Boer History1793 at the Cape of Good Hope: Second Xhosa War, Auction Boycott, Loan Bank, and Sluysken
Year Opens: Two Commissioners Still in the First Chair — 1793
Calendar 1793 opened with Sebastiaan Cornelis Nederburgh and Captain Simon Hendrik Frykenius still sitting the Company’s own power from the 3rd of July 1792, with as much state as had been possible, from the gardens of 1652, while Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff still sat a title and a salary in Holland, and Johan Isaac Rhenius still sat secunde under them. Jacob Pieter de Nys now sat the fiscal’s office confirmed, with a seat in the council of policy. Egbertus Bergh sat the cashier’s desk with a voice and without a vote. George Frederik Goetz sat the council’s secretary. Christoffel Brand sat the winter port, with a council seat whenever he was at the castle. Jan Arnold Voltelen sat the naval establishment without a seat. Major Carel Matthys Willem de Lille sat lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon still sat the garrison. Major Philip Herman Gilquin still sat the works, with all fortification work still stopped. January therefore opened on two commissioners in the first chair, on a soldier’s title still paid out of sight of the bay, and on a paper already sitting where gold and silver had sat. [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. Honoratus Christiaan David Maynier now sat Graaff Reinet provisionally, a secretary the frontier already detested, with six heemraden, and with Adriaan van Jaarsveld still on that board as well as on the eastern command. Captain Bernard Cornelis van Baalen had sat that drostdy from the 12th of September 1792 until Maynier took it. Jan Frederik Meding still sat the timber magazine at Plettenberg’s Bay. Jan Pieter van der Walt still sat two Nieuwveld farms free of rent, with power to call a commando without a landdrost’s leave. 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 1792. [3] [4]
The pulpits of the opening year sat the names the acting 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 vacant on a July pension. 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 Van der Spuy junior. Graaff Reinet still sat the Rev. Manger from October 1792, with a consistory whose elders Pretorius and Jacobsen and whose deacons Pretorius and Burger had sat from the 18th of March 1792. Kolver still sat Melk’s nave. A Latin-and-French paper still sat a Grave Street building bought from Duminy for £1,000. Three United Brethren — Heinrich Marsveld, Daniel Schwinn, and Johan Christiaan Kuehnel — still sat Schmidt’s pear tree at Baviaans Kloof, with an aged Khoikhoi woman’s New Testament, with gardens given family by family, with a mill for grinding corn, with a small factory for making knives, and with a school already open. [3]
The Company’s gardens in Cape Town and the country seat of Rustenburg still sat leased by public tender. A wheat price of 11s. 4d. a muid still sat the magazines, minus the tithe. Table Bay, Mossel Bay, and Plettenberg’s Bay still sat open for the India produce trade, fenced by Dutch hulls and by return cargoes that could be bought only from the Company. Whale fishing still sat open under Netherlands hulls, with open boats restricted to Table and False bays. Foreign goods in foreign ships still sat forbidden, except provisions for money. Cartoon paper already sat where coin had sat. The six burgher councillors — J. Smuts, Gerrit Hendrik Meyer, Hendrik Justinus de Wet, A. Fleck, H. A. Truter, and H. P. Warnecke — still sat as advocates of the colonists after the commissioners had at length given way, while the committee of the high court of justice still sat municipal affairs, and twenty-three town wardmasters and two garden wardmasters still sat under it. January therefore opened on two names in the first power, on a provisional drostdy the frontier already detested, and on three Brethren under a pear tree planted from the gardens of 1652’s church. [3] [9]
Meermin North — 3 January 1793
The belief in gold in Great Namaqualand had not yet died out. Sebastiaan Valentyn van Reenen addressed the commissioners, and an arrangement for another exploring expedition was made. The commissioners, on behalf of the Company, intended to take formal possession of all the bays on the coast of Namaqualand that were likely to be frequented by whalers. It was planned that the packet Meermin should be sent northward for that purpose, that Van Reenen with his party should have a passage in her to a bay where a train of waggons sent overland should meet him, and that Skipper Duminy should render every possible assistance. When Willem van Reenen’s expedition had been in Namaqualand, one of the party — Barend Freyn — had heard of a Khoikhoi chief named Ynemand, said to reside at a bay about twelve or fourteen days’ journey north of the mouth of the great river, friendly to strangers and knowing where the gold mines were. Sebastiaan van Reenen now engaged Freyn to proceed with a train of waggons to Ynemand’s kraal, to be there not later than the 1st of January, and to wait. [3]
