Boer History1787 at the Cape of Good Hope: Amsterdam Battery Trial, Grain Surplus, Würtemburg, and the Botany Bay Fleet
Third Year of a Soldier-Governor: Inherited Chairs — 1787
Calendar 1787 opened with Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff already in the first chair, a lieutenant-colonel whose first article had been to restore the burghers to calmness and whose second had been to arm the bay. Johan Isaac Rhenius now sat the second chair from August 1786, after Pieter Hacker had retired at his own request. The fiscal’s office still sat a vacancy from May 1785, a council member acting provisionally after Jan Jacob Serrurier had gone to a grave, with Willem Cornelis Boers already off that chair from April 1783. The high court of justice, remodelled in March 1786, still sat six servants of the Company and six burghers, with the secunde named to preside, and with Christiaan George Maasdorp, Gerrit Hendrik Meyer, Jan Coenraad Gie, and Hendrik Justinus de Wet still written onto the burgher six. The price-and-works board of three and three still sat a failure from the first: the officials and burghers could not work amicably together, and the harvest of 1785 had given it no price to fix. January therefore opened on a soldier already in the Castle, on an India-service secunde, on a fiscal still vacant, on six and six already sitting, and on a board that had never priced a muid. [3] [7] [9]
In the country the inherited chairs still sat when January opened. Hendrik Lodewyk Bletterman still sat Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. Constantyn van Nuld Onkruydt still sat Swellendam. Maurits Herman Otto Woeke now sat a court on the Sunday river from October 1786, with six heemraden from July, with bounds defined on the 19th of July, and with Adriaan van Jaarsveld on that board as well as on the eastern command. Christoffel Brand still sat the winter port. Justinus van Gennep still sat the naval establishment. Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon still sat the garrison he had taken in February 1780, now with colonel’s rank over some five hundred Dutch infantry. Captain Carel Matthys Willem de Lille still sat next after Gordon. Major Philip Herman Gilquin still sat the works he had directed since June 1779. The Swiss regiment of Meuron still sat the chairs Luxembourg had left. The French regiment of Pondicherry no longer sat the hospital wing. The outposts at Saldanha Bay, Groenkloof, Klapmuts, Zonder End, Buffeljagts River, and the woodcutters’ post at Zwart River in Outeniqualand were still maintained. January therefore opened on three drostdies sitting, on a Swiss regiment that was not Pondicherry’s match as a public entertainer, and on a soldier who still took the burghers as soldiers who had to obey. [3] [9]
The pulpits of the opening year sat the names the second year had closed on. The Rev. Johannes Petrus Serrurier of Hanau and the Rev. Christiaan Fleck still sat the Cape church, with the Rev. Helperus Ritzema van Lier now third from September 1786. Stellenbosch now sat the Rev. Meent Borcherds from that same September, the Rev. Philip Kuys already dead from February 1785, the Rev. Robert Nicholas Aling off that consulent’s extra chair and back on Drakenstein alone. Waveren still sat the Rev. Johannes Abraham Kuys. Zwartland now sat the Rev. Petrus van der Spuy, junior from April 1786, the Rev. Daniel Goldbach already dead from March 1783. The Lutheran pulpit that Andreas Kolver had opened on the 10th of December 1780 still sat in Martin Melk’s Strand Street church, paid by the congregation, without a stiver from the Company’s chest. Graaff Reinet, like Swellendam, still had as yet only a sick-comforter, who was also schoolmaster, and did not yet sit a clergyman. January therefore opened on three Reformed pulpits in the town, on four country churches filled, and on a named third drostdy without a consistory. [3]
Outward, the land regime still opened on the 14 November 1780 names. The Fish river along the whole of its lower course remained the colonial boundary, with the Zuurveld added on paper to the Company’s possessions. Notes, not specie, still met the Castle’s bills after the 30th of April 1782. Little Paris still sat the Parade and Dorpstraat after Pondicherry’s embarkation of April 1784. The harvest of 1785 had entirely failed; the long drought had broken up in 1786; flour from Europe and rice from Java had still been imported that year to ward off actual famine; and a surplus of grain now sat the magazines of the opening year. The Cape Flats plantation sat abandoned. The Amsterdam battery sat completed enough for guns, and not yet trialled. The Company’s