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Mr. George Carr, BENOHI Dear Mr. Carr, Please forgive the delay in writing to you. It was intended that you should receive this letter on Saturday last, and I do hope that it is not too late# Mr. Robert Resha has told me that your Church Committee might be willing to allow the African Education Movement to use your Church on Saturday, September 15th, just as you so kindly gave us the use of it on a similar occasion earlier this year. We are arranging another Conference for our African Club Leaders for this coming week end, and although we are still endeavouring to arrange to use an African Church in the African location, the difficulty of permits for the European organisers may still arise and it would be of the greatest assistance if we knew that we should be able to use your Church, should our present arrangement not be possible. We have the most pleasant memories of the Conference which we held in your Church and hope that you will be willing once again to assist us should the need arise. Yours sincerely, Cultural Clubs Sub Committee. t L^f\fzbJCfz M(VT/»vi£ y fdWv^ X ~f*1 r\f)£'CT£ iS m m m p r c - . j i^^rrsftrt /> ^ AgRi'e^ r A - r U £ ki^. ’ fl ^C^nMR MCJ\l8 i< *n fJeduwrt ^ . 9 D fWio , ^/T^fc^lLvs- 1 t . S / •^' lL^MiU»v 7 - *** U 6.nr/ 'A «*&• cTfJ / ? * w ty/»T 5>fc££. f3r-^ _Jo_ -i^Ker r; L t' /v! -o7 d*/^ /\(/:r l?>tTUi|^3u^ ______^JkiiWvvj £ If-. ______m u * r ^ 3 i i tuPHtHiAft MABgtfA ^/Ty^JpW- AjuUtfWtvJ f 1 31 L■* Lz C niiM a biCK.C ”idOM^\Vfv 3 ______1 MAK.Of i_A iZ -Dt&O^LA £jUUU-|nwJ f^OV&^SL J ______ l ± 4 o N ^ Aif- M o ' T f c ^ W |s1 1 *« ib P V V \rrO T o ‘7 lN C ^s Ur \> V /yr^piu^-Mo 1 ■ z T !% r * C 0 (K N U ' & o ^ j P>rvyr»iL^ ^ Ttv --a 3 f t W m € s h i VI t^e« 'vrt>^>s i ! A l c *j?-trvw~tl*Y' X! *S r (-" -LsTw >tiW»» - X i k ^ P ('binT*^ / ^LX(x4Aowaa/A-X ' T t r U W UoLfefd C ^ J l x ^ y & r ^ rXo • £ ttfV^We- A l o . HlCMfAlrL (?' 'bOk)^ {jLt/uW ______J ^ > e> /I/os hop}'!"/, £ if & *\) '5V^tAS^'-C ’ M oU 0 PART 3. THE CAPE UNDER DUTCH RULE (2) From Jan van Riebeek to Simon van der Stel Nothing very important happened at the Cape between 1662 and 1679. The number of free burghers had increased very slowly. Some more slaves had been brought in from Madagascar and Ceylon, and some of them were placed with white artisans and taught trades. In 1679 there were 87 free burghers (who had 55 wives and 117 children), 30 European men servants, 133 $en slaves, 38 women slaves and 20 slave children. (The Company itself, besides the officials, workmen and slaves which it employed, usually kept about 300 soldiers at the Cape.) A few Hottentots also worked for the whites - the men as herdsmen and the women as domestic servants, but they were not reckoned as 'belonging' to the settlement. In those early days the Dutch had not yet developed .a 'colour bar'. People were treated as Christians or non-Christians, rather than as black or white. A Christian, no matter what the coloui- of his skin, had full civil rights - a 'heathen' had no rights. For example, a Hottentot woman named Eva, who had been taken as a child into domestic service in Jan van Riebeek's household, and there taught Christianity and baptized, was married to a Dutch doctor, and a wedding feast in their honour was provided by the Company. One of Eva's children later married a Dutch farmer - marriage between white and 'coloured' was always legal. Eva's marriage was an exception, but Dutchmen regularly had children by slave and Hottentot women. 'Coloured' children were always baptized, and were entitled by law to their freedom,. But slave children might be baptized too, and might claim freedom if they could show they had been brought up as Christians. In 1663 a school was opened at the Cape, and there the children of burghers, slaves and Hottentots were taught together in one class-room. In 1672, as you have already heard, the Company 'bought' the Cape and a great deal of land round it from two Hottentot chiefs. However, for a long time little uns was made by white people of the land outside the 'barrier.' The Company had one outpost where corn was grown, another where grass was cut for hay, and a third one where it kept the cattle for supplying the ships. But this was all until 1678, when seven free burghers were given permission to graze cattle and sheep near 'hese places, free of rent. The Company needed more meat to supply their ships than could be obtained by trade with the Hottentots, and it did everything possible to encourage this new type of farmer. But few white men were anxious to live outside the original settlement, for it meant that they were separated from their own people, exposed to possible attacks from Hottentots and Bushmen, and in great danger from wild animals, of which the country was then full, (in a single night, at one of the Company's cattle-kraals, no fewer than 120 sheep were destroyed by lions and hyenas!) In the years after the war with the Hottentots in 1659 - 1660, the Dutch got to know other tribes living further from the settlement. Relations between whites and Hottentots was always uneasy - sometimes there was trading and sometimes fighting. If the tribes had been united, the white men would almost certainly have been forced to leave the Cape. But the different groups were always fighting amongst themselves, and now the whites began to take full advantage of this. For example, in