IV Chronicles of Two Leaders of the Great Emigration, Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys
Sketch IV
I — Chronicles of Two Leaders of the Great Emigration, Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys
No history has yet been written that cannot be improved upon. In the opinion of most students the greatest work of this kind in the English language is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but if Gibbon were now alive he could certainly improve that masterpiece by means of discoveries that have been made since he last revised it. If this can be said of volumes prepared by a man of means, who was able to devote his whole time and thought to his work, it is infinitely more true of such a book as my History of South Africa, which has been produced under difficulties little short of being insurmountable.
Half a century has passed away since I commenced to gather materials for my history, but during all that time I have had to toil for my bread, and whenever I have gained a point of advantage I have found myself speedily hurled from it. In a country like South Africa, where racial prejudice has always been passionate, one who would try, as I have done, to write impartially must expect to meet with opposition from the extreme wings of both sections of the community, and unfortunately for me that opposition, or more properly speaking animosity, has frequently been sufficient to deprive me for a time of the power of making researches or continuing my work.
And so great is the quantity of material to be examined for the preparation of a history of South Africa, so scattered is it, and so disordered is the manuscript portion, that fifty years, even if devoted entirely to the work, would not be too long to master it all. Many languages have to be learned, and libraries and archive departments visited and worked in half over Europe as well as in South Africa. I am speaking now only of the period since the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese, if one wants to go further back a knowledge of Arabic and prolonged visits to many eastern towns would be indispensable. This I was prevented from even attempting. In Indian literature also much important information may possibly—even probably—be found, for beyond a doubt there was intercourse between Hindostan and Eastern Africa in ancient times. No man could grapple with all this single-handed, and if any one were to try to do it, at the end of fifty years he would find a very great deal still to be done.
Historical Sketches.
Owing to this cause—the vast amount of research that was needed and the many interruptions I met with—my history, though correct, is defective, that is there is nothing untruthful or misleading in it, but there are sections that could be enlarged to advantage. Among such sections are the deeds of Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys. I commenced my study of the great emigration by getting accounts of it from numerous men and women who had taken part in it. I soon found—as every one else has done who has attempted to collect such materials—that the various relations did not agree, and that something more reliable was needed to base a description upon. I then read whatever was to be found in printed books and the newspapers of the period, and as soon as I had an opportunity of doing so I examined all the manuscripts that I could find in the Cape archives bearing on the subject.
It is a quarter of a century since I published a volume containing the history of the emigration, the first book on the subject prepared in South Africa. The facts as related by me have never been disputed, but there are some who profess to believe that they are described in a spirit too favourable to the emigrants, and others that they are just the reverse. I shall not alter a single word owing to such opinions, but when I find new and reliable materials that enable me to enlarge my former accounts, I shall certainly make use of them. Such materials have recently come to hand with regard to Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys in a collection of important documents made by Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban, taken by him to England, and preserved in the archives of his family until 1911, when they were most generously presented by his grandson through me to the Union government.
Occupation of the Eastern Districts.
Two centuries lacking less than two decades had passed away since European farmers first made homes for themselves on the banks of the Liesbeek river, near the foot of Table Mountain, and in 1835 white men were cultivating ground and pasturing their flocks and herds as far away as the banks of the Kat and the Fish in one direction and the great plain bordering on the Orange in another. The area they had spread over was thus wide and long, though its occupation had been slower than that of any other settlement of Europeans possessing a tithe of its attractions. In most parts of the districts beyond the coast belt it was very sparsely peopled, the farms, which might with greater propriety have been termed cattle-runs, being seldom less than five or six thousand English acres in extent, and often carrying only a single family upon them.
The small district of Albany was an exception to this general statement. It was occupied chiefly by British settlers, who had originally plots of ground only one hundred acres in size allotted to them, but these had proved insufficient for the maintenance of a family, and most of them had been abandoned. Those that remained occupied had then been enlarged, though not to the extent of the great cattle-runs which the older Dutch-speaking colonists considered necessary for their subsistence.
There was a marked difference in disposition between the Dutch-speaking and the English-speaking colonists. The former, being cattle-breeders by descent through several generations, were strongly attached to country life, and disliked residence in a village or town, where they seldom remained longer than a few hours. Restraint of any kind was exceedingly irksome to them, even the slight restraint of conforming to urban conditions. Their ideal of a happy life was a life on a farm where a man could look north, south, east, and west, and see nothing that was not his own, where a few fruit trees and vines provided him with peaches and oranges, apples and grapes, and a little garden, irrigated from a running stream or a fountain, yielded him all the vegetables he needed, and where his horned cattle, horses, and sheep throve and increased. Cry down such a life as one will, call it unprogressive, devoid of culture, wanting in refinement, destructive of energy, it cannot be denied that it was a happy life and one that brought man into closer communion with nature and with God than if he passed his existence in a town or a village. Except in the most secluded districts there is no longer room for such a life in South Africa, though some there are even in the more fertile parts who strive to cling to it still, but in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century it was the ideal which nearly every Dutch-speaking colonist in the eastern districts of the Cape settlement kept constantly before his eyes.
Historical Sketches.
The English settler as a rule viewed life differently. He disliked a lonely country home, where there was no opportunity of exercising his spirit of enterprise, where the means of giving his children an education in books were lacking, and where companionship with his species was uncertain and scanty. He preferred to reside in a town, where he would have greater scope for his abilities, and where he could have more of such comforts and enjoyments as he desired. There were indeed Englishmen to be found among the leading farmers, but the great majority of them were traders or mechanics. Besides this in most cases they had not the means to purchase stock to commence cattle-breeding with, even if they had the disposition to do so, and they had no heart to face the privations that many a Dutch-speaking youth underwent as a matter of course to obtain a few sheep and cows to make a beginning with. An Englishman could not, for instance, live almost entirely on game for years, as they often did, to spare their domestic cattle and allow them to increase. And so in Albany a town speedily rose, which contained a large proportion of the British settlers, and which was by far the most important centre of population in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony. Grahamstown it was called, and it was as purely English as if it stood in Kent or in Sussex.
Causes of Discontent.
For several years there had been great discontent throughout the settlement. In England the party that wished to undo the errors of the past, to atone for the crime of slave-trading in which earlier generations had been deeply involved, and to make strenuous efforts for the elevation of the coloured races, sunk in barbarism and heathenism throughout the world, had been steadily growing in numbers and in influence until at length it had become the dominant power in the state. Its leaders were earnest well-meaning men, but they did not realise that improvement to be most effective should be gradual rather than sudden. They acted as did the men of the French revolution, and in both cases an enormous amount of misery was the immediate consequence, though as time went on the good that they did gradually came to surpass the evil which was at first the result of too much haste. They did not study the condition of things in South Africa, and the parliament at Westminster applied laws to this country that were quite unsuitable to it.
They placed the Hottentots on a perfect political equality with the European colonists and refused to sanction a vagrant act, thereby creating a host of idlers and wanderers, that only time and missionary effort could reduce to order. They emancipated the slaves of a sudden, paying one-third of their appraised value as compensation, and by doing so brought utter ruin upon many of the best families in the country and deep distress upon nearly all. The gradual emancipation which the colonists favoured they rejected, simply because it would take a generation to work out, though all possible protection against ill-usage of the slaves could have been secured under it, and the negroes as a whole would have been better prepared for freedom.
Historical Sketches.
There were other causes of dissatisfaction among the Dutch-speaking colonists. The suppression of their language in courts of law and official documents was one. Another was the change of land tenure from leases renewable yearly to perpetual quitrent, necessitating heavy charges for surveying and much larger annual payments. This measure, by giving security of tenure and permitting transfer on sale, was undoubtedly beneficial, but the frontier farmers and graziers, accustomed to the old system, regarded the new one as a plan for extorting money from them, especially as in most instances the charges for surveying were paid years before the issue of titles. The great extent of the magisterial districts prevented the government officials from explaining the real object of such changes to the farmers, and this could not be remedied for want of funds.
Still another cause of dissatisfaction was owing to the swarms of barbarians that of recent years had entered the colony from the north and the east, who were a menace to the cattle farmers, from whom they demanded food which, if not given at once, was taken by force. These barbarians were the remnants of various Betshuana tribes that had been nearly exterminated in the wars that originated with Tshaka and Umsilikazi,89 to whom was added a large section of the Tembu tribe driven westward by Matiwane, himself a fugitive from the Zulu spears. The government did what it could, without actual violence, to induce these invaders to remove beyond the borders, but without success, and public opinion in England would not admit of sterner measures being resorted to, such as the cattle farmers desired.
But more than all that has been mentioned, the greatest cause of irritation was due to the tone of the missionary and so-called philanthropic press. By it the farmers were vilified as if they were cruel tyrants who treated the coloured people as mere animals, and all their misfortunes, which were diminished to next to nothing, were alleged to be due to themselves. Extracts from books and pamphlets of this tone found their way to the farms and were discussed whenever individuals met, until a general feeling of indignation was aroused. By no one was it disputed that in South Africa, as in all other countries of the world, there were violent men to be found, and that instances of extreme cruelty to coloured dependents could be pointed out; but that a whole community should be branded with infamy on account of the misdeeds of a few individuals seemed to be as unjust as if the inhabitants of London should be termed murderers because occasionally a terrible crime was committed there.
Causes of Discontent.
And now in the closing days of 1834 a calamity more dreadful than any that preceded it had overtaken the English settlers of Albany and the Dutch-speaking farmers of Somerset, and had reduced them all alike to a condition of the direst distress.90 Without notice, without anything that a European can regard as sufficient provocation, great bands of Xosas suddenly crossed the border and spread over these frontier districts, murdering all the male inhabitants who had not time to escape to places where they could defend themselves and their families, burning their farmhouses and outbuildings, and driving off the horses, horned cattle, sheep, and goats. The whole frontier, with the exception of Grahamstown and a few of the most important villages which were left like oases, was reduced to an absolute desert. Seven thousand individuals, the majority of whom had previously been in comfortable circumstances, were reduced to such destitution that the government was obliged to supply them with food, or they must have starved.
Historical Sketches.
By dint of great exertion the burgher forces, with two regiments of British infantry and a strong contingent of Hottentots, drove the Xosas out of the colony and reduced them to partial subjection in the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers. A British and colonial army penetrated the country beyond the Kei, captured some thousands of cattle, and released the Fingoes from subjection to the Xosas. These Fingoes were the remnants of tribes that had lived in Natal, where they were all but exterminated in the wars of Tshaka. They were brought westward, and were located chiefly in what is now the district of Peddie, that they might become a kind of buffer between the colonists and the Xosas. Then the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers was proclaimed a British possession, under the name of the Province of Queen Adelaide.
Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, enjoyed the esteem and affection of a great majority of the colonists, English and Dutch-speaking alike, in a larger degree than any one before him had done, and Colonel H. G. Smith, who was stationed at King-Williamstown as the governor’s representative in the new province, was deservedly popular with all but a few persons of malignant disposition. A more energetic man never lived, nor one who had the happiness of the people committed to his charge more at heart. The Xosa chiefs were permitted to govern their dependents in their old way, though they were now officially termed British magistrates, fieldcornets, &c., but they were supposed to act under the supervision of English commissioners, and the most serious crimes were legally punishable only after trial before European courts. Missionary effort was encouraged, and respectable traders were permitted to settle at selected stations, but traffic in munitions of war or in intoxicating liquor was strictly prohibited.
Plans of Sir Benjamin D’Urban.
There were no colonists so simple as to believe that this measure would immediately put an end to depredations by the Xosas, or that it would in some almost miraculous way turn barbarians suddenly into civilised men. But it was generally supposed that under the circumstances then existing this system was better than any other that could be adopted, and that it really offered some hope that in course of time a great improvement in the condition of the Xosas might take place. A small section of the missionary party thought differently, however, as in their view the system placed too much restraint upon the black people. With this trifling exception Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s plans in general were heartily approved of by nearly every frontier colonist, though many of them feared that the settlement of the Fingoes on the border might prove to be a mistake.
Looking back now after the experience of three-quarters of a century, we can say positively that Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s policy was wise and benevolent. It might have been better if the Fingoes had not been located where they were, but this was at the time the best thing that could be done with them. We can see too that Colonel Smith was over confident in his influence with the people,—he even believed that he could depose the chiefs at his will,—for he did not know, as we do, the cause of the fidelity of the commoners to them. But upon the whole things were working well, infinitely better indeed than ever before as far as the European colonists were concerned, while the blacks were in a position where improvement was much more easy than it had previously been.
Historical Sketches.
The party in power in England, however, was decidedly of opinion that a great wrong of some kind or other must have been done to the Xosas, or they would not have made war upon the colony. The white people, consequently, must have been at fault. Lord Glenelg, then secretary of state for the colonies, in whose hands the destiny of South Africa was at the time, held this opinion, and issued instructions that British rule was to be withdrawn from the Province of Queen Adelaide, all the land east of the Fish and Kat rivers be abandoned to the Xosas, and treaties of friendship be entered into with the chiefs as independent and sovereign powers. An officer who was not favourably regarded at that time by the farmers, though in later years he performed eminent services for the country, was appointed to carry out these measures, and it was announced that he would leave England at once. When this information reached South Africa, the last ray of hope died out in the hearts of the Dutch-speaking farmers in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, and there was a general resolution to abandon the land of their birth and seek a new home somewhere beyond the border. The British government had repeatedly announced its fixed determination not to enlarge its domain in this part of the world, so they believed that upon their removal they would be free and independent.
The enormous destruction of human life in the wars of Tshaka and Moselekatse had left wide tracts of land in South Africa almost—in some instances quite—uninhabited, and although the extent of these wastes was unknown, the farmers were cognisant of the fact that there were unoccupied areas where, they thought, they might settle without doing wrong to any one. One of these nearly vacant tracts was the country called Natal, which at that time was taken to signify the land between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers, the Kathlamba mountains and the sea. It was the most beautiful and most fertile part of South Africa, rising in steps from the ocean to the great wall that bounds the interior plain, and thus embracing a variety of climates. It was abundantly watered by the rains driven up from the Indian ocean, and was well drained by rivers and rivulets that carried the surplus moisture to the sea. Every one who saw the land spoke of it with enthusiasm, as being one of the fairest regions on earth, and one of the best adapted to make comfortable homes in.
Condition of Natal.
Some forty Englishmen had settled on the shore of the inlet called Port Natal, where they made a living chiefly by hunting elephants and buffaloes and trading with the Zulu chief for ivory. Some of them were living more like barbarians than civilised men, and were the only acknowledged heads or chiefs of little bands of fugitives from Zululand, who placed themselves under the white men’s guidance and protection. A petty chief named Umnini, who with a few followers lived in a thicket adjoining the Bluff, and who had concealed himself during the Zulu invasions, was also a dependent of the white people.91 On the 23rd of June 1835 fourteen of these men under the guidance of Captain Allen F. Gardiner, recently of the royal navy, who was then on a visit to the country with a view of preparing for the establishment of missions among the Zulus, signed a petition to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, requesting him to forward it to the authorities in England, asking that the territory might be annexed and a proper government be established in it. They estimated the number of Bantu inhabitants at not less than three thousand.92 As some of these men were hunters who knew every inch of the country, this number might be accepted as at least approximately correct, though from the observations of others perhaps five or even six thousand would be more accurate.
Historical Sketches.
This low estimate is supported by such an amount of trustworthy testimony that only those who refuse to accept any evidence that is in conflict with their prejudices can reject it. Nathaniel Isaacs’ Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal, two volumes, London, 1836,93 and Gardiner’s Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa, London, 1836,94 support it in general terms. Mr. Henry Fynn, who lived in Natal from 1824 to 1834, writing in 1838, says: “The number now under the management of the Europeans at Port Natal amounts to nearly six thousand souls, who would all be massacred if the Europeans were to be withdrawn from the Port.”95 All the documents of the next five years in which mention is made of the number of black people in Natal agree with it. Only a few years ago Mr. G. M. Rudolph, when giving evidence before the last Native Affairs Commission, stated that he did not think there were more than three thousand natives (i.e. Bantu) in Natal when he as a boy nine years of age went there with the first voortrekkers. A party of farmers, one of whom was Pieter Lavras Uys, travelled through Kaffraria in 1834 with fourteen waggons to Port Natal, and after thoroughly inspecting the uplands as well as the coast belt and the harbour, returned to the Cape Colony highly satisfied with the country as a desirable locality to migrate to.
Betshuana Refugees.
Of the vast regions north of the Orange river that had been swept nearly clean by war the farmers knew very little except from the statements of Betshuana refugees, whose intelligence was vague and often contradictory. No one of them seemed to know anything beyond the fate of the particular tribe or clan to which he belonged, and there was always so much that was fabulous mixed with their accounts that in general no credence was given to them. Then they could only be spoken to through interpreters, who were rarely obtainable and whose knowledge of any other language than their own was usually very defective.
Historical Sketches.
This was the condition of things on the frontier of the Cape Colony when the emigration of the Dutch-speaking farmers commenced, an emigration without parallel in any other dependency of Great Britain. The farmers formed themselves in little bands and moved away together, under the leadership of an elected commandant, whose authority, however, was very limited.
The first band to leave the colony with the intention of never returning to it had as its head a man named Louis Triegard, fifty-three years of age, who had been living in the district of Somerset. He was the grandson of a Swede, who came to South Africa in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and married here in 1744. His father, Carel Johannes Triegard, was one of those farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte who in 1796 were most opposed to the recognition of British authority in Graaff-Reinet, and he inherited his parent’s prejudice in this respect. He was married to Martha Elizabeth Susanna Bouwer, and had a family of five children.
Triegard had received only an elementary education from an itinerant schoolmaster, just sufficient to enable him to write a letter or keep a journal in such a way that his meaning could be made out, but his understanding was by no means defective. He had a passionate temper, though he was usually able to keep it under control. Among the farmers he was regarded as a wealthy man, and his establishment was much larger than those of his neighbours.
In June 1834 Louis Triegard moved away from the district of Somerset, and camped out for a time on the banks of the White Kei river, beyond the border of the colony. According to the declaration of one of his slaves, who ran away from him there, and who appeared before the civil commissioner of Albany at Grahamstown on the 10th of September, he had previously purchased from a storekeeper in that place one large and two small kegs of gunpowder, which he had taken with him. On the banks of the White Kei about thirty emigrant families were then living, among whom were those of Adriaan de Lange, his four sons Adriaan, Hans, Robert, and Gerrit, Frans van Aardt, Hans van der Merwe, and Sybrand van Dyk. Triegard had three female and seven men slaves, but the others had only five slaves among them all. While in the colony Triegard was a mild master, but when he got beyond the border his conduct changed, and he became harsh.
Conduct of Louis Triegard.
On the 21st of November 1834 the civil commissioner reported that all of Triegard’s slaves and four of the others had run away and reached Grahamstown safely, only one, belonging to Frans van Aardt, remaining at the White Kei. By removing them beyond the border, their masters had forfeited their right to them,96 so they were all declared emancipated without any further action, and were permitted to take service as free persons with any individuals in the town who might care to employ them.
At the close of this year the sixth Kaffir war commenced, and the Rarabe clans held out until September 1835. When negotiations for peace were being conducted, the chief Tyali stated that Louis Triegard had persuaded the Xosas to continue hostilities so long, but there is no other positive evidence to this effect. It is difficult to believe that he would have tried to bring evil upon his own countrymen, but there is the incriminating fact against him that he moved northward with the notorious robber captain Jalusa, who carried on a career of violence and indiscriminate plunder until his entire band of between a thousand and twelve hundred individuals, with only eight exceptions, was exterminated in September 1836 by the Basuto of Moshesh. The authorities on the frontier in the meantime, being convinced that he was doing much harm, but being unable to arrest him in his retreat beyond the border, were making secret inquiries into his conduct and movements, of which very likely he came to learn, for early in September 1835 he crossed the Orange river and became the leader of the first band of emigrants into the then unknown interior.
Historical Sketches.
He had with him his wife and four children, his son Carel with wife and two children, Pieter Johannes Hendrik Botha with wife and five children, J. Pretorius with wife and four children, G. Scheepers with wife and nine children, H. Strydom with wife and five children, an old man named Daniel Pfeffer who made his living as a schoolmaster, and a Frenchman named Isaac Albacht, who had a coloured woman as a consort and five children.
