PREFACE

ing o bscure persons who have been connected

the the nee with old story of the Colony . To pio rs of a new country we after-comers owe too much to ll a ow their names to be entirely lost . Very little could I have done without the help

e me Leibbrandt n giv n by Mr . H . C . V . , Libraria of the Houses of Parliament and keeper of the

e e archives of the Cape of Good Hope . With n v r failing kindness he specially translated for me certain passages o f the archives and papers about

e e e e e which I ask d him , and his sh af of l tt rs hav

ee e e e e e e t his b n my most valuabl r f r nc , n x to fascinating Précis o/ the A rchives of the Cape of

Good H o e li e e n . e p , pub sh d at Cap Tow I hav to thank the friends wh o helped m e translate the old Dutch title deeds and got for m e local information

e and stori s . Antiquar ian and historica l autho

rities l e ee k in Ho land hav also b n most ind .

A LYS FANE TROTTER .

A u ust 1 0 . g , 9 3 LIST O F C ON T ENT S A N D ILLU STRA TION S

PAG E

I . TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

The ship sign o f the Dutc h Eas t India Co m

an c arved o n a stone in Th e Castle Ca e p y, , p — Town Post Office sto ne East India Co m

’ ’ an s house Ams erdam—Co m an s drin p y , t p y k — — ing cup Van Riebeeck and his wife Very — o ld ho use in Cape Town Old Rustenberg

summer house—G arden seat Rustenber , g

Ta le Ba and the Old For a ter Da er b y t, f pp ,

1668 .

IM VAN DE EL BUIL ER V R R II . S ON R ST AN GO E NO , D D — Coat of Arms of the Six family View o f the

Castle showin the Kat and the alco n , g b y

Tea Fanli ht o nce in The Cas le—Van Rhee k g , t de

to t Dra enstein Heer v an M drecht—G roo t k , y

Constan ia 1 68 —l o f Groo Co nstantia t , 5 t Escutcheons : G roo t Co nstantia and Ho ttento ts

Holl and—S ide a les roo t Constantia g b , g — Wine house at Groot Co nstantia Wine house

s e s G roo Constan ia—Old a h G ro o t Co n t p , t t b t , — stantia Map from th e Voyage de Siam des 9 CONTENTS PAG E

' Peres esmtes 1686 —Gatewa o f the Cas le j , y t , — Cape Town Platte Kloo f in the Tygerberg — Ver old arm uildin s Koo rnh00 . O ld y f b g , p

is t i r s d r cts and mo dern o ad .

II ER r EL I. THE YOUNc ER VAN D S .

ellin o n—Farm ell G roo Cons an ia W gt b , t t t

Farm ell Meerlus t Eerste Riv ier— Parel b , ,

Vall i e .

I HE U ATION E ILLEM RIAAN VA N DER V . T ACC S O W A D

SrE L

— u a Meerlust, Eers te Riv ier Hen ho se t — Meerlust Plan o f Vergelegen fro m the Ac c usatio n Pic ture o f Vergelegen fro m the — De fenc e The o ld oc tago n wall at Vergel — — egen Vergelegen The farm bell at Vergel

egen.

EARLY GRANTS OF LAND — Zwaanswijk Usual plan o f house in the

eninsula— alled riv er Elsen er —O ld ea p W , b g t k

door at Paa rde Vallei—Fresc oed wall and

ea doo red fire lace at Li er as—Meerlus t t k p b t , — Eerste Riv ier Vredenberg in the Moddergat

Late a le o f Vreden er —Burial Place Wel g b b g , — moed Vergenoegd .

VI . STELLENBOSCH — A gate in Stellenbosc h A v ine trellised

stoe S ellen osc h—Shu er hin es Stellen p, t b tt g , ” osch and Dra enstein La G rati ude b k t , CONTENTS PAGE

uil I O —Arsenal S ellen osch—Ver o ld b t 7 4 , t b y

house in ellen osch A shad s ree St b y t t,

VII. DRAKENSTEIN AND FRENCHHOEK

Schoongezigt Good Hope Rho ne and — Lang uedoc Usual plan o f house in th e country — — — Bosch en Dal Bosch en Dal stoep Door — furniture at Drakenstein and the Cape Bien

Donne fron a le Bien Donné—Po me , t g b granates at Frenchhoek Teak china cup — bo ard in a Drakenstein farm Dauphine — Boc henhouts Kloo f View across French

hoe ro o e k f m La C tt .

VIII. PAARL TULEAOE CERES AN BEYON , , D D — A quaint gable in Pearl Old colo nial chair

o nce in Paarl Church—Paar] Church—The Par

so na e Paarl The Drosdt Tul a h g , y, b g

Roodezand Pass Tul a h Valle —Old Church , b g y ,

Tul a h— alls o f the Church ard Tul a h b g W y , b g

I EY I RI X . ON SN PS AN C NA M , D

’ The Dutch East India Company s c o ins

an c The sh ore that has seen so m y wre ks .

FROM SEVE NTEEN HU N RE FOR FIFTY YEA R X . D D s 241

’ — Sundial in the Company s Garden Co mm on Seal o f the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Co mpagnie — (United East India Company) Co at o f Arms I I CONTENTS PAGE

o f o an Blesius Klastenber n er J g , Wy b g Zwaanswi k uil I I I -I — or ens er Ho t j , b t 7 7 M g t ,

tento ts Holland .

I VE E E X . THE TA RN O TH INDIAN OCEAN

Ca e Town Churc h rom a rin Old p , f p t

Lu heran Parsona e—S e s at Al hen W n t g t p p , y — berg Haazendal in the Bottelary G ate

o f the Slav e Enc losure Bosho —G a e o f Wel , f t

l n r — e e e ow a Elsen ur . g g , M b y b g

II MEN AN HOUSES X . D

Late window in Cape Town- Old Colonial — made ch air Very Old Co lo nial-made Armo ire — - — Old Colonial bench in stink wood Ar

“ mo ire in stink-wood and yell ow-wood — Bergv liet The Old G ate to Gov ernment House — and the Slav e Lodge beyo nd Stellenberg G ate — — Little Terrace at To kai Hall at Stellenberg

a i T ilp ece . T ABLE BA Y SET T LEM EN T

I

Tabl e Bay Settlem ent

t T is true hat at first sight Adderley Street , the main thoroughfare o f the old Tavern of the ”

is o u . Indian Sea , as vulgar a street as y can find Yet I marvel to hear the town always suggested

as a smelly, unattractive place in which the Visitor has o r , has not, found the friend or the information

r r he wished for . Even Adde ley St eet is backed

o by the imposing wall of Table M untain , and

T HE I I 03 ! C E I D CO HPAN Y CA RV BD SH P S GN TH DUT H AST N IA , ON A

S TO NE a s THE A E . s C STLE . CAP TOWN 15

Table Bay Settlement

is t i t T true hat at first S ght Adderley S reet , the main thoroughfare of the old Tavern o f the ” u as is . Indian Sea, as v lgar a street you can find Yet I marv el to hear the town always suggested c i i as a smelly , unattractive pla e in which the V s tor has, or has not , found the friend or the information he wished for . Even Adderley Street is backed by the imposing wall of Table Mountain , and

P THE C H I IA OO HP A N Y R SHI SIGN OF DUT H AST ND . CA VED ON A ‘ ’ S IONR IN THE A E W . ~ C STL . CAPE TO N I 5 A A DE UERELLM U wi O P M RI n . VA N Rx n u Q , JOHAN sc x TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

brook their company . At last they returned ” fir me n home by the la de of Ethiopia, about a r S erance hund ed miles from the Cape of Bona p ,

ri 1 for and arrived in Ap l , 597, their sailors the i — most part s ck , and two thirds of the company lost ; but bringing with them spices and mer

c ha ndise for of the East , which up to now they , the - middle men of Europe , had traded with the l - Portuguese ; bartering their De ft ware , their - embroidered quilts, and their silver handled fur niture , on the crowded quays of Lisbon . l Reading the old travel ers, one marvels unceas ingly at the love Of adventure for ever inspiring o ne set o f men to risk their lives for the gain of

. a another W ter was, of course , essential on the - o f long sailing journeys, and the sweet water Table Mountain soon made Bona Sperance the fav ourite anchorage for captains on their journey i . Wh 1 6 Eastwards en , n oo, the Dutch , and a few e years lat r the English , East India Companies were - formed , what fleets of spice laden Ships Swept into Table Bay ! Weary and miserable enough were the men on those gallant-looking vessels longing for fresh water and fresh meat , and such green

as to food they might find, and lay their scurvy stricken sailors under tarpaulins o n the beach . The passing Ships left their letters beneath large stones , tied in secure packets , as I hear is still done in Torres Straits and Magellan . But on the stones and boul ders of the shore at Table Bay 17 n OLD CAPE COLONY

n i they e graved the name and capta n of their Ship , is and the date o f their arrival and depart ure . It thought that some ships carried a Skilled stone - th e cutter for the purpose , and these post o e stones, buried for years , and still found at the l Cape , whi e digging foundations for houses , have

t . for the mos part fine lettering One, now at the f entrance of the General Post O fice in Cape Town , was unearthed in Adderley Street another is in the Cape Town Museum .

P S E OST OFFICE TON .

1 61 . u M Bea lieu, in 9, going to Bantam by n Table Bay , says Some of our men goi g ashore happened to light upon a great stone , with ’ l itc h d rn two ittle packs of p canvass unde eath , which we afterwards found to be Dutch letters . 18 TABLE BAY S ETTLEME NT

When we opened them we found first a stro ng ’ itc h d piece of p canvas , then a piece of lead

r two wrapped ound the packet , under that pieces e of red cloth , then a piec of red frize , all wrapped round a bag of coarse linen in which were the letters very safe and dry . They contained an account of several Ships that had passed that way ; particularly o f an English advice boat that was gone to England to acquaint the Company ’ with the injury the Dutch had done em in the

East Indies . They likewise gave notice to ships that passed that way ; to take care of the natives e who had murdered s veral of their crew, and stole

“ some of their water casks . It is wonderful that Portugal Should have held the adventure of the east for so many years in her

S own hands , together with its ilks and tea , spices and pepper . Tradition has it that the secret was thrown Open to the States of Holland by an ur obsc e merchant from Gouda, Cornelius Hont man , who was detained at Lisbon for debt . All the seafarers of the world now went on the same quest . The English and the Dutch held the

t di e larges fleets and sputed the seas , sometim s

ai t ai h ag nst each o her, and more often ag nst t eir common enemies . But the Dutch first formed factories and settlements ; and soon Batavia, ” i - Queen of the East , with her t le paved streets and the water ways , whose unhealthiness caused at last the abandonment of the beautiful old I 9 OLD CAPE COLONY

- town , and the great and merry canal rich

Island of Ceylon , the most beautiful pearl of the ” Wo uter Indian Ocean , as eloquent old Schouten tes i has it , were to t fy in the far ends of the earth to the curious artistic taste of the not too soru

EAS I C 'S M S AM T IND A OMPANY OU E . STERDAM ' ’ Fr m omm li B h u def stud A s da m ( o C e n s osc rym g m ter .

ul us r p o trader of the Nethe lands . The tomb o f r stones these distant settlements, whe e men s and women died young , are intere ting and pathetic reading , and record many names familiar at the Cape ; whilst at home were unloaded th e ri for strange and rich wares of other count es, which the pioneers had sought . So as they 20 TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

m b Should not be brought unto the y strangers ,

o wn r they had said, but by their count y men , which some would deem to be impossible , and rather esteem it madnesse than any point of wisdo me , and folly rather than good considera ” tion . The impossible had come true . At Middelbur h ee d g , at V re , at Amster am , most stately houses were built in which the fine

s Indian wares were unshipped , and where busines was gorgeously transacted . The admi nistration of the Dutch East India t Six r Company consis ed of Boa ds or Chambers .

r h had The most conside able , t at of Amsterdam, - twenty four directors , eight chosen by the magis e trates of Amst rdam , and two by the Provinces of

Gelderland and Friesland . The second chamber

Middelbur h o f was that of g , where the work the Directo rs was al the carried on h f year . It is said th at the town and the country round supplied

r e S the g eater number of seafar rs for the hips . This Chamber consisted of twelve Directors chosen

e r by the cities of Z eland, and one by Gelde land .

The other Chambers were that of Delft , which included one representative from Overyssel ; d t Rotter am , including one from Dor ; Hoorn , Al which had one from kmaar ; and Enkhuizen , of which one was nominated by the no bles of i Holland . But the supreme control was nvested

r in the Assembly of Seventeen , of which eight we e

deputed from the Chamber of Amsterdam, four 2 1

TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

vessels at Table Bay . Then landed the first Riebeec k Commander of the Cape , Johan van , hi ll s de uere eri . e and wife, Marie Q They stab lished themselves ashore under miserable shel

e Riebeec k o f t rs , and van set his handful men , ’

l to . Company s sailors and so diers , work The first act was to dig foundations for a wooden for t ; the second was characteristically Dutch round the fort could be filled the third was to begin the kitchen garden which was before long to be an import ant influence in the history of the world . The Commander himself is an interesting His . e Riebeeck personality fath r, Antonius van , ar e i the 1 6 was a seaf r, who d ed in Brazils in 39 , and was buried in the chur ch of San Paolo at

Olo nda de Pharmambuco . Johan had already been in Formosa, China, Japan , the West Indies

to and Greenland . He is said have been a ’ r t o f ship s su geon , and there is cer ainly a smack

n t . scie ce about some of his observa ions His wife ,

uerell eri Marie de Q , is first of a long line of intrepid

me o f n wo n pioneers , whom we o ly know that they

'

came to the Cape , and there had children , and

v . li ed or died as the case may be Her son ,

Riebeec k 16 Abraham van , born at the Cape in 53 , rose in 1 709 to be Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies the most important post in the gift

of the Company . 23 OLD CAPE COLONY

The t was esi ne t o en wa s and For d g d wi h wo d ll , in th e e e e o en n ses with e nclosur w r wo d livi g hou , i The r nts the and a large d ning hall . fou poi of fortifi cation were named after the four Ships in

’ the the Dromedan s the Rei er the Wal vis Bay, , g , ,

and the Oli ha nt and the Goede H00 ) v e p , yacht 1 ga

her bea utiful title to the whole building . the end u e e s It was of s mm r, and no h rb could The e t too dr be foun d for the Sick . ar h was y for u e the -e e i e c ltivation , and wh n south ast r w nd bl w the workers on the ramparts were choked with

h m n e l dust . T e hungry e w re thankful to ki l a

h o r two fo r th e v e ippopotamus , nati s would not supply cattle and th e stores had to be sav ed for

r h r the Shi . e e t e the e ps Lat cam ains labour rs ,

ill r e e e e dl e to . with scurvy and f v r, w har y abl work ” e r w n i er the u e Lif is g o i g a m s y, says jo rnal k pt

the n r t the we for i st uc ion of Company, but trust ’ ” e in God s m rcy . In the midst of their distress arrived th e ship Hof van Zeeland with a record o f

-se e e ee sub- e thirty v n d ad, of whom thr , m rchant Nancius and three others had jumped overboar d

r . And t e the r in despai not long af r, fi st European i ch ld was born .

To this day Cape Town owes its disposition to ’ Van Riebeec k s plan . The gardens in which TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

mor hosed p into Adderley Street . The present i Castle of Cape Town , bu lt for the Dutch ’ f is Governors and Company s o ficials , not far from o l ar o the site of the d wooden Fort . If you e g l to Cape Town , wa k down Waterkant and Riebeeck Stru ts they a re the oldest quarters of the town . To ensure against their be ing blown

VERY OLD HOUSE IN CAPE TOWN .

w the -e r do n in raging south aste ly winds, the first - — houses were one storied rude enough in building ,

t al on the Lion Hill . Af er sever terrifying fires , c aused, it was thought; by sparks from the pipes

of s e . the ailors, flat roofs w re used You may come on flat- t an old roofed house , forgot en in a corner i i of the town , which st ll keeps its div ded door , 25

TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT insuflicient S helter and attacks from wild beasts , we find them requisitioning from hOme one hundred

pairs of silk stockings . Bread was sent from m A sterdam , arriving mouldy and uneatable . There is the flavour of an Irish bull in the demand

fo r o r forty fifty cotton blankets, which were to be placed in silk bags to make feather beds fo r

r fo r r to the men . Anothe request is ar ack treat the natives , who were much pleased and drawn ” nearer by it . k di Van Riebeec d good work . The garden u prospered, tho gh he was sorely vexed at his — failure to gr ow parsley s till a diffi cult thing to di raise on the peninsula . So d the vines he planted o n the leeward side o f the mountain at his

ar o f Bosc heuv al f m , mentioned long afterwards ’ in the Company s journal as o ne o f the most

Bo sc heuv al beautiful places at Table Bay . is r now known as Bishopscou t , where the palace of the Archbishop of Cape Town is built and the S Wine Mountain , on the eastern ide of which the village grew up , was named Wijnberg by the Com

mander when he planted his first Muscatel grapes . After a very few years Wo uter Schouten tells us ’ tha t the Company s garden grew not onl y all the s fruits from home , such as apples , pears , and nut , but many East Indian trees and plants brought

from Batavia, and mentions that besides pot

S r herbs and pices , many fine cabbages , car ots , n lettuces , radishes , and water melo s were brought 27 OLD CAPE COLONY

to the ship . Corn was at first grown at the garden w in Cape To n , but it never prospered, and the south-easter winds blew the dry grain out of the husk . So a second plantation of grain was made Liesbeec k not far from the small fort on the River, l K and cal ed oo rnh oo p . The corn hoped for was not very successful ; and Batavia, forced by a paternal Government to accept supplies from s Table Bay , revenged herself by making unplea ant

o u r fo r remarks about it , as y may ead yourself ’ ’ in Leibbrandt s translations of the Company s journal . A second and more satisfactory Com ’ pany s garden was made o n the adjoining land Ro ndebosch o r near the Round Wood , and the produce was stored , together with the corn , in the u Groote Schu r or Great Barn . I believe the foundations and arches of the o ld barn were distinctly traced in rebuilding the present beau tiful house . A second residence for the Com ’ mander, or Company s House , where distinguished ’ l visitors , Company s inspectors and the ike , were

a Rustenber . lodged , was built near by and c lled g The o ld buildings were all burnt except a summ er house and two charming old seats made of brick , plastered and whitewashed like all the Old Colonial work . They stand on the grounds of the modern

S Groote Schuur , in the hadows of the mountain i beh nd . When they were built , lions and leopards lurked not far off amongst the rocks and crevasses ; wild cats from the great forest of undergrowth 28 TABLE BAY SETTLE MENT

around made nightly depredations in the home steads on the sandy stretches below were the rude huts o f some o f the lowest native races ever

o . r known , now for the most part died ut A he d o f o r o f elephants, zebras, might have been seen

OLD RU S TE N BE RG S U W BR HOUSE .

i n mov ng over the plai , and in the squelching pools o f the low-lying ground wallowed many a hippo ’ o ne o ld po tamus . Yet more than Company s has sat o n those seats and gazed at the blue of the sky and the far-o ff outline o f the do - unchanging mountains as you and I may to day . 20

TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT arrangements as . to secure all the rice in so the island, and leave the French in the lurch for the French , it continues, go there to gather hides and to have a refreshment station for their

Red Sea pirates . In the year 1 657 the entire population o f Table l 1 e Bay was on y 34 p rsons, including the Com ’ an s r o f p y men , a few reti ed servants the Com pany, the women and children . There were only S eight laves . In the following year a Dutch

A mers oort slaver, the f , captured a Portuguese 2 6 slaver, and brought the survivors of the 3 captives to the Cape . l It was a hard ife , that of the first settlers, who , as an early traveller puts it , had to dig a sluice , sow and mow, plough and plant in order to get the land into better order who lived in miserable little houses , which were cold enough on the winter nights, having only glass in the windows o f the one best room ; and who were half naked i nto the bargain . The community had a cer tain desperate element , too , which made terrific e o f punishments n cessary . We hear a deserter n bei g keelhauled, while he and another had to work in irons for two years of a sailor who was condemned to fall from the yardarm and receive

fifty cuts ; and so on . Soldiers and sailors were

e oft n half starved, as the stores of bread and

’ rice had to be economised fo r the Company s ’ ships ; and the Company s garden required 3 I OLD CAPE COLONY

j ealous guar ding . A law was made a year after the foundation o f the settlement which gave two years in irons as a penalty for robbers . Later it was enacted that no one might enter the garden save members o f Council and the pri ncipal o flicials

-fiv of the fleet . For the first tres pass twenty e a the l shes were given ; for second, fifty, with a fine o f two dollars whilst to meddle with a fruit tree entailed forfeiture of all personal liberty ’ and goods . The Company s men very much disliked the killing and flaying of the seals at Saldanah Bay and Dassen Island but good profit for for t i it must have been the Company, and h s reason van Riebeeck implores the men not to mind a little dirt and smell . Young seals were so abundant that they could be picked up by

in o ne hand, and a ship freighted with them , and catch skins were secured . o in Gradually the cattle, fowls , and pige ns so creased, and the green grew more plentiful , that it was no longer necessary to fill five casks to with penguins save the cabbages , a diet against which we are not surprised the men rebelled, saying that they would all lie down flat and refuse to do any work ; or break the necks o f

o flic ers the . Gifts of Dutch cheese and butter, rt and Spanish wine , had softened the hea s of the ”

Hottento o s l . , as they cal ed the natives Those who had good supplies o f ca ttle gr ew less hostile wi Sal danhas and more lling to trade, and the 32

OLD CAPE COLONY

brought copper and ivory to barter . Hotten r toos we e not , however, an unmixed blessing in the community . They killed the herds in lonely places and pilfered the unarmed people . They coaxed the children o n one Side in order to cut the brass buttons o ff their clothes and the mothers of this far-o ff settlement felt j ustly For aggrieved at the irr eparable damage . none of these offences could punishment be meted to h was a native, for the Directors, w ose policy l a i o f r so ely pol c trade , had p oclaimed that _ y s Whoso ill treats , beat , or pushes any of the e in e n nativ s , whether he be the right or g , l shal , in their presence, be scourged with fifty lashes in order that they may perceive that such 16 conduct is against o ur will . In 73 a man was banished to Robben Island, then to Batavia , and thence to the new penal settlement o f for Mauritius, wantonly Shooting and mortally al wounding a Hottentot . And this though the man (who was called Willem Willems) had escaped from the Company in a Danish Ship , and returned with what purported to be a pardon from the Prince of Orange . For such discipline the chief reason o f the Commander was that settlers should not give rise to any new dis turbance t e amongs the Hott ntots , who are a ” people revengeful beyond all comparison . After D all , the irectors at home might not have obj ected to a little more rough handling had it been 34 TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT unauthorized by them ; at one time Commander Wagenaar says that he has been recommended to wink at it all by the masters in the Fatherland . The settlement must have been a good deal set back by the danger of any place at ; all isolated cultivators outside the circle immediately round the Fort took their lives in their hands . The ” Rustenber w e Ro ndebo s e garden g , other ise call d j ,

1 6 . was in 67 tilled by two men , H Thiel m r man and Hendrik E . S idt , for guilde s n Thielrnan was a nually, but massacred by the r Hottentots . Governor Goske stated that ag i culture had been retrograding in consequence of the difficulties with murderous tribes . He pro as posed, soon as the new Castle was complete , to Madas acar in lodge the g Slaves , who were an dustrio us set of people, at Hottentots Holland , to defend the corn land and cattle from the attacks o f natives Compared to the terri ble experiences o f American pioneers with the warlike the insi nifi Indians , the adventures of Cape are g i . t cant Still , was a plucky set of men who star ted o n their gabled homesteads in wilds peopled by the most degraded set of savages —c ever known unning , dirty , and utterly without tradition or the most primitive code o f morality . Some protection to the boers was given by the - Liesbeeck three watch houses along the river, represented on early maps o f Table Bay . Theal says they were called respectively Turn the 35 OLD CAPE COLONY

” " Co w H . , old the Bull , and Look Out Less

o ne o f poetic , the names remind the naming o f o ne the three great dykes , inside the " ” other, the Watcher , the Sleeper , and the “ e Dream r, which stand between Holland and the perpetual beat of the North Sea waves .

Excursions were gradually made inland . The mountain of the Paarl was named the Pearl i n and Diamond mounta n , from the gra ite lump ” Kla muts atop which glistens in the sun p , or l ’ ” Sai or s Cap, was the nickname of the conical hill which served as a place of outlook o r defence against native invasions, and which is now so well known as a favourite meeting place for the Cape

Hunt Club . We hear of few diversions , and those are sombre enough . The sailors dabbled with black art to discover who had thieved their belongings , and perhaps as a form of amusement . “ Has Cornelis Oldrich so n taken or mislaid my ' 5 0 ring If , turn thyself round in God s name ,

o f Roode Vos t says the mate the , s riking on his ” Testament with a key . At first , says the surgeon who related the story to his superiors , e t the Testament remained motionl ss , but af er ” i n the th rd question it turned rou d by itself . was ri ri The surgeon f ghtened, and c ed, Mate , ” this has not been done by your will . But the “ mate said , Look well , and the Testament

o n . went turning Then said the surgeon , I ” wish for a dollar that I did not see it . 36 TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

as 1662 Riebeeck At l t , in , Van , who outstayed o f fiv e his contract years, moved on to Malacca , where his wife died, and where he married again

who a daughter of the Commissioner Gruys , was

killed o n the west coast o f Sumatra . It is thought that the East Indian prison ers kept in chains at the Cape about 1667 were concerned with this murder . He afterwards returned to

Batavia , where he died and was buried in the e ri Groote K rk , with this insc ption on his tomb

l . stone : Hereunder lies buried the Ho nb e . Mr v an Riebeec k o f o f Johan , first founder the Colony err- Cabo de Bona Esperance , and president of r Malacca, lately Secreta y to the High Govern 6 8 18 . 1 ment of India . Died the th J an , 77, 5 ” years old . ’ Fo r seventeen years after van Riebeeck s de parture , the Cape was at a standstill . A few tracts o f land were cultivated ; we hear that a Visa ie Pieter g and Jan Mostert , names still known r at the Cape , owned land in the Tygerbe g or ai T Leopard Mount n , the long low hill facing able

Mountain . About there also the Company used to c ut hay for the sandy tract now covered with r brushwood , p otea, and the gummy sapped mesembryanthemum , then waved with coarse not grass , and I do know that any good explana tion has been given for the change . But the efforts o f the Governors were confined to the building o f a castle which was to replace van 37

TABLE BAY SETTLEMENT

useful than ener gy ; so much work has already so e ul been done, many r s ts are developing slowly, and Shaping themselves on the lines of least

s re istance, that a sudden movement may pre i c pitate matters and destroy more than it creates . d r in s In newer , cru er sur ound g it is the man him

o f self, the leader imagination , who must invent what is to be developed and a single individual of power may give his own bias to a chapter of

r 16 o f histo y . In 79 the command the Cape was f v an was o fered to Simon der Stel , who in the employ o f the Dutch Company in Amsterdam ; son of the Commander v an der Stel al ready men i t o ned . The settlement was an unimportant o ne , but he accepted the post and sailed for Table

Bay . I can almost imagine his arrival at the ri jetty below the o ld fort . How cu ously he must have scanned the handful of houses that formed the r the little town , the rude canal , strip of g een

garden above . Did he realize that his feet would his never leave that sandy shore , and that name would be identified with the place for ever

S M O DER ST EL U LDE I N VAN , B I R A N D G O VERNO R

Sim o n Van D e r Ste Bui er and l , ld

G o ve rno r

16 HEN , in the year 79 , Simon van der Stel was appointed by the Dutch East India Company to the command of Table Bay Settle ment , it was still a mere Victualling station . Still must it have been as van Riebeec k described it , a lonesome and melancholy place where there was nothing to be done but bart er cattle ” with the lazy and filthy Hottentots . Al ong the shore was the town o f the first commander t and a few Ho tentot huts, and near the more ’ distant forts was the Company s garden of Rusten t r i s . be g , with agricultural lands and Great Barn K A cattle station was also at lapmuts . Few people would have been bold enough to prophesy a fl o f his so n th t , under the in uence Simon and , the country around would become covered with o f graceful homesteads , and that , in speaking old

o f houses at the Cape , the name van der Stel would instinctively rise to the lips . The family ’ of the commander were all Company s men . 43 OLD CAPE COLONY

‘ (u a n ae his pt i Adri n van der Stel , father, had been commander o f the Mauritius Settlement ; he s ee e ucc ded the first command r, Pieter de Ge se in 16 a n was y r , 39, in which ye r Simo born ' t ere . m s s so n r n a in h Si on econd , Ad iaa , bec me n 1705 Governor o f Amboyna . O that part of n er a n Wy b g now c lled Waterloo Gree , below the c amp and where the Dutch and English Churc hes a nd the Roman Catholic Convent are new u l em was an e b i t , th old farm , probably onc co ver n r the w is r cal d u e i g hole d t ict , le De O d whic h in 1 720 belonged to burgher Co unted Feit who made a memo rial that it had bee n gunned in 1683 to this Adriaan v an der s i m riaan hel two Stcl . The e e so n l ld t , W l e Ad , d asts at the Ca e 1630-8 and after ho t p p in 3 , , a s r interw l as ma istra te ms erdam ucceeded g of A t , s li his father as Go w rno r. His h rd so n orne s t i , C ,

The o u est Franz too k u so me o f the Co m y ng , , p ’ an s land and ho w he fare d shall s eak o f p y . I p ‘ later . Sinmn s wife ohanna aco ba Six was , J J ,

N it (If the reat Am famil tlr friemk g y,

W e: of Amsterdam in 1578 . The Hon . SIMON VAN DER STEL

’ ” no t Rembrandt s Anatomy Lesson , I have been ' able to find o ut . Simon s wife never came to the

. who Cape Kolbe , the inaccurate historian , hated v an Stels a She the der , writes th t was not so ” ai compl sant as to follow her husband into Africa , and wrongly adds that her name was Constantia . All the poetry and interest of the Cape Penin

O COAT O F ARMS F THE SI X FAMILY .

sula, and of much of the country further afield , is identified with the v an der Stels . They had a genius and passion fo r making . beautiful places — to live in d wellings of grave and quiet beauty nes tling amongst trees . We reap the benefit of h t Stels f t eir tas e , the van der su fered for it and so immeasurably do these old buildings gain by the tender shade o f the oak trees they planted trees found al most exclusively near the van der

— e Stel farms that if for no other reason , a tribut 45

OLD CAPE COLONY

is due to their memory . Simon van der Stel himself has many monuments : the leafy town of d Stellenbosch , with its thatched and gable houses , set amongst fantastic mountain ridg es , was

founded by him . The beautiful site he chose one his on of first expeditions , the long streets, drowsy with the monotonous sound of their tiny

i rs . tinkl ng streamlets, were planted by his orde The name o f his family is recorded in the name — he gave it his own ; in the serrated peak 5 0 the noticeable from Cape , Simonsberg, the last ’ mountain to hold the flash of sunset . Simon s us n Bay, too , familiar to of the twentieth ce tury , is called after this Governor of the seventeenth

who first explored it .

