Boer History1795 at the Cape of Good Hope: Nationals at Graaff Reinet and Swellendam, Elphinstone, and Capitulation
Year Opens: A Passer-by Still in the First Chair — 1795
Calendar 1795 opened with Abraham Josias Sluysken still sitting the Company’s own power from the 2nd of September 1793, with as much state as the cuts would allow, from the gardens of 1652, while Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff still sat a major-general’s work in Holland, and Johan Isaac Rhenius still sat secunde under the passer-by. Willem Stephanus van Ryneveld still sat the fiscal’s office without the independent’s old privileges. Egbertus Bergh still sat the cashier’s desk with a voice and without a vote. George Frederik Goetz still sat the council’s secretary. Christoffel Brand still sat the winter port, with Boetselaar and Zoutman under it. Jan Arnold Voltelen still sat the naval establishment without a seat. Lieutenant-colonel Carel Matthys Willem de Lille sat the national battalion. Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon still sat the garrison. Major Philip Herman Gilquin still sat the Table Valley works, with those works still stopped. January therefore opened on a little grey-haired gentleman with tired eyes in a parchment-like face, on two named forts at the winter port, on three at Hout Bay with Little Gibraltar still waiting for ships’ guns, 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, not detested as Maynier was, though already spoken of as a zealous agent of the Company. Honoratus Christiaan David Maynier still sat Graaff Reinet confirmed from March 1794, a landdrost the frontier detested, with six heemraden, and with Adriaan van Jaarsveld still on that board as well as on the eastern command. Of 120 farms between the Kowie and the Zwartkops, 116 still sat waste. Ndlambe still sat some four hundred head against 65,827 claimed. Cungwa still sat the Bushman’s river. Coenraad du Buis still sat a summons he would not obey. A deputation had already brandished a paper against Maynier, and Sluysken had not looked. Willem de Klerk, Frans Kruger, and Marthinus Prinsloo still sat a States-General oath and no Company oath. [3] [4] [9]
The pulpits sat Serrurier of Hanau and Fleck at the Cape, with Kuys as third from May 1794; Borcherds at Stellenbosch; Aling at Drakenstein; Vos at Waveren; Van der Spuy junior at Zwartland; Von Manger at Graaff Reinet from October 1792. A pennist corps still sat Van Reede van Oudtshoorn. A pandour company sat two hundred and ten strong. The troops sat 546 infantry rank and file under De Lille, 403 artillery, 57 of the depôts of Meuron and Würtemburg, and the pandours. The so-called national battalion sat soldiers from nearly every country in the north of Europe, with hardly a Netherlander in it; its officers sat Orange, its rank and file sat the pay. The artillery sat Netherlanders who would have preferred to fight with the French rather than the English as allies. In March a company of the Stellenbosch burgher militia was required to repair to Cape Town, and was kept at the castle until the 15th of May. With so many elements of weakness the colony invited invasion. The year opened from the gardens of 1652 on a passer-by in the first chair, on a paper bank, on two small forts at Simon’s Town, and on a landdrost the frontier would not have. [3] [4]
Nationals at Graaff Reinet — February–September 1795
On the 4th of February 1795 a party of forty burghers assembled at the village of Graaff Reinet under Adriaan van Jaarsveld and Jan Carel Triegard, who demanded an interview with the landdrost. They postponed pushing matters to an extremity until the 6th, when the heemraden assembled. An altercation then took place, in which Marthinus Prinsloo, Jan Durand, and Pieter Joubert were the chief speakers. They required that the landdrost should leave the district. He endeavoured to remonstrate, but to no effect, and he was obliged to proceed to Cape Town. Further, they expelled the lieutenant of militia Cornelis Coetsee and the heemraden Stephanus Naude and Hendrik Meintjes van den Berg, as partisans of Maynier; but they made no changes in the form of government. As the Company’s officers wore orange cockades, the burghers displayed the tricolour, and called themselves Nationals. They declared that their opposition was not to the States General, but to the corrupt servants of the East India Company. Knowledge of what had been taking place in Europe and America had become diffused throughout the colony. Not a drop of Company blood was shed. [3] [4] [7] [9]
