Boer History1805 at the Cape of Good Hope: Posts, Boundary, Defence, and Baird’s Fleet
Post to the Drostdies — January 1805
Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens sat sole in the government when 1805 opened. He was the Batavian governor, installed on the 1st of March 1803 by Jacob Abraham de Mist, commissioner-general of the Batavian Republic — the officer sent to take the Cape back after the treaty of Amiens. De Mist laid down that commission on the 25th of September 1804 so that the soldier-governor could act with a free hand. The question no one at the castle doubted was defence. War in Europe began again on the 12th of May 1803, and an English fleet was expected. De Mist still sat at Maastricht on the Tygerberg, waiting for a ship. The 23rd battalion of infantry, Janssens’s best regiment, left for Batavia in February 1804. From Capetown the road to the drostdies was still a rider and a bag. [3] [9]
In January a post for the conveyance of letters and the Government Gazette was established between Capetown and the various drostdies. A mail bag went weekly by post-riders to Stellenbosch and Tulbagh, and to the other drostdies whenever the government wished to send despatches. Farmers along the lines of road contracted to forward the bag from one station to another; the landdrosts sent the letters and papers to the fieldcornets with the first convenience. That is why a drostdy in the interior could at last receive an order and a Gazette without waiting for a chance traveller. The measure sat on the list De Mist drew with the overhaul of the judiciary, free trade, landdrosts authorised to marry, and government schools beside the church schools — a mail service between Capetown and the interior, now on the ground. [3] [9]
Another ordinance of the commissioner-general — published on the 31st of October 1804 after he laid down his authority — cut the journey to Capetown out of a marriage. Until that date anyone who wished to marry had to appear before the matrimonial court in Capetown to show there were no legal impediments, take a license, and then either be married by a clergyman in the town or return to their own district. The ordinance provided that after the 1st of January 1805 marriages were to take place before the landdrost and two heemraden of the district in which the bride had lived for the previous 3 months. The necessity for a journey to Capetown was done away with, and quite as good security was provided against improper unions. What hung on the 1st of January was a couple in Tulbagh or Graaff Reinet who no longer had to ride to the castle to be married. [3] [9]
Northern Boundary — 20 February 1805
Lord Macartney’s northern line did not cover all the occupied farms, and in one place it was somewhat obscure. On the 20th of February 1805 the council rectified it. A proclamation of the 21st made the new wording public. Thenceforth the line was to be the Koussie or Buffalo river from its mouth to its source in the Koperberg, thence south-eastward in as nearly as possible a straight line — but following the mountains — to the junction of the Zak and Riet rivers, thence the Zak river to its source in the Nieuwveld mountains, thence the Nieuwveld mountains to the Sneeuwberg, and thence northeastward a line enclosing the Great Table mountain to the Zeekoe river at Plettenberg’s beacon. The eastern boundary as defined by Macartney was not changed, though it was worded differently: the Zuurberg, thence a line along the western side of the Bamboesberg enclosing the Tarka and Kwadehoek and passing along the foot of the Tarka mountain through Kagaberg to the junction of the Baviaans’ and Fish rivers, and thence the Fish river to the sea. [3] [4]
What hung on the resolution was a line that could be named from a river-mouth on the west to a beacon on the Zeekoe, so that farms already occupied — some of them north of Macartney’s wording — were inside the colony on paper. The eastern wording still stopped at the Fish. Beyond the new northern limit the country toward the Orange remained, for the government’s purposes, a belt of San and nomadic tribes, with the London-mission villages that Van de Graaff and Lichtenstein would have to see before the winter was out. The line of demarcation was definite on paper; in the sparsely peopled north a rider might still not know where it was. That is why a later governor could say that no one knew the northern parts well enough to treat the February line as a fence. [3] [4]
De Mist Sails — 24–25 February 1805
De Mist resided at Stellenburg, close to Wynberg, from August to November 1804, then at Maastricht on the Tygerberg. On the 24th of February 1805 he embarked in the American ship Silenus and on the following day sailed for the United States. Dutch commerce was driven from the seas; there was no other way by which he could return to Europe. The outbreak of war between Great Britain and France required his presence in the Netherlands; the American hull was the road that was left. That is why the commissioner-general whose list had run from two new districts to equal worship and government schools left the Cape in a neutral ship. At the beginning of 1805 R. G. van Polanen, who arrived only in March 1804, went to Batavia on a special mission, so that of the council only De Salis and Wakker were left with the governor. [3] [9]
