of
the castle. The settlement was still in a condition of
blockade, inasmuch as Hottentots from beyond the first
range of mountains could not bring cattle to the fort for
sale, through fear of being intercepted by the Cochoquas.
The farmers at Eondebosch and Wynberg were pressing
their claims for protection, and it was necessary to do
something to allay their apprehensions of Gonnema mak-
ing such a raid upon them as he had recently made upon
the people of Schacher and Euiper at the Tigerberg. In
the open field they felt confident that the whole Cocho-
qua tribe would not dare to attack them, but their cattle
might easily be swept off and their houses be burnt by a
Iden foray on a dark night. To prevent such a disaster
redoubts Eyk uit and Eeert de Eoe, which had long
tL.L 15
226 History of South Africa. [1676
since fallen into decay, were now rebuilt with stone, and
parties of horsemen were stationed in them for the par-
pose of patrolhng along the ontermost faims.
A few days after Governor Bax assumed office intelli-
gence reached the castle from Hottentots-Holland that
three burghers, who were so foolhardy as to venture
across the mountains, bad been mardered by Bushmen
at the Breede river, where they were shooting seacows,
Upon the evidence of Captain Klaas and of a European
who escaped from the massacre, these Bushmen were
termed dependents of Gonnema, and the murder was set
down as a charge to his account. But it is by no means
certain that he had anything to do with the matter.
"When the Dutch came to South Africa they found a
nomadic pastoral people living in separate small com-
munities, each community or clan having a name by
which it was distinguished from the others. A group of
two, three, or more such clans formed a tribe, nominally
under one paramount chief, but the bond of cohesion
among the members was so weak that there were frequent
feuds among them. The tribes, or groups of clans having
a recent common origin, were usually at war or watching
their neighbours with suspicious eyes. This was the high-
est form of society known to the natives. Sometimes a
clan which had lost its cattle would be reduced to such
circumstances as those in which the beachrangers were
found on the shores of Table and Saldanha bays, but
there was always a posaibihty for people in this state to
regain their former position. There was no race prejudice
to prevent their amalgamation with other clans of their
own tribe, to whom they bore the same relationship that
the poor bear to the rich in all countries.
But wherever the Europeans penetrated they found a
class of people whose homes were among almost inacces-
sible mountains, and who maintained themselves entirely
by the chase and by plunder. That these people were of
a different race from the herdsmen was not even sua-
1676] Johan Box, 227
pected by the Dutch, who believed them to be simply
Hottentot robbers or brigands who had thrown off all the
restraints of law.^ There are peculiarities in the personal
appearance of Bushmen — such as the greater breadth of
the upper paxt of their faces, the absence of projecting-
chins, and the want of lobes to the ears — which enable
men like the late Dr. Bleek to pronounce unfailingly, at
first sight, and before a word has been spoken, as to their
nationahty; and scientific examination into the structure
of their language has shown them to be a people far
removed in point of relationship firom the other races of
South Africa, but the Europeans who first came into
contact with them did not detect these differences. Very
likely a party of Afghans, if transported to Ireland without
any previous knowledge of the country and its people,
would be a long time in making the discovery that the
Saxon speaking English and the Celt speaking Irish were
not closely related in blood. To them the Celt would be
undistinguishable from the Saxon. And this was precisely
the position that the Bushmen and the Hottentots stood
in to the Dutch of the seventeenth century.
The Hottentots called the Bushmen Sana, a title dis-
tinguishing them as a distinct race from their own, but
spoke of them usually as Hobiqua, or robbers and mur-
derers. They seldom spared any who fell into their hands*
Still, necessity had in some instances brought about an
arrangement by which parties of Bushmen were either
in alUance with Hottentot clans or were in a condition
of dependence upon them, serving as scouts and spies
and receiving in return a precarious protection.* The
^ The first notice of any one having formed an opinion that the Hottentots
and Bushmen were distinct races does not occur until more than ten years-
after this date. The word race is here used in the same signification as-
when speaking of a Celtic race as distinguished from a Teutonic.
3 This is the case with regard to the Bushmen along the eastern,
margin of the Kalahari and the Betshuana clans in that country to the
present day. All the natives of South Africa have distinct race names for
Hottentots and Bushmen. The Kaffirs on the frontier of the Cape Colony
call the Hottentots Amalawo, and the Bushmen Abatwa.
aa8 History of South Africa. [1676
Hottentot ohiafa without exoeption denied that they had
imy right or meana of control over the Bushmen in their
neighbourhood. The European authorities frequently called
upon them to preserve order in the districts in which they
were reaiding by suppressing the brigandage of their sub-
jeota» but their reply was always to the effect that the
robbers were not their subjects, and that they would cheer-
fully exterminate them if they could.
It is thus unlikely that Qonnema had anything to do
with the mut>)er of the burghers by the Bushmen. The
CH>\mci) decided to s^nd an eaqpediticod against the mur-
derev^ foor which purpose a commando was ai^embled
co^aikiug of fifty foc4-«oldiefs and tw»ity-thiee horse-
u^e«u fifty bwtighets^ under Woat^ Mo6tart» and a large
btia^ ol Holtetttot^ under the Mptais^ Elaas». Koopman,
$wiiacher> Kuiperx and Soofioou The commaoido was pco-
YiFiiiOiMd (;« thtei^ w^^<^:s,. aad was luider tibe gaiosl
Oir^teir^^ ol Lfeimlenaat Oraig^ Sqocl after set&big oot^ a
^unuei^SiNr wW w^ bueii to W a spy was se£z»d acui com.-
^tb^ 1^ ad %$ ^Wnle^ b<xt as hie teii 1^ esqseiitfizcm to
^tttii^ ab««tjJk>i3(!i^i kraals^ hit^ w«$ boaoKfed ovi«^ to C^taizt
KtitMK^ wt)t>> ^ hmt to dmii^ Thi^ Bu^miHi GoaLi net
W tst><m^ ami after a wettriscixr!^ march tt&$ commando
i^Ktirujti^ t^ 1^ vMsdi» withoat having eifi>cteii anything.
$tx m»ntiu)i$^ aSter thii$ a ^cty capoun* wtio was caQeii
%r%>^ by Mtt«^ Pttfitnu carns^ taumi d[!Qm Saltrmifra Bay in a
:$maU ^tt^t^iS^ thrimigtn^ tc^ a &eemaa« ami tsteidta:^ his sias
^uctN" Qt^ liA^ tor v^knm^ma. Cm£ffit ni^fiHiim Jt nmca^Bng
oactie ^^ mat): was aimt auc ^s a spy. md recocitid wim
miiormaaim tjtafi: db^ tm^ny was ^xcaoipeu or ism Su^u>
iM:^;!kttr amy a viay^ maodu cnmmii di* S^ci rr^Tic Be^
hitia w^c^ :iw Xamaqoas imi dw Gcgnuaas> iifrwiitary
tHi«miit)$^ ^ dM Coc2iu%{ixa£^ » 'iua£ ^seaue ji zhar ^r«9c-
£{»irtm(iou a Ju:^ ^:uiumaoim ':vas jisiHnbieiL .uid onufst
^dauc^ :k iai»H> letit :ite Cape or ^speetacuu it i«ung:
aiM :u >uf^ttsje vjonmrnia. ^mi xr oomsi ami ^vcudchv.
1677] Johan Box, 229
The expedition marched only at night, and took every
precaution to avoid detection, but by some means the
enemy became aware of its approach and escaped in good
time. Foiled in its principal object, the commando then
made a detour to Saldanha Bay, and fell upon Captain
Kees, who had destroyed the Company's post there three
years before. Several of his followers were killed, and
the whole of his stock, which consisted of one hundred
and sixty-five head of homed cattle and thirty sheep, was
seized. The booty taken on this occasion being so small,
the Hottentot allies were rewarded for their fidelity by
presents of such articles as they most desired out of the
Company's stores.
This was the last expedition sent out during the war
with Gonnema, which for four years kept the country in
a disturbed condition. On the 8th of June 1677 Euiper
and another petty captain appeared at the castle accom-
panied by some messengers from the Cochoqua chief,
who reported that their mission was to ascertain if peace
could not be established. They were persons of no rank,
and brought no peace offerings, having merely been sent
to make inquiries. They asserted that if the prospects
were favourable it was Gonnema's intention to visit the
governor, and thereafter to trade in friendship with the
Europeans. He and his people had become weary of
living like Bushmen in the mountains, always on the
alert against attack.
The council hereupon decided to let the messengers
know that the overture was agreeable, and that if the
Cochoquas would send a more respectable deputation to
make due submission to the honourable Company, the
government was prepared to enter into a firm peace, in
which, however, the allies Of the Europeans must also be
included. A safe conduct to hold good for three months
was given to the messengers, and a small present was
sent to Gonnema as coming from Lieutenant Cruse.
On the 24tb the same messengers returned to the
230 History of South Africa. \}^11
tsastle, bringing with them a present of nine head of
cattle, and accompanied by three men of position, named
Nengae, Harru, and Nuguma, who were empowered to
ask for peace. The ambassadors with their followers
were admitted to the council chamber, the bmrgher coun-
cillors and the chief officer of the militia being present
also. There the conditions, which were purposely em-
bodied in a few short clauses, were interpreted and ex-
plained to them, and to these they signified their assent
by a general exclamation of ' Sam ! sam I ' or ' Peace I
peace!' They were as follow: —
In the first place the ambassadors request forgiveness
for the acts which occasioned the war, and ask that a
friendly intercourse may be established as before.
They offer and promise to deUver as tribute thirty
head of cattle upon the arrival of the first return fleet in
-every year.
They promise to punish their people in the same
manner as the honourable Company does.^
They promise not to wage war against any of the
lionourable Companj^s allies without the knowledge of the
government.
In this peace are included the captains Euiper and
Schacher, also the petty captain Eees, and all who are
subject to Gonnema, Schacher, and Kuiper.
The above conditions having been placed on record
with the signatures of the officials and the marks of the
envoys attached, presents were made to each of the
Hottentots, and a good quantity of tobacco, pipes, beads,
etc., was sent to Gonnema in return for the nine head of
cattle. And so the country was restored to a state of
tranquillity again.
^This clause would seem to be somewhat obscure, but subsequent
transactions show that it was intended to mean that the Cochoquas
should regard certain offences, particularly thefts of stock, as crimes of
magnitude to be punished severely, and not to be lightly passed over as
had been their custom.
1677] Johan Box. 231
The war with j;he Cochoquas, though in itself a petty
matter, had very important effects upon the European
settlement. The Company had learned from it that the
supply of cattle from the Hottentots was precarious, that
at any time the hostile action of a single clan might cut
off access to the tribes beyond and prevent the barter
which furnished the garrison and ships with meat. The
establishment in Table Valley was too expensive to be
kept up merely for the purpose of providing vegetables for
the crews of the Indian fleets. It was necessary therefore
to increase the number of colonists, and to induce some
of them to turn their attention to cattle breeding, so that
the danger of being left without animal food might be
averted. Hitherto the burghers were regarded as being
useful chiefly in furnishing poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit,
and grain when required, and the Hottentots were mainly
relied upon to meet the other pressing need : henceforth
a larger field of industry was placed before Europeans,
and a system of colonisation was encouraged which when
fairly entered upon tended to the rapid expansion of the
settlement.
Notwithstanding the strict regulations that had from
time to time been enacted prohibiting trade between the
burghers and the Hottentots, it had not been prevented.
It was now discovered that the forbidden traffic was being
carried on to a large extent, and laws even more severe
than the old ones were therefore issued and enforced. It
was made a capital offence to furnish a Hottentot with
firearms or any kind of munitions of war. Two guns
that had been bartered by farmers to Hottentots for cattle
were recovered with great difficulty and at considerable
expense. It was made a penal offence to pay natives for
labour in money, because they did not know the value of
it, and rated their services altogether too dear, or in half-
breed sheep, because robberies could not be traced if they
were in possession of such animals. One of the reasons
assigned for desiring to prevent traffic between the two
232 History of South Africa. [1677
races was the fear of the govermnent that the ftunners
might impmdently commit some act which would lead
to serious difficulties. No doubt there was good cause for
such fear. There are instances on record of some lawless
deeds committed in Commander Borghorst's days, and at
this time there was a case which was giving no little
trouble.
In the year 1672 a lawless character named Willem
Willems deliberately shot a Hottentot upon very sUght
provocation, and then escaped to Europe in a Danish
ship. Soon affcer his arrival in Holland, he presented
himself before the prince of Orange, and by means of
false representations procured a safe conduct to return to
this country, where he had a family and some property.
Upon making his appearance here again, the council felt
itself bound to respect the safe conduct, but as the
Hottentots far and wide clamoured for justice, the crimi-
nal was placed upon Bobben Island until instructions
could be received from the directors. A close investiga-
tion into the particulars of the homicide was made, and
the evidence was sent to Europe. In course of time in-
structions came back to send Willems with his family to
Mauritius, but his wife, who in the meantime had been
causing a great deal of trouble by her misconduct, objected
to this scheme, and some delay took placa Eventually
the family was deported to Batavia, but as they returned
again to the Cape they were banished to Mauritius and
not permitted afterwards to leave that island.
Another reason for prohibiting the burghers from trad-
ing with the Hottentots was to keep down the price of
cattle. In this traffic the Company could not permit its
niibjectR to become its rivals. The government was anxi-
ous that the farmers should be in possession of large herds
atid flocks, and it not only supplied them with stock at
rat^m very little above cost price, but it hired breeding
oowN and ewes to them on equal shares of the increase. It
oven promised that if they would bring to its stores any
1677] Johan Box. 233
Hottentots who might come to them with anything for
sale, they might purchase it again out of the stores at
exactly cost price. Offering these inducements to obedi-
ence, it prohibited the purchase of cattle by a burgher
from a Hottentot under penalty of severe corporal punish-
ment, and the purchase of any other merchandise, such
as ivory, ostrich feathers, peltries, etc., under penalty of
a fine of 4/. and such other punishment as the court of
justice might deem proper to inflict. To protect its cattle
trade, the Hottentot captains who were under the influ-
ence of the government were required not to purchase
from those farther inland, under pain of being considered
unfriendly.
All these restrictions, combined with police regula-
tions for searching waggons passing the barrier beyond
the castle and the watch-house Eeert de Eoe, as well
as frequent inspection of the kraals of the farmers, could
not entirely suppress the forbidden traffic. That these
severe regulations produced no remonstrance from the
burghers shows how different were the opinions then
held from those of the present day. There was never a
people more unwilling than the Dutch to keep silent
when they felt themselves aggrieved. They never scrupled
to raise their voices and claim what they believed to be
their rights whenever they thought they were oppressed.
But in this case they did not consider that their privi-
leges had been invaded.
A quarter of a century had now elapsed since the
arrival of the Europeans, during which time the habits
of the natives living permanently in the Cape peninsula
seem to have undergone very little change. They had
increased considerably in number, and had a kraal in
Table Valley, on the upper side of the present Hottentot-
square, but in general they were to be found lounging
about the houses of the burghers. The men could not
be induced to do Any other work than tend cattle, but
the women gathered fuel for sale, and the young girls
234 History of South Africa, [1678
were mostly in service. They were dressed in sheepskins
and cast-off European clothing, and depended for food
principally upon supplies of rice obtained in return for
such service as they performed. They had become
passionately fond of arrack and tobacco.
Early in 1678 there was such a scarcity of rice in the
settlement that the burghers were compelled to dis-
charge their dependents, and as these were no longer
able to live as their ancestors had done, they were driven
by hunger to seize sheep and even to plunder the houses
of the Europeans in open day. Just at that time a
party of Bushmen took up their abode in the mountains
at the back of Wynberg and descended at night upon the
kraals of the farmers. In great alarm the burghers ap-
pealed to the council for protection, and measures were
promptly adopted to suppress the disorder. There was
a large supply of ships' biscuits in the magazines, and it
was resolved to sell these at a very cheap rate to the
burghers, so that they might again employ and feed the
Hottentots. Food was to be offered in payment to all
who would work at the moat which was then being
made round the castle. The country was to be patrolled
night and day by horsemen. Eewards were offered for
the apprehension of robbers. Schacher and Kuiper were
0ent for, and upon their arrival at the castle were in-
formed that they would be detained as prisoners until
their followers brought in such of the robbers as were
known to be their people. These were accordingly cap-
tured and delivered over without delay, when with some
others they were transported to Eobben Island.
These captains subsequently captured five of the Bush-
men, whom they brought to the castle and delivered to
the governor, requesting that the prisoners might either
be punished by the Europeans or be given back to them
to be put to death. The council decided that as their
crimes had been committed against the honourable Com-
pany, they should be tried by the court of justice. A
1676] Johan Box. 235
present of goods to the value of hi. was made to the
captains in return for their faithful services, and to en-
courage them to search for such of the brigands as were
still at liberty. The prisoners were tried by the court of
justice, were sentenced to death as highwaymen, and were
executed.
The principles upon which the government dealt with
the natives were that the European power was supreme,
entitled to take cognisance of all cases between whites and
Hottentots, and to settle all differences between the clans
so as to preserve peace and to secure its own interests, but
it rarely interfered in matters affecting natives only. The
Hottentot captains accepted without murmur the posi-
tions assigned to them, and at this time Klaas, Eoopman,
Oedasoa, Gonnema, Schacher, Kuiper, and the others were
on such good terms with Governor Bax that they were
ready to do whatever he wished. A large cattle trade
was carried on with them and the Hessequas. Occasion-
ally there were cases of violence on one side or the other,
and in one instance two Hottentots were shot in a
quarrel with the Company's hunters, but the government
did all that was in its power to prevent such disturb-
ances, and upon the whole succeeded very well.
In 1676 a matrimonial court was estabUshed. It con-
sisted of four commissioners, two being servants of the
Company and two burghers. Half the members retired
yearly, and their places were supplied by election of the
council of pohcy from a double hst furnished by the
court itself. Before these commissioners all persons in-
tending to marry were obliged to appear, for the purpose
of showing that no legal impediment existed. As long
as the frontier was only a few miles distant this was no
hardship to any one, but with the extension of the colony
it came to be felt as oppressive.
The slave population was at this time considerably
increased by importations from Madagascar and Ceylon.
Most of these slaves were men, but there were a few
236 History of South Africa. [1677
women and children among them. The children were
sent to school, but it was resolved not to baptize them
until their parents should be instructed in Christianity,
when all could be baptized at the same time. A person
was employed to recite prayers morning and evening,
which the adults were required to repeat. Some of the
cleverest youths were selected and placed with master
mechanics to be taught trades, so that they might be-
come more useful. The price charged by the Company
to the burghers for an adult slave was equal to six
pounds sterling, barely the cost of introduction, and it
could be paid in thirteen hundred pounds weight of
wheat.
In January 1677 a little yacht named the Bode was
sent along the west coast to examine it carefully, to as-
certain how far the Hottentot race extended, and to-
endeavour to discover the island of St. Helena Nova.
She was accompanied by a cutter drawing very Uttle
water and therefore adapted to run close inshore. The
Bode went as far as latitude 12'' 47' S., where she found a
small Portuguese fort named Sombreiro. Some distance
to the southward the last Hottentots had been seen, but
the line of demarcation between them and the negro
tribes could not be exactly ascertained. The Portuguese
knew nothing whatever of such an island as St. Helena
Kova, and from this date its existence was held to be a
fiction. Along the coast various bays or bights were dis-
covered, but all were found wanting in fresh water and
fuel. It is surprising that the mouth of the Orange river
was not noticed in passing. The Bodt returned to Table
Bay at the end of May, having been rather more than
four months engaged in the survey of the west coast.
The seaboard of the district now called Zululand was
at this time carefully examined by the Voorhovi and
Quartel, two small vessels that were sent to the bay of
St. Augustine to trade for slaves.
As the work at the castle was proceeding very slowly
1678] Johan Box. 237
owing to the small number of labourers engaged, a plan
which seems somewhat whimsical was adopted to expedite
the excavation of the moat. On the 25th of November
1677 the governor himself, his lady, his little son, all the
Company's officers and their wives, the burgher councillors,
and other leading inhabitants with their wives, set to
work for a considerable time carrying out earth. The
governor carried out twelve baskets full and his lady six.
After this a regulation was made that every one who
passed the castle, male or female, irrespective of rank,
should contribute labour to the same extent.
The little wooden church inside the fortress was now
quite full of graves. The ground on which it stood was
higher than the general surface, and it was considered
advisable to level it and to remove the building. It was
therefore necessary to select a site for a new church, and
for this purpose a portion of the lower end of the great
garden was chosen, as the garden could be extended with
advantage towards the mountain. A plot of ground suf-
ficiently large for a cemetery was enclosed with a strong
wall, and on the 9th of April 1678 the foundation stone
of a church was laid in the centre of it.
The edifice was not completed until December 1703,
but the ground was used as a cemetery. The first inter-
ment in it was the body of the reverend Petrus Hulse-
naar, who upon the removal of Mr. Meerland to Batavia
in Maxch 1676 succeeded him as clergyman of the Cape,
and who died on the 15th of December 1677. He was
buried in the middle of the site on which the church was
afterwards to stand. Subsequently the remains of those
who had been interred beneath the old building were re-
moved to this ground and deposited in a common grave.
A fee of five pounds was thereafter made payable to the
funds of the consistory for a grave inside the church, and
eight shillings for one outside.
The project of settling European cattle breeders on the
tract of land which stretches beyond the Cape flats firom
238 History of South Africa, [167S
the Atlantic shore to the first range of mountains had
been under consideration since the war with Gonnema,
but it was difficult for the Company to carry it into
effect. Where were the men who were to be turned into
cattle breeders to come from? The free Netherland pro-
vinces were occupying stations in the Indian islands and
carrying on an ocean conmierce that required a number
of soldiers and sailors altogether beyond the capability of
their own people to supply, and though many hundreds
of young Germans, Swiss, and Scandinavians took service
yearly with the East and West India companies, they
were not usually the sort of men to make good pioneer
colonists. They came chiefly from towns, and — the Ger-
mans especially — ^were better adapted for mechanical work
and mihtary employment than for either agricultural or
pastoral pursuits. Many of them, indeed, as well as many
Dutch seamen were willing to make an experiment in
farming, but experience had proved that such experiments
were costly. The Company had to provide them with
food, live stock, and implements to commence with, and
after failure in more than nine cases out of ten had to
take them back into service in its strongholds and fleets
with debts that could never be paid. In some instances
discharged men had turned out so badly that after re-
peated warnings it had been necessary to place them by
force on board ship and send them to India. A few,
more industrious and more prudent than the others, were
left; by this kind of selection ; but the cost of estabUshing
a colony in this manner was not to be lightly regarded.
Still there was no other way of obtaining cattle
breeders and gardeners, for the number of suitable persons
that could be induced to emigrate from the Netherlands
to South Africa was too small to be taken into account.
The best that could be done was to exercise great care
in releasing from service only those men who appeared
likely to be able to get a living as burghers. These were
chiefly either married men of Dutch birth or foreigners
1678] Johan Box. 239
who had married Dutch women, though single men were
often discharged for the purpose of taking service with
farmers.
It needed no small amount of courage for any one to
hazard living beyond the Cape peninsula at this time, as
— except in two localities — he would be secluded from
companionship and exposed to the depredations of the
natives. To men provided with no better weapons than
the firelocks and flint muskets of those days, the wild
animals with which the country swarmed were also a
source of danger as well as of heavy loss. In a single
night at one of the Company's cattle kraals no fewer
than a hundred and twenty sheep were destroyed by
lions and hyenas. There was, however, the outpost at
Hottentots-HoUand, where com was cultivated, and a
station at the Tigerberg, where a party of soldiers guarded
the cattle kept for the use of the fleets, so that in their
neighbourhood graziers would feel they were not alto-
gether secluded from the society of their kind.
In January 1678 a beginning was made. The govern-
ment arranged with two men named Jochem Marquaart
and Hendrik Elberts for the lease of a tract of land at
Hottentots-Holland with stock of homed cattle and sheep,
and they became the pioneer graziers of South Africa.
They were followed in February by two others named
Henning Huising and Nicolaas Gerrits, who established
themselves as sheep farmers on the adjoining land, and in
August by another named Cornelis Botma, who also set
up as a sheep farmer. These were the. only freemen who
settled beyond the isthmus at this period, so small was
the first ripple of that wave of European colonisation
which now after the lapse of little more than two cen-
turies is flowing into territories drained by the Zambesi.
It has been mentioned already that the servants of
the Company, including the ofl&cers of ships, were per-
mitted to trade for themselves to a small extent. They
brought various articles to the Cape, which they sold
240 History of South Africa. [1678
either to the privileged dealers or the burghers generally,
under supervision of the council. This trade was found
to interfere with the Company's sales, and therefore in
1678 it was resolved to levy duties upon it equivalent to
the loss sustained. As this is the first tariff of customs
duties levied here, and as it shows some of the articles
in which private trade was carried on, the Ust is given
in full: — ^For a keg of brandy 33s. 4(2., a keg of arrack
16s. 8(2., a half aam of Ehenish wine 33s. 4e2., a half aam
of French wine 25s., a cask of mum 25s., a pound
of tobacco Is. 4(2., a gross of pipes 2s. 6(2., a thousand
pounds of rice 20s. 8(2., a canister of sugar 4s. 2(2.
On the 4th of January 1678 died Joan Maatsuyker,
governor-general of Netherlands India during the preced-
ing quarter of a century. He was succeeded by Eyklof
van Goens the elder, who has been mentioned several
times in connection with Cape affairs.
Governor Bax was in robust health previous to the
winter of 1678, when he caught a severe cold which
settled upon his lungs and completely prostrated him.
He was confined to his bed for fifteen days before his
death, which took place on the morning of the 29th of
June. Just before his decease he gave instructions for
carrying on the government, and appointed the secunde
Hendrik Crudop to succeed him, with the title of acting
commander, until the pleasure of the authorities at Ba-
tavia or in the Netherlands should become known.
On the 4th of July his remains were laid with as
much state as possible in the ground where the new
church was to stand. It was a dark and rainy day, but
all the Europeans in the settlement attended, as did also
several Hottentot captains and their chief men, for the
late governor had been esteemed by whites and natives
alike. A neat slab was afterwards brought from Eobben
Island and laid over the grave, but it has long since dis-
appeared.
During the administration of Mr. Crudop very little
1679] Hendrik Crudop. 241
occurred that calls for mention. It was a time of peace,
there was no important work in hand, and nothing new
conld well be midertaken.
For ten months after the death of the reverend Petms
Hulsenaar there was no resident clergyman at the Cape.
Services were occasionally held by the chaplains of ships,
and a sermon was read every Smiday and on special
occasions by the sick-comforter, just as in the early days
of the settlement. On the 18th of October 1678 the ship
Wwpen van Alkmaar arrived with a chaplain named Johan-
nes Overney on board, and as he consented to remain
here the council appointed him acting clergyman until the
pleasure of the supreme authorities should be known. He
was afterwards confirmed in the appointment, and re-
mained at the Cape for several years.
On the 10th of February 1679 intelligence was re-
ceived of the conclusion of peace between France and the
Netherlands. This was followed by another reduction of
the garrison at the Cape, and by the release of all the
European labourers employed on the castle. The com-
pletion of the moat was the only work of importance that
then remained, and that could be performed by slaves at
a trifling expense to the Company.
On the 26th of April the council resolved to name
the five points of the castle in honour of the stadtholder.
The one first built — that near the shore of the bay on
the side towards the Lion's rump — was named Buren,
the next — that near the shore of the bay on the side to-
wards Salt Eiver — ^was named Nassau, keeping round in
the same direction the third was named Catzenellenbogen,
the fourth Oranje, and the fifth Leerdam. Within the
massive walls there were residences for the officers of
government, storehouses for grain and wine, barracks for
soldiers, and apartments for the transaction of public busi-
ness. It was the head quarters of civilisation in South
Africa. Of ornamentation it had Uttle, but above the en-
trance, which was between the bastions Buren and Leer-
VOL. I. 16
L
242 History of South Africa. [1679
dam, were the arms of the six cities in which the
chambers were established, with the monogram ol the
Company on either aide, and over all the lion ot the
Netherlands, carved in stone. The archway was also sur-
mounted with a neat bell turret.
In Angust 1679 permission waa given to Henning
Huising and his partner to graze their sheep along the
Eerste river, provided they could satisfy the Hottentots
who generally used the pasture there, and so prevent ill
feeling. At the same time the burghers Pieter Visagie
and Jan Mostert obtained leave to occupy a tract of land
on the eastern side of the Tigerberg, the place where the
Company usually gathered its hay. The tenure upon
which the seven burghers who were now residing beyond
the isthmus held the ground they were using was merely
a license of occupation, and they were not required to
pay rent. The country, in fact, was before them to
select the pastures that would best suit their flocks and
herds, and everything that the government could do to
encourage and assist them was done. It was different in
the neighbourhood of the castle, because there agriculture
was the chief industry, and on that account the plots of
land that were occupied by burghers at Kondebosch and
Wynberg were defined by survey, and were held in free-
hold, or in full property as the tenure was termed in
those days.
During the time that Mr, Bax was governor two or
three families of immigrants and several women whose
husbands were already here arrived from the Netherlands.
In the records of this period are found the names of
eleven new burghers whose descendants are now scattered
over South Africa: Frans Bastiaans, Dirk Coetsee, Simon
Faasen, Paul Heyns, Jan Hendrik de Lange, Nicolaas
Loubser, Roelof Pasman, Diederik Putter, Jan Wessels,
and the brothers Willem and Adriaan van Wyk. Accord-
ing to the census of 1679 there were eighty-seven free-
men, with fifty-five women, one hundred and seventeen
J
1679] Hendrik Crudop. 243
children, thirty European men servants, one hundred and
thirty-three men slaves, thirty-eight v^omen slaves, and
twenty slave children in the settlement.
Upon intelligence of the death of Governor Bax reach-
ing the Netherlands, the directors of the East India Com-
pany considered that it v^ould be unnecessary to appoint a
successor of higher rank than a commander. The colony
vv^as, therefore, reduced again to its position before the
arrival of Mr. Goske. The oflBcer v^hom they selected
to fill the vacant post v^as then living in Amsterdam, and
v^as in the service of the chamber there, but he readily
consented to remove to the Cape in the v^ay of promo-
tion. His name v^as Simon van der Stel. He embarked
in the ship Yryt Zee, v^hich arrived in Table Bay on the
12th of October 1679. The secunde Crudop, with the
members of the council, went off to welcome him, and
amid discharges of cannon and musketry he landed and
was received by the garrison and militia under arms.
In the council chamber in the castle the commission was
read by the secretary, the officials all promised lawful
obedience, and the new commander assumed the direc-
tion of affairs.
244
CHAPTER VIIL
SIMON VAN DER STEL, COMMANDER, INSTALLED 12th OCTOBER
1679, RAISED TO THE RANK OF GOVERNOR Ist JUNE 1691,
RETIRED llTH FEBRUARY 1699.
The officer who was now at the head of the Cape govern-
ment was destined to exercise a greater influence upon
the future of South Afirica than any of his predecessors
had done. He was a son of Adriaan van der Stel, com-
mander for the honourable East India Company of the
island of Mauritius. Bom there on the 14th of November
1639, Simon van der Stel when very young was sent to
the fatherland, and received a liberal education in the
best schools of Holland. Connected by marriage with an
ancient and influential family of Amsterdam, he had
hitherto maintained the character of a highly respectable
burgher, though the situation which he held in the ser-
vice of the East India Company brought him in but a
very limited income, and he had inherited little or nothing.
He was poor, and so when an opportunity of improving
his fortune was offered to him he gladly accepted it.
In person Simon van der Stel was small, with a dark
complexion, but open cheerful countenance. His habits
were refined, and as far as his means would permit he
surrounded himself with objects of taste. His courtesy
and exceeding hospitality to strangers are dwelt upon by
more than one visitor to the Cape, as is also his fondness
for telling marvellous tales of his adventures and creating
merriment at his own expense. Witty, good natured, and
polite, he was also shrewd and possessed of a very large
1679] Simon van der SteL 245
amount of plain common sense. Against all these good
qualities, however, must be placed an inordinate desire
for wealth, which was hardly noticeable during the eaxly
period of his government, but which increased as he ad-
vanced in years, and which towards the close of his life
drew upon him a suspicion of not being over particular
as to the method of making money.
The most prominent trait of his character, as it af-
fected South Africa, was perhaps his intense patriotism.
In his eyes everything that was Dutch was good, and
whatever was not Dutch was not worthy of regard. From
the day that he landed on our shores to the day that he
resigned the government he constantly studied how he
could best make the district round the Cape resemble as
closely as possible a province of the Netherlands. The
Dutch language, Dutch laws, Dutch institutions, Dutch
customs, being all perfect in his opinion, he made it his
business to plant them here uncorrupted and unchanged.
Commander Van der Stel brought here with him his
four sons, of whom the eldest, Wilhem Adriaan by name,
was in after years governor of the colony. The youngest,
Frans, became a farmer; and the remaining two, after
farming, speculating, and holding various appointments in
South Africa, removed elsewhere in the service of the
East India Company. The commander's lady was unable
or unwilling to accompany him from Amsterdam. She
remained there with her friends, and never again saw
her husband, though he continued to regard her with
much affection.
When Simon van der Stel arrived in South Africa the
colony comprised only the settlements around the foot of
Table Mountain, the outposts at Saldanha Bay and
Hottentots-Holland, a cattle station at Tigerberg, and the
ground held on lease beyond the isthmus by the seven
burghers whose names have been mentioned. The in-
terior had been explored eastward about as far as the
present village of George, and northward forty or fifty
246
History of Soulh Africa.
[1679
miles beyond the month of the Elephaot river. The
•boundary betweeo the Hotteutot and Bantu races bad
not yet been ascertained. The existence of the fabulous
atream Camissa was firmly believed in, and it was laid
■down in the charts as entering the sea by two mouths,
one of which was named Bio Infante and was placed
in the position of the present Fish river. The Orange
had never been heard of.
The commander devoted a few days to a thorough iu-
apectiou of the government offices and of the coautry in
the neighbourhood of the castle ; after which, on the 3rd
of November, he left the Cape for the purpose of visiting
the station at Hottentots-HoUand. He was attended by
a few servants and a small escort of soldiers. The party
encamped that night at a place called the Kuilen, close
by a stream which still bears that name. The follow-
ing morning the commander rode to Hottentots-Holland,
where he was greatly pleased with the condition in which
be found the farming establishment. After making him-
self acquainted with all particoJars there, he resolved to
examine the country inland, towards the mountains which
seemed to forbid farther progress in that direction.
In the afternoon of the 6th or 7th of November, — it is
not certain which but it was probably the 6th, — the com-
mander with his attendants rode into the moat charming
•valley he had yet seen. The hills which enclosed it were
diversified in form, but all were clothed with rich grass,
and in their recesses were patches of dark evergreen
forest trees. Through the valley flowed a clear stream
■of sweet water, which at one point divided into two
■channels and uniting again farther down enclosed an is-
land of considerable size. There, under a wide-spreading
tree, the commander's pavilion was set up, and close by
was pitched a tent which was to serve him as a bed-
chamber.
At the beginning of November the heat, even at mid-
day, has not become oppressive, and the moruings and
i68o] Simon van der SteL 247
evenings in the pure air and under the clear sky are al-
most invariably pleasant. The commander, fresh from a
long sea voyage, and at all times capable of appreciating
the beauties of nature, was enchanted with the scene
before him, as indeed a man of much colder temperament
than Simon van der Stel might have been. He observed
that the valley was not only beautiful to the eye, but
that its soil was rich and its water abundant. It might
be made the home of many thriving families. At this
time there were no signs of human life beyond the com-
mander's own encampment, though the spot must often
have been visited by bands of nomad Hottentots bringing
their herds to graze upon its pastures. The island was
dotted over thickly with fine trees, which suggested to
the conmiander a name that should perpetuate his own
memory in connection with the grove. He called it
Stellenbosch.
On the 8th of November the party reached the castle
again, but during that journey of five days extensive
plans of colonisation had been forming in the conmiander's
mind. He would build up a thriving settlement here at
the extremity of Afirica, which should furnish not only the
cattle needed by the Company, but articles suited for
commerce. He would begin at the place which bore his
own name, and plant there a body of freeholders who
would become attached to the soil. The great difficulty
was to find men and women to make colonists of, for the
fatherland could not furnish people in large numbers, and
the commander objected to foreigners. The process of fill-
ing up the country must therefore be slow, and could only
proceed as suitable men were discharged from service and
settled in the Cape peninsula, so that those who had ex-
perience might remove to wider fields beyond.
Before the close of the year the first farmer of Stellen-
bosch had put his plough into the ground there, and in
May 1680 he was followed by a party of eight families,
who removed together. The heads of these families were
248 History of South Africa, [1680
induced to leave the Cape district by an offer of as much
land as they coald cultivate, with the privilege of select-
ing it for themselves anywhere in the Stellenboach valley.
It was to be theirs in full property, and could be re-
claimed by the Company only upon their ceasing to
cultivate it. Like all other landed property in the settle-
ment it was burdened with the payment of a tithe of
the grain grown upon it and not consumed by the owner.
The cultivation of tobacco was prohibited under severe
penalties, but the farmers were at liberty to raise any-
thing else that they chose. To encourage the breeding of
cattle unlimited use of all ground not under cultivation
was permitted, and upon this branch of industry no tax
of any kind was levied for the benefit of the Company.
Before the arrival of Simon van der Stel the large
garden in Table Valley was used chiefly to produce vege-
tables for the garrison and the fleets. Very little had
been done in it in the way of ornamentation. But one
of the earliest acts of the commander was to prepare a
plan which he steadily carried out until the Company's
garden at the Cape became something wonderful in the
eyes of visitors. For nearly a hundred years &om tbia
date writers of various nationalities could hardly find
words to express their adniiiration of this famous garden,
and to the present day a remnant of its original beauty
remains in the oak avenue which was once its central
walk.' By Simon van der Stel the ground was divided
into a great number of small parallelograms separated
from each other by hve hedges high enough to break the
force of the wind. Some of these plots were devoted to
the production of fruit, others to the production of vege-
'The trees now (onniiig the B^eaue »w not of very great age. Those
firat planted were orange trees, wLich were shortly afterwards replaced
by other kina» which could be ased for timber when full grown. On two
or three occasions the avenue has been utilised in this manner, but wbeO'
ever a roi* or part of a row was removed, young trees were set out again
in the same ordet.
i68o] Simon van der SteL 249
tables, others again were nurseries of European timber
trees. In some of them experiments were made with
various foreign trees and shrubs, in others the wild plants
of Africa were collected in order that their properties
might be ascertained. Twenty years after Simon van
der Stel laid out the ground afresh, visitors who had
seen the most celebrated gardens of Europe and India
were agreed that nowhere else in the world was so great
a variety of trees and shrubs, of vegetables and flowers,
to be met with together.
The commander enlarged the garden towards the
mountain, but he cut off a narrow strip at the lower
end on which he intended in course of time to erect a
hospital and a building for the accommodation of the
Company's slaves. Just inside the new main entrance,
on the ground where the statue of Queen Victoria now
stands, he had a pleasure house or lodge put • up, and
there he usually entertained visitors of rank.^ The whole
garden could be irrigated by the stream then called the
Sweet river, and its drainage was also carefully attended
to. Over a hundred slaves were usually employed in
keeping it in order. These slaves worked under the
supervision of skilfal Europeans, who in their turn re-
ceived directions from a chief gardener or superintendent.
Next to Simon van der Stel the credit of beautifying
the Company's garden is due to Hendrik Bernard Olden-
land, a native of Lubec, who occupied the post of superin-
tendent shortly after this date, while the most important
improvements were being made. Oldenland, who had
studied medicine for three years at Leiden, was a skilfal
botanist and a man devoted to his work. Apart from
his duties in the Company's garden, he collected and dried
specimens of a great number of South African plants,
^ After the erection close by of the slave lodge— the present public
offices — this pleasure house was removed, and a commencement was then
made farther up the garden with the building still used as the governor's
residence.
250 History of South Africa, [1681
which he intended to send to the Netherlands to be pre-
served for the use of botanists there, and he was preparing
a descriptive catalogue of these plants in the Latin lan-
gustge when sudden death arrested the work. Before that
time Commander Van der Stel had retired from the
government, and Oldenland's collection of plants together
with his papers fell into the hands of a man who could
not make use of them. They were seen some years
afterwards by the historian Valentyn, who speaks very
highly of the herbarium, and copies several pages of the
'Catalogue of Plants.' Kolbe quotes even more largely
from the same work, though he has given the author's
name incorrectly. Stavorinus also gives an abstract of it.
Long after Oldenland's death the herbarium was sent to
the Netherlands, where, in 1770, Thunberg found it in
possession of Professor Burmann of Amsterdam.
The under-gardener, Jan Hertog by name, was also a
skilful botanist, though less highly educated than the
superintendent.
At this time the Hottentots were living on the best of
terms with the Europeans, but now and again a party of
hunters was molested by Bushmen. A large cattle trade
was carried on, principally with the Hessequas. The com-
mander was anxious to become better acquainted with
the Namaquas, as he was of opinion that there must be
some sources of commercial wealth in the part of the
country in which they resided. In August 1681 he sent
Captain Eees to endeavour to induce some of the leading
men of this tribe to visit the Cape, and a few months
later he was gratified to hear that a party of them had
reached the Grigriqua kraals on their way to see him. He
immediately sent a sergeant and some soldiers with pre-
sents and complimentary messages, and under their escort
the Namaqua deputation arrived at the castle on the 21st
of December.
The men were accompanied by their wives, all riding
on pack oxen. They brought their huts with them, these
i68i] Simon van der SteL 251
<;onsisting merely of a framework of long twigs fastened
together in the form of a beehive and covered with rush
mats. These huts could be taken from the backs of the
oxen and be put up almost as quickly as tents could be
pitched. They were habitations such as none but nomads
would use. To furnish food, the travellers brought with
them a herd of cows, for they depended almost entirely
upon milk for subsistence.
The Namaquas presented some specimens of very rich
copper ore, which they asserted they had taken out of a
mountain with their own hands. This information was
exceedingly interesting to the commander, who concluded
with reason that the ore must exist there in great abun-
dance when such specimens could be collected without any
iippliances for mining. He questioned them eagerly about
their country.
Were they acquainted with the great river Camissa
iind the town of Yigiti Magna?
They had never heard of any town near their country,
but they knew of a great river, very wide and deep.
Was it far from their kraals, and in what direction
was it?
It was far, and it was on the side of the sun at noon.
In what direction did it flow ?
Across that in which they had come to the castle.
Were they sure of this ?
Quite sure.
And so the first authentic information of the Gariep or
Orange river was obtained, though it was long yet before
European eyes were to see it.
The Namaquas, of course, knew nothing of the fabu-
lous empire termed Monomotapa on the maps. They in-
formed the commander that they were acquainted with a
race of people whom they called Briquas, the same who
are known to us as Betshuana. They also told some
stories which they had heard of tribes still more distant,
but these accounts were merely visionary tales. Of their
252 History of South Africa. [i68r
own tribe they gave such information as satisfied the
commander that the only trade to be carried on with
them would be in cattle, unless something could be done
with the copper ore. After a stay of five days the visitors
left the castle to return to their own country, taking vnth
them a variety of presents, including a staff of ofl&ce for
their chie£ They promised to return in the following-
year with cattle to trade and more specimens of copper
ore.
At the beginning of his government Simon van der
Stel interpreted the instructions received from the direc-
tors concerning the treatment of foreigners to mean that
he was not to permit them to obtain other refreshment
than water. Some Danes and Englishmen who visited
Table Bay were unable to purchase anything whatever.-
The commander treated the officers with politeness, and
invited them to his table, but declined to supply their
ships with meat or vegetables. He informed some of
them that they were at liberty to purchase what they could
from the burghers, but privately he sent messengers round
to the farmers forbidding them in some instances to sell
anything under very heavy penalties, and in other cases
requiring them to charge four or five times the usual
rates. Complaints of such treatment as this speedily
reached Europe, and representations were made to the
assembly of seventeen which caused that body to issue
instructions that foreigners were to be treated as of old.
They were not to be supplied, except in very urgent cases,
with sea stores out of the magazines, as such stores were
sent here solely for the use of the Company's own ships.
They were to be at liberty to purchase refreshments from
the burghers. No wheat or fuel was to be sold to them,
as the Company needed all and more than all that was
procurable of both. They were to be at Uberty to refresh
themselves in the lodging-houses kept by the town burgh-
ers. They were not to be permitted to sell merchandise
in bulk.
1683] Simon van der SteL 253
The restrictions of Commander Van der Stel lasted only
until November 1683, after which date foreigners, though
not encouraged to visit the Cape, were treated here quite
as fairly as subjects of the Netherlands were in the
colonies of other European nations. A system was gra-
dually introduced by which they were indirectly taxed
for the benefit of the Company. This was done in the
farming out of the privilege to sell bread, meat, wine,
etc. The exclusive right to sell bread, for instance, was
put up for sale with the condition that a certain fixed
price should be charged to burghers, but foreigners might
be charged a higher rate, which was sometimes fixed
and sometimes as much as could be obtained. There
were two methods of holding sales of this kind. One
was to farm out a privilege for the highest sum obtain-
able at pubhc auction, when the bids were successively
enlarged, and a sum of money was paid into the revenue.
The other was when the Company required for its own
use supplies of the same article, when the bids were
successively reduced, and something was saved to the
revenue. Thus A might bid up to twenty-five pounds
for the sole privilege of selling salt for a year to
burghers at one penny, and to foreigners at a penny
hal^enny a pound. B might bid down to seven-eighths
of a penny a pound to supply the Company with beef,
with the right to sell to burghers at two pence and to
foreigners at three pence halfpenny a pound. In each
case the foreigner was taxed for the benefit of the
Company. But where was this not the custom in those
days ?
The colony had now fairly commenced to expand,
though its growth was necessarily slow. In 1681 several
families were added to those already living in the Stellen-
bosch valley. That season the wheat crops there were
so exceptionally good that for the first time the soldiers
as well as the burghers could be supplied for several
months with as much fresh bread as they needed, instead
254
History of South Africa.
[1683
of the biscuits and rice to which they had been accus-
tomed. The farmers had been permitted to select ground
for themselves, but this liberty bad giveu rise to various
disputes and contentions, to settle which the commander
paid them a visit. His presence and the friendly interest
which he took in the welfare of all had the effect of
restoriiif; concord, and after fixing limits to each man's
estate he arranged for a proper survey of the ground and
the issue of titJe deeds,
The fruitfuhiess of the soil, as proved by the abundant
cropa, caused many of the most industrious individuals in
Eondebosch and Wynberg to turn their attention towards
Stellenbosch, and in May 1682, when the ploughing season
commenced, a party of fifteen or sixteen farmers removed
to the new district. But this year a plague appi
which caused much loss to the settlers, for the crops
attacked by prodigious swarms of small insects, wl
nearly destroyed them. On the same ground where in
Novenaber 1681 the commander had counted one hundred
and five grains of wheat in ear on a single stalk, in No-
vember 1682 there was hardly a sound ear to be seen.