debt sat nearly seven million pounds sterling. A treaty of close alliance with France sat from November 1785. In the Netherlands the party in favour of democratic government and alliance with France, supreme in 1785, still sat that supremacy when January opened, with the stadtholder’s removal from office already written onto 1786 in the Fatherland, while at the Cape the stadtholder’s favourite still sat the first chair. The first chair still sat an official residence in the castle, a house in the gardens, a country seat at Newlands, carriages and horses, the produce of Visser’s Hok, and table allowances, with salary and perquisites of about £3,650 plus a special £1,500 a year. Hester Cornelia Reynet, Sebastiaan, Anna Geertruida, Agneta Clara, and Nicolaas still sat the houses. Horses still sat the Stalplein stables — some sources put one hundred and thirty, others three hundred. January therefore opened on a Castle waiting to trial a battery, on a frontier district sitting a court and not yet a consistory, on a western harvest turning from famine toward surplus, and on a soldier who mastered guns and horses better than a price. [3] [7] [9]
The three Cape names still heard in Amsterdam — Jacobus van Reenen, Barend Jacob Artois, and Nicholas Godfried Heyns — still sat in Holland, with Tieleman Roos already dead. A last memorial had been laid before the States General on the 10th of May 1785. The Assembly of Seventeen had announced changes on the 28th of July 1785. A new deputation had left in March 1785, and had started to quarrel among themselves — Hillegard Mulder and Marthinus Adriaan Bergh among them — writing in the Dutch press, with their principals in Cape Town stopping the transfer of funds, and with the States General giving them the cold shoulder. All the governing bodies in the Netherlands were still agreed that the system thus introduced should have a fair trial. No further redress sat a States General table. A Swede named Andries Stockenstrom still sat a clerk’s desk in Cape Town from 1786. January therefore opened on two burgher deputations still in the Netherlands after a last memorial had already been laid and a Seventeen’s paper had already been tried, and on a Castle that had sat six and six into chairs without sitting a price. [3] [9]
Amsterdam Battery Trial — 23 February 1787
When Governor Van de Graaff arrived in South Africa, the construction of the Amsterdam battery was so far advanced that he was unable to alter the design, though he considered it faulty. He therefore completed it, and in February 1787 the guns were mounted. February therefore wrote a finished battery onto a design the first chair would not have drawn, and it wrote those guns onto a wall he still thought wrong. The soldier who had come to arm the bay now sat powder in a work he could not reshape. The improvements he introduced for the fortifications were numerous. He displayed an untiring energy in designing and erecting new batteries, and having other ones repaired. The Amsterdam work was the first of those batteries to sit its guns in this third year. [3] [9]
On the 23rd of February 1787 the first trial of the armament was made, when one of the cannon burst, and two men were killed and five badly wounded. The governor, who was standing close by, was also slightly hurt. February therefore wrote a burst gun onto the first trial, wrote two dead and five badly wounded onto that burst, and wrote a slight hurt onto the first chair himself. The soldier who practised artillery in firing with red-hot cannon balls now sat a trial that had killed two of his own. The battery that had sat too far advanced to alter now sat blood on its first fire. [3] [9]
A battery was then built in Rogge Bay, and after its completion some additions to the old battery Chavonnes were commenced. The remaining forts in Table Valley were repaired. The earthen embankment thrown up by the French troops in 1781 between Fort Knokke and the Devil’s Peak — commonly called the French lines — was strengthened, as was also the line between the castle and Fort Knokke. February’s burst therefore did not stop the works. Rogge Bay sat a new battery. Chavonnes sat additions. The French lines of 1781 sat a strengthening. The line from the castle to Knokke sat the same. Table Valley’s remaining forts sat repair. The first chair still sat red-hot shot as a drill, and still sat a more intensive drilling of the troops. The council still sat criticism of his more ambitious schemes, unable to share his military vision. The third year therefore wrote guns onto Amsterdam, wrote a burst onto the 23rd, and then wrote more earth and more stone onto the bay the soldier had come to arm. [3] [9]