Maynier was charged with sheltering runaway servants and criminals to such an extent that he had more than one hundred and twenty Khoikhoi in his private employment. Many of these, his opponents asserted, were guilty of housebreaking and robbery, but could not be brought to justice once they entered his service. Sluysken then sent a commission consisting of Olof Godlieb de Wet, Captain Von Hugel of the Würtemburg depot, and Jan Andries Truter as secretary. The military establishment was not large enough to detach a force for so long a journey; persuasion had to sit where force could not. On the 30th of April the commission met the leaders of the Nationals and agreed to relieve the district of Maynier. Lambertus Philippus van der Poel was installed provisionally as landdrost, with Hendrik Roselt as secretary. The burghers then requested a tour along the Zuurveld, so that with their own eyes the members should see that it was actually in the occupation of the Xhosa and that a large portion of the remainder of the district had been devastated. Neither De Wet nor Von Hugel would do this. That was just what the government did not want to know or believe. [3] [4]
The matter was frequently discussed during the next six weeks; finding that their wishes would not be complied with, on the 14th of June an armed party compelled the members of the commission to leave the district. On the 6th of July six representatives elected by the people — Marthinus Prinsloo, Barend Bester, Christiaan Botha, Christiaan Lotter, Hendrik Klopper, and Andries Krugel — took their seats at a separate table. Van der Poel said he was willing to continue under a burgher administration, but desired leave to visit Cape Town; he was appointed landdrost, with Jan Booysen to act until his return. Roselt, unwilling on account of his oath to the Company, was dismissed. The clergyman Manger consented to acknowledge the new authorities and to unite in marriage any persons approved by them, without reference to the matrimonial court in Cape Town. The obnoxious auction duty was declared abolished. As Van der Poel was not permitted by Sluysken to return, on the 27th of August the heemraden and representatives appointed the lieutenant of militia Carel David Gerotz provisional landdrost, and confirmed him on the 14th of September. On the 27th of August Van Jaarsveld was appointed president of the council of war. All these proceedings were reported to the castle as if they were quite in order; but the fact was patent to every one that Graaff Reinet was lost to the East India Company. The Nationals felt themselves so little jacobin that they reported dutifully on their administrative measures. The census of the district for the year sat 808 men, 596 women, 910 boys, 761 girls, 4 servants, 369 slave men, and 210 slave women; of live stock, 1,278 horses, 26,273 cattle, and 22,248 sheep. While English troops were making preparations for the capture of Cape Town, Graaff Reinet was forming its own government — still from the gardens of 1652, and already without the Company’s yoke. [3] [4] [9]
Swellendam Nationals — 17–18 June 1795
In Swellendam the people acted in a similar manner. Faure was not detested, and there was no complaint concerning his administration of justice; but he was accused of being a zealous agent of the Company, and of having permitted himself to be guided by Maynier in the Xhosa war of 1793. One offence only was brought home to him. Before the cattle recovered from the Xhosa were divided, the militia officers proposed to present him with twelve oxen, and he accepted the present. His friends subsequently declared that the officers were instigated by Maynier, whose object was to have it in his power to get his fellow landdrost into trouble whenever he chose. At any rate, Faure took the cattle, and was now charged with corruption. The success of the Nationals in Graaff Reinet increased the spirit of opposition throughout the colony. Swellendam determined to bid for an independent government, though there had not been the same reasons for discontent in that district. [3] [4] [7]
On the 17th of June 1795 the court of landdrost and heemraden was in session, when a party of nine armed burghers, whose spokesman was Paul Fouche, interrupted the proceedings and commanded the members not to leave the drostdy. A considerable number of the inhabitants were still averse to revolutionary measures, but others had combined with the Nationals of Graaff Reinet and had elected Petrus Jacobus Delport as their commandant. In the afternoon a second message said it was not convenient to make known their desires that day, but they would do so on the following morning, and in the meantime no one must leave the place. On the 18th Faure and the heemraden Laurens de Jager, Pieter Pienaar, Hermanus Steyn, Hillegard Mulder, and Pieter du Pré assembled again. A deputation of four — Esaias Meyer, Jacobus Steyn, G. F. Rautenbach, and J. J. Botha — commanded the landdrost, secretary, and messenger to resign and to give over the drostdy, the secretary’s house, and all documents and funds to Hermanus Steyn. De Jager, who maintained that he was bound to the Company by his oath of office, was also dismissed. Steyn was appointed landdrost, and a representative body termed a National Assembly was established. Thus a majority of the district had thrown off the rule of the East India Company. [3] [4] [9]
