India by Sir Thomas Roe, one of whom, Duffield by name, returned with
him to England, where he requited the kindness shown to him by stealing
some plate and running away. Of those set ashore in Table Valley, one,
named Cross, committed some offence against the Hottentots shortly after
the ships sailed, and was killed by them. The other _seven_[41] escaped
to Robben Island, where their boat was wrecked. They lived five or six
months on the island, when an English ship put into the bay, and four of
them made a raft and tried to get to her, but were drowned on the way.
The next day the ship sent a boat to the island, and took off the other
three. They behaved badly on board, commenced to steal again as soon as
they reached England, and were apprehended and executed in accordance
with their old sentences.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
In one of the ships that brought these convicts in 1615 Sir Thomas Roe,
English envoy to the great Mogul, was a passenger. A pillar bearing an
inscription of his embassy was set up in Table Valley, and fifteen or
twenty kilogrammes weight of stone which he believed to contain
quicksilver and vermilion was taken away to be assayed in England, but
of particulars that would be much more interesting now no information
whatever is to be had from the records of his journey.
Again, in June 1616, three condemned men were set ashore in Table Valley
from a fleet under Commodore Joseph on its way to the East. A letter
signed by them is extant, in which they acknowledge the clemency of King
James in granting them their forfeited lives, and promise to do his
Majesty good and acceptable service. Terry, who was an eye witness, says
that before they were set ashore they begged the commodore rather to
hang them than to abandon them, but he left them behind. The _Swan_, one
of the vessels of the fleet, however, was detained in Table Bay a day or
two longer than her consorts, and she took them on to Bantam in Java.
[Sidenote: Scanty Information supplied by Englishmen.]
There may have been other instances of the kind, of which no record is
in existence now, but this seems unlikely. It is certain that no
information upon the country, its inhabitants, or its resources was ever
obtained from criminals set ashore here.
No further effort was made by the English at this time to form a
connection with the inhabitants of South Africa, though their ships
continued to call at Table Bay for the purpose of taking in water and
getting such other refreshment as was obtainable. They did not attempt
to explore the country or to correct the charts of its coasts, nor did
they frequent any of its ports except Table Bay, and very rarely Mossel
Bay, until a much later date. A few remarks in ships’ journals, and a
few pages of observations and opinions in a book of travels such as that
of Sir Thomas Herbert, from none of which can any reliable information
be obtained that is not also to be drawn from earlier Portuguese
writers, are all the contributions to a knowledge of South Africa made
by Englishmen during the early years of the seventeenth century. Though
our countrymen were behind no others in energy and daring, as Drake,
Raleigh, Gilbert, Davis, Hawkins, and a host of others had proved so
well, not forgetting either the memorable story of the Revenge, which
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten handed down for a modern historian to write
in more thrilling words, England had not yet entered fully upon her
destined career either of discovery or of commerce, the time when “the
ocean wave should be her home” was still in the days to come.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The Danes were the next to make their appearance in the Indian seas.
Their first fleet, fitted out by King Christian IV, consisted of six
ships, under Ove Giedde as admiral. On the 8th of July 1619 this fleet
put into Table Bay, where eight English ships were found at anchor,
whose officers treated the Danes with hospitality. Admiral Giedde
remained here until the 5th of August, when his people were sufficiently
refreshed to proceed on their voyage. On the 30th of August 1621 he
reached Table Bay again in the ship _Elephant_ on his return passage
from Ceylon and India, and remained until the 12th of September. Before
leaving he had an inscription cut on a stone, in which the dates of both
his visits were recorded.
III.
_Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel. A History of the Successful
Struggle of a few Hollanders and Huguenots against Tyranny and
Corruption._
SKETCH III.
I.
GOVERNOR WILLEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL.
The days of John the son of Peter and Peter the son of John were passing
away, though not quite entirely gone, and surnames such as are now in
use were becoming generally adopted by working people, when one Adriaan
van der Stel, otherwise Adriaan the son of Simon, is found among the
citizens of the town of Dordrecht in the province of South Holland. He
was by occupation a cooper, and like many of his energetic countrymen at
that time he tried to improve his position by entering the service of
the East India Company and going abroad. Accordingly he engaged as
cooper and junior assistant or clerk, a combination of duties by no
means uncommon in the Company’s service in the early days, and in 1623
went to India in the yacht _Star_. He was engaged at a salary of ten
guldens or 16_s._ 8_d._ a month, besides his maintenance, but there were
little privileges allowed to men in his position, which often were of
greater value than the wage received.
