Early Dutch Outpost at the Cape of Good Hope

The Dutch East India Company VOC

The Dutch East India Company, or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), was officially founded on 20 March 1602 by the States-General of the Netherlands. It was created by merging six smaller Dutch trading companies into a single entity with a government-granted monopoly on all Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. As the first multinational corporation and the first to issue stock, the VOC aimed to challenge Portuguese dominance in the Asian spice trade. In its early years, the company sent numerous fleets to the East Indies, gradually establishing trading posts across the region. Under the leadership of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the VOC pursued an aggressive expansion policy. In 1619, Coen captured the port of Jayakarta and founded the fortified city of Batavia, which became the company’s permanent Asian headquarters. From Batavia, the VOC coordinated its trading activities and military operations throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The company focused heavily on securing control over the production and trade of nutmeg, mace, and cloves, which were extremely valuable in Europe.

During the 1610s and 1620s, the VOC used military force to establish its spice monopoly. The most notable campaign was the conquest of the Banda Islands in 1621, where the company seized control of the world’s only source of nutmeg. The VOC also clashed with the English, most famously in the Amboyna Massacre of 1623. These actions allowed the company to dominate the spice trade and generate substantial profits for its shareholders in the Dutch Republic during the first half of the 17th century. By the 1640s, the VOC had grown into a powerful commercial organization with hundreds of ships and a large network of trading posts across Asia. It maintained its own armed forces, minted coins, and signed treaties with local rulers. The company’s success brought immense wealth to the Netherlands and played a major role in the early Dutch Golden Age. Up until the early months of 1652, the VOC remained firmly focused on its Asian operations and spice trade dominance.

The Haarlem Wreck and the VOC Decision for a Refreshment Outpost at the Cape

In March 1647, the VOC ship Haarlem (also referred to as Nieuw Haarlem), one of the finest vessels in the Company’s fleet, anchored in Table Bay to replenish supplies of fresh water and provisions. During a gale, the ship was driven ashore and ship wrecked on the beach at Blouberg. The strongly timbered vessel held together, enabling the crew to salvage not only their personal effects but also the Company’s cargo. As the immediate vicinity of the wreck was unsuitable for a sustained encampment, a small defensive fort was erected to accommodate a few soldiers to watch over the recovered company cargo. Janssen and Proot, together with the majority of the crew, then relocated to Table Valley Adjacent to a stream of fresh water, they constructed an earthen rampart for protection and established their camp within its confines. ^[1]

Having recovered vegetable seeds and gardening implements from the wreck, the crew promptly brought a plot of land under cultivation. Cabbages, pumpkins, turnips, onions, and other vegetables flourished remarkably well. The indigenous inhabitants the Khoikhoi approached the Dutch in a spirit of friendship and traded cattle and sheep in considerable numbers, providing ample meat for the crew and a surplus sufficient to supply a visiting vessel carrying eighty to ninety sick sailors. Game and fish were both abundant. The party remained at the Cape through the spring and early summer, a period noted for its favorable climate. After approximately eight to nine months, they were relieved by the the Domburg commanded by Wollebrant Geleynsen. The cargo of the Haarlem was transported to Salt River and subsequently shipped to Europe. ^[1]

Janssen and Proot’s Report

On 26 July 1649, Leendert Jansz (Janssen) and Nicholaas Proot submitted a formal report to the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company. The document, bearing both their signatures, presented a detailed assessment of the advantages offered by Table Valley. Written in a clear and observant style, it reflects the authors’ direct experience of more than eight months’ residence at the site. The report submitted by Janssen and Proot strongly advocated for the establishment of a permanent refreshment station in Table Valley. It emphasized the strategic and practical benefits of such an outpost, particularly when contrasted with the limited resources available at St Helena, and underscored the necessity of a victualing station on the long sea route between the Netherlands and the VOC’s trading regions in the East. Finally, the author expressed surprise that the enemies of the Netherlands had not already formed a outpost at the cape, and with a small war fleet captured all of the Companies ships as they were about to pass. ^[1]

The memorial was subsequently referred by the Amsterdam Chamber to the Supreme Directory of the Company. After seeking the opinions of the other chambers and receiving their approval, the Supreme Directory resolved on 30 August 1650 to establish the proposed victualling station. Deputies at The Hague were tasked with drawing up a detailed plan and consulted Nicholaas Proot, who was then residing in Delft. Although Proot was offered command of the expedition, he declined the position. On 20 March 1651, the Supreme Directory formally approved the plan and authorized the Amsterdam Chamber to carry it out. In total, nearly twenty months of discussion and bureaucratic deliberation passed before any concrete steps were taken toward realizing the project. ^[1]