In Stellenbosch and in Cape Town itself there were many who sympathised with these movements, and a very large proportion of the burghers were only waiting for a favourable opportunity to free themselves from the Company’s domination. Tricolours began to outnumber their orange counterparts. Nearer to town the mood of the citizens was a true reflection of that in the mother country, where antipathy against the stadtholder with his English and Prussian protectors was growing every day. The fact that Faure was a loyal servant of the Company was considered sufficient to warrant expulsion of himself and those of his subordinates who refused to adopt National principles. June therefore sat two districts without Company landdrosts — Steyn already named at Swellendam, Gerotz not yet named at Graaff Reinet — and a fleet already beating into False Bay on the same week the Swellendam court was stopped. [3] [9]
Elphinstone in False Bay — 11 June 1795
When the war commenced, England and the government of the stadtholder were in alliance; but a large proportion of the Dutch people favoured the French. An intimation to this effect had been made to Sluysken in a letter dated the 10th of October 1794, signed by P. J. Guepin, informally so that the stadtholder might know nothing about it. Guepin stated that the French armies were approaching, and that it would be necessary to keep careful watch so as not to be surprised by any European enemy whatever. This letter was received at the Cape on the 7th of February 1795 — three days after the forty burghers assembled at Graaff Reinet. Except a rumour of the fall of Nijmegen on the 8th of November, brought by a Swedish ship, nothing more was known until the 12th of April, when the national frigate Medenblik arrived with two chartered ships in convoy. Captain Dekker reported that a French army under General Pichegru was then besieging Breda and threatening to cross the Maas. The Medenblik brought no letters or despatches. [3] [9]
Nine homeward-bound ships at anchor in Table Bay were sent to Simon’s Bay and joined by seven others. The cargoes of the whole were valued at £885,000. On the 19th of May they sailed under protection of the frigate Scipio and the brig Comeet. Just after leaving they scattered, and eight of them were picked up by hostile cruisers off St Helena. After the Medenblik no intelligence from Europe was received until the 11th of June 1795, when a report reached the castle that at noon several ships of unknown nationality were beating into False Bay. Three hours later Muizenburg reported that the ships had cast anchor. At ten in the evening a note from Simon’s Town stated that Dekker had sent a boat to one of the strangers, that the lieutenant was to have waved a flag if they were friendly, but that no such signal had been made, and the boat had not yet returned. [3] [4]
At half past ten the council of policy met in the castle: Sluysken, Rhenius, Gordon, Jacobus Johannes le Sueur, Willem Ferdinand van Reede van Oudtshoorn, and Van Ryneveld. They resolved unanimously to cause the signals of alarm to be made. De Lille was directed immediately to proceed to Simon’s Town with two hundred infantry and one hundred gunners, to strengthen a garrison of only one hundred and fifty men all told. The troops left within an hour. At half past two in the morning of the 12th the commissioner called the members together again. Brand had written that Dekker’s boat had returned, bringing a gentleman named Ross with letters from Admiral Sir George Keith Elphinstone and Major-General Sir James Craig for the head of the government. Ross, secretary to Craig and conversant with Dutch, evaded all questions concerning Europe or the destination of the fleet. Lieutenant Van Vegezak of the Medenblik stated that the fleet consisted of the Monarch, Arrogant, and Victorious of 74 guns, the America, Ruby, and Stately of 64, the Sphinx of 24, and the Echo and Rattlesnake sloops. The council invited the English to send a trustworthy officer with the despatches, and instructed Brand to permit provisions but not to allow armed men to land. Before daylight the militia captain Pieter de Waal with eighty-four Cape burghers, and thirty gunners with three field-pieces, were on their way to occupy Muizenburg, then only a signal station with a couple of mortars. Boetselaar sat six small cannon, Zoutman four, incapable of offering effectual resistance to such a force. [3] [9]
