WILLEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL
AND OTHER HISTORICAL SKETCHES

WILLEM  ADRIAAN   VAN
DER   STEL

AND
OTHER   HISTORICAL   SKETCHES

BY
GEORGE McCALL THEAL, Litt.D. , LL.D.



CAPETOWN
THOMAS MASKEW MILLER, PUBLISHER
1913


PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON AND BECCLES

CONTENTS

I.

Exploration by the Portuguese of the Western Coast of Africa and Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, including a short Sketch of the early History of Portugal.

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HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

SKETCH I.

Exploration by the Portuguese of the Western Coast of Africa and Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

The discovery of an ocean route from Europe to India, followed by the establishment of the Portuguese as the preponderating power in the East, is one of the greatest events in the history of the world. It is not too much to say that every state of Central and Western Europe was affected by it. The time was critical, for the Turks were then menacing Christendom, and if they had secured a monopoly of the Indian trade their wealth and strength would have been so augmented that it is doubtful whether they might not have succeeded in entering Vienna in 1529. As yet the Moslem power was divided, for Egypt was still under the independent Mameluke rulers, and the greater portion of the Indian products that found their way to Europe was obtained by the Venetians at Alexandria. To that city they were conveyed in boats down the Nile from Cairo, after being carried by camels from the shore of the Red sea, whither they were brought by ships from the coast of Malabar. From this traffic Alexandria had thriven greatly, and from it too Venice,—whose merchants distributed over Europe the silk and cotton fabrics, gems, pepper, and spices of the East,—had become wealthy and powerful. That portion of the Indian merchandise which was brought overland by caravans from the Persian gulf to the Mediterranean coast was under the control of the Turks, and a few years later, when in 1517 the sultan Selim overthrew the Mamelukes and made Egypt a province of his {4} dominions, the whole would have been theirs if the Portuguese had not just in time forestalled them.

In the early years of the fifteenth century the Christian nations were little acquainted with distant countries, America and Australia were entirely unknown, Eastern Asia was very imperfectly laid down on the maps, and the greater part of Africa had never been explored. This continent might have terminated north of the equator, for anything that the most learned men in Europe knew with certainty to the contrary. They had only the map of Ptolemy and perhaps that of Edrisi as their guide, and these were extremely vague as regards its southern part, and, as is now known, were most incorrect.

The little kingdom of Portugal at the south-western extremity of Europe was more favourably situated than any other Christian state for prosecuting discovery along the western coast of Africa, though its shipping was small in quantity compared with that of either Venice, Genoa, the Hanseatic league, or the Netherland dominions of the dukes of Burgundy. A glance at its history may not be uninteresting, and will show how it came to embark in maritime exploration. [1]

In Portugal, as throughout Southern Europe, and as in South Africa, great numbers of ancient stone implements are found of such rude workmanship as to prove that the men who made and used them were savages of a very low type, and there is further evidence that they were cave dwellers. In South Africa the primitive race has continued to exist until our own times, but in Portugal it disappeared ages ago, no one can do more than conjecture how or when.

Later, but still in the far distant past, the whole of the Iberian peninsula came to be inhabited by the race of men of whom the Basques are the present representatives, but whether they succeeded immediately to the palæolithic savages, or whether some other people came between them, is as yet {5} unknown. The Basques in Europe correspond to the early Egyptians and the light coloured men of the North African coast, so that in speaking of them we are speaking of a race that led the van of civilisation at a very remote period in the history of the world.

Next to appear in the Iberian peninsula were the Celts, by whom the earlier inhabitants of the south and centre were destroyed, though probably some few were incorporated. Those living in the mountainous region in the north, particularly in the western part of the Pyrenees and along the adjoining coast of the bay of Biscay, however, managed to hold their own, and their descendants are found in those localities at the present day. The Phœnicians and Carthaginians followed long afterwards, and occupied many stations in the southern section of the peninsula, but never succeeded in establishing their authority in the northern part of the country. The Greeks also are believed by some historians to have formed trading stations at the mouths of the rivers on the western coast as well as on the Mediterranean shore, and it has even been supposed that Lisbon was founded by a Hellenic colony, though that seems to be extremely doubtful.

In the Punic wars the Romans obtained assistance in Spain, by which name the entire peninsula is meant, and in the year B.C. 206 the Carthaginians were finally expelled from the country. But now the Romans turned their arms against the Spaniards, and after a long struggle succeeded in establishing their authority over the Celtic part of the country, though insurrections were frequent, and it was only in the time of Augustus that the Basque section was subdued and the whole peninsula was reduced to perfect obedience.

During the next four centuries Spain became thoroughly Romanised, to such an extent indeed that not only the arts, customs, laws, and municipal institutions, but even the language of Rome came into general use, and that language is the basis of the tongue of the Celtic portion of the people at the present day. The Christian religion also, which had become that of the ruling power, was firmly adopted. No {6} conquerors ever left their impression upon a whole people more thoroughly than the Romans left theirs upon the inhabitants of the greater portion of the Spanish peninsula.

So matters went on until the early years of the fifth century of our era, when the Western Empire was overrun by hordes of warlike intruders pressing down from the north, and the Alani, the Vandals, and the Suevi made their way over the Pyrenees, and took possession of Spain. They were followed by the Visigoths, when the Vandals and most of the Alani went on to Africa, the Suevi remaining in Galicia and part of Old Castile, and the Gothic monarchy of Spain was established. These Goths held the Romanised Celts in subjection, and lived among them as an aristocracy, but soon adopted their language, when the two peoples blended into one.

Three centuries passed away, and then another race of conquerors appeared. The Arabs, under the influence of the religion of Mohamed, had overrun Egypt and the whole northern coast of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, converting everywhere the people to their faith. In the second decade of the eighth century one of their armies passed from Africa by way of Gibraltar into Spain, and speedily overran the whole peninsula except the Basque territory in the north. For a long series of years they were not harsh conquerors, and by their love of learning, their splendid schools, and the beauty of their architecture unquestionably did much to improve the subject people. The Christians were not compelled to renounce their religion, and their persons and property were protected by the law. For a time the country was subject to the caliph of Damascus, and later to an independent caliph of Cordova, but at length, in the first years of the eleventh century, the Mohamedan government broke into fragments, and an era of misrule and fanaticism on both sides commenced. The Gothic nobles from the first had chafed under foreign supremacy, and within fifty years of the conquest the little Christian state of the north had begun to expand. Now a struggle between the Christians and the Mohamedans set in, {7} a struggle which lasted for centuries and which drenched the land with blood, which spread desolation far and wide, but created a people inspired with boundless energy and prepared to undertake the most formidable enterprises. The Mohamedans were aided by fanatics from Africa, mostly of Berber blood, and large numbers of crusaders, among whom were many Englishmen, came to the assistance of the Christians.

A number of little Christian states, sometimes united under one head, at other times independent of each other, came into existence in the northern part of the peninsula, and in A.D. 1095 a small section of the present territory of Portugal, that had been recovered from the Mohamedans by Alfonso, king of Leon and Castile, was formed into a county for the benefit of a Burgundian noble named Henrique, who married Theresa, a natural daughter of the king. The county was called Portugal, from o Porto, the Port, at the mouth of the river Douro. With this event the history of Portugal, as distinct from the other sections of the Spanish peninsula, commences. The county certainly remained a fief of Leon until the 25th of July 1139, on which day the memorable battle of Ourique was fought. Affonso, who had succeeded his father Henrique as count of Portugal, crossed the Tagus, marched far into the Moslem domains, and defeated with great slaughter five emirs who had united their forces against him. The old Portuguese historians assert that after the victory Affonso was proclaimed king by his army, and that a cortes which assembled at Lamego confirmed the title, but recent criticism throws doubt upon these statements as being merely legendary. The latest writers assert that it was in war with his suzerain that Affonso acquired his independence, and that the cortes did not meet at Lamego until 1211. At any rate, it is certain that the son of Henrique styled himself king in 1140, and that in 1143 Pope Innocent the Second confirmed the title.

After this the waves of war rolled backward and forward over the land, but in 1147 Affonso got possession of the important city of Santarem, which was never again lost. In the {8} same year also, with the aid of a strong body of English crusaders, he seized Lisbon, though it was not made the national capital until the reign of João I. During the remainder of his life and that of his son Sancho, who succeeded him, the Tagus was the southern boundary of Portugal, and the province of Alemtejo was a debatable land, sometimes overrun by one party, sometimes by the other. In 1211 Sancho died, and was succeeded by his son Affonso II, and he again in 1223 by his son Sancho II, during whose reigns a steady though slow and frequently interrupted advance was made in the conquest of Alemtejo. Sancho II was despoiled of his kingdom by his brother Affonso III, and in 1248 died in exile. In 1250 the emirate of the Algarves was overrun, and was held as a fief of Castile until 1263, when it was ceded to Portugal in full sovereignty. The country then for the first time after a struggle of one hundred and sixty-eight years from the formation of the northern county, acquired its present dimensions, which it has retained inviolate ever since. The title King of Portugal and of the Algarves, assumed by Affonso III, was subsequently borne by all the monarchs of the country.

In 1279 Affonso III was succeeded by his son Diniz, who died in 1325, and was followed on the throne by his son Affonso IV. He was succeeded in 1357 by his son Pedro, who was followed in 1367 by his son Fernando, the last monarch of the Burgundian dynasty, who died on the 22nd of October 1383. Under the government of these kings the Portuguese had become a fairly wealthy and prosperous commercial people, without losing any of the martial spirit or fierce energy that they had acquired during their long wars with the Mohamedans. Fernando died without male heirs, and his daughter, being married to the king of Castile, was by a fundamental law excluded from the crown. His widow, the infamous Dona Leonor, asserted a claim to act as regent for her daughter, but owing to her profligate habits and her remorseless cruelty she was detested by the people, who were extremely averse to union or even association with Castile, and she was expelled. {9}

The leader of the popular party was Dom João, Grand Master of the Order of Saint Benedict of Avis, a man of remarkable ability, who was an illegitimate son of King Pedro by Theresa Lourenço. The Castilian monarch invaded Portugal with a great army and laid siege to Lisbon, but pestilence broke out in his camp, and he was driven back with heavy loss. On the 6th of April 1385 the cortes, which had assembled at Coimbra, the ancient capital, elected the Grand Master of the Order of Avis king of Portugal. Still the sovereign of Castile might have succeeded in conquering the country if John of Gaunt, son of Edward III of England, had not come to its aid with five thousand men. The marriage of King João with Philippa, eldest daughter of John of Gaunt, cemented his alliance with England, with which country he had concluded a treaty of close friendship. Thus the illustrious dynasty of Avis, under whose leadership the little kingdom held such a proud position in Europe, came to occupy the throne of Portugal.

During the long reign of João I the kingdom continued to prosper. The policy pursued was to maintain a firm alliance with England, to carry on commerce with that country, and to avoid connection of any kind with the other states of the peninsula. Learning was encouraged by the king, and Portuguese literature may be said to date from this period. If the martial ardour of the people was relaxing by long peace, it was revived in 1415 by the prosecution of war with the Moors on the North African coast, when the strong position of Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, was taken. João I died in 1433, and was succeeded by his eldest legitimate son, Duarte by name. Affonso, an illegitimate son by Ines Pires, who was created count of Barcellos by his father, and duke of Bragança by his nephew Affonso V, was the ancestor of the sovereigns of Portugal from 1640 to 1910.

Duarte was an excellent king, but his short reign was marked by a great disaster. In 1437 an attack upon Tangier failed, and the fourth legitimate son of João I, Dom Fernando, became a prisoner. As he could only obtain his liberty by {10} the restoration of Ceuta to the Moors, he remained a captive, and died at Fez in 1443.

King Duarte died in 1438, when his son and heir, Affonso V, was only six years of age. Dom Pedro, duke of Coimbra, second son of João I and Philippa of Lancaster, then became regent, but ten years later the young king took the government into his own hands. He was a scholar and a patron of literature, but was somewhat reckless and unstable in character. He carried on war with the Moors of Northern Africa, and took several towns from them, after which he turned his arms against Castile, in hope of obtaining possession of that kingdom, but was utterly defeated in 1476 in the battle of Toro, and in 1481 died, leaving the throne of Portugal to his son João II.

The new king was twenty-six years of age when he succeeded his father. Though inclined to be a despot, he was one of the wisest and ablest princes that ever sat on the throne of Portugal. His great object was to reduce the power of the nobles, who under the feudal system of government were really masters of the country, and he therefore instituted an inquiry into the nature of their tenures, which provoked their resentment. First among them was the third duke of Bragança, who was lord of many towns, and owned more than one-fourth of the whole territory of the kingdom. He was arrested, and after a trial for treasonable correspondence with a foreign state, was executed. This was followed by the death of the duke of Viseu, who was stabbed by the king’s own hand, of the bishop of Evora, who was thrown down a well, and by the execution of about eighty of the most powerful noblemen in the country. Their estates were confiscated, though in some instances partially restored to their heirs, the vast authority they had possessed was broken for ever, and João II became an absolute monarch, though a benevolent and excellent one. He was a patron of learned men, a promoter of commerce, a just administrator, and in every way open to him he endeavoured to improve the condition of the people. He died at Alvor in the Algarves on {11} the 25th of October 1495, to the grief of his subjects, who termed him the perfect king.

It was during the reigns of the sovereigns of the dynasty of Avis that the Portuguese led the way in those geographical discoveries which have conferred such lustre upon the little kingdom. When João I ascended the throne Europeans knew far less of the western coast of Africa than was known by the Carthaginians five centuries before the Christian era, and of the southern and eastern coasts they were absolutely ignorant. The Arabs, Persians, and Indians were far more enlightened in this respect than were the people of Europe. Whether there were other writings in ancient times upon the shores of the Indian ocean than the Voyage of Nearchus and the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea is very doubtful, for if there were they would most likely have been in the great library of Alexandria, [2] to which Ptolemy had access, and of South-Eastern Africa he knew nothing at all. There is the most conclusive evidence that in very ancient times some nations frequented the eastern shore of the continent at least as far down as Cape Correntes, [3] but no accounts of their discoveries {12} were extant in the fifteenth century, nor are there any to-day. The writings of even the Arabs and Persians after the time of Mohamed appear to have been unknown in Western Europe when the Portuguese commenced their explorations, so that to them, if the imperfect information contained in the geography of Ptolemy be excepted, all that was beyond Cape Nun from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean was a vast blank which it might be hazardous in the extreme to attempt to examine.

The ships of the fifteenth century were ill-fitted also for long voyages. Though capable of withstanding heavy seas, they were clumsily rigged, and were without the mechanical appliances of the present day. In proportion to their tonnage they needed so many men to work them that a great deal of space was taken up with food and fresh water, and of comfort on board there was none. They could make the passage from Lisbon to London with fruit and wine without difficulty, but it was a very different thing to sail along an unknown coast, with no harbour in front where fresh provisions and water could be obtained. The compass, which is believed to have been in use in an imperfect form in China as far back as two {13} thousand six hundred years before Christ, had recently become known in Western Europe, and about the beginning of the fourteenth century had been so greatly improved by Flavio Gioja, of Amalphi, that navigation had benefited greatly by it. But the compass, though enabling ships to steer safely between frequented ports, was not of much assistance in the exploration of seas never visited before, though it might be on the return passage. The instrument for determining latitudes at sea was exceedingly crude and imperfect, and for ascertaining longitudes no means whatever were known, so that it was only by computing the direction and the distance run that a navigator could form an opinion as to where he was. Add to this the current belief of seamen that the sun’s heat in the south was so great that it caused the water to boil and thick vapour to obscure the sky, which was always as dark as night. There was a legend that the crew of a ship that had made the venture had actually seen the region of eternal gloom, and had got away from it only by a miracle. In the minds of common mariners the ocean beyond Cape Nun was as wild and dreadful as that beyond Cape Correntes was to the Arabs of the eastern coast. Thus it was a task not only of discomfort, but of peril and dread, to proceed beyond the known part of the coast.

The discoveries of the Portuguese were largely the result of the genius and ability of a prince of their royal house, Henrique by name, known in European history as Henry the Navigator. He was the third son of João I and Philippa of Lancaster, and was therefore a nephew of Henry IV of England. Two objects engrossed the attention of the Infante Dom Henrique: the conversion of the heathen to Christianity, and the discovery of unknown lands, the last of which he believed would greatly facilitate the former. As a gallant knight he took part in the expedition against Ceuta in 1415, and there he learned that trade was carried on with the country south of the Sahara by means of caravans of camels, and that the coast of the Atlantic in that direction was often visited. Then he thought that {14} the same coast could more easily be reached by sea, and he resolved to attempt to do it. In 1418 he took up his residence at Sagres, close to Cape Saint Vincent, in the Algarves, the south-western point of Portugal and the very best position in Europe as a basis for exploration. He was then twenty-four years of age. At Sagres he built an observatory, established a school of navigation, and invited the most expert astronomers, mathematicians, and sea-captains that he could hear of to visit him, that he might consult with them as to the best means of prosecuting discovery. He was possessed of much wealth, as he had been created duke of Viseu, to which title large estates were attached, and he was also Master of the Order of Christ and governor of the Algarves. His own revenues he spent entirely in the promotion of his designs, and he was most liberally aided with means by his father and his brothers. [4]

The first exploring expedition sent out is said to have been under the command of Bartholomeu Perestrello, who discovered the island of Porto Santo in 1418 or 1419, but the early accounts of this voyage do not agree with each other, and nothing connected with it is certain.

In 1419 Perestrello was sent again, and with him were two other ships commanded by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vas, who had instructions from Dom Henrique to establish a station on Porto Santo and plant a garden for the use of future navigators. Perestrello returned to Portugal from the island, but the other captains planted a plot of ground, and in 1420 went on to Madeira, which received its name from them on account of the trees with which it was covered. They then returned to Porto Santo, and thence to Portugal. Unfortunately they had put ashore a rabbit with {15} young, and its progeny increased so rapidly that the continued cultivation of the ground became impossible, so that Porto Santo was not permanently colonised until several years later. The accounts of this voyage are also vague and unreliable. In 1425 a commencement was made in colonising Madeira, and among other useful plants the vine and the sugar cane were introduced. [5]

In 1432 Gonçalo Velho Cabral, Commander of the Order of Christ, discovered and named the island Santa Maria in the Azores.

It was most probably in 1434 that an expedition under Gil Eannes doubled Cape Bojador, though some of the ancient writers assign the date 1428 for this achievement, others 1432, and others again 1433. This was a great step in advance, for on finding the sea south of the dreaded headland to be as easily navigated as that on the north, the old terror of the common people was dispelled, and it was no longer difficult to obtain men to work the ships. It is not easy therefore to account for the various dates assigned for this achievement, but exact chronology does not seem to have been regarded as of much importance when the chronicles were prepared from oral testimony years after the events took place. In 1435 the same captain Gil Eannes reached the mouth of the river do Ouro, to which he gave this name.

In 1441 Nuno Tristão reached Cape Blanco. In 1443 he visited the bay of Arguim, and returned to Portugal with a number of negro slaves, who were gladly received as labourers. In 1444 or 1445 Cape Verde was discovered and named by Diniz Dias.

From this time onward many small vessels left Portugal every year to trade on the African coast for gold dust, ivory, {16} and particularly for slaves. All the features of the shore became thoroughly well known, and were marked on charts as far south as the Rio Grande, but for fifteen years, until after the death of Dom Henrique—13th of November 1460—discovery practically ceased. The lucrative slave trade occupied the minds of the sea captains, and ships freighted with negroes taken captive in raids, or purchased from conquering chiefs, frequently entered the harbours of Portugal. The commerce in human flesh was regarded as highly meritorious, because it brought heathens to a knowledge of Christianity. But never has a mistake or a crime led to more disastrous results, for to the introduction of negroes as labourers on the great estates belonging to the nobles and religious orders in Alemtejo and the Algarves the decline of the kingdom in power and importance is mainly due. The effects were not visible for many years, but no one can come in contact with the lower classes in Southern Portugal to-day without being impressed with the fact that both the Europeans and the Africans have been ruined by mixture of their blood.

The exploring expeditions which Dom Henrique never ceased to encourage, but which the greed of those who were in his service had turned into slave-hunting voyages, were resumed after his death. In 1461, Pedro de Cinta, who was sent out by Affonso V, reached the coast of the present republic of Liberia, and in 1471 Fernando Po crossed the equator.

King João II was as resolute as his grand-uncle the Navigator in endeavouring to discover an ocean road to India. He had not indeed any idea of the great consequences that would follow, his object being simply to divert the eastern trade from Venice to Lisbon, which would be effected if an unbroken sea route could be found. In 1484 he sent out a ship under Diogo Cam, which reached the mouth of the Congo, and in the following year the same officer made a greater advance than any previous explorer could boast of, for he pushed on southward as far as Cape Cross, latitude 22°, on the coast of what is now German South-West Africa, {17} where the marble pillar which he set up to mark the extent of his voyage remained standing more than four hundred years.

The next expedition sent in the same direction solved the secret concerning the meridional extent of the African continent. It was under the chief command of an officer named Bartholomeu Dias, of whose previous career unfortunately nothing can now be ascertained except that he was a gentleman of the king’s household and receiver of customs at Lisbon when the appointment was conferred upon him, and that he had at some former time taken part in exploring the coast. The historian João de Barros states that at the end of August 1486 [6] he sailed {18} from the Tagus with two vessels of about fifty tons each, according to the Portuguese measurement of the time, though they would probably be rated much higher now. He had also a small storeship with him, for previous expeditions had often been obliged to turn back from want of food.

The officers who were to serve under him were carefully selected, and were skilful in their professions. They were: Leitão (probably a nickname) sailing master, and Pedro d’Alanquer pilot of the flag ship; João Infante captain, João Grego sailing master, and Alvaro Martins pilot of the São Pantaleão; and Pedro Dias, brother of the commodore, captain, João Alves sailing master, and João de Santiago pilot of the storeship. On board the squadron were four negresses—convicts—from the coast of Guinea, who were to be set ashore at different places to make discoveries and report to the next white men they should see. This was a common practice at the time, the persons selected being criminals under sentence of death, who were glad to escape immediate execution by risking anything that might befall them in an unknown and barbarous country. In this instance women were chosen, as it was considered likely they would be protected by the natives. It was hoped that through their means a powerful Christian prince called Prester John, [7] who was believed to reside in the interior, might come to learn of the greatness of the Portuguese monarchy and that efforts were being made to reach him, so that he might send messengers to the coast to communicate with the explorers. King João and his courtiers believed that if this mythical Prester John could be found, he would point out the way to India.