This party was joined before it crossed the Orange river by another of equal size, consisting of Jan van Rensburg as leader, with wife and four children, S. Bronkhorst with wife and six children, G. Bronkhorst the elder with wife and one child, G. Bronkhorst the younger with wife, Jacobus de Wet with wife, F. van Wyk with wife and two children, P. Viljoen with wife and six children, H. Aucamp with wife and three children, N. Prins with wife and eight children, and M. Prins.
Together they had thirty waggons. After crossing the Orange they continued their course northward, travelling just as suited their inclination or convenience until they reached the place now known as Potgieter’s Rust, in the Zoutpansberg, where they arrived in May 1836. In passing through the vast almost uninhabited waste beyond the Orange river they had escaped the observation of Moselekatse’s warriors, and had met so few blacks that they considered themselves quite secure. The men hunted game constantly on horseback, and had seen vast areas of land suited for settlement, but as they wished to open communication with the outer world through Delagoa Bay, they had gone on until they believed themselves to be in the latitude of that port.
Fate of Rensburg’s Party.
At the Zoutpansberg they halted while the young men explored the country around, which they considered admirably adapted for stock-breeding and agriculture. They were in ignorance that Moselekatse’s kraals were only four hundred kilometres or two hundred and fifty English miles to the south-west, and of the ferocity of the Matabele they likewise knew nothing, or they would not have been so satisfied with the locality. They were almost at the mouth of a lion’s den, and yet were so utterly careless that in July 1836 the families composing Rensburg’s division, consisting of forty-nine individuals, left the others with the object of proceeding to Delagoa Bay to open up communication and trade with the Portuguese who had recently rebuilt a fort there. From that time nothing definite is known of these people. A report reached Triegard some months afterwards that they had all been murdered by a band of Magwamba robbers, and this was confirmed in later years by the accounts of various blacks, but just when and where it occurred could never be ascertained.
It was commonly believed in the Transvaal Republic a generation later, and the newspapers circulated the statement widely, that in August 1867 a white man and woman, who spoke no language but that of the Eastern Bantu, and whose habits were those of barbarians, were sent to Commandant Coetzer, of Lydenburg, by a Swazi chief who had obtained them from the Magwamba. They could tell nothing of their history except that they believed they had always lived among Bantu; but as they had never seen other whites that they could remember, it was concluded that they were the sole survivors of Rensburg’s party, and that they were very young when their relatives were murdered. For some time they had lived as man and wife, and had two children when they were handed over to Commandant Coetzer. This was the tale generally accepted as correct at the time, but the man and woman believed to be Europeans were in reality albinos of pure Bantu blood.97
Historical Sketches.
From a journal kept by Triegard, a fragment of which, commencing on the 25th of January 1837 and ending on the 1st of May 1838, has fortunately been preserved, the history of those who were left behind at the Zoutpansberg is known. On the 11th of May 1837 Triegard wrote to the authorities at Lourenço Marques that the party was in great want of clothing and ammunition, and asking if horned cattle, wethers, wool, and hides would be received in barter. They were then seven families of forty-six souls, only nine of whom were males capable of bearing arms. This letter was sent by Gabriel Buys, accompanied by a Knobnose black named Waiwai. Buys was a son of the notorious freebooter Coenraad du Buis, who had fled from the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony many years before, and after carrying on extensive depredations in Southern Betshuanaland, at the head of a band of ruffians, had become afraid that ministers of justice might be sent to apprehend him there, so had moved on to the Zoutpansberg and become the first European resident in the present Transvaal province. As he had done at the Keiskama he did in his new home in the north: he took to himself a harem of Bantu women, by whom he had numerous children. Among these were Gabriel and an elder brother named Doris, who attached themselves temporarily to Triegard’s party, and as they spoke Dutch and Setshuana, were of great service. Doris remained behind as interpreter and general servant when Gabriel proceeded to Delagoa Bay with the letter.
Life at the Zoutpansberg.
They had over five hundred head of horned cattle and a flock of sheep and goats, the care of which occupied most of their attention. Game was plentiful, and they obtained some millet and sweet cane from the blacks who were thinly scattered about in their neighbourhood, so that there was no want of plain food, but the women missed greatly such articles as coffee and sugar. The men had accustomed themselves to the use of millet beer, and Triegard was always pleased to receive a calabash filled with it as a present from the head of a Bantu kraal, using the precaution, however, of requiring the donor according to the custom of the barbarians to take the first draught. As they had used all their lead, they cast bullets of copper and of tin, both of which metals were obtainable, though no information is given as to how or through whose means they were procured. Occasionally, though very rarely, they were able to get in barter a piece of calico that had passed through the country from Delagoa Bay, being handed on from one clan to another for sale. It is interesting to read in Triegard’s journal that, rough a life as they were leading, they observed Sunday as well as they could, and that a school was kept for the children. It is to be noted also that even in this little party there was a spirit of disagreement, and that Triegard’s leadership, owing to the feeling of absolute equality among the different heads of families, was hardly even nominal, much less real.
On the 7th of August Gabriel Buys and the Knobnose Waiwai returned from Delagoa Bay. No one there could read Triegard’s letter, but the Portuguese officer in command of the fort, understanding that the emigrants wished to visit him, sent two black soldiers to show them the way. Accordingly on the 23rd of that month they broke up their camp, and set out on the journey to the coast, with the intention, however, of returning and settling permanently in the goodly locality they had found. From Gabriel Buys and the men who accompanied him they obtained only a vague idea of the distance they would have to travel or of the obstacles in their way. They were in reality about three hundred and thirty-six kilometres or two hundred and ten English miles in a straight line from Lourenço Marques, which lay almost due south-east, for without knowing it they had gone fully a hundred and ninety kilometres farther north than its latitude. So far they had enjoyed excellent health, as after passing the Stormberg they had been on the high plateau, and travelling from south to north they had not met with any serious obstacles. They were now to have a very different experience.
Historical Sketches.
They travelled past the mountains, since so famous as the strongholds of the Bapedi, where Sekwati, who was then a very petty chief, was living, and who sent them a kindly greeting. They came next to the great range, which lay between them and the coast terraces, where trouble of no ordinary kind was before them. The black Portuguese soldiers had traversed the range on foot, and had no conception of waggon traffic, so they were absolutely useless as guides. A road had to be made, and they managed to obtain some Bantu labourers by paying them in sheep, but when it was completed it was just passable in most places and so dangerous at one spot that some of the party rather than venture on it preferred to take their waggons to pieces and lower the separate parts down the face of a precipice.
In the mountains their cattle were attacked by the tsetse, an insect a little larger than a common fly, but though they had once before suffered loss from this destructive pest, they did not pay much attention to it at first. They were doubtful of its being the same as that they had formerly seen, but soon their oxen began to pine away and die, when they found themselves in a deplorable condition. Still they pushed on, and by dint of almost superhuman exertions, managed to get through the Lebombo, the last range on their way. The cattle were dying fast, when on the 8th of April 1838, to their great joy, they were met by a messenger from the commandant of the Portuguese fort at Lourenço Marques. This messenger had come up the river Umbelosi in a boat, and had brought a present of provisions, rum, medicines, and even some articles of clothing, which were most acceptable.
Suffering at Delagoa Bay.
Triegard now transferred his ivory and other heavy effects to the boat, and with his lightened waggons pushed on to the fort, which he reached on the 15th of April 1838, two hundred and thirty-five days after leaving Makapan’s Poort at the Zoutpansberg. The party then consisted of fifty-seven individuals, namely five married men and their wives, two widowers, one widow, eight lads over sixteen years of age, fourteen lads under sixteen years of age, four girls over sixteen years of age, seven girls under sixteen years of age, four half-caste children of Albacht, and seven Betshuana and Bushman servants.
The Portuguese received them with much kindness, though they were required at first to give up their guns. These, however, were soon restored to them, and whatever could be thought of to make them comfortable was done. Triegard informed the commandant of the fort that he had left the Cape Colony because the frontier had been ruined by the Xosas, the slaves had been set free by the English, and the government desired to make soldiers of the Afrikanders. It was evident that they could not return to the Zoutpansberg, but they had not decided what next to undertake when they were attacked by fever. The first to die was old. Daniel Pfeffer, who expired on the 21st of April, at the age of 78 years. He was followed on the 29th of April by P. J. Hendrik Botha, who was 37 years of age. Next came Louis Triegard’s wife, who died on the 1st of May. When she fell ill the Portuguese commandant had her carried into the best room in the fort, and his own wife tended her day after day with the utmost kindness until she died. With a great cry of anguish over his terrible loss Triegard closed his journal, and no particulars can be ascertained of occurrences during the next fifteen months that the party remained at Lourenço Marques. Months of intense suffering, physical and mental, they must have been, of this there can be no doubt. Actual hunger may have been averted by the kindness of the Portuguese officers, but the resources of these good people were very limited, and such food as was obtainable must have consisted mainly, if not entirely, of millet and other produce of the gardens of the Bantu.
Historical Sketches.
Their number was constantly diminishing by fever, till at length the emigrants who had settled in Natal, hearing where and in what condition they were, chartered the schooner Mazeppa to proceed to Delagoa Bay to their relief, and in July 1839 the remnant of the party, consisting of Mrs. H. Botha and five children, Mrs. G. Scheepers and five children, Mrs. J. Pretorius and two children, three young men, and seven orphan children, were landed at Durban. One young man, son of Louis Triegard, had gone to Mozambique in a Portuguese vessel before the Mazeppa reached the bay, but in the following year he managed to travel overland to his friends in Natal. Thus of the ninety-eight individuals who formed the first party of emigrants all had perished except the twenty-six who reached Natal in a state of utter destitution.
II — Pieter Lavras Uys
Progress of Emigration.
The second party to leave the colony was under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, and consisted of farmers whose religious tendencies were towards the separatist—equivalent to the Scottish Covenanter—section of the church. They migrated chiefly from the Tarka. A full account of their wanderings and actions, of their sufferings from the Matabele and their heroic conduct until Moselekatse was compelled to flee northward to the territory now called Rhodesia, together with the adventures of the party from Colesberg under Carel Cilliers that joined them is given in my History of South Africa, and it is unnecessary to repeat it here.
The third party was under the leadership of Gerrit Marthinus Maritz, and went from the neighbourhood of Graaff-Reinet. It was much larger than the one under Potgieter. On the 2nd of December 1836 these parties, who were then in the neighbourhood of Thaba Ntshu, attempted to establish a government and elected a court of justice, with Maritz as landdrost or president. Various small parties and even single families now arrived, and joined either Potgieter or Maritz according to the section of the church that they preferred.
The next large party was headed by Pieter Retief, and went from the Winterberg. On the 17th of April 1837 a meeting of the emigrants was held in the camp of Maritz,98 when Pieter Retief was elected administrative head, but he was not then installed in office, as the section under Potgieter took no part in the proceedings, and the others hoped that they might be induced to join in course of time. Potgieter and Maritz had quarrelled, and from this time forward harmony among the emigrants was rarely seen.
Historical Sketches.
On the 6th of June 1837 Mr. Retief was formally installed in office as governor and commandant-general, a volksraad of six members was elected and entrusted with full legislative power, and a provisional constitution of nine articles was adopted. Whether these proceedings were not premature may be open to doubt. The number of emigrants north of the Orange was then not very great, many more were known to be on their way, and for these few to exercise the power of modelling the future government and appointing the chief executive officer seemed unjustifiable to most of those who arrived afterwards. There was no question as to the ability of Pieter Retief and his fitness for the highest office, but that he should be appointed to it by a section of the community and the others be required simply to concur was regarded as a grievance.
Mr. Retief’s first proceeding proved him to be a man of tact. He actually succeeded in inducing Hendrik Potgieter, the representative of the separatist or Covenanter section of the church, to meet in a friendly manner Gerrit Maritz, the representative of the larger section of the church,99 a man accused by his opponents of ambitious views and not very conciliatory in demeanour. It is true that these men had once fought side by side, when Maritz generously assisted the other to recover the spoil taken by the Matabele in August 1836 in their murderous onslaughts on the camps north of the Vaal, but the constitution of mind of the Covenanter seems to differ from that of other men so much as to make concord difficult except under unusual circumstances. It need not be asked whether his views are more or less praiseworthy than those of his neighbours, but it must be admitted that as a rule he looks upon most matters from a different standpoint. And so the good feeling between the two leaders brought about by Mr. Retief was only temporary, and from the first Potgieter resolutely declined to give in his adherence to the political faction led by Maritz.
Progress of Emigration.
The fifth large party arrived at Thaba Ntshu at this time. It was under the leadership of Mr. Pieter Jacobs, and went from the district of Beaufort West, being composed largely of families connected with the Slachter’s Nek insurrection. These people joined the adherents of Retief and Maritz, though they continued to form a separate camp.
Next to cross the Orange was a large party from Oliphants Hoek, under the leadership of Pieter Lavras Uys, though his father, Jacobus Johannes Uys, was nominally its head. The old man was nearly seventy years of age, and the party was entirely composed of his immediate descendants and connections by marriage. It is of Pieter Lavras Uys, and the part he took in the emigration, that the remainder of this paper will deal, the information being largely drawn from the documents contained in the D’Urban collection.
Historical Sketches.
He was descended from Cornelis Uys, who with his wife and three children migrated from Leyden in Holland as colonists at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the Dutch East India Company was sending to the Cape settlement as many industrious families accustomed to agriculture as it could obtain. Dirk, one of the three children of Cornelis, was born at Leyden, but grew up in South Africa, and in 1722 married Dina le Roux, daughter of a Huguenot refugee from Provence. The fifth child of this marriage, Cornelis Janse by name, in 1766 married Alida Maria Swart, and from this union eleven children were born, the second of whom, Jacobus Johannes by name, in 1793 married Susanna Margaretha Moolman. When grown up, this Jacobus Johannes Uys went to reside in Oliphants Hoek in what became later the district of Uitenhage, and there in 1797 his third child, Pieter Lavras, was born.100
Any one who will take the trouble to watch the career of South African students at European universities, say at Leyden or Edinburgh, will find that they occupy prominent places in their classes. The sons of men whose ancestors for many generations had received very little education from books on their farms are found intellectually able to compete in study with the sons of Europeans who have long enjoyed the greatest facilities for acquiring knowledge. This is a most hopeful sign for the future of South Africa. If with vastly increased knowledge our young men only adhere to the sterling virtues and strong confidence in God that characterised their ancestors, there need be no fear for this country in the time to come.
It is true that there are in South Africa many poor white people, some of whom seem to have lost both the power and the inclination to raise themselves in the social scale. But with education, industrial training, and opportunities to acquire property, the great majority of these would undoubtedly rise again, and the residue are at least more capable of improvement than the unemployables in a European city. In all countries of the world there are weak-minded people of different degrees of imbecility, but in South Africa the number of these is very small, and white men and women with criminal instincts are almost unknown. If an average be taken the old colonists need not fear a comparison of intellect with the inhabitants of any country in Europe.
Character of Pieter Uys.
Pieter Uys was of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa. He had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good school education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from every source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could write a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch, and he was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. His upright conduct, his religious convictions, and his kindly disposition caused him to be held in general esteem, not only by his Dutch-speaking neighbours, but by the English settlers of Albany, with whom he was brought into close contact during the Kaffir war of 1835.
When the farmers were temporarily released from duty in the field in order to get crops in the ground, he found himself so thwarted by the unruly conduct of the apprentices, late slaves and Betshuana refugees alike, that he addressed a memorial to the authorities, representing the insufficiency of the existing laws for their correction, and praying for the interference and protection of the government.101 It was impossible for Sir Benjamin D’Urban to give him any relief, but even if it had been otherwise, he would probably have left the colony, for he had been charmed with the appearance of Natal, the almost uninhabited territory that he had visited in the preceding year.
Historical Sketches.
It is impossible to give even approximately the number of those who had left the Cape Colony before this time. The government called for returns from the civil commissioners of the different districts, and in July 1837 these officials reported that one thousand and sixty-seven persons had left and two hundred and sixty others were about to follow. But these numbers are certainly much too low, though the estimate of Mr. Uys given in his letter of the 7th of August is probably too large.
It was the intention of the party under Uys to proceed to Natal, but not to attempt to go through Kaffraria. He had found such difficulties in travelling there in 1834 that he thought a better road might be found by moving northward over the Orange river, and then seeking a pass through the Drakensbergen that would lead him to the beautiful land below. This was the route that he followed, and at the beginning of August 1837 he and his party were on the northern bank of the Great river, without having met with any accident on the way. On the 7th of that month he addressed a letter to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, of which a literal translation made for the governor’s use and preserved among his papers is given here in extenso:
“Orange River, 7th August 1837.
“Sir,—I beg to submit to your Excellency a statement of what I have observed since I left Capetown and set out on my journey beyond the Orange river. I there met more than three thousand persons, lately inhabitants of the Colony, who have left their country and gone to a foreign land, even to a desert. I have spoken to many old men amongst them, with the view of ascertaining their reasons for leaving their native country, and they give the following as the principal causes:
“1. The laws made for this colony by Parliament, however inapplicable to the people and their condition, must be implicitly obeyed.
Causes of the Emigration.
“2. We were put to great expense for the measurement, of our farms prior to their grant, and for a small farm must pay an annual rent of from forty to two hundred rixdollars. (£3 to £15.)
“3. All power of domestic coercion of our apprentices in our houses and on our farms has been taken away from us, which has brought the apprentices into such a state of insubordination as to expose us to the risk of the loss of property and even life. Neither have we the right to defend ourselves against these people who live at our expense, and if they think proper go to a magistrate and make a false oath, without witnesses, upon which we are seized by black and white constables, in the same manner as murderers, and brought before the court, to the great injury of our reputation; whilst if they lose their cause, then the costs are paid from the government chest, to which we must pay heavy taxes annually; and if we are condemned, we must then pay a fine out of our own pockets or be sent to prison. On this point your Excellency is aware how I myself was treated in the late Kaffir war and whilst I was in presence of the enemy and my property left unprotected;102 which vexatious treatment has also had great influence on many of the inhabitants.
“4. The, slaves who were our property, who cost us much money, and for whom we paid every government due, have been taken from us upon an appraisement made by order of Parliament, and have become free for a third part of the money at which they were valued, and our power of maintaining order and discipline having been taken away, the masters and mistresses are scandalously treated.
Historical Sketches.
“5. The last Kaffir invasion is also one of the causes. The Kaffirs have for many years murdered and plundered the inhabitants, and government has always held out hopes of improvement in this respect, if we would remain at peace with them; and now, to crown the whole, we are accused of being the cause of the war, and must lose all our cattle, as well as put up with our other losses.
“I have stated but a few of the points upon which the greatest stress is laid by the colonists who have emigrated. To state every point would go too much into detail; but these will be sufficient to show why the people are discontented.
“The inhabitants asked for a vagrant law, but that was refused. They asked for power to punish their insubordinate apprentices, but this was also refused. Many of them prayed to be relieved from taxes for the first year after the war, but this was not acceded to. Their waggons, oxen, and horses were used for the purposes of the war, but they received no satisfactory remuneration. Several other things are also stated, too many to be mentioned here.
“I hope your Excellency will be convinced of the truth of what I have here said, and I do not doubt that if it had been in your power, our country would now be in a prosperous state; but, as it is, our country is ruined, for we see that everything taken by you from the enemy has been restored to them, which will more encourage them.
“To make the country yet more unfortunate, we see with astonishment a governor who could do much good by the existing laws, and we see other persons, such as missionaries and other prejudiced writers, who are believed, whilst what this governor writes is not attended to.
Political Attitude of Uys.
“We address memorials to the governor and to parliament, but we find no change. Now we see the mischievous effects to the inhabitants, and we are thus obliged to quit the colony. It is not our fault that we leave our native land; we have begged and prayed for a change, and none is made. We therefore emigrate, but we shall, notwithstanding, not yet separate ourselves from our respected governor, who endeavoured to do us good; and whenever we can be of any assistance, we shall not fail to afford it.
“If I can be of any use to your Excellency, or any report of mine be of service to a governor whom I so much esteem, I shall spare no trouble; and I remain, etc.