In the afternoon of the 19th of June Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie of the 78th, Captain Hardy of the Echo, and Ross handed to Sluysken a mandate from the prince of Orange, dated at Kew on the 7th of February 1795, ordering him to admit British troops into the forts and British ships of war into the ports as the forces of a friendly power sent to protect the colony against the French. They also delivered a letter: an excessively severe winter, the French armies crossing into Utrecht and Gelderland toward the close of January, the stadtholder escaping in a fishing boat from Scheveningen to England. Throughout the negotiations the officials and inhabitants were studiously kept in ignorance that the democratic party had given the French an enthusiastic welcome, that the national government had been remodelled, and that the States General had abolished the stadtholderate. No newspapers were supplied, though asked for. Even if written in the Netherlands, the mandate would not have been officially of any force, as it was signed by the prince of Orange alone; written in a foreign country by a fugitive prince, it could not be held to have any weight whatever. Every member of the council sympathised strongly with the Orange faction, but there was no evading the fact that their allegiance was due to the mother country, and not to a party. [3] [4] [9]
The council wrote that the fleet would be supplied with provisions, and requested that only small parties of unarmed men might be sent on shore. They were grateful for the evidence of friendship, and in case of a French attack would ask assistance, though they were in the fortunate position of being able to resist a hostile power. On the 15th of June two hundred Stellenbosch horsemen were sent to Muizenburg. On the 18th Craig arrived in Cape Town. On the 19th he told the council that the fleet and troops had been sent to protect the colony until the restoration of the ancient form of government in the Netherlands; no alterations would be made in the laws without the expressed desire of the inhabitants; the people would be at liberty to trade with England and English India; the civil servants would retain their offices until His Majesty’s pleasure should be known. The council declined, and informed him that they were determined to protect the colony with their own forces. Elphinstone and Craig then issued a proclamation requiring the government and inhabitants to place themselves under His Britannic Majesty’s protection, and three days later an address in Dutch and German picturing a French occupation on jacobin principles, with the tree of liberty and the guillotine, against English protection. On the 26th they wrote that the Netherlands had been absorbed by France. The council replied that there was a great difference between offering assistance against an invader and requiring them to surrender the colony. When Sluysken announced that the country would not be surrendered, he was met with loud huzzas in the streets, and was hailed as Father Sluysken. For a short while he enjoyed the title once borne by Rijk Tulbagh. [3] [9]
Simon’s Town Abandoned; Muizenberg — June–August 1795
At this stage the further supply of provisions to the fleet was prohibited. Muizenburg was strengthened by burgher horsemen and by the pandours under Commandant Jan Gerhard Cloete. The Boetselaar garrison was removed, only one man being left to spike the guns. Those burghers of the Cape and Stellenbosch who had hitherto been refractory now declared themselves ready to assist in the defence. The high officials, though professing that it was their duty to defend the colony, were at heart lukewarm. Gordon stated that he was prepared to admit the English troops if the jacobins should threaten an attack. The English officers believed when they arrived that he would at once join them, probably reckoning upon his Scotch descent as well as Orange proclivities, but he was not ready to go as far as that. He did not throw his energy into resisting them; neither did Sluysken. On the 21st of June the Medenblik sailed for Batavia. The offer of British service with an increase of pay, made to foreign mercenaries who had long received nothing but cartoon money, induced twenty-three of the national battalion at Muizenburg to desert in less than a fortnight. Not a single artilleryman abandoned his colours. Two deserters later caught by a burgher patrol were tried and punished with death. [3] [4]
On the 28th of June two small vessels under the American flag arrived in Simon’s Bay. One — the Columbia — was from Amsterdam, chartered to convey despatches to the Cape and Batavia. She was placed under guard and her mails taken. Instructions were issued that no newspapers should reach the shore; but one escaped, and came into possession of a Cape burgher. It contained a notice by the States General, dated the 4th of March 1795, absolving all persons in the Netherlands and in the Dutch colonies from the oath of allegiance to the prince of Orange. From that notice and from mutilated private letters it was ascertained that the French were treating with the Netherlands as an independent republic, that the stadtholderate had been abolished by the national will, and that the French were regarded as friends. With this knowledge the commissioner and the council asserted that it was simple duty to prevent the English from obtaining possession of the colony. On the 29th of June they issued orders for the abandonment of Simon’s Town. That night the provisions were destroyed, the guns in Boetselaar and Zoutman were spiked, ammunition that could not be carried away was thrown into the sea, and the troops and most of the inhabitants retired, leaving the assistant resident Jan Hendrik Brand with two slaves, and the widows Auret and Aspeling. The troops joined the forces at Muizenburg. Two English men-of-war were blockading Table Bay, where the packet brig Star sat. The council chartered a Van Reenen cutter at Saldanha Bay and sent her to Batavia with despatches. [3]