I do not know why historians, with the ex L ibbrandt c e tio n . e p of Mr , have done him such the o f scant j ustice , for work no other commander is at all comparable . He explored, he planted , ’ his u he built . Of ho se in the Company s garden (not far from the present Government House) we have a description from the visitors His he lodged in it . hospital on the canal , of was which we Shall hear later, considered very sa fine . Here , y the archives , the free blacks o f might bring to the patients all sorts food , ” whether pastry cakes or apple tarts . Simon o n took in hand , arriving , the dusty unfinished as beginnings of the C tle , covered with sand blown off the beach ; and in a very short time 46 SIMON VAN DER STEL we hear of the dwelling house within the forti ficati ns o which he built . The materials were brought from the Fatherland . In Commis ’ sio ner de Mist s time there was a tradition that the woodwork and beams o f this part of the ” Castle were made of iron trees, as they were l o n o f ca led , which grew the Slopes Table Moun

b But y this time we know, from experience , that the wood is most perishable Simon was Specially responsible for the Gover ’ S l i s nor House and the b ock of bu lding next it , con nected was by a great archway , which the house of the Secunde or chief merchant : a handsome o flices place , now used for military , which in its day was the centre o f all the offi cial life o f the settlement . Council held their meet . The n i gs in the large hall , in which a church service was o n al held Sundays, and the b cony , with its was beautiful little ironwork balustrade, a as lacaats prominent factor, here the p or orders hi of Council , w ch formed practically the laws of the little community , were displayed from time to time ; and from it the Governors made speeches to the assembled burghers . The whole was ca block lled the Kat or Cat , and always as spoken of such in the despatches . The word was also used for a defence or rampart . Pro bably the Secunde ’s dwelling was not finished for as some years , we hear in the despatches 47 OLD CAPE COLONY that the Chief Merchant Elzevier had a house adjoining the wall o f the burial ground which

VII W 0? THE A W I T HE HA T THE B C STLE , SHO NG AND ALCONY .

them surrounded the foundations of the un SIMON VAN DE R STEL It is said that Simon himself designed the gateway of the Castle , which in the original plan had faced the sea, considering it safer to make the opening towards Signal Hill , where - f r there was a post of look out o the ships . It is ornamented by the monogram of the Company , under the pediment are the arms of the

T BA K CE . FANLIGHT, ON IN THE CASTLE different towns of the Netherlands which had a All share in the Directory . these buildings were f o ficial , and the designs were probably supplied ’ by the Company s architects . The Castle in deed has much the same char acter as the Old gateways and Dutch Company ’s Houses in

1 682 e - l R klo f In Gov rnor Genera y van Goens ,

Governor of Batavia, invalided from the Indies, 49 o OLD CAPE COLONY stopped at the Cape on his way home to recruit A S the ship and inspect the Settlement . he

is mentioned in the history of the Cape , it may

be interesting to note his adventurous career . t A fine, truculent gen leman in his pictures , he had put in many years ’ good service to the Dutch 166 1 East India Company . In he had led the first expedition to Cochin against the Portu

uese 166 . g , who were ousted in 3 During the war between Holland and England he had o f threatened Bombay with a fleet men ,

and captured two English Ships o ff Musilipatam . r all Late , during the Dutch and English iance ,

1 6 e . he in 74 recovered St . Thom from the French By the time he arrived at the Cape Commander e van der St l had founded Stellenbosch , which v an l l Goens visited . Civi ization was gradua ly

advancing outside Table Bay settlement , and there were outposts o f the Company at the Cu len or y Pools, Diep River, Riet Vlei and

Vissers Hoek . The origin of this Cape word has al vlei been a good de discussed , meaning, l was as it does there , a pool or ake . It probably v allei first intended for or valley, but has been corrupted and somehow retained where water v allei lay in the valley, while is used in the

ordinary sense . 168 R klo f In 4 the younger y van Goens , Coun

elllor o f . India and Governor of Ceylon , arrived Seven years earlier he had buried at Ceylon his 5 0 SIMON VAN DER STEL wife J aco mina Roosegaarde ; the year following his second wife , Esther de Solemne . He lodged

’ o f Rustenber at the Company s House g , where he lay ill nearly the whole of his stay . Under his inspection a few changes were made amongst f the of icials of the Cape . Johannes de Greven broek , afterwards a bitter enemy of the van

Stels n . der , was appoi ted Secretary of Council His Signature is familiar on many an old title f . n deed Van Goe s developed a great a fection , v an says Theal , for the younger Adriaan der

Stel , who had been Issuer of Stores at the Cape , and gave him a grant of land, and the rights of a full burgher ; permission also to catch fish in False Bay, and to have a fowling net , and to shoot any game or birds he pleased . The order was approved by Council ; but it gave a

o f great deal dissatisfaction to the farmers , who were only allowed each of them to shoot in one year one rhinoceros , one hippopotamus , one hartebeeste fo r one eland, and , and more than this had to apply for special leave . It was the first expressio n of discontent with the der Stels van . There was yet another member of the family in the employ o f the Company

—Lo dew k at the Cape at this time y van der Stel , ’ to who seems have been a relation of Simon s ,

o f as but not one to be proud , he was connected with the fraudulent proceedings of the cashier and - Vieroo t was cellar master, Gerrit , who dismissed the 5 I OLD CAPE COLONY

’ al Company s service with heavy fines . In the j ourn of 1689 the Governor complained of his neglect in

not making out monthl y statements . In the same year Lodewyk was made an elder of the church . We hear in 1 693 that he obtained promotion and went on with his family to India . Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draken r o f M drecht stein , Lo d y , touched at Table Bay in 1 685 on his round to the East Indies . He had with him a commission o f three other

directors, and was about to examine into the

affairs of the Company in Hindustan and Ceylon . He inspected all the public bodies : the Burgher o f Council , the Matrimonial Court , the Board

Militia and the Orphan Chamber , and , to the

r o f . c edit the Commander, made no alterations his A great man in way , botanists still remember him as the Governor of Malabar who published l Hortus twelve illustrated folio volumes , entit ed

M alabricus o f splendid books, full careful drawings and dissertations by various experts

printed in Arabic and Dutch . It is dedicated, “ Huddi H amongst others , to Johanni eer van Waev eren t Co m , and Director of the Eas India ” lE ido Valkenier Co nsuli et Seneto ri pany , and g " s Am tell o . urbis The latter is either the same , or o ne of the same family as the Commissioner Valkenier 1 00 , who in 7 granted to Simon van

der Stel the grazing rights o f the Steenberg . m i o f His coat of ar s were , together w th those the 5 2

OLD CAPE COLONY

it was suggested by those who disliked the v an der Stels that he had been bribed into so doing

by the Governor, who named after him the beau o f l tiful tract country beyond Stel enbosch . There is outside Cape Town a pine-bordered as r road, dusty with soft red dust , omantic a

highway as you could wish . Yo u will find it

past Newlands, once the New Lands reclaimed from - r the mountain side , or th ough Wynberg , the o ld Wine Mountain of the early settlers . It leads you (rather breathless if you have come up the hill on a bicycle)to the Vineyards o f Groot - Constantia . Far o ff to the south east stretches its the Muizenberg Plain , with lines of Shim mering sand and the pool o f the l ee Koe Vlei ; beyond that the sea and the serrated mountains f lessening to the rocks o Hanglip Point . It was not without care that the o ld Governor chose this piece o f land on which to make his Stav orinus home . A man told Admiral in 1 798 that his father had helped to test baskets of earth taken up along the shore every hundred o f e roods over a great tract country, and mix d with water , for the Governor to decide upon w its . quality Here , well satisfied ith the rich

a. ness of the soil , he built house with a stoep

and a great hall . Gabled like the houses of the

r D fathe land , it resembles the utch farm houses o n the island of Walcheren , houses with interiors ’ Ho o h s i like those of Pieter de g pictures , des gned, 54 SIMON VAN DER STEL

sa f some y, with a reminiscence o the Malay Archi i i i pelag o, yet not ent rely l ke any, but ind vidual and distinct : the first ggeat homes tead o f the Cape . Few o f the many Visitors to COnstantIa

heads about the man who planned, more 200 than years ago, to make a home on the

168 c no o r c O NS T A Nr IA . 5 .

mountain slopes , who cleared a space for his Vines and his gabled house the wild

c ladioli a d . raniums the ,the lilies Yet what is In 1 l i lace it to dream Be ow l es False Bay, _ and the wo nde ful brilliance of its sandy shores ; U “ ” behind the zceo pass of the Nek and the _ i n e i rocky heightsStabove Hout Bay . H re , on a st ll 55 OLD CAPE COLONY

o u o f afternoon , y may hear the hoarse bark some

S u l their blue hadows on the flat s nlit wa ls, bM v ernor wh ose history had so strange

- Constantia wine had once a world wide fame . Under the Dutch Company I believe the wine could not be bought in Europe , as they reserved to themselves the exclusive Sale ; but the old farm account books Show great export to Eng n land at the beginning of the nineteenth ce tury . At the Cape it cost two Spanish dollars o r eleven

S shillings and ixpence a bottle , and was not

r given lightly to eve y guest , says a traveller, but to a rich visitor from whom benefits were Y expected . o u may remember that the broken ’ hearted Marianne Dashwood of Miss Austen s S ense and S ensibility was comforted by a glass ” of the finest Constantia wine that ever was tasted . March o f time has transformed the place into e 1 a Gov rnment wine farm , worked 31 m labor!; and the men pick l in bunches , and —ca l to each other the silence

' ' ' o t lre réat lIfia h w do gj j t, muc as ould have _ _ ne o f the slaves the Commander . Perhaps it was named Constantia as a protest of constancy

to the wife he was never to see again , though

he yearly sent her money . Or this, too , may

a o f ff v an Rheedes h ve been a mark a ection for the , as it seems to have been a name in their family 56 SIMON VAN DER STEL a little Constantia van Rheede of six months old was buried at Colombo in 1696 ; her me s morial tablet i in Wolfendahl Church . ’ h The Child s Guide T at invaluable book, , ” rt -fifth written by a Lady, of which the thi y

was in 1 8 : edition published 35, says Con

I’ A I’ A I L N O GROOT CONST NT A .

o f

i o f e the so l causes the the grap s, and ” the is wine made with great care . There is

e o ld not a s cond farm, , but with the historic r c associations of G oot Constantia, whi h seems to have been most often visited by eighteenth

r century t avellers . It is called Klein Constantia , and used to be divided from the domain of the 57 OLD CAPE COLONY

1 2 to v an 77 , when it belonged Mynheer der S o i p , and he speaks vaguely of the building , “ ” h all l o r w ich he c s o d red Constantia . All

” w ti i b ondered if Groot, Constan a, be ng uilt early and almost certainly o f good bricks from the was Netherlands , originally left unplastered, save for the ornamentation . The place is so associated with its mellow

cut o f it , with reeds, short , a deep ear / l et pp ' ve v y a ' th é too fin am mte im ib e ance, g has q l - w wingIQL whfr h vanishes

reeds Governor Simon made severe regulations . The plan differs from and is rather more complicated than the plan of the usual Cape house , for which no doubt it S stood as a model . There is even a hort stair

o r e case , and two thre rooms built on an upper — story to the right as you face it a very un n usual thi g , as the houses are universally one storied . The tall window in the gable is never i the window of a room in the Colon al house , but lights the great storage loft which runs be 58 SIMON VAN DER STEL

neath the rafters . These lofts are floored usually al with brick and a layer of clay, c led brandsolder , and intended to give a non-infla mmable sur face for the burning thatch to fall on should there be a fire, as too often happens . Like all nearly the oldest houses , the woodwork of

BS C UTC HHO Z NS GROOT CONSTANTIA AND HOTTENTOTS HOLLAND .

are solid teak,

’ ad one Du cl laz tilg L room with t l g g _ atches, by the Skilled workm en going o ut V ia Table Bay to the Indies and other settlements . We hear 1 6 0 in 9 of a coppersmith , carpenters and masons 5 9 OLD CAPE COLONY

being sent from Good Hope to Mauritius , to t l ge her with other workmen , tai ors and the i like ; also a S lversmith is mentioned, and the Company would not have been at the expense i S o f to send out ind fferent labour . The hape

T A S E A C I . ID G BLES , GROOT ONS ANT

th able modificat o ns g is , with some i L M / o f old . the houses“ of Holland I think they almost certainly belonged to the original house , though it has been suggested that the statue i o f Plenty n the facade was placed there later . To the right as youm me house are 60

OLD CAPE COLONY — hW M bo m The thatch was remov ed and a fine stucco pediment placed 1 there in 779 , when the place belonged to a Cloete . The pediment holds a medallion of Ganymede w on his s an , surrounded by children pelting a curious species of tiger with bunches of is o f grapes . It modelled in some sort hard

plaster in very high relief, with a good deal of t charm, by a French architect who did o her

work in Cape Town . The cellar, as these

shadOws e , blu as only South African shadows

' ' can W smefi o m m ei fifi king; the f ’ reat tiet the In g q of place , all combine a curious imaginative people have felt at Groot Co n B i h stantia. eh nt e wirl e f alls suddenly away towards the stream which is dammed up at the bottom of the ravine 29m thIs l e old rt Sw som a ist designer, Simon van der has a i Stel or a successor, run a m gn ficent fl the e la oo to ight of steps c l r_ d r

- “ S EERa g y enough , none of the early writers give any description of the architecture of the S arrmann place . p , the naturalist, mentions the

' little weevils (cole ndra) which are still so trouble and some amongst the vines , were caught , a few years ago, and may be still , by curious little 6 2 SIMON VAN DER STEL nests of leaves placed at the foot o f each Vine . his Historical ournal o f Captain Hop, in j the 1 8 o f Cape in 77 , frankly says the two Constantias v an that o ne was built by Governor der Stel , and that the other was more modern and in the

W I N H' S U T S HO US E . TEPS . GRO CON TANTIA

tm e the th e is habitations of day . So it that the old Constantia had at that i s time fallen into bad repa r . In hi day the Company only drew a third o f the wine pro duced on the farms, at a special price , and the s s to wa old ordinary merchants . A great 6 3 OLD CAPE COLONY d his f r eal of in o mation , however, is taken from ’ la Caille s v 1 1 Bo u ain de obser ations in 75 , and de g ’ 1 6 ville s narrative o f 7 9 . A truly Bri tish and unconsciously entertain ing account is given by Captain Percival , an English o flicer at the Cape during the second English occupation The then owner he

F . calls Mr . luter, evidently meaning Cloete I was so unfortunate as not to find the gentleman ” in a good humour, says Percival , and I could scarcely get a good bottle of wine . On my

n c m requesti g to see the pla e , he hi self came out and informed me that the gentleman was no t ” s i at home . Pe rcival and hi fr ends then got o f some the slaves , for a present , to procure them wine , and to Show them the plantations and cellars . Nor did we take any notice o f the ’ owner s surliness and boorish manners when we

o n afterwards met him , but went to satisfy our t curiosity, and ob ain the wine and information ” we wanted . He thoughtfully adds that some ’ allowance must be made for Mij n Heer Pluter s

for moroseness, as it is impossible him at all times to attend to the reception of his visitors , some of whom by their teasing and forward

e loquacity, might rend r themselves extremely troublesome and disagreeable to his gr ave and ” solemn habits . He tells us very little that is S arrmann new , though , like p , he praises the care taken in growing and cleaning the grapes 64

HI ND RIK A DRIAAN VAN Rh eum: Tor D u x ENm IN

LORD o r M v o arc ur . SIMON VAN DER STEL and making the wine ; but o ne is glad to have a descri ption o f the leaguers or butts in which ke t all in his the wine was p , u - carved, the b ng holes

D N . OL BATH . GROOT CONSTA TIA

m M , time are _ scanty but there is a broken sun-dial with the half-effaced name o f - 1be Cloete , and the cannon balls piled on_ be—en on the plain of Muizenberg after the half-hemt ed battle with the English in 1191

‘ Thé c rrc m Of water with a deep curved 3 3 8 OLD CAPE COLONY

rim , which goes by the name of the bath , is n l well worth seei g , though you must wa k a quarter o f a mile up the garden between Whether the fascination o f the these comparatively simple things made by man or in the wondew o f

surro un sa ? nature , who shall y The sun _ _ h lls be o f IIQL d_, scorche_ i ide d with its scent earth W rc hézdi (BLE Q CI‘ and antic ot the vineyards and vine trails with their back d of sea groun distant and mountain , the clear sough o f the wind in th e branches of a moonlit — t at I night all hese go to cre e it . cannot tell e be the you to which c ntury longs teak Triton , through whose bo rn the mountain stream splashes o ld - o n n . I to the swimmi g bath But know that , e o u despite all modern chang s , you will , if y dream there long enough: see wandering amongst the flickering shadows the shade o f Governor

Simon v an der Stel . We are fortunate m having a very realistic con

r 168 temporary account of the Cape in the yea 5 .

n X IV . t An embassy, goi g from Louis of France o b Siam, put in at Ta le Bay . Its objects were

r said to be religious , and it is true that the g eat monarch had given his sanction equally to the f propagation o Christi anity and o f trade . I find that at the first meeting o f the French East India 166 o f . Company in 4 , at the house M Faveroles, 66

OLD CAPE COLONY sidered the garden the most curious and beautiful they had ever seen . About the middle of the garden wall beyond the slave lodge was the ’ il o f Governor s house or pav ion , consisting a hall or vestibule below, with two doors , one open in the g towards fort , the other towards the garden , - and a reception room o n each side . Here they were lodged for some time and received the best o f o f treatment . Later, when two their ships ,

Loire Dromada ire r n the and the , car yi g several o f n to the missionaries saili g back France , were wrecked at Cape Agulhas , the survivors were to ri i No expe ence more k ndness from van der Stel . sooner did he hear o f their misfortune than he sent an escort o f soldiers and horses to bring them

to . r to the town They we e taken the Castle, and received by the commander at the foot o f ” his the steps outside house , with every mark ” o f respect and affection . He invited them into a room , made them sit down while tea and wine

a v o lle o f v were brought them , and caused y twel e Ta hard cannon to be fired in their honour . c

two e and the others, including Siames ambassa in dors , were quartered at a house the town , and l libera ly furnished with refreshments . It must be

e fo r l conf ssed that the bill these expenses , as wel as fo r the soldiers who mounted guard before ei th r door, was afterwards sent in to the French G r overnment , and the ch onicler remarks thereon with some bitterness . 68 SIMON VAN DER STEL

After leaving the Cape , and returning again to Tachard n Siam , yet again stopped at Table Bay p his homeward j ourney and received les memes ho nétetez réc é ns I que les voyages p de . had ” Vanderstellen assured Monsieur de , he writes , “ that I would return in the following year in good company ; on which he made me many ” f The o fers . Fathers appeared grateful ; but to v i Simon an der Stel theywere false friends . The r time had been employed in collecting information

which might be useful to them , and in gaining l s from the Wal oon burghers who came to confe s ,

l o f detai s about the interior the colony, and the

possibility of Catholic settlements there . From

- dl o ff newly arrived Huguenot settlers, har y their

ships, they received an impression of disappoint

ment , which they published forthwith in two i f del ght ul volumes , illustrated by pictures of the

houses , fauna and flora of the countries they had

seen . The botanical drawings of the books are excellent , but the authors give rein to their

imagination in the matter o f houses at the Cape . The chameleon also greatly pleases them ; he is ” r depicted in the g and style , trampling with

uplifted paw some highly decorative flowers , and “ appears also in their map o f the Country and o f HO e people of the Cape Good p , patrolling the boundary betwa an the land o f the Griquiquas and o f am uas the N aq . Amongst their pictures a strange horned lizard of large size is given ; o n 69 OLD CAPE COLONY the map it is seen running into the mountain s of ” Go uri uas the q and a little lizard of the Cape , —d with three crosses on his back ecorative , but unknown to modern naturalists . The year fol

M AP n o w r un V A E ns s u m mas p lan s s mr e s 16 86 . OY G m .

168 u lowing ( 7) a large fleet , nder Admiral Van drec o urt - du and Vice Admiral Quesnes , put in at

Table Bay with many sick o n their way to Siam . Tach ard was now in charge o f fourteen mathe 7o SIMON VAN DER STEL maticians for the King of Siam . But the situation had altered . For long Simon v an der Stel had prayed the co mpany at home for colonists and assured them that nothing could be done without more labour . The settlement consisted of a mere handful o f people . By the time Constantia was built the 2 0 6 slaves numbered 3 men , 44 women and 3 children . A few agriculturists had been sent out from the fatherland , and the burghers numbered 2 88 2 1 altogether 54 men , women , and 3 children

‘ there were 3 9 European servants . Intent on his

Colony, Simon was eager for more men to cultivate the land, and for more women , to induce them to e marry and settle . He had promised fr eholds to any of the Company ’ s servants who had good characters and were willing to farm . But they w ere a lawless , roving set , and comparatively few of the discharged soldiers and sailors cared to I n 1 68 settle as tillers of the soil . 5 the Orphan

r Chambers of Amste dam , in response to requests made by the Company , consented to send out 48 girls but at the last moment only three would embark . For the next few years small groups of seven nd e a ight occasionally appeared . In consequence of the revocation of the Edict o f Nantes by

Louis XIV . , there was at this time a large though forbidden e migration of French Protestants into the Neth erlands . Often they barely escaped with 7 ! OLD CAPE COLONY

their lives , and crossed the frontier destitute . A certain number of Piedmontese had also found

o f their way to the United Provinces . Out these refugees the East India Company determined to o f i f choose a number colon sts , who were o fered

grants of land if they would settle at the Cape . It was no t easy to persuade a landsman in those o f days to undertake the horrors the long voyage , but about 1 76 settlers were sent o ut in detach Leibbrandt o f ments . Mr . , keeper the Cape

archives , says that contemporary writers mention

eighty more families brought there by Du Quesnes ,

but that the archives do not allude to them . The newcomers were all o f the congregations called

f r under the cross, or su fe ing persecution the European population of the Cape had up to that

time been Lutheran and Roman Catholic . Had the French missionaries in their published volumes been content with descriptions o f the animals and the topography o f Table Bay all

would have been well . But they had asserted that “ ” o f retendue amongst the people the religion p , r no t who had ar ived as colonists , there was one who was not filled with disappointment at the far-o ff land to which he had been brought ; and that many o f the emigrants would willingly have made reparation for their mistaken ideas and returned to France had not every means of doing

so been closed to them . Simon had been per turbed to discover that every detail about the 72 SIMON VAN DER STEL

i colony and h s inland expeditions was known . He had already sent away a French gardener, who was found with a suspicious letter in his possession and an apothecary discharged who had given in

é r formation to P re Tach a d . In view of the con tinuall t y hostile a titude of Louis XIV . , the Dutch Company were naturally jealous of their own foot ing at Table Bay ; and Simon was not unaware o f the danger of such a large fleet as that of Admiral

Vaudrecourt . He wrote afterwards that he had secured the powder magazines, and determined set should the least act of hostility occur, to fire to the settlement and leave the French nothing a plucky resolution for a man who had taken so much pains to extend and improve the colony . But he received the visitors with his usual courte o usness o n , and leaving they presented him with a medallion or miniature o f the grand Mon ” i arque , and a gold chain with quadruple l nks . r Rather a tificial were these friendly relations .

La M ali ns The ship g , which on the departure of the e fl et from the Cape , put back to France to report o f insuflicient progress, spread also reports the

fortifications of Table Bay, and Du Quesnes f when he arrived in Batavia gained a sti f reception . The Governor-General to ld him that if the Jesuits were seen he could not answer for the conduct of the populace , so irritated were they at the last

news from France brought by the Dutch fleet .

o ff Governor van der Stel did not come scot free . 73 OLD CAPE COLONY Both the authorities at home and in Batavia

were indignant at his want of caution . Had he not accepted a medallion and chain ? Had not the Siamese Ambassador given him a jewelled kris P Had he not allowed his visitors to see the defence less state of the Castle and the weakness o f the garrison Strangers who had been permitted to wander about at will had on their return to France declared that they could easily have taken the r Castle swo d in hand , and that if the Dutch

Company thought so little of their settlement , f so and a forded it little protection , it could be attacked and taken on the very first outbreak of i an host lity between France d the Netherlands .

