Boer History1685 at the Cape of Good Hope: Van Rheede, the Landdrost of Stellenbosch, Constantia, and the Namaqualand March
Opening 1685 after Van Goens the Younger
The calendar year 1685 opened with Simon van der Stel still commander and with Ryklof van Goens the younger, ordinary councillor of India, still exercising superior authority from the government country house at Rustenburg. He had arrived in October 1684 as an invalid, seldom left his room, and remained in the colony until the following May. Under that shadow the settlement carried forward the pastoral and grain gains of 1684—Captain Klaas’s interior cattle agency, the new stock outposts, Andries de Man as secunde, and the first small rye shipment to India—while awaiting a commissioner of still higher rank. [3]
In October 1684 the Assembly of Seventeen had already named a commission of three members to examine Company affairs in Hindostan and Ceylon, and had placed at its head an officer with very extensive powers: Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, commonly known by his title Lord of Mydrecht. He had recently filled the post of councillor of India. Before leaving Europe he was instructed to rectify anything he might find amiss at the Cape, where he was also to exercise supreme power as representing the Assembly of Seventeen. Governors, admirals, and lower officers could be made or displaced; new laws and trade regulations issued; offices created or abolished; treaties entered into—in short, anything he thought advisable in the Company’s interests. [3]
Some of the changes he effected at the Cape and elsewhere were afterwards found not to be improvements, but at the time the Netherlands were only beginning to acquire experience in the government of colonies. Nearly all was still experiment. For the Cape calendar of 1685 that experiment arrived in Table Bay in mid-April, sat above commander and council until mid-July, and left behind permanent institutional forms as well as leave for the commander’s own long northern march. [3]
Lord of Mydrecht Arrives — 19 April 1685
The high commissioner arrived in Table Bay on the 19th of April 1685 and remained until the 16th of July, during which time he put in force a great number of regulations. A few days after his arrival he issued a notice calling upon all persons who had any complaints or grievances to make them known, so that he might rectify whatever was felt to be oppressive. He then proceeded to examine the constitution of the various public bodies and to inquire into their efficiency. [3]
The result of that examination was that the burgher council, the church council, the board of militia, the matrimonial court, the orphan chamber, and the court of commissioners for petty cases were approved of as they existed, and no alterations were made in any of them. The high commissioner’s work therefore concentrated on the council of policy, the high court of justice, the inland court at Stellenbosch, slave law, land policy, mineral search, and a handful of fiscal rules rather than on dismantling every local board already in place. [3]
While he was present the authority of the commander and council was in abeyance. The orders he issued were laws in a different sense from those of ordinary visiting commissioners: their instructions could be repealed by successors or by the Indian authorities, but the laws made by the Lord of Mydrecht could only be reversed by the Assembly of Seventeen. Several of his regulations remained in force during the whole period of East India Company rule in South Africa. [3]
Council of Policy and High Court of Justice
The council of policy was enlarged so as to consist of eight members, and seats in it were assigned to the commander as president, the secunde, the two military officers highest in rank, the fiscal, the treasurer, the chief salesman, and the garrison bookkeeper. This council was never again enlarged during the government of the East India Company, though the officers who had seats in it were not always those who held the situations here named. The secretary at this time had no vote, but merely kept a record of the debates and resolutions. [3]
The high court of justice was reconstituted and made to consist of the following members: the commander, Simon van der Stel, president; the secunde, Andries de Man; the captain, Hieronymus Cruse; the lieutenant, Olof Bergh; the junior merchant, Albert van Breugel; the chief salesman, Cornelis Linnes; the garrison bookkeeper, Jan Hendrik Blum; the secretary of the council of policy, Melchior Kemels; and the two oldest burgher councillors. Jan Blesius was appointed secretary, but had no voice in the proceedings. The fiscal appeared in it as public prosecutor. This court underwent hardly any change during the next century. [3]
Naming ranks into a fixed eight-seat council and a mixed official-burgher high court gave the small settlement a more formal constitution than the older, thinner boards. De Man’s June 1684 promotion to secunde now sat inside a written scheme rather than as an isolated fill of a vacancy. Cruse and Bergh, already central to military and exploratory work, held judicial seats beside the commercial officers Linnes, Blum, and Van Breugel. [3]
Landdrost of Stellenbosch — 16 July 1685
In the court at Stellenbosch great alterations were made. It was in future to be presided over by an officer to be called a landdrost, who was also to have supervision of the Company’s farms and out-stations, and who was generally to look after the Company’s interests. This officer was to have two Europeans to assist him, and was to be provided with a horse and a slave. He was to receive £2 a month as salary and 16s. as maintenance allowance. [3] [4]