“P. L. Uys, Commandant.”
The political position, or the attitude assumed by Pieter Uys and his party towards the emigrants who had preceded them, was one of independence. As well he thought might he assert authority over Mr. Retief as Mr. Retief over him. The time had not yet come for framing a constitution, which should be deferred until the tide of emigration had slackened, when it could be done with the consent of the whole body of the people, and not merely of a small section of them. Accordingly on the 14th of August 1837 a series of resolutions were drawn up and signed, placing their attitude clearly before their countrymen. These resolutions literally translated were as follows:
“Caledon River, 14th August 1837.
“Resolutions adopted by us, the undersigned travellers and exiles from the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, now on our journey between the Orange and Vet rivers. We make known to our countrymen in advance with what object and intention we have undertaken our journey, and that our unanimous wish is:
“1. To select the country called the Bay of Port Natal as our seaport.
Historical Sketches.
“2. To inspect the extent of country joining the same inland, as far as we shall deem necessary.
“3. That we have placed ourselves under certain chiefs as field commandants, as protecting leaders over us, to investigate and redress all grievances that may take place on our journey.
“4. We place our dependence on the Allwise Ruler of heaven and earth, and are resolved to adhere to the sure foundation of our reformed Christian religion, entertaining the hope that when we have reached the place of our destination we shall live a better and safer life.
“5. As regards the establishment and execution of legal authority as exercised by some of our countrymen, we must unanimously declare that we entirely disapprove thereof; and we shall only regulate ourselves in the wilderness by the old burgher regulations and duties, and all differences which may arise shall be adjusted in accordance with those burgher regulations.
“6. We have come to the final determination not to submit to any laws that may have been established by a few individuals, and which we conceive have a tendency to reduce us from a state of banishment to a state of slavery.
“7. When we shall have attained our object and have arrived at the place of our destination, we trust to see the whole of our countrymen assembled together, then by the public voice to proceed to the election and appointment of our chief rulers and the framing of proper laws, and in general to consider what is useful both for the country and the people.
“8. The judicial appointments and laws as now established will not be noticed by us in the slightest degree, but are considered as of no value.
“9. We trust that every burgher will participate in these sentiments, in order to be placed in the situation of a free citizen.
“10. We purpose to establish our settlement on the same principles of liberty as those adopted by the United States of America, carrying into effect, as far as practicable, our burgher laws. Every person agreeing herewith will therefore attach his signature for the information of those who are still in doubt on the subject.
“P. L. Uys,
J. J. Uys,
J. P. Moolman,
H. J. Potgieter,
J. Landman,
And 165 others.”
Action of Pieter Retief.
At this time Mr. Retief was preparing to send an expedition against Moselekatse, to follow up the blow struck at Mosega in January 1837 by the commandos under Gerrit Maritz and Hendrik Potgieter. The Matabele had provoked hostilities by the robbery and massacre of a hunting party under Fieldcornet Stephanus Petrus Erasmus, of the Kraai river,103 and of many emigrant families belonging to the party of Potgieter who had imprudently ventured across the Vaal. But this expedition was not carried out, Mr. Retief’s partisans assigning as a reason that they believed the Griquas under Adam Kok and Andries Waterboer would attack the camps while so many of the men were away, but the real cause probably being the dissensions between the emigrants themselves.
In October 1837 Mr. Retief, having found a pass in the Drakensbergen, with some of his followers went down into Natal, and Messrs. Potgieter and Uys determined to carry out the plan of attacking the Matabele again. Uys had no personal interest in the matter, for he had resolved to settle in Natal, but his sympathy with his countrymen led him to assist them against the barbarians who had done them so much injury. On the 19th of this month he concluded an agreement of friendship with Moroko, chief of the principal section of the Barolong at Thaba Ntshu, and immediately afterwards the two commandos set out from the camps on the border of the Caledon and at Winburg. One of the most important campaigns yet entered upon in South Africa between Europeans and Bantu had commenced.
Historical Sketches.
An account of this campaign has been given in my History of South Africa, and Dr. J. C. Voigt has entered even more fully into the details of the nine days’ struggle on the Marikwa than I did.104 The result of this expedition was the flight of the whole Matabele tribe to the country north of the Limpopo, the opening of the territory now comprised in the Transvaal Province and the Orange Free State to European settlers, and the relief of the remnants of the Betshuana tribes from the misery in which they had been existing. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the victory on the Marikwa in November 1837 to civilisation and the happiness of both white and black people in South Africa. And yet Pieter Lavras Uys, one of the leaders of the little band of brave men who risked their lives against terrible odds and won it, is well nigh forgotten in the land he served so well.
On the 21st of July 1837 Mr. Retief had written to Sir Benjamin D’Urban a letter of which the following is a translation:
“The undersigned Pieter Retief, as conductor-in-chief of the united encampments, most humbly sheweth,
“That we as subjects of the British government during our distressed circumstances submitted our grievances to his Majesty the King; but as all our endeavours proved fruitless, we have ultimately found ourselves compelled to quit the land of our birth in order that we might not become guilty of opposition or rebellion against our government.
Letter of Pieter Retief.
“That this abandonment of our native country has occasioned us enormous and incalculable losses, but that notwithstanding this we on our side will not show any enmity towards the British nation.
“That consequently all trade and commerce between us and the British merchants will on our part be free and uninterrupted, as with all other nations, with this understanding that we desire to be considered as a free and independent people.
“That we have learnt with grief that almost all the native tribes by whom we are now surrounded have been instigated to attack us; but although we feel ourselves fully able to resist all our enemies, we would however beg of your Excellency to prevent, as far as lies in your power, such hostilities, so that we may not be compelled to spill human blood, which has already been the case with Moselekatse.
“That we will prove to the world by our conduct that it never has been our intention unlawfully to molest any nation or people; but that on the contrary we have no greater satisfaction than in the general peace and amity of all mankind.
“That, finally, we confidently trust that the British government will allow us to receive the amount of all the just claims and demands which we still have within the colony. I have &c.
“P. Retief.”
This letter seems to have taken a long time to reach the governor. On the 25th of October 1837 he wrote the following note upon it:
“A little time must be suffered to elapse before any answer be sent to this, and this of necessity, because there are three contending chiefs: Retief, Maritz (sic, it should be Potgieter), and Uys; and although Retief has now the greatest influence, yet it does not extend over the whole of the emigrants, nor is there any positive certainty that it will continue. Before the government condescends to treat with them at all, it must at least be certain that it treats with an acknowledged and undivided authority; this matter must lay by, therefore, for a while, which also may afford time for an answer to the dispatch of July last, in which the question is asked of his Majesty’s government ‘What are the relations to be in future kept between the emigrants and the colonial government?’ And in the meanwhile the emigrants are moving far out of contact with the Colony, to the eastward, so that there can arise in the interim no collision between them and the colonial authorities or inhabitants.—B. D’Urban.”
Historical Sketches.
Of Pieter Retief’s negotiations with the Zulu chief Dingan, of the removal to Natal of the whole of the party that adhered to him, and of the terrible massacres of the emigrants by the Zulus, nothing needs to be stated here.105 These events are fully recorded in my History of South Africa and in Mr. G. S. Preller’s Piet Retief: Lewenskets van die Grote Voortrekker, (6de druk), a demi octavo volume of one hundred and ninety-four pages, published at Pretoria in 1909.
Visit of Pieter Uys to Natal.
It was the intention of Mr. Potgieter to settle on the highlands of the interior and to endeavour to open communication with the outer world if possible through the Portuguese harbour of Delagoa Bay. Mr. Uys, on the other hand, had from the first resolved to make homes for himself and his party in the neighbourhood of Port Natal. But he was not in a hurry to move over the mountains, especially as the pasture around his temporary camp was good, and the cattle, large and small, would be the better of a long rest after their journey from Oliphants Hoek. With a few companions on horseback, however, he rode over to inspect the country again, and on the 15th of December 1837 arrived in the first of the camps under Retief and Maritz on the Bushman’s river in Natal.
There the question of the form and personnel of the government was the topic of discussion again, and it became evident to Mr. Uys that he and his adherents would be in a minority in Natal. He therefore stated that after his party had arrived and settled on farms he would be prepared to abide by the decision of a majority of the whole community, but he could not be induced to sign a document pledging fidelity to Mr. Retief as governor and commandant-general, which was pressed upon him. After a short visit he returned to his camp on the highlands, and was there when the heartrending tidings reached him of the treacherous massacre of Mr. Retief and his companions at Dingan’s kraal on the 6th of February 1838 and of the even more atrocious massacre of men, women, and children alike, near the present village of Weenen on the 17th of the same month.
All political differences disappeared at once on receipt of this sad intelligence, and as soon as possible Uys and his men were on their way to the assistance of their sorely afflicted countrymen and women who were still alive in Natal. So quickly was the commando got together and so rapidly did it ride that it arrived at the camp on the 1st of March 1838. Potgieter also assembled his men as speedily as he could, and went down into Natal with the same intention.
Historical Sketches.
The condition of things there was wretched. The survivors of the massacre were huddled together in lagers, each under a commandant, but all close together to ensure their safety, and recognising Mr. Maritz as commandant-general and president of the council of war. Every day they were expecting another attack from Dingan’s army. Constant watch had therefore to be kept, and the men did not venture to move about unarmed, while the women were confined to the precincts of the lagers.
The accession of strength derived from the commandos of Uys and Potgieter made it unnecessary to act solely on the defensive any longer. Offensive operations were decided upon, not only with a view of punishing the Zulus, but of proving to them that the arms and tactics of Europeans were so superior that a prolonged conflict would be averted, and peace based upon the white man’s supremacy be secured. But the emigrants had still much to learn. The heavy firelocks that they carried were indeed more formidable weapons than the Zulu stabbing spears, but were far short of being as efficient as modern rifles. To load them it was necessary to pour a certain quantity of powder from a horn into the barrel, to insert a wad and beat it down with a ramrod, then to put in the slugs or a ball and wad down again, and finally to put priming in the pan and adjust the flint and lock. All this took time, even with the most expert and practised man, and while the gun was being loaded its owner was practically unarmed. The difference between a modern military rifle and a gun used by a South African farmer in 1838 is vastly greater in point of efficiency in conflict than that between such a gun and a Zulu stabbing spear.
Then as to military tactics. The farmer considered himself superior, simply because he was a civilised man. He was accustomed to circumvent game, and used the same methods in war that he used in the chase. But he had yet to learn that many a Zulu induna as well as the wily chief of the mountain, who was even then gathering strength at Thaba Bosigo, was greatly his superior in military skill. The almost naked black man, whose general knowledge was so defective that he might be regarded as intellectually little superior to a child, in all that relates to tactics and strategy was in advance of the ordinary untrained European.
Arrangements to punish Dingan.
It was arranged that Uys and Potgieter with all the men they could muster should advance towards Dingan’s residence from the camp on the Bushman’s river, and that the English chiefs with their warriors should cross the Tugela much nearer its mouth and press on towards the same point. It was hoped in this way to divide Dingan’s forces, and it was certain that the black army of Natal, as the English chiefs called their followers, would fight desperately, as their existence depended upon victory over the Zulus. Several hundreds of them were armed with muskets, which their chiefs had imported and paid for with ivory, and their leaders were brave and capable men. But this really formidable force was drawn into an ambush by the strategy of the Zulu commander who was sent to oppose it, and after such a battle as is only fought by men who know that they must conquer or die, it was almost annihilated.106
As neither Potgieter nor Uys would serve under Maritz, who may have been wanting in tact and was certainly charged with being overbearing in his manner, though no man could have been more devoted to the public welfare than he, it was resolved that he should remain to protect the camps in case of attack, and that they should lead their respective adherents in separate commandos, but acting in concert with each other, to attack Dingan in his principal kraal Umkungunklovu. The two commandos, when finally mustered, numbered three hundred and forty-seven men, exclusive of a few coloured attendants. Their commissariat and spare ammunition was taken with them on pack horses.
Historical Sketches.
Neither of the leaders had a full conception of the hazardous nature of their expedition. A much smaller force than that under their command could have marched anywhere in the Xosa or Tembu country, and by keeping on open plains or ridges have been perfectly safe. They had served in the Kaffir war, and knew this. Then their decisive defeat of the Matabele had inspired them with the belief that they were invincible. They did not reflect that perhaps the field of operations against Dingan might not be so favourable to them as that against Moselekatse had been, and so they rode on in unbounded confidence. For five days they saw hardly any people, as the inhabitants had removed by order of Dingan to places of greater safety.
On the 11th of April 1838 they were close to the spot where eight months and five days later in the same year the battle was fought that gave to the stream from which they drank the name Blood River and to the date of the memorable engagement the name Dingan’s Day. Here for the first time since they left the camp they saw what appeared to them to be a small Zulu army. They drew hastily into battle order, and then dashed forward to charge, Potgieter with his men on one wing of the enemy, and Uys with his on the centre. The Zulus did not wait to meet the shock, but fled as fast as they could, and the farmers pursued them. Uys and his followers were too eager in the chase to act with proper caution, and did not observe that they were riding into a defile between two parallel chains of hills until a great Zulu army, that had been lying there concealed, suddenly showed itself on each side and in front of them. Its horns were even closing in behind before they realised that they were in an ambuscade and in the utmost danger.107
Death of Pieter Uys.
There was no possibility now of carrying out the tactics they had adopted against the Matabele: of firing a volley, riding back and reloading their guns, and then charging again. There were no better horsemen in the world than these farmers, for they had been accustomed from early youth to ride and to hunt the game which then abounded in the country they came from. But the din caused by the Zulus striking their shields with their short spear shafts was so great that the horses became almost unmanageable, and for an instant it seemed as if all was lost. Then realising that there was one chance left, they directed all their fire upon the horns of the Zulu army, that had closed in, shot down hundreds, and dashed through the opening thus made.
Commandant Uys was wounded by a spear thrust, but as he fell from his horse he called out to his followers to leave him and fight their way out, for he must die. All except ten of them escaped by the road that had been opened, but the pack horses, baggage, and spare ammunition had to be left behind. Of the ten who died there, one was Commandant Pieter Lavras Uys. Another was his gallant son Dirk Cornelis Uys, a boy only fifteen years of age, who could have escaped, but seeing his father on the ground and a Zulu raising a spear to stab him, he turned to assist his parent, and fell by his side. The others who lost their lives were David, Jacobus, and Jan Malan, Louis, Pieter, and Theunis Nel, Joseph Kruger, and Frans Labuschagne. Potgieter’s division retreated in time, on finding that it was being drawn into broken ground, and got safely away. The expedition then, being unable to keep the field owing to the loss of all the stores of the division under Uys, fell back to the camp on the Bushman’s river, and Potgieter and his men shortly afterwards returned to Winburg.
Historical Sketches.
The aged father of Pieter Uys survived him only three months. He went down into Natal with the other members of the party, and in July died there. Mr. Maritz too, broken in health by anxiety and trouble, died on the 23rd of September of the same year. Thus of the most prominent leaders of the emigration, all had passed away in this short time except Mr. Potgieter, who lived until 1853.
Sketch I.
Alfonso, son of the Burgundian Count Henrique: assumes the title of king of Portugal, 7; which in A.D. 1143 is confirmed by Pope Innocent II, ib.; in 1147 he obtains possession of Santarem and Lisbon, and extends the boundary of Portugal southward to the Tagus, ib.
Africa: is almost entirely unexplored by Europeans in the early years of the fifteenth century, 4
Alani, the: in the fifth century of our era invade the Iberian peninsula, but most of them are afterwards driven by the Visigoths into Africa, 6
Alexandria: before A.D. 1500 is the chief market in which Europeans obtain Indian products, 3
Alexandrian libraries: destruction of, 11
Algarves, emirate of the: in 1250 is conquered by the Christians, and in 1263 is annexed to Portugal, which thus acquires its present dimensions, 8
America: is entirely unknown to Europeans in the early years of the fifteenth century, 4
Arabs, the: before A.D. 1500 know more than Europeans of the geography of Africa, 11; in the eighth century of our era conquer the whole of the Iberian peninsula except the territory held by the Basques, 6; their rule at first is mild, ib.; in the eleventh century of our era the caliphate is broken into fragments, ib.; when a struggle with the Christian population commences which lasts for centuries, ib.; gradually a number of little independent Christian states come into existence, 7; among which in A.D. 1095 is a county that afterwards expands into the kingdom of Portugal, ib.
Arnold’s History of Rome: reference to, 4
Historical Sketches.
Australia: in the fifteenth century is entirely unknown to Europeans, 4
d’Azambuja, Diogo: in January 1482 founds São Jorge da Mina, 25
de Barros, João: Da Asia, reference to, 14
Basques, the: occupy the Iberian peninsula, 4; are exterminated or driven by the Celts into the Pyrenees, 5
Beazley’s Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery: reference to, 14
Belief of seamen at the beginning of the fifteenth century as to the ocean beyond Cape Nun, 13
Bragança: creation of the first duke of by Affonso V, 9
Busk’s History of Spain and Portugal: reference to, 4
Cabral, Gonçalo Velho: in 1432 discovers the island Santa Maria in the Azores, 15
Caliph of Cordova: is for a time the supreme authority in the Iberian peninsula, 6
Caliph of Damascus: for a time is ruler of the Iberian peninsula, 6
Cam, Diogo: in 1484 reaches the mouth of the Congo, 16; in 1485 sets up a marble pillar on Cape Cross in latitude 22° S., ib.
Cape Blanco: in 1441 is reached by Nuno Tristão, 15
Cape Bojador: in 1434 is passed by Gil Eannes, 15
Cape Correntes: before A.D. 1500 is the southern terminus of ordinary navigation by the Persians and Arabs, owing to fear of danger beyond it, 11
Cape Nun: belief of seamen as to the ocean beyond, 13
Cape Verde: in 1444 or 1445 is discovered and named by Diniz Dias, 15
Carthaginians: occupy stations in the southern part of the Iberian peninsula, 5; from which in B.C. 206 they are expelled by the Romans, 5
de Castanheda, Fernão Lopes: Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portuguezes, reference to, 17
Celts: occupation of the Iberian peninsula by, 5
Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar: in 1415 is taken by the Portuguese from the Moors, 9
de Cinta, Pedro: in 1461 reaches Cape Palmas, 16
Synoptical Index.
Commerce between Europe and India before A.D. 1500: mode of conducting, 3
Compass, the: use of in Western Europe in the early years of the fifteenth century, 12
Convicts: use made of by the Portuguese, 18
Cross set up by Bartholomeu Dias at Angra Pequena: destruction of, 20
Dias, Bartholomeu: in August 1486 sails from the Tagus, 17; near the equator leaves his storeship behind, 19; reaches Angra dos Ilheos, now called Angra Pequena, where he sets up a marble pillar, ib.; touches next at Angra das Voltas, 20; passes the Cape of Good Hope without knowing it, 21; and reaches Angra dos Vaqueiros, probably the present Mossel Bay, ib.; where he sees Hottentots with cattle, but cannot communicate with them, as they flee inland in fear, ib.; sails eastward and reaches an island in the bay now called Algoa, on which he erects a cross, 22; visits the mainland and examines it eastward to a prominent rock, which receives the name Penedo das Fontes on account of two springs of water found there, ib.; here the seamen protest against going farther, but he induces them to persevere a little longer, 23; reaches the mouth of a river which he names the Infante, ib.; there the expedition turns back, 24; when returning he discovers the Cape of Good Hope, and erects a cross somewhere on the Cape peninsula, ib.; rejoins his storeship, which he burns, ib.; touches next at Prince’s Island in the bight of Biafra, 25; where he finds some Portuguese in distress, and takes them on board his ship, ib.; visits São Jorge da Mina, where he takes some gold on board, ib.; and in December 1487 reaches Lisbon again, ib.
Discovery of an ocean route between Europe and India: effect of, 3
Eastern Asia: in the early years of the fifteenth century is very imperfectly known to Europeans, 4
Edrisi: incorrect map of South Africa of, 4
Egypt: before A.D. 1517 is independent, but in that year is reduced to be a Turkish province, 3
English crusaders: assist the Portuguese against the Moslems, 7
Fogaça, João: in 1487 is commander of São Jorge da Mina, 25
Genoese: visit Madeira and even the Canary islands before the Portuguese, 15
Historical Sketches.