Two years more and the storm had burst . In 1 689 war was declared by Holland and Eng e land , who had el cted the Stadholder, William of Orange , as her King , against France , and van der Stel was ordered to treat the Frenchmen everywhere as enemies and cause them all the injury possible . There is little ambiguity about these old despatches . Meanwhile the Huguenot emigrants were being granted their new freeholds o f lands along the f Drakenstein valley . Whatever disa fection may have been induced by the long sea journey and autho the experiences of first arrival , the Dutch rities at any rate did not consider there was much to fear from impoverished refugees . Many o f the emigres had been living in the Netherlands 74

OLD CAPE COLONY

Oostarla nd left Middelburg with twenty-four emi grants and the China of Rotterdam with thirty four ; twelve of whom , poor people , were saved any more privations and disappointments by 8 075 5 8 " o n o ut . dying the way Another ship , the bur e the g , also sailed with French refug es, and S a id Bevd and brought a number of French from

Middelburg but the passenger list is lost , and

o f Simo nd the only names known are those Pierre ,

e Bero nt . minister of Dauphin , and his wife Anne de In the China came also eight young women from

o f the Orphan Chamber Rotterdam , who were “ said to be industrious, of unblemished reputa ” tion, and skilled in farm work . ’

The new comers, thought the Company s

Directors , would be an important addition to the 350 burghers capable o f bearing arms against the threatened French invasion . Van der Stel , therefore, issued an order to Stellenbosch and the Drakenstein , for burghers to collect without delay men and houses, fully armed and equipped , and provided with powder and lead, and to leave only ten or twelve men to protect the wives ” and children against Hottentots or other danger . The signal for starting was a gun fired from the Castle, for which the men were to listen attentively ; and on hearing it to move simul taneo usl l t y from Ste lenbosch , Drakens ein , Hotten

Cu len Ro ndeb s h o c . tots Holland , the y and Occasionally Governor Simon ’ s orders are so 76 SIMON VAN DER STEL

pur ely perfunctory as to appear issued to appease the Seventeen at home rather than for any practical fi im s . o use at Table Bay Dif cult , indeed almost p

PLATTE IN THE TYGERBERG .

sible , it would have been to hear this gun signal at Drakenstein and Hottentots Holland ; the o f authorities probably were satisfied this later, 77 OLD CAPE COLONY for at the to p o f the Tygerberg behind Pl atte v an to Kloof farm , granted by Simon der Stel ’ v an der Hiet , but afterwards a Company s station , used to be an o ld cannon for giving to the farmers inland warnings which had been signalled from the Castle .

After all , the invasion never took place ,

Louis XIV . having other things to do at home

and abroad . But van der Stel put in force his o n orders to treat the Frenchmen as enemies , the return of the second expedition to Siam in 1 689 .

Mac hefo liér e The ensign , Le Chevalier de la , came u ashore in a cutter , foolishly s re of a favourable

o l o f recepti n , and bringing the comp iments i his captain . He was immed ately disarmed , with what surprise and anger on his part we may

imagine , and placed with his crew under arrest

at the Castle . The boat was then sent back with ’ the French flag flying , but manned with Company s fi u of cers and D tch sailors . Other boats, manned

r and a med , from the East Indiamen lying in the

N ederland S aamsla h r Bay, the and the g , we e to f . . u o remain near M de Co rcelles, Captain the

La N ormande French ship , seeing the cutter

o f returning with a French flag, ordered a salute nine guns to the Castle ; which politeness cost F r . o o f him dear under cover the smoke , the N m uch was boarded by the cutter and the ” aamsl h S a . boat of the g They at once fell to , ’ e o f i says Simon s despatch, and aft r eight the r 78 SIMON VAN DER STEL

men o f and two ours had been wounded , they ”

e a . cried for quart r, which was gr nted The ship ’ was immediately looted by the Company s men ,

the prisoners and the o flic ers stripped to the skin . i Diamonds , jewels , and everyth ng but the mer chandise in the hold , requisitioned by the Com i o f pany , was taken by the capta ns and sailors

La Cochc the victorious party . A fortnight later, ,

o f n the third ship the Siam expedition , comi g ” rt fo r in oppo unely , says the despatch , refresh ” n ments , was also taken and plu dered like the

he N o ande t first . T rm was af erwards sent back

m h Dc to A sterdam , where it was rec ristened

Goede H and became a ship o f the Dutch fleet .

To Governor van der Stel, whose ideal had been

a Dutch settlement , the emigrants were dis t appointing . He was o u o f conceit with the French ; those particular men were difficult to

o n deal with , and the conditions which they had accepted their lands were a matter of endless co mplaint . They wer e not to retain their own language they were to be spread about amongst the burghers , so that a French colony should be impossible . Van der Stel was bound to enforce the regulations o f the Seventeen Directors ; in

be o f addition , suspected the new colonists wish ing to form a party with Vice-Admiral Du Quesnes

. Wh at their head en a deputation , consisting of Simo nd the minister , Jacques de Savoye , Abra ll t ham de Vi iers , and two o hers, bearded the 79 OLD CAPE COLONY

n at the e in 168 and m Gover or Castl , 9 , asked per is . sion for their countrymen to have a church o f own he flew n s n and a their , i to a pas io ccused o f n r is them i g atitude and impertinence . It

n w not n evide t , he rote , that they o ly want

own ur o wn e and their ch ch , but their magistrat e their own prince . They pretended to hav

a a n e e o f e left Fr nce , s id Simo bitt rly, b cause th ir

e e e n e r ligious convictions, but in r ality th y wa t d opportunities o f leading a lazy and indolent life ;

e e o f the w he e a wer peopl rong stamp, d cl red , entirely unacquainted with and unfit for the har d h life which was the lot o f t e farmer . He wished that fo r the future no cadets or persons o f ” m be e n e quality ight s nt , but i dustrious and w ll

e a e e e behav d griculturists and tradesm n , pr f rably Th rot hett o f Dutch or German origin . e c c y (wispelturige) nature o f the French still adheres ” to e e n e e in ur o f th m , he writ s a oth r tim a b st

e e e e the h en o f irritation , and th y r s mbl C ildr ’ e who e fed in the e Isra l , wh n by God s hand wild r ness still longed fo r onions . All these responsibilities increased th e burden o f e n e the e e o f the e n gov r m nt , and d spatch s S ve een and the n o f the ie t from statio Ind s , - The abound in fault finding . Company had

e iz e his e fo r e e his r cogn d s rvices, th y had rais d e n title o f Commander to that o f Gov r or . But they were not pleased by th e reports o f the hand

e e u the e no r did som hous s springing p at Cap , 80 SIMON VAN DER STEL

’ van der Stel s ambition to found a colony where they had only want ed a kitchen garden really

find favour with his employers . The Batavian government had more personal grievances . Van der Stel was apt to de tain skilled locksmiths and artizans going out to the Queen o f the East fo r n ! to the ho s of her merchant princes , and set them en route to work instead at the Cape . Owing

E F S B P A RM KOO RN OO . V RY OLD BUILDING ,

to o f e v the representations Gov rnor Simon , Bata ia was under orders to receive the indifferent Cape n wheat , and corn growi g, for some time temporarily neglected at Table Bay, had again been taken in

. e hand New grain stor s were built , say the o n despatches, the side of the cross wall which ” t runs hrough the Fort , and Simon had invented some air-tight vaults in which corn could be kept for a considerable time . He was accused by his superiors in the East of protecting the Cape to

8 1 F OLD CAPE COLONY

o f the prejudice both the ships and o f the Indies . ” Whether it will be convenient for the company, t to says an indignant let er from Batavia, bear in the interest o f the Cape agriculturists any more the i ou . such losses , D rectors will be able to tell y not so We , at least , do think , nor find any fairness a in it , to let the people here, only for the s ke of

so benefiting the Cape farmers , eat much dearer and worse bread than they can obtain cheaper ” e and bett r elsewhere . And they asserted that the vegetables supplied to passing fleets were so old no musty and black , and the meat that h teeth could bit it t rough . ' Simon s despatches are intensely interesting ,

o f l o f fi full vita ity and a kind magni cence , but they abound in expostulation which cannot have pleased the Company . The Fort is in a good ” 16 so state of defence , wrote he in 97, that we ” need fear no enemy . The corn vaults, he adds , have been finished without expense to the Com al pany . The hospit was in process of building . f Eight hundred beds had been provided, stu fed with grass , and a large number of blankets . Fault had been found with the Governor for not sending a cert ain advance ship to Batavia . The skippers had protested, he says, writing to Amsterdam , that they could not leave sooner as the men were all so helplessly sick there was not enough to man a vessel . The Governor submitted that certain misunderstandings which caused the home 8 2

OLD CAPE COLONY

n so l ac not do e she could not have eft the pl e , as she was t o f was almost desti ute sails . It the

the Kin William same with English ship g , which “ has almost had a lost voyage , and whose officers were so destitute of money that they could not have paid their expenses if we had not lent 08 fl s e them 3 orin . They prof ssed that if we did not do it they would be obliged to remain here

e e under protest , not b lieving our reit rated excuses that we were al mo st destitute o f money our selves . f The coast stood in continual fear o pirates . ’ There was the vessel whose commander s name

- two was Kit , carrying thirty two guns and hundred o ff l men, lying not far , and a vessel ca led the

Lo al Russell i y then in port , suspected of be ng - - hand and glove with the pirate . There was the A yacht my held to be o f the same character . van i Her der Stel apparently se zed , and spent much time in explaining his reasons for doing so — that the passes and commissions of the me n were forgeries ; that their answers before the court o f justice were confused and contradictory that aft er the sloop had been alr eady twenty-four hours in o ur possession twelve men were dis covered hidden away among the sails and vats o f and casks , so that if they were innocent piracy , and honest seamen , they would have had no need

es . to hide themselv To end the matter, 84 D DE R AD OLD ISTRICTS AND MO RN O S . OLD CAPE COLONY

therefore , continues the Governor, we hope

o u l that y wi l now see it in a clearer light , and r with a mo e equitable and favourable eye, and we cannot imagine otherwise than that you will be pleased in every way to understand that we ” acted in this matter properly . In 1697 it is noted that ten French refugees ' ou Vosmaer but fiv e di had sailed the , that had ed

o n the voyage . The other five were sent to “ ” Drakenstein , where they have settled, says the

despatch , and according to report we do not see that they will to-day or to-morrow become n an e cumbrance to the Company . At Robben r b - -b Island (whe e , y the y, rabbits are mentioned even at that date) a sergeant who had been superintendent had apparently sold sheep in ’ ” ri some prohibited way to the ship s f ends, without the knowledge of the Governor ; some accusations with regard to the food of the ships and the hospital had also been made . This , the Governor submitted, did taste more of an inj ury to himself than of truth , as he is quite sure that it ca n never be proved by any ” o ne in the world . Of the first accusation the Governor and Council submitted that under so e l such a charge , per mptorily and loose y made e s an honest mind feels oppr s ed, and people o f good service and reputation are suspected before the world ; but we trust that you will ” take no notice of the matter . With all the 86 SIMON VAN DER STEL

r i o f r r so d d details , want knowledge b ings f om time to time a touch o f romance . We hear of nine strange animals ” which the French or Walloons have obtained from the Hottentots in

the . mountains Danger from pirates , from war , ' men from condemned and escaped Company s , o f l from scourges blight, locusts , catt e sickness o f t he n and consequent lack food, and recurre t eff c re shipwreck disasters of the Bay , e tually p vented life from being humdrum or indolent . m has So e one cleverly said , Your keen intel d ed r lects , like razors , are consi er too sha p for ” o o commo n service . Reflecting on the am unt f work accomplished by the elder van der Stel, it seems to have been on those grounds he received a l so many reprimands . He h d founded Ste len Frenchhoek bosch , colonized Drakenstein . and

‘ wo n beyond . He had the confidence o f the

f . natives , who consulted him in their di ficulties To their captains he gave sticks with brass o f plates, engraved with the arms the Company, and he conciliated them in every way with a view

to increas ed barter . You are to let them ” o r six o f have five pounds weight tobacco, he

writes from Constantia to the Chief Merchant , in order to keep the taste of that herb among

them . Ever mindful of the ships , he had begun or a canal cutting, through the sand at Salt River as a refuge from the heavy winds but in couse quence of the silting o f the sand the excavations 8 7 OLD CAPE COLONY

. r had to be abandoned . A bu gher guard now

patrolled the town at night , receiving each after u noon a new co ntersign from the Governor . Simon had made an expedition to Namaqualand to inv esti gate the copper which had been brought fo r barter

r f om time to time by the natives . Would any ’ other Company s commander o f the day have made such a stately journey in a coach followed by forty wagons , three hundred sheep, and one hundred and fifty oxen ; whilst he carried with

fiv e him two trumpets, several hautboys , and or “ ” six violins in order to charm the aborigines ? It is worth noticing that the Governor rec o m mended the separation of the scabby sheep from the rest of the flocks so far back do we find the germs of the modern Cape Colony wrangles over cheap food and Scab Acts . Thousands of oak trees had been planted all over the Colony , and thousands more were standing

Rustenber ready for removal at g . A special order had been made to induce the burgher coun c illors to undertake some planting themselves ; and a piece o f land had been given them for this purpose behind the Wij nberg , called the Wolven gat . Constantia was built , homesteads were r dotted over the veld . Wea y of his work , in 16 6 9 Simon van der Stel asked leave to retire . Th e a request was coldly received by the Comp ny . Although we have found and resolved to relieve ” o u o f y the office and rank you have hitherto held , 88 SIMON VAN DER STEL

e runs the d spatch , you are nevertheless to continue in the appointment until yo u ” shall have been replaced by some other person . ’ During the last few years o f Simon s Governor ship several new characters came upon the stage ,

o f r ready for the end the d ama , almost , one might

sa . y, of the tragedy Captain Olof Bergh ’ 1 6 0 i arrived in 9 , a Company s soldier with th rty

five men to strengthen the garrison . The Rev .

Peter Kalden , intimately connected with the f coming di ficulties, was sworn in as minister in the same year, when minister van Loon went for a time to Batavia . The new Secunde Samuel ’ Elsevier, who fell with the fall of the Governor s 1 6 family, arrived in 97. Finally, not without l honour to his father, Wi lem Adriaan , Simon van

’ der Stel s so n eldest , was appointed by the Com pany to the now vacant Governorship o f the Cape o f Good Hope . , o f With great pleasure , runs the despatch 16 8 saw June , 9 , the Governor that you were pleased to appoint as his successor his so n il - a W lem Adriaan van der Stel , ex m gistrate of

him o f Amsterdam , and to promote to the rank n l - Cou ci lor General o f India . For this favour he most dutifully and cordially thanks you . On his arrival everything will be transferred to him , and the Governor will give him the necessary informa i tion in the nterests of the Company, to whose ” favour he continues to recommend himself . 89 OLD CAPE COLONY

r i Simon was now f ee to ret re to Constantia . His individuality was too deeply woven with the life of the Colony for his name at once to drop o f out its records , and to his death it appears

. r again and again But , cu iously , few personal S els traces of the van der t have come down to us . I hear on good authority that a suit of armour belonging to Governor Simon was once in the to dis Cape Town Museum , but it seems have

appeared . One bitter anecdote of the man comes to us from the inimical and inaccurate pen of i fi Peter Kolbe . He took an n nite pleasure in imposing all the fictions and sotteries he could

e . upon ev ry one Having the honour , forsooth , ” to be once (and perhaps in that once is the secret of the bitterness) in his company at his his seat of Constantia, he took it into head to

assure me very gravely, that in a journey from Mo no ta ia a the Cape towards p , he re ched at the distance o f 200 miles a very high mountain ;

where passing the night he ascended to the top , and discovered from thence very plainly that the moon was not so far from the earth as the astro no ’ as mers asserted, for that planet , he said, passed

over my head , the night being very still and clear , I could plainly perceive the grass to wave to and it s . fro, and the noise of motion in my ears You ’ set up for an astronomer and philosopher, said he , What think you of this matter Think , ’ sir , I replied, seeing him very grave and knowing 90

T H E YO U NG ER VAN DER ST EL

T he Yo unge r van de r Ste l

2 1 6 two BOUT noon on January 3 , 99 , shots ’ r were fired f om the Lion s Head , and at sunset the vessels Stad Garden and Drie Kroomm

to . swept on the Bay They were , said the Com ’ “ a n s n l o f p y jour a ist , in a fair state health and ” condition Texel had been left on the end o f the previous September, and their lost was only forty sick and sixty dead . On board was Gover nor Willem Adriaan van der Stel and his wife and

Although the south-east wind commenced to blow very heavily during the evening, the governor and his family were conducted from the ship by the Chief Merchant Sieur Samuel Elzevir and the

. Blesius Hon Fiscal J oan , and landed at the sand l e hills , where he was most civil y receiv d by his ” r m i father and othe members o f Council . The il tary burghers , both foot and horse , had come

r under orders for the same pu pose , and stood in

r i double line . The membe s o f the Counc l who

o fli cers were present , and some of the burgher , 95 OLD CAPE COLONY

i e . returned to Government House ( . the Castle) where they were treated to a glass of wine , and once more solemnly welcomed His Honour . Little did they all think that before eight years n - were passed the you g man , broken hearted and

e m disgraced, would be refused his r quest to re ain ” e on thos shores as a forgotten burgher , and return , shorn of all authority, to the fatherland he had j ust left with so much hope and ambition . as It was not, we know, the first time that Willem Adriaan had stood in the shadow of

Table Mountain . At Good Hope he had entered ’ o r e the Company s service first as assistant cl rk , then as secretary o f the Orphan Chamber . Three years later (1 683) he was acting as Secretary o f his lac aat Council , for signature is on a p forbidding grass to be fired or cattle pastured in Table Valley

above a certain line , marked out by poles bearing C the arms o f the ompany . But he had been for some years in the fatherland, and when appointed His Governor was a magistrate o f Amsterdam . father had arrived at Table Bay Settlement ; the so n returned to a Colony . White walled farms gleamed with their enclosures o n the dis o ak tant mountains, young trees were everywhere t planted ; vineyards and gardens, vi al with the wonderful vitality o f virgin soil made the peninsula a paradise in the eyes o f the tired sea o n farers . Beyond the Wynberg on one side , the other at Hottentots Holland o n the far shore 96 THE YOUNGER VAN DER STEL

’ o f r . False Bay , Company s stations we e flourishing Stellenbosch could almost be called a town : it i had a Landdrost , and the new m nister van Loon had been appointed . There were settlers all along the great and small Drakenstein valleys , to Fransc he Ho ok and the Paarl Mountain ; and two yeam earlier Governor Simon had drafted thirt y of the poorer people h' o m Stellen n e n - a and Drake st i , on to the Wag on m kers,

E W LLINGTON .

Valley beyond Paarl and under the Limietberg ; making the nucleus of what is now the town of

Wellington . A wild enough country even now, s sun burnt pale by the hot outhern , where in the u e n n - l file . fr it s ason baboo s in lo g , sing e parties i make raids on the orchards outs de the town . It has the usual strange fascination of those older

o f ri places South Af ca , the green , cosy, oak t shaded domes ic and European , set in the heart of the dry yellow and pink mountains 97 G OLD CAPE COLONY

The day after his arrival Willem Adriaan was

o n e busy the pier , seeing after the young tr es ’ which he had brought for the Company s garden . h n A few days later , the Commissioners avi g taken ’ o f rt stock all the Company s prope y, the whole was formally handed over to him as Governor ; the drums were beaten , the military and the bur hers g appeared under arms , and the son was his solemnly introduced to the people by father, the ex -Councillor Extraordinary and Governor v an ” f ’ der Stel . During the last ten years o Simon s administration the usual inspections from the Governor-G enerals o f India seem to have been suspended . But a month after the instalment o f his so n the Councillor Extraordinary of India and Inspector of Cape A flairs (they had long ld i o . titles, these offic als)arrived The most interest ing part of his inspection was the decision to take a journey in search of better anchorage for the ships . e dis Eleven years earli r Simon , going by sea, had

’ No w covered and named Simon s Bay . the Com D missioner , aniel Heyns , with the new Governor,

- two the Rear Admiral , two skippers and Council

r o ff o n rn i l o s , started a land jou ey in that d rection . Steep and high mountains were said to intercept

their journey, across which the tracks were so

perilous that they had to walk all the way . Their

cattle became exhausted, their wagons were only got over the rocks with danger and difficulty ;

finally, the boat not being able to reach them on 98

OLD CAPE COLONY

o o ne young G vernor was called in question , and is co nvinced that he aroused the jealo us temper

of the burghers . At this time th e population o f the whole colony 18 222 10 numbered 4 men , women , 3 daughters , 2 60 02 10 95 sons , servants, 7 men slaves , 9 women , 0 and 40 boy and 4 girl slaves . We are told that the wooden pipes which brought fresh water to the ships at the Company ’s wharf below the Fort

had been repaired . It had not been possible to kill the lion who had lurked about the watering place ; later we hear that the same lion seized some cattle near the watch-house and at Roode ” bloem , the house of a freeman about a quarter ’ of an hour s distance from the Fort . The year after his arrival (1 700)Willem Adriaan made a journey to inspect the outside stations of the Company , and the condition and character of l o f the and of the freemen the Tyger Berg, Stellen bosch and Drakenstein . Almost due north from the end of the French Hoek valley , there runs for - forty fiv e miles a long range of mountains . The southern extremity is called the Klein Draken stein mountains , and to the north are the Hawe

' quas these two ranges are opposite the town o f

Paarl . Farther north , and separated from the ’ Hawequas by the pass no w known as Bain s

Kloof, but not yet discovered in these early days, lie the Limietberg mountains . In an almost Elandskloo f straight line , are the , the Vogel I OO THE YOUNGER VAN DER STEL

Vallei Obi ua . , and the Ubiqua or q mountains Some settlers had lately been sent out by the

o f States Holland , and farms were to be given them . Beyond the Ubiqua mountains he discovered a beautiful valley about eighteen ” “ o r twenty hours distant from the Castle It has a breadth of four hours on foot , he says , Roo dez and beyond the , which is merely a steep pass going ov er the aforesaid Ubiqua mount no ains . As these regions had hitherto had

names for Europeans , the Governor named

them the Land o f W av eren . The district is

now known as the Tulbagh valley , but was for

o m l ng called Roodezand . Here the new e igrants u were granted land, and a few men , unsuccessf l

to . in the Drakenstein , were also sent people it

Thus started the third colony of the Cape .

Almost from the first , friction arose between

the burghers and Willem Adriaan . He had brought out with him from the Netherlands quantities of young oaks which were put R n o s into the plantations behind o deb c h . Nex t year twelve thousand were sent from there to l Ste lenbosch , and eight thousand to Drakenstein .

l en To van Loon , the Ste lenbosch minister, was

o f trusted the superintendence tree planting , but because the burghers and farmers would not take

u der proper care of the yo ng trees , van Stel revived u the old reg lations of forty years earlier , which ' imposed twelve months hard labour o n any o ne 10 1 OLD CAPE COLONY

who inj ured a garden or tree . I do not know if

o f was fo r the penalty the law enforced , it was characteristic o f the man to prefer threats to n t pu ishmen . But we find him quaintly sending m o f a picture , drawn by hi self, the punishment of a tree-inj urer to the Landdrost of Stellen o n bosch . It was to be placed a suitable Spot in the most frequented roads to terrify the male ” factor . Indeed eighteenth century punishments were not likely to be disregarded ; for the same offence in 1 740 the punishment was to serve tw o

o f r years in chains as a convict the public wo ks , or to be brought to th e place o f execution and there severely scourged ; while twenty ryks r dollars were given to the informe , whose name s wa to be kept secret . i L ke his father, not only tree planting , but to o f planning of houses , was dear the heart the younger van der Stel . Immediately o n his se t arrival he had about procuring more slaves , and told the director that since the garri son had been reduced nothing could be effected without 16 slave labour . In June , 99 , he had written to the King of Magellage and Prince of Madagascar to remind him of the fri endship cherished for that king by the Directors o f the Company and to hope that his o flicers may be allowed to obtain a large number of slaves . We trust by ” o f the blessing God , he says , in that curious mixture o f piety and callousness which runs 10 2

OLD CAPE COLONY

o f . purpose buying them Some , after the money e e e had been xtort d , w re sent back to the island

e some had b en taken home , and despite the

o f . letters pardon , had been punished by death ” I believe , writes the Governor wistfully , that a profitable trade might be Opened with these it is un people on the island, but most ” christian to go hand in hand with robbers . Enough workmen were probably no w secured certainl y building operations were going on rapidly everywhere . Urgent requisitions were sent to the Directo rs for more building materials : “ three hundred mo re deals for the burghers to save the

fo r forests some time longer, twelve stable and

s fire- hanging bell , and three hundred locks for the

Madagascar slave trade , without which no slaves ” are obtainable . And again , for More Norse n deals and spar ribs for the citize s , whose houses are rapidly increasing . Some o f these hanging l n bells, ornamented and dated , sti l ri g the dinner

- e o f hour in the little roofed bell tow rs the farms . In the o ld days they were used too as bells o f warning , and to attract the attention and secure help o f neighbours within hearing .

Then , as now, the greatest hindrance to pro r gress in South Af ica, next to the want of labour , was the lack of wood and all other appliances . The Governor wrote once that he had not even enough wood to mend the wheelbarrows , and that all building operations had there fore 104 THE YOUNGER VAN DER STEL

difli c ult ceased . The y was no doubt increased by

o f the misfortunes the little colony at Mauritius , soon afterwards abandoned . To the Netherlands

r e c ut Mau itius sent quantiti s of ebony and teak , into blocks in the forests and so shipped, as well as a good deal of ambergris found o n the shore . She supplied the Cape with timber and fuel and

fo r plank beds the slaves , the Mauritius Governor r eceiving orders from the Cape , as did the Cape - from the Governor General of Batavia . From this unfo rtunate island came tale after tale o f disaster

ai o f who i compl nts English ships , , notw thstanding

i wa s no w that Will am of Orange King of England , n left the island showi g, say the Mauritius de “ s atches p , the ordinary English impertinence h ” and their t ievish nature by refusing to pay . Worse tales o f pirates who harassed the Co m ’ an s p y men , hurricanes that destroyed their e hom s and their harvests , and slaves and muti nee rs who had escaped to the surrounding wilds and plotted to regain their freedom by setting fire ’ n to the Company s buildi gs , and putting an end to the whole Settlement . So that probably from this time the wood supply from here came to an end . The first serious quarrel of the Governor with

e the burghers was three y ars after his arrival , and was o n account of the new church . Foundations of a church had been dug in Cape Town thirty

fiv e years before , but they were very bad and 105 OLD CAPE COLONY m s all . Willem van der Stel caused them to be made of a proper depth and shape , and either designed or had the church designed in the shape in of an octagon . For this the Governor , to the

n r dig ation of the bu ghers , appropriated the

A FARM BELL . GROOT CONST NTIA .

funds and legacies o f the church counc il . The burghers contended that the Com pany was bound to provide church and schools free of expense . The Governor, who probably knew that the money was not otherwise fo rthc o m ing , argued that their charity could not be put to a better use . He seems to have been in possession of the the local funds , and church , splendid in its way , 1 0 was finished in 7 4 ; with what heartburnings , the next few years were to demonstrate . A

Coetzee was the first person married in it . 106

OLD CAPE COLONY

Th e e e s e . fully arm d , w re to a semble s parately ffi e Barend r o c rs , Captain Bu chard, Lieutenant F du n e e l Toit, and Ensig G rrit Cloet were al owed t o retain their appointments . But those who

M EE RLU ST E R I I FARM BELL , , E STE R V ER . remained absent without lawful cause were to be fined ten ryks dollars and to be punished at the ’ Governor s discretion . They were seriously

i to o ut e e adv sed carry th se ord rs promptly .

