The advantage of having a secure port of call at the Cape was shown in the case of the Dordrecht, the ship in which Commander VAN QUAELBERG arrived. Out of two hundred and ninety-four men who sailed from Holland in that vessel, one hundred and twelve died on the passage. Shortly afterwards another vessel arrived with sixty-two men dead and two hundred and twenty sick, and again another with forty-eight men dead and ninety sick. The island of St. Helena being then in possession of the English, these vessels, with many others, must have been lost, had there not been a place of refreshment between India and the Netherlands.

As it was found impossible to prevent the free burghers from dealing with the natives by any ordinary measures, the Commander issued a proclamation that all Cape sheep in their possession should be delivered to the Company, and that they should keep no other than European or half-bred sheep, so that they might easily be detected should they continue to contravene the law. This was followed by proclamations forbidding all trade and even intercourse between the free burghers and the natives under very severe penalties.

VAN QUAELBERG grievously mistook his position as a servant of the East India Company. On the occasion of a French fleet calling at the Cape, he exchanged civilities with the officers, and supplied the ships with necessaries. For this, he was summarily dismissed from the Company's service, and positive instructions were issued that in future no provisions were to be supplied to foreign ships. They were to be allowed to take in water, and, for the rest, they must float upon their own fins.

During Commander BORGHORST's term of office an outpost was established at Saldanha Bay, on account of the French having erected a beacou there. G. F. WREEDE was appointed Commander of the station. The coasts to the northward and eastward were explored, and search for mines was made by experienced men sent from Holland.

In 1671 a regulation was made providing that male and female slaves could be united as man and wife, but not formally married until baptized and instructed in their mutual obligations. The Company's slaves were to be forced to attend prayers. Children, the offspring of Europeans and slaves, of whom twelve were then at school, were to be instructed in the doctrines of Christianity, and particular care was to be taken that they were not alienated so as to remain in constant slavery, but that they might in due time enjoy the freedom to which in the right of the father they were born.

In the same year Commissioner VAN DER BRONCK, having called at the Cape, removed some of the restrictions under which the burghers were placed, and, according to the opinion of the Chamber of Seventeen, any of the inhabitants who chose to pull their hands out of their pockets could now procure a comfortable subsistence by honest industry.

The increase of population which had taken place of late necessitated an enlargement of territory. Accordingly, the isthmus had been passed, and

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not only were cattle grazed but farmers were located miles beyond it. The Directors acknowledged this onward step by authorizing the occupation of the tract of land known as Hottentots' Holland.

As the natives were beginning once more to make their presence felt in an uncomfortable manner, five, who were caught in the act of theft of stock, were tried and sentenced: three, to be flogged and branded, and to serve fifteen years in chains, and two, less guilty, to be flogged and to serve seven years. It was hoped that this severe punishment would deter their countrymen from the commission of such crimes in future.

In March, 1672, Arnout van OVERBEEK, Commissioner and Commander of a fleet, arrived at the Cape. He considered it advisable, in order to prevent disputes, that a purchase of land should be made from the Hottentots. Accordingly, an agreement was made with one SCHACHER, who the Dutch pretended to believe was the hereditary sovereign of that part of the country, whereby he ceded in perpetual property to the Company the district from Saldanha to Table Bay, for 4,000 reals of eight, with the understanding that he and his kraals and cattle might come freely and without molestation, near to the outermost farms of the said district, where neither the Company nor the burghers depastured cattle, and that he should not be expelled from the same by force and without cause. By a similar agreement with another so-called prince, Hottentots' Holland was purchased for a like sum. The first was paid in tobacco, brandy, beads, and bread, to the value of about £2 16s., and the last in merchandize to the value of not quite £7. By the chiefs who agreed to it, this purchase of property was probably looked upon merely as the recognition of an existing state of affairs. The Dutch were already in possession of the land, and it was to the advantage of the chiefs to obtain even the trifle which they received in return for their signatures. That the Dutch acquired a good title by this proceeding cannot in strict justice be maintained. The natives neither then nor at any subsequent period have admitted the right of their chiefs to alienate the land which is held for the common good of all. Even among the Kaffir and Bechuana tribes, where government is much stricter and the power of the rulers much greater than among the old Hottentot clans of the Cape Colony, this power is not recognized. The chief can give permission to aliens to reside in his country, but even this license is held to expire at his death, and leave must be obtained anew from his successor. The claim of the Dutch to South Africa must be based simply upon the rights acquired by forcible occupation; the necessity, in the first instance, of securing Table Bay as a port of call for their ships, and the impossibility of permanently limiting the extent of the settlement, which has been experienced from the date of the esta blishment of free burghers in the land until the present day.

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CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE PURCHASE OF TERRITORY FROM HOTTENTOT CHIEFS TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH REFUGEES. 1672 To 1689.

Principal Subjects:-Second War with Hottentots.-Introduction of Slaves from Madagascar.-Village of Stellenbosch founded.—Introduction of Agricultural Immigrants from Holland.-Condition of the Natives in the neighbourhood of the Settlement.-Occupation of Drakenstein.—Persecution of Protestants in France.— Immigration of French Refugees.

AFTER the purchase of the district, all natives residing within it were considered and treated as subjects, but most of them removed beyond the border, where they hoped to be permitted to follow their own way of living undisturbed. There are no means of ascertaining what effect this emigration had upon the intertribal relations of other clans, but from what is known of later occurrences, it is tolerably certain that considerable commotion was occasioned by it. It could hardly be otherwise. The clans, even in the hour of greatest danger from the common foe, were usually more jealous of each other than of the Dutch. If, then, the refugees sought protection from any chief, it would most likely be at the price of aiding him to make war upon a rival; if they endeavoured to remain independent, they would be treated as intruders. However that may have been, their removal did not free them for any long time of the new dominion that had been established in the country.