Geographical ignorance in Europe in the early years of the fifteenth century, 4
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: references to, 4 and 11
de Goes, Damião: Chronica do Felicissimo Rei Dom Emanuel da Gloriosa Memoria, reference to, 17
Goths: see Visigoths
Greeks: are supposed to have formed trading stations on the coast of Portugal, 5
Habrão, Rabbi: travels of, 26
Henrique, a Burgundian noble, in A.D. 1095 becomes first count of Portugal, 7
Henrique, the Infante Dom, commonly known to Englishmen as Prince Henry the Navigator: is third son of King João I and Philippa of Lancaster, 13; prosecutes maritime exploration as much as possible, ib.; establishes himself at Sagres with this object, 14; in 1460 dies, 16
Indian commerce with Europe: route of before A.D. 1500, 3
Indians: in early times knew more than Europeans of the geography of Africa, 11
Indice Chronologico das Navegações, Viagens, Descobrimentos, e Conquistas dos Portuguezes nos Paizes Ultramarinos desde o Principio do Seculo XV: references to, 14 and 26
Jayne, K. G.: Vasco da Gama and his Successors: reference to, 32
João I, grand master of the order of Saint Benedict of Avis: in A.D. 1385 is elected by the cortes king of Portugal, 9; is assisted against Castile by John of Gaunt, whose daughter he marries, ib.; enters into a treaty of close friendship with England, ib.
João II: breaks the power of the feudal nobles of Portugal, and becomes an absolute monarch, 10
Josepe, a Portuguese Jew: travels of, 26
Kings of Portugal before A.D. 1500, succession of: Affonso I, Sancho I, Affonso II, Sancho II, Affonso III, Diniz, Affonso IV, Pedro, Fernando, with whom the Burgundian dynasty came to an end; João I, of the dynasty of Avis, Duarte, Affonso V, João II, Emanuel.
Synoptical Index.
Legends of vessels having been carried by storms and currents from the Indian to the Atlantic ocean, 12
de Lima, Dom Rodrigo: in 1515 proceeds to Abyssinia as ambassador of the king of Portugal, 27
Lisbon: is supposed by some historians to have been founded by a Hellenic colony, 5
Madeira: in 1420 is visited by Portuguese explorers, 14; in 1425 a commencement in colonising the island is made, 15
Major’s Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and their Results: reference to, 14
Maps of South Africa by Ptolemy and Edrisi: incorrectness of, 4
Mozambique current: at Cape Correntes runs southward with great velocity, 11
Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia and Madagascar, performed in H.M. Ships Leven and Barracouta under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N.: reference to, 20
Negro slaves: in 1443 the first are brought to Portugal by Nuno Tristão, 15
Ocean route between Europe and India: effect of the discovery of, 3
Ourique: battle of, 7
de Paiva, Affonso: in May 1487 leaves Santarem to search for Prester John, 26; proceeds to Naples, Rhodes, Alexandria, Cairo, Tor, Suakin, and Aden, and then to Abyssinia, ib.; dies in the East, ib.
Palæolithic men in Portugal: relics of, 4
Pereira, Duarte Pacheco: is found by Bartholomeu Dias in distress at Prince’s Island, and is taken by him to Lisbon, 25; is author of a volume termed Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, 31 and 32
Perestrello, Bartholomeu: voyages of, 14
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea: reference to, 11
Persians: before A.D. 1500 know more than Europeans of the geography of Africa, 11
Phœnicians: occupy stations in the southern part of the Iberian peninsula, 5
Historical Sketches.
Pires, João, of Covilhão: in May 1487 leaves Santarem to search for Prester John, 26; proceeds to Naples, Rhodes, Alexandria, Cairo, Tor, Suakin, and Aden, then crosses the Indian ocean to Cananor, Calicut, and Goa, passes over to Sofala, and back to Aden and Cairo, ib.; where he receives further orders from Portugal, and proceeds to Aden and Ormuz, thence back by way of Aden to Abyssinia, where he is detained till his death, 27
Po, Fernando: in 1471 crosses the equator, 16
Porto Santo: discovery of, 14
Portugal: outline of the early history of, 4; primitive inhabitants of, ib.; is occupied by the Basques, ib.; who are followed by the Celts, 5; the country is conquered by the Romans, ib.; and becomes Romanised in civilisation, religion, and language, ib.; in the fifth century of our era is overrun by the Visigoths, who establish themselves as an aristocracy in the country, 6; in the eighth century the Arabs conquer the whole peninsula except the territory occupied by the Basques, ib.; in A.D. 1095 the northern portion of Portugal becomes independent of the Arabs, 7; and in 1143 is acknowledged by Pope Innocent II as an independent kingdom, ib.; it is called Portugal from o Porto, the port at the mouth of the Douro, ib.; it is gradually enlarged until 1263, when it attains its present dimensions, 8; it is favourably situated for prosecuting discovery by sea, 4; but in the early years of the fifteenth century it has not much shipping, ib.
Prester John, a mythical potentate: reference to, 18
Ptolemy: incorrect map of South Africa of, 4 and 24
Ravenstein, E. G.: paper in the Geographical Journal by, entitled The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482-88, 28 et seq.
Romans: establish their authority in the Iberian peninsula, 5
São Jorge da Mina: is established in January 1482, and is the first permanent settlement of the Portuguese on the western coast of Africa. It is now called Elmina, and is a British possession, 25
Ships of the fifteenth century: description of, 12
Slave trade: is ruinous to Portugal, 16
Stephens’ History of Portugal: reference to, 4
Stone implements: are found in Portugal of very crude workmanship, 4
Suevi, the: in the fifth century of our era invade the Iberian peninsula, where their descendants still remain, 6
Synoptical Index.
Tangier: in 1437 the Portuguese are repulsed in an attack upon, 9
Toro: battle of, 10
Vandals: in the fifth century of our era invade the Iberian peninsula, but are afterwards driven by the Visigoths into Africa, 6
Vas, Tristão: voyage of, 14
Venetians: before A.D. 1500 are the distributors of Indian products over Europe, 3
Vidal, Captain: reference to, 20
Visigoths, the: in the fifth century of our era occupy the Iberian peninsula, where their descendants still remain, 6
Voyage of Nearchus: reference to, 11
Zarco, João Gonçalves: voyage of, 14
Sketch II
Adolf of Nassau, brother of William prince of Orange: death of in battle, 58
Agoada de São Bras of the Portuguese: is now called Mossel Bay, 122
Albert, Cardinal Archduke: in January 1596 becomes governor-general of the submissive Netherlands, 110; administration of, ib. et seq.; in 1621 dies, 152
Alkmaar: unsuccessful siege of by the Spaniards, 68
Alva, duke of: in 1567 is sent by Philippe II to the Netherlands with a strong Spanish army, 56; murderous administration of, 56 to 70; in December 1573 leaves the Netherlands, 70
Amsterdam, city of: on the 8th of February 1578 is gained by the patriots, 87; in later years has a preponderating influence in the government of the East India Company, 133
Ango, Jean: in 1527 sends three ships from Dieppe to India, 36; but they are all lost, ib.; in 1529 assists in sending two others to India, 37; but this venture is also unfortunate, ib.
Anjou, duke of: in 1581 is elected their sovereign by twelve of the Netherland provinces, 93; on the 17th of February 1582 is inaugurated at Antwerp, 94; acts in a perfidious and violent manner, 95; is obliged to flee from Antwerp, ib.; returns to Paris, and in June 1584 dies, 96
Historical Sketches.
Antwerp: description of the city, 80; in November 1576 it is pillaged by Spanish troops, ib.; it is besieged by the duke of Parma, and on the 17th of August 1585 is obliged to capitulate, 100
Antwerp cathedral: in August 1566 is greatly injured by a party of fanatics, 55
Antwerp citadel: is constructed by the duke of Alva to overawe the townspeople, 57
Artois, count of: before 1544 admits the precedence in rank of the kings of France, 44
Artois, province of: in 1544 comes under the government of the emperor Charles V, 48; after taking part in the resistance to Spanish tyranny, on the 17th of May 1579, with Hainaut and Lille, is reconciled to Philippe II, and for ever lost to the patriot cause, 88
d’Ataide, Dom Estevão: in 1607 successfully defends Fort São Sebastião at Mozambique against the Dutch under Paulus van Caerden, 139; and also in 1608 against a stronger Dutch force under Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, 146
Atlas of Mercator and Hondius: reference to, 50
Atlas of Ortelius: reference to, 50
d’Avila, Don Juan Alvarez, Spanish admiral: on the 25th of April 1607 is killed in the great battle in Gibraltar Bay, 151
Azores, the: in 1466 are presented by Affonso V of Portugal to his aunt the duchess of Burgundy, 46; they are thereafter termed the Flemish islands until 1640, when they revert to Portugal, ib.
Baffin, William, the famous Arctic navigator: in 1620 visits Table Valley, 159
Bali: is visited by the first Dutch expedition to India, 123
Bantam: is visited by the first Dutch expedition to India, 123
Barendszoon, Willem: in 1594 explores the polar seas in search of a passage to China, but finds the way blocked by ice, 116; in 1595 makes another attempt, but again without success, 117; in 1596 tries again, passes the winter in Nova Zembla, and dies when attempting to return home, 117 and 118
Batavi, the, a Nether Teuton tribe: about a century before the Christian era take possession of the territory between the extreme forks of the Rhine, 42
Beggars: in 1566 the title is adopted by the patriot party in the Netherlands, 55
Synoptical Index.
Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost Indische Compagnie: references to, 117 and 122
Belgium: in 1624, after the death of the archduchess Isabella, passes again under the direct rule of Spain, 152; successive diminutions of territory since that date, ib.; on the 7th of September 1714 it is ceded to the emperor Charles VI, ib.
Bergen-op-Zoom: is besieged by Alexander Farnese, but in November 1588 the siege is raised, 108
Biesbosch, the: in 1421 is formed, 43
Bilderdyk’s Geschiedenis des Vaderlands: reference to, 41
Bishops: are greatly increased in number in the Netherlands by Philippe II of Spain, in order to extend the inquisition, 52
Blok’s History of the People of the Netherlands: references to, 41, 50, 52, and 71
Boisot, Louis, admiral of Zeeland: in January 1574 destroys a Spanish flotilla in the Schelde, 72; and part of another Spanish flotilla at Antwerp, 74; commands the flotilla that relieves Leyden, 75 and 76; in June 1575 loses his life in attempting to relieve Zierikzee, 78
Bom Jesus, Portuguese galleon: in August 1608 is captured by the Dutch near Mozambique, 147
Bossu, count of, admiral of a Spanish fleet: in October 1573 is defeated by the Sea Beggars in a desperate battle in the Zuyder Zee, 69
Both, Pieter: in 1599 commands an expedition sent to India, 125; in November 1609 is appointed first governor-general of Netherlands India, 149; and in December 1610 assumes the duty at Bantam, 150
Boulger’s History of Belgium: reference to, 42
Breda, town of: on the 4th of March 1590 is gained by the patriots, 108
Brill, town of: in 1572 is seized by the Sea Beggars under William de la Marck, 62; when revolting cruelties are perpetrated upon their opponents, 63; the town is thereafter held by the patriots, ib.; from 1585 to 1616 it is occupied by English troops as security for the payment of money lent to the patriots by Queen Elizabeth, 101 and 115
Bruges: before A.D. 1500 is the emporium of the Italian merchants for Indian products, 45; in May 1584 it is betrayed to the Spaniards, 96
Brussels: on the 13th of March 1585 capitulates to the Spaniards, 100
Historical Sketches.
Cabires: the horde of Bantu so called by the Portuguese invade the territory of the monomotapa and lay it waste, 136; the Portuguese go to the assistance of the Kalanga chief, but are defeated and obliged to retire, ib.
van Caerden, Paulus: in 1601 gives Mossel Bay its present name, 126; in March 1607 with a strong force attacks Mozambique, 139; but in May is obliged to give up the attempt to get possession of it, 143
Cæsar: conquers the Celtic portion of the Netherlands and also compels the Frisians to pay tribute, but admits the Batavi to an alliance with Rome, 43
Calais: is taken by the French from the English in the reign of Queen Mary, 51
Candish, Thomas: in 1586-1588 sails round the world, 40
Charlemagne: in the eighth century of our era becomes sovereign of the Netherlands, 44
Charles V, Emperor: from his Burgundian ancestors inherits the sovereignty of all the Netherlands except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, Liege, Artois, and Flanders, 48; in 1524 he adds Friesland to his dominions, in 1528 Overyssel and Utrecht, in 1536 Groningen and Drenthe, in 1543 Gelderland, and in 1544 Flanders and Artois, ib.; so that in and after 1544 the whole country, with the exception of the bishopric of Liege, is united under one monarch with Spain, 49; character of his government, ib.; in October 1555 he abdicates, and his son Philippe II of Spain becomes sovereign of all the Netherland provinces except Liege, 51
Churches in the Southern Netherlands: violation of, 55
Coligny, Admiral: murder of, 65
Commencement of the struggle of the Netherlands against Spain, 58
Convicts sent from England to South Africa: account of, 165
Corbin, the: in 1601 sails from St. Malo to India, but in July 1602 is lost at the Maldives, 37
Cory, a Hottentot taken to England and made much of there: account of, 163 and 164
Council of Blood: is established at Brussels by the duke of Alva, 57
de Couto’s Da Asia: references to, 122 and 128
Croissant, the: in 1601 sails from St. Malo to India, but is lost on her homeward passage, 37
Crusades, the: have a beneficial effect upon the Netherlands, 45
Synoptical Index.
Danish ships: in 1619 first visit Table Bay, 168
Dassen (Conies) Island: in 1605 receives its name, 156
Davis, John: in 1598 sails to India in the Dutch service, 123; in 1601 visits Table Bay on his second voyage to India, 155; and again in 1605 on his third outward passage, ib.; in December of this year he is killed by Japanese pirates, ib.
Dendermonde: on the 17th of August 1584 is reconciled to Philippe II, and is thereafter lost to the patriot cause, 98
Deventer: on the 29th of January 1587 is betrayed by Sir William Stanley to Spain, 104; on the 10th of June 1591 is recovered by the patriots, 109
Dias, Estevão: career of, 36 and 37
Dirkszoon, Cornelis: in October 1573 gains a great victory in a naval battle with a Spanish fleet, 69
Disastrous encounters with Hottentots in Table Valley, 163
Dollart, the: in 1277 is formed, 43
Don John of Austria: in 1576 is appointed by Philippe II governor-general of the Netherlands, 82; on the 3rd of May 1577 takes the oaths of office at Brussels, 84; administration of, 84 to 88; on the 1st of October 1578 dies, 88
Drake, Sir Francis: in 1577-1580 makes his celebrated voyage round the world, 38 and 39; in April 1587 destroys a great Spanish fleet in the harbour of Cadiz and another in the Tagus, 106
Drenthe: particulars concerning the province of, 90
Dutch East India Company: causes of the formation of, 130; in March 1602 comes into existence, ib.; conditions of the charter granted by the states-general, ib.; capital of the Company, 132; its advantage to the State, 132; later modifications of the charter, 133
Dutch ships in Spanish ports: in 1598 are seized and confiscated, 116
Egmont, count of: wins the great battles of St. Quentin and Gravelines for Philippe II, 51; execution of, 59
English convicts sent to South Africa: account of, 165
English ships: in 1591 for the first time visit Table Bay, 40
Ernest, archduke: in January 1594 becomes governor-general of the submissive Netherlands, 109; on the 20th of February 1595 dies, 110
Historical Sketches.
Farnese, Alexander, prince of Parma: on the 31st of January 1578 annihilates the patriot army at Gemblours, 86; in October 1578 becomes governor-general of the Netherlands, 88; administration of, 88 to 109; in 1590 goes to France with a strong army to assist the duke of Mayenne against Henry of Navarre, 108; but after breaking the blockade of Paris returns to the Netherlands, ib.; on the 3rd of December 1592 dies, 109
Fitch, Ralph: travels of, 39 and 40
Fitzherbert and Shillinge, two English commodores: in 1620 in Table Valley proclaim the sovereignty of James I of England over Africa to the dominions of another Christian prince, 159 and 160; but this is not confirmed in England, 160
Flanders, count of: before 1544 admits the precedence in rank of the kings of France, 44; in that year the province becomes subject to the emperor Charles V, 48
Flushing: is the second town in the Netherlands to be seized and permanently held by the patriots, 63; which event is followed by other important successes, 64; from 1585 to 1616 it is occupied by English troops as security for the payment of debt to England, 101 and 115
French, the: are the first to follow the Portuguese by sea to India, 36
French East India Company: in 1604 is established on paper, but gets no further, 37; in 1615 it is reorganised, and in 1617 sends an expedition to India, which is successful, ib.
French ships: towards the middle of the seventeenth century occasionally visit the islands in and near Saldanha Bay to procure sealskins and oil, 38
Frisians, the: in A.D. 750 accept Christianity, 44
Gemblours: battle of, 86
General Collection of Treatys, Manifesto’s, Contracts of Marriage, Renunciations, and other Publick Papers, from the year 1495 to the year 1712: references to, 101, 102, 106, 111, 113, 115, 153, and 161
Ghent: atrocious conduct of the fanatical party in the city, 88; on the 17th of September 1584 it is reconciled to Philippe II, and is thereafter lost to the patriot cause, 98
Giedde, Ove, Danish admiral: in 1619 and again in 1621 visits Table Bay, 168
Synoptical Index.
Granvelle, Cardinal: is agent of Philippe II in the Netherlands, 52; is detested by the people, 53; in 1564 leaves the Netherlands, ib.
Grave: in September 1602 is gained by the patriots, 114
Groen van Prinsterer’s Handboek der Geschiedenis van het Vaderland: reference to, 42
Groningen, town of: in March 1580 is betrayed to the Spaniards, 92; on the 22nd of July 1594 is recovered by the patriots, 110
Haarlem, siege of, 67; on the 12th of July 1573 the city is taken by the Spaniards, ib.
van der Hagen, Steven: in 1599 commands an expedition sent to India, 125; in December 1603 leaves Holland for India as admiral of a powerful fleet, 136; in June 1604 attacks Mozambique, ib.; but in August is obliged to retire without success, 137; in February 1605 gets possession of the Portuguese fort on Amboina, ib.
Hainaut, Artois, and Lille, provinces of: on the 17th of May 1579 are reconciled to Philippe II, and for ever lost to the patriot cause, 88
van Heemskerk, Jacob: in 1595 accompanies Willem Barendszoom on his second polar expedition, 117; and again in 1596 on his third and last, ib.; in 1598 goes to India in the fleet under Jacob van Nek, 124; in April 1601 leaves Holland on his second voyage to India as admiral of a fleet of eight ships, 129; captures a very richly laden carrack, ib.; on the 25th of April 1607 with a greatly inferior force attacks a powerful Spanish fleet in Gibraltar Bay, and utterly destroys it, 151; but is killed in the engagement, ib.
Hendrik of Nassau, brother of William prince of Orange: death of in battle, 74
Hermanszoon, Wolfert: in 1601 commands a fleet sent to India, 128; attacks a large Portuguese fleet under André Furtado de Mendoça besieging Bantam, ib.; and compels Mendoça to retire, 129; enters into a commercial treaty with the ruler of Bantam, ib.; and with the ruler of Banda, ib.
Holland and Zeeland, provinces of: in June 1575 unite in a kind of loose confederation, 77; in October 1575 renounce allegiance to Philippe II, 79
Hoorn, Count: execution of, 59
Hottentots: dealings with by the first English visitors to South Africa, 40; are seen and described by the first Dutch voyagers to India, 122; disgusting food of, 157
Historical Sketches.