This plague continued for several successive seasons to
inflict severe loss upon the farmers, though it was never
again so destructive, and gradually it disappeared.
To provide for the settlement of trivial disputes be-
tween the burghers of the new district, a board of heem-
raden was established on the 30th of August 1682. This
court consisted of four of the leading inhabitants, who
held ofBce for two years, without receiving salaries for
their services, The powers of the board of beemraden
were not at first very accurately defined, but its decisions
appear in every instance to have been treated with re-
spect. Two members retired annually, when the court
itself sent to the council of pohcy a hst of four new
names from which to select successors. The first heem-
raden were Gerrit van der Byl, Heuning Huiaing, Hans
Jurgen G-rimp, and Hendrik Elberts. At the end of 1683
1683] Simon vaft der SteL 255
the two first-named retired, when Douwe Steyn and
Matthys Greef were elected to take their places. Grimp
and Elberts retired at the end of 1684, and were suc-
ceeded by Jan Mostert and Harmen Smit.
In 1683 the first school at Stellenbosch was estab-
Ushed. On the 28th of September of that year the
burghers presented a petition to the council of policy, in
which they represented that there were then about thirty
landowners in the district, many of whom had families,
but as yet there was no school in which the children
could be taught the principles of Christianity as well as to
read and write, so that the young were in danger of grow-
ing up as barbarians; that they were Uving at too great
a distance from the castle to be able to attend divine
service on the Lord*s days, and were thus Uable to fall
into careless habits ; that on this account the condition
of both young and old was very unsatisfactory, and if it
continued God's blessing could not be expected upon them-
selves or their crops. They therefore requested that a
suitable person should be appointed to keep a school, to
read a sermon on Sundays, and to act as visitor of the
sick. They asked further for some assistance towards the
erection of the necessary building.
The council of policy viewed this petition with great
favour. The members resolved at once to send masons
and carpenters at the expense of the Company to put up
a residence for the teacher with a large hall in it for a
schoolroom, and also to supply the nails free of charge,
the inhabitants providing the other materials. As soon as
the building could be got ready a teacher was appointed,
by name Sybrand Mankadan, and the school was opened.
The commander took as warm an interest in it as did any
of the parents, for he regarded Stellenbosch as a place
of his own founding, and anything that tended to the wel-
fare of its people secured his sympathy. It was his custom
whenever it was possible to spend his birthday there. He
usually arrived in the vill9»ge a few days earlier, so as to
256 History of South Africa. [1683
have time to inspect all the improvements made dniing
the preceding twelvemonth, to inquire after every one's
prospects, and to make himself acquainted with all that
was transpiring. On these occasions he did not fail to
visit the school and ascertain what progress the pupils
were making. His birthday was, of course, a general
holiday. Every man and woman in the district, dressed
in their best, came to his paviUon to compliment him
and to drink his health in a glass of wine. The school-
children came also, marching in procession with Dominie
Mankadan at their head, and carrying a banner which
he had presented to them. Each was sure of a friendly
greeting, and of receiving some Uttle token of kindness.
The boys over nine years of age were drilled every
Saturday in the use of arms, and the juvenile corps
always took part in the parade in honour of the com-
mander.
The course of instruction at the school did not extend
in secular subjects beyond reading, writing, and the ele-
ments of arithmetic, a large portion of the time being
occupied with religious teaching. At the age of thirteen
years the pupils were supposed to have completed their
education. The standard aimed at was the ability to pass
an examination before the consistory preparatory to being
publicly admitted as members of tbe church. It was
necessary to be able to read the bible, to repeat the
Heidelberg catechism, and to write a little. The pupils
were also taught to sing psalms in the tunes then com-
monly used. At Christmas prizes were given at the ex-
pense of the Company. Each of the three most advanced
and best behaved pupils received a prize of the value of
four shillings, the next three carried off prizes valued at
two shillings, and each of the others received one shilling
in money. The commander added a cake for every child,
the size to depend upon the merit of the recipient.
Dominie Mankadan, the first teacher at Stellenbosch,
remained there in that capacity for many years. He
1683] Simon van der SteL 257
acted also as sick-visitor and conducted divine service
every Sunday. After a time he united with these duties
that of district secretary, so that he was by no means
an idle man. Yet his salary for all these services com-
bined was only about fifty shillings a month, in addition
to which, however, he had a free house, a large garden,
and some small school fees. Probably he was as well
off with that trifling salary in those simple times as
many district schoolmasters are at the present day, for
there was no ordained chaplain in the Company's service
who was paid more than ten pounds a month, and only
a few old and tried men among them drew that amount.
In 1681 the Cape was first made a place of con-
finement for prisoners of state of high rank, who were
sent into exile by the Indian authorities. Some Macassar
princes with their famiUes and attendants were at this
time lodged in the castle, but owing to their violent
conduct it afterwards became necessary to disperse them
among the out-stations. As long as South Africa re-
mained a dependency of the East India Company it
continued to be used for this purpose, and many tragic
narratives might be written in connection vdth the un-
fortunate exiles who were doomed to pass weary years
in banishment here. Their treatment varied according to
their offences.
The name of one of these prisoners is associated with
an event which nearly caused a war between England
and the Netherlands. It took place at Bantam, in the
island of Java.
On the 1st of May 1680 Sultan Ageng, the last really
independent prince in Java, resigned the government of
Bantam to his son Abdol Kahar, commonly called the
Sultan Hadji, on account of his having made a pilgrimage
to Mecca. The young sovereign immediately formed a
close alliance with the Dutch East India Company, be-
tween whom and the agents in Bantam of the English
Company there was a strong feeling of jealousy. The
VOL. I. 17
258 History of South Africa, [16S3
English were as yet far behind the Dutch in foreign
commerce, the tonnage of mercantile shipping which sailed
out of English ports at this time being less than two-
thirds of that which sailed out of the Netherlands; but
in some parts of the Indies they were already formidable
rivals. The old sultan Ageng, after a brief period of
retirement, began to regret the step he had taken, and in
February 1682 he raised an army and endeavoured to
drive his son from the throne. He was assisted by the
EngUsh and Danes in the country, by his younger son
Pourbaya, and above all, by the sheikh Joseph, a Moslem
religious teacher of great reputed sanctity and enormous
influence.
Sultan Hadji was unable to hold his own against the
forces of his father, so he shut himself up in a castle
garrisoned by troops under command of a Netherlander
named Jacob de Boy, and sent to Batavia to beg for
help. The governor-general and council thereupon di-
rected one of their officers, Isaac de St. Martin, to proceed
to the reUef of their ally with three hundred European
soldiers and some native auxiliaries. De Boy, who was
by calling a baker, but who had become by force of cir-
cumstances the chief military officer of the young sultan^
managed to hold the castle of Soeroesoeang until the
arrival of the Dutch troops, when at once the fortune of
war was changed. Ageng was soon in the same position
that his son had been in, reduced to the possession of
a single stronghold. This he was obliged to abandon on
the night of the 28th of December 1682, when he caused
the building, which was the most, beautiful edifice in the
island, to be blown up; and he with a few followers
sought concealment in a mountainous district. Ageng
himself soon afterwards fell into his son's hands. He
was treated with barbarous cruelty until the Dutch East
India Company in pity came to his rescue, supplied him
with a residence at Batavia, and provided for his decent
maintenance until his death in 1695.
1682] Simon van der SteL 259
Sultan Hadji, in return for the assistance given, ceded
to the Dutch East India Company a monopoly of the
commerce of his dominions, thus excluding the English
and the Danes. This affair caused great excitement in
England, and many narratives of it in angry language
were written and printed.
When Sultan Ageng surrendered Sheikh Joseph es-
caped, and for nearly another twelvemonth he kept the
country in a disturbed condition. At length, at the close
of 1683, he was obUged to abandon the unequal strife,
and was induced to give himself up to the Dutch. The
governor-general and council of India considered it unsafe
to keep him in Java, as he was held in the highest venera-
tion by the whole of the natives, not only as a saint and
a man of great ability, but as the last champion of
Bantamese independence. He was therefore sent to Ceylon
for a time, but in 1694 with his family and numerous
attendants he was removed to the Cape Colony as &
prisoner of state. On the 23rd of May 1699 he died, and
was buried on the farm Zandvliet, in the district of
Stellenbosch. During all the years that have since
passed away, the ^amat, or tomb of Sheikh Joseph, has
been regarded by the Moslems as a holy place. It is
kept in repair by a special custodian, who permits no one
to enter the enclosure with covered feet. To it pilgrims
wend their way, though few, if any, of them know the
true history of him who was buried there. Various tradi-
tions, however, have gathered about his name, and it is
commonly believed by those of his creed at the Cape that
he performed many miracles. Thus it is asserted by them
that when he was on the passage to this country the
fresh water in the ship failed, upon which he dipped his
foot in the sea and told the crew to replenish the casks,
when to the amazement of all on board that which they
took up in buckets was perfectly good to drink.
On the 16th of February 1682 the retired governor-
general, Eyklof van Goens, arrived at the Cape on his
26o History of South Africa. [1682
way to Europe in pursuit of health. Though he was
very feeble he managed to visit Stellenbosch, and to issue
instructions upon a good many subjects. He directed that
experiments should be made in the cultivation of flax,
hemp, and indigo, but none of these were found on trial
to answer sufficiently well to encourage the farmers to
undertake their growth. He strictly prohibited the plant-
ing of tobacco, lest it might interfere with the existing
trade, from which a large profit was derived. The
governor-general remained here until the end of April.
Before embarking he ordered the 13th of May to be kept
as a day of prayer that God would be pleased to avert
warlike attacks and protect the homeward bound fleet.
He died soon after his return to Europe. In the follow-
ing year his widow called at the Cape on her way to the
fatherland, and was treated while here with all possible
respect and attention.
On the night of the 8th of June 1682 the English
Indiaman Joanna, flrom the Downs bound to Bengal, was
wrecked twelve miles to the westward of Cape Agulhas.
One hundred and four of her crew saved themselves on
a raft, the remainder were drowned. Those who reached
the shore found themselves destitute of provisions, and
were beginning to suffer from hunger when some Hotten-
tots made their appearance who conducted them to the
kraal of Captain Klaas. There they were supplied by
this hospitable native with abundance of milk and meat
as long as they remained, and were provided with food
for the journey and guides to conduct them to the Cape.
The master of the Joanna, who was too infirm to walk
any farther, stayed behind as the guest of Klaas until a
waggon could be sent for him. The shipwrecked seamen
met with equal kindness from the Company's officers.
They were comfortably lodged and furnished with pro-
visions until they could get away. The Joanna bad a
large amount of specie on board, and as the wreck could
be reached with a boat in calm weather a party of men
1683] Simon van der Stel. 261
was sent from the Cape to try to recover it. They
succeeded only in getting coin to the value of a little
over two thousand four hundred pounds sterling, but a
considerable quantity of cargo and wreckage which was
washed ashore was also secured.
With the growth of the settlement, it was found that
too much of the time of the high court of justice was
taken up with hearing petty civil cases, and it was there-
fore decided to establish an inferior court to have juris-
diction within the Cape district. This court was to be
composed of four members, two of whom were to be
servants of the Company, and two burghers. It was to
sit at least once a week, and had pow^r to adjudicate in
all cases wherein the amount in dispute was less thaQ
twenty pounds, sixteen shilUngs, and eight pence sterling.
For convenience sake it was arranged that the last re-
tired burgher councillor could at any time take a seat
instead of one of the burgher members. The body thus
constituted was termed the court of commissioners for
petty cases. It was first established on the 31 st of
August 1682.
The specimens of copper ore brought to the Cape by
the Namaqua visitors in 1681 excited the curiosity of the
directors to know more about the country in which the
metal was found, and instructions were sent to Com-
mander Van der Stel to cause it to be carefully explored.
At the end of October 1682 an expedition consisting of
thirty soldiers, a joumaUst, and a chart-maker, under
command of Ensign Olof Bergh, was despatched for that
purpose, but after a month's absence it returned with a
report that the country was so parched with drought that
it was impossible to proceed.
The attempt was renewed on a larger scale in the
following year. On the 27th of August 1683 an expedi-
tion better equipped than any that had previously left
the Cape set out for the Namaqua country. It consisted
of forty-two Europeans — among whom were draughtsmen,
262 History of South Africa. {j^^$
miners, and journalists — and ten Hottentots, all under
command of Ensign Olof Bergh. It was provisioned for
four months. It bad a train of waggons and carts to
convey its supplies as far as possible, two boats, so that
no delay need be caused by swollen rivers, and a herd
of pack oxen and five horses for use when the waggons
could get no farther. The expedition proceeded by the
way of Kiebeek's Kasteel to the Berg river, which was
found too deep to be forded. The boats were then
brought into service, and after everything was ferried over
the march was resumed. At the Elephant river it was
the same. There a camp was formed, as the boats would
not be needed again. Across this river a party of Grigri-
quas was encountered, and with them were four or five
Namaquas who offered to act as guides. Soon after this
a sterile district was entered, but they pushed on until
they reached the nearest of the Namaqua kraals. Close
to the kraal was a high mountain, from the top of which
the Atlantic could be seen at no great distance. Beyond
it to the north the whole country was a desert without
grass or water, for rain had only fallen once within the
preceding twelve months. It was impossible to get any
farther. The ensign was obliged to retrace his steps, and
on the 24th of October he reported at the castle that
the expedition had failed.
In February 1684 a party of Namaquas visited the
Cape, and when they returned Sergeant Izaak Schr5rver
with fifteen soldiers and three miners was sent with them.
The sergeant succeeded very little better than Ensign
Bergh, though he managed to proceed somewhat farther
and to collect from the people he visited a number of
pieces of copper ore which he brought back on a pack ox.
This ore was melted in crucibles, and the pure metal was
sent as a specimen to the directors.
In 1683 a tract of ground at Klapmuts was turned
into a stock-farm for the Company's use, so that the
cattle kept at Hottentots-Holland might have a change
1684] Simon van der SteL 263
of pasture. In 1684 the Company discontinued sending
trading expeditions into the interior to purchase cattle,
and handed over that business to Captain Klaas, who
bought up large herds at very low rates upon receiving
one head for himself out of every five. By this agency
so many oxen and sheep were obtained that it was neces-
sary to select fresh stock-farms. The Company, there-
fore, formed outposts at the Kuilen, Diep Eiver, Visser's
Hok, and Eietvlei. At each of these places four or five
soldiers and a few slaves were stationed, the same as at
Hottentots-Holland, Tigerberg, and Klapmuts. Burghers
who could be induced to become cattle farmers could
now be supplied with as many cows and ewes as they
needed, and they had further the protection and com-
panionship which the new outposts afforded.
The office of secunde had for some time been vacant,
owing to Hendrik Crudop having been advanced to a
higher post in India, when in June 1684 the assembly
of seventeen appointed the fiscal Andries de Man to it.
In October 1684 Ryklof van Goens the younger, ordin-
ary councillor of India, and previously governor of Ceylon,
arrived in South Africa, on his way from Europe to the
East, and assumed authority here above that of the com-
mander. He remained in this colony until the following
May, but as he was an invalid during the whole of that
period he seldom left his room in the government country
house at Bustenburg, where he resided. He made some
changes in the official staff by the promotion of the clerk
Jan Willem de Grevenbroek to be secretary of the council,
and the bookkeeper Cornelis Linnes to be chief sales-
man. He also appointed the junior merchant Albert van
Breugel to act as fiscal, but this officer was obliged soon
afterwards to resign the situation to Jan van Keulen,
who was sent out by the supreme authorities. To all
the officers in the Compan/s service who desired it he
allotted ground for cultivation, but titles were not to be
issued until the directors should approve of the measure.
264 History of South Africa, [1684
To Adriaan van der Stel, a son of the commander, he
granted several exclnsive privileges. This young man had
been issuer of stores,^ but he now became a burgher, and
obtained a grant of land in full property. The right to
put up a fowling net, within five hundred roods of which
no one was to shoot, nor was any one else to put up
another within a distance of five hours' journey, the right
to catch fish in False Bay without payment of taxes,
the right to shoot all kinds of game and birds, were
privileges granted by Mr. Van Goens to his favourite,
and at his instance approved of by the council.
These monopolies naturally caused dissatisfaction to
the other burghers. The commander Van der Stel him-
self was beloved by all, and no one would have thought
of offending him, but from this time it began to be freely
said that the sons were not hkely to follow in the
father's footsteps. The privilege of shooting game at any
time and in any quantity was regarded as particularly
unfair to other farmers, because they were all bound by
stringent regulations to kill nothing without special per-
mission, and no one of them was ever allowed to shoot
more in a year than a single rhinoceros, a hippopotamus,
an eland, and a hartebeest, for his own family's con-
sumption.
In the year 1684 the first exportation of grain from
South Africa took place. The crops of that season were
very good, and the insect scourge had been less destruc-
tive than usual. To encourage the growth of grain, the
governor-general Van Goens had relieved the burghers
from payment of tithe& for two years, and this had the
desired effect. In February and March, after the har-
vest was gathered, fifteen hundred muids of wheat were
brought by the farmers for sale, so that there was more
than sufficient for the supply of the garrison. A quantity
^ Shortly after this Adriaan van der Stel entered the Ck>mpany*B service
again. He rose to be governor of Amboina and councillor extraordinary of
Netherlands India.
1685] Simon van der Stel. 265
of rye was also stored in the magazines, and of this grain
twenty-five muids were sent to India. This export, small
as it may seem, shows, as the commander exultingly
wrote, that the settlement was no longer dependent upon
foreign countries for its food.
In October 1684 the assembly of seventeen appointed
a commission of three members to examine into the
a£fairs of their possessions in Hindostan and Ceylon, and
at its head they placed an ofl&cer with very extensive
powers. His name was Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede,
but he was commonly known by his title of lord of
Mydrecht. He had previously served the Company in
various capacities, and had only recently filled the post
of councillor of India. In the administration of affairs in
Hindostan and Ceylon various abuses had crept in, which
the directors considered could only be rectified by some
one on the spot possessing unbounded authority and with-
out any interests to serve other than those of duty. The
high commissioner had power given to him to appoint
or displace governors and admirals as well as officers of
lower rank, to proclaim new laws, to issue new regula-
tions concerning trade, to create new offices and to
abolish old ones, to enter into treaties with native rulers,
in short, to do anything he might think advisable in the
Company's interests.
Before leaving Europe he was instructed to rectify
anything he might find amiss at the Cape, where also
he was to exercise supreme power as representing the
assembly of seventeen. Some of the changes which he
effected here as well as elsewhere were afterwards found
not to be improvements, but at the time he made them
the Netherlands were only beginning to acquire experi-
ence in the government of colonies. Nearly all was as
yet experiment, and it would have been surprising indeed
if every experiment had been wise and successful
The high commissioner arrived in Table Bay on the
19th of April 1685, and remained here until the 16th of
266 History of South Africa. [1^85
July, during which time he put in force a great number
of regulations. A few days after his arrival he issued a
notice calling upon all persons who had complaints oft
grievances to make them known, so that he might rectify
whatever was felt to be oppressive. He then proceeded
to examine the constitution of the various public bodies,
and to inquire into their efficiency. The result of this
was that the church council, the board of militia, the
matrimonial court, the orphan chamber, and the conrt of
commissioners for petty cases were approved of as they
existed, and no alterations were made in any of them.
The council of poUcy was enlarged so as to consist
of eight members, and seats in it were assigned to the
commander as president, the secunde, the two military
officers highest in rank, the fiscal, the treasurer, the chief
salesman, and the garrison bookkeeper. This council was
never again enlarged during the government of the East
India Company, though the officers who had seats in
it were not always those who held the situations here
named. The secretary at this time had no vote, but
merely kept a record of the debates and resolutions.
The high court of justice was reconstituted, and was
made to consist of the following members : the com-
mander, Simon van der Stel, president; the secunde,
Andries de Man ; the captain, Hieronymus Cruse ; the
heutenant, Olof Bergh ; the junior merchant, Albert van
Breugel; the chief salesman, CorneUs Linnes; the garri-
son bookkeeper, Jan Hendrik Blum; the secretary of the
council of policy, Melchior Kemels ; and the two oldest
burgher councillors. Jan Blesius was appointed secretary,
but had no voice in the proceedings. The fiscal appeared
in this court as public prosecutor.
In the court at Stellenbosch great alterations were
made. It was in future to be presided over by an officer
called a landdrost, who was also to have supervision of
the Company's farms and out-stations, and who was gener-
ally to look after the Company's interests. This officer
1685] Simon van der Stel. 267
was to have two Europeans to assist him, and was to be
provided with a horse and a slave. He was to receive 2L
a month as salary and I65. as maintenance allowance. In
the court of landdrost and heemraden civil cases under
2Z. I5. 8d. were to be decided finally, but where amounts
between that sum and 101. were in question there was to
be a right of appeal to the high court of justice. No case
could be heard where the amount in dispute exceeded lOZ.
The court of landdrost and heemraden was to hold
monthly sessions for the trial of civil cases. It was to
preserve order, and was also to act as a district council,
in which capacity it was to see to the repair of roads,
the distribution of water, the destruction of noxious ani-
mals, and various other matters. It was to raise a
revenue by erecting a mill to grind com, by collecting
annually a tax from the inhabitants, which was fixed by
the council of poUcy in the following year at Is. 4id. for
every hundred sheep or twenty head of large cattle
owned in the district, and by sundry other small imposts.
Further, it was to have power to compel the inhabitants
to supply waggons, cattle, slaves, and their own labour for
public purposes.
On the 16th of July the high conmiissioner appointed
Jan Mulder, a Netherlander of good reputation, first land-
drost of Stellenbosch, and named the burghers Gerrit van
der Byl, Henning Huising, Jan Mostert, and Herman
Smit as heemraden. No territorial limits were assigned
to the jurisdiction of the landdrost, and as the Company's
outposts at Diep Eiver, Visser's Hok, and Eietvlei, as well
as those at Hottentots-Holland, Kuilen, Klapmuts, and
Saldanha Bay were placed under his inspection, the dis-
trict of Stellenbosch for some years included the whole
country beyond the Cape peninsula.
Prior to this date, the laws concerning the treatment
and manumission of slaves were somewhat vague. Eman-
cipation was very common before 1682, and the directors
at one time even contemplated the location of a large
268 History of South Africa. [1685
body of freed slaves at some place where agricaltnre conld
be carried on. They despaired of getting a sufficient
number of European colonists, and thought by this meana
to secure a supply of refreshments for their fleets. But
the individuals emancipated had in most instances fiEJlen
into idle and depraved habits, in the end becoming burden*
some as vagrants or paupers, so that when the governor-
general Van Goens was here a regulation was made that
no more heathens were to be manumitted except for very
good reasons, and that all freedmen of this class who
would not earn an honest living were to be consigned
again to slavery.
A profession of Christianity and an ability to speak
Dutch were, however, still considered sufficient reasons
for claiming freedom, and no slaveholder could have an
infant black baptized without promising to educate it as-
a Christian and to manumit it. This was a regulation
made by the ecclesiastical council of Batavia, who wrote
that 'it was the custom in India to baptize children of
unbelieving parents if the Christians who presented them
for baptism bound themselves to bring them up as their
own, to educate them as Christians, and if they were
slaves to manumit them.' In those days nearly every one
believed it his duty to have his slave children baptized,,
and hence those who were born in this colony usually
became free. But these were few in number, because
nearly all the slaves brought from abroad were males.
They were not all imported in Dutch bottoms, for though
foreigners were debarred from selling merchandise in bulk
at the Cape, an exception was occasionally made in their
favour when their cargoes consisted of stout negros.
The laws made by the high commissioner regarding
emancipation were as follow: —
Every male half-breed could claim freedom as a right at
the age of twenty-five years, and every female half-breed
at the age of twenty-two years, provided only that he or
she professed Christianity and spoke the Dutch language.
1685] Simon van der SteL 269
Slaves imported from abroad, whether male or female,
after thirty years' service, and negro slaves born at the
Cape, at the age of forty years, were to have their freedom
as a favour, not as a right, upon payment of 8/. 6s. 8c?.,
provided they professed Christianity and spoke Dutch.
Each case was to be considered on its own merits, so that
well-conducted slaves might be emancipated, and those
of bad character be kept under control of a master.
Slave children under twelve years of age were to be
sent to school, where they were to be taught the prin-
ciples of Christianity as well as to read and write and to
conduct themselves respectfully towards their superiors.
Slaves over twelve years of age were to be allowed two
afternoons in the week for the purpose of being instructed
in the Christian religion. The females were to be taught
by themselves. All were to attend the church services
twice on Sundays, and in the afternoon when the sermon
was ended the clergyman was to require them to repeat
the Heidelberg catechism. As schoolmaster for the slaves,
a well-behaved mulatto named Jan Pasqual, of Batavia,
was appointed, and as schoolmistress Margaret, a freed-
woman of the Cape.
Marriage between Europeans and freed slaves of full
colour was prohibited, but Europeans and half-breeds
could marry if they chose.
It was a common occurrence for slaves to desert from
service and lead lawless lives thereafter, sometimes even
forming themselves into bands and maintaining them-
selves by robbery. Care was to be taken not to drive
them to such a course by cruel treatment. But fugi-
tives who were captured were to be severely flogged and
heavily chained as a warning to others.
Slaves belonging to private persons could be moder-
ately punished, but were not to be tied up and flogged
without an order from the fiscal and the consent of the
commander. This consent, however, was not to be
refused if a crime deserving such punishment had
270 History of South Africa. [1685
been committed, for it was not meant that the alaTes
should be allowed to become nnmly, bnt that they
should be protected from the caprice of harsh and crael
masters.
Ck)nceming the treatment of the Hottentots, the hi^
commissioner laid down some general regulations, but
made no definite laws. There was at the time a veiy
friendly feeling between them and the Europeans. The
different chiefs and their people came to the castle to
trade in perfect security, and as yet there was no lack of
pasture for the use of all. On one occasion, indeed,
Schacher trespassed upon the ground where the Company
made its hay at the Tigerberg, but upon being requested
to move he did so very civilly. Gonnema had failed to
pay his tribute, and it was not thought necessary to irri-
tate him by speaking about it any longer. E^laas was so
anxious to serve the Europeans that on one of his trad-
ing expeditions just before the conunissioner arrived he
took by force the cattle of the Goringhaiquas because
they declined to part with any in barter. The injured
people appealed to the commander for protection, and
obtained justice. On another occasion the young men of
Schacher's clan rebelled against their chief. Schacher
and the old men who adhered to him thereupon went to
the castle, when the rebels were summoned to appear,
and by the commander's mediation peace was restored
in the clan. Thefts were not unusual, but robbery with
violence was seldom committed except by Bushmen.
When it was, and the perpetrators could be discovered,
the chiefs were always ready to punish them. At this
very time four Hottentots were convicted of the murder
of a Dutch servant, and were executed by being beaten
to death with clubs by their own people. The Company's
interests, however, were always regarded as having a pre-
ference above those of the natives. For instance, in
August 1684 three dead whales drifted up on the beach,
when a party of Hottentots began to feast upon them,
1685] Simon van der SteL 271
but were driven away by the commander's instructions,
in order that the oil might be secured.
The high commissioner directed that nothing should
be done to disturb the peaceful and friendly intercourse
then existing. He thought it was wisdom to keep the
clans in a condition of jealousy, but not to allow them
to fight or to plunder one another. The Company was
desirous of increasing the number of colonists, and there-
fore it would be necessary to occupy more land. But it
would not be just to take the pasture from the Hottentots
in such a manner as to expel them or to force them to
make war upon those farther in the interior. The com-
missioner was an upright and humane man ; his remarks
on the land question are those of a philanthropist. But
here he was confronted with a great difficulty. How
could colonists be introduced without expelling the orig-
inal occupiers? There was only one way, and that was
by inducing the natives to adopt other habits, to cease
being nomads. The lord of Mydrecht directed that efforts
should gradually be made by means of presents to induce
them to consent to have certain boundaries laid down,
so that both they and the Europeans might have their
grounds defined. In other words, his idea was to per-
suade them to retire within certain reserves.
This plan was thereafter kept in view, though it was
not carried out in the neighbourhood of the Cape until
more than thirty years after the instructions of the high
commissioner were issued, because there was no necessity
for restricting the liberty of the Hottentots to wander
wherever the ground was not cultivated.
The greatest abuse which was at this time prevalent
in the East India Company's possessions arose from the
private trade carried on by the officers of government.
Their salaries were miserably small, but they were per-
mitted to supplement them by buying and selling to a
hmited extent on their own account any articles except
spices. The object in granting this liberty was to attach
272 History of South Africa. [1685
them to the Company's service, but in many instances it
had developed into a straggle on their part to amass
wealth at the cost of their employers. In some of the
eastern dependencies the whole machinery of government
was thrown out of working order by the rapacity of the
officer who had the greatest amount of power. Various
plans were from time to time suggested for the rectifica-
tion of this abuse, but none of them succeeded. No mean
could be found between absolute prohibition of private
trade and its enlargement into rivalry of the Company's
own commerce.
At the Cape there was not as yet an opportunity for
the officers of government to carry on business on their
own account, except in a very small way, and they had
therefore seldom been content to remain here. To go to
the East, where fortunes were to be made, was the aim
of their ambition. As a remedy, the high commissioner
approved of a grant of land in full property being made to
each of them, that they might carry on farming and sell
their produce to the Company on the same terms as the
burghers. There was no Ukelihood of rivalry, he thought,
because the demand in India for various products was
much greater than any supply the Cape could be made to
yield. Subsequent events proved how greatly he was mis-
taken, but at this time no one objected to the experiment
being tried.
The commander Van der Stel selected for himself a
tract of land next to the last farm that was occupied at
Wynberg. Most of the burghers who had once been
living on that side of the mountain had removed to
Stellenbosch, so that there were then only twenty-four
families remaining between this ground and the castle.
The boundaries chosen were agreed to by the high com-
missioner, a surveyor was instructed to measure the land
and make a chart of it without delay, and on the 13th of
July the title was issued. In it the commissioner granted
to Simon van der Stel eight hundred and ninety-one mor-
1 68s] Simon van der SteL 273
gen, three hundred and eighty roods, and twenty-eight
square feet of ground, to be held by him in full property.
This farm the commander named Constantia.
For several years a number of miners had been en-
gaged in searching about the Cape for valuable ores. Be-
fore 1671 the country as far as Eiebeek's Easteel was
examined for this purpose, but the search was then
abandoned, and it was not resumed until the specimens
of copper ore from Namaqualand attracted attention. The
directors then sent out a party of men under the master
miners Frederick Mattheus van Werlinghof and Gabriel
MuUer, with instructions to cause a thorough search to be
made. The miners were divided into two parties, one of
which examined the country around Stellenbosch, the other
the mountains along the Cape peninsula. In several places
they sank pits twenty-seven or twenty-eight fathoms deep,
in one — at the Steenberg — thirty fathoms deep, but with-
out finding anything until the beginning of the year 1685,
when great expectations were raised by the discovery in
large quantities of a new kind of mineral. Neither the
miners nor any one else at the Cape could say what it
was, but it was assumed by all to be valuable.
Some thought it was gold, others silver, others a kind
of copper. There is Uttle doubt that it was only manga-
nese. In February four packets of the ore, each of fifty
pounds weight, were sent to the directors, and when the
high commissioner was here its value was not yet ascer-
tained. He therefore gave instructions for the miners to
continue their work, and he further authorised the com-
mander, who was very anxious to undertake this duty, to
proceed in person to examine the copper mountains of
Namaqualand.
The high commissioner added another item of revenue
to those already existing. He ordered that whenever
landed property was sold, two and a half per cent of the
purchase money should be paid to the government. If
such property changed hands within three years of the
VOL. I. 18
274 History of South Africa, ['685
first grant of k by the Company ten per cent was to
be paid, or haK that amount if it was sold before the
grantee had been in possession of it ten years. No trans-
fer of land was to be Talid nntil these dues were paid.
He fixed the price to be giren in cash for wheat at
fifteen shilUngs the mmd of one hundred and serenty-fonr
pomids, that being in his opinion the highest rate at
which it could be sent to India with adyaiitage to the
Company. But he instructed the conmiander to receive it
at sixteen shillings and eight pence the muid in payment
of debt or in exchange for goods.
Some other regulations, but only of temporary import-
ance, were made by the high commissioner during his
stay at the Cape. The orders which he issued were laws
in a different sense from those of the ordinary commis*
sioners who visited the settlement. Their instructions
could be repealed by their successors or by the Indian
authorities, but the laws made by the lord of Mydrecht
could only be reversed by the assembly of seventeen.
Several of his regulations remained in force during the
whole period of the East India Company's rule in South
Africa.
On the 16th of July, having established the govern-
ment here, as he believed, on a satisfactory footing, he
left for India, when the commander and council, whose
authority had been in abeyance while he was present,
again assumed the direction of affairs.
275
CHAPTEE IX.
SIMON VAN DEB STEL'S ADMINISTRATION (c(mtinued). EXPLORA-
TIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Commander Van der Steles Journey to Namaqiialand.
As soon as the lord of Mydrecht left South Africa, the
connnander began to make ready for the expedition to
Namaqualand which that officer had sanctioned. He had
long been anxious to make an inspection of the country
from which the specimens of copper ore had been brought,
but it would have been contrary to established rules for
him to have gone so far from the castle without special
permission. The arrangements were completed by the
25th of August 1685, and on the morning of that day
the baggage waggons were sent forward, the commander
himself following on horseback in the afternoon. The
secunde Andries de Man, Captain Hieronymus Cruse, and
some other members of the council rode with the com-
mander until they overtook the advance party, when his
Honour was saluted with three rounds of discharges from
the muskets of the whole company.
The train as now completed consisted of fifteen wag-
gons, each drawn by eight oxen, eight carts, and one
coach. Of the waggons, eight belonged to burghers, and
it was intended to take them no farther than the Ele-
phant river. There were two hundred spare oxen, most
of them trained to carry burdens on their backs, thirteen
horses, and eight mules. There was a boat for the pur-
pose of crossing the Berg and Elephant rivers, and
there were two small cannons to impress the natives with
276 History of South Africa. [1685
proper respect for the power of the Europeans. The
travelling party consisted of Commander Van der Stel,
with three slaves as personal attendants, fifty-six Euro-
peans of various callings, including soldiers, a Macassar
prisoner of state, named Dain Bengale or Manalle, with
a slave as his attendant, forty-six drivers and leaders,
mostly of mixed blood, and a number of Hottentots to
serve as interpreters. Even to-day the train would form
an imposing sight, and it must have been considered a
very grand spectacle by those who saw it moving slowly
northward in that eventful year 1685.
At the Tigerberg the kraals of Schacher and Kuiper
were passed, the last of whom presented the commander
with an ox for slaughter, according to the Hottentot
custom of treating visitors of rank. The country was
covered with grass, which has long since disappeared, and
with beautiful flowers of many colours, such as are yet
to be seen in the months of August and September.
Keeping down the valley of the Berg river, which was
found tenantless, Paardenberg, Dassenberg, and Eiebeek's
Kasteel were passed, while bounding the view on the
right was a range of rocky mountains, inhabited solely
by Bushmen. These Bushmen lived by the chase and
plunder, but savage as they were they have left me-
morials of their existence in rude paintings upon the
rocks, which are still as perfect as if the pigments had
been laid on but yesterday.
On the 31st the expedition reached the Sonqua ford
of the Berg river, but as the commander preferred to
keep along the western bank, he did not cross there.
About Twenty-four Eivers and the Honey mountains,
many Bushman huts were seen, but no people. These
huts were merely branches of trees fastened together and
covered with loose reeds. Farther down two kraals of
Cochoquas were passed. On the evening of the 2nd of
September an encampment was formed at the Misver-
stand ford, and next morning at daybreak, after prayers
1685] Simon van der SteL 277
had been said and a psalm sung as usual, the boat was
put upon the river and a commencement was made in
ferrying the baggage across. Two days were occupied in
transferring the camp to the other bank. At this place
a trading party which had been sent in advance to pur-
chase slaughter oxen and sheep joined the expedition
with an ample supply.
On the second day five natives were seen, who took
to flight as soon as they observed the Europeans, but
upon a sergeant and two men being sent after them with
a present of pipes and tobacco, they were induced to
return. They stated that they were Sonquas and lived
upon honey and such game as they could shoot, and that
they were then following up an eland which they had
wounded with a poisoned arrow the day before, and
which would die about that time. They were armed
with assagais and bows and arrows. Their skins were
covered with scurf, as they had undergone great want
some time before, and were without grease to rub upon
themselves. The commander made them a present of a
sheep, which they immediately killed, and they did not
cease eating until every particle of the meat and entrails
was consumed. They rejected nothing except the gall and
four little pieces from the thighs, which they said it was
not their custom to eat. They cooked the flesh by laying
it in hot ashes. In return for the commander's kindness,
they presented him with three wild cats* skins which
they had with them.
On the day after leaving the river, when near the
Piketberg, an incident occurred which nearly cost the
commander his life. Of a sudden an enormous rhino-
ceros rushed through the middle of the train, and then
charged the carriage in which his Honour was seated.
The commander sprang out, upon which the rhinoceros
made towards him, but was fortunately turned just in
time by a ball. The brute then charged in the direction
of some horsemen, who in their &ight threw themselves
278 History of South Africa. [1685
from their saddles to the ground and were severely brais-
ed. The cause of the confusion did no further harm,
however, but rushed away with incredible swiftness, fol-
lowed by a volley of musket balls fired at random. Owing
to this incident the place received the name Bhenoster
Bug.
At the Piketberg the grass was observed to be very
rich, and there was timber in abundance in the kloofs, as
well as thorn trees for fael in plenty along the banks of
the rivulets. At one encampment an eland weighing a
thousand pounds was shot, from which circumstance the
place was called Elands Vlakte.
On the 9th of September the Little Elephant river
was reached, and the train followed its course through a
district which was Uttle better than a solitary wilderness,
but where some elephants were seen. On the 14th a hill
was passed, which was named Uilenberg, on account of
the great number of owls found there. At this place a
fountain of sweet water was discovered and named Klip-
fontein, and a remarkable echo which the hill gave back
was noticed. The next encampment was at the foot of
Dassenberg, in a spot where there was abundance of
wood, water, grass, and game. On the 15th the train
passed through Pickenier's Kloof and moved on to the
Elephant river, where preparations were made for cross-
ing.
The banks of the river were found to be clothed with
willow and thorn trees, and in its waters were fish of
large size and good flavour. A kraal of Grigriquas (called
in other places Chariguriquas and Gierigriquas) was met
v^ith, and it was ascertained that Sonquas were numerous
along the whole course of the stream. The burghers now
turned back, having first obtained permission from the
commander to load their waggons with the flesh of elands,
rhinoceroses, and seacows on their homeward journey. It
occupied three days to get everything across the river,
and in the afternoon of the 18th the train again moved on.
1685] Simon van der SteL 279
It was by this time evident that the season was an ex-
ceptionally favourable one for exploration. In the north,
after four years of drought, heavy and continuous rains
had fallen, so that there was good hope of meeting with
grass and water in the country to be traversed. Where
the surgeon Van Meerhof in bygone years, and the ensign
Bergh only recently, had found bare and parched ravines,
there were now streams of water three feet in depth. Ani-
mal Ufe was abundant. The day after crossing the river
quails in great number were met with, which the Hot-
tentot interpreters knocked over with great dexterity by
throwing knobbed sticks at them when on the wing.
Hares and antelopes of different kinds were seen sporting
about in grass a foot and a half in depth, and were some-
times secured for the table. The whole party was in
excellent health and spirits. Every morning and evening
they sang a psalm, Ustened to a chapter of the bible, and
repeated a prayer, no one but the cattle herds being per-
mitted to be absent on these occasions. When on the
march, a party rode on ahead to select the best paths and
the most suitable places for encamping. And when a halt
was called, and the cattle were turned loose to graze, the
scene resembled a pleasure excursion of a picnic party.
If the sun was bright an awning was spread for the com-
mander's use, and if it was dull a tent was pitched; in
either case the Batavian tricolour being hoisted in front,
and the pennant of the honourable East India Company
floating above.
On the 20th the expedition halted in a narrow valley,
with the Elephant river on one side of the camp and a
rocky mountain on the other. In this neighbourhood
most of the Grigriquas were then living, and as a quarrel
had broken out among them, in which a section of the
clan had rebelled against the chief, the conunander was
detained four days in making peace. He succeeded in
reconciling the belligerents, and in purchasing a number
of cattle from them. On the 26th the mountain called
28o History of South Africa. [1685
Meerhof 8 Kasteel was passed. The country was now be-
coming every day more barren in appearance. There was
plenty of water, though it was strongly impregnated with
salt, and there was a sufficiency of grass for the cattle,
but there was no wood for fuel. The only inhabitants
were Bushmen.
On the 29th the Little Doom Bosch river was
reached, and from an eminence the sea was visible at a
distance of about twenty-eight English miles. The follow-
ing day an encampment was made at the Great Doom
Bosch river, which was found a deep and rapid stream
with numerous trees on its banks. Here some Bushmen
were seen, and after a little scheming were induced to visit
the camp, where they were presented with a sheep and a
flask of brandy. They were wretchedly thin, for they were
living upon nothing better than tortoises, caterpillars, lo-
custs, and bulbs of wild plants. They made very merry
over the feast provided for them, and danced and sang
right joyfully. The treatment they received was so much
to their liking that for some days they accompanied the
expedition, making themselves useful as guides.
On the 4th of October the commander was informed
by the Bushmen that there were some Namaqua kraals
in the neighbourhood, whereupon a halt was made at a
place where there was plenty of grass and water, and
four Hottentots were sent with pipes and tobacco as
presents to the chiefs. A full week was spent here in
making inquiries concerning the country, and in arrang-
ing treaties with the chiefs, of whom there were six, over
as many kraals. The intercourse was very friendly except
with two or three individuals, but the commander as-
serted and maintained a position of authority, to which
they submitted without question. He entertained the
chiefs and their wives with European food, but pleased
them more by supplying them with a little brandy and
tobacco.
On the 11th the march was resumed. The country
1685] Simon van der SteL 281
was now found to be so rugged that progress was very
difficult. Fortunately there were water and grass, and
Captain Oedeson, who claimed the Copper mountain, and
some other Namaquas acted as guides. Along the route
various kraals were passed, and at nearly every halting
place fresh visitors were found. With all the chiefs
treaties of peace and friendship were made, and they
further promised not to quarrel with each other or with
the Hottentots in the neighbourhood of the Cape, the
commander on his part undertaking to prevent these last
named from attacking or molesting them, so that they
could trade with the Company without let or hindrance.
Sunday, the 14th of October, was the commander's
birthday, and in compliment to him the camp, which
was in a good position, was not broken up. The cannons
were taken from the waggons and loaded, and at noon
three volleys of musketry were fired by the whole com-
pany, each volley being followed by the discharge of a
cannon. There was a large party of Namaquas present,
and they arranged a dance, which was their manner of
complimenting persons of rank. Twenty men formed a
circle, each having a reed in his hand. The reeds were
of various sizes and lengths, so that different notes were
sounded by blowing into them. A master musician stood
in the centre, having in his hand a long rod with which
he gave directions, singing a tune and beating time with
his foot as well. The players kept leaping up and down,
but produced music which surprised the Europeans by its
harmony and power. Outside was a deep circle of men
and women, dancing and clapping their hands in time
with the music. This entertainment continued until even-
ing, when the commander had an ox slaughtered for his
visitors, and distributed a small keg of arrack among
them.
The commander here began to obtain information con-
cerning the great river to the north. Many of his visitors
had been to it, and they all described it as being about
282 History of South Africa. [1685
ten days' journey beyond the Copper mountain, as run-
ning towards the setting sun, and as being very wide
and deep, with banks clothed with large trees. Some of
them produced a quantity of glittering sand which they
stated they had brought from it. According to the
accounts received, the commander conjectured that it must
enter the sea about the latitude of the gulf of Yoltas
of the charts, which is really the correct position of its
mouth.
The 15th of October was spent in bartering cattle, and
on the 16th the train moved forward. For five days after
this the track was through a rugged country, where the
waggons and carts were often overturned and where
progress was extremely difficult. But on the 21st the
commander's perseverance was rewarded, for on the after-
noon of that day the camp was pitched at the Copper
mountain, the place he had so long desired to see.
He calculated that he had travelled three hundred and
sixty-five English miles from the castle, and that he
had reached the latitude of 29"" S. This was not quite
correct, owing to the means at the command of the
expedition for determining latitudes being faulty. In
reality the Copper mountain is more than half a degree
farther south. The distance from the castle in a straight
line is about three hundred miles, and the direction is
a very little to the westward of north.
A fortnight was now occupied in getting out ore and
examining the country around. It was found to be a
very uninviting district. The Namaquas who were with
the party acted as guides and gave all the information
they possessed, which was indeed not very much. Aloes
were found in abundance, but wood for fuel was very
scarce. Barren mountains, naked rocks, and desolate
wastes made up the scenery. But copper ore was dis-
covered in great quantities and of surprising richness.
The next object of the commander was to explore the
country between the Copper mountain and the sea, and
1685] Simon van der Stel. 283
on the 5th of November the camp was broken up for
that purpose. A direct route was impracticable, and the
expedition was compelled to return some distance to the
south before a pathway to the shore could be found.
Travelling had now become very diflScult. The beds of the
rivulets were dried up and baked as hard as brick. Water
was rarely met with, and when the guides pointed it
out it was so salt that it could hardly be used. The
Namaquas— even Captain Oedeson himself, once the most
friendly of them all — grew very anxious to hasten south-
ward, and became sulky and stubborn when their wishes
were disregarded. But the work of exploration was only
half performed, and until the coast was thoroughly ex-
amined the commander was unwiUing to retreat.
On the twelfth day after leaving the Copper mountain
an advance party on foot reached the sea, but it was not
until the 22nd of November that the whole expedition
encamped at the mouth of a river then nearly dry. Along
the shore of the Atlantic much driftwood was seen, in
which were many large trees that came, as the Nama-
quas stated, from the great river of the north. From
this circumstance the commander concluded that the river
could not be far off, but he was at that time unable to
obtain any additional information concerning it, though
among the Namaquas with him were some whose usual
place of residence was on its banks. One thing, however,
was now certain. There was no town of Vigiti Magna.
And as this great river of which he had heard so much
certainly did not correspond with the Camissa of the old
geographers, it would require another name. Thenceforth
it was called by Europeans the river Vigiti Magna, until
it obtained from the farmers in the next century the
name of the Groote, and from Colonel Gordon that of the
Orange. The people who Uved upon its banks near the
sea, though they were clans of the Nama tribe, were
named by Commander Van der Stel Camissons, after the
Oamissa which was now to be removed from the charts.
284 History of South Africa. [1685
The place where the expedition was encamped was*
nearly a degree farther south than the Copper mountain.