This Adriaan van der Stel was a man of ability, and as early as the 28th
of March 1624 was promoted in the service and had his pay increased to
eighteen guldens or £1 10_s._ a month. Time went on, and by 1638, under
the governor-generalship of Anthonie van Diemen, he had advanced so far
that he was chosen to succeed Pieter de Goyer as commander of the island
of Mauritius. This island, which was uninhabited, had recently been
taken possession of by the East India Company, and De Goyer had been
sent to occupy it with a small party of men. The position was not
indeed a very dignified one, corresponding as it did to that of ensign
in charge of a little military outpost, but his selection to fill it was
proof that the high Indian authorities placed confidence in him.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
He had followed a custom prevalent in India ever since 1607, when the
Dutch commander-in-chief Cornelis Matelief gave his soldiers and sailors
permission to form alliances with native women, with a view of raising a
class of mixed breeds who would form a link between the European and
Asiatic races. The Portuguese had set the example in this, and the
advantage of it to them was evident, as they could not have continued to
hold a single station in the East without the assistance of the large
Eurasian element in the population of their settlements. If not actually
encouraged by the Dutch, this practice was by no means looked upon with
disfavour in the seventeenth century, and a half-breed, if at all
worthy, was as certain of employment and promotion as a white man. And
as the form of marriage could not be gone through when the woman was not
a professed Christian, looser alliances were regarded as throwing little
or no discredit upon either father or child.
Adriaan van der Stel formed a connection of this kind with an Indian
woman named Monica of the Coast, who accompanied him to Mauritius, and
there on the 14th of November 1639 bore him a son, whom he named Simon.
After serving for a time satisfactorily at Mauritius, where no one
wished to remain long, he was removed to Batavia, and shortly afterwards
was transferred to Ceylon in a military capacity as commander of a body
of troops. Such changes of occupation are constantly met with in
following the careers of men in the East India Company’s service, and
some of the ablest officials were alike skilful as diplomatists, as
traders, and as commanders in war on sea or on land.
At this time, which was shortly after Cornelis van der Lyn became
governor-general, the Portuguese were making a desperate effort to
retain their last strongholds on the western coast of Ceylon. Their most
important possession on the island was Colombo, which they retained
until May 1656, and when it surrendered the Dutch had the seaboard
entirely to themselves. There was indeed peace in Europe between the
Netherlands and Portugal, now independent of Spain once more, but that
did not prevent the continuance of the struggle in the East. The chief
Dutch stronghold was Galle, in the south of the island. The king of
Kandy, Raja Singha Rajoc, was styled emperor of Ceylon, but had really
lost all authority over the coast-lands, which were subject either to
the Dutch or the Portuguese. His policy was to keep them pitted against
each other, and occasionally to assist whichever appeared weakest, for
he bore neither of them any love. And in point of fact he was able
whenever he chose to fall upon one or the other with impunity, as that
one was unable to retort by falling upon him. A few years later, after
the Portuguese had been expelled, the condition of things was of course
very different.
[Sidenote: Death of Adriaan van der Stel.]
Commander Adriaan van der Stel was directed with a considerable body of
troops to occupy a certain position in territory claimed by the Dutch.
On the march he was surrounded by a Cingalese army, and his whole force,
only four men excepted, was destroyed, 19th of May 1646. His head was
fixed on a stake and exhibited in triumph, and was then rolled in silk
and sent to Joan Maatzuiker, the Dutch governor of Galle.[42]
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Simon van der Stel was not seven years old at the time of his father’s
death. Kolbe says that he was in Ceylon and saw the head of his parent
after the disaster, but nothing is more unlikely. The strong probability
is that upon the arrival of Adriaan van der Stel at Batavia from
Mauritius, or shortly afterwards, he sent his son to Holland to be
educated, as was then the custom, though there is no actual proof of
this. At any rate, at a very early age he was at school in Amsterdam,
and was baptized either there or in Batavia when he was about five years
old. His mother, Monica of the Coast, can no longer be traced, and
whether she had died or remained in Batavia is quite uncertain. The
property accumulated by his father was invested by the orphanmasters for
his benefit, but it was inconsiderable, and he might have been destitute
had not the directors of the East India Company regarded him as their
protégé on account of his parent’s losing his life in their service. The
Indian blood in his veins was no detriment whatever to him.
[Sidenote: Early Life of Simon van der Stel.]
Like most mixed breeds he was exceedingly proud of the nationality of
his father, and as he advanced in stature was inclined in everything to
be more intensely Dutch than anyone of pure blood born in the
Netherlands could be. Yet as he possessed a large share of sound common
sense, he never made such a silly display of his proclivities in this
respect as most half-breeds are in the habit of doing. Who has not been
irritated by the forwardness and foolish remarks of such people? At
breakfast one morning recently in a London hotel, a hideous mulatto
woman at one of the tables provoked the disgust of all the others seated
in the same room by finding fault with everything, and asserting in very
broad Scotch that “we do this very differently in Scotland.” Of such
conduct Simon van der Stel was never guilty. He grew up to be a man
under the medium stature, and of a dark complexion, with an open
cheerful countenance, but no other indications of his personal
appearance can now be found.