The e e parrot shooting , which had tak n plac

e r e e th e n the h y a ly v r since fou ding of towns ip , 108 THE YOUNGER VAN DER STEL

o f to o o n . r was g as usual As times went , the ule c o n Willem Adriaan was far from severe . His duct to the French settlers was eminently that o f e a a peac m ker , and j udging from the signatures of the protest made in his favour a few years n afterwards , the Frenchmen almost una imously

-fi e r wished him well . Of forty v pe sons had up for marauding and stealing cattle from the Cabu

Kafirs 1 20 f quas or great , more than miles rom t not the Cas le, he writes that he will punish them because of the poor wives and innocent children who would be thrown into great misery . ” Moreover , he adds, with the usual shrewd ness and grasp of ultimate issues of the van der Stel despatches, it was greatly to be feared that as soon as the Fiscal apprehended any of e n them , the r st would flee i land in order to escape punishment . In that case , wood and mountain n l would become entirely u safe , and the we l disposed inhabitants would never be secure o n their farms . But something unfortunate about the man ’ s character embroiled him both with his superi o rs e and the burghers under his rule . His despatch s were full of independent expressions , details of ” ” o f interest collected , as he says out curiosity , and ambitious suggestions which apparently gave n little satisfaction . He was charged with havi g communicated secret messages to others besides

r the commande of the return fleet , who always 109 OLD CAPE COLONY

i e t brought and received certa n s cre orders , mainly connected with the flags to be displayed

n r as sig als, which we e continually changed, the Governor and the Council at home alone know th e ing proposed alteration . The Amsterdam f Chamber, specially charged with Cape a fairs , complained that he wrote meag rely to the Chamber and exhaustively to the Directors—I suppose to

ir individual D ectors . The Governor did not deny these charges , but replied in an extraordinarily has humble tone , as what I have done been over o ut looked, I will take care punctually to carry the orders of the Directors , without departing ” from them in the least . The first open evidence of personal animosity to the Governor was shown by o ne Jan Rotterdam .

’

Under the Company s laws , all burghers were ’ bound to stand up i n church o n the Governor s entry . This J an Rotterdam refused to do . On

infirmities . being questioned, he alleged physical But he was also found to have entered into a ” detestable conspir acy against the Governor .

to He was sent be judged at Batavia, with the unfortunate result that he was looked on by the other malcontents as a martyr . Soon afterwards various changes had to be made in the civil

appointments, with an eye to the vile and faith less conduct and evil intentions of some burgher fi e n Draken of cers at th Cape , Stelle bosch , and as stein , but especially at the two l t mentioned 1 10

OLD CAPE COLONY

Secretary , and Adam Tas and his wife he said instigated and correspo nded with the disaflec ted people . To this communication the Governor n t replied praisi g the conduct of the Landdros , and adding somewhat grimly that th e audacious drummer should be sent to the Castle at Cape

Town , where means would be found in French , r n u as he p ofessed not to u derstand D tch , to make his him acknowledge presumption , and at whose ” instigation he had ac ted . r u w s The excitement o sed a not easy to quell . What had merely been the uprising of a handful of country folk quickly developed into an active combination of sev eral of the richest burghers against any one who supported the van der Stel family . For long they had resented the agri

o f r wh o cultural schemes the Governo , likely enough took little pains to make himself under

r stood , and thought too lightly of thei Opinions f to escape the accusation o insolence . Now the smouldering hatred could find expression . The whole story reproduces on a smaller and humbler

o f scale the attitude the burghers of Holland , a

r few years earlie , towards the house of Orange .

The family was simply too much in the ascendant . Too many o f the van der Stels occupied important ’ fi r positions as Company s of ce s , arriving at the

Cape with salutes and ceremonial receptions . The name cropped up continually in the jour

Lodew k nal . There was y van der Stel cashier

1 12 THE YOUNGER VAN DER STEL

r ri as at Table Bay , a thi d Ad aan is mentioned

o f . Junior Merchant the return fleet Adriaan , o o f Govern r Amboina, younger brother of Willem

ri Ad aan , when he visited the Cape with General

Harman de Wilde to inspect the fortress , was befitted in received as his station , salutes be g fired from the Castle and answered from the ships and on the birthdays of the old Governor bunting was i fi displayed in the Bay , and the h ghest of cials him went out to Constantia to congratulate .

Worse than this, Governor Willem was making efforts to improve the general condition o f the r Colony by the efforts of the individual . Late he wrote through his Council to the Company at home It is clear as the sun that o ur striving must be n a that cor , me t , and wine should be obtainable in ’ the abundance and cheaply , that Company s h . ow ships may obtain enough supplies This , o f ever , is once for all against the interests the

farmers , who will not see it with satisfaction .

They prefer a lazy and jolly life , and to make much out o f small wares if they bred wool

sheep , they would more than cover the loss sus f ained by the fall in the price of meat mentioned

above . Such a man was a dangerous and r uncomfor table Governor . Without much t ouble

o f the burghers prepared papers indictment , got signatures of people who hitherto had been loyal a nd ri to van der Stel his f ends , and forwarded

them to Holland and Batavia . 1 13 OLD CAPE COLONY It was a diffi cult moment for the Council at the

r Cape . They were unable to take any ext eme i measure without perm ssion from the Company , and they knew too well that a prompt answer was impossible . Meanwhile discipline had to be

o f maintained, and some show authority and e ord r . Papers which more than proved his guilt were seized in the desk o f Adam Tas and brought i to the Castle . After del beration it was de cided to send back the chief malcontents to be j udged by the Seventeen Directors in the father 1 06 land . The homebound fleet of 7 carried with

: Huisin it the five ringleaders Henning g , Jacobus van der Heyden , Ferdinand Appel , Pieter van der

Meerlant . Byl , and Jan van Adam Tas had drawn up an accusation illustrated by on gravings o f the unauthorized magnificence o f

o f o f Willem van der Stel , and full anecdotes the

o f . evil conduct the family Briefly , it stated that all the Governor, his father, brother, and his

r f iends had built themselves splendid houses,

r r and the e lived in p incely style , Oppressing the ’ r bu ghers . To build the Governor s mansion o f Ver ele en g g in Hottentots Holland , the best timber

e and the best workmen had b en employed, and the u draught oxen of the b rghers , requisitioned for

e carrying the mat rials, had died of fatigue . Old

Governor . Sim on had unjustly acquired grazing

to land on the Steenberg beyond Constantia, the exclusion o f all other burghers . Frans van der 1 14

OLD CAPE COLONY

the settlers wrongly called zeekoe or seacows . From Paarde Vlei the waters of False Bay are e was e visibl , and Frans said to ke p a watch on e e his r e the shor to nforce ights , b ating and ill treating all who opposed him . The Honourable Company were greatly im s e e e e e men pre s d by th s indictm nts . P rhaps the e e e e e e e sent hom d t ct d , astut ly nough , a c rtain

e the e Fo r j alousy in attitud of the Directors . the van der Stels the catastrophe was swift and 1 0 e complete . In 7 7 a peremptory despatch arriv d

t The r he . e from Company Di ctors , it said, had been unable to discover the guilt o f the burghers n sent home on charge of mutiny . Gover or Willem Adriaan van der Stel was to be recalled to the

e e e the e e fath rland , tog th r with S cunde Elz vir , Starrenbur h n e the Landdrost g , and the mi ist r r Kal den . Frans van de Stel was to have as soon as possible the districts and limits o f the Com ” r n n r pany desc ibed by charter as belo gi g to he . ’ The Company s servants were for the future to Th e build for use and not for show . house of

r l Ve ge egen was to be destroyed .

1 16 T H E A C C U SAT IO N OF W ILLEM A DRIAAN V AN DER ST EL

OLD CAPE COLONY posed that fault would have been found with the Me rlust l house o f the Governor . e is stil a stately i pile amongst the simpler surround ng farms . A ri v er runs through the o ak woods o f the valley beyond where the trees have towered to an immense o n height , though the stony ground round the homestead they are blighted Through Eerste ’ ” o ld River below passes the Company s drift ,

MER ST B B RS RI IE RLU TE . . V R

in which Simon and his wagon once stuck , as he r Meerlust elates in an early despatch dated from . However much the house may have been improved in later years , the ground plan , for a seventeenth e century colonial farm , ind ed , for a farm any

where , is unusual enough . o f the Most the flooring of house is of teak , and there are teak cupboards to the walls and a teak fire-place with a particularly fine fire back and

folding doors , after a fashion found in one other 120 THE ACCUSATION

o ld v house o f the same period . Within , the pa e ment o f small red bricks has worn out , but there is some handsome large square red tiling . About

o f all n are a great number farm buildings , or a mented with emblems o f their use . The forge ’ l it the has imp ements above , carpenter s shop a tool two box , another out building has geese , which ,

r o f . I was told, we e an emblem early rising The

A “ ERL HEN HOUSE T B US T .

- d so hen house is carefully designed and ornamente , are the wine-house and the sheds never was there such an expenditure of plaster curlicues as runs - riot over the walls . Apart , on the wind swept

v o f hill , is the little walled gra eyard the farm ;

within , amongst the overgrown tombs may be Huisin that of g himself . But possibly he was th e old as buried in church at Table Bay, for, we

e one the ro s o f shall see , he grew to b of fp p church 12 ! OLD CAPE COLONY and state ; and his house at Cape Town was be mentioned as particularly handsome , and

r longing to the richest burghe in the Colony . To the end the m an pursued Willem Adriaan with incredible hatred . During the brief period f - o r Mrs . his quasi disg ace in Holland, his wife ,

Huisin i o n g , entered nto a conspiracy her own

i o f account with the m nister Drakenstein , Le

to o f Boucq , who seems have been something a ’ - r lunatic , as well as ill disposed to the Governo s authority . Having to preach o ne Sunday at the “ Cape , he invited his adherents , says the de s atc h i c o n p , to come , say ng they would have a f rti s e r o e o . j divertisement He then , from the pulpit , publicly dismissed the Secretary of J ustice and the deacon with earnest exhortations to the Christian congregation no longer to acknowledge them as members of the same . He interspersed his discourse with many hateful expressions , and fin ally let the congregation sing the last two

1 th c o n verses of the 49 Psalm , to the utmost i sternat o n o f his audience . The wife of Lieutenant Adriaan van Rheede (wh o was apparently now

o ut i e rh sent to inquire into the bus n ss , pe aps as so n o f an old f ri end o f the van der Stels) fainted fromagitation and had to be carried into the house of the sexton . fo r Le Boucq , having been suspended this f o f o fence until the arrival the new Governor, e u a of now wand red through the co ntry, with a p ir 122

OLD CAPE COLONY

Huisin f fi g o fered to con rm her statement by oath , i she was l berated the same day . By this time Willem van der Stel was no longer i responsible for the legislation . But Hu sing was

none the less furious against him . He summoned the ex-Governor before the Council demanding flo rins and payment fo r sheep ; decl ared that rather than keep him a day longer in the Colony he would abandon his claim and l bring it on again in the fatherland, and, fa ling v an into a passion , he swore that the name of der

Stel should be eradicated from the country . o f When the first news came his recall , van der

Stel had refused to believe it . He seems to have been only dimly aware of the anim osity of the

r r burghe s . Thei accusation does not err on i th e . s de of restraint The Governor, it says , is a

o f and o f scourge the land , a tyrant a cause suicides . He envies the prosperity o f the burghers and frequently says that a poor community is ”

. His more easily governed best friends , it e continues, are coarse knaves who live by rogu ry ” “ l his to and theft , a so he lends ears insipid

flatterers o f . people and , being afraid the truth He was accused o f employing more than sixty of the Company’ s servants besides a hundred

v sla es in his own service , and of absenting himself for long periods at Vorgelegen when he should have bee n at the Cape . He harboured run his away slaves, and cruelty had made freemen 124

OLD CAPE COLONY

take their own lives . He had forbidden the wine

his to i trade , kept forests himself, and wh le he and ’ his brother Frans sold their wheat to the Company s s bakers at a high price , they paid no tithe them selves . The family not only grasped all they

e i r o f could , but further d in every way the nte est i their personal fr ends . Several accusations were l o d . made against Governor Simon Finally , a large drawing had been prepared of the Governor 's Ver ele en house called g g whose grounds stretched , said Kolbe (vaguely , but always ready to throw ” he t o f . a stone at the family), in direction Natal

The property, declared the rebels, was more like a small town in the extent of its buildings than the house of a private person . Against Frans van der Stel there seemed to have been even a more inveterate spite . He is as full o f his evil ways as brother, said the accusers , f ” as full o f them as an egg is full o milk . It had pleased this pretended squire Frans to make a beastly coarse and shameless request to a certain burgher, viz . , that it would greatly please the squire and his brother and show great friendship to both if he would give a good thrashing to two ex burgher Councillors (who are men of honour) so ” that they felt it . We cannot help suspecting

n o f Fra s a fatal sense of humour, and he was probably a fantastic person . His little deeds are “ ” a t t m de o u o Monsieur Francois van der Stel . He sent a flippant reply to the Directors saying 126

OLD CAPE COLONY

x c i m of e tra t ng infor ation ; indeed , a Hollander

o f 162 to Am author 4 , referring the tortures at boina , states , whether rightly or wrongly I do not know, that the acts of the Governor there were merely the administration of j ustice according th e u to e laws of the Neth rlands , and arg es that their condemnation by England or any other country where tort ure was not generally used l was inadmissible . Under Wi lem van der Stel o f at the Cape one instance torture is mentioned , o f o f that a man accused murdering a Hottentot , of whom is entered that though’ he confessed a little he confessed nothing at all of what was ” required . One remembers too the audacious

drummer who was ordered to go to , the Castle where means were to be found to make him speak . The Governor was evidently greatly tena c io us o f nd forms , a apt to resent any demon stratio n of respect shown to others than himself .

r His letters are forcible and in a way artless . He e is o ne written to Robben Island in 1 704 We have read your reasons why the day before yesterday you fired five guns at the isla nd when you saw all the flags and pennants flying from

Hamer the passing yacht , as you believed the

r Governor to be o n board . We the efore do not

r blame you , but consider what you did prope and well done . But as regards the mate who had such assurance and boldness under our very eyes ,

i o ur we will certa nly make him feel displeasure , 128 THE ACCUSATION

t him and reat according to his desserts , (so) that neither he nor any one else on board any ship will feel inclined to do anything of the kind again .

You may depend on this . We wish you all

The letter is signed by Willem v an der Stel

is fi . ul alone , and more private than of cial Pet ant ” enough and perhaps terrifying fo r the mate . n Yet , for the life of me , I can ot help believing that there was a good deal of bluster about the sug gested punishments ; and that the man who so loved his far-away farm amongst the mountains

to i to o f as be will ng live there , shorn authority , and released from the companionship of his ” fellow men , had something a little better in him instead o f a little worse than the majority o f the ’ East India Company s officials .

No man can extract sympathy from a company . The Directors replied uncompromisingly that it seemed strange that the Governor should

to wish be a forgotten burgher, and that he was to obey their former commands and to return as soon as the business of confiscation could be ” A s got through . to Frans, the protest , they

o r observed, of the free man colonist , Frans o f van der Stel , about the district and the limits

the Company, and that he does not know in what

fri v o manner he is to depart , appears to us very

lous ; we therefore do not intend to reply to it , only saying we persist in our despatch o f October 129 1 OLD CAPE COLONY

0 1 06 3 , 7 , that he shall leave the Cape and the ’ Company s land, and as soon as possible proceed ’ ” n beyond the Compa y s limits . Starrenburgh had alr eady left Good Hope with the

return fleet . Minister Kalden had prayed to have his so h departure postponed , as to sell his c attels v and goods . Sieur Elze ier had sent in a humble t o f St els . petition , together with hose the van der

to It was refused , and both were ordered embark at the same time as the Governor and his

brother . Nearly a year of suspense and disgrace had been c e endured by the a cused men , and p rhaps when 1 08 the despatch of 7 arrived they experienced , o f with all their bitterness heart , some feelings

o f relief . One o f the last functions at which the o ld Governor Simon and his son were to be present together was the military funeral o f Nicholas o f Welters, the Commander Galle, who had died at sea and was now buried in the church in Cape o f Town . Starting from the house the Captain mil Olof Bergh , the bier was preceded by the itary m with ar s reversed, and pikes dragging, while the coat-o f-arms o f the dead commander was carried f by the lieutenant of the Castle , and a sta f, a pair o f s glove , and a sword sheathed in a crape covered scabbard wer e carried by the ensign . The f co fin was borne by sailors and six merchants, i - and six skippers o f the fleet were pa l bearers . 130

OLD CAPE COLONY

us l o ne q e tion and investigated, but on y unim portant bit o f grazing land seemed to have a doubtful title deed . ’ 6 1 0 d Ablein On May , 7 7, the new Secunde g L rt arrived . anding after dark , he was cou eously received by the disgraced Governor and taken to was the Castle . A few days after he presented to the people on the balcony o f the Castle by l r Willem Adriaan , and instal ed as Administrato and acting Governor . There is just that touch o f human interest about the van der Stel story which makes it impossible for any o ne to remain quite dis passionate . Theal, the Cape historian , has given it against them , and says the Governor merited r his exile . On his return to Amste dam Willem Adria an published a defence in which he

l He g ives a drawing o f Verge egen very like indeed to the one depicted hy the burghers in the Accusa ” T not on the o f m , but same scale grandeur ,

was M ed m am , he , undertaken with a THE ACCUSATION

complete denial to the charges, and a certain amount o f intimidation seems to be the only mis

deed proved against him . Interrogated as to the truth of various thr eats made by him to burghers whose cattle strayed on his grazing land , he quaintly replied by another

mor o ns o r m e a s u re n o w m e o m s c x .

. s s question Would any one po ses ing land , ’ he asked , look with kind eyes when another s cattle came on it and ate up the pasture , leaving his own to die He Spoke of his pain and disgr ace

r t at his recall to the Fathe land, and the des ruction o his of V rgelegen . Of the grievous injury to reputation done him by those who spoke of him as ” i a tyrant , a scourge of the land , and other l ke 133 OLD CAPE COLONY

n thi gs . Above all , of the injustice of saying that he was the cause o f several suicides and that he had by deceit and violence taken away their sheep from some of the people As to the gran deur of the building, he proved pretty conclusively that his house was not really so fine as that of the several of other burghers , who owned in i f add tion large grants of land . That o the

i Wo uter Valkenier in 1 00 Governor, g ven by 7 , was

00 Huisin re 4 morgen in area . Henning g had c eiv ed o from the van der St ls five separate grants , 600 lands covering an area of nearly morgen , and he had encouraged and advised the Governor and the Secunde each to take a piece of land and culti ’ vate it . Moreover , when the Company s ser vants had no land for their requirements and domestic purposes , all , including the Governor , were compelled to buy at the dearest rates their

s . nece sary corn , cattle , wines, and vegetables, etc ,

to from the freemen , besides having depend upon their grace whether o r not they would be inclined to help the Company ’ s servants with all these necessaries, which indeed would be an unbearable burden fo r a Governor and other high placed officers . Perhaps the oddest thing in all this miserable w too o f business was the denial , hen it was late , their own charges , and the plea of ignorance made by the very men who were hounding van Tas was der Stel from the country . Adam 134

OLD CAPE COLONY

2 was signed by 55 men , many of them well known burghers , such as Jacob Vogel , Claus

. Ko tzees Prinsloo, J ten Damme , the , Pieter Vos A s de , Jacob von , Jan Roux of Provence , r the brothers de Villiers, Pieter Jo daan of Cabris

‘ Cabriere Gardiol ( ), Gideon Malherbe , Jean , and o f other the French settlers , besides Louws , v an der Merwes , and many names still found at the Cape . The animosity of the ringleaders persisted to the last . The feeling of irritation , said the.

to Council in a despatch the Directors , was ” v an incredibly bitter . Jacobus der Heyden and Adam Tas at one time decided to return as o in by the same fleet the exiled G vernor , order to represent the cause of those whose i i wrongs were st ll unredressed , and the Counc l confessed they would in no way regret the de parture of the delegates, who were the most passionate amongst them all , who made the greatest commotion , and professed to have ” suffered the most After all , the burghers altered their mind at the last moment and did not go . Tas , as I said , adopted even an apolo ’ getic attitude ; but on the day before Willem s ’ o f departure , by his desire the papers Adam s r desk were again overlooked , and we e found to be full of treasonable matter . Assenbur h had The new Governor, van g , arrived a short time before , received with demonstra 136 THE ACCUSATION

tions h o m the burgher companies o f infantry

and the dragoons from Stellenbosch , while the Company ’ s soldiers were collected outside the

Castle enclosure , trumpets sounding , the burghers

ranged before the gates . From the balcony of t he Castle , assisted by the Honourable Political ” Council , he had made , says the journalist , ” a very affectionate sweet speech . Were the people willing to receive him as their lawful ? r to governor and chief they we e asked , which

u h r Yes . the b rg ers eplied , loudly and joyfully, e u Aft r which the Secunde had given p the keys, i ,and he and all the members of Counc l , with many signs of tender love and affection e r (I quot f om the journal), had wished van Assenbur h g happiness, and been thanked by

his Honour in the sweetest , kindest , and most ” ’ agreeable manner . The Company s men within the Castle and the burghers without fired three u re volleys , answered by the Castle g ns , and o icin s j g were general .

The The last morning came . drums were beaten through the streets to signify that the fleet

o f fifteen ships was ready to sail home . Quietly i his ri enough the ex led man embarked with f ends ,

Frans, who had married one of the Wessels family, leaving without his wife and baby of three l o ld o d . weeks , who followed him later Only

Governor Simon , with what thoughts we do not his know, remained behind to finish days in l 37 OLD CAPE COLONY the sunshine amongst the vineyards of Groot

Constantia . Strict orders had been sent from Holland fo r

n o . the despoili g of V rgelegen The wine house , the slave house , the mill and the cattle sheds t were to be left standing . But the es ate itself was to be divided into allotments for the good

e li of the Company , and the dw l ng house to be entirely demolished . The exile was only

E C V E RG BLRG W TH OLD O TAGON WALL AT . to keep a certain proportion of the v alue on the farm produce .

a no w As you study the house as it st nds , old s comparing it with the drawings and plan , you are convinced that after all the old place was never entirely destroyed . Perhaps his v an enemy , burgher Jacobus der Heyden , who

e bought a good d al of the property, managed in some way to evade the decree . The farmhouse (Boeren-huis) which stood at the far side o f the walled octagonal garden has been pulled down , 138

OLD CAPE COLONY

hangs over the place . Sheets of sunlight , as I saw it , enveloped the house , slanting through gnarled oaks and the small blue-green leaves i of the tower ng camphor trees . Confronted with stitfl - the old drawings , their young y set planta tions and trim orange groves, you realize , with

o f . a throb, the change and march time The open veld of Governor Willem ’ s picture is screened e away by gr at green branches ; the place , and the human passions which haunt it , are dwarfed i i i into ns gn ficance by the lavishness o f nature . Only the mountain t0ps which peer through the mass of foliage are the same as in the days

when the garden was planned , and the oaks of the Company ’s wood beyond were young

saplings ; and the river Lourens, which forms part of the road through which you enter the l curti age , would have flowed clear and brown w then as no .

The story of the van der Stels is ended . Gradually their names dropped out of the Com

’ l Ba pany s rol . Hendrik van der Stel died in 1 22 o f tavia in 7 , president of the College Heem

raden . The last mention of the family in the I can official papers is in 1 740 . The last trace l 1 818 find anywhere in Hol and is in the year ,

Hille o nde when Barbara g van der Stel , wife

o f M nardus 2 . y Ruysch , died at Delft , aged 9 The Cape of Good Hope A lmanac/e and Directory ’ for 1837 contains an Africa n Gardener s and 140 THE ACCUSATION

’ Agriculturist s Calendar, by his Excellency

W . A . van der Stel formerly Governor of the

Cape o f Good Hope . It has rules fo r all sorts o f l agricu tural pursuits . Cabbages were to be

THE BA R“ ” LL AT “ ROW E “ .

sown about the full moon in J uly, August ables with a declining moon , and in September when the moon was full ; regulations are given rmn a i trees for cutting rushes, sowing g , gr ft ng and tending vineyards ; and directions fo r the 14 1 OLD CAPE COLONY

c o f and se . Wh are sheep , fowl , ducks gee ether these are superstitions it is not fo r me to say at least it proves that after more than a hundred years the suggestions o f v an der Stel t he younger were thought worthy o f reprint .

142

Early G rants o f Land

HEN were the farmhouses o f the peninsula and fifty miles inland actually built

At first the question was puzzling . One was instinctively sure that their history had grown with the colony , yet the dated gables are often comparatively modern . Since identifying the freeholds and comparing the design of the gable I forms, have become more and more convinced that it is only the plaster-work as a rule which has been renewed . All these interesting houses have o ld grants o f land dating from the end of the sixteenth century . The earliest example of all is either at Room o r Zwaanswi k 1682 hoop at j farm , granted in , two years before the title deeds of Constantia o f were made out to Caterina, widow Hans Ras , bounded on the east by the land of the

Commander, according to the old deed which was actually drawn up six years later . This

can see early home , from which you and almost

o f hear the thundering breakers Bay Falso , has I 45 x OLD CAPE COLONY

m o a pri itive little gable , typical f what may all be called the parent shape , from which the others are developments, and of which there are specimens in the seventeenth century houses of Holland . It is now used as a barn , but the l woodwork is all of so id teak , and an avenue

l W A A N S W UK .

of oaks consequently leads up to the barn o f stead the later dwelling house . d The colonial builder, whoever he was , esigned - houses one storied, wider, and suited to the vast surroundings o f the veld rather than to the tall narrow streets at home . Their prototypes are more often to be discovered in o ld prints 146

OLD CAPE COLONY titio ned with a screen into a voorhuis or eu tra c - o n n e , and a dining room behind , is, the other hand, suitable to open Spaces , and clearly Batavian in origin ; only that in the latter the open-air stoep o f Table Bay is represented by the covered gallery o r verandah before

' and behind, and the central hall goes by the ” name o f middengallerij. The history o f a new country is practically the history of a few individuals, and it is com

arativ el o f p y easy to trace , through a handful

o f . men , the owners the oldest farms The

fiv e v an ringleaders of the der Stel cabal , the mutinous and malicious people who were removed to the Fatherland , were Henning Huis Ferdinandus ing , Jacobus van der Heyden , Appel ,

Pieter van der Byl and Jan van Meerlant . In the words of the despatch of 1 706 : As before stated , their envy and jealousy are directed against the Company ’s servants who possess

v iz . any land, the Governor, the Second Merchant Blesius Samuel Elzevier, the Fiscal Johan , the minister Petrus Kalden , the captain , Olof Bergh , - the cellar master, Jacobus de Wet , and the ” chief surgeon , Willem ten Damme . Starting

with those men and with their friends, we come to o f nearly all the best the old freeholds , with the exception o f those granted to the French l settlers, and occasiona ly to the forgotten history l f o f old names and o d divisions o land . 148 EARLY GRANTS OF LAND

’ Let us first take the Company s men and

Frans van der Stel . No doubt some houses have been lost sight of by reason of the co n ’ fiscatio n of property held by the Company s o fi f f cers at the time o the van der Stel exile . - Jacobus de Wet , the cellar master, would have been obliged to relinquish his farm o n the i s L e beeck River . Possibly it was the inter

: esting house Valkenberg gabled, with walls and gates like the earliest homesteads ; na med

Valkenier too , evidently , after Commissioner , ’ f which he , as a Company s o ficer , could have done . More land at Tiger Vlei , in the Cape G district , was granted him by overnor Willem 1 0 I in 7 4 ; it must , think, have been near by . Willem ten Damme had a modest enough farm at Oliphants Kop in the Koeberg ; you may see it any day on the road to Malmesbury , under - the shelter o f an odd shaped little hill . Fiscal Blesius n , though he was accused of receivi g ’ bribes from the Governor s friends, seems to have escaped without reprimand , and there is no ’ mention of his farm at Simon s Vallei passing away from him . The homestead , called after the elder van der Stel who granted it , was one of “ the most considerable of the time . Together - Huisin with the house of g , said Governor Willem , was it larger and higher than his own . The long white walls are spread out with a kind of grandeur on the stretch o f land between Klap 149 OLD CAPE COLONY

muts and the kopje of Babylons Toren , or Tower , and show what a large space was enclosed, though they now encircle an altered and modernized house . Captain Olof Bergh had bought the old ’ Company s station o f the Kuylen across the 1 0 1 flats (Kuils River). It was sold in 7 , to gether with Elsjes Kraal and a good large ” “ shed , and considered to be about four hours ” from the Castle . Elsies Kraal is about twelve miles out one has to imagine the bullock carts ploughing over the sand and the brushwood at three miles an hour . The Kuylen consisted only of an old homestead , with two fairly good ” no sheds and an earthen kraal , and certainly trace of any old house is left . I do not know if the present Elsenberg , Sieur ’ Samuel Elzevier s house , represents the building of the exiled Secunde the splendid house ” o f which the mutineers Speak so much . It had v an been granted him by Simon der Stel , and was doubtless fine enough from the first , since it caused so much jealousy . The Accusation asserts that he had included within his domain ’ some of the Company s gra zing land at Klap muts . Later it was much altered and built i over but the mill belongs to the t me of Elzevier ,

’ and is mentioned in the Company s Journal . Although a later writer speaks of the walled so as river, wonderfully picturesque it lies below old the house , being made at the end of the 150

to improve it . But the plan of the place is

probably that of Sieur Samuel Elzevier . The

name is not unknown in England, since the Government of the Cape have taken over the l farm as an agricultural co lege . o f Zandvliet , the house minister Kalden , lies on the edge of the sandy veld between the sea Hi . s and Hottentots Holland land , Jacobus van

der Heyden the caballer asserted , should have n belonged by right to the church at Stelle bosch , and on those grounds minister Le Boucq was m greatly concerned against him . Ad iral Stav o r

inus , who collected the gossip of sixty years later, says that Kalden was exceedingly unpopular ; in he was deed , accused of asking , what he would do at the Cape if the Governor and Secunde were ” not there He occupied himself, says the ” his his Admiral , more with farm than pulpit .

