to Albert and Isabella in 1609, excepting the town of Venlo, which
passed to the republic, and the town and district of Roermonde, which
went to Austria, was ceded to Prussia and became the circle of
Düsseldorf. Roermonde was added to the kingdom of the Netherlands in
1831. Luxemburg was divided into two portions by the treaty of London in
1839, one of which is now part of the German empire, and the other
remains a province of Belgium. By the same treaty Limburg was divided
into two sections, one of which remained to Belgium, the other became
part of the kingdom of the Netherlands.
By the treaty of Munster on the 30th of January 1648, in which the king
of Spain recognised the independence of the United Netherlands, the
present province of North Brabant went to the republic,[37] as did also
the city and jurisdiction of Maastricht and a small portion of Flanders.
A map of Belgium as it is to-day is thus very different from one in
1610, but it contains the province of Liege, which did not then belong
to it.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The trade of the Dutch with India now increased rapidly, but South
Africa was hardly affected by it, except through the visits of passing
ships and occasionally the residence of parties of Europeans for a short
time on its shores.
In May 1611 the Dutch skipper Isaac le Maire, after whom the straits of
Le Maire are named, called at Table Bay. When he sailed, he left behind
his son Jacob and a party of seamen, who resided in Table Valley for
several months. Their object was to kill seals on Robben Island, and to
harpoon whales, which were then very abundant in South African waters in
the winter season. They also tried to open up a trade for skins of
animals with the Hottentots in the neighbourhood, but in this met with
no success, as those barbarians needed all the peltry they could obtain
for their own use.
In 1616 the assembly of seventeen resolved that its outward bound fleets
should always put into Table Bay to refresh the crews, and from that
time onward Dutch ships touched there almost every season. A kind of
post office was established by marking the dates of arrivals and
departures on stones, and burying letters in places indicated. But no
attempt was made to explore the country, and no port south of the
Zambesi except Table Bay was frequented by Netherlanders, so that down
to the middle of the century nothing more concerning it was known than
the Portuguese had placed on record.
The Dutch had now to fear the competition of the English in the East
much more than that of the Portuguese. Our countrymen were equally
enterprising and courageous, and however friendly the two nations might
be in Europe, in distant lands they were animated by a spirit of rivalry
which on some occasions went so far as to cause them to act
unscrupulously towards each other. It will not be necessary to relate
here the proceedings of the English in the eastern seas, but some
references to their visits to Table Bay in those early times must be
made.
[Sidenote: English Visitors to South Africa.]
They too had established an East India Company, whose first fleet,
consisting of the _Dragon_, of six hundred tons, the _Hector_, of three
hundred tons, the _Ascension_, of two hundred and sixty tons, and the
_Susan_, of two hundred and forty tons burden, sailed from Torbay on the
22nd of April 1601. The admiral was James Lancaster, the same who had
commanded the _Edward Bonaventure_ ten years earlier. The chief pilot
was John Davis, who had only returned from the Indies nine months
before. On the 9th of September the fleet came to anchor in Table Bay,
by which time the crews of all except the admiral’s ship were so
terribly afflicted with scurvy that they were unable to drop their
anchors. The admiral had kept his men in a tolerable state of health by
supplying them with a small quantity of limejuice daily. After his ship
was anchored he was obliged to get out his boats and go to the
assistance of the others. Sails were then taken on shore to serve as
tents, and the sick were landed as soon as possible. Trade was commenced
with the Hottentots and in the course of a few days forty-two oxen and a
thousand sheep were obtained for pieces of iron hoop. The fleet remained
in Table Bay nearly seven weeks, during which time most of the sick men
recovered.