Dias, like all preceding explorers, kept close to the coast {19} on his way southward. Somewhere near the equator he left the storeship with nine men to look after her, and then continued his course until he reached an inlet or small harbour with a group of islets at its entrance, the one now called Angra Pequena or Little Bay by the English, Luderitzbucht by the Germans, in whose possession it is at present, but which he named Angra dos Ilheos, the bay of the Islets. The latitude was believed to be 24° south, but in reality it was 26½°, so imperfect were the means then known for determining it. There he cast anchor, and for the first time Christian men trod the soil of Africa south of the tropic.

A more desolate place than that on which the weary seamen landed could hardly be, and no mention is made by the early Portuguese historians of any sign of human life being observed as far as the explorers wandered. Unfortunately the original journal or log-book of the expedition has long since disappeared, so that much that would be intensely interesting now can never be known. But this is certain, that refreshment there could have been none, except fish, the flesh of sea-fowl that made their nests on the islets, and possibly eggs if the breeding season was not far advanced, though even that would be welcomed by men long accustomed only to salted food. There was no fresh water, so it was no place in which to tarry long. Before he left, Dias set up a marble cross some two metres or so in height, on an eminence that he named Serra Parda, the Grey Mountain, as a token that he had taken possession of the country for his king. For more than three hundred years that cross stood there above the dreary waste just as the brave Portuguese explorer erected it. [8] The place where it stood so long is {20} called Pedestal Point. Here one of the negresses was left, almost certainly to perish, when the expedition moved onward.

From Angra Pequena Dias tried to keep the land in sight, but as it was the season of the south-east winds, which were contrary, he could not make rapid progress. At length by repeatedly tacking he reached an inlet or bend in the coast to which he gave the name Angra das Voltas, the Bay of the Turnings. There is a curve in the land in the position indicated, 29° south, but the latitudes {21} given are not to be depended upon, and the expedition may have been far from it and farther still from the point at the mouth of the Orange river called by modern geographers Cape Voltas, in remembrance of that event. At Angra das Voltas, wherever it was, Dias remained five days, as the weather was unfavourable for sailing, and before he left another of the negresses was set ashore.

After making sail again heavy weather was encountered and a boisterous sea, such as ships often experience in that part of the ocean, and which is caused by the cold Antarctic current being slightly deflected by some means from its usual course and striking the hot Mozambique current at a right angle off the Cape of Good Hope. Very miserable Dias and his companions must have been in their tiny vessels among the tremendous billows, with the sails close reefed, and hardly a hope of escape from being lost. But after thirteen days the weather moderated, and then they steered eastward, expecting soon to see the coast again. For several days they sailed in this direction, but as no land appeared Dias concluded that he must either have passed the extremity of the continent or be in some deep gulf like that of Guinea. The first surmise was correct, for on turning to the north he reached the shore at an inlet which he named Angra dos Vaqueiros, the Bay of the Herdsmen, on account of the numerous droves of cattle which he saw grazing on its shores. It was probably the same inlet that was named by the next expedition the Watering Place of São Bras, and which since 1601 has been known as Mossel Bay. The inhabitants gazed with astonishment upon the strange apparition coming over the sea, and then fled inland with their cattle, so that it was not found possible to have any intercourse with the wild people. Thus no information concerning the inhabitants of the South African coast, except that they had domestic cattle in their possession, was obtained by this expedition.

How long Dias remained at Angra dos Vaqueiros is {22} not known, but his vessels, good sea-boats as they had proved to be, must have needed some refitting, so he was probably there several days at least. He and his officers were in high spirits, as unless they were in another deep bay like the gulf of Guinea, they had solved the question of the extent southward of the African continent. As far as their eyes could reach, the shore stretched east and west, so, sailing again, they continued along it until they came to an uninhabited islet in latitude 33¾° south. This islet is in Algoa Bay as now termed—the Bahia da Lagoa of the Portuguese after the middle of the sixteenth century,—and still bears in the French form of St. Croix the name Ilheo da Santa Cruz, the islet of the Holy Cross, which he gave it on account of the pillar bearing a cross and the arms of Portugal which he erected upon it.

Dias visited the mainland, where he observed two women gathering shellfish, who were left unmolested, as the king had issued instructions that no cause of offence should be given to the inhabitants of any countries discovered. Here the last of the negresses was set ashore as one had died on the passage. The coast was examined some distance to the eastward, and to a prominent rock upon it the name Penedo das Fontes, the Rock of the Fountains, was given by some of the people, because two springs of water were found there.

Here the seamen protested against going farther. They complained that their supply of food was running short, and the storeship was far behind, so that there was danger of perishing from hunger. They thought they had surely done sufficient in one voyage, for they were two thousand six hundred kilometres beyond the terminus of the preceding expedition, and no one had ever taken such tidings to Portugal as they would carry back. Further, from the trending of the coast it was evident there must be some great headland behind them, and therefore they were of opinion it would be better to turn about and look for it. One can hardly blame them for their protest, {23} considering the fatigue and peril they had gone through and the wretchedly uncomfortable life they must have been leading.

Dias, after hearing these statements, took the officers and some of the principal seamen on shore, where he administered an oath to them, after which he asked their opinion as to what was the best course to pursue for the service of the king. They replied with one voice, to return home, whereupon he caused them to sign a document to that effect. He then begged of them to continue only two or three days’ sail farther, and promised that if they should find nothing within that time to encourage them to proceed on an easterly course, he would put about. The crews consented, but in the time agreed upon they advanced only to the mouth of a river to which the commander gave the name Infante, owing to João Infante, captain of the São Pantaleão , being the first to leap ashore. The river was probably the Fish, but may have been either the Kowie or the Keiskama as known to us. Its mouth was stated to be twenty-five leagues from the islet of the Cross, and to be in latitude 32⅔° S., which was very incorrect.

But now, notwithstanding this error, there should have been no doubt in any mind that they had reached the end of the southern seaboard, which in a distance of over nine hundred kilometres does not vary a hundred and seventy kilometres in latitude. The coast before them trended away to the north-east in a bold, clear line, free of the haze that almost always hung over the western shore. And down it, only a short distance from the land, flowed a swift ocean current many degrees warmer than the water on either side, and revealing itself even to a careless eye by its deeper blue. That current could only come from a heated sea in the north, and so they might have known that the eastern side of Africa had surely been reached.

Whether the explorers observed these signs the {24} Portuguese writers who recorded their deeds, though in a manner so incomplete as to cause nothing but regret to-day, do not inform us, [9] but from the river Infante the expedition turned back. At Santa Cruz Dias landed again, and bade farewell to the cross which he had set up there with as much sorrow as if he was parting with a son banished for life. In returning, the great headland was discovered, to which the commander gave the name Cabo Tormentoso—the Stormy Cape—afterwards changed by the king to Cabo de Boa Esperança—Cape of Good Hope—owing to the fair prospect which he could now entertain of India being at last reached by this route. What particular part of the peninsula Dias landed upon is unknown, but somewhere on it he set up another of the marble pillars he had brought from Portugal, to which he gave the name São Philippe. The country about it he did not explore, as his provisions were so scanty that he was anxious to get away. Keeping along the coast, after nine months’ absence the storeship was rejoined, when only three men were found on board of her, and of these, one, Fernão Colaça by name, died of joy upon seeing his countrymen again. The other six had been murdered by negroes with whom they were trading. Having replenished his scanty stock of provisions, Dias set fire to the storeship, as she was in need of refitting, and he had not men to work her; and then sailed to Prince’s Island {25} in the bight of Biafra, where he found some Portuguese in distress. A gentleman of the king’s household, named Duarte Pacheco, had been sent to explore the rivers on that part of the coast, but had lost his vessel, and was then lying ill at the island with part of the crew who had escaped from the wreck. Dias took them all on board, being very glad not only to relieve his countrymen but to obtain more men to work his ships, so many of those who sailed with him from Portugal having died, and, pursuing his course in a north-westerly direction, touched at a river where trade was carried on, and also at the fort of São Jorge da Mina, an established Portuguese factory, [10] of which João Fogaça was then commander. Here he took charge of the gold that had been collected, after which he proceeded on his way to Lisbon, where he arrived in December 1487, sixteen months and seventeen days from the time of his setting out.

No other dates than those mentioned are given by the early Portuguese historians, thus the exact time of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and the coast onward to the mouth of the Infante river is doubtful, and it can only be stated as having occurred in the early months of 1487. The voyage surely was a memorable one, and nothing but regret can be expressed that more of its details cannot be recovered. Of the three pillars set up by Dias, two—those of the Holy Cross and São Philippe—disappeared, no one has ever been able to ascertain when or how; that of São Thiago at Angra Pequena remained where it was placed until it was broken down by some unknown vandals about the commencement of the nineteenth century.

Meantime the king sent two men named Affonso de {26} Paiva, of Castelbranco, and João Pires, [11] of Covilhão, in another direction to search for Prester John. For this purpose they left Santarem on the 7th of May 1487, and being well provided with money, they proceeded first to Naples, then to the island of Rhodes, and thence to Alexandria. They were both conversant with the Arabic language, and had no difficulty in passing for Moors. At Alexandria they were detained some time by illness, but upon recovering they proceeded to Cairo, and thence in the disguise of merchants to Tor, Suakin, and Aden. Here they separated, Affonso de Paiva having resolved to visit Abyssinia to ascertain if the monarch of that country was not the potentate they were in search of, and João Pires taking passage in a vessel bound to Cananor on the Malabar coast. They arranged, however, to meet again in Cairo at a time fixed upon.

João Pires reached Cananor in safety, and went down the coast as far as Calicut, after which he proceeded upwards to Goa. Here he embarked in a vessel bound to Sofala, and having visited that port, he returned to Aden, and at the time appointed was back in Cairo, where he learned that Affonso de Paiva had died not long before. At Cairo he found two Portuguese Jews, Rabbi Habrão, of Beja, and Josepe, a shoemaker of Lamego. Josepe had been in Bagdad, on the Euphrates, some years previously, and had there heard of Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian gulf, and of its being the warehouse of the Indian trade and the point of departure for caravans to Aleppo and Damascus. He had returned {27} to Portugal and informed the king of what he had learned, who thereupon sent him and Habrão with letters of instruction to Affonso de Paiva and João Pires, directing them if they had not already found Prester John, to proceed to Ormuz and gather all the information they could there.

Upon receiving this order João Pires drew up an account of what he had seen and learned in India and on the African coast, which he gave to Josepe to convey to the king, and taking Habrão with him, he proceeded to Aden and thence to Ormuz. From Ormuz Habrão set out with a caravan for Aleppo on his way back to Portugal with a duplicate of the narrative sent to the king by Josepe. None of the early Portuguese historians who had access to the records of the country ever saw this narrative, so that probably neither of the Jews lived to deliver his charge. Not a single date is given in the early accounts of this journey, except that of the departure from Santarem, which De Goes fixes as May 1486 [12] and Castanheda and De Barros as the 7th of May 1487. There is no trace of any knowledge in Portugal of the commerce of Sofala before the return of Vasco da Gama in 1499, but as such a journey as that described must in the fifteenth century have occupied several years, it is just possible that Josepe or Habrão reached Lisbon after that date.

João Pires went from Ormuz by way of Aden to Abyssinia, where he was well received by the ruler of that country. Here, after all his wanderings he found a home, for as he was not permitted to leave again, he married and had children, living upon property given to him by the government. In 1515 Dom Rodrigo de Lima arrived in Abyssinia as ambassador of the king of Portugal, and found him still alive. With the embassy was a priest, Francisco Alvares by name, who wrote an account of the mission and of the statement made to {28} him by João Pires, and also gave such information on his return home as enabled the Portuguese historians to place on record the above details. As far as actual result in increase of geographical knowledge is concerned, this expedition of Affonso de Paiva and João Pires therefore effected nothing.

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II.

First Voyages of the French and English to the Eastern Seas. And a Sketch of the Early History of the Netherlands and of the Establishment of the Dutch in India.

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{35}

SKETCH II.

I.

First Voyages of the French and English to India. Early History of the Netherlands.

The debt which the world owes to the Portuguese for weakening the Mohamedan power and thus preventing the subjugation of a larger portion of Eastern Europe than was actually overrun by the Turks should not be forgotten, but long before the close of the sixteenth century they had ceased to be participants in the great progressive movement of the Caucasian race. Upon a conquering nation rests an enormous responsibility: no less than that of benefiting the world at large. Was Portugal doing this in her eastern possessions to such an extent as to make her displacement there a matter deserving universal regret? Probably her own people would reply that she was, for every nation regards its own acts as better than those of others; but beyond her borders the answer unquestionably would be that she was not. Rapacity, cruelty, corruption, have all been laid to her charge at this period, and not without sufficient reason. But apart from these vices, her weakness under the Castilian kings was such that she was incapable of doing any good. When an individual is too infirm and decrepit to manage his affairs, a robust man takes his place, and so it is with States. The weak one may cry out that might is not right, but such a cry finds a very feeble echo. India was not held by the Portuguese under the only indefeasible tenure: that of making the best use of it; and thus it could be seized by a stronger power {36} without Christian nations feeling that a wrong was being done.

Before recounting in brief the rise of the Northern Netherlands to a proud position among European states, and the commencement of the Dutch conquests in the eastern seas, a glance may be given to the earliest acts of other nations, and especially to those of our own countrymen, in those distant regions.

The French were the first to follow the Portuguese round the Cape of Good Hope to India. As early as 1507 a corsair of that nation, named Mondragon, made his appearance in the Mozambique channel [14] with two armed vessels, and plundered a ship commanded by Job Queimado. He also captured and robbed another Indiaman nearer home. On the 18th of January 1509 a fleet commanded by Duarte Pacheco Pereira fell in with him off Cape Finisterre, and after a warm engagement sank one of his ships and captured the other. Mondragon was taken a prisoner to Lisbon, where he found means of making his peace with the king, and he was then permitted to return to France.

Twenty years later three ships, fitted out by a merchant named Jean Ango, sailed from Dieppe for India. The accounts of this expedition are so conflicting that it is impossible to relate the occurrences attending it with absolute accuracy. It is certain, however, that one of the ships never reached her destination. Another was wrecked on the coast of Sumatra, where her crew were all murdered. The third reached Diu in July 1527. She had a crew of forty Frenchmen, but was commanded by a Portuguese named Estevão Dias, nicknamed Brigas, who had fled from his native country on account of misdeeds committed there, and had taken service with the strangers. {37} The ruler of Diu regarded this ship with great hostility, and as he was unable to seize her openly, he practised deceit to get her crew within his power. Professing friendship, he gave Dias permission to trade in his territory, but took advantage of the first opportunity to arrest him and his crew. They were handed over as captives to the paramount Mohamedan ruler, and were obliged to embrace his creed to preserve their lives. They were then taken into his service and remained in India.

Early in 1529 two ships commanded by Jean and Raoul Parmentier, fitted out partly by Jean Ango, partly by merchants of Rouen, sailed from Dieppe. In October of the same year they reached Sumatra, but on account of great loss of life from sickness, on the 22nd of January 1530 they turned homeward. As they avoided the Portuguese settlements, nothing was known at Goa of their proceedings except what was told by a sailor who was left behind at Madagascar and was afterwards found there. This expedition was almost as unsuccessful as the preceding one. On their return passage the ships were greatly damaged in violent storms, and they reached Europe with difficulty.

From that time until 1601 there is no trace of a French vessel having passed the Cape of Good Hope. In May of this year the Corbin and Croissant , two ships fitted out by some merchants of Laval and Vitré, sailed from St. Malo. They reached the Maldives safely, but there the Corbin was lost in July 1602, and her commander was unable to return to France until ten years had gone by. The Croissant was lost on the Spanish coast on her homeward passage.

On the 1st of June 1604 a French East India Company was established on paper, but it did not get further. In 1615 it was reorganised, and in 1617 the first successful expedition to India under the French flag sailed from a port in Normandy. From that date onward ships of this nation were frequently seen in the eastern seas. But {38} the French made no attempt to form a settlement in South Africa, and their only connection with this country was that towards the middle of the seventeenth century a vessel was sent occasionally from Rochelle to collect a cargo of sealskins and oil at the islands in and near the present Saldanha Bay.

The English were the next to appear in Indian waters. A few individuals of this nation may have served in Portuguese ships, and among the missionaries, especially of the Company of Jesus, who went out to convert the heathen, it is not unlikely that there were several. One at least, Thomas Stephens by name, was rector of the Jesuit college at Salsette. A letter written by him from Goa in 1579, and printed in the second volume of Hakluyt’s work, is the earliest account extant of an English voyager to that part of the world. [15] It contains no information of importance.

The famous sea captain Francis Drake, of Tavistock in Devon, sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December 1577, with the intention of exploring the Pacific ocean. His fleet consisted of five vessels, carrying in all one hundred and sixty-four men. His own ship, named the Pelican, was of one hundred and twenty tons burden. The others were the Elizabeth , eighty tons, the Marigold , {39} thirty tons, a pinnace of twelve tons, and a storeship of fifty tons burden. The last named was set on fire as soon as her cargo was transferred to the others, the pinnace was abandoned, the Marigold was lost in a storm, the Elizabeth , after reaching the Pacific, turned back through the straits of Magellan, and the Pelican alone continued the voyage. She was the first English ship that sailed round the world. Captain Drake reached England again on the 3rd of November 1580, and soon afterwards was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship. The Pelican did not touch at any part of the South African coast, but there is the following paragraph in the account of the voyage:—

“We ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portuguese to be most false, who affirm that it is the most dangerous cape of the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers who come near the same. This cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth, and we passed by it on the 18th of June.”

In 1583 four English traders in precious stones, acting partly on their own account and partly as agents for merchants in London, made their way by the Tigris and the Persian gulf to Ormuz, where at that time people of various nationalities were engaged in commerce. John Newbery, the leader of the party, had been there before. The others were named Ralph Fitch, William Leades, and James Story. Shortly after their arrival at Ormuz they were arrested by the Portuguese authorities on the double charge of being heretics and spies of the prior Dom Antonio, who was a claimant to the throne of Portugal, and under these pretences they were sent prisoners to Goa. There they managed to clear themselves of the first of the charges, Story entered a convent, and the others, on finding bail not to leave the city, were set at liberty in December 1584, mainly through the instrumentality of the Jesuit father Stephens and Jan Huyghen {40} van Linscheten, of whom more will be related in the following pages. Four months afterwards, being in fear of ill-treatment, they managed to make their escape from Goa. After a time they separated, and Fitch went on a tour through India, visiting many places before his return to England in 1591. An account of his travels is extant in Hakluyt’s collection, but there is not much information in it, and it had no effect upon subsequent events.

Thomas Candish sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July 1586, with three ships—the Desire , of one hundred and twenty tons, the Content , of sixty tons, and the Hugh Gallant , of forty tons—carrying in all one hundred and twenty-three souls. After sailing round the globe, he arrived again in Plymouth on the 9th of September 1588, having passed the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May.

The first English ships that put into a harbour on the South African coast were the Penelope , Merchant Royal , and Edward Bonaventure , which sailed from Plymouth for India on the 10th of April 1591, under command of Admiral George Raymond. This fleet put into the watering place of Saldanha, now called Table Bay, at the end of July. The crews, who were suffering from scurvy, were at once sent on shore, where they obtained fresh food by shooting wild fowl and gathering mussels and other shell-fish along the rocky beach. Some inhabitants had been seen when the ships sailed in, but they appeared terrified, and at once moved inland. Admiral Raymond visited Robben Island, where he found seals and penguins in great numbers. One day some hunters caught a Hottentot, whom they treated kindly, making him many presents and endeavouring to show him by signs that they were in want of cattle. They then let him go, and eight days afterwards he returned with thirty or forty others, bringing forty oxen and as many sheep. Trade was at once commenced, the price of an ox being two knives, that of a sheep one knife. So many men had died of scurvy that it was considered advisable to send {41} the Merchant Royal back to England weak handed. The Penelope , with one hundred and one men, and the Edward Bonaventure , with ninety-seven men, sailed for India on the 8th of September. On the 12th a gale was encountered, and that night those in the Edward Bonaventure , whereof was master James Lancaster—who was afterwards famous as an advocate of Arctic exploration, and whose name was given by Bylot and Baffin to the sound which terminated their discoveries in 1616—saw a great sea break over the admiral’s ship, which put out her lights. After that she was never seen or heard of again.

The appearance of these rivals in the Indian seas caused much concern in Spain and Portugal. There was as yet no apprehension of the loss of the sources of the spice trade, but it was regarded as probable that English ships would lie in wait at St. Helena for richly laden vessels homeward bound, so in 1591 and again in 1593 the king directed the viceroy to instruct the captains not to touch at that island.

At this time a new state, the republic of the United Netherlands, had recently come into existence in Europe. It was a state full of life and vigour, though its territory was even smaller than that of Portugal. Constantly battling with the ocean that threatened to submerge the land, breathing an invigorating air, coming from an energetic and self-respecting stock, its people were the hardiest and most industrious of Europeans. They were also attached to freedom, and ready to part with property and life itself rather than submit to tyranny or misrule. A brief outline of their history will show how they came to contend with Portugal at the close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth for the commerce of the Indian seas. [16]

{42}

The territory that now forms the kingdom of the Netherlands was the last part of the continent of Europe to be occupied by human beings. For untold ages the Rhine, the Maas, and the Schelde had been carrying down earth and the ocean had been casting up sand, until at last a tract of swampy but habitable ground appeared where previously waves had rolled. That was not many centuries before the commencement of the Christian era, and so no traces of palæolithic man are found there such as are found in all other parts of Europe, and in great abundance in some parts of modern Belgium close by. The most ancient relics of man discovered in the northern Netherlands are comparatively recent flint implements, tumuli containing funeral urns, and the so-called hunebedden, sepulchres of men of note, roughly built of stone taken from boulders carried from the Scandinavian peninsula by ice in glacial times, and deposited on the banks not yet risen to the surface of the sea. These hunebedden are found chiefly in the present province of Drenthe, and may not date much further back than Roman times.

The Batavi, a Nether Teuton tribe, driven westward by war, about a century before the birth of Christ found their way into the island enclosed by the North sea and the extreme forks of the Rhine, which was then a waste of morasses, lakelets, and forests. It had previously been occupied by a Celtic population, that had abandoned it not long before on account of disasters from floods. The position of the forks of the Rhine was probably different {43} from what it is to-day, for the whole face of the country has undergone a great change since the Batavians first saw it. Large tracts of land have been reclaimed, and still larger tracts have been lost by the sea washing over them. Thus in the thirteenth century of our era the very heart of the country was torn out by the ocean, and villages and towns and wide pastures were buried for ever under the deep waters since termed the Zuider Zee. In 1277 the Dollart was formed between Groningen and Hanover, and in 1421 the Biesbosch between Brabant and Holland took the place of habitable land.