November, 1672, tiro burghers went into the country of Gonnema, Chief of the Cochoquas, to shoot big game - without asking his permission, of course. Gonnema, with 40 or 50 of his followers, came upon them and seized their waggon and oxen and their provisions, but allowed them to escape with their lives. Several months later another hunting party went into Gonnema's territory, and this time they were killed, The Hottentots then attacked the Company's trading post at Saldanha Bay, killed the men there and plundered the post. An expedition was sent against Gonnema, and the Hottentots were forced to flee, leaving their animals behind them. The white men brought 800 head of cattle and 900 sheep back to the Cape. Seeing this, the chiefs of the Goringhaiqua and Gorachouqua tribes, who were (or pretended to be) friends of the whites, offered their services against Gonnema. Another expedition was sent out, consisting of 50 burghers, 50 soldiers and 400 Hottentots. Again Gonnema's people were forced to run away, and this time 800 head of cattle and 4,000 sheep were taken. The animals were then divided among the burghers, the Company, and their Hottentot allies. At this timq difficulties often arose with Bushmen too. The Dutch at first had no idea that Hottentots and. Bushmen were different races. They thought the Bushmen were simply Hottentot robbers who had thrown off any obedience to lawe They did not realize that Bushmen often attacked Hottentots and carried off their stock, and that Hottentots seldom spared the life of any Bushman who fell into their hands. So when Dutch hunters went too far into the mountains and were killed by Bushmen, the whites used to blame the Hottentot chiefs and call on them to keep their 'subjects' in order. The reply always was that these people were not their subjects, and that they would be glad to kill them-all if they were able! The war against Gonnema went on for four years, and he managed to cause the whites a great deal of trouble by keeping tribes farther away from bringing cattle to sell at the settlement. Gonnema was never actually beaten, but in 1677 he made peace with the Company. However, the Company had learned from this war that it could not depend on getting regular supplies of meat from the Hottentots, and that is why it decided to increase the number of colonists if possible, and to get some of them to go in for cattle breeding on a large scale. That even those Hottc-ntots who seemed to be friendly with the whites were not really satisfied with the situation, is shown by the fact that about this time a number of Gorachouquas and Goringhaiquas began to move away from the coast into the higher lands towards the interior of the country, although these parts were not so good for grazing. (They could not go north or east along the coast, because the land was already being used by other tribes.) The inland parts were the hunting-grounds of Bushmen, but the Hottentots evidently felt they had a better chance of living freely among these wild people, who at worst were troublesome, than of resisting the white men who were slowly but surely taking over their home land. In 1679, a new commander named Simon van der Stel was sent to the Cape. He was the son of a Dutchman and an Indian woman, such marriages being common in the Company's colonies in the East. Under his rule, as you will hear, many changes occurred at the Cape,' j ✓ (3) Thg v/hite Colony Begins to Grow Simon van der Stel was a clever man and very patriotic. He had been well educated in Holland, and in his eyes everything that was Dutch was good, and whatever was not Dutch was worth nothing at all. From the day he landed at the Cape, he tried his best to make the new colony in South Africa as much as possible like a province in Holland. The chief fault in his character was a great desire to become very rich, and this fault got worse as he grew older. Almost as soon as he arrived, he began to explore the country outside the settlement, At that time, the parts near the coast had been explored eastward about as far as the present village of George, and northward about halfway to the Orange River.. (This river itself had never been heard of by the Dutch.) Sailors who had gone round the east coast knew that there were African tribes different from the Hottentots living there, but nobody had any idea where the Hottentot country ended and that of the other tribes began. Van der Stel wanted to find out more about the land away from the coast. On his first expedition he came to a beautiful, fertile valley, with plenty of water and many fine trees, which he called Stellenbosch. During the journey, van der Stel was already making great plans. He would build up an important colony here at the bottom corner of Africa - not only a station to supply the Company's ships, but a place which would produce things to sell overseas. He would begin at the place to which he had given his own name, and settle there a number of free burghers who would become prosperous farmers. The great difficulty was to find men and women to make colonists of! (Quite a number of the earlier farmers had given up their land and had taken up other work or gone back to Holland.) Very few Dutch people were willing to leave their home land and settle in a strange country, and the Commander objected to foreigners. The process of filling up the country must therefore be slow, and only suitable men must be discharged