On the 3rd of January 1793 the Meermin sailed from Table Bay. She had as passengers the brothers Sebastiaan Valentyn and Dirk Gysbert van Reenen, Pieter Pienaar, a European servant, eight Khoikhoi, and two slaves. Five days after sailing she reached an island close to the coast in latitude 27° S., where some Englishmen and Americans were found killing seals for their oil and skins. Pienaar went ashore on the mainland and came across Khoikhoi, but could obtain no intelligence concerning Freyn and the waggons. The only white man the Khoikhoi knew of in the country was Gideon Visagie, who led a wandering life among them. Some stone beacons had been brought from the Cape, with the arms of the States engraved on one side and the mark of the East India Company on the other. On the 12th of January one of these was taken ashore on the island and erected at a spot set down as latitude 27° S., longitude 32° 45′ east of Teneriffe. The sealhunters called the place Thomson’s Island; in South Africa it has been known ever since this date as Possession. The sheet of water between it and the mainland was named by Skipper Duminy Elizabeth Bay. A chart was made, which is now in the archives of the colony. [3] [3]
On the 13th the Meermin sailed. She cast anchor next in latitude 26° 21′ S., and parties went ashore and explored the country around Angra Pequena, without finding any trace of Ynemand or Barend Freyn. On the 20th of January possession was formally taken, and a beacon was erected at a point marked as latitude 26° 30′ 26″ S., longitude 15° 57′ 9″ east of London — the longitude incorrect, as in nearly all the calculations of that time. The variation of the compass is set down as 28° 31′ W. The island now called Halifax was named by Skipper Duminy Meermin Island; the sheet of water between it and Pedestal Point he named Daniel’s Bay; the recess between Pedestal Point and the point farther eastward on which he erected his beacon he named Rhenius Bay; and Angra Pequena itself he renamed Beschermer Haven. Sailing again, on the 23rd of January the Meermin cast anchor in Walvisch or Whale Bay, latitude as given 22° 56′ S. Skipper Duminy had been there two years before, when he had seen about a hundred head of horned cattle in possession of a kraal of Khoikhoi. On the 25th the brothers Van Reenen went ashore and found the Khoikhoi, who appeared highly delighted at the sight of strangers. Presents were made to them, and two cows, a calf, five sheep, and some copper ornaments were obtained in barter. These Khoikhoi knew of Captain Ynemand, and pointed to the south-east as the direction in which he lived. They declined, however, to furnish guides, though tempting offers were made. They stated that the copper mine, from which they procured the metal which they had in abundance, was not very far away. After a short acquaintance they were found to be persistent beggars and inveterate thieves. [3]
On the 29th of January Pieter Pienaar and the Khoikhoi brought from the Cape left to explore the country to the eastward. They returned on the 20th of February, when Pienaar reported that the day after leaving he met two Damaras who acted as guides and conducted him for twelve days up the valley of a river. Beyond this valley on each side the country was burnt up, as he was informed no rain whatever had fallen for five years. In the valley he found fine large trees growing, and in some places rich grass in flats three quarters of an hour’s walk from one side to the other. Water was obtained by digging in places known to the natives, though none was flowing above the surface. He passed five Damara kraals in the valley, and procured some copper from the people residing in them. They informed him that there were no clans with cattle to the north, but many to the south and south-east. They knew of Willem van Reenen’s expedition, but could give no information about Captain Ynemand or any other metal than copper. Game was very abundant in the valley. Pienaar had seen elephants, rhinoceroses, gemsboks, buffaloes, gnus, springboks, and lions. With some of the people, the men were fat and strong, owing to their being able to get game, but the women and children were wretchedly thin and seemingly starving. They had offered to sell some children, and Pienaar had bought two about eight or nine years of age, little better than skeletons. [3]
It was now evident that Freyn was not in Namaqualand, and Van Reenen came to the conclusion that he had been prevented by the drought from penetrating the country, which was afterwards found to be correct. No information whatever concerning gold was to be obtained, nor was it possible to reach Ynemand wherever he might be. Further exploration was therefore reluctantly abandoned. On the 26th of February a beacon was erected by Skipper Duminy as a mark of possession, but the old name of Walvisch — or as now written Walfish — Bay was not changed. On the 3rd of March the Meermin sailed, and on the 10th of April cast anchor again in Table Bay. No gold, and Freyn’s waggons never arrived. The commissioners had backed a venture that did not turn Simon van der Stel’s copper into gold. Possession, Angra Pequena, and Walfish Bay sat Company beacons; the overland gold still sat a drought. [3] [9]
France Declares War — 1 February 1793
In the Netherlands the antagonism between the democratic and conservative parties continued. The former leaned towards France, the latter towards England, with which kingdom the government of the stadtholder had been in close alliance since 1788. France had become a republic. Events had for some time been tending towards a rupture, when on the 1st of February 1793 the Convention issued from Paris a declaration of war with Great Britain and the United Netherlands. From this date the ocean commerce past the Cape was greatly diminished. There are no shipping returns in the archives for the years between 1789 and 1796, except for a later year; but the constant complaints concerning the stagnation of trade, the absence of gold and silver money, and the want of merchandise, show how severely the colonists suffered. When this news reached the Cape, the Marseillaise was already heard close to the Dutch frontiers. [3] [9]