Already the abundance of game had lured many of the burghers to become hunters. This mode of obtaining a livelihood had to the unmarried and restless among them an attraction which the advantages derived from cultivating the soil could not counterbalance. An expert hunter could earn even more money in this than in any other pursuit, as dried venison was always in demand at the Company's stores and fort. An attempt was made by the government to preserve the game within the limits of the settlement, but, in utter disregard of native rights, licenses were issued to hunt anywhere beyond the border. The Hottentots were incensed on seeing the country traversed in all directions by these hunters, and the game, on which they largely depended for subsistence, slaughtered in vast numbers

or driven away. It often happened that Europeans, when thus engaged, were murdered, and then a cry arose in the settlement that their innocent blood ought to be avenged. One tribe in particular, under the chief GONOMOA, cut off several hunters, and further exasperated the colonists by stealing many of their cattle.

In July, 1673, this tribe surprised the Company's post at Saldanha Bay, murdered four Europeans, and plundered the trading station. It was instantly resolved to punish the robbers, and for this purpose Ensign CRUZE, with a party of ninety men, was ordered to attack GONOMOA and his people, and endeavour entirely to ruin them. The burghers were liable to be called out at any time to take part in military operations, and on this occasion as many as possessed horses were pressed into service. The expedition managed, soon after setting out, to secure a Hottentot belonging to the hostile tribe, who was compelled, under threat of instant death, to act as guide. A few days' march brought them to their destination, and as the natives fled without resistance, they took possession of a large herd of cattle and a flock of sheep, with which they prepared to return. But they had hardly commenced to march, when they were pursued and attacked by the Hottentots, whose principal object was to recover the cattle. The burgher cavalry here performed good service, and so covered the retreat that only a few old ewes and young lambs, which could not keep up with the rest, were recaptured. The Dutch casualties were two horses killed and one man wounded, and they delivered at the fort eight hundred head of cattle and nine hundred sheep, the spoils of the first campaign of the second Hottentot war. The expedition was absent thirteen days. From eight to twelve of the captured cattle were presented to each of the burghers, conditionally at first, but afterwards in full property.

A coalition of some other Hottentot tribes was now formed against GONOMOA, though for some time hostilities were not very vigorously carried on. One occurrence that was recorded at the time shows the rancour that existed between the clans. Four prisoners, who were secured by the allies, were taken in triumph to Cape Town, and there beaten to death with clubs by their captors. In April, 1674, Gonomoa advanced towards the Dutch settlement, but was met by a force of fifty burghers, fifty soldiers, and two hundred and fifty Hottentot allies, and driven back with considerable loss. On this occasion, eight hundred cattle and four thousand sheep fell into the hands of the victors. In the distribution of the booty, the allies as well as the burghers received a fair share.

For eighteen months after this, the hostile chief remained at a distance and kept quiet, but during that time he was gathering strength, and towards the close of 1675 he made a sudden foray upon the allies of the Dutch, and carried off a great number of their cattle. A party of horse and foot was sent to the assistance of the friendly Hottentots, but, after three days' absence, returned unsuccessful, the enemy having retreated into the interior. From this date nothing more noteworthy than the

occasional murder of a burgher on the one side, or of a party of Hottentots on the other, occurred until June, 1677, when a formal peace was concluded between the belligerents, and the tribe of GoNOMOA became tributary to the Company. The amount of tribute agreed upon was thirty head of horned cattle, to be delivered yearly upon the arrival of the homeward bound fleet. It was very irregularly paid, and soon ceased altogether.

Stealing cattle always was a common offence in South Africa, and at that time was not confined to the natives, though punishments that would in these days be considered barbarous, were inflicted upon any European convicted of it. As an instance, a woman, who was concerned in the theft of two cows from Hottentots, was sentenced by the Court of Justice to be scourged and branded, to stand as a public spectacle with a cow's skin above her head and a halter round her neck, to confiscation of property, and banishment to Robben Island for twelve years. Her accomplices, in addition to flogging, were sentenced to be kept in chains at the public works for eight years. By the intercession of some of the most respectable females and the pitiful entreaties of her young children, the woman was released from the branding and the halter round her neck, and the flogging of one of her accomplices was remitted.

The Hottentots living in and about the settlement had by this time acquired some knowledge of trade. As each tribe possessed territorial rights, those who came from a distance to barter cattle at the fort had always paid brokerage to the Cape tribes, or a small fee for the privilege of passing through their land. But now some of the cleverest purchased cattle on their own account, for the purpose of selling them again to the Dutch. This did not accord with the ideas the Company entertained with regard to their interests, and they therefore resolved to suppress the practice with a strong hand. It was not alone because a higher price was demanded for cattle that this resolution was made, but because the government was prevented from carrying on a direct trade with remote tribes, and thereby becoming acquainted with all the conditions and resources of the country. Parties were equipped for trading purposes, taking with them a quantity of beads, brass wire, and tobacco, and often were absent for several weeks. Occasionally trustworthy Hottentots were employed in this service, and received a liberal percentage on all purchases made. The Hottentots in the immediate vicinity of the settlement had become very poor in cattle; but large numbers were at this time obtained from tribes living further inland.

Commissioner N. VERBURG, who called at the Cape in 1676, left a memorandum, in which he directed the local authorities to avoid an over severe and rigorous system of government, so as to give some relief to the settlers, who seemed to be dissatisfied. It was desirable that the colony should be extended, and therefore settlers should be encouraged and allowed as much freedom as possible. The fisheries, he thought, ought to be thrown open to all. There was no permanent school in the settlement.