On the 5th of December 1604 the _Tiger_--a ship of two hundred and forty
tons--and a pinnace called the _Tiger’s Whelp_ set sail from Cowes for
the Indies. The expedition was under command of Sir Edward Michelburne,
and next to him in rank was Captain John Davis. It was the last voyage
that this famous seaman was destined to make, for he was killed in an
encounter with Japanese pirates on the 27th of December 1605. The
journal of the voyage contains the following paragraph:--
“The 3rd of April 1605 we sailed by a little island which Captain John
Davis took to be one that stands some five or six leagues from
Saldanha. Whereupon our general, Sir Edward Michelburne, desirous to see
the island, took his skiff, accompanied by no more than the master’s
mate, the purser, myself, and four men that did row the boat, and so
putting off from the ship we came on land. While we were on shore they
in the ship had a storm, which drove them out of sight of the island;
and we were two days and two nights before we could recover our ship.
Upon the said island is abundance of great conies and seals, whereupon
we called it Cony Island.”
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
On the 9th of April they anchored in Table Bay, where they remained
until the 3rd of the following month refreshing themselves.
On the 14th of March 1608 the East India Company’s ships _Ascension_ and
_Union_ sailed from England, and on the 14th of July put into Table Bay
to obtain refreshments and to build a small vessel for which they had
brought out the materials ready prepared. The crews constructed a fort
to protect themselves, by raising an earthen wall in the form of a
square and mounting a cannon on each angle. They found a few Hottentots
on the shore, to whom they made known by signs their want of oxen and
sheep, which three days afterwards were brought for barter in such
numbers that they procured as much meat as they needed. They gave a yard
(91·4 centimetres) of iron hoop for an ox, and half that length for a
sheep. After bartering them, the Hottentots whistled some away and then
brought them for sale again, which was not resented, as the English
officers were desirous of remaining on friendly terms with the rude
people. For the same reason no notice was taken of the theft of various
articles of trifling value.
Boats were sent to Robben Island to capture seals, as oil was needed,
and many of these animals were killed and brought to the fort. After
cutting off the oily parts the carcases were carried to a distance as
useless, but for fifteen days the Hottentots feasted upon the flesh,
which they merely heated on embers, though before the expiration of that
time it had become so putrid and the odour so offensive that the
Europeans were obliged to keep at a great distance from it.
[Sidenote: English Visitors to South Africa.]
Great quantities of steenbras were obtained with a seine at the mouth of
Salt River, and three thousand five hundred mullets were caught and
taken on board for consumption after leaving. The object of refreshing
was thus fully carried out, as was also that of putting together the
little vessel, which was even made larger than the original design, and
which when launched was named the _Good Hope_.
Mr. John Jourdain, an official of the East India Company, who was a
passenger in the _Ascension_, and from whose journal this account is
taken, with some others ascended Table Mountain. From its summit they
saw the same sheet of water on the flats which Antonio de Saldanha a
hundred and five years before had mistaken for the mouth of a great
river, and which Mr. Jourdain now mistook for an inland harbour with an
opening to the sea by which ships might enter it. He, however, unlike
his Portuguese predecessor, had an opportunity afterwards of visiting
the big pond and ascertaining that his conjecture was incorrect.
Mr. Jourdain was of opinion that a settlement of great utility might be
formed in Table Valley. In words almost identical with those of Jansen
and Proot forty years later he spoke of its capabilities for producing
grain and fruit, of the hides, sealskins, and oil that could be obtained
to reduce the expense, of the possibility of opening up a trade in
ivory, as he had seen many footprints of elephants, and of bringing the
Hottentots first to “civility,” and then to a knowledge of God.
After a stay of little more than two months, on the 19th of September
the _Ascension_ and _Union_ sailed again, with the _Good Hope_ in their
company.