Five days later, instructions were issued to the skippers of the ships Dromedaris and Reiger, and the yacht Goede Hoop. They were directed to sail to Table Bay, where they were to select a suitable site and construct a wooden building near the Fresh River, using materials they had brought for the purpose, to accommodate seventy to eighty men. The Reiger was to proceed to Batavia as soon as her cargo for the Cape had been discharged. The Dromedaris was to remain in Table Bay until the completion of the fort, which was to be named Good Hope. Seventy men were to be left at the Cape. These men were instructed to cultivate gardens and to trade with the indigenous Khoikhoi for cattle. They were strictly ordered not to harm the Khoikhoi or their livestock, A diary of all events was to be kept. ^[1]

Jan van Riebeeck is Appointed Commander

The Directors entrusted Jan van Riebeeck with the report prepared by Janssen and Proot. During the salvage of the Haarlem’s cargo, he had spent three weeks ashore at the Cape while the fleet under Wollebrant Geleynsen was loading the recovered goods. Van Riebeeck shared Janssen and Proot’s favourable assessment of the strategic advantages and agricultural potential of the Cape, but he held a more sceptical view of the character and trustworthiness of the indigenous inhabitants. On 4 December 1651, the Directors resolved that Mr van Riebeeck should have the authority to convene the Broad Council of the ships and preside over its meetings, thereby appointing him commander-in-chief of the expedition. ^[1]

Jan van Riebeeck: Early Career and Personal Life

Jan van Riebeeck, originally Johan van Riebeecq, was born on April 21, 1619, in Culemborg, Gelderland province, Netherlands. The son of Anthony Jansz van Riebeeck, a surgeon who died young and left him orphaned early, he grew up in modest circumstances without significant inheritance to secure his future. With only basic education, van Riebeeck turned to medicine, using family connections to join the Dutch East India Company in 1639 at age 20. As an assistant surgeon—a role valued for treating shipboard illnesses like wounds, fevers, and scurvy—he undertook his first voyages, quickly integrating into the VOC's vast maritime network. Such entry was common for young people with practical skills, offering adventure and opportunity amid the company's expanding empire, though it demanded resilience against the perils of long sea journeys.

Van Riebeeck's early VOC career took him across Asia, reflecting the company's complex web of trading posts from India to the Moluccas. After initial assignments managing spices and goods in Batavia—the bustling administrative center on Java, where nutmeg, cloves, pepper, silks, and Ming porcelain flowed—he was posted in 1643 to Dejima, the artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan. There, the Dutch held the only European trade link after the Portuguese expulsion, selling woolens, gold, and curiosities for Japanese silver, copper, and lacquer under strict isolation policies. By 1645, he rose to oversee the Tonkin post in northern Vietnam, a key source of silks and ceramics, skillfully navigating local politics and rival influences. However, his promising career halted abruptly when he was caught in private trading and forced to return to the Netherlands.

Van Riebeeck's Marriage and Reinstatement

Following this professional setback, van Riebeeck found personal stability through marriage to Maria de la Queillerie on December 28, 1649, in Schiedam, Netherlands. Born in 1626 in Valenciennes (then part of the Spanish Netherlands), Maria was the daughter of Abraham de la Queillerie, a wealthy French Huguenot merchant and vintner who had fled religious persecution. Educated and resilient, she brought social standing and emotional support to van Riebeeck's uncertain situation, giving birth to their first child, Abraham, soon after the wedding. The couple had eight children, but only four survived to adulthood, typical of the era's high infant mortality. Maria's Huguenot background instilled a Calvinist work ethic, and her dowry provided modest financial relief during van Riebeeck's unemployment.

When he petitioned for reinstatement with the VOC, Maria remained supportive, accompanying the family on risky voyages and helping manage household affairs at the company's demanding outposts. Despite his past infractions, the VOC rehired him in 1651, appointing him commander of the Cape expedition. They left Texel on December 24 with Maria, their young children, and about 118 others. Anchoring in Table Bay on April 6, 1652, he oversaw the refreshment station's founding, erecting Fort de Goede Hoop and starting gardens where Maria contributed, blending European farming techniques with local conditions. After a decade at the Cape, where the outpost grew into an early colony, the family moved to Batavia in 1662. Van Riebeeck rose to governor-general there until his death in 1677, while Maria predeceased him in 1664 and was buried in Batavia.