from the Company's service and given farms. However, within 6 months he already had 9 families settled at Stellenbosch. The heads of these families had been persuaded to go there by the offer of as much land as they could cultivate, which would be their own property as long as they used it. They would pay nothing for the land - only a tax of one-tenth of the grain they grew for sale. They were not allowed to grow tobacco - (because the Company used tobacco to trade with the Hottentots, and was afraid it might become too easy for the black people to get it!) - but they could grow anything else they pleased, keep pigs, fowls, sheep, goats and cattle, graze their animals freely wherever they liked, all without charge or tax. In the settlement ifself, van der Stel appointed gardeners to make a fine garden with hundreds of kinds of trees and plants from all over the world, as he wanted to find out which of them would grow well at the Cape. Over 100 slaves wore usually employed in keeping those gardens in order. Today the Houses of Parliament stand in these gardens at the foot of Table Mountain, In 1681, van der Stel sent a message to the chief of the Namaquas, asking that some of the leading men of this tribe should visit the Cape. These people, who lived to the north of the Cochoquas, were said to be more developed than the southern Hottentots, to be rich in fDocks and herds, and to know how to smelt copper and iron. Van der Stel thought there might be a chance of finding wealth in their country. The Namaquas soon sent a party to the Cape, They brought with them pieces of rock con taining much copper, which they said they had taken out of a mountain with their own hands. This interested the Commander greatly, for ho thought there must be a very rich store of copper there, if such pieces could be collected without any tools for mining. The Namaquas told the Dutch about a great river that lay to the north of their country - (the Orange River) - and they also spoke of a race of people unlike themselves, whom they called Briquas, the same people now known as Bechuanas, In 1681 and 1682, more farmers went to Stellenbosch, and soon a school and magistrate's court were established there. The farmers did well enough to be able to export a small amount of wheat to India in 1684. Between 1685 and 1688 a number of men and women came to the Cape from Holland, and in 1687 a new district, Drakenstein, was given out for white settlement. In those districts, vines grew well, and soon qhite a lot of wine was being made, though it was not of very good quality. Although servants of the Cotnpany were not supposed to farm because it was felt that this would not be fair to the free burghers, Simon van der Stel persuaded an official sent out by the Company to give him 891 morgan of land as a present. This farm, which he called Constantia, was not in Stellenbosch, but near Wynberg. Mr. van Rheede, the official who gave the farm to van der Stel, was sent to the Cape from Holland to make any laws and regulations he found necessary. There are some of the rules he made about slaves:- Children of white fathers and slave mothers could claim freedom as a right when they were men and women, provided they were Christians and spoke Dutch, but pure-bred slaves could only be freed after many years of service, even if they had the same qualifications, .and they must not only show they were well-behaved, but also ask their master's permission to become free and pay him money if he agreed. Slave children under twelve years of age were to be sent to school, where they were to be taught Christianity as well as to read and write and to "conduct themselves respectfully towards their superiors." They were to have separate schools with non-whixe teachers. (But all races still went to the same church.) Marriage between whites and blacks was forbidden, but white and coloured could marry if they chose. As for the Hottentots who came into contact with the whites, van Rheede wanted the colonists to remain friendly with them. The Company wished to increase the number of colonists, and therefore it would bo necessary to occupy more land. But he thought it would not be fair to take the grazing land away from the Hottentots entirely. What was to be done? He gave orders that efforts should gradually be made to persuade the Hottentots not to move about all over the country, as they had been used to doing. They were to be given presents to get them to consent to having certain boundaries laid down, so that both they and the Europeans should know which land was theirs. In other words,.his idea was to persuade them to retire of their own free will within 'Reserves'! (Nothing at all was done to carry out his instruc tions, because at that time the number of white farmers was still so small that.there was enough grazing for everyone. But we see here the beginning of the idea that the original inhabitants of the country must be satisfied to give up without opposition all land that the white people wanted for themselvesc) In 1685 van der Stel went himself with an expedition to the land of the Namaquas. They were received hospitably by these people and taken to the 'Copper Mountain', where they found that rich ore certainly existed in great quantities-. But the place was too far away from the coast for it to be possible for the Europeans to make profits by mining, as of course there were no railways then, (Today the