Boer History1792 at the Cape of Good Hope: Commissioners General, Woeke Suspended, and Moravians at Baviaans Kloof
Acting Year Opens: Rhenius in the First Chair — 1792
Calendar 1792 opened with Johan Isaac Rhenius in the first chair from the 24th of June 1791, an India-service secunde sitting an absence, from the gardens of 1652, while Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff still sat a title and a salary in Holland under a pretence of information. Jacob Pieter de Nys still sat the fiscal’s office from that same June, after Jan Nicholas van Lynden had boarded the Beverwyk by night. 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. January therefore opened on an acting head, on an acting fiscal, on six and six already sitting, and on a soldier’s title still paid out of sight of the bay. [3] [9]
In the country the inherited chairs still sat when January opened. Hendrik Lodewyk Bletterman still sat Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. Anthony Alexander Faure still sat Swellendam from the 21st of April 1789. Maurits Herman Otto Woeke still sat a court on the Sunday river from October 1786, with six heemraden, with bounds on the west by the Gamka to the Zwartberg, that range to the Gamtoos, and the Gamtoos to the sea, on the east by the Great Fish, and on the north only the beacon Van Plettenberg had placed on the Zeekoe, and with Adriaan van Jaarsveld on that board as well as on the eastern command, and with Honoratus Christiaan David Maynier still secretary from March 1789, the pair still quarrelling, the district still very little removed from anarchy. Christoffel Brand still sat the winter port. Justinus van Gennep still sat the naval establishment. Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon still sat the garrison. Captain Carel Matthys Willem de Lille still sat next after him. Major Philip Herman Gilquin still sat the works, with all fortification work now stopped. Jan Frederik Meding still sat the timber magazine at Plettenberg’s Bay. [3] [4]
The pulpits of the opening year sat the names the seventh 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 still third from September 1786. Stellenbosch still sat the Rev. Meent Borcherds. Drakenstein still sat the Rev. Robert Nicholas Aling alone. Waveren still sat the Rev. Johannes Abraham Kuys. Zwartland still sat the Rev. Petrus van der Spuy, junior. The Lutheran pulpit that Andreas Kolver had opened still sat in Martin Melk’s Strand Street church. Graaff Reinet, like Swellendam, still had as yet only a sick-comforter, who was also schoolmaster. The Rev. Jan Hendrik Manger, engaged in September 1791, still sat the Cape in Van Lier’s illness, because no instructions had been received concerning him. Berg Street sat restored onto Serrurier’s door. 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, and with Langa, Cungwa, and others still occupying from the Fish to the Kowie during the government’s pleasure after Wagener’s arrangement of the 3rd of August 1789. Notes, not specie, still met the Castle’s bills after the 30th of April 1782. A surplus of grain still sat the magazines. The Amsterdam battery sat completed. Rogge Bay sat a new battery. Chavonnes sat additions not quite completed. Coehoorn sat foundations. Gordon’s battery sat out of repair. The new hospital still sat unfinished at nearly £52,000 exclusive of slave labour. Würtemburg’s two thousand sat a Java paper of the 10th of October 1790, with Gordon’s six hundred and four hundred engineers and artillerymen. Newlands now sat Hendrik Vos’s four thousand four hundred pounds. Rustenburg still sat the secunde. The interior posts sat sold. The 1791 census had counted 3,618 burghers and 17,396 slaves, and had written no Khoikhoi name. Some 15,000 whites sat the colony when the year opened. On the 27th of March the Dutch frigate Scipio came to anchor in Table or Simon’s Bay. January therefore opened on a bought occupation still sitting between Fish and Kowie, on paper notes that sat a legal tender in town, and on an acting chair waiting for two names the 19th of August 1791 had already written. [3] [4] [7]
After 1789 there was very little respect paid to the government authorities in the district of Graaff Reinet. Woeke had become addicted to drunkenness, and had allowed a violent temper to become his master. He and the secretary Maynier were continually quarrelling, and the latter, being a favourite with the government, did not scruple to irritate his superior officer. Comfortable and well-furnished houses were not to be found on the frontier, for no one cared to build or to buy what might be destroyed the next day; but there was no lack of food or of other first necessaries of life. In the neighbourhood of the Xhosa they guarded their herds with arms in their hands, while along the great mountain range they were continually struggling with the San. A long drought already sat the eastern farms. January therefore opened on a bought occupation, on paper notes that sat a fear in the interior, and on a third drostdy still very little removed from anarchy. [3] [4]
Van Reenen Home — 20 June 1792
