Part 15

Like most mixed breeds he was exceedingly proud of the nationality of his father, and as he advanced in stature was inclined in everything to be more intensely Dutch than anyone of pure blood born in the Netherlands could be. Yet as he possessed a large share of sound common sense, he never made such a silly display of his proclivities in this respect as most half-breeds are in the habit of doing. Who has not been irritated by the forwardness and foolish remarks of such people? At breakfast one morning recently in a London hotel, a hideous mulatto woman at one of the tables provoked the disgust of all the others seated in the same room by finding fault with everything, and asserting in very broad Scotch that “we do this very differently in Scotland.” Of such conduct Simon van der Stel was never guilty. He grew up to be a man under the medium stature, and of a dark complexion, with an open cheerful countenance, but no other indications of his personal appearance can now be found.

He married Johanna Jacoba, daughter of Willem Six and his wife Catharina Hinlopen, a respectable family of Amsterdam, by whom he became the father of six children: Willem Adriaan, prominent in Cape history, Adriaan, who became governor of Amboina and the adjacent islands, Catharina, Frans, Hendrik, and Cornelis. The last named left the Cape for Batavia in January 1694 in the _Ridderschap_, and was never again heard of, but it was supposed that the ship was wrecked on the coast of Madagascar and that he had perished there.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The directors of the East India Company assisted their protégé as much as they could in Holland, and at length when the situation of head of the Cape settlement was vacant, they offered it to him. He accepted the offer gladly, for it gave him a promise of financial improvement, and with his four eldest sons he embarked in the ship _Vrije Zee_ and reached South Africa in October 1679, when he was nearly forty years of age. His lady with his daughter and his youngest son remained behind in Amsterdam, and he never saw his wife or daughter again.

The system of the East India Company of paying its officials was a bad one, for their salaries were very small indeed, and they depended upon perquisites to put by anything. And at the Cape there were not so many opportunities of making money by perquisites as in India, so that few men of ability cared to stay here long. When Simon van der Stel arrived in South Africa he had only the rank of a commander, which carried with it a salary in money less than a junior clerk receives to-day, but he had a furnished residence, a table allowance besides ample rations of food and even delicacies, slaves provided for servants, horses and a carriage free of charge, and he had liberty to trade in certain articles on his own account. Thus he could purchase a bale of calico or a crate of crockery from the captain of one ship and sell it to the captain of another, but he was not at liberty to deal in a single nutmeg or a pound of pepper, the traffic in spices being strictly reserved for the Company itself. He was prohibited also from carrying on farming operations or speculating in cattle, as the Company was desirous of encouraging colonists.

[Sidenote: Abuses in India.]

When Simon van der Stel became commander the settlement comprised only the cultivated ground at the foot of Table Mountain, two little outposts of the Company at Saldanha Bay and Hottentots-Holland, a cattle station of the Company at the Tigerberg, and land beyond the isthmus on which seven burghers were experimenting in cattle breeding. He is almost as much entitled to be termed the founder of the colony as Van Riebeek is, for Stellenbosch, the Paarl, Drakenstein, and French Hoek were occupied under his supervision. Of course in neither case was what they did a mere act of their own will: they simply carried out honestly and faithfully the instructions of the directors of the Company, who provided the people and the means that were needed. But to those who maintain that no good can be accomplished by men of mixed European and Asiatic blood, it may be pointed out that Simon van der Stel was a model ruler, able, industrious, energetic, honest, and absolutely faithful to the trust reposed in him. The only glaring fault in his character, and even that did not become conspicuous until he was advanced in years, was an inordinate love of money and a readiness to adopt measures to obtain it that to men of the present day seem beneath the dignity of a high official. But to Netherlanders of those times it did not appear incorrect for a man of position to make money in any way not legally wrong.

At this time so many abuses had crept into the administration of the Company’s affairs in Hindostan and Ceylon that the directors considered it advisable to adopt very drastic measures to rectify them. For this purpose they appointed a commission of three members to examine into matters there, and at its head they placed the very ablest officer in their service, a man in whose integrity they could implicitly rely, to whom they gave all the powers of a dictator. His name was Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, but he was more commonly known by his title of lord of Mydrecht.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

Before he left Europe he was requested to visit the Cape settlement also, and had supreme power conferred upon him while here. Only twice during the whole term of the East India Company’s rule in South Africa has any one with the authority of the lord of Mydrecht visited the colony: on this occasion and in 1792-3, when the high commissioners Nederburgh and Frykenius exercised an unqualified dictatorship. It was a tremendous trust to bestow upon any individual. Under the commission or general power of attorney which he held, the lord of Mydrecht could appoint or displace any officials, create any new office or dispense with any old one, suspend or alter any law or regulation, and issue new laws, with the assurance that all he might do in this respect would be confirmed and ratified by the Assembly of Seventeen.