Farther north than the Batavians, the Frisians, also a Nether Teuton people, occupied a great extent of country, but it is impossible to say when they first took possession of it. These Batavians and Frisians were the nearest blood relations of the Angles and Saxons who at a later date conquered England and part of Scotland, and their language was so nearly the same that our great Alfred could with little difficulty have understood it.

The southern part of what is now the kingdom of Belgium and the adjoining districts of France were inhabited at this time by a Celtic people, who had long before replaced the early palæolithic savages. Between them and the Batavians and Frisians was a broad tract occupied by Teutons and Celts mixed together, who do not appear, however, to have blended their blood to any great extent. This was the condition of the country at the beginning of the Christian era, and it was its condition more than fifteen centuries later, when Philippe II was king of Spain and Elizabeth Tudor was queen of England.

Cæsar conquered the Celts and compelled the Frisians to pay tribute, but he admitted the Batavians to an alliance, and thereafter for hundreds of years they voluntarily supplied the Roman army with its bravest soldiers. They gave their blood for Rome, and in return received civilisation. During this period they learned to {44} construct dykes to prevent the ocean and the rivers from overflowing the land, to dig canals, to make highways, and to build bridges.

Then came the outpouring of the northern nations upon the western empire, and when it ceased the power that had overshadowed the earth had gone. In its stead the Franks were masters of the Celtic portion of the Netherlands, where the Latin tongue was spoken, and tribes akin to the Frisian had mixed with the occupants of the north. The Batavians remained, but their distinctive name had disappeared, and so the racial division of the land was as it had been before.

Some of the Frisians had been converted to Christianity by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and in A.D. 750 the whole of them, after a crushing defeat by Charles Martel, accepted that religion. In A.D. 785 their conquest was completed by Charlemagne, and the whole region then became a section of the dominions of that able and powerful ruler. The bishopric of Utrecht was founded at this time. Extensive domains were attached to the see, and the bishop, besides the ecclesiastical authority which he exercised over the whole of the Frisians, was temporal ruler of a territory constantly varying in size, sometimes covering several of the modern provinces.

Charlemagne left the local customs of the people of the Netherlands undisturbed, and sent officials to govern them according to their own laws, though in his name. Under his feeble successors the country was broken up into a number of practically petty sovereignties by the descendants of his officials, who now claimed hereditary authority and ruled as despots. They called themselves dukes, counts, marquises, or lords, and often quarrelled with each other. Most of them nominally admitted the precedence in rank of the head of the Holy Roman Empire, as the counts of Flanders and Artois did that of the kings of France, but this was the full extent of their submission. {45}

The Scandinavian pirates sailed up the rivers and made frequent attacks upon the towns and villages on their banks, they plundered and murdered many of the people, but they did not form permanent settlements as they did in the more attractive lands of Normandy and Sicily.

The country not being capable of supporting its inhabitants by agriculture and cattle breeding alone, manufactures and commerce were necessary, and in addition the fisheries became a means of living for many. They traded with England, buying wool, with the coast of the Baltic, selling woollen and linen cloths, and with all north-western Europe, selling Indian products, of which Bruges was the emporium for the Italian merchants. So towns grew and prospered, and in course of time obtained municipal charters from their sovereigns. In A.D. 1217 the first of these in the present kingdom of the Netherlands was granted by Count William the First of Holland and Countess Joanna of Flanders to the town of Middelburg in Zeeland. It did not indeed confer great privileges, but it was the beginning of a system which had most important effects upon the country. The crusades tended to hasten this movement. The petty sovereigns who took part in them were very willing to sell privileges for ready money, which they needed for their equipment, and their subjects were quite as willing to buy.

So the towns grew in number and in size, and succeeded in obtaining, usually by purchase, a large amount of self-government and the right of sending deputies to the estates or parliaments, who sat with the nobles to confer upon general affairs. Just as the various kings of the Saxon states in England, the petty sovereigns were continually quarrelling with each other, and their number varied from time to time, as one or other got the mastery over his neighbours. Not the least prominent or quarrelsome among them was the bishop of Utrecht, whose dominions contracted or expanded with the fortunes of diplomacy or war. The estates of his province consisted {46} of deputies from the towns, the nobles, and abbots, over whom he presided as a sovereign. In some of the little dominions the privileges of the towns were much greater than in others, in several indeed the cities were practically little short of being independent republics. Unfortunately they were so jealous of each other that they could not unite in carrying out any policy that would have benefited the whole province, and there was no tie whatever that bound the different provinces together. Each city with a little domain around it stood alone, and though it might enjoy self-government, its position was precarious, for it could not depend upon anything outside of itself to assist it if necessary to maintain its rights against an aggressor.

This was the condition of affairs political when, owing partly to the extinction of some of the ruling families, partly to purchase, and partly to fraud and force, in 1437 a majority of the provinces—among them Holland and Zeeland—came under the dominion of Philippe, the powerful duke of Burgundy. They continued, however, to be independent of each other, and were governed by him as distinct states, of one of which he was termed duke, of another count, and so on, though he established a council at Mechlin, which acted as a court of appeal for them all. He was married to the youngest daughter of João I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, Isabella by name, whose nephew, Affonso V, in 1466 made her a present of the Azores or Western Islands. A considerable number of families from the Netherlands, whose descendants can still be distinguished there, then migrated to the Flemish islands, as they were long thereafter termed. These dependencies shared the fate of the other dominions of the house of Burgundy until 1640, when they reverted to Portugal.

Philippe suppressed much of the freedom that had been gained, but he encouraged and protected commerce and manufactures, and under his rule the provinces increased greatly in material wealth. He died in 1467, and {47} was succeeded by his son Charles the Headstrong, a perfectly reckless and unprincipled ruler, who endeavoured to crush out all the acquired freedom of the people, and nearly succeeded in establishing himself as an absolute despot. His first wife was Catherine of Valois, by whom he had only one daughter. After her death he married, on the 3rd of July 1468, Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV of England, but had no children by her. Like his father, he governed the Netherlands by means of officials termed stadholders, who acted as his representatives and carried out his instructions. The first standing army in the country was stationed there by him. Charles was killed in battle with the Swiss in 1477, and as he left no son, his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, claimed the right of succeeding him as sovereign of all the provinces he had ruled over.

Louis XI of France, however, on the ground that the Salic law was applicable in this case, took possession of Burgundy, and cast longing eyes on the Netherlands as well. In this hour of danger, the estates of all the provinces came together at Ghent, when the lady Mary voluntarily restored all the privileges and rights that her father and grandfather had annulled. She even went further, and granted the “Groot Privilegie,” which conferred such extensive authority upon the estates that under its clauses despotism or even misgovernment would be impossible, for no taxes could be imposed and no war undertaken without their consent, and edicts of the sovereign were to be invalid if they conflicted with the privileges of the towns. Only natives of the particular province could be appointed to offices in any of them, thus a native of Brabant or Namur could not fill an office in Flanders or Holland. Persons charged with crime were to be brought to trial speedily, and no citizen could be arbitrarily imprisoned by the ruler. A more liberal constitution could hardly have been imagined at that time nor indeed even at present. {48}

The estates were then ready to support the lady Mary, they acknowledged her as their sovereign, and with their approval she married Maximilian of Hapsburg, son of the German emperor. Five years later she was killed by a fall from her horse, leaving a son, Philippe by name, then four years of age, as heir to her sovereignty of the Netherlands. Maximilian claimed to act as regent and guardian of his son, and was accepted as such by all of the provinces subject to Burgundy except Flanders, which he got possession of by force. He disowned the “Great Privilege,” as did his son Philippe, when in 1494 at seventeen years of age he assumed the government.

In 1496 Philippe married Joanna, eldest daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Her sister Catherine was destined at a later date to play an important part in English history as the spouse of King Henry the Eighth. From the union of Philippe and Joanna was born in the year 1500 a son, who as the emperor Charles V was the most powerful monarch in Europe. From his mother he inherited the sovereignty of Spain, of portions of Italy, and of the greater part of the New World, with the title of king, from his father he inherited the sovereignty of all the Netherlands except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, and Liege, with the titles of count and duke, and by election of the German princes he became the head of the Holy Roman Empire, with the title of emperor. His father Philippe died in 1506, and the Netherlands became the first portion of his vast inheritance that fell to him. To those provinces that had been dependencies of Burgundy, he was able to add Friesland in 1524, Utrecht and Overyssel in 1528, and Groningen and Drenthe in 1536, all obtained by cession after long civil war, when the bishop of Utrecht, who was unable to protect himself from the duke of Gelderland, resigned his temporal authority. In 1543 he conquered Gelderland, and in the following year he compelled the king of France, to whom his father Philippe had done homage for Flanders and Artois, to {49} renounce the suzerainty of those provinces, so that the entire country, Liege only excepted, came under his undisputed sovereignty. In this manner the provinces became united with Spain under one ruler, though their governments remained distinct.

Under Charles just as much or as little freedom as he pleased was left to the people of the Netherlands, for he regarded his edicts as superior in authority to all charters or customs, and he inflicted terrible vengeance upon the city of Ghent, his own birthplace, for daring to resist the payment of an amount of money that he arbitrarily demanded. He professed to regard the provinces with favour, but he drew largely upon their resources to enable him to carry on wars in which they had no interest whatever.

And now another factor came into play, which tended very greatly to increase the bitterness of the people at the diminution of freedom. The reformation had commenced, and its principles were spreading in the Netherlands. Charles, who regarded schism as even more criminal than rebellion, attempted to stamp out the new teaching, and for this purpose introduced the inquisition. His sister Mary, dowager queen of Hungary, acted as regent of the country for twenty-five years, and carried out his instructions in letter and in spirit. Many thousands of people perished by various forms of death, but wretched as the condition of the unhappy Netherlanders was, a still darker day was about to dawn upon them.

It is generally affirmed that there were seventeen distinct provinces at this time, but in fact the number seventeen was derived from the titles of the sovereign and the accidental circumstance that there were seventeen separate estates present at the abdication of Charles V, [17] {50} though these did not correspond exactly with the titles. For instance, one of the titles was count of Zutphen, but Zutphen had for centuries been part of Gelderland; another of the titles was marquis of Anvers or Antwerp, but Antwerp was a city of Brabant. On the other hand Lille with Douai and Orchies, though cities of Flanders, had separate estates, but did not furnish a title, the same was the case with Valenciennes, a city of Hainaut, while Mechlin, in the very heart of Brabant, had separate estates and furnished the title lord of Malines or Mechlin.

What would be termed provinces to-day were the duchies of Gelderland, Brabant, Limburg, and Luxemburg, the counties of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Namur or Namen, Hainaut or Henegouwen, and Artois, and the lordships of Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen with Drenthe, Overyssel, and Mechlin or Malines. [18] To make seventeen, the county of Zutphen and the marquisate of Antwerp must be added if titles alone are considered, or if states present at the abdication of Charles V be taken as a guide, Lille with Douai and Orchies and Tournai with the Tournaisis [19] {51} must be included. Only five of these—Holland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, and Overyssel—remain on the map to-day as they were in the middle of the sixteenth century. Of them all, Brabant was the most important at that time, Flanders came next, and Holland, soon to take the leading place, was regarded as only the third. [20]

On the 25th of October 1555 in presence of the estates of seventeen provinces assembled at Brussels, the emperor Charles the Fifth, worn out with disease and infirmity, abdicated the sovereignty, and his son Philippe became ruler in his stead. The change was all for the worse. Charles had been a despot, it is true, but he was by birth a Netherlander, he spoke the language of the people, and took an interest in their commerce and their manufactures; Philippe was a Spaniard, ignorant of Flemish ( i.e. Dutch) and of French, and without a particle of sympathy with them in any particular.

For the first four years of his reign Philippe resided in the Netherlands, though he appointed the duke of Savoy regent of the country. They were years of war between Spain and France, and the Netherlands were obliged to aid their sovereign very largely with money and with men. Under the count of Egmont as their general, the combined Spanish and Flemish forces won the great battles of Saint Quentin and Gravelines, but the French were compensated by taking Calais from the English, for Queen Mary Tudor had provoked attack by giving assistance in the war to her husband King Philippe. {52}

Peace having been concluded, in 1559 the king prepared to return to Spain, where his surroundings would be much more congenial. He appointed Margaret of Parma, a natural daughter of the emperor Charles the Fifth and consequently his own half sister, regent of the Netherlands, but all real authority was confided to the bishop of Arras, afterwards widely known as Cardinal Granvelle. This man was a staunch absolutist in politics, and could be depended upon to carry out the king’s wishes to the utmost of his ability. And the dearest wish of the king was to extirpate the new doctrines in religion, which he clearly saw would tend to produce a far more liberal system of government than he approved of. Among the appointments made before he left was that of William prince of Orange to be stadholder of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, but subject to the authority of the duchess of Parma, who was to be guided by the bishop of Arras.

Against the entreaties and protests of the estates, Philippe left in the Netherlands four thousand Spanish soldiers, the most highly disciplined troops in Europe at that time.

Previous to this date, excepting the sovereign bishop of Liege, [21] whose territory was independent and therefore not then included in the provinces, there had only been four bishops in the whole of the Netherlands: one in Utrecht in what is now the kingdom of Holland, one at Tournai in the present kingdom of Belgium, and two at Arras and Cambrai in territory since annexed to France. Philippe obtained from the pope a bull increasing the number to three archbishops and fifteen bishops, of whom one archbishop at Utrecht and six bishops at Haarlem, Middelburg, Leeuwarden, Groningen, Deventer, and ’s Hertogenbosch, {53} were to be stationed in the northern provinces, now the kingdom of Holland. Each was to have inquisitors serving under him.

These measures gave intense dissatisfaction to the whole body of the people, nobles, burghers, and artisans alike. There was not a single Protestant noble in the country at the time, and the great majority of the people were still adherents of the Roman church, but Catholics and Calvinists alike were opposed to persecution in matters of faith and to the erection of ecclesiastical power upon the ruins of civil liberty. Still the king [22] would not yield, and the people were as yet indisposed to resist in arms. Perhaps they did not know their own strength, and over-estimated that opposed to them. There was no such thing either as political union among them. Seventeen states jealous of each other, and each important state containing rival towns, presented to a despot a field that could be easily worked. Still greater suffering was needed before the people could unite against the murderous hand that was raised to crush them.

After a time the Spanish soldiers, who were needed elsewhere, were withdrawn, but matters went on no better afterwards. The whole hatred of the country was turned against Cardinal Granvelle, who was believed to be the instigator of all the evil, and at length the duchess Margaret grew to detest him also, so that Philippe was obliged to recall him. He left the Netherlands in March 1564, and after a short period of retirement, was employed by the king in still higher offices.

The government of the duchess Margaret was corrupt, though perhaps not more so than that of some other administrations of the time. Offices were sold to the highest bidder by her secretary, and she as well as he profited by such transactions. Under such circumstances the courts {54} of law were venal, and judgment in civil cases was usually in favour of him who had the longest purse. A man who had to pay a large sum of money for his office was obliged to try to recover his capital by some means, and as that could not be done honestly, he was open to receive bribes. In the great agony caused by the inquisition, however, this evil was hardly considered as one of importance, and is only casually referred to by the chroniclers of the time.

The great number of persons burnt, buried alive, and strangled by the inquisitors had the opposite effect to that which King Philippe intended. Instead of stamping out the reformation, its doctrines were spreading more rapidly month after month, until mass meetings of thousands of people were openly held in the fields outside the towns to listen to the preaching of some earnest and eloquent reformer. The men on such occasions usually went armed and determined to defend their pastors and themselves, but if need should be, they were ready to face death in its most appalling forms for the sake of what they believed to be truth.

Another effect of the inquisition was to destroy the material prosperity of the country. Flanders had long been the leading cloth manufactory of Europe, it was there that wool, imported chiefly from England, was converted by spinning wheels and handlooms into the choicest cloths. Nowhere else were spinning, weaving, dyeing, and pressing so well understood or so skilfully practised as in the Flemish towns. But now persecution drove those industrious artisans out of the country. They fled to England, where Queen Elizabeth permitted them to settle, and it was they who in East Anglia gave to the country that adopted and protected them the preëminence in woollen manufactures which she retains to this day. A very few years later, instead of exporting raw wool and importing cloth, England was sending to Flanders the products of Anglo-Flemish looms. This was not the only industry that persecution {55} drove from the provinces to other lands, but it was the most important.

All parties in politics and in religion find it necessary to adopt an expressive name, under which their adherents can rally, and it was at this time that the opponents of despotic government took to themselves the renowned title of Beggars, that was to be heard as a war cry on land and sea long years afterwards. On the 8th of April 1566 three hundred gentlemen presented a petition to the duchess Margaret, when a member of her council spoke of them as beggars. That evening at a banquet Count Brederode proposed that the title should be adopted, which was enthusiastically agreed to by those present, and quickly spread over the provinces. At first it had no religious signification, for both Catholics and Protestants who favoured the preservation of constitutional rights termed themselves Gueux, but in course of time it was applied almost exclusively to the adherents of the reformed or Calvinistic faith.

In such circumstances as those in which the Netherlands were then placed, excesses are usually committed by the most fanatical section of the suffering party, and it was so in this instance. In August 1566 a disorderly mob took possession of the great cathedral of Antwerp, one of the most beautiful and stately buildings in Europe, threw down all the statues in it, broke the stained glass windows, demolished the ornaments of every kind, and generally wrecked the interior of the edifice. Only a few hundred men were actually engaged in the work of destruction, but many thousands looked on with indifference, and many more with satisfaction, accounting the decorations of the cathedral as symbols of the terrible inquisition. This example was followed throughout the southern provinces, and a great number of churches were treated in the same manner as Antwerp cathedral had been. Yet there was not a single instance of violence offered to any individual, or of plunder of any article whatever. The gold and silver {56} implements of the churches were battered and made useless, but were then thrown on the floors and left.

The fury of Philippe was now thoroughly aroused, and means were forwarded to the regent Margaret to raise a body of troops and suppress disorder. The most powerful of the southern nobles ranged themselves on the side of despotism. On the 13th of March 1567 a body of three thousand Beggars who were posted near Antwerp was utterly annihilated, and on the 23rd of the same month the ancient city of Valenciennes, which had defied the government, was taken and reduced to submission. The factions in Antwerp were ready to spring at each other’s throats, but were induced by the prince of Orange to keep the peace. The regent Margaret agreed to conditions which gave the Protestants some protection, but her word was not to be depended upon, and much less was that of King Philippe, who was the very incarnation of deceit and treachery. For a few weeks now there was an appearance of calm, but it was only the prelude to the most terrible storm that ever swept over any portion of modern Europe.

Ten thousand veteran Spanish troops, the most highly disciplined and best armed soldiers in the world, were sent by Philippe as the nucleus of a powerful army to subjugate the Netherlands. At their head was the bloodthirsty duke of Alva, then sixty years of age, whose life had been spent in war, and who was the most skilful strategist of his day. Alva! what a curse rests upon his name in all countries where men set a value upon justice and freedom! As pitiless as Tshaka in South Africa, as treacherous as Dingan, he stands out in the history of the Netherlands as a cold-blooded murderer, a malignant fiend in human form. His commission as the king’s captain-general was issued on the 31st of January 1567, and his instructions were in keeping with his disposition and character.

The nucleus or advance guard of the army was assembled in Italy, and marched by way of Mont Cenis and through {57} Savoy, Burgundy, and Lorraine to Thionville, then a town of the Netherlands, now included in France. In August 1567 it crossed the border, and continued its march to Brussels, meeting with no opposition on the way. Alva at once placed garrisons in the principal towns, and commenced the erection of fortresses to overawe them, the principal of which was the famous citadel of Antwerp. He sent letters to the different cities, signed by the king, commanding them to render absolute obedience to him. The next step was the arrest and close confinement of as many of the nobles as he could get hold of who had at any time opposed any arbitrary act of the sovereign. The counts Egmont and Hoorn were entrapped by letters to them from the king, praising their conduct and declaring his confidence in them. Conscious of having done no wrong, and lulled into a feeling of security by these assurances from Philippe, they placed themselves in the power of Alva, and found themselves his prisoners.

Then was established that murderous mockery of a tribunal, known as the Council of Blood. It was composed of a number of creatures of Alva, some of whom were Flemish nobles of the worst type ready to pour out the blood of their countrymen at his bidding, others Spaniards of the same character. It dispensed with legal formalities, and made nought of charters and privileges. The whole population of the Netherlands was at its mercy. Its agents sent in lists of names, and with hardly a pretence of examination, men, scores of men at a time, were sentenced to confiscation of all their property and death on the scaffold. This infamous Council of Blood met for the first time on the 20th of September 1567 in an apartment of Alva’s residence in Brussels. His intention was to crush out all opposition to absolutism, to exterminate all adherents of the reformed religion, and to raise a large revenue by confiscation of property.

Everyone who valued freedom and could flee from the provinces did so now without delay. The neighbouring {58} German states were crowded with refugees, and in many Flemish and Dutch towns industry entirely ceased, for artisans and mechanics had abandoned them in despair. It is highly probable that the larger number of those so-called Germans who settled in South Africa in later years were really descendants of Netherlanders who left their fatherland at this time.

Margaret of Parma was nominally regent still, but on the 9th of December 1567 she resigned, and the monster Alva became governor-general of the provinces.

The prince of Orange, his brothers Louis and Adolf of Nassau, Count Hoogstraaten, and several other nobles of less note had retired into Germany before the arrival of the Spanish troops. Alva confiscated their property in the Netherlands, but they had possessions beyond the border which he could not reach. They had been faithful subjects of Philippe to this time, though they had striven by peaceful means to preserve the constitutions of the provinces, but now they could not look calmly on while the very life was being trampled out of their country. In April 1568 Orange engaged troops in Germany, and sent three small armies into the Netherlands in hope that the people would rise in a body and assist to drive the Spaniards out. But he was disappointed. The people were for the moment completely cowed. Two of his armies were utterly annihilated by the disciplined Spanish troops, and though the third, commanded by his brother Louis, gained a victory at Heiligerlee, near Winschoten, in the province of Groningen, it led to no substantial result. Count Adolf of Nassau fell in this battle. So the war for freedom began, a war that was carried on without intermission for forty-one years.