The column that Willem van Reenen had taken from Zeekoe Vlei on the 17th of September 1791 still sat north when January opened. Pieter Brand, Adrian Louw, Barend Freyn, and Frederik Wysman still sat that paper, with several Bastaards and a large party of Khoikhoi. On the 30th of October they had crossed the Great river. On the 18th of November they had rested at the furthest point reached by Captain Hop’s expedition in 1761. The country was parched by heat and drought; San and lions were very troublesome; the oxen were beginning to die; but they had still pushed on. January therefore opened on a private column already north of Hop’s furthest, still short of the hot spring another month would name. [3]
On the 23rd of January 1792 they reached a mountain where was a spring of very hot water, from which the flow was so great that several morgen of ground might be irrigated. Copper ore was found there. During the night after their arrival they were attacked by a party of Namaquas, who killed two of their Khoikhoi and wounded a slave; but next morning the chief of the attacking party sent to say that the assault had been made by mistake, and presented three oxen and four sheep as a peace offering. The people are called the Godousies. The mountain had until recently been in possession of the Ovaherero or Damaras, but the Namaquas were then masters of it. Van Reenen named it Mount Rhenius. At this place a camp was formed, while the country around was explored. From another document the mountain is found to have been within easy reach of Walfish Bay. January therefore wrote a hot spring onto a copper mountain, wrote two Khoikhoi dead onto a night assault, and wrote Rhenius’s acting name onto a height the Damaras had already lost. [3]
Pieter Brand with a party of Khoikhoi pushed on fifteen days’ journey further, and made himself well acquainted with the condition of the Damaras, who belong to the Bantu family, and of the Namaquas, who are Khoikhoi. The Damaras had been conquered by the Namaquas, and had been deprived of their horned cattle, goats, and sheep. They informed Brand that he would yet have to travel nine days before he would find Damaras in possession of cattle. They had been able to hold their own, they said, until the Namaquas obtained iron in large quantities from the south. Copper rings of their own manufacture were plentiful with them. Brand also met with black people living like San on nothing but game and roots, but speaking a dialect of the Khoikhoi language: Bantu by blood, Khoikhoi by language, and San by habit. On the 14th of March the party moved from Mount Rhenius to a place close by, which they named Modder Fontein. Here they remained until the 23rd of April. There was abundance of game in the neighbourhood. Of rhinoceroses alone they killed sixty-five, and of giraffes six. Having laden the waggons with ore which they believed contained gold, but which on their arrival at the Cape was proved to be copper, they turned homeward. [3]
On the way they visited a clan of Namaquas called in the diary the Keykous, who can be identified with the people known as the red nation. The name of the chief is given as Nonbelo, but the colonial Khoikhoi called him Roode Mos. He was very friendly, bringing four oxen as a present, and offering to assist the Europeans to punish the Godousies for attacking the party on its arrival at Mount Rhenius. The offer was declined. On the 20th of June 1792 the expedition reached Van Reenen’s farm Zeekoe Vlei, having been absent nine months, and having lost by drought and San one hundred and forty oxen. From these travellers was received the first authentic account of the condition of the Damara clans, and of the feud between them and the Namaquas. June therefore wrote a copper load onto a gold rumour, wrote a hundred and forty oxen onto a nine-month track, and wrote Zeekoe Vlei onto a column that had named a mountain for the acting chair two days after two other names had already anchored in Simon’s Bay. [3] [9]
Commissioners Installed — 3 July 1792
On the 19th of August 1791 a commission had been issued by the stadtholder and the directors, empowering a board — Sebastiaan Cornelis Nederburgh, Captain Simon Hendrik Frykenius, Willem Arnold Alting, and Hendrik van Stokkum — to investigate all matters connected with the Company’s affairs, to dismiss corrupt officials, and generally to do as they should judge best. Only two members could visit the Cape. They were directed on their arrival to see that the stoppage of public works resolved upon in the previous year was carried into effect; to establish the administration in the simplest and least expensive manner; and to endeavour to increase the revenue. They could grant liberty to carry on a trade in slaves with Madagascar and the east coast of Africa, to establish whale fisheries, and to convey farm produce to any of the Dutch possessions in India, provided that the vessels employed were owned in the colony or the Netherlands, were manned by crews consisting of at least half Cape colonists, and did not go beyond prescribed limits. They were to impose import and export duties and farm them out. They were to investigate the causes of the continued dissatisfaction of the colonists. Messrs. Nederburgh and Frykenius embarked in the national ship of war Amazoon, which cast anchor in Simon’s Bay on the 18th of June 1792. On the 23rd there was a special meeting of the council at two o’clock in the afternoon, when they were present and delivered an address; but they were not formally installed until the 3rd of July, when with as much state as was possible they assumed supreme control of the administration. [3] [7] [9]