Upon tidings of the commencement of the war reaching the Cape, the commissioners-general were at a loss to know what to do for the defence of the colony. No regular troops could be expected to strengthen the garrison. They formed all the clerks and junior officers in the Company’s service into a military company, which they termed the pennist corps, and appointed the member of council Willem Ferdinand van Reede van Oudtshoorn its commandant. Further, they raised a company of half-breeds and Khoikhoi, put them in uniform, and set them to learn to be soldiers. This corps was termed the pandours. No other means could be devised of strengthening the colony. It is not impossible that at this moment the martial figure of Van de Graaff flashed through their harassed minds; but that honorary governor was building military bridges for his stadtholder, and could not be expected to solve their problems. Frykenius, an experienced naval officer, searched as hard as his colleague for a suitable head with guts. [3] [9]
Baviaans Kloof henceforth became the home of a number of Khoikhoi families, some members of which were soldiers in the pandour corps and others in service with colonists. Everything went on well until the first baptisms took place, when a spirit of jealousy was aroused. The consistory of Stellenbosch, maintaining that Baviaans Kloof was within their parish, came to the council of policy with a request that the Moravians might either be required to remove from their district, or to cease from administering the sacraments and so setting up a rival church. The request was very mildly urged, and the government replied that it could not be acceded to. 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. In September Cornelis Josias van Baak was engaged as preceptor of the Latin school in the Grave Street building, and the institution was opened. January had opened on three Brethren under a pear tree; the war year wrote pandours onto that same kloof, and wrote a preceptor onto Duminy’s house. [3]
Loan Bank and Auction Strike — 1793
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. To relieve this distress, and at the same time to increase the revenue, in March 1793 the commissioners established a loan bank. A quantity of paper was stamped to represent different sums, was declared a legal tender, and was issued through this bank to applicants offering sufficient security for the loan. In the town an advance was made to the amount of one-half the value of the property mortgaged, and in the country to the amount of two-thirds; but as additional security two persons of means were required to pledge themselves for the repayment of the loan. This issue of paper, or cartoon money as it was called, amounted to £135,473, upon which interest at the rate of five per cent was payable by the borrowers yearly. By this means relief from pressure of debt was obtained by many landed proprietors; but the effect of issuing such a quantity of inconvertible cartoon money was greatly to increase the general distress. [3] [4]
The administration of the bank was vested in a board consisting of a president and two members. They were authorised to lend money on both movable and immovable property for a period of two years, though this might be extended at their discretion. Of the five per cent, four per cent was to go to the general revenue of the country and one per cent for the maintenance of the bank. To raise the capital it became necessary to create a further quantity of inconvertible paper money, some 680,000 rix-dollars. That clause which empowered the committee to continue the loan beyond two years, intended to be used solely upon particular occasions, became general in its application; repayment was never made, not even demanded. It was not the necessitous alone who sought for and obtained the advantages of a loan: many who could succeed in borrowing from the bank a sum at five per cent lent it at increased interest to the more needy, whose want of collateral security or of interest with the commissioners perhaps prevented their receiving relief from the regular channel. An establishment instituted partly for the suppression of usury thus afforded the means to many individuals of conducting a usurious traffic. [4]
Among the taxes imposed to increase the revenue, 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 travelled seven or eight days for that purpose, and usually arranged to remain at the church place from the Thursday or Friday preceding to the Tuesday following. Those who had goods or cattle to dispose of took advantage of these opportunities, and it seldom happened that auction sales were not held. The clergy set their faces against the practice, but the circumstances of the country were such that the sales went on in spite of their denunciations. A tax upon auctions was therefore a tax that affected the pockets of every one: three and a half per cent on the value of movable and one and three quarters per cent on the value of landed property, payable by means of stamps on the vendu rolls, which the auctioneer was required to make oath to. 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. [3] [9]