From this date onward the fleets of the English East India Company made
Table Bay a port of call and refreshment, and usually procured in barter
from the Hottentots as many cattle as they needed. In 1614 the board of
directors sent a ship with as many spare men as she could carry, a
quantity of provisions, and some naval stores to Table Bay to wait for
the homeward bound fleet, and, while delayed, to carry on a whale and
seal fishery as a means of partly meeting the expense. The plan was
found to answer fairly well, and it was continued for several years. The
relieving vessels left England between October and February, in order to
be at the Cape in May, when the homeward bound fleets usually arrived
from India. If men were much needed, the victualler--which was commonly
an old vessel--was then abandoned, otherwise an ordinary crew was left
in her to capture whales, or she proceeded to some port in the East,
according to circumstances.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The advantage of a place of refreshment in South Africa was obvious, and
as early as 1613 enterprising individuals in the service of the East
India Company drew the attention of the directors to the advisability of
forming a settlement in Table Valley. Still earlier it was rumoured that
the king of Spain and Portugal had such a design in contemplation, with
the object of cutting off thereby the intercourse of all other nations
with the Indian seas, so that the strategical value of the Cape was
already recognised. The directors discussed the matter on several
occasions, but their views in those days were very limited, and the
scheme seemed too large for them to attempt alone.
In their fleets were officers of a much more enterprising spirit, as
they were without responsibility in regard to the cost of any new
undertaking. In 1620 some of these proclaimed King James I sovereign of
the territory extending from Table Bay to the dominions of the nearest
Christian prince. The records of this event are interesting, as they
not only give the particulars of the proclamation and the reasons that
led to it, but show that there must often have been a good deal of
bustle in Table Valley in those days.
[Sidenote: English Visitors to South Africa.]
On the 24th of June 1620 four ships bound to Surat under command of
Andrew Shillinge, put into Table Bay, and were joined when entering by
two others bound to Bantam, under command of Humphrey Fitzherbert. The
Dutch had at this time the greater part of the commerce of the East in
their hands, and nine large ships under their flag were found at anchor.
The English vessel _Lion_ was also there. Commodore Fitzherbert made the
acquaintance of some of the Dutch officers, and was informed by them
that they had inspected the country around, as their Company intended to
form a settlement in Table Valley the following year. Thereupon he
consulted with Commodore Shillinge, who agreed with him that it was
advisable to try to frustrate the project of the Hollanders. On the 25th
the Dutch fleet sailed for Bantam, and the _Lion_ left at the same time,
but the _Schiedam_, from Delft, arrived and cast anchor.
On the 1st of July the principal English officers, twenty-one in
number,--among them the Arctic navigator William Baffin,--met in
council, and resolved to proclaim the sovereignty of King James I over
the whole country. They placed on record their reasons for this
decision, which were, that they were of opinion a few men only would be
needed to keep possession of Table Valley, that a plantation would be of
great service for the refreshment of the fleets, that the soil was
fruitful and the climate pleasant, that the Hottentots would become
willing subjects in time and they hoped would also become servants of
God, that the whale fishery would be a source of profit, but, above all,
that they regarded it as more fitting for the Dutch when ashore there to
be subjects of the king of England than for Englishmen to be subject to
them or anyone else. “Rule Britannia” was a very strong sentiment,
evidently, with that party of adventurous seamen.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
On the 3rd of July a proclamation of sovereignty was read in presence of
as many men of the six ships as could go ashore for the purpose of
taking part in the ceremony. Skipper Jan Cornelis Kunst, of the
_Schiedam_, and some of his officers were also present, and raised no
objection. On the Lion’s rump, or King James’s mount as Fitzherbert and
Shillinge named it, the flag of St. George was hoisted, and was saluted,
the spot being afterwards marked by a mound of stones. A small flag was
then given to the Hottentots to preserve and exhibit to visitors, which
it was believed they would do most carefully.
After going through this ceremony with the object of frustrating the
designs of the Dutch, the English officers buried a packet of despatches
beside a stone slab in the valley, on which were engraved the letters V
O C, they being in perfect ignorance of the fact that those symbols
denoted prior possession taken for the Dutch East India Company. On the
25th of July the Surat fleet sailed, and on the next day Fitzherbert’s
two ships followed, leaving at anchor in the bay only the English ship
_Bear_, which had arrived on the 10th.