In the court of landdrost and heemraad, civil cases under £2 1s. 8d. were to be decided finally, but where amounts between that sum and £10 were in question there was to be a right of appeal to the high court of justice. No case could be heard where the amount in dispute exceeded £10. The court was to hold monthly sessions for the trial of civil cases. It was to preserve order, and was also to act as a district council, in which capacity it was to see to the repair of roads, the distribution of water, the destruction of noxious animals, and various other matters. [3]
It was to raise a revenue by erecting a mill to grind corn, by collecting annually a tax from the inhabitants—fixed by the council of policy in the following year at 1s. 4½d. for every hundred sheep or twenty head of large cattle owned in the district—and by sundry other small imposts. Further, it was to have power to compel the inhabitants to supply waggons, cattle, slaves, and their own labour for public purposes. On the 16th of July the high commissioner appointed Johannes Mulder, a Netherlander of good reputation, first landdrost of Stellenbosch, and named the burghers Gerrit van der Byl, Henning Huising, Jan Mostert, and Herman Smit as heemraden. A landdrost stationed at Stellenbosch thereafter held jurisdiction over the known country outside the Cape division—the small indefinite strip from St Helena Bay to False Bay—so that inland civil order and Company supervision sat under one local officer and four heemraden. [3] [4]
Slave Emancipation Laws of 1685
Prior to this date the laws concerning the treatment and manumission of slaves were somewhat vague. Emancipation had been very common before 1682, and the directors had at one time even contemplated the location of a large body of freed slaves where agriculture could be carried on. But individuals emancipated had in most instances fallen into idle and depraved habits, becoming burdensome as vagrants or paupers, so that when the governor-general Van Goens was at the Cape a regulation was made that no more heathens were to be manumitted except for very good reasons, and that all freedmen of this class who would not earn an honest living were to be consigned again to slavery. [3]
A profession of Christianity and an ability to speak Dutch were still considered sufficient reasons for claiming freedom, and no slaveholder could have an infant black baptized without promising to educate it as a Christian and to manumit it—a regulation of the ecclesiastical council of Batavia. Nearly everyone believed it his duty to have his slave children baptized, and hence those born in the colony usually became free; but they were few in number, because nearly all the slaves brought from abroad were males. Foreigners were debarred from selling merchandise in bulk at the Cape, yet an exception was occasionally made when their cargoes consisted of stout negroes. [3]
The high commissioner’s emancipation laws fixed clearer ages and prices. Every male half-breed could claim freedom as a right at twenty-five years, and every female half-breed at twenty-two, provided he or she professed Christianity and spoke Dutch. Slaves imported from abroad, after thirty years’ service, and negro slaves born at the Cape, at the age of forty, were to have their freedom as a favour, not as a right, upon payment of £8 6s. 8d., provided they professed Christianity and spoke Dutch. Each case was to be considered on its own merits. Slave children under twelve were to be sent to school; slaves over twelve were to be allowed two afternoons a week for Christian instruction; all were to attend church services twice on Sundays and repeat the Heidelberg catechism in the afternoon. Jan Pasqual of Batavia was appointed schoolmaster for the slaves, and Margaret, a freedwoman of the Cape, schoolmistress. Marriage between Europeans and freed slaves of full colour was prohibited, but Europeans and half-breeds could marry if they chose. Fugitive slaves who were captured were to be severely flogged and heavily chained; private flogging without an order from the fiscal and the consent of the commander was forbidden. [3]
Khoikhoi Policy and Proposed Boundaries
Concerning the treatment of the Khoikhoi, the high commissioner laid down some general regulations but made no definite laws. There was at the time a very friendly feeling between them and the Europeans. The different chiefs and their people came to the castle to trade in perfect security, and as yet there was no lack of pasturage for the use of all. On one occasion Schacher trespassed upon the ground where the Company made its hay at the Tigerberg, but upon being requested to move he did so very civilly. Gonnema had failed to pay his tribute, and it was not thought necessary to irritate him by speaking about it any longer. Klaas was so anxious to serve the Europeans that his agency remained central to cattle supply; on one trading expedition just before the commissioner arrived he even took by force the cattle of the Goringhaiquas when they declined to barter, and the injured people obtained justice from the commander. On another occasion young men of Schacher’s clan rebelled against their chief; Schacher and the older men came to the castle, the rebels were summoned, and by the commander’s mediation peace was restored. Thefts were not unusual, but robbery with violence was seldom except by San; when perpetrators could be discovered the chiefs were ready to punish them. At this time four Khoikhoi convicted of murdering a Dutch servant were executed by being beaten to death with clubs by their own people. [3]