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. During the month of May 1793 not a single sale by auction took place in the colony, the few who were disposed to purchase being intimidated by the attitude of the great majority of the burghers. The commissioners informed the directors, however, that it was only a question of time, as without such sales the business of the colony would cease, so that sooner or later the people would be obliged to submit. And it happened as they foresaw. A sale by auction was announced to take place at the Paarl, where the church of Drakenstein was situated; and Willem Stephanus van Ryneveld, secretary of the high court of justice, was sent to try and induce people to bid. For some time the auctioneer could get no offer for anything. But at length an old woman was persuaded by Van Ryneveld to make a trifling bid for a slave, and this being accepted and the slave pronounced sold, others could not resist the temptation to try to make like bargains. The bidding soon became spirited, and the sale was successful. In Cape Town the people held out a little longer, but were at length compelled to submit. Cartoon money sat £135,473; the auction roll sat a slave at the Paarl; the rest sat more paper distress. [3]
Second Xhosa War — 1793
At the very first meeting of the court under Maynier’s presidency, the 6th of May 1793, the majority of the district officers expressed their dissatisfaction, and were with difficulty induced not to resign their appointments. It was a trying period on the frontier. 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 was at open war with the chiefs on this side of the Fish river, and three white men — Coenraad du Buis, Christoffel Botha, and Coenraad Bezuidenhout — were taking part in the strife, nominally in his favour, really for the sake of spoil. The old chief Langa had been made prisoner, and was detained at Ndlambe’s kraal. Du Buis had not scrupled to take a girl just married to the captive chief, and keep her as his concubine, thus exasperating the Amambala clan. Far and wide within the colony the Xhosa were stealing the farmers’ cattle, and parties of them even sent word to the drostdy that they would continue to do so until the three white men with Ndlambe ceased to molest them. [3] [4]
When intelligence of Maynier’s appointment was received in the district, some of the farmers, in utter despair, took the law into their own hands. Several large cattle robberies had just taken place, so the burgher Barend Lindeque raised a commando without reference to the landdrost, got assistance from Ndlambe, and on the 18th of May surrounded a kraal and took eight hundred head of cattle from it by way of reprisal. Half of this spoil was sent to Ndlambe; the remainder was restored to the farmers from whom the cattle had been stolen. A few days after this occurrence, a great horde of Xhosa crossed the Fish river to the assistance of those on this side, and an attack was made upon the colonists. There were one hundred and twenty farms occupied between the rivers Kowie and Zwartkops, and one hundred and sixteen of these were laid waste. The Europeans and Khoikhoi fled westward for their lives. Some parties were overtaken, when the men were tortured in a shocking manner and then murdered, but the women and children were permitted to proceed. Pieter Vivier, Jan Grobbelaar, Frederik Jordaan, Juriaan Potgieter, and Stephanus Cloete were thus murdered, and Frederik Buys was left in such a condition that he died some time afterwards of his wounds. A lad about sixteen years of age, named Stroebel, was taken away, and his fate could never be ascertained. About forty Khoikhoi also were overtaken and put to death. According to returns afterwards sent in, 65,827 head of horned cattle, 11,000 sheep, and 200 horses were swept off in this raid. [3] [4]
Upon a report of the outbreak reaching Swellendam, the burgher lieutenant Pieter Hendrik Ferreira, with twenty-six white men and fourteen Khoikhoi, set out with the utmost speed to the assistance of the fugitives, and on the 22nd of June met some fifty families at the Zwartkops. It was at once arranged to make use of that river as a line of defence, and to guard it until assistance could reach them. It was estimated that there were six thousand Xhosa warriors in the field, so that offensive operations were not to be thought of. On the 18th of June Maynier, accompanied by the secretary Stanhoffius and the heemraden Stephanus Naude and Hendrik Meintjes van den Berg, left Graaff Reinet to try to restore concord by means of presents to the chiefs. He first opened up communication with Ndlambe, and arranged with him that the Xhosa in the colony might return unmolested to their own side of the Fish river. Most of them had in fact already done so, with the object of placing their spoil in safety. Many of Ndlambe’s own followers had taken part in the raid, and the colonists were convinced that a reconciliation of the clans had taken place and that all were united against them. Maynier, who professed to believe that the Xhosa were incapable of acting with duplicity, next sent a Khoikhoi named Willem Hasebek to the chiefs who had led the raiders, to propose peace on condition of their restoring the captured cattle and respecting the Fish river as the boundary. They replied, agreeing to the boundary of the Fish river, but declining to give up the cattle. Maynier then returned to Graaff Reinet, where tidings reached him that large numbers of Xhosa were again on the colonial side of the river, that they were plundering farms in distant parts of the district, and that on the 30th of July a son of Theunis Botha and a Khoikhoi had been murdered. [3] [4]