When the signals calling the burghers were first made, only seventy men from Swellendam responded. The Nationals declined to obey, and endeavoured to prevent others from responding. On the 7th of July the burgher councillors requested an offer of amnesty and reasonable redress of grievances if they would assist in the defence. This was complied with. On the 16th of July the five who called themselves the National Assembly — Hermanus Steyn, Anthonie van Vollenhoven, Ernst du Toit, Delport, and Louis Almoro Pisani — framed an answer: they were resolved to shed the last drop of their blood in defence of freedom, but were willing to treat if guaranteed exemption from direct taxation, free trade, withdrawal of the cartoon money, and permission to retain in perpetual slavery all San made prisoners by commandos or individuals. The letter was hardly despatched when many became conscious that their claims would be ignored if the English got possession of the country. One hundred and sixty-eight mounted men under Delport therefore left for the Cape, and arrived at the castle on the 26th of July. They were formed into three companies under Captains J. J. Botha, H. Mulder, and L. de Jager. After Delport left, some forty or forty-five individuals elected Pisani commandant. He was an Italian who had arrived as a soldier, deserted, returned on a promise of pardon, and in 1792 become a burgher. On the 10th of August he reached Waveren and threatened hostilities if a favourable answer were not forwarded within twenty-four hours. Sluysken set a price of £200 upon his head. On the 18th of August he was arrested at the house of Marthinus Roux at the Tigerberg, and later banished for life. From Stellenbosch and Drakenstein 658 mounted burghers had arrived; the Cape district furnished 244. Altogether 1,140 burgher horsemen sat in the field, about two hundred constantly at Muizenburg. [3] [4]
On the 9th of July Elphinstone took possession of the three Dutch ships in Simon’s Bay, stating that he did so to prevent their destruction by their crews. On the 14th four hundred and fifty men of the 78th and three hundred and fifty marines landed and occupied Simon’s Town. With most people these would be considered acts of war, yet neither side chose to regard them as such. Sluysken issued orders that no attack was to be made upon English patrols. On the 4th of August Jacobus van Reenen with a party of pandours fired toward an English picket from the hills above Simon’s Town, at too great a distance to do any harm, and was reprimanded; in Craig’s despatches it is described as the commencement of hostilities. English boats were allowed to take soundings in front of the camp. A battery commanded the road from Simon’s Town, but there were no defences on the side of the sea. Sluysken and Gordon decided that earthworks would be unnecessary labour, as no ships could get close enough to do any damage. When at last two 24-pounders were placed to face the sea, no platforms were made for them. [3]
On the morning of the 7th of August the camp sat 200 of the national battalion, 120 artillerymen, 200 burgher cavalry, and 150 pandours, with a small guard at Kalk Bay. About an hour after noon another hundred burgher horsemen arrived as a relief. The America, Stately, Echo, and Rattlesnake, under Commodore Blankett, stood over to the Muizenburg beach. The Dutch camp sat at the foot of the mountain facing False Bay, eleven pieces commanding the road. The ships fired a few guns at Kalk Bay, then opened their broadsides upon the camp; but the first shot was hardly fired when De Lille with the infantry abandoned the post and fled through Sand Vlei. Captain Warnecke’s company of fifty retired in better order along the Steenberg. Lieutenant Marnitz worked the two 24-pounders: the America had two killed and four wounded, and one gun disabled; the Stately had one wounded. Marnitz spiked the cannon and retired as Craig’s column of sixteen hundred — the 78th, marines, and sailors — came charging along the road. Nothing was taken from the camp but five small field-pieces. At the first point out of range the artillerymen and burghers made a stand, and were driven by two companies of the 78th under Major Moneypenny. Behind the mountain they turned again. Captain Kemper, on the other side of Sand Vlei, brought a gun to bear with such effect that the English fell back to Muizenburg. The casualties were one English officer, one burgher, two Dutch artillerymen, and one pandour wounded. [3] [9]