The high commissioner directed that nothing should be done to disturb the peaceful and friendly intercourse then existing. He thought it wisdom to keep the clans in a condition of jealousy, but not to allow them to fight or plunder one another. The Company desired more colonists and would need more land, yet it would not be just to take pasturage so as to expel the Khoikhoi or force them into war farther inland. The Lord of Mydrecht directed that efforts should gradually be made by means of presents to induce the Khoikhoi to consent to have certain boundaries laid down, so that both they and the Europeans might have their grounds defined. In other words, his idea was to persuade them to retire within certain reserves. This plan was never carried out in the districts adjoining the Cape, because before any necessity arose for restricting the liberty of the Khoikhoi to wander wherever the ground was not cultivated, small-pox was later introduced, and when its ravages ceased there were but few natives left in those nearer districts. [3]
The 1685 policy thus combined present friendliness and open trade with a long-term preference for fixed lines on the map. For the year itself the practical facts were civil removal from Tigerberg hay ground, silence on Gonnema’s unpaid tribute, commander’s mediation in Schacher’s clan and justice against Klaas’s forced seizure, and continued reliance on Klaas as cattle agent—not a finished system of reserves. [3]
Constantia Granted — 13 July 1685
The greatest abuse then prevalent in the East India Company’s possessions arose from private trade by officers of government. Their salaries were miserably small, but they were permitted to supplement them by buying and selling to a limited extent on their own account. At the Cape there was not as yet much opportunity for such business, and officers had therefore seldom been content to remain. As a remedy, the high commissioner approved of a grant of land in full property being made to each of them, that they might carry on farming and sell their produce to the Company on the same terms as the burghers. He thought there was no likelihood of rivalry, because the demand in India for various products was much greater than any supply the Cape could yield. Subsequent events proved how greatly he was mistaken, but at this time no one objected to the experiment being tried. [3]
The commander Van der Stel selected for himself a tract of land next to the last farm that was occupied at Wynberg. Most of the burghers who had once been living on that side of the mountain had removed to Stellenbosch, so that there were then only twenty-four families remaining between this ground and the castle. The boundaries chosen were agreed to by the high commissioner, a surveyor was instructed to measure the land and make a chart of it without delay, and on the 13th of July the title was issued. In it the commissioner granted to Simon van der Stel 891 morgen, 380 roods, and 28 square feet of ground, to be held by him in full property. This farm the commander named Constantia. [3]
Constantia thus entered the record three days before Mulder’s landdrost commission and three days before Van Rheede’s departure. It was freehold for the commander under a high commissioner’s seal, justified as a cure for officers’ restlessness and private trade, and sited on the Wynberg side where burgher density had already thinned toward Stellenbosch. [3]
Mineral Search and the 1685 Ore
For several years a number of miners had been engaged in searching about the Cape for valuable ores. Before 1671 the country as far as Riebeek’s Kasteel had been examined; the search was then abandoned and not resumed until the specimens of copper ore from Namaqualand attracted attention. The directors then sent out a party under the master miners Frederick Mattheus van Werlinghof and Gabriel Muller, with instructions to cause a thorough search to be made. The miners were divided into two parties, one examining the country around Stellenbosch, the other the mountains along the Cape peninsula. In some places they sank pits fifteen or sixteen fathoms deep, but without finding anything until the beginning of the year 1685, when great expectations were raised by the discovery in large quantities of a new kind of mineral. [3]
Neither the miners nor anyone else at the Cape could say what it was, but it was assumed by all to be very valuable. Some thought it was gold, others silver, others a kind of copper. There is little doubt that it was only manganese. In February four packets of the ore, each of fifty pounds weight, were sent to the directors, and when the high commissioner was here its value was not yet ascertained. He therefore gave instructions for the miners to continue their work, and he further authorised the commander, who was very anxious to undertake this duty, to proceed in person to examine the copper mountains of Namaqualand. [3]
The manganese excitement and the formal leave for a commander-led copper march linked local pits to the older Namaqua ore story of 1681–1683. Van der Stel had long been anxious to inspect the northern copper country, but it would have been contrary to established rules for him to have gone so far from the castle without special permission. Van Rheede’s authorisation removed that bar for the second half of 1685. [3]
Transfer Dues, Wheat Prices, and Departure — 16 July
The high commissioner added another item of revenue to those already existing. He ordered that whenever landed property was sold, two and a half per cent of the purchase money should be paid to the government. If such property changed hands within three years of the first grant of it by the Company, ten per cent was to be paid, or half that amount if it was sold before the grantee had been in possession of it for ten years. No transfer of land was to be valid until these dues were paid. [3]