Once when preaching at the Cape , he stopped in his sermon o n hearing several heavy carts go by ”

. l the church Prithee , my friend , cal ed he to see n the clerk , look out and if that is my wi e i passing . The oldest build ngs of the farm were being pulled down the very day I had made a pil grimage to draw them . l ] The two freeho ds of Frans van der Stel , Pare 15 2 EARLY GRANTS OF LAND

Vallei n n , according to Valenty withi sight of the stoep or bal cony o f Vergelegen (this evidently while the thickly-surrounding trees were still

Paarde Vallei young), and , set in a fold of the Heldeber g , are both beautiful spots . The second house is certainly very old as the Colony counts ag e ; the woodwork in the earlie r part of the building is of teak , the slightly later additions - I are in colonial yellow wood . hear that the

T M K PA A RD E VA LLB I OLD DOOR AT . house has gone through a period of improve ment since I saw it . It commands one o f scenery the glistenin g sand o f the shore and the

li in r rol ng breakers full view, while oak t ees stand

o f about the enclosure , and a panorama blue

u n ou . i Stav o rinus mo ntai s surround y Adm ral , travelling thither at the end of the eighteenth w s ur a Vos . cent y , kindly received by the owner de m l ” i It a ready dark , says the Adm ral , when 153 OLD CAPE COLONY

we arrived , and five of us came in together . We received a hearty welcome from this hospit b m a le country an , and were soon as easy and familiar together as if we had known each other all our lives . We observed no derangement or extraordinary bustle in the family on account o f so many unexpected guests . A good supper o f r nine dishes, and comfo table separate beds for o f t each us , proved that we were not the firs people who had experienced the hospitality of these honest people It was strange to find on o f - n one the window pa es, amongst a collection of old names , that of De Vos , clearly enough cut . If gr ants made to the French settlers are ruled

I all o ld out , think the other fine houses belonged S ls to enemies o f the Van der te . Adam Tas had owned his farm near the Papagaiberg at Stellen since 1 68 bosch 3 , three years before the building

o f of Constantia , and it is therefore one the is oldest houses . He said to have named it “ ” Libertas on his successful return from trial

in the Fatherland , after he had brought about

the disgrace of the men he hated . Much of the house was rebuilt some ninety years later and is

l . dul to look at But the hall , lighted by small - set teak. do o red deep windows , with a fireplace Meerlust like that of , teak beamed roof, doors

and flooring , is evidently the original room . Here , hatching the movement against the unlucky w En lebertus Governor, together ith the godly g 15 4

OLD CAPE COLONY was probably on this stoep facing the mountains o f Huisin that many years after the time g , when the English took possession of the Cape , General sat Janssens gloomily , with bitter thoughts in his heart of the Waldeck allies whose desertion had lost him the day at the battle of Blaauwberg . To e him appeared the captain of this very regim nt , for the purpose o f making some futile apology . But his intentions were frustrated by the em G o f bittered eneral , who in a fit passion kicked him from the top o f the steps to the bottom .

In the time following , when Colonists were required to take an oath o f allegiance to the

M b r f M lus . u h o eer t English, Mr y g , the owner , who was - li strongly anti Eng sh , absolutely refused i . h s to conform In protest against protest , a com pany of dragoons were then quartered on him . o l But the clever d farmer knew his men . His hospitable South Afri can spirit would probably have rendered him incapable of rudeness even to u a compulsory g est , and he gave a warm invita tion to the newly-married wife o f the captain of the dragoons (Captain Story by name) to come i his . and stay at house But in addit on , he threw i open the contents of his cellar to the sold ers , and treated them so royally that they became his n n devoted slaves , worki g in his vi eyards , and seeking their orders from him rather than their so l x . n a captain At last the discipli e became , so and the situation absurd, that the men had to 156 EARLY GRANTS OF LAND

be removed ; and we do not hear that the o ld gentleman was ever forced to take the oath which

he so bitterly resented .

o ne o f Jacobus van der Heyden , the five chief

malcontents, had a house in Table Valley not far ll . His Ov erv e en from the Castle farm was , in the Berg River, but though entered in the book

“ B E RL US T . B E RS TB RIVl B R .

o f I . freeholds , could not trace it anywhere Per

haps the name has been altered . Guilliam du ’ ” Toit s farm , Aan het Pad, at Stellenbosch is - now called Cloetesdal . The present well known

o f Meerlust farm , in the Drakenstein , where a colony of young Englishmen fruit -farm under d the most approved metho s, was once that of the l l Die enaaw 1 6 cabal er C aas p , granted him in 93 v an De by Simon der Stel , and by him called I S7 OLD CAPE COLONY l Enzaarnheid o r l . , the So itary J an van Meer and had been granted by Willem Adriaan the farm o f Meerendal in the Tygerberg, three miles north ’ l d Urban east o f the modern vi lage of . The - no w district was then wine growing, but is corn i produc ng , and somehow, perhaps because I hap pened o n less attractive people than in the other

r . divisions, the country seemed to lack cha m The

V RE D EN B RG E N O D DE RG A T B IN TH .

old house is quite modernized and ordinary , but

the the view from it is superb, and as you gaze at i roads, st ll sandy, and crossing drifts whose stony

beds may upset the unwary , you marvel at both the energy and the leisure o f these eighteenth century men who appear to have met so often

and from such distances . Moddergat district was at one time cut o fl from the v e Stellenbosch by ri r, and though Willem

v an l no t s der Ste built a bridge , it was afterward 158

OLD CAPE COLONY

o f e the peak the Helderberg , enclos d in its long l 1800 . is white wal s The gable modern , dated , and very like the gable added to Parel Vallei in l m the same year, serving we l to show the s all alterations in detail which give to the houses , all so li i . a ke , a special ind vidual interest The stables,

n ho uws e iv in wi e and slav are old, and l e

t as o f o f e s tradi ion the one the slave murd r , was i for here the owner, it is k lled in cold

3 0 111111. AC W E LMO BD PL E , . blood and the body hidden in the stables discovered later by the family . Wessel Pretorius owned a lar ge farm at Eerste

o n Rivier . Here e of the petitioners against v an ” not der Stel signed after a jolly day, but did quite know what was meant by it , except that it ” was for the good of the public . In the original lm is . W e oed book of freeholds the land unnamed , set it may have been , amongst mellow old build n o ne o f i gs , with near by the quiet little grave yards which are so strange and touching to the 160 EARLY GRANTS' OF LAND

u o f E ropean , but which are a matter course in

e -o ff Ver enoe d a lon ly , far place . Or maybe g g

o f Meerlust (close to the house ), whose walls tell brightly against the blue distances o f the flats

facing Table Mountain . The little enclosed garden here is extraordinarily pretty in its quaint n f o f formal desig , shut in from the bu feting the

VE RG E NO EG D .

winds that sweep over the plain . There is a charming archway to the stables here and indeed each of the houses hav e some Special variation of

the usual scheme , which makes it delightful to

the eye . Gateways specially form a feature in for this simple ar chitecture . They are built

the pure joy of building , and are as non

utilitarian as the triumphal arch o f the ancients .

16 1 1. OLD CAPE COLONY

Fo r li o f these dwel ngs the Cape , even of the early o f days the eighteenth century , really belong to a

o f remoter past , to the days slavery days when it was no object to the worker to scamp his work and get o n to a new jo b or to the master to squeeze the maximum amount o f labour o ut of f the smallest outlay o time . So that with that

o f ri o ne curious factor in them the sac fice of some , which seems to underlie all success however apparently easy, they will be , as long as they are f r su fered to emain , a perpetual pleasure to the

r to Geduld, g anted Ferdinand Appel , was near

r . by , but there seem to be no emaining buildings Later he was to make large sums o f money from a right to put up houses of accommodation at o f the warm springs Hottentots Holland (Caledon), m l very si ple arrangements indeed, as the trave lers tell us . the so - Jan Rotterdam , first called victim o f the the exiled Willem Adriaan , had a farm in

Bo ttelari ri t j, the dist ct called by Kolbe a vas desert lying between the Capian and the Stellen ” sc hian him bo Colonies, granted to by the too Governor . When the freehold was made out it d was unnamed ; so I o not know which house it is .

Itlis not quite certain that he remained at the Cape . ” - n The ex Burgher, Cou cillor J an Rotterdam , says o f 1 0 a despatch 7 7, has returned from Batavia and requested permission to remain here a 162

OLD CAPE COLONY bining with the English against the Dutch

Company at Java . He lived under surveillance ’ o f at the Company s station Eerste Rivier, and was buried amongst the sandhills of the coast o f

f o f . Bay Falso , beyond the arm Zandvliet To his tomb the Malays of the Cape still make pilgrimages , o f n cart after cart full wome , bright as tropical flowers in their clothes o f gr een and pink and c purple , clean and star hed , and men with keen intelligent faces , those with silken coats and

v r turbans ha ing made the pilg image to Mecca . But whether the bones of the Sheik are there still in reality who shall say ?for when in the year 1 704 Joseph ’ s widow and children were allowed at the o ft-repeated request o f the King of Macassar ’ to leave the Cape , the Company s Council , under Wi llem van der Stel , wrote cautiously, Should they be willing to take under their care and

o f carry with them the bones that same priest , we

n o ur shall allow it to pass by, shutti g eyes and ” doing as if did not it .

164 ST ELLENBOSC H

OLD CAPE COLONY

t n and in the seventeenth century . The moun ai s ,

o r blue and opalescent , pink with sunset , are the

r r old same . The ordina y g owths of the veld

are there the protea or sugar bush , that curious

plant which belongs , I believe , to the coal period r and is found in fossil growths , beloved by bi ds

who strew its great pink blossoms on the ground , searching for the sweet within ; the bamboo-hke w plants of the atercourse , which bend and rustle as the scarlet fink flits in and o ut of his nest

r ove hanging the water . Perhaps there were more puff adders and yellow cobras (it is ex trao rdinary how little yo u think o f them nowa in days, and all I ever saw were dead the dust

of the high road), and the wild animals abounded . Simon van der Stel would have seen buck and

zebras and elephants, while the baboons would

o have been m re numerous and courageous , and the le0pard more often come down the scored

o side of the mountain t look for his prey . Here the Commander made up his mind to w found a to nship and to call it by his name . It ” r should be worthy of the fathe land , he wrote

o o to the Direct rs , asking their sancti n for his new

r0 o sal p p ; rather a cheap bit of sentiment , for he cared so little about the fatherland that he never returned to it but no do ubt a wise co n

r cession to their jealous spi it . For his suggestion was a ho ld one and quite outside the scheme o f the Company . 168 STELLENBOSCH

was no Lack of energy fault of the Commander, and the scheme was put into action at once

r pe haps without permission . Land was given ’ free to such of the Company s servants as would brave the dangers of wil d beasts and the attacks of Hottentots, and three years later a Municipal ' Council (in o ld Dutch a Heemad or farm

n . 1 682 Cou cil) formed In the next year, ,

E S E L E S A GAT IN T L NBO CH .

a school was built . Theal gives several anec dotes of the early life at Stellenbosch , and tells us that the Company supplied the masons and l nai s for building the School , and the farmers gave the materials . The instruction consisted in learning to read the Bible , to count , to say

to the Heidelberg catechism , and sing psalms to the tunes co mmonly used . At Christmas

r the Company gave p izes , and the Commander 169 OLD CAPE COLONY

bestowed a ca ke on each child . The better the As all child the larger was the cake . in the early colonies, the question of religious instruction was i much fought over, and religious leg slation was ri cu ously detached from all rules of conduct , s n and wa anythi g but an element of peace . At

first there was no church at Stellenbosch , but the minister from the Cape officiated there from time to time and a sick visitor was appointed

r . n to ead the service on Sundays The parso age , ” said to be the pretty house called La Gratitude , was 1 0 i i finished in 7 4, and M n ster Bek was the l first to ive in it .

R klo f v an - o f When y Goens , Governor General the Indies , stayed at the Cape on his way from c Batavia, he went to Stellenbos h , and advised n the settlers to plant flax , hemp, and i digo ; but none of those were suitable for the c limate . o Tobacc growing he forbade , as the Company made a profit over its sale . We next hear of its inspection by van Rheede tot Drakenstein , who authorized it to have a Landdrost (old Dutch i for Mag strate); with two Europeans , a horse ,

. was and a slave , to assist him The Landdrost given a good many powers, and might impose taxes o n the inhabitants and compel the burghers o to supply wagons , cattle , slaves , or their wn personal labour for public purposes . A mill was also to be built to grind corn . Then it was that the Commander named after v an Rheede 170

OLD CAPE COLONY an early date Speaks o f the houses built for l outward Show, and certain y the ironwork which is so admirable in this and Drakenstein — district shutter hinges, clasps , and handles ’ was made by the Company s smith at Stellen bosch to save the trouble and expense of bringing “ fo r it from the Cape . The town was many years hardly more than the nucleus of a district . A few of the French settlers , as

R A K E HI NG BS . SHUTTE , STELLENBOSCH AND DR ENST IN

fo r know stopped there , but the most part the French settlers were moved o n to the newer and poorer districts in the Drakenstein and beyond

Simonsberg . The power of the Landdrost extended into Drakenstein . Thus we find a letter from i 1 0 i the Counc l in 7 4, say ng that the freeman Daniel Hugo d had complained o f a Hottentot m kraal near his vineyard, and da age caused to 172 STELLENBOSCH

to it by cattle ; and o f a dispute caused by Hercules du Prée assisted by Pieter Becker ” D m and Francois du Prée . Landdrost it ar was to inquire into this ; and in Hu od of blows given to g Becker, the

o u u r rw nz s o u r 1704 .

latter to be told to leave for Mauritius by e s the n xt hip . It is difficult to realize that in the days when Lm ddrost Starrenberg listened in consternation I 7S OLD CAPE COLONY to the unruly drum o f the rebels against Willem i van der Stel , the heav ly shaded streets were

o ak merely planted with saplings . Walking under the dense leafy shade of trees whose protection made so much for the unpopularity o f o ld o u the Governor , y understand how Em e m rson , who lived in a country with a Short

o f past , would rank amongst his men heroic ho mind the man w plants trees for posterity . The place has figured so largely in the history o f Stels h l the van der , t at there see ms litt e else to l the te l ; indeed , save for many fires , its annals 1 have been quiet enough . In 710 all the Co m ' pany s property and twelve houses were burnt ; ten years later another fire destroyed the Dro sdt e y where an East Indian xile , the Matheran

Prince Loring Passir, was being detained by the o in C mpany . After this we again hear the journal that the people were rebuilding and improving e the houses . The little arsenal or watch tow r marked with the V . O . C . of the Company is said to be a considerable age . It bears the 1 i late date 777, but th s may have been put on when the more modern market house was built round the earlier structure . It is the date o f Governor Tulbagh , when we hear Stellen bosch was improved and that Heemraad Mart in Melk (the same who built the Lutheran Church in Cape Town) altered the course o f the

i . t i river, wh ch had flooded the village Wi h n 174

OLD CAPE COLONY century and as the modern Theological College presents an unattractive facade to the o ld-world

o f At Stellenbosch , the pet child the Com

e mander, there was a sp cially organized fair, when the l was e mi itia drilled . The targ t practice i wh ch demonstrated the burgher skill , played an important part in the disturbances o f later years . The marksmen shot at a target which h Pa e aai was s aped like a parrot ( p g ), and the hill j ust to the west o f Stellenbosch is still called ld Papegaai Berg . A good description o f the o Was custom is given by Theal . The great prize

f r aai o the entire smashing of the Papeg . It was £5 from the Honourable Company and

- whatever subscription money there was o n hand .

This fair was a yearly function , wagons of e visitors went up to it from the Cape , join d , when

r ships we e in the Bay, by as many sailors as

could . get leave . Uproarious parties they must n have been , shouti g as they jolted across country l in in their heavy carts, and braw ing the quiet

village street . From the farms about here has come much

n to o fine old fur iture , spoiled often by the de l i predations of the ped ar, who once on a t me persuaded the owners to sell him the silver

handles and mountings , keyhole escutcheons ,

. r ri and hinges The settlers we e ch enough , and we hear in the papers o f a robbery in 1 707 where 176 STELLENBOSCH m R ore than a hundred yks dollars , a silver purse h with eig t diamonds, a silver mounted belt ,

E E S E E S V RY OLD HOUS IN T LL NBO CH .

n wi - r an u der waistcoat th twenty four silve buttons, sixteen buttons with silver plates , and other minor things , were stolen from an inconsiderable I7? I! OLD CAPE COLONY

l has house. Blue and white Orienta china been u found in the gabled ho ses around , here , too , the handsome brass charco al burners for warming f m ” cof ee , and the comically assive cuspidores

o r o f . spittoons brass Nooitgedacht , not far o ff has , a good rather late curved gable and a

fine hall . It is said to have once been a manu factory or workshop of the beautiful Cape

furniture . Many locally historic houses are ll i l o f . Va e o d about Idas , the home the Cloete

Co etz n r o f e . e be family g , the farm Dirk Coetz e , who joined the mutiny ag ainst Willem van der

. Vallei 1 08 Stel Mulders , belonging in 7 to Landdrost Mulder (he seems first to have been

granted Welv ernoegd in the Paardenberg). 168 Aan het Pa, given in 7 by the elder van der Stel

to the rebel Guilliam du Toit . It is recorded that o n ’ passing the door o f the Company s Secretary at l o ut Ste lenbosch he called , If you wish to have some fatherland line with which to make halters i o urself I one for hang ng y , have ready at my ” - house . Further off to the south east lies o nkers J Hoek , known in England from the G r overnment t out farm in the valley . Here , in 1 1 r 7 5 , was a g eat flood , when a waterspout burst

de o nkers in the mountain behind Jan J farm , and the swirling water tore o ut the banks o f and n o f the river, thousands of to s soil from l the vineyards , fi ling the holes with drift sand .

The houses of the village were damaged , says 178

OLD CAPE COLONY

branches . Also he says , the most excellent house o f the Landdrost is guarded by two vener ” tav o n able oaks . Admiral S ri us speaks of the handsome iron gate to the circular churchyard . I have often wondered where the o ld gates have gone which almost certainly belonged to the n many beautiful gateways . I do not thi k

EE S E E SC . A SHADY STR T . T LL NBO H o ne o r now exists, either at Stellenbosch anywhere else . If yo u arrive at Stellenbosch at two or three

’ o f r e r n o clock a summer afte noon , an xt aordi ary stillness reigns . The whole town is asleep shutters

do o f are closed , hardly a g barks , the rustle the heav y leaved branches and the tinkle o f stream is lets are the only audible sounds . It said that a Stellenbosch burgher consulted his doctor for 180 STELLENBOSCH

m i on inso n a, and being asked at what hour of m s f is the night he o t su fered, exclaimed It not sufler at night that I I sleep well at night . But ” nowadays I cannot get to sleep in the afternoon . n I do ot know if the story is true . As afternoon o n l D . a wears , the s eepers awake y cools to the f fresh South African evening, co fee and pipes appear on the stoep , and through flickering tree shadows the sunshine o f the afternoon Slants - low . Alas for the time when the old world life shall have disappeared with the gable and the stoep o f the old-world builder ! for they i are disappearing . Never aga n will you find t a bet er expression of the past , a quaint every ai day past , forgotten of history and l d aside by the trend of modern thought , as in these little townships built by a northern race , developed under a southern sun , apart from fashion and jostle , without the great ambitions which for the most part make for misery . So that for a brief time the new-comer feels as one carried awaie ” by the fairies into some pleasant place .

18 1

D rakenstein and Frenc hho ek

RAKENSTEIN , wrote Governor Willem “ v an is der Stel , a bad and watery

“ c ountry where people live too near each other and ” cannot get on . The sentence reads quaintly

- so n enough to day , when many a tra slucent n h plum and smooth nectari e , whic make Covent G o f arden Market in winter a thing beauty, ripen ou r their sunburnt faces in the district . As y d op over the long hill from Stellenbosch you leave behind you many charming houses with twisted o fo r chimneys and curved gables , with bell towers i their old hang ng bells houses with high stoeps , finks shaded by oak trees, where weave their

hanging nests and chatter in the branches . Schoo n ezi t its g g , with peach trees and violet n o ne beds, the farm of Mr . J . X . Merrima , is of t n the most at ractive of those quiet homes , baski g set in the golden sunshine , in a panorama of n mou tain peaks, faintly outlined one behind the

other . You are now entering what Kolbe in the eighteenth century called the district of Bange 185 OLD CAPE COLONY

H l i n oek or Fearfu Corner . It s freque tly ” infested, he says, with lions and tigers, and leads you on the edge of precipices and pits of h . is t e . the i water True it that Rev Bek , m nister l c o f from Ste lenbosch, omplained very bitterly

S CH OO NG BZ IG T . having to go over this same track to o fficiate to f the French congregation o Drakenstein . It was off the three hours , he said, and hard work in cold so and wet , and when the roads were slippery and full of mud holes . But you must dream yourself back for a moment into the days of the first settlers in Groot Draken 186

CAPE COLONY

l fur portance . A litt e ther down the pass (you are now about ten miles from Stellen

from Cape Town) you come to Rhone and Languedoc in the heart now of the fruit

valley . This freehold was granted in 1 69 1 to Pierre Beno zzi ; probably the Pierre Benezet o r Beno zzi t who , together wi h Pierre Sabatier (the latter a notable Hugue not name) received 1 70 guilders from the 6 1 0 . E Batavian gift of 9 GOOD HOP . Th e beautiful little is n r house , like ea ly all the country houses , planned with a long central hall running i from front to back , with wings on each s de .

These leave an open space in the centre . The sit space forms a little court , where you may at peace though the wind booms like great guns in the mountains . Like many of the finer houses , o f can Rhone has a central screen teak , which be pushed back at will , and the whole length of 188

OLD CAPE COLONY

the house made available . In Lutheran days the

halls were used for dancing and general festivities . t A mile further on , according to the regula ion of the Company, is Bosch en Dal (wood and valley).

Here the screen is inlaid with ebony in fan patterns ,

i o f which give it someth ng a Chippendale air . all The great stoep runs round the house , with

S SE TH E U UAL PLAN OF HOU IN COUNTRY . circular steps leading to the garden and vineyard

e o ld a r below, and the wine hous and sl ve qua ters

. e form , as usual , a second courtyard behind Onc , before the days o f the orange disease (the dol thesia f , a flu fy white scale to look at), the garden here was full o f orange trees . Vines replaced the oranges . Then came the vine disease , the phylloxera, and destroyed the vines . It is the in h t brief history of many a farm t is dis rict . But I 9O

OLD CAPE COLONY

16 8 8 . is 1 1 2 . 4 The gable late , and dated These i three houses are amongst those bought , with the r land, by Mr . C . J . Rhodes as fruit farms .

8 05 C “ EN DAL STOEP .

’

Lekkerw n . Pic ks to ne s Within sight is y , Mr m farm , a little house finely odernized , full of Colonial -made furniture and blue and white 19 2 DRAKENSTEIN AND FRENCHHOEK

Oriental china . Long ago it belonged to Ary Lekker w n y , whose pleasant name of good wine 16 0 has stuck to the place . His grant was in 9 , and we know no more of him than that he married the Lano Bo sc h ndal one of de ys of e near by , and that the Frenchman , Jacques de Savoye ,

R F R I R A RAK I A E A DOO U N TU E T D ENSTE N ND TH C PE . mentions in a letter that Ary had been struck in on the head with a stick Drakenstein .

Without appearing to exaggerate , it is not easy to describe the extraordinar y impression of beauty l the these o d farms make upon newcomer . At the first introduction no one could have been less inclined to appreciate them than myself. 193 14 Dust ho t tired bic clin on a lo ose sand road y, , , y g y , wi t e e e h a gusty wind swe ping ov r the v ld , i no rant o f the histor o f l o ne after the g y the p ace, o ther white gablos and lo ng low walls oame into

im s lit m an fields of mortelle , by so e ch ce spark, burning thems elves out in lonely splendo ur against

detail of the ho usos the lo were d sc re ens the t , , ea k

a and crutch h ndles . Leav ing on yo ur right Meerlus t with its old ables a few miles fnrther ou co me to li g , y the ttle

called after the firs t French minister P , ierre

OLD CAPE COLONY

to remain a branch o f the Stellenbosch congre ” gation . Permission for a church was conceded that the Colonists were sepa d rate . But likely enough they never waited for

Do m G LB a m t . m o m AB .

as t o to was leave , the injunc i n live apart the A church of some sort , probably en was c r nl sorry barn m tioned by Kolbe , e tai y remains : pilm of small red bricks near what is 1¢ DRAKENSTEIN AND FRENCHHOEK

. Sirnond the m ev entu now the high road , inister,

ll c . a y returned to Fran e Marguerite de Savoye , old who daughter of the turbulent Jacques , by his demands and his discontent was a continual thorn o f G in the flesh overnor van der Stel , married a

a rea E DONN . man entitled variously by the schoolmaster as

Seniemen , Seni l I . t man, and final y Sm]man is a pleasure to find that Paul Roux o f Orange mastered the name at last . The second van der Stel certainly made great f e forts to support the French , which must have t h con ributed to his disfavour with the burg ers . In I 97 OLD CAPE

1701 Simond returned h< was sent out by the Con Willem Adriaan writing o f tion Drakenstein , who a hundred adult and man ” o f number children , mi; the new minister, the departure o f their minist so entirel are , to speak , io us g services, and the who tal Hendrik Bek , has Sirnond and is well verse has been ordered by you 20th 1 01 September, 7 , to

a ' language , though the g not know o ur language as advised and comforted . most humbly prays, and himself able to preach tl own language once a fort able to refrain from wri a their pressing request , to your usual kindness t to make some alteratio : ” lighten it . I do no t find in any suggestion that French ff b di erent colony, and I

. the Drakenstein . Eight had decided that it was 5 I S

OLD CAPE COLONY

one gr eatly may it increase the prosperity . Yet has regrets ; the eternal regret fo r the thing that

is passing . Only a very short time ago in entering Frenchhoek you entered an earlier century with its quaintness and its hi charm . No doubt t ngs

had changed even then . The cattle no longer went to Saldanah Bay a for winter pastur ge , looking forward restlessly on to their journey, and the road lying at night like docile children round

the camp fire . Soon , h m l per aps, the far er wi l no longer press his own his wine , be vineyard only the size o f a dining n PO IIEG RA N ATES A FRENCHHO E K table , and the jolti g T . carts will rattle no more

from the grape rows to the little wine houses .

are The present houses charming, but the shelters of the first settlers were hastily built and

. T h poor hey cut their way through the bus es , and chose indeed one superb site after another

200 DRAKENSTEIN AND FRENCHHOEK

but it would have been difficult to do otherwise , there was little time and money to Spend on the

adornment o f the sheltering walls . Hence you will find near most of these graceful little houses

the remains of an earlier ruder erection . Three o f the finest houses are on sites granted to the

’ m l L Abri (com on y called ),

surrounded by great oaks , with teak ceilings and floors to the dwelling rooms , teak china cupboards let into the

walls . Alas l the thatch as is gone , it will soon

o n go everywhere , account of the heav y insurance asked for it and with the thatch down in most e o f cas s , for want a little l l care and a itt e knowledge of how to do things , l comes the o d gable . N m the mountain side are Burgundy and u e o f Da phin , the farms Pierre and J acob de

Villiers . The men were married respectively to Mar arithe Gardio l e g , whose fath r owned La Cotte , o f is and Elizabeth Taillefer, whose farm Picardie mentioned by eighteenth century travellers as very l and well cared for Behind the

are the ruins o f the first building .