The Arrival, and Establishment of the Cape Outpost

On 5 April 1652, during the fifth glass of the afternoon watch, the chief mate of the Dromedaris sighted Table Mountain rising above the eastern horizon. He thereby won the reward of sixteen shillings that had been promised to the first man to discover land. A gun was fired at once and flags were hoisted to signal the news to the crews of the Reiger and Goede Hoop, which were sailing some distance to leeward. During the night, the small fleet drew close to the coast, lying somewhat to the south of the entrance to Table Bay. ^[1]

The 6th of April dawned calm. While the vessels lay idle, a boat was dispatched ahead carrying the bookkeeper Adam Hulster and the mate Arent van Ieveren. They were instructed to proceed cautiously around the Lion’s Rump and report whether any ships were at anchor in the bay. About two hours before dark, the boat returned with the welcome news that the bay was empty. As a breeze had sprung up in the meantime, the Dromedaris and Goede Hoop stood in and, shortly after sunset, dropped anchor in five fathoms of water off the mouth of the Fresh River. The Reiger remained outside overnight. Early the following morning, she entered the bay on a light breeze and anchored beside the other two vessels at eight o’clock. Thus, after a passage of one hundred and four days from Texel, on the morning of Sunday, 7 April 1652, Mr van Riebeeck and his company first looked upon the site of their new home. During the voyage, two deaths had occurred aboard the Dromedaris: a child of the ship’s surgeon, who had his family with him, and a carpenter who had been ill when the fleet departed Texel. ^[1]

At daybreak, Skipper Coninck went ashore to search for letters and to obtain fresh herbs and fish. It was customary for captains of vessels calling at Table Bay to leave journals of events and other documents concealed in safe places, marking prominent stones with directions to indicate their location. This practice, which had been followed for nearly half a century, enabled fleets arriving from the Netherlands to receive the latest news from the East. In time of war, due caution could be exercised to prevent such letters from falling into enemy hands, but in normal circumstances the system proved very convenient. ^[1]

The skipper took with him six armed soldiers and a boat’s crew equipped with a seine net. A box containing three letters was discovered, together with a good haul of fish. The letters had been written by Jan van Teylingen, admiral of the most recent return fleet, who had sailed from Table Bay on 26 February with three ships out of the eleven under his command. The others had been lost sight of shortly after passing the Strait of Sunda. The admiral had waited eleven days at the Cape before proceeding to St Helena in the hope of rejoining the missing vessels. In case they should arrive later, he had left a letter addressed to their commanders, informing them of his movements. In it, he stated that he had been able to obtain only one bullock and one sheep from the Khoikhoi, although many cattle had been seen further inland. He added that the missing ships carried horses intended for the use of the people coming to establish the victualling station, and directed that these animals should be landed and placed in the care of a certain Khoikhoi who could speak English. The other two letters were addressed to the Governor-General and Council of India and were left to be forwarded by any ship that might call. ^[1]

In the evening, Mr van Riebeeck and several others went ashore to examine the valley and select a suitable site for the fort. It was nearing the end of the dry season, and the land lay parched under the drought. The sources of the small streamlets that flowed into the Fresh River in winter had all dried up, leaving their channels gaping in the sun. The wild flowers of many hues, which at other times of the year delighted the eyes of visitors, were nowhere to be seen. Although the summer heat had passed, no rains had yet fallen to clothe the ground with a mantle of beauty and restore it to the condition described by Janssen and Proot. The stream of sweet water, which early voyagers called the Fresh River, then flowed down the centre of the valley from the mountain to the sea. ^[1]

Early Relations with the Khoikhoi

When the boat returned, two Khoikhoi came aboard the Dromedaris. One of them was a man who would maintain a close connection with the Europeans for the remainder of his life. He was the same individual in whose care the horses were to have been left, had the missing ships of van Teylingen’s fleet put into Table Bay instead of sailing directly to St Helena. ^[1]

His native name was Autshumao, but he became better known as Harry, or Herry, as Mr van Riebeeck recorded it. He had previously spent time aboard an English ship, during which he had visited Bantam, and had acquired a rudimentary knowledge of the English language. Although imperfect, this linguistic ability made him useful as an interpreter between the Dutch East India Company and his people. The small clan of which Harry was the leader constituted the only permanent inhabitants of the Cape Peninsula at that time. They possessed no cattle and subsisted precariously by fishing and gathering wild roots. They called themselves the Goringhaikona. They were an impoverished, famine-stricken, and half-naked group whose way of life was among the most wretched imaginable. ^[1]