He fixed the price to be paid in cash for wheat at fifteen shillings the muid of 160 pounds, that being in his opinion the highest rate at which it could be sent to India with advantage to the Company. But he instructed the commander to receive it at sixteen shillings and eight pence the muid in payment of debt or in exchange for goods. Some other regulations, only of temporary importance, were also made during his stay. [3]
On the 16th of July, having established the government as he believed on a satisfactory footing, he left for India, when the commander and council, whose authority had been in abeyance while he was present, again assumed the direction of affairs. The same day Mulder became landdrost. Three days earlier Constantia’s title had issued. The high commissioner’s Cape season thus closed on institutional reform, freehold for the commander, mineral leave, and restored ordinary government under Simon van der Stel. [3]
Namaqualand Expedition Prepared — August 1685
As soon as the Lord of Mydrecht left South Africa, the commander began to make ready for the expedition to Namaqualand which that officer had sanctioned. The arrangements were completed by the 25th of August 1685, on the morning of which day the baggage waggons were sent forward, the commander himself following on horseback in the afternoon. The secunde Andries de Man, Captain Hieronymus Cruse, and some other members of the council rode with the commander until they overtook the advance party, when he was saluted with three rounds of discharges from the muskets of the whole company. [3] [4]
The train as completed consisted of fifteen waggons, each drawn by eight oxen, eight carts, and one coach. Of the waggons, eight belonged to burghers, and it was intended to take them no further than the Elephant river. There were two hundred spare oxen, most of them trained to carry burdens on their backs, thirteen horses, and eight mules. There was a boat for crossing the Berg and Elephant rivers, and two small cannon to impress the natives with respect for European power. [3] [4]
The travelling party consisted of Commander Van der Stel, with three slaves as personal attendants, fifty-six Europeans of various callings, including soldiers, a Macassar prisoner of state named Dain Bengale, with a slave as his attendant, forty-six drivers and leaders, mostly of mixed blood, and a number of Khoikhoi to serve as interpreters. Even by later standards the train formed an imposing sight as it moved slowly northward in that year. [3] [4]
March to the Elephant River — September 1685
At the Tigerberg the kraals of Schacher and Kuiper were passed, the last of whom presented the commander with an ox for slaughter according to the Khoikhoi custom of treating visitors of rank. The country was covered with grass and with flowers of many colours. Keeping down the valley of the Berg river, which was found tenantless, Paardenberg, Dassenberg, and Riebeek’s Kasteel were passed, while bounding the view on the right was a range of rocky mountains inhabited solely by San (obiquas), who lived by the chase and plunder and had left paintings upon the rocks. [3]
On the 31st of August the expedition reached the Berg river at the Sonqua Ford; the commander preferred to keep along the western bank and did not cross there. About Twenty-four Rivers and the Honey Mountains many San huts were seen, but no people—branches of trees fastened together and covered with loose reeds. Further down two kraals of Cochoquas were passed. On the evening of the 2nd of September an encampment was formed at the Misverstand Ford, and next morning after prayers a commencement was made in ferrying the baggage across. Two days were occupied in transferring the camp. At this place a trading party sent in advance to purchase slaughter oxen and sheep joined with an ample supply. [3]
Near the Picketberg an enormous rhinoceros rushed through the middle of the train and charged the carriage in which the commander was seated. He sprang out; the animal made towards him but was turned by a ball, then charged horsemen who threw themselves from their saddles and were severely bruised. The place received the name Rhenoster Rug. At the Picketberg the grass was rich and timber abundant in the kloofs. An eland weighing a thousand pounds was shot at one encampment, from which the place was called Elands Vlakte. On the 9th of September the Little Elephant river was reached; on the 14th Uilenberg and Klipfontein; on the 15th the Elephant river, where preparations were made for crossing. A kraal of Grigriquas was met, and Sonquas were numerous along the stream. The burghers now turned back, having first obtained permission to load their waggons with the flesh of elands, rhinoceroses, and seacows on the homeward journey. It occupied three days to get everything across; in the afternoon of the 18th the train again moved on. [3]
Namaqua Treaties, Birthday, and Copper Mountain — October 1685
The season was exceptionally favourable for exploration. In the north, after four years of drought, heavy and continuous rains had fallen. Where Van Meerhof in bygone years, and Ensign Bergh only recently, had found bare and parched ravines, there were now streams of water three feet in depth. Animal life was abundant. Every morning and evening the company sang a psalm, listened to a chapter of the Bible, and repeated a prayer. When a halt was called, an awning or tent was pitched for the commander, the Batavian tricolour hoisted in front, and the Company’s pennant floating above. [3]