The proceeding of Fitzherbert and Shillinge, which was entirely
unauthorised, was not confirmed by the directors of the East India
Company or by the government of England, and nothing whatever came of
it. At that time the ocean commerce of England was small, and as she had
just entered upon the work of colonising North America, she was not
prepared to attempt to form a settlement in South Africa also. Her king
and the directors of her India Company had no higher ambition than to
enter into a close alliance with the Dutch Company, and to secure by
this means a stated proportion of the trade of the East. In the
Netherlands also a large and influential party was in favour of either
forming a federated company, or of a binding union of some kind, so as
to put it out of the power of the Spaniards and Portuguese to harm
them. From 1613 onward this matter was frequently discussed on both
sides of the Channel, and delegates went backward and forward, but it
was almost impossible to arrange terms.
[Sidenote: Proposed Alliance of English and Dutch.]
The Dutch had many fortresses which they had either built or taken from
the Portuguese in Java and the Spice islands, and the English had none,
so that the conditions of the two parties were unequal. In 1617,
however, the king of France sent ships to the eastern seas, and in the
following year the king of Denmark embarked in the same enterprise, when
a possibility arose that one or other of them might unite with Holland
or England. Accordingly each party was more willing than before to make
concessions, and on the 2nd of June 1619 a treaty of close alliance was
entered into at London between the two Companies, which was ratified by
their respective governments.[38]
It provided that all past differences should be forgotten, and all
persons, ships, and goods detained by either side be immediately
released. That the servants of each Company should act in the most
friendly manner towards those of the other, and give them assistance
when needed. That commerce in all parts of India should be free to both.
That joint efforts should be made to reduce the price of products in
India to a fixed and reasonable rate, and that a selling price in Europe
should be agreed upon from time to time, below which it should not be
lawful for either party to dispose of them. That pepper should only be
purchased in Java by a commission representing both parties, and be
equally divided afterwards between the two Companies. That the Dutch
Company should have two-thirds of the trade at the Moluccas, Banda, and
Amboina, and the English one-third. That twenty ships of war from six to
eight hundred tons burden, armed with thirty heavy cannon, and carrying
one hundred and fifty men each, should be maintained in the eastern seas
for the protection of commerce, half by each Company. And that a council
of defence should be established, consisting of four of the principal
officers on each side, to appoint stations for the ships and to engage
and pay land forces.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
There were thirty-one articles in all, of which the above were the
principal, the others referring to matters of less importance, but
dealing with them in the same spirit. The treaty was intended to bring
the two East India Companies into as close a union as that existing
between the different provinces of the Netherlands republic.
The rivalry, however,--bordering closely on animosity--between the
servants of the two companies in distant lands prevented any agreement
of this nature made in Europe being carried out, and though in 1623
another treaty of alliance was entered into, in the following year it
was dissolved. Thereafter the great success of the Dutch in the East
placed them beyond the desire of partnership with competitors.
While these negotiations were in progress, a proposal was made from
Holland that a refreshment station should be established in South Africa
for the joint use of the fleets of the two nations, and the English
directors received it favourably. They undertook to cause a search for a
proper place to be made by the next ship sent to the Cape with relief
for the returning fleet, and left the Dutch at liberty to make a similar
search in any convenient way. Accordingly on the 30th of November 1619
the assembly of seventeen issued instructions to the commander of the
fleet then about to sail to examine the coast carefully from Saldanha
Bay to a hundred or a hundred and fifty nautical miles east of the Cape
of Good Hope, in order that the best harbour for the purpose might be
selected. This was done, and an opinion was pronounced in favour of
Table Bay. In 1622 a portion of the coast was inspected for the same
purpose by Captain Johnson, in the English ship _Rose_, but his opinion
of Table Bay and the other places which he visited was such that he
would not recommend any of them. The tenor of his report mattered
little, however, for with the failure of the close alliance between the
two companies, the design of establishing a refreshment station in South
Africa was abandoned by both.
[Sidenote: Disasters in Table Valley.]