The first chair still sat horses as a hobby while the batteries rose. Sebastiaan still put the fastest of them to a light two-wheeled fly, rushing past burghers who chatted in the shade of the oaks on Gentleman’s Walk. The governor himself lived in great style and pomp, while his subordinates and all those around him carried on the old system of extortion and all the old abuses. The annual expenditure was made to exceed the incoming revenue by some £90,000. A large garrison of foreign mercenary troops was kept up by the Company’s officers at Cape Town. The wasteful expenditure inaugurated by the colonel sat the Company’s financial resources toward their end, even as the works sat more batteries on the bay. February’s trial therefore sat a hurt governor on a costly chair, sat two dead on a faulty design, and sat Rogge Bay and Chavonnes as the next earth to be moved. [3] [7] [9]
Gilquin still sat the works he had directed since June 1779, now under a first chair who designed and erected as well as repaired. Gordon still sat some five hundred Dutch infantry, with De Lille next after him, while Meuron still sat the Swiss chairs. The two thousand the directors had named as a standing garrison did not yet sit in February. The Amsterdam battery now sat mounted guns and a burst trial. Rogge Bay sat begun. The French lines sat strengthened. The soldier-governor considered the colonists as soldiers who had to obey their commanding officer, and for the rest keep their mouths shut. He did nothing to help a price board that could not sit together. The improvements he sat were guns. February therefore sat a trial, a burst, two graves, five badly wounded, a slight hurt on the first chair, and a bay that was to sit more batteries before the year closed. [3] [9]
Grain Surplus after Drought — 1787
There being a large profit to be made on wheat, the Company endeavoured to procure as much of that article as possible for the European market. In 1786 it had been necessary to import large quantities of flour from Europe and rice from Java to ward off actual famine; but in that year the long drought broke up, and in 1787 and later there was a considerable surplus of grain in the colony. The third year therefore opened on magazines that famine had emptied and that a broken drought was filling. The Negotie had gone to Batavia in ballast in 1786 because not a muid of grain was to be had. A muid now sat the western farms again. The Company still sat a profit on wheat, and still sat a hand out for as much as it could take for Europe. [3]
The board that was to fix prices still sat a failure. The officials and burghers could not work amicably together, and everything proposed by one party was objected to by the other. As for fixing prices of produce, it had had no opportunity of making trial of its ability when the harvest of 1785 entirely failed. The directors had been disappointed by the Negotie sent on in ballast, and the plan was never again brought forward. A surplus now sat the colony, and still no three-and-three sat a yearly price. The Company therefore sat its own old hand on the wheat it wanted for Europe, without a board that could name a figure the burghers would take. January through the harvest months of 1787 sat grain in the west, sat a failed board still on the books, and sat a Company still trying to take as much wheat as it could. [3] [9]
In the long-settled parts of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein the people were still living in comfort and ease. All kinds of European wares were still introduced in Danish ships, and were sold at enormous profits. Little Paris still sat the Parade. Cartoon money still sat the distant districts. The slaves were still almost naked, because a weaver in Stellenbosch had not been allowed to spin. The uneducated farmers of the interior were still taking forged notes. Along the northern border, warfare with San was still constant, and the colonists there were in the same condition as those of Graaff Reinet, whose court now sat. In the new district, cattle breeding was almost the only pursuit of the Europeans. Once in a twelvemonth each family who could do so sent a waggon laden with butter and soap to Cape Town to procure household requisites. A western surplus of grain therefore sat beside an eastern year of butter and soap. The Company sat its profit on the western muid. The third drostdy sat almost no grain at all. [3]