De Lille fled in confusion to Lochner’s farm at Diep River. Next morning he returned to the head of Sand Vlei, but fled again upon seamen and marines wading the vlei. Burghers and pandours then emerged from sandhills on the English flank; the English in their turn fled, until checked by the cannon Marnitz had spiked and Craig had caused to be drilled. That evening De Lille formed a camp at Wynberg. The burgher officers Botha, Loubser, De Waal, Van der Byl, Goosen, Hoffman, and Mulder charged him with treason. He was sent to the castle under arrest, and on the 10th of August Captain Van Baalen took the Wynberg camp. The fiscal acquitted him of treason; popular fury kept him confined for his safety. He was a devoted Orange adherent, and regarded the English as supporters of that cause, so would not fight against them. Successful resistance, in his opinion, would have given the country to the Nationals, whom he hated. The Sphinx had been sent to St Helena; 352 men of the English East India Company, with nine guns, arrived in the transport Arniston on the 9th of August. Three days later Elphinstone and Craig announced further reinforcements. In the council, Sluysken, Rhenius, Gordon, De Wet, Brand, Van Ryneveld, and Bergh voted not to give up the colony while resistance could be offered. Le Sueur differed. The burgher council unanimously resolved to defend to the last. On the 18th of August that resolution was communicated to the British officers. [3]
But the means of resistance were daily becoming less. Burghers returned home on rumours of San trouble and of Khoikhoi and slave insurrection. The cavalry fell from 1,140 to about 900 at the beginning of September. On the 1st of September an attempt on the Steenberg outposts, unsupported by regulars or field-pieces, failed. The same day 170 pandours marched armed to the castle, complaining of ill-treatment of their families, inadequate pay, an undistributed £40 reward, and insufficient spirits. Sluysken raised their pay from eight to twelve shillings a month and got them back to camp, sullen and obstinate. A night attack on Muizenburg was about to be attempted when on the 4th of September twelve Indiamen under convoy of three men-of-war entered Simon’s Bay, with the 84th, 95th, and 98th and engineers, in all three thousand troops under General Sir Alured Clarke. Ten days later only 521 burgher cavalry remained in the field. [3] [4]
Capitulation — 14–16 September 1795
On the 9th of September Elphinstone, Clarke, and Craig invited the inhabitants to submit to the protection of the overwhelming force that must otherwise take the country by violent means. Sluysken replied that his oath required him to defend the colony for its lawful owners. At nine in the morning of the 14th of September an English force, between four and five thousand strong, marched from Muizenburg toward Cape Town in two columns. Burgher cavalry harassed the march so far as to kill one sailor and wound seventeen soldiers. A party of the Swellendam Nationals under Cornet Daniel du Plessis particularly distinguished themselves; after the surrender Clarke invited him to dine and highly complimented the sturdy burgher. Van Baalen, now a major, drew up the Wynberg camp in a faulty manner and placed his cannon so that they were practically useless. As soon as the English were within range he retreated with the greater part of the national battalion. The burghers cried out that they were being betrayed and sold. One company of infantry and most of the artillerymen made a stand for a few minutes, then fell back, abandoning the camp. One burgher and one soldier were killed. The burgher cavalry, convinced that Sluysken and Gordon were traitors at heart, and considering that if they crossed the lines they would become prisoners of war, dispersed and returned to their homes. Three British men-of-war and an Indiaman threatened Cape Town from Table Bay, but did not come within gunshot. [3] [9]
At six in the evening of the 14th the council met. All the members except Gordon were present. A British army over four thousand strong was in bivouac at Newlands. The force still nominally at the government’s disposal sat about 1,720 men: 542 of the national battalion, 403 artillerymen, 57 of Meuron and Würtemburg, 71 convalescent sailors, 350 burgher infantry, 95 burgher cavalry, 125 pennists, 42 Malays, and a few seamen of the Castor and Star. Nearly half had retreated from Wynberg to Drie Kopjes. They were without a leader in whom they could have confidence, and a very large proportion of those who were disciplined were not disposed to meet the English in battle. One member — Willem Ferdinand van Reede van Oudtshoorn — still objected to voluntary surrender, offering