They were not many hours in the colony before they became aware that their task would not be an easy one. The first thing they heard upon reaching Simon’s Bay was that the council had been obliged by the attitude of the burghers to withdraw a proclamation imposing a succession duty, or tax upon inheritances, which the directors had ordered to be levied. On the 25th of June the burgher councillors — J. Smuts, G. H. Meyer, H. J. de Wet, A. Fleck, H. A. Truter, and H. P. Warnecke — requested an interview for the purpose of presenting a memorial on the condition of the country, which they desired to deliver in the name and on behalf of the whole body of colonists. The commissioners declined to receive them as representatives of the people, and asserted that they would only recognise the legally constituted committee of the high court of justice, which consisted of three servants of the Company and three burghers. They offered, however, to listen to the complaints contained in the memorial if the councillors would appear as private individuals. Two days in every week, they stated, would be set aside to hear complaints. Advocate Nederburgh, who dominated the pair, refused from the height of almost dictatorial power. The burgher councillors withdrew dissatisfied. They maintained that from the earliest days of the colony to the recent establishment of the committee of the high court, their predecessors in office had been regarded as representatives of the burgher population. [3] [9]
Immediately, public meetings began to be held all over the country, and addresses were signed, which were forwarded to the burgher councillors for presentation. In these addresses the principle was kept in view that the colonists could not in justice be required to assist the Company out of its difficulties, as they had in no way contributed to its losses, and that as the expenditure for purely colonial purposes was less than the revenue, the taxes should be reduced, instead of being increased. The farmers desired that the tithes should be abolished, and a tax substituted of five per cent upon the value of produce sold. The commissioners learned that the supply of wheat in Cape Town was only sufficient for eighteen days’ consumption, and that the country people would not bring in more until their grievances were heard. On the 9th of July the burgher councillors presented themselves again with numerous memorials, and were again informed that they could not be recognised as representatives of the people. But it soon became evident that on this point concession must be made. Much as the people talked about taxation, they talked more about their rights; and this matter of being represented by burghers alone, instead of by a mixed body of Company’s servants and burghers, was the right that just then they made most of. After another month of bickering, and probably at the instigation of the more gentle Frykenius, the commissioners at length gave way, and while still retaining the committee of the high court of justice for the management of municipal affairs, consented to receive the six burgher councillors as representatives or advocates of the colonists. [3] [9]
Messrs. Nederburgh and Frykenius now issued addresses appealing to the people to aid the government in its distress and to desist from further opposition. They exhorted the citizens of the town to return to the simple style of living of their forefathers, as by so doing large incomes would not be needed. That was the course the Company had determined to adopt, they stated, and it was the only practicable means of overcoming the difficulties under which all were labouring. These moral injunctions had little or no effect. The people denied that they were disloyal to the States General, and maintained that their opposition was confined to the corrupt administration of the East India Company. But the East India Company is the machinery provided by the States General for your government, said the commissioners. After a rigid examination of the records and practices of each department, they came to the conclusion that it would be possible to reduce the expenditure at the Cape to about £66,000 a year. They struck off nearly all the perquisites of the officers of government, and allowed them small, but suitable, salaries instead. The officers were permitted, however, to retain the fees which they derived from various sources. The Company’s gardens in Cape Town and the country seat of Rustenburg, used by the secunde, were leased by public tender, and a great number and variety of other charges upon the Company were summarily cut off. [3] [9]