From the 22nd of November until the 12th of December
the time was spent in endeavouring to proceed to the
north. A heavy arurf was rolling in on the beach, and
not a single harbour could be discovered suitable for large
vessels to anchor in. One little cove was visited, which
was partly protected from the swell of the sea by reefs-
of rocks that ran out from each side nearly across it&
entrance, leaving a narrow but deep passage about the
centre where boats and small cutters could get in and
out. The cove was capable of containing two or three
decked boats in a tolerable condition of security, and
there was a smooth sandy beach that extended half round
it, upon which the sea did not break in calm weather,,
but no fresh water could be found in the neighbourhood.
Parties of men were sent out in all directions to examine
the country. One of these proceeded along the coast
until the officer in command thought he had reached the
position of Angra das Yoltas on the charts, but he was
in reaUty still fully seventy miles from it. The Buffalo
river was explored a considerable distance upward from
its mouth. It was so called on account of some Bush-
men stating that they had once seen two buffaloes upon
its banks.
Meanwhile the cattle were becoming weak, and were
suffering terribly from the scarcity of water. Some of
them ran into the sea and drank, and immediately after-
wards died. The exploring parties were at times reduced
to great distress from the same cause. It was evident
that everything had been done that was possible, and so
on the 12th of December, to the great joy of every one,
the commander gave the order to turn homeward. It
took the expedition eighteen days to get back to the
Elephant river, and they were days of anxiety and suffer-
ing. The heat of the sun exhausted both man and beast
Water was so scarce that at times forced marches had to
1 686] Simon van der Stel. 285
be made at night to reach a pool which after all would
only aflford a quart or two for each ox. The httle that
was obtainable was so bitter with salt as to be nauseous.
On the last march some of the cattle lay down exhausted,
and were only recovered by sending water back to them
in kegs. Four days were spent at the Elephant river
refreshing the worn-out animals, during which time the
stream was explored some distance upward, and down-
ward to its mouth.
The difl&culties of the journey were now over. There
was plenty of grass and water in front, and every part of
the route was well known. Nothing remained to be done
in the way of exploration except to examine a few leagues
of the coast. This the commander did, and made a
careful inspection of the inlet now known as Lambert's
Bay. At the Little Elephant river the Cochoqua kraals
were met with, and the men were found with their heads
shaved clean as a mark of mourning. They stated that
it was on account of the death of the old chief Gonnema,
which had recently taken place. At their request, the
commander confirmed his son as his successor. Nothing
further of any lasting interest occurred on the homeward
journey, which ended by the safe arrival of the expedition
at the castle on the 26th of January 1686.
The commander had been absent from the seat of
government five months and one day. During that time
a great deal of geographical information had been ac-
quired, and what was perhaps equally important, much
that had formerly been received as accurate was ascer-
tained to be incorrect. From this date the maps of the
western portion of what is now the Cape Colony were
fair representations of the country. They did not give
the correct courses and lengths of the rivers, it is true,
nor did they place them in their exact positions, the lati-
tude being out in some instances as much as forty miles,
but the general features of the country were accurately
delineated The river known to us as the Orange was
286 History of South Africa. [1686
laid down from report only, but its size and its conne
from east to west were known. The conmiander brong^t
back with him to the Cape a Hottentot of the 'CarniB-
sons nation/ who had passed his youth in wandering
about the country along the lower course of the great
river, and who was therefore well acquainted with it*
This man was dressed in European clothing, and was
placed where he could acquire a knowledge of the Dutch
language. The commander hoped in course of time to
learn a great deal from him; but he was disappointed
in this expectation, for the Namaqua was never able to
tell much more than was already known of the country.
As to the copper mines, it had been ascertained that
ore, rich and easy to be collected, was there in abund-
ance, but that it was in such a situation as to be useless
to Europeans. With the appliances at the Company's
disposal, it could not be removed in such quantities as to
pay expenses. Under these circumstances it was con-
sidered needless to spend more money or thought upon
the matter, and so it was left until the improved means
of communication of modem times made it possible to
turn the mineral wealth of Namaqualand to account.
The Wreck* of the Stavenisse,
On the night of the 16th of February 1686 the East
India Company's third class ship Stavenisse^ on her return
voyage from India to Europe, was wrecked on the African
coast about seventy Enghsh miles south of the bay of
Natal. The weather had been overcast, and Skipper
Willem Knyf and his officers beheved themselves far
from land. In those days longitude at sea was always
uncertain, but in this instance the latitude had also been
miscalculated. When the look-out reported that he saw
land, the chief mate, Ysbrand Hogesaad, who was the
officer of the watch, replied sharply that it could only
be a bank of mist. He would not even take the trouble
1 686] Simon van der SteL 287
to go forward and look for himself, so confident was he
of being well out at sea. Presently the look-out reported
again that land was close under the bow, and almost at
the same moment breakers were seen, and the roar of
the surf was heard. It was very dark, and the light
breeze was djdng away into a perfect calm. The alarm
was given, when all hands sprang on deck, and as fast as
possible the two bower anchors were got out.
The Stavenisse was drifting slowly towards the shore.
The port bower held, and she swung to it, but by this
time she was among breakers. In this condition she
lay for a couple of hours, when the cable parted and she
struck. As the ship immediately filled with water, the
crew tried to save themselves by getting to land, in which
effort sixty succeeded and eleven were drowned. When
day dawned it was seen that one side of the wreck was
stove in, the masts had gone, and the cargo of pepper
was washing out. Fortunately the main and fore yards,
with the sails attached to them, had been thrown up on
the beach. The sails when stretched over a rough frame
made a tolerable tent. On the 17th and 18th the com-
passes, charts, and instruments for measuring altitudes, a
couple of casks of pork, a small quantity of biscuit, and
some clothing were recovered from the wreck. On the
19th a general consultation was held, when it was con-
sidered advisable to start at once and attempt to travel
overland to the Cape.
The resolution was acted upon without delay. There
were three ofl&cers who had been severely bruised in get-
ting ashore, and these, being unable to travel, were left
behind in the tent. The others, fifty-seven in number,
set out that same morning. But within a couple of days
the skipper, the three mates, the sailmaker, the boatswain,
and four sailors, finding themselves unequal to the effort
of walking over such a rough country, abandoned their
companions and returned to the wreck. The remaining
forty-seven men continued their journey along the coast.
288 History of South Africa. [1686
Those who were now at the wreck resolyed to repair
a broken boat and endeavour to reach the Cape in her.
This work occupied a fortnight, and when it was com-
pleted the compasses and charts, with a small quantity of
stores and clothing that had been recovered, were placed in
her and she was launched. But in trying to get through
the surf the boat was overturned and everything was lost,
the voyagers barely escaping with their lives.
Meantime the natives in great numbers flocked to the
scene of the wreck. At times there were as many as a
thousand armed men present. The Europeans managed
to purchase a little bread and millet from them for nails
and bolts, but they soon set to work to bum and cut out
iron for themselves. Having now nothing to buy food
with, the wrecked seamen were in great distress, when
one day two Englishmen made their appearance. These
strangers stated that on the 17th of May of the preceding
year they had lost their vessel at the bay of Natal. For
nine months they had been living with the natives at
that place, and upon hearing the report of the wreck of
a ship to the southward they had come to oflfer assist-
ance. They could speak the native language sufficiently
well to make themselves understood, and they had plenty
of beads and copper rings to trade with. At the bay of
Natal, they stated, they and their three companions had
sufficient merchandise to purchase bread and meat for
thoni all for fifty years, and Skipper Knyf and his party
were very welcome to share it with them.
The wrecked men gratefully accepted the timely aid
thus offered. Three of them were unable to walk, and
the natives could not be induced to carry them, so they
were left in the tent with one of the Englishmen as their
protector. Ten of them, guided by the other Englishman,
immediately set out for the bay of Natal. After a while
one of the sick men died, and the remcdning two re-
covered and joined the main party. In the meantime a
petty officer had been trampled to death by an elephant.
i686] Simon van der Stel. 289
so that the little European community, when united, con-
sisted of eleven Dutchmen and five Englishmen.
The EngUshmen were part of the crew of a ketch
named the Good Hope^ of fifty tons burden and manned by
twenty-four hands, which had gone to the east coast of
Afiica to trade in ivory and slaves. In warping over the
bar at Natal she was struck by a squall and driven on
the Point, where she remained inmiovable. Her crew
then proceeded to put together a large decked boat, the
materials for which were on board, and when this was
finished the master and nine men left for Mozambique.
Another English ketch about this time put into the bay
of Natal to procure a supply of beef, and four more of
the crew of the Good Hope got away in her. Five had
previously died of dysentery, and the remaining five were
those who welcomed the people of the Stavenisse, They
had a good supply of beads and copper rings, with which
to purchase food, and they had even got in barter about
three tons of ivory. Some of them, being anxious to ex-
amine the country, had gone far inland, and had every-
where found the natives friendly and hospitable.
After about four months spent in idleness, the Dutch
and English unitedly resolved to build a vessel with which
to make their escape. There was plenty of timber at
hand, and the wreck of the Chod Hope would furnish
some of the other necessary materials, but there was not
a sufficient supply of bolts or of tools. A large party of
natives was therefore hired to proceed to the wreck of
the Stavenisse, where a quantity of iron was collected,
which they carried back. For a single copper arm-ring
each one bore a burden ranging from fifty to a hundred
pounds in weight over the intervening seventy miles.
Among the Europeans there was an EngUshman firom
Bristol, John Kingston by name, who was fertile in
expedients for overcoming difficulties. They had no
saw, and without one it would be vain to attempt to
build a vessel. Kingston set to work, and with only the
VOL. I. 19
290 History of South Africa. [1687
shank of an anchor for an anvil, he turned a stout iron
ring into a tool that answered for one. Then they laid
the keel of a vessel fifty feet long and fourteen feet beam.
They employed natives to carry the timber from the forest,
and to do the rough work in hewing planks. But it was
an arduous undertaking with the limited means at their
disposal, so that nearly eight months elapsed before their
craft was completed.
Early in 1687 another party of shipwrecked men ar-
rived at the bay of Natal. On the 25th of December
1686 the Bona Ventura, of London, a ketch of twenty
tons burden, was lost at St. Lucia Bay. One of her
crew was drowned, and the remaining eight men and a
boy set out with the intention of walking overland to the
Cape of Good Hope, but to their great joy they found
at Natal a party of Europeans and a vessel nearly ready
for sea. The new comers were welcomed to a share of
whatever the others had, and in return joined them in
the labour on hand.
Soon after this the little vessel was launched and
named the Centaurus. A supply of provisions was pur-
chased from the natives, consisting of about six or seven
thousand pounds of millet, a thousand pounds of salted
and smoked meat, a quantity of millet ground into meal,
twenty goats, between two and three hundred fowls, and
a hundred and fifty pumpkins. Seventeen small casks of
water were put on board, and the ivory which the
Englishmen had obtained in barter was shipped.
The diflicult task which they had undertaken was at
length finished, and on the 17th of February 1687, a
year and a day after the wreck of the Stavenisse, the
Cenfauni8 was ready for sea. But at the last moment
throe of the Englishmen who had been wrecked in the
(hml Hope resolved to remain behind. They had formed
connections with the natives, and contrasting the ease of
life at Natal with the hardships endured at sea, they
clung to the former. An Enghshman and a Frenchman
1 688] Simon van der SteL 291
of the Rmoi Ventura's crew also preferred to stay where
they were. There sailed then in the Centaurtis the eleven
men of the Stavenisse, seven of the Bona Ventura, and
John Kingston and William Christian of the Good Hope.
They had neither chart nor compass, so they kept in
sight of the coast all the way to Table Bay, where they
arrived safely on the 1st of March.
The Voyage of the Centaurus.
When reporting themselves at the Cape, Skipper Knyf
and his party expressed great surprise that nothing had
been heard of the forty-seven men who left the wreck
of the Stavenisse on the 19th of February 1686. The
council, after taking a number of depositions, considered
that they ought to be searched for, and with this object
the Centaurus was purchased from her builders. Her hull
was found to need only a Uttle finishing off, and after
she was rigged afresh she proved to be a staunch sea
boat and an excellent sailer. Kingston and Christian
were paid 33/. 6s. 8d. in cash for their share in her,
and were then engaged as quartermasters in the Com-
pany's service, on the understanding that they were to
be employed in any expedition sent to Natal. The crew
of the Bona Ventura worked their passages to Batavia
in the next eastward bound ship that called.
After the Centaurus was refitted she was used at the
Cape for a few months, and it was not until the 10th
of November that she was sent to look for the missing
men. East of Mossel Bay she encountered a succession
of head winds, so that on the 6th of February 1688 she
was only as far as the mouth of the Kei. It was then
a calm, and the current setting south-westward, carried
her back with it. On the afternoon of the 7th she was
off the Coffin, or as now called Cove Bock, which she
had previously passed and repassed several times. Being
close inshore, an anchor was dropped, and a boat was
292 History of South Africa. [i688
sent to see if a landing place could be found. Daring
the time the boat was away some persons on shore were
noticed making signals, but whether they were Euro-
peans or Hottentots waving karosses was uncertain. The
boat returned with an unfavourable report, and, as a
light breeze was then rising, sail was again made on
the Centaurus. But next morning the officers began to
reflect that the signals which they had seen were pro-
bably made by Europeans, and they therefore determined
to go back and make sure.
On the afternoon of the 8th it was nearly calm, and
the sea was quite smooth. Something which could not
at first be clearly made out was noticed on the water at
a distance, but as it came nearer it was seen to be a
small raft with three naked white men upon it paddling
towards the vessel. When the strangers reached the Cenr-
taurus they announced themselves as part of the crew
of the Siavenisse, and stated that there were on shore
eighteen others, besides a French boy who was the sole
survivor of a boaf s crew that landed on the coast. Upon
hearing this, every effort was made to get close in to the
land, and at sunset the anchor was dropped in sixteen
fathoms of water and the national flag was hoisted.
That evening another of the wrecked seamen was got on
board.
The French boy who was with the sailors of the
Siavenisse was a youth that had seen many troubles. His
name was Guillaume Chenut. Of a respectable family in
Guienne, he had received a good education, but had fled
from France with an uncle on account of being a Hugue-
not. Losing his relative soon afterwards and being in
great distress, he apphed for aid to an English merchant
skipper, who conveyed him to New England, and took
him next in his ship which was proceeding to the Indies.
When off the Kaffir coast it fell calm and the sea was
smooth, which tempted the skipper to land and inspect
the country. Guillaume him in the boat.
i688] Simon van der SteL 293
Being unsuspicious of danger, the white people were un-
armed, and could make no resistance when a party of
savages fell upon them. All were murdered except Guil-
laume, who was badly wounded, but whose Ufe was
spared. When he recovered he was taken under the
protection of a chief named Sotopa. The people of the
country were Amaxosa, and Togu was then the para-
mount ruler of the tribe. The youth rapidly acquired some
knowledge of the native language, and being informed
that there were white men scattered about in the neigh-
bouring districts, he made his way to a party, whom he
found to be seamen of the Stavenisse. From that time he
kept vnth them until the appearance of the Centaurus.
On the 9th the sea was so smooth that communication
with the shore was easy. Fourteen men of the Stavenisse
and the French boy were brought oflf, as also the flesh
of a fat ox which was bartered from the native chief for
an arm-ring of the value of four shillings. The following
day a present of five pounds of beads, a neck-ring, and
two arm-rings was sent to the chief in the name of the
honourable Company, as an acknowledgment of the kind-
ness with which he had treated the Dutch sailors. The
chief was highly pleased with this present, which was to
him one of considerable value. Two more oxen were
purchased for an arm-ring each, but before they could be
slaughtered and the meat got on board, a stiff south-
easterly breeze sprang up, and it was necessary to get
the Centaurus away firom her dangerous position. She
accordingly made sail for the mouth of a river which was
distant about six or seven English miles to the east-
ward, and there dropped anchor again. This is the
river known to us as the Buffalo, but it was called the
Eerste by the Dutch sailors. The surf at its mouth
was so high that it was not found possible to enter it
vdth a boat. The coast was vdld and exposed. To the
right, as the men of the Centaunis looked upon it, sand
hills partly covered vdth low thick bush were seen, and
294 History of South Africa. [1688
behind was a rolling grass-covered country, gradually
rising, though no mountains were visible. To the left the
Coffin rock formed the extremity of a curve fifteen or
sixteen miles in extent. There were still three men of
the Stavenisse on shore, but as it was believed that they
preferred to remain with the natives, and were therefore
purposely keeping out of the way, the officers of the Cen-
taunts determined to wait no longer for them. On the
11th sail was set for Table Bay, where the little vessel
arrived safely on the 19th.
Guillaume Ghenut was fortunate enough to meet at
the Cape a man who knew his family and who took an
interest in him. From this friend the youth learned that
his elder brother was then occupjdng an honourable and
influential post in the service of the stadtholder of Fries-
land. The directors of the East India Company were
communicated with, and instructions were sent out that
the youth was to be forwarded to Europe in a becoming
manner. This was done, and Chenut was at length re*
stored to his brother.
The First Voyage of the Noord.
A few months after the return of the Centaurus it
was resolved to send another search expedition along
the coast. For this purpose the galiot Noord was made
ready, and was despatched on the 19th of October 1688,
with a crew of nineteen men including the quartermaster
William Christian. Her instructions were to proceed first
to Delagoa Bay, and carefully examine that harbour and
the country around it, and then in returning to search
along the coast for the still missing men.
The Noord arrived in Delagoa Bay on the 15th of
November, and found there two vessels, one of them
English, the other Portuguese. On one of the islands
the crew of the English vessel had put up a tent, where
they were trading with the native- iw •^ friendly manner.
1689] Simon van der Stel. 295
On the mainland, near the mouth of the Manisa river,
the Portuguese had a small lodge or temporary habita-
tion, where they were carrying on traffic, some of the
ivory which they purchased being brought from a distance
as far south as St. Lucia Bay. The Dutch found the
natives friendly upon the whole, but inclined to be thiev-
ish. They remained in the bay, surveying it roughly and
exploring the rivers — particularly the Maputa and the
Tembe, — until the 29th of December, when they sailed
vdth four men down with fever.
On the 4th of January 1689 the Noord came to anchor
off the Bluff of Natal. People were seen making signals
on shore, and when a boat was sent in two white men
came running into the water to meet her, thanking Gk>d
that they once more saw Christian faces. They proved
to be two of the Stavenisse's crew, who had returned from
the main party through Kaffirland. It was only two days
before full moon, and on the shallowest part of the bar
the water was sixteen feet in depth. On the following
day the Noord went inside. The sick men were taken
on shore, where two of them died of the fever which
they had brought from Delagoa Bay. The natives were
friendly as before. Supplies of food were brought by
them for sale, and were purchased at very cheap rates.
A hen could be bought for three beads, three pumpkins
for four beads, milk, millet bread, etc., on the same scale.
The water-casks were emptied and sent on shore in the
boat, and the women filled them with fresh water, which
they carried in large earthenware jars poised upon their
heads. A party of men, vdth whom were William Chris-
tian and an experienced miner, went inland searching for
indications of ore, and were away eight days, but dis-
covered nothing of consequence.
Twenty-three months before this, when the CerUaurus
sailed from Natal, four Englishmen and one Frenchman
were left behind. They were not there now, and not a
word is said of thier fate by the journalist of the Noord.
296 History of South Africa. [1689
But when the galiot was ready to sail, William Christian
gave three letters into the custody of a native, a futhfol
friend of his in bygone days. It may therefore be pre-
sumed that his old companions were still in the country,
and that they had probably gone on a journey inland.
On the 23rd of January the galiot left Natal. On the
26th she was off the mouth of a river in latitude 33^ 2^
S., according to the skipper's reckoning. The great rock
where the men of the Stavenisse were picked up the year
before was visible to the westward at a distance of about
a Dutch mile and a half, or seven English miles, fifteen
Dutch miles being equal to a degree of latitude. There
a storm from the north was encountered, which drove
the gaUot out to sea. On the morning of the 28th she
was again at the mouth of the Buffalo, where she dropped
anchor, and a boat was sent in. The surf was too high
for the boat to pass, but a strong swinuner made his way
through it to land, taking with him a letter for any
Europeans who might be there. He returned safely after
delivering the letter to some natives, and ascertaining that
two Dutchmen were living close by.
That afternoon the boat was sent in again, but the
bar was still too rough to be crossed, though an old man,
one of the Stavenisse's crew, swam out through it and was
got on board. He stated that two white men had
recently left that part of the country with the intention
of proceeding to Natal The European who was still on
shore was an indifferent swimmer. On the 30th an effort
was made to get him off at Cove Eock, but the surf was
so high that he could not reach a line sent towards him.
He then made signals to the boat's crew to desist from
attempting to rescue him. The galiot therefore set sail
for the westward, and that evening shortly after sunset
she passed the Bird islands. Between Cove Eock and
these islands her officers observed the mouths of the four
rivers now named the Keiskama, Fish, Kowie, and Bush-
man's, none of which could be entered. Heavy weather
1689] Simon van der Stel. 297
followed and prevented her from examining the coast
between the Bird islands and Mossel Bay, now the only
portion of the southern seaboard not well known. On
the 6th of February she arrived in Table Bay.
From the men of the Good Hope and Stavenisse full in-
formation was obtained concerning the coast belt of
South Africa from the Tugela to the Buffalo. Their
observations upon the country are of little importance
now, but their descriptions of its inhabitants are highly
interesting. They had lived long enough among the
natives to acquire some knowledge of the language, so
that the names of the tribes which they give are even
more correctly spelt than they are by many modern
writers. For instance, they term the Amaxosa the Magosse,
the Amampondo the Mdponte, the Abatwa (the Bantu
name for the Bushmen) the BatiuiSy etc.
Within the century that had elapsed since the wreck
of the Santo Alberto^ the great tribes of modern Kaffirland
south of the Umzimkulu had either been formed from
scattered families or had grown from petty clans into im-
portant communities. There had also been a general
advance southward of the Bantu people. Unfortunately
the seamen of the Stavenisse did not place on record the
names of the leading chiefs in the territories they passed
through, so that it is not possible to connect their ac-
counts with native traditions collected during recent years,
except in the solitary instance of the Amaxosa. Togu
was then great chief of that tribe, and according to native
antiquaries he was sixth in descent from Xosa, its founder,
which would give about twenty years as the term of
government of each of his predecessors to take the origin
of the tribe back to the time of the Portuguese account.
The other divisions of the Bantu south of Natal have
genealogical tables of their chiefs of about the same
^ See my Yolnme entitled The Portuguese in South Africa.
298 History of South Africa. [1689
length, BO that these tables may reasonably be taken as
accurate.
According to the wrecked seamen the tribe which
occupied the coast lands of Natal was the Abambo. Next
came the Amampondomsi, or Pondomisis as now termed
by Europeans. Following them were the Amampondo,
and next the Abatembu. Farther westward Bushmen
were met, and last of all the Amaxosa. No clue is given
by which the exact position of the various tribes at that
time can be fixed on a map, but from explorations of a
later date it is certain that the Bantu did not extend in-
land more than half the distance from the sea to the
great mountain range, and it is equally certain that many
of the clans were then living farther north than now.
The Europeans had been well treated by all these
people except the Bushmen, by whom they had been
stripped and robbed of everything they had. They were
naked when they reached the country of the Amaxosa,
where they were received with great compassion and
were supplied with food and shelter. Five of them had
perished before that time, two being drowned when at-
tempting to cross a swollen river, two others being left
on the way exhausted, and the fifth being murdered by
Bushmen. After resting awhile in the country of tl^e
Amaxosa, they all wished to proceed on their journey
westward, but some of them were induced not to do so
by being informed that the next people were Bushmen,
who would certainly murder them. Twelve of the boldest,
however, made the attempt, and reports had been re-
ceived that they had all been killed. Of the forty-seven
who had left the wreck of the Stavenisse to travel south-
ward, seventeen were dead, twenty-one had been rescued,
and the fate of the remaining nine was unknown, but
it was supposed that they were still living among the
natives in different parts of the country.
Among the Pondos the travellers found an old Portu-
guese, who had been wrecked on the coast forty years
16S9] Simom van dtr SteL 299
before. He had entiiely forgotten his mother tongue,
and had become in all respects except colour like the
natiyes.
They did not discover a single haven along the coast,
nor anything in which a profitable trade could be opened
up by the honourable Company. Slaves, they stated, were
certainly not to be procured, as the inhabitants were
friendly in disposition and were very fond of each other.
Of the customs of the Bantu the seamen of the State-
nisse gave as accurate and almost as complete an account
as any which is extant at the present day. The men did
no work except milking the cows and making the kraals,
the women being required to till the ground and to per-
form all the household labour. Circumcision, with its
attendant ceremonies and the rights which it confers;
polygamy, with the method of obtaining wives and the
marriage customs; superstition, with the sacrifice of cattle
and the pimishments for alleged dealing in witchcraft,
were among the subjects noted by them and fairly de-
scribed just as they are to-day.
They spoke of the natives of that part of the country
as more handsome in person than the Hottentots of the
Cape, as so hospitable that at every kraal there was a
hut kept purposely for the accommodation of strangers,
as so social that they never passed each other without
stopping and conversing. They described the ceremonies
of mourning, the laws of the chase, the rules for the
division of spoil taken in war. They gave an account of
the knowledge possessed by these natives of -smelting iron
and copper, and of making various tools and orna-
ments.
The mountainous districts were infested with Bush-
men, that inhuman race who not only stole cattle, but
murdered men, women, and children alike, whenever they
had an opportunity. These savages, who were armed
with bow and poisoned arrow, had every man's hand
against them here, just as everywhere else in South
300 History of South Africa. [1689
Africa. The stalwart Bantu used the assagai and shield
in fighting with them and in all their wars.
The system of government was described, together
with the method of trying and ptmishing criminaLs, nor
is it omitted to be stated that fines for assault of a
subject were paid to the chief. The name of the chief
who governed the clan occupying what is now the district
of East London was Magama. The wrecked seamen
called him king, but he was not the paramount chief of
the Amaxosa. It is impossible now to ascertain what
section of the tribe he ruled over, but that is a matter of
small importance compared with the fact that in 1686 a
branch of the Xosas was found settled so far westward.
The principal plants cultivated by this people are
stated to have been millet, pumpkins, and beans. Tobacco
was found also in the northern districts. The Europeans
considered the beer which was made from millet very
palatabla The grain was preserved from weevil by stor-
ing it in pits underground, precisely as it is to-day. The
country was exceedingly well stocked with homed cattle
and goats, and teemed with wild animals of many kinds.
These particulars show that the travellers had made
themselves thoroughly well acquainted with the domestic
life of the people among whom they had been living.
Their statements, coupled with the log-book of the Noord^
supplied such information as enabled the commander to
frame a rough chart of the south-eastern coast region.
The chart was certainly far from accurate, but it was a
great improvement upon the old maps. The fabulous
empire of Monomotapa was now confined to the distant
interior, and Cortado and kindred towns disappeared alto-
gether.
Ensign Schryver's Expedition to the Inqiias.
Before 1687 the most distant Hottentot tribe known
to the eastward was the Outeniqua, who occupied the dis-
trict beyond the present village of George. Of them even
1689] Simon van der SteL 301
very little more than the name was known, as no Euro-
pean had ever penetrated farther than the kraals of the
Attaquas, who adjoined them to the westward. Between
the Attaquas and Hottentots-Holland lay the districts of
the Gouriquas, the Hessequas, and the Chainouquas, all
well known people. Beyond the Outeniquas many hordes
were reported to exist, and some fifteen or twenty words
then held to be tribal names were written down by
different commanders, a repetition of which would only
cause confusion. They may have been imitations of the
sounds of titles of petty clans, but supposition is needless,
for in whatever manner the words were obtained, they
disappeared as soon as the light of exploration fell upon
the country.
In February 1687 there came to the castle an indi-
vidual who represented that he had been sent by a very
powerful chief living far in the interior to ascertain what
kind of people the white men were, of whom rumours
had reached him, and what kind of things the wonderful
articles were which it was reported they exchanged for
cattle. According to the messenger's account, he was
himself a chief, but from the way in which he boasted
of the exploits of himself and his people, the commander
concluded that his following was a band of robbers. He
told just such a story, in short, as a Kafi&r bard would re-
cite to-day, and which would deceive any one who was a
stranger to native customs. From the statements which
he made concerning the powerful ruler by whom he had
been sent, the Europeans were led to beUeve that this
could be no other than the emperor of Monomotapa, the
great potentate whom they had so long been searching
for in vain. The messenger remained at the castle only
two days, during which time he was well entertained,
and upon leaving he promised soon to return with the
brother of the great chief who had sent him.
During the next two years presents were frequently
forwarded by the commander through the medium of Cap-
302 History of South Africa. [16^
tain Elaas to the individual who, from being consideied
a mighty emperor, soon came to be termed the chief of
the Inqna Hottentots. In December 1688 another depu-
tation from him arrived at the Cape, and announced that
he was desirous of entering into a friendly agreement
with the Europeans, so that they could carry on trade
with each other. He sent word further that his country
was very populous, that it was well stocked with homed
cattle and sheep, and that no white men had ever visited
it.
The council immediately resolved to send a party
back with the chief's messengers, and for this purpose
an expedition was organised which left the castle on the
4th of January 1689. It consisted of twenty- two Euro-
peans and a number of Cape Hottentots, the whole under
command of Ensign Izaak Schryver. Two waggons laden
with supplies of food and articles for barter accompanied
the expedition.
Passing over Hottentots - Holland kloof, the party
reached the kraal of Chainouquas or Soeswas, under Cap-
tain Klaas, where some pack oxen were obtained. Thence
eastward a course was followed the same as that of the
high road which passes through the present villages of
Caledon and Swellendam to Heidelberg. From this place
the guides led the expedition to within a few miles of
the site of the present village of Oudtshoorn, and then
crossing the Zwartebergen went on some distance farther
north-eastward, until on the thirty-ninth day after leaving
the castle the kraals of the Inqua tribe were found, under
a chief called by the Dutch Hykon. The point reached
cannot be fixed with precision. It was described as being
on the bank of a river running from north-east to south-
west; north-east by east was a lofty mountain with a
long and crooked pass through it, and to the south-south-
east beyond the river was a high peak whose summit re-
sembled a castle in ruins, from which circumstance the
name Vervallen Casteel was given to it.
1689] Simon van der Stel. 303
Captain Hykon is described by Ensign Scbryver as a
man of much greater authority than any of the captains
about the Cape, and his people are stated to be larger
and better proportioned than other Hottentots. More
than five hundred head of cattle and a good many sheep
were obtained from them in barter, and the intercourse
with them was of a most firiendly nature. On one occa-
sion only there was a slight misunderstanding. It was
a law of Hykon's tribe that any one killing game was
not to eat of it until a present had been made to the
chief. In ignorance of this custom, one of Ensign Schry-
ver's party shot a bird and cooked it, upon which Hykon
expressed his displeasure. As soon, however, as the en-
sign was made aware of the circumstance and of the law
of the tribe, he sent the chief a present of beads, which
was received as ample atonement for the mistake.
From the Inquas the Europeans obtained information
concerning other tribes, which enabled them to fill up the
vacant place on the map between the country of the
Outeniquas and that of the Amaxosa. They stated that
the people whom they called Kobona, and we call Kaffirs,
were to be reached in a journey of five days to the east-
south-east. They described the dwellings of the Kobona
as differing from those of the Hottentots, inasmuch as the
frames were closely wattled and covered with clay and the
roofs were thatched. Between the two races there was
often war, in which much damage was done. The Inquas
were too far away to take part in these wars, but they,
like every other South African tribe, were constantly en-
gaged in hostiUties with Bushmen.
To the south-east of the Inquas the tribes on the coast
were the Granumqua, the Nambunqua, the Gonaqua, and
the Damaqua, the last adjoining the Bantu. From these
the Inquas obtained dagha, a species of wild hemp which
they used as the Dutch did tobacco or the Chinese opium.
The Inquas were a numerous people, and carried on a
large bartering trade with their neighbours.
304 History of South Africa. [1689
When the expedition was returning it encountered a
horde of Bushmen who had just seized a great number of
cattle belonging to the Attaquas. For several days these
Bushmen continued with the Europeans, causing much
annoyance and creating strong suspicion that they were
watching for an opportunity to make an attack. At length
their conduct became so provoking that the ensign ordered
a general volley to be fired among them. Thirty fell, and
the rest fled, leaving the cattle, which the Europeans took
possession of. When the Attaquas heard what had taken
place, they expressed great joy that their enemies had met
with such a disaster.
During the remainder of the journey little of import-
ance transpired. In the Hessequa country a few cattle
were stolen from the party one night, but upon informa-
tion being given to the chief he took steps to recover
them, and put to death one of the thieves who was cap-
tured. On the 6th of April the ensign reported himself at
the castle, having brought back his party in safety, and
having with him over a thousand head of homed cattle, a
herd larger than any obtained by the most successful trad-
ing expedition previously sent out.
The Wreck of the Noord.
In October 1689 the council of policy resolved to send
the galiot Noord for the second time along the coast as
far as Natal. The objects in view were, first, to rescue
the nine missing men of the Stavenisse who were believed
to be still hving with the natives; second, to endeavour to
purchase for the honourable Company the bay of Natal
and the land around it; and third, to survey Algoa Bay
and purchase it and the country about it from the native
proprietors.
The galiot sailed from Table Bay on the 28th of
October, but, owing to contrary winds, did not arrive be-
fore the bay of Natal until the 9th of December. There
1690] Simon van der SteL 305
three men of the Stavenisse were found and taken on board,
and the desired purchase of territory was effected. A for-
mal contract was drawn up by Laurens van Swaanswyk,
the journalist of the expedition, to which the chief resid-
ing near the bay affixed his mark. In this the honourable
Company was aicknowledged to be the proprietor of the
inlet and surrounding land, for which merchandise in rings,
beads, copper plates, wire, etc., to the value of about 1,650/.
English sterhng money was said to have been paid, though
in fact 501. would more nearly have represented its value.
Landmarks, with the Company's monogram upon them,
were erected in several prominent positions.
On the 11th of January 1690 the JVoard sailed from
Natal, and on the 15th arrived in Algoa Bay, or as it
was then called, Bahia da Lagoa. A stiff breeze was
blowing in, and the bay was hke a stormy sea. Skipper
Pieter Timmerman pronounced it nothing better than an
exposed bight, and deeming it worthless to the Company,
he did not even drop anchor.
On the evening of the 16th the galiot was believed to
be well off the land, when about half-past nine o'clock
she struck suddenly, and with the next wave was washed
high up on the reef called Elippen Point, about fifteen
or sixteen English miles west of Cape St. Francis. Her
officers were afterwards severely blamed for her loss, but
they appear to have used due precaution. The night was
dark, and it is now known that the Agulhas current at
this place often spreads out so as to cause a drift towards
the shore.
At low water the crew found that they could walk to
land without wetting their feet. They numbered eighteen
men, all strong and hearty. The wreck was full of water
at high tide, but they had no difficulty in getting what
they wanted out of her. No natives were to be seen in
the neighbourhood. On the 23rd they started from the
scene of the disaster, to make their way as best they
could overland to the castle. Each man took with him
VOL. L 20
3o6 History of South Africa. [1690
a matchlock with ammnnitioiiy and as much food as lie
could carry. For several days they kept together, but at
length they broke up into parties, the sturdiest pushing
on ahead.
On the 27th of March the mate Theunis van der
Schelling, with three companions, arrived at the Cape and
reported the loss of the Noord. These men had suffered
much from hunger until they reached the kraal of Cap-
tain Klaas, by whom they had been entertained and cared
for in the most generous manner. Indeed, they attributed
their preservation to his kindness. Klaas inmiediately
sent some of his people to search for the other men, but
most of them perished before aid could reach them. The
few that were rescued told piteous tales of the misery
they had gone through, and the cruel treatment they had
received at the hands of Bushmen.
One result of these expeditions and disasters was a
knowledge of the country and its inhabitants such as was
hardly added to during the next hundred years. From
this time forward also the Europeans in South Africa re-
garded one class of those inhabitants less favourably than
they had done before. That class was the wild, untame-
able, cruel race previously known as Sonquas, Obiquas,
Hougliquas, Makriggas, Batuas, etc., but thenceforth com-
monly called Bossiemans or Bushmen.^ The country
from • Delagoa Bay to the Cape of Good Hope could be
travelled over in perfect safety, wrote the commander, if
it were not for these banditti. The hand of the Hotten-
tot and the Kaffir everywhere was against them, and now
the European was added to the number of their foes.
By all alike they were regarded as thieves and murderers,
and ere long it came to be considered the duty of honest,
law-abiding people to aid in purging the settled districts
^The word Bossiemans first occurs in a manoioript dated 20th of
October 16S5.
1690] Satum vmm dtr St^L ^07
of their pveseDee. A ^luggje then commeDoed between
tlie cokmygK and diese saTiiges, which oontmued until
the nineleendi u c i iiuii was wdl adrmnced, when the
Bnshmen who remained weze too few in nnmbw to giTe
further trouble.
3o8
CHAPTER X.
SmON VAN DEB STEL'S ADMINISTBATION {eoiUmuedi.
In June 1685 a French ship bound to Siam put into
Table Bay, having on board an embassy sent by Liouis
XIV to the government of that comitry. Accompanying
the embassy were six missionaries of the Society of Jesos,
among whom were two astronomers provided with the
best instruments of the day. The missionaries were
treated in the most courteous and considerate manner by
the high commissioner and the conunander, though they
were not permitted to conduct public worship on shore.
The pleasure house in the Company's garden was assigned
to them for an observatory, and there they made astrono-
mical observations during the few nights of their stay at
the Cape. From an echpse of one of Jupiter's satellites
they calculated the difference of time between Paris and
their station to be one hour, twelve minutes, and forty
seconds, which is about eight minutes too much, so that
they laid down the African coast-line two degrees too far
east. The variation of the magnetic needle they found
to be eleven degrees and thirty minutes west.^
^When the Portuguese first doubled Africa, the needle was found to
be without yaziation at Agulhas, from which circumstance that cape
received its name. At the end of the sixteenth century, when the
Dutch commerce was yery rapidly extending, much thought was expended
in endeayouring to find out some means of ascertaining longitudes.
Christopher Columbus, who found a point of no variation two degrees and
thirty minutes east of Corvo, was the first to suggest that the position
of a ship at sea might be known by means of observations of the com-
pass. A centuiy later the idea of Columbus was adopted fay many men
1685] Simon van der SteL 309
In the year 1686 the directors renewed the attempt to
induce emigration from the Netherlands to this colony.
They distributed notices throughout the provinces, oflfering
to industrious famiUes free passages to the Cape, farms in
full property as large as each could cultivate, and a
supply of agricultural implements, seed, and cattle, at
cost price on credit. The emigrants were to remain in
South Africa at least fifteen years, and should they desire
to return to Europe at the expiration of that period, they
were to be conveyed back at rates which were specified.
Before embarking they were to take an oath of allegiance
to the states-general as the sovereign and supreme
authorities, to the prince of Orange as governor, captain,
and admiral-general, and to the East India Company.
It has already been related that there was no dearth
of employment in the Netherlands, nor dissatisfaction of
any kind in religious or secular matters, so that the
motives which ordinarily induce men to leave their coun-
try were wanting. Still there were persons who might
be expected to take advantage of an offer like that made
by the directors of the East India Company. These were
either such adventurous individuals as are always to be
found in maritime countries, or Germans from the neigh-
bouring states who had come to Holland in search of a
of note, but by no one was it so elaborately worked out as by Dr.
Petros PlanciuB, a ^clergyman of Amsterdam, fakmons for his geographical
knowledge and for his activity in promoting commercial enterprise. His
plan for determining longitudes was based upon the supposition that
the yariation of the compass increased regularly from a minimum to
a maTJmum point, and then decreased regularly in the opposite direction.
One of the minimum points, or places of no perceptible yariation, he
set down from the observations of numerous seamen at seventeen Dutch
miles east of Agulhas, or about the cape now called Barracouta. This
was in 1696. The scheme of Plancius was approved of by the greatest
authorities of his time, and it was not altogether discarded when the
French expedition was here. Calculations of longitude, based upon the
variation of the compass, are frequently found in the old log-books, though
the experience of nearly a century showed they were in most instances
valueless. In 1714, according to the historian Valentyn, the variation
«t Oapetown was eleven degrees west.
3IO History of South Africa. [1685
liviDg, and who had taken to themselves Dutch wives.
So many men had gone from the republic to fill positions
of trust in the Indian dependencies, and so many more
were serving in the fleets, that the number of females
was greatly in excess of that of males throughout the
provinces. Thus it happened that while all the women —
with one exception — who came from Europe to the Cape
Colony before 1688 were Dutch by birth, a considerable
proportion of the male settlers consisted of naturalised
foreigners.
The new colonists of this period whose descendants
are still in South Africa were not, however, all immi-
grants who came out under the terms offered by the
East India Company. Commander Van der Stel was
always on the watch for men Ukely to make good
farmers, and whenever such a one was discovered either
in the garrison or the homeward bound fleets, induce-
ments were held out to him to become a landowner. If
he had a wife or one in prospect in the Netherlands, she
was sent out free of expense. The new names of burgh-
ers found in the records of this time are those of Andries
Beyers, Jan van den Bosch, Pieter Boshouwer, Hendrik
Bouwman, Nicolaas Cleef, Gerrit van Deventer, Pierre le
Febre, Matthys Greef, Abraham Hartog, Christoffel Hase-
winkel, Jacobus van der Heyden, Abraham de Klerk,
Pieter van Marseveen, Willem Meyer, Hendrik Christoffel
Holler, Jan Lambert Myburgh, Adriaan Prinsloo, Frederik
Bussouw, Izaak Scheepers, Jan Smit, Marten van Staden,
Joost Strydom, and Jan Vermeulen.
To provide wives for those men who were unmarried
when discharged from the Company's service in South
Africa, the commander on several occasions requested the
directors to send out a number of females,^ who, he
thought, could easily be induced to emigrate from Hol-
^ In 1672 the directors renewed the attempt made in 1664 to induce young
women to proceed to South Africa under the care of clergymen, sick-com-
forters, and others with families, but they met with no success.
1685] Simon van der Stel. 311
land. In October 1685 he was informed that his re-
quests had been under consideration, and that forty-eight
marriageable girls would be sent out as a commencement.
To obtain them the directors applied to the orphan
masters of some of the great towns of the Netherlands.
Homes for orphans were then, as they are still, among
the most important charitable institutions of the Low
Countries. They partook of the practical character of the
people, and had for their object the maintenance and
education of poor orphan children. In these institutions
the inmates wore a particular kind of dress to distinguish
them from other children, strict discipline was main-
tained, and habits of industry, cleanliness, and frugality
were enforced. The masters or guardians acted as parents
of the orphans : they apprenticed the boys to trades,
placed the girls in service, and generaUy watched over
them until they could make for themselves a fair com-
mencement in life. All classes of people regarded the
inmates of the homes with a friendly eye, presents were
often sent to them, and it was considered a scandalous
action to harm them in any way. Better schools than
these there could not be for training boys and girls to be-
come useful members of the commonwealth. The children
did not receive, it is true, more than a very elementary
education from books, but they were taught to fear God
and to do their duty in that station of life in which it
had pleased Him to place them. They formed a commu-
nity like a large family presided over by careful and
devout parents.
The orphan guardians of Amsterdam and Botterdam
consented to allow marriageable girls who were so in-
clined to emigrate to the Cape, but only under conditions
which so far as human means can go should serve to
screen them from harm. They were not to embark un-
less accompanied by other emigrants and under the care
of a respeetable elderly woman. The commander of the
Cape was to see that they were comfortably provided for
312 History of South Africa. [1686
and properly protected until they were married to honour-
able, sober, and industrious burghers. They were not to
be detained in the colony against their will if after five
years' residence they or their husbands wished to return
to Europe. Even under these conditions very few young
women were found willing to leave the fatherland, so
that instead of the forty-eight that the directors wished
to send out in 1685, only three embarked in the fleet of
that year. They were from Rotterdam. In 1686 they
were followed by seven or eight more, who also came
from Botterdam. During several years small parties of
them continued to arrive, though never more than seven
or eight at a time. They were married to the most pros-
perous of the Cape burghers, generally within a few
weeks after landing.
In 1686 a fair was established at Stellenbosch, and was
thereai^ held yearly from the 1st to the 14th of Octo-
ber. It was intended by the commander to be similar in
every respect to a kermis in the fatherland, such as is
still kept up in many Dutch towns, though the kindred
institution of an English fair is almost forgotten. At this
fair every one was at liberty to buy and sell the products
of the country without restriction. It was intended also
to be a season of general recreation, and it was provided
that the drilling of the militia and target-shooting should
then take place.
The method of target-shooting in those days was so
peculiar as to merit a description. A figure resembling a
parrot, and hence called a papegaai, was fixed upon a pole
iu the centre of a circle with a radius of sixty feet. The
marksmen chose their positions upon an arc of this circle
in the order in which they paid the subscription fees,
which were — to residents of Stellenbosch one shilling, and
to all others four shillings. They fired in the same order,
standing and without rests for their guns. The small
prizes were — for knocking off the head four shillings, the
right wing two shiUings, the left wing one shilling and
1 686] Simon van der SteL 313
sixpence, the tail one shilling, and a splinter sixpence.
The great prize was given to him who knocked off the
rump and by doing so destroyed the whole figure. It was
five pounds in cash from the honourable Company and
whatever subscription money was in hand. The winner
was escorted home in state by the whole body of shooters,
and had the title of King of the Marksmen until some
one else could wrest it from him.
Target-shooting was also practised with pistols. In
this exercise a small object was set up ten paces on one
side of a straight furrow. The marksmen were mounted,
and rode at full gallop along the furrow, firing as they
passed. The drill-master, who was always a man of ex-
perience, arranged for target-shooting, and was the sole
judge in disputes. He received one-fifth of all prizes,
more as a mark of his authority than as payment for his
services. The government encouraged these exercises as a
means of keeping the burghers skilled in the use of their
weapons. Towards the end of September in every year
the drill-master appeared at the castle and received from
the issuer of stores, as the honourable Company's con-
tribution to the sports, one hundred and fifty pounds of
gunpowder, one hundred pounds of lead, and three hun-
dred gun-flints.
During the period of the fair, the colonists of the Cape
district usually went in their waggons to Stellenbosch,
and gave themselves up to the enjoyments of the season.
If there were ships in port, as many of their people as
could get away generally did the same. It was the
pleasure time of the year, when labour was laid aside for
a short space, and firiends renewed their acquaintanceship.
The commander, who loved to see his people happy, was
always present on these occasions. On the closing day
of the fair, which was his birthday, every one waited
upon him and wished him happiness, the school-children
marched in procession, carrying their banner and directed
by Dominie Mankadan, and in the afternoon the whole
314 History of South Africa. [1686
body of militia was drawn up and fired three volleys in
his honour. Any Hottentot chiefs who were in the '
neighbourhood were also in the habit of paying their
respects on these occasions. They were always well en-
tertained according to their ideas, and it was not unusual
for them to present an ox in return.
When the commander visited Stellenbosch to be
present at the fair of 1686 he was accompanied by the
reverend Johannes Ovemey, who on Sunday the 13th of
October conducted divine service in the house of one of
the residents. It was the first service held by a clergy-
man in the new settlement. A sermon was delivered
from the text Isaiah hi. 7, and in the afternoon three
infants bom at Stellenbosch were baptized.