Alva with an overpowering force marched against Count Louis, and on the 21st of July 1568 attacked him at Jemmingen, a village on the left bank of the Ems near its entrance into the Dollart, within the German border. It was not so much a battle as a slaughter that followed. {59} Of ten thousand men under his command, the count lost seven thousand slain, and with difficulty made his escape from the disastrous field while the remainder were scattering in every direction. Alva then proceeded to Utrecht, where he reviewed an army of thirty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, a force that he believed sufficient to overawe the whole of the northern provinces.

Early in October the prince of Orange invaded Brabant from Germany with thirty thousand men, of whom nine thousand were cavalry. Many of these were undisciplined refugees, but some were trained German soldiers. Several smaller bands joined the prince subsequently, though not a city opened its gates to him, so great was the terror that Alva inspired. The difficulty of providing food for such a number of men for any length of time was insurmountable, and the Spanish general therefore did not choose to risk an engagement, but watched his opponent closely. On one occasion, on the 20th of October, he was able to cut off a rearguard of three thousand men under Count Hoogstraaten, and nearly exterminated them. Hoogstraaten himself escaped, but died of a wound a few days afterwards. The prince of Orange, disappointed in his expectation of a general rising, and without a single stronghold as a base of operations, was obliged to retreat to Germany and disband his troops. He had spent all the money he could raise, and was heavily in debt. Nothing could have been gloomier than the prospect then before him, but he still cherished hope and trusted in God. He had passed through different stages of religious belief, but did not openly join the Calvinist church until October 1573.

The first campaign in the war of freedom had thus terminated entirely in favour of the Spaniards.

On the 5th of June of this year 1568 an event took place which more than all the blood of humble citizens that had been shed drew the attention of civilised Europe to what was transpiring in the Netherlands. This was the death on the scaffold in the great square of Brussels of {60} the counts Egmont and Hoorn, who had been condemned by the Council of Blood for having been somewhat dilatory in upholding despotism. They were both earnest Catholics, and Egmont in particular had rendered great services to the king. He was the general who had won the victories of Saint Quentin and Gravelines. But the death of these prominent noblemen was resolved upon by Philippe, because it would strike terror into all classes, and would prove that the least hesitation to carry out any of his wishes would meet with the most terrible punishment. All their possessions were confiscated. Their death had no effect upon the patriotic cause, except for the horror which it created abroad, as they were not the men to throw in their lot with William of Orange in resistance to tyranny.

The baron Montigny, brother of Count Hoorn, had been sent with the marquis Berghen to Madrid in May 1566 by the regent Margaret of Parma to represent to Philippe the ruin which the inquisition was bringing upon the Netherlands and the difficulty caused by it to her administration. They were instructed to suggest its abolition and the modification of the king’s edicts. Both of these noblemen were devout Catholics, and were most faithful subjects of their sovereign. They might have reasoned that if his sister and representative was compelled by force of circumstances to pause in the deadly work, they could not be blamed for acting under her instructions. The king received them apparently in a friendly manner. But they were not permitted to return, and after a time were placed in confinement. Berghen died, it was reported of home sickness, but many believed by violent means. Montigny was kept a prisoner more than four years, was then in his absence condemned to death by the Council of Blood for favouring heresy, and on the 16th of October 1570 was strangled privately by order of the king.

An awful calamity, but not by the hand of man, overtook the Northern Netherlands in the year 1570. In a gale of tremendous violence on the first and second {61} of November of this year the sea was driven high upon the coast, the dykes burst in many places, and the waters poured over the land. Fully a hundred thousand persons were drowned, and property to an immense amount was destroyed.

And now came another trouble. Alva had been disappointed in his expectations of an abundant revenue from the confiscation of property, for much as he gathered by that means, the cost of maintenance of his army and the charges of his administration were so enormous that his treasury was always empty, and creditors had become clamorous. To remedy this defect, he imposed taxes of one per cent of the value of all property in the country, to be paid only once, of five per cent transfer duty on all land and houses sold thereafter, and of ten per cent on every movable article that should be sold. This last tax was regarded by the people as equivalent to a prohibition to carry on trade of any kind, it affected every one, and in many of the towns the shops as well as the wholesale stores, even the breweries, the butcheries, and the bakeries were closed. The streets swarmed with mendicants, and riots were only suppressed by military force. If he had tried to compel the people to take part with William of Orange, the governor-general could not have devised a more efficient plan. {62}

II.

The War in the Netherlands to the Union of Utrecht.

Many of the men who had been obliged to leave their homes had turned to the sea for refuge. Legitimate commerce could not absorb them all, even if it had been flourishing as formerly, and so in their desperate condition they became buccaneers. The prince of Orange took advantage of this, and issued a commission to a reckless fugitive noble named William de la Marck to act as his admiral and attack Spanish ships wherever he could find them. De la Marck was a distant relative of Egmont, and had sworn not to clip his hair or beard till he had avenged the count’s death. In March 1572 he was lying at anchor at Dover with a fleet of twenty-four vessels, when by order of Queen Elizabeth all supplies of provisions were refused to him. He was then compelled to do something desperate at once, or starve, so he resolved to sail to Enkhuizen, and try to get possession of that port. The wind failed him, however, so on the 1st of April he put into the Maas and anchored in front of Brill (Brielle), a walled and fortified town on the island of Voorne. The Spanish garrison had just been sent to Utrecht. The Sea Beggars were only a few hundred in number, but Pieter Koppelstok, who was sent by De la Marck to demand the surrender of the town, when questioned as to their strength replied about five thousand. The authorities and adherents of the government fled in fear, and the half-famished rovers battered in the gates and took possession of the place. This was the beginning of the second campaign against the Spaniards. {63}

It could not be expected that the Sea Beggars, after their wrongs and their sufferings, would act very gently with their opponents, but the ferocity which they displayed on this occasion cannot be excused or passed lightly over. They broke all the altars, statues, and ornaments in the churches, dressed themselves in clerical robes, and barbarously put to death thirteen priests and monks who had not been able to make their escape. A Spanish force was sent from Utrecht to recover Brill, but was beaten off with considerable loss. De la Marck was then of opinion that the place should be abandoned, but Captain Treslong, whose father had once been governor of the town, induced him to continue to hold it and to rally the patriots around him there, who quickly came in and joined him.

As soon as intelligence of the repulse of the Spaniards from Brill reached Flushing (Vlissingen), that important town declared for the prince of Orange, and sent to De la Marck to beg for assistance. Two hundred Sea Beggars, all in clerical garments, were thereupon forwarded in three vessels, and quickly reached their destination. Here also an act of inexcusable barbarity took place. The engineer who had constructed the citadel of Antwerp, Pacheco by name, had just arrived in Flushing to erect a fortress there. He was seized and at once hanged with two other Spanish officers. With the town half the island of Walcheren went over to the patriot cause, and very shortly a strong force of Beggars, aided by some French soldiers and English volunteers, assembled there to protect it.

The example thus set was speedily followed by most of the towns that were not overawed by powerful Spanish garrisons in the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, and Friesland. Amsterdam, Middelburg, Goes, Arnemuide, Utrecht, and a few others were too strongly garrisoned to be able to rise. In some of the towns the change was made without bloodshed, in others the most barbarous cruelties were practised on both sides, for passion had taken the place of reason and charity. {64} The revolted towns declared that they remained faithful to King Philippe as count of Holland, etc., that the ancient charters conferring rights and privileges were restored, that there was perfect freedom for both the Roman Catholic and Reformed religions, that they accepted the prince of Orange as stadholder for the sovereign of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland, and that they repudiated the duke of Alva, the inquisition, and the tax on commerce.

Other successes awaited the patriot cause. On the 24th of May 1572 Count Louis of Nassau with a small band obtained possession of the important town of Mons in Hainaut. And on the 10th of June a richly laden Spanish fleet from Lisbon arrived at Flushing and cast anchor, being unaware of what had occurred there. Most of the ships were captured, a thousand Spanish soldiers on board were made prisoners, five hundred thousand crowns of gold sent by Philippe for his army chest and a large quantity of ammunition became prize to the Beggars, and much spice and other valuable merchandise was secured.

On the 15th of July the estates of Holland, consisting of the nobles and deputies from eight cities, met at Dordrecht. The prince of Orange was in Germany, where he had engaged an army of fifteen thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, besides three thousand refugee Walloons. The estates adopted measures for raising all the money that they could to pay these troops for three months, and Orange then entered the southern provinces. His first object was to relieve Mons, which was besieged by a strong Spanish army, and to effect a junction with Admiral Coligny, who with the approval of the king of France was to aid him with ten thousand Huguenots. After crossing the border, town after town opened its gates to him, and received the garrisons he placed in them. Everything looked bright before him, when suddenly, without the slightest warning, a thunderbolt fell which utterly destroyed his hopes and those of the patriot party. {65}

A contingent of Huguenots was cut to pieces when attempting to enter Mons, but the main body under Coligny was believed to be ready to advance, when tidings were received of the fearful Massacre of Saint Bartholomew on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of August 1572. The treacherous Charles IX of France, by an act of savage cruelty without parallel in a Christian state, had betrayed the cause it was his interest to favour, and had murdered a hundred thousand of his Protestant subjects. Admiral Coligny was among the victims. Orange realised at once that his cause was shattered, his German troops had not been fully paid, and were almost mutinous, so he was obliged to retire and disband them. The towns that had welcomed him now hastened to disown him, and returned to their obedience to Alva. On the 20th of September Mons capitulated on honourable terms, which were not, however, faithfully observed by the conquerors, and all the southern provinces were again under the Spanish yoke.

Alva had reinforced his army very largely with German mercenaries, the same class of men that Orange had raised his forces from, and he had enlisted a great many Walloons. He was without money to pay either them or his Spanish veterans. He gave them instead the city of Mechlin to plunder for three days, the Spaniards to have it for the first day, the Germans for the second, and the Walloons for the third. Mechlin was almost entirely a Catholic city, but it had welcomed the prince of Orange, and had received a garrison from him. This was to be its punishment by Alva. The horrors of the sack of the doomed city cannot be fully told, but they can be imagined. The Spaniards knew that the richest spoil would be found in the churches, and they resolved not to leave it for others. In their lust for spoil the churches, the monasteries, and the convents of Mechlin were treated by these Catholics as the cathedral of Antwerp had been by the fanatic Protestants. Then the citizens were tortured and murdered, and nameless horrors were perpetrated upon females, until the first day {66} ended. On the second day the Germans, and on the third the debased Walloons, followed in the sack of Mechlin, leaving it desolate, plundered, and utterly forlorn. Such was Alva’s punishment of a disobedient city.

The tide of fortune was now setting as strong against the patriot cause as it had been in its favour during the earlier months of the year. On the 26th of August the Beggars laid siege to Goes in Zeeland, which was defended by a Spanish garrison, but must have fallen if it had not been relieved on the 21st of October by an army that had made a wonderful march through shallow water. The besiegers were then obliged to flee, but they were pursued, and their rearguard was completely destroyed.

Alva now sent a strong army under his son Don Frederic de Toledo to reduce the northern provinces to subjection. Don Frederic directed his march to Gelderland, where the town of Zutphen attempted to resist him. It was easily taken, however, when all its adult male inhabitants were put to the sword, and most of its buildings were destroyed by fire. The whole of the provinces east and south of the Zuider Zee now submitted to Alva, only Holland and Zeeland still holding out, and even of these the largest towns—Amsterdam and Middelburg—were occupied by Spanish garrisons. There was no national army in existence, and each town was politically isolated from all the others, a condition of things which made defence extremely difficult.

Don Frederic now marched towards North Holland, meeting no opposition until he reached the little town of Naarden, on the shore of the Zuider Zee, south-east of Amsterdam. Naarden offered a feeble resistance, but on a verbal promise from General Julian Romero that life and property would be spared, it surrendered. Every man in the place and nearly every woman was put to death, and the little town was set on fire and razed to the ground.

A more memorable siege than any which had yet taken place was that of the town of Haarlem. On the 11th of {67} December 1572 Haarlem was beleaguered by an army of thirty thousand Spaniards, Germans, and Walloons, commanded by Don Frederic de Toledo. The duke of Alva had his headquarters in the neighbouring city of Amsterdam, whence supplies of provisions, ammunition, and whatever else was needed could be forwarded to the camps without delay. Within the walls of the town were only four thousand fighting men, so that the Spanish commander could reasonably hope that a few days would suffice for its reduction. But the people of Haarlem were stouthearted as ever were Greeks in the olden time, they hated the Spanish yoke as that of the foul fiend, and they had made up their minds to resist to the very last. Assault after assault was made upon their walls, and whenever a breach was effected the enemy came storming upon it, but only to be beaten back. In the night the breaches were repaired, the women and children assisting in the work. A band of three hundred women, led by the widow Kenau Hasselaer, did as much and as splendid service fighting in the breaches and on the walls as any men could have done. The children too did what they could by carrying powder and food from place to place.

So month after month passed away, and heroic Haarlem still held out. The prince of Orange from Delft used almost superhuman exertions to get men together and to throw reinforcements and provisions into the beleaguered town, but they all failed in getting through the encircling bands. At last food, even of the most disgusting kind, entirely failed, and when many had died of actual starvation, those who could no longer fight from weakness submitted on a promise of lenient treatment. It was on the 12th of July 1573, seven months and two days after the commencement of the siege, that Haarlem fell. The promise of lenity was kept by the plunder of the town being commuted for a sum of money to be paid in four instalments, so that the horrors which Mechlin had witnessed were spared to Haarlem, but two thousand three hundred {68} of the inhabitants were put to death after the surrender. The besiegers had paid dearly for the town, for they had lost no fewer than twelve thousand men in combat or by disease in those seven months of desperate fighting.

Alkmaar, a small though important town in North Holland, was then summoned to submit, but declined to do so. The prince of Orange had managed to obtain eight hundred soldiers, who were sent to assist the burghers, thirteen hundred in number, to defend it. On the 21st of August 1573 Don Frederic de Toledo invested the town with sixteen thousand veteran troops, and immediately began to attempt to batter down part of the wall. On three occasions breaches were made, and storming parties tried to effect an entrance, but were driven back by boiling oil, tarred and burning hoops, and other missiles of the kind being thrown upon them. The soldiers then refused to storm again, and the only course left was to wait for famine to do its work. But some letters of the prince of Orange fell into Don Frederic’s hands, from which he learned that the dykes were to be cut and the land flooded, when he resolved to raise the siege rather than risk the loss of his whole army by drowning. On the 8th of October the people of Alkmaar had the happiness of seeing from their walls the Spanish army with all its appurtenances in full retreat towards Amsterdam.

Another triumph for the patriot cause followed quickly, to Alva’s intense discomfiture. He had purchased some ships and built others at Amsterdam, until he had a fleet of thirty men-of-war, which he equipped in the most efficient manner known in those days. The largest carried thirty-two cannon, and was manned by one hundred and fifty seamen, besides having on board over two hundred veteran Spanish soldiers under the captains Alonzo de Conquera and Fernando Lopez. She was named the Inquisitie , and carried the flag of Admiral Maximilian de Henniu, count of Bossu. This fleet was intended by Alva to command the Zuider Zee, and was regarded by him as an invincible armada. {69}

The Sea Beggars, to oppose this formidable armament, collected together twenty-four vessels of inferior size, which were placed under the command of a valiant seaman named Cornelis the son of Dirk, who was styled admiral of North Holland.

Bossu plundered and laid waste some villages along the coast, but at length the son of Dirk resolved boldly to attack him. He tried to keep the Sea Beggars at a distance and destroy them with his artillery, while they, who were but ill supplied with cannon or powder, were determined to grapple with his ships and fight him hand to hand. In the first and second days’ manœuvring they succeeded in this manner in overmastering one of his ships, when they made the officers prisoners, and put to death all the others on board. Then for more than a week the weather prevented anything further being done, and both parties remained inactive.

On the 11th of October 1573 the great battle took place. The Sea Beggars closed with their opponents, and after desperate fighting succeeded in sinking one of Bossu’s ships and overmastering five others. They had grappled with the Inquisitie herself, when the remainder of the fleet gave up the contest and set sail for Amsterdam, throwing their cannon overboard to enable them to pass some shoals. Night was setting in, and there were so many wounded in the patriot ships that it was considered imprudent to follow the fugitives. Four small vessels were made fast to Bossu’s ship. One was beaten off, but the other three clung to her like leeches. She drifted on a sandbank off Hoorn, but so fierce was the fighting that no one seemed to notice that they were no longer in motion. Bossu in a coat of mail stood on her deck and directed the soldiers, and the Sea Beggars scrambled up her sides and attacked like demons. Boats put out from Hoorn bringing volunteers to aid in the struggle, and taking the wounded ashore to be cared for. At short intervals for twenty-eight hours the hand to hand contest lasted on the deck of the {70} Inquisitie , till only fourteen or fifteen men remained unwounded to defend her. Bossu could hold out no longer. He surrendered on condition that he and his officers should be honourably treated as captives, and that the soldiers and sailors should either be exchanged or pay only one month’s wages as ransom. The prisoners were taken to Hoorn, and were kept as hostages, which prevented the putting to death of many prominent patriots then in the power of the Spanish authorities.

Such was the first important battle on the sea won by the sturdy Hollanders, and it was to be a beginning of a series of victories which in later years shed deathless renown on them and the land they so bravely fought for. Surnames had not then come into common use for humble folk, and it is only as Cornelis the son of Dirk that the valiant admiral of North Holland can be mentioned in history.

The sanguinary government of Alva in the Netherlands now drew to its close. He had requested to be relieved, and the king was not unwilling to try if some one else could not manage affairs better, or at least without such constant demands upon the revenue of Spain. On the 17th of November 1573 his successor Don Luis de Requesens y Cuniga, Grand Commander of St. Iago, and recently governor of Milan, arrived in Brussels, and on the 29th of the same month assumed duty as governor and captain-general of the Netherlands.

The complete absence of honour or principle in Alva was illustrated by the manner in which he left Amsterdam. He was heavily in debt in that city both privately and for the government, so he called for all accounts to be sent in on a certain day, and during the preceding night departed stealthily. On the 18th of December he left the Netherlands, taking with him the curses of the unhappy people. It was reported, though perhaps incorrectly, that he boasted of having caused through his infamous Council of Blood eighteen thousand six hundred people to lose {71} their lives at the stake or on the scaffold during the six years of his administration. [23] No wonder that successive generations of Netherlanders taught their children to regard him, not as a man, but as an absolute devil in human form, the incarnation of all that was false, and treacherous, and cruel.

The condition of affairs in the Netherlands when the Grand Commander Requesens assumed the administration was about as bad as well could be. Only parts of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland were in open revolt, but everywhere the country was seething with discontent. There was a standing army of sixty-two thousand men—Spaniards, German mercenaries, and Walloons—engaged in suppressing the disposition to rise in arms, £1,300,000 was due to them as arrears of pay, the cost of maintaining them was £120,000 a month, and there was not a single sixpence in the treasury. Already £8,000,000 had been received from Spain, and had been spent to no purpose. So many soldiers were needed to garrison the towns that only a sufficient number could be spared to besiege Leyden, none were available to reduce any of the other revolted towns or even to relieve Middelburg, which was beleaguered by the patriots. The mighty Spanish empire, with the gold and silver of America at its disposal, with some of the fairest provinces of Italy at its command, was held at bay by parts of two little provinces, under the direction of William prince of Orange.

Under these circumstances the king spoke of his willingness to bring about a reconciliation of the people to his rule and to pardon them for their past resistance, but he laid down two indispensable conditions; that they should admit his absolute authority, and that they should return to the Roman Catholic faith.

The patriots too were desirous of putting an end to the long and bitter strife, but they also claimed conditions {72} which they could not forego: the recognition of constitutional rights, entire freedom of conscience, and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country. The two positions were irreconcilable, and so the war went on. Holland and Zeeland now contained very few Catholics, for Alva had made the religion that he professed almost as hateful as he was himself.

Middelburg, the principal city in the province of Zeeland, was besieged by the patriots and such troops as the prince of Orange could engage in his cause; but was defended with the utmost skill and bravery by the Spanish garrison under Colonel Christopher Mondragon. Provisions, however, were running short, and it became evident that if relief was not speedily afforded, the place would be lost to the king. Requesens therefore collected seventy-five ships of different sizes at Bergen op Zoom and thirty more at Antwerp, which were laden with stores of food and munitions of war, all the soldiers that he could engage or spare with any degree of prudence were embarked in them, and they were directed to drop down to Flushing, to unite there, and to succour Middelburg. By the time they were ready the soldiers and townspeople were in the utmost extremity of hunger.

While Requesens was thus engaged, the prince of Orange and the Sea Beggars were not idle. A fleet was collected at Flushing, and was placed under the command of Louis Boisot, a Zeelander of noble birth and a brother of the governor of the town. He had the title of admiral of Zeeland conferred upon him. Boisot did not wait to be attacked, but on the 20th of January 1574 sailed up the Schelde to meet the larger of the two squadrons, which was commanded by Julian Romero, and which had just set sail when he met it. He at once grappled with his opponents, and a desperate combat took place, which lasted two hours. One of Romero’s vessels was sunk, another was blown up, and fifteen were captured. Twelve hundred of his sailors and soldiers were killed fighting, or were thrown {73} overboard and drowned, and it would have gone hard with the others if they had not put back to Bergen op Zoom. Requesens, standing on a dyke at Bergen, was a spectator of the discomfiture of his fleet. The patriots’ loss was much less than that of their enemy, but several of the captains were killed and Boisot himself received a wound in the face which deprived him of an eye.

The Antwerp squadron, commanded by Sancho d’Avila, had meantime arrived off Flushing, but when intelligence of Romero’s defeat was received, it at once put about and returned.

This event decided the fate of Middelburg. The last cat and dog in the town had been eaten, when on the 18th of February 1574 Mondragon capitulated on condition that his troops should be permitted to leave with their arms and personal property, and the town gave in its adhesion to the prince of Orange.

On both sides now great exertions were made to raise troops, the difficulty in the way being the want of money. Men in any number could always be had in Germany, provided the means of equipping and paying them were forthcoming. The jealousy of Spain which pervaded the French court enabled Louis of Nassau to obtain a considerable sum, with which he enrolled an army of three thousand cavalry and six thousand infantry, and entered the province of Limburg. His intention was to take possession of Maastricht, and then to effect a junction with his brother the prince of Orange, who had collected six thousand infantry at the isle of Bommel.