To increase the revenue they imposed a duty of £2 upon every slave imported, and of five per cent upon the value of all articles imported or exported, except by the Company; an increase of transfer dues on sales of land held over ten years, from two and a half to four per cent; a charge upon carriages and vehicles kept for pleasure, varying from 12s. to £2 a year; a charge of £2 on every vessel not belonging to the Company anchoring in either of the bays; the farming out of the saltpans; a duty of 12s. on each legger of brandy brought to town, similar to the former duty on wine; a charge of five per cent upon the effects of all persons above the rank of junior merchants leaving the colony, unless they returned within three years; and an increase of the stamp duty. Under this last heading came also auction duty, at the rate of three and a half per cent on the value of movable and one and three quarters per cent on the value of landed property, this tax being made payable by means of stamps on the vendu rolls, which the auctioneer was required to make oath to. The last-named was a most unpopular tax. From the earliest times goods of all kinds were constantly being disposed of by auction in the town, and periodical sales were held in the several country districts. Every three months, upon the celebration of the communion, the farmers were in the habit of attending the different churches, many of them travelling seven or eight days for that purpose, and usually remaining from the Thursday or Friday preceding to the Tuesday following. Those who had goods or cattle to dispose of took advantage of these opportunities. A tax upon auctions was therefore a tax that affected the pockets of every one. [3] [9]
The burgher councillors, after using all the arguments they could command, protested against the levying of this tax, but to no purpose. The heemraden of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, attended by between three and four hundred farmers of that district, came to town, and remonstrated against it, but also to no effect. Then at public meetings it was resolved to purchase nothing at auctions until the obnoxious tax was withdrawn. The commissioners went to Stellenbosch, where the opposition was strongest, and endeavoured to appease the people; but though they were listened to patiently and treated with the greatest respect, they were unsuccessful. In the first place of what they termed benefits, they raised the price paid by the Company for wheat to 11s. 4d. a muid, from which, however, the tithe — either in money or in kind — was to be deducted. At this price, the Company was to retain the right of demanding as much wheat as it needed. The farmers could dispose of the surplus as they pleased, or could export it to India or the Netherlands, provided it was sent in Dutch ships. July therefore wrote two names onto the first chair with as much state as possible, wrote eighteen days of wheat onto a withholding countryside, wrote six burghers onto a representative paper the commissioners had first refused, and wrote an auction stamp onto every quarterly communion sale. [3]
Woeke Suspended — 2 July 1792
Owing to advantages gained by the San in the war along the interior mountain range, and the abandonment of about a hundred farms by the colonists, the government directed the landdrosts of Graaff Reinet, Swellendam, and Stellenbosch, with the heemraden of those districts, to hold a combined meeting in Cape Town on the 1st of July 1792, under presidency of Colonel Gordon, for the purpose of arranging a plan of military operations. On the day appointed, Woeke did not appear, so on the 2nd of July the council suspended him from duty, and called upon him to answer for his conduct. A military officer — Captain Bernard Cornelis van Baalen — was directed to proceed to Graaff Reinet as soon as arrangements could be made, and to act there as landdrost until further orders. The old secretary Wagener and Jan Gysbert van Reenen, the latter of whom was a man of experience in frontier matters, were requested to aid the combined landdrosts and heemraden with their advice. [3] [4]
On the 13th of July Colonel Gordon laid before the council of policy the report that had been agreed upon. It recommended that a commando of at least a hundred burghers should be called out in the district of Swellendam, and another of equal strength in the district of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, that these commandos should be provided for a campaign of three months, and should meet at the farm of Jan Adam Raubenheimer at the Zwartberg, on the 31st of August. Jan Pieter van der Walt, of the Cold Bokkeveld, was named as a competent man for the chief command, and his brother Tjaart van der Walt as the person best qualified for the second place. It was proposed that Captain Van Baalen, when on his way to Graaff Reinet, should call upon J. P. van der Walt, and arrange a plan of action; that he should then assemble as many of his burghers as could be got together, and act in concert with the other forces in the field. The council adopted the report. The usual injunctions to act with humanity were added, and as an inducement to the burghers to take prisoners rather than shoot their opponents, a reward of £3 was offered for every individual of San race, big or little, male or female, delivered at the Cape. The council determined that such prisoners should be sent to Robben Island as convicts for life. [3]