On the following day the question of putting up a
building expressly for public worship was discussed, and
it was resolved to take it in hand as soon as the crops
were gathered. An arrangement was made that the
clergyman of the Cape should visit the village once every
three months, to conduct divine service and administer
the sacraments, and that the sick-visitor Mankadan should
continue to read a sermon and prayers regularly on all
other Sabbaths in the year.
On the 20th of December the council of policy form-
ally estabhshed a new congregation by the approval of
Dirk Coetsee, a burgher who had been several years in
the colony, as elder for Stellenbosch. In January 1687,
when Mr. Overney visited the village to conduct the
services, the elder and a deacon were installed in office,
and a consistory came into existence which was after-
wards perpetuated in the same manner as that in Cape-
town. A few weeks later, on the 14th of February, the
first stone of the church was laid. The building was
forty feet in length by twenty-two in width. The com-
mander was a liberal contributor towards the cost of its
erection, and took such a warm interest in the under-
taking that be sometimes visited the village purposely to
1 686] Simon van der.StcL 315
superintend the work in person. It was opened for use
during his next birthday tour, on the 19th of October
1687, on which occasion the reverend Johannes van An-
del delivered a sermon from Numbers vi. 23-27.
A residence for the landdrost and a courthouse were
erected in 1686, and a mill was built at the expense of
the district. The price for grinding corn was fixed, and
the mill was then leased by auction to the highest bidder,
the rental going to the district funds.
The cultivation of the vine was advancing in the new
district, and already Stellenbosch had the reputation of
producing better wine than Eondebosch or Wynberg. But
the very best was so far inferior to the wines of Europe
that the commander believed either that the grapes were
pressed too soon or the right kind had not yet been intro-
duced. He therefore issued a placaat prohibiting every
one under a penalty of ten pounds from pressing grapes
before the vineyards had been visited by a committee and
pronounced by himself to be of the requisite maturity;
and he not only obtained new cuttings of different varie-
ties from France, Germany, and Spain, but managed to
produce Persian vines from seed. With all these he was
experimenting on his own farm Constantia, as well as in
the Company's gardens in Table Valley and at Busten-
burg, and he was encouraging the burghers of Stellen-
bosch to do the same.
Experiments were repeated at this time in the cultiva-
tion of rice, cassava, and hops, which were found to
answer no better than on former occasions. Millet, ob-
tained from Natal, did very well, and it was found to
make good beer. The olive, which had excited such
hopes in the first commander of the settlement, was tried
again and again by Simon van der Stel. He had the
trees planted in every variety of soil and position, but
he could not make them bear to his Uking. In some
seasons the fruit would fall before it was mature, in
other seasons there would be no fruit at all. Only occa-
3i6 History of South Africa. [1686
fiionally a few good olives would be obtained, just suffi-
cient to keep up hope. At last all the trees died off
except three or four.
The commander was an enthusiastic tree-planter. He
observed that the indigenous forests of the country were
rapidly being destroyed, and that nature unaided was not
replacing them. Unless trees were planted by man there
would soon be neither timber nor fuel to be had. The
fuel used by the garrison was indeed even then obtained
from a grove of alders beyond Bondebosch, which had
been planted by Mr. Crudop in 1679. Various kinds of
European and Indian timber trees were being produced
from seeds in the nurseries of the Company's garden, but
of them all none seemed to thrive like the oak. The
commander, therefore, endeavoured to get as many oaks
planted as possible. He offered young trees to the burgh-
ers, and at a date somewhat later he issued a positive
order that every farmer was to plant at least one hundred.
He set the example at Constantia and on the Company's
farms. In the spring of 1687 he had the satisfaction of
seeing between four and five thousand oaks already begin-
ning to bear acorns in the Stellenbosch and Cape districts,
and he had at this time over fifty thousand in the nur-
series nearly ready to transplant.
In the night of the 16th of April 1686 the Portuguese
ship No88a SenJurra dos MUagros, on her return voyage to
Europe, was wrecked on the coast between Capes Agulhas
and False. She had a crew of several hundred souls,
besides a good many passengers, including three ecclesi-
astics and three ambassadors from the king of Siam to
the king of Portugal, with their servants and other at-
tendants. The night was fine and clear, but the master of
the ship, believing he had rounded the Cape, neglected to
set a watch, and was steering directly on shore. Many
lost their lives in trying to get to land after the ship
struck, and those who succeeded in reaching the beach
found themselves without food and half naked.
1 686] Simon van der SteL 317
The eldest of the Siamese ambassadors died of grief
and distress shortly after getting to land, and the others
left with a party of Portuguese to make their way to the
Cape. On the 8th of May ten of the seamen reached the
castle, where they were kindly received. Some waggons
and horses, with provisions, were immediately sent to meet
the other unfortunate travellers. Two days later Captain
Manuel da Silva, a number of officers, Boman catholic
priests, sailors, and soldiers arrived. They had undergone
such terrible suffering from hunger and thirst that a large
proportion of those who left the wreck perished on the
way to the Cape. They informed the commander that
they had saved nothing whatever except diamonds to the
value of one hundred thousand pound& The Siamese had
been abandoned by their Portuguese companions on the
way, and no one could tell what had become of them.
The council resolved to lodge the Portuguese officers
and priests at Bondebosch, and the sailors and soldiers
in the hospital, which happened to be free of patients.
Bations according to their rank, on the same scale as
those supplied to the Companjr's servants, were issued to
them, and a sum of 100/. in money was lent to the officers
to purchase clothing. The priests were required not to
give offence to the inhabitants by public celebration of
their worship. They were all forwarded to Europe with
the next fleet, except some sailors who chose to enter the
Company's service.
A sergeant and six soldiers were sent to look for the
Siamese, and to give them all the assistance in their
power. After the lapse of about a month from the date
of the wreck most of them were found in a wretched
condition wandering about among the mountains. They
were received at the castle with firing of cannon and
other marks of honour, on account of the friendly feeling
of the Siamese government towards the East India Com-
pany. A present of clothing was made to them, they
were furnished with 200/. in cash on loan, and at their
3i8 History of South Afrua. [1686
own request they were lodged at the house of a burgher
rather than with the Portuguese. About four months
after being rescued, the two surviving ambassadors with
their attendants, twenty-eight in number, were forwarded
to Batavia, where they found a ship in which they re-
turned to their own country.
In 1686 an incident occurred which illustrates the en-
mity that was already felt towards the Bushmen. Some
Uttle time before this a party of Europeans who went
out hunting was attacked by a band of these savages,
when one of their number was killed by a poisoned
arrow, sixteen oxen were stolen, and their two waggons
were burnt. There was no possibiUty of retaliating in
the same way as with an agricultural or even a pastoral
people, for it was useless looking for Bushmen when they
did not wish to be seen. The Chainouqua coimtry was
infested with them, so that travelling was unsafe. The
commander called upon Captains IQaas and Koopman to
suppress their depredations, but Elaas was himself so
sorely pressed by the marauders that on one occasion he
was compelled to abandon his kraals and flee to the
neighbourhood of Cape Agulhas.
At length this good and faithful friend of the Company,
as he is often called, appeared at the castle and stated
that he had succeeded in inflicting a slight punishment
upon the common enemy.* His account was that as he
was preparing to attack them they sent three women to
request a renewal of the friendship that had once existed
between them. He returned a favourable answer, with
a present of tobacco, by which means he decoyed eleven
of them, including their leader, to his kraal. There he
caused a sheep to be killed for their entertainment, and
while they were dancing and rejoicing be had them
seized and ordered them to be put to death. The order
was instantly carried out upon eight of them, the other
three having managed to escape by the fleetness of their
feet. For this act of retaliation for the injuries done to
1 686] Simon van der SteL 319
the Europeans, as the council chose to view it, Klaas
was rewarded with a present of twenty pounds of Vir-
ginia tobacco, an anker of arrack, one hundred and fifty
pounds of rice, and a few trifles.
Among the various placaats which had been issued
from time to time since the formation of the settlement,
there were many which had fallen into disusa Some
were no longer adapted to the condition of affairs, others
were only enforced by particular conamanders. It thus
became necessary to revise and pubUsh them afresh, so
that there might be no uncertainty about the local laws.
Most of the revised placaats had reference to what would
now be termed municipal matters, and by them not only
was individual Uberty more restricted, but the penalties
for infringement were much severer than at present. In
these respects, however, the Cape did not differ from the
most enhghtened European countries. A few of the gen-
eral placaats are here given to show the character of the
collection : —
"The breed of horses in this country having degener-
ated in size, any one who shall use for labour a horse
under three years of age shall be subject to a penalty of
ten pounds."
"Many slaves having deserted from service and caused
great trouble and danger by forming themselves into
bands of robbers, no one is to permit a slave to carry a
gun, even when tending cattle, under penalty of a fine of
twenty pounds."
"No one is to sell any implement of war, even a
knife, to a slave, under penalty of arbitrary correction."
"To prevent fraud, the Company's cattle are to be
branded C & O on both ears, and no one is to keep cattle
with chpped ears, under penalty of confiscation."
Another useful measure was the more perfect registra-
tion of titles to land. On the 1st of July 1686 a reso-
320 History of South Africa. [1687
lution was passed by the conncil of policy, calling upon
all persons to produce within two months their title-deeds
and leases, for the purpose of having them copied into a
strong book and authenticated by the secretary. The
existing records were also to be copied into the same
book, so that all cause of dispute and actions at law
might be prevented. The volume framed in accordance
with this resolution is now in the office of the surveyor-
general in Capetown. From this date a record of titles
has been kept, but it must not be inferred that the names
of all, or even a majority, of those who obtained grants
of land will be found recorded at the time of their
arrival in this country. As a means of tracing the pro-
gress of immigration, for instance, these records are nearly
valueless. Title-deeds were never issued until the ground
was surveyed, and this was sometimes delayed twenty-five
or thirty years after it was allotted. The occupailt: in' the
meantime held merely a note authorising hfm to take
'possession of and cultivate the land. In many instances
the original occupier died or sold out and removed, in
which case the titles were issued in the name of the one
in possession when the survey was made.^ This will
account for the apparently defective condition of the land
record books for a long series of years.
Towards the beginning of the winter of 1687 the
colony was visited by a destructive disease, a kind of
fever which carried off many of the inhabitants. The
natives suffered very severely from it, so much so that one
kraal is mentioned in which half the people were dead
while the others were all sick. Schacher, chief of the
Goringhaiquas or Eaapmans, died at this time. The clan
was so thoroughly subject to the Company that the ap-
pointment of his successor was made by the commander.
He chose a nephew of the deceased chief, whom he
named Massanissa, and to whom he gave one of the
^Thirty years* undisputed possession of ground gave the oocupier a
legal claim to a free title.
1687] Simon van der SteL 321
ordinary staffs of office. Among the Europeans who were
carried off were the reverend Johannes Overney and
Captain Hieronymus Cruse. The clergyman died on the
5th of May. The pulpit was not long vacant, for on the
4th of June the reverend Johannes van Andel called here
in a ship of which he was chaplain, and consented to
remain. The old explorer Captain Cruse, often mentioned
in former years, died on the 20th of June. He was
succeeded in the command of the garrison by Lieutenant
Dominique de Chavonnes.
In June 1687 a fleet of six ships of war, sent by the
king of France with a second embassy to the king of
Siam, put into Table Bay. The admiral's request to be
permitted to purchase refreshments and to lodge his sick
in the hospital was at once acceded to, but on condition
that all healthy men were to go on board before sunset
and that arms were not to be carried by any of them
when ashore. The garrison of the castle was at the time
very small, but to make a brave show, the commander
called in some men from the outposts and required the
Cape mihtia to mount guard. Stellenbosch also furnished
a contingent of forty armed burghers.^
In October 1687 a fresh tract of land was given out
to settlers. About fifty individuals belonging to the home-
ward bound fleet which put into Table Bay in September,
being charmed with the appearance of the country, peti-
tioned the commander to allow them to make a trial of
farming. He would very cheerfully have done so if they
had been married men, but as only a few had wives he
thought it best to reject two-thirds of them. At the close
of the fair at Stellenbosch there were twenty-three in-
dividuals in all ready to take possession of farms. The
commander therefore resolved to foimd a new settlement
with them, and for this purpose he selected the beautiful
^ There was a system of signals by means of guns and flags between
the castle and the drostdy at Stellenbosch, by means of which the
militia coold be called to the defence of the Gape at very short notice.
VOL. I. 21
322 History of South Africa. [1687
valley visited first by Abraham Gabbema thirty years
before. At daylight on the morning of the 16th of Octo-
ber the new burghers left Stellenbosch, and were followed
a little later by his Honour with a party of attendants on
horseback. At Simonsberg they halted to rest, and there
the commander overtook them. It was a lovely view that
met their eyes as they looked down into the valley where
they were about to make their homes. A stranger cannot
gaze upon it in the pleasant spring-time without feeling
a thrill of delight, and if to-day the many homesteads and
groves add to its beauty, it has lost almost as much in
that rich carpeting of grass and flowers which covered it
in 1687. It had as yet no name, so the commander
called it Drakenstein, after an estate in the Netherlands
belonging to the lord of Mydrecht.
That afternoon the frontage of the twenty-three farms
was marked out along the Berg river. Each farm was to
extend backwards six hundred roods and was sixty roods
in width, thus containing nearly one hundred and twenty-
seven English acres. Like all other landed property in
the colony, that now given out was legally burdened with
the payment to the government of tithes of the produce
of grain. This tax was, however, not very rigidly ex-
acted, and was generally either wholly or in part re-
mitted in bad seasons or when the occupants of the
ground met with any heavy losses. An experiment was
once made in farming it out at public auction. The pur-
chaser had the right to every eleventh sheaf as it stood
in the field, for though called the tithe, a full tenth was
seldom demanded. But the plan gave rise to complaints,
and it was soon abandoned, after which the tenth part of
all grain brought to the Cape for sale was deducted as it
passed the castla The only other charge upon the ground
was the cost of measurement and title-deeds when it was
surveyed. The farms were given out in full property, sub-
ject to these conditions only, but they could be forfeited
if the grantees neglected to commence cultivating them
1687] Simon van der Stel. 323
within a yeax, or if they afterwards abandoned them. It
was necessary to make this provision, as the great major-
ity of the Company's servants who became farmers soon
got tired of that occupation.
In November of this year False Bay was examined by
the commander in person. In March 1682 it had been
surveyed, but not so carefully as to satisfy the directors.
The galiot JSoord conveyed the commander with some
surveyors and a draughtsman round from Table Bay,
and while she was engaged taking soundings, a party
proceeding along the shore was measiuring distances and
angles. The bight previously known as Yselstein Bay
was found to be capable of affording good shelter for
a small fleet. It was ascertained that fresh water was
to be had there, and fish of excellent quality in great
abundance Its advantages were observed as a place of
call and refreshment for the Company's ships in time of
war, when an enemy's fleet might be watching Table
Bay. The commander gave it his Christian name, and
as Simon's Bay it has ever since been known.
The colonists were at this time in a fairly prosperous
condition. There were no avenues to great wealth open
to them, but on the other hand no one was suffering
from want of the necessaries of life. There were no
beggars in the colony. The thriftless and unstable
burghers who had given so much trouble in the earUer
days of the settlement had died out or returned into the
Company's service, and their places were occupied by a
more industrious class of men. Still, there was one cir-
cumstance in connection with the colonists which caused
the commander much uneasiness. Only about one-third
of them were married, and none but these could be con-
sidered permanently settled. Everything that was possible
had been done to procure female immigrants, but the
number that arrived was very small indeed. Notwith-
standing the laws against European men forming con-
nections with slave and native women, inmiorahty of
324 History of South Africa. [1687
that kind could not be entirely checked, and many chil-
dren of mixed blood were bom in the settlement. These
naturally grew up as a class inferior to Europeans, but
priding themselves upon being better than either pure
Hottentots or negros.
The burghers of the town, who were all discharged
servants of the Company, were chiefly dependent upon
the shipping for means of living. They showed their
prosperity by a tendency to display in dress, which the
commander deemed so unbecoming that he forbade it*
He did not want any spurious grandees here, he said, but
honest, industrious people, of whom alone good colonists
could be made. His ideas in this respect were those of
the cleverest statesmen of his age.^ When, for instance,
he prohibited the wives of mechanics from carrying sun-
shades and expressed an opinion that such a practice was
too outrageous to be tolerated, he was but following the
example of the most advanced people of Europe.
Toward the close of the year 1687 a plague of locusts
did much damage to the gardens, but notwithstanding this
the crops were so good that there was not room in the
magazines for all the grain and wine and other produce
that was brought in. On the 31st of December, when the
yearly census was taken, it appeared that the Company
had at Bustenburg in round numbers one hundred thou-
sand vines bearing, and had on the several farms one
thousand one hundred and sixty-four head of homed cattle,
one hundred and forty horses, and nine thousand two
hundred and eighteen sheep.
The returns in connection with the colonists,* their
stock and produce, were as follow: —
1 In October 1686 certain sumptuary laws were put in force in India
by tbe directors.
* The number of burghers is always understated in the yearly lists,,
owing to the omission of names through carelessness or for some other
oause.
1687]
Simon van der Stel.
325
Burghers
Wives of burghers and widows
Children of burghers
European men servants
Men slaves
Women slaves .
Slave children .
Horses in possession of burghers
Homed cattle .
Sheep
Muids of wheat from last crop
Muids of rye .
Muids of barley
Vines bearing .
254
88
281
89
230
44
86
155
2,951
80,142
1,857
197
205
402,900
During the last twenty years of the sixteenth century
the population of Holland and Zeeland was largely in-
creased by immigrants of the Protestant faith from the
southern Netherland provinces. Many of these immi-
grants spoke no other language than French, and wher-
ever they settled in sufficient numbers clergymen using
that language were appointed to conduct religious services
for them. In this manner nmnerous French and Walloon
congregations were established throughout the free Nether-
lands.
These congregations, however, did not form separate
churches, but only new branches of churches which pre-
viously existed in the towns where they settled. To
each ecclesiastical fabric several clergymen were usually
attached, and when a French congregation was formed
one of these clergymen was selected to attend to it. In
the same building where the ordinary Dutch services were
held French services were conducted at different hours,
the whole body of worshippers being united in one church,
with its deacons, elders, and other officers.^
^The baptismal and marriage registers of these churches have been
carefully examined by the French and Walloon Church Historical Society,
as they furnish a great amount of curious as weU as valuable information.
The names and dates have been written on slips of paper and arranged
alphabeticaUy, so that investigation is now veiy easy. Through the kind-
326 History of South Africa. [1687
Daring the century following the Pacification of
Ghent, these congregations were constantly being aug-
mented in size and in number by immigrants from France
and Belgium, though gradually the settlers became undis-
tinguishable, except by name, from other Netherlanders.
Strong sympathy in religious matters and facility of
obtaining employment were the attractions which drew
French Protestants in numbers that more than compen-
sated for the loss of those who by long residence became
thoroughly Dutch.
When, therefore, about the year 1670 the larger stream
of emigration, which was the result of the cruelties inflict-
ed by Louis XTV upon his Protestant subjects, com-
menced to set out of France, there was no country to
which the refugees looked more hopefully than towards
the United Provinces. Numerous Protestant French fami-
lies had branches already long settled there, so that when
the immigrants arrived, they found men of their own
tongue and blood, and very often of their own name, ready
to welcome them. The world-wide commerce also, which
had its centre in the free Netherlands, had created such
a demand for labour of all kinds that many thousands
of them found no difficulty in making new homes. But
owing to this very cause the republic, though it had vast
foreign possessions, could not become a great colonising
country.
A few of the refugees who left France between 1670
neia of Mr. Bnaohede, the highly esteemed archiyist of Haarlem, in whose
charge these slips are, I had an opportunity of inspecting them, and
therehy of obtaining in the conrse of a few hours some knowledge which
I needed, and which otherwise would have taken me weeks to acquire.
The Walloon Library, belonging to this Society, is kept in two rooms at
Leiden. It contains only one South African work, a French sermon
preached in the colony shortly after the arrival of the Huguenots. The
talented secretary, Dr. Du Rieu, who is also librarian of the university,
kindly gave me all possible assistance in prosecuting researches. (This note
was written in 1883. Mr. Enschede died several years ago, and Dr. Du Rieu
in December 1896.)
1687] Simon van der Stel. 327
and 1685 entered the service of the East India Com-
pany, and some of these were stationed in South Africa.
On the 3rd of October 1685 the assembly of seventeen
passed a resolution to send out French refugees with
other emigrants, but so few were found willing to leave
Europe that in the course of two years only three or four
were obtained. These were persons of irreproachable
character, who gave no trouble to the government or em-
ployment to the courts of law.
The ordinances which annulled the edict of Nantes —
issued by Louis XTV in October 1685— though they for-
bade the emigration of the Protestants, gave a tremendous
impetus to the movement. But now, as it was not pos-
sible to leave the kingdom openly, every kind of property
except money and jewels was of necessity abandoned.
The fugitives, escaping in various disguises, were glad to
cross the frontier in utter destitution as far as worldly
wealth was concerned. One of the saddest features in
this sad chapter in the history of human woe was the
small number of women and children who escaped, com-
pared with that of young and strong men. Very often a
single youth found himself in safety after every other
member of his family had perished or had been lost to
sight for ever in prisons and convents.
During the two years that followed the revocation of
the edict of Nantes the towns of the free Netherlands
were filled with refugees, still those who were suited to
make good colonists ' generally managed to find employ-
ment. At the same time the Protestants were migrating
in great nmnbers from the valleys of Piedmont, and,
though most of these found homes in Switzerland and
Germany, a few made their way to the United Provinces.
When the directors of the East India Company met in
the autumn of 1687 it seemed possible to obtain some
Piedmontese and French families as colonists, and they
therefore resolved to make another attempt.
With this view they promised, in addition to the
328 History of South Africa. [1687
advantages pieviofiisly held out, that a clergyman speaking
the French language should be engaged to accompany the
emigrants, and that any lefogee desiring to return to
Europe after the expration of five years should be at
liberty to do sa On the 28th of October they engaged
the reverend Pierre Simond, minister of the French con-
gr^aticm at Zienckzee, at a salary of 11. 10s. a month,
to proceed to the Cape, and on the 5th of November
they resolved, as a further inducement, to offer a gratuity
of from 5/. to 8/. 6s. S^/., according to circumstances, to
every head of a femiily, and from 2/. 10s. to 4/. 3s. 4^ to
every young unmarried man or woman, to assist in pro-
curing an outfit. Several small parties then consented
to emigrate, and on the 16th of this month the directors
wrote to the commander and council that these would
be sent out at once. The conditions under which the
Huguenots agreed to come here as colonists were, vnth
the exception already named, the same as those pre-
viously offered to natural subjects of the Netherlands.
They were to be provided with free passages and with
farms in full property without payment. They were to be
supplied with all requisite farming stock at cost price on
credit. They were to subscribe to the same oaths of alle-
giance as those taken by persons bom in the United Pro-
vinces, and were to be in all respects treated in the same
manner and to enjoy the same privileges.
While making such efforts to procure Huguenot emi-
grants, however, the directors had no intention of making
the Cape a French colony. Owing to the competition
arising from the influx of such numbers of refugees, it
was now less difficult than it had hitherto been to obtain
emigrants of Dutch blood, of whom more families than of
French origin were being sent out at the same time, so
that these, together with the settlers already in South
Africa, would absorb the foreign element without under-
going any change. At no time did the French exceed
in nmnber one-si^th of the colonists, or one-eighth of the
1687] Simon van der Stel. 329
whole European population, the Company's servants in-
cluded.
The directors hoped that the Huguenots would supply
the knowledge which the Dutch colonists lacked in some
particular kinds of industry believed to be suited to South
Africa, such as the manufacture of wine and brandy and
the cultivation of olives. The vine bore grapes here equal
in flavour to any in the world, yet the wine and brandy
hitherto made were greatly inferior to those of Europe.
The olive tree was found wild, and the varieties intro-
duced flourished as well apparently as in France or Spain,
but the production of fruit had so far been a failure.
Some of the Huguenots sent out were men who had
been reared among the vineyards and olive groves of
France, and who were acquainted not only with the best
methods of cultivating the vines and trees, but with the
manufacture of wine, brandy, and oil. At the same time,
the directors were careful to lay down the rule that such
occupations were not to be pursued to the neglect of the
more important industries of growing wheat and rearing
cattle.
Arrangements were made by the different chambers of
the East India Company for the passages of the Hugue-
not emigrants to this colony, as they had been engaged
in different provinces and could not all embark at the
same port. As much as possible, families and friends
were kept together.
The emigrants were sent out in the ships Voorschotm,
Borssenburg, Oosterland, China, and Zuid Beveland, The
Voarschoten sailed from Delftshaven on the 31st of December
1687, with the following passengers, according to a despatch
from the chamber of Delft to the Gape government : —
Charles Marais, of Plessis,
Catherine Taboureux, his wife,
Claude Marais, 24 years old,
Charles Marais, 19 years old,
Isaac Marais, 10 years old,
Marie Marais, 6 years old,
their children.
330 History of South Africa. [idSJ
i, \
)ld, I
old, J
Philippe Fouch^
Anne Fouch^, his wife,
Anne Fouchd, 6 years old,
Esther Fouchd, 5 years old, \ their children.
Jacques Fouchd, 8 years ol
Jacques Pinard, a carpenter, 28 years old,
Esther Fouch^ his wife, 21 years old.
Marguerite Bach^ unmarried woman, 28 years old.
Etienne Bru^re, a waggon-maker, bachelor, 28 years old.
Pierre Sabatier, bachelor, 22 years old.
Jean le Roux, bachelor, 21 years old, ) brothers, of Blois.
Gabriel le Boux, 17 years old, )
Gideon Malherbe, bachelor, 25 years old.
Jean Past^ bachelor, 25 years old.
Paul Godefroy, bachelor, 22 years old.
Gaspar Fouchd, bachelor, 21 years old.
The Borssenhurg sailed on the 6th of January 168£
Her passenger list has been lost from the archives o
this colony and also from those at the Hagae.
The Oosterland left Middelborg on the 29th of Januar
1688, having as passengers, according to a despatch o
the chamber of that place to the Cape government : —
Jacques de Savoye, of Ath,
Marie Madeleine le Clerc, his wife,
Antoinette Camoy, his mother-in-law.
Marguerite de Savoye, 17 years old, "j
Barbae de Savoye, 15 years old, > his children.
Jacques de Savoye, 9 months old, J
Jean Prieur du Plessis, surgeon, of Poitiers,
Madeleine Menanteau, his wife.
Sarah Avic4, yoomg unmarried woman.
Jean Nortier, agriculturist.
Jacob Nortier, do.
Daniel Nortier, carpenter,
Marie Vytou, his wife.
Isaac Taillefer, vinedresser, of Thierry,
Susanne Briet, his wife,
Elizabeth Taillefer, 14 years old,
Jean Taillefer, 12 years old,
Isaac Taillefer, 7 years old,
Pierre Taillefer, 5 years old,
Susanne Taillefer, 2i years old,
Marie Taillefer, 1 year old,
their children.
their children.
1688] Simon van der SteL 331
Jean Cloud on, shoemaker, of Gondd.
Jean du Buis, agriculturist, of Calais.
Jean Parisel, agriculturist, of Paris.
The China sailed from Botterdam on the 20th of
March 1688, with the following passengers, according to
a despatch from the chamber of that place : —
Jean Mesnard,
Louise Corbonne, his wife,
Jeanne Mesnard, 10 years old,
Georges Mesnard, 9 years old,
Jacques Mesnard, 8 years old,
Jean Mesnard, 7 years old,
Philippe Mesnard, 6 years old,
Andr^ Mesnard, 6 months old,
Louis Corbonne, bachelor, 20 years old.
Jean Jourdan, bachelor, 28 years old.
Pierre Jourdan, of Cabridre, bachelor, 24 years old.
Marie Koux, 10 years old, "^ orphans, nieces of Jean and
Marguerite Koux, 7 years old, / Pierre Jourdan.
(A second) Pierre Jourdan, also a bachelor, 24 years old.
Pierre Joubert, 23 years old,
Isabeau Bichard, his wife.
Susanne B^ne, 20 years old, young unmarried woman.
Jacques Verdeau, 20 years old, \ ^jyo^g^^
Hercule Verdeau, 16 years old, /
Pierre la Grange, bachelor, 23 years old.
Matthieu Fracass^, bachelor, 26 years old.
Andr6 Pelanchon, 16 years old.
And twelve others who died before the ship reached her desti-
nation.
From the orphan chamber of Rotterdam eight young
women at this time consented to emigrate to South
Africa, and were sent oat with the French refugees in
the China. They were described as being of unblemished
reputation, industrious, and skilled in farm work. They
were all married in the colony within a few months after
their arrival, the last of them on the 8th of May 1689 to
a young burgher of Stellenbosch. Their names were,
Adriana van Son, Wilhelmina de Witt, Adriana van den
332 History of South Africa. [i68S
Berg, Judith Verbeek, Petronella van Capelle, Judith van
der Bout, Catharina van der Zee, and Anna van Kleef.
The Zuii Beveland sailed from Middelburg on the
22nd of April 1688. She brought out a number of
passengers, but the list is missing at the Hague as well
as in Capetown, and the only names known are those of
Pierre Simond, of Dauphin^, minister of the Gospel, and Anne
de Berout, his wife.
The lists of names show that more men came out
than women. This disproportion of the sexes was just
what the Company wished to prevent, for it was the very
evil that Conunander Van der Stel was continually com-
plaining of. And yet it could not be rectified, as in every
group of refugees who escaped from France the number
of males was enormously greater than that of females.
Among the immigrants were several individuals who had
occupied very good positions in their own country before
the commencement of the persecution. The surgeon Du
Plessis was of an ancient and noble family of Poitiers,
though he was now penniless. Mr. De Savoye had been
a wealthy merchant, but had saved nothing except his
life and his family.
On the 13th of April 1688 the Voorschoten arrived in
Saldanha Bay, having put into that harbour on account
of a strong south-east wind, against which she could not
beat up to Table Bay. The rocky islands covered with
sea-birds and the desolate country around formed a strik-
ing contrast to the beautiful France which the emigrants
had leffc. Yet they would be cheered by the knowledge
that in this secluded wilderness there was at any rate
freedom to worship God in the manner their consciences
approved of. From the Company's outpost at Saldanha
Bay a message was sent overland to the castle reporting
the Voorschoten* 8 arrival, and stating that as the ship
needed some repairs her ofl&cers thought it would be advis-
able to remain there to effect them. The cutter Jupiter
1 688] Simon van der SteL 333
was therefore sent from Table Bay with fresh provisions,
and when she returned she brought the immigrants to
the Cape.
On the 26th of April the Oosterlaiid cast anchor in
Table Bay, having made the passage from Middelburg in
eighty-seven days, then one of the quickest runs on record.
She was followed on the 12th of May by the Borssenburg.
On the 4th of August the China reached Table Bay,
after a disastrous run of seven months from Rotterdam.
Her crew and passengers were nearly all sick, and twenty
individuals, twelve of whom were French refugees, had
died during the passage.
Fifteen days later the Zuid Beveland .cast anchor in
Table Bay. The arrival of their pastor had been looked
forward to with anxiety by the Huguenots already here,
so that by the time the first boat put off there was a
little crowd of people waiting to welcome him on the
wooden jetty, then the only pier in Table Bay. But just
after the boat left the ship she was capsized by a sudden
squall, and those on the jetty had the horror of seeing
eight men drown before their eyes- without being able to
render them any aid. A few hours passed before com-
munication could be had with the Zuid Beveland, when
it was ascertained that the drowned men were three
officers and five seamen of the ship.
The Dutch were accustomed to treat their clergymen
with great respect, but they were incapable of participat-
ing in such feelings as those with which the Huguenots
regarded their pastor. A French Protestant clergyman in
those days was of necessity a man of earnest faith, of
great bravery, of entire self-devotion, and such a man
naturally inspired strong attachment. In the great perse-
cution under Louis XIV the pastors stand out prominently
as the most fearless of men. Nothing short of death could
silence them, there was no form of suffering which they
were not prepared to endure rather than forsake what
they believed to be the truth. It was not from any
334 History of South Africa. [1688
superstitions reverence for their office, but on account of
their force of character, that they were regarded with the
highest esteem and affection.
The reverend Mr. Simond was a man of determined
will, who possessed just those qualifications which would
cause him to be regarded by his flock as a fit guide and
counsellor in secular as well as in religious matters. A
quantity of his correspondence is still in existence, and in
it he showd himself to have been sadly lacking in charity
towards those who differed from him in opinion, but that
was the fault of the age rather than of the man. For
his faith he gloried in having suffered, and for those of
his own religion there was no honest sacrifice which he
was not capable of making. As for the members of his
congregation, their interests and his own were insepar-
able. The little band of refugees who were about to
make a home on South African soil for themselves and
their children therefore felt their circle more complete
after his arrival.
The Huguenots landed in South Africa without any
property in goods or money. The East India Company
sent out a quantity of ship's biscuit, peas, and salt meat,
to be served out to them as provisions for a few months,
and deal planks to make the woodwork of temporary
houses. Whatever else they needed was to be supplied
on credit from the Company's stores. From Europe they
had no assistance to expect, for the demands upon the
purses of the benevolent there were unceasing. A fund
for their benefit was raised in the colony, to which each
individual contributed in cattle, grain, or money, accord-
ing to his circumstances. The amount subscribed is not
mentioned, but Commander Van der Stel reported that it
was very creditable to the old colonists and very service-
able to the refugees. It was given to the reverend Mr.
Simond and the deacons of Stellenbosch for distribution.
The burgher councillors furnished six waggons free
of charge to convey the immigrants to their destination.
1 688] Simon van der Stel. 335
The heemraden of Stellenbosch supplied six more to be
used until the refugees should be all settled. Some of
the Huguenots were located in and about Stellenbosch,
but the larger number at Drakenstein and French Hoek.
Particular care was taken not to locate them by them-
selves, but to mix them as much as possible with the
Dutch colonists who were already here or who were
arriving at the same time. This was almost from the day
of their landing a point of disagreement between them
and the conunander, for they expressed a strong desire
not to be separated. Several even refused to accept the
allotments of ground which were offered to them, and in
preference engaged themselves as servants to some of the
others.
With regard to church services, an arrangement was
made that Mr. Simond should preach in French on al-
ternate Sundays at Stellenbosch and at the house of a
burgher at Drakenstein. The sick-comforter Mankadan
was to read a sermon and prayers in Dutch at Stellen-
bosch when the minister was at Drakenstein, and at
Drakenstein when the minister was at Stellenbosch. Once
in three months Mr. Simond was to preach at the Cape,
and then the reverend Mr. Van Andel was to hold ser-
vice in Dutch and administer the sacraments at Stellen-
bosch.
This was in accordance with the custom of the
Netherlands, or as closely so as circumstances would per-
mit. There, the refugees as they arrived formed branch
congregations of established churches; here, they formed
a branch congregation of the church of Stellenbosch.
That church, though as yet without a resident Dutch
clergyman, had a fully organised consistory, which was
presided over by the minister of the Cape acting as con-
sulent. It was an arrangement which was designed to
meet the wants of both sections of the conmiunity, but it
did not satisfy the French, who desired to have a church
entirely of their own.
336 History of Sotdh Africa. [1689
The refugees commenced the work of building and
planting with alacrity. Those who had been accustomed
to manual labour soon erected rough dwellings of clay
walls and thatched roofs and laid out vegetable gardens,
but there were men among them who had been bred in
the lap of ease, and to whom such toil was exceptionally
severe. These fared badly at first, but with some assist-
ance in labour from their countrymen they also were able
to make a good commencement in farming. The Com-
pany had promised to supply them with slaves as soon as
possible, but was at this time unable to procure any.
Those who were located at Drakenstein had hardly
got roofs above their heads when they addressed the com-
mander upon the subject of a school for the education
of their children. He approved of their request, and on
the 8th of November 1688 Paul Boux, of Orange in
France, who imderstood both languages, was appointed
schoolmaster of Drakenstein. He was to receive a salary
of 255. and a ration allowance of 12s. &d, a month, and
in addition to his duties as a teacher he was to act as
church clerk.^
A few months after the first party of Huguenots left
the Netherlands a number of others were engaged to
come out as colonists. They embarked in the ships
Wapen van Alkmaar and Zion. The first of these vessels
left Texel on the 27th of July 1688, and arrived in Table
Bay on the 27th of January 1689. She brought out
about forty immigrants, young and old. The Zion arrived
on the 6th of May 1689, and in her came three brothers
named Abraham, Pierre, and Jacob de Villiers, who were
vinedressers from the neighbourhood of La Eochelle.
^This was not an exoeptioxiallj small salary. The schoolmaster of
the Cape received only IL Is. 9d. a month, in addition to a fee of
eight pence for each pupil, *if the parents, whether Company's servants
or hurghers, could afford to pay it.' The schoolmaster of Stellenbosch
received more, hut he had various other duties to perform. All of them
were provided with a free house and a garden.
1690] Simon van der SteL 337
Shortly after the refugees arrived in South Africa, the
consistory of Batavia sent a sum of money equal to
twelve hundred and fifty English sovereigns to be distri-
buted among them according to their needs. This money
had constituted the poor funds of a church at Formosa
which was destroyed by an enemy, but the guardians
managed to save their trust, and deposited it with the
deacons at Batavia to be used for charitable purposes.
Nowadays 1,250/. may not seem a very large amount, but
if its purchasing power at that time be considered it will
be found to have been a generous and noble gift, and it
was appreciated as such by those whose wants it was
intended to relieve. It was decided that all the Hugue-
nots should share in this present, except a very few who
were othervnse provided for.
The money was distributed on the 18th and 19th of
April 1690, by commissioners who had taken every indi-
vidual's needs into consideration. A copy of the list of
distribution is in the archives at the Hague, and it is
given here, as it contains the names of those who arrived
in the Borssevburg, Zuid Beveland, and Wapen van Alkmaar,
and shows further what havoc death had made in the
little band of refugees previous to this date, with some
other particulars. With a few names added from another
docmnent, it forms a complete list of the Huguenots who
settled in South Africa at this period.
Pierre Lombard, a sick man, with wife and one child
Isaac Taillefer, with wife and four children
Pierre Jacob, with wife and three children .
Widow of Charles Marais, with four children
Philippe Fouch^, with wife and two children
Abraham de Villiers, with wife and two brothers
Matthieu Amiel, with wife and two children
Hercnle da Pr^ with wife and five children
Lonis Cordier, with wife and four children
Jean le Long, with wife and two children
Widow of Charles Pr^yot (remarried to Hendrik Eek
hof), with four children by her deceased hnsband
VOL. I. 22
. £62
1
8
60
44
8
lOf
. 41
13
4
. 41
13
4
. 39
11
8
. 38
3
lOf
35
8
4
. 32
19
8t
32
12
H
31
6
33^ History of South Africa. [1690
Mafgaerite Perrotit, widow with two children . £30 11 1^
Jean du Plessis, with wife and one child . 29 17 8}
29 3 4
28 2 6
28 2 6
27 15 6}
27 15 6}
25
24 6 \\
21 10 6}
20 16 8
Daniel de BueUe, with wife and one child
Jean Mesnard, widower with four children
Pierre Joubert, with wife and one child
Nicolas de Lanoy, with mother and brother
Pierre Bousseau, with wife and one child
Gnillaume Nel, with wife and two children
Daniel Nortier, with wife and one child
Gideon Malherbe, with wife
Jacques Pinard, with wife ....
Etienne Bm^re, with his espoused, Esther de Buelle . 19 15 10
Marie and Marguerite Boux, two little orphans . . 19 8 10}
Esaias and Susanne Costeux, two orphans now living
with Nicolaas Cleef 17 7 2}
Jean Jourdan, with wife 15 19 5(
Jean Margra, with wife 13 17 9^
Widow Antoinette Camoy 13 17 9^
Louis Fouri6 11 2 2f
Jacob Vivier and Etienne Viret, each iBlO 8 4 20 16 8
Jean Cloudon and Jean Durand, each ^ 14 5^ . 19 8 10}
Louis Barr^y Pierre Jourdan, Pierre Boux, Jacques
Th^rond, Francois B^tif, Jean le Boux, Gabriel le
Boux, David S^n^chal, Salomon Goumai, Jean Jou-
bert, Jean Nortier, Daniel Couvat, and Pierre
Meyer, each £9 6} 117 7 2}
Jean Boi and Jean Boux (or le Boux) of Provence,
and Matthieu Fracass^, together . . . 26 7 9}
Marie le Long (married to Adriaan van Wyk) . . 8 6 8
Daniel Hugod, Michel Martineau, and Hercule Yerdeau,
each £868 25 00
Antoine Gros, Daniel Terrier, and Paul Godefroy, to-
gether 24 13 0}
Jacques Malan and Pierre Jourdan, each £7 198} . 1519 5^
Nicolas la Tatte and Jean Gard^, each £7 12 9^ 15 5 6}
Abraham Vivier and Pierre Vivier, each £7 5 10 . 14 11 8
Elizabeth du Pr^, young unmarried woman 6 18 10}
Andr(^ Pelanchon, Louis Corbonne, Pierre la Grange,
Pierre Batt^ Antoine Martin, Zacharie Mantior,
Jacob Nortier, Jean Parisel, and Pierre Bochefort,
each £6 18 10} 62 10
Jean Magnet 650
Pierre Sabatier and Pierre Beneeet, together . 11 16 1}
Jean du Buis 5 11 1|^
1690] Simon van der Stel. 339
Abraham Beluz^ £64S
Jean Bouz, of Nonnandy 4 17 2}
Jean Mysal 434
Pierre le F^bre (wife and three children) . . . 3 9 5^
Guillaame du Toit (wife and one child) . . . . 3 9 6}
Francois du Toit (wife) 3 9 5^
Those who were otherwise provided for, or who did
not need assistance from this fund, were: —
Bev. Pierre Simond, with wife and one child,
Jacqnes de Savoye, with wife and two children,
Louis de Berout, with wife and three children,
Pierre Barilla, with wife,
Andrd Gaucher,
Paul Brasier, and
Paul Boux.
This list gives a total of one hundred and seventy-six
souls, while in despatches of nearly the same date from
the Cape government the number of Huguenots of all
ages in the colony is stated to be one hundred and fifty-
five. But in the last case those in the service of the
Company were certainly not included, and possibly those
who were married into Dutch &milies would not be
reckoned. It is more than likely also that out of these
hundred and seventy-six souls there must have been
several who, from long residence in the Netherlands,
would not be considered refugees by Commander Van der
Stel. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that
many names in the Ust had been familiar in the Low
Countries for two or three generations. Thus, a branch of
the family Le Febre had been settled at Middelburg since
1574, there had been De Lanoys at Leiden since I6489
Nels at Utrecht since 1644, Du Toits at Leiden since
1605, Cordiers at Haarlem since 1627, Jouberts at Leiden
since 1645, Malans at Leiden since 1625, Malherbes at
Dordrecht since 1618, and Mesnards at Leiden since 1638.
Before the Wapen van Alkmaar sailed, the directors
had it in contemplation to send out a party of six or
340 History of South Africa. [1689
seven hundred Yaudois, all of the labouring class, and
most of them understanding some handiwork as well as
agriculture. This party had taken refuge in Nuremberg,
where they were in such distress that they sent deputies
to beg assistance from the states-provincial of Holland and
West Friesland, and offered to emigrate in a body to any
colony of the Netherlands. Their wretched condition in-
cited the warmest compassion of the states, who, after
providing for their temporary relief, addressed the di-
rectors of the East and West India Companies, asking
whether either of those associations would be willing to
receive the applicants as colonists.
The assembly of seventeen replied, offering to settle
these poor people, their oldest co-religionists as they
termed them, at the Cape of Good Hope; and arrange-
ments were thereafter made for sending them out. The
states-provincial agreed to contribute a sum of money,
equal to 42. 3^. 4d. for each emigrant, towards the expense
of furnishing them with outfits for the voyage and con-
veying them from Nuremberg to Amsterdam, where they
were to embark. The Company was to provide them
with free passages, to supply them on credit with building
materials and provisions for seven or eight months after
their arrival in the colony, and was further to treat them
in every respect as Dutch subjects and to allow them
all the privileges granted to previous emigrants. But
when the arrangements were concluded, the Vaudois de-
clined to go so far away, so that the project of sending
them here fell through.
During the next twenty years individuals of French
origin continued to arrive with other immigrants occasion-
ally in the colony, but never more than two or three
families at a time. The subject of emigration, from having
been a prominent one in the discussions of the directors
of the East India Company, disappears from their records
after June 1688. Exciting events were taking place in
Europe, which occupied their attention to the exclusion of
1689] Simon van der SteL 341
everjrthing that was not of primary importance. The
siunmer of this year was passed in anxiety, for it was
feared thai; war with France and England combined was
imminent, and the first thought of the directors was the
protection, not the enlargement, of their possessions. In
the autumn the garrison of the Cape was increased by
one hundred and fifty men. Then followed the landing of
the prince of Orange in England, the seizure of Dutch
ships and the imprisonment of their crews by the French
government, and finally war with France. While such
events were transpiring, no thought could be bestowed
upon colonisation.
The commander, Simon van der Stel, would much
rather have seen Netherlanders alone coming to South
Africa, but as the supreme authorities chose to send out
French refugees he could not do otherwise than receive
them and deal with them according to his instructions.
It was impossible for him to be as friendly with them as
with his own countrymen, still he did not at first treat
them with undue reserve. In 1689 he appointed Jacques
de Savoye a heemraad of Stellenbosch, and he stood
sponsor at the baptism of one of his children and of a
child of the reverend Mr. Simond.
With most of the Huguenots the first difficulties of
settling in a new country were speedily overcome; houses
were built, very small and rough it is true, but still giving
shelter from sun and storm, gardens were placed under
cultivation, and as the crops of the first season were par-
ticularly good there was no want of the necessaries of life.
A few, however, who declined to accept farms at Stellen-
bosch, were in very poor circumstances. The manner in
which they had been located was by all felt as a griev-
ance, though as each one gradually improved his property
it was a grievance which would naturally soon disappear.
But there was another cause of discontent, which was
that they were considered by the government as part of
the congregation of Stellenbosch, whereas they understood
342 History of South Africa. [1689
the proaiise of the directors that they shonld have a
clergyman of their own as implying that they should form
a congregation by themselves. The commander declined
to take any notice of individual representations on this
subject, and the Huguenots therefore resolved to proceed
in a more formal manner.
On the 28th of November 1689 a deputation, consist-
ing of the reverend Pierre Simond, Jacques de Savoye,
Daniel de Buelle, Abraham de Yilliers, and Louis Cordier,
appeared at the castle, and on behalf of their country-
men requested to be permitted to estabUsh a separate
church of their own. The commander broke into a fur-
ious passion. He declared that the project was rank sedi-
tion, and that the French were the most impertinent and
ungrateful people on the face of the earth. It is not only
their own church, said he, that they want, but their own
magistrate and their own prince. They shall have nothing
of the kind. Here have we been treating them actually
better than our own Netherlanders, and this is the way
they turn upon us.