The lord of Mydrecht was in Capetown from the 19th of April to the 16th of July 1685, and during that time he made many new laws, most of which proved to be beneficial, though a few were not in accordance with the spirit of our day.[44] These, however, need not be referred to here: what is necessary to be mentioned is his making a grant of land to Simon van der Stel. He found that official performing excellent service, and throwing his whole heart into his duty, while receiving only the trifling salary and the emoluments of a commander. If he had raised his salary and increased his emoluments, every other official of similar rank in the service would have claimed to be dealt with in the same way, and he did not see fit to promote him to the rank of governor and give him the larger income which that office carried with it. Instead of doing this, he suspended the orders of the directors of the 26th of April 1668, which forbade the commander and the members of the council from cultivating more ground than a little garden and owning more cattle than they needed for their own use,[45] and on the 13th of July 1685 he granted to Simon van der Stel eight hundred and ninety-one morgen and a fraction of ground just beyond Wynberg in full property. This estate the commander named Constantia, and it has been so called ever since.

[Sidenote: Promotion of Simon van der Stel.]

The circumstances of this grant were peculiar. Simon van der Stel and some of the other officials deserved encouragement, and the lord of Mydrecht regarded this as the easiest way of rewarding them, though no one but the commander availed himself of it. The Huguenot and Dutch immigrants of a few years later were still unthought of, and the demand for produce of all kinds was so much greater than the few colonists then in the country could meet that there was not the slightest fear of the officials competing with the burghers. The land granted too was so close to the castle that it could be reached in little more than an hour, so that the owner need never be absent from his duty or pass a night away from his residence. For these reasons the directors confirmed the grant, but they took the precaution of announcing a few years later that it was an exceptional one and that the law of 1668 was still in full force.

Simon van der Stel, promoted to be governor in June 1691, with a salary of £16 13_s._ 4_d._ a month, and in 1692 to be councillor extraordinary of Netherlands India, a position which added to his emoluments as well as to his dignity, remained at the head of the administration of the Cape Colony until February 1699, when at his own request, made in 1696, he retired, and he spent the remainder of his life upon his farm Constantia, where he died on the 24th of June 1712.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

As a mark of the estimation in which he was held by the directors, on the 26th of September 1697 they appointed his eldest son, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, to be his successor, with the full title, salary, and emoluments which the retiring official had earned by his long and faithful services.[46] On the 31st of July 1698 the newly appointed governor received at Amsterdam his final instructions from the directors, and parted from them with their good wishes for his welfare. He and his family left Holland with the first ship that sailed thereafter for India, and in January 1699 reached Capetown, but he was not installed in office until the 11th of February.

What kind of man Willem Adriaan van der Stel was in person cannot be ascertained from any document in the archives of the Netherlands or of the Cape Colony, or from anything contained in the vast mass of printed matter of the period concerning him. He may have been tall and stout or he may have been small, he may have been darker coloured than his father, for atavism sometimes plays curious freaks in this respect, or he may have been as light skinned as a pure Netherlander: there are no means of getting information on this now. But one thing can be said of him with certainty: that before he became governor of the Cape Colony he had borne a good character, and had not displayed those vices which at a later date made his name infamous. There is a Dutch proverb _De gelegenheid dieven en moordenaars maakt_, Opportunity makes thieves and murderers, and in his case the opportunity was wanting as long as he resided in Amsterdam. He had been an official in that city for ten years, had even been a schepen, and if his conduct had not been upright--outwardly at least--he would not have secured the favour of the directors of the East India Company, men who knew him well personally.

[Sidenote: Condition of the Settlement.]