Houtman, Cornelis: in 1595 is in command of the first Dutch expedition to India, 121; in 1598 commands another expedition to India, 123; and is murdered at Atchin, 124
Hunebedden: description of, 42
Indian trade: number of Dutch ships engaged in before 1602, 129
Inquisition in the Netherlands: particulars concerning, 49, 53, and 54
Inundation: in 1570 causes terrible loss of life and property in the Northern Netherlands, 60
Invincible Spanish Armada: in 1588 is destroyed, 107
Isabella, Archduchess, daughter of Philippe II: in May 1598 becomes sovereign of the submissive Netherlands, and in April 1599 marries the archduke Albert, 113; on the 30th of November 1623 dies, 152
James I, king of England: for a short time after his accession favours the Dutch, but in 1604 he enters into a treaty of peace and alliance with Spain, 115
de Jonge’s De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch Gezag in Oost Indie: reference to, 122
Jourdain, John: gives an account of his visits to Table Valley in 1608 and 1617, 156, 157, and 164
Lancaster, Captain James: in 1591 visits Table Bay, 41; as admiral of the first fleet fitted out by the English East India Company in September 1601 again calls at Table Bay, 155
Leades, William: travels of, 39
Leeven en Daden der Doorlughtige Zee-Helden: reference to, 78
Leicester, earl of: is appointed by Queen Elizabeth lieutenant-general of the English forces in the Netherlands, and on the 19th of December 1585 arrives and assumes duty, 102; conduct of, 102 to 106; in December 1587 leaves the Netherlands, 106
Lepanto: battle of, 82
Leyden: first siege of, 73; second siege and heroic defence of from the 26th of May to the 3rd of October 1574, when the city is relieved by Admiral Boisot, 74, 75, and 76
Liege, province of: particulars concerning, 51, 52, and 154
Lille, with Douai and Orchies, Artois, and Hainaut, provinces of: on the 17th of May 1579 are reconciled to Philippe II, and for ever lost to the patriot cause, 88
Synoptical Index.
van Linschoten, Jan Huyghen: in 1583 goes to India in the service of the archbishop of Goa, 118; and remains there until January 1589, 119; after his return to Holland publishes sailing directions, a description of the Indies, &c., which serve as guides for his countrymen, ib.; in 1594 accompanies Willem Barendszoon in his first polar voyage, 117
Louis of Nassau, brother of William prince of Orange: death of in battle, 74
Maastricht: siege and destruction of by Alexander Farnese, 91
Madura: is visited by the first Dutch expedition to India, 123
le Maire, Isaac: in May 1611 visits Table Bay, 154
Mandeville, Sir John: note on, 38
Manufactures: are driven from the Netherlands by persecution, 54
de la Marck, William: exploits of, 62
Margaret of Parma: in 1559 becomes regent of the Netherlands, 52; administration of, 52 to 58
Massacre of Saint Bartholomew in August 1572: has disastrous effects on the patriot cause in the Netherlands, 65
Matelief, Cornelis: in May 1605 leaves Holland for India as admiral of a fleet, 138; attempts to get possession of Malacca, but without success, ib.; builds Fort Orange on the island of Ternate, and places a garrison in it, ib.; in April 1608 calls at Table Bay on his homeward passage, and remains there till June, 139
Matthias of Hapsburg: in January 1578 becomes nominally governor-general of the Netherlands provinces on the invitation of a party of nobles, but has no real power, 86; in 1581 returns to Germany, 93
Maurits of Nassau, second son of William prince of Orange: in 1584 commences his career, 98
Mechlin: a court of appeal for all the provinces is established here by the duke of Burgundy, 46; ferocious treatment of the city by the duke of Alva, 65; on the 19th of July 1585 it capitulates to the Spaniards, 100
de Mendoça, André Furtado: in 1601 is in command of a large Portuguese fleet besieging Bantam, 128; when he is attacked by a puny Dutch fleet under Wolfert Hermanszoon, ib.; which forces him to raise the blockade, 129; he causes great destruction at Amboina, ib.; successfully defends Malacca against Cornelis Matelief, 138
Historical Sketches.
Michelburne, Sir Edward: in 1605 visits Table Bay, 155
Middelburg: in February 1574 after a long siege is surrendered to the patriots by Colonel Christopher Mondragon, 73
Mondragon, a French corsair: in 1507 seizes a Portuguese ship in the Mozambique channel, 36; in 1509 he is captured by the Portuguese and is taken as a prisoner to Lisbon, ib.; where he manages to make his peace with the king, ib.
Montigny, Baron; murder of, 60
Mookerheyde: disastrous battle of in April 1574, 74
Mossel Bay: is touched at by the first Dutch expedition to India, 122; in 1601 receives its present name from Paulus van Caerden, 126
Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic, and History of the United Netherlands to the Twelve Years’ Truce, 1609: references to, 41 and 78
Mozambique: description of in 1583, 120; is coveted by the Dutch, owing to rumours of the great quantity of gold to be had on the mainland, 135; in June 1604 is attacked by Steven van der Hagen, 136; but in August he is obliged to leave without success, 137; in March 1607 is attacked by Paulus van Caerden, 139; Fort São Sebastião is bravely defended by Dom Estevão d’Ataide, 141; and in May Van Caerden is obliged to abandon the effort to take it, 143; in July 1608 it is attacked for the third time by the Dutch under Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, 144; but in August the siege is abandoned, 147
Municipal Charters: in A.D. 1217 the first of these in the Northern Netherlands is obtained by the town of Middelburg in Zeeland, 45
Mutinies of Spanish troops: account of, 79 to 81, and 111
Naarden: in 1572 is destroyed by the Spaniards, 66
Negotiations for the alliance of the Dutch and English East India Companies: particulars concerning, 161 and 162
van Nek, Jacob: successful voyage to India of, 124
Netherlands: the territory of the Northern Provinces is the last occupied on the continent of Europe, 42; no traces of palæolithic men are found there, ib.; the Celts are the earliest known inhabitants, ib.; the Batavi, a Nether Teuton tribe, come next, ib.; the Frisians occupy the territory farther north, 43; palæolithic implements in great abundance are found in the southern provinces, 42; which in the earliest historical times are occupied by Celts, 43; at the time of the Roman invasion the extreme north is occupied by Teutons, the extreme south by Celts, and the centre by the two races intermingled, ib.; the country is conquered by Cæsar and the Frisians are compelled to pay tribute, but the Batavi are admitted to an alliance with Rome, ib.; some centuries later on the fall of the Roman empire, other Teutonic tribes enter the country, 44; when the Franks conquer the Romanised Celtic territory in the south, ib.; in A.D. 785 the conquest of the whole country is completed by Charlemagne, ib.; under his feeble successors it is broken up into a number of petty states independent of each other, ib.; which in course of time become prosperous through manufactures, commerce, and the fisheries, 45; the towns are able to obtain, mostly by purchase from their sovereigns, charters conferring extensive powers of self government, ib.; in 1437 through various causes many of the provinces or separate states come under the dominion of Philippe duke of Burgundy, 46; in 1477 the “Great Privilege” is granted by Mary of Burgundy, 47; who marries Maximilian of Hapsburg, and leaves a son, Philippe by name, as sovereign of the Burgundian Netherlands, 48; this Philippe marries the eldest daughter of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and in 1500 has a son born to him, who becomes the emperor Charles V, ib.; Charles inherits the sovereignty of all the Netherland provinces except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, Liege, Flanders, and Artois, ib.; by 1544 all of the provinces except Liege are under his rule, 49; enumeration of the provinces, 50; in 1555 on the abdication of Charles V all of the provinces except Liege come under the sovereignty of his son Philippe II of Spain, 51; under whose rule they are treated with such cruelty that they rise in rebellion against him, 51 et seq.
Synoptical Index.
Newbery, John: travels of, 39
Nieuwpoort: battle of, 113
van Noort, Olivier: in 1598-1601 is the first Netherlander to sail round the world, 124 and 125
Nymegen: on the 21st of October 1591 surrenders to the patriots, 109
Ostend: on the 5th of July 1601 is besieged by the archduke Albert, but holds out till the 20th of September 1604, when it is taken by the marquis Ambrose Spinola, 114
Oudewater: in July 1575 is destroyed by the Spaniards, 77
Pacification of Ghent: particulars regarding the, 81
Parmentier, Jean: in 1529 commands a French ship sent to India, 37
Parmentier, Raoul: in 1529 commands a French ship sent to India, 37
Historical Sketches.
Pereira, Duarte Pacheco: in 1509 captures the French corsair Mondragon, 36
Perpetual Edict: particulars concerning the, 83
Philippe II of Spain: in 1555 becomes sovereign of all the Netherland provinces except Liege, 51; his rule is so atrocious that the provinces rise in rebellion, and in October 1575 the states of Holland and Zeeland renounce allegiance to him, 79; on the 26th of July 1581 he is formally abjured by the other provinces in arms against him, 93; on the 6th of May 1598 he transfers the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his daughter Isabella, 112; and on the 13th of September of the same year dies, ib.
Philippe III: in September 1598 succeeds his father as king of Spain, 112
Pirenne’s Histoire de Belgique: reference to, 42
Portugal: in 1580 comes under the authority of Philippe II of Spain, 92
Portuguese: before the close of the sixteenth century cease to be progressive, 35
Position of the Dutch in India at the time of the conclusion of the truce with Spain, 149
Protestants: emigration of from the Southern to the Northern Netherland provinces, 98 and 101
Queen Elizabeth of England: in January 1578 commences to assist the patriots in the Netherlands, 85; in August 1585 enters into a treaty with the states, giving them material assistance, 101; on the 24th of March 1603 dies, 115
Rapid advance of the Dutch in India in 1609, 148
Reformation, the: spread of in the Netherlands, 49 and 54
Repudiation of the public debt by Philippe II, 110
de Requesens, Don Luis: in November 1573 becomes governor and captain-general of the Netherlands, 70; administration of, 70 to 79; on the 5th of March 1576 dies, 79
Roe, Sir Thomas: in 1615 visits Table Valley, 166
Romans, the: confer great benefits upon the Netherlands, 44
Scandinavian pirates: plunder the Netherlands, but do not form settlements in the country, 45
Sluis: is besieged, and in August 1587 is compelled to surrender to the Spaniards, 105; in August 1604 is recovered by the patriots, 115
Synoptical Index.
Sonoy, Diederik: atrocious conduct of at Alkmaar, 77
Spanish Fury of Antwerp: account of, 80 and 81
Spanish troops: mutinies of, 74 and 113
van Spilbergen, Joris: in 1601 commands an expedition sent to India, 127
Spinola, the marquis Ambrose: in 1603 becomes commander-in-chief of the Spanish army in Flanders, 114
Stephens, Thomas, an Englishman: in 1579 is rector of the Jesuit college at Salsette, 38
Story, James: travels of, 39
Sumatra: is visited by the first Dutch expedition to India, 123
Synod of the Reformed churches: in 1572 the first meets at Hoorn; in 1578 the second meets at Dordrecht, 87
Table Bay: in 1601 receives its present name from Joris van Spilbergen, 127
Terry’s Voyage to India: references to, 163 and 166
Teutonic tribes: overrun the Netherlands, 44
Treaty of alliance between England, France, and the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands: on the 31st of October 1596 is entered into, 111; from which in May 1598 Henry IV of France withdraws, 112; on the 16th of August 1598 a new treaty of alliance is entered into between England and the free Netherlands, 112
Truce for twelve years between Spain and the Netherlands: on the 9th of April 1609 is signed at Antwerp, 151
Turnhout: rout of a Spanish army at, 111
Union of Brussels: particulars concerning the, 82
Union of Utrecht: particulars concerning the, 89 and 90
United Netherlands, republic of the: territory of in 1609, at the time of the twelve years’ truce, 151 and 152
Utrecht, bishopric of: is founded by Charlemagne as a fief, 44; in 1579 ceases to exist, 89
Valenciennes: in 1567 is reduced to submission to Philippe II, 56
Valentijn’s Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien: reference to, 122
Variation of the compass: mention of, 123 and 124
Historical Sketches.
Verhoeff, Pieter Willemszoon: in December 1607 sails from Holland for India as admiral of a very powerful fleet, 144; and in July 1608 makes an attack upon Mozambique, ib.; but in August is compelled to abandon the effort to get possession of Fort São Sebastião, 147; barbarity of after the great victory in Gibraltar Bay, 151; in May 1609 he and twenty-nine others are murdered on the island of Neira, 148
van Waerwyk, Wybrand: in June 1602 leaves Holland for India as admiral of a fleet, 134; in August 1603 establishes a permanent factory at Bantam, 135; which for several years is regarded as the Dutch head quarters in the East, ib.
de Weert, Sebald: in March 1602 is admiral of the first fleet sent out by the Dutch East India Company, 134; visits Ceylon and makes an agreement of friendship with the ruler of Kandy, ib.; but commits the great error of offending the religious feelings of the Cingalese, ib.; with the result that he and forty-six others are surprised when on shore and are all put to death, 135
William, prince of Orange: is appointed by Philippe II stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, 52; becomes the very soul of the struggle of the provinces for liberty, 52 to 97; on the 15th of March 1580 is declared an outlaw by Philippe II, and a great reward is offered to any one who takes his life, 92; on the 10th of July 1584 is murdered at Delft, 97
Zeeland and Holland, provinces of: in June 1575 unite in a kind of loose confederation, 77; in October 1575 renounce allegiance to Philippe II, 79
Zierikzee: in June 1576 is besieged and taken by the Spaniards, 78
Zutphen: treatment of by Don Frederic de Toledo, son of the duke of Alva, 66; in September 1583 it is betrayed to the Spaniards, 96; on the 23rd of May 1591 it is recovered by the patriots, 109
Zuyder Zee: is formed in the thirteenth century of our era, 43
Sketch III
van der Aa’s Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden: references to, 173 and 250
Appel, Ferdinandus: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226; further mention of, 246
Arboriculture: instructions of the directors concerning, 188; which are carried out by the governor, ib.
Synoptical Index.
van Assenburgh, Louis: is appointed to succeed Willem Adriaan van der Stel as governor, 241; in January 1708 arrives and assumes the duty, 246
Bek, Rev. Hendrik: in May 1702 becomes clergyman of Drakenstein, 198; in April 1707 is transferred to Stellenbosch, 200
Bogaert, Abraham: takes charge of the document containing the complaints of the burghers, 228
Bogaert’s Historisch Verhaal: reference to, 211
le Boucq, Rev. Engelbertus: account of, 199
van Brakel, Jacobus: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230, 232, and 242
Bushmen: particulars concerning, 188, 194 et seq.
van der Byl, Pieter: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226; further mention of, 246
Charges against Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel: list of, 221
Church building: in January 1704 the first in Capetown is opened for use, 198
Cloete, Jacob: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 229
Colonists: at the beginning of the eighteenth century are rapidly increasing in number, 204
Company’s garden in Capetown: particulars concerning, 190
Condition of the Cape settlement when Willem Adriaan van der Stel becomes governor, 181
Constantia farm: on the 13th of July 1685 is granted to Commander Simon van der Stel by the lord of Mydrecht, 179
Conterman, Hans Jacob: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 227
Corruption: at the beginning of the eighteenth century is generally prevalent in the East India Company’s service, 205; means adopted to prevent it, 206
Council of Policy: during the administration of Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel meetings are only held at long intervals, 215
Drakenstein: is settled under Simon van der Stel’s supervision, 177
Du Bois’s Vies des Gouverneurs Generaux: reference to, 173
Dutch and German settlers: are sent to South Africa from 1700 to 1707, when emigration is stopped, 185
Historical Sketches.
Ecclesiastical matters: particulars concerning, 197 et seq.
Effect of Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel’s tyranny in blending the Dutch and French sections of the community, 249
Elberts, Jan: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Elberts, Nicolaas: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Elsevier, Samuel, the secunde: is in illegal possession of a tract of land near Klapmuts, 216; is charged by the burghers with carrying on farming and neglecting his duty, 222; is dismissed from office by the directors, and in April 1708 leaves the colony, 247
Expedition to Natal in 1705: account of, 202
Extent of the Cape settlement when Simon van der Stel becomes commander, 177
Fouché, Professor Leo: copies and publishes portions of the journal of Adam Tas, 183
French Hoek: is settled under Simon van der Stel’s supervision, 177
French language in South Africa: particulars concerning, 198
Goodwin, Vaughan, an Englishman: in 1705 is found living at Port Natal, 202
Grazing farms: occupation of, 193
Grevenbroek, Jan Willem: mention of, 218
van der Heiden, Jacobus: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226
van der Heiden and Tas’s Contra Deductie: references to, 210, 218, 219, and 248
Hertog, Jan, the Company’s master gardener: is in charge of Vergelegen, 210
Hottentots: particulars concerning, 195 and 221; trade with by colonists is prohibited from 1658 to 1699, 191; is then thrown open by the directors, 192; but in 1703 is again forbidden, 196
Huguenot settlers: are sent out in small numbers until 1700, when the directors resolve not to send any more, 184
Huguenots: are in a difficult position in the countries that shelter them, 184
Synoptical Index.
Huising, Henning: in 1700 enters into the first contract to supply meat to the East India Company, 192; treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226; is well treated by the directors, 246; further mention of, 247
Inducements to migrate to South Africa at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 185
Islands of Dina and Marseveen: search for, 188
Kalden, Rev. Petrus, clergyman of Capetown: is in possession of a farm, 216; is charged by the burghers with spending too much time on it and neglecting his duty, 222; is recalled by the directors, and in April 1708 leaves the colony, 247
Kolbe’s Caput Bonæ Spei: reference to, 173
van Loon, Rev. Hercules: in April 1700 becomes clergyman of Stellenbosch, 197; in June 1704 commits suicide, 199
Louw, Jacob: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 229 and 242
Marauding band of Europeans and Hottentots: account of, 200
Mauritius, island of: is uninhabited when the Dutch East India Company sends a small party of men to take possession of it, 171
van Meerland, Jan: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226
Meresteyn, the: in April 1702 is wrecked on Jutten Island, when many lives are lost, 200
Meyboom, Nicolaas: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 227
Meyer, Pierre: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 229
Natal: in 1705 an expedition is sent to, 201
Newlands garden: in 1700 is planted by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 191
van Niekerk, Cornelis: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Obiqua mountains: reason for being so called, 189
Historical Sketches.
du Pré, Hercules: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230, 232, and 242
Pretorius, Wessel: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226
van Rheede, Hendrik Adriaan, lord of Mydrecht: is sent out by the directors with all the powers of a dictator to correct abuses in Hindostan and Ceylon, and has supreme authority conferred upon him while at the Cape, 177; from the 19th of April to the 16th of July 1685 he is in Capetown, 178; and three days before he leaves makes a grant to Commander Simon van der Stel of the farm Constantia at Wynberg as a reward for his good conduct, 179
Roman Catholics: position of in the Cape Colony under the Dutch government, 182
Rotterdam, Jan: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 226; account of his return from banishment, 233
Saar’s Account of Ceylon: extract from, 174
de Savoye, Jacob: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 229
Scarcity of timber and fuel at the Cape in 1699: mention of, 187
Seasons, the: from 1698 to 1705 are unfavourable for farming, 204
Sheep’s wool: efforts to produce in South Africa in the beginning of the eighteenth century, 203
Silk: experiment in the production of, 204
Slaves: are being introduced from Madagascar and Mozambique, 205
Spoelstra’s Bouwstoffen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederduitsch-Gereformeerde Kerken in Zuid Afrika: reference to, 217
van Staden, Martin: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Starrenburg, Jan, landdrost of Stellenbosch: conduct of, 224; by order of the directors he is dismissed from office and sent out of the colony, 243
van der Stel, Adriaan: in 1623 goes to India in the service of the Dutch East India Company, 171; in 1638 becomes commander of the island of Mauritius, ib.; becomes next a military commander, and in that capacity is sent to Ceylon, 172; on the 19th of May 1646 falls in battle with a Cingalese army, when nearly his whole force is destroyed, 173
Synoptical Index.
van der Stel, Frans, farmer at the Cape and younger brother of the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel: makes himself greatly disliked by the burghers, 217; is required by the directors to leave the colony, and in April 1708 embarks for Europe, 248
van der Stel, Simon: on the 14th of November 1639 is born at Mauritius, 172; at a very early age is sent to Amsterdam to be educated, 175; is regarded as their protégé by the directors of the East India Company, ib.; when grown up marries and becomes the father of six children, ib.; in 1679 is offered the situation of commander of the Cape settlement, which he gladly accepts, and in October of that year assumes the duty, 176; like all the chief officials he is prohibited from carrying on farming operations or speculating in cattle, ib.; he must be regarded as a model ruler, 177; in 1691 he is promoted to be governor, and in 1692 to be councillor extraordinary of Netherlands India, 179; in February 1699 retires from office, and is succeeded by his eldest son, 180; on the 24th of June 1712 dies at Constantia, ib.