Before these arrangements could be carried into effect, a robbery of unusual magnitude took place. On the 11th of June two hordes of San, under leaders to whom the colonists had given the names Flamink and Couragie, attacked at the Leeuwen river the drovers in charge of some cattle belonging to the contractor for the supply of meat to the Company, killed a European, wounded a slave, and captured 11,000 slaughter sheep and 256 oxen. The burgher lieutenant Nicholas Smit, of Graaff Reinet, assisted by Tjaart van der Walt and Philip Botha, got together thirty-three burghers of Swellendam, and followed up the robbers. On the 24th of July this commando fell in with Flamink’s horde, and shot about three hundred individuals of all ages, including the leader. Fifteen children were taken alive, and eight hundred and sixty sheep, fifty-three oxen, four horses, and eight muskets were recovered. On the 1st of September the commandant-general Van der Walt left Raubenheimer’s farm with a force of sixty Europeans and forty Bastaards to search for Couragie’s horde. The country about the source of the Zak river was scoured, and over two hundred San were killed. Seven hundred and twenty-five sheep and fifteen oxen were recovered. On the 24th of November the Europeans and Bastaards, divided into three parties, went out again from the camp, but did not succeed in falling in with the marauders. [3]
The burghers of Graaff Reinet took no part in these operations. Captain Van Baalen did not arrive at the drostdy until the 12th of September, when he found that the secretary Maynier had issued notices to the farmers to assemble on the 24th, too late to act in concert with the other forces. The Europeans had an active ally in the Namaqua captain Afrikaner, who with his clan scoured the country further down the Zak river while Commandant Van der Walt was engaged at its sources, killed one hundred and thirteen San, and took twenty prisoners. He then applied to the landdrost of Stellenbosch for a supply of ammunition to enable him to proceed with the work of clearing the country of robbers. The landdrost forwarded the application to government, and on the 20th of November the council resolved to comply with the request. A farmer named Pienaar, who lived on the border, was known to have a large stock of powder and lead on hand. The landdrost was instructed to procure advances from Pienaar, which the council would gladly repay, and at the same time he was to convey to Afrikaner the particular satisfaction of the government with his conduct. That same 20th of November the council of policy sat in the morning, all present. [3]
Towards the close of 1792 the commandos operating against the San were disbanded, and the burghers of Stellenbosch and Swellendam returned to their homes. Two farms in the Nieuwveld were given free of rent to J. P. van der Walt, on condition of his occupying them; and power was conferred upon him to call out commandos whenever he might find it necessary, without previous reference to any of the landdrosts. Immediately after the suspension of Landdrost Woeke, complaints of his domineering conduct were made by the secretary Maynier, the sick comforter De Vries, the former heemraad Van Jaarsveld, and others, all of which he was called upon to reply to. Instead of defending himself, he accused his opponents of various kinds of improper conduct. With regard to his not attending the combined meeting, Woeke gave a satisfactory explanation. Communications between the seat of government and the drostdy of Graaff Reinet were frequently from three to four months in passing. On this occasion, he only received the order on the 20th of June, and it was therefore impossible to obey it. He eventually showed that it was impossible to have travelled the long distance in the short time between the issue of the summons and the time of the meeting. The commissioners general, however, considering that he had not repelled the charges against him and that he had certainly lost the confidence of the people of the district, dismissed him from the Company’s service, and provisionally appointed the secretary Maynier landdrost in his stead. [3] [4] [9]
It was an injudicious appointment, for no one could have been more out of sympathy with the colonists than Maynier was. He possessed in perfection a kind of ability which enabled him to ascertain exactly what his superiors desired and to win their favour and confidence. The motive of all his acts was self-interest. He was a near relative of the secunde Rhenius, but he does not seem to have owed his appointment to the influence of that officer so much as to his own address. The frank, outspoken, generous, though rough colonists of the frontier were no match in argument for one so full of subtlety; they felt their helplessness against his misrepresentations, and detested him accordingly. A long and intensely severe drought had prevented the cultivation of the ground; all the reserve grain had been consumed by the Xhosa, and those in the Zuurveld had lost most of their cattle. The regent Ndlambe sat at open war with the chiefs on this side of the Fish river. Far and wide within the colony the Xhosa were stealing the farmers’ cattle. The year therefore wrote a hundred abandoned farms onto a 1 July paper Woeke could not reach, wrote Van Baalen onto a drostdy from the 12th of September, wrote Maynier onto a provisional chair the frontier already detested, and wrote Afrikaner’s hundred and thirteen onto a Zak that Van der Walt had scoured at its sources. [3] [4]