The commander called the council together, but not
to ask advice so much as to express his opinion of the
French. The deputation was for some time left waiting
in an outer room. By-and-bye they were reminded of
the oath of allegiance which they had taken, and were
ordered to return to their homes, the commander inform-
ing them that they must be satisfied to remain as they
were, a branch congregation of the church of Stellenbosch.
The clergyman Simond had written to the supreme
authorities concerning the grievances of the Huguenots
some five months previously, and nothing further could be
done until a reply to his letter should be received. And
now for a time the two nationalities, which were so soon
thereafter to be inseparably blended together, regarded
each other with a bitter spirit of hostihty.
The commander saw in the projects of the Huguenots
nothing but an attempt to thwart his darUng scheme of
1690] Simon van der Stel. 343
a pure Dutch colony, they saw in him nothing but a de-
termination to compel them to be Dutch, whether they
would or not. On both sides very rash words were utter-
ed. In open meeting the French resolved not to inter-
marry with the Dutch, forgetting apparently that if such
a resolution could be carried out, most of them could
never marry at all. There were individuals among them
who did not scruple to say that having braved the anger
of the great king of France, they would be ashamed of
themselves if they were afraid of the commander Van der
Stel. Many of the Dutch colonists ceased to hold inter-
course with the French, and some were even reported to
have said that they would rather give bread to a Hotten-
tot or to a dog than to a Frenchman.
On the 6th of December 1690 the assembly of seven-
teen took the request of the reverend Mr. Simond on
behalf of the Huguenots at the Cape into consideration,
and resolved to permit them to establish a church at
Drakenstein under the following conditions: —
1. The deacons and elders chosen yearly were to be
approved of by the council of policy, which meant in
practice that a double hst of names should be submitted
by the consistory, the same as at Stellenbosch, from
which the council should make a selection of deacons,
and that the elders nominated by the consistory could be
rejected if they were not considered suitable persons.
2. A political commissioner was to have a seat in the
consistory.
3. Important matters were to be brought before the
church council of the Cape, in which deputies from the
country consistories were then to have seats.
4. The consistory of Drakenstein was to have control
of poor funds raised by the congregation, but contributions
sent from abroad were to be under the control of the
combined church council.
With regard to schools, the teachers at Stellenbosch
and Drakenstein were to be men who understood both
344 History of South Africa. [1691
languages, and care was to be taken that the French
children should be taught Dutch.
Lastly, the request of the Huguenots to be located to-
gether was refused, and the government of the Cape was
instructed, when granting ground, to mix the nationaUties
together so that they might speedily amalgamate.
The despatch in which these resolutions were em-
bodied reached the Cape in June 1691, and on the 80th
of the following December the people of Drakenstein were
formed into a separate congregation by the appointment of
elders and deacons from among themselves. The elders
chosen by the council were Claude Marais, Louis de
Berout, and Louis Cordier, and the deacons were Abra-
ham de Villiers, Pierre Meyer, Pierre Beneset, and Pierre
Bousseau.
This arrangement satisfied the Huguenots, though in
all other respects matters ecclesiastical remained several
years longer as before. The clergyman Simond continued
to reside in the village of Stellenbosch, and held services
alternately in the church there and in a room at Draken-
stein. Early in 1694 he moved to a residence built for
him among the Huguenots, and after that date only
preached occasionally at Stellenbosch. The earliest bap-
tismal entry in the church books of Drakenstein is on the
29th of August 1694. The first pages of the register were
written by Paul Boux, who was clerk and schoolmaster, and
they show clearly that the proportion of Dutch members in
the congregation was from the very commencement large.
Before 1691 most of the Huguenots who had been
located elsewhere managed to purchase ground at Dra-
kenstein, and when the next census was taken only
three French families were found residing in Stellenbosch.
Already there had been several intermarriages, and hence-
forward the blending of the two nationalities proceeded
so rapidly that in the course of two generations the
descendants of the Huguenot refugees were not to be
distinguished from other colonists except by their names.
345
CHAPTER XI.
SIMON VAN DER STEL'S ADMINISTRATION (corUinueO^,
At the same time that the Huguenots were settling in
South Africa Dutch colonists in equal numbers were set-
tling here also. Some of them had famiUes, others were
just married, and others still were single men and women,
precisely as was the case with the French. A few Ger-
mans with Dutch wives also settled in the colony at this
time. Some of these immigrants left no children, but all
of those whose names follow have descendants here at
the present day, though two or three of them in the
female line only: Lourens Backstroo, Pieter Bekker, Booy
Booysen, Frederik Botha, Hans Jacob Brits, Theunis de
Bruyn, Barend Burger, Lourens Campher, Bastiaan Colyn,
Jan Cruywagen, Jan van Dyk, Adriaan van Eck, Pieter
Erasmus, Albertus Gildenhuyzen, Christoflfel Groenewald,
Hans Hendrik Hattingh, Comelis Knoetzen, Jan Kotze,
Matthys Krugel, Barend Lubbe, Godfried Meyhuyzen,
Philip Morkel, Andries Oelofse, Jan Oosthuyzen, Wemmer
Pasman, Pieter van der Poel, Michiel Comelis Smuts,
Ghristofifel Snyman, Jan Swart, Adam Tas, Hendrik
Venter, Jan Vosloo, Gerrit van Vuuren, Matthys Wieg-
man, Gerrit Willemse, and Willem van Zyl.
The new settlers were provided with farms sufficiently
large for agricultural purposes, chiefly in the valley of the
Berg river as far down as the Green mountain beyond
the present village of Wellington, though a few were
scattered about the Koeberg and the Tigerberg, and a
few others over the land near the head of False Bay.
346 History of South Africa. [1691
There was no longer a feeling of isolation among the
residents beyond the isthmus, for their houses were no
great distance apart. The farms were held in freehold,
and were too small for cattle-rearing purposes, but the
whole land that was not given out was regarded as a
common pasture.
The Goringhaiquas and Gorachouquas were thus losing
every year more and more of the country that had been
theirs as long back as their traditions reached, yet they
were never more friendly. There was still room enough
and to spare for all. The kraals of the Hottentots were
thinly scattered over the country, and were moved from
place to place just as in olden times, except that they
could not be erected on ground occupied by white men.
These people had become poor in cattle, owing partly to
the waste caused by their perpetual feuds, partly to de-
predations by Bushmen, and partly to their wiUingness to
exchange oxen for brandy and tobacco. The burghers
were forbidden to trade with them, under severe penalties,
but in defiance of the placaats and of the punishment
which invariably followed conviction, some of the least
respectable carried on an extensive barter.
At length the clans became so impoverished that, to
assist them, in 1696 the government supplied them with
some cattle to tend on shares, but the e£fort to restore
them to their former condition was fruitless. Of their
own accord they referred their most weighty disputes
to the European authorities for settlement, and upon
the death of a captain they always apphed for the con-
firmation of his successor. A staff with a copper head,
upon which was engraved on one side the Company's
monogram and on the other the name given to the new
captain, was considered indispensable to the exercise of
chieftainship.
The colonists would gladly have employed some hun-
dreds of Hottentots, if they could have been induced to
take service, but the men loved their wild, free, idle life
1692] Simon van der Stel. 347
too well to exchange it for one of toil They had no
objection, however, to do light work occasionally to earn
tobacco and spirits, and in harvesting especially they were
very useful. They were willing also to hire out their
female children, and by this means a few household ser-
vants were obtained and a knowledge of the Dutch lan-
guage was spread. None of them had yet progressed so
far in civilisation as to make gardens for themselves, or
in any way to cultivate the ground.
The clans could not always be prevented from engag-
ing in hostilities with each other. The two captains of
the Chainouquas, Elaas and Koopman, were frequently
quarrelling, but before 1691 whenever they came to open
war the con>mander interfered on behalf of lOaas, who
was held to be a faithful ally of the Company. Through
his agency large herds of cattle were obtained as they
were required, though the farmers were constantly en-
couraged to breed oxen and sheep for slaughter, so as to
insure a supply of meat under any circumstances.
A savage, however, is incapable of continuing long in
any pursuit that demands much exertion, and ESaas got
weary of travelUng about the country purchasing cattle for
the Company, whose wants must have seemed to him in-
satiable. It became necessary again to send out trading
parties of Europeans, and these so excited his jealousy
that he did his utmost to put obstacles in their way.
This conduct led rapidly to something more unfriendly,
and in 1692 he used threatening language towards Ensign
Schryver, the head of a bartering party.
Eoopman was not slow to take advantage of the new
condition of things. He came to the castle with an accu-
sation against Klaas of being in league with those burgh-
ers who were carrpng on an illicit trade, and he professed
to have so great a regard for the Company's interests as
to be willing to place his services entirely at the disposal
of the government. In the minute details of these events
entered in the records of the time, there is found an exact
348 History of South Africa. [1693
counterpart of numerous well-known transactions of native
chiefs of the present day. The result was that Koop-
man became an ally of the honourable Company, and
Klaas was regarded as an ill-affected mischief-maker.
Thus the government completely changed sides with the
rival branches of the Chainouqua tribe. Elaas had as
wife a daughter of Goukou, paramount chief of the Hesse-
quas, who was commonly called the oude heer by the
colonists. His people and the Hessequas were living in
close friendship.
On the 20th of April 1693 an urgent request for help
was received at the castle from Eoopman, who represented
that he was about to be attacked by Klaas and the Hes-
sequas. It was therefore resolved to send Captain Willem
Fadt with a hundred soldiers and a hundred burghers to
Koopman's assistance, with instructions to endeavour to
capture Klaas.
The commando, aided by Koopman's adherents, sur-
rounded Klaas's kraal in the night, took possession of bis
cattle, and arrested him and two of his leading men.
Some of his followers who attempted to escape were
killed by Koopman's people. The cattle were driven to
the Kuilen, where they were counted and divided between
Koopman and the honourable Company.
On the 8th of August the three prisoners were brought
before the council of policy. Klaas admitted some of the
charges against him, but endeavoured to give a satisfac-
tory explanation of his conduct. He denied having ever
had hostile designs against the Company. The council
admitted that he had not been guilty of any overt act
of war, and, on the 17th of August, resolved that as no
Christian blood had been shed, further proceedings against
the prisoners should be dropped, but to secure tranquillity
Klaas should be detained on Eobben Island.
The fate of the unfortunate Hottentot, who had once
been regarded as the most trustworthy of his race, and
who had befriended many Europeans in distress, called
1693] Simon van der Stel. 349
forth a large amount of sympathy. Intercession was
made to the government on his behalf, and in January
1694 he was released from confinement and permitted to
hve near Muizenburg^ with some of his retainers. He
had previously been ill, and had been brought to the
mainland for medical treatment, but upon recovery had
been sent back to the island. When he was allowed to
reside at Muizenburg, his wife, the daughter of Goukou,
was sent for. She had lived with him about ten years,
but when he was arrested by Captain Padt, Koopman had
taken her with other spoil. Her father had never visited
the Cape, but as a partisan of Klaas he came to the
castle on this occasion. The woman was asked by the
governor if she desired to live with her husband, and re-
plied that she preferred to remain with Koopman.
A Uttle later Klaas was allowed to return to his old
kraal, upon giving a promise to hve quietly and peace-
ably. But he and Koopman at once resumed their quarrel
In February 1697 both were summoned to the Cape, and
an apparent reconciliation was e£fected. Goukou, whose
friendship was valued, as he was considered the most
wealthy and powerful of all the Hottentot chiefs in the
neighbourhood of the colony, appeared again on this oc-
casion as the friend of Klaas.
The captains had hardly returned to their kraals when
fighting between them was renewed. Goukou's daughter
changed her mind and attempted to return to ESaas^^
upon which Koopman put her to death. In retaliation
Klaas and the Hessequas attacked Koopman, and took
his cattle together with some belonging to the Company
which were in his charge. A sergeant and twelve men
were then sent from the castle to request Klaas to re-
^Of recent years this place has usually come to be known as Muizen-
berg, a mode of spelling that may possibly become fixed, as the moun-
tain behind it is now also called by the same name. In olden times
the mountain was known as the Steenberg, and the ground at it&<
eastern base as Muizenburg.
350 History of South Africa. [1693
store the Company's property, but he could not comply,
as the oxen had abready been killed and eaten. This
matter brought him into disfavour again, and thenceforth
he was regarded as the principal mischief-maker in the
country. Occasionally he visited the Cape in company
with Gk)ukou, and promised to live in peace with Koop-
man, but the promise was soon disregarded. The feud
between the two captains was kept up until in a skirmish
between them in June 1701 Klaas was killed. The story,
as written at the time in minute detail, might be copied
as a faithful description of a quarrel between native clans
livday*
Other Hottentot communities farther from the Euro-
pean settlement were engaged in the same way destroying
each other*
tu &raroh 1689 the Namaquas and Grigriquas crossed
the Elephant river in such force that fifty-two kraals
WTre cvHinted on the southern side. Less than two years
)>revioUHly the Grigriquas had sent a present of six oxen
h^ the oa$tle« and had stated their wish to continue in
hnendship with the Europeans. The messengers had been
\>vU revHMved, and had loft pleased and satisfied. Though
nothing had \K\nirred since that time to disturb the peace
with either them or the Namaquas, this inroad alarmed
the nettUMns, and the fifirmers of Drakenstein and Stellen-
K^seh pn^pared for defence. But it soon- appeared that
the C\K>hiHiua.s not the Europeans, were to be the victims.
The invadern attacked a kraal near Saldanha Bay, killed
the chief and as many of the men as they could get hold
of» and carried off the women, children, and cattle as
lHH>ty.
The commander did not see fit to interfere in this
diRtiul>auce» though the Cochoquas were said to be under
the jm^tection of the Dutch. But when a similar raid
WttR made at the end of the following year, he sent
thirty or forty soldiers to preserve order. The invaders
were then attacked, and several thousand head of cattle
1693] Simon van der Stel. 351
were captured. The whole of the booty was restored,
however, and in addition some presents of tobacco and
spirits were made, upon the late disturbers of the peace
entreating a renewal of friendship and promising not to
repeat the ofifence. In the interval between these events
the old chief Oedasoa died. One of his brothers there-
upon applied to the commander to be appointed in his
stead, when he received a stafif of office and was named
Hannibal.
A few years later the Grigriqua tribe gave ofifence
by harbouring runaway slaves. In December 1696 En-
sign Schryver was sent with thirty soldiers and twenty
burghers to endeavour to obtain the fugitives in friendly
barter. If the Grigriquas would not restore them, the
ensign was instructed to sdze some individuals, male or
female, and bring them to the castle as hostages. The
expedition was not successful in finding the tribe. Some
friendly Hottentots, however, secured two Grigriquas, who
were detained at the castle for a couple of months. One
of them was then sent to his people with a friendly
message asking for the slaves. He did not return, and
the other was shortly afterwards released.
In March 1693 four Hessequa kraals were pillaged by
the Attaquas. As this was the normal condition of all
the tribes that were known, there can be httle doubt that
those at a greater distance were engaged in the same
kind of strife.
It happened occasionally that crimes were committed
by Hottentots against Europeans, and in such instances
the ofifenders were tried by the Dutch tribunals, and
punished according to Dutch law. Thefts were not un-
common, but other offences were rare. During a long
course of years only one crime more serious than cattle-
hfting occurred, a colonist, the elder Charles Marais,
having been murdered by a Hottentot at Drakenstein in
April 1689. The offender was tried and executed. Natives
committing crimes against their own people were left to
352 History of South Africa. [1693
be dealt with by their own laws, the policy of the govern-
ment being not to interfere with them farther than waB
necessary for the safety and welfare of the Europeans.
The Bushmen had retreated from the open country
occupied by the white people, but parties of them oc-
casionally came down from the Drakenstein mountains
and committed depredations in the valley below. They
were regarded as outlaws, and if any had been captured
they would have received very httle mercy. But they
were too wary and fleet of foot to be made prisoners
of. The Hottentots pursued them with greater success.
Before Captain Klaas fell into disfavour, he was almost
constantly scouring the mountains in his neighbourhood
in search of them, and though on several occasions they
nearly brought him to ruin by sweeping off his herds, he
managed to destroy a large number of them. In April
1694 some of these robbers made a descent upon Eoop-
man's kraals, and drove off fully half of his cattle. The
Hottentot captain applied for assistance to the governor,
and ten soldiers under a sergeant were sent to his aid.
The Bushmen were followed up, most of the cattle were
recovered, and sixteen or seventeen of the marauders were
shot.
Agriculture was now so far advanced in the colony that
suflScient grain was produced for the consumption of the
inhabitants and the garrison and the refreshment of the
people of the fleets. In good seasons there was a sur-
plus of fifteen hundred or two thousand muids of wheat,
which was exported to Batavia. Experience had taught
the government, however, always to keep two years' sup-
ply in the magazines, so as to provide against a season
of drought, or the destruction of the crops by locusts or
caterpillars. The Company had not yet altogether aban-
doned farming operations, but it was gradually doing so,
as it could depend upon obtaining supplies of food from
the colonists. It had still, besides the garden in Table
Valley and the vineyard at Bondebosch, seven farms, or
1689] Simon van der Stel. 353
cattle places as they were called, in different parts of the
country, the most remote being at Hottentots-Holland.
On two of these farms a few hundred muids of wheat
were grown, but the others were merely stations for breed-
ing cattle and for keeping oxen and sheep purchased from
the Hottentots until they were required for the fleets.
The Company was also making efforts to improve
the existing stock of cattle and to introduce new breeds.
Horses, originally brought from Java, had increased satis-
factorily in number, but had deteriorated in size and ap-
pearance. These useful animals were so indispensable,
however, that small as they were they brought at auction
from 42. to bL each, or as much as four or five large oxen
in prime condition. To improve the breed, in 1689 the
Company imported some stud horses from Persia. At the
same time some Persian asses were introduced, and during
several years thereafter stock of this kind continued to arrive
by way of Ceylon. Spanish rams were sent out, as the
directors thought it possible that the valuable kirman wool
might be produced by a cross between those animals and
South African sheep.
The cultivation of wheat was the first object with the
farmers, because it brought relatively a higher price than
any other product. Next to growing wheat, rearing cattle
was the most profitable occupation. The production of
wine followed, the Company purchasing it at bl. a legger
for the use of the fleets. It was not saleable in India,
on account of its being of very inferior quality. Some of
it was converted into vinegar for the use of the sea-
men.
In March 1689 inteUigence reached South Africa that
all Dutch ships in French harbours had been seized, and
that on the 26th of the preceding November the king of
France had declared war against the United Netherlands.
It was feared that England would join the enemy, but
that apprehension was removed a few days later, when
despatches were received in which it was stated that the
VOL. I. 23
354 History of South Africa. [1689
prince of Orange had landed at Torbay and had been
welcomed by the English people as their dehverer.
On the 26th of April the French ship Nbmtande, from
Pondicherry, with a valuable cargo on board, put into
Table Bay. Captain De Courcelles, her commander, knew
nothing of recent events in Europe, and beUeved he was
anchoring in a friendly port. He sent a boat ashore with
a complimentary message to the Dutch authorities, the
bearers of which were made prisoners as soon as they
entered the castle. The boat was then manned with
Dutch sailors dressed hke the French, who kept her flag
flying, and pretended to put off from the shore.
The Kormande now commenced to fire a salute, and
while her people were thus engaged, she was boarded by
the crews of the Dutch ships in port. There was a short
scuffle, in which no one was killed, though two Dutch-
men and eight Frenchmen were wounded, and which
ended in the surrender of Captain De Courcelles and his
crew. The French flag was left flying on the NoTTrvande^
so as to decoy her consort, the Coche^ to a similar fate.
On the evening of the 5th of May the Coche came to
anchor, and shortly afterwards saluted the Dutch flag
with nine guns, a compliment which was at once returned
with the same number. She had no communication with
the shore, but late in the evening she sent a boat to the
Normande. As the boat did not return, and as a large
Dutch ship was evidently ranging alongside, shortly after
midnight Captain D'Armagnan became alarmed, and com-
menced to prepare the Coche for action. Seeing this, the
master of the Nederland poured in a broadside at less
distance than his own ship's length, when Captain D*Ar-
magnan and three of his crew were killed and eight
others were wounded. With five hostile ships around
them, the officers of the Coche saw no chance of defend-
ing her successfully, and they therefore surrendered.
Both the prizes were plundered by the Dutch seamen
immediately after their capture. The value of their car-
1689] Simon van der Stel. 355
goes was estimated at 50,000/. The Normande and the
Coche were renamed the Ooede Hoop and the Afrika, and
were sent to Europe with the next fleet of the Company.
The prisoners, one hundred and forty in number, were
forwarded to Batavia, to be detained there until an ex-
change could be effected.
The capture of these vessels was a fortunate occur-
rence for Commander Van der Stel. Some time before
the war broke out he had received from the king of
France a present of a gold chain and medal with a por-
trait of that monarch, in return for the civilities shown
by him to the fleets which called at Table Bay in 1685
and 1687. The directors did not approve of his receiving
this present, and it might have fared ill with him if for-
tune had not furnished an opportunity of clearing himself
of suspicion.
At this time a change in the form of conducting
public business was made, which continued in operation
during the next century. The simplicity of manners and
honesty of purpose which were characteristic of the early
Dutch traders in the Indian islands disappeared with the
estabUshment of the great power which they built up,
and before the close of the seventeenth century corruption
in the administration of affairs had become widespread
throughout the Asiatic possessions of the Company. There
were many men of sterling honesty and of great ability
in its service, but the majority of the higher oflBcers were
unscrupulous in their pursuit of wealth. In some of the
dependencies private trading was practised to such an ex-
tent as to destroy the whole of the Company's profits.
Worse still, many officials used the power entrusted to
them to make money in ways that were decidedly crimi-
nal. The remedy would seem to be in making the service
attractive by offering liberal salaries to men of talent,
while prohibiting every description of private trade and
making it penal to take bribes under the name of fees or
presents. But in those days of experiments in governing
356 History of South Afnca. [1689
dependencies, this remedy did not occur to the directors,
or if any one made such a suggestion it was not acted
upon. The only commerce reserved exclusively for the
Company was that in the various kinds of spices, and
had any one dared to deal on his own account in a
pound of pepper or cinnamon, cloves or nutmegs, he
would have been very severely punished. With this ex-
ception, the old system of small salaries, with permission
to receive fees for various services and to trade to a
moderate extent, continued in favour.
The directors tried to check the evil by a kind of dual
government. In March 1688 they created the new office
of independent fiscal, differing greatly from that of the
guardians of the law in former times. Before 1690 the
fiscals at the Cape were only junior merchants in rank,
and the most important duty which they performed was
to conduct prosecutions in criminal cases. They were
subject to the head of the government just as much as
ordinary clerks were. The independent fiscals were re-
sponsible to the supreme directory alone, and were free of
all local control. To them was confided the regulation of
justice. By right of their office, they had a seat in the
council of policy next to the secunde, and had access to
records, registers, and state papers of every kind. They
had entire control of all accounts connected with ships*
cargoes, supplies of food for the garrison, and other expen-
diture. Such were the duties assigned to those appointed
to the possessions of the Company in India, and the
system at the Cape was made uniform with that else-
where.
It was hoped that with these extensive powers the
independent fiscals would be a check upon corrupt gover-
nors, commanders, and subordinate, officers of every grade.
But no care was taken to put them in a position where
they would be unexposed to temptation themselves. Their
salaries were inadequate, and they were permitted to
charge various fees. They had summary jurisdiction in
1689] Simon van der Stel. 357
petty criminal cases, and were allowed to retain for their
own benefit one third of the fines which they inflicted.
The first independent fiscal at the Cape, Mr. Comelis
Joan Simons, who was appointed in 1689, had a salary
from the Company of only 100/. a year.
There seemed now to the directors to be a good pros-
pect of attaining the objects which the East India Com-
pany had in view when forming a settlement at the Cape.
Refreshments for the crews of their fleets could be had
in ample quantities. Hitherto, however, the expense of
their establishment had been so great that they looked
upon it as the dearest victualling station in the world.
The formation of what was for those days a considerable
colony should, they thought, enable them to reduce their
expenditure, first, by furnishing a body of militia, so that
a large garrison would be unnecessary, and secondly, by
producing food at cheaper rates than formerly.
In their despatches they pointed out that while wheat
was being sold in the Netherlands at 65. 8i. the muid,
they were then paying 12s. 6d., and even 13«. lid., the
muid for it at the Cape. In the Netherlands the farmers
had to pay rent as well as tithes and heavy taxes, while
at the Cape they had no rent whatever to pay, and hardly
any taxes. They were of opinion, therefore, that the price
could be gradually reduced to that of the fatherland, and
that the farmers would still be left in a much better
condition than those in Europe.
They were further of opinion that the colony ought to
produce for exportation a sufficient quantity of wheat,
wine, and olive oil to enable them, after paying a fair price
to the farmers, to defray a considerable portion of the
cost of government out of the profits of the sale of such
articles. With this view they directed the commander to
continue making experiments with different kinds of vines
until he should ascertain which was best, that the colo-
nists might know what was the right sort to plant. With
regard to the olive, they expressed great disappointment
358 History of South Africa. [1689
that its cultivation had apparently not been persevered in,
and directed that it should be carefully attended to.
The commander replied that experiments with vines
were being made in the Company's gardens, by several
of the farmers, and by himself at Constantia. As for the
olive, he had spared no pains with it, and though it had
hitherto been a failure, except in occasional seasons, it
was still being tried. A few of the Huguenots were
making experiments with it also, and were not only try-
ing the cultivated variety, but were grafting upon the wild
olive of the country. Generally, however, the burghers
could not be induced to take any trouble with it, because
not only was its success doubtful, but under any circum-
stances they would have to wait a long time before
enjoying the profit.
The plans of Table Valley of this date show the town
as covering part of the ground between the Company's
garden and the shore of the bay, while extensive private
gardens occupied a large portion of the remaining space.
There were no private residences beyond the present
Plein street on one side and Burg street on the other.
On the north side of the Heerengracht — now Adderley
street — the Company's garden extended as far down as
the present Long-market street, but on the opposite side
it terminated where it does still. There was a reservoir
near the site of the original earthen fort on the parade
ground, to which water was conducted from the Fresh
river in a wooden pipe laid down in the year 1686, and
from which it could be conveyed along the jetty to the
ships' boats. Close to the reservoir was a mill for grind-
ing com. As far as the buildings extended the streets
were regularly laid out, and crossed each other at right
angles, but none of them bore the same names that they
do now.
The directors of the East India Company considered
that a settlement of such importance as the Cape Colony
had now attained should have as its head a man of
1 691] Simon van der Stel. 359
higher rank than a commander, and as Simon van der
Stel was regarded as deserving promotion, on the 14th
of December 1690 they raised him to the dignity of
governor, and granted him a salary above his mainte-
nance expenses of 16/. ISs. 4^. a month. On the 1st of
June of the following year the ship Java arrived in Table
Bay with despatches to this effect, since which date the
colony has always been presided over by an officer with
the rank of governor.
In 1691, when this change took place, the council of
policy consisted of the governor, Simon van der Stel, the
secunde, Andries de Man, the fiscal, Comelis Simons, the
captain, Willem Padt, the treasurer, Ludowyk van der
Stel, the garrison bookkeeper, Jan Hendrik Blum, and the
secretary, Jan Willem de Grevenbroek.
There were still but two clergjrmen in the colony. In
January 1689 the reverend Johannes van Andel had been
succeeded in Capetown by the reverend Leonardus Ter-
wold, and had gone to Batavia as chaplain of the Wapen
van Alkmaar. The church of Stellenbosch was still with-
out a resident Dutch clergyman, though it had a con-
sistory. The sick-visitor continued to read the services,
except when the minister Simond preached there in
French or Mr. Terwold in Dutch.
Jan Mulder, the first landdrost of Stellenbosch, re-
tired from office at his own request, and on the 12th of
June 1691 was succeeded by Mr. Comehs Linnes. In
the board of heemraden and in the . consistory men were
taking part whose descendants are to be found there to
the present day. The same may be said of many of the
members of the various boards at the Cape, for in the
consistory, the orphan chamber, the matrimonial court,
and the court of commissioners for petty cases, were men
with names now well known throughout South Africa.
In a roll call of the miUtia a large proportion of the
names would be familiar to-day anywhere between Cape
Point and the Limpopo.
360 History of South Africa. [1691
According to the census returns of 1691, corrected by
entries in the church registers, the most notable burghers
in the Cape district were: —
van As, Louis, with wife,
Baokstroo, Lourens, with wife and three children,
*de Beer, Jan, with wife and six children,
Bezuidenhout, Wynand,
^an der Bol, Jan, with wife and three children.
Tan den Bosch, Jan, with wife and two children,
Botma, Comelis, with wife and seyen children,
Bouwman, Hendrik, with wife and two children,
van Brakel, Adriaan, widower, with six children.
Burger, Barend, with wife and one child,
Colyn, Bastiaan, with wife and four children,
Cruywagen, Jan, with wife and one child,
Diemer, Abraham,
^Diepenauw, Hendrik, with wife,
Eems, Willem, with wife and one child,
Gerrits, Comelis, with wife and one child,
Gildenhuyzen, Albertus, with wife and five children,
Gtildenhuyzen, Albertus, with wife and three children,
^Gunnewoud, Christiaan, with wife,
^Harst, Hendrik, with wife and three children,
Hartog, Abraham, with wife and three children,
Heyns, Paul, with wife and two children,
^Huising, Henning, with wife,
Eotze, Jan, with wife,
Loubser, Nicolaas, with wife and three children,
Louw, widow of Jan, with one child,
Louw, Pieter,
Lubbe, Barend, with wife and two children,
Meyer, Willem, with wife and one child,
Meyer, Gerrit,
Meyhuyzen, Godfried, with wife and two children,
Michiels, Matthys, with wife and three children,
M511er, Hendrik Christoffel, with wife and seven children,
Mostert, Jan, with wife and six children,
Myburgh, Jan Lambert, with wife and two children,
* Those mskrked with an asterisk, though married and many of them
with children, have no descendants in South Africa at present, as far
as can be traced. The names of some of the unmarried men in these
lists have also died out.
1691] Simon van der Stel. 361
Olivier, Hendrik, with wife and six children,
^Persyn, Hendrik, with wife and five children,
^Phyffer, Jan, with wife and one child,
dn Plessis, Jean, with wife and two children,
van der Poel, Pieter,
^Pousioen, Marthinus, with wife and three children,
Pretorius, Jan, with wife and six children,
^PretoriuB, Dirk, with wife and three children,
^PreTot, Carel, with wife and one child,
Prinsloo, Adriaan, with wife and three children.
Patter, Diederik, with wife and five children,
Ras, widow of Hans, with three children,
''^Beyniers, Willem, with wife and one child,
Bussouw, Frederik, with wife and one child,
van Schalkwyk, Theunis, widower, with two children,
-K^Simons, Lambert, with wife and two children,
Smidt, Hendrik Evert, with wife and three children,
Smit, Jan, with wife and three children.
Smuts, Michiel Comelis, with wife and three children,
""^Sneewind, Hendrik, with wife and three children,
Strydom, Joost, with wife and three children,
Verschnur, Hendrik, with wife and six children,
Victor, Comelis, with wife and one child,
Victor, Gerrit, with wife and one child,
Villion (now Viljoen), widow of Fran9oi8, with five children,
Visagie, widow of Pieter, with two children,
Visser, Coenraad, with wife and three children,
Visser, Gerrit, with wife and eight children,
Visser, Jan, with wife and one child,
Visser, Jan Coenraad,
*Vlok, Jan Hendrik, with wife and five children,
Wessels, Jan, with wife and two children,
van der Westhuyzen, Pieter, with wife and six children,
Wiegman, Matthys, with wife,
Willemse, Gerrit, with wife and one child.
The most notable inhabitants of Stellenbosch were: —
Appel, Ferdinand, with wife,
van den Berg, Jacobus,
Beyers, Andries, with wife and four children,
Boshouwer, Pieter, with wife and four children,
''^Botha, Jan, with wife and two children,
Botha, Frederik,
362 History of South Africa. [1691
Botma, Jan,
Botma, Stephanas, with wife,
Brand, Borchard,
-)hran den Brink, Barend, with wife and two children,
Brits, Hans JsKSob, with wife,
♦Brouwer, Jacob, with wife,
van der Byl, Gerrit, with wife,
Campher, Lonrens, with wife and one child,
Cleef, Nioolaas, with wife and two children,
Cloete, Gerrit, with wife and six children,
Coetsee, Dirk, with wife and five children,
""^van Daalen, Comelis, with wife,
van Dyk, Jan, with wife and two children,
van Eeden, Jan, with wife and one child,
Elberts, Hendrik, with wife and eight children,
Faasen, Simon, with wife and one child,
le F^bre, Pierre, with wife and fonr children,
'^'Gerrits, Pieter, with wife and five children,
Greef, Mathys, with wife and four children,
'K'Grimp, Hans, with wife,
Ghroenewald, Christoffel,
^Henning, Christofifel, with wife and two children,
*van Hof, Lambert, with wife and two children,
''^Holder, Albertns, with wife,
^JsKsobs, Hendrik, with wife and one child,
"^Janssen, Amoud, with wife and four children,
de Klerk, Abraham (a youth),
'^'Eonterman, Hans, with wife and two children,
^Linnes, Comelis, with wife and one chUd,
^an der Lit, Anthonie, with wife,
'K'Mankadan, Sybrand, with wife and one child,
♦Mol, Dirk, with wife,
Morkel, Philip, with wife,
Mulder, Jan,
Nel, GuiUaume, senior, with wife and two children,
Nel, Willem, junior, with wife and one child,
Oelofse, Andries, with wife and one child,
*van Oldenberg, Jan, with wife and four children,
Olivier, Ocker, with wife and three children,
Pasman, Roelof, with wife and two children,
Pasman, Wemmer, with wife and one child,
^Paterbom, Jan, with wife and one child,
Potgieter, Hermanns, with wife and six children,
Fyl, Abraham Sebastiaan, with wife and two childr^i,
1 691] Simon van der Stel, 363
Scheepers, Izaak, with wife and two children,
^Simond, Pierre, with wife and two children,
Steyn, Douw Q^rbrand, with wife and two children,
Tas, Adam,
da Toit, Guillaome, with wife and one child,
Venter, Hendrik, with wife and one chUd,
♦Verbrugge, Lourens, with wife,
Vermeolen, Jan, with wife and three children,
Vofdoo, Jan,
♦de Wereld, Willem, with wife,
♦Wsmer, Jan, with wife and two children.
The most notable inhabitants of Drakenstein were: —
-^Amiel, Matthien, with wife and two children,
van As, Jacobus, with wife and one child,
Basson, Willem, with wife,
Bastiaans, Frans, with wife and two children,
Bekker, Pieter, with wife and one child,
Beneset, Pierre,
^de Berout, Louis, with wife and four children,
Booysen, Booy, with wife,
Bru^re, Etienne,
de Bruyn, Theunis,
da Buis, Jean,
van der Byl, Pieter, with wife and one child,
Claasen, Jan, with wife,
Cloete, Coenraad (a youth),
Gordier, Louis, with wife and five children,
▼an Deventer, Gerrit, with wife and two children,
Durand, Jean,
▼an Eck, Adriaan,
^Eckhof, Hendrik, with wife and four children,
Erasmus, Pieter,
Fouch^ Philippe, with wife and four children,
Fouri^, Louis,
Fracass^, Matthieu,
Gaucher (now Gous), Andr^, with wife and one child,
la Grange, Pierre,
Hasewinkel, Christoffel,
Hattingh, Hans Hendrik,
Helm, Hans, with wife and six children,
▼an der Heyden, Jacobus, with wife and one child,
Hugod, Daniel,
364 History of South Africa. [1691
Jacob, Pierre, with wife and two children,
Joubert, Pierre, with wife and two children,
Jourdan, Jean, with wife and one child,
Jonrdan, Pierre,
Enoetzen, Comelis, with wife,
Krugel, Matthys,
Erogel, Andries,
de Lange, Jan Hendrik, with wife and three children,
Lombard, Pierre, with wife and three children,
'"'le Long, Jean, with wife and one child,
Malan, Jacques,
Malherbe, Gideon, with wife and one child,
Marais, widow of Charles, senior, with two children,
Marais, Claude, with wife and one child,
Marais, Charles,
van Marseveen, Pieter, with wife and one child,
van der Merwe, Schalk, with wife and one child,
Tan der Merwe, Willem, with wife and eight children,
Mesnard (now Minnaar), Jean, widower, with two children,
Meyer, Pierre,
Tan Niekerk, Comelis, with wife,
Nortier (now Nortje), Daniel, with wife and two children,
Oosthnyzen, Jan,
Pinard (now Pienaar), Jacques, with wife and one child,
du Pr6 (now du Preez), Hercule, senior, with wife and four children^
dn Pr^, Hercule, junior,
R^tif (now Betief), Fran9ois,
Boi, Jean,
Bomond, Michiel,
Bousseau (now Bossonw), Pierre, with wife,
Bouz, Paul, with wife and one child,
Rouz (or le Boux), Jean, of Provence,
le Bouz, Jean, of Blois,
le Bouz, Gabriel,
*de Buelle, Daniel, widower, with one child,
de Savoye, Jacques, with wife and three children,
Senechal (now Senekal), David,
Snyman, Christoffel, with wife and one child,
van Staden, Marthinus, with wife and eight children,
^tiwart, Comelis, with wife and two children.
Swart, Jan, with wife,
Taillefer, Isaac, with wife and three children,
Terrier, Daniel,
Therond (now Theron), Jacques,
1 691] Simon van der SteL 365
du Toit, Fran9ois, with wife and one child,
Verdeau, Hercole,
'^Vermey, Stephanus, with wife and one child,
Verwey, Gysbert, with wife and three children,
de Villiers, Abraham, with wife and two children,
de Villiers, Jacob, with wife and two children,
de Villiers, Pierre,
Viret, Etienne,
Vivier, Abraham,
van Vuuren, Gerrit, with wife.
Tan Wyk, Willem, with wife and two children,
van Wyk, Adriaskn, with wife,
van Zyl, Willem, with wife and one child.
In addition to these there were in the whole settle-
ment in 1691 some three hundred European men, many
of whom did not remain long in the country, and none
of whom left descendants to perpetuate their names. The
permanent colonists, numbering about a thousand indi-
viduals of all ages and both sexes, sprang from different
European nationaUties, though Netherlanders greatly pre-
ponderated. As nearly as is possible to analyse it, the
blood consisted of rather over two-thirds Dutch, about
one-sixth French, a very small fraction Swedish, Danish,
and Belgian, and one-seventh German. The female immi-
grants — except the Huguenots — were practically all from
the Netherlands. The German male settlers were chiefly
from the borderland where high and low Teuton blood
is intermingled, and in religion, language, and sentiment
they were as near to the people of Amsterdam as to
those of Berlin. Owing to the foreigners having come
from different countries, they lost their national character-
istics more quickly than if they had all been of one
origin, and the Dutch element was strong enough to
absorb them without itself undergoing much change.
In the colony there were also at this time about fifty
free Asiatics and negros, with their wives and sixty
or seventy children. They enjoyed identically the same
political privileges as European burghers, with whom
they were classed in official documents without any dis-
366 History of South Africa. [1691
tinction whatever. In social life, however, they formed
an inferior class, for between them and the Europeans in
thought and conduct there was a great gulf which politi-
cal equality could not bridge.
The colonists owned two hundred and eighty-five men.
slaves, fifty-seven women slaves, and forty-four slave
children. The children were all baptized, and were receiv-
ing instruction in the principles of Christianity. The
disproportion of the sexes was the cause of much crime
with them as with the Europeans. Several parties of
runaway slaves maintained themselves in the mountains
and committed depredations upon the farmers, others took
refuge with Hottentot clans, by whom, however, they
were generally surrendered sooner or later.
The burghers possessed two hundred and sixty-one
horses, four thousand one hundred and ninety-eight head
of homed cattle, forty-eight thousand seven hundred sheep,
and two hundred and twenty goats. They had five hun-
dred and eighty-four thousand nine hundred and fifty
vines bearing, and had harvested in the last season four
thousand one hundred and eighty-one muids of wheat,
eight hundred and eight muids of rye, and two hundred
and two muids of barley.
The revenue of the government was almost entirely
derived from the following sources :—
Licenses to sell wines, spirits, bread, meat, and various
other articles, which were put up at auction yearly, and
brought in altogether about 1,500/.; the tithes, which
fluctuated greatly, and, with the deductions allowed to the
sick, the very poor, and generally in bad seasons, were
not worth more than about 700/. ; and transfer dues on
the sales of fixed property, which brought the whole up
to about 2,250/. yearly. The colonists were thus appa-
rently taxed at the rate of about forty-five shillings for
each individual, over and above the profits derived from
the sale of goods by the Company, but in reality strangers
contributed the largest portion of the license money.
1 691] Simon van der Stel. 367
The number of ships that pat into Table Bay between
the Ist of January 1672 and the close of the century
was one thousand two hundred and twenty-seven, — nine
hundred and seventy-six Dutch, one hundred and seventy
English, forty-two Danish, thirty-six French, and three
Portuguese, — on an average forty-four every year. Since
the middle of the century many improvements had been
made in the construction of ships. They carried now
more sails, but each one smaller, so that they needed
fewer seamen than formerly. The average crew of a
Dutch Indiaman at the close of the century was one
hundred and seventy individuals of all ranks and classes.
The English ships that put into Table Bay were as a
rule much smaller, and did not carry on an average more
than one hundred men. Many of them were engaged in
the slave trade between the West Indies and Madagascar.
Others were private traders, or interlopers as they were
called. The EngUsh East India Company's ships usually
passed by Table Bay, as they had a refreshing station of
their own at St. Helena.
The records of the colonists and their industries are
the symbols of a community so small that its history
would scarcely be worth recording, if it had not occupied
such a commanding position, if it were not that from it
the present colonies and republics of South Africa have
grown, and if it had not been in contact with the bar-
barism of a continent. In 1691 it was in fairly pros-
perous circumstances, with no one accumulating great
wealth, but on the other hand with no one wanting food.
There were none so indigent as not to have bread and
meat, and milk or wine, three times a day, there were
vegetables at all times for those who cared to grow them,
no season was without its fruit, and no table need have
stood without flowers, wild or cultivated, upon it every
day in the year. What may be termed luxuries were
indeed wanting, but their use was either unknown or
unappreciated. According to the testimony not only of
368 History of South Africa. [1691
official documents, but of the writings of travellers of
various nationalities, English, French, German, Danish,
and Dutch, the little colony was a settlement in which
life could be passed as comfortably and happily SrS any-
where in the world.
As yet the burghers found no fault with the constitu-
tion of the government under which they were living.
They did not consider themselves any the less free on
account of having no voice in the selection of their rulers,
but regarded all alike as bound by the law and protected
by the law. They were not the people tamely to submit
to any infringement upon what they believed to be their
rights and hberties. Their views of rights and liberties
were not indeed those of to-day, because they were men
of the seventeenth, not of the nineteenth, century. But
they possessed a full share of the sturdy spirit of inde-
pendence which led the people of the Netherlands on
more than one occasion within that century to risk life
and property in defence of freedom. They may be the
poorest, but they are not the least courageous or liberty-
loving people of any country who go forth to found
colonies in distant lands. And assuredly the men who
built up the European power in South Africa were, in
those quaUties which ought to command esteem, no whit
behind the pioneers of any colony in the world. They
brought to this country an unconquerable love of liberty,
a spirit of patient industry, a deep-seated feeling of trust
in the Almighty God : virtues which fitted them to do
the work marked out for them by Providence in the land
that to their children was home.
Between 1691 and the close of the century several im-
provements were made in Capetown. In January 1693
the botanist Oldenland, who was superintendent of the
Company's garden and land-surveyor for the government,
received the additional appointment of town engineer,
with an annual salary of 6/. 18^. 10^. He died four
years later. In October 1695 the Keizersgracht, the pres-
1694] Simon van der Stel. 369
ent Darling street, was laid out between the Heerengracbt,
now Adderley street, and the back of the castle. The
road to the country at that time ran between the castle
and the shore of the bay. In October 1697 the work of
levelling the ground between the new street and the
shore, since termed the great parade, was commenced.
It was previously intersected by several deep guUies, and
some knolls of considerable size were standing on it. The
Company furnished a party of slaves, and the burghers
contributed the remainder of the labour. The work was
completed in 1699. In April 1696 the streets began to
be patrolled at night by a burgher watch. Constables
were not employed in the town, though at Stellenbosch
and Drakenstein two of those useful officials, there termed
veldwachters, were engaged in seeing that the placaats
were observed. They were paid at the rate of \l. 25. 3rf.
a month.
In February 1693 a waggon road was completed over
the neck beyond Wynberg to Hout Bay. In 1698 the
church at Stellenbosch was enlarged, as the original build-
ing was too small to contain the congregation. In the
same year an abortive attempt was made to form a safe
harbour for boats by cutting a passage through the sand
from Table Bay to a reach of the Salt river.
IJfforts to produce olives were continued, though in all
instances resulting in failure. Experiments in the culti-
vation of the hop were al^o being made; but without
success, as the high winds destroyed the tendrils. The
planting out of young oaks in different parts of the Cape
peninsula was assiduously attended to.
Wild animals were still giving trouble. In May 1694
a burgher at Drakenstein was killed by a leopard, and
another at Stellenbosch was nearly torn to pieces by a
lion. On one day in the following month nine cows were
killed by lions in sight of the castle. Though the pre-
mium for destroying a lion in the Cape peninsula was
5/. 4s. 2^., a large sum of money in those days, the fire-
VOL. L 24
270 History of South Africa. [1695
arms in use were so clumsy that it was a long time,
before all were exterminated. As late as 1702 an ele-
phant was killed just beyond the Cape flats.
In the morning of the 4th of September 1695 the first
recorded shock of earthquake was felt at the Cape. The
weather was perfectly calm and clear, when suddenly a
noise like a clap of thunder was heard, and a trembling of
the earth was felt as if something was rolling beneath the
foundations of the buildings. In a few seconds it ceased,
and was not repeated. No damage was occasioned by the
shock. In the afternoon of the 11th of January 1G96
another slight trembling was felt in the town, bat un-
accompanied by noise.
During this period several changes took place in the
official stafL On the 22nd of June 1694 Mr. Grevenbroek
resigned his situation as secretary to the council of policy,
and became a burgher at Stellenbosch. He was succeeded
as secretary by Hugo de Goyer. On the 18th of Novem-
ber 1694 the independent fiscal Comelis Joan Simons
transferred his duties to Johan Blesius, and proceeded to
Batavia to fill a post of greater importance. In April
1697 Mr. Samuel Elsevier arrived from the Netherlands
with the appointment of secunde, Andries de Man having
died in March 1695.
In August 1693 the reverend Leonardus Terwold was
transferred to Batavia. Services were held occasionally by
chaplains of ships and by Mr. Simond until the 22nd of
September 1694, when the reverend Hercules van Loon,
chaplain of the Nederland, was detained here, and was
appointed provisionally clergjrman of the Cape. The direc-
tors, however, sent out the reverend Petrus Kalden, who
was inducted on the 4th of December 1695, and Mr. Van
Loon was obliged to return to Europe. He left re-
luctantly, and with the good wishes of the congregation.
