Part 28

[59] “Alle de Coloniers (goet vlees leverende) sonder dese of geene begunstighde daerinne boven anderen te prefereren, en sulex sonder onderscheijt tot voors: leverantie sal hebben te admitteren. Dan aengesien wij considereren dat voorsz: leverantie onder anderen mede moet geaght werden te sijn een voorregt der vrije Ingesetenen en Coloniers deselve privative competerende met uijtsluijtingh van Comps: dienaren, die met haer Soldije en emolumenten moeten te vreden sijn, en daermede oock genoeghsaem kunnen bestaen, soo verstaen en begeeren wij dat niemant van Comps: dienaren, den gouverneur daer onder mede begrepen, eenigh versch vlees aen Comps: schepen, hospitael etc: sal mogen leveren, direct of indirect, maer ’t selve op den ontfangst deses voortaen alleen door de vrije Ingesetenen moeten geschieden.”--Despatch signed by fifteen of the directors, dated at Middelburg on the 28th of October 1705. In the Cape archives and copy in those of the Netherlands. This order was sent out, because complaints had already been received in Holland that the governor was disregarding the laws on the subject.

[60] When trying to excuse his conduct to his friends after all this was made known to the directors and he had been dismissed from the service, the late governor admitted, as he could not deny it, that he had occasionally taken Hertog with him to Vergelegen for the purpose here mentioned. See the _Korte Deductie van Willem Adriaen van der Stel: tot destructie ende wederlegginge van alle de klaghten, die eenige vrijluijden van de voorsz Cabo aen de Edele Achtbare Heren Bewinthebberen van de Oost Indische Compagnie over hem hadden gedaen_. A foolscap folio volume of 172 pages, published in Holland--the name of the town is not given--soon after his recall and dismissal from the Company’s service. But his opponents proved conclusively that Hertog was there for six or eight months at a time, while drawing pay from the Company, and they published some of his written orders as manager of the place. See the _Contra Deductie ofte Grondige Demonstratie van de valsheit der witgegevene Deductie by den Ed: Heer Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Geweezen Raad Extraordinaris van Nederlandsch India, en Gouverneur aan Cabo de Goede Hoop, etc., etc., etc.; waar in niet alleen begrepen is een nauwkeurig Historisch Verhaal, van al ’t geene de Heer van der Stel in den jare 1706 heeft werkstellig gemaakt, on de Vrijburgeren aan de Kaab t’ onder te brengen: maar ook een beknopt Antwoort op alle in gemelde Deductie, en deszelfs schriftelijke Verantwoordinge, voorgestelde naakte uitvluchten, abuseerende bewysstukken, en andere zaken meer: strekkende tot Verificatie van’t Klachtschrift, in den jare 1706 aan Haar Wel Edele Hoog Achtbaarheden, de Heeren Bewinthebberen ter Illustre Vergadering van Zeventienen afgezonden; zynde gesterkt door veele authenticque en gerecolleerde Bewysstukken, waar van de origineele of authenticque Copyen in handen hebben de twee Gemachtigden van eenige der Kaapsche Inwoonderen Jacobus van der Heiden en Adam Tas_. A foolscap folio volume of 318 pages, published at Amsterdam in 1712. This volume refutes the statements made in the _Korte Deductie_, and contains some very strong evidence given under oath. It is otherwise interesting, as being the first book entirely prepared in South Africa.

[61] In his _Korte Deductie_ the late governor asserted that he had purchased over two hundred slaves for his private use. The Company allowed him twenty of its male and female slaves as domestic servants in his residence in the castle, and these he sent to his farm, employing his own instead. He denied making use of other government slaves than these for his private work. He stated that the soldiers and sailors were temporarily detached from the public service, in the manner usual in times of peace, and were paid and maintained by him while they were in his service. The only other soldiers that he admitted as having worked at Vergelegen were those who formed his escort when he went there, and who, he asserted, might better have been occupied during their stay at the farm than have been idle. But see the note on page 218.