van der Stel, Willem Adriaan: in February 1699 succeeds his father as governor of the Cape Colony and councillor extraordinary of Netherlands India, 180; has previously held various situations in the colony, 187; in November 1699 sets out on a tour of inspection of the settlement, 188; makes large profits by dealing in wine, 207; in February 1700 obtains an illegal grant of four hundred morgen of ground at Hottentots-Holland from the Commissioner Wouter Valckenier, 208; which farm he names Vergelegen, 210; and immediately begins to build upon and cultivate it, ib.; using the Company’s materials and servants for the purpose, ib.; until it becomes the most highly tilled ground in the colony, 211; beyond the mountains he holds an immense tract of country, on which he keeps a great number of horned cattle and sheep, 212; the utmost care is taken that no information of these matters reaches the directors, ib.; on the 15th of March 1701 the directors instruct him to be on guard, as war with France is imminent, ib.; which order he disobeys by frequent and long absence at Vergelegen, 215; in 1705 some of the farmers send a complaint against him to the Indian authorities, 219; which is sent back to him for explanation, 220; on receiving it he immediately concludes that similar charges will be sent to the directors and that his farming operations will become known to them, 223; to prevent this, if possible, he resorts to the most arbitrary and violent measures, 224; at this very time a commission in Amsterdam is making inquiry into his conduct, 234; and a committee appointed by the directors is devising measures for the security of the Cape settlement in case Vergelegen should not be a myth, 235; the commission of inquiry investigates the matter very thoroughly, and sends in a report, 237; in accordance with which the directors issue orders for the immediate recall of the governor and the other unworthy officials, 241; in April 1708 he leaves the colony, 247; after his dismissal from the Company’s service he publishes the Korte Deductie, as the best excuse he can make for his conduct, 248; he purchases an estate in the Netherlands, and in July 1723 dies there, 250
Historical Sketches.
van der Stel’s Korte Deductie: references to, 210, 211, 212, 214, and 248
Stellenbosch: is founded under Simon van der Stel’s supervision, 177; defiant conduct of the residents, 231
System of the Dutch East India Company of paying its officials: is a very bad one, 176
Tas, Adam: draws up a memorial to the directors, complaining of the governor, 220; is illegally arrested and committed to prison, 225; further particulars of the treatment accorded to him, 229 and 242; journal of, 183
Text of the orders of the directors of the 26th of April 1668 prohibiting the high officials in the settlement from farming land or dealing in cattle, 179
Text of the order of the directors of the 27th of June 1699 again prohibiting the chief officials from trading in cattle, 192
Text of the resolution of the directors on the 22nd of June 1700 concerning emigrants, 185
Text of the instructions of the directors to the governor on the 15th of March 1701 to be on his guard against an attack by the French, 213
Text of the orders of the directors on the 28th of October 1705 reiterating their previous commands that the officials should not traffic in cattle, 210
Text of the resolution of the assembly of seventeen on the 8th of March 1706, 235
Theal’s Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions of the Council of Policy at the Cape from 1651 to 1687: reference to, 187
Theal’s Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika: references to, 174, 178, 180, 185, 235, 237, 239, and 250
Timber and fuel: scarcity of in 1699 at the Cape, 187
du Toit, François: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Synoptical Index.
du Toit, Guillaume: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230, 232, and 242
Traffic of any kind in cattle is prohibited on the 27th of June 1699 to the chief officials in the colony, 185
Training of the colonists, 193
Treaty of Utrecht: reference to, 213
Tulbagh Basin: in November 1699 is inspected by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 189; description of the basin, ib.; receives from the governor the name Land of Waveren, 190; in 1700 begins to be occupied, ib.
Valckenier, Wouter: when returning from India to Holland acts as a commissioner at the Cape, 208; and illegally makes a grant of land to the governor, 209; is a member of the commission that condemns the governor for having obtained Vergelegen in an improper manner, 239
Valentijn’s Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien: reference to, 173
Vergelegen: is illegally obtained by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 209; the ground is resumed by the East India Company, 244; is divided into four farms, which are sold separately, 247
War of the Spanish Succession: reference to, 213
Waveren outstation: in 1700 is formed, 190
van der Westhuizen, Nicolaas: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 227
Witsenberg: is so named in honour of Nicolaas Witsen, of Amsterdam, 190
Wool; see Sheep’s wool
Wynoch, Christiaan: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 227
van Zyl, Willem: treatment of by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 230
Sketch IV
Albany: settlement of the district of, 255
Barbarians: effect of the influx into the Cape Colony of, 258
Battle in which the army of Natal under English chiefs is almost annihilated, 291
Historical Sketches.
Betshuana refugees: can give very little information upon the interior of the country, 265
Betshuana tribes: destruction of in the wars of Moselekatse, 258
Bird’s Annals of Natal: reference to, 293
du Buis, Coenraad, a notorious freebooter: account of, 270
Cape Colony: extent of in 1835, 255
Causes of the great emigration from the Cape Colony: as given by Louis Triegard, 273; as given by Pieter Uys, 281
Chase’s Natal Papers: reference to, 281
Destruction of human life in the wars of Tshaka and Moselekatse: leaves great tracts of land without inhabitants, 262
Discontent in South Africa in and before 1835: causes of, 257
D’Urban, Sir Benjamin, governor of the Cape Colony: the confidential correspondence of is presented by his grandson to the Union government, 259
Dutch and English colonists: difference in disposition of, 255
Dutch language: the suppression of in the public offices and in the courts of law is felt as a grievance by the old colonists, 258
English and Dutch colonists: difference in disposition of, 255
Englishmen: in 1835 some forty are living in Natal, 263; list of their names, 264; in June 1835 fourteen of them send a petition that the territory may be annexed by Great Britain, ib.; in March 1836 Lord Glenelg replies refusing to annex Natal, ib.
Fingoes, the: are brought by Sir Benjamin D’Urban from Kaffirland and located in Peddie, 260
Futu, Bantu chief: particulars concerning, 264
Gardiner’s Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa: reference to, 264
Geslacht Register de Oude Kaapsche Familien: reference to, 278
Glenelg, Lord, secretary of state for the colonies: maintains that the colonists are to blame for the Kaffir war of 1835, and abandons the Province of Queen Adelaide, 262
Glenelg system of dealing with the Kaffirs: particulars concerning, 262
Grahamstown: description of, 257
Synoptical Index.
Hottentots: injudicious treatment of, 257
Influx of barbarians into the Cape Colony: effect of, 258
Invasion of the Cape Colony by the Xosas in December 1834: particulars concerning, 260
Isaacs’ Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal: reference to, 264
Jacobs, Pieter: is leader of the fifth party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 277
Jalusa, a Xosa robber captain: moves to the country north of the Orange river, 267; in September 1836 his entire band is exterminated by the Basuto, ib.
Kaffir War of 1835: origin of the volume so called, 259; reference to, 279
Land tenure: the new system is not appreciated at first by the cattle farmers, 258
Maritz, Gerrit Marthinus: is leader of the third party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 275
Matiwane, chief of the Amangwane: drives a section of the Tembu tribe into the Cape Colony, 258
Missionary and philanthropic press: tone of, 259
Moselekatse: effect of the wars of, 258
Natal: description of, 263; number of Bantu residing in 1835, 264; condition of the emigrant farmers in after the massacres by the Zulus, 290
Potgieter, Andries Hendrik: is leader of the second party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 275; after the massacres by the Zulus goes with his men to the assistance of the distressed people in Natal, 290; with Pieter Uys marches into Zululand to attack Dingan, 292; on the 11th of April 1838 encounters a great Zulu army, and is compelled to retire, ib.; shortly afterwards leaves Natal and returns to Winburg, 294
Preller’s Piet Retief, Lewenskets van die Grote Voortrekker: reference to, 288
Province of Queen Adelaide: is created by Sir Benjamin D’Urban, 260; is abandoned by Lord Glenelg, 262
Historical Sketches.
van Rensburg, Jan: is leader of a small party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 268; in July 1833 leaves Louis Triegard’s party at the Zoutpansberg to open up a road to Delagoa Bay, 269; and with every individual in his company is murdered by blacks on the journey, ib.
Resolutions adopted by Pieter Uys and those who agree with him, asserting independence of Mr. Retief, 283
Retief, Pieter: is leader of the fourth party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 275; in June 1837 is installed as governor and commandant-general of his own party and the one under Maritz, 276; on the 21st of July 1837 writes to Sir Benjamin D’Urban desiring that the emigrants may be acknowledged as an independent people, 286; in October 1837 goes over the Drakensberg into Natal, 285; on the 6th of February 1838 is murdered with all his companions at Dingan’s kraal, 280
Sekwati, chief of the Bapedi: mention of, 272
Settlement of the Cape Colony by Europeans: slow progress of, 255
Slaves in the Cape Colony: hasty emancipation of, 257
Smit, Erasmus: reference to the journal of, 275
Smith, G. C. Moore, Esqre., M.A.: assistance rendered by, 260
Tembu tribe: a section of is driven by the Amangwane under Matiwane into the Cape Colony, 258
Triegard, Louis: family history of, 266; in June 1834 he moves from the district of Somerset to the bank of the White Kei river beyond the colonial border, ib.; where about thirty emigrant families are then residing, 267; here all his slaves run away, ib.; he is believed by the British officials on the frontier to have induced the Xosas to persevere in the war against the colony, ib.; he moves northward with the notorious robber captain Jalusa, ib.; in September 1835 crosses the Orange river, and then with a number of other emigrants travels onward to the Zoutpansberg, 268; which he reaches in May 1836, ib.; account of his residence there until August 1837, when he and his party leave for Delagoa Bay, 271; they encounter great difficulties on the way, 272; but in April 1838 reach Lourenço Marques, 273; where they are received with great kindness by the Portuguese, ib.; but are attacked by fever, from which in course of time nearly the whole party, including Triegard himself, dies, ib.; in July 1839 the remnant of the party is rescued and taken to Natal, 274
Tsetse fly: destructive nature of, 272
Tshaka: effect of the wars of, 258
Synoptical Index.
Umnini, petty Bantu chief: particulars concerning, 263
Uys, Pieter Lavras: particulars concerning the family of, 278; personal character of, 279; in 1834 visits and inspects Natal, 265; is leader of the sixth party of emigrants from the Cape Colony, 277; travels northward over the Orange river, with the intention of crossing the Drakensberg into Natal, 280; on the 7th of August 1837 writes to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, stating the causes of the emigration, ib.; he assumes an attitude of independence as regards Mr. Retief, 283; in October 1837 joins Commandant Potgieter in the campaign in which the Matabele are driven far to the north, 286; in December 1837 visits Natal again, 289; in February 1838 is in the present Orange Free State when tidings of the fearful massacres by the Zulus reach him, ib.; he immediately collects his men and goes down into Natal to the assistance of the distressed people there, ib.; with Commandant Potgieter marches into Zululand to attack Dingan, 292; on the 11th of April 1838 is drawn into an ambuscade and is almost surrounded by a great Zulu army, ib.; when attempting to retreat is killed with nine others, 293
Uys, Dirk Cornelis: heroic death of, 293
Voigt’s Fifty Years of the History of the Republic in South Africa: reference to, 286
Xosa invasion of the Cape Colony in December 1834: particulars concerning, 260
Notes
1 Among the sources of information for the next few pages I must mention particularly Arnold’s History of Rome, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Busk’s History of Spain and Portugal, and Stephens’ History of Portugal.
2 The old library of the Ptolemies was consumed in Cæsar’s Alexandrian war. Marc Antony gave the whole collection of Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as the foundation of the new library of Alexandria. It was kept in apartments of the great temple of Serapis, which was broken down in A.D. 389 by Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, “the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue, a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood.” The valuable library was pillaged or destroyed. See Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter XXVIII.
3 The Arabs, Persians, and Indians were found at the beginning of the sixteenth century of our era to be well acquainted with the eastern coast as far south as Cape Correntes, and the Arabs and Persians had settlements along the whole of that seaboard. But of this Europeans knew absolutely nothing. Beyond Cape Correntes, in latitude 24° 4´ south, the Asiatics did not venture in their coir-sewn vessels. Here the Mozambique current, from which the cape has its present name, ran southward with great velocity, usually from two to five kilometres an hour, according to the force and direction of the wind, but often much faster. The cape had the reputation also of being a place of storms, where the regular monsoons of the north could no longer be depended upon, and where violent gusts from every quarter would almost surely destroy the mariners who should be so foolhardy as to brave them. The vivid Arab imagination further pictured danger of another kind, for this was the chosen home of those mermaids—believed in also by the Greeks of old—who lured unfortunate men to their doom. There were legends of ships having been driven far beyond it in gales, and having been carried by the current onward to a great ocean in the west, from which they had only with the greatest difficulty returned. The perils the crews had gone through and the hardships they had suffered were magnified as a matter of course, and the dreadful sights that had met their eyes were such as to make the boldest shudder. Of the shore of that awful sea nothing was known, for no one had ever set foot upon it. So Cape Correntes, with its real and fictitious perils, was the terminus of Mohamedan enterprise to the south, though there were men in Kilwa who sometimes wondered what was beyond it and half made up their minds to go overland and ascertain. Had there been a Bantu settlement beyond Inhambane there can be no doubt that their eagerness to procure ivory would have led them on, but black men had replaced the wild aborigines there so shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese that there was not time to make the venture.
4 For information on the discoveries mentioned here I am indebted chiefly to the Indice Chronologico das Navegações, Viagens, Descobrimentos, e Conquistas dos Portuguezes nos Paizes Ultramarinos desde o Principio do Seculo XV, the great history Da Asia of João de Barros, Major’s Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and their Results, and Beazley’s Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery.
5 These islands and even the Canaries had been visited by Genoese ships before they were rediscovered by the Portuguese. But as no use was made of them by the first visitors, and as knowledge concering them was not communicated to the world in general, the Portuguese have a fair claim to be regarded as the real discoverers. In the same way Columbus is rightly credited with the discovery of America, though the Northmen visited its north-eastern coast long before his time.
6 It would be interesting to know the exact day on which Dias sailed, but I have not found it possible to ascertain it. As already observed, before the entrance of Vasco da Gama into the Indian sea the dates of the various discoveries given by Portuguese historians are not implicitly to be relied upon, and as no original journals or logbooks of the early voyages are now in existence, there are no means of verifying them. João de Barros is the only historian known to me who has placed on record the month and year of sailing and of the return of Dias in this voyage, and he does not state the day of departure from the Tagus. His words are: (ElRei Dom João) “determinou de enviar logo neste anno de quatrocentos e oitenta e seis dobrados navios per mar, e homens per terra, pera ver o fim destas cousas.”... “partiram no fim de Agosto do dito anno.”... “onde chegáram em Dezembro do anno de quatrocentos e oitenta e sete, havendo dezeseis mezes, e dezesete dias que eram partidos delle.” Barros is the most reliable of all the Portuguese historians of that time, and he was in a position to obtain the particulars of this voyage, which unfortunately he gives so scantily. Neither Damião de Goes in his Chronica do Felicissimo Rei Dom Emanuel da Gloriosa Memoria nor Fernão Lopes de Castanheda in his Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portuguezes mentions the date of the voyage, but both relate other particulars which tend to confirm the opinion that it took place at the time stated by Barros. For instance, Castanheda states that Affonso de Paiva and João Pires de Covilhão commenced their journey from Portugal after the departure of Dias, and he agrees with Barros in giving the 7th of May 1487 as the date on which they left Santarem. The exact dates of Dias passing the Cape of Good Hope eastward, of his reaching the mouth of the Infante river, and of the erection of the landmark São Philippe cannot be ascertained, but these events in all probability occurred in 1487, as making allowance for his detentions when leaving the storeship, at Angra dos Ilheos, and afterwards, Dias can hardly have reached the latitude of the Cape before the beginning of that year. See appendix.
7 See the numerous statements concerning this mythical monarch made by the early Portuguese writers, copied by me and printed, together with English translations, in volumes i, iii, v, vi, and vii of the Records of South-Eastern Africa. Ultimately the name was applied to the ruler of Abyssinia. Index, Prester John, in Vol. ix, page 474.
8 “On the 21st of November (1825) a heavy south-east gale set in, before which we were carried with great velocity, and in the afternoon saw the remains of the cross erected by Bartholomeu Dias at the southern extremity of Angra Pequena. Passing by it we (H.M.S. Barracouta) anchored in the bay, where, although the wind was directly off shore, yet such was its violence that the whole surface of the water was one vast sheet of foam. Some officers landed with Captain Vidal, for the purpose of examining the cross, and obtaining the latitude and longitude of the point. They found the sand very painful to the eyes, being swept from the surface of the rocks, and almost blinding them as they proceeded to the summit of the small granite eminence on which Bartholomeu Dias erected his cross, as a memento of his discovery of the place. This is said to have been standing complete forty years back, but we found that it had been cast down, evidently by design, as the part of the shaft that had originally been buried in the rock remained unbroken, which never could have been the case had it been overturned in any other way than by lifting it from the foundation. The inducement to this disgraceful act was probably to search for such coins as might have been buried beneath the cross; and it is probable that the destroyers, in order to make some little amende for their desolation, re-erected a portion of the fragments, as we found a piece of the shaft, including the part originally placed in the ground, altogether about six feet in length, propped up by means of large stones, crossed at the top by a broken fragment, which had originally formed the whole length of the shaft. This was six feet above ground, and twenty-one inches beneath, composed of marble rounded on one side, but left square on the other, evidently for the inscription, which, however, the unsparing hand of Time, in a lapse of nearly three centuries and a half, had rendered illegible. In descending by a different and more craggy path, the party suddenly came upon the cross; this was sixteen inches square, of the same breadth and thickness as the shaft, and had on the centre an inscription, but, like the other, almost obliterated.”—Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, performed in H.M. Ships Leven and Barracouta under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N. Two demi octavo volumes, published in London in 1833. The extract given above is to be found in Vol. II, pages 269 and 270. Two fragments of the pillar are now in the museum in Lisbon, and one is in the South African museum in Capetown.
9 The probabilities are that they did not, otherwise the information they carried back would have been regarded as much more important than it was considered to be by the king and by all the writers of the time. Ptolemy’s map, on which Africa was made to turn like a horn and project so far to the eastward as to enclose the Indian ocean, was still treated with respect, and the discoveries of Dias seemed at the time as if they tended rather to confirm than to refute this geographical feature. According to the view of those who regarded Ptolemy and Edrisi as safe guides, Dias had sailed along the southern side of the horn, without finding its end, and therefore had not done much more than Diogo Cam and other previous explorers. To-day, with our knowledge, his feat is regarded very differently, but neither the king nor the people considered at the time that it entitled him to any special reward or mark of favour.
10 The factory of São Jorge da Mina was established in January 1482 by Diogo d’Azambuja, and was the first permanent Portuguese settlement on the western coast of Africa, and the centre of the trade in gold. It was wrested from the Portuguese by the Dutch in 1637, and was held by them until April 1872, when it was transferred to England in exchange for some other territory on the coast. It is now known as Elmina.
11 Called João Pires, of Covilhão, by Damião de Goes, Pedro de Covilhão by Castanheda and Barros. Modern Portuguese writers follow De Goes in the name. See the Indice Chronologico das Navegações, Viagens, Descobrimentos, e Conquistas dos Portuguezes nos Paizes Ultramarinos desde o Principio do Seculo XV. Lisboa, 1841. João Pires on page 69. Barros says of him: “The king, seeing how necessary an acquaintance with the Arabic tongue was for this journey, sent upon this business one Pedro de Covilhão, a gentleman of his household who was well acquainted with it, and in his company another named Affonso de Paiva, and they were sent from Santarem on the 7th of May of the year 1487.”
12 Probably a misprint.
13 The German Emperor has since caused an exact copy of it to be erected, substituting granite for marble.
14 The particulars of this event cannot be ascertained, and it would even be doubtful whether Mondragon really rounded the Cape of Good Hope if it were not expressly stated in a summary of the directions issued by the king for his capture that the robbery of Queimado’s ship took place “no canal de Moçambique.”