He married Johanna Jacoba, daughter of Willem Six and his wife Catharina
Hinlopen, a respectable family of Amsterdam, by whom he became the
father of six children: Willem Adriaan, prominent in Cape history,
Adriaan, who became governor of Amboina and the adjacent islands,
Catharina, Frans, Hendrik, and Cornelis. The last named left the Cape
for Batavia in January 1694 in the _Ridderschap_, and was never again
heard of, but it was supposed that the ship was wrecked on the coast of
Madagascar and that he had perished there.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The directors of the East India Company assisted their protégé as much
as they could in Holland, and at length when the situation of head of
the Cape settlement was vacant, they offered it to him. He accepted the
offer gladly, for it gave him a promise of financial improvement, and
with his four eldest sons he embarked in the ship _Vrije Zee_ and
reached South Africa in October 1679, when he was nearly forty years of
age. His lady with his daughter and his youngest son remained behind in
Amsterdam, and he never saw his wife or daughter again.
The system of the East India Company of paying its officials was a bad
one, for their salaries were very small indeed, and they depended upon
perquisites to put by anything. And at the Cape there were not so many
opportunities of making money by perquisites as in India, so that few
men of ability cared to stay here long. When Simon van der Stel arrived
in South Africa he had only the rank of a commander, which carried with
it a salary in money less than a junior clerk receives to-day, but he
had a furnished residence, a table allowance besides ample rations of
food and even delicacies, slaves provided for servants, horses and a
carriage free of charge, and he had liberty to trade in certain articles
on his own account. Thus he could purchase a bale of calico or a crate
of crockery from the captain of one ship and sell it to the captain of
another, but he was not at liberty to deal in a single nutmeg or a pound
of pepper, the traffic in spices being strictly reserved for the Company
itself. He was prohibited also from carrying on farming operations or
speculating in cattle, as the Company was desirous of encouraging
colonists.
[Sidenote: Abuses in India.]
When Simon van der Stel became commander the settlement comprised only
the cultivated ground at the foot of Table Mountain, two little outposts
of the Company at Saldanha Bay and Hottentots-Holland, a cattle station
of the Company at the Tigerberg, and land beyond the isthmus on which
seven burghers were experimenting in cattle breeding. He is almost as
much entitled to be termed the founder of the colony as Van Riebeek is,
for Stellenbosch, the Paarl, Drakenstein, and French Hoek were occupied
under his supervision. Of course in neither case was what they did a
mere act of their own will: they simply carried out honestly and
faithfully the instructions of the directors of the Company, who
provided the people and the means that were needed. But to those who
maintain that no good can be accomplished by men of mixed European and
Asiatic blood, it may be pointed out that Simon van der Stel was a model
ruler, able, industrious, energetic, honest, and absolutely faithful to
the trust reposed in him. The only glaring fault in his character, and
even that did not become conspicuous until he was advanced in years, was
an inordinate love of money and a readiness to adopt measures to obtain
it that to men of the present day seem beneath the dignity of a high
official. But to Netherlanders of those times it did not appear
incorrect for a man of position to make money in any way not legally
wrong.
At this time so many abuses had crept into the administration of the
Company’s affairs in Hindostan and Ceylon that the directors considered
it advisable to adopt very drastic measures to rectify them. For this
purpose they appointed a commission of three members to examine into
matters there, and at its head they placed the very ablest officer in
their service, a man in whose integrity they could implicitly rely, to
whom they gave all the powers of a dictator. His name was Hendrik
Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, but he was more commonly known by
his title of lord of Mydrecht.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Before he left Europe he was requested to visit the Cape settlement
also, and had supreme power conferred upon him while here. Only twice
during the whole term of the East India Company’s rule in South Africa
has any one with the authority of the lord of Mydrecht visited the
colony: on this occasion and in 1792-3, when the high commissioners
Nederburgh and Frykenius exercised an unqualified dictatorship. It was a
tremendous trust to bestow upon any individual. Under the commission or
general power of attorney which he held, the lord of Mydrecht could
appoint or displace any officials, create any new office or dispense
with any old one, suspend or alter any law or regulation, and issue new
laws, with the assurance that all he might do in this respect would be
confirmed and ratified by the Assembly of Seventeen.
The lord of Mydrecht was in Capetown from the 19th of April to the 16th
of July 1685, and during that time he made many new laws, most of which
proved to be beneficial, though a few were not in accordance with the
spirit of our day.[44] These, however, need not be referred to here:
what is necessary to be mentioned is his making a grant of land to Simon
van der Stel. He found that official performing excellent service, and
throwing his whole heart into his duty, while receiving only the
trifling salary and the emoluments of a commander. If he had raised his
salary and increased his emoluments, every other official of similar
rank in the service would have claimed to be dealt with in the same way,
and he did not see fit to promote him to the rank of governor and give
him the larger income which that office carried with it. Instead of
doing this, he suspended the orders of the directors of the 26th of
April 1668, which forbade the commander and the members of the council
from cultivating more ground than a little garden and owning more cattle
than they needed for their own use,[45] and on the 13th of July 1685 he
granted to Simon van der Stel eight hundred and ninety-one morgen and a
fraction of ground just beyond Wynberg in full property. This estate the
commander named Constantia, and it has been so called ever since.