Meantime the government had sent instructions to the landdrost of Swellendam to call out a strong commando and proceed to the devastated district. He was to compel the Xhosa to cross the Fish river and to restore the captured cattle or make compensation; but was not to inflict further punishment, and upon these conditions being complied with, he was to make peace. The military ensign Hans Abue was sent to the frontier to aid the landdrost with his advice. When this intelligence reached Graaff Reinet, Maynier, fancying that a slight had been put upon him, resolved to take the field at once. He called out the burghers, and convened a meeting of the heemraden and militia officers on the 19th of August. The distrust felt towards him was, however, so general that no one would consent to act as commandant under his direction. There were only two heemraden — Naude and van den Berg — to say a word in his favour, and the result of the meeting was therefore that the landdrost took command himself, and appointed these two his assistants. On the 27th of August he left Graaff Reinet, at the head of 117 mounted burghers. On the 8th of September the Swellendam commando commenced its march. It consisted of about four hundred burghers — including many fugitives from the Zuurveld — and one hundred Khoikhoi, under the militia captain Laurens de Jager, accompanied by the landdrost Faure. At the devastated farm of Cornelis van Rooyen this commando joined the one under Maynier. A strong party of the Graaff Reinet burghers, having as spokesmen Carel Jan Triegard, Jan Botha, and Cornelis Faber, now agitated for the appointment of De Jager as commandant-general. Maynier and his two partisans objected, and as he quoted law which could not be disputed, his opponents were obliged to give way. It was then resolved that as the Xhosa had again gone over to the eastern side of the Fish river, a large division of the force, under command of Maynier, should follow them up, while the remaining division, under De Jager and Faure, should guard the camp on this side. [3] [4]
On the 14th of September Maynier with a small flying column appeared at the Koonap, near its junction with the Fish, where the captain Cika of the Amantinde clan was lurking, and recovered about 1,800 head of cattle. On the 26th of the same month he made another quick march to the same place, but on this occasion only obtained 200 cattle. The Xhosa lost some ten men killed and wounded by these two expeditions. The column next took another direction, and crossed the Fish river at a place where a Khoikhoi captain named Trompetter formerly had a kraal, from which circumstance the ford was known as Trompetter’s drift. On the 1st and 2nd of October about 2,500 head of cattle were recovered, but very few Xhosa were killed. A certain petty captain, called Hans by the colonists, now joined the commando with a few followers. This man was the head of the division or clan of the old Gonaqua tribe which had least mixed with the Xhosa, and he was almost a pure Khoikhoi in appearance. Cungwa, the principal chief of the tribe, was one of the most active enemies of the colonists; but Hans professed to be friendly. Every day his following increased in number, and some of them, being quite black, stated that they were adherents of Ndlambe. From the time of their arrival no cattle could be found, and the burghers, who observed that these strangers always made large fires at night, became suspicious of them and desired leave to drive them away. Maynier would not consent to this, and professed to believe that Hans and his followers were truthful and harmless. [3] [4]
Eight or ten days were now occupied in searching for a ford in the upper waters of the Keiskama, and as one could not be found, the column marched to the mouth of that river and waded across the bar. The bulk of the farmers’ cattle had in the meantime been driven far beyond reach, and had been placed in care of Kawuta, the head of the Gcaleka branch and paramount chief of the whole Xhosa tribe. The warriors of the hostile clans had doubled upon the commando, had crossed the Fish river between Trompetter’s drift and the sea, and were again in occupation of the Zuurveld. Hans and his party being left behind in the rapid march of the burgher horsemen, on the 14th of October the commando was able to surprise a strong body of the enemy on the Buffalo river, when in a hot skirmish about forty Xhosa were killed and seven thousand head of cattle were captured. One hundred and twenty women and children and a couple of men were made prisoners. A dreadful crime was perpetrated after the action was over. One of the women and the adult male prisoners were shot in cold blood by relatives of some of those burghers who had been murdered in the Zuurveld. After a very short detention, all the other prisoners were released unharmed. As the horses were worn out and there was no grass in the parched-up country, the commando was now obliged to fall back. On reaching the Keiskama a friendly visit was paid to Ndlambe, who repeated the promises he had before made, and accepted such presents as were offered to him. He accounted for the cattle with colonial marks seen in his possession by the assurance that they had been taken by his people from the clans at war with the colonists, who were his enemies also; and he promised Maynier to restore them to the white people if time were allowed him to collect them together. The landdrost considered this very satisfactory, and parted with Ndlambe on the best of terms. [3] [4]