Namaqualand copper mines produce much wealth for white people - Africans, of course, doing the hard work for low pay!) The Dutch learnt much that was new about the geography of the country, but did not succeed in reaching the Orange River about which they had heard so much. In 1687, the number of free burghers at the Cape was 254, and there were 319 women and children in their families. There were 39 white servants working for them, and they owned 230 men slaves, 44 women slaves and 36 slave children. (Coloured peoplo and freed slaves would be counted as free burghers.) The farmers owned about 3,000 head of horned cattle and about 30,000 sheep, besides 155 horses, We see then that between 1678 and 1687 - only 9 years - the number of white colonists, if we reckon only the men, had become 3 times as great» Simon van der Stel's plan was beginning to bear fruit! (4) The Wreck of the 'Stavenissc' In the year 1686 a Dutch ship called the 'Stavenlsse1 was wrecke’d about 70 miles south of the Bay of Natal, where Durban now stands. Eleven men were drowned, but sixty got to shore, and they managed to save some food, clothing, and canvas to make a tent, besides compasses and charts. . . « ■ Most of the men decided to start off at once and attempt to travel overland to the Cape, but a few, who were not strong enough to walk over such rough country, remained behind. Africans in large numbers soon flocked to the scene of the wreck, and later on two Englishmen made their appearance. The said they had also lost their ship, .and that they and a few others had been living with the black people for nine months. They had learned’ to speak the language sufficiently well to make themselves understood, and could exchange beads and copper rings, which they had saved from their •ship, for so much food as would last them all for fifty years, if necessary. They invited the Dutch sailors to come and live with them at the Bay of Natal, and their offer was accepted. Let us note here that the Englishmen were part of the crew of a ship which had been going to the east coast of iifrica to trade in ivory and slaves. To them, buying and selling human beings was not wrong, as long as such people had black skins\ ■ And yet, when they were wrecked, they found the people of the country, as they assured the Dutchmen, "friendly and hospitable." These 'savages' did not seize them as slaves, neither did they kill them or steal their goods, as they could so easily have done! The white men began to build a ship to get back to the Cape, and the Africans helped them, in return for such trifles as .beads and copper arm-rings, to do all the heavy work. Later another party of ship-wreeked men arrived and joined them. A year and a day after the wreck of the 'Stavonisse', the new vessel, called the 'Centaurus1, was ready to set sail. But at the last moment five men decided to stay behind - so much did they enjoy living with the black people. The crew of the 'Centaurus' reached Cape Town safely, only to find that nothing had been heard of the sailors from the 'Stavenisse' who had decided to travel overland. So after a few months the 'Centaurus' was sent out again to look for the missing men. Fourteen of them were found along the coast near what is today East London. A later expedition discovered several men who had turned back towards Port Natal* In the end it was reckoned that of the forty-seven men who had left to travel southward by land, twenty-one had been rescued, seventeen had died through sickness or accident or been killed by Bushmen, and the fate of the remaining nine was unknown, but it was supposed that they were still living among the black people in different parts of the country. From the sailors who returned to the Cape, the Dutch got their first real information about Africans other than Bushmen and Hottentots. First of all, it is quite certain that the eastern Cape Province, at least as far west as where East London now stands, was, even in those early days, occupied by the Amaxosa, Natal was mainly occupied by the Abambo. Next came the Amampondomsi, the Amampondo and the Abatembu. Between these and the Amaxosa there were many Bushmen. The sailors told the officials of the Dutch East India Company that they had been well treated by all these people except the Bushmen, by whom they had been stripped and robbed of every thing they had. They were naked when they reached the country of the Amaxosa, where they were received with great pity and were supplied with food and shelter. Five of them had perished before that time, two being drowned when attempting to cross a swollen river, two others being loft behind exhausted, and the fifth being murdered by Bushmen. After resting awhile with the Amaxosa, they all wished to proceed on their journey westward, but some of them were persuaded not to do so by being informed that the next people were Bushmen, who would certainly murder them. Twelve of the boldest, however, made the attempt, and reports had been received that they had all been killed. The men had much to say about the customs and way of living of African tribes. They also stated that slaves were certainly not to be got from among these people, as the inhabitants were friendly in character and were very fond of each other. (How sorry the white people must have been to hear this! You see, slave- traders often bought prisoners who had been captured in wars taking place between tribes.) About