20 1 OLD CAPE COLONY

D e l i a s 1 800 . auphin , fine and ornament , dated has It is surrounded by huge trees , and a tall

nao r nmé. c res hich s yp s must date from the earlie t times . i - Burgundy, a quaint l ttle barn like house with 202

OLD CAPE COLONY

over in his pocket from the sunny land of France .

' BOC IIEN HO UT S I‘LOO I .

A few years ago descendants o f Daniel Hugo d l e lived there ; he , you wi l find , was grant d Zion G farm in the Drakenstein by overnor Simon . 204 DRAKENSTEIN AND FRENCHHOEK

to renchhoek Another farm, where the visitor F ” l or T most often stays , is ca led Keer Weder, urn ” Back , after the name given in discouragement by the weary pioneers to the mountain which barred their progress . all the old furniture has passed away

. s c ted chairs An intere ting old hair ,

E VIEW ACROSS FRE NC HHO K F ROM LA COTTE . evidently one of those carved by Indian or Mal ay

a . exiles at Robben Island, belongs to one f mily i a G This, with a little fine old ch na and a gre t erman

s find . Bible, were the only relic I could By reason of their history it is unlikely that the French fugitives ever owned so much furniture a l f the Dutch Co onist , and the miniatures and snu f d boxes of which I heard have been sold or disperse , s and I think were not very numerou . More is s strange the total lack of tradition , for tho e old 205 OLD CAPE COLONY

ee e n al e e refug s should hav had stirri g t s to t ll , and from two or three hundred years is not an unpre

is r li cedented record . But poverty a g eat o b t ’ erator the n ul e was e e e . , and Compa y s r s v r Already is 1782 the French traveller Le Val liant could find no trace of nationality save in the hair

e n the e e hi was li and compl xio s of s ttl rs , w ch s ghtly

a e n e ne and in e d rk r tha th ir Dutch ighbours , th ir

e e e e the e br ad, which th y mad aft r Fr nch ” manner .

206

VIII

Paar Tu ba C ere s and Be o n l , l gh , y d

T was long before Paarl owned many in

teresting houses . The pearl and diamond ” mountain was indeed discovered and named by the earliest explorers , but the men who built their homes round it were drafts of the less successful farmers from Stellenbosch and Drakenstein . They had begun , remarked

Kolbe , with encumbrances and were obliged to t con ract many debts which were undischarged ,

and these encumbrances in all probability, hinder ’ em from erecting houses for Pleasure and as Ca ians Stellenbosc hians Parade , the p and have f u nd done in great numbers . Some o the ref gees a their descendants who have had better success than the ordinary have erected such houses, but gener ’ ” ality of em are still content to dwell in cots . 1 1 o ut The Paarl church was begun in 7 7, partly Huisin of funds bequeathed by Henning g , who soon after the van der Stel exile became one of the

most important men in the Colony, and com

209 OLD CAPE COLONY

pounded with his conscience by giving to various ' o f the is charitable funds . Kolbe s account place his ri very vague , and desc ption of the sorry building which yo u could take for an ordinary Sim ondium barn would point to the church , as he speaks o f the fine estates lying each a n to side of the ro d near it , and leadi g the Berg River and from thence to the wagon makers ” e o n r was o f vall y, which , near the chu ch , a sort o t market for the poor pe ple from a dis ance , who

N A BLE AA A QUAI T C IN P RL .

could there prov ide themselves with groceries and

domestic wares when they came in fo r service . The mill and the church were the two centres of the district in his day ; and Paarl still owns the l - argest water mill for many a mile around . S arrman i 1 2 p , visit ng Paarl in 79 , arrived in the ’ afternoon at the miller s house . He was taking o n a nap, and waking , set before the naturalist an o ld t was crazy chair, and wi hout asking who he ,

2 10

OLD CAPE COLONY

as chairs heirlooms . In eighteenth century Cape a Town they once g ve rise to a pretty quarrel . Van “ ” c so - G r No t, afterwards the called wicked ove nor, was on a visit to Table Bay as Inspector-General

R CE I A C C OLD COLONIAL CHAI ON N PA RL HUR H .

r c tio of Fo tifi a ns . His wife was given the

. Cranendo nk front seat in church But Madam , wife of the Chief Merchant, strongly objected to taking the less prominent position . Her husband the Secunde spoke of the dignity c of his appointment . Van No t protested he 2 12 U H PAARL , T LBAG , CERES AND BEYOND

did no t care a button where his wife was placed . ’ The quarrel was duly reported to the Company s who Directors at home , replied with some exaspera tion that they could no t listen to such trivialities . S arrman o ff o n p set foot from Paarl , with eighteen china oranges which he had bought — — fo r o ne schelling Dutch e vidently not much

a . » o imp with the place . But John B rrow about thirty-fiv e years later gives a better account o f the thirty houses placed apart from each other

II PAARL CHU RC .

so with gardens and vineyards between , as to form no w a street . In the middle stood the church , " t a h called a neat oc agon l building with thatc , a c u and at the upper end a p s age with a garden, ” vineyard and fruit trees . It says a good deal fo r the high standard o f the o ld beauty of the day, that parsonage should no t have called for notice for it is a very

o f r fine example the late Colonial style , in which the decorative effect is produced by a mere repeti 2 13

OLD CAPE COLONY

Egypt from Europe little white eyes greenish r in colour, with white circles round each eye ; g ey finks r to , building most often in the trees nea est the l all homestead itse f . Above the bold butcher bird with his black and white plumage ; so hold that once, lying very quietly on a mountain slope renchhoek o ne r fo r m behind F , pe ched on me so e

. a time A wicked little cre ture , whose throaty imitations of other singing birds in some extra ordinary way fascinates them ; caged pets creep nearer and nearer to the bars to listen to the c e t trea herous allurem n s , until the sharp beak pierces their brains . But away from houses , from

o u fo r river beds, y may dream an hour among the t r f r heather and aroma ic unde growth , and save o l al o f the busy little beetles rol ing their b ls dust ,

o f s and the husks invisible life , such as a hed snake skin , a porcupine quill , you will see no living crea ture , and hear no bird but the melancholy call , as it

sc ars ut ri . swoops and , of the So h Af can lark is Further afield maybe , the contrast less d marke ; for there are fewer houses , fewer trees , and the undergrowth and protea is replaced by karoo bush and milky-stemmed plants o f an arid l n sandy soi . But u less in some mountain ravine o u m o n y co e a myriad joyous green canaries, whose shrill happiness is more fascinating than can be c o r des ribed, see in some favoured spot a long i ” i ta led honey bird, s gns of life are even rarer , the silence almost more profound . 2 16 L AND O PAAR , TULBAGH , CERES BEY ND

Few people now use the Roodezand pass over which the old settlers crossed the Ubiqua moun tains to the Land o f Wav eren ; but the later o ne o f the New Kloof, where, wrote Borrow in

180 . 4, baboons screamed at him from the rocks At the foot o f the Roodezand was once a Com ’ an s is l Drosdt p y station, and there stil a y or Magis ’

e . It trat s Court is not particularly ancient ,

E E D R DT Y A T OS . . TULB GH having been built after the first English occupa h l f io o . t n , during the s ort ru e Commisioner de Mist as Yet it stands there dignified and desolate , the

o ld blue mountains Showing, as in an Italian r pictu e , through its brick arches , the place might

belong to any age . Clinging to it is that strange desola tion which lies round some places human 2 17 OLD CAPE COLONY

n o wn t i s bei gs have made their , a housand t me

~ more desolate than the wildest desert spot . Be

t the now ~ nea h halls within , partitioned into dwell

are n so n e ns ing rooms by wooden screens, p dung o , and farmers digging near by have uncovered e t skeletons of chain d prisoners or convic s , though indeed the practice of burying in fetters was con demned on the score o f economy by the Dutch

the . Company, as you may see in dispatches It is

RO O DBZ AN D PA SS . T U LB AG H VA LLE Y . an eerie place the wind was hot that blew over the t n moun ain pass, carryi g little eddies of dust and

s . sand up the wide step , but it made me shudder What sinister thing had happened at that beautiful t t o f mountain s ation, that the straggling lit le town o ff l o f Tulbagh , three miles , shou d seem a haven refuge A wide plain , outlined by barren mountains exquisite in form and colour dusty roads, sparse clumps o f trees : this is Tulbagh district for the 2 18

OLD CAPE COLON Y

a t mountain and open country . I can im g ine hat to the t fo r t pioneers ga hered prayer, this li tle o oasis , beautiful in its way , must have w rked unconsciously into their Sunday restfulness : a

o f . haven peace in a desert place John Borrow , in 1 806 o l c , practical and c mmonp a e , calls it a “ small neat c hur ch and parsonage (the latter ha ver y graceful gables) and says that near the

R BA OLD CHU CH . TUL GH.

was o f church a row houses , the which had lately been incr The elders o f the Old church were J acob du J Pré u 1 , Gerrit van der Merwe and Jacob s Wanderi ng forty o r fifty miles farther m th e o f to te e o the pioneers, the higher pla aux b y nd

Wav eren o u to 1 , y come a charming little ho which carries on its gable the initials of the Therons e and v an der Merwes combined in a monogram . Th

e o f nt for sf nam the place is Leeuwfo ein , zzo H AND PAARL , TULBAG , CERES BEYOND last lion of the district was killed not so many years ago whilst drinking at the cool stream of the The is t ravine below . farm se under the bare mountains of the Warm Bokkev eld ; attractive enough with its large cool hall and Old cane-seated u fire- f rniture , with a great place and chimney ri which one looked at , somehow, as a cu osity , because it was treated as such by the kind people

. o u of the place Go on , if y are there, up the steep

W A ? m H R RD . LLS O C U CHYA . TULBAGH

pass and over the mountain . Wild and lonely i enough here and there an ostrich tak ng a. dust bath in the road as you end on the further i or n in s de , a tiny Wi kle or shop ( one of these I fw d a so litary Jewish store-keeper faith fully holding the Pw so ve r his Bible and phylacteries spread on the table of the roo m where he hospit e ably entertain d the passing stranger). In the plain beyond stand the two great headlands which 22 ! OLD CAPE COLONY

terminate the mountain range ; they form a kind of door which lead to the blue mysterious as saw karoo , and seen I them , standing black ai sk - di ag nst a sunset y, the vague ocean like stance h ad I already growing dim , they , know not why , an

LB BUW FONTEIN .

Old intensely tragic air, as of leading from an worn Out world into a new future full of unknown dangers and possibilities . This also is Old Cape

Colony , for it is the early road to the Kimberley diamond mines, and through the Poort once

222

PAARL , TULBAGH , CERES AND BEYOND

’ arrive laden carts toiling up Mitchell s Pass

the from railway station in Tulbagh plain below, and over the wooden bridge that spans the moun t ’ tain stream . Amongst he rocks o f Mitchell s

are e o f the e a e Pass som Hott ntot p intings, p rhaps e o f e the Old st work man in Cap Colony .

225

M o ne S i s and C ina y, h p , h

OTHING is more strange than the absolute — disappearance o f things their apparent n for o n a nihilation ; if you reflect it, the words “ ” lo st and disappeared have a very limited i meaning . Pract cally not a bit of the old Dutch ’ h Company s money is found at t e Cape . Copper Company ’s coins ” are to be bought by the handful o f in bazaars of the coast towns India , and are sold n as scrap metal in Ceylon ; but at Cape Tow , though no doubt individuals may own a coin o r two no t o r h , even in the Museum the Arc ive Office

o f o f is there a Specimen those , or the more valuable gold coins sent from Holland . A few Of ’ h the Company s stations had t e right o f coinage . The ducatoon was principally put in circulation

t o f at Ba avia, and was given an artificial value thirteen escalins (o r schillingen o f six sous)instead o f the usual value o f ten and a hal f thus the Company made a profit Of two and a hal f escalins o r o n fifteen sous each ducatoon . Of the COpper i money, e ghty stuivers went to a ducatoon and n o OLD CAPE COLONY forty-eight or fifty to a rix dollar Two rix dollars went to a ducaat The gold double ducaat was se nt from Holland these were th e ’ Dutch Dubbeltjees which the Company s men made such heroic efio rts to sav e in the many w f n f th recks o the Cape of Storms . Coi ag e o e East India Company bore the crowned lion O f

o n the v e e the Vereeni de Holland , and ob rs g Oost-indische Compagnie (United East I ndia

Company) monogram o f the Dutch Company . It is easy enough to detect the difference betwee n h those minted at home and in t e Indies . In the early days reals see m to have bee n u n se e . Fo r e 16 o in at Tabl Bay instanc , in 59 o ne might pass through the pega-pega hedge of ’ the e the e fo r Company s gard n , and p nalty ’ breaking the law was three years hard labour in

w fine dre e . a e Chains, ith a Of a hun d r als L t r,

ui e e e use two l en g ld rs w r in , and a half Dutch gu d e were equal to a rix dollar . In addition to oth r

t e the e the e e e was disabili i s, coinag of s ttl m nts 1 6 liable to be Changed by the Company . In 70 an order ca me from Batavia to the Cape to deal no longer in guilders and s tuiv ers but in ri x ” l r e and the ri e o f s dol a s and ights, p c good had

r The to be readj usted to mee t the alte ation . reward fo r each lion killed was th en fixed at eight

l find Haa zendal a was rix dol ars . I that f rm

Haaz nwinkel 1 28 to e s so ld by e in 7 two burgh r , i and v an B fo r Chr stiaan Rasp Jacob ochem, 230

r o x vn Pi s av r t. Du n A S ne co mm a n EAsr INDx A COM P NY.

G Do v DLB DUC OLD M T .

- Y m s Twa sr uwan Pl uc k c o x Nx D m r un EAS T B Dmc u EAST INDIA COMPANY. AND MONEY SHIPS , CHINA

n o f even Cape guilders or sixpe ces , which sixpences were paid in cash and a l b h . Ta u mortgage given for the rest Under Ryk g , 1 62 v an in 7 , the same farm was sold to burgher AS fo r i 1 8 1 r o f gu lders , and in 3 the fathe the present owner bought it for or guilders . Dollars and guilders were used until o well int the nineteenth century , and a French i r ll Old Hoek friend of m ne , eca ing the slave sales , remembered his father having paid 200 rix dollars each for two special men about the year 1 8 3 0 . Rate o f exchange seems to have vari ed from e time to time . The silver ducatoon which go s i ” in Ind a for eighty stuivers , wrote Admiral “ Stav o rinus 1 8 in 79 , is only current here for - eighty two rupees, whether of Batavia, Surat or f r - o . o f Bengal , ninety twenty four stuivers Coins

r Holland have the same cu rency as at home , - except Zeeland rix dollars , which are only worth

fifty stuivers . Sest halfs (pieces of five and a half fo r ill n o f Six stuivers) go sch i gs (pieces stuivers). As in Batavia accounts are kept here in rix-dollars - o f forty eight stuivers . At public sales prices are ” r o f i n taken in Cape guilde s s xtee stuivers each . Ho w much o f this old money is buried in the

n o f who to s silting sand at Salt River , shall say ? Almost the worst misfortunes of the early days a t Table Bay were the terrible shipping disasters

o f the unsheltered haven . In the tremendous 23 1 OLD CAPE COLO NY

winter gales the vessels at the roadstead dragged

v their anchors , and were dri en on the rocks or beaten to pieces in the pitiless breakers of the

long sandy stretch beyond the Castle . An evil i place to look at, sad and sin ster, calling up only

too easily the disasters o f the past . Of all the has shining treasure heaps under the sea, Good Hope

her Share . The breakers must still wash up from

their oozy bed many a golden piece . Diamonds t tl t from the East, once ied in the lit e packe s o f too l s the despatches , ebb and fro, worth e s as

r the most worthless pebble o f the shore . He e Of went down cargoes tea and china, silk and linen , teak , ebony and sandal wood, rice and opium and the ambergris , and all the spices . mace , the s clove , the nutmegs , the pepper , which play such o u a singular , such an almost deadly part ; when y think Of the lives lost in procuring them , and the o ld o f story trade . 16 In 97, in the stormy month of J une , three big n ships fou d their doom in Table Bay . The S warte Leeuw was smashed in front o f the Com ' ’ an s Oosterland Waddznx vem p y wharf, the and the broken at Salt River the cargo scattered and only sixteen saved out of all the crew . In this terrible

v r time the Go ernor, the Secunde Elsevie , Olof o f f Bergh , Captain the Garrison , with o ficers , soldiers and slaves , were busy day and night

even with lanterns in rain and wind , diligently ” ” and zealously . Often , says the despatch , 23 2

OLD CAPE COLONY

the Go vernor stood up to his knees in water to i i l t keep th ngs going, and cont nua ly had boa s afloat in order to despatch cables and anchors to the return fleet which were in such great ” danger . The crew o f the three ships were

unrecognizable when found, and the money chests

and two small bags of diamonds , tied round hi m by the steward at the last moment—one of those o f i so t t terrible moments hero sm, futile and pa he ic, — were all irretrievably dispersed . At Robben Island the Dagcm ad was lost with all

the money she carried . The broken chests were

washed ashore , but the money is still beneath i ts as . the surf , which hides tre ure for evermore . Then there was the Craijensteen with her consign ment of money a large Ship which drifted on to the rocks between Hout Bay and the Lion ’ s Kloof in a thick mist at the third glass Of the

dog watch . And often a mist still hangs about

this foaming sea , where the cold Atlantic dashes

into spume and spray, as it rolls in from distant -fl Antarctic ice oes . r d Above , between the ocks and the craggy si es

Of Table Mountain winds the wide Victoria Road . To drive round it is o ne o f the easiest and most

o beautiful expeditions . GO n a clear morning in

the early Spring of the Cape . The slopes are

o f jewelled by thousands flowers ; the lizards ,

Ko kel m a nnet e l n grey j , the litt e cooki g man ,

and the blue blinking Agora , have hardly yet crept 234 AND MONEY , SHIPS , CHINA

sun . out to bask in the The twelve grey crags, l called the Apostles , rear their heads into a pa e l cloud ess sky . Yet with all its peaceful beauty it is no t diflicult to imagine down by these rocks the great ship its the with twisted masts and spars , and to hear cries o f the sailors as the wreck was whirled round and round in the boiling sea and finally

i t its o n thrown slant ng wi h bows the rocks, stern under water . Fiscal Blasius and Secunde Elsevier were at the place as soon as the news reached headquarters, but the saloon was sub merged ; three Of the money chests and most o f the cargo lost . The Governor found the track almost impassable and inaccessible both by foot and o n horseback ; and seems to have contented himself by writing voluminous letters addressed To the Commissioners watching the Craijensteen behind the Kloof Of the Lion but the men were saved, and returned exhausted but with sixteen cases o f the treasure . That the service o f the Honourable Company was attended with risks none knew better than the

t ls r SO van der S e . Pe haps it was because many men n he k ew and cared for were in its employ, that Old

Simon took infinite pains to improve their case . He not only replaced the Old hospital along the unhealthy beach by the new o ne near the Co m ’ an s t ni p y garden, but wrote long let ers explai ng that want Of food and clothing caused much o f 235 OLD CAPE COLONY

the mortality . They lose heart through want all o f of nourishment , he says , and germs

. strength failing them , they die They did indeed die in appalling numbers , and war could have had few terrors for men whose daily life was carried on under such fearful conditions . One fleet of ten ships came in with two hundred and twenty-eight dea d and six hundred and seventy-eight sick and very l miserable persons . An Eng ish fleet arrived with one hundred and twenty-o ne dead and one hundred SO and eighteen sick , the commander himself ill and lame that he had to be carried ashore to lodge at the house o f the Chief Merchant . Simon recommended for use aboard and as a remedy for illness , a meal of barley, plums, raisins and cur o r rants boiled , with a good dash of rum, some ” Spanish wine . o ld so n The Governor himself had a , Cornelis , who set sail o n the Ridderschap and never 1 returned . A frigate was sent in 666 to inquire for the missing ship and to get slaves at Madagas c ar . It returned with a hundred and nineteen ” e slav s , dearer than they were formerly, but

s with no news of Cornelis van der Stel . Two year afterwards a small slave boy , bought at the Cape o ff The Swi t s f , a suspicious enough English hip which bristled with Lion dollars and Mexican

l to do lars, and was going from Madagascar New

York with slaves, gave an account of a large - o n three master thrown ashore at Amosse , which 236

OLD CAPE COLONY

’ r the ships began to drift . At th ee o clock one Haarlcm vessel , the , had stranded near the Castle , a second had struck , a third had drifted towards ” “ red Salt River . Then , says the journal , a

flag was hoisted on the tower Of the Castle , and the hell was rung three times to collect all the Company 's servants and the burghers under their o flicers in , order to give orders under these mournful All i circumstances . came together , but as noth ng remained fo r the burghers to do they were allowed to s o f retire , and the military took posses ion the " a o be ch t prevent theft and disorder . Apparently no effort at all was made to save the men ; perhaps in those terri fic breakers help would have been impossible . Yet there is something horrible in a fo r l the cynic l account , in the morning a ga lows was erected on the beach on which to hang any one who should touch the cargo washed up , and when all was safe the Governor appeared on the spot to give orders about the Company’ s goods . Carried ashore with the bodies o f the seventy-fiv e sailors who manned the ill-fated

' M Iddeno ak were pieces of the money chests in which Dutch dubbeltjees were jammed and

w . t isted The rest lie buried in the sand . A story not unlike this we find in a traveller’s account of ' the fi fifty years later ; then , too , Company s of cials - n cared only for the cargo, and the half drow ed sailors were not allowed to use the clothing washed ashore . ’ It is strange that Simon s Bay was no t thought 238 AND MONEY , SHIPS , CHINA

of Sooner by the authorities as a winter anchorage .

the Great Alex ander The English pirate ship, , with sixty men and twenty-Six guns (she was sighted by burgher Russouw living at Zwaanswyk in the

t . Steenberg), could have told them be ter Earlier t than his Peter Dunn , the captain , had said he found a sounder anchorage in Bay Falso than in f - Table Bay . But the place was unused o r many

years later, and the stone pier from which anchors and cables could be conveyed to ships in danger i was 18 1 of part ng not put up at Table Bay in 3 ,

under Sir Lowry Cole . Fragile and dainty is the only part Of the

. i wrecked cargo that comes down to us Ch na,

dr blue and white cups and flowered dishes , edged h up from the bottom Of the sea . Table Bay as

i e y elded lumps embedded in barnacles, harden d t sand, and Shelly concre ion together with pieces

fresh and new looking . From Sal danah Bay t - e quanti ies of egg shell china have be n rescued , probably belonging to the Chien Lung period 1 between 1736 and 795 . Packed in cases which i have long since rotted away, the porcela n lies

spread on the soft sandy ocean bed, a silent tea ar as fo r the p ty, it were , laid out ghosts of the dead h e sailors . Many of the tiny cups wit out handl s are absolutely perfect , though they have lain in the wash o f the waves for a hundred and fifty h years and more . The s ips of the Dutch Company d t th e had an enormous tra e wi h Celestials, not 239 OLD CAPE COLONY

from China itself, but from islands near, to which

their traders carried likely wares . There is rather an indignant entry in one ’ journal of van der Stel s time to the effect that no tea and china have come in the r fleet . The household crocke y of Good Hope was entirely brought from the East ; probably

also the metal pots , pans and bowls , for there is a special order for Copper bowls from ’ utu o St l s T c ryn for use in van der e hospital . In t some dusty vineyard far out in the coun ry , you may unearth great pieces of beautiful blue and r n white po celai , hidden there as likely as not after some eighteenth centur y domestic smash by a frightened slave . We know from the indentures of 1 798 how much of this fine stuff was regularly

h r imported . Sent yearly from t e East fo ordinary use were eighteen thousand five hundred dishes , twenty thousand basins and bowls and twelve thousand cups and saucers . They were all to be of

. c an blue and white colour alone But you find, too , o ld curious lacquered China, Chinese figures , and rare jars of pale brown , wonderful in texture and hue . o f o f So valuable are these things art, restrained

new t beauty of design in a coun ry , which threatens to become newer and more crude every day, that I think of begging from a more powerful pen than my own a solemn curse to be read over all t e i persons who remove , for payment or o h rwise , the r ’ neighbours old china and export it to Europe . 240

Fro m Seve nte en H undre d for Fifty

Years IN the early part of the eighteenth century only the settlement of Table Bay was termed t ” Cape , and was thus distinguished from the

a eren outlying farms . W v (Tulbagh) had not a Landdrost and Heemrade (magistrate and farm council), but was included in the colony of

Stellenbosch, of which Drakenstein and French b hoek formed a su division . A great deal of discussion arose as to the right way of enlarging the town at the Cape , as the burghers wisely

thought that a fixed plan should be made . Should the town be along the watering place ’ the parallel with shore , or towards the Company s garden ?” They decided that the town was to

l eS r spread on the upper p , which we e healthier than the shore and better provided with water . The plein (parade) was to be left Open from th e

Bles ius house of Fiscal , which faced the parade , ” r to that of the bu gher David Heufke , and a town house was to be built on the site o f the ol d 243 OLD CAPE COLONY

- l o f watch house , the freeho d which had belonged l to the exiled E zevir . The two houses of Huising Bl si s and e u j oined each other . Just possibly they were the two very high stoeped houses at the bottom of Strand Street . 1 1 ar In 7 4, five ye s later than these decisions th e v of Go ernor and Council , the traveller Valen 2 tyn counted 54 houses, small and large , in the town many more than he had seen o n his first 1 68 visit to the Cape in 5 , when the remains of ’ van Riebeec k s Old fort were being cleared away . Most of the houses now were thatched and very

comfortable , with several good rooms . Those with double storeys had two drawing-rooms to

the front , several rooms in the middle or back or of the house , and a very large yard court f Bl i s behind . The houses O Fiscal es u and Hen Huisin n ning g were the handsomest in the tow , H and built with stoeps and gables . enning by this time was member Of the Municipal

Council, and one of the richest men at the Cape .