The seasons from 1783 to 1785 had sat drought in the grain-producing districts. The seasons from 1787 sat among the good years that followed. There being no scarcity of food in the west, the Company’s hand on wheat for Europe sat a surplus instead of a famine import. Profits on the sale of goods out of the Company’s stores were still on an average about £6,200. There was thus a deficiency to be made good of nearly £92,000 a year, and the Company was at this time almost hopelessly insolvent. Its debt in 1785 had been nearly seven million pounds sterling. The states provincial of Holland and Zeeland had become security for heavy loans, besides raising by a special tax a sum of about two and a half millions sterling. A surplus of grain did not fill that hole. February’s batteries and a western muid sat the same insolvent chest. The third year therefore wrote grain onto a colony that 1786 had fed with flour and rice, and it wrote that grain onto a Company still trying to ship wheat home, and still sitting a deficiency of nearly £92,000 a year. [3] [7]
Würtemburg Relieves Meuron — late 1787
Towards the end of 1787, in the summer of 1787–88, the regiment of Würtemburg — a body of mercenary troops two thousand strong — arrived at the Cape to relieve the Swiss regiment of Meuron, which was to proceed to Colombo. The garrison included also the national battalion, as it was called, under Colonel Gordon, about six hundred strong, and four hundred engineers and artillerymen. The end of the year therefore wrote two thousand German mercenaries onto a bay that had sat Meuron since February 1783, wrote Gordon’s six hundred beside them, and wrote four hundred engineers and artillerymen onto Gilquin’s works. The two thousand the directors had named as a standing garrison now sat, at last, as Würtemburg plus Gordon plus the guns. Meuron sat a relief. Colombo sat as that regiment’s next road. [3] [9]
When Würtemburg arrived to replace the Meuron soldiers, the military position of the Cape of Good Hope was in a better condition than it had been for a very long time. Van de Graaff achieved this notwithstanding the incessant criticism of his more ambitious schemes by a council unable to share his military vision. The Amsterdam battery sat mounted, burst, and still there. Rogge Bay sat a new work. Chavonnes sat additions. The French lines sat strengthened. Red-hot shot sat the drills. Two thousand Würtemburgers sat the town. Gordon’s six hundred sat with them. Four hundred engineers and artillerymen sat the works. The weak colony sat, on paper and in earth, a garrison that could resist a European enemy. The first chair’s second article — to arm the bay — sat closer to done than it had sat in January. [3] [9]
A large garrison of foreign mercenary troops was kept up by the Company’s officers at Cape Town. These soldiers were mostly German and Swiss adventurers. Würtemburg sat German. Meuron still sat Swiss until the relief was complete. Gordon’s national battalion sat Dutch. The Company’s chest sat the pay. The annual expenditure still exceeded the incoming revenue by some £90,000. The fortifications sat the first chair’s true mastery; the mercenary pay sat the deficiency. Little Paris still sat the Parade, and Meuron had not been Pondicherry’s match as a public entertainer. Two thousand Würtemburgers now sat that entertainment’s next chairs. The end of the year therefore wrote a heavier garrison onto a town that had lived expensive since 1781, and it wrote that garrison onto an insolvent Company still shipping what wheat it could. [3] [7] [9]
Gordon still sat the garrison as colonel, now with Würtemburg’s two thousand beside his six hundred. De Lille still sat next after him. Gilquin still sat the works, now with four hundred engineers and artillerymen named beside the batteries. Brand still sat the winter port. Van Gennep still sat the naval establishment. The outposts still sat. The first chair still sat horses and red-hot shot. The council still sat criticism. The burghers still sat a high court of six and six, and still sat a price board that would not sit together. Würtemburg’s arrival therefore did not sit a new government. It sat a heavier wall around the same chairs. The third year wrote two thousand onto that wall toward its close, and it wrote Colombo onto Meuron’s next orders, without yet writing that Swiss regiment off the Parade. [3] [9]
Graaff Reinet Commando and the Sneeuwbergen — 1787