the same time as 'the above events took place, a trading expedition was sent by land from the Cape to try and make contact with more Hottentot tribes living towards the east. The Hassequas, Gouriquas and Chainouquas, who were already well known, were visited first; then came the Attaquas, and then the Outeniquas, of whom the Dutch had heard the name only. Travelling further to the north-east over the Swartberg Mountains, the expedition got in touch with a large tribe called Inquas. Their chief, Hykon, received the traders in a.most friendly manner, and they obtained from him more than 500 cattle and many sheep. Prom the Inquas the Europeans obtained information about other tribes, which enabled them'to fill up the plo.ce on the map between the country of Outeniquas, who ■ lived just beyond the present village of George, and the Amaxosa* To the south-east of the Inquas the tribes on the coast were the Ganumqua, the Nambunqua, the Gonaqua, and the Damaqua - the last were neighbours of the Amaxosa, Also there were bands of Bushmen all over the country. We see then how untrue is the excuse sometimes made that white settlers, when they began to farm further and further away from the Cape, were only occupying land that .was not needed by anyone else. It is also ridiculour to argue, that the African tribes other than the Hottentots had only come into the eastern part of Cape Province about the same time as Jan van Riebeek arrived in South Africa, and therefore had no more right to these parts than the white people had. The Amaxosa had certainly been living where the men from the 'Stavenisse1 found them for hundreds of years before the two races came to blows in what was called 'the first Kaffir War'of , which you will hear in a later story. OFFICIALS AND COLONISTS The Dutch East India Company soon became interested in increasing the number of free burghers at the Cape. This was because Holland was often at war with either England or France. These countries also traded with the East, so the Company was afraid that the Cape, which was so valuable as a 'half-way house1 on the voyage to India, might be attacked and taken by an enemy. White colonists could help defend the Gape, and the more there were, the less soldiers would be needed. Soldiers had to be paid and fed, while colonists cost the Company nothing! Some of the new men who were given farms were not Dutch - they were Germans who had gone to Holland in search of work and-had married Dutch wives. And in 1688 several hundred French 'Huguenots' came to the Cape. These people were Protestants who had been forced to run away from their own country because the French‘king, who was a Catholic, would not let them practise their religion in peace, but punished them severely if they did so. Many Huguenots fled to Holland, which was a Protestant country, and they were welcomed there. The Company thought they would make good settlers, and offered them farms at the Cape. Simon van der Stel, as you know, did not like foreigners, but he had to accept the people the Company sent out. 1116 Huguenots made splendid settlers, as they were very hard-working, and most of them knew much more about vine-growing and about making wine and brandy than the Dutch did. They were also good artisans and builders. But at first they were not at all happy at the Cape, because the Commander refused to let French be taught in their schools, and also made them accept a Dutch minister for their church. When they sent a deputation to him to complain, he told them they were .ungrateful rebels, and must learn to obey like other colonists, (in time, the use of the French language died out completely in South Africa. The French and Dutch inter married, and today only such names as Joubert, le Roux, du Plessis and de Viiliers remain to remind us that some of the fore-fathers of the Afrikaners came from France.) In the years between 1691 and 1712, the number of white settlers, with their wives and children, increased from about 1,000 to about 2,000. Of course this meant a big increase in the land they occupied. Nobody bothered about the Hottentots in those parts, whose grazing lands were being taken away, and who were getting poorer and poorer. Some of them worked for the white farmers, especially at harvesting time, and part of their pay was given in 'tots' of cheap wine or brandy. Once they got used to strong drink, many ruined themselves by selling their animals to obtain more drink. In addition, they could no longer easily obtain meat by hunting, because the white men with their guns soon killed off most of the game for themselves. If a group of Hottentots tried to move to other parts-with good grazing further east, it led to quarrels and fighting with other tribes. Many died of sicknesses they had never known till the white people came. In short, as the colonists became more, the original inhabitants became less. (But, of the children b om, the*number of 'Coloured1 ones increased, for among both whites and slaves, women were then very few in number as compared to men.) In 1696, Simon van der Stel resigned and retired to his farm, Constantia. He had been given the title of 'Governor' some years before, as the Company felt that the Cape was now too important to be ruled by a 'Commander'. The Company thought highly of van der Stel, but for some years he had been getting less and less popular with the colonists, because his love of money had been