In the march from the Keiskama, many of the cattle taken on the Buffalo had to be abandoned, and upon approaching the Fish river the scouts reported that the ford was occupied by a strong body of Xhosa. By means of some Khoikhoi, communication was opened with the Swellendam commando, then in camp on the farm of Lucas Meyer three hours’ march from the river, and a relief party was sent out. On its approach the Xhosa retired from the ford, and the Graaff Reinet burghers crossed without molestation. An attempt was now made to drive the enemy out of the Zuurveld. The Xhosa were too wary to risk an encounter in the open field, and did not even make a stand in natural strongholds. The few who were encountered by chance professed to be friendly, and, upon a mere promise to go across the Fish river, were left unmolested by order of Maynier. After two or three weeks’ marching backward and forward from one forest to another, only to learn that each place was occupied again as soon as they left it, the burghers found themselves with horses and oxen quite worn out, very little food of any kind to be had, and no prospect of better fortune in the future. They had recovered a few cattle, all with colonial brands, and in a couple of slight skirmishes had taken prisoners sixty women and children and four Khoikhoi who had joined the enemy. That was all that had been done. It was evident to every one that there were only two methods of bringing the war to a close. One was the plan adopted by Adriaan van Jaarsveld twelve years before: no quarter, let every man of the invaders leave the colony or be shot. The other was for the Europeans to submit to the best terms obtainable. The war council, consisting of the landdrosts Maynier and Faure, the military ensign Hans Abue, the Graaff Reinet burgher officers Naude and van den Berg, and the Swellendam burgher officers De Jager and Hillegard Mulder, took the latter course. [3] [4]
The women and children who had been made prisoners were released and sent with presents to invite the hostile chiefs to a conference. After six days’ absence, some of the women returned with a message that the chiefs were willing to make peace, but were afraid to visit the camp — then at Assagai Bush — and therefore requested the landdrosts to meet them at a place five hours’ journey distant. The landdrosts went unarmed to the spot indicated, and had a conference with two sons of Langa, one of whom — Tuli by name — returned with them to the camp. The chiefs stated their willingness to desist from hostilities, but protested that they were unable to restore the cattle taken from the colonists. All had been killed and eaten, they declared; and such of their own cattle as had not been seized by Ndlambe had perished in the drought. While Tuli was in the camp, word was brought that the burgher Hendrik van Rensburg had raised a separate commando, and was preparing to attack some of the clans. The landdrosts hastened to meet him, and persuaded him to desist. They then had a meeting with the chiefs of the Amambala, Amagwali, Imidange, and Amantinde clans, when it was agreed that there should be peace. The chiefs promised to surrender any horses and horned cattle that were still alive, as also several Khoikhoi who had aided them. With these terms the members of the war council expressed themselves obliged to be content. In their report they state that in their opinion it was quite enough to have the San to contend with, and that any terms of peace with the Xhosa were therefore preferable to continuing the war. But the great majority of the burghers were of a very different mind, and were indignant at what was taking place. They wanted some one in command in whom they could have confidence, and the war to be prosecuted until the colony was cleared of invaders. They also scouted the assertion of Maynier that Ndlambe’s friendship could be relied upon. They dispersed in a spirit which needed very little provocation to induce an open revolt against the East India Company and its officers. It was on the 27th of November 1793 that the burghers left Assagai Bush, those who had homes to return to them, the others to form new homes where best they could. Just before Maynier took his departure, messengers from Cungwa arrived to propose that his clan should be included in the peace. Cungwa was then occupying the banks of the Bushman’s river. The landdrost went to see him, and made the same terms as with the others. [3] [4]
The arrangement gave to the Xhosa all the fruits of victory. And so far was it from putting an end to hostilities by them, that the burgher Abel Erasmus was murdered near the Zwartkops river and all his cattle were carried off before the Swellendam commando reached home. The forces were hardly disbanded when a farmer named Strydom was murdered, another named Schoeman was badly wounded, and even a white woman was murdered by Xhosa a considerable distance from the Zuurveld. Upon receiving presents to a much greater value, Ndlambe sent in some 400 head of cattle, and about 12,500 had been recovered since the beginning of the war. Many of these had been slaughtered for the use of the commandos, others had been abandoned, and others had died, so that only 4,000 head remained. These were divided, in proportion to their losses, among the farmers who had been obliged to retire from the Zuurveld. An order was now issued by the landdrost, and confirmed by the government, that three or four families should always live close together, for mutual protection. In point of fact such an order was superfluous, for there was no other way of existing in the greater part of the district of Graaff Reinet than by combining in lagers. Proclamations were renewed, forbidding Europeans under very severe penalties from crossing the Fish river or carrying on cattle barter or intercourse of any kind with the Xhosa. The landdrost was instructed to conciliate those in the Zuurveld with presents, and to induce them in a friendly manner to return to their own country. The burghers who were foremost in advocating a renewal of the war were threatened with dire punishment, and Coenraad du Buis was summoned to Cape Town to answer to the crimes laid to his charge. He declined to obey the order, and it was not possible to have him arrested. The war closed in a peace the government liked and the frontier hated. [3] [4]