But a terrible disaster overtook Count Louis. Requesens was able to engage some Germans, and he drew every man that was available from the Netherlands garrisons. Even the siege of Leyden was raised, and the troops that had beleaguered that city since the 31st of October 1573 broke up their camps an the 21st of March 1574, and joined the main army. The garrison of Maastricht was strengthened, and the way was blocked by which the junction of the {74} two forces in the service of Orange could be effected. The cavalry of Count Louis began to desert, and soon that arm of his force was reduced to two thousand men. On the 14th of April 1574 a battle was fought at a little village named Mookerheyde, on the bank of the Maas, in which the army of Count Louis was utterly defeated, and it was annihilated by a massacre after the engagement was over. Both Count Louis and his younger brother Count Hendrik perished, no one knew exactly when or how, for their bodies were never seen again.

Requesens, however, was unable to gather the full harvest of the victory, for the day after the battle the Spanish troops mutinied. Their pay was three years in arrear. They marched to Antwerp, which city they took possession of on the 26th of April, and quartered themselves on the wealthiest inhabitants. There they remained until the municipal authorities provided Requesens with money to pay them their arrears, when he granted them a full amnesty, and they returned to obedience. Just as this was effected Admiral Boisot made his appearance at Antwerp, and burned or sank fourteen ships of Sancho d’Avila’s squadron that had returned from Flushing three months before.

Requesens was now able to resume the siege of Leyden, and on the 26th of May 1574 the second investment was commenced by General Francisco Valdez with eight thousand German and Walloon soldiers. Spanish and Italian troops afterwards arrived, and a chain of forts was completed right round the walls, which prevented ingress or egress. The villages in the neighbourhood were also occupied, and Leyden was completely isolated from the rest of the country. The residents knew that if the city was taken, the whole of Holland must fall, and they had resolved to die rather than surrender. There was no possibility of raising an army to relieve them.

The prince of Orange took up his headquarters at Delft, and bent all his energy to save the devoted city in the {75} only way in which it could be done. He got together more than two hundred flat-bottomed vessels, the largest drawing when laden not more than two feet of water, armed some of them with such cannons as were then in use, and provided all of them with oars for rowing. The relief of Leyden was to be entrusted to the Sea Beggars, the men who knew no fear, who hated the Spaniards with such a deadly loathing that they would neither ask nor give quarter. On the 1st of September Admiral Louis Boisot arrived from Flushing to take command of the flotilla, and with him came forty officers and eight hundred of the hardiest and roughest of the Zeeland Beggars, burning with a desire to harpoon Spanish soldiers as if they were devil-fish. Already two thousand four hundred men, mostly sailors or canal workers, but a few French and German soldiers with even a sprinkling of Englishmen and Scotchmen, were on board, and a large quantity of provisions had been shipped. With Boisot’s arrival all was complete.

The outer dyke was now cut, and the sea rushed over the land, sweeping away farmhouses and cultivated fields and rich meadows, but opening a way towards Leyden. On went Boisot with the flotilla till the next of the dykes which lay between him and Leyden was reached. He had expected to find it defended, but the Spaniards had neglected it, and so it was cut and he went farther on. The next dyke was held by the Spaniards, but the fierce Zeelanders drove them from it and harpooned them to their hearts’ content.

Meantime the heroic defenders of Leyden were in the very last stage of distress. Everything that under ordinary circumstances would be considered eatable had been consumed, and nothing remained but dried hides, rats, mice, the leaves of the trees, and the weeds of the ground. They were dying of hunger, and pestilence arising from want of food carried off from six to seven thousand of them. But still they held out. A few indeed in their despair {76} upbraided the burgomaster Van der Werf with consigning them to death, but when he replied that he would never surrender Leyden, though they might cut him to pieces and eat him if they chose, they desisted and even applauded him.

The flotilla was aground, and a strong easterly wind was blowing, which drove the waters back and day after day caused Boisot and his gallant followers almost to abandon hope of success. A great and apparently impregnable fortress was in front of them, and it would have to be passed before the starving city could be reached. Then in man’s deepest extremity came God’s hand to aid the cause of freedom. During the night of the 1st of October a violent gale set in from the north-west, which drove gigantic waves along the coast of Holland, then the wind veered round to the south-west and sent the heaped up water through the broken dykes, and soon the flotilla was free again. Valdez was a brave soldier, but he felt unequal to a contest with the rising flood and the Sea Beggars on their own element. During the night of the 2nd of October he abandoned his camps, withdrew the garrison from the great fort Lemmen, and fled in the darkness. That same night part of the city wall fell down with a crash, which would have given him an entrance had it happened a few hours sooner.

In the early morning of the 3rd of October 1574 Boisot, finding all impediments removed, swept with his flotilla into the canals of Leyden, and the city after its great agony was saved. He had lost only forty men in this marvellous feat, surely one of the most wonderful events recorded in history, while of his enemy over a thousand were slain or drowned. Property to the value of over a million gulden—£83,333—had been destroyed by cutting the dykes, but what was that compared with the rescue of Leyden from the Spaniards!

The relief of Leyden gave renewed hope to the patriot cause. On the 12th of November 1574 the estates of {77} Holland, assembled at Delft, conferred almost dictatorial power upon the prince of Orange, and voted him as large a sum of money as they could raise to carry on the war. That amount was only £45,000 a year, but it was a very considerable sum for one small province to contribute, especially when it is considered that the cities of Amsterdam and Haarlem were in the hands of the Spaniards, and Leyden, with the territory adjoining it, was too impoverished to give any aid. On the 4th of June 1575 the province of Zeeland united with Holland in a kind of loose confederation, the principal bond being that the prince of Orange was the head of both.

An attempt to bring about a state of peace was made again, and commissioners from both sides sat at Breda from the 3rd of March to the 13th of July 1575; but as Philippe would only allow those of the reformed religion to sell their property and leave the country, the negotiations came to nothing. Bigotry and intolerance were not confined to one side, however. Some revolting cruelties practised by Diederik Sonoy, governor of North Holland, upon Roman Catholics at Alkmaar, equalled, if they did not surpass, the most fiendish tortures of the inquisition. The prince of Orange did everything in his power to suppress such barbarities, while Philippe countenanced them: otherwise one party was as vindictive as the other.

On the 19th of July 1575 the little town of Oudewater in South Holland, close to the border of Utrecht, was besieged by a Spanish force, and was taken by assault on the 7th of August. The men were all butchered, the women met with a worse fate, and the houses, after being pillaged, were burned to the ground.

The memorable siege of Zierikzee, the principal town on the island of Schouwen, in Zeeland, followed. The island of Tholen was the only part of Zeeland held by the Spaniards, and there a force of three thousand men was got together, who during the night of the 27th of September 1575 actually waded across the channel that separates {78} Tholen from Duiveland. There were some French, English, and Scotch troops in the service of Orange at Duiveland, but they retreated at once, and threw themselves into Zierikzee. The invaders, consisting of Spanish, German, and Walloon soldiers, followed quickly, and laid siege to the town. The villages of Brouwershaven and Bommenede on the same island of Schouwen were also attacked, and for a time were wiped out of existence. Then the whole force, under Colonel Mondragon, sat down and pressed the siege of Zierikzee.

Requesens had no money with which to raise more troops, and Orange was in the same position, so the siege dragged on month after month. On the 15th of June 1576 Admiral Louis Boisot with a few ships tried to force a passage through a barrier into the harbour, but his own vessel, that was leading the way, ran aground, and the others drew off. The ship was got afloat again, but was sunk by a Spanish battery, when three hundred of her crew went down. [24] The admiral and the remainder of the crew jumped overboard, and tried to escape by swimming. Some of them succeeded in doing so, but the gallant Boisot, to the great loss of the patriot cause, was drowned. Zierikzee held out until the 21st of June 1576, when it capitulated on honourable terms, and escaped being sacked and burned by the payment of a ransom of £16,666. The Spaniards did not long remain in possession of it.

To the prince of Orange it had now become apparent that the only chance of securing constitutional government and freedom of conscience was the renunciation of Philippe and the choice of some other sovereign able to protect the country. The farce of fighting against the count of Holland and at the same time of transacting all business in his name could no longer be carried on. On the 1st {79} of October 1575 the estates of Holland and Zeeland met at Rotterdam, when the prince laid a proposal to this effect before them. They adjourned for a few days in order to consult the cities, and then assembled again at Delft and unanimously adopted the prince’s proposal. Then commenced a long series of negotiations with Elizabeth of England and a brother of the king of France, but all failed, because it was generally believed that if either accepted, he or she would at once have the other, combined with Spain, as an enemy. So the struggle had to be carried on unaided, except with a little secret assistance given now and then.

On the 5th of March 1576 the Grand Commander Requesens died after only four days’ illness, and the Council of State, a weak and vacillating body, assumed the administration until a successor should be appointed. This Council was at the head of affairs when a fresh disaster fell upon the country.

Immediately after the fall of Zierikzee the Spanish and Walloon troops who had so long been investing that town broke out in open mutiny. They demanded their arrear pay, and when this was not forthcoming they deposed their officers, elected others, and levied contributions upon the country just as a band of avowed robbers would do. From Zeeland they marched into Brabant, where they took possession of the little town of Herenthals, and after consuming everything there, directed their devastating course southward to the environs of Brussels. The inhabitants of the capital were in great alarm, but they prepared for defence with such spirit that the mutineers did not attack them. They seized instead the little town of Assche close by, and next the larger town of Alost. Here they committed frightful atrocities, murdering every one who resisted them.

On the 26th of July the mutineers were declared outlaws by the Council of State, but this had no effect upon them, and now the garrisons of other towns began to join {80} hands with them. Like robber bands, which indeed they were, they marched about, levying contributions wherever they chose, and murdering all who opposed them. Their discipline was so perfect that in every encounter with parties of citizens, however large, they came off victorious.

The city of Antwerp, with a population of two hundred thousand souls, was the commercial metropolis of Europe. It was adorned with beautiful buildings, among which the cathedral and the townhouse were considered as rivalling the most stately structures in Christendom. The citadel built by Alva was an impregnable fortress, and at this time the renowned Sancho d’Avila was in command of it. He sided with the mutineers, and became their head, but his troops, who were partly German mercenaries, were divided in opinion, and one strong regiment remained faithful. Upon this wealthy and beautiful city the mutineers now cast their eyes. The Council of State collected as many soldiers as could be obtained, and five thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry, mostly Walloons, were sent to aid in the defence.

In the morning of Sunday the 4th of November 1576 the Spanish troops from various quarters arrived at Antwerp, and stormed a barricade which the citizens had hastily thrown up. The Walloons, who had been sent to aid in the defence, fled almost without attempting to resist, and upon the citizens and the faithful German regiment devolved the almost impossible task of protecting the city. They fought splendidly, but could not hold their ground. Driven from the streets they took refuge in houses, which were at once set on fire by the Spaniards, and presently a vast conflagration raged in the fairest part of the city. The magnificent town house was reduced to bare and blackened walls. When night fell resistance had ceased, and the Spanish fiends were in possession of Antwerp. Throughout Monday and Tuesday the work of pillage was carried on, when those who were suspected of having concealed money or valuables were tortured till they died or produced the {81} treasure, all kinds of horrors were perpetrated, Catholic priest and Protestant maid were treated alike with brutal ferocity, and every restraint was set aside. In those three days of horrors eight thousand people perished, property to the value of half a million pounds sterling was destroyed by fire, and at least as much more was taken possession of by the Spanish demons. The event was ever afterwards known as the Spanish Fury of Antwerp. The soldiers of Philippe had obtained their arrears, and thereafter returned to obedience.

The conduct of the mutinous Spanish troops had the effect of drawing the different provinces together more closely than ever before. By advice of the prince of Orange, deputies were appointed by a number of the estates and cities, who met with the representatives of Holland and Zeeland, and debated upon what had best be done. They soon arrived at a decision, and on the 8th of November 1576 the important arrangement thereafter known as the Pacification of Ghent was signed by Holland and Zeeland on one side, and by the representatives of the provinces of Brabant, Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, and eight cities, of which Utrecht was one, on the other. It provided for a close and faithful friendship between them all, for the expulsion of the Spanish forces from the Netherlands, for an assemblage of the estates-general of all the provinces as soon as the foreigners were out of the country, for the suppression of persecution for religion and the suspension of all edicts relating to this subject, and for the abstention by Holland and Zeeland of interference with the Roman Catholic religion in the other fifteen provinces. Throughout the whole country this arrangement was received with acclamation, and the seventeen provinces, without in any degree becoming amalgamated into one, were yet united for the purpose of expelling the foreign troops, and to that extent were all in rebellion against the king of Spain. The prince of Orange was the soul of this movement, though he remained only stadholder of Holland and Zeeland. {82}

Another actor appeared at this time on the scene. This was Don John of Austria, a natural son of the emperor Charles V, who had been appointed by Philippe governor-general of the Netherlands. Don John, though still a young man, had acquired great renown as a commander in war, having crushed the revolt of the Moors in Granada and destroyed the Turkish fleet in the famous battle of Lepanto. He arrived at Luxemburg unattended by troops on the 3rd of November 1576, and learning there what was taking place in the provinces, he sent to Brussels to demand hostages for his personal safety before he proceeded farther. He had been instructed by the king to conciliate the Netherlands, and was at liberty to make any concessions, provided the absolute authority of the crown and the exclusive practice of the Roman Catholic worship should be strictly conformed to.

By advice of the prince of Orange, the representatives then at Brussels resolved to demand conditions from Don John before they should acknowledge him as governor. These were the immediate departure of all foreign troops from the country, an oath to maintain all the rights and privileges of the provinces and towns, the appointment of a new council of state by the estates-general, the right of the estates-general to meet whenever they chose, and to regulate all affairs, the demolition of the citadels that had been built to overawe the towns, and the maintenance of the Pacification of Ghent. A deputation was sent to Luxemburg with these demands, which were presented to Don John on the 6th of December. No decision was arrived at then, and negotiations were continued for months thereafter, though the conditions laid down by the king and those of the estates seemed to be irreconcilable.

Early in January 1577 another document, termed the Union of Brussels, came into existence. It was a compact to expel the Spaniards immediately and to uphold the Pacification of Ghent, to maintain the Catholic as the state religion in the fifteen provinces not under the government {83} of Orange, to acknowledge the king’s authority as a constitutional sovereign, and to defend the various charters. This document was generally signed by people of every class throughout all the provinces except Luxemburg. It marks another stage in the struggle between despotism and liberty.

Towards the close of this month Don John removed from Luxemburg to the little town of Huy, on the right bank of the Maas, in the province of Liege, hoping that by placing himself thus chivalrously in the power of the people he would command their respect. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there was a party of considerable strength in the southern provinces, consisting of the nobles and their adherents, who were as much opposed to popular liberty as Philippe himself was, and that Don John could rely upon them to support him.

The negotiations were now so far successful that on the 12th of February 1577 an agreement was signed by Don John, and on the 17th of the same month received the signatures also of the authorities in Brussels. It ratified the Pacification of Ghent, it required all foreign troops to be sent out of the country without delay, but the estates-general were to pay the German soldiers before leaving. All the privileges, charters, and constitutions of the Netherlands were to be maintained, as was also the Catholic religion. The estates were to disband the troops in their service, and Don John was to be received as governor-general immediately after the departure of the Spanish and Italian soldiers. This agreement was confirmed by Philippe, and took the name of the Perpetual Edict. It was not, however, approved by the estates of Holland and Zeeland, nor by the prince of Orange, who put no confidence in the promises, written or verbal, of either the king or his representatives.

Don John now moved from Huy to Louvain, near Brussels, and towards the close of April 1577 the Spanish and Italian troops set out on their march from the Netherlands to Lombardy. That condition having been carried {84} out, the governor-general entered Brussels, and on the 3rd of May took the oaths of office, just six months after his arrival on the frontier. There were still from ten to fifteen thousand German mercenary soldiers in the king’s service in the country, and the southern nobles were at his beck and call, so that the patriotic party soon had cause for alarm.

Don John, after a residence of less than two months in Brussels, became apprehensive for his personal safety, and fled first to Mechlin, and then to Namur, a town at the confluence of the Sambre and the Maas, not far from the frontier of France. There was a strong fortress in Namur, which the governor-general got possession of by stratagem, and in which he placed a garrison when he went to reside there. He next made an attempt to get possession of the citadel of Antwerp, but failed, and the German troops who occupied it fled on the approach of a fleet of the Sea Beggars and surrendered to the estates.

On the 26th of August the estates addressed a demand to Don John, in which they called upon him to disband all the troops in his service and to send the German mercenaries instantly out of the country, to dismiss every foreigner from office, whether civil or military, and to renounce his secret alliance with the duke of Guise, the head of the Catholic League in France. They required him to govern thenceforth only with the advice and consent of the Council of State, to carry out whatever should be determined on by a majority of that body, and to regard neither measures as binding nor despatches as authentic unless decided upon or drawn up in that Council. This was a demand for parliamentary or what is now termed responsible government in its widest sense, and the representative of King Philippe could not agree to it.

The inhabitants of Antwerp now rose in a body and razed to the ground the side of the citadel which commanded the city, so that it was no longer a menace to them. The people of Ghent also broke down their castle, {85} and remodelled the government of that city in a democratic manner. The estates invited the prince of Orange to visit Brussels and give them advice, and on the 23rd of September he made his appearance there.

Don John now retired from Namur to Luxemburg, and waited in that city until the king should provide him with an army strong enough to conquer the country. The estates on their part commenced to levy troops, for negotiations had quite ceased. On the 7th of December they declared Don John no longer governor-general, but an enemy of the Netherlands.

The prince of Orange was elected ruward of Brabant, a post which gave him great power in that province, and his influence was enormous throughout the whole country. By his advice a new act of union was signed at Brussels on the 10th of December, by which the adherents of the Roman Catholic church and the Protestants bound themselves to respect each other and to protect one another from all enemies whatever. But this was a step too far in advance of the times to be permanent, for it was an age of bitter intolerance.

Queen Elizabeth of England, fearing that French influence would prevail in the Netherlands if she did not aid the struggling country at this critical time, resolved to give the estates some assistance. On the 7th of January 1578 she entered into an engagement in London to endorse their obligations to the extent of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, and to supply five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry, who should, however, be paid by them. This was not regarded as making war against Spain, because at the same time the Catholic League in France was sending a much greater number of well trained men to assist Don John of Austria.

While the armies on both sides were gathering, another factor, that might have caused much confusion, was introduced. A party of nobles, in order to thwart the prince of Orange, invited the archduke Matthias of Hapsburg, {86} brother of the emperor, to fill the post of governor-general. The young man accepted the invitation, and came to the Netherlands, but the prince of Orange and his adherents managed things so adroitly that Matthias, though inaugurated as governor-general on the 18th of January 1578, had really no power conferred upon him, and Orange himself as lieutenant-general retained all authority.

Both parties had by this time collected considerable forces, Don John at Luxemburg, the estates at Namur, but the armies were very differently composed. Philippe had sent several veteran regiments of Spaniards and Italians, the most highly disciplined troops in the world, commanded by Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, and to these had been added some well-trained French battalions, making altogether a compact army of about twenty thousand men. The army of the estates was equal in number, but was a motley assemblage of Germans, French, Netherlanders, English, and Scotch.

On the 31st of January 1578 these forces met at Gemblours, fourteen kilometres from Namur, and the result was the total annihilation of the States army, with hardly any loss at all on Don John’s side. Seven or eight thousand men were killed on the field, six hundred were made prisoners and were immediately hanged or drowned, and the remainder were dispersed. All their baggage, ammunition, weapons, and stores of every kind fell into the hands of the victors, and the patriot cause seemed doomed to ruin.

A great many small towns in the southern provinces were immediately occupied by the king’s troops, terrible atrocities being perpetrated wherever resistance was offered. Brussels, however, the seat of government, was put in a thorough condition for defence, and the States set about organising another army as rapidly as possible.

On the other hand, in the north, a great augmentation of the power of the prince of Orange was taking place. Haarlem had been recovered for the patriot cause, the {87} province of Utrecht had accepted the prince as stadholder, and on the 8th of February 1578 the important city of Amsterdam was gained, so that the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht were wholly animated by the same spirit. Then, on the 11th of March the estates of Gelderland elected as governor of that province Count John of Nassau, the only surviving brother of William of Orange, which was almost equivalent to electing the prince himself. The Reformed religion was making very rapid progress in Utrecht and Gelderland, but was not yet as exclusively the faith of the people as in Holland and Zeeland. In June of this year 1578 the second provincial synod of the Reformed churches was held at Dordrecht, the first having met at Hoorn in 1572, a proof how entirely the inquisition had failed to extirpate freedom of conscience in that part of the country.

The cord that bound the seventeen provinces together was so weak that it was liable to snap at any time, and it was therefore rather to foreign assistance than to their own unaided exertions that the leading men looked to rescue the land from Spanish tyranny. They had appointed the emperor’s brother Matthias their governor-general in name, but that had not brought them the material aid which they needed. A considerable number of the nobles were now intriguing with the worthless duke of Anjou, brother of the king of France, leading him to believe that if he would bring a strong army into the field they would elect him their sovereign in place of Philippe. Even the prince of Orange favoured this scheme, and Anjou actually invaded the country and occupied Mons with a considerable force. The effect was that Queen Elizabeth of England, in her jealousy of France, gave greater assistance in men and money than before, and Anjou disbanded his troops and returned to Paris.

Don John was again helpless for want of money. Philippe had sent him nearly £400,000 from Spain with the troops under Alexander Farnese, and had promised him more, {88} but the money was expended, and the promise was unfulfilled. Without the means of procuring the material of war he could do nothing. Then a pestilence broke out in his main army, and in a few weeks over a thousand men died. Worn out with care and anxiety, after a severe attack of illness, on the 1st of October 1578 Don John of Austria expired in his camp near Namur, after appointing on his deathbed Alexander Farnese, prince of Parma, his successor until the king’s pleasure should be known. The temporary appointment was confirmed, and the ablest of all of Philippe’s representatives was free to try what he could do towards settling the great controversy between despotism and liberty in the Netherlands.

Alexander Farnese was the only son of the duke of Parma and Piacenza and of the regent Margaret, who preceded Alva in the administration. He was thirty-three years of age, and had been left a widower by the decease of his wife, a princess of Portugal. He found the country distracted with religious feuds, in which the Protestants were as violent as the Catholics. In Ghent the turbulence of a fanatical party was uncontrollable even by the prince of Orange, and the destruction of statues and ornaments in the churches was accompanied with such atrocious treatment of the leading adherents of the ancient faith that the Walloon provinces of the south, which were ardently Catholic, were exasperated to the last degree. On the 6th of January 1579 an alliance between Hainaut, Artois, and Lille with Douai and Orchies was entered into for the defence and exclusive maintenance of the Catholic church. The nobles in these provinces were timeservers, and Parma soon found that they could easily be bribed by offices and money to abandon the patriot interests. For this purpose Philippe could open his purse widely, though he neglected to pay his soldiers.