growing on him so much that he neglected the interests of his own people and thought only of getting rich. He remained on his farm for the rest of his life. William Adrian van der Stel, Simon's eldest son, was appointed as the next Governor. He was even more greedy than his father, and he was also very dishonest. Although Simon van der Stel had been allowed to farm, this was an exception to a strict rule which had been made long ago by the Company for all officials at the Cape. This order was given not only so that the officials should not neglect their work, but also so that they should not sell produce in competition with the colonists. However, the Company paid its officials - even the Governor - very small salaries, and so there was great temptation for them to he dishonest and to take bribes. Now it may seem strange to you when I tell you that the colonists knew nothing about, the orders the Company had given! Holland was a long way from the Cape, there were no newspapers in those days, and the colonists had no representation on the little Council, consisting of the Governor and a few high officials, which received orders by letter from the Company in Holland. So it was easy for these people to keep anything a secret if they wished to do so. So now William Adrian van der Stel began to grow wheat and vines on over 600 morgen of land, and he soon had over 1,000 head of cattle and 18,000 sheep at grazing posts hidden inland behind the mountains. He used the Company's slaves to build a fine house and to do his own work, and he did not even pay taxes as the colonists had to. When ships came to the Cape, he sold his own produce first at the best prices. His father and brother and some officials also farmed, and they got second chance. So the colonists found it difficult to sell anything, and had to take what prices they could get. Although they were kept ignorant of the fact that such things were forbidden, the colonists grew very dissatisfied, and made.a plan to write secretly to the Company and complain that they could not make a.living. They also said that the Governor was cheating the Company itself in many ways - for example, he traded with the Hottentots for his own profit, instead of for the profit of his employers. But before they could get the letter to somebody on one of the ships going to Holland, the Governor, who suspected their plan, sent soldiers to arrest Adam Tas and other colonists whom he thought were leading the 'rebellion1, and he kept them in prison without trial for many months. n The next thing' he did was to get a 'certificate' drawn up to say what a good governor he was. He’ persuaded all sorts o f people who were not farmers to sign it, by inviting them to his house and. giving them plenty to drink, and he even put some farmers' names on the certificate himselfThen he sent it to Holland. But in the end it did not help him, for-news reached the Company indirectly that something was wrong. ; A commissioner was sent to the Cape to find out the truth, a report was made, and William. Adrian van der Stel and other dishonest officials were dismissed. In the year 1713 a terrible misfortune fell on the country - for the first time, smallpox made its appearance in South Africa. It was introduced here by means of some clothing belonging to sailors who had been ill on the voyage from India, but who had recovered before reaching Table Bay. The clothing was sent ashore to be washed by slave women belonging to the Company - they got the disease first and soon it spread to others, (in those days the use of vaccination to prevent people from getting smallpox had not yet been discovered, and it was not known that clothing could carry the germs.) Thousands of people died, the worst sufferers being the slaves and Hottentots. Some of the tribes near the Cape lost so many people that they ceased to exist as organised groups. The disease appeared a second time, twelve years later, but in a less: severe form. The Bushmen, who lived in'very small groups and who seldom came into close contact with other races, seem to have escaped both times. In spite of deaths from smallpox, the number of whites in 1716 was about 1,700. But so many slaves and Hottentots had died, that there was a great shortage of labourers. After much discussion, it was; decided to import a new lot of slaves rather than to try and get* more workers from Europe, because such people, although they had always been labourers in their own countries, would feel themselves too good to use their-hands for hard work as soon as they saw that white men in South Africa were always masters over non-whites. The result of this decision tfas that the number of slaves, West Africans, people from the island of Mauritius, and Malays from Asia - increased so. greatly that before long there were more slaves than colonists at the Cape! q . s b (6) THE COLONY EXPANDS This story is of the very greatest importance, and you should try to under stand it thoroughly. Look carefully at the two maps. Map 1 shows you how much of South Africa was occupied by white settlers in the year 1700. The rest of the country still belonged to the black people. Map 2 shows you the difference 100 years later. The white population had increased from about 1,500 to about 20,000, but it was not just the increase in population that caused the expansion, because in the year 1800 most of the white people were still living in the districts