[62] The quantity of wheat produced at Vergelegen is not given in the archives, but is stated by Bogaert, who is a trustworthy authority, at over eleven hundred muids yearly.

[63] In his _Korte Deductie_ he stated that by purchasing from farmers and by the natural increase of his stock he had some thousands of sheep and some hundreds of horned cattle, but that he did not know the exact number. Instead of eighteen stations, he asserted that he had eight folds or kraals, but that part of his attempted excuse for his conduct is so palpably misleading that it is of no value whatever. The statistics given here are from those obtained after his recall.

[64] “Ondertusschen sullen uE: haer mede op hoede hebben te houden.”--Despatch signed by twelve of the directors, dated at Amsterdam on the 15th of March 1701.

[65] He was able to prove that he had paid for some timber drawn from the Company’s magazine, but the evidence of the master of a ship shows how articles could be obtained even where invoices and disbursements were audited. The skipper of one of the Company’s vessels needed a small quantity of iron for repairs, which he drew from the magazine. Before he sailed he was required to sign a receipt for a very much larger quantity, and on his remonstrating he was told that such was the usual custom. He grumbled, but was at length induced to attach his signature to the document. The receipt then became a voucher for the use of so much iron in the Company’s service. Willem Adriaan van der Stel was a poor man when he arrived in South Africa, and could not have established Vergelegen with his own means, although he received large bribes for favours granted. In Tas’s journal it is stated that from the contractor Henning Huising he obtained three thousand sheep, two slaves, and over £833, but no particulars are given as to the nature of the transaction. The bribers may be morally as guilty as the bribed, but with such a man as Willem Adriaan van der Stel there was no other way of getting any business transacted.

[66] Such extreme precaution was used to prevent the governor’s movements from becoming known in Holland or India that it is now impossible to ascertain from any documents in the archives which of these statements is correct. The long intervals that frequently occurred during his administration between the meetings of the council of policy, however, prove that the periods named by the burghers were quite possible. In 1700 there was one meeting in January, four meetings in February, one in March, one in April, one in May, one on the 28th of June, one on the 30th of August, and one on the 18th of December. In 1701 there was one meeting in January, three meetings in March, one on the 26th of May, one on the 29th of August, and one on the 30th of December. In 1702 there were only six meetings in all, the first being on the 23rd of May, in 1703 there were only five meetings, and in 1704 the same number. In 1705 there were ten meetings, with an interval of two months in one instance and of nearly three months in another. This is not very important, however, as the time of absence from his post admitted by himself is sufficient to convict him of unfaithfulness to his trust.

[67] This grant was of course illegal, as being in opposition to the orders of the directors in 1668, and Elsevier’s making use of it was the ground of his dismissal from the service when the directors became acquainted with the circumstances. There is so little on record concerning it that it is not now possible to say why Simon van der Stel acted as he did, but he may have reasoned that as the lord of Mydrecht would have given ground to the secunde in 1685, if the holder of the situation at that time had chosen to accept it, it would not be wrong to give it to another secunde. This is only supposition, but I cannot think of anything else that would have caused the old governor to overstep his authority in this manner.

[68] See letter from the reverend Petrus Kalden to the Classis of Amsterdam, dated 26th of April 1707, given in _Bouwstoffen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederduitsch-Gereformeerde Kerken in Zuid Afrika_, door C. Spoelstra, V.D.M. Volume I, page 56.

[69] For these statistics see the sworn depositions of men who had worked for him, printed in the _Contra Deductie_. The charge of not paying the Company its legal dues he took no notice of in his attempt to excuse his conduct, and there is not the slightest trace of such a payment being made in the accounts or other records of the time. The names of over sixty of the Company’s soldiers and sailors who worked for him for considerable periods are given under oath in the _Contra Deductie_, and of them he only accounted for twenty-eight as being paid by him. There is positive proof of his using the Company’s slaves on his farm, but the charge of taking twenty-five for himself and causing them to be written off in the Company’s books as having died must be regarded as doubtful. That the Company’s master gardener, Jan Hertog, was the overseer at Vergelegen, that the workmen there were under his direction, and that he was not away from the place for eight months at a time, was fully proved.