On the 17th of May 1579 the estates of the three provinces above named signed at Arras a formal treaty of reconciliation with the king of Spain, and were for ever {89} lost to the Netherlands cause. Several towns in Brabant and Flanders shortly afterwards followed this example. The question of religion being settled to Philippe’s satisfaction, they were allowed to retain their charters subject to the prerogative of the sovereign.

On the other hand, on the 23rd of January 1579 the foundation of the Netherlands Republic was laid by an agreement termed the Union of Utrecht, which was proclaimed on the 29th of the same month. The union was a loose one, for it left to each province and each city its own constitution unaltered, and only provided for a general assembly of deputies from the estates of the different provinces, in which each should have the same voting power, no matter how many deputies it should send. The object was defence against a common foe. It guaranteed to every man liberty of conscience, but it could not secure liberty of public worship where passion was running high, it could merely prevent inquisition whether Catholic or Protestant. It founded a new State, but the men who concluded it did not realise that this would be the result, they professed that they still adhered to the agreement with the other provinces, only making that agreement a little more binding in their own case. No supreme head was appointed, though Orange was practically in that position, and Matthias was not deprived of his title of governor-general, nor was Philippe formally deposed as sovereign of the provinces outside of Holland and Zeeland. The bishopric of Utrecht now ceased to exist.

The Union of Utrecht was signed by Count John of Nassau for himself and as stadholder of Gelderland, by the deputies of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, by the deputies of the province of Groningen excluding the capital, by the deputies of Brill and the land of Voorne as a particular district though united with Holland, and further by a minority of the deputies of Friesland, the majority objecting to it. It was open to any other provinces or towns to join the Union, and on the 1st of March 1580 {90} Overyssel gave in its adhesion, but the town of Groningen did not do so until 1595, and the complete province of Friesland not before 1598. Various nobles subsequently joined the Union, as did also the city of Ghent on the 4th of February 1579, the city of Antwerp on the 28th of July 1579, the city of Bruges on the 1st of February 1580, and several others later. Each city came to be practically an independent unit in the province in which it was situated, and could therefore make what alliances it chose. But owing to this circumstance the government of the Union was exceedingly weak, for no resolutions of the states-general were binding upon any town whose deputies did not agree to them.

The provinces Holland, Zeeland, since enlarged by the addition of a small part of Flanders, the northern part of Gelderland including the county of Zutphen, Overyssel, Friesland, and Groningen, together with Drenthe, cover the whole territory of the present kingdom of the Netherlands except North Brabant and Limburg. Drenthe was a dependency of the bishopric of Utrecht from 1024 to 1537, when it became a direct fief to the emperor Charles V. It remained subject to the Spanish government until 1594, when it was overrun by the States forces, and thereafter it was a dependency of either Friesland or Groningen until 1813, when it became a separate province of the kingdom of the Netherlands. {91}

III.

Continuation of the War in the Netherlands until 1606.

The most exciting part of the scene now changes to the town of Maastricht, an important strategical position in the present province of Limburg. Maastricht contained thirty-four thousand inhabitants, and there was a garrison of a thousand soldiers within its walls. On the 12th of March 1579 Parma laid siege to the town with an army of twenty to twenty-five thousand men, and completely enclosed it. Two or three thousand peasants of both sexes, whose homes had been ravaged, managed to get in before it was surrounded, and they were of great service in the defence. The resistance was desperate, men and women fighting side by side whenever breaches were made in the walls and the soldiers tried to enter, as also in excavating passages by which the Spanish mines were destroyed. The carnage on both sides was frightful. On one occasion five hundred soldiers were hurled into the air and killed by a single explosion of a mine. An attempt to relieve the town was made by the prince of Orange, but it failed, for it was impossible to raise an army strong enough for the purpose. At last, on the 29th of June, Maastricht was taken, and then an indiscriminate massacre followed. On the first day four thousand men and women were butchered, and their dead bodies were flung into the streets. Three days the massacre continued, and then the few survivors fled from their old homes and tried to find a refuge in the country. Maastricht was depopulated, and after everything of value had been removed, it was repeopled by strangers. {92}

Possession of Mechlin was obtained by Parma through the treachery of its governor De Bours, who introduced Spanish troops secretly, but six months later it was recovered by surprise by Van der Tympel, governor of Brussels.

Another serious disaster befel the patriot cause in the far north. In November 1579 Joris Lalain, count of Renneberg, stadholder of Groningen and its dependency Drenthe, sold himself to Parma for office and a sum of money. During the night of the 3rd of March 1580 he caused all the leading men of the patriot party in the town of Groningen to be arrested in their beds and committed to prison, and before dawn on the 4th his adherents were in possession of the town. The States tried to recover the place, and a small army laid siege to it, but Parma sent a stronger force to the north, by which the patriots were almost annihilated. Then for some time there was a series of petty operations in the Frisian districts, in which nothing decisive was effected on either side, but much property was destroyed, and much misery was caused.

In 1580 Philippe II added Portugal to his dominions. At the time there was no thought that by this union the Portuguese possessions in the eastern seas would be laid open to conquest by the Netherlands, but that was the result. Before the close of the century the provinces within the Union of Utrecht were destined to become the foremost sea power of the world, and then the addition of Portugal to their foes was simply the addition of a vast amount of valuable spoil for them to gather. Meantime much that is interesting and instructive was to transpire in the provinces.

On the 15th of March 1580 Philippe, by advice of Cardinal Granvelle, issued a ban declaring the prince of Orange an outlaw, and offering twenty-five thousand crowns of gold, pardon for any crime however great, and a title of nobility to anyone who should assassinate him. He was regarded as the very soul of the struggle for liberty of {93} conscience and political freedom, as indeed he was, and if he could be got out of the way, the king believed that the fourteen still defiant provinces would return like Artois, Hainaut, and Lille to the Catholic church and to perfect obedience.

This was the final grievance which led to the absolute renunciation of the sovereignty of Philippe by the disaffected provinces. Hitherto, though they were fighting against him, all acts of government were carried out in his name except in Holland and Zeeland, but on the 26th of July 1581 their estates, assembled at the Hague, formally and solemnly abjured him. His seals were broken, and every one was absolved from oaths of allegiance taken to him.

But there was no intention on the part of the people to change the form of their government, what they desired was to preserve their ancient charters, not to destroy them. The bond of union between the provinces was that one individual had been sovereign of them all, and now that Philippe had been abjured they must choose another in his stead, or break into fragments. The general choice fell upon the prince of Orange, but he emphatically refused to accept the position, because he would not have it said that personal ambition had influenced his conduct. Holland and Zeeland, however, would have no other, and after much hesitation he consented to become their head temporarily. The archduke Matthias, who was of no account, laid down his office as governor-general, and shortly afterwards retired to Germany.

By the influence of Orange the worthless duke of Anjou was chosen sovereign of the other twelve provinces. He was a brother of the king of France, who promised to assist him with money and men to defend the country against Spain. It was believed that he was about to wed Queen Elizabeth of England, and she certainly did all that she could to favour his election by the estates. He agreed to all the conditions required of him, though they bound {94} him to constitutional government as closely as the king of England is bound to-day. He would have agreed to anything at all, in fact, but his promise, or his signature, or his oath was of no value whatever. Fortunately for England his insignificant person and his repulsive features prevented the great queen from espousing him.

He was in England when the final arrangements were made, but on the 10th of February 1582 he arrived at Flushing with a brilliant train of English and French noblemen. The queen had requested that he might be treated with the same respect as herself, and so he was received with all possible honour. On the 17th of the same month he reached Antwerp, and was inaugurated with much ceremony as sovereign duke of Brabant. In July he was installed at Bruges as sovereign count of Flanders, and at the same time the estates of Gelderland formally accepted him as duke of that province, and those of Friesland pledged him obedience as their lord. He did not visit the other provinces in order to be installed with ceremony, but took up his residence at Antwerp, and was generally accepted as sovereign. To support him he had a strong French army, which was supposed to be a movable force, while troops raised by the States were stationed as garrisons in the towns.

The prince of Parma meantime was far from idle. Reinforcements of Spanish and Italian troops were constantly arriving, until at the end of August 1582 he was at the head of an army fully sixty thousand strong and largely composed of veteran soldiers. Using the obedient provinces of Artois and Hainaut as a base of operations, he sent out detachments to surprise cities that were not thoroughly on their guard, and as he had bribed many of the nobles, he was always well-informed on this point. So he got possession among various places of Oudenarde in Flanders on the 5th of July 1582, and a little later of Steenwyk in Friesland, of Eindhoven in Brabant, and of Nieuwpoort in Flanders. {95}

The duke of Anjou had sworn to maintain the constitutions of the provinces and freedom of conscience, but the brother of the king of France and the son of Catherine of Medici could not long bear restraint. He wished to make himself an absolute sovereign and to suppress Protestantism, and without reflecting what the consequence must be of attempting to oppose Parma and the people of the Netherlands at the same time, on the 15th of January 1583 by his order detachments of French troops took possession of Dunkirk, Ostend, Dixmuyde, Denremonde, Alost, and Vilvoorde, and ejected the Netherlands garrisons. A similar attempt upon Bruges failed, as the city authorities closed the gates in time against the French soldiers.

The duke resided in Antwerp, and at Borgerhout close by there was a camp of French troops. On the 17th of January at mid-day he rode through the gate leading to Borgerhout, when his bodyguard attacked the burgher watch, killed every man of them, and took possession of the archway and the drawbridge. Six hundred cavalry and three thousand infantry from Borgerhout then poured into the city, where they divided, and some began to plunder. But the burghers sprang quickly to arms, the leading sections of the French were overwhelmed, and those behind commenced to retreat in a panic. The burghers pressed on, killed over two thousand of the French, and made prisoners of all the others. Fewer than a hundred burghers lost their lives on this occasion.

Anjou fled with the remainder of his troops from Borgerhout, but a dyke was cut in his passage, and another thousand soldiers were drowned. He succeeded, however, in escaping to a place of safety, where he collected various scattered detachments about him, and formed a new camp. There he entered into correspondence with Parma on one side and with the States on the other, trying to make terms with each.

The position was one of extreme peril. Owing to the jealousy between the provinces and the cities and to the {96} rivalry between Catholics and Protestants, they could not stand alone. To pursue the miscreant Anjou any further would be to incur the hostility of France, and that would most certainly bring ruin upon the country. Queen Elizabeth wrote strongly urging a reconciliation with him, and that was also in the opinion of the prince of Orange the wisest course to adopt. So an arrangement was made with him, by which on the 28th of March 1583 he surrendered the cities that he had seized, and the States released their French prisoners and restored to him the plate and furniture he had left behind in Antwerp. He was to wait at Dunkirk until some plan could be devised by which he might be restored to the dignity he had forfeited, but on the 28th of June he left to visit Paris, and never returned. He died in France on the 10th of June 1584.

The treachery of Anjou was imitated by more than one of the Netherlands nobles. On the 22nd of September 1583 the town of Zutphen in Gelderland was betrayed to the Spaniards by Count Van den Berg, and on the 20th of May 1584 Bruges in Flanders was given up to Parma by the prince of Chimay, who was governor of that important city. Then Ypres in Flanders was besieged and forced to surrender, and as in Bruges all Protestants were expelled. Most of these took refuge in the northern provinces, so that the line of separation between the two opposing religions was constantly becoming more clearly defined.

At this critical time in the history of the provinces the great man whose name will ever be associated with all that is best and noblest in their struggle for liberty was taken from them by the pistol of an assassin. The ban of Philippe II had at last produced the effect for which it was designed. There had been many attempts to murder the prince of Orange and secure the king’s reward, but hitherto all had failed. The most serious of these took place on the 18th of March 1582, when he had been wounded, at first it was believed mortally, but {97} he had recovered, though his wife died from the shock. And now, on the 10th of July 1584, in his own house at Delft he was shot by a fanatic Burgundian Catholic named Balthazar Gérard, who under pretence of being a Calvinist in distress had obtained admittance to his service. The Father of his Country, as he was deservedly called, expired almost immediately. The murderer was seized, and died under the most excruciating tortures that the ingenuity of man could devise, but he remained callous to the last. The sorrowing people laid the corpse of him they had such good reason to mourn for in the new church at Delft, and raised a stately tomb over it, where few Dutch speaking South Africans who visit Europe fail to pay their respects to the memory of the illustrious dead. Thus William of Orange passed away.

The real murderer, Philippe the Second of Spain, rewarded the parents of his tool with patents of nobility and with three seignories or rich estates in Franche Comté, taken from the confiscated property of his victim.

For a short time the country was paralysed by the death of its great leader, but soon in the northern provinces a general resolution was taken to prosecute the war more vigorously than ever. It now became almost purely a strife of religion. The prince of Orange had favoured toleration, but when he was removed the enmity between the Catholics and the Protestants showed itself so strong that a united country was no longer possible. It was not recognised at the time, but it can now be seen, that the position of the dividing line was the object striven for, and consequently the central provinces, Flanders, Brabant, Mechlin, Gelderland, and Limburg, where the Teutons and Celts were intermixed, were to be the principal scene of operations.

The states-general, exercising supreme power, appointed an executive council to raise forces and carry on the war until a sovereign should be chosen. This council consisted of eighteen members, four representing Holland, three {98} Zeeland, three Friesland, three Brabant, two Utrecht, two Flanders, and one Mechlin. As its president the states-general appointed Maurits of Nassau, second son of the murdered prince of Orange, his eldest son Philip having long been a prisoner in Spain. It was a clumsy instrument for carrying on a war, with a president only seventeen years of age, and depending for funds upon the states-general, that it was required to convoke at least twice a year; but it was the only possible machinery that could be created at the time. The States’ movable army consisted of three thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry, the burghers being relied upon for the defence of the towns.

On the other side was the astute and active Parma, with a field force of over eighteen thousand veterans, besides garrisons in all the towns he had taken. He was provided with gold to bribe the corrupt nobles, and he was skilful in using it. The disparity between the two parties was so great that it was not surprising that towns of mixed population should waver when plausible overtures were made to them, rather than risk being attacked and treated as Maastricht had been. Dendermonde was the first to give way. On the 17th of August 1584 it was reconciled to the Spanish king, and lost for ever to the patriot cause. The fatal example was followed by Vilvoorde on the 7th of September, and on the 17th of the same month by the all-important city of Ghent. The terms of reconciliation were that the municipal institutions were to be respected, and that the Protestants were to be allowed two years within which either to conform to the Catholic worship or to dispose of their property and go into exile. This was at least much better than to be burnt or buried alive. Emigration to Holland and Zeeland followed on a very large scale, and before the expiration of the two years Ghent in particular lost nearly half of its former inhabitants. Thus Protestantism gained in the north and Catholicism in the south of the country. {99}

The eyes of the great powers of Europe were now more intently fixed upon the Netherlands than ever before, but it was difficult to assist them. Neither Germany, France, nor England was willing to enter openly into war with the powerful Spanish empire in order to preserve constitutional government and Calvinistic doctrine. The states actually offered the sovereignty of the provinces to the contemptible Henry III, who sat upon the throne of France, if he would pledge his word to maintain their charters and their religion, and he declined to accept the offer, though he had every reason to be hostile to Spain. Elizabeth of England favoured a joint protectorate of the Netherlands by France and herself, but was naturally unwilling to see them absorbed by her neighbour, and was not inclined to assist them alone. And so in their time of greatest need they had only themselves to depend upon.

It was fortunate for the northern provinces that Parma was not receiving reinforcements, or the whole country would soon have been overrun. Philippe was closely engaged in fomenting civil war in France and in planning the conquest of England, subjects which occupied his mind and drew upon his purse to such an extent that he neglected the Netherlands and failed to furnish money to maintain and pay even the limited number of soldiers he had there. He was the real head of the so-called holy league, that under the nominal leadership of the duke of Guise was in arms to establish absolutism and extirpate Protestantism in Europe. Parma was left mainly to his own resources, but he possessed military and diplomatic ability of the highest order, and could do with his slender army what ordinary generals could not have done with forces twice as strong.

If he could obtain possession of Brussels and Antwerp the backbone of the rebellion would be broken, he believed, and in the autumn of 1584 he commenced operations to that end. His plan was to construct a fortified bridge {100} over the Schelde below Antwerp, which would prevent succour being sent up the river from Zeeland, and thus the cities would be starved out, for the open country was in his hands. There was one way by which this plan could be frustrated, and that was by cutting the great dykes and letting the sea roll over the land, but the patriots hesitated to destroy so much property. When at last they tried to do it they were too late, for Parma had fortified the dykes and held them with an iron hand. During the winter of 1584-5 famine was so severe in Brussels that people died of hunger, and on the 13th of March 1585 the city capitulated. Mechlin held out until the 19th of July, when it too fell.

The siege of Antwerp was one of the most celebrated events in the history of the Netherlands. The city was then much less populous than it had formerly been, but it still contained ninety thousand inhabitants, the most turbulent though the most energetic and industrious in Europe. It was the most important commercial city in the country. If there had been union of counsel and obedience to a single authority, Antwerp need not have feared anything that Parma with his eleven or twelve thousand soldiers could do, but all was discord and confusion within the walls. And without was one strong clear-headed man, with a genius for war, in command of soldiers devoted to him, a man who could construct a strong fortified bridge seven hundred and thirty-two metres in length over a deep tidal river in the winter season and in the face of a far superior number of combatants, a feat deemed by most people utterly impossible until it was accomplished. The sufferings of Antwerp were less than those of Leyden, but on the 17th of August 1585 the city capitulated. Life and property were to be respected, a ransom of only £33,000 was to be paid, no other than the Roman Catholic worship was to be publicly observed, but Protestants were allowed two years in which to dispose of their property and leave. {101}

Immediately a stream of emigration set out towards the north. Amsterdam especially benefited by refugee merchants and artisans from Antwerp settling there, and very shortly became the first commercial city of Europe. Middelburg too and many other towns of Holland and Zeeland received a large access of population from the fugitive Protestants of Brabant and Flanders. The old cities immediately lost their former importance, Antwerp sank into a small place, the citadel was rebuilt and a foreign garrison was stationed in it, but beyond the soldiers and the members of the Company of Jesus who were stationed there as instructors of the young, no new residents were attracted to take the place of the Protestants who moved away.

During the siege of Antwerp the states-general were making every effort in their power to obtain assistance from England. Queen Elizabeth realised the necessity of supporting the Netherlands against Philippe II, who was her enemy as well as theirs, but she was unwilling to give more than was absolutely necessary. She had to be on her guard against other enemies than Spain, and she could not afford to spend money freely. The states offered her the sovereignty of the provinces, which she declined, and the negotiations for an alliance were so protracted that when an agreement was finally arrived at, it was too late to save Antwerp.

On the 10th of August 1585 a treaty between the queen and the states was signed, by the terms of which Elizabeth was to furnish and pay during the war five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry to assist in the defence of the provinces, [25] and was to receive the town of Flushing and the fortress of Rammekens in Zeeland {102} and the town of Brill and two fortresses in Holland as pledges for the payment of all expenses when the war was over. She was to provide these places with suitable garrisons, but was not to interfere in any way with the civil government or the customs and privileges of the inhabitants.

The earl of Leicester was appointed lieutenant-general of the English forces, and with a brilliant staff of nobles landed at Flushing on the 19th of December 1585. The chivalrous and virtuous Sir Philip Sidney was placed in command of the English garrison of Flushing.

The states-general, realising that under the existing form of government it was impossible to act with vigour against the enemy, appointed Leicester governor and captain-general of the united provinces, and on the 4th of February 1586 he was inaugurated at the Hague in that capacity. On the 6th a proclamation was issued by the states, [26] giving him “supreme command and absolute authority over all the affairs of war by sea and land, ... the administration and direction of government and justice over all the said united provinces, cities, and associated members, ... and special power to levy, receive, and administer all the contributions granted and appointed for carrying on the war.” The queen, however, was incensed by his acceptance of such extensive power, and he did not afterwards receive her support as freely as before. In particular the English soldiers in the Netherlands were left without pay or proper maintenance, and it might have gone hard with them if Parma’s forces had not been in the same condition. Philippe, who was hastening on the preparation of the great armada which he intended for the invasion and conquest of England, was trying to gain time and conceal his operations by pretending to enter into negotiations for peace, and so nothing decisive was done on either side. {103}

What was effected during the year 1586 was more advantageous to the Spaniards than to the Dutch and English. In January of this year Parma laid siege to the town of Grave, on the Brabant bank of the Maas, and though in April the garrison was strengthened and a great quantity of provisions thrown in by the patriots, on the 7th of June the place was surrendered by its weak-minded commandant. On the same day Megen and Batenburg were given up to Parma, and on the 28th of June Venlo capitulated, when only the towns of Geertruidenberg, Heusden, Bergen op Zoom, and Willemstad were left in Brabant to the patriot cause. All the territory south of the lower Schelde had now been recovered by the Spaniards except a little slip in the north of Flanders and along the seacoast. This little slip was slightly enlarged, however, by the seizure on the 17th of July of the fortified town of Axel by a combined English and Dutch expedition.

In Gelderland Nymegen on the Waal and Zutphen on the Yssel with some villages in the neighbourhood of each were held by the Spaniards, and Leicester resolved to attempt to get possession of them. On the 12th of September after a short siege he occupied Doesburg, eight kilometres from Zutphen, and then proceeded to beleaguer the city. Parma, with six thousand five hundred soldiers, immediately marched to its relief, and on the 2nd of October succeeded in forcing a way in with a great convoy of provisions. In the action when endeavouring to prevent him from doing so, the chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney received a wound from which he died. Parma, after strengthening the garrison, marched to disperse some German troops in the service of the States, and Leicester, having placed large garrisons in Deventer, Doesburg, and a very strong fort close to Zutphen, retired to the Hague. On the 24th of November he left the Netherlands to return to England, but did not resign his office, thus causing great confusion.