The hospital, built by Commander Van Biebeek close
to the beach in firont of the earthen fort Good Hope, was
at this time in a dilapidated condition. Its site was not
1693] Simon van der Stel. 371
good, as it was exposed to the full force of gales. Upon
the governor's representations, the directors authorised him
to huild a larger hospital in a more suitable place, and for
a site he selected the ground between the upper ends of
the present Adderley and St George's streets, then termed
the Heerengracht and Berg-straat. In December 1694 the
foundation was commenced, but the building * was not
taken properly in hand until July 1697. It was designed
to accommodate five hundred patients without crowding,
or seven hundred and fifty on an emergency. On the
24th of October 1699 it was completed and opened for
use, when the sick were moved into it from the old build-
ing on the beach.
A hospital of this size was none too large for the
requirements of the Company's fleets at the close of the
seventeenth century. Owing to improvements in the con-
struction of ships, passages were now often made in
ninety to a hundred days between Europe and the Cape,
but scurvy still caused terrible havoc among seamen.
On the 8th of February 1693 a boat reached Saldanha
Bay with a feeble crew and a sick officer, who reported
that they had left their ship, the Bantam^ anchored off
Paternoster Point. On the passage out, two hundred and
twenty-one men had died of scurvy, and those left alive
were too weak to work. They had therefore dropped
anchor, and some of them left in a boat to look for assist-
ance. The boat was swamped, and of her crew only two
men got to land, of whom, it was believed, one died of
hunger and the other was killed by wild animals. A
second boat then left for Saldanha Bay, and fortunately
found a large Indiaman at anchor thera A party of men
was sent to the Bantam, and she was brought safely to
Table Bay.
On the 4th of May 1693 the Ocvde Buys sailed from
Enkhuizen with one hundred and ninety souls on board,
and on the 19th of October dropped anchor off the coast
about fifteen miles north of St Helena Bay, when there
m
372 History of South Africa. [1693
were not a dozen of her crew capable of working. On
the 11th of November seven men left the ship to seek
assistance inland. Of these, five perished of hunger, one
wandered along the banks of the Berg river until he was
found by some Hottentots and taken to the Company's
post at Saldanha Bay, and the other, after roaming about
for seven weeks, was rescued. When intelligence of the
state of the ship reached the Cape, a yacht was sent to
her assistance. Only one Uving person was found on
board, and he died soon afterwards. The Qcnide Buys had
drifted ashore, and could not be got off, but most of her
cargo was saved, and all the small vessels at the Gape
were for some time employed in transporting it to Table
Bay.
On the 23rd of November 1693 the Schoondyk arrived
from Texel with her whole remaining crew of one hxm-
dred and twenty sick. One hundred and thirty-four had
died on the passage out. On the 23rd of December 1694
the Pampm arrived from Botterdam with only sixteen
healthy men on board. Sixty had died on the passage
out, and eighty-three were down with scurvy. On the
11th of November 1695 a fleet of eleven ships afrived
from the Netherlands, with six hundred and seventy-eight
men unable to walk, some of whom were so far gone
that they died while being conveyed to the hospital. A
great many others were ill, but were able to go about.
Two hundred and twenty-eight had perished on the pas-
sage. On the 17th of October 1696 the Vosmaar arrived
from Flushing with only four sound men on board. One
hundred and thirty-nine were ill, and ninety-three had
died. Of ten Huguenot passengers for the Cape, five had
died.
Several wrecks took place at this time.
During the night of the 4th of June 1692 a heavy
gale set in from the north-west, and before daylight of
the 5th the Company's ships Ooede ffoop and Hoogergee$t
and the English ship Orange were driven ashore near the
1697] Simon van der Stel. 373
mouth of Salt Kiver. There was a large fleet in Table
Bay at the time, but the other vessels held to their
anchors. The Goede Hoop was the same ship that had
been taken from the French in April 1689, when she
was named the Normande. She was now homeward
bound from Ceylon. She held together^ and most of her
cargo, though damaged, was recovered. The Hoogergeest^
from Batavia, and the Orange^ from Madras, broke up
quickly, but only a few of their people were lost. The
men of the Hoogergeest were rescued by a quartermaster of
an Indiaman, who happened to be on shore at the time.
This brave seaman, Jochem Willems by name, fastened a
line to his body, and made his way through the surf to
the wreck. A hawser was then pulled ashore, and by its
means most of the crew escaped before the ship broke up.
Early in the morning of the 20th of January 1694 the
yacht Dageraad, laden with cargo — ^including a quantity of
specie — from the Gronde Buys, ran ashore on the western
side of Bobben Island, and broke up immediately. Six-
teen lives were lost. Some of the specie was recovered,
but not all.
In the afternoon of the 24th of May 1697 the Com-
pany's homeward bound ships Waddingsveen and Oosterland,
with valuable cargoes on board, were driven ashore at
Salt Biver mouth in a great gale, and were dashed to
pieces at once. Two other ships out of a large fleet that
was lying in the bay narrowly escaped the same fate.
Only seventeen men in all were saved from the two
wrecks. Among these was the clergyman Hendrik Willem
Gordon, whose name is prominent in the history of Am-
boina, on account of his opposition to the governor
Nicolaas Schagen, and of the severe treatment he received
from that official. The clergyman reached the shore almost
exhausted, and a minute later the corpse of his wife with an
infant fast locked in her arms was washed up on the beach.
On the 27th of May 1698 the Huts te Crayenstein,
from Middelburg bound to Batavia, anchored in a calm
374 History of South Africa. [1693
off Camp's Bay. During the night a thick mist set in,
and before dayhght of the 28th the ship was found to
have parted her cable and to be adrift. She was already
in the breakers, and before anything could be done to
save her, she struck on the rocks behind the Lion's head,
and became a complete wreck. No lives were lost.
Scurvy and wreck were not the only perils of the sea.
Towards the close of the seventeenth century the Indian
ocean began to be frequented by pirates, who were ready
when opportunities offered to pillage the coasts as well
as to seize defenceless ships. Among them was the fam-
ous Captain Eadd.
On the 2nd of May 1693 a small armed brigantine
under English colours, with her main mast gone, put into
Saldanha Bay. There was a ship belonging to the Eng-
lish East India Company lying in Table Bay, and her
officers assured the governor that the stranger was a
pirate, urging him at the same time to take her in cus-
tody. An armed vessel was thereupon sent to Saldanha
Bay to ascertain particulars. The brigantine was found
to have two conflicting sets of papers, and to bear traces
of having been in an engagement. Her master, George
Dew by name, stated that he was from the Bermudas,
bound to Madagascar for a cargo of slaves, and that his
crew consisted of twenty-four men. The vessel was called
the Amy. The Dutch officers considered that they were
justified in seizing her, and they brought her to Table
Bay. Twenty-four hours after she was in their posses-
sion some men were found concealed on board, when her
crew reached a total of thirty-five.
There was no doubt as to her true character, so she
was condenmed, and was kept for use by the Cape govern-
ment. Captain Dew and his men were sent prisoners to
Europe. But it was found impossible to prove legally
that Dew was a pirate, and he then put in a claim for
damages against the Company and caused the directors
much trouble and expense.
1699] Simon van der SieL 375
On the 10th of May 1699 intelligence was received
at the castle that a pirate vessel with an English crew
had put into Saldanha Bay and taken possession of some
galiots and decked boats belonging to the Company and
to private individuals, there being nothing else to plunder
within reach. Two ships were at once sent to try to
capture her, but before they could reach the bay she had
sailed. She had taken the little vessels outside, but had
then abandoned them, after her master had generously
presented four negros to the owner of one, in return for
his stores. A few weeks after this a squadron of English
men-of-war touched here on their way to the Mozam-
bique channel, where they were about to cruise in search
of pirates.
On the 28th of December 1699 an English vessel
named the MargcUe put into Table Bay. Her master
stated that he was from Madagascar, bound to the Ber-
mudas with one hundred and twenty slaves. Another
English vessel, named the Loyal Merchant, was lying at
anchor in the bay. Captain Lowth, who commanded her,
had a commission from Eang William, authorising him to
search for rovers and seize them. He examined the Mar-
gate, and then took possession of that vessel on the ground
that she had been engaged in piracy. The governor pro-
tested against this violation of a Dutch port, but to no
effect, for Captain Lowth kept his prize and took her
away with him. He also examined another English vessel
which put in before he left, but released her after two
days' detention.
In 1696 the directors issued instructions that as soon
as possible farming and cattle dealing should be given up
by the Cape government. They were disposed to call for
tenders to supply the garrison and fleets with beef and
mutton, and to allow the colonists to purchase cattle
from the Hottentots and fatten them for sale to the con-
tractors. But no steps towards carrying these instruc-
tions into effect were taken until some years later.
376 History of South Africa, [1699
Between the years 1691 and 1700 the following names
of burghers who left children in South Africa are first
found in the records of the colony : Pieter Barend Blom,
Jan Bockelenberg, Christiaan Bok, Frederik Conradie, Jan
Jacob Conterman, Pierre Cronje, Hendrik Oostwald Ek-
steen, Christoffel Esterhuyzen, Abraham Everts, Paul le
Febre, Jan Harmse, Jan van Helsdingen, Pieter Jurgen
van der Heyden, Pieter Hubner, Frans Joosten, Bar-
tholomeus Koopman, Hary Lecrivent, Jacques Mouton,
Louis le Kiche, Pieter Eobberts, Floris Slabbert, Pieter
Swanepoel, Etienne Terreblanche (now Terblans), and
Jacobus de Wet.
Before the year 1692 Simon van der Stel enjoyed the
esteem and affection of nearly every European in South
Africa except the French immigrants, but about this date
a different feeling began slowly to develop. He was now
a disappointed man, for his dream of earher years, to
form here a purely Dutch settlement, had been thwarted.
The love of wealth had grown upon him, and his farm
Constantia, already beautified with vineyards and avenues
of young oaks, year by year occupied more of his atten-
tion. The strong personal interest which he had taken
in the welfare of the colonists seemed to them to be
dying out. And a comparison of the records of the first
twelve years of his administration with those of the last
seven shows that a change in his feelings had really
taken place, for the enthusiastic language of the first
period gives way to cold official expressions in the last.
Still there were no open complaints, and to strangers
and others who could not see beneath the surface every-
thing appeared to be working smoothly.
The directors continued to hold a high opinion of the
governor, though occasionally they complained of some of
his acts as prejudicial to their interests, and at other times
charged him with remissness of duty in connection with the
provisioning and speedy despatch of their ships. In 1692
they conferred upon him the rank and title of councillor
1699] Simon van der SteL 377
extraordinary of Netherlands India, and when in 1696 he
requested permission to resign, so as to spend the evening
of his Ufe in comparative freedom from care, they named
his eldest son as his successor. The newly appointed
governor could not inmaediately leave the Netherlands,
however, and it was not until the 23rd of January 1699
that he and his family reached South Africa.
After handing over the administration on the 11th of
February 1699, Simon van der Stel retired to his farm
Gonstantia, where he had built a large and handsome resi-
dence. There during the next thirteen years strangers
of note were always sure of a hearty reception, and
the hospitality of the late governor was so great that
his house was seldom or never without visitors. He
devoted his remaining years chiefly to agriculture and
cattle rearing. On the 11th of March 1699 he obtained
from the commissioner Daniel Heins a grant in freehold
of Zeekoevlei with the ground surrounding it, an hour's
walk in diameter, and on the 1st of February 1700 the
commissioner Wouter Yalckenier granted him the use of
the Steenbergen for the term of his lifa Practically
therefore he had the whole peninsula beyond his property
as a cattle run. The wine which he made was the best
in the colony. The burghers believed that he possessed
some secret for manufacturing it, and strangers attributed
its quality to the care which he took in pressing and fer-
menting, but it is now known that it owed its flavour to
the soil.
The late governor did not confine his attention wholly
to these pursuits, and was always ready to embark in any
undertaking that promised large returns. In June 1711,
when he was nearly seventy-two years of age, in company
with the burgher Jan PhjdBEer he entered into a contract
with the council of policy to supply for five years dried
and salted fish, in which the partners secured a monopoly
of fishing and seal hunting at Saldanha Bay, on condition
of an annual payment of twenty-five leggers of train oil.
27^ History of South Africa. [171 2
Simon van der Stel died on the 24th of June 1712.
His remains were buried beneath the pavement of the
church in Table Valley. A monument to his memory was
erected behind the pulpit, but when during the present]
century the church was enlarged, it with everything else
of its kind was removed and never restored. His property
he bequeathed in equal proportions to his five surviving
children, Wilhem Adriaan, Adriaan, Catharina, Frans, and
Hendrik. His estate Constantia, which he had made one
of the most beautiful spots in the world, passed away
from his family. It was divided into two portions, known
to the present day as Great and Little Constantia, and
was sold for the benefit of his heirs.
379
CHAPTEK XII.
WILHEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL, GOVERNOR, INSTALLED
llTH FEBRUARY 1699; RECALLED Sbd JUNE 1707.
WiLHEM Adriaan VAN DER Stel had for ten years been
filling various offices in the city of Amsterdam, among
others that of judge, when the assembly of seventeen, in
recognition of his father's services, offered him the ap-
pointment of counciUor extraordinary of India and goyer-
nor of the Cape Colony and its dependency the island of
Mauritius. He had once resided here for a short time,
and was well acquainted with the circumstances of the
country. There is nothing in the records or contemporary
pubUcations to indicate what manner of man he was in
personal appearance, though the details of his administra-
tion are given very minutely.
Notwithstanding the pains taken by the late governor
to promote tree planting, there was a scarcity of timber
and fuel at the Cape. It was a difficult matter to supply
the ships with firewood. Some skippers reported that in
passing by two islands, named Dina and Marseveen, in
latitude 41'' or 42"" south and about four hundred sea
miles from the Cape, they had observed fine forests, which
they suggested should be examined. The master of the
galiot Wezd was therefore instructed to proceed to the
locality indicated, to inspect the forests closely, and ascer-
tain what quantity of timber was to be had. The Wezel
sailed from Table Bay on the 31st of March 1699, but
returned on the 13th of May with a report that the
search for the islands had been fruitless.
380 History of South Africa. [1699
The governor, like his father, regarded the cultivation
of trees as a matter of great importance. Daring the
first winter after his arrival twenty thousand young oaks
were planted in the kloofs at Stellenbosch and Draken-
stein where the native forests had been exhausted, and
over ten thousand were set out in the Cape peninsula.
In the winter of 1701 a further supply was sent to Stel-
lenbosch from the nursery in Table Valley, and the land-
drost was instructed to have them planted along the
streets.
On the 23rd of November the governor with a party
of attendants set out on a tour of inspection of the settle-
ment. He visited Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, and the
£a.rms about the Tigerberg, where he found some persons
to whom no ground had yet been allotted. The country
was inhabited by Europeans, though thinly, nearly as far
as the present village of Hermon. Small Hottentot kraals
were scattered about, of which the occupants were found
to be very poor and very lazy.
Keeping down the Berg river, the range of mountains
on the right was reported to be tenanted by Bushmen,
who were in the habit of descending from their fastnesses
and plundering the burghers and Hottentots below. The
range was on this account known as the Obiqua moun-
tains. The governor crossed over at a place since termed
the Boodezand pass, just beyond the gorge through which
the Little Berg river flows, and entered the valley now
called the Tulbagh basin.
Though not greatly elevated, this basin is in the
second of the steps by which the mainland of South
Africa rises from the ocean to the central plain. If a
cane with a large round head be laid upon soft ground,
the mark will give an idea of its form. The hollow
caused by the head of the cane will represent the basin,
the long narrow groove will indicate the valley between
the Obiqua mountains and a parallel range six or seven
miles farther inland. The Breede river has its source in
1699] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 381
the third terrace, and, rushing down a gorge in the in-
terior range, now called Michell's pass, flows south-east-
ward through the valley. Close to MichelPs pass the
mountain retires, but shortly sweeps round and joins the
Obiqua range, the keystone of the arch thus formed being
the Great Winterhoek, six thousand eight hundred and
forty feet in height, the loftiest peak visible from Cape-
town.
It wa^ the basin thus enclosed that the governor and
his party entered. It was found to be drained by the
Little Berg river and its numerous tributary rills, whose
waters escape through a gorge in the Obiqua mountains,
and flow north-westward. The watershed between the
Breede and Little Berg rivers is merely a gentle swell
in the surface of the ground. At the foot of Michell's
pass, at the present day, a mill race is led out of the
Breede and turned into the Little Berg, and thus a few
shovels full of earth can divert water from the Indian to
the Atlantic ocean.
The ba^in excels all other parts of South Africa in
the variety and beauty of its wild flowers, which in early
spring almost conceal the ground. It was too late in the
season for the governor's party to see it at its best, still
the visitors were charmed with its appearance. Very few
Hottentots were found. In the recesses of the mountains
were forests of magnificent trees, and although the timber
could not be removed to the Cape, it would be of great
use to residents. Immigrants were arriving in every fleet
from the Netherlands, so the governor resolved to form a
settlement in the valley, where cattle breeding could be
carried on to advantage. Agriculture, except to supply
the wants of residents, could not be pursued with profit,
owing to the difficulty of transport. The governor named
the basin the Land of Waveren, in honour of a family of
position in Amsterdam. The range of mountains enclos-
ing the valley on the inland side and stretching away as
far as the eye could reach, as yet without a name, he
382 History of South Africa. [1700
called the Witsenberg, after the justly esteemed burgo-
master Nicolaas Witsen of Amsterdam. The land of
Waveren has long since become the Tulbagh basin, but
one may be allowed to hope that the Witsenberg will
always be known by the honoured name it has borne
since 1699.
Several burghers who had been living at Drakenstein
were now permitted to graze their cattle at Biebeek's
Kasteel, and on the 31st of July 1700 some recent immi-
grants from Europe were sent to occupy the land of
Waveren. As it was the rainy season, the families of the
immigrants remained at the Cape until rough cottages
could be put up for their acconmiodation. At the same
time a corporal and six soldiers were sent to form a mili-
tary post in the valley for the protection of the colonists.
This post was termed the Waveren outstation, and was
maintained for many years. On the 16th of October
several additional famihes were forwarded to the new
district to obtain a living as graziers.
The Company's garden in Table Valley was kept by
the new governor in the same state of cultivation as that
in which his father left it. To its former attractions he
added a museum — chiefly of skeletons and stuffed animals
— and a small menagerie of wild animals of the country,
to which purposes one of the enclosed spaces at the upper
end was devoted. Near the centre of the garden he
erected a lodge for the reception of distinguished visitors
and for his own recreation, which building by enlarge-
ments and alterations in later years has become the
present government house.
In the winter of 1700 Governor Wilhem Adriaan van
der Stel also caused a new garden to be laid out a
short distance beyond Kustenburg, and spent much time,
thought, and money in its ornamentation. As originally
planned, this garden and the plantations attached to it
covered forty morgen of ground ; but in course of time
from twenty to thirty morgen more were added to it.
In this map the extent
lown. The part of the o
nd Hottentots is coloured
lottentota. Id 1700
nd in the Tulbagh basiu,
bis jear also the [jasttire al
cactor for the Supply of me(
There was no defined ^
loept the sea, nor was th^
f the Gape and Stellenb*"^
■tellenbosuh had juriadictio
«ninsula, except the gover
The places where there \'
Capetowti, founded
Stellenbosch, ruun(
and heemradei
The churches were
Capetown, eatahliBl '
St^leaboHisli, estab] J
Drakensteiu, eatabi
«
f
lyoo] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 383
A superintendent was stationed here with assistants and
a strong party of slaves, by whose labour the place
soon became exceedingly attractive. In this garden, which
bore the name of Newlands, a small lodge was erected,
which grew half a century later into the favourite country
residence of the governors.
Ever since 1658 trade between the burghers and the
Hottentots was strictly forbidden. The chief object was
to prevent any act that might bring on a collision with
the natives. In opposition to the law, however, paoi^ies
of deserters and other persons of loose character carried
on a cattle trade, and were often guilty of conduct that
cannot be distinguished from robbery. Governor Simon
van der Stel thought to check this by threatening more
severe punishment, and on the 19th of October 1697 he
issued a placaat in which the barter of cattle from Hotten-
tots was prohibited, under penalty of whipping, branding,
banishment, and confiscation of property.
The directors disapproved of this. They were disposed
to allow the colonists to purchase cattle from the Hotten-
tots and fatten them for sale to such persons as would
contract to supply the garrison and fleets with beef and
mutton. They therefore annulled the placaat, and on the
27th of July 1699 issued instructions that the cattle trade
should be thrown open, on condition that the burghers
should supply draught oxen to the government, whenever
required, at fourteen shiUings each.
The council of policy had then no option, but was
under the necessity of obeying orders. Tenders were
called for, and in February 1700 the burgher Henning
Huising entered into a contract to supply the garrison,
hospital, and Company's fleets with beef and mutton at
twopence halfpenny a pound, he to have the use of the
Company's slaughter-houses and as a cattle run the whole
of the district of Groenekloof that was not occupied by
Hottentots. The contract was signed provisionally for ten
years, but the directors reduced it to five. With this
384 History of South Africa. [1700
transaction the Company designed to relinquish sending
expeditions into the interior to purchase cattle, as had
been the custom for nearly half a century; and henceforth
it was only when draught oxen were needed in greater
numbers than the burghers could supply that military
bartering parties went inland. By a placaat of the council
of poUcy presided over by the commissioner Wouter Valc-
kenier, on the 28th of February 1700 the trade was
thrown open to the burghers, with such restrictions as
were considered necessary to prevent its abuse.
From this date cattle breeding became a favourite pur-
suit with yearly increasing numbers of colonists. There
was as much to be made by it as by agriculture, and it
was attended with less expense and less anxiety. The
government gave permission to appUcants to use land for
grazing purposes at some defined locaUty, but if the pas-
ture failed or did not prove as good as was anticipated,
the occupiers did not hesitate to seek other and better
places.
Many men and women were thus undergoing a special
training for pushing their way deeper into the continent.
They were learning to relish a diet of Uttle else than
animal food, and to use the flesh of game largely in order
to spare their flocks and herds. They were becoming ac-
customed also to live in tent waggons for months together,
so that the want of houses soon ceased to be regarded as
a matter of much hardship by these dwellers in the wilds.
They were acquiring a fondness for the healthy life of the
open country, with its freedom from care and restraint, and
its simple pleasures. For the town, with its government
officials and law agents and tradesmen and speculators of
many kinds always seeking to take advantage of their
simplicity, they acquired such a dislike that they never
visited it when they could avoid doing so. They took
with them no other books than the bible and the psalms
in metre, so their children came to regard education in
secular subjects as entirely unnecessary. In self-reliance.
lyoi] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 385
however, they were receiving the most complete training
possible. The tastes and habits which were thus formed
were transmitted to their of&pring, and in a few genera-
tions there was a body of frontiersmen adapted, as no
other Europeans ever were, for acting as the pioneers of
civihsation in such a country as South Africa.
To encourage the cattle breeders, no rent for ground
was charged until 1714, and no other tax than the one
for district purposes was laid upon their stock. A Uttle
experience proved that occasional change of pasture was
advantageous in the rearing of oxen and sheep, and the
authorities made no objection to the graziers going yearly
for three or four months to a tract of land far from that
on which they Uved at other times. This grew into a
custom for each one to select as winter grazing ground a
particular part of the karoo on the third terrace upward
from the sea, his right to which was respected by all
the others, though it was not directly recognised by the
government.
With the enlargement of the settlement, fresh troubles
arose with the Bushmen. In March 1701 a band of
those robbers drove off forty head of cattle from Gerrit
Cloete's farm at Biebeek's Kasteel. A commando of ten
soldiers and thirty burghers was sent after the depreda-
tors, but was unable to find them. A temporary military
post was then established at Yogelvlei, at the foot of
the Obiqua mountains.
This protection soon proved insufficient. In April
Gerrit Cloete was again robbed, and eleven head of cattle
were lifted from the Waveren post. A commando of
twelve soldiers and fifty burghers was then organised to
olear the country of Bushmen, but did not succeed in
effecting its object. It was hardly disbanded when one
hundred and thirty-seven head of cattle were lifted within
sight of the Yogelvlei post. Upon this a reinforcement
of six mounted soldiers was sent to each of the two
posts, and twelve men were stationed at Biebeek's Kasteel.
VOL. I. 25
386 History of South Africa. [1
The Goringhaiqua and Cochoqna Hottentots now \
dered their services to assist the Europeans against
Bushmen, and requested that the captain Kees, who "^
then living at Groenekloof, might be recognised as tl
leader in the expedition. But it was discovered that K
who had suffered severely from the Bushmen, had aire
joined a commando of Gerrit Gloete's friends, and t
the joint force was scouring the Obiqua mountains,
receipt of this information, the governor sent instructi<
to the landdrost of Stellenbosch to have Cloete arres
and brought to trial for waging war without leave, f
to ascertain and send in the names of those who ]
joined him in the expedition.
The prosecution fell through, and the governor thou]
it best after this to send out only parties of soldiers agai
the robbers. In September one of these parties recove
one hundred and twenty head of cattle belonging pai
to burghers and partly to Hottentots; but in the follow
month more than two hundred head belonging to the o
tractor Henning Huising were lifted at Groenekloof, s
a patrol of thirty-five soldiers was obliged to fall bi
from Piketberg, where the Bushmen made a resol
stand.
In November a sergeant and ten men were sent
form a permanent military post at Groenekloof. In 1
land of Waveren forty head of cattle, mostly belonging
Etienne Terreblanche, were seized by Bushmen, and (
of the soldiers who tried to recover them was kill
Two hundred and seventy-four head belonging to Hott
tot kraals at Biebeek's Kasteel were driven off, but a pa
of soldiers followed the robbers to Twenty-four Eivers, a
retook most of the spoil. In trying to afford protection,
distinction was made by the government between burgh
and Hottentots, the officers at the outposts being instruct
to do their utmost to recover cattle stolen by Bushm
and deliver them to their proper owners whoever th(
might be.
1702] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 387
In 1702 the military patrols were kept busy on behalf
of the Hottentots, for no complaints of depredations were
made by burghers. A large number of cattle were re-
covered and restored to various kraals, and so many
Bushmen were shot that the robbers seem to have been
terrified. At any rate they gave less trouble during the
next few years, though occasionally it was necessary to
chastise them. The sergeants and corporals in command
of the outposts were directed to endeavour to induce the
Bushmen to keep the peace. When those wild people
committed depredations they were to be followed up and
punished, but under no circumstances were they to be
attacked without provocation. The ruthless nature of the
warfare pursued by the Bushmen was exemplified in
February 1702, when a Hottentot captain came to the
castle and reported that they had killed five of his wives
and every one of his children.
There is Uttle else on record concerning the Hotten-
tots at this period. Some of them made such complaints
of the rapacity and violence of burgher trading parties
that the council of policy provisionally suspended the
liberty of free barter, and, owing to the governor's re-
presentations, in 1703 the assembly of seventeen withdrew
the privilege. Commercial intercourse between the two
races was again made illegal, and the European graziers
were chiefly depended upon to provide as many cattle as
were needed.
In September 1704 several Namaqua captains visited
the Cape, when an agreement of friendship was made
with them. This tribe, hke the others with which the
Europeans had come in contact, at once accepted as a
matter of course the position of vassals. This was shown
in October 1705, when three Namaqua captains came to
the castle for the purpose of requesting the governor to
confirm their authority. They were kindly treated, their
request was complied with, and they left carrying with
them presents of beads and other trifles and copper-
388 History of South Africa. [1702
headed canes upon which the new names given to them
— Plato, Jason, and Vulcan — were inscribed. Thenceforth
they were termed allies of the honourable Company. The
number of captains mentioned as having applied for staffs
is an indication that the tribes were now more broken
up than formerly. Sometimes a clan requested the ap-
pointment of a regent, as its hereditary captain was a
minor. There are instances of clans applying for a
brother of a deceased captain to be appointed in his
stead, but in such cases they always gave as a reason
that the dead chief had left no children. Feuds between
clans of the same tribe caused frequent disturbances,
though these same clans usually acted together against
the adjoining tribe.
After the removal in 1694 of the reverend Pierre
Simond to Drakenstein, there was no resident clergyman
at Stellenbosch for nearly six years. Once in three
months the clergyman of the Cape visited the vacant
church and administered the sacraments, and occasionally
Mr. Simond attended for the same purpose. On the
remaining Sundays the sick-comforter conducted the ser-
vices. At length the assembly of seventeen appointed the
reverend Hercules van Loon, who had once been acting
clergyman of the Cape, resident clergyman of Stellen-
bosch. He arrived from the Netherlands on the 11th of
April 1700.
In April 1678 the foundation of a church in Table
Valley had been laid, but with that the work had ceased.
For another quarter of a century services were conducted
in a large hall within the castle. But in course of time
the poor funds accumulated to a considerable amount, and
the consistory then consented to apply a sum equal to
2,200/. of our money to the erection of the building. As
the original plan was now considered too small, it was
enlarged, and a new foundation stone was laid by the
governor on the 28th of December 1700. By the close
of the year 1703 the edifice was finished, except the
1702] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 389
tower. The first service in it was held on the 6th of
January 1704, the reverend Petrus Kalden being the
preacher. Of the building then constructed the tower and
one of the end walls still remain, the last forming part of
the eastern wall of the present church.
At Drakenstein service was conducted sometimes in
the front room of a farmer's house, sometimes in a large
barn, there being as yet no church building. There was
a French clergyman, who was assisted by a French sick-
comforter. In April 1700 a sick-comforter and school-
master was first appointed for the Dutch portion of the
congregation, that had previously been neglected. An able
and zealous man named Jacobus de Groot, who was
returning from India to Europe, was detained here for
the purpose.
The reverend Mr. Simond had prepared a new version
in metre of the psalms of David, which he was desirous
of submitting to a synod of the French churches, as great
interest had been taken in the work by the Huguenots
in Europe. He therefore tendered his resignation, to the
regret of the Drakenstein people, and requested permission
to return to the Netherlands. The assembly of seventeen
consented to his request, on condition of his remaining
until the arrival of the reverend Hendrik Bek, whom they
appointed to succeed him. Mr. Bek reached the Cape in
April 1702, and was installed at Drakenstein a few weeks
later.
There was a desire on the part of the directors that in
the families of the Huguenot immigrants the French lan-
guage should be superseded by the Dutch as speedily as
possible. It was only a question of time, for the propor-
tion of French-speaking people was too small compared
with those of Dutch and German descent for their lan-
guage to remain long in use in the mixed community. To
expedite its decay the new clergyman was directed to
condact the public services in Dutch, though he had been
selected because he was conversant with French and could
n
390 History of South Africa. [i7<
therefore admonish, comfort, and pray with the ag(
Huguenots who understood no other tongue. Instructioi
were at the same time sent out that the school childr<
were to be taught to read and write Dutch only. Tl
sick-comforter Paul Roux was not prevented, howevc
from ministering to the Huguenots of any age in whicl
ever tongue was most famiUar to them.
This arrangement created much dissatisfaction. Tl
French immigrants sent in a memorial requesting thi
Mr. Bek should be instructed to preach in their langua;
once a fortnight. They stated that they comprised over
hundred adults, not more than twenty-five of whom onde
stood sufficient Dutch to gather the meaning of a sermo
There was also even a larger number of children of the
nationality. The council of pohcy recommended the mem<
rial to the favourable consideration of the assembly <
seventeen; but before action could be taken upon it, M
Bek requested to be removed to Stellenbosch as successc
to Mr. Van Loon, who died by his own hand on the 27t
of June 1704. The directors then appointed the reverer
Engelbertus Franciscus le Boucq ^ clergyman of Drakenstei
and gave instructions that upon his arrival from Batav
Mr. Bek should be transferred to Stellenbosch. They ga'^
the council of pohcy permission to allow the French lai
guage to be used alternately with the Dutch in the churc
services at Drakenstein, if it should seem advisable 1
do so.
The newly appointed minister did not reach the Caj
^ This clergyman was of French descent, was educated for the ministry
the Boman catholic church, and had been a monk in the abbey of Bonel
in Belgium. After becoming a Protestant he wrote a book entitled Dwali\
gen van het Pausdom. He could converse in many Ifimguages, and wi
III unquestionably a man of high ability and learning, but he was of irascib
disposition and wherever he went was engaged in controversy and strif
Subsequent to his residence in South Africa he became a doctor of laws, as
died at a very advanced age at Batavia in 1748, after having been durii:
the preceding nineteen years minister of the Protestant Portuguese congregi
tion at that place.
1702] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 391
until the 30th of March 1707. Mr. Bek then took charge
of the StellenboBch congregation, which had been for
nearly three years without a clergyman, except once in
three months when he had preached and administered the
sacraments. Mr. Le Boncq should have taken up the
duties in the parish to which he had been appointed, but
instead of doing so, he got into difficulties at the Cape, as
will be related in the next chapter, and Drakenstein was
for several years without a resident clergyman.
In the evening of the 3rd of April 1702 the outward
bound ship Meresteyn^ an Indiaman of the first class, ran
ashore on Jutten Island, and in less than an hour broke
into Uttle pieces. Her skipper was endeavouring to reach
Saldanha Bay, and the ship was in a heavy surf before
any one on board suspected danger. The majority of her
crew were lost, as also were two women and five children
passengers for the Cape. Ninety-nine persons managed to
reach the shore.
In Mar9h 1702 a marauding party consisting of forty-
five white men and the same number of Hottentots,
whose deeds were afterwards prominently brought to
light, left Stellenbosch, and remained away seven months.
They travelled eastward until they reached the neighbour-
hood of the Fish river, where at dayUght one morning
they were attacked unexpectedly and without provocation
by a band of Xosa warriors who were fugitives from
their own country and were living in friendship with the
Hottentots. The assailants were beaten off, followed up,
and when they turned and made another stand, were de-
feated again, losing many men. One European was kiUed.
The party then commenced a career of robbery, excusing
their acts to themselves under the plea that they were
undertaken in retaliation. They fell upon the Gonaquas
and other Hottentot hordes, shot many of them, and
drove off their cattle.
The perpetrators of these scandalous acts were not
brought to justice. In after years when the governor and
392 History of South Africa. [1705
the colonists were at variance, and each party was en-
deavouring to blacken the reputation of the other, the
governor stated that they were in league with the colo-
nists and were too numerous to be punished vnthout
ruining half the settlement. This statement was, however,
indignantly contradicted by the most respectable burghers,
who asserted that the marauding Europeans were mis-
creants without families or homes, being chiefly fugitives
from justice and men of loose character who had been
imprudently discharged from the Company's service. The
burghers maintained that they ought to have been
punished. The names of the forty-five white men who
formed the robber band are given. Forty of them are
quite unknown in South Africa at the present day, and
the remaining five are of that class that cannot be dis-
tinguished with certainty, so that the statements of the
burghers are strongly borne out.
Owing chiefly to the scarcity of timber and fuel, in
1705 it was resolved to send an expedition to Natal and
the adjoining coast, to make an inspection of the country,
and particularly of the forests there. The schooner Ctn-
taurus, which had been built at Natal in 1686-7, princi-
pally from timber growing on the shore of the inlet, was
a .proof that the wood was valuable, for she had been in
use nearly fourteen years before needing repair. The
galiot Postlooper was made ready for the expedition. Her
master, Theunis van der Schelling, had visited Natal
when he was mate of the Noord in 1689 and 1690,
and therefore knew the harbour. He was instructed
to make a thorough exploration of the forests, and
to frame a chart of the coast. A sailor who was ex-
pert in drawing pictures was sent to take sketches of the
scenery.
The Postlooper sailed on the 20th of November 1705.
She reached Natal on the 29th of December, and found
the bar so silted up that she could only cross at high
water. There were not so many cattle in the neighbour-
lyos] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 393
hood as there had been sixteen years before. Wood still
remained in considerable quantities.
In December 1689 a purchase of the inlet and sur-
rounding land had been made from the chief then living
at Port Natal, and had been recorded in a formal con-
tract, two copies of which had been drawn up. The one
kept by the Dutch ofl&cers was lost when the NootA was
wrecked in January 1690, and the master of the Fost-
looper had therefore received instructions to endeavour to
procure the other, that had been left with the chief, in
order that a notarial copy might be made. The chief
who sold the ground was dead, and his son was now the
head of the tribe or clan, whichever it may have been.
Upon Skipper Van der SchelUng making inquiry of him
concerning the document, the chief stated that he knew
nothing about it, and supposed it had been buried with
his father's other effects. It was evident that he did not
recognise the sale as binding upon him or his people.
At Natal an Enghshman was found who gave his
name as Yaughan Goodwin, and who stated that he was
a native of London. He had two wives and several chil-
dren. His story was that he arrived in February 1699 in
a vessel named the Fidek, and with two others had been
left behind by Captain Stadis, who intended to form a
settlement there. They were to purchase ivory from the
natives, for which purpose goods had been left with them,
and were to keep possession of the place until Captain
Stadis should return, which he promised them would cer-
tainly be within three years ; but he had not yet made
his appearance. In 1700 the natives some distance inland
had killed the other white men on account of their having
become robbers.
The Ufe which Goodwin was leading seemed so attrac-
tive to two of the PosUooper*s crew that they ran away
from the vessel. When crossing the bar in leaving Natal
the gaUot lurched, and the tiller struck the skipper in the
chest and hurt him so badly that he became unfit for
394 History of South Africa. [1705
duty. There was no one on board who could take his
place, so the vessel returned to the Cape without any
farther attempt at exploration being made by her crew.
She dropped anchor again in Table Bay on the 8th of
March 1706.
The directors were desirous of procuring 8heep*s wool
from South Africa, as some samples sent to Europe were
pronounced of excellent quality. They were of opinion
that if it could be produced at eight pence a pound, they
would be able to make a good profit from it, and the
colonists would have another reliable source of income.
Instructions were sent to the government to have this
industry taken in hand by the burghers. But it was not
a pursuit that commended itself to South African farmers
at that time. Although a good many European sheep had
been imported in former years, there were very few of
pure breed left, nearly all having been crossed with the
large tailed native animal. It was commonly believed
that woolled sheep were more subject to scab than others,
and the havoc created by that disease was so great that
the farmers were in constant dread of it. Then there was
the expense of separate herds. Further the carcase of the
woolled sheep was not so valuable as that of the other,
so that the graziers who bred for slaughter could not
be induced even to make experiments.
In 1700 the government sent home two hundred and
eighty-five pounds of wool shorn from sheep belonging
to the Company. This was received with favour, but
instead of increasing, the quantity fell oflf in succeeding
years. In 1703 one small bale was all that could be ob-
tained. It realised about fifteen pence English money a
pound on the market in Amsterdam. In 1704 a very
small quantity was procured, in 1705 none at all, and in
1706 one hundred and fourteen pounds. In the mean-
time the governor took the matter in hand as a private
speculation. He collected all the wool-bearing sheep in
the settlement at a farm of his own, wrote to Europe for
1705] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 395
rams and ewes of good breed and to Java for some
Persian sheep, and was about to give the industry a fair
trial when he was recalled.
The governor had previously endeavoured to encourage
the production of silk. He made experiments with the
white mulberry, which was found to grow and thrive well,
but the silkworms which he obtained from imported eggs
all died. He then gave up the trial, being of opinion
that the mulberry was in leaf at the wrong season of the
year for worms from the south of Europe.
A less important but more successful experiment made
by this governor was placing partridges and pheasants on
Kobben Island to breed.
From 1698 to 1705 the seasons were very unfavourable
for farming, and no wheat could be exported. In 1700
it became necessary to import rice from Java, as there
was not sufficient grain in the country for the consump-
tion of the people and the supply of fresh bread to the
crews of ships. In 1705 the long drought broke up, and
the crops were very good; but as the wheat was being
reaped heavy rains set in and greatly damaged it. There
was, however, a surplus above the requirements of the
<50untry, and in 1706 exportation was resumed and four-
teen hundred muids were sent to Batavia.
The population of the colony was at this time in-
creasing rapidly. The families of the burghers were gener-
ally large, they married at an early age, and no young
women remained single. From Europe every year a few
-settlers were received. A custom had come into vogue of
allowing soldiers and convalescent sailors to engage for
short periods as servants to burghers, their wages and
cost of maintenance being thus saved to the Company,
while they were at hand in case of need. From a hun-
dred to a hundred and fifty of the garrison and seamen
were conamonly out at service. A great many slaves were
l)eing introduced from Madagascar and Mozambique.
The bad seasons tended to produce a spirit of restless-
396 History of South Africa. [1705
ness among the farming population, which was increased
by the conduct of the principal ofl&cers of the government.
Between Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel and the colonists
of South Africa there was not the slightest feeling of
sympathy. In all the ofl&cial documents of the period
during which he was at the head of affairs, and the
quantity is great, there is not a single expression like 'our
own Netherlanders ' of his father. He requested the direc-
tors indeed to send out industrious Zeeland farmers and
no more French cadets, but the sentence displays as little
affection for the one class as for the other.
The governor was engaged in farming for his own
benefit on a very large scale as things were estimated in
those days. He could not take ground for himself, but
in February 1700 a commissioner, Wouter Valckenier by
name, holding authority from the governor-general and
council of India, had visited the Cape, and at his request
granted him in freehold four hundred morgen of land at
Hottentots-Holland. To this he afterwards added by
granting a tract of the adjoining ground to a subordinate
official, and then purchasing it from that individual at a
nominal rate. The estate he named Vergelegen.
Upon it he built a commodious dwelling house, with
a flour mill, a leather tannery, a workshop for making
wooden water pipes, wine and grain stores, an overseer's
cottage, a slave lodge, and very extensive outbuildings.
He was in the habit of frequently residing there for ten
days or a fortnight at a time, when public business was
partly suspended. This was concealed from the directors,
for there is no mention of Vergelegen or of the governor's
absence from the castle in the official journal of occur-
rences or the correspondence of the period, copies of which
were sent to Holland. On the estate were planted nearly
half a million vines, or fully one fourth of the whole num-
ber in the colony in 1706. Groves, orchards, and cornlands
were laid out to a corresponding extent. Beyond the
mountains at various places the governor had six or
1705] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 397
eight hundred homed cattle and eight or ten thousand
sheep.
The secunde, Samuel Elsevier, obtained a ^grant of the
farm Elsenburg, near Klapmuts. The reverend Petrus
Kalden, clergyman of the Cape, in like manner obtained
the farm Zandvliet, between Stellenbosch and the head of
False Bay. These ofl&cials engaged in agriculture and
stock breeding on a much smaller scale than the gover-
nor; but, in the case of the clergjnnan especially, neglected
their public duties to attend to their private properties.
The governor's brother, Frans van der Stel, was a farmer
at Hottentots-Holland. His father was a farmer at Con-
st antia. The market for produce was small, and all of
these persons had an entry to it before the burghers could
dispose of anything.
There has never been a people less inclined to submit
to grievances, real or imaginary, than the colonists of
South Africa. Some of the farmers determined to com-
plain to the supreme authorities, and in 1705 privately
forwarded to the governor-general and council of India a
list of charges. At Batavia no action was taken in the
matter. While the complainants were awaiting a reply,
one of their number, Adam Tas by name, a native of
Amsterdam and now a burgher of Stellenbosch, drew up a
memorial to the directors in the fatherland. This docu-
ment contained thirty-eight paragraphs, some of great
length, in which the governor and the others were accused
of acting as has been stated, and the governor was further
charged with corruption, extortion, and oppression.
It was affirmed that he employed the Company's ser-
vants and slaves at his farm; that he used the Company's
materials for building; that his agents when sent to barter
cattle from the Hottentots had taken them by violence ;
that he bought wine at very low rates from those who
could find no market for it, and disposed of it at very
high rates to strangers; that instead of Ucensing by auc-
tion four dealers in wine, to each of whom the farmers
398 History of South Africa. [1706-
bquld sell without restriction, he caused the privilege of
dealing in that article by retail to be sold as a monopoly
to a man who would buy his at a good price; and that
he would make no grant of land without a bribe. Some
other offences of an equally serious nature were com-
plained of. The memorial was signed by sixty-three indi-
viduals, thirty-one of whom were Frenchmen. Their in-
tention was to send it to the directors with the return
fleet in the early months of 1706.
The official records of the early years of Wilhem
Adriaan van der Stel's administration, to which the burgh-
ers had no access, prove that some of the most serious of
the charges against him were without foundation. One of
his principal opponents — Jacob van der Heiden — was at a
later date strongly suspected of having been guilty of dis-
honest practices himself, and there is good ground for
beheving that the opposition of another — ^Henning Huis-
ing — arose from his loss at the end of 1705 of the lucra-
tive contract he had held for five years. At the instance
of the governor, tenders were called for, and four butchers
were licensed, the price of meat being fixed at a penny
three farthings a pound to the Company and two pence to
burghers. Huising resented this, and as the contract had
made him the richest man in the community, he could
make his resentment felt.
But after taking these circumstances into consideration^
the charges that were unquestionably true make a formid-
able indictment, and the majority of the governor's op-
ponents were the most godfearing and respectable men
in the country. Among them was J. W. Grevenbroek^
recently an elder at Stellenbosch, who took an active part
in the movement, though his name was not attached to
the memorial.
With the arrival of the homeward bound fleet on the
4th of February 1706 it came to the governor's knowledge
that a document in which he was accused of malpractices
bad been sent to Batavia in the previous year. He inmie-
i7o6] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 399
diately concluded that similar charges would be forwarded
to the Netherlands, and that a memorial embodjdng them
must be in existence; but he was unable to learn where
it was, or who were parties to it. The danger of his
position now drove him to acts of extreme folly as well
as of tyranny. He caused a certificate to be drawn up,
in which he was credited with the highest virtues, and
the utmost satisfaction was expressed with his adminis-
tration. The burgher residents of the peninsula were
invited to the castle, and were then requested to sign thia
certificate. The landdrost of Stellenbosch, Jan Starren-
burg by name, who had held ofl&ce since July 1705, waa
directed to proceed with an armed party from house to
house in the country, and get the residents there to sign
it also. By these means two hundred and forty namea
in all were obtained, including those of a few Asiatics
and free blacks.^ Many, however, refused to aflfix their
signatures, even under the landdrost's threats that they
would be marked men if they did not.
The governor suspected that Adam Tas was the writer
of the memorial, so the landdrost was directed to have
him arrested. Early in the morning of Sunday the 28th
of February 1706 his house was surrounded by an armed
party, he was seized and sent as a prisoner to the castle,
his premises were searched, and his writing desk was
carried away. There could be no truce after this between
the governor and his opponents, for if a burgher could be
treated in this manner, upon mere suspicion of having
drawn up a memorial to the high authorities, no man's
Hberty would be safe. Bail was immediately offered for
the appearance of Tas before a court of justice, but was
refused. He was committed to prison, where he was kept
nearly fourteen months.
In his desk was found the draft from which the
memorial to the directors had been copied. It was un-
^ This docTunent is in as good a state of preservation as if it had been
drawn up yesterday.