Valentyn speaks of Brommers Row, which S faced the Strand where Mr . Brommer, the hip a ping master, had big handsome house with ” e a large stoep , and describes the four l arg

straight streets going towards Table Mountain , r and the four cross streets from the Castle , towa ds L the ion Mountain , which you can still easily ’ trace . Going towards the Lion s Rump were

pumps from which the ships were watered , 244

OLD CAPE COLONY

e So th unwhol some . it was filled in; and e a ddi tio nal space enclosed by a high wall and pla n ted

with trees . A gateway was made in the wall opposite the church and another into the Co m ’ s pany garden . To o ur ideas this o ld hospital o f Van der Stel which occupied all the upper part o f what is

no w the e S and s w st ide Of Adderley Street , wa

the n to the s le most importa t building next Ca t ,

was altogether fearful . But the report says that

‘ 22 the 5 patients, all Europeans, were fairly well c provided with ne essaries , better than had be en

e a o no ws xpected ; excepting th t s me had pillo , and that ten o r twelve were lying o n mats o r

pieces Of sail instead Of beds . A lantern was to be slung with a lighted match in a central i in place where the sick could l ght their pipes , order that they should not run to and fro or ” have fires made with bushes . A later traveller describes it as a building of some magnific ence w d ith its large glaze windows and four wings, at each corner o f which were four little houses each — with a terrace perhaps meaning a flat roof .

The patients , poor folk , were then looked after by o r o n u eight ten slaves who came in relays, bro ght food and drink to those who were too Weak to t th e s l move , and old the father of ho pita o n when any e was worse or had died . Fo r about twenty-two years after Willem ’ Stel s i o f the Adriaan van der ex le , the colonies 246 FROM SEVENTEEN HUNDRED

Cape were at a standstill . The settlers were t o f wi hout the hopes and excitements the pioneers , and the burghers had enough to do to pay their t F ri o f . o r axes and to buy the necessa es life , f ” t m the duty Of the o ficials, wro e Com issioner ’ ' " in d Able to . g , was to add the Company s profits These profits resulte d principallyzfro m the sale

' m m A Y G ARD BN . s m u t. COMP N S

so a o f imports . He trusted to rrange and regulate the sal e Of goods that the Company l r shou d secu e even greater profits, and wrote to el the Landdrost of St l enbosch , telling him cynically that the Company had a great quantity

o n fo r Of unsaleable tobacco hand, which he was 247 OLD CAPE COLONY

t i to induce the burghers to exchange he r wheat . It was proposed to further increase the revenue by the simple expedient o f buying up all th e grain and selling it to the bakers and the license d

victuallers at a profit . Severe laws were made

against wine smuggling . Offe nders were to pay 00 l o r l to 3 rix do lars, in defau t be flogged and serve for three months as convicts without

distinction o f person . Wine farmers and other producers Of the Cape district from the hill Of the so called Roodebloem at a quarter o f an to hour behind the Castle and the Salt River, the Witteboom in the direction of Hout Bay and ” its to surroundings , were forbidden sell wine , brandy or liquor in any quantity whatever, and it was thought to turn the surplus wine into fo r vinegar the ships . A petition signed amongst others by Henning Huising protested that hith erto they had never to -c om been asked pay tithes on their seed , and as is bread, and that if it appears this now de manded Of them they will be totally ruined , the more so that they have to bring everything ” o wn to the Castle in their wagons . The Directors were advised that if they put a tithe o n peas n and beans, the colonists would give up planti g them . To its discredit the Company had always ” a a carried on a trade with the n tives in d gga , the wild hemp still used for smoking , with such terri ble stupefying and intoxic ating results o n 248

OLD CAPE COLONY

o m their neighbours . Wh was to decide the reg

t do no t lation amoun I know .

Want o f timber again became a serious diflic a so culty, and how to obt in a supply puzzling a question that at o ne meeting o f Council every o ne was invited to write o n paper what he conside red ’ St l s uh the best course to pursue . Van der e popular regulations as to tree pla nting o n the

farms were kept up as far as possible . But even

n o n o when the farms were gra ted free , c nditions d the that timber was planted and preserve , l n and men were unwil i g to abide by the terms , excused themselves by saying that the branc hes

o f the the trees harboured birds, and that As n ur birds ate the grain . Van se b gh revived a t Stellenbosch the placaat by which tree inj urers

were flogged . Landdrosts were ordered to visit all farms and choose suitable places for tree planting ; shoemakers who denuded the under

fo r r l growth their tanning we e severe y cautioned . 1 08 In 7 , the year after the Van der Stel exile , the new Governor sent a galiot to Natal and

Rio de la G o a for timber . We are specially ” to urged do this, he wrote , by the great want

of timber in which we find ourselves, so that if do no t s we get a good supply from home, thing ” will look very bad . Fo r some reason the Governor and Council grew o f so weary the called astronomer Kolbe , and wrote about this time to the Directors that he 25 0 FROM SEVENTEEN HUNDRED

did not perform any burgher service and must o r be either taxed as a colonist sent home . The two little books by which he j ustified his stay at the Cape are as full Of local colour in their ’ o wn way as Mr . Pepys diary, but it is said that he remained at Table Bay and invented his s de criptions o f the country . We are pleased to hear of the men walking about during a south c as ter wind anxiously holding o n to their wigs as well as to their hats . His breakfast party at - o f . the tea table Mr Ortman is nice reading . “

r e . The e was pr sent his friend Mr Rotterdam , o f 0 o f a gentleman 7 years age , lately come from ” Batavia ; hearing Of some remarkable tides they went down to the shore , and afterwards go t o ut chairs and sat in such a manner ” as to have full view o f the sea The gentle man " was in fact the Jan Rotterdam exiled by t fo r and Willem van der S el insubordination ,

s Oortman the ho t was probably Notary Nicolas , Z k who owned par t o f the waanswy farm . I no suppose Kolbe was sent home, for we hear o f l more him ; there are , however, cu tivated representatives Of the name in the colony . Gradually mention o f what may be called the ” v an o ut o f th e der Stel set drops journal . L e so n o f ieutenant Adriaan van Rh ede , van w to t 1 08 eede Drakenstein , died in 7 , and was

ri 1 1 1 bu ed with honours . In 7 Old Fiscal Johan Blesius d nt die , and Governor Simon was prese 25 x OLD CAPE COLONY

at his funeral . There is in the Cape Archive

fi Of Blesius of ce the small hatchment a Joan ,

who must be his grandson . n Here and there is a mention of Governor Simo ,

- living at Constantia . The Governor Gener al

S L S I S COAT 07 A RM OF J OAN B B U .

v n 1 1 1 a Hoorn , at the Cape in 7 , with his

and daughter, paid him a visit of several days , Old driving , we may be sure , by the track past ’ v an Ri beeck s Bosc heuv al the e farm of , thought

most beautiful place in the Colony, which they went to see another day . We have a graphic ’ o f Hoo rn s ur account in the journal van depart e , 25 2

OLD CAPE COLONY

Hi r ze len w met God v erhev en e y y ,

e Al onse Sonden en misd ed. God wil ons o d Schi bewaeren g e e p , li a n Met alle de eden d cren v aere . Voor Zee v oor Sand v oor V er en Brand . , y , . Voo r de Helsc he oos V and , b e , y , Voo r all s e quae d o n Go d bewae re .

n t they sang, accordi g to Christopher Schwei zer , 16 —168 75 3 . Done into English it runs thus

“ Here we sail and is ni h us God g , Go d will us our sins forgive

All ev il deeds co mmitted by us . - Our ood shi is in IIis kee in g p p g , t a l With the men h t in her iv e. Fro m sea rom shoal ro m fire and swo rd , f , f , , From hellis h enemy abroad

And ro m all ills r s rv us Lo rd . f , p e e e , In 171 1 came the sickness and death at Good as Hope of the new Governor . A l t sinister accusation of having poisoned van A ssenburgh was v an made against old Simon der Stel , but

it does not seem to have met with general belief . Assenbur h Van g seems to have been popular,

though it is said that he drank . The journa l i his at any rate s ngs praises, and talks of the n fi al many din ers he gave the of ci s, and how once he even organized a bull-fight for them in the 1 1 2 v an courtyard of the Castle . In 7 Simon der

Stel died, lonely enough it may be , at Constan - His e e . tia, s venty thr e years old property was taken over by Olof Bergh , and with the death 25 4 FROM SEVENTEEN HUNDRED

’ of the old Company s soldier its early associations passed away .

New people had been arriving at Table Bay, men the and new are mentioned in journal . Cro n é 1 08 n A Pierre j was spoken of in 7 , whe he shot two Hottentot women , and was banished -fiv e for twenty years , with half his goods con fiscated and I note that Douw Gerbrantz Steyn

e is the surveyor of the St enberg property, for

Oo rtmans Nicolas , when Governor van Assen burgh made out the title deeds Of the second grant . An unusual gloom hung over the colonies after the death of Van A ssenburgh and Simon v an der Stel . William Helot , once first clerk to Governor Simon , was now Secunde , and he beca me Administrator for the time being ; it who o f was he , finding the punishment flogging not severe enough to act as a deterrent on o n the slaves , suggested branding them the face and neck , a suggestion which was adopted . 1 1 The summer of 7 3 was intensely hot and , though the disease is usually worse during the

- o x a damp weather of the Cape , small p r ged b n at Ta le Bay and the surroundi g country . Of 1 20 the Europeans , died between the months of April and June , and in the Drakenstein there were hardly twenty people in good health left . ' Of slav es Large quantities died , and there was great mortality amongst the Hottentots ; some 255 OLD CAPE COLONY

Of i n them fly ng inland to escape the pestile ce , i t met with a host le tribe and were extermina ed .

The sickness had abated, though people had not yet , says the journal , begun to marry , when at the end of the year 1713 Governor de Chavonnes the arrived from fatherland . He was received with the usual congratulations ; moreover, a picnic in a tent o f leaves was organize d in the ’ Company s gardens ; but by the usual fate of picnics , the rain came down and the guests had to adjourn to the Castle . The two sons of n Chavo nes , Captain Dominicus Marius and Ensign

v Peter de Chavonnes , arri ed at the same time

r as their father, and were int oduced to the bat ’ talion ; both were in the Company s service and later were given posts in the Dutch Indies . Soon after a fire broke out at the Leerdam point of the Castle , near the powder magazine , which f must have been su ficiently alarming, the courtier was like j ournalist says, that though heavy rain falling the Governor gave such orders that the fire was soon ex tinguishe In 1 71 5 General de Chavonnes laid the first stone of the Fort ’ o n or battery the seaside below the Lion s Rump, l called by him Mauritius , but now, I think , usual y known as the Chavonnes Battery . Very little Of note is entered in the journal ri 1 16 of this pe od . In 7 the Ships arrived with

o f o f who news the death Louis XIV, had reigned so many years and by his domineering ways had 256

OLD CAPE COLONY

m rs l ul ande ), and the be ls tolled mournf ly for Noo t six . him for weeks Van , who followed him , 1 2 o ne i died in 7 9 , suddenly, afternoon, sitt ng

a . the in his ch ir By ignorant , his end was con

sidered two a visitation from heaven , as he had days earlier sentenced several deserters to punish

ment and death . The popular story has it tha t

he died the moment he pronounced the sentence , and that his Spirit haunts the fine old house no w r called the Normal College , whe e tradition says that he lived . In reality , though his sen tenc es al were severe , and had sever horrible accompaniments , they were not more severe than those o f other commanders ; neither does he seem to have been more cruel o r more wicked than his contemporaries though a certain can did brutality made him in time Of shipwreck ’ openly declare fo r the Company s cargo rather k than the dr owning men . He is nown as the

wicked Gov ernor . Chief Merchant de la Fontaine was then chosen the H ro Administrator, and Fiscal van erval p o the o m ted to be Secunde , to general j y of every one . I note that more slaves seem to have been broken o n the wheel and branded and more con victs put to death during the de la Fontaine d t short a ministration than in any o her, and o f two Rev that the sermons the pastors, the . R ev . Henricus Bek and the Franciscus Le Sueur, t ll bo h names sti represented at the Cape , are 258 FROM SEVENTEEN HUNDRED mentioned with much admiration . The modern mind is badly attuned to these alternating sen

s o f o f trie religion and torture , and the details and n o n the scourgings , brandings , breaki g the ” e e wh el , without the m rcy stroke , and the subsequent Offering o f the corpse to the fowls

o f S . t the air, is ickening After each en ry it is usually stated that the prisoner is to pay all ” expenses . Confident in his virtue , and his superior position in the scale Of humanity; the writer Of the journal takes life as he finds it o f with simple confidence , and after pages those horrible entries has the courage to end his year book with a devout prayer fo r temporal prosperity and eternal happiness . t t 1 6 La Fon aine re ired in 73 , sailing to Holland in the rather perplexing position Of Admiral o f o f S a fleet five hips . After him came Van Kerv al , who died in three weeks , and was buried,

o wn or by his wish , without pomp ceremony .

Temporarily Daniel van Heugel was appointed, in 1 and 739, after some wrangling, the Secunde Swell en rebel g was Chosen Governor . I have not traced much building o r many freeholds outside the town to this early half o f c o f the seventeenth entury, though a few the undated houses have special characteristics which seem to belong to the period ; less ornamental e gabl s but fine fanlight tracery and woodwork .

Whatever may have been the private dramas, 259 OLD CAPE COLONY

n fl its outside the tow , with its eets , soldiers and x sailors , there was little public e citement , and as can o ut t o f as far I make , no hing in way educational progress but the life has a fascina tion for the curious minded . Strange punish ments come down to us in the pages Of the - who journal . Of the boat master, for instance ,

KL AST E N BE RG N . . WY BERG

had to stand at the c hurch door for three suc cess iv e Sundays with a board o n his breast on LA PHE MER which B S was written . Under a. ” a cre Roman C tholic government , remarks the se o f t tary, proud religious tolera ion , he would ” no t have escaped so easily . Names o f passing the English ships are homelike and interesting, Addison Heathcote Wal ole , the , the p , all in t pay of John Company . 260

OLD CAPE COLONY

’ i n f pr mitive ki d of school . The Company s o ficers from home must often have experienced the feel o f the ings journal writer , who entered about 1 716 We live in far distant land and corner of the earth, thousands of miles away from Christian churches and rational beings ; where waters lifted as high as the heavens and the very extreme violence o f the sea are to be experienced m ” and ho e . Towards the middle o f the century a great o f change was made in the policy the Company . Her power had declined ; foreign ships were no o ut l longer kept of the Bay , though Eng ish vessels sometimes caused great indignation by

as o f h failing to salute, required, the flag t eir ” i n s High M ghty e ses the Directors . Amongst the various reasons for no t doing so the most M rlborou h amusing is that given by the vessel a g . was - She indignantly boarded by a wharf master, and tol d that no one might land until the usual i salutes had been fired . On wh ch a subaltern went ashore and explained that they carried an

to ri . elephant from Madras , and feared f ghten him The excuse was accepted by the kindly Dutch

officials . Far from discouraging vessels from entering was no w the ports , it the interest of the Company , re n n whose profits we steadily dimi ishi g , to induce strangers Of all sorts to stay at th e Cape visitors who bought the produce at high rates and were 26 2 FROM SEVENTEEN HUNDRED warmly welcomed by the burghers with whom o f they lodged . Men every nation jostled each other in the streets , flags of Denmark , Sweden , France and England flew side by Side with the

r V . O . C . monogram of the Nethe lands Company,

zw B r r I -I u x swux . urn y 7 .

l . n and the crowned lion of Hol and Simons Tow , si 1 22 used nce 7 as a winter anchorage , became almost as important a haven for the ships as the as Cape itself and the society cosmopolitan . A - and large hospital , a slaughter house , a few small dwelling-houses lay round the bay ; and the house 26 3 OLD CAPE COLONY

who was l n e for the Resident , usua ly the Secu d , was il now is s d bu t altered and improved, it u e as Admiralty House . l Resting places for the sailors , soldiers , trave lers ’ and Company s men grew up between the two a Bosc heuv al ports . The old ro d lay past and t he t Constantia towards S eenberg . Here

” W BW B OT TRNTOTS HOLLA ND . O , -

W 8 5 3

s Zwaanswr k be sought, the econd j built by 1 1—1 1 is Nicolas Oortmans in 71 7 7. Many the rollicking party that has sung and drunk here in the hall ; the partition screen pushed back and tables set the entire length of the ho The hav e re ulated sun y, g their watches at the _ , 264

T HE T A VERN O F T H E IN DIA N O C EAN

OLD CAPE COLONY

r t et dress , all women we e prohibi ed , wh her in ” o r o f n mourning out mourning, u der a penalty

o f -fiv e twenty rix dollars , to wear dresses with a i h t train . Few m g t wear diamonds or man e lets and though the wives of j unior mercha nts t e t ou might possess hese luxuri s , heir daughters C ld O n i es not . N wome below the of the junior merchants might wear silk dresses with silk

ostentation) had been sent out from Holland to

e o f . restrain , it was hoped, the excess s Batavia I do not know how far they were really enforced at o o f Table Bay . No traveller makes any menti n them ; and in a climate where the rainfall is so

o ne e heavy as in winter time at the Cape , imagin s there must in wet weather have bee n great l smuggling o f umbrel as . It is said there were still to be seen in the early half of the nineteenth

lo w century very carriages without doors, which ha d been originally designed fo r getting o ut of

quickly if the Governor loomed in the distance . The final S haping and beautifying of Cape Town was t was now carried out and the town beau iful , ’ Tulba h s it seems to me in g times ; stuccoed , d - be whitewashe , with green shuttered windows ,

r it hind which p ying eyes watched, is said, to report any infringement of the Company’ s eti ’ ette Riebeeck s l qu . Van Canal had been part y t filled in , and the lower half planted with rees . 270 THE TAVERN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

no w n o n It was called the Herre gracht , and each side lay large-windowed houses with high o n a stoeps, which you might h ve your pipe and

f u e . co fee, and disc ss the lat st news of the fleet ’ Adriaan s Will em church tower was heightened . t no w and a clock was put in it ; it s ands there , the tower of the Dutch Reformed Church ; but o f the old church has been destroyed . Some its

A FRO M A R PR . C PE TOWN CHU CH . INT walls are incorporated in the present building . During the terrible scourge o f small-po x in Ryk ’ Tulba h s t in g administra ion , the infection was creased by church burial , and doubtless repairs

ar fo r were necess y , it is said that a lady and her chair suddenly disappeared in the midst o f the h . v s e service The pavement had gi en way, and r t was discove ed beneath , sit ing in the tomb of an early Governor . But what could be more 27I OLD CAPE COLONY

t r to in e esting now than have , intact , the hatch

e i ments Of these early Gov rnors , the r monuments , and the tablets and memorials to the captains of o f n the Dutch Ships , and the English and Da ish

admirals who were buried there , mentioned by

his e Captain Henri Hop in account Of the Cap . ’ Stel s me s t Simon van der monu nt was de royed , and though some of the hatchments were after i Mr . . Le bbrandt u wards collected by C V . and h ng

the fi no man were by him in Archives Of ce , doubt y

lost and spoiled . Otherwise all memori als o f the men employed by the East India Company

and of their wives and children have disappeared . f There seems to have been an ef ort to track out , and repair the tombs which were lost sight of at the reconstruction o f the Groote Kerk at Ba tavia o f n Ri k and the monument v a ebeec was discovered . In Colombo the English Government in 1 8 13 collected the tombstones from the Old graveyard near the Fort and placed them in Wo lfendahl “ Church . saying they viewed with concern and regret the n eglected state o f the consecrated o f r piece g ound . On the Coromandel coast too , where the young children and the wives of the ’ n Company s men so often died, their monume ts and mural inscriptions have to some extent been two cared for . Table Bay Church , with its hand

o f a some doorways red and white marble , p roached S l p by avenues , hou d have been at least too picturesque to lightly destroy ; and is one 272

OLD CAPE COLONY

r d p esent mansion was esigned by Melk, and old who rs how much by Sieur Elzevier , fi t built the . o f has it The gable course a late date , and beautiful side screens of the door were probably k l t made by an Oriental slave , s il ed in me al work , all n Stav orinus h speci y mentio ed by , for w om Melk had paid fifteen hundred rix dolla rs or o f upwards £300 . The door was bought by

. . . t n his Mr C J Rhodes, burnt wi h the burni g of i earl er house at Groote Schuur, and restored when the present house was built ; the present door is a facsimile of the original . Mel k was a o f al native Prussia , and the Dutch Admir was n much impressed by his enthusiasm for his ki g , so great that the farmer decorated the chimney pieces and other parts o f the house with the ” arms of his sovereign . I remember finding with surprise an Imperial eagle inlaid in wood above one o f the fireplaces . c In ac ordance with the laws of the Company, only the Dutch reformed religion was allowed ; ”

t . . the Lu heran was prohibited Mr Melk, said h Governor Tulbagh , when I pass by that churc ” which is building I Shall shut the eye nearest it . " Sir, was the reply, God Himself will close

' the eyes of the man who may not look at the

ui n . n the b ldi g Of His house And, conti ues

e to the l gend, Ryk Tulbagh went home sicken of

l e . in 1 1 il n ss which was his last He died 77 , speaking on his death bed Of his anxieties for 274 THE TAVERN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

the Colony and its people , and was the last Governor buried within the old Dutch Reformed

'

. t is Church In the Lu heran Church there , as

S . there hould be , a mural tablet to Martin Melk too l a There is a large quaintly carved pu pit , m de

OLD LUTHE RAN PARSONAGE .

I believe , by the same artist who designed pediment o n Constantia wine house in 1 779 . During all this time no trade or barter could be carried on by any of the settlers or burghers

v with the nati es , and Boers and farmers in out lying places were fre quently robbed and murdered 275 OLD CAPE COLONY by the Hottentots without any possibility o f retaliating ; any vengeance brought them under the severe penalties prescribed by the Company for those who molested the natives . A resolution under Ryk Tulbagh , couched in his forcible voca bulary prohibited any barter whatsoever traders were to be punished by confiscation o f property as disturbers of public peace , and to be arbi traril t y punished in the body , aye , even wi h ” f o r a . 1 0 o r de th In 77 any cattle trade barter,

t in o n however rifl g, carried with Hottentots , the offender was to be prosecuted in the most rigorous manner by the landdrosts under pain o f losing their Oflice . 1 At last in 774, when distant settlers seem to

o f o f have lived in terror their lives, the people Ro ev elds the Groote Middel and Kleyne gg , and ” Bo kkev elds Nieuwev eld to , and Hantam , prayed be delivered from the murderous rapacity of the m l Bosj esmans Hottentots . The na e is a ate ” f ‘ ” o ne So n uas Obi uas o f , and the q and q the . r e first explorers probably stand fo it . In answ r to to the petition , an expedition was organized, be under a newly-appointed Fi eld-commandant Heemraden Opperman , by the Landdrost and and the militia Officers o f Stellenbosch with the sanction of van Plettenberg and his Council . But the dying o ut of the Bushmen has been due as much to sickness and the usual decline of a primitive race as to extermination by the farmers . 276

OLD CAPE COLONY who expressed his amazement at the paw-coloured

. the de costume Some of this burgher militia, Swe l n in the te ls us , were Europea s who had served n wars at home , but who, havi g spent five years

. one in the country , had become naturalized At time a feud existed between them and the garrison , and in a moment of exasperation they had shot at each other with metal coat butto ns i and pieces of money, since when they were obl ged to exercise at different times . Much disappointe d ’ were all these later travellers with the Company s all r te garden ; in fact , from accounts it deterio a d S soon after the van der Stel exile . parrman merely calls it one of the largest gardens in the r town , where the greater walks we e bordered th e t by oak trees thirty feet high , and fruit rees d were surroun ed by hedges of myrtle and elm . ’ At the end of the pleasure garden the Company s o ff menagerie was railed . At Simo nsto wn our traveller found liv ely i English ladies on their way to and from Ind a, Danish and French Officers and captains and solid S Dutch kippers , who, to his great distress , smoked their pipes at dessert , and sat with their hats on and their elbows on the table . Sparrman

th e e passed much of his time at winter anchorag ,

. e e for Mr Hemming, the Secunde, was in r sidenc

a his there , and the n turalist acted as tutor to

his was e sons . The rest of time at the Cape larg ly l t spent at A phen , that beau iful old house between 278 THE TAVERN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

Wynberg and Constantia, where Hemming lived n while o t at Simo nstown . The freehold had first 1 1 Theunis Schalkw k been granted in 7 4 to van y , and again adjoining land by Governor Tulbagh to one Abraham Leever . Leever probably built the house , but it is said to have been restored

8 7 8 9 8 W BER . AT ALPHEN . YN G

or improved by a retired sailor of the Company,

Captain de Waal , who placed two funny little portrait busts of himself and his wife at the

top of the flight of steps . He is thought to have s the designed the step , and to have laid out garden

279 OLD CAPE COLONY

Sparrman speaks of a hippopotamus which wandered up in the dusk from the Zeekoe Vl ei ” (hippopotamus pool) on the Flats , and which he met near Wynberg ; of the flaming oes with - their snow white plumage and flaming wings . I do not know how long it is since both beasts and o ff o r birds have been killed , deserted, the place . I have heard a suggestion of making artificial lakes with mechanical pleasure boats at the old r hippopotamus haunts on the road to Muiz enbe g . Wanderi ng in the country the man had inter e ri sting experiences, having himself a f endly and ed interesting personality . He was delight with ” o f e the farmers , a set hon st , hearty fellows , n l and fou d that the occupants of the dwel ings , composed partly Of brick and partly of well ” r r w ought clay, as he designates the plaste work , were hospitable and kindly . He stayed at a v an S oi handsome house of der p , brother of the owner of old or red Constantia, on the way in to Paarl , where he got an excellent d ner and where his host stood in the doorway as he came n up , taking him by the hand and sayi g Good day ! Welcome ! How are you ? Who are you A glass of wine A pipe o f tobacco P Will you eat anything Many times he mentions that the

floor of the homesteads was only bare earth , i and that the furniture was m serable . Yet on the whole during his long walk over dry ” t and torrid hills . wi h the insects he collected 280

OLD CAPE COLONY

n directio s, he arrived by nightfall at the house of a f l Hanoverian farm baili f, who we comed hi m with a hearty flap of the hand in the South

African manner . The place may have been Haazendal l t in the Bottelary , as a litt e la er Admiral Stav o rinus tells us that he stopped

v an As there , and that the owner, burgher and his wife , received him in very hospitable manner , giving him a dish of tea and a glass of exception

HAA ZB N DA L I N BOTTBLA RY THE .

ally good wine while the horses were baiting . The title deeds of the farms Show that a little wi o f v an As later again it belonged to the dow , and was taxed guilders yearly for the dowager lady of Governor Joachim v an Pletten

. the s berg The name , like most of farm name , its H comes down from earliest owner, aazen e winkel , a beadl and messenger of justice in the 282 THE TAVERN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

v an who time of Willem der Stel , granted him the land in 1 704 o n condition that for the great ” privilege of the right to hold and cultivate it he t would give a ithe of his corn to the government , and replace all wood he might drop down , planting oaks and other timber . There are not many trees now near this charming lonely farm , but whether it is the fault of Haazenwinkel or his successors who shall say The date of the gable is

1 0 . quite late , 79 ’ r S arrman s Acco ding to p accounts, eighteenth century Colonial life had certainly grave draw at t backs . He was surprised get ing such bad food and so little milk ; the latter fault is still h characteristic . W en at last , at a house with a

l r clay floor, he is given milk by the two chi d en ” n who are at home , Master Joh and Miss Susy , in the morning his coffee is full of groats and as ” S weak as small beer . More painful is the ketch of th e house with a scolding housewife at which the slave girl drags a log o f wood chained to her foot ; the shrieks and cries in another house where the slaves January and February were under the t lash . I hink no one can recommend slavery o f after the description his night in the Bottelary, when he and his host bolt their door and Sleep

with five loaded guns over their heads , for fear of the slaves for he is told they sometimes

become furious at night and commit murder . Fugitives besides were continually wandering 233 OLD CAPE COLONY

al i the e about , ste ng to hous s in the dark ,

and inciting the others . The o wners lived in ta o f i a continual s te anxiety . The natural st m himself had a narrow escape , for returning fro Cape Town to Alphen one night he missed his

‘ 0 ? A E RE B . GATE THE SL V ENCLOSU , OSHOF

old d ami either Boshof, the home of the Bre a f ly ,

! a or to Stellenberg , he was first attackedby

a in broken Malay and Portuguese . men and terrified at the appearance of the , possibility of being murdered without chance 284

OLD CAPE COLONY

e meaning both cup and h ad, translated into English whilst the story was forgotten ; and the Mowbray coat now Shows t as hree cups well as three heads . The most important development o f the Cape during those later years was the spread o f the

o n Colony in the direction of Colesberg . Here

GATE 0 ? WEI MOWBRAY .