his corps for the hottest part of a final battle. The remaining members were unanimous that, to save the town from being taken by storm, they ought to capitulate on the best terms obtainable. A flag of truce requested forty-eight hours; at midnight Clarke consented to twenty-four. In the morning of the 15th Le Sueur and Van Ryneveld conferred with Craig at Rustenburg, the garden of the early Dutch governors at Rondebosch. Only one article was refused: a promise of pardon for a few English deserters who had joined the Dutch. Sluysken declined to consent without it. Craig, while refusing to insert the article, gave his word that no notice would be taken of the deserters. Late that night the council signed the modified terms. Early on the 16th Clarke and Elphinstone signed at Rustenburg. At eleven o’clock the council closed its last session. The terms provided for the surrender of the Dutch troops as prisoners of war, officers at liberty to remain or return to Europe on their word of honour; colonists to retain their privileges and religion; no new taxes, old imposts reduced as much as possible; Company property handed over, other property respected; Company lands and houses held in pledge for that portion of the paper money not secured by private mortgages. [3] [9]
At three o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, the 16th of September 1795, twelve hundred British infantry and two hundred artillerymen under Craig arrived at the castle and drew up on the open ground in front. The Dutch troops marched out with colours flying and drums beating, passed by the English, and laid down their arms. Some were uttering imprecations upon Sluysken and Gordon. One soldier attempted to assault the colonel. The only occasion after the English arrival on which Gordon drew his sword, it was said, was when he gave the order for the troops he had commanded to lay down their arms. In the evening Clarke arrived with two thousand infantry and a train of artillery. On the return march to Simon’s Town some marines and blue-jackets broke loose and pillaged farm-houses, including Great Constantia, the property of Hendrik Cloete: furniture destroyed, the cellar broken open, kegs of wine stove in. This was the only kind of violence by men in British uniform, and even this was limited to a few farms. The admiral made prizes of the Vertrouwen, the Louisa Antonia, the Castor, and the Star. On the 18th an American vessel from Bordeaux brought news that a close treaty of alliance between France and the Netherlands, specifying war with Great Britain, had been concluded in May. Sluysken’s term ended on the 16th. He returned to Europe in a cartel ship as soon as the transfer of Company effects was completed. Gordon died by his own hand during the night of the 5th of October, unable, his enemies declared, to bear the reproaches with which he was continually assailed. In this manner ended nearly one-and-a-half centuries of Dutch commercial sovereignty over the Cape of Good Hope — still from the gardens of 1652. [3] [4] [9]
Year Closes: The Company’s Rule Ended — 1795
On the 16th of September the English troops took possession of Capetown, and as far as the Company’s government was concerned the colony was surrendered; but the people of the country districts were not disposed to acknowledge the new authorities. The greater number of the militia retired to their homes, declaring that they did not consider themselves bound by any capitulation made by Sluysken, and about a hundred of the Dutch artillery deserted and followed the burghers inland. The government was carried on by Elphinstone, Clarke, and Craig acting conjointly. On the 30th of September they announced that they had appointed Craig commandant of the town and settlement of the Cape of Good Hope. The three officers nevertheless conducted the government conjointly until the 15th of November, when Elphinstone and Clarke sailed for India. [3]
On the 1st of October the office of secretary to government was provisionally bestowed upon Hercules Ross. Many former civil servants willing to take an oath of fidelity were retained. On the 10th of October Rhenius accepted receiver and treasurer general; Brand became collector of the tithes of grain and the wine tax; Jan Pieter Baumgardt was appointed collector of the land revenue. Van Ryneveld remained fiscal. The paper currency amounted to £258,255, with no metallic coin in circulation. On the 1st of October the commanders fixed the rate of exchange at 264 stivers in paper for a golden guinea, 60 for a Spanish silver dollar, and 12 for an English shilling. Copper paid to the troops was eagerly sought; penny pieces passed as two stivers. On the 30th of October purchasers of small quantities at auction were relieved of the obnoxious stamp duty. The committee of the high court was dissolved, and in its stead a burgher senate of six, the senior as president, was created to represent the colonists, keep the roads, provide watchmen, farm out the windmills, and regulate bread and meat prices. The board was announced soon after the capitulation, but the arrangements for its establishment were not complete when the year closed. [3]
