for no complaints of depredations were made by burghers. A large number
of cattle were recovered and restored to various kraals, and so many
Bushmen were shot that those who were left seem to have been terrified.
At any rate they gave less trouble during the next few years, though
occasionally it was considered 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 little else on record concerning the Hottentots 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
representations, 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, like 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-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 appointment 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.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical Matters.]
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 services. At length the assembly of seventeen appointed
the reverend Hercules van Loon, who had once been acting clergyman of
the Cape, resident clergyman of Stellenbosch. 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 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.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
At Drakenstein service was conducted sometimes in the front room of a
farmer’s house, sometimes in a large barn, or under a screen, 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
schoolmaster 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 language should be superseded by the
Dutch as speedily as possible. It was only a question of time, for the
proportion of French-speaking people was too small compared with those
of Dutch and German descent for their language to remain long in use in
the mixed community. To expedite its decay the new clergyman was
directed to conduct the public services in Dutch, though he had been
selected because he was conversant with French and could therefore
admonish, comfort, and pray with the aged Huguenots who understood no
other tongue. Instructions were at the same time sent out that the
school children were to be taught to read and write Dutch only. The
sick-comforter Paul Roux was not prevented, however, from ministering to
the Huguenots of any age in whichever tongue was most familiar to them.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical Matters.]
This arrangement created much dissatisfaction. The French immigrants
sent in a memorial requesting that Mr. Bek should be instructed to
preach in their language once a fortnight. They stated that they
comprised over a hundred adults, not more than twenty-five of whom
understood sufficient Dutch to gather the meaning of a sermon. There was
also even a larger number of children of their nationality. The council
of policy recommended the memorial to the favourable consideration of
the assembly of seventeen; but before action could be taken upon it, Mr.
Bek requested to be removed to Stellenbosch as successor to Mr. Van
Loon, who died by his own hand on the 27th of June 1704. The directors
then appointed the reverend Engelbertus Franciscus le Boucq[55]
clergyman of Drakenstein, and gave instructions that upon his arrival
from Batavia Mr. Bek should be transferred to Stellenbosch. They gave
the council of policy permission to allow the French language to be
used alternately with the Dutch in the church services at Drakenstein,
if it should seem advisable to do so.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
The newly appointed minister did not reach the Cape until the 30th of
March 1707. Mr. Bek then took charge of the Stellenbosch 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 Boucq 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 another 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 little 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 March 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 neighbourhood of the Fish
river, where at daylight 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 defeated again, losing many men. One European was
killed. 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 the colonists were at variance, and
each party was endeavouring to blacken the reputation of the other, the
governor stated that they were in league with the colonists and were too
numerous to be punished without ruining half the settlement. This
statement was, however, indignantly contradicted by the most respectable
burghers, who asserted that the marauding Europeans were miscreants
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, and that the real reason why they were not prosecuted was that
the governor’s agents had obtained cattle for him in the same manner,
which would be brought to light at a trial. 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 distinguished with certainty, so that the
statements of the burghers are strongly borne out.
[Sidenote: Expedition to Natal.]
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 _Centaurus_, which had been built at Natal in 1686-7,
principally of 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 expert in
drawing pictures was sent to take sketches of the scenery.
The _Postlooper_ sailed from Table Bay 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 neighbourhood as there had been sixteen years before. Wood still
remained on the shores of the inlet in considerable quantities.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
In December 1689 a purchase of the inlet and surrounding land had been
made from the chief then living at Port Natal, and had been recorded in
a formal contract, two copies of which had been drawn up. The one kept
by the Dutch officers was lost when the _Noord_ was wrecked in January
1690, and the master of the _Postlooper_ 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 Schelling 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 Englishman was found who gave his name as Vaughan Goodwin,
and who stated that he was a native of London. He had two wives and
several children. His story was that he arrived in February 1699 in a
vessel named the _Fidele_, 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 blacks, 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 certainly be within three
years; but he had not yet made his appearance. In 1700 the blacks some
distance inland had killed the other white men on account of their
having become robbers.
The life which Goodwin was leading seemed so attractive to two of the
_Postlooper’s_ crew that they ran away from the vessel. When crossing
the bar in leaving Natal the galiot lurched, and the tiller struck the
skipper in the chest and hurt him so badly that he became unfit for
duty. There was no one on board who could take his place, so the vessel
returned to the Cape without any further attempt at exploration being
made. She dropped anchor again in Table Bay on the 8th of March 1706.
[Sidenote: Failure to introduce Woolled Sheep.]
The directors were desirous of procuring sheep’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 seventeen pence
halfpenny a kilogramme, 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 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 one hundred and twenty-nine kilogrammes
of wool shorn from sheep belonging to the Company. This was received
with favour, but instead of increasing, the quantity fell off in
succeeding years. In 1703 one small bale was all that could be obtained.
It realised about thirty-two pence English money a kilogramme on the
market in Amsterdam. In 1704 a very small quantity was procured, in 1705
none at all, and in 1706 fifty-two kilogrammes. In the meantime 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 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.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
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 Robben 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
consumption 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 country,
and in 1706 exportation was resumed, and fourteen hundred muids were
sent to Batavia.
The population of the colony was at this time increasing rapidly. The
families of the burghers were generally 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
hundred to a hundred and fifty of the garrison and seamen were commonly
out at service. A great many slaves were being introduced from
Madagascar and Mozambique.