Sluysken Installed — 2 September 1793
Messrs. Nederburgh and Frykenius now prepared to proceed to Java, the only duty left being to appoint some one to carry on the administration. Colonel Van de Graaff still retained the title of governor of the Cape colony, but they were aware that he would never return from Europe. Of the secunde Rhenius they had not formed a high opinion. While they were looking about for a competent person, an old servant of the Company, Abraham Josias Sluysken by name, arrived at the Cape on his way to Europe from Surat, where he had for some years been employed as director of trade. He had resided here once before for a few months, when in 1765 he was taken ill and detained on the way to India, in Father Tulbagh’s time. He was now returning home with a view of retirement when, in accordance with a rule of the service, he stopped at the Cape until his accounts could be audited, and while here made the acquaintance of the commissioners. They proposed to confer upon him the same power that they held themselves, and after a little persuasion he consented to undertake the duty of commissioner-general. He had thus more authority than a governor, for he could act in any matter without consulting the council, if he chose to do so. No salary was agreed upon. It was arranged that he should draw at the rate of £240 a month, and leave further remuneration to be settled by the directors. [3] [9]
He was born in Deventer on the 24th of February 1737, son of Joost Sluysken and Femia Maria van Loon. During his voyage to the Indies in 1765, as a junior merchant, he had fallen ill and stayed at the Cape for a few months to recover. He had soon gone to Surat, where he rose from cashier, via factory manager, to secunde and ultimately to chief of the administration; in 1784 the governor-general and council gave him the title of director of Surat plus a substantial rise. The man chosen to draw the final curtain on Dutch commercial rule over the Cape was a little grey-haired gentleman with tired eyes in a parchment-like face, a mere passer-by, paradoxically having to blame his skill and experience as a colonial administrator for his elevation to a post which, in 1793, must have been the most difficult and unrewarding vacancy in the Dutch colonial realm. As a result of the cutting of public expense, no country houses, carriages or horses could be put at his disposal. Small wonder that the new head sent his wife and children through to Holland where they could at least live in comfort. Sluysken was raised to the dignity of ordinary councillor of Netherlands India and was formally installed as commissioner-general and head of the Cape government on the 2nd of September 1793, and immediately afterwards Nederburgh and Frykenius embarked for Batavia. [3] [9]
In the circumstances it was perhaps an advantage that the new head did not take sides. He was always calm and composed, and on no occasion showed any particular emotion. What he actually was — a francophile Patriot or an anglophile Orangist — he never betrayed. On the other hand his strict impartiality also had its disadvantages, as it prevented him from guiding his people on a straight course. Although he did his best in rousing the burghers’ fighting spirit, it was abundantly clear that the keyword of his appeals, “Unity Makes Strength,” was nowhere to be found in August 1793. His troubles started when a group of freeburghers and farmers of the Graaff Reinet district refused to recognise him as their master, and did not take the oath of allegiance. Impregnated with the slogans of the French Revolution, they wanted at least a beginning of democracy at the Cape, and not getting it from the Company, they rejected its authority. They were prepared to swear allegiance to the States General of the Netherlands, they said, and to keep their oath; but the East India Company and its officials they would no longer obey. Among them were Willem de Klerk, Frans Kruger, and Marthinus Prinsloo. The government threatened them with punishment, but was unable to put its threats into execution. [3] [9]
In August, while the greater part of the colony was in a disturbed condition, the people of Swellendam became apprehensive of an attempt by the Khoikhoi either to murder them or to drive them out of the country. In October 1788 a Khoikhoi captain named Kees had drawn suspicion upon himself by unfriendly and insolent demeanour, and at this time there was strong circumstantial evidence of his implication in the murder of two burghers named Labuscagne and Van Wyk and the wife of a third named Jan Oosthuizen. These murders had taken place under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and as the perpetrators had not been discovered, the people of the district were in a state of great alarm. Kees and the principal men of his clan were arrested and sent to Cape Town. Kees’s son Klaas admitted that there was a design to rise against the Europeans, but no other direct evidence could be obtained. After a time most of the Khoikhoi were set at liberty, but Kees and a few others were kept in permanent confinement as political prisoners. On the 7th of August the Namaqua captain Afrikaner delivered to the government six guns taken from a band of half-breed and Khoikhoi marauders on the northern bank of the great river, and obtained another staff of office. An association, of which Sebastiaan