15 I do not mention Sir John Mandeville in the text, because modern criticism has proved that what he states concerning India in his book The Voiage and trauayle of syr John Maundeuille, knight, which treateth of the way toward Hierusalem, and of maruayles of Inde, with other Ilands and Countryes was compiled from earlier foreign writers, though his work was regarded as genuine and trustworthy by Englishmen until recently. Nothing is known of him from contemporary records, and it is even regarded as possible that Mandeville was a pseudonym. In his book he states that he was born at St. Albans, and travelled in the east as far as China between the years 1322 and 1357. It is now believed that he really visited Palestine, and his account of that country is considered as partly based on personal observation, but the remainder of the volume is spurious. The original was written in French. See the Encyclopedia Britannica, article Mandeville. Of the numerous copies of the book, in many languages, in the library of the British Museum, the earliest was printed in 1480.
16 This sketch is drawn chiefly from Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic and his History of the United Netherlands to the Twelve Years’ Truce—1609, the Geschiedenis des Vaderlands, by Mr. W. Bilderdyk, edited by Professor H. W. Tydeman, seven octavo volumes, issued at Amsterdam in 1832 to 1853, History of the People of the Netherlands, by Petrus Johannes Blok, Ph.D., four demi octavo volumes (English edition), published at New York and London, 1898 to 1907, (another volume still to appear), Handboek der Geschiedenis van het Vaderland, by Mr. G. Groen van Prinsterer, two octavo volumes (second edition), issued at Amsterdam in 1852, Histoire de Belgique, by Professor H. Pirenne, of the University of Ghent, second edition of Vol. I published at Brussels in 1902, Vol. II published at the same place in 1903, and Vol. III in 1907, (other volumes still to appear), and The History of Belgium, by Demetrius C. Boulger, published at London in 1902. Some other works consulted will be mentioned in notes.
17 “Belgium ofte Nederland werdt ghemeynelijck verdeelt in zeventhien Provincien, meer om dat de Princen daer over regierende, seventhien Tytelen van de selve hebben ghevoert, als om andere merckelijcke redenen. Want op de ghemeyne vergaderinghen ende by-een-comsten der Staten van den Lande, en pleghen de selve in soodanighen ghetalle niet te verschijnen, maer sommighe sorteerden onder andere, als by exempel: Het Hartoghdom van Limborch met syn appendentien: item het Marck-Graeffschap des H. Rycx ofte van Antwerpen stemden ende contribueerden onder Brabandt, ’t Graeffschap Zutphen maeckte het vierde Quartier van Gelderland: Daer-en-tegens Doornijck ende het Doornijcksche Landt: Item Rijssel, Douay ende Orchies (synde andersints Steden ende Leden van Wals-Vlaenderen) hadden hare stemmen in het bysonder, ende contribueerden apart: Het selve gheschiede oock met Valencyn, dat nochtans een Stad ende Lidt van Henegouwen is.” Atlas of Mercator and Hondius, edition published at Amsterdam in 1633. This superb atlas contains a double page map of all the provinces and no fewer than thirty maps of different sections. A copy obtained by me in Holland is in the South African Public Library.
18 See the superb Atlas of Ortelius, published at Antwerp in 1570. A copy obtained by me at the Hague is now in the South African Public Library. This atlas contains a map of the whole provinces and separate maps of Holland, Zeeland, the Frisian provinces, Flanders, and Brabant. A comparison of the map of the provinces with one of Holland and Belgium to-day will show the great changes that have taken place in the interim.
19 See Blok’s History of the People of the Netherlands, Vol. II, page 263.
20 There was in the south the large province of Liege, nominally a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, under the government of a bishop, but it was not counted with the others, though enclosed by some of them. It had been conquered by Charles the Headstrong of Burgundy, but on his death became independent again, and maintained a perfect neutrality thereafter, though its borders were not always respected by contending armies. It remained an independent principality until it was annexed to France on the 1st of October 1795, and in 1814 for the first time was joined to the other provinces to form the kingdom of the Netherlands. When Belgium seceded and secured its independence in 1831 Liege became one of its provinces.
21 The greatest of the southern dioceses was Liege, whose bishop was first settled at Tongres, then at Maastricht, and from A.D. 708 at Liege. In the tenth century the bishops of Liege and Cambrai obtained rights as counts over extensive domains.—Blok.
22 The word “king” is used as a convenient one, though Philippe was not king of the Netherlands. He was duke of one province, count of another, lord of the next, and so on, but under these titles he was sovereign of them all.
23 Blok gives the number, according to a statement of Requesens, as six thousand.
24 This differs slightly in detail from the account given by Motley, whose authority is so high that it is with reluctance I do not adhere to it in every particular. In this instance I follow the Life of Boisot, as given in Leeven en Daden der Doorlughtige Zee-Helden, a quarto volume issued at Amsterdam in 1683.
25 The treaty contained thirty articles. It is to be found on pages 83 to 88 of Volume II of A General Collection of Treatys, Manifesto’s, Contracts of Marriage, Renunciations, and other Publick Papers, from the year 1495, to the year 1712, second edition published in London in 1732.
26 See pages 89 to 91 of the volume of Treaties, etc., already referred to.
27 Page 92, Vol. II of the Collection of Treaties, etc., already referred to.
28 General Collection of Treaties, etc., Vol. II, pages 103 to 119.
29 General Collection of Treaties, etc., Vol. II, pages 120 to 127.
30 Collection of Treaties, etc., Vol. II, pages 128 to 146.
31 The account of these voyages is taken from Begin ende Voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost Indische Compagnie, vervatende de voornaemste Reysen by de Inwoonderen derselver Provincien derwaerts gedaen. Two thick volumes, published at Amsterdam in 1646.
32 The accounts of the voyages that follow have been taken by me from the volumes Begin ende Voortgangh already mentioned, and François Valentijn’s Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien, five huge volumes published at Amsterdam in 1726, checked by the narratives in the first three volumes of J. K. J. de Jonge’s De Opkomst van het Nederlandsch Gezag in Oost Indie, published at the Hague and Amsterdam in 1862-65. I also made use of the last volume of Diogo de Couto’s Da Asia, in order to get the Portuguese version of these events, but obtained very little information in it. His work ends with an account of a Dutch disaster at Achin before the principal voyages were undertaken. Of course the Dutch were to him pirates and rebels.
33 It is attached to the original journals, now in the archives of the Netherlands. I made a copy of it on tracing linen for the Cape government, as it differs considerably from the chart in the printed condensed journal of the voyage. In other respects also the compilation of the printed journal has been very carelessly executed.
34 See the last two volumes of De Couto’s Da Asia.
35 The first Buddhist commandment, as given in The Light of Asia, reads:
“Kill not, for pity’s sake, and lest thou slay
The meanest creature on its upward way.”
36 Albert died in 1621 and Isabella on the 30th of November 1623, and as they left no children, in 1624 Belgium passed again under the direct government of Spain. By the treaty of Baden on the 7th of September 1714 it was ceded to the emperor Charles VI, and thereafter was generally termed the Austrian Netherlands.
37 Sections III, XLIX, and L of the treaty of Munster, pages 335 to 367 of Vol. II General Collection of Treaties, &c.
38 See pages 188 to 202 of Volume II of A General Collection of Treaties, &c.
39 See A Voyage to East India, &c. by the Rev. Edward Terry. London, 1655.
40 The name of the Welshman is not given in the Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh language by the Historical Manuscripts Commission (Vol. I, Part 3), published in London in 1905, from which this extract is taken.
41 A Voyage to East India, wherein some things are taken notice of in our passage thither, but many more in our abode there, within that rich and most spacious Empire. Of the Great Mogols, &c., &c. Observed by Edward Terry (then Chaplain to the Right Honorable Sr. Thomas Row, Knight, Lord Ambassadour to the great Mogol) now Rector of the Church at Grunford, in the County of Middlesex. A foolscap octavo volume of 545 pages, published in London in 1655. Terry says that he went to India the year after Sir Thomas Roe in a fleet of six ships—the Charles, of 1,000 tons, the Unicorn, almost as big, the James, a large ship also, the Globe, the Swan, and the Rose, which were smaller. The fleet left the Thames on the 3rd of February 1615 (old style, 1616 it would be written now that the year commences on the 1st of January), under command of Captain Benjamin Joseph as commodore, and it rode at anchor in Table Bay from the 12th to the 28th of June. His statement concerning the convicts sent out the previous year does not fully agree with the records in the India Office in London, which I consulted to obtain information on this subject, and which I follow as far as they go, though they are defective.
42 See Valentyn’s great work on India, the last volume of which contains the history of Ceylon and also of Mauritius. See also the volume Vies des Gouverneurs Generaux, by J. P. I. du Bois. The account of Pieter Kolbe, in his Caput Bonæ Spei Hodiernum, is so distorted by his bitter animosity towards Simon van der Stel as well as towards his son Willem Adriaan that no reliance can be placed upon it. Van der Aa, in his Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, says that Simon van der Stel, son of Adriaan van der Stel and Monica da Costa, was born in Amsterdam, but that is a mistake, and not the only one in the article. See Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, door A. J. van der Aa, Zeventiende Deel, Tweede Stuk, Haarlem, 1874. I copied the article on the Van der Stel family in the above work, and published it in 1911 in the third part of my Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika. It will be found on pages 11 and 12 of the volume.
In Johan Saar’s Account of Ceylon 1647-1657, this event is related as follows: “To pick a quarrel they (the Hollanders) seized upon four of the best elephants of the King of Candi. He, as a sensible man, sent word to the Hollanders that he had no intention to do anything against them, and he expected them, for their part, to act likewise; he had called them in as friends to be his allies against the Portuguese, and he hoped therefore that they would not settle in his territory. But the Hollanders from the beginning were bent upon war. When the king saw that it could not be avoided, he collected by one of his generals (a Saude, or what we should call a Count) about 60,000 men, chiefly natives, besides a few Portuguese whom he had formerly made captives, and who had entered his service. He would no longer trust the Hollanders.... In the following year (Anno Christi 1646) in the month of May, Mr. van der Stält (Van der Stel) received fresh orders to march with 150 men (picked soldiers), plenty of ammunition, powder, lead, and other materials of war, and also two field guns. He met with the heathen Saude in a small clearing, but as the latter had no orders to fight, because the king was still disinclined to go to war, he withdrew into the forest. The Hollanders opened a heavy fire from their field-guns and fire-arms, so that 400 were killed, and many were wounded. As the Hollanders had taken the offensive, the Saude did not care to act only on the defensive. He therefore came out of the forest, and closing round our people, attacked them with such energy that he cut off the head of Mr. Van der Stel, who had been carried in a palanquin or litter, clad in red scarlet. Of our men, who had numbered 150, they got 103 heads. The rest fled into the jungle and hid themselves as best they could. When the King, who had been near, heard of the onslaught he hurried to the spot, and although he was told that his men had been forced to fight, he showed displeasure. At once he ordered drums to be beaten and proclamation to be made that none of the Hollanders who had fled into the jungle were to be killed, but they were to be brought alive before him; that he would treat them well; and that he would swear by his God that he was innocent of the bloodshed. He then gave directions to have the head of Mr. Van der Stel put into a silver bowl, and covered it with white cloth, and sent it by one of the prisoners to their Captain in the great camp, to say that this was the head of Mr. Van der Stel, and that the King would see his body as well as the other 103 bodies decently buried.”
44 The instructions and orders of the lord of Mydrecht were copied by me from the original document in the Cape archives, and were published in 1896 in Deel I Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten. They occupy pages 1 to 48 of that pamphlet.
45 “Wij cunnen geensints verstaen dat den Commandeur en die van zijnen Raden voortaen haer eygen thuynen en bestiael sullen hebben of houden, meer als hij off sij tot hun eygen gesin sullen van noden hebben maer gehouden wesen haer daer van t’ ontledigen.” Despatch dated at Amsterdam on the 26th of April 1668, and signed by all of the seventeen directors. In the Cape archives, and copy in those at the Hague.
46 See the Resolutions of the Assembly of Seventeen, copied by me from the original volumes in the Archives at the Hague, and published in Deel III Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, an octavo volume of 435 pages, printed for the Union Government in 1911.
47 In secluded parts of South Africa, where it would not be possible to have one made in time after death, this precaution is still taken, but elsewhere the custom has died out. I have known instances of it in Canada also.
48 Two fragments of a journal kept by Adam Tas have been preserved: one from the 13th of June to the 14th of August 1705, in the archives at the Hague, the other, from the 7th of December 1705 to the 27th of February 1706, in the South African public library in Capetown, and they give a graphic picture of life in the country districts at the time. Whenever a friend came to his house or he went to a friend’s, they at once sat down to chat and drink wine and smoke tobacco, when if the party was large and included wives and daughters, playing cards was resorted to as a pastime. The quantity of coffee and tea consumed was very large. The vicious custom of returning incorrect numbers of cattle and sheep for taxation purposes was already prevalent, and Tas, who was certainly not a dishonest man in other matters, was unable to see that this was a crime deserving punishment. Professor Leo Fouché, of Pretoria, has copied these interesting fragments, and informs me that he intends to publish them.
49 It was only natural that the Huguenot refugees should be warmly attached to their native country, and long to be able to return to it. It was noticed in England as well as in Holland and Prussia that the French exiles had no hesitation in declaring that if Louis XIV would only restore the edict of Henri IV and pledge himself to observe it faithfully, they would return to the land of their birth and be his most faithful subjects. It was believed that they would not return and profess adherence to the state church while in their hearts remaining Calvinists and secretly practising the Calvinistic form of worship, as many of those who remained behind were doing, but the governments of the countries in which they had taken refuge were at this time suspicious of their attachment under all circumstances. In South Africa the Dutch section of the population—or at least some of them—believed that the Huguenots would not assist to repel a French invasion. It was only when the children born in the lands of refuge grew up that the strong attachment of the Huguenots to France died out.
50 “Op het rapport van de heeren commissarissen ingevolge van de resolutie commissorial van den 16 deses, geëxamineerd hebbende het wensch van de colonie van de Caap de Bonne Esperance, en het senden van vrije luijden derwaarts breeder in voorn. resolutie ter nedergestelt, is in conformite van ’t geadviseerde goetgevonden en geresolveert de respectieve kameren te authoriseeren omme eenige vrije luijden soo mannen vrouwen als kinderen vrij van kost en transport gelt derwaarts te senden, mitsgaders zorg dragende en lettende dat het soo veel doenlijk is mogen zijn Nederlanders of onderdaanen van dese Staat of van Hoogduijtsch natien geen trafieq ter zee doende, mitsgaders van de gereformeerde of Luyterse godsdienst, hun op de lantbouw of culture der wijnen verstaende, dogh geen franschen, de selve om redenen in voorn. als anders in ’t geheel excuserende.” Résolution of the Assembly of Seventeen adopted on the 22nd of June 1700, copied by me from the original records at the Hague, and published in 1911 on page 2 of Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III.
51 See resolution of that date on page 6 of the volume already mentioned.
52 These instructions are given in the original on page 192.
53 See the original records of the council of policy in the Cape archives, or my Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions of the Council of Policy at the Cape from 1651 to 1687, an octavo volume of 233 pages, published at Capetown in 1881.
54 “daerop hebben wij naegesien ’t geene wij bij onsen brieff van den 14 Julij 1695 soo raeckende den Landtbouw als het bestiael beijde van de Comp: hebben geschreven, en gemeijnt dat soo wel de voors: Lantbouw, als het aenhouden van het bestiael, geensints een werck is, de Comp: convenierende off dat die haer daermede behoort te bemoeijen, maer dat deselve in tegendeel dat aen de vrijeluijen dient over te laeten soo om die daer door te beter te doen subsisteren... met uijtsluytinge van Comps: dienaren die soo wel in den politicquen raed, als in den raedt van justitie compareren, en Sessie in deselve hebben, aen dewelcke wij verstaen, dat alle leverantie aen de Comp: sal werden benomen, off haer ontseijt.”—Despatch to the governor and council of policy at the Cape, dated at Amsterdam on the 27th of June 1699, and signed by fifteen of the directors.
55 This clergyman was of French descent, was educated for the ministry of the Roman catholic church, and had been a monk in the abbey of Boneffe in Belgium. After becoming a Protestant he wrote a book entitled Dwalingen van het Pausdom. He could converse in many languages, and was unquestionably a man of high ability and learning, but he was of irascible disposition and wherever he went was engaged in strife. After he left South Africa he became a doctor of laws, and died at a very advanced age at Batavia in 1748, after having been during the preceding nineteen years minister of the Protestant Portuguese congregation at that place.
56 See the report of the commissioners Pieter de Vos and Hendrik Bekker, signed at Batavia on the 18th of September 1706. Copy in the Cape archives.
57 As he was an ordinary councillor of India and admiral of the return fleet he was higher in rank than the governor. His commission from the Indian authorities directed him to see that the laws were properly carried out, but he had no power given to him to make any new laws, and of course none to annul or suspend any order of the directors, which even the high Indian authorities could not do.
58 The first was a grant of the farm now occupied by the English archbishop of Capetown to Commander Jan van Riebeek, before the order of 1668 was issued, the second was the grant of Constantia already mentioned.
59 “Alle de Coloniers (goet vlees leverende) sonder dese of geene begunstighde daerinne boven anderen te prefereren, en sulex sonder onderscheijt tot voors: leverantie sal hebben te admitteren. Dan aengesien wij considereren dat voorsz: leverantie onder anderen mede moet geaght werden te sijn een voorregt der vrije Ingesetenen en Coloniers deselve privative competerende met uijtsluijtingh van Comps: dienaren, die met haer Soldije en emolumenten moeten te vreden sijn, en daermede oock genoeghsaem kunnen bestaen, soo verstaen en begeeren wij dat niemant van Comps: dienaren, den gouverneur daer onder mede begrepen, eenigh versch vlees aen Comps: schepen, hospitael etc: sal mogen leveren, direct of indirect, maer ’t selve op den ontfangst deses voortaen alleen door de vrije Ingesetenen moeten geschieden.”—Despatch signed by fifteen of the directors, dated at Middelburg on the 28th of October 1705. In the Cape archives and copy in those of the Netherlands. This order was sent out, because complaints had already been received in Holland that the governor was disregarding the laws on the subject.
60 When trying to excuse his conduct to his friends after all this was made known to the directors and he had been dismissed from the service, the late governor admitted, as he could not deny it, that he had occasionally taken Hertog with him to Vergelegen for the purpose here mentioned. See the Korte Deductie van Willem Adriaen van der Stel: tot destructie ende wederlegginge van alle de klaghten, die eenige vrijluijden van de voorsz Cabo aen de Edele Achtbare Heren Bewinthebberen van de Oost Indische Compagnie over hem hadden gedaen. A foolscap folio volume of 172 pages, published in Holland—the name of the town is not given—soon after his recall and dismissal from the Company’s service. But his opponents proved conclusively that Hertog was there for six or eight months at a time, while drawing pay from the Company, and they published some of his written orders as manager of the place. See the Contra Deductie ofte Grondige Demonstratie van de valsheit der witgegevene Deductie by den Ed: Heer Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Geweezen Raad Extraordinaris van Nederlandsch India, en Gouverneur aan Cabo de Goede Hoop, etc., etc., etc.; waar in niet alleen begrepen is een nauwkeurig Historisch Verhaal, van al ’t geene de Heer van der Stel in den jare 1706 heeft werkstellig gemaakt, on de Vrijburgeren aan de Kaab t’ onder te brengen: maar ook een beknopt Antwoort op alle in gemelde Deductie, en deszelfs schriftelijke Verantwoordinge, voorgestelde naakte uitvluchten, abuseerende bewysstukken, en andere zaken meer: strekkende tot Verificatie van’t Klachtschrift, in den jare 1706 aan Haar Wel Edele Hoog Achtbaarheden, de Heeren Bewinthebberen ter Illustre Vergadering van Zeventienen afgezonden; zynde gesterkt door veele authenticque en gerecolleerde Bewysstukken, waar van de origineele of authenticque Copyen in handen hebben de twee Gemachtigden van eenige der Kaapsche Inwoonderen Jacobus van der Heiden en Adam Tas. A foolscap folio volume of 318 pages, published at Amsterdam in 1712. This volume refutes the statements made in the Korte Deductie, and contains some very strong evidence given under oath. It is otherwise interesting, as being the first book entirely prepared in South Africa.