On the 20th the expedition halted in a narrow valley with the Elephant river on one side and a rocky mountain on the other. Most of the Grigriquas were then living in this neighbourhood; a quarrel had broken out among them, and the commander was detained four days making peace. He succeeded in reconciling the belligerents and in purchasing a number of cattle. On the 26th Meerhof’s Kasteel was passed. On the 4th of October Sonquas reported Namaqua kraals in the neighbourhood; a halt of a full week followed while inquiries were made and treaties arranged with six chiefs over as many kraals. Intercourse was very friendly except with two or three individuals; the commander asserted a position of authority to which they submitted without question. [3]
On the 11th the march resumed under Captain Oedeson, who claimed the Copper Mountain, and other Namaqua guides. Treaties of peace and friendship were made with the chiefs passed along the route; they promised not to quarrel with each other or with the Khoikhoi near the Cape, the commander undertaking to prevent the latter from attacking them so that they could trade with the Company without hindrance. Sunday, the 14th of October, was the commander’s birthday; the camp was not broken up. Cannons were taken from the waggons and loaded, and at noon three volleys of musketry were fired, each followed by the discharge of a cannon. Namaquas arranged a reed-pipe dance that continued until evening, when the commander had an ox slaughtered and distributed a small keg of arrack. Here he began to obtain information concerning the great river to the north—about ten days beyond the Copper Mountain, running toward the setting sun, wide and deep, with large trees on its banks. [3]
The 15th of October was spent in bartering cattle, and on the 16th the train moved forward. For five days the track was through a rugged country where waggons and carts were often overturned. On the afternoon of the 21st of October the camp was pitched at the Copper Mountain. The commander calculated that he had travelled three hundred and sixty-five English miles from the castle and reached about 29° S.; in reality the mountain lies more than half a degree further south, and the straight-line distance is about three hundred miles. A fortnight was occupied in getting out ore and examining the country. Copper ore was discovered in great quantities and of surprising richness, but the scenery was barren mountains, naked rocks, and desolate wastes, with aloes in abundance and wood for fuel very scarce. [3] [4]
Coast Search and the Close of 1685
The next object was to explore the country between the Copper Mountain and the sea. On the 5th of November the camp was broken up for that purpose. A direct route was impracticable; the expedition returned some distance southward before a pathway to the seashore could be found. Travelling became very difficult. Beds of rivulets were dried up and baked as hard as brick. Water was rarely met with, and when pointed out was so salt that it could hardly be used. The Namaquas—even Captain Oedeson, once the most friendly—grew anxious to hasten southward and became sulky when disregarded. [3]
On the twelfth day after leaving the Copper Mountain an advance party on foot reached the coast, but it was not until the 22nd of November that the whole expedition encamped at the mouth of a river then nearly dry. Along the Atlantic shore much driftwood was seen, including large trees that came, as the Namaquas stated, from the great river of the north. One thing was now certain: there was no town of Vigiti Magna. The great river did not correspond with the Camissa of the old geographers; thenceforth Europeans called it the river Vigiti Magna until later names—the Groote and, from Colonel Gordon, the Orange—took hold. People living on its banks near the sea, though clans of the Nama tribe, were named by the commander Camissons after the Camissa now to be removed from the charts. [3]
From the 22nd of November until the 12th of December the time was spent endeavouring to proceed north. A heavy surf rolled on the beach, and not a single harbour suitable for large vessels was discovered. One little cove was visited, partly protected by reefs, capable of holding two or three decked boats, but without fresh water nearby. Parties examined the country in all directions; one officer thought he had reached Angra das Voltas on the charts but was still fully seventy miles from it. The Buffalo river was explored a considerable distance upward. Cattle became weak from scarcity of water; some ran into the sea, drank, and died. On the 12th of December, to the great joy of everyone, the commander gave the order to turn homewards. [3]
It took the expedition eighteen days to regain the Elephant river through heat, salt water, and forced night marches to meagre pools. Four days were spent refreshing the worn-out animals while the stream was examined upward and down to its mouth. On the homeward road the commander inspected the inlet later known as Lambert’s Bay. At the Little Elephant river Cochoqua kraals were met with the men shaving their heads in mourning for the recent death of the old chief Gonnema; at their request the commander confirmed Gonnema’s son as successor. Nothing further of lasting political weight marked the remaining march, which ended only on 26 January 1686 after five months and one day away. The calendar facts of 1685 itself were already complete within the year: Van Rheede’s April–July supremacy and laws, Mulder’s landdrostate and Constantia’s title in July, and from 25 August the commander’s copper march to the mountain, the coast, Gonnema’s succession, and the December order for home. [3] [4]