Whale Fishery and India Trade — 1792
For several years the coast of South Africa had been frequented by English and American whalers, to such an extent that on one occasion over twenty were engaged in St. Helena Bay alone. In September 1792 the commissioners threw this industry open to the colonists, on condition that the vessels employed should be built and equipped in the Netherlands, that ships engaged to take oil to Europe should be chartered through the agency of the Company, and that the oil should be sent only to the Netherlands. Whale fishing by means of open boats only was restricted to Table and False bays, in order that no establishments requiring protection might be formed at other places. Next, in November 1792 liberty was given to the colonists to send the produce of the country to any part of Netherlands India for sale, provided that the ships employed were built in Holland; but return cargoes could only be purchased from the Company. The ports of Table Bay, Mossel Bay, and Plettenberg’s Bay were declared open for this trade. The ships engaged were not to go beyond certain limits, which were laid down. A trade in slaves with Madagascar and the east coast of Africa was also permitted. [3]
At the same time the commissioners strictly prohibited the importation of any goods in foreign vessels. Trade with strangers was restricted to the sale of provisions for money, unless special permission was first obtained from the government. The privileges, as the commissioners termed them, gave little satisfaction to the colonists. The prohibition of trade with foreigners, they protested, would ruin them. For more than a century the Cape had been a place where persons coming from Europe could buy Indian wares, and those from India European wares, a large proportion of which was obtained from foreigners. The trade was illegal, but was nevertheless conducted openly. Nearly the whole of the gold and silver in the colony was derived from the English, French, and Danes who visited the ports. The Indian trade, fenced in by such restrictions as those imposed by the commissioners, would be of no benefit. The liberty to establish whale fisheries would be of advantage to a few persons, but could be of little aid to the colony at large. Distress, consequent upon the reduction of the garrison and an almost total cessation of trade, was at this time general. Men were unable to pay debts less than one-tenth of the nominal value of fixed property in their possession, and judgments of court in some cases could not be satisfied, as purchasers were not to be found for land at any price. [3]
Steps had been taken in anticipation to establish a consistory at Graaff Reinet, and on the 18th of March 1792 the council approved of Marthinus Wessel Pretorius and Jan Jacobsen as elders, and selected from a double nomination Andries Pretorius and Barend Burger as deacons of the newly-formed congregation. There had been a little friction between the Dutch Reformed and Lutheran consistories at the Cape on the subject of baptism of children whose parents did not both belong to the same church. The directors settled the matter by issuing instructions that boys should be baptized in the church to which their father belonged, and girls in the church to which their mother belonged, all persons to be free at eighteen years of age to leave one communion and join the other. In 1791 a movement had been commenced for the establishment of a good school at each church and seat of magistracy in the country, and of a high school in Cape Town, in which the Latin and French languages should be taught. A committee was appointed, and after long discussion a plan was prepared, which was submitted to the council and approved of in March 1792. It depended chiefly upon voluntary subscriptions to commence with, and payment of school fees thereafter. A sum of money was collected for the Latin school in Cape Town, and a building in Graaffe — now Grave — street was purchased from Skipper François Duminy for £1,000. [3]
It is a relief to turn from these scenes of contention to the efforts that were made at this time by several colonists to improve the domestic animals of the colony. In 1792 Jan Frederik Kirsten imported from England eight horses and three bulls for breeding purposes. So little encouragement did the government give to the enterprise that he was obliged to pay a duty of five per cent upon their value. In the same year Jacobus Arnoldus Kirsten imported five horses from Boston. Some skippers of American vessels, finding others disposed to imitate the Kirstens, made arrangements to bring over cattle of good quality. Abraham de Smidt sent a ton of hair of the common sheep to Holland, to ascertain whether it was of any value there, when it was proved not to be worth the cost of transport. September therefore wrote a whale leave onto hulls that had to be built in the Netherlands, November wrote farm produce onto Dutch-built ships whose return cargoes sat only the Company’s stores, and the year wrote English stallions and Boston horses onto a five-percent paper the commissioners had just imposed. [3]