[70] See the _Contra Deductie_, pages 126, 180, and 279. Kolbe states that his wife attempted to commit suicide on account of his conduct, but I would be disinclined to accept the evidence of that author unless it was well supported. Tas, however, in his journal, states on information supplied to him that in December 1705 the governor’s wife tried to drown herself by jumping into the fountain behind her residence at the Cape, and that Mrs. Bergh sprang forward and drew her out of the water. She complained that life was a misery to her, owing to what she was obliged to see and hear daily. Of Mrs. Van der Stel so little is known that it would not be right to express an opinion as to whether her conduct towards her husband was or was not such as to provoke him to neglect her for other women, but this can be said with confidence, that the man who was utterly faithless towards his country, his rulers, and one who was weak enough to trust him as Wouter Valckenier had done, may without hesitation be pronounced capable of being equally faithless towards the mother of his children, the most unhappy woman in the settlement.

[71] This charge can neither be proved nor disproved by any documents in the Cape archives. But there is one circumstance in connection with it that throws strong suspicion upon the governor, and under any circumstances shows that he paid no attention to the instructions of the authorities in Holland. Their orders of the 27th of June 1699, throwing open to the burghers the cattle trade with the Hottentots, reached Capetown on the 24th of November of the same year; having been brought by the flute _De Boer_, which sailed from Texel on the 17th of July. The governor did not return to the castle from his visit to the Tulbagh basin until the 14th of December,--all his movements when absent on duty are carefully recorded,--and a placaat announcing the will of the directors ought to have been issued on the following day. Instead of that, however, it was not published until the 28th of February 1700, and then only owing to the presence of the commissioner Wouter Valckenier. It was during these two months and a half, as the burghers asserted, that the governor’s agents were engaged in procuring horned cattle and sheep for him by fair means or by foul, and that the Hottentots to a considerable distance from the Cape were despoiled and exasperated. From his general character, as delineated in the archives, one cannot say that he would scruple even at acts of robbery.

[72] See letters from the governor and council at the Cape to the governor-general and council of India, dated 18th of March 1706, and to the directors, dated 31st of March and 24th of June 1706, in the Cape archives. The abuse heaped upon the burghers in these documents is enormous, and indicates how weak the governor must have felt his attempted defence to be.

[73] This document is in the Cape archives. It is in as good a state of preservation--excepting one leaf--as if it had been drawn up yesterday.

[74] See the letter of the governor and council at the Cape to the governor-general and council of India, of the 18th of March 1706. For this and subsequent events to the governor’s recall see the Proceedings of the Council of Policy and the Cape Journal for 1706 and 1707 in the Cape archives.

[75] One of the chief privileges secured to the free Netherlanders by their revolt against Spain and the long and successful war that followed was security from confinement except as a punishment for crime. A man suspected of having committed an offence could be arrested on a warrant properly issued by a court of justice, and was then either released on bail or speedily brought to trial, according to the nature of the charge.

[76] In a letter to the Indian authorities it is also termed blasphemy.

[77] “Maar Edele Gestrenge Heer, de wyven zyn alsoo gevaarlyk als de mans, en zyn niet stil.”--Extract from a letter of the landdrost Starrenburg to the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, dated 18th of September 1706. In the Cape archives.

[78] See letter from the governor-general and council of India to the governor and council at the Cape, dated 30th of November 1706. In the Cape archives.

[79] Tas mentions in his journal under date 19th of June 1705 that he had heard of complaints about the governor having reached the Netherlands, but gives no particulars.