Woeke’s court had sat on Coetsee’s plain from October 1786. In the new district, cattle breeding was almost the only pursuit of the Europeans. Until building sites were given out in the village of Graaff Reinet, there was not a rood of ground held under any other tenure than that of yearly lease. It was intended by the government that the district should be nearly self-supporting. Funds for local purposes were to be raised, as in Stellenbosch and Swellendam, by a yearly tax of one shilling and four pence for every hundred sheep and one penny for every head of horned cattle, besides special rates when necessary. The struggle for existence carried on with the San in the new district was constant, and on neither side was any quarter shown or indeed possible. No European dared venture an hour’s ride from his homestead without arms in his hand. From four farms adjoining the drostdy the cattle had been swept off within a few weeks after the arrival of the landdrost. The Khoikhoi suffered even more severely than the Europeans. The government provided ammunition, but nothing else. The third year therefore opened on a court that sat powder and a tax, and that sat no soldiers on the Fish. [3]
In the country near the Sneeuwbergen, cattle were continually being driven off and Dutch and Khoikhoi murdered by San. Petitions for assistance were met by orders to make frequent and extended patrols. Homes were pictures of want and discomfort: four low mud walls, with a couple of square holes to admit light and a door of rough wicker-work, under a thatch of rushes slovenly spread on a few crooked poles for support. In 1787 — the year after the foundation of Graaff Reinet — it became necessary to order out a commando of all available burghers into these parts, the government providing the necessary ammunition. The third year therefore wrote a commando onto the northern mountains of a district that had sat a court for only a few months, and it wrote that commando onto all available burghers, with powder from the Castle and with no other help. Van Jaarsveld still sat Bruintjes Hoogte with military authority over the whole of the border farmers, and still sat a heemraad’s chair on Woeke’s board. [3] [4]
The scattered population was of a very heterogeneous nature. There were those who found themselves settled in those parts in consequence of the gradual eastward migration, and who might be regarded as the bona-fide farmers of the district. There was also a large proportion of more recent comers, emigrant Europeans of various nationalities, who, finding themselves unable to earn a living in the west, made this remote region their rendezvous. A soldier who had served out his time, or a European who had not talent sufficient to get his bread in Cape Town, was sent to this part if he wished to establish himself as a colonist. Unrestrained by conscience or by law, every one obeyed only the dictates of his own desires. To control such a community effectively it was imperative not only to establish a seat of magistracy, but to exercise the greatest wisdom and discretion in the choice of the officials. Woeke still sat that magistracy, an old Stellenbosch burgher believed to be a man of sound judgment, with a court from October and with no fifty or sixty soldiers on the Fish. The 1787 commando sat all available burghers into the Sneeuwbergen because the northern San would not wait for a wiser chair. [3] [4]
On the 5th of September 1787 Lucas Meyer gave notice that he, with knowledge of his Excellency the Governor, would leave the cattle place called Jammel’s Fontein, situate on the other side of the Gamtoos river on the Bosjesmans River, he being bound to pay the arrear of six years, from time to time. The loan place, owing to its inadequacy of payment — all places being rated at the same value — and to indefinite boundaries and encroachments, was the most defective and unsatisfactory of the land tenures, yet five-sixths of all the holdings in the colony were of this kind. September therefore wrote a leaving onto a Gamtoos cattle place, wrote six years’ arrears onto that leaving, and wrote the first chair’s knowledge onto the notice. The third drostdy’s yearly lease sat most of the east. Meyer’s notice sat one name walking off one of those places in the same year that a commando sat all available burghers into the Sneeuwbergen. [4]
Woeke had been instructed to visit the principal Xhosa chiefs, to assure them of the friendship of the government, and to make them presents of brass wire, beads, and other articles of small value. He was ordered to take great care that the Fish river was observed as the boundary, and that no Europeans crossed it or molested the Xhosa in any way. The bartering of cattle by the colonists was strictly forbidden. He had had a meeting with Ndlambe, who had expressed himself desirous of living in peace and friendship with the white people, and presents had been exchanged. The landdrost had reported that a rupture between the two races could easily take place. There were Xhosa in service with farmers all over the country, even to within two days’ journey of the village of Swellendam. Not a few lawless individuals were engaged in the forbidden cattle trade, and mere placaats had no terrors for them. With fifty or sixty soldiers stationed in posts along the Fish river, it would be possible to maintain order; without physical force the irregularities would continue. The condition of suspense lasted through 1787. The Castle did not send the soldiers. The third year therefore sat beads in one hand and a prohibition in the other on the Fish, and sat a commando of all available burghers in the Sneeuwbergen, and sat no new force on either front. [3] [4]