Janssens was now on his own. He entered the last phase of Dutch rule over the Cape knowing that a British fleet was only a matter of time, and he toiled for the improvement of the defence works and the discipline and morale of his troops. The two men had worked as a team: judiciary, agriculture, free trade, civil service, mail, marriages, religious freedom for all who recognised a Supreme Being, government schools. In religion and education the commissioner was far ahead of the country districts. That statement was never put to the test. The Silenus took him off the roadstead, and the soldier-governor was left with the batteries, the burghers, and the sea. [3] [9]
In the Drakenstein congregation the old church at the Paarl was judged not well shaped and built of bad bricks. The authorities obtained expert opinion, decided to build a new church, and asked Captain Thibault to design a plan. On the 28th of April 1805 the reverend Serrurier consecrated the new church at the Paarl. The organ and pulpit from the old building were removed to the new one, which stood not very far from it. The pulpit in the old church had formerly stood where the burial vault of the reverend Aling is. The day following the consecration, the old building was put up for sale on condition that the purchaser demolished it within 1 year and caused no damage to the new church. For about 7 years after Aling’s death on the 24th of April 1800 the congregation was without a minister of its own; Serrurier’s day at the Paarl was a Capetown clergyman’s act, not the filling of the Drakenstein chair. The churches of Drakenstein and Graaff Reinet remained without clergymen, and no church could be formed at Uitenhage. All the ministers in the country districts received the same salary: 166 pounds 13 shillings 4 pence a year, with a house and a garden. What hung on the 28th of April was a new building in a congregation that still had no pastor of its own. [3] [8]
In Capetown there were residents professing almost every shade of religious belief. The ordinance of the 25th of July 1804 had given equal protection to all religious societies that worshipped an Almighty Being, with no civil privileges attached to any creed, and no public worship without the governor’s knowledge and consent. The Dutch reformed remained the established church to the extent that its clergymen were appointed by the government and drew their salaries from the public treasury. Their number in Capetown was reduced to 2. The time was ripe for freedom of public worship in the town; in the country the people were not yet prepared for measures that gave Jews, Roman Catholics, and Muslims the same civil rights as themselves. As yet the whole rural population of European blood adhered to the Dutch reformed church. [3]
Van de Graaff and Lichtenstein — May 1805
During recent years reports of various kinds reached Capetown concerning the settlements formed by agents of the London missionary society north of the Orange river. Some of these reports were to the effect that a community hostile to the colony was growing up there. The government resolved to send a commission to inspect the settlements and obtain accurate information. That is why the new northern line of February was not left as paper only: someone had to ride beyond it and see. The officers chosen were Landdrost Hendrik van de Graaff of Tulbagh and Henry Lichtenstein, surgeon of the Khoikhoi corps. In May 1805 they left Tulbagh, travelling by way of Karoo Poort, and reached the colonial boundary without difficulty. Along the route they heard numerous complaints of depredations by San, and ascertained that the arrangements made with these people in former years had completely failed in their object. [3]
At the mission station on the Zak river they found the colonist Christiaan Botma in charge during the reverend Mr. Kicherer’s absence in Europe. The San gathered together here dispersed as soon as the missionaries’ means of providing them with food failed, and only about 40 individuals remained, most of them people of mixed descent that had from youth professed Christianity. Botma was a man of great zeal, and expended a large portion of his private property in maintaining the station; but it seemed to the commission that the principles on which the work was being conducted were decidedly wrong. Religious services were frequently held and were attended by everyone on the place. Industry was not enforced, and the habits of the people formed a striking contrast to those of the residents at the Moravian institution in the district of Stellenbosch. The mission was doing no harm politically or in any other way, though it appeared to be of very little service to the few people under its influence. [3]