400 History of South Africa. [1706
signed, but a list containing a number of names and
various letters which were with it indicated several of
those who had taken part in the compilation. The com-
pleted memorial was at the time in the house of a burgher
in Table Valley, where it was intended to be kept until
it could be sent away with the return fleet.
The governor thus became acquainted with the nature
and terms of the charges against him. Some of the ac-
cusations were so overdrawn that he felt confident the
directors upon reading them would acquit him of all, and
in this belief he did not hesitate to request that a com-
petent and impartial person might be sent out with the
first opportunity to examine matters.
On the 4th of March a number of ships' officers were
invited to assist in the deliberations of the council of
policy, and the retired and acting burgher councillors were
summoned to give evidence. These answered a few ques-
tions put to them by the governor, in a manner favour-
able to him. The broad council then consented to the
issue of a placaat, in which all persons were forbidden to
take part in any conspiracy or to sign any maUcious or
slanderous document against the authorities of the country,
under pain of severe punishment. The ringleaders in such
acts were threatened with death or corporal chastisement.
The fiscal and the landdrost were authorised to seize
persons suspected of such offences, and to commit them
to prison. This placaat was on the following Sunday
affixed to the door of the Stellenbosch church.
Within the next few days the governor caused the
burghers Wessel Pretorius and Jacob van der Heiden to
be arrested and committed to prison, Jan Eotterdam to be
sent to Batavia, and Pieter van der Byl, Henning Huising,
Ferdinand Appel, and Jan van Meerland to be put on
board a ship bound to Amsterdam. The burghers deported
were informed that they must answer before the supreme
authorities at the places of their destination to the charges
of sedition and conspiracy that would be forwarded by the
1706] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 401
Gape council, and if they had any complaints they might
make them there also.
By these highhanded proceedings the governor hoped
to terrify his opponents into signing the certificate in his
favour and denying the truth of the charges against him.
But not one of those who were confined on board the
ships in the bay faltered for a moment. Their wives
petitioned that the prisoners might be brought to trial at
once before a proper court of justice, and when it was
hinted that if they would induce their husbands to do
what was desired, release would follow, these truehearted
women indignantly refused.
The arrest and committal to prison of Nicolaas van
der Westhuizen, Christiaan Wynoch, Hans Jacob Konter-
man, and Nicolaas Meyboom followed shortly. In the
meantime the memorial had been committed to the care
of Abraham Bogaert, a physician in the return fleet, who
was refreshing himself on shore, and who had warm sym-
pathy with the burghers. On the 4th of April the fleet
sailed, and when at sea and all fear of search was over
Bogaert deUvered the document to Henning Huising.
The anchors of the ships were being raised and the
topsails being sheeted home when the governor must have
reflected that he was making a mistake in sending four of
the burghers to Europe. In great haste he embarked in
a gaUot and followed the fleet as far as Bobben Island.
In the official records it is stated that he did this to show
respect to the admiral, but no such method of showing
respect was practised here before or since, and his op-
ponents were probably right when they asserted that his
object was to overtake the ship in which the burghers
were, and release them. He did not succeed in doing
this, however.
Within a week or two further arrests were made,
when Jacob de Savoye, Pierre Meyer, Jacob Louw, Jacob
•Cloete, and one or two others were placed in detention.
The health of some of the prisoners broke down under
VOL. I. 26
402 History of South Africa. [1706
the rigorous treatment to which they were subjected: one
— ^Van der Heiden — was confined for twenty-seven days
in a foul dungeon, with a black criminal as his companion.
Most of them then, to obtain their liberty, disowned the
truth of the assertions in the memorial, and expressed
contrition for having signed it. They excused themselves
afterwards for so doing by arguing that it could not affect
the charges against the officials, which would be brought
before the directors by those who were then on the way
to Europe. And so after an imprisonment varying in
duration from a few days to a few weeks, all were re-
leased except Adam Tas and Jacob Louw.
For a short time matters were now quiet, but on the
governor coming to learn the names of some more of his
opponents, Willem van Zyl, Fran9ois du Toit, Guillaume
du Toit, Hercules du Pre, Comelis van Niekerk, Martin
van Staden, Jacobus van Brakel, Jan Elberts, and Nicolaas
Elberts were cited to appear before the court of justice.
These came to a resolution not to obey the summons
before the decision of the directors should be known, and
so they failed to attend. They were cited by placaat, but
in vain. In consequence, on the 9th of August, by a
majority of the court of justice sitting with closed doors
each of them was sentenced for contumacy to be banished
to Mauritius for five years and to pay a fine of 412. \Z$.
4(7., half for the landdrost as prosecutor and half for the
coart. They were at the same time declared incapable
of ever holding any political or military office in the
colony.
This sentence was made public on the 23rd of August^
and it tended to increase the hostility to the government.
The military outposts, excepting those at Waveren, Klap-
niuts, Groenekloof, and Saldanha Bay, at which twenty-
four men in all were stationed, had been broken up before
this date, so the burghers felt free to act.
In the early morning of the 18th of September the
farmers of Waveren, Biebeek's Kasteel, and Drakenstein
1706] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 403
rode armed into the village of Stellenbosch, and at beat of
dram drew up near the landdrost's office. Starrenburg
went out to them, and requested the drummer to be still;
but that individual, who was a Frenchman, kept on beat-
ing, only observing that he did not understand Dutch.
Some persons, to show their contempt for the landdrost,
began to dance round the drum. Others inquired why
there was to be no fair this year, such as there had
always been since 1686. Starrenburg replied that the
Indian authorities had prohibited it; but they would not
believe him, and laid the blame upon the Cape govern-
ment. Yet it was correct that the Indian authorities were
solely responsible in this matter, as with a view to save
expense, on the 29th of November 1705 they had in-
structed the council of policy not to contribute longer
towards the prizes or to furnish wine and ale at the cost
of the Company. There was thus no kermis or fair in
1706 and later.
After this the women expressed their views. The wives
of Pieter van der Byl and Wessel Pretorius, speaking for
all, informed the landdrost that they had no intention of
submitting to his tyranny, but were resolved to maintain
their rights. The spirit of the women of the country dis-
tricts was thoroughly roused, and their opposition was as
formidable as that of their husbands.^ Starrenburg was
obliged to return to his house in humiliation. The
burghers remained in the village the whole day, setting
him at defiance, but otherwise preserving perfect order.
A few days later two of the persons sentenced to
banishment . appeared in Stellenbosch without any support^
and jeered at the landdrost, who dared not attempt to
arrest them, as he could not even depend upon his sub-
ordinates. All respect for the government was gone.
It was now arranged between the governor and the
^ * Maar Edele Gtestrenge Heer, de wyven zyn alsoo gevaarlyk als de
mans, en zyn niet stil.' Extract from letter of the landdrost Starrenburg
to the goveznor Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel, 18th September 1706.
404 History of South Africa. [1707
landdrost that during the night of the 28th of September,
after the closing of the castle gate, a party of monnted
soldiers should march secretly to the Kuilen. At two
o'clock in the morning of the 29th the landdrost was to
meet them there, and was then before daylight to arrest
those who were believed to be the leaders of the defiant
party. But a petty official at the Kuilen, who sym-
pathised with the burghers, managed to detain the party
for a time, and when they at length left to try and seize
CorneUs van Niekerk in his bed, the alarm had been
given.
Daylight broke, no one had been captured, and there
was nothing left for the landdrost and the soldiers but to
retire to the village of Stellenbosch. No one there would
give any information or sell a particle of food to the
troops, and the landdrost was obliged to kill his own
goats for their use until provisions could be sent from the
Cape. Starrenburg having now soldiers at his back, the
burghers sentenced to exile fled to Twenty-four Rivers,
where they concealed themselves. The landdrost did his
best to capture them, and on the 4th of February 1707
succeeded in arresting Hercules du Pre and Jacobus van
Brakel, who were sent on board the Mauritius packet.
A month later Guillaume du Toit was also arrested.
During this time the governor dismissed the heemradeu
and other officers who had been elected in the legiti-
mate manner, and arbitrarily appointed creatures of his
own to the vacant places.
At this juncture the homeward bound fleet arrived
from Batavia, and in one of the ships was Jan Rotter-
dam, who returned to the colony in triumph. The gover-
nor-general and council of India had taken very little
notice of the charges made against him by the authori-
ties here, had treated him with exceptional kindness,
and given him a free passage back. A ship also arrived
from Europe, and brought letters to some of the burghers,
informing them that their case had been decided favour-
1707] Wilhem Adriaan van der SteL 405
ably by the directors. As yet no official despatches had
been received, but on the 16th of April 1707 the Kattcn-
dyk from Texel cast anchor in Table Bay, and her
skipper, in presence of witnesses as he had been in-
structed to do, delivered to the governor a letter from the
assembly of seventeen dated the 30th of October 1706.
Of the four burghers sent to Europe, one, Jan van
Meerland, died on the passage home. The others, on
arriving at Amsterdam, presented to the directors the
memorial which Tas had drawn up. The charges made
by the authorities at the Cape had already been received,
as had been the governor's denial of some of the state-
ments made by the burghers, and explanation of others.
In a matter of this kind it was necessary to act with
promptitude as well as with justice. The Company had
numerous and powerful enemies always watching for an
opportunity to arraign it before the states-general, and a
charge of oppression of free Netherlanders in one of its
colonies would be a formidable weapon for them to use.
A commission of investigation was therefore appointed
without delay, and the documents were laid before it.
The commission sent in a report condenming the
governor and those who acted with him, in consequence
of which the letter brought by the Kattendyk was written.
It announced that the governor Wilhem Adriaan van der
Stel, the secunde Samuel Elsevier, the clergyman Petrus
Kalden, and the landdrost Jan Starrenburg were removed
from office and ordered to proceed to Europe with the
first opportunity. The governor's brother, Frans van der
Stel, was to betake himself to some place outside of the
Company's possessions. The burghers were acquitted of
conspiracy, the three sent to Europe were restored to
their homes at the Company's expense, and orders were
given that if any were in prison in the colony they should
be immediately released. It was announced that Louis
van Assenburgh, who had previously been an officer in
the army of the German emperor, had been appointed
4o6 History of South Africa. [1707
governor, and Johan Cornelis d'Ableing, recently com-
mander at Palembang, secande. In case neither of these
should arrive in the colony at an early date, the adminis-
tration was to be assumed by the independent fiscal Johan
Blesius and the other members of the council of pohcy
acting as a commission.
The Mauritius packet had not sailed when this letter
arrived, and the fiscal, who was directed by the assembly
of seventeen to carry out their instructions, at once set. at
liberty the five burghers Adam Tas, Jacob Louw, Jacobus
van Brakel, Hercules du Pre, and Guillaume du Toit.
The first named henceforth called his farm Libertas, to
signify that freedom had been won, or, as he wittily ex-
plained to inquirers as to the meaning of the term, to
denote that Tas was free. The place is still so called.
Next morning the council of policy met. It was re-
solved that the administration should be transferred to
the fiscal and others on the 15th of May, if the newly
appointed secunde, who was on his way out, should not
arrive before that date. It was Sunday, and the reverend
Mr. Kalden preached twice in the church.
During the week an arrangement was made by which
the reverend Messrs. Le Boucq and Bek should con-
duct the services on alternate Sundays at the Cape, and
Mr. Kalden ceased to officiate. Starrenburg, whose last
report was that the mutineers were constantly revihug
him and that only a Masaniello was wanting to produce
an open outbreak, was sent by the fiscal on board a ship
returning to Europe. An officer named Samuel Martin
de Meurs was appointed to act provisionally as landdrost.
Johan Cornelis d'Ableing, the newly appointed secunde,
arrived on the 6th of May 1707. He was a nephew of
the recalled governor Van der Stel, and, under pretence
that the books required to be balanced, postponed taking
over the administration until the 3rd of June. The re-
called officials could not then leave for Europe before the
arrival of the homeward bound fleet of the following year.
1707] Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel. 407
From the vast quantity of contemporaneous printed
and manuscript matter relating to the complaints against
Wilhem Adriaan van der Stel, the views of the directors
and of the colonists concerning the government of the
country and the rights of its people can be gathered with
great precision. In the Netherlands at that period repre-
sentative institutions, such as are now believed to be in-
dispensable to liberty, were unknown. Yet the people
were free in reality as well as in name. There is not
a word expressing a wish on the part of the burghers
for an alteration in the form of government, what they
desired being merely that the administration shotdd be
placed in honest hands, and that their rights shotdd be
respected.
The directors desired to have here a large body of
freemen in comfortable circumstances, loyal to the father-
land, ready and willing to assist in the defence of the
colony if attacked, enjoying the same rights as their peers
in Europe, and without much diversity of rank or posi-
tion. They stated clearly and distinctly that the closer
the equality between the burghers could be preserved the
more satisfactory it would be to them. Positive orders
were issued that large tracts of land, upon which several
famihes could obtain a living, were not to be granted to
any individual.
In giving directions concerning Vergelegen, they stated
that as its grant by the commissioner Yalckenier to the
governor had never been reported to them, they resumed
possession of the ground. The large dwelling house upon
it, being adapted for ostentation and not for the use of a
farmer, must be broken down. The late governor could
sell the material for his own benefit. The other buildings
and improvements could be fairly valued, and the amount
be paid to Mr. Van der Stel, or he cotdd break them
down and dispose of the materials if he preferred to do
so. The ground must then be divided into four farms,
and each be sold separately by auction.
4o8 History of South Africa. [1707
An estate ouch as Yergelegen would by many people
to-day be considered useful as a model. Van der Stel had
imported the choicest vines, plants, and trees from foreign
countries, and was making extensive experiments there.
The ground was the most skilfally tilled in the whole
country. But the directors held that such a farm as this,
owned by one individual and cultivated chiefly by slave
labour, could not be of the same advantage to the infant
colony as a number of smaller ones, each in possession of
a sturdy European proprietor.
For this reason Frans van der Stel was required to
sell his property, and remove to some country not included
in the Company's charter. The former governor Simon
van der Stel was left in possession of his farm Con-
stantia, but directions were given that upon his death the
other land which he held should revert to the Company.
Emphatic instructions were issued that for the future
no servant of the Company, from the highest to the
lowest, was to own or lease land in the colony, or to
trade directly or indirectly in com, wine, or cattle. Those
who had landed property could sell it, but if they should
not do so within a reasonable period, it would be confis-
cated. The burghers were not to be molested in their
right to dispose of their cattle or the produce of their
ground in any way that suited them. They were to be
governed in accordance with law and justice.
On their part, the colonists claimed exactly the same
rights as if they were still living in the fatherland. They
held that any restrictions to which the early burghers
had agreed were of a temporary nature, and afifected only
those who consented to them. In their opinion they had
forfeited nothing by removal to a dependency, and the
violence displayed by the governor towards Adam Tas and
his associates was as outrageous as if it had taken place
in the city of Amsterdam. They asserted their undoubted
right to personal liberty, to exemption from arrest unless
under reasonable suspicion of crime, to admission to bail,
1707] Wilhem Adriaan van der St el. 409
to speedy trial before a proper court of justice, to freedom
to sell to any one, burgher or foreigner, whatever their
land produced, after the tithes had been paid and the
Company's needs had been suppUed, except under special
circumstances when restriction was needed for the good
of the community. And these claims, made in as explicit
terms as they could be to-day by an Englishman Uving
in a crown colony, were not challenged by the directors
or even the partisans of the late governor, but were
accepted by every one as unquestioned.
The directors were fully aware that a colony of free
Netherlanders was to be ruled in a different manner from
a dependency inhabited by Asiatics.
4IO
CHAPTEK Xm.
JOHAN CORNEIilS D'ABLEING, SECUNDE, ACTING GOVERNOR,
8bd JUNE 1707 TO Ibt PEBBUABY 1708.
LOUIS VAN A88ENBUBGH, GOVEBNOB, INSTALLED lap PEB-
BUABY 1708, DIED 27th DECEMBEB 1711.
WILLEM HELOT, SECUNDE, ACTING GOVEBNOB, 28m DECEM-
BER 1711 TO 28th MABCH 1714.
MAUBITS BASQUES DE CHAVONNES, GOVEBNOB, INSTALLED
28rH MABCH 1714, DIED 8th SEPTEMBEB 1724.
The only circumstance deserving note during the few
months that the secunde D'Ableing was at the head of the
government was the violent conduct of the reverend Mr.
Le Boucq. which caused much disquiet in the community.
That clergyman had arrived at the Cape at a time of
clamour and strife, and instead of preaching peace, at once
became a promoter of further discord. He took side with
the colonists, though there was no good object to be
gained by his entering into the question of party politics,
since all that the burghers had contended for was secured.
Ho was conversant with the Portuguese language, and
could therefore have been of greater service in India than
hero, but as he was of quarrelsome disposition the authori-
ties at Batavia were glad to get rid of him.
Upon Mr. Le Boucq's arrival at the Cape, the reverend
Mr. Bek removed to Stellenbosch, that the new clergyman
might enter upon his duties ; but as soon as he ascer-
tained that there was neither church nor parsonage at
Drakenstein, he declined to take up the work. Before any
pressure could be put upon him, the reverend Mr. Kalden
was suspended, and the government then decided that
Messrs. Bek and Le Bouc*q should conduct the services at
1707] Johan Cornells d^Ableing. 411
the Cape on alternate Sundays. After a little, the two
ministers arranged between themselves that Mr. Le Boucq
should take all the services at the Cape, Mr. Bek going
occasionally to Drakenstein; and to this the government
made no objection.
The Dutch sick-comforter of Drakenstein had been
transferred to the Cape, and the council now resolved to
send some one else there. On the 8th of June 1707 Mr.
Hermanns Bosman, sick-comforter of the ship Overryp, was
selected for the post. Thereafter he conducted service in
Dutch, and Mr. Paul Roux in French, at the houses of
farmers at Drakenstein, except when Mr. Bek went over
from Stellenbosch.
In the morning of Sunday the 28th of August 1707
the congregation of the Cape assembled in the church and
listened to an exciting sermon prepared and read by Mr.
Le Boucq. He had chosen as text the first verse of the
29th chapter of Proverbs, and had previously given out
the last two verses of the 149th psalm to be sung. Ac-
cording to his exposition, the saints were the burghers
who had recently made a stand for freedom, the noble
who hardened his neck and was in consequence destroyed
was the recalled governor Van der Stel. At the last
election of church officers, Abraham Poulle, who was in
the government service, had been chosen elder, and the
burgher Jan Oberholster, who submitted quietly to the
ruling of the authorities, had been appointed deacon.
When the service was ended, the clergjrman annoimced
that these persons were deprived of their offices, and ex-
horted the congregation not to acknowledge them any
longer.
This proceeding took most of the congregation by sur-
prise, and caused great excitement to many individuals.
One woman fainted, and was carried out of the church to
the hospital. No member of the government or of the
consistory anticipated anything of the kind, though they
were accustomed to very eccentric acts of the clergyman.
412 History of South Africa. [1707
The members of the council of policy at once retired, and
held a consultation, after which they sent a request to Mr.
Le Boucq not to conduct service in the afternoon, a
request which he construed into an order.
Next morning he sent a letter to the council, in which
he asserted his right as a clergyman to depose elders and
deacons without assigning any reason for doing so, and
protested against interference by lay officials in spritual
matters. He followed this up by a letter on the 6th of
September, in which he stated that he did not intend to
perform service again until the council admitted his views
to be correct. Thereupon the council suspended pajrment
of his salary, and instructed Mr. Bek to assume duty at
the Cape. Mr. Kalden was requested to assist in the
emergency, and showed himself very willing to do so, by
holding service occasionally so as to allow Mr. Bek to
visit Stellenbosch and Drakenstein.
By the more violent members of the party which he
had espoused Mr. Le Boucq was now regarded as a
martyr. He went about declaiming against the govern-
ment, and stirring up people's passions until it was con-
sidered necessary to bring him to task. Certain language
of his was reported to the government, upon which it was
intended to bring a charge. The principal witness was
Maria Lindenhof, daughter of a clergyman in Overyssel,
wife of Henning Huising, and aunt of Adam Tas. Upon
being questioned, she asserted that she had forgotten what
he said. The court of justice then decided to confine
her for eight days to her own house, and then to place
her under civil arrest if she did not in the mean time give
correct evidence. She remained obdurate, and after eight
days was confined in a suite of rooms in the castle. A
petition for her release, signed by Tas, Grevenbroek, Van
der Byl, and twenty-four others, men and women, was
sent in, and after nine days* detention in the castle the
government thought it best to hberate her.
Mr. Le Boucq next appeared before the court of justice
1708] Louis van Assenburgh. 413
as a litigant in a case with Mr. Kalden, and, upon judg-
ment being recorded against him, appealed to Batavia.
There also the decision was against him. In the mean
time the coimcil of policy, in the belief that concord could
not be expected at the Cape as long as this quarrelsome
clergyman was here, resolved, 17th of January 1708, to
send him back to Batavia with the first outward bound
ship; but it was not until the 13th of the following Sep-
tember that this resolution could be carried into effect.
On the 25th of January 1708 Governor Louis van
Assenburgh arrived in Table Bay, and next morning he
presided at a meeting of the council of policy, though he
did not at once assume the direction of affairs. He had
been eight months on the passage from Holland, and had
been obliged to put into a port on the coast of Brazil.
In the same ship with the governor was the reverend
Johannes Godfried d'Ailly, who had been appointed clergy-
man of the Cape, and who preached here for the first
time on the 5th of February. Henning Huising, one of
the deported burghers, was also on board. He had entered
into a contract with the directors for the supply of half
the meat required by the Company at the Cape during
the next three years, the object of dividing the contract
being to secure competition. Pieter van der Byl and
Ferdinand Appel had reached the colony seven months
before.
When the arrival of the governor was known at Ver-
gelegen, Mr. Van der Stel sent a petition to the council
of policy requesting that he might be allowed to retain
the estate a few months longer, as he had hopes that by
the next fleet from Europe inteUigence would be received
that the directors had mitigated their decision. The coun-
cil refused to comply, and the utmost that he could obtain
was permission to press the grapes then ripening and dis-
pose of half the wine on his own account, the other half
to be for the Company. The quantity pressed was fifty-
six leggers.
414 History of South Africa. [1708
On the 23rd of February Henning Hoising Bummoned
Mr. Van der Stel before the court of justice for 3,056/. in
addition to the value of nine thousand sheep. The late
governor then requested the council of policy to allow
him to remain in South Africa another year, in order to
get evidence to defend himself in this case; but upon
Huising stating that he preferred bringing the action in
the fatherland to being the means of keeping Van der
Stel longer in the colony, the council declined to accede
to his request.
On the 23rd of April the return fleet sailed, taking to
Europe the late governor, secimde, and clergyman of the
Cape, with their families. Nineteen of the burghers em-
powered Adam Tas and Jacob van der Heiden to continue
pressing their charges against the recalled officials, for
these, though deprived of authority, were still servants of
the Company and receiving salaries. Tas and Van der
Heiden therefore left in the same fleet. Another investi-
gation took place in Amsterdam, which resulted in the
absolute dismissal of Van der Stel, Elsevier, and Kalden
from the Company*s service. They left agents in the
colony to dispose of their estates and transmit the pro-
ceeds.
Vergelegen was divided into four farms, which were sold
by auction in October 1709. It was found on measure-
ment to contain six hundred and thirteen morgen. The
large dwelling house was broken down, and the material
was sold for Van der Stel's benefit. The other buildings
were taken over by the Company for 625/., though the
materials of which they were constructed were appraised
at a much higher sum. The four farms brought 1,695/.
at public sale, the purchasers being Barend Gildenhuis,
Jacob van der Heiden, Jacob Malan, and the widow of
Gerrit Cloete.
Frans van der Stel returned to Europe in the same
fleet with his brother, and took up his residence in
Amsterdam. His wife, Johanna Wessels, was a daughter
1708] Louis van Assenburgh. 415
of one of the leading burghers of the colony. She re-
mained behind with her parents to dispose of the property
to the best advantage, and did not leave to rejoin her
husband in Amsterdam imtil April 1717.
On the 1st of February 1708 Governor Louis van
Assenburgh was installed in office. He had been a brave
and skilful mihtary officer, but in this country he speedily
developed a fondness for the pleasures of the table, which
caused him to be described as a winebibber. He carried
out the instructions of the directors^ however, in letter
and in spirit, so that he won the regard of the burghers.
The return fleet of 1708 was under command of Cor-
nelis Joan Simons, who had been the first independent
fiscal at the Cape, and had resided here in that capacity
from 1690 to 1694. He had recently been governor of
Ceylon, and was now empowered by the governor-general
and council of India to act as commissioner during his
stay in South Africa. He issued a number of regulations,
but the only one which needs to be mentioned here is
that referring to the emancipation of slaves.
During the period that had elapsed since the first
appearance of the Dutch in India and Africa, the views
of Europeans with regard to African slavery had been
gradually changing. At first blacks were enslaved on the
plea that they were heathens, but a profession of Chris-
tianity sufficed to free them and to place them on a level
in civil rights with their former masters. As time wore
on, it became apparent that in most instances emancipa-
tion meant the conversion of a useful individual into an
indolent pauper and a pest to society. Habits of industry,
which in Europeans are the result of pressure of cir-
cumstances operating upon the race through hundreds of
generations, were found to be altogether opposed to the
disposition of Africans. Experience showed that a freed
slave usually chose to live in a filthy hovel upon coarse
and scanty food rather than toil for something better.
Decent clothing was not a necessity of life to him, neither
41 6 History of South Africa. [1708
did he need other fomiture in his hovel than a few
cooking utensils. He put nothing by, and when sickness
came he was a burden upon the public. Such in general
was the negro when left to himself in a country where
sufficient food to keep life in his body was to be had
without much exertion. Emancipation then became less
common, and the view began to be held and asserted that
slavery was the proper condition of the black race.
But it sometimes happened that a slave was set free
from a desire on the part of the owner to be rid of all
responsibility with regard to him. It was evident that if
a check were not put upon such a practice, it might lead
to people evading their liabilities, and to old, infirm, or
otherwise helpless slaves being set free, in other words,
cast upon the compassion of the conmiunity. To prevent
this, the commissioner Simons, in his instructions to the
Cape government, dated 19th of April 1708, directed that
no slave was to be emancipated without security being
given by the owner that the freed person should not
become a charge upon the poor funds within ten years,
according to the statutes of India. This was henceforth
the law in South Africa.
There was, however, one notable exception to this law.
It frequently happened that ladies returning from India
to Europe took slave girls with them as waiting maids,
and sometimes gentlemen were in the same way accom-
panied by their valets. These slaves were almost invari-
ably sent back again, as they could be of no service in
the Netherlands. The directors issued instructions that
such persons were to be treated as free people, proof
of their having been on the soil of the repubhc to be
equivalent to letters of manumission.
This was the last year in which nominations from the
Drakenstein consistory were sent in the French language.
Upon receipt of the usual documents, written in French, the
council of policy directed that in future the nominations of
church officers and letters to the government must be in Dutch.
1707] Louis van Assenburgh. 417
The island of Mauritius, hitherto a dependency of the
Cape Colony, was at this time abandoned by the East
India Company. It was of hardly any use as a station
for refreshment, and beyond a little ebony and ambergris
it contributed nothing to commerce. It was further one
of the usual places of resort of the numerous pirate ships
which at that time infested the Indian seas, and whose
crews were in the habit of landing on different parts of
the coast and keeping the little Dutch settlement in a
state of alarm as long as they remained ashore. The
directors came to the conclusion that it was not worth
the cost of maintaining a large garrison, and that with a
small garrison it was not secure.
Of late years the Company had sustained severe losses
there. During the night of the 9th of February 1695
the residency and magazines were destroyed by a violent
hurricane. In 1701 a pirate ship was wrecked on the
coast close to the settlement, when two hundred armed
men got safely to shore, together with twelve English
and thirty Indian prisoners out of captured vessels. The
master of the buccaneers was an old acquaintance of the
Dutch Company, having been in the Arrfiy when she was
seized in 1693 in Saldanha Bay. The colonists thought
it prudent to take refuge in the fort. The commander of
the island, Eoelof Diodati, to get rid of the unwelcome
visitors, was obliged to sell them at half price the Com-
pany's packet, for which they paid him 167/. out of
money saved from the wreck. On the 15th of November
1707 the Company's premises on the island were totally
destroyed by fire, the books, records, and goods in the
magazine being burned with everything else. The build-
ings were thatched with palmetto leaves, so that the pro-
gress of the flames was extremely rapid.
In February 1707 instructions were received at the
Cape to withdraw the garrison. The colonists were to
have the choice of removal to Java or the Cape. When
this inteUigence reached the island, the burghers were
VOL. I. 27
4i8 History of South Africa. [1710
found to be very averse to the breaking up of their
homes, but as a matter of necessity nine heads of families
elected to come to the Cape, the remainder preferring
Batavia. In September 1708 two vessels, the Carthago and
Mercurius, were sent to commence transporting the people
and their effects. The Carthago went on to Batavia, the
Mercurius returned to the Cape, and landed her passengers
here on the 26th of January 1709. Among them were
Daniel Zaaiman, Gerrit Bomond, and Hendrik de Yries,
with their families. The names of the others need not
be given, as they have long since died out.
The Beverwaart was then sent to remove the garrison^
and on the 25th of Januarv 1710 Abraham Momber. the
last Dutch commander, with the subordinate officers and
the troops embarked in her and set sail for Batavia.
Before going on board, the garrison destroyed everything
within reach that could not be taken away. Even the
forests were damaged as much as possible. All the
hounds were left behind, that they might become wild and
exterminate the game. The object of this wanton waste
was to prevent the abandoned station being of service to
any one else, but that object was defeated, for in the
same year the French took possession of the island, and it
was held by that nation until 1810, when it was annexed
to the British dominions.
On the 10th of January 1710 the retired governor-
general Joan van Hoom, accompanied by his wife^ and
^ Joanna Maria van Riebeek, eldest daughter of Abraham van Riebeek»
and granddaughter of the first commander of the Cape station. She was stiU
very young when after the death of her first husband, Gerard de Heere»
governor of Ceylon, Mr. Van Hoom, then a widower and advanced in years,
offered her his hand, and on the 16th of November 1706 she became his wife.
Her father succeeded her husband as governor-general of Netherlands India.
Mr. Van Hoom had amassed enormous wealth, it being generally believed
that he was worth a hundred tons of gold, that is 833,838^. of English money.
He could be generous at times, but ordinarily he was thrifty, if not miserly,
to an extreme degree. At the Cape he presented a trifling amount to &
domestic who had served him well, with the remark ** keep that coin, it cornea
from Joan van Hoom, and luck accompanies it.*'
1710] Louis van Assenburgh. 419
daughter, arrived in Table Bay on his passage back to the
Netherlands. He remained several weeks in the colony,
where he acted as commissioner, presiding in the council
and on all occasions taking precedence of the governor.
On the 26th of February the three burgher councillors
appeared before him, and on behalf of the whole body of
freemen preferred a complaint. Instructions had recently
been received from the supreme authorities to demand
tithes of the whole quantity of com gathered, and not of
that portion only which was brought for sale, as had pre-
viously been the custom. The burgher councillors re-
quested that the farmers might be reUeved from payment
of tithes of such grain as they required for their own
consumption and for seed. The commissioner considered
their request reasonable, and suspended the levy upon the
whole until further instructions should be given.
The directors took another view, and in despatches
received here in February 1711 the farmers were required
to pay tithes upon all grain harvested, as those in Europe
had to pay. In vain they represented to the council of
policy that in the fatherland the tithe was collected upon
the ground, whereas here it was delivered at the Com-
pany's magazines. They were informed that the council
had no power to make concessions in opposition to com-
mands of the supreme authorities. An effort was made in
1712 to farm out the tithes by public auction, the pur-
chaser to collect upon the ground; but no one would
make an offer of any kind. Then the directors required
their share of the com to be delivered in Capetown as
before, and persisted in their claim, though it soon became
evident that it was evaded to a very large extent.
It would be impossible to devise a worse method of
taxation than this, so far as influence upon the character
of a people is concerned. Once a year the farmers were
required to make a return of the quantity of grain of dif-
ferent kinds which their lands jaelded and of the number
of cattle that they owned. Of the first, one-tenth was de-
420 History of South Africa. [1710
manded by the Company; and on the last the district tax
called lion and tiger money was collected, at the rate of
five pence for every thirty sheep or six large cattle. The
people who regarded as grossly imjust the claim to a
tithe of all their grain had thus the temptation placed
before them of eluding payment by making false state-
ments. The result was that only a fraction of the pro-
duce of the country was given in, and the burgher rolls,
as far as property is concerned, are so misleading as to
be worse than useless. Under this system of taxation
four generations of colonists were born, for nearly three-
quarters of a century passed away before a reform was
made. That the whole of the people were not demoralised
by it was owing solely to the strong hold which the prin-
ciples of Christianity had upon them.
For four years the government kept possession of the
writing desk of Adam Tas, which was seized when he
was made a prisoner. A council, presided over by Mr.
Van Hoom, appointed a committee to examine its con-
tents. A report was brought up that some of the papers
were seditious, when it was resolved that they should be
destroyed and the others be returned to Tas.
On the 10th of March, at another meeting of the
council of policy under the presidency of Mr. Van Hoom,
various regulations were made with regard to the manner
in which the church books should be kept, the poor funds
be administered, and other matters of the kind. There
was a very well informed clergyman, named Jan Marens,
returning to Europe with the homeward bound fleet, and
he was requested to give his views on these subjects,
which he did in writing. The reverend Mr. D*Ailly did
the same. Mr. Marens was of opinion that a classis or
presbytery should be formed, to meet every three months,
and to be composed of the full consistory of Capetown
with the clergymen of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein and
an elder from each of those congregations. When instruc-
tions were received from the directors in 1691 concerning
lyio] Louis van Assenburgh. 421
the establishment of the congregation of Drakenstein, such
meetings were provided for, but they had never been held.
Mr. D'Ailly was of opinion that they would be productive
of strife, and he stated his conviction that the church
authorities in the fatherland would certainly object to
them. The council therefore decided that the matter
must await the decision of the directors, and by them the
formation of a presbytery was not approved of. The
three churches thus remained independent of each other,
their clergymen were regarded as chaplains of the East
India Company, and the classis of Amsterdam continued
to be the final court of appeal in matters ecclesiastical.
The schools were closely connected with the church,
and the consistory of each parish had control over those
within its limits. But it was now resolved that the
secimde and the clergyman of the Cape should act as
scholarchen or general supervisors. In that capacity their
principal duty was to examine the qualifications of persons
desirous of becoming teachers, and reporting thereon to
the government, as by law no one was allowed to keep a
pubUc school without special permission from the authori-
ties, though before 1715 such permission was not neces-
sary in the case of any one employing a private tutor in
his own family. On the 3rd of September 1715 a regula-
tion was made that no one released from the Company's
service should follow any other occupation thaji the one
mentioned in his certificate of discharge except with the
written consent of the council, under penalty of being
compelled to return to duty as a soldier or a sailor.
Another matter settled at this meeting of the council
under the presidency of Mr. Van Hoom was the direction
in which Capetown should be enlarged when an increase
of population required it. There was a desire on the part
of some persons to encroach upon the open space between
the castle and the Heerengracht, that is the great parade,
but the burgher councillors objected to that design. They
presented a memorial, recommending that the parade
42 2 History of South Africa. [1710
should not be built upon, and that when needed an en-
largement of the town should take place along the sides of
the Company's garden. Of this the council approved.
At the same time the first grant of ground was made
where the village of Caledon now stands. The burgher
Ferdinand Appel had twelve morgen of land given to him
in freehold there, in order that he might plant a garden
and build a house of accommodation for persons making
use of the hot springs. These springs had already come
to be regarded as efficacious for the cure of rheumatic
affections of all kinds, and were often visited by people
with those ailments.
On the 15th of March 1710 a young man named Jan
de la Fontaine arrived in Table Bay as bookkeeper of the
ship HoTstendacU, The commissioner Van Hoom took a
liking to him, and gave him the appointment of master
of the warehouses, thus introducing him to a career of
official life in this colony which ended many years later
in his occupying the post of governor.
On the 30th of April 1710 the secretary to the council
of policy, Willem Helot by name, who had been sixteen
years in service at the Cape, was by order of the direc-
tors raised to the rank of senior merchant and took over
the duties of secunde, Mr. D'Ableing having been in-
structed to proceed to India to fill an office of greater
importance. The late secunde left South Africa on the
10th of the following July.
On the 17th of December 1710, at ten o'clock in the
morning, a fire broke out in the village of Stellenbosch.
There was a high wind, and a slave who was carrying a
lighted fagot allowed some sparks to be blown into the
thatch with which the landdrost's office was covered. In
a minute the roof was in flames. The fire spread to the ad-
joining buildings, which were all covered with thatch, and
in a short time the church, the whole of the Company's
property, and twelve dwelling houses were burned do^Ti.
Fortunately the church books and district records were saved.
1 7 "J Louis van Assenburgh. 423
There was not so much attention paid now to the
cultivation of tree^ as there had been in the time of the
governors Van der Stel, still this useful work was not
altogether neglected by the authorities. In the winter of
1709 a number of young oaks were sent to Stellenbosch
to be planted along the streets. Some of those previously
planted in the same places had been wantonly or thought-
lessly destroyed. In consequence, on the 8th of August
of this year a placaat was issued, in which damaging
trees on pubHc property was prohibited under penalty of
a sound flogging at the foot of the gallows, and a reward
of 2/. 1$. 8e2. was promised to any one bringing offenders
to justice.
There was a regulation under which any one feUing a
tree on his own ground was to plant an oaJ^ in its stead,
but it was generally neglected. The farmers of Stellen-
bosch and Drakenstein assigned as a reason for not carry-
ing it out that as they had only sixty morgen of land
they had not suf&cient space, because trees in the neigh-
bourhood of vineyards and cornfields attracted and har-
boured birds. The forests in the mountain kloofs near
the Cape were by this time exhausted, but a commission
which was sent to examine the land of Waveren reported
that a considerable quantity of timber suitable for waggon
making and house building was still to be found there.
On the 13th of April 1711 the council, presided over
by the conmiissioner Pieter de Vos, admiral of a return
fleet, decided to press upon the landdrost and heemraden
of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein the necessity of plant-
ing trees along the roads and of selecting suitable places
for laying out groves. A commission, consisting of the
acting fiscal Willem van Putten and the master gardener
Jan Hertog, was appointed to examine the mountainous
country along the left bank of the river Zonderend, and
report upon the forests there. The commission found a
supply of timber sufficient for existing needs, which set
the question at rest for a while.
424 History of South Africa. [17"
In consequence of an attempt of the landdrost of Stel-
lenbosch to press for the public service some waggons be-
longing to residents of the Cape peninsula, the burgher
councillors appealed to the council of policy to define the
bounds of that officer's jurisdiction, and on the 16th of
December 1711 it was decided that he had no authority
on the Cape side of the Mosselbank and Kuils rivers.
Beyond those streams his jurisdiction extended as far as
Europeans were settled.
Governor Van Assenburgh was taken seriously ill early
in the year 1711. He had never interfered with the pur-
suits of the farmers, and had given the colonists that
protection to which they were entitled, so that he stood
fairly well in their regard. He had not indeed mixed
with them and interested himself in their personal afiiairs,
as Simon van der Stel in his earlier years had done, so
there was not that affection for him that there had once
been for the other. He seldom left the castle. On new
year's day and on his birthday it was the custom for the
principal burghers with their wives to call at the castle
between ten and eleven in the morning, and present their
compUments. They were then invited to remain to dinner,
and did not usually leave until nine in the evening. Also
on the yearly muster of the militia of the Cape district,
when the company of cavalry and two companies of in-
fantry had gone through their exercises and been in-
spected, the officers were entertained at the castle. At
these receptions the governor was very friendly, and he
was at all times easy of access, but he did not court
society. There was only one instance of departure from
his usual habits, and that somewhat startled the steady
burghers of the Cape. When the afternoon service was
concluded on Sunday the 11th of November 1708, the
governor invited the principal townspeople to the castle,
and made an effort to entertain them with a fight between
bulls and dogs.
When he was taken ill, the burghers suspected that he
i7ia] Willem Helot. 425
had been poisoned, and one writer of the period does not
hesitate to affirm that the poison had been administered
to him in a glass of wine when on a visit at Constantia.
The dates of the visit and of his illness, however, over-
throw this statement. He was confined to his room about
eight months, and died on the afternoon of Sunday the
27th of December 1711, five days after he had completed
his fifty-first year.
Next morning the council of policy met, when the
secunde Willem Helot was elected to act as head of the
government imtil the pleasure of the directors could be
signified. The election was a matter of form, for there
was no one else ehgible. On the 2nd of January 1712 the
body of the late governor was buried beneath the pave-
ment of the church, with a great deal of state. His
administration had not been an eventful one, and bis
name was soon forgotten.
Some years before this date immigration from Europe
had practically ceased. Occasionally a family from abroad
was added to the burgher population, but the increase of
the colonists was now due chiefly to the excess of births
over deaths and to the discharge of servants of the Com-
pany. Cattle farmers were pushing their way from the
land of Waveren down the valley of the Breede river and
from Hottentots-Holland eastward along the course of the
Zonderend.
The town in Table Valley was growing also. It had
not yet become the custom to call it Capetown, it being
usually termed the Cape, or sometimes the town at the
Cape. Official letters were addressed from and to the
Castle of Good Hope. At the date of Governor Van
Assenburgh's death the town contained about one hun-
dred and seventy private houses, besides the buildings
belonging to the Company.
In October 1712 a report reached the castle that four
or five thousand Hottentots of the Great Namaqua tribe
had made an inroad upon the natives living along the
426 History of South Africa. [1713
Elephant river, and had threatened to plunder some gra-
ziers at Piketberg, who had in consequence been obliged
to retire from their farms. The government thereupon
instructed Jan Mulder, who was again landdrost of Stel-
lenbosch, to call out twenty-five burghers from Draken-
stein and twenty-five from Stellenbosch. The same
number were called out in the Cape district, and with
twenty-five soldiers wer6 sent on to meet the country
contingents at the farm of Fran9ois du Toit. Lieutenant
Slotsboo was in command of the expedition. His instruc-
tions were to endeavour to come to an amicable under-
standing with the Namaquas, if possible to induce them
to return to their own country, and not to attack them
unless they had done some harm to the burghers. The
conmiando returned to the castle on the 22nd of Novem-
ber, and reported that there were no Namaquas at Piket-
berg and no burgher had been molested.
In 1713 a terrible calamity fell upon the country. In
March of this year the small-pox made its first appear-
ance in South Africa. It was introduced by means of
some clothing belonging to ships* people who had been ill
on the passage from India, but who had recovered before
they reached Table Bay. This clothing was sent to be
washed at the Company's slave lodge, and the women
who handled it were the first to be smitten. The
Company had at the time about five hundred and
seventy slaves of both sexes and all ages, nearly two
hundred of whom were carried off within the next six
months.
From the slaves the dise^e spread to the Europeans
and the natives. In May and June there was hardly a
family in the town that had not some one sick or dead.
Traffic in the streets was suspended, and even the chil-
dren ceased to play their usual games in the squares and
open places. At last it was impossible to obtain nurses,
though slave women were being paid at the rate of four
to five shillings a day. All the planks in the stores were
^7^3] Willem Helot. 427
used, and in July it became necessary to bury the dead
without coffins.
For two months there was no meeting of the court of
justice, for debts and quarrels were forgotten in presence
of the terrible scourge. The minds of the people were so
depressed that anything unusual inspired them with terror.
Thus on the 10th of May two doves were observed to fall
to the ground from the parapet of the governor's house
in the castle, and after fluttering about a little were found
to be dead, without any injury being perceptible. This
was regarded by many as an omen of disaster. The very
-clouds and the darkness of winter storms seemed to be
threatening death and woe. During that dreadful winter
nearly one fourth of the European inhabitants of the town
perished, and only when the hot weather set in did the
plague cease.
The disease spread into the country, but there, though
the death rate among the white people was very high,
the proportion that perished was not so large as in the
town. It was easier to keep from contact with sick
persons. Some families living in secluded places were
practically isolated, and the farmers in general avoided
moving about.
The burgher rolls are not to be regarded in any year
lis more than approximately correct, but, in common with
all other contemporary documents, they bear witness to
the great loss of life. According to them, in 1712 the
number of colonists — men, women, and children — was one
thousand nine hundred and thirty-nine, and in 1716,
three years after the cessation of the plague, notwith-
standing the natural increase, only one thousand six
hundred and ninety-seven. The records of the orphan
chamber show that the board was perplexed with the
iidministration of the large number of estates that fell
under its management, and in many instances had a diffi-
culty in the division of property, especially in cases where
families had become wholly or nearly extinct.
428 History of South Africa. [1713
Among the Hottentots the disease created the greatest
havoc. Of the Europeans who were smitten, more re-
covered than died; but with the Hottentots, to be ill and
to die were synonymous. The state of filth in which they
lived caused the plague to spread among them with fear-
ful rapidity. When the kraals were first infected, and the
number of deaths became startUng, the Hottentots of the
Cape fled across the mountains, declaring that the Euro-
peans had bewitched them. But as soon as they got
beyond the settlement they were attacked by tribes of
their own race, and all who could not get back again were
killed. The probable object of this slaughter was to pre-
vent the spread of the disease, but if so, it failed. Then
the wretched creatures sat down in despair, and made no
attempt to help themselves. They did not even remove
their dead from the huts. In Table Valley it became
necessary to send a party of slaves to put the corpses
under ground, as the air was becoming foul. Whole
kraals absolutely disappeared, leaving not an individual
alive.
The very names of many of the best-known tribes
were blotted out by the fell disease. They no longer
appear in the records as organised communities, with
feuds and rivalries and internal wars, but as the broken-
spirited remnant of a race, all whose feelings of nation-
ality and clanship had been crushed out by the great
calamity. The farmers who had been accustomed ta
employ many hundreds of them in harvest time com-
plained that none were now to be had. Strangers who
had visited the colony before 1713, and who saw it after-
wards, noticed that the Hottentot population had almost
disappeared. From this date imtil the Bantu were
reached by the expansion of the settlement, the only diffi-
culty with natives was occasioned by Bushmen. Owing
to th(B isolation of these people, they escaped the disaster
which overtook the higher races.
Upon intelUgence of the death of Governor Van Assen-
1714] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 429
burgh reaching the Netherlands, the directors appointed
as his successor Lieutenant-Colonel Maurits Pasques de
Chavonnes, a native of the Hague, who had commanded
an infantry regiment in the army of the States, hut had
been thrown out of employment by the reduction of the
troops at the peace of Utrecht. He had the rank, title,
and salary of a councillor extraordinary of the Indies
given to him. The new governor arrived at the Cape on
the 24th of March 1714, and was formally installed on
the 28th of the same month.
The first object to which the new governor turned his
attention was an attempt to make the revenue of the
colony more nearly meet the expenditure than had pre-
viously been the case. Though the returns were made
out yearly to fractions of a farthing, it is impossible to
say exactly what was the expenditure of the colony, as
the accounts of the Cape were kept as of a branch busi-
ness. Every penny received from every source was
entered on one side, and every penny paid out, no matter
for what purpose, was entered on the other.