He had been at variance with the states-general, and had been disposed to carry out his views with a high {104} hand, though he was exceedingly generous with his wealth and spent large sums of money of his own in the service of the country. Two parties had arisen: one, that may be termed oligarchal, favouring the existing form of town and provincial governments and wide toleration in matters of religion; the other, that called itself democratic, appealing to the sovereignty of the people at large, but without explaining how that sovereignty was to be manifested, and desiring to exclude rigidly all religious practices except those of the Reformed church. The earl of Leicester was the head of the last named of these parties. He left Sir John Norris in command of the English troops in the Netherlands, and professedly delegated his own authority to the state council, though secretly he issued commissions that greatly impaired the power of that body and of the English general.

Soon after his departure a series of deplorable events occurred. Sir William Stanley, who was in command of the garrison of Deventer, betrayed that important city to Colonel Tassis, who held Zutphen for Parma, and with an Irish regiment under his orders went over to the service of Spain. On the same day, 29th of January 1587, Colonel Rowland York betrayed to Tassis the great fortress close to Zutphen, of which he was in command. The northern provinces were thus cut in two, and the Spaniards were able to ravage large portions of Gelderland and Overyssel. Then Wauw, a castle about four kilometres from Bergen op Zoom, was sold to Parma by its commandant, and a little later the town of Gelder was similarly sold by Commandant Aristotle Patton.

These acts of treachery created a strong feeling of distrust of the whole of the English forces in the country, especially as it was known that Queen Elizabeth was extremely desirous of concluding peace with Spain, and was at this very time corresponding with the duke of Parma on the subject. The states-general took advantage of this feeling and attempted to recover the authority which they {105} had ceded to the earl of Leicester, but did not fully succeed in doing so.

The preparations of Philippe for the invasion of England were rapidly advancing, and it had been arranged between him and Parma that a powerful army was to be massed in Flanders and Brabant, which should be embarked in small vessels and convoyed across the straits by a great fleet to be sent from Spain. Until all was ready, the queen was to be kept unsuspicious of danger by pretended negotiations for peace, which were never to be more than a blind.

To carry out this scheme Parma needed a capacious and convenient harbour. Those he possessed were useless for his purpose, because the English held Flushing at the mouth of the Schelde and Dutch armed ships were constantly cruising almost up to Antwerp, so at the beginning of June 1587 he laid siege to Sluis in north-western Flanders with all the forces he could muster. The town had a garrison of eight hundred English and eight hundred Dutch soldiers, and not only the burghers but the women aided heroically in its defence. The importance of preventing such a harbour from falling into the hands of the Spaniards was realised at once in England, and Leicester was directed to return to the Netherlands without delay. On the 7th of July he reached Flushing with three thousand raw recruits, but the bickering between him and the states was so great that united action was impossible, and his attempt to relieve Sluis was an utter failure. The garrison was so reduced in number that it could resist no longer, and the burghers and women were quite worn out, when at the beginning of August Sluis capitulated on honourable terms, and Parma came into possession of an excellent base for the invasion of England.

That invasion, however, was deferred for a time, and the pretence of negotiating for peace was to be continued many months longer, owing to the action of the daring sea captain Sir Francis Drake. Drake sailed from Plymouth on the 2nd of April 1587 with four men-of-war and twenty-four {106} ships fitted out by private adventurers, and seventeen days later entered the harbour of Cadiz and pillaged, burned, and destroyed some hundred and fifty vessels that he found there. He then sailed to Lisbon, and destroyed a hundred transports and provision ships that were lying in the Tagus. At first sight this looks something like piracy, for there had been no declaration of war between England and Spain. But what were all those vessels lying off Cadiz and Lisbon destined for? For the invasion of England, and this it was that justified Drake in destroying them as he so bravely did.

Leicester remained nearly six months in the Netherlands on his second visit, and then, finding it impossible to recover his former authority, he returned to England. On the 27th of December 1587 he attached his name to a document resigning his office, but it did not reach the states-general until April 1588. In the interim a condition of affairs that can almost be termed civil war prevailed. The officials and commanders of garrisons who had taken an oath of fidelity to Leicester refused to obey any other authority, and young Maurits of Nassau, who had been appointed by the states captain-general, was obliged to coerce them by force of arms. At last Leicester’s resignation was received, and on the 12th of April 1588 the states-general issued a placaat [27] absolving all persons from their oaths of fidelity to him, when something like harmony was restored. The baron Willoughby now became the commander of the English troops in the Netherlands.

Warlike operations in that country were, however, almost stayed for a while, owing to Parma’s whole attention being occupied with preparations for the invasion of England and deceiving the English commissioners who were treating for peace. He was building great numbers of small transports, collecting vast stores of provisions and munitions of war, and providing for sixty thousand soldiers, some of {107} whom were intended to hold his conquests during his absence and others to go with him to England when the invincible armada should arrive from Spain with additional forces and convoy his vessels across the channel.

At last in July 1588 the armada, consisting of a hundred and thirty-four ships of war, with twenty thousand soldiers on board, sailed from Coruña, and on the 29th of that month came in sight of the English coast. Never in the world’s history were more important issues in the balance than those dependent on that mighty fleet. Absolutism or political liberty, iron bound religious conformity or freedom of conscience, these were the issues at stake, not only for England and Holland, but for mighty nations still unborn. It is not necessary to relate the history of the armada here, every schoolboy knows how it came to anchor in Calais roads, how the Sea Beggars of Holland and Zeeland prevented Parma from joining it, how the English fleet under Howard and Drake and Hawkins and other ocean heroes followed and worried it, how they sent fireships that frightened it in confusion from Calais roads, how it fled into the North sea with the English grappling every galleon that lagged behind, how God sent a great storm that dispersed it, and how finally only fifty-three out of the hundred and thirty-four huge fighting ships reached the Spanish coast again, and these little better than disabled wrecks. The invincible armada was no more, and England and Holland were saved.

Parma had a great army under his command, but sickness was wasting it away, and he had not the means of maintaining it properly. So much had been expended upon the armada that it was impossible for Philippe to send him the money he needed. He was in chronic ill-health and seemed to have lost heart too by the failure of the mighty effort that had been made, and so for a time took no action commensurate with what might have been expected of him. He indeed laid siege to Bergen op Zoom, which was garrisoned by five thousand Dutch and {108} English soldiers under Colonel Morgan, but he did not press it with his old vigour, and during the night of the 12th of November 1588 he abandoned it. Then for months he did nothing, until on the 10th of April 1589 he obtained possession of Geertruidenberg, a town on the Brabant side of the Maas.

Philippe’s views were now directed more to France than to the Netherlands. After the assassination of Henry III the two parties in that kingdom appealed to arms, and Parma was directed to assist the duke of Mayenne, who was at the head of the Catholic league, against Henry of Navarre, then a Huguenot, the legitimate heir to the throne. Accordingly, in March 1590 he began to send troops to Mayenne, and in August he followed in person with twelve thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, but after breaking the blockade of Paris, then besieged by Navarre, he returned to the Netherlands, leaving a strong division of his forces in France. His soldiers were dying rapidly from disease, they were unpaid and half mutinous, and neither money nor sufficient provisions could be obtained in the exhausted Spanish provinces. Under these circumstances Parma, notwithstanding the large number of men nominally at his disposal, was really almost helpless.

Maurits was not slow to take advantage of this condition of things. He had a regular army of only ten thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, but his troops were properly paid and well disciplined, and he was rapidly advancing in military knowledge and skill. He had also the assistance of a small English contingent. On the 4th of March 1590 he got possession of the important town of Breda in Brabant. During the night of the 3rd seventy Hollanders concealed in a turf boat gained entrance to the castle, and attacked the garrison of Italian soldiers six times their number, who were seized with a panic and fled into the town. Before dawn of the 4th a body of patriot troops, with Maurits at their head, arrived, and Breda was gained. Within a few months eight other towns in Brabant, {109} though all of less importance than Breda, were wrested from the Spaniards.

During 1591 some great successes were gained by Maurits. On the 23rd of May the great fort at Zutphen was taken, and on the 30th the town capitulated. On the 10th of June Deventer was surrendered, and thus the important cities lost by the treachery of Stanley and York were recovered. On the 2nd of July Delfzyl, far north in Groningen, capitulated, and on the 24th of September Hulst, in the north of Flanders, was obliged to do the same. On the 21st of October Nymegen was taken, so that the year was a most fortunate one for the patriot cause. The Spanish garrisons of all these towns had made a stout resistance, and some had held out for a long time, but none of those scenes of massacre that characterised Spanish victories obscured the successes of Maurits. The soldiers were permitted to march away unharmed, and the result was that afterwards they did not fight so desperately as they would have done if they had believed that to submit would be followed by their butchery. As to religion, the same system was introduced in the recovered towns as was observed in South Africa during the greater part of the rule of the East India Company: only the Reformed worship could be practised publicly, but there was no inquisition in matters of conscience, and in their own houses men could worship as they pleased.

During 1592 less was accomplished. From January to June Parma was in France, and when he left that country his ill health prevented him from making much exertion. Philippe, without the slightest cause, had become suspicious of his fidelity, and had resolved to disgrace him. From this indignity he was spared by his death at Arras on the 3rd of December 1592. The old count Pieter Ernest Mansfeld then acted as governor-general of the submissive Netherlands until January 1594, when the archduke Ernest, brother of the emperor of Germany and nephew of King Philippe, arrived at Brussels and assumed the duty. He {110} was a man of no account, and played a very unimportant part until his death on the 20th of February 1595. The count of Fuentes then acted as head of affairs until the 29th of January 1596, when the cardinal archduke Albert, youngest brother of the late Ernest, took over the charge.

At this time the war against Spain was chiefly confined to France, where both the English and the Dutch were aiding the king of Navarre against Philippe and the Catholic league. In July 1593 the king of Navarre was reconciled to the Catholic church, and on the 26th of February 1594 was crowned at Chartres as Henry IV, king of France. Still the English and Dutch continued to help him against Spain, and the Spanish forces, except the garrisons of the towns, were withdrawn from the Netherlands to oppose him, so that Maurits was able with his little army and a few English auxiliaries to do something. He laid siege to Steenwyk, in the north of Overyssel, which surrendered on the 4th of July 1592, and to Koevorden, in Drenthe, which capitulated on the 12th of September of the same year. Next he laid siege to Geertruidenberg, which capitulated on the 22nd of June 1593, and to Groningen, which fell into his hands on the 22nd of July 1594. The remainder of the district, then termed the Ommelanden, was already a party to the union of Utrecht, and the city now at once gave in its adhesion, so that the province of Groningen thereafter took rank as a sister state of Holland and the others.

In 1595 nothing of much note occurred, and in 1596 the most important military event was the recovery of Hulst by the archduke on the 18th of August. But in this year an act of the king of Spain had very serious consequences for the Netherlands. This was the repudiation by Philippe of the public debt of his empire, which at this time was actually so great that nearly the whole of his revenue was needed to pay the interest alone. So reckless was the expenditure of the lord of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the obedient Netherlands, America, and India! {111} Twice before, in 1557 and 1575, he had suspended payment to the national creditors, and now, on the 20th of November 1596, he freed himself of the whole burden by simply disowning it. The ruin of his creditors was not more complete than the ruin of his credit thereafter. The obedient provinces were so exhausted that the cardinal archduke could not raise sufficient revenue from them to meet the cost of administration, much less maintain the army, and the soldiers at once lost all heart.

On the 31st of October of this year 1596 a treaty of alliance between Henry IV of France, Elizabeth of England, and the States-General of the seven United Provinces—Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, Friesland, and Groningen with Drenthe—was entered into at the Hague, to defend themselves against Spain. [28] The oligarchal republic was thus formally admitted into the sisterhood of nations.

There were four thousand of the very best of the Spanish infantry and several squadrons of cavalry encamped at Turnhout in Brabant, where on the 24th of January 1597 Maurits with a much inferior force attacked them. They actually fled in a panic, and in the pursuit two thousand were slain and five hundred were made prisoners. It was the most notable victory ever won over Spanish veterans. Turnhout was occupied by the patriots, and Maurits began to prepare for an extensive campaign.

In August 1597 he attacked the Spanish garrisons in the towns along the Rhine on the eastern border of the United Provinces, and by the end of October he had reduced nine of them. Five thousand Spanish soldiers surrendered, who were allowed to march away unharmed, to add to the troubles of the cardinal archduke, whose army was now and long afterwards in a state of organised mutiny and a terror to the obedient provinces. The patriot cause would have made great progress at this time, but on the {112} 2nd of May 1598 Henry IV seceded from the triple alliance between England, France, and the United Provinces, and signed a treaty of peace with Spain.

Four days after the conclusion of this treaty, on the 6th of May 1598, Philippe II transferred the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his favourite daughter Isabella, who was to marry the cardinal archduke Albert. He was physically unable to carry on the government longer himself, and on the 13th of September 1598 he died of a loathsome and painful disease. On his deathbed he declared that he did not know of ever having done anyone a wrong, so firmly convinced was he that all the murders committed and all the blood that had been shed by his orders tended to the glory of God and the promotion of true religion. Such a man in his position is a greater enemy to mankind than an avowed infidel could be, whether he gives others the choice of the koran or the sword, adherence to any form of Christianity or death. He arrogates to himself the power of defining the will of the Almighty God in matters of faith, and of compelling others to profess to believe as he does, surely a position that angels might shudder to take. The dead king was succeeded by his son, Philippe III of Spain, who had none of his father’s patience or industry, who was satisfied with his title, and left the administration entirely to his favourite the duke of Lerma, the real master of the Spanish realms.

The cession of the Netherlands to Isabella nominally severed the provinces from Spain, but if she should leave no issue, it was provided that they should return to their former condition. She was to have all the assistance that Spain could afford to give, so that practically the position was not greatly altered.

The republic was now left to defend itself almost unaided, for on the 16th of August 1598 a treaty of alliance with England was concluded at Westminster, which provided for the payment of £800,000 to the queen for the expenses incurred by her, and for her keeping eleven hundred and {113} fifty soldiers in the cautionary towns until the debt should be paid. The second article of the treaty was: “The foresaid Lords the States, confiding in the good Affection and Favour of her Majesty, for the Preservation of the State of the foresaid United Provinces , shall be contented with such aids as her Majesty shall please to give them, and to continue the War, with the Assistance of God, the best they can.” [29]

Very little that was of permanent importance transpired in the Netherlands for some time after the conclusion of this treaty. The cardinal archduke was without money, and his soldiers were mutinous, so that he could not undertake any military operations. He was preparing too to become a layman and to wed the infanta Isabella, which event took place in April 1599.

The Dutch, as henceforth the people of the republic of the United Netherlands can be termed in contradistinction to the Belgians, or the inhabitants of the obedient provinces, were superior to the Spaniards on the sea, and were victorious in every naval engagement where the enemy was not more than three to one against them, still privateers under the Spanish flag frequently made sudden darts from Dunkirk and Nieuwpoort and did much damage to Dutch trading vessels and fishing smacks. To prevent this, the states-general resolved to send a strong expedition against those places. Accordingly, in June 1600 Maurits with an army thirteen thousand six hundred strong invaded Flanders and marched to Nieuwpoort. The archduke Albert upon this appealed in stirring words to his mutinous troops, and made such promises to them that twelve thousand veterans agreed to return to duty. They reached the environs of Nieuwpoort a few hours after Maurits, and there in the sand dunes on the 2nd of July 1600 was fought a pitched battle, which, though the Dutch lost very heavily in a preliminary encounter, ended in a complete victory in their {114} favour. Three thousand Spaniards were killed, and six hundred were made prisoners, among whom was the ferocious admiral of Aragon. The Dutch lost two thousand men killed. Nieuwpoort, however, was so strongly garrisoned that Maurits did not think it prudent to lay siege to it, and so he returned to Zeeland.

Ostend was the only place on the coast of Flanders held by the Dutch, and as soon as the archduke could get a sufficient force together he laid siege to it. It was only a fishing village of three thousand inhabitants, but as it formed a base from which expeditions could be sent to any part of Flanders, it was an important position. Its siege was one of the most memorable events of the long war, for it lasted over three years, from the 5th of July 1601 to the 20th of September 1604. Being open to Dutch shipping, reinforcements of men and supplies of provisions were constantly thrown in, while on the other side every soldier that the archduke Albert could engage was employed in the siege. During those three years more than a hundred thousand men lost their lives by pestilence or in the attack or defence of that village. The struggle would have continued even longer, had it not been that a Genoese volunteer of immense wealth and a perfect genius for war offered his services and his money to Philippe III on condition of having the supreme command of the army in Flanders, which offer had been accepted. In October 1603 the marquis Ambrose Spinola took command at Ostend, and he it was who brought the siege to a conclusion. He gained possession of heaps of rubbish, but not a single building intact, and when the garrison retired with the remnant of the fishing population, only one man and one woman remained where Ostend had been.

In the meantime Maurits took advantage of the archduke’s whole attention being occupied with Ostend to recover Grave, which surrendered to him after a siege lasting from the 18th of July to the 18th of September {115} 1602, and Sluis—a much more important place than Ostend—which fell into his hands by capitulation on the 18th of August 1604.

The death of Queen Elizabeth on the 24th of March 1603 was a great loss to the republic. She had always realised that the Dutch cause against Spain was England’s cause also, and though she had not given much assistance of late, she had afforded some, and down to the fall of Ostend a considerable number of Englishmen fought and fell side by side with the sturdy republicans. Her successor, James I, was without her ability. Soon after his accession he promised indeed to follow her policy, but very shortly a project of alliance between the royal houses of Spain and England took possession of his mind, and then he adopted the opposite course. On the 30th of July 1603 at Hampton Court he signed a treaty of alliance with Henry IV of France for the defence of the United Provinces against Spain, and in the following year, 1604, he entered into a treaty of perpetual peace and alliance with Philippe III of Spain and the archduke and archduchess Albert and Isabella, [30] in which he abandoned the Dutch cause. Thereafter his subjects were strictly prohibited from aiding the enemies of Spain in any manner whatever. He kept possession of the cautionary towns until June 1616, when a compromise was made regarding the debt, and they were restored to the republic.

No military event of any importance occurred after this until Spinola’s sudden dash upon the eastern border, and the surrender to him of Grol or Groenlo in Gelderland on the 14th of August 1606. Spinola’s funds were now exhausted, and as means for carrying on the war could not be raised either in the Belgic provinces or in Spain, hostilities on land practically ceased. {116}

IV.

The War on the Sea between Spain and the Netherlands.

It was on the ocean that the Dutch were carrying on the war, and that with marvellous success, for they were already beginning to drive the Portuguese from their most valuable possessions in the eastern seas and to found for themselves a vast colonial realm.

During the early years of the war trade was carried on between them and the Spaniards just as in times of peace. The Hollanders and Zeelanders indeed regarded Philippe’s subjects in Spain and Italy as their best customers, and relied upon the profit on commerce with them for means to carry on the war. On various occasions the king tried to check this trade, and the English were loud in denouncing it, still it went on, though always diminishing in bulk, until 1598, when an edict was issued by Philippe declaring all Dutch ships found in his ports confiscated and their crews prisoners.

For some time this had been foreseen, and the merchants of Amsterdam and Middelburg were intent upon seeking new markets to replace the old ones that would be lost. They were of opinion that a short passage to China might be found by way of the sea north of Europe and Asia, and a man thoroughly qualified to make the effort to look for it was soon found in the person of Willem Barendszoon, a seaman of great courage, patience, and skill. On the 5th of June 1594 Barendszoon sailed from Texel with three ships fitted out respectively by the cities of Amsterdam and Enkhuizen and the province of Zeeland. He was also provided with a yacht to explore in advance of the larger vessels. With him as supercargo of the Enkhuizen ship {117} was Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, of whom much will presently be said. Barendszoon sailed north of Nova Zembla with the Amsterdam ship and the yacht, while the other two vessels tried to pass through the Waigats between Nova Zembla and the mainland. But ice blocked the passage of them all, and they were obliged to return unsuccessful to Amsterdam, where they arrived on the 16th of September. [31]

The states-general then resolved to send another expedition to prosecute the search for a passage, and on the 2nd of July 1595 seven ships sailed from the Maas for that purpose under the leadership of the dauntless Willem Barendszoon. There was another man in that fleet whose name stands high on the roll of Dutch heroes, Jacob van Heemskerk, who went on this occasion as supercargo of a ship of Amsterdam. But ice again obstructed the passage, and having done all that was possible to get through it, the explorers were compelled to put about and entered the Maas on the 18th of November.

Barendszoon was now of opinion that by sailing much farther north an open sea might be found, and as several geographers and travellers of note supported him in this view, the city of Amsterdam fitted out two ships, in which he and Heemskerk sailed from Vlieland on the 18th of May 1596. On this occasion Barendszoon visited Spitzbergen and reached 80° north latitude, but ice still blocked the road to China. One of the ships then returned home, the other was frozen fast and wrecked on the coast of Nova Zembla. The crew built a hut on the shore, and passed the winter in it, living largely on Arctic foxes and using the skins for clothing. In the spring they launched their two boats, in which they fortunately reached a Russian settlement on {118} the mainland, and ultimately Heemskerk and eleven others reached the Maas, 29th of October 1597. Brave Willem Barendszoon died of exhaustion on the journey. In our own time the hut on Nova Zembla was found intact, having stood nearly three centuries on the frozen shore, and the relics it contained are now preserved in the national museum.

When the first of these expeditions had failed, and while the result of the second was still unknown, some merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a fleet of four vessels, which in the year 1595 sailed to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Before this date, however, a few Netherlanders had visited the eastern seas in the Portuguese service, and among them was one in particular whose writings had great influence at that period and for more than half a century afterwards.

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten was born at Haarlem, in the province of Holland. He received a good general education, but from an early age he gave himself up with ardour to the special study of geography and history, and eagerly read such books of travel as were within his reach. In 1579 he obtained permission from his parents, who were then residing at Enkhuizen, to proceed to Seville, where his two elder brothers were pushing their fortunes. He was at Seville when the cardinal king Henrique of Portugal died, leaving the succession to the throne in dispute. The duke of Alva with a strong Spanish army won it for his master, and shortly afterwards Linschoten removed to Lisbon, where he was a clerk in a merchant’s office when Philippe made his triumphal entry and when Alva died.

Two years later he entered the service of a Dominican friar, by name Vicente da Fonseca, who had been appointed by Philippe primate of India, the see of Goa having been raised to an archbishopric in 1557. In April 1583 with his employer he sailed from Lisbon, and after touching at Mozambique—where he remained from the 5th to the 20th of August, diligently seeking information on that part of the world—he arrived at Goa in September of the same year. {119} He remained in India until January 1589. When returning to Europe in the ship Santa Cruz from Cochin, he passed through a quantity of wreckage from the ill-fated São Thomé , which had sailed from the same port five days before he left, and he visited several islands in the Atlantic, at one of which—Terceira—he was detained a long time. He reached Lisbon again in January 1592, and eight months later rejoined his family at Enkhuizen, after an absence of nearly thirteen years.