Here a party of farmers joined the travellers as an escort, making the whole number up to 8 Europeans, 12 Khoikhoi, and 5 slaves. On the southern bank of the Orange a horde of Xhosa was met, under two near relatives of the chief Ndlambe, who had wandered away from their own country. The Orange was crossed at Prieska Drift. On its northern bank the missionaries Vanderlingen and Jan Kock were met, journeying from the Batlapin country towards the Cape. Kock, who understood the Setswana language, was easily persuaded to send his family on to the station at the Zak river and return with the commission. [3]
At Lauw-waters-kloof, reached the same day, a number of people of mixed descent and Koranas were found. Two more missionaries — Koster and Janssen — were met returning from the Batlapin country, having abandoned the work there. Lauw-waters-kloof was one of 6 mission villages inhabited by people of mixed descent and Koranas, with several Namaquas and a few blacks and Khoikhoi from the Cape Colony. The other 5 were Rietfontein, Witwater, Taaiboschfontein, Leeuwenkuil, and Ongeluksfontein. In these villages nearly 1000 people were living, many of them of mixed descent that had been wandering along the southern bank of the Orange for 15 or 20 years before the missionaries induced them to settle. Among them were also several individuals who had grown up in the families of colonists, had always worn European clothing, and were baptized professors of Christianity before the arrival of the missionaries. The district had from time immemorial been occupied by Koranas and San, at bitter feud with each other. The people of mixed descent, Namaquas, and colonial Khoikhoi were recent immigrants who had come in with the missionaries. Small-pox in a mild form was prevalent, said to have been brought from the north; it had been unknown in the Cape Colony since 1769, and most likely had spread overland from Delagoa Bay. [3]
At Leeuwenkuil the missionary Anderson was then residing. The travellers were greatly impressed with his devotion and with the exemplary life he was leading. He and Mr. Kramer were the only white men living in the district. Anderson regarded himself as subject to the colonial government, and the people of mixed descent, who gained their subsistence chiefly by hunting, were so dependent upon Europeans for ammunition and other necessaries that their engaging in hostilities was out of the question. The commission found that nothing was to be feared from this settlement. What hung on that finding was the report Capetown wanted: the Orange villages were not a hostile community. [3]
From Ongeluksfontein, the farthest of the 6 villages to the north, the travellers set out for the Batlapin country. Since the journey of Truter and Somerville to Lithako in 1801, accounts of the Betshuana had not agreed. The reverend Mr. Edwards, who left the Kuruman toward the close of 1803 and gave the government a description some portions of which could only be regarded as fabulous — that the people regarded his wife as a goddess, and offered him a great number of cattle for a daughter born at Molehabangwe’s kraal — wished in March 1805 to return; the council declined to give him permission, and shortly afterwards Van de Graaff and Lichtenstein were instructed to include the Batlapin country in their tour. A little beyond Ongeluksfontein they met a waggon containing the families of two brothers of mixed descent named Jantje and David Bergover, who had been in Jan Kock’s service on the Kuruman. They had left the Kuruman to follow Kock to the Zak river, but had been attacked on the way by San; the two men and one little girl had been murdered. The party from the south arrived just in time to rescue the other children and the women. [3]
In the valley of the Kuruman the first Batlapin were found. The principal kraal of Molehabangwe stood a short distance from the spot where that stream issues with great force from a cavern. The kraal consisted of 5 or 600 huts and contained about 5000 people. The year after Truter and Somerville’s visit, the Barolong under Makraki had separated from the Batlapin and moved away to their kinsmen in the north, reducing the kraal to one-third of its former size. The commission was received in a friendly manner by the old chief and by his sons Mothibi, Telekela, Molimo, and Molala. There were no missionaries remaining on the Kuruman; it was Jan Kock’s intention to return. The commission could not ascertain that any of them except Kock had made the slightest impression upon the people, and what benefit had been derived from his teaching was an improved method of tilling the ground, not the adoption of Christianity. Of the Betshuana tribes to the north — Barolong, Bahurutsi, Bangwaketsi, Bakwena, and others — some information was gathered, but it was not very reliable. The existence of slavery among these tribes, which had not been suspected in 1801, was proved beyond all doubt: 2 boys were offered for sale to the commission at the price of a sheep each. The Kuruman was the farthest point reached. During the return journey nothing occurred that was of more than passing interest, and the travellers arrived safely at Tulbagh again after an absence of 3 months. [3]
Bato, Jupiter, and the Peninsula Force