Perhaps the ill opinion of Table Bay formed by Captain Johnson may have
arisen from an occurrence that took place on its shore during the
previous voyage of the _Rose_. That ship arrived in the bay on the 28th
of January 1620, and on the following day eight of her crew went ashore
with a seine to catch fish near the mouth of Salt River. They never
returned, but the bodies of four were afterwards found and buried, and
it was believed that the Hottentots had either carried the other four
away as prisoners or had murdered them and concealed their corpses.
This was not the only occurrence of the kind, for in March 1632
twenty-three men belonging to a Dutch ship that put into Table Bay lost
their lives in conflict with the inhabitants. The cause of these
quarrels is not known with certainty, but at the time it was believed
they were brought on by the Europeans attempting to rob the Hottentots
of cattle.
An experiment was once made with a view of trying to secure a firm
friend among the Hottentots, and impressing those people with respect
for the wonders of civilisation. In 1613 two Hottentots were taken from
Table Valley on board a ship returning from India, one of whom died of
grief soon after leaving his home.[39] The other, who was named Cory,
reached England, where he resided six months and learned to understand
and speak a little English. He was made a great deal of, and received
many rich and valuable presents from benevolent people. Sir Thomas
Smythe, the governor of the East India Company, was particularly kind to
him, and gave him among other things a complete suit of brass armour. He
returned to South Africa with Captain Nicholas Downton in the ship _New
Year’s Gift_, and in June 1614 landed in Table Valley with all his
treasures. But Captain Downton, who thought that he was overflowing with
gratitude, saw him no more. Cory returned to his former habits of
living, and instead of acting as was anticipated, taught his countrymen
to despise bits of copper in exchange for their cattle, so that for a
long time afterwards it was impossible for ships that called to obtain a
supply of fresh meat.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Mr. John Jourdain, when returning from India to England, put into Table
Bay on the 25th of February 1617. A few lean calves were obtained on the
day the ships anchored, but nothing whatever afterwards, though at one
time about ten thousand head of cattle were in sight. Mr. Jourdain and a
party of sixty armed men went a short distance into the country, and he
was of opinion that through the roguery of “that dogge Cory” they would
have been drawn into a conflict with some five thousand Hottentots if
they had not prudently retired. Thereafter he believed no cattle would
be obtained except at dear rates, for the Hottentots no longer esteemed
iron hoops, copper, or even shining brass. A fort, he considered, would
be the only means of bringing them to “civility.” On this occasion Mr.
Jourdain remained in Table Bay eighteen days, of which only four were
calm and fine.
According to a statement made by a Welshman who was in Table Bay in
August 1627, and who kept a journal, part of which has been
preserved,[40] Cory came to an evil end. The entry reads: “They” (the
Hottentots) “hate the duchmen since they hanged one of the blackes
called Cary who was in England & upon refusall of fresh victuals they
put him to death.”
[Sidenote: English Convicts sent to Table Valley.]
It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of convicts when they were
exploring unknown countries, or when there were duties of a particularly
hazardous or unpleasant nature to be performed. The English employed
criminals in the same manner. In January 1615 the governor of the East
India Company obtained permission from the king to transport some men
under sentence of death to countries occupied by savages, where, it was
supposed, they would be the means of procuring provisions, making
discoveries, and creating trade. The records in existence--unless there
are documents in some unknown place--furnish too scanty material for a
complete account of the manner in which this design was carried out.
Only the following can be ascertained with certainty. A few days after
the consent of the king was given, the sheriffs of London sent seventeen
men from Newgate on board ships bound to the Indies, and these were
voluntarily accompanied by three others, who appear to have been
convicted criminals, but not under sentence of death. The proceeding was
regarded as “a very charitable deed and a means to bring them to God by
giving them time for repentance, to crave pardon for their sins, and
reconcile themselves unto His favour.” On the 5th of June, after a
passage from the Thames of one hundred and thirty-two days, the four
ships comprising the fleet arrived in Table Bay, and on the 16th nine of
the condemned men were set ashore with their own free will. A boat was
left for their use, and to each a gun with some ammunition and a
quantity of provisions was given.