The condition of the settlement was at this time very different from what it had been when his father arrived. The Huguenot refugees had come from Europe and been located in the lovely valleys where so many of their descendants still reside. An even greater number of Dutch families and orphan girls had migrated to South Africa, and had been located side by side with the French or by themselves around the Tigerberg, so that all the land as far as the Groeneberg beyond the present village of Wellington was occupied, though sparsely. There were three separate congregations in the settlement, though as yet there was a church building at Stellenbosch only. In Capetown divine service was still held in a hall in the castle, and at Drakenstein in a farmer’s house or under an improvised screen. Wheatfields, vineyards, orchards, and gardens were scattered over the land, each with a thatched cottage on its border, cattle and sheep grazed on the hill sides, and here and there young oaks were beginning to beautify the scene. The view was fair, but concord was wanting in the settlement. Between the Dutch and the French there was little goodwill, for national prejudices kept them from being real friends, though a few intermarriages had already taken place.

The Dutch reformed--identical with the French evangelical--was the state church, and all officials were required to be members of it. No other public worship was tolerated. But there was no inquisition, and in a man’s own house he was free to worship God in any manner he pleased. This was the system of the Northern Netherlands, and it was the system of the Cape Colony. No Roman Catholic was sent out as an emigrant, but there were some of that creed in the Company’s service, and when any of these took their discharge in South Africa they were not interfered with, provided they exercised their devotions within doors. By their fellow citizens, however, they were not favourably regarded, for their tenets were supposed to be dangerous to freedom.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The farmers knew no want of plain wholesome food, but they were fain to be content with few luxuries. Their dwellings were in general small and to modern ideas scantily furnished, as they had not been here long enough to acquire the means to provide more than was barely necessary for shelter and the simplest needs. The picturesque and commodious houses with their ornamented gables and high stoeps, now so much admired, only made their appearance when more than half a century from the arrival of Willem Adriaan van der Stel had passed away, and with them was first seen the massive furniture still occasionally met with. Lying in the loft or on the beams of most of the cottages was a coffin, kept in readiness for its eventual purpose, but used in the mean time as a receptacle for odds and ends.[47]

The farming utensils were extremely crude, the plough especially, with but one stilt, being as clumsy as it well could be. Black slaves had been introduced, but were not yet numerous, and Hottentots in considerable bands still roamed over the pastures beyond the settlement, some of whom occasionally took service with the colonists in order to obtain tobacco and strong drink.

The country people were almost exclusively occupied in agricultural or pastoral pursuits. One of the Huguenot immigrants, Isaac Taillefer by name, found time from the care of his vineyard to manufacture coarse felt hats, and some of the women spun yarn and knitted socks and stockings. What leather was needed was tanned by the farmers themselves, whose womenfolk also made what soap and candles were required for home use. Here and there one acted as a blacksmith, a waggonmaker, a carpenter, or a shoemaker, in addition to looking after his farm, but as yet there was no scope for mechanical industry on a large scale. The farmers were in the habit of visiting each others’ houses frequently, and on such occasions the men were entertained with wine and tobacco and the women with coffee or tea.[48] At meal times visitors were invited to partake as a matter of course.

[Sidenote: Life in the Cape Colony.]

It was a simple condition of life, not favourable to great expansion of the mind, and not free from care, but not necessarily attended with unhappiness.

Mixed with these worthy colonists was a sprinkling of men of loose habits, mostly deserters from the garrison in Capetown or from ships, or who had been discharged from the Company’s service without proper caution. These men professed to desire to take service with the farmers, but were in general vagabonds and a pest to the community. Yet no one cared to give them up to justice, for it was regarded as the duty of the government, not of the colonists, to apprehend them and punish them for crime or expel them from the country as vagrants.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The directors of the East India Company were desirous of increasing the number of colonists, as they required larger supplies of provisions than had hitherto been obtainable at the Cape, and they also wished to strengthen the defensive force here in case of an attack by an enemy. They were still sending out a few Huguenots almost every year, mixed with a larger number of Dutch, but the ill-feeling between the two nationalities in the colony, and more than this the menacing attitude of the French king towards the Netherlands, with the suspicion that perhaps the refugees might not prove loyal to a country that gave shelter and religious dominance indeed, but that in language, customs, and form of government was foreign and strange,[49] caused them to alter their plans soon after the new governor was installed in office. On the 16th of June 1700 they appointed a commission to consider the matter, and in conformity with the report sent in, on the 22nd of the same month they adopted a resolution to authorise the different chambers to send out men, women, and children, providing them with free passages, but taking care that they were either Dutch citizens or subjects of a German state not carrying on commerce by sea, that they were either of the reformed or of the Lutheran faith, and that they were agriculturists or vinedressers; but not to send out any more French.[50]

[Sidenote: Emigration to South Africa.]