There were two larger clans who lived mainly in the interior. The first were the Goringhaiquas, known to the Dutch initially as the Saldanhars and later as the Kaapmans. They were led by Chief Gogosoa, a man of such considerable girth that the Dutch commonly referred to him as the Fat Captain. The second clan were the Gorachouquas, under Chief Choro, whom the Dutch nicknamed the Tobacco Thieves. Both the Goringhaiquas and the Gorachouquas wandered across the countryside with their large herds of cattle. During trading visits they would sometimes pitch their mat huts beside Table Mountain, at the foot of Riebeek’s Kasteel, or in the valley now known as Franschhoek. The Goringhaiquas, being the most numerous and wealthiest of the groups, were regarded by Mr van Riebeeck as having the strongest claim to ownership of the surrounding country. ^[1]

Construction of Fort Good Hope

On 8 April, the Council — consisting of the Commander and the three skippers — met aboard the Dromedaris to organise the commencement of work on shore. It was resolved that the men should land at once and mark out a site for the fortress. Exclusive of officers, there were one hundred and eighty-one men aboard the three vessels. Of these, one hundred were to be employed in raising the walls. The carpenters were tasked with erecting a wooden dwelling house and a storage shed for temporary use, while those remaining on the ships were to assist in discharging cargo and catching fish. ^[1]

After inspecting Table Valley, Mr van Riebeeck and the three skippers selected a site for the fort on ground lying close behind the present Commercial Exchange. The outlines were marked out without delay and the labourers began work immediately. The fort was designed in the form of a square with bastions at each corner. Each face measured two hundred and fifty-two Rijnland feet in length. The walls were constructed of earth, twenty feet thick at the base, tapering to sixteen feet at the top, and stood twelve feet high, surmounted by a parapet. A moat surrounded the entire structure, into which water from the Fresh River could be diverted. Within the fort were several wooden buildings and a square stone tower that rose only slightly above the walls. The tower had a flat roof from which defenders could fire down upon any enemy attempting to scale the earthen banks. These buildings served as dwelling houses, barracks, and storehouses. On the seaward side, a large area beyond the moat was enclosed by an additional earthen wall to strengthen the defences. This enclosure housed the workshops and the hospital. At the rear was a similar enclosure used as a cattle kraal. The plan underwent several modifications during construction, particularly concerning the thickness and height of the walls, but the general design remained as originally laid out on 9 April. Such was the original Fort Good Hope when completed. ^[1]

The Arrival of the Walvisch and Olifant

On 7 May, the ships Walvisch and Olifant dropped anchor in Table Bay. Having left Texel on 3 January, they had lost 130 souls during the voyage. Their crews were in a dreadful state, ravaged by scurvy, when they reached the Cape. On the 11th, the Broad Council met aboard the Dromedaris and resolved that fifty of the weakest invalids from these two ships should be landed and left at the settlement. Provisions sufficient for three months were to be left for their use, and all who recovered were to be sent on to Batavia at the first opportunity. The names of the four ships then in the bay were assigned to the bastions of the still-unfinished fort. The southern bastion was named the Dromedaris, the northern the Reiger, the eastern the Walvisch, and the western the Olifant. The little yacht Goede Hoop gave its name to the fort itself. The ships sailed again as soon as possible. The Reiger departed for Batavia with them, and on 28 May the Dromedaris also sailed, leaving the small outpost to its own resources. ^[1]

The Hardships of the First Winter

The cold, stormy weather of winter was beginning to set in, and the misery of Mr van Riebeeck and his people increased with each passing day. Rain could not be kept out of the tents and the makeshift wooden buildings they had erected for temporary use, making it difficult to preserve their bread and other perishable stores. With the change in weather came sickness, which the weakened settlers were powerless to resist. Almost every day now brought a death from dysentery or scurvy. ^[1]

By 3 June, out of one hundred and sixteen men, only sixty were still capable of any labour. Fresh meat, vegetables, and proper shelter would have saved many lives, but these necessities could not be obtained. There was little game in Table Valley, although four men who ventured out with guns reported seeing numerous antelopes beyond the mountains. For weeks on end, they encountered none of the other Khoikhoi clans — only Harry’s small group, who proved more of a burden than an assistance. The encampment increasingly resembled a large hospital, where the few able-bodied men staggered about among the sick and the dying. Work on the fort had come to a standstill, as the settlers struggled merely to care for themselves. ^[1]