The short time during which the commissioner-general and the governor had been in office, and the pressing need for the unsettled east, precluded those officers from taking into consideration the possible danger to the colony from without. The treaty of Amiens may have been considered of a more permanent character than it really was. The naval force of the colony was one man-of-war of 74 guns, the Bato, lying in a dismantled state at Simon’s Town, and one cruiser, the Jupiter of 400 tons carrying 18 guns, incapable of proceeding to sea on account of the almost complete absence of any naval stores. The land force consisted of about 1500 regulars and about the same number of irregulars, composed of burghers, Khoikhoi, Javanese and Mozambique slaves. In view of the hostile relations which again obtained between England and France, and the importance of the Cape as an ocean station, this defenceless state, which was well known in England, invited attack and recapture. That is why a stripped 74 in Simon’s Bay was not a navy. [3] [4]
The regular European troops of all arms were between 1500 and 1600. No reinforcements had been sent out since the transfer of the colony. The original strength of the regiments in garrison was greatly reduced by desertion, ordinary mortality, and unusually heavy losses from a very malignant form of dysentery prevalent in November and December 1804, when most of the soldiers were in a camp on the Liesbeek river. The troops were distributed over the Cape peninsula, except a detachment of 80 men at Fort Frederick. They were poorly clad, and a supply of clothing was urgently needed. From the almost exhausted treasury of the Batavian Republic, Janssens had drawn until recently money at the rate of 100000 pounds a year for military purposes of all kinds; he was now trying to manage with a smaller sum. As a result of the priority in all matters of defence given to the Dutch East Indies when the war exploded, he had been robbed of a contingent of his best soldiers, and replacements were not to be expected. [3] [7] [9]
The Khoikhoi infantry regiment, 600 strong, was brought to such an efficient state that it was regarded as a really serviceable corps. Its officers were colonists who understood the character of the men. Frans le Sueur, who was in command, had the title of lieutenant-colonel. In November 1804 the Asiatics in and about Capetown had been enrolled as volunteers in a corps termed the Javanese or Malay artillery, drilled with field-guns and to work the cannon in the forts, until the governor pronounced them a highly efficient and reliable body of auxiliaries. Janssens enhanced the position and efficiency of the fieldcornets in the country districts, piled up supplies, drilled burghers, held reviews on the Grand Parade — which he had embellished with lines of fir trees — delivered inspiring addresses, awarded prizes to men who distinguished themselves, and worked day and night to meet the coming emergency as a well-prepared commander-in-chief. [3] [9]
An attempt was made to lay up a supply of grain at the old Company’s estate Ziekenhuis behind the mountains of Hottentots-Holland, so that if Capetown should fall, the army could retreat and cut off supplies from the invader. It could not be carried out: the crop of 1803–4 was a poor one, and that of 1804–5 unusually bad. There were two successive seasons of bad crops, and the numerous English cruisers in the Atlantic prevented cargoes of grain or flour from reaching Table Bay. The government made every effort to obtain supplies of corn, but there was never more grain in Capetown than sufficient to provide food for 2 days for the soldiers and the townspeople. How to feed burghers coming in from the country districts was a difficult problem. The call to arms would bring large numbers; when they arrived there would not be sufficient food for them. What hung on those 2 days’ grain was the defence itself: a stronger enemy at sea could starve the peninsula out. [3] [7]
At Uitenhage the drostdy house had been commenced, but very little progress was made. There was considerable difficulty in procuring not only skilled workmen but ordinary labourers, so that by the close of 1805 the height of the walls was only a quarter of what it was intended to be. The eastern country, for all its past struggles, had not progressed further in the formation of centres than the beginning of Graaff Reinet, the idea of Uitenhage, and Vanderkemp’s mission station — one dorp, one site, and one Khoikhoi location. The difficulty of labour of which Captain Lodewyk Alberti complained was becoming a serious question with the farming community also. It was due not so much to the actual existence of Bethelsdorp as to the disinclination of its head to co-operate with the landdrost, or to follow any course except that dictated by his own views. Johannes van der Kemp regarded with jealousy all attempts to induce any of the Khoikhoi congregating there to leave the location for work elsewhere. Alberti managed to enlist the services of some of these people for the drostdy; considering the means at his disposal there is no reason to suppose they were ill treated. Vanderkemp brought charges of injustice and cruelty, which were refuted. The resolutions of the 24th of July 1805 stand on the Cape archives. He ignored the immediate authority of the landdrost and refused to be regarded as a fieldcornet under him; Alberti contended that as Bethelsdorp was in the district of Uitenhage, both Khoikhoi and missionaries were within his jurisdiction. The ill effect of an imperium in imperio in a country already prone to disorder rendered it necessary to banish Vanderkemp from the district and leave the management of the place to his subordinate, James Read. He was absent 10 months, until the government that had given him every facility gave way to British rule. [4]