Emigration to South Africa, according to the terms of this resolution, continued until the 15th of July 1707, when it was stopped,[51] and from that date onward the European population of the colony was increased only by natural means and by the discharge of servants of the Company.

On the 27th of June 1699 the directors had strictly prohibited the members of the council of policy and of the high court of justice from trading in cattle in any way,[52] so that the interests of the colonists seemed to them to be firmly secured. The chief officials, forbidden to carry on agriculture or cattle breeding on their own account and to speculate in oxen and sheep, could not do any damage to the farmers by competing with them. In the large garden in Table Valley experiments were being made at the Company’s expense in the cultivation of foreign and indigenous plants, so that the colonists could learn without cost what was most proper to cultivate and how to cultivate it. More favourable terms could hardly be offered to suitable emigrants: free transport, grant of land in freehold without charge, security against competition.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

Unfortunately the colonists were ignorant of the last of these conditions, for the orders of the directors were kept concealed from them. Every member of the council of policy was sworn to secrecy, and the contents of no document were made known without the governor’s order. With our knowledge, now that the old records are open for examination, it is with a feeling akin to amazement that we observe in the struggle for justice about to be recorded that the burghers made no use of a weapon which would at once have demolished their opponent, and employed only instruments feebler in every way because they were not so capable of being handled. More than once during the administration of the Dutch East India Company in South Africa, the burghers complained, and with reason, that they did not know by what laws they were governed. Here was a case in point. A wise and salutary law, a law making provision against gross oppression and wrong, was a dead letter for years because it was kept concealed in inaccessible archives, and could therefore be violated with impunity by faithless officials.

II.

ORDINARY EVENTS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR WILLEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL.

[Sidenote: Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel.]

Willem Adriaan--or Wilhem Adriaen as he wrote his given name--van der Stel, councillor extraordinary of Netherlands India and governor of the Cape Colony and its dependency the island of Mauritius, had resided here for several years after his arrival with his father in October 1679, and had held different situations in the public service, so that he was well acquainted with the condition of the country. In the proceedings of the council of policy he is mentioned on the 16th of December 1680 as receiving the appointments of secretary of the orphan chamber and of the matrimonial court, on the 19th of April 1682 as having acted as issuer of stores and as being then promoted to be a book-keeper, and on the 26th of December 1682 as being issuer of stores and then promoted to be treasurer.[53] After a sojourn here of several years he returned to Amsterdam, but the exact date of his removal is unknown. He was accompanied to South Africa when he became governor by his wife, Maria de Haase by name, and several children.

Notwithstanding the pains taken by the late governor to promote tree-planting, there was a scarcity of timber and fuel at the Cape. It was a difficult matter to supply the ships with firewood. Some skippers reported that in passing by two islands, named Dina and Marseveen, in latitude 41° or 42° south, and about four hundred sea miles from the Cape, they had observed fine forests, which they suggested should be examined. The master of the galiot _Wezel_ was thereupon instructed to proceed to the locality indicated, to inspect the forests carefully, and ascertain what quantity of timber was to be had. The _Wezel_ sailed from Table Bay on the 31st of March 1699, but returned on the 13th of May with a report that the search for the islands had been fruitless.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The governor had instructions from the directors to attend more carefully to arboriculture than had yet been done, and they complained that if a sufficient number of trees had been planted in earlier years there would be no necessity to send timber from Europe for housebuilding purposes and no want of fuel for the ships. These instructions he carried out, and during the first winter after his arrival twenty thousand young oaks were planted in the kloofs at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, where the native forests had been exhausted, and over ten thousand were set out in the Cape peninsula. In the winter of 1701 a further supply was sent to Stellenbosch from the nursery in Table Valley, and the landdrost was instructed to have them planted along the streets.

On the 23rd of November 1699 the governor with a party of attendants set out on a tour of inspection of the settlement. He visited Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, and the farms about the Tigerberg, where he found some persons to whom no ground had yet been allotted. The country was inhabited by Europeans, though thinly, nearly as far as the present village of Hermon. Small Hottentot kraals were scattered about, of which the occupants were found to be very poor and very lazy.

Keeping down the Berg river, the range of mountains on the right was reported to be tenanted by Bushmen, who were in the habit of descending from their fastnesses and plundering the burghers and Hottentots below. The range was on this account known as the Obiqua mountains. The governor crossed over at a place since termed the Roodezand pass, just beyond the gorge through which the Little Berg river flows, and entered the valley now called the Tulbagh basin.

[Sidenote: Description of the Tulbagh Basin.]