Valentyn van Reenen was principal director, made an effort to introduce merino sheep. They tried first to obtain Dassen Island as a run where stock could be kept pure, but the government being unwilling to allow them the use of the island, in 1793 they imported a few Spanish rams, which were placed with common ewes at Groen Kloof. Six hundred half-breed lambs were cast. Jan Gysbert van Reenen removed his share, 200 in number, to the Hantam, where they were found to thrive remarkably well. A ton of hair of the common sheep was sent by Abraham de Smidt to Holland, and was proved not to be worth the cost of transport. Skippers of American vessels, finding others disposed to imitate the Kirstens, made arrangements to bring over cattle of good quality, and in 1793 quite a number of horses, mares, bulls, and cows arrived from the New England States. [3]
Year Closes: A Passer-by, a Paper Bank, and a Peace the Frontier Hated — 1793
In the Castle the year closed on a passer-by in the first chair. Abraham Josias Sluysken sat that power from the 2nd of September, with the commissioners’ own authority, with as much state as the cuts would allow, with Rhenius still secunde under him, and with Van de Graaff’s title and salary still sitting in Holland. Nederburgh and Frykenius sat a Batavia paper. De Nys still sat the fiscal’s office confirmed, with a seat in the council of policy, until December, when he died, the last who held that office. Bergh still sat the cashier’s desk with a voice and without a vote. Goetz still 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. Gordon still sat the garrison as colonel. Gilquin still sat the works, with all fortification work still stopped. The high court still sat six Company servants and six burghers. The committee of that court still sat municipal affairs, and still sat twenty-three town wardmasters and two garden wardmasters under it. The Company’s gardens and Rustenburg still sat leased by public tender. A wheat price of 11s. 4d. a muid still sat the magazines, minus the tithe. Cartoon money sat £135,473 at five per cent. Chavonnes still sat unfinished. 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. Maynier still sat Graaff Reinet 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. On the 27th of November the burghers had left Assagai Bush. Of 120 farms between Kowie and Zwartkops, 116 sat waste. Ndlambe sat 400 head against 65,827 claimed. Cungwa sat the Bushman’s river. Du Buis sat a summons he would not obey. Kees sat Cape Town as a political prisoner. Afrikaner sat a new staff of office from the 7th of August. Van der Walt still sat two Nieuwveld farms free of rent. San still disturbed the northern farms. Brand still sat the winter port. Meding still sat a timber magazine at Plettenberg’s Bay. Table Bay, Mossel Bay, and Plettenberg’s Bay still sat open for the India produce trade. Whale fishing still sat open under Netherlands hulls. Foreign goods in foreign ships still sat forbidden, though few foreigners now called. Possession, Angra Pequena, and Walfish Bay sat Company beacons from January and February. Freyn’s waggons never arrived. [3] [4]
Serrurier of Hanau and Fleck still sat the Reformed Cape, with Van Lier’s third still 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 still sat Manger from October 1792. Van Baak now sat Duminy’s Grave Street house as preceptor from September. Three United Brethren still sat Schmidt’s pear tree at Baviaans Kloof, with an aged Khoikhoi woman’s New Testament, with gardens given family by family, with a mill, with a knife factory, with a school, and with pandours among the families of that kloof. The Stellenbosch consistory had asked that they remove or cease from the sacraments; the government had refused. Six hundred half-breed merino lambs sat Groen Kloof; two hundred sat the Hantam. A pennist corps sat Van Reede van Oudtshoorn. A pandour company sat uniform. Willem de Klerk, Frans Kruger, and Marthinus Prinsloo sat a States-General oath and no Company oath. [3]
On the 3rd of January the Meermin had sailed; on the 12th a beacon had sat Thomson’s Island; on the 20th Angra Pequena had been taken; on the 26th of February Walfish Bay had sat a beacon; on the 10th of April she had come home to Table Bay, with no gold. On the 1st of February the Convention in Paris had declared war. In March a loan bank had issued cartoon money to £135,473. In May not a single auction had taken place; a Paarl sale, pushed by Van Ryneveld, had broken the boycott when an old woman bid for a slave. On the 6th of May Maynier’s first court had sat; most district officers had wanted to resign. On the 18th of May Lindeque, without the landdrost, had taken 800 cattle from a kraal with Ndlambe’s help. Days later a great horde had crossed the Fish. Of 120 farms between Kowie and Zwartkops, 116 had been laid waste. On the 22nd of June Ferreira had met some fifty families at the Zwartkops. On the 7th of August Afrikaner had delivered six guns. On the 2nd of September Sluysken had been installed, and the commissioners had embarked for Batavia. On the 8th of September the Swellendam commando had marched. On the 14th of October the Buffalo had sat forty dead and seven thousand cattle. On the 27th of November the burghers had left Assagai Bush. In December De Nys had died, the last fiscal independent. The year of the second Xhosa war ended on those facts: on a passer-by sitting the Company’s own power, on a paper bank sitting where coin had sat, on three beacons on a coast that had given no gold, and on a peace the government liked and the frontier hated — still from the gardens of 1652. [3] [4] [9]