Moravians at Baviaans Kloof — December 1792
Since the return to Europe of George Schmidt, the Moravian Society had frequently requested the Assembly of Seventeen to permit missionaries to be sent to the Khoikhoi, but hitherto without success. In a despatch dated the 22nd of December 1791, the directors had informed the Cape government that they had given the United Brethren permission to send two or three missionaries to South Africa and to administer the sacraments to any converts they might make, the only restriction being that they were not to occupy ground where Christian churches were already established. The government was instructed to give them such assistance as they might need. In November 1792 three missionaries — by name Heinrich Marsveld, Daniel Schwinn, and Johan Christiaan Kühnel — arrived from Holland in the Duifje. After looking about for a suitable site for a station, they selected Baviaans Kloof, where George Schmidt had laboured, and on the 18th of December the council, on their application, granted them the use of as much land there as they might require. Marthinus Theunissen, superintendent of a cattle station that had not yet been sold, was directed to provide transport for their effects, and to see that they obtained whatever they needed on the way. [3] [4]
Upon the arrival of the missionaries, they found an aged Khoikhoi woman who had been baptized by Schmidt, and who still preserved a New Testament which he had given to her. Under an old pear tree, planted by Schmidt, they commenced to hold religious services, and soon succeeded in drawing a considerable number of Khoikhoi together. They laid out gardens, and gave one to each family to be retained during good behaviour. In this manner a village soon grew up. A large extent of ground was brought under cultivation by the personal labour of the missionaries, with such assistance as they could obtain from those who gathered around them. A school for children was opened at once, and at stated hours that would interfere least with field labour the adults were collected together for instruction and prayer. The necessity of industry and cleanliness was impressed upon the pupils, not only by precept, but by example and the rules of the institution. The missionaries themselves were men of good common sense as well as of great zeal, and from the first commanded the respect of the farmers in their neighbourhood. Political partisanship was studiously avoided, and social equality between European colonists and individuals just emerging from barbarism was not taught. [3] [4]
To preserve order in Cape Town, the commissioners-general introduced a new system of police. In December 1792 the town was divided into twenty-three wards, and the gardens at the foot of Table Mountain into two wards, in each of which two burghers of respectability were selected to act as wardmasters. Their duties were to prevent nuisances of all kinds, to enforce cleanliness in the streets and public places, to give directions in case of fire, and generally to maintain order. All persons moving their residence from or into any ward were required to report to the wardmasters, and the arrival and departure of foreigners or strangers were to be reported to them by the lodging-house keepers. They were required to have their names and the word wykmeester posted up in large letters in front of their houses. Instead of a salary, they were exempted from the payment of rates and taxes levied for local purposes. They were subject to the directions of the committee of the high court of justice, to whom they were bound to send in periodical returns upon the state of the town. Every year half of the number were to be relieved of duty, and successors were to be appointed by the council of policy from a list of twice as many names submitted by the whole body of wardmasters and approved by the committee of the high court of justice. [3]
In the staff of the public departments the commissioners-general made several changes. The appointment of the acting fiscal independent, Jacob Pieter de Nys, was confirmed, and he took his seat in the council of policy. Egbertus Bergh, secretary of the council of policy since August 1791, was promoted to be cashier, and a voice in the debates was given to him, but without the right of voting, as he was not a member of the established church. George Frederik Goetz was appointed his successor as secretary. Christoffel Brand, the resident at Simon’s Town, had a seat in the council given to him whenever he might be at the castle. Jan Arnold Voltelen was appointed head of the naval establishment, without a seat in the council. Major De Lille was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In October 1792 the Rev. Mr. Manger commenced his duties in Graaff Reinet. In July 1792 the health of the Rev. Mr. Van Lier, third minister of the Cape, broke down, so the commissioners-general permitted him to retire on a pension. The situation remained vacant. December therefore wrote twenty-three wykmeesters onto the town, wrote two more onto the gardens at the foot of the mountain, wrote three United Brethren onto Schmidt’s pear tree, and wrote Manger onto a third drostdy that had sat only a sick-comforter since October 1786. [3]