[Sidenote: Promotion of Simon van der Stel.]
The circumstances of this grant were peculiar. Simon van der Stel and
some of the other officials deserved encouragement, and the lord of
Mydrecht regarded this as the easiest way of rewarding them, though no
one but the commander availed himself of it. The Huguenot and Dutch
immigrants of a few years later were still unthought of, and the demand
for produce of all kinds was so much greater than the few colonists then
in the country could meet that there was not the slightest fear of the
officials competing with the burghers. The land granted too was so close
to the castle that it could be reached in little more than an hour, so
that the owner need never be absent from his duty or pass a night away
from his residence. For these reasons the directors confirmed the grant,
but they took the precaution of announcing a few years later that it was
an exceptional one and that the law of 1668 was still in full force.
Simon van der Stel, promoted to be governor in June 1691, with a salary
of £16 13_s._ 4_d._ a month, and in 1692 to be councillor extraordinary
of Netherlands India, a position which added to his emoluments as well
as to his dignity, remained at the head of the administration of the
Cape Colony until February 1699, when at his own request, made in 1696,
he retired, and he spent the remainder of his life upon his farm
Constantia, where he died on the 24th of June 1712.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
As a mark of the estimation in which he was held by the directors, on
the 26th of September 1697 they appointed his eldest son, Willem Adriaan
van der Stel, to be his successor, with the full title, salary, and
emoluments which the retiring official had earned by his long and
faithful services.[46] On the 31st of July 1698 the newly appointed
governor received at Amsterdam his final instructions from the
directors, and parted from them with their good wishes for his welfare.
He and his family left Holland with the first ship that sailed
thereafter for India, and in January 1699 reached Capetown, but he was
not installed in office until the 11th of February.
What kind of man Willem Adriaan van der Stel was in person cannot be
ascertained from any document in the archives of the Netherlands or of
the Cape Colony, or from anything contained in the vast mass of printed
matter of the period concerning him. He may have been tall and stout or
he may have been small, he may have been darker coloured than his
father, for atavism sometimes plays curious freaks in this respect, or
he may have been as light skinned as a pure Netherlander: there are no
means of getting information on this now. But one thing can be said of
him with certainty: that before he became governor of the Cape Colony he
had borne a good character, and had not displayed those vices which at a
later date made his name infamous. There is a Dutch proverb _De
gelegenheid dieven en moordenaars maakt_, Opportunity makes thieves and
murderers, and in his case the opportunity was wanting as long as he
resided in Amsterdam. He had been an official in that city for ten
years, had even been a schepen, and if his conduct had not been
upright--outwardly at least--he would not have secured the favour of the
directors of the East India Company, men who knew him well personally.
[Sidenote: Condition of the Settlement.]
The condition of the settlement was at this time very different from
what it had been when his father arrived. The Huguenot refugees had come
from Europe and been located in the lovely valleys where so many of
their descendants still reside. An even greater number of Dutch families
and orphan girls had migrated to South Africa, and had been located side
by side with the French or by themselves around the Tigerberg, so that
all the land as far as the Groeneberg beyond the present village of
Wellington was occupied, though sparsely. There were three separate
congregations in the settlement, though as yet there was a church
building at Stellenbosch only. In Capetown divine service was still held
in a hall in the castle, and at Drakenstein in a farmer’s house or under
an improvised screen. Wheatfields, vineyards, orchards, and gardens were
scattered over the land, each with a thatched cottage on its border,
cattle and sheep grazed on the hill sides, and here and there young oaks
were beginning to beautify the scene. The view was fair, but concord was
wanting in the settlement. Between the Dutch and the French there was
little goodwill, for national prejudices kept them from being real
friends, though a few intermarriages had already taken place.
The Dutch reformed--identical with the French evangelical--was the state
church, and all officials were required to be members of it. No other
public worship was tolerated. But there was no inquisition, and in a
man’s own house he was free to worship God in any manner he pleased.
This was the system of the Northern Netherlands, and it was the system
of the Cape Colony. No Roman Catholic was sent out as an emigrant, but
there were some of that creed in the Company’s service, and when any of
these took their discharge in South Africa they were not interfered
with, provided they exercised their devotions within doors. By their
fellow citizens, however, they were not favourably regarded, for their
tenets were supposed to be dangerous to freedom.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]