[80] “Tot het stellen van de nodige ordres voor de securiteijt van de Caep de bonne Esperance, en daer toe soodanige middelen te adhiberen en in ’t werck stellen, alsmede tot bereijkingh van dat ooghmerck sal nodigh en dienstigh aghten, is goetgevonden te versoecken en committeren, gelijck als versoght en gecommittert werden bij dese, wegens de kamer Amsterdam de heeren Witsen en Hooft, wegens de kamer Zeeland de heer d’Huijbert, en wegens de kameren van ’t zuijder en noorder quartier de heeren van Blois en van Gent, beneffens beijde d’ advocaten van de Compagnie.”--Resolution of the Assembly of Seventeen adopted on the 8th of March 1706, copied by me from the original volume in the archives at the Hague, and published in _Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika_, Deel III, page 3.

[81] See _Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika_, Deel III, page 7.

[82] See _Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika_, Deel III, page 7.

[83] They can be seen in the letter of the governor and the council of policy to the directors, dated 31st of March 1706, in the archives at the Hague and copy in those at Capetown, also in the printed volume called the _Korte Deductie_.

[84] These rations included three hundred and sixty pounds of flour, a still larger quantity of rice, fresh meat equal to four sheep, twenty pounds of salted beef or pork, a very large quantity of European wine, ale, and spirits, oil, vinegar, four pounds of pepper, two pounds of spices, and twenty-five pounds of butter monthly, besides twenty-five pounds of wax and tallow candles, and as much fuel as he needed. He was supposed to entertain the masters of ships when they were ashore on business, and was therefore provided for so liberally. He was also required to give a dinner to all the principal officers of the fleets returning from India, just before they sailed, which was termed the afscheidmaal, but for this he was paid £41 13_s._ 4_d._ by the Company. A carriage and horses were also provided for him free of cost, so that he had no forage to purchase. Under these circumstances his excuse seems to be as silly as it was impudent. His actual salary was only two hundred gulden or £16 13_s._ 4_d._ a month, less than that of a second class clerk in the public service to-day, but he had various fees and perquisites.

[85] The other members were Messrs. Lestevenon, De Vries, Corven, Bas, Hooft, Van Dam, Velters, De Witt, Van der Waeijen, Van de Blocquerij, Hoogeveen, Muijssart, Maarseveen, Trip, and Goudoeven. For the actual text of the resolution see _Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika_, Deel III, pages 7, 8, and 9.

[86] The original letter is now in the Cape archives, and the office copy is in the archives of the Netherlands at the Hague.

[87] This appointment of a military man as head of the government was made specially to secure his constant presence in the castle in time of war, as the directors were startled by the conduct of Van der Stel in neglecting his duty as he had done.

[88] _Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden_, door A. J. van der Aa, Zeventiende Deel, Tweede Stuk, published at Haarlem in 1874. Copied by me and published in _Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika_, Deel III, pages 11 and 12.

[89] Better known to English readers as Moselekatse, the Setshuana form of his name. He was the father of the late chief Lobengula.

[90] The private, confidential, and semi-official correspondence between Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban, Colonel H. G. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel H. Somerset, and many others, was fortunately preserved by the governor and remained in his family’s possession until 1911, when it was most kindly presented by his grandson W. S. M. D’Urban, Esqre., of Exeter, through me to the government of the Union of South Africa. I immediately published one volume of these most valuable papers under the title of _The Kaffir War of 1835_, which can be seen in several of the most important public libraries in Great Britain and the Netherlands as well as in those of South Africa. I copied sufficient for two volumes more, which can be seen typewritten in the South African Public Library, Capetown, under the title of _The Province of Queen Adelaide_, and finally I am now preparing another packet, under the title of _The Emigration of the Dutch Farmers from the Cape Colony_, which will also be deposited in the same institution. It is from these papers that I have derived the information which enables me to enlarge upon the accounts of Louis Triegard and Pieter Lavras Uys which I have given in my _History of South Africa_. I am also indebted to G. C. Moore Smith, Esqre., M.A., of Sheffield, a great nephew of Colonel (afterwards Sir Harry) Smith, for the use of many papers in his possession and for much kindly assistance otherwise rendered to me.