Stadtholder Restored; Botany Bay Fleet — June and November 1787
The inhabitants of the Netherlands were divided into two parties, one of which was in favour of democratic government and alliance with France, the other in favour of the government of the stadtholder and alliance with England. The first of these had been supreme in 1785, and in November of that year a treaty of close alliance with France had been concluded. In 1786 the stadtholder Prince William V had been removed from his office. The Cape’s first chair still sat as that stadtholder’s favourite while the Fatherland sat without him. June was to write the favourite’s patron back onto a restored chair. [3] [9]
The arrest of the princess of Orange, who was a sister of the king of Prussia, on her attempting to enter the Hague in June 1787, brought into the country a Prussian army, which was welcomed by the conservative faction, and the government of the stadtholder was restored. Civil war sat the Netherlands. William V sat restored as hereditary stadtholder. June therefore wrote an arrest onto a princess at the Hague, wrote a Prussian army onto that arrest, and wrote a restored stadtholder onto a Company whose governor-general’s power was about to sit greater than it had ever been before. At the Cape the first chair still sat batteries and horses. In the Fatherland the patron who would not consent to dismiss him now sat his office again. [3] [9]
The stadtholder’s power as governor-general of the East India Company was greater than it had ever been before, owing to the political revolution which had recently taken place in the Netherlands. The directors were desirous of dismissing the governor, but the stadtholder, with whom he was a favourite, would not consent. June’s restoration therefore sat a shield over the first chair. The soldier who had come with the stadtholder’s confidence still sat that confidence after a Prussian army had put his patron back. The council still sat criticism of ambitious schemes. The burghers’ deputies still sat unpaid and cold-shouldered. The first chair still sat. The restored stadtholder would not take him off. [3] [9]
In November 1787 an English fleet, to which considerable interest attaches, put into Table Bay for supplies. It was the fleet that conveyed the first convicts, male and female, to Botany Bay, to found the colony of New South Wales. November therefore wrote an English fleet onto a bay that still sat foreign flags after the war — Dutch, French, English, Danish, American, and others still putting into Table Bay and Simon’s Bay — and it wrote the first convicts, men and women, onto that fleet’s hold, bound for a new English colony in the south. Brand still sat the winter port. Van Gennep still sat the naval establishment. The roadstead still sold what it could. A western surplus of grain now sat a possible supply. The Botany Bay fleet sat that roadstead in November and took what the Cape would sell. [3]
The third year therefore sat two European writings onto one Cape calendar. June sat a Prussian army and a restored stadtholder over the first chair’s patron. November sat an English convict fleet in Table Bay on its way to found New South Wales. The treaty of close alliance with France from November 1785 still sat on the books while the stadtholder, who favoured alliance with England, sat restored. The Cape still sat between those alliances as a refreshment station. Würtemburg’s two thousand sat the town toward the year’s end. The Botany Bay fleet sat the bay in November and went on. The first chair still sat. The directors still wished him off. The restored stadtholder still would not consent. [3] [9]
Third Year Closes: a Trialled Battery, a Surplus, Würtemburg, and a Restored Stadtholder — 1787