Thus, in the charges against the Cape were included
all sums paid for refreshment of the crews of ships, wages
paid to sailors in such ships, the expenses of the hospital,
and other items which should not fairly be placed against
the colonial revenue. But these items cannot be wholly
struck off. The hospital, for instance, afforded accommoda-
tion for the sick of the garrison, and thus a portion of
its cost was a proper charge against the colony. Then
again, sums paid in the Netherlands and in India for
strictly colonial purposes do not appear in the accounts.
The most that can be done is to state the expenditure
approximately, and probably no two persons examining
the records would do this in exactly the same figures.
The principal source of revenue was the money paid
for the exclusive right to sell wines and spirituous liquors
by retail, and this was determined by pubhc auction on
the last day of August. During the first quarter of the
430 History of South Africa. [17 14
eighteenth century it averaged 3,1672. Besides this, there
were the tithes of grain, transfer dues on sales of ground^
and profits on sales of goods. On an average, these
together amounted at this date to 4,7392. yearly. The
colonial revenue was thus about 8,0002. a year. In con-
verting the money of that day into British coinage, the
heavy gulden generally used in accounts transmitted to
the Netherlands is valued at one shilling and eight pence,^
and the light gulden used in transactions in the colony
and in India at sixteen pence and two-thirds of a penny.
Before 1743 it is often doubtfol which was meant. In
that year an order was given that the heavy gulden
should be exclusively used in accounts prepared for the
directors.
The expenditure, after deducting all expenses con-
nected with shipping, cannot be estimated at less than
14,5002. a year. It was kept at the lowest possible sum
by the payment of very smaU salaries and allowing privi*
leges of different kinds to the officials, by permitting from
one hundred and fifty to two hundred out of a garrison
of about five hundred and fifty men to take temporary
service with farmers, and by employing slave labour in
building and gardening. The cost of transport, ammuni-
tion, building materials sent from the Netherlands, and
various other items are not considered in this calculation,,
because it cannot be even approximately given.
There was thus a large excess of expenditure over
revenue, though it is not possible to state the exact
amount in figures. The directors instructed the governor
to try to devise means of meeting it, in part if not
wholly.
No revenue had yet been derived from leases of land
used for cattle runs. After the 3rd of July 1714 a rental
of twenty-five shillings for six months, or fifty shillings a
year, was charged, in addition to the tithe of grain pro-
duced. Old residents in the land of Waveren and else-
where were permitted, however, to take out freehold titles
1715] Maurits Pasques de Chavannes. 431
on application to the governor, in order to encourage
them to improve the ground. All building sites given out
in the town were to revert to the Company if houses
were not put up on them within twelve months.
After the 20th of July 1714 it was required that
stamps should be affixed to difiEerent kinds of documents
to make them legal These documents included deeds of
transfer of land and slaves, wills, contracts of marriage,
certificates of inheritance, licenses to trade, powers of
attorney, and generally all notarial acts and papers pass-
ing through courts of law. The stamps required ranged
in value from six pence to twelve shillings and six pence.
On the 12th of March 1715 a tax of four shillings and
two pence was laid upon every legger of wine pressed in
the colony. This article had not been subject to tithe
or any tax whatever before this date.
The fundamental law of the colony was that of the
Netherlands, or in other words the body of law of the
Boman empire, with such alterations from the code of
Justinian as had been made by the legislature of Holland
and embodied in the commentaries of the foremost Dutch
jurists. The forms of proceedings in the courts were
identical with those of the fatherland. But the circum-
stances under which the East India Company took pos-
session of distant parts of the globe were so different
from any previous experience of the Dutch that numerous
laws and regulations varying from those of the Nether-
lands bad been framed for its dependencies. Some of
these were not adapted for a European colony, and from
their nature could only be applied to certain Asiatic com-
munities ; but it was doubtful to the high court of justice
which of the general statutes, if any, were to be regarded
as of force. The question was referred to the council of
policy, and on the 12th of February 1715 it was decided
that the statutes of India were to be strictly followed,
except when they were modified by placaats issued by
competent authority at the Cape. The question was not
432 History of South Africa, [1715
considered whether laws made in Holland after the for-
mation of the colony in 1652, or only those prior to that
date, were to be regarded as having force in South Africa.
In 1716 the summary jurisdiction of the court of land-
drost and heemraden was extended in civil cases to 10/.
8s. 4rf.
In May 1714 the secunde Helot, who had recently
been acting head of the government, was suspended for
appropriating to his own use property belonging to the
Company, and upon the circumstances being reported to
the directors, the council was instructed to send him to the
Netherlands without rank or salary. Abraham Cranen-
donk, recently fiscal of the establishment on the Hoogly,
who was named as his successor, arrived at the Cape and
took over the duty on the 4th of March 1715.
For some time back the Bushmen had not been
giving much trouble, but in 1715 their depredations were
renewed. These people would not change their mode of
living, and, as the game was being destroyed, a conflict
between them and the farmers was inevitable. At that
time no one questioned the right of civiUsed men to take
possession of land occupied by such a race as the Bush-
men, and to the present day no one has devised a plan
by which this can be done without violence.
In August 1715 the wife of a Drakenstein farmer ap-
peared at the castle and informed the governor that the
Bushmen had driven ofif over seven hundred sheep belong-
ing to her husband, after murdering the shepherd. There-
upon the governor gave a general permission in writing
to the neighbours of the man who had been robbed to
follow the plunderers and retake the spoil. A notification
to this effect was also sent to the landdrost.
With this permission the first purely colonial com-
mando took the field. It consisted of thirty mounted
burghers, who chose as their commandant a farmer
named Hermanns Potgieter. They did their utmost to
trace the robbers, but without success.
17x6] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 433
The Bushmen then commenced plmideri^ig generally
the farmers along the Berg river and in the land of
Waveren. They murdered some herdsmen, set fire to
severed houses, and drove off a large number of cattle.
It wa& feared that they would bum the ripening com.
Some of the most exposed farmers abandoned their homes,
and a few families were quite ruined. Several commandos
in succession were raised and sent to expel the marauders,
the government supplying ammunition, but giving no
other aid. The instructions under which the conmiandos
took the field were emphatic that bloodshed was to be
avoided if possible, and women and children were not to
be molested, but this was a kind of warfare in which
men's hearts were apt to become hardened.
It was easy to resolve to drive the marauders from
a stated tract of country, but very difficult to carry the
resolution into effect. The keen-sighted Bushman, when
he observed the approach of an enemy, concealed himself
and his family; and as soon as his pursuers retired, worn
out in looking for him, his depredations were resumed.
None of the commandos sent out in this year effected
their object, though some of them believed they had done
so until they learned that as soon as they were disbanded
the marauders were busy again.
Early in 1716 one of the commandos lost a man killed
with a poisoned arrow, and had another wounded. A
sergeant and twenty soldiers were then directed to guard
the most exposed positions, and a strong party of the
Company's servants and burghers was sent with some
arrack, tobacco, and beads to try to make peace. This
party succeeded in obtaining a meeting with a company
of Bushmen, and returned to the castle with a report
that an agreement of friendship had been entered into.
And it certainly was the case that robberies ceased for a
time.
In August the newly-formed military posts were with-
drawn at the request of the burghers, who had a lively
VOL. I. 28
434 History of South Africa. [1719
dread of tjrranny being established by means of troops.
The old outposts at Waveren, Saldanha Bay, Groenekloof,
and Klapmnts were still maintained; but there were never
more than seven men at each.
Until January 1719 no fresh charge of depredations by
Bushmen was made, and then the complaint came from
another direction. Seven hundred head of cattle were
driven away from Jacob van der Heiden's farm on the
river Zonderend. The Bushmen asserted that this raid
was in retaliation for injuries inflicted upon them by
people who gave out that they were sent to barter cattle
for the Company. The records do not supply sufficient
evidence in this instance to enable it to be said whether
they had, or had not, received such provocation as they
complained of. At Van der Heiden's request, permission
was given for a commando to assemble; but the cattle
could not be recovered.
At this time fugitive slaves were giving a great deal
of trouble to the colonists. These wretched beings formed
themselves into bands, and plundered the farmers when-
ever necessity impelled and opportunity offered. Though
they usually selected a retreat in some place difficult of
discovery and access, they were much more easily found
than Bushmen.
A subject that occupied a good deal of attention during
the whole of the eighteenth century was the relative rank
of the different individuals in the community, and, as
the church was the place where all met, the position
which each should occupy in that building. The directors
desired that the burghers should be as nearly as possible
of the same station, but when civil and military offices of
various kinds were created, some distinctions were inevit-
able. There was, however, a general feeling of respect for
le^timate authority properly exercised, so that with the
burgher population each one's place was recognised with-
out much difficulty. In the country the landdrost ranked
first, as the representative of the honourable CompaDiy.
lyiB] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 435
He had the front seat in the church, which was sUghtly
elevated and distinguished by a canopy. Next to liim in
rank came the clergyman. The heemraden followed, and
had a special seat in church just behind the landdrost.
The elders and deacons had seats on each side of the
pulpit, and the military officers had recognised places in
the body of the building, according to their grade. The
wives of all these notables sat on chairs placed in the
order mentioned above, it being one of the duties of a
church officer called the koster to see that the seats were
in their proper positions.
Among the servants of the Company the struggle for
place was constant. In the army and navy it was easy
to define the grades, but outside of these branches of
the service complicated questions were constantly arising.
There were the grades senior merchant, merchant, and
junior merchant, yet these did not meet the difficulty.
The following instance will show how important such
matters were considered.
The supreme authorities having decided to erect addi-
tional fortifications in Table Valley, on the 20th of Feb-
ruary 1715 the governor laid the foundation stone of a
battery which he named Mauritius, near the sea shore at
the foot of the Lion's rump. But the assembly of seven-
teen then thought that before proceeding further, plans
and specifications should be drawn up by an engineer and
submitted to them, and Mr. Pieter Gysbert Noodt, director
of fortifications in Netherlands India, was instructed to
visit the Cape for that purpose. He arrived on the 6th
of May 1718, and remained until the 18th of April in the
following year. He was a surly quarrelsome man, who
would not so much as show the governor the plans he
was making, though repeatedly requested to do so. He
had not been here long when a quarrel arose between
him and the secunde Abraham Cranendonk upon the
question of precedence. They disputed as to which should
the highest mihtary salute, whose wife should
43^ History of Somih Africa. [1717
occupy the foremost seat in chnrdi, whose carriage was
to keep the crown of the street when they met, and other
similar matters. They came before the conndl of policy,
each with a long written statement of his claims. The
coondl took the matter into smons consideration, and
after some discussion decided in favour of Mr. Noodt.
On the 24th of Jnne 1716 the directors submitted a
series of questions, upon which they required the opinions
of the members of the council of policy.
The principal queries were whether the country could
maintain a larger number of colonists; whether it would
not be more advantageous to employ European labourers
than slaves; whether such articles as coffee, sugar, cotton,
indigo, olive oil, tobacco, flax, silk, and hops could not be
produced, so as to enable a larger number of people to
gain a Uving; and whether a direct tax could not be im-
posed on provisions supplied to foreign ships.
Each member of the council was required to take
these questions into consideration and to bring up a re-
port Probably no subject of equal importance to South
Africa has ever since engaged the attention of the au-
thorities, for upon these reports was to depend whether
the country should be occupied solely by Europeans, or
whether there was to be a mixture of races in it. As yet
slavery had not taken deep root, and could easily have
been done away with. The number of slaves was small,
and nearly five-sixths of them were adult males. With-
out further importations, the system would have rapidly
perished.
It must ever be deplored that of the men who sat in
the council in February 1717 there was but one who
could look beyond the gains of the present hour. The
governor, Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes, the secunde,
Abraham Cranendonk, the fiscal independent, Comelis van
Beaumont, and the junior members, J. Cruse, J. de la
Fontaine, K. Slotsboo, and H. van der Meer, were all in
favour of blave labour. They stated that a slave cost
1717] Maurits Pasgrus de Chavonnes. 437
less than 8/. a year for mamtenance, whereas a white
labourer would cost at least as much as a soldier, whose
pay and rations amounted to more than 122. a year. The
slave was tractable, whereas the European was prone
to be rebellious. White men often became addicted to
drunkenness, and none could be obtained who would be
willing to perform the severer kinds of labour in this
climate.
The commander of the garrison, Captain Dominique
Pasques de Chavonnes, a brother of the governor, was
alone in advocating the introduction of European work-
men only. Slaves in this country, he observed, were like
a malignant sore in the human frame. They kept the
colonists in a state of unrest, and notwithstanding the
terrible punishments inflicted upon them, they were not
deterred from running away and committing atrocious
crimes. If the cost of purchasing them — about 42. each
— bringing them to this country, providing for them, and
guarding them, were taken into consideration, their labour
would not be found much cheaper than that of white men,
especially as they required supervision, and did neither so
much nor such good work. On the other hand, Euro-
peans would give security to the country, and would help
to increase the revenue.
There is Uttle doubt that if these views had been
held by the other members of the council, and had been
pressed upon the directors, the many evils which the
introduction of negros produced in South Africa would
have been prevented. Nothing was said of the bearing of
the question upon the African : it was almost a century
too early in the world's history for his interests to be
taken into consideration.
Whether cofifee and the other plants named would
thrive at the Cape was regarded as doubtful by all the
members. Some of these plants, such as the olive and
indigo, had already been fruitlessly experimented with. In
any case, men having special knowledge would be needed
438 History of South Africa. [17 18
to test them, for no one in the colony understood their
cultivation. Whether a larger number of Europeans could
exist here without being a burden upon the Company or
the poor funds would depend upon the result of such ex-
periments.
All were agreed that it would not be advisable to levy
a direct tax upon provisions supplied to foreigners, as
it would not amount to much, and might drive avniy
strangers who brought money into the country. None of
the members thought that any profit could be made from
an alleged discovery of coal on Pierre Bousseau's farm at
French Hoek. Nor were any of them of opinion that
manufactures could be introduced. Isaac Taillefer, it was
stated, had made good hats from Cape wool ; but when
he died that industry ceased. Others had knitted socks
and gloves of woollen yarn made by themselves, but that
also had been discontinued.
Upon receipt of these reports, the directors resolved,
17th of April 1718, that experiments should be repeated
vnth all diligence in the cultivation of tobacco, silk, indigo,
and oUves ; and that a person having special knowledge
in the production of each should be sent out to superin-
tend the work.
Sheep's wool was not referred to, as all attempts to
encourage the growth of a marketable article had hitherto
failed. In 1714 six hundred and fifty pounds were sent
to Europe, but the quality was so bad that it did not
produce at public sale as much as it had cost. Another
experiment was made in 1716, when three thousand
pounds were purchased at seven pence a pound and sent
to Amsterdam. The quality of this shipment was like-
wise so inferior that it was unsaleable for spinning pur-
poses. It was then resolved to let this industry remain in
abeyance until another breed of animals could be intro-
duced, and as the greatest difficulty was now being ex-
perienced in getting as much meat as was needed, wool,
which was of less importance, was not spoken of.
1719] Maurits Pasqttes de Ckavonnes. 439
In 1719 a large quantity of indigo seed was sent from
Batavia with a man who understood its cultivation, and
for many years experiments were made with it. There
was no difficulty in getting the plant to grow well in
sheltered positions and in rich soil; but it was found that
it would not answer as a general crop.
Silkworm eggs from Persia and Bengal were sent at
the same time, but were found to be bad on their arrival.
The white mulberry trees which were planted throve as
well as could be desired. The chief experiment in the
production of silk was not, however, made until a few
years later, and will be noticed in another chapter.
A man who had large experience in the cultivation
and manufacture of tobacco, Cors Hendriks by name, was
sent from Amsterdam in 1719. He made a tour through
the colony, and upon his return to the castle pronounced
very unfavourably upon the appearance of the soil. The
most suitable place for an experiment that he had found
was a plot of land about two morgen in extent, adjoining
Eustenburg at Eondebosch. There and in the Company's
garden in Table Valley a large number of tobacco plants
were set out by slaves under direction of the manager.
At first they throve well, but after a time some were de-
stroyed by violent winds, and others by the heat of the
sun. The seed had been carefully selected, but the leaves
which reached maturity were so bad in flavour that Hen-
driks, who attributed the quality to the soil, despaired of
success, and advised that the experiment be given up.
The members of the council of policy were of the same
opinion, and in 1722 further trial was abandoned.
The experiments with the olive had the same result as
on every previous occasion. The trees grew most luxuri-
antly, but many of them suddenly died without any ac-
countable cause. From others the fruit dropped when still
young, and the few olives that ripened in exceptionally
good seasons were of very inferior quality.
The directors were of opinion that if the flavour of
440 History of South Africa. [17 19
Cape wine were improved, a large market could be fonnd
both in Europe and in India, to the advantage of the
colonists as well as of the Company. They were then
paying 62. a legger for ordinary wine for the use of the
fleets, and 8/. for old wine for use in the hospital On the
27th of June 1719 they wrote for some selected samples,
and with the next return fleet six half aams were sent.
When it reached Amsterdam it was found unfit for use.
It was the same with six half aams sent to Batavia. The
directors supposed that the reason might be the small size
of the casks, and therefore directed another trial to be
made with half leggers instead of half aams. In 1722
ten half leggers were sent to Amsterdam and Middelburg,
but the result was the same as before. An experiment
was then made with bottles, a thousand of which were
sent out to be filled with wine and returned. It succeeded
no better than the others.
The wine made at Constantia had, however, a good
reputation in Europe. Jan Colyn, the owner of Great
Constantia at that time, produced yearly firom ten to
twelve leggers of red wine, for which he received 16/. 13«.
4ti. a legger, and about twenty leggers of white wine,
which he sold readily at 10/. 8s. 4d.
In 1714 a fatal cattle disease, unknown before, made
its appearance in the settlement, and attacked both oxen
and sheep. By 1718 it was so difficult to obtain animals
for slaughter that when the contract to supply the Com-
pany with meat was offered for sale by auction there was
not a single bidder. The sheep in possession of the
burghers had decreased by nearly fifty-six thousand. It
was necessary to make a private arrangement with Jacob
van der Heiden, by which he undertook to supply meat
at three pence a pound and live sheep at twelve shillings
and six pence each. On the 2nd of July 1720 the sale of
live animals to foreigners was prohibited by placaat, and
henceforth no sheep were sent on board the Company's
ships. Meat had now risen to 3^. a pound.
1723] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 441
English captains had been in the habit of purchasing
cattle in considerable numbers, slaughtering them, and
salting the meat. They had also generally taken away a
number of sheep. Upon the prohibition being applied to
them, they made loud complaints in Europe, and the
directors issued instructions that they should be treated
as well as possible.
After a time Van der Heiden informed the council
that he could not continue to supply meat unless permis-
sion was given him to procure cattle from Hottentots at a
distance. Leave was therefore granted, but in February
1723 it was withdrawn upon the Drakenstein consistory
complaining that the trading parties had used violence to-
wards the natives, and had even murdered some Hotten-
tots. The matter was investigated by the fiscal and the
landdrost, but sufficient evidence could not be obtained to
secure the conviction of the offenders, though there was
no doubt that very atrocious crimes had been committed.
The price of sheep sold at pubUc auction at this time
was from 11«. 1^. to 13^. lid, taking one with another in
a flock, and of draught oxen U, 3^. 4td, each. The scarcity
was increased by the tongue and hoof sickness making its
first appearance in 1723.
By order of the directors, a placaat was then issued,
24th of February 1723, prohibiting the sale of fresh meat
or vegetables to strangers, under penalty of deportation
to Europe and a fine of nearly 70/. This was construed
to mean that permission must first be obtained from
the coimcil, for upon English captains requesting to be
allowed to purchase supplies of fresh provisions for their
sick, leave was invariably granted. On the 6th of April
of the same year another placaat was issued requiring the
farmers to provide the Company with meat at two pence
a pound and sheep at ten shillings each, under penalty
of a tithe of eJl animals reared being required. But legis-
lation such as this was fruitless.
An attempt had previously been made to procure cattle
442 History of South Africa. [1723
from the Hottentots of the interior, and even from the
Xosas, by licensing a certain burgher to carry on the
trade under surveillance ; but the great distance caused
the scheme to fail. Ensign Bhenius was then sent with
a trading party to the Namaquas. In November 1724 he
returned unsuccessful He reported that the Namaqua
tribe had been fearfully reduced in number by a disease
resembling small-pox, that the Bushmen had taken advan-
tage of their weakness to rob them of most of their cattle,
and that in reckless despair they had slaughtered and
consumed the remainder.
The Company was then compelled to submit to circum-
stances, and to pay the high prices determined by pubUc
tender.
The troubles of the community were increased by the
horse sickness making its appearance in a very severe
form early in 1719. Between sixteen and seventeen hun-
dred animals had perished when in July there were some
frosty nights, and the disease disappeared. There is no
mention of it in the records before that date, and it is
described as a new plague. It has never left South Africa
since.
On the 11th of April 1713 the peace of Utrecht con-
cluded a war with France of twelve years' duration. The
Company then resolved to enlarge its commerce, and a
number of ships of the first class, canying from two hun-
dred and eighty to three hundred and fifty men each,
were speedily built. After 1715 the number of persons
visiting the Cape every year was much greater than before.
During the fifteen years from 1st January 1700 to 31st
December 1714 one thousand and seven ships put into
Table Bay, or on an average sixty-seven yearly. Of these,
six hundred and eighty-three were Dutch, two hundred
and eighty English, thirty-six Danish, six French, and two
Portuguese. During the ten years from 1st January 1715
to 31st December 1724 the number that called was eight
hundred and seventy-one, or on an average eighty-seven
1723] MauHts Pasqties de Chavonnes. 443
yearly. Of these, six hundred and forty-five were Dutch,
one hundred and ninety-two English, seventeen French,
ten Danish, four Portuguese, and three Flemish.
The Company's ships assembled in Table Bay to re-
turn to Europe in a fleet. The slowest sailers were de-
spatched first from Batavia, and usually arrived here in
January. Then came the Ceylon squadron, and last the
late ships from Batavia. They endeavoured to leave Table
Bay about the end of March or beginning of April, and it
must have been something worth seeing when twenty to
thirty large ships set their sails and stood away together.
This was called the summer fleet, and it usually carried
to Europe merchandise which had cost from five to seven
hundred thousand pounds sterling. Sometimes a number
of EngUsh vessels sailed in its company. The vdnter fleet
was much smaller, often consisting of only three or four
ships. At a date somewhat later than the period to
which we have now arrived, it became usual for the
summer ships also to sail in small squadrons, as they
could be got ready.
The English government had protested against the as-
sistance formerly given to private traders at the Cape, and
an arrangement had been made between the assembly of
seventeen and the directors of the English Company that
neither would permit interlopers to obtain anything what-
ever in their ports. In consequence, when an EngUsh
vessel arrived, unless her master could produce a royal
commission or proper credentials from the East India
Company, she was warned to make sail at once, and no
intercourse was allowed with the shore. The Flemish
ships which put in for supplies were treated in the same
manner.
About the commencement of the eighteenth century —
the exact date cannot be given — the Portuguese ceased
sending vessels from Mozambique to trade at Delagoa
3ay. They had found that very little profit was to be
made there, and the port was frequented by pirates,
444 History of South Africa. [i7»r
whose visits caused it to be a dangerous locality. The
last vessel sent from Mozambique had been taken by these
rovers of the sea. She had a crew of blacks, with only a
European master and supercargo. A ship flying the white
flag of France sailed in and dropped anchor close by, and
the two white men, who did not suspect the real char-
acter of the stranger, very imprudently went on board.
They were not allowed to leave, so during the night the
blacks in the trader became alarmed and thought it well
to have their firearms ready. At daybreak next morning
the pirate got out three boats to seize the Portuguese
vessel, and in one of them sent the captive bookkeeper*
As the boats approached, the prisoner, who must have
been a man of the highest fortitude, shouted to the blacks
to defend themselves, and they, after firing at the rowers^
quickly hoisted sail and tried to escape. The little vessel,
however, ran aground, but the crew got to land, and were
sheltered by the natives. The pirates then took every-
thing that was of value out of the prize, and set fire to
the empty hull.
Sofala was the farthest station south permanently occu-
pied by the Portuguese, but occasionally a trading vessel
was sent from Mozambique to Inhambane, where she re-
mained five or six months. Some mixed breeds who had
their home at that place then went about the country
collecting ivory and wax, and occasionally travelled for
that purpose as far as the Tembe river. ^
^ For a full account of the condition of the Portuguese stations see
my volume entitled The Portugtiese in South Africa, The manuscript
records of the Dutch settlement at Dalagoa Bay are much more complete
in the archives at the Hague than in those at Capetown. At the Hague
they are bound in seven leurge volumes, and comprise letters, reports, in-
structions, judicial proceedings, a continuous journal with daily entries of
occurrences, etc. I have made exa.ct copies of several of the most inter-
esting papers, in order to publish them in the series of pamphlets issued
by me under the title Belangryke Historishe Dokumenten, At the Hague
there cure also several plans of the fort Lagoa and of Fort Lydzaamheid,
which was built at a later date.
i72i] Maurits Pasqties de Chavonnes. 445
In 1720 the Dutch East India Company resolved to take
possession of Delagoa Bay and establish a factory there.
It was intended that the station should be a dependency
of the Cape government, just as Mauritius had been.
Thus important cases were to be sent for trial to the
Cape, and in all cases except the most trivial there was
to be a right of appeal to the high court of justice at the
castle of Good Hope.
Towards the close of the year the advance party sent
from the Netherlands to form the station, consisting of
forty-four soldiers, as many sailors, and a few mechanics,
with the oflBcers one hundred and thirteen souls in all,
arrived in Table Bay in two small vessels, the Kaxvp and
Oouda. The officer who had been appointed head of the
expedition died soon after reaching South Africa, when
the council of policy selected a clerk on the Cape estab-
hshment, Willem van Taak by name, as his successor.
A council was chosen to assist him, and a petty court of
justice was constituted.
On the 14th of February 1721 the expedition, accom-
panied by a small vessel named the Zeelandia, sailed from
Table Bay, and on the 29th of March reached its destina-
tion. The natives near the mouth of the Espirito Santo
were found to be very friendly. They were under a chief
named Maphumbo, who was a vassal of another named
Mateke, though he seemed to be the more powerful of
the two. Among his people was a black from Mozam-
bique, who spoke the Portuguese language fluently, and
who was at once engaged as an interpreter. This man
stated that in his early days he had frequently come from
Mozambique in the trading vessel, and it was on his
seventh visit, about twenty years before, that he escaped
from the pirates. Since that time no Portuguese had
visited the place. He pointed out where the huts in
which they had resided formerly stood, but as these had
been made of reeds, no vestiges of them were left. The
site was on Shefina island, which the Dutch afterwards
446 History of South Africa. [1721
called on that account the Portuguese possession. The
interpreter stated also that during the period of their stay,
which was often six or seven months, the Portuguese
formed little stations along the Manisa river, but never
at any great distance from its mouth.
The country as far as it was known to the Delagoa
Bay natives was occupied by little tribes or clans, which
were almost constantly at feud with each other. Farther
to the south the Bantu have traditions of a time of
general peace, but certainly wherever and whenever Euro-
peans have come in contact with these people they have
been found in a state of war.
Maphumbo readily gave the strangers permission to
build a fort, and near the bank of the river, where the
tovm of Louren^o Marques now stands, they commenced
to make a pentagonal earthen wall capable of carrying
cannon, within which a storehouse and quarters for the
garrison were put up. Male blacks could not be induced
to work, but offered the services of their wives and
daughters in exchange for beads, and often over twa
hundred women were employed in digging and carrying
ground.
Before much building was done fever attacked the
Europeans, and within six weeks over two-thirds of them
died, including the conmiander and the engineer. At
length, however, the fort was ready for occupation, and
then the Zeelandia was sent back to the Cape with letters
and a little ivory and wax obtained in barter. She re-
turned in August, together with the yacht J7no, taking
provisions and eighty soldiers to strengthen the garrison.
Upon learning what had occurred, the council of policy
appointed Caspar Swertner successor to Mr. Van Taak,
with the rank of junior merchant and a salary of 21. 15s. 6d.
a month. He was then at Delagoa Bay, but he died
before the news of his appointment reached the station.
A subaltern, named Jan Michel, was the next head of
the party of occupation. The council hoped that by this
1722] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 447
time the sorviyors from the fever were seasoned to the
climate, and that henceforth all would go well. Bat the
outpost was destined to further trouble.
Time passed in trading, exploring, and gathering infor-
mation, until the 19th of April 1722, when a report was
brought by some blacks that three ships had entered the
bay. These proved to be manned by buccaneers, who at-
tacked Fort Lagoa, took possession of it after a short
cannonade, and plundered the store. They did not, how-
ever, otherwise illtreat the garrison, eighteen of whom
joined them. When they were ready for sea they com-
pelled one of the officials, named De Bucquoi, to pilot
them out, as he had surveyed the bay and made a chart
of its soundings. They also took with them the vessel
which was employed as a packet, to be able, as they said,
to send the pilot back when they got outside. They
failed to keep their word, however, and De Bucquoi and
the crew of the Kaap were obliged to remain with the
buccaneers until they reached another port, from which
they made their way to India.
The garrison was by this disaster cut off from com-
munication with the outer world. But in course of time
relief came, and the exploration of the country around
the bay for a few miles inland was then completed. A
little gold was brought by blacks from the interior to ex-
change for beads, and though the whole quantity was less
than two ounces, it was sufficient to excite hope. The
natives who brought it asserted that they had travelled
three moons and a half, but this statement was not
credited. The first who came had a little scale, with
pebbles of different sizes for weights, from which it was
known that he had dealt before with traders. Over two
tons of ivory and four hundred and ninety pounds of
copper were procured. The locality in which the copper
mines were situated could not be ascertained, as the
natives either could not or would not give information
concerning it.
44^ History of South Africa. [17 13
A report of an iron monntain some distance inland
lured a psuHiy of nineteen men, nnder the secnnde Jan
Christoffel Stefler, to go in search of it. They left Fort
Lagoa on the 9th of August 1723, with three pack oxen
to carry provisions. At the end of a week they were in
a charming country. In mountain kloofis were magnifi-
cent forests, the soil was rich and covered with long
grass, streams of fresh water were numerous, and different
kinds of game, particularly elephants, were seen in great
abundance. When crossing a river, the leading division
of the exploring party was attacked and destroyed by a
band of natives, and as no one capable of giving direc-
tions was then left, the survivors returned to the bay.
In May 1724 an active junior officer, named Jan van
de Gapelle, who had come to the station as a soldier with
the first party under Mr. Van Taak, but who shortly
afterwards became a clerk, was appointed secunde and
provisional conunandant of Fort Lagoa, as Jan Michel
had requested to be relieved. It was not a place to
which people went willingly, for the cUmate had the repu-
tation of being in the summer season one of the most
deadly in the world.
During the first quarter of the eighteenth century
there were some notable shipwrecks on the South African
coast.
On the 16th of February 1713 the BenTuhroek^ home-
ward bound from Ceylon, after being disabled in a storm
ran ashore in broad daylight on the coast of Natal, at
some point which was never exactly ascertained. She
commenced to break up immediately. Fifty-seven Euro-
peans and twenty Malabar slaves intended for the Cape
got to land on pieces of the wreck, the remainder of the
crew perished. Those who were saved collected some
food which washed up, and then set oat to traTd to tibe
Cape. But they could not cross a deep
in their way, and after a few days
back to the neighbourhood of the
Jt« >,
1 7 14] Maurits Pasques de Chavannes. 449
remained until June, subsisting upon milk, meat, and
millet which they obtained from the natives for pieces of
iron and copper. At last the metal in the wreckage was
exhausted, and they then made another attempt to reach
the Cape by going far inland to avoid the lower courses of
the rivers. But they did not succeed, and, after wander-
ing about for some weeks, hunger and fatigue compelled
the Europeans who still survived — seven in number — to
take refage with a tribe of natives, who treated them
with great kindness. Here they found a Frenchman who
had been wrecked thirty years before.
The natives with whom they thenceforth lived were
carrying on perpetual war with Bushmen. Their resi-
dence was near the coast, on the bank of a river with a
navigable mouth. The food of the tribe consisted chiefly
of milk, varieties of pumpkin, and bread made by rubbing
soaked millet between stones, then mixing the pulp with
water, and baking it in ashes.
Of those who did not turn back to the wreck,
all perished except one Malabar slave. He pushed
on westward for a whole year, overcoming every diflS-
culty in his way. At length a burgher found him
near the mouth of the Breede river, and sent him on
to the castle, which he reached on the 26th of February
1714.
Six months later, on the 4th of September, a decked
boat twenty-eight feet long by nine feet beam arrived in
Table Bay under English colours. Her master reported
that she had been built in England purposely for trading
on the south-eastern coast of Africa, and had been taken
to Delagoa Bay in pieces in a vessel named the Clapham
Oallejf. She had been put together there, had since been
tndiDg on the coast, and had now come to Table Bay
to uxiiDgement to wait for the return of the
Adby ftom India. She had entered a river, the
idi is not given, and had there found the
§ tiilon of the Bennebroek^ four of whom
29
450 History of South Africa. [1722
she brought to the Cape. The most interesting part of
the narrative of the master of the boat is that at varions
places at which he had touched below Delagoa Bay he
had obtained a large quantity of ivory in exchange for
beads and copper rings that had been expressly manufac-
tured in England for trade with the Bantu.
In November the galiot Podlooper was sent to search
along the coast of Natal for the wreck of the Bennebroek,
and if possible to recover her cannon and anchors as weU
as the three surviving sailors ; but after an absence of
nearly six months she returned with a report that neither
men nor wreck could be found.
The year 1722 was the most disastrous one yet known
for the Company's fleets in these seas. On the 17th of
January the richly-laden ships Sampson and Amstelveen,
belonging to a large return fleet, encountered a great gale
off the southern coast, and went down in the open ocean.
Two men belonging to the first and one belonging to the
last were found by other ships of the fleet some hours
later floating on pieces of wreckage. The remainder of
their crews perished.
On Sunday the 14th of June a gale from the north-
west set into Table Bay. There were lying at anchor,
belonging to the Company, two second class outward
bound ships, the Standvdstigheid and Rotterdam, together
carrying four hundred and fifty-three men, two third class
outward bound ships, the Zoetigheid and Lakeman, together
carrying two hundred and eighty-three men, a small out-
ward bound vessel, the Schotsche Lorrendraayer, carrying
fifty-two men, the packet boat Gkmday ready to sail to
Delagoa Bay with supplies, and the brigantine Amy,
which had been in use at the Cape ever since her seizure
in Saldanha Bay in 1693. There were also lying in the
bay three English Indiamen, the Nightingale, bound to
Madras, with a crew of one hundred and forty men, and
the Addison and Chandos, with crews respectively of eighty
and seventy men, homeward bound from Bengal. The
1722] Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes. 451
last named had put in a fortnight before in distress,
having been dismasted in a gale at sea.
All that day the danger to the shipping was great, but
no accident worse than parting cables and swamping boats
occurred. On Monday the gale lulled, but during the night
the wind shifted to north-north-west, and on Tuesday
morning the bay seemed to be covered with breakers.
Still up to dusk the ships held to their anchors.
As darkness set in the gale increased. At seven
o'clock minute guns were heard between the gusts, and
the firing continued until midnight. The sea was break-
ing on the beach with such violence that it was danger-
ous to pass along the road between the castle and the
shore.
At dawn in the morning of the 17th, it was seen that
not a single vessel was afloat in the bay. The Amy was
under the castle, and had broken up, but her crew had
got safely ashore. The Chandos was next, close to the
castle. She had partly broken up, but only two of her
crew had been drowned.^ Then came fragments of the
ZoetigJieid, nearly half of whose crew had perished. The
Laheman was high on the land a little farther on, with
only one man missing. Just beyond were the crushed
fragments of the Standvastigheid^ Rotterdam, and Schotsche
lorrendraayer, all together, and of their crews only forty-
five men were living. The Oouda and the Nightingale
were some distance off, both high on the land and not
much broken. The Nightingale had lost one man, the
other none. The Addison had struck in the mouth of
Salt Biver, and had overturned and broken up. Only ten
of her crew had got to land. In all six hundred and sixty
men perished in that dreadful gale, and property valued
at nearly a quarter of a million sterling was lost.
On the 20th of November of this disastrous year the
^In the Chandos was a Portuguese boj, Ignatius Ferreira, who re-
mained in South Africa, and was the ancestor of the present large family
of that ncune.
452 History of South Africa. [1723
Schoonberg, homeward boand with a valuable cargo, was
ran ashore near Cape Agulhas in broad daylight and in
fine weather, through the culpable negligence of her officers.
The ship broke up, but all on board got safely to shore.
The next wreck that occurred on the coast was on the
7th of November 1723, when a little vessel named the
Meteren, which was on her passage out to be employed as
a packet between the Cape and Delagoa Bay, was lost on
the coast a little to the north of the mouth of the Elephant
river. She had left Texel with a crew of twenty-nine
souls. Scurvy made its appearance, and six died on the
passage ; while of the others, only ten were at length able
to work. In a calm her anchor was dropped close to the
coast, but a swell set in, when she dragged, and was cast
ashore a complete wreck. Five men were drowned. The
remaining eighteen got to land, where nine of them, who
could walk, wandered about for twenty-five days before
they were found. The others were believed to have died
of want.
In the church, matters had assumed a very satisfactory
aspect. The reverend Mr. D'Ailly remained as first or
chief minister of the Cape. In 1714 a high school was
established in Capetown, when the reverend Lambertus
Slicher, of Middelburg, who had been six years chaplain
of the garrison at Lillo, but had then of his own accord
resigned and engaged as a midshipman in the ship
7 Vaderland Getrouw, upon the arrival of that vessel in
Table Bay was found anxious to abandon his new calling,
and was appointed rector by the council of policy. In this
school instruction was given in the Latin and Dutch
languages, and pupils from any part of the colony were
taken into the rector's house as boarders. But it received
such scanty support from the burghers that after being
bolstered up by the government for some years it seemed
a waste of energy for an educated man to devote his
whole time to it. Mr. Slicher then, at the request of the
council of policy and with the consent of the directors*
17^3] Maurtts Pasques de Ckavonnes, 453
began to assist in the church. His first service was held
on the 15th of June 1721. He still continued to perform
the duty of rector of the school, though in February 1723
he was formally inducted as second clergyman of the
Cape congregation. In 1720 some persons subscribed the
necessary funds for the purchase of an organ for use in
the church.
The reverend Petrus van Aken, who ha,d been ap-
pointed by the directors clergyman of Drakenstein, arrived
in August 1714, and took over the duty at once. In 1717
a conmiencement was made with building a church at the
Paarl for the Drakenstein congregation. The funds were
derived from a legacy of 208/. 6s. 8^. bequeathed for the
purpose by Henning Huising, 314/. 8s. 6rf. left with the
government here for charitable purposes by individuals in
the fleet under the governor-general Van Hoom, 698/. 12s.
2d, lent by the consistory of the Cape, and 716/. 12s.
6d. raised partly by special collections and partly by
making use of the poor fund. The building was com-
pleted in 1720. When Paul Boux died, the consistory
requested the council of policy to appoint another French
sick-comforter in his stead, as there were still some
twenty-five or twenty-six old people Uving who did not
understand Dutch. The council, 23rd of February 1723,
declined to do so until the pleasure of the directors could
be made known, and their decision was unfavourable.
At Stellenbosch, where the reverend Mr. Bek was
clergyman, a commencement was also made in 1717 with
building a church in place of the one that had been de-
stroyed by fire. The cost was borne by applying the poor
fund, by special collections, a loan from the Cape consis-
tory which had then over 9,300/. to the good, and by a
lottery for which permission was obtained from the direc
tors.
On the 8th of October 1721 Abraham Cranendonk
died, when Jan de la Fontaine, who had been working
his way upward during the eleven years of his residence
454 History of South Africa. [1724
in South Africa, was chosen by the council of policy to
act as secunde until the pleasure of the directors could be
known. In 1724 the appointment was confirmed by the
assembly of seventeen.
On the 14th of June 1724 the fiscal independent,
Gomelis van Beaumont, died. He had held office since
March 1713. The council selected Adriaan van Kervel,
who had been sixteen years in service at the Cape, to act
until a new appointment could be made by the directors.
He also was confirmed in his office.
Governor De Chavonnes managed to preserve the good
will both of the directors and the colonists. He embarked
in no costly undertakings, did his utmost to keep down
expense, and preserved concord in the settlement. He
was a quiet, religious man, who might have taken for
motto a verse which closes the journal for one of the
years when he was at the head of affairs : —
'C^eluckigh is hy die syn tyd
In stille mst en weldoen slyt,
Die al hetgeen den Hemel geeft
Nooyt in syn hert mispreesen heeft.'
The directors were so well satisfied with his adminis-
tration that they raised him to the rank of ordinary coun-
cillor of India, a dignity enjoyed by none of his prede-
cessors. The letter containing the announcement of his
elevation reached the Cape on the 1st of June 1721.
The governor, who had just passed his seventieth year,
was suddenly taken ill on the 7th of September 1724, and
died early on the following morning. A few hours later
the council of policy met and decided that Jan de la
Fontaine should act as head of the government until an
appointment could be made by the assembly of seventeen.
His nomination as secunde had not yet been confirmed
by the directors, and he was only in rank a merchant ;
but there was no other officer at the Cape in a better
position. Within a few months despatches were received
1734] Maurils Pasques de Chavannes. 455
in which he was promoted to be a senior merchant, and
was approTed of as seconde.
On the 14th of September the body of the late gover-
nor was baried under the pavement of the church, with
all the state that was possible, nearly the whole of the
colonists of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein as well as those
of the Cape district attending the funeral. His widow
and daughters returned to Europe with the next fleet
from India.
A complete account of the seasons is given in the
harvest returns preserved in the records of the eighteenth
century, though the rainfall was not measured. From
1700 to 17W the crops were poor, owing to insufficient
rain. In 1705 a series of good seasons set in, and it
became possible to send a considerable quantity of wheat
to Batavia. From 1706 to 1711, both years included, the
average export was rather over four thousand muids.
The Company paid a little less than twelve shillings a
muid for it at the magazines. Bye, barley, beans, and
peas were also grown in quantities sufficient to supply
the wants of the shipping and of the Indian government.
There was, however, a very limited market lor these pro-
ducts in India. In 17(8 the quantity of rye and beans
grown was in excess of the demand, and a notice
was issued discouraging their cultivation and stating
that the Company would not purchase any more of
either.
The crop of 1710-11 was a poor one There was a
quantity of ^ain in store, however, which enabled the
government to keep up the supply to Batavia. But in
the two follovi-ing seasons also insufficient rain fell, and
the yield of the harvest was so small that only one thou-
sand and twenty muids in 1712 and nineteen hundred
and fifty-six muids in 1713 could be exported. In 1713
the fall of rain was ample, but the small-pox prevented
extensive cnltivation. The returns for seed sown were,
however, exceptionally large, and in 1714 the quantity of
456 History of South Africa. [1724
wheat exported amounted to fonr thousand three hun-
dred and seventy-five muids.
The crops of 1714 to 1716 were so good that fifteen
thousand four hundred muids of wheat were sent U>
Batavia, or more than five thousand muids on an average
yearly. But in the Company's possessions in India the
demand for wheat was limited, and it could be obtained
elsewhere at a lower rate than was paid at the Cape.
The governor-general and council of India were of opinion
that their requirements could be supplied from Bengal
and Surat to greater advantage. They were satisfied with
the quahty of South African wheat; but it was too dear,
and the quantity produced fluctuated so greatly from
season to season that a constant supply could not be de-
pended upon. They proposed to allow the Cape farmers
to send it to any part of India, and sell it there at what-
ever price could be obtained. But to this the burghers
objected, as they asserted that they were not in a posi-
tion to carry on a trade of this kind, and could not a£Eord
to wait long after harvest without any return. The
colony would be ruined if the Company ceased to pur-
chase their grain.
The directors decided that it would be better to sup-
port the burghers than natives of Hindostan, but the
price of wheat was reduced to ten shillings and eight
pence a muid. As it was asserted that they must pur-
chase all that was grown, or ruin would follow, they
wrote that no more ground was to be given out for the
production of wheat and wine, without their approval
being obtained in each instance. To encourage the colon-
ists to grow other produce, they gave directions that ships
from India were to be supplied at the Cape with peas,
beans, and husked barley sufficient for the passage home,
though peas were then bringing the high price of twenty-
nine shillings, and beans twenty-five shillings a muid.
This arrangement had hardly been made when a series
of dry seasons set in. In 1718 the harvest was poor, bat
1724]
Maurits Pasqties de Chavonnes.
457
a small quantity of wheat was exported. It was the same
in 1719. In 1720 less than a hundred muids were sent
out of the country. In 1721 it was not possible to supply
the ships with beans, peas, and barley, and rice was
served out to the garrison instead of bread; but fifty-one
muids of wheat were sent to Batavia to keep up the name
of exportation. In the winter of 1721 the seasons
changed for the better. In 1722 nearly three thousand
five hundred muids of wheat were exported, followed in
1723 by over four thousand, and in 1724 and 1725 by
over five thousand muids.
The principal persons who settled in South Africa
during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and
whose descendants are still in the country, were
Oerrit van Aarde, before 1714,
ChristiaAn Ackerman, 1720,
Marthinus Ackerman, before 1713,
Adam Albertyn, before 1723,
Casper Hendrik Badenhorst, be-
fore 1713,
Jan Izaak van den Bank, 1713,
Jan Barnard, before 1713,
Jan Zacharias Beck, before 1722,
Matthys Andries de Beer, before
1705,
Andries Bester, 1712,
Jan Beukes, before 1705,
Jan Frederik Bierman, before
1725,
Bemardus vsui Billion, before
1724,
Jfiui Blankenberg, before 1706,
Jan Blignaut, 1723,
Jfiui Pieter Blom, before 1724,
Pieter Boeiens, before 1717,
Hermanns Lambertns Bosman,
1707,
Bobert Brand, before 1719,
Jan Lodewyk Bouwer, 1724,
Pieter van Breda, 1719,
VOL. L
Jan Bronkhorst, before 1718,
Andries Bmyns, before 1714,
David du Buisson, before 1708,
Carel Diederik Buitendag, before
1722,
Barend Buys, 1715,
Jan Hermanns Carstens, before
1711,
Josu^ Gellier, 1700,
Elaas Claasen, 1720,
Jacob Coetzer, before 1716,
Hermanns Combrink, before 1720,
Jacques Delport, 1701,
Willem Dempers, 1712,
Jean Durand, before 1701,
Daniel Dnuring, before 1725,
Jan van Ellewee, before 1718,
Albert Gerritse van Emmenes,
before 1704,
Jan Engelbrecht, 1717,
Antoine Alexander Faore, 1714,
Ignatius Ferreira, 1722,
Thomas Ferreyn, before 1716,
Anthonie Fick, before 1711,
Jan Franke, before 1713,
Jan Melchior Frick, 1721,
29*
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