not far from Cape Town, and only about 7,000 to 8,000 lived in the whole of the rest of the colony. What happened was this. From about the year 1717, a new type of farmer - the 'trekboer' - began to appear in the Cape. These people - just like the hottentots - went in for animal breeding only, and did not plant any crops. Agriculture did not pay well even in good years - mosf of the produce had to be sold to the Company at fixed prices which gave the settlers little profit, and even what was left over could seldom be sold freely to passing ships without a 'bribe' being given to some official or other. Also, although the hard work was done by non-whites, the farmers had plenty to do in supervising the labourers. In addition, they had to pay taxes on the produce they sold, and, as there were no railways or good roads, it was often quite difficult and expensive for farmers living some distance from Table Bay to bring their goods to the coast. Cattle-farming was much easier in every way! But before 1717, the Company had not been willing to allow farmers to occupy large pieces of land. Now it changed its policy, because meat was always needed for the soldiers and the ships, and it was becoming more and more difficult to get it from the Hottentots. So colonists were now allowed to take up what were called 'loan farms' - they could choose a piece of ground of 3,000 morgen (and sometimes even more) in extent, and could use this land for as long as they wished providing they paid a small rent. (Up till 1732, the rent was £2.10. -. a year, and after that date it was £5. -* -• Even though money was worth much more in those days, you can see that the rent was ridiculously low!) In order to get a clear idea of what a farm of 3,000 morgen means, let us make a comparison. The total extent of the whole of the Reserves today is 59,000 square miles. If this area were to be divided up into farms of 3,000 morgen each, there would be only 6,100 farms! (Yet the Nationalists think the Reserves are quite big enough to serve as a 'national home' for nearly 9,000,000 Africans!!!) Of course the 'trekboer' chose only the best grazing-lands - and if the pasture failed or did not prove as good as was expected, they did not hesitate to give up that piece of ground and seek other and better places. It also became the custom to have 'winter' and 'summer' farms - in winter they took their animals inland on to the Karoo, and in summer came back nearer to the coast. The Company made no objection to this, though the winter grazing was not paid for at all. And of course the Company or the white farmers did not care that every piece of new land occupied was taken away, without asking their permission, from the Hottentots and Bushmen who needed it for their own grazing and hunting! As they trekked further and further from the old settlement, the lives of these new farmers became less and less 'civilized'. They seldom built a decent house, and often lived for months on end in their tent-waggons. They ate little else but the meat of the wild animals they hunted, so as to spare their own flocks and herds. They did not worry that their children got no education - the only books they had were the Bible and the Psalm-book. As soon as a boy grew to early manhood, he married and took a 3,000 morgen farm for himself - and as these people always had large families, you can imagine how rapidly all the good grazing land to the east of the Cape began to fill up. The Company soon became alarmed at the unexpected way in which the colony was expanding, for it was not easy to keep control over the settlers when they got too far away. In 1727 a boundary was fixed and nobody was supposed to live outside it, but the law was not obeyed. By 1738 there were already 400 cattle farms. In 1739 the Company recognised the extensions and fixed the boundary further to the east, but again in vain. When, in 1769, an official commission was sent from Cape Town to inspect distant farms, they found between the Gamtoos and the Fish River many white persons with large herds of cattle, who were not paying rent to the Company. Others were paying rent for a farm inside the colonial boundary, but were moving about with their cattle wherever they pleased. Also, although this was strictly forbidden, a large trade in purchasing cattle from the Xosas was being carried on. Once again a law was made - no white man was to go further than the Gamtoos River to the east, or Bruintjies Hoogte to the north. And once again the 'trekboer' paid not the slightest attention. Why was the Company anxious to keep control over the settlers, no matter how far away they were from Cape Town? One reason was that it wanted to be sure of getting in the rent money, but there were more important reasons. Firstly, every adult male settler was liable for certain military duties - if called upon by the Company, he had to appear at any named place with his own horse, rifle, and food for a certain number of days, and must then fight against any enemy, white or black, who was threatening the peace of the Colony. This duty was called 'going on commando', and it gave the Company a body of unpaid fighters in addition to its own paid soldiers. (The Company also had a company of Hottentot and Coloured soldiers, called 'Pandours'!) Secondly, the Company was always afraid that the settlers themselves would cause wars with the black people, for it knew that some of them