[Sidenote: Condition of Affairs in India.]
The bad seasons tended to produce a spirit of restlessness among the
farming population, which was increased by the conduct of the principal
officers of the government. Between Willem Adriaan van der Stel and the
colonists of South Africa there was not the slightest feeling of
sympathy, nor could there be between men who had a difficulty in making
more than a frugal livelihood and a governor who was unscrupulous in his
manner of acquiring wealth, and who regarded their interests as entirely
subordinate to his own. In all the official 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 directors, indeed, to send out industrious
Zeeland farmers and no more French cadets, but the sentence displays as
little affection for the one as for the other.
The condition of things in the country districts was one of discontent,
mingled with indignation towards the governor and some others, the
reasons for which will presently be explained. In Capetown it was
different. The people there could more easily be kept in restraint, and
were less affected by the causes which at this time tended to produce
intense dissatisfaction among the farmers. Those causes were not
trifling ones, as will be seen in the following pages.
The East India Company had now been a century in existence, and the
honesty and rectitude of conduct which distinguished its officials in
early times were no longer noticeable except in a very few instances.
Its mode of paying its servants, largely by perquisites, had tended to
create a spirit of greed, and most of them were actuated more by the
desire of acquiring wealth with which to retire than of advancing the
interests of the association that employed them. To such an extent was
private trading carried on in the East that the Company feared its
utter ruin would be the result. There were even instances of Indian
produce being sent to Europe in its own ships, and transferred to
smuggling vessels off the coast of Holland, when it was landed and sold
stealthily at rates with which the legitimate trade could not compete.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
In November 1699 the directors found it necessary to instruct the
governor-general and council of India to appoint two of the ablest men
they could find to proceed to the various stations and check the abuses.
They were to be empowered to dismiss from the service all of the
Company’s officials who should be found guilty of abusing their trust,
and to confiscate summarily all goods found in their possession which
they were not entitled to have according to the regulations. They did
not then imagine that the man whom they had recently appointed governor
of the Cape settlement would in coming years prove to be the foremost of
all the offenders in this respect.
III.
FAITHLESS CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNOR.
[Sidenote: _Faithless Conduct of the Governor._]
Willem Adriaan van der Stel, as soon as he assumed the administration,
looked around for some means of acquiring money. The Cape settlement did
not offer such facilities for this purpose as an Indian island or
province would have done, still there were means for making large
profits on trade even here. One plan that he adopted was by
obtaining--purchasing as he termed it, constraining them to sell, as the
burghers called it--from the poorer viticulturists their wines at from
£3 2_s._ 6_d._ to £4 3_s._ 4_d._ the legger, and selling it to English
and Dutch ships at £28 15_s._ or more. When these transactions were
brought to light in later years, his explanation was that he had
naturally purchased at as low a rate as he could, and that the ships’
people were willing to pay more for wines which he had improved by his
skill than for those which the burghers made quite carelessly.[56] The
farmers asserted that until his own vineyards were productive he bought
and sold in this manner about one hundred leggers yearly; in the _Korte
Deductie_, a kind of excuse for his conduct which he published after his
dismissal, he stated that he had not bought and sold twenty leggers
altogether, and there are no means now of ascertaining which statement
is correct. There may have been nothing actually criminal in dealings of
this kind, but they certainly did not tend to create respect, much less
affection, for a governor who could act in this manner.
This was, however, a small matter compared with the governor’s conduct
in carrying on farming operations on a very large scale on his own
account, in disregard of the Company’s desire to favour the colonists by
relinquishing the breeding of cattle and the cultivation of wheat and
the vine in order that they might have better means of making a living,
and in direct opposition to the express orders of the directors of the
26th of April 1668, the 14th of July 1695, and the 27th of June 1699. In
the first of these instructions the directors had forbidden the members
of the council to have larger gardens or a greater number of cattle than
they required for the use of their own households, and this order had
never been cancelled. The high commissioner Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede,
lord of Mydrecht, had indeed made a grant of Constantia after that date
to the governor’s father, Simon van der Stel, but he possessed very
great and special powers, and the ground was given under circumstances
which no longer existed. No one except the directors themselves or some
official possessing equal authority to that of the lord of Mydrecht
could legally grant land to a governor of the colony.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
In February 1700, when Willem Adriaan van der Stel had been a year at
the head of affairs, a commissioner, Wouter Valckenier by name, holding
authority from the governor-general and council of India to inspect
matters at the Cape and rectify anything that was wrong, on his way from
Batavia to Europe called here, and during his stay took precedence of
all the local officials.[57] What representations were made to him
cannot be ascertained, for there is nothing concerning the matter in the
Cape archives or those at the Hague, but at any rate he made a grant to
the governor of four hundred morgen of ground at Hottentots-Holland, and
signed a title-deed of it. He could not have foreseen the consequences,
for he knew that the policy of the Company at the time was directly
opposed to the head of the government being engaged in farming, and he
could not have imagined that an official, whose duties required his
presence at the castle almost constantly, would so far forget his
obligations as to leave his post and devote his time and attention to
private affairs. Probably he thought that the possession of a tract of
land at such a distance could signify very little, but he realised
afterwards that he had made a great mistake, for he was one of the
directors of the Company when the grant was annulled on the ground of
its having been improperly and fraudulently obtained.
[Sidenote: Farms held by Heads of the Government.]