On the 9th of May 1805 the widow Susanna Elisabeth van Leeuwen, widow of Gerhardus Scheepers, had her lot at the drostdy surveyed by Mr. Knobel, to the same extent and on the same footing as the other settlers in the village, after the governor’s assent of the 17th of March. The grant was to state that the lot had no right to a supply of water led out of the drostdy canal other than the right of fetching drink-water from the watercourse, and would be subject to all other servitudes respecting the repairs of roads. Plots of 1 morgen had been given free on application, the grantees undertaking to erect a substantial house within 6 months. The widow’s lot was the remnant of the farm purchased for the drostdy in 1804. What hung on that survey was a village that still had walls only a quarter high. [4]
Castlereagh Orders Baird — July 1805
In July 1805, by Lord Castlereagh’s order — Secretary of State for the War and Colonial Departments — the 59th regiment of infantry, the 20th light dragoons, 320 artillerymen, and 546 recruits were embarked at Falmouth in transports belonging to the East India Company, which put to sea under convoy of his Majesty’s ships Espoir, Encounter, and Protector. Their destination was announced to be the East Indies, but they sailed under secret orders to wait at Madeira and join a larger force which was to follow. It was decided that these — about 2000 in all — should form part of the expedition, but that the altered destination should not be made known to them until they were well at sea. Shortly afterwards the 24th, 38th, 71st, 72nd, 83rd, and 93rd regiments of the line were embarked in transports at Cork, ostensibly for the Mediterranean — about 4000 troops — and, accompanied by victuallers, tenders, and merchantmen, sailed under protection of three ships of 64 guns — the Diadem, Raisonnable, and Belliqueux — one ship of 50 guns, the Diomede, and two of 32 guns, the Narcissus and Leda. This fleet was intended to join the other at Madeira and proceed in company to the Cape of Good Hope. [3] [4]
The naval force was under command of Commodore Home Popham, and the troops — in all 6654 rank and file — were under Major-General Sir David Baird. This officer was well acquainted with the Cape and its fortifications, having served here under General Dundas for 11 months in 1798. The expedition left England almost without notice, as other events were then engaging attention throughout Europe. The great French army, generally believed to be intended for the invasion of England, was still encamped at Boulogne when the fleet sailed. This was all the more necessary as there was reason to believe that France had also turned her attention to the conquest of the colony, and that two vessels which had mysteriously sailed away shortly before had gone on the same errand. On that account the force commanded by Baird was greater than would have been considered necessary had there been the expectation of no other resistance than that likely to be offered by the Dutch forces at the Cape. What hung on Castlereagh’s secret orders was the Cape itself: Baird knew the peninsula from 1798, and the force was larger because France was thought to have the same errand. [3] [4]
The whole fleet of 61 ships thus formed sailed from Cork on the 31st of August. After a tedious and boisterous voyage of about a month, Madeira was reached. After leaving there all were made acquainted with the real object of the expedition. The course was bent to the coast of Brazil and anchors dropped at San Salvador or Bahia. On the passage thither two of the ships, the transport King George and the East India Company’s vessel Britannia, were wrecked on the Roccas, a low sandy island surrounded by a reef of rocks in latitude 5°53′ S. and longitude 33°54′ W. All were saved except General Yorke of the Royal Engineers, one bombardier, and one seaman. At San Salvador food supplies, water, and about 70 horses were obtained, many of which died on the further voyage to the Cape. A later count of the fleet in the South Atlantic put 63 sail and some 7000 troops. While the ships were on their way the Austrians capitulated at Ulm, Trafalgar was fought, and a French army entered Vienna. The harvest of that fitting-out was still at sea when the year at the Cape closed. [3] [4] [7]
District Courts — October 1805