Year Closes: Two Commissioners, a Provisional Drostdy, and Twenty-Three Wards — 1792
In the Castle the year closed on two commissioners in the first power. Sebastiaan Cornelis Nederburgh and Captain Simon Hendrik Frykenius still sat that power from the 3rd of July, with as much state as had been possible, with Rhenius still secunde under them, and with Van de Graaff’s title and salary still sitting in Holland. De Nys now sat the fiscal’s office confirmed, with a seat in the council of policy. Bergh now sat the cashier’s desk with a voice and without a vote. Goetz now sat the council’s secretary. Brand sat a council seat whenever he was at the castle. Voltelen sat the naval establishment without a seat. De Lille sat lieutenant-colonel. The high court still sat six Company servants and six burghers. The committee of that court still sat municipal affairs, and now sat twenty-three town wardmasters and two garden wardmasters under it. The Company’s gardens and Rustenburg sat leased by public tender. A wheat price of 11s. 4d. a muid sat the magazines, minus the tithe. Würtemburg’s two thousand still sat a Java paper. Chavonnes still sat unfinished. Coehoorn still sat foundations. The new hospital still sat unfinished at nearly £52,000. [3] [9]
Bletterman still sat Stellenbosch. Faure still sat Swellendam from the 21st of April 1789. Van Baalen had sat Graaff Reinet from the 12th of September; Maynier now sat that drostdy provisionally, a secretary the frontier already detested, with six heemraden, and with Van Jaarsveld still on that board as well as on the eastern command. San still disturbed the northern farms; about a hundred had been abandoned; the commandos of Stellenbosch and Swellendam had come home toward the close of the year; two Nieuwveld farms sat free of rent on Van der Walt, with power to call a commando without a landdrost’s leave. Afrikaner’s ammunition sat a 20 November paper. Brand still sat the winter port, now with a council seat at the castle. Gordon still sat the garrison as colonel. Gilquin still sat the works, with all fortification work still stopped. Meding still sat a timber magazine at Plettenberg’s Bay. Table Bay, Mossel Bay, and Plettenberg’s Bay sat open for the India produce trade. Whale fishing sat open under Netherlands hulls. Foreign goods in foreign ships sat forbidden. [3] [4]
Serrurier of Hanau and Fleck still sat the Reformed Cape, with Van Lier’s third now vacant on a July pension. 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 now sat Manger from October, with a consistory whose elders Pretorius and Jacobsen and whose deacons Pretorius and Burger had sat from the 18th of March. A Latin-and-French paper still sat a Grave Street building bought from Duminy for £1,000. Three United Brethren sat Schmidt’s pear tree at Baviaans Kloof, with an aged Khoikhoi woman’s New Testament, with gardens given family by family, and with a school already open. Theunissen’s cattle station had furnished their transport. [3] [4]
On the 23rd of January Van Reenen’s column had reached Mount Rhenius; on the 14th of March it had sat Modder Fontein; on the 20th of June it had come home to Zeekoe Vlei after nine months, with copper that had been taken for gold, and with one hundred and forty oxen lost. On the 18th of March a consistory had been named for Graaff Reinet, and a school plan had been approved. On the 18th of June the Amazoon had anchored in Simon’s Bay; on the 23rd the commissioners had addressed the council; on the 25th the six burgher councillors had been refused as representatives; on the 3rd of July they had been installed. On the 1st of July Woeke had not appeared; on the 2nd he had been suspended. On the 11th of June Flamink and Couragie had lifted 11,000 sheep at the Leeuwen river; on the 24th of July Smit had shot about three hundred; on the 1st of September Van der Walt had left Raubenheimer’s farm. In September whale fishing had been opened. On the 12th of September Van Baalen had reached the drostdy. In October Manger had commenced at Graaff Reinet. In November farm produce might go to Dutch India; Afrikaner’s ammunition had been granted; three Moravians had arrived in the Duifje. On the 18th of December Baviaans Kloof had been granted. In December the town had been cut into twenty-three wards. The year of the commissioners-general ended on those facts: on two names sitting the Company’s own power, on a provisional landdrost the frontier already detested, on a copper mountain named for an acting chair, and on three Brethren under a pear tree planted from the gardens of 1652’s church. [3] [4] [7] [9]