In the Castle the third year closed on a soldier still in the first chair, with Hester, Sebastiaan, Anna Geertruida, Agneta Clara, and Nicolaas still in the houses, and with horses still in the Stalplein stables. Rhenius still sat the second chair from August 1786. The fiscal’s office still sat a vacancy from May 1785, a council member still acting provisionally. The high court still sat six Company servants and six burghers, with Maasdorp, Meyer, Gie, and De Wet still written onto the burgher six, and with the secunde still named to preside. The price-and-works board still sat a failure. A considerable surplus of grain now sat the western magazines. The Company still sat a hand out for wheat for Europe. The Amsterdam battery sat completed, guns mounted in February, and a burst trial on the 23rd: two dead, five badly wounded, the governor slightly hurt. Rogge Bay sat a new battery. Chavonnes sat additions. The French lines sat strengthened. Würtemburg’s two thousand sat the town toward the close, with Gordon’s six hundred and four hundred engineers and artillerymen, and with Meuron still sitting until the relief was complete. [3] [9]
Bletterman still sat Stellenbosch. Onkruydt still sat Swellendam. Woeke still sat a court on the Sunday river, with six heemraden, with Coetsee’s buildings bought for about £530, and with Van Jaarsveld on that board as well as on the eastern command. San still disturbed the northern farms and the new district. A commando of all available burghers had sat the Sneeuwbergen in 1787, the government providing ammunition. Meyer had sat a leaving on Jammel’s Fontein on the 5th of September, bound to pay six years’ arrears. Ndlambe’s friendship still sat a report that rupture could easily take place. Fifty or sixty soldiers on the Fish had been asked and had not sat. Brand still sat the winter port. Van Gennep still sat the naval establishment. Gordon still sat the garrison as colonel, now with Würtemburg beside him. De Lille still sat next after him. Gilquin still sat the works. [3] [4]
Serrurier of Hanau and Fleck still sat the Reformed Cape, with Van Lier still third from September 1786. Kolver still sat Melk’s nave. Stellenbosch still sat Borcherds. Drakenstein still sat Aling. Waveren still sat Johannes Abraham Kuys. Zwartland still sat Van der Spuy junior. Graaff Reinet still sat a sick-comforter who was also schoolmaster, and still did not sit a clergyman. Stockenstrom still sat a clerk’s desk in Cape Town. The Lutheran test still barred Kolver’s communion from the council of policy and the high court, while Lutherans could be appointed to any other offices. The third drostdy’s court sat. Its consistory did not sit. [3]
Cape Town at this period was still a very different place from what it had been in earlier times. With the arrival of the French troops in 1781 an expensive fashion of living had set in, and every one was still striving to become possessed of a handsome house filled with costly furniture and a retinue of useless slaves. Little Paris still sat the Parade. Würtemburg now sat that Parade’s next mercenary chairs. Cartoon money still sat the distant districts. In the long-settled parts of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein the people were still living in comfort and ease, now with a surplus of grain. Along the northern border and in Graaff Reinet the colonists still sat mud walls and a commando. Hendrik Justinus de Wet still sat the Danish agency, and still sat a high-court burgher chair. The Company’s debt still sat near seven million. Expenditure still exceeded revenue by some £90,000. Notes, not specie, still met the Castle’s bills. [3] [7] [9]
Van Reenen, Artois, and Heyns still sat in Amsterdam, with Roos dead, with a last memorial already laid on the 10th of May 1785, with a Seventeen’s paper of the 28th of July 1785 that March 1786 had sat into a high court and a failed board, and with a new deputation that had left in March 1785 still quarrelling, unpaid, and cold-shouldered. All the governing bodies in the Netherlands had been agreed that the system should have a fair trial. In June the princess of Orange had been arrested at the Hague, a Prussian army had come in, and the stadtholder had been restored. The directors were desirous of dismissing the governor; the restored stadtholder would not consent. In November an English fleet had put into Table Bay with the first convicts, male and female, bound for Botany Bay to found New South Wales. The third year of Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff ended on those facts: on a battery trialled and burst, on Rogge Bay begun, on a western surplus after famine, on Würtemburg’s two thousand arriving to relieve Meuron, on a Sneeuwbergen commando of all available burghers, on a restored stadtholder shielding the first chair, and on a Botany Bay fleet that had taken supplies and gone on. The fourth year would sit those batteries, that surplus, and that heavier garrison — and would sit them still under the same soldier. [3] [4] [7] [9]