G the Zeekoe River. overnor van Plettenberg set n e up a beaco . A second he placed at Plettenb rg

Bay . About the same time Orange River was named by Colonel Gordon in honour o f the House o f Orange . Gordon is a mysterious enough o ld Oflicer figure , perhaps a Jacobite , for he was an of the Scotch regiment who had served in the

Netherlands under Colonel Dundas . He had 286 THE TAVERN OF THE INDIAN OCEAN

off his for was certainly cut himself from people , he o co m in the service f the Dutch Company . He mitted suicide after the capitulation of the Cape to a few years later .

ELSENBERG .

287

M e n and H o use s

HEN I look at the neat portrait of Captain

Cook , with his satin waistcoat , high stock , and laced coat and hat , I wonder how they lasted during his hairbreadth adventures in all quarters of the globe . I have always thought the clothes of the eighteenth century singularly badly de signed for men of action , and am confirmed by ’ Sparrman s account O f himself after his stay up country with the old elephant hunter Prinsloo . “ i His hair was braided into a twist , his s de

r n cu ls straight and flutteri g in the air , and his fine linen coat with a white ground was variegated with dabs o f gunpowder and spots of dirt of all - kinds . The flaps of the three cornered hat were n hanging loose , his ruffles were torn , his stocki gs his his l about heels, and smart gi t buttons lost on m . Im m n . el a the veld His friend, Mr , was worse , old for with a beard five weeks , he figured on horseback in a long nightgown , with a white night ca p, and large wide boots ; at the time he was ”

. as S arrman without stockings Even he was , p appears to have been very attractive to the 29 1 OLD CAPE COLONY

l women , who counsel ed him to marry and settl e ri li amongst them , but in a burst of unusual f vo ty the naturalist confesses that much as he like d — them for their kindness and virtue and indee d he admired his hosts exceedingly—their appear o ance made anything else imp ssible .

WI N I N P E LATE DOW CA TOWN . There are few people more obliging strangers than the Dutch in general at this ” 1 place , wrote Captain Cook in 775 , when he ri h ar ved at Table Bay, having returned wit arrman rn Sp from a voyage round Cape Ho . The good treatment which strangers meet with 29 2

OLD CAPE COLONY placed on the Lion Hill in 1680 by Gov erno r o f th e General van Goens , and shown in some d but old prints of Table Bay, had disappeare , the elaborate system of signall ing from the same - o n place continued . At a watch house the side o f the mountain were two men perpetually o n - s w the look o ut for ships . Directly a hip sho ed on the horizon o ne o f these men mounted the hill , pulling himself up and down the steep rock his by ropes , and fired a cannon , pointing with i ’ ar ns to the ship s course . At this the second man ran to the Fort and announced the arrival . When the ships hailed from Europe o r fro m u Holland , usually between the months of J an ary o f o r th e o f and June , the flag Holland Prince Orange was run up o n the hill within sight o f Fo r i the sea . vessels returning from Ind a l to particular flags were Shown , known on y the chief officers o f the Company and the captains in Of the fleet . These signified that the Cape , those precarious times , was still in the hands fi f o f the Dutch . If the fleet carried an of cer o o f higher standing than the Governor the Cape , a salute was fired from the Castle .

The interior Of the houses in Cape Town , says no Le Vaillant , showed marks Of frivolous luxury .

All the furniture is in simple and noble taste . i n There are no tapestries, and a few pa nti gs ” or mirrors form the principal ornaments . Th e artistic Frenchman al one o f the ma ny writers 294 MEN AND HOUSES on Table Bay mentions the really beautiful

Colonial furniture . The genius o f Holland is o f l always that detai , and the Dutchman was ar ex cellence - p the cabinet maker of Europe . Even before the advent o f William III there u -m l were D tch cabinet akers in Eng and , and much o f the se venteenth and eighteenth century

- CH J 8 OLD COLONIAL MADE A .

work of the two coun tries is extraordinarily alike .

' I think all the fine ébem stes o f France in the time of Louis XIV were o f Dutch or Flemish origin , and though they wrought after the French t style , here is often , especially amongst the earlier

un allic work , a distinctly g flavour . Portugal is 295 OLD CAPE COLONY said to have brought into Europe Indo-Portug uese r n s s d te fu niture from the I dies . But it eem to a from the time when Holland also had a foo ting and so so- a n - u se abroad, if , this c lled I do Portug e n -D m h . ight equally, if not better, be called I do utc The pattern of the furniture made and carv e d at the Cape by Javanese and Indian prisoners for the Dutch officials is very much of the same

E D AL A A R IRE V RY OL COLONI M DE l l O .

c e o f description , and hairs and sette s the kind for r Na a atam were made the Dutch at Su at , g p r and elsewhe e . Even before the English Company the Hollanders brought clocks and corner cup

to the to be e but n boards East lacqu red, I ever

o f r the e e saw any this wo k at Cape , wh r , with 296

OLD CAPE COLONY memory of the gables at home by studying the th outlines o f his furniture models . Much of e t l furniture is inlaid in ebony, and the ma eria s ” yellow-wood and stink wood (so called from the strong smell of the wood when it is freshly d cut) mark the work as essentially Colonial ma e , There is no doubt a certain element of French

r “ - A m o r“ m sr w x wo o n AND n u o ww vo o o .

influence , and as Frenchmen emigrated through the Netherlands into England at exactly the same date that the refugee Frenchmen emigrated

no t t th e to the Cape , it is s range that cabinet makers in all these places should have worked

o f l on similar lines . I have heard elaborate y 298 MEN AND HOUSES carved bedsteads in Cape Colony and other work i o f a more d stinctively French kind, but I never saw any myself . At the time o f Le Vaillant French influence was greatly feared both by the Orange and anti-revolutionary party in Holl and and at the

r Cape . Writing ather bitterly, the traveller tells us that all the ladies play upon the harpsichord, which is their sole accomplishment strangers

are generally well received , but the English are adored, and in less than eight days everything in the house where they have fixed their choice

l : becomes Eng ish the master, the mistress, and t even the children . The French are grea ly dis sa liked , and they y, he adds , that they would rather be taken by the English than o we their safety to the French . Stav orinus 1 8 Admiral , in 79 , asserted that the women were more witty and lively than the men , who spent most o f their time indoors smoking tobacco and lo itering up and down the house . ” no t fo r Englishmen , he said , who care their ” i money, Spent it n procuring the ladies all kinds

r . of diversion , and the efore were much liked n no t . However this may be , the feeli g was universal There was a republican party at Table Bay i t d wh ch s rongly sympathise with the French , and already in 1 78 2 two French regiments had been asked fo r and were stationed at Go od

Hope . A certain architectural influence seen in 299 OLD CAPE COLONY some of the decorated windows in Cape To wn is said to have come in at this time . Three years later Cornelis de G raft arri ved as t the G raft Governor . He es ablished Drostdy of R in t e e t. The Colony was rent with internal troubles, and ten years later again the new dis ’ e r Swel tri t th ew over the Company s rule , and lendam at the same time drove away their

r t Landd ost and formed hemselves into a republic . u The political sit ation in Europe was complex .

The Stadtholder had fled to England, and the Ho l Netherlands were in possession of France . land was renamed the Batavian Republic . At this j uncture the Dutch Company accepted the f o f o fer help made by the English ambassador, and an English fleet sailed for Table Bay in e to ord r ensure its neutrality, armed with author ity from the Prince o f Orange and the Dutch East India Company to protect the Cape against the victorious arms o f the French Republic . There was a skirmish along the coast at Muizen ’ burg, and a peace signed at the old Company s

House of Rustenburg . Fo r the nine following years the Colony was ’ o ld under England, and the Company s rule at

. o f the an end Every man might , in the words f o ficial letter to the Swellendam rebels, buy of whom he pleased, sell to whom he pleased, employ whom he pleased, and come and go when and where he chose , by land or by water . But 300

OLD CAPE COLONY and to sign a bond for a thousand pounds with the security of two substanti al persons as an earnest of future good behaviour . A list of the old Company ’ s outposts taken at this time mentions “ Vissers Hoek on the o f Koeber edge the g district , probably named ’

f . after the Company s o ficer, T . Visser The walls and fine old gateposts still stand, though the old house is gone . The white enclosure and ho uses

t n th e of Plaat Klip or Kloof, s ill show agai st i hill of Tygerberg in v ew of Cape Town . At

o f Kl a muts the post p no house remains . That at the Oude Biquas Land is evidently the

rosdt Ro d z n site of the D y near o e aa d Pass . The ” o f Kirstenbo sch post , called no doubt after

’ 1 6 Kirsten , J unior Merchant in 7 3 , and Company s 1 80 Resident in False Bay about 7 , lies under

Table Mountain . The ruins of the Hout Bay

. t Post , are still to be seen The Post of Wit e ” i boom , is a well known farm near Constant a : t beautiful and poe ic sites all . The other Com ’ an s t e p y outposts were at Oliphan s Rivi r, Zoetmelks Vallei Zo nderend , near the river , Saldanah and Swellendam , Mussel Bay, Bay , o ld Pl ettenbergs Bay . The limekiln and the remains of one of the Company ’s mills are on the stretch of sand , within sight of the Castle , where so many ships were wrecked ; and the u two great magazines for corn and oil situa L - ted next the utheran Church , are old world 302 MEN AND HOUSES touches in the terribly new and vulgar develop

ment of modern Cape Town . At this time the graveyard round the church r c ut in Adderley St eet was up, and streets laid n l his out o it . Sir George Young p aced slave i Riebeec k lodge there , and a theatre was bu lt in t e- Square . The slave lodge , modelled , now contains

VE 3 0 0 5 8 E S AV D B D THE OLD GATE TO GO RNMENT AND TH L E LO G E EYON .

the Supreme Courts of Justice , the Treasury,

fi . and other of ces I give an illustration , taken - o f v from an old water colour , of the gate Go ern ment House in the beginning of the nineteenth was e . c ntury A suggestion made , I am told

303 OLD CAPE COLONY — with what correctness I do not know by Mr . f s . o ha J Hofmeyer, restoring it , but the plan o u not been carried t. Beyond the gate is seen t - r the slave lodge and the ree borde ed canal . 1 80 1 as In the colony was given back , promised ,

the si as 1 to Dutch . Commis oner de Mist w

B R STELLEN E G GATE . out as Go vernor ; he who gave to the two ports of Table and Fal se Bay the poetic title of Hosts of the Indian Ocean Tavern He lived at t r Stellenberg, the beautiful eighteenth cen u y n i u house at Wy berg, at the back of wh ch c m ran the track or thoroughfare from Cape Town 304

OLD CAPE COLONY

were not highly developed, and at quite a late date there was only one attempt at a library in Cape Town : a house near the church which

had a few volumes looked after by the sexton . t In the country , gabled houses after the old pa tern , t u some of them the most beau iful , e b ilt

. o after this Tokai , built on part of old G vernor ’ Stel s Van der grazing land, an old home of the

E A K J LITTLE TERRAC T TO A .

its - e i e Ekstein family, with vine tr ll s d loggia , e i i roofed bell tow r, odd l ttle terrace beh nd, probably one of these later houses . The was first granted to Andreas Ranch by 1 2 t in 79 , and to Pe rus Michael Ekstein by w 1 81 . J . F . Craddock in 4 Early writers spe a good deal of the cavern in the Prinz 306 MEN AND HOUSES

u Mountain above , disc ssing whether its formation

is natural or artificial . The property is now taken h as over by Government , and a beautiful planta tion and nursery of trees .

And Cape Town . A mist of romance and

r poetry hangs over the old histo ic seaport . How familiar it all seems : the old lazy hospitable e life , where the long dinn r tables might be daily

set for thirty guests , and sedan chairs plied to - o and fro down the ill paved streets . (Such pra tical jokes , too , were played with these sedan - chairs . One was to remove the foot boards so a i th t the victim , hast ly decoyed inside , was scurried along with his feet in the mud, the slave carriers laughing like children until they cried .) At one of the old bo arding houses of Strand Street were quaint inscriptions (such as Lovely 1 8 1 c ut and charming Miss Riden , 3 on some of the windows . The French astronomer, De La

Caille , stayed there when he came to Cape Town to obtain the terrestrial measurement o f the arc of the meridian his gnomon and meridian

wall line were on the , and Sir Thomas Maclear saw used to make visits to look at it . I the house being pulled down a few years ago . From Strand Street to the Parade you passed over a bridge of brick and stone . I hope , despite all ’ Riebeeck s -o f- alterations , that Van coat arms was will be left upon the Town Hall . It placed i m i there , I th nk , by Com iss oner de Mist , who 307

OLD CAPE COLONY

- the l e his ready made clothes, gazing into p at

glass shop windows . What a crowd of people walk down the road ! Old v an Riebeec k in his silk stockings ; Van der l t Ste , keen and courteous Cap ain Cook, stretch

n o r my ing himself after a lo g sea voyage , at window cutting his signature with a diamond — ring the pane o f glass was there a few ago Clive the gallant figure o f young Welling r ton , his face b onzed by an Indian sun skippers ; Englishmen in the service o f Joh n yo u not them all

THE END . A UTHORITIES CONSULTED OR QUOTED

P r ted récis of the A rchives of the Cape of Good Hope. T ansla b H . . y C V . Leibbrandt.

Ra r d a e t H . . V . bb an t C mbles hrou h the A rchives . C Lei g , p T own 188 . , 7

Various ex tracts translated from the A rchives Records and

Title Deeds at the Cape of Good Hope .

Treatise concerning the Establishment of a Frenc h Com

an or the o the East I ndies . Londo n 166 . p y ! Commerce f , 4

lso V e Verhael d I m a nie v ols . 1 and 2 1 68 a i er O. . Co p g , , 7 ; des Gouverneurs Generaux D u Bois bo th quo ted by Water

n e a o f o O e Ca e meyer in his Lec tures o th C pe G od H p . p

Town 18 . , 77

A Brief Des cription of a Voyage Performed by Certaine

Hollanders rom the East I ndies with their A dventures and f ,

S uccesses wherein is contayned the First Voyage of the Low Countrymen into the I ndies

The Histor o o uth A ri a . h al y f S l c T e .

he t. T Voia e o Robert onver Lo nd . 16 1 g f C , 3 .

The Holla nders Declaration o the A airs o the E f fi f ast I ndies .

Amst . , 1622 .

Original Papers concerning the English East India Com pany.

ite . Vo a e de Siam des Peres esu s Paris 1686 . y g j ,

Second Vo a e de Pere Tachard . Paris 168 . y g , 9

. l . r l th A rica T ans . o Trave s in S ou o e L ndo n 1 1 . f K b , 73

in e er A ri e che Ge N ukeuri e Beschri v k ns westen . r a g j g d f a D .

Da er msterdam 16 6 . 0 . A pp , , 7

t on d Cu de Bonne Es era e Nouvelle Discrip i a p p nc . Henri

8 . Av ec un ournal ai r mst . 1 a ordre o . A H p , 77 J f t p

k Tul a h . du Go uverneur feu Mgr . Ry b g 3 1 1 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED OR QUOTED

Vo a es to the East I ndies . . H . Stav orinus Rear y g J ,

Admiral in the serv ice o f the States Ge neral . Trans . Lo nd .

1798 . ’ — a tain Cook s Vo a es Round the World 1 68 1 . C p y g , 7 7

l n o c . V Trave s i S uth Afri a Le aillant.

ravel s o Sir ohn Barrow 1808 . T f j ,

i inal Pa ers o in the Abori ines in outh A r a Or g p C ncern g g S f ic .

Life of General Baird.

A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope and round the

8 . u n . man 1 Worl . D li S arr d b p , 7 5

Records o the Ca e Colo n . Fro m the Pu lic Record Oflice f p y b ,

Lo ndo n. Theal .

A n A ccount o the Ca e o Goo Ho e. t f p f d p Cap . R. l d i 180 . Perc v a Lon on, 4

A n A ccount o the Ca e o Good Ho e. Anon o f p f p ym us .

Lo ndo n, 1821 .

E t I ia Trade im rti ll consi Essay on as nd pa a y dered .

1742 .

Relation of the unjust cruell and barbarous proceedings

h t bo na o 1 . against the Englis a Am y L nd. 624

Genealogische Kwartierstaten van de Nederlandsche gesek

1 6 . St . rav enha e 8 laten. G g , 5

M onume ntal Rema ins of Dutc h and English East I ndia

t idenc o ras . res M . o anies in he P ad Alex Rea 18 . C mp y f , 97

urv e f India. Arc h . S y o

- In Vo . u n . os c he a i . 1 Wouter S cho te O t dis y g e Amst 676 .

hr i t t r lin. Besc v n der ad Ams e . 1 Comme y g S t dam 693 .

l c u . u Lapidarium Zey ani a m L do vic i.

3 12

INDEX

Blauw er 1 6 0 b g , 5 , 3 5 Bl A an h et a esius, The Fiscal 1 8 1 P d, 157 , 4 , 95 ,

’ d Abelin 1 2 1 2 25 1 g , 3 , 3 , 247

’ Al hen 2 8 Boc henho ut s loo 20 p , 7 K f, 3

A el F 1 1 Bo kkev eld 221 2 6 pp , 4 , , 7

Boschendal 1 As v an 1 6 , 0 , , 3 , 282 9

Bosc heuv A al , 2 2 ssenbur h Go v . v an 1 5 g , , , 37, Bosho 28 254 f, 4

Bo ttelar h 6 y, T e, 1 2

Bran so lder d , 59

ra t B nd , 293

Bric s im or ed 0 8 I k , p t , 3 , 5 . 47.

Baird en . 0 , G , 3 5 245 Ban e Hoc k 1 g , 85 Bur und Farm 0 g y , 2 2 Batav ia , 1 8 1 9 , 73 , ,

’ Bav iaan s loo 61 K f, 2

Bek Rev . H . 1 8 8 , , 9 , 25

Benozzi , Pierre , 188

Ber Ola 8 Cam hor trees 1 0 g f, 9 p , 4

Ber Riv er 1 1 1 1 Canal The 2 2 0 0 g , , 94 , , 4, 7 , 3 9

Ber v liet 01 Ca e Town Old stree s of g , 3 p , t ,

Bethliem 18 2 0 0 et se . , 7 43 , 27 , 3 7 q

Bien Donné 1 Castle The 6 6 6 1 , 95 , , 4 , 7, 9 , 37

Birds Ca e 1 168 21 Castle oundin o f 8 , p , 5 , , 5 , f g , 3 3 15 INDEX

r 22 Ce es , 3

Chav o nnes Gen . de 2 6 , , 5 Eers e Riv er 16 t , 7 Church Old Ca e Town 10 , p , 5 Elsen ur 1 0 b g , 5 1 0 2 I 3 . 7 Els es raal 1 0 i K , 5 Cloe e 62 6 10 I 8 t , . 4 . 7: 7 Elzev ir , Secunde Sieur S .

Co ina e 22 cl se . g , 9 q 8 8 1 16 1 0 1 0 4 , 9 , , 3 , 5 Com an the Du ch Eas t p y, t Enzaa mh eid de 1 8 , , 5 as t India , see Dutch E

India Company

’ Com an s Posts 0 02 p y , 43 , 5 , 3

Co ns an ia et se . 1 1 t t , 55 q , 4 Fo ntaine a , L , 258 Co nstantia ine 6 W , 5

Fo rt The 2 8 et se . 2 , , 3 , 3 q , 44 Coo Ca t. 2 2 k , p , 9

Frenchhoek 18 et se . r n 2 , 5 q C o je , 55 French lan ua e I g g . 98

Furniture 21 1 2 at , , 94

Dau hine 1 202 G p , 99 ,

’ De Chav onnes Gen . de 2 6 , , 5 G arden The Com an s 2 , p y , 3 , De Lano 1 1 y, 9 2 68 2 8 08 7, , 7 , 3 De aal Ca t 2 W , p " 79 i G ard ol . 1 6 0 , J , 3 . 2 3 D t 1 e We , 49 Genadendal , 261 Vos 1 6 1 De , 3 , 53 - Goens G ov . Gen . v an 0 , , 49 , 5 , Dra enstein Distric t 6 1 k , 74 , 7 , 70

18 et se . G ood Ho e Farm 18 5 q p , 7

Dra ens ein v an Rheede to t G ratitude La 1 0 k t , , , , 7

Lor of M drecht 2 1 0 G rev enbro k d y , 5 , 7 e , 1 1 1

i m an Du ch Eas Ind a Co Grafl C . de 00 t t p y, , , 3

1 0 2 2 00 rafi Re et 00 2 , 23 , 47, 49 , 3 G , in t, 3

Du To it 1 1 8 G roo te Sc huur 28 , 57, 7 , , 257

3 16

INDEX

Meerlant . v an 11 1 8 Parel Val lei 11 1 , J , 4, 5 , 5 , 53 Meerlust Dra ens ein 1 Parsona e Lu heran ( k t ), 94 g , t , 274

Meerlust Eers e Riv er 1 20 Pa a aai Ber 1 6 ( t ), , p g g , 7

1 Plaate lo o 02 55 K f, 3

el artin 1 2 2 Plans o f houses 1 1 0 M k , M , 5 , 73 , 57, 47 , 9

etal wo r 8 1 1 2 1 Pletten ur v an 2 28 M k , 59 , , 7 , 93 b g , , 77 , 2 ,

is Co mmissio ner do 0 86 M t, , 3 4 2

odder a 1 8 Po ulatio n at v arious ri M g t, 5 p pe

or enster 26 ods 1 1 1 00 M g , 4 , 3 , 7 ,

ow ra 28 P r l , 5 o ce ain, Oriental 1 20 M b y , 93 , 5 ,

Muizenbur 280 00 2 g , , 3 39

M bur h 1 6 Post o fic e s to ne 18 y g , 5 f ,

M drecht see Dra ens te in Preto rius 160 y , k ,

Prinsloo 1 6 2 1 , 3 , 9

Q Noo t v an 21 2 2 6 8 , , » 3 , 25 ue llen re . de 2 Q . M , 3

R O . V . C . mo no r am 2 0 2 g , 3 , 49

Oli hants Ho c 1 Rheede Lt. A . v an 2 1 p k , 99 , , 5

Oli hants Ko 1 Rho ne and Lan uedoc 188 p p , 49 g ,

Riebee ck . v an Oo rtman N 2 1 , , 23 , , 2 2 , 5 J 37 7 , 307

Ro en Island 86 20 2 bb , , 5 , 34

o s R ndebo ch , 28

Paarde Vlei 1 1 1 Roode loem 100 , 5 , 53 b ,

Paarde Ber 1 1 Roo dezand 1 01 10 2 1 g , 5 , , 7, 7,

Paarl 6 20 0 , 3 , 9 3 2 INDEX

Ro erdam an 1 10 162 Ste n 2 tt , J , , , y , 55

2 1 Sum tuar Laws 26 5 p y , 9

Roux 1 6 1 20 da 6 00 , 3 , 95 , 3 Swellen m , 2 1 , 3

Rustenber 28 Swell en r ebel 2 g , , 35 g , 59

a S atier, Pierre, 188 b ac r Pér 6 T ha d, e , 7 Saldanah 2 200 2 02 , 3 , , 39 , 3 as A m 1 12 1 1 T , da , , 34 , 54

Sav o e . de 1 y , , 79 , 94 J Tha chin 2 8 t g , 5 , 5 Schoo n ezi t 18 g g , 5 Theron 220 , J Sev en een The 21 t , , o hai 06 T , 3 Shei ose h 16 k , J p , 3 Tree lantin 88 8 101 p g , , 9 , , Shi wrec s et 2 1 se . p k , 3 q 250 Simond 6 1 , 7 , 79 , 94 Triko 8 p , 2 5 Simo ndium 1 , 94 Tul a h Drostd 21 02 b g y, 7, 3 ’ Simon s Ba 8 2 y, 9 , 39 Tul a h R k 26 2 b g , y , 9 , 74 ’ Simo n s Ber 1 8 g , 7 Tul a h Town 2 18 b g , Simonstown 2 8 , 7 Tul 0 p, 3 . 44 Six W . 1 , , 44 , 2 9 T er er yg b g . 37

Six . , J , 44

’ la S v e Lo d e Sir G . Youn e s g , g , 303

Slav es 1 102 1 0 2 , 3 » , 7 » 55 Ubi uas 1 01 21 2 6 02 q , , 7, 7 , 3 i Sn man C . 1 j , , 97

Starrenber . 1 11 1 16 g , J , ,

S el v an der see v an der t , ,

Stel Val en er 1 k b g , 49

S ellen er 0 Valkenier Commissio ner 2 t b g , 3 4 , , 5 ,

S ellen osc h 6 6 1 11 1 6 1 1 t b , 4 , 7 , , 7 99 , 34 , 49

3 19 I NDEX v an der B l 1 11 1 8 1 Vrede en lus 1 y , , 4 , 59 t, 95

v an der He den . 1 6 1 Vreden er 1 y , J , 3 , 57 b g , 59 v an der erwe 1 6 220 M , 3 , v an der S el Co rnelis 2 6 t , , 44 , 3 v an der S el Franz 1 16 t , , 44 , , W 1 26 Wagoumakers Valle y 9 7 v an der S el Hendri 1 0 t , k , 4 Wav eren Land Of 10 1 2 1 , , , 7 ’ v an der Stel Lo dew k 1 , y , 5 , 219 1 1 2 Wav eren Lord of 2 2 , , 5 , 1 9

v an der Stel Simon et se . , , 39 q el ele en 28 W g g , 5 v an der S el Adriaan 1 1 t , , 44 , 3 ellin o n W gt , 97

A . 8 v an der Stel . , W , 44 , 9 , l We moed, 160 s ion f cl se . accu a o 95 q ; t , ine 2 6 1 0 2 8 W , 7, 5 , 9 , 4

1 1 cl se . de enc e o f 9 , q ; f , i e oom 2 8 02 W tt b , 4 , 3 1 32 n er 2 6 0 Wy b g , 7. 44 , 54. 9 , 3 4 Ver ele en 1 1 1 16 1 2 g g , 4 , , 4

et seq.

V r eno e d 161 e g g , ie Zandv l , 152 illiers de 1 6 201 t V , , 79 , 3 , Zwaanswi k 12 Vo el 1 6 0 j , 4 g , J ” 3 , 3 5 Zwaartland 261 e 1 6 1 , Vo s , d , 3 , 53

t T lw ntin W orks Frame and London. Bu ler 81 anner, The Se ood Pri g , ,