[91] He was a lineal descendant of the ruling family of the Amatuli tribe, the remnant of which had been reduced to such a wretched condition that they depended chiefly upon fish for subsistence. This is an article of diet that would only be used by this section of the Bantu in the last extremity of want, but they dared not make a garden or even erect a hut before the arrival of Messrs. Farewell and Fynn in 1824, for fear of attracting notice. Umnini was then a child, and his uncle Matubana was regarded as the temporary head of the little community of three or four hundred souls that had escaped when the remainder of their tribe was destroyed.

[92] The petition is in the archive department, a typewritten copy in the South African Public Library. The names attached to it are those of A. Gardiner, Henry Hogle (elsewhere written Ogle), Charles J. Pickman, P. Kew, J. Francis, J. Mouncey, G. Lyons, Charles Adams, James Collis, John Cane, R. Ward, Thomas Carden, Richard King, J. Prince, and Daniel Toohey. On the 29th of March 1836 Lord Glenelg replied refusing to annex Natal. Other European residents, either permanent or occasional, at Port Natal at this time were C. Blankenberg, Richard Wood, William Wood, Thomas Halstead, J. Pierce, John Snelder, Alexander Biggar, Robert Biggar, George Biggar, John Jones, Henry Batts, William Bottomley, John Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Richard Lovedale, John Russell, Robert Russell, John Stubbs, Robert Dunn, G. Britton, James Brown, George Duffy, Richard Duffy, Thomas Lidwell, C. Rhoddam, and G. White.

[93] When Mr. Isaacs lived in Natal--October 1825 to June 1831--the Zulus occupied the territory between the Tugela and Tongati rivers, but from this tract of country they were withdrawn in 1834 by Dingan. In 1828 Tshaka was murdered at his residence there. At the port and near the Umzimkulu the Bantu under European chiefs were living. The remainder of the territory was uninhabited except by Bushmen on the uplands and a few cannibals. Mr. Isaacs says: “our settlement, which was somewhat circumscribed, contained upwards of two thousand persons.”--_Travels and Adventures, &c._, Volume II, page 326.

[94] The people under the chief Futu, some of whose kraals were found by Captain Gardiner on the head waters of the Umkomanz river, should not be included in the population of Natal at that time. They were refugees from the north, and frequently moved from one locality to another. Shortly after Captain Gardiner’s visit they retired to the Umtamvuna. Their chief, Futu, was the son of Nombewu, who was killed by Ncapayi, the ferocious leader of the Bacas. Captain Gardiner estimated the people under Futu at different places in Natal at from seven to eight thousand souls. See pages 312 _et seq._ of his volume.

[95] See _The Annals of Natal_, by John Bird, Pietermaritzburg, 1888, Vol. I, page 75.

[96] By a Proclamation of the 11th of September 1834 the removal of a slave beyond the border of the colony was punishable by the forfeiture of the slave, a fine of £100, transportation, or imprisonment with hard labour from three to five years. It was based upon an Imperial _Act to amend and consolidate the Laws relating to the Abolition of the Slave Trade_.

[97] Mr. Willem Hendrik Neethling, afterwards landdrost of Klerksdorp, who was living in Lydenburg in 1867 and was then twenty-three years of age, in a communication to President F. W. Reitz which has been kindly lent to me, says: “Wat betreft het verhaal re de twee Blanken die te Lijdenburg aanlandden, is dat eene dwaling. Ik ben in staat UEd. volkomen daarover in te lichten. Het waren geen Europeanen of Caukassiers, maar wel Albinos van het neger ras. Zij waren man en vrouw en twee kinderen. Het derde is te Lijdenburg geboren. De man heette Tjaka, de alombekende slangen tegen-vergift maker. De man was reeds op leeftijd, doch ik schatte de vrouw 27 of 28 jaren oud. Toen het gerucht verspreid werd van de teruggevonden blanken heb ik mij gehaast om ze zelven te zien, en vond uit dat zij Albinos waren, zeer blank, doch met neger type, met de on-ontwikkelde neusbeen, en kroeshaar. Zij kwamen van Kosi-baai, en zijn er weder heen vertrokken. Ik heb se persoonlijk gesproken. Zij waren van staatswege gehaald op geruchten.”