The high court of justice remained independent of the executive and legislative branches. It was intended that all the judges should be appointed in Holland and removable only there. The full court was a president and 6 members. One judge never arrived; Jan Henoch Neethling was named to the vacant place on the 6th of October 1803, and Jan Andries Truter took the council secretaryship. Gerrit Buyskes, named in Holland, did not arrive until 2 years later — in 1805. That is why the inferior courts, which still had to carry the districts, were remodelled in this year and not left to wait for another judge from Europe. [3]
The inferior courts were remodelled by an ordinance enacted by the governor and council in October 1805 — dated the 23rd in the records. The landdrosts were to remain, as before, the chief representatives of the supreme authority in their respective districts. They were to guard the rights of the inhabitants to personal freedom and possession of their property; to encourage industry, education, the extension of agriculture, and the improvement of cattle; to maintain peace and friendship with the aborigines beyond the border; to protect the Khoikhoi in their rights as a free people; to preserve forests and encourage tree-planting; to keep a record of land-grants of every kind and prevent the alienation of vacant ground to the prejudice of the public; to receive revenue; to take preparatory examinations in charges of crime; to cause deserters and vagrants to be arrested and send them, together with prisoners charged with serious offences, to Capetown for trial; and to protect slaves from ill-treatment. Paragraph 68 put the last of those duties in sacred terms: as long as the use of slaves should not be abandoned, landdrosts were to consider it among their most sacred duties to watch the protection of these unfortunate beings; the government could never tolerate that the title of property in human beings should ever have a tendency towards maltreating them. Their power of inflicting punishment upon slaves was limited to imprisonment for 6 months, a moderate number of lashes, or placing the culprit in chains. In cases of petty crime, for which the law provided penalties not exceeding 50 rixdollars, the landdrosts were left at liberty to compound with the offenders without public trial. [3] [4]
The office of auctioneer was separated from that of landdrost and attached to that of district secretary. Each landdrost was to be provided with a house, a garden, and a cattle run. He was to have a salary of 2500 rixdollars a year, and was to be entitled to specified fees for certain duties. The landdrost of Stellenbosch was to have 500 rixdollars a year extra. In each district there were to be 6 heemraden, selected from the most respectable and trustworthy burghers. The qualifications were 30 years of age, residence in the district for 3 years, and the possession of freehold property or the occupation of a leasehold farm. They were to receive no salaries or emoluments, as their office was to be regarded as one of honour. On the formation of a new district the heemraden were to be appointed by the governor; but at the end of each succeeding year the 2 who had served longest were to retire, when the governor was to select their successors from a list of 4 names supplied by the board. A session of the court of landdrost and heemraden was to be held monthly in the districts of Stellenbosch and Tulbagh, quarterly in the other districts. The landdrost was to preside, except in case of unavoidable absence, when the senior heemraad was to take the chair. The landdrost and 4 heemraden were to form a quorum. [3]
This court had jurisdiction in all disputes concerning the boundaries of farms and the impounding of cattle, all suits connected with auction sales, and all civil cases in which the amount contested was less than 300 rixdollars. There was a right of appeal to the high court of justice in cases over the value of 25 rixdollars. The landdrost and heemraden were to perform the duties of coroners. They had charge also of the highways, and generally of such matters as were carried out at the expense of the district. In their judicial capacity they were responsible only to the high court of justice, and criminal cases were reported by them to the attorney-general. In all other matters they were responsible to the governor. [3]
There was a very useful class of officers, termed fieldcornets, whose sphere of duty other than military had only been recognised of recent years, as they had gradually and almost imperceptibly taken the place of the corporals of militia and the veldwachters of earlier times. The ordinance of October 1805 gave them a better position than they had previously occupied. Every district was now divided into wards, none of which were to be of greater extent than could be ridden across by a man on horseback in 6 hours; in each of these wards there was to be a fieldcornet, nominated by the landdrost and appointed by the governor. He was to be a man of unblemished character, over 25 years of age, a resident for more than 2 years in the ward, and in possession of freehold property or in occupation of a leasehold farm. He was to be the representative of the landdrost, to maintain order and tranquillity, to settle petty disputes, to keep a register of the people, to make new laws known, and generally to promote industry and whatever might tend to prosperity. He was to be free of district taxation, and was to have a farm without rent or 25 rixdollars a year. [3] [9]