Two days after the capitulation, when Du Plessis desired to return home, Craig gave him a document to make known: the monopoly and oppression practised for the Company’s profit was at an end; from that day there was free trade and a free market; every one might buy, sell, employ, and come and go as he chose, by land or by water; no new taxes would be levied; paper should hold its value, but the English paid in hard coin. Faure would be sent back as landdrost, and the past acts of the Nationals buried in oblivion if they would submit. Faure called a special meeting of the heemraden for the 4th of November. Hillegard Mulder, Pieter Pienaar, Pieter du Pré, and Hermanus Steyn — the last named the National landdrost — and the National Assembly members Jacobus Steyn, Ernst du Toit, and Anthonie van Vollenhoven attended. All gave in their submission and took the oath: to be true and faithful to His Majesty George the third for so long a time as his Majesty should remain in possession of this colony. Steyn transferred the drostdy and took his seat with the heemraden. Bletterman, getting old and not in good health, resigned Stellenbosch; on the 7th of November he was succeeded by Ryno Johannes van der Riet. In that district no opposition was made to the new authorities. [3]
The people of Graaff Reinet had not yet submitted. On the 27th of October a letter explaining their conduct was written by the leaders of the Nationals to the British commanders, which led to the belief that they were ready to come to terms. Craig appointed as landdrost a colonist who had been an officer in De Lille’s regiment, named Frans Reinhard Bresler, with instructions to conciliate the farmers: they would be required to obey him as a father, but he was to act as such, and if the San had become formidable he need only say so to be supplied with powder and ball from the government stores. Gerotz still sat the drostdy the Nationals had given him on the 27th of August. Van Jaarsveld still sat the council of war. The census of the year still sat those 808 men on a frontier the Company had already lost before the fleet anchored. The eastern district therefore closed the year as it had sat since February: National, reporting to a castle that was no longer the Company’s, and not yet under the oath the west had taken. [3] [4]
Serrurier of Hanau and Fleck still sat the Reformed Cape, with Kuys as third. Stellenbosch still sat Borcherds. Drakenstein still sat Aling. Waveren still sat Vos. Zwartland still sat Van der Spuy junior. Graaff Reinet still sat Manger, who had consented in July to acknowledge the National authorities. Van der Riet now sat Stellenbosch from the 7th of November. Faure sat Swellendam again from the 4th, with Steyn on the heemraden. Gerotz still sat Graaff Reinet for the Nationals. Van Ryneveld still sat the fiscal’s office, now under an English commandant. Rhenius sat receiver from the 10th of October. Brand sat the grain tithes and the wine tax. Ross sat secretary from the 1st. Craig sat the command from the 15th of November, after Elphinstone and Clarke had sailed. The castle that Sluysken had sat from the 2nd of September 1793 sat English infantry from three o’clock on the 16th of September. Gordon no longer sat the garrison after the night of the 5th of October. [3] [3]
In February forty burghers had assembled at Graaff Reinet, and Guepin’s letter had arrived. In April the Medenblik had reported Pichegru before Breda, and De Wet had relieved Maynier. In May sixteen homeward ships had sailed, and eight had been taken off St Helena. In June Elphinstone had anchored, Swellendam had named Steyn, and Simon’s Town had been abandoned. In July six representatives had sat at Graaff Reinet, and Delport had brought 168 Swellendam horsemen to the castle. In August Muizenberg had fallen, De Lille had been arrested, Pisani had been taken at the Tigerberg, and Clarke’s three thousand had not yet arrived. In September those three thousand had arrived, Wynberg had been abandoned, and at three o’clock on the 16th the Dutch troops had laid down their arms in front of the castle. In October Gordon had died by his own hand, Ross had sat the secretary’s desk, and paper had been rated against the guinea. In November Swellendam had submitted, Van der Riet had sat Stellenbosch, and Elphinstone and Clarke had sailed. The year of the Nationals and of the first British occupation ended on those facts: on a Company that no longer sat the Cape, on a commandant who sat it for George the third for so long as his Majesty should remain in possession, on two western districts under that oath, and on an eastern district that still sat National — still from the gardens of 1652. [3] [3] [4] [7] [9]