Boer History1659 at the Cape of Good Hope: First Wine, Namaqua Trek, and Doman’s War
First Wine — 2 February 1659
From the vintage of this season a small quantity of wine was made, for the first time in South Africa. The fruit was Muscadel and other round white grapes; the manufacturer was the commander himself, the only person in the settlement who knew how the work should be done. The event is recorded on the 2nd of February. Spanish grapes were not then ripe, though the vines thrived — a note that later readers have linked to the hanepoot tradition, though no surviving document of the day records Spanish stocks by name. [3]
Other plants enter the record only in passing. Rose and tulip bloomed in Cape gardens; olive and mulberry were said to thrive; currant bushes of three varieties died. As much thought went to ale as to wine: barley and malt did well, but hops failed again and again. Samples sent to Batavia and Holland soured on the voyage; heat, not want of effort, blocked export beer. [3]
Namaqua Trek — 3 February to 7 April 1659
The Seventeen wanted the interior opened for trade. Van Riebeeck was told to offer premiums for discoveries of note. The reward drew seven burghers to seek the Namaquas, of whose wealth and civilisation Eva told wonderful stories. They thought the people might be reached in twenty to thirty days. The volunteers left on the 3rd of February 1659 with three months’ food on pack oxen. [3]
They went north twenty days through thirst and the year’s worst heat, not knowing where to find water. They reached the Berg River near its mouth in St Helena Bay and saw the tide ebb and flow in the channel. Pack oxen were worn out; they gave up going farther and turned home, arriving at the fort on the 7th of April without adding useful knowledge of the interior. [3]
Militia and Council Changes
Every burgher had to keep a gun and answer for military service. Early in the year freemen were formed into a militia company, drilled like the fort garrison, with one sergeant, two corporals, and a drummer. For the first year the council of policy chose Stephen Botma sergeant and commander of the militia, and Herman Remajenne and Wouter Mostert corporals. A council of militia — the two burgher councillors, the sergeant, and one corporal — handled petty military matters and yearly submitted double lists for appointments. [3]
Burgher councillors were still nominated by the freemen in a body while numbers were small. In 1659 they put forward Jan Reyniers, Jacob Cornelissen, Wouter Mostert, and Jan Rietvelt; the council selected Jan Reyniers to take the seat vacated by Stephen Botma. [3]
In February Ensign Jan van Harwarden died — only months after promotion by the admiral and broad council of the return fleet. Fiscal Abraham Gabbema received voice and vote and left the secretaryship to clerk Gijsbert van Campen. Sergeant Pieter Everaert, as head of the military, took his seat on the board. [3]
War Opens — Pasture Lost and Doman
Early in 1659, when the Kaapmans moved with their herds onto the peninsula, they found large tracts at Wynberg and Rondebosch dotted with settler houses. They could no longer graze the rich herbage at the mountain foot as before. Hostility hardened. Few in number, the settlers held weapons too destructive for open attack; systematic plunder seemed a way to drive them out. Kaapmans and Gorachouquas came on farmers’ kraals at night and drove cattle away; by day they were not to be found. [3]
One night Doman left the fort, abandoned his European clothes, and was next recognised as leader of a plunder party. He knew wet weather spoiled firelocks, and chose rainy days and nights for cattle-lifting. [3]
Harassed farmers petitioned for leave to take revenge. Van Riebeeck met them on the Company’s Rondebosch farm. Directors’ orders forbade harm to the natives; he also blamed freemen’s negligence — cattle sometimes sent out without a herder. He warned that the Company would not give a second start or pay war losses. The burghers preferred risk to insecurity. They asked for soldiers, or leave to avenge themselves. [3]
Council sat with burgher councillors present: van Riebeeck, secunde Roelof de Man, Sergeant Pieter Everaert, Hendrik Boom, Jan Reyniers, and fiscal Gabbema. They recorded a desire for peace, judged messengers would be read as weakness, and resolved to fall suddenly on the Kaapmans, seize cattle and men, avoid needless bloodshed, and hold hostages so those who escaped might be checked — not for booty or private revenge, they wrote, but for quiet and so that exploring parties might continue. [3]
Simon in’t veld and Panic
Within an hour of that sitting, news came that Simon Janssen, known as Simon in’t veld to mark him among other Janssens without surnames, had been killed with assegais while trying to save cattle from Doman’s party. Beachrangers fled Table Valley. Timid burghers moved families to the fort. A few fortified houses — Hendrik Boom set the example with the best building at the Cape. The same men who had clamoured for revenge fell into confusion; the commander could not use them as a militia corps. [3]