61 In his Korte Deductie the late governor asserted that he had purchased over two hundred slaves for his private use. The Company allowed him twenty of its male and female slaves as domestic servants in his residence in the castle, and these he sent to his farm, employing his own instead. He denied making use of other government slaves than these for his private work. He stated that the soldiers and sailors were temporarily detached from the public service, in the manner usual in times of peace, and were paid and maintained by him while they were in his service. The only other soldiers that he admitted as having worked at Vergelegen were those who formed his escort when he went there, and who, he asserted, might better have been occupied during their stay at the farm than have been idle. But see the note on page 218.
62 The quantity of wheat produced at Vergelegen is not given in the archives, but is stated by Bogaert, who is a trustworthy authority, at over eleven hundred muids yearly.
63 In his Korte Deductie he stated that by purchasing from farmers and by the natural increase of his stock he had some thousands of sheep and some hundreds of horned cattle, but that he did not know the exact number. Instead of eighteen stations, he asserted that he had eight folds or kraals, but that part of his attempted excuse for his conduct is so palpably misleading that it is of no value whatever. The statistics given here are from those obtained after his recall.
64 “Ondertusschen sullen uE: haer mede op hoede hebben te houden.”—Despatch signed by twelve of the directors, dated at Amsterdam on the 15th of March 1701.
65 He was able to prove that he had paid for some timber drawn from the Company’s magazine, but the evidence of the master of a ship shows how articles could be obtained even where invoices and disbursements were audited. The skipper of one of the Company’s vessels needed a small quantity of iron for repairs, which he drew from the magazine. Before he sailed he was required to sign a receipt for a very much larger quantity, and on his remonstrating he was told that such was the usual custom. He grumbled, but was at length induced to attach his signature to the document. The receipt then became a voucher for the use of so much iron in the Company’s service. Willem Adriaan van der Stel was a poor man when he arrived in South Africa, and could not have established Vergelegen with his own means, although he received large bribes for favours granted. In Tas’s journal it is stated that from the contractor Henning Huising he obtained three thousand sheep, two slaves, and over £833, but no particulars are given as to the nature of the transaction. The bribers may be morally as guilty as the bribed, but with such a man as Willem Adriaan van der Stel there was no other way of getting any business transacted.
66 Such extreme precaution was used to prevent the governor’s movements from becoming known in Holland or India that it is now impossible to ascertain from any documents in the archives which of these statements is correct. The long intervals that frequently occurred during his administration between the meetings of the council of policy, however, prove that the periods named by the burghers were quite possible. In 1700 there was one meeting in January, four meetings in February, one in March, one in April, one in May, one on the 28th of June, one on the 30th of August, and one on the 18th of December. In 1701 there was one meeting in January, three meetings in March, one on the 26th of May, one on the 29th of August, and one on the 30th of December. In 1702 there were only six meetings in all, the first being on the 23rd of May, in 1703 there were only five meetings, and in 1704 the same number. In 1705 there were ten meetings, with an interval of two months in one instance and of nearly three months in another. This is not very important, however, as the time of absence from his post admitted by himself is sufficient to convict him of unfaithfulness to his trust.
67 This grant was of course illegal, as being in opposition to the orders of the directors in 1668, and Elsevier’s making use of it was the ground of his dismissal from the service when the directors became acquainted with the circumstances. There is so little on record concerning it that it is not now possible to say why Simon van der Stel acted as he did, but he may have reasoned that as the lord of Mydrecht would have given ground to the secunde in 1685, if the holder of the situation at that time had chosen to accept it, it would not be wrong to give it to another secunde. This is only supposition, but I cannot think of anything else that would have caused the old governor to overstep his authority in this manner.
68 See letter from the reverend Petrus Kalden to the Classis of Amsterdam, dated 26th of April 1707, given in Bouwstoffen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederduitsch-Gereformeerde Kerken in Zuid Afrika, door C. Spoelstra, V.D.M. Volume I, page 56.
69 For these statistics see the sworn depositions of men who had worked for him, printed in the Contra Deductie. The charge of not paying the Company its legal dues he took no notice of in his attempt to excuse his conduct, and there is not the slightest trace of such a payment being made in the accounts or other records of the time. The names of over sixty of the Company’s soldiers and sailors who worked for him for considerable periods are given under oath in the Contra Deductie, and of them he only accounted for twenty-eight as being paid by him. There is positive proof of his using the Company’s slaves on his farm, but the charge of taking twenty-five for himself and causing them to be written off in the Company’s books as having died must be regarded as doubtful. That the Company’s master gardener, Jan Hertog, was the overseer at Vergelegen, that the workmen there were under his direction, and that he was not away from the place for eight months at a time, was fully proved.
70 See the Contra Deductie, pages 126, 180, and 279. Kolbe states that his wife attempted to commit suicide on account of his conduct, but I would be disinclined to accept the evidence of that author unless it was well supported. Tas, however, in his journal, states on information supplied to him that in December 1705 the governor’s wife tried to drown herself by jumping into the fountain behind her residence at the Cape, and that Mrs. Bergh sprang forward and drew her out of the water. She complained that life was a misery to her, owing to what she was obliged to see and hear daily. Of Mrs. Van der Stel so little is known that it would not be right to express an opinion as to whether her conduct towards her husband was or was not such as to provoke him to neglect her for other women, but this can be said with confidence, that the man who was utterly faithless towards his country, his rulers, and one who was weak enough to trust him as Wouter Valckenier had done, may without hesitation be pronounced capable of being equally faithless towards the mother of his children, the most unhappy woman in the settlement.
71 This charge can neither be proved nor disproved by any documents in the Cape archives. But there is one circumstance in connection with it that throws strong suspicion upon the governor, and under any circumstances shows that he paid no attention to the instructions of the authorities in Holland. Their orders of the 27th of June 1699, throwing open to the burghers the cattle trade with the Hottentots, reached Capetown on the 24th of November of the same year; having been brought by the flute De Boer, which sailed from Texel on the 17th of July. The governor did not return to the castle from his visit to the Tulbagh basin until the 14th of December,—all his movements when absent on duty are carefully recorded,—and a placaat announcing the will of the directors ought to have been issued on the following day. Instead of that, however, it was not published until the 28th of February 1700, and then only owing to the presence of the commissioner Wouter Valckenier. It was during these two months and a half, as the burghers asserted, that the governor’s agents were engaged in procuring horned cattle and sheep for him by fair means or by foul, and that the Hottentots to a considerable distance from the Cape were despoiled and exasperated. From his general character, as delineated in the archives, one cannot say that he would scruple even at acts of robbery.
72 See letters from the governor and council at the Cape to the governor-general and council of India, dated 18th of March 1706, and to the directors, dated 31st of March and 24th of June 1706, in the Cape archives. The abuse heaped upon the burghers in these documents is enormous, and indicates how weak the governor must have felt his attempted defence to be.
73 This document is in the Cape archives. It is in as good a state of preservation—excepting one leaf—as if it had been drawn up yesterday.
74 See the letter of the governor and council at the Cape to the governor-general and council of India, of the 18th of March 1706. For this and subsequent events to the governor’s recall see the Proceedings of the Council of Policy and the Cape Journal for 1706 and 1707 in the Cape archives.
75 One of the chief privileges secured to the free Netherlanders by their revolt against Spain and the long and successful war that followed was security from confinement except as a punishment for crime. A man suspected of having committed an offence could be arrested on a warrant properly issued by a court of justice, and was then either released on bail or speedily brought to trial, according to the nature of the charge.
76 In a letter to the Indian authorities it is also termed blasphemy.
77 “Maar Edele Gestrenge Heer, de wyven zyn alsoo gevaarlyk als de mans, en zyn niet stil.”—Extract from a letter of the landdrost Starrenburg to the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, dated 18th of September 1706. In the Cape archives.
78 See letter from the governor-general and council of India to the governor and council at the Cape, dated 30th of November 1706. In the Cape archives.
79 Tas mentions in his journal under date 19th of June 1705 that he had heard of complaints about the governor having reached the Netherlands, but gives no particulars.
80 “Tot het stellen van de nodige ordres voor de securiteijt van de Caep de bonne Esperance, en daer toe soodanige middelen te adhiberen en in ’t werck stellen, alsmede tot bereijkingh van dat ooghmerck sal nodigh en dienstigh aghten, is goetgevonden te versoecken en committeren, gelijck als versoght en gecommittert werden bij dese, wegens de kamer Amsterdam de heeren Witsen en Hooft, wegens de kamer Zeeland de heer d’Huijbert, en wegens de kameren van ’t zuijder en noorder quartier de heeren van Blois en van Gent, beneffens beijde d’ advocaten van de Compagnie.”—Resolution of the Assembly of Seventeen adopted on the 8th of March 1706, copied by me from the original volume in the archives at the Hague, and published in Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III, page 3.
81 See Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III, page 7.
82 See Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III, page 7.
83 They can be seen in the letter of the governor and the council of policy to the directors, dated 31st of March 1706, in the archives at the Hague and copy in those at Capetown, also in the printed volume called the Korte Deductie.
84 These rations included three hundred and sixty pounds of flour, a still larger quantity of rice, fresh meat equal to four sheep, twenty pounds of salted beef or pork, a very large quantity of European wine, ale, and spirits, oil, vinegar, four pounds of pepper, two pounds of spices, and twenty-five pounds of butter monthly, besides twenty-five pounds of wax and tallow candles, and as much fuel as he needed. He was supposed to entertain the masters of ships when they were ashore on business, and was therefore provided for so liberally. He was also required to give a dinner to all the principal officers of the fleets returning from India, just before they sailed, which was termed the afscheidmaal, but for this he was paid £41 13s. 4d. by the Company. A carriage and horses were also provided for him free of cost, so that he had no forage to purchase. Under these circumstances his excuse seems to be as silly as it was impudent. His actual salary was only two hundred gulden or £16 13s. 4d. a month, less than that of a second class clerk in the public service to-day, but he had various fees and perquisites.
85 The other members were Messrs. Lestevenon, De Vries, Corven, Bas, Hooft, Van Dam, Velters, De Witt, Van der Waeijen, Van de Blocquerij, Hoogeveen, Muijssart, Maarseveen, Trip, and Goudoeven. For the actual text of the resolution see Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III, pages 7, 8, and 9.
86 The original letter is now in the Cape archives, and the office copy is in the archives of the Netherlands at the Hague.
87 This appointment of a military man as head of the government was made specially to secure his constant presence in the castle in time of war, as the directors were startled by the conduct of Van der Stel in neglecting his duty as he had done.
88 Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, door A. J. van der Aa, Zeventiende Deel, Tweede Stuk, published at Haarlem in 1874. Copied by me and published in Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III, pages 11 and 12.
89 Better known to English readers as Moselekatse, the Setshuana form of his name. He was the father of the late chief Lobengula.
90 The private, confidential, and semi-official correspondence between Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban, Colonel H. G. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel H. Somerset, and many others, was fortunately preserved by the governor and remained in his family’s possession until 1911, when it was most kindly presented by his grandson W. S. M. D’Urban, Esqre., of Exeter, through me to the government of the Union of South Africa. I immediately published one volume of these most valuable papers under the title of The Kaffir War of 1835, which can be seen in several of the most important public libraries in Great Britain and the Netherlands as well as in those of South Africa. I copied sufficient for two volumes more, which can be seen typewritten in the South African Public Library, Capetown, under the title of The Province of Queen Adelaide, and finally I am now preparing another packet, under the title of The Emigration of the Dutch Farmers from the Cape Colony, which will also be deposited in the same institution. It is from these papers that I have derived the information which enables me to enlarge upon the accounts of Louis Triegard and Pieter Lavras Uys which I have given in my History of South Africa. I am also indebted to G. C. Moore Smith, Esqre., M.A., of Sheffield, a great nephew of Colonel (afterwards Sir Harry) Smith, for the use of many papers in his possession and for much kindly assistance otherwise rendered to me.
91 He was a lineal descendant of the ruling family of the Amatuli tribe, the remnant of which had been reduced to such a wretched condition that they depended chiefly upon fish for subsistence. This is an article of diet that would only be used by this section of the Bantu in the last extremity of want, but they dared not make a garden or even erect a hut before the arrival of Messrs. Farewell and Fynn in 1824, for fear of attracting notice. Umnini was then a child, and his uncle Matubana was regarded as the temporary head of the little community of three or four hundred souls that had escaped when the remainder of their tribe was destroyed.
92 The petition is in the archive department, a typewritten copy in the South African Public Library. The names attached to it are those of A. Gardiner, Henry Hogle (elsewhere written Ogle), Charles J. Pickman, P. Kew, J. Francis, J. Mouncey, G. Lyons, Charles Adams, James Collis, John Cane, R. Ward, Thomas Carden, Richard King, J. Prince, and Daniel Toohey. On the 29th of March 1836 Lord Glenelg replied refusing to annex Natal. Other European residents, either permanent or occasional, at Port Natal at this time were C. Blankenberg, Richard Wood, William Wood, Thomas Halstead, J. Pierce, John Snelder, Alexander Biggar, Robert Biggar, George Biggar, John Jones, Henry Batts, William Bottomley, John Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Richard Lovedale, John Russell, Robert Russell, John Stubbs, Robert Dunn, G. Britton, James Brown, George Duffy, Richard Duffy, Thomas Lidwell, C. Rhoddam, and G. White.
93 When Mr. Isaacs lived in Natal—October 1825 to June 1831—the Zulus occupied the territory between the Tugela and Tongati rivers, but from this tract of country they were withdrawn in 1834 by Dingan. In 1828 Tshaka was murdered at his residence there. At the port and near the Umzimkulu the Bantu under European chiefs were living. The remainder of the territory was uninhabited except by Bushmen on the uplands and a few cannibals. Mr. Isaacs says: “our settlement, which was somewhat circumscribed, contained upwards of two thousand persons.”—Travels and Adventures, &c., Volume II, page 326.
94 The people under the chief Futu, some of whose kraals were found by Captain Gardiner on the head waters of the Umkomanz river, should not be included in the population of Natal at that time. They were refugees from the north, and frequently moved from one locality to another. Shortly after Captain Gardiner’s visit they retired to the Umtamvuna. Their chief, Futu, was the son of Nombewu, who was killed by Ncapayi, the ferocious leader of the Bacas. Captain Gardiner estimated the people under Futu at different places in Natal at from seven to eight thousand souls. See pages 312 et seq. of his volume.
95 See The Annals of Natal, by John Bird, Pietermaritzburg, 1888, Vol. I, page 75.
96 By a Proclamation of the 11th of September 1834 the removal of a slave beyond the border of the colony was punishable by the forfeiture of the slave, a fine of £100, transportation, or imprisonment with hard labour from three to five years. It was based upon an Imperial Act to amend and consolidate the Laws relating to the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
97 Mr. Willem Hendrik Neethling, afterwards landdrost of Klerksdorp, who was living in Lydenburg in 1867 and was then twenty-three years of age, in a communication to President F. W. Reitz which has been kindly lent to me, says: “Wat betreft het verhaal re de twee Blanken die te Lijdenburg aanlandden, is dat eene dwaling. Ik ben in staat UEd. volkomen daarover in te lichten. Het waren geen Europeanen of Caukassiers, maar wel Albinos van het neger ras. Zij waren man en vrouw en twee kinderen. Het derde is te Lijdenburg geboren. De man heette Tjaka, de alombekende slangen tegen-vergift maker. De man was reeds op leeftijd, doch ik schatte de vrouw 27 of 28 jaren oud. Toen het gerucht verspreid werd van de teruggevonden blanken heb ik mij gehaast om ze zelven te zien, en vond uit dat zij Albinos waren, zeer blank, doch met neger type, met de on-ontwikkelde neusbeen, en kroeshaar. Zij kwamen van Kosi-baai, en zijn er weder heen vertrokken. Ik heb se persoonlijk gesproken. Zij waren van staatswege gehaald op geruchten.”
98 Since the publication of my History of South Africa, a journal kept by Mr. Erasmus Smit from the 15th of November 1836 to the 31st of January 1839 has been brought to light and in 1897 was printed in Capetown. It forms an octavo pamphlet of one hundred and eight pages. Mr. Smit, a native of Amsterdam, had once been a lay missionary in the service of the London Society, later a schoolmaster at Oliphants Hoek, and was married to a sister of Mr. Gerrit Maritz. He was a man of fifty-eight years of age and infirm in health, but he joined his brother-in-law’s party, and left the colony with it, being engaged to perform religious services in the camp. During the stay of the emigrants at Thaba Ntshu he was exceedingly jealous of the reverend James Archbell, Wesleyan missionary there, whom he suspected of a design of wishing to supplant him. On the 21st of May 1837 Mr. Retief appointed him religious instructor of the emigrants, whereupon he ordained himself and thereafter administered the sacraments and performed all the duties of a clergyman. I have found nothing in his journal that enables me to add to the account of the emigration given in my History, but there are in it a few remarks that are of assistance to me in the preparation of this paper.
99 The actual separation into two distinct communions, as we see them to-day, had not then taken place, but the principles underlying the movement were already at work, and had been for many years. There was not as much difference between the two parties as there is in the English episcopal church between the high and the low sections, but it was sufficient to cause those with common sympathies to keep together as much as they could.
100 See pages 451 to 455 of Volume III Geslacht Register der Oude Kaapsche Familien, published at Capetown in 1894. The family Uys in 1836 was a very large one, and was widely spread over the Cape Colony.
101 See page 302 of the printed volume of records entitled The Kaffir War of 1835.
102 This refers to the following occurrence. During the war, while Uys was in the field, a complaint, afterwards proved to be frivolous, was made against his wife to the nearest special magistrate for the protection of apprentices, who issued a warrant, and she was taken to Port Elizabeth to be tried. Upon her innocence being clearly established she was liberated, and an action was then brought before the circuit court against the special magistrate for false imprisonment. The chief justice, who was the circuit judge, and before whom the case was tried, condemned the special magistrate to pay the costs, but these were defrayed for him out of the district treasury, on the ground that otherwise he would be deterred from doing his legal duty when complaints were made to him.—See Chase’s Natal Papers.
103 Sir Benjamin D’Urban provisionally extended the boundary of the colony to the Kraai river, and on the 6th of November 1835 Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Somerset, who visited the north-eastern districts as an agent of the governor, issued a notice that Stephanus Petrus Erasmus was to be fieldcornet of the newly annexed ward. In September of this year one hundred and sixty families were reported to be living on the Stormberg spruit and the Kraai river. See the D’Urban papers in the South African Public Library. A full account of the massacres and robberies by the Matabele will be found in my History of South Africa.
104 See his Fifty Years of the History of the Republic in South Africa (1795-1845), published in London in 1899, Volume II, pages 23 to 28.
105 I am unable to add to or amend the accounts of these events given by me a quarter of a century ago in my History, except in one particular. The number of men and boys murdered at Umkungunhlovu on the 6th of February 1838 (page 318, volume ii, History of South Africa since September 1795) should be sixty-seven, not sixty-six, and to the names should be added that of Pieter Retief, junior. This is found in Mr. Boshof’s list, but not in most of those made shortly after the event. These vary from each other, and some trouble must be taken to verify many of the names. In a letter from Magdalena Johanna de Wet, widow of Mr. Retief, to her brothers and sisters, dated at Pietermaritzburg on the 7th of July 1840, published in Mr. Preller’s work, she mentions the murder of her son Pieter Retief with his father, and also of Abraham Greyling, her son by a former marriage, at the same time.
106 For the particulars see my History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume II, pages 323 to 326.
107 The difficulty of giving a reliable account of all the details of this event is insurmountable, as it is impossible to reconcile the narratives of those who took part in it with each other. I give therefore only the leading features. Readers who may imagine that every incident should be obtained by thorough research are requested to consult the different statements given by Mr. Bird in his Annals of Natal, and to believe that others consulted by me long before the publication of that work are equally as conflicting.
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