For military purposes the fieldcornets were to call out and lead the burghers of their wards whenever required by the landdrost. The burghers were divided into three classes. The first to be called upon for personal service were those between 16 and 30 years of age, next those between 30 and 45, and lastly those between 45 and 60. If all the men of a class were not needed, the unmarried and those without employment were to be called out before the others. Such as were not called upon for personal service were to be assessed to supply food, horses, and means of transport. When in the field, the several divisions of the burgher militia of each district were under the general orders either of the landdrost or of a commandant appointed by the governor, and the fieldcornets often had the title of captain conferred upon them. In this manner the whole European population of the colony was organised for military purposes. What hung on the October ordinance was a district machine that could marry, try a farm dispute, protect a slave, and call a ward to arms — while Baird’s fleet was still at sea. [3]
Roman Catholicism had always been well represented at the Cape by the soldiers of the garrison. It was estimated that usually a third of the whole number professed that faith, and there was also a fair number among the civilian population. De Mist had sanctioned a government salary to each of two Roman Catholic chaplains in 1804. On the 5th of October 1805 the reverends Johannes Landsinck and Jacobus Nelessen arrived from Holland. In the castle itself in October a room was fitted up as a chapel, in which a Roman Catholic clergyman conducted service for the soldiers of his creed. That is why the equal-worship ordinance of July 1804 was no longer only paper in the garrison: two chaplains were in the castle before the year was out. [3] [4]
Gale in Table Bay — 3 November 1805
On the 3rd of November 1805, during a violent gale from the north-west, three American ships were driven ashore in Table Bay and became total wrecks. The French frigate Atalante also went ashore, and was dismasted and otherwise damaged, but was got afloat again after the storm subsided. The roadstead that took De Mist out in an American hull in February took three American hulls onto the beach in November, and a French frigate with them. [3]
In 1805 the European population of the whole colony, according to the census returns, consisted of 25757 individuals, exclusive of soldiers. They owned 29545 slaves, and had in their service under agreements 20006 Khoikhoi, people of mixed descent, and San. It is impossible to say how many Khoikhoi were living at their own kraals, or San roaming about, for these people paid no taxes and therefore no notice was ever taken of them by the census framers. Those in service and their families were registered, in order that they might be protected. Capetown contained, in addition to public edifices of various kinds, 1258 houses and stores, and had a population of 6273 Europeans, 1130 Asiatics and free blacks, 9129 slaves, and 452 Khoikhoi. An official statement published by the Batavian authorities gave the number as between 25000 and 26000, not including the soldiers of the garrison. [3] [7]
In December the government was offering the farmers around the Cape for the wheat then being reaped 16 shillings and 8 pence a muid, from which only 1 shilling a muid was to be deducted instead of the tithe. About Zwartkops River good crops were being gathered, and Captain Alberti was instructed to try to secure a quantity at Algoa Bay at 11 shillings and 8 pence a muid clear. That season’s harvest was still in the farmers’ hands when the year closed. Janssens was doing his utmost to excite a martial spirit among the burghers. Drills and reviews were more frequent than ever before, flattering addresses were made by the governor on every opportunity, and no event in which bravery or patience was displayed was allowed to pass without notice. [3]
For a long time an attack had been expected, and within the last few days of December tidings were received which set every one on the alert. On the 24th and 25th of December the French privateer Napoleon, which had recently brought some 50 English prisoners of war from Mauritius to the Cape and then gone to cruise in the route of homeward-bound ships, was chased by an English frigate, and, to avoid capture, was run ashore on the coast south of Hout Bay. Her crew brought the intelligence to Capetown, and it was suspected that the frigate had companions. Then came a vessel with a report that she had passed in the Atlantic a great fleet steering south, and on the 28th another arrived with news that a large number of English ships had sailed from Madeira on the 4th of October. What hung on those last days of December was the warning itself: the Cape now knew that a great English fleet had left Madeira, and Janssens was already making preparations. [3] [7]