The council released enslaved men from chains for operations against the Khoikhoi. Burghers who had stopped ordinary work formed a paid corps at tenpence a day plus rewards for marauders’ heads. Soldiers stiffened farms still held; ambushes were laid. The enemy stayed as hard to reach as birds in the air. [3]
Stock Plague and Wednesday Prayers
A virulent sickness struck horned cattle and sheep; in some flocks four of five died. On Robben Island only thirty-five sheep remained of five hundred. Stall-fed animals perished too, so famine was not the cause. The council read the plague as divine punishment and ordered a prayer meeting every Wednesday at four o’clock for withdrawal of wrath and help against enemies. [3]
Oedasoa, Harry, and Failed Strikes
Worn by fruitless pursuit, the council thought of Harry on Robben Island as a guide to secret retreats. Great rewards were to be offered; the record notes they did not mean to keep the promises. A boat went for him with clothes and a friendly message — then affairs changed. Oedasoa of the Cochoquas, enemy of the Cape clans, camped across the bay with many thousands and offered firm alliance. The council agreed at once. Eva and thirteen Europeans went with presents to discuss ruining Kaapmans and Gorachouquas together. When Harry’s boat reached the jetty, he was sent straight back into exile. [3]
What the Dutch wanted of Oedasoa was guides only. He gave promises and little more, though his council of old men is repeatedly mentioned in the interviews. A large Indiaman supplied twenty-five extra soldiers; another lent eighty for a country expedition. A Gorachouqua spy, forced under threat of death and interpreted by Harry brought again from the island, was to lead a night march on the Kaapman camp. Rewards included a share of cattle, forty gulden a prisoner, twenty a kill, and a hundred gulden for Doman. The enemy slipped away; Harry said sentinels stood on every hill. [3]
Soon after, fiscal Gabbema with three horsemen met five Khoikhoi by chance, killed three, and wounded two — one of them Doman, who escaped; the other was taken to the fort. A fortnight later Corporal Elias Giers and eleven soldiers broke a beachranger camp, killing three and wounding many. Beachrangers then sought peace and were allowed back to Table Valley; Kaapmans and Gorachouquas left the neighbourhood for some months. Harry returned to Robben Island with the captured spy. One night the prisoners launched an old leaky boat, were driven ashore below Saldanha Bay, and escaped. [3]
Liesbeek Watch-Houses and the Thorn Hedge
With the field empty, the council planned lasting defence. Van Riebeeck recalled thorn hedges in the Caribbee Islands. For the moment they deepened Liesbeek fords, built three watch-houses on the outer line, and raised a strong fence cattle could not be driven through. A thick thorn belt was to follow. The posts were named Keert de Koe (Turn the Cow), Houdt den Bul (Hold the Bull), and Kyck uijt (Look Out). Horsemen patroling between them were the frontier police of the day; the line was the colonial border. [3]
At the war’s start van Riebeeck had pressed Batavia for horses — he had only about twenty, including foals. The return fleet brought sixteen from Java, and powerful dogs with them. Europeans felt better matched against large Khoikhoi numbers. [3]
The Erasmus Conspiracy — Late 1659
Toward year’s end a plot was found just in time to save a rich vessel in the bay. Fort surgeon William Robertson of Dundee learned one Sunday noon that a large party meant to run away with the yacht Erasmus that night, and told the commander. Arrests followed. Conspirators confessed they had first planned to desert overland to Angola; when the Erasmus arrived they changed to seizing her. Twenty-nine men were in the scheme — fifteen of them enslaved — among them Scots and English names: Colin Lawson, John Brown, John Beck, Alexander Crawford of Dundee; Jacob Born of Glasgow; Peter Barber of Hampstead. Principals went to Batavia for trial; lesser hands were heavily punished at the Cape. The council resolved to clear the place of English and Scotch “rubbish,” except the surgeon, who received a reward equal to £10. [3]
Harvest, Trade, and Fixed Prices
Losses from cattle sickness and war were offset by a remarkably good agricultural season. Crops exceeded hopes; food had never been so plentiful. While the Cochoquas stayed nearby, many cattle were bartered, so that despite mortality the commander could restock farmers. [3]
One regulation of the year left every burgher free to buy or sell anything except corn and cattle, but fixed legal prices for goods likely to come to market. The fiscal and two burgher councillors were to go round at least monthly and enforce the rates. [3]