were quite capable of stealing cattle and even murdering in cold blood, and it was not easy to catch and punish these offenders. That is why settlers were forbidden to trade with Hottentots and Xosas, even when the Company did not went to trade for itself. The Company appointed in each district men called 'landdrosts' - a kind of magistrate - to see that the laws were obeyed. But in the new districts the people were so scattered that it was difficult for the landdrosts to know what was going on - and in any case these men were usually farmers themselves, and seldom took the part of non-whites in any dispute with whites. Before we talk of what happened when settlers and Xceas came into contact with each other, let us see what was happening to the Hottentots and Bushmen inside the expanding colony. The Hottentots gave the white men very little trouble. Instead of joining together to resist the expansion, they quarrelled among themselves for what land was left. And gradually most of them were forced to enter the service of the white man - the men and boys as herdsmen, and the women as domestic workers. In this way some of them managed to keep a few of their precious animals, for which the white farmer might allow them grazing, in return for their services. With the Bushmen it was different - having no flocks and herds, they could move more freely, and their small groups could hide away easily when pursued. These little people fought back fiercely against the loss of their hunting grounds. They killed herdsmen and took cattle. In reven^o the farmers - helped by the Hottentots - hunted down the Bushmen like wild animals, killing hundreds of them at a time. Those taken prisoner, especially the women and children, were kept as 'apprentices* - that is, unpaid servants. But in spite of their heavy losses, the Bushmen kept on fighting. It took nearly a hundred years before their resistance finally ended because practically none of them were left within the borders of the colony. To the west, the number of settlers was also increasing, and Cape Town was becoming more than just a village. There, and in a few smaller places like Stellenbosch, schools and churches were to be found. The population of Cape Town consisted mostly of officials of the Company, soldiers, innkeepers and small traders, with their slaves and Hottentot servants. There were no industries except waggon and cart-building, and the making of simple furniture and farm implements. Nearly all skilled work was done by slaves. Fishing was carried on by free Malays and other coloured people. Most families made their own soap, candles and clothing. There was not a single Post Office in the whole country. The Cape had had many different Governors after William. Adrian van der Stel was dismissed. The only one we need mention now is Ryk Tulbagh, who ruled from 1751 to 1771. He was very popular with the colonists, because he was an honest man and not only did not take bribes himself, but also stopped the officials under him from doing so. During Tulbagh's rule, the Orange River was crossed by white men for the first time. In 1755 there was a new outbreak of smallpcx - over 2,000 people died in Cape Town alone. In 1756, however, in spite of the smallpox, the total number of whites in the whole colony was over 5,000. These people owned nearly 6,000 slaves. The number of Hottentots and other Coloured people is not known. Most of the slaves in the Colony belonged to the farmers living near the Cape. And although there were more slaves than whites, the farmers wanted still more labourers. If a slave woman had a child, it belonged to the woman's master - the earlier custom of freeing slave children if they became Christians had long ago been given up. But slave women were scarce, and the farmers had to allow their male slaves to take Hottentot women as wives - if they forbade this, the men were certain to run away. But the children of these 'free' Hottentot women were not slaves, and the farmers complained that, directly or indirectly, they had to feed these women and children without any benefit to themselves. This, they told the Government, was really not fair! So to satisfy them, a new regulation was put into force in 1775. Children of male slaves and Hottentot women were to be 'apprenticed' to the owner of the farm on which they were living till they reached the age of 25 years. The only way of escaping this service without pay was for the mother to remove the child from the farm before it was 18 months old. Otherwise, provided he made formal application to the landdrost and a record was kept, and provided the apprentice was 'properly fed and clothed', the farmer had a new slave for many years without the payment of any purchase price. ~Ths /f sk ended. ar ea$ I T h e r e were about l,Soo whiteS of all Mzp The shaded a.Tea. shows th e extent t^Aite sett I ement iyx J%0 0 There were a.bout %0} ooo tuh/tes o-P #// Collection Number: AD1137 FEDERATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN 1954-1963 PUBLISHER: Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive Location:- Johannesburg ©2013 LEGAL NOTICES: Copyright Notice: All materials on the Historical Papers website are protected by South African copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or otherwise published in any format, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. 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