Early in 1595 the first of Linschoten’s books was published, in which an account is given of the sailing directions followed by the Portuguese in their navigation of the eastern waters, drawn from the treatises of their most experienced pilots. This work shows the highest knowledge of navigation that Europeans had then acquired. They had still no better instrument for determining latitudes than the astrolabe and the cross staff, and no means whatever for ascertaining longitudes other than by dead reckoning. The vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope was known by the appearance of the sea-birds called Cape pigeons and the great drifting plants that are yet to be seen any day on the shores of the Cape peninsula. The different kinds of ground that adhered to the tallow of the sounding leads to some extent indicated the position, as did also the variation of the magnetic needle, but whether a ship was fifty or a hundred nautical miles from any given point could not be ascertained by either of these means. When close to the shore, however, the position was known by the appearance of the land, the form of the hills and mountains, and the patches of sand and thicket, all of which had been carefully delineated and laid down in the sailing directions.

Linschoten’s first book was followed in 1596 by a description of the Indies, and by several geographical treatises drawn from Portuguese sources, all profusely illustrated with maps and plates. Of Mozambique an ample account was given from personal observation and inquiry. Dom {120} Pedro de Castro had just been succeeded as captain by Nuno Velho Pereira, who informed the archbishop that in his three years’ term of office he would realise a fortune of about nine tons of gold, or £75,000 sterling, derived chiefly from the trade in the precious metal carried on at Sofala and in the territory of the monomotapa. Fort São Sebastio had then no other garrison than the servants and attendants of the captain, in addition to whom there were only forty or at most fifty Portuguese and half-breed male residents on the island capable of assisting in its defence. There were three or four hundred huts occupied by negroes, some of whom were professed Christians, others Mohamedans, and still others heathens. The exports to India were gold, ivory, ambergris, ebony, and slaves. African slaves, being much stronger in body than the natives of Hindostan, were used to perform the hardest and coarsest work in the eastern possessions of Portugal, and—though Linschoten does not state this—they were employed in considerable numbers in the trading ships to relieve the European seamen from the heavy labour of pumping, hauling, stowing and unstowing cargo, cleansing, and so forth. These slaves were chiefly procured from the lands to the northward, and very few, if any of them, were obtained in the country south of the Zambesi.

It serves to show how carefully and minutely Linschoten elicited information at Mozambique, that he mentions a harbour on the coast which is not named by any of the Portuguese writers of the time except Dos Santos, whose book was not then published, and who only refers to it incidentally, though it is now known to be the best port between Inhambane and the Zambesi. This is Beira, as at present termed, then known to the sailors of the pangayos that traded to the southward as Porto Bango. Linschoten gives its latitude as 19½°, half a league north of Sofala. He mentions also Delagoa Bay, that is the present Algoa Bay, and gives its latitude as 33½°. He describes the monsoons of the Indian ocean, and states that ships {121} from Portugal availed themselves of these periodical winds by waiting at Mozambique until the 1st of August, and never leaving after the middle of September, thus securing a safe and easy passage to the coast of Hindostan.

He frequently refers to the gold of Sofala and the country of the monomotapa, of which he had heard just such reports as Vasco da Gama had eagerly listened to eighty-six years before. Yet he did not magnify the importance of these rumours as the Portuguese had done, though it was mainly from his writings that his countrymen became possessed of that spirit of cupidity which induced them a few years later to make strenuous efforts to become masters of South-Eastern Africa.

Linschoten’s treatises were collected and published in a single large volume, and the work was at once received as a text-book, a position which its merits entitled it to occupy. The most defective portion of the whole is that referring to South Africa: and for this reason, that it was then impossible to get any correct information about the interior of the continent below the Zambesi west of the part frequented by the Portuguese. Linschoten himself saw no more of it than a fleeting glimpse of False Cape afforded on his outward passage, and his description was of necessity based upon the faulty maps of the geographers of his time, so that it was full of errors. But his account of India and of the way to reach its several ports was so correct that it could serve the purpose of a guide-book, and his treatise on the mode of navigation by the Portuguese was thus used by the commander of the first Dutch fleet that appeared in the eastern seas.

The four vessels which left Texel on the 2nd of April 1595 were under the general direction of an officer named Cornelis Houtman. In the afternoon of the 2nd of August the Cape of Good Hope was seen, and next day, after passing Agulhas, the fleet kept close to the land, the little Duifke sailing in front and looking for a harbour. On the 4th the bay called by the Portuguese Agoada de São Bras {122} was discovered, and as the Duifke found good holding ground in nine or ten fathoms of water, the Mauritius , Hollandia , and Amsterdam entered and dropped their anchors. [32]

Here the fleet remained until the 11th, when sail was again set for the East. During the interval a supply of fresh water was taken in, and some oxen and sheep were purchased from the inhabitants for knives, old tools, and pieces of iron. The Europeans were surprised to find the sheep covered with hair instead of wool, and with enormous tails of pure fat. No women or habitations were seen. The appearance of the Hottentots, their clothing, their assagais, their method of making a fire by twirling a piece of wood rapidly round in the socket of another piece, their filthiness in eating, and the clicking of their language, are all correctly described; but it was surmised that they were cannibals, because they were observed to eat the half-raw intestines of animals, and a fable commonly believed in Europe was repeated concerning their mutilation in a peculiar manner of the bodies of conquered enemies. The intercourse with the few Hottentots seen was friendly, though at times each suspected the other of evil intentions.

A chart of the inlet was made, [33] from which it is seen to be the one now called Mossel Bay. A little island in it was covered with seals and penguins, some of each of {123} which were killed and eaten. The variation of the compass was observed to be so trifling that the needle might be said to point to the north.

From the watering place of São Bras Houtman continued his voyage, and reached Sumatra safely. He next visited Bantam in the island of Java, where, owing to the influence of Portuguese traders, he and several of his attendants were made prisoners and were only released on payment of a ransom of £400. Some other ports of Java were visited, as were also Madura and Bali, and a small quantity of spice was purchased, but there were many quarrels and some combats with the natives. So many men died that it was necessary to burn the Amsterdam , which ship was much decayed, and strengthen the crews of the other three vessels. Houtman then left to return home, and reached Texel on the 14th of August 1597, after an absence of over twenty-eight months.

Financially the first venture of the Dutch to the Indies was not a success, but the spirit of enterprise was excited by it, and immediately trading companies began to be formed in different towns of Holland and Zeeland, and fleets were fitted out with the object of opening up an eastern trade. It will not be necessary to give an account of all these companies, but mention must be made of some of the fleets.

On the 15th of March 1598 two ships, the Leeuw and the Leeuwin , sailed from Vlissingen under command of Cornelis Houtman. In the Leeuw the famous English seaman John Davis was chief pilot, that is sailing master. They put into the watering place of Saldanha for refreshment, where Davis, in his account of the voyage, says that the Hottentots fell by surprise upon the men who were ashore bartering cattle, and killed thirteen of them. In his narrative Davis says that at Cape Agulhas the magnetic needle was without variation, but in his sailing directions, written after another voyage to India, he says: “At False Cape there is no variation that I can find by observing {124} south from it. The variation of Cape Agulhas is thirty minutes from north to west. And at the Cape of Good Hope the compass is varied from north to east five and twenty minutes.” At Atchin about a hundred and fifty tons of pepper were purchased and taken in, but on the 1st of September 1599 a party of Sumatrans went on board the two ships and suddenly drew their weapons and murdered Cornelis Houtman and many others. In both ships they were ultimately driven off with heavy loss. Some men were on shore at the time, and they also were attacked, when eight were made prisoners and the others were killed. Altogether sixty white men lost their lives on this occasion. There was no further attempt to trade or to explore, and after a voyage marked by loss the expedition reached home again on the 29th of July 1600.

On the 1st of May 1598 Jacob van Nek sailed from Texel with six large ships and two yachts. Second in command was Wybrand van Waerwyk, and third in rank was Jacob van Heemskerk, who had only returned from his terrible sojourn in the polar sea six months before. This voyage was an eminently successful one. Four of the ships were speedily sent home fully laden with pepper and valuable spices obtained at Bantam; two others purchased cargoes at Banda, and when they sailed left twenty men behind with money and goods to trade until the arrival of another fleet; and the remaining two procured cargoes at Ternate, and left six men there to trade when they sailed. All reached home in safety, with the most valuable cargoes that had ever entered a Netherlands port.

On the 13th of September 1598 Olivier van Noort sailed from Goeree with two ships and two yachts, having in all two hundred and forty-eight souls on board, with the intention of ascertaining whether a western route to India would not be preferable to that round the Cape of Good Hope. It was necessary to burn one of the yachts on the passage, and one of the ships parted company after passing through the straits of Magellan and was {125} never seen again. On the western coast of South America Van Noort destroyed several trading vessels, and then set his course for Manilla. Off that harbour, on the 14th of December 1600, two large galleons attacked him, when the yacht Eendracht sailed away, drawing one of the galleons in pursuit. The Mauritius engaged the other, and after a stubborn combat succeeded in sinking her. As she was going down some two hundred men jumped overboard, but instead of attempting to rescue them, the crew of the Mauritius pushed those who swam alongside their ship underneath the water with poles. After the engagement there were only forty-eight men left in the Dutch ship. The yacht escaped, and reached Ternate, from which island her crew proceeded to Bantam. Van Noort continued his westward course, and was the first Netherlander to sail round the world. He reached Rotterdam on the 12th of August 1601.

On the 26th of April 1599 Stephen van der Hagen sailed from Texel with three ships, the Zon , the Maan , and the Morgen Ster . The people of Amboina were then at war with the Portuguese, and Van der Hagen entered into an agreement with their ruler to assist him in return for a monopoly of the sale of cloves at a fixed price. In accordance with this agreement, in September 1600 under Van der Hagen’s direction a fort was built at Amboina, and when he sailed he left twenty-seven Dutch volunteers under Jan Dirkszoon Sonneberg to aid in guarding it.

No fresh discoveries on the African coast were made by any of the fleets sent out at this time, but to some of the bays new names were given.

In December 1599 four ships fitted out by an association at Amsterdam calling itself the New Brabant Company sailed from Texel for the Indies, under command of Pieter Both. Two of them returned early in 1601, leaving the Vereenigde Landen and the Hof van Holland under charge of Paulus van Caerden to follow as soon as they could {126} obtain cargoes. On the 8th of July 1601 Van Caerden put into the watering place of São Bras on the South African coast, for the purpose of repairing one of his ships which was in a leaky condition. The commander, with twenty soldiers, went a short distance inland to endeavour to find people from whom he could obtain some cattle, but though he came across a party of eight individuals he did not succeed in getting any oxen or sheep. A supply of fresh water was taken in, but no refreshment except mussels could be procured, on account of which Van Caerden gave the inlet the name Mossel Bay, which it has ever since retained.

On the 14th the Hof van Holland having been repaired, the two ships sailed, but two days later, as they were making no progress against a head wind, they put into another bay. Here some Hottentots were found, from whom the voyagers obtained for pieces of iron as many horned cattle and sheep as they could consume fresh or had salt to preserve. For this reason the commander gave it the name Flesh Bay.

On the 21st sail was set, but the Hof van Holland being found leaky again, on the 23rd another bay was entered, where her damages were repaired. On account of a westerly gale the ships were detained here until the 30th, when they sailed, but finding the wind contrary outside, they returned to anchor. No inhabitants were seen, but the commander visited a river near by, where he encountered a party from whom he obtained five sheep in exchange for bits of iron. In the river were numerous hippopotami. Abundance of fine fish having been secured here, the commander gave the inlet the name Fish Bay.

On the 2nd of August the ships sailed, and on the 27th passed the Cape of Good Hope, to the great joy of all on board, who had begun to fear that they might be detained much longer on the eastern side by adverse winds.

On the 5th of May 1601 a fleet of three vessels, named the Ram , the Schaap , and the Lam , sailed for the Indies {127} from Vere in Zeeland, under command of Joris van Spilbergen. On the 15th of November the fleet put into St. Helena Bay, where no inhabitants were seen, though smoke rising from many fires was observed inland. The only refreshment procurable was fish, which were caught in great quantities.

On the 20th Spilbergen sailed from St. Helena Bay, and beating against a head wind, in the evening of the 28th he anchored off an island, to which he gave the name Elizabeth. Four years later Sir Edward Michelburne termed it Cony Island, which name, under the Dutch form of Dassen, it still bears. Seals in great numbers, sea-birds of different kinds, and conies were found. At this place he remained only twenty-four hours. On the 2nd of December he cast anchor close to another island, which he named Cornelia. It was the Robben Island of the present day. Here were found seals and penguins in great numbers, but no conies. The next day at noon Spilbergen reached the watering place of Saldanha, the anchorage in front of Table Mountain, and gave it the name Table Bay, which it still bears.

The sick were conveyed to land, where a hospital was established. A few inhabitants were met, to whom presents of beads were made, and who were understood to make signs that they would bring cattle for sale, but they went away and did not return. Abundance of fish was obtained with a seine at the mouth of a stream which Spilbergen named the Jacqueline, now Salt River; but, as meat was wanted, the smallest of the vessels was sent to Elizabeth Island, where a great number of penguins and conies were killed and salted in. The fleet remained in Table Bay until the 23rd of December. When passing Cornelia Island, a couple of conies were set on shore, and seven or eight sheep, which had been left there by some previous voyagers, were shot, and their carcases taken on board. Off the Cape of Good Hope the two French ships of which mention has been made were seen. {128}

Spilbergen kept along the coast, noticing the formation of the land and the numerous streams falling into the sea, but was sorely hindered in his progress by the Agulhas current, which was found setting so strong to the south-westward that at times he could make no way against it even with the breeze in his favour. On the 17th of January 1602, owing to this cause, he stood off from the coast, and did not see it again.

On the 23rd of April 1601 Wolfert Hermanszoon sailed for the Indies with a fleet of five ships. On reaching Palembang in Sumatra he learned from the Chinese crew of a trading vessel that a Portuguese fleet of eight large galleons and twenty-two smaller ships, under André Furtado de Mendoça, was besieging Bantam with a view of punishing its ruler for having traded with the Dutch. Mendoça was a man of renown in the East, [34] having been a successful commander in many wars, and his force was apparently so enormous in comparison with that under Hermanszoon that at first sight it would seem foolhardy to contend with it. But the Sea Beggars were not given to be afraid of anything on their own element, and they realised the importance of relieving Bantam and establishing their reputation for valour in the eyes of the Indian rulers. Accordingly Hermanszoon prepared his ships for action, sailed to Bantam, and on the 25th of December 1601 boldly attacked the great galleons.

It was soon seen that the battle was not such an unequal one after all. Mendoça had eight hundred Portuguese soldiers in his fleet, but the crews of his ships were all lascars or slaves, who were almost useless in battle. Hermanszoon could choose his position, deliver his fire, and then stand off and prepare for another attack. His ships, clumsy as they would appear to our eyes, were to those of the Portuguese like what modern gunboats under steam would be to three-deckers of the last century. At {129} nightfall Mendoça drew his ships close together under an island, and arranged them to act as a great fort. On the 26th the weather was stormy, so that nothing could be done. On the 27th Hermanszoon attacked again, and succeeded in overmastering and burning two of the smaller ships of war after nearly every one on board was killed. Mendoça used three more of his frigates as fire ships, but the Dutch vessels were too swift for him and were out of harm’s way before they exploded. He did not wait to be attacked again, and on the morning of the 28th his armada was seen to be in full flight and Bantam was relieved.

The Dutch were received with transports of joy by the ruler and people of the place, and a commercial treaty greatly to their advantage was entered into. At Banda also a similar treaty was concluded. When returning home, a Portuguese carrack or freight ship of the largest size, with a valuable cargo on board, was captured off St. Helena, so that the voyage was a very profitable one.

Mendoça, after his flight from Bantam, directed his course to Amboina, where he inflicted heavy punishment upon the natives for trading with the Dutch, and cut down all the clove trees in the neighbourhood of the principal town. He then placed a garrison in the fort there, and took his departure.

Jacob van Heemskerk left Holland in company with Hermanszoon on the 23rd of April 1601 on his second voyage to India as admiral of a fleet of eight ships. In June 1603 he captured a carrack very richly laden with silk, porcelain, and other Chinese productions, on her way from Macao to Malacca. A few weeks later another carrack similarly laden was captured at Macao without resistance by a fleet under Cornelis van Veen.

Altogether between 1595 and 1602 sixty-five ships sailed from Holland and Zeeland for India, of which only fifty-four returned. By this time it had become evident that large armed fleets were necessary to secure safety and to cope with the Portuguese there if a permanent trade was {130} to be established. The rivalry too between the little companies was raising the price of spices so greatly in the East and lowering it in Europe that it was feared there would soon be no profit left. For these reasons, and to conduct the Indian trade in a manner the most beneficial to the people of the whole republic, the states-general resolved to unite all the small trading associations in one great company with many privileges and large powers. The first step to this end was to amalgamate the various companies in each town, and when this was effected, to bring them all under one directorate. The charter, or terms upon which the consolidated Company came into existence, was dated at the Hague on the 20th of March 1602, and contained forty-six clauses, the principal of which were as follows:—

All of the inhabitants of the United Netherlands had the right given to them to subscribe to the capital in as small or as large sums as they might choose, with this proviso, that if more money should be tendered than was needed, those applying for shares of over two thousand five hundred pounds sterling should receive less, so that the applicants for smaller shares might have the full amounts asked for allotted to them.

The chambers, or offices for the transaction of business, were to participate in the following proportion: that of Amsterdam one-half, that of Middelburg in Zeeland one-quarter, those of Delft and Rotterdam, otherwise called of the Maas, together one-eighth, and those of Hoorn and Enkhuizen, otherwise called those of the North Quarter or sometimes those of North Holland and West Friesland, together the remaining eighth.

The general directory was to consist of seventeen persons, eight of whom were to represent the chamber of Amsterdam, four that of Middelburg, two those of the Maas, two those of the North Quarter, and the seventeenth was to be chosen alternately by all of these except the chamber of Amsterdam. The place of meeting of the {131} general directory was fixed at Amsterdam for six successive years, then at Middelburg for two years, then at Amsterdam again for six years, and so on.

The directors of each chamber were named in the charter, being the individuals who were the directors of the companies previously established in those towns, and it was provided that no others should be appointed until these should be reduced by death or resignation: in the chamber of Amsterdam to twenty persons, in that of Zeeland to twelve, and in those of Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen each to seven. After that, whenever a vacancy should occur, the remaining directors were to nominate three qualified individuals, of whom the states of the province in which the chamber was situated were to select one.

To qualify an individual to be a director in the chambers of the North Quarter it was necessary to own shares to the value of £250 sterling, and double that amount to be a director in any of the other chambers. The directors were to be bound by oath to be faithful in the administration of the duties entrusted to them, and not to favour a majority of the shareholders at the expense of a minority. Directors were prohibited from selling anything whatever to the Company without previously obtaining the sanction of the states provincial or the authorities of the city in which the chamber that they represented was situated.

All inhabitants of the United Provinces other than this Company were prohibited from trading beyond the Straits of Magellan, or to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, during the period of twenty-one years, for which the charter was granted, under penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo. Within these limits the East India Company was empowered to enter into treaties and make contracts in the name of the states-general, to build fortresses, to appoint governors, military commanders, judges, and other necessary officers, who were all, however, to take oaths of fidelity to the states-general or high {132} authorities of the Netherlands, who were not to be prevented from making complaints to the states-general, and whose appointments were to be reported to the states-general for confirmation.

For these privileges the Company was to pay £12,500 sterling, which amount the states-general subscribed towards the capital, for the profit and at the risk of the general government of the provinces. The capital was nominally furnished in the following proportions: Amsterdam one-half, Zeeland one-fourth, the Maas one-eighth, and the North Quarter one-eighth; but in reality it was contributed as under:—

The capital was divided into shares of £250 sterling each. The shares, often sub-divided into fractions, were negotiable like any other property, and rose or fell in value according to the position of the Company at any time.

The advantage which the State derived from the establishment of this great association was apparent. The sums received in payment of import dues would have been contributed to an equal extent by individual traders. The amounts paid for the renewal of the charter—in 1647 the Company paid £133,333 6 s. 8 d. for its renewal for twenty-five years, and still larger sums were paid subsequently—might have been derived from trading licenses. The Company frequently aided the Republic with loans of large amount when the State was in temporary need, {133} but loans could then have been raised in the modern method whenever necessary. Apart from these services, however, there was one supreme advantage gained by the creation of the East India Company which could not have been obtained from individual traders. A powerful navy was called into existence, great armed fleets working in unison and subject to the same control were always ready to assist the State. What must otherwise have been an element of weakness, a vast number of merchant ships scattered over the ocean and ready to fall a prey to an enemy’s cruisers, was turned into a bulwark of strength.

In course of time several modifications took place in the constitution of the Company, and the different provinces as well as various cities were granted the privilege of having representatives in one or other of the chambers. Thus the provinces Gelderland, Utrecht, and Friesland, and the cities Dordrecht, Haarlem, Leiden, and Gouda had each a representative in the chamber of Amsterdam; Groningen had a representative in the chamber of Zeeland; Overyssel one in the chamber of Delft, &c. The object of this was to make the Company represent the whole Republic.

Notwithstanding such regulations, however, the city of Amsterdam soon came to exercise an immoderate influence in the direction. In 1672 it was estimated that shares equal to three-fourths of the whole capital were owned there, and of the twenty-five directors of the local chamber, eighteen were chosen by the burgomasters of the city. Fortunately, the charter secured to the other chambers a stated proportion of patronage and trade.

Such was the constitution of the Company which set itself the task of destroying the Portuguese power in the East and securing for itself the lucrative spice trade. It had no difficulty in obtaining as many men as were needed, for the German states—not then as now united in one great empire—formed an almost inexhaustible reservoir {134} to draw soldiers from, and the Dutch seaports, together with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, furnished an adequate supply of excellent seamen. It sent out strong and well-armed fleets, capable of meeting any force the enemy had to oppose them, and of driving him from the open seas.

The first of these fleets was sent out in two divisions, one of three large ships, under Sebald de Weert, which sailed on the 31st of March 1602, and the other of eleven large ships and a yacht, under Wybrand van Waerwyk, which followed on the 17th of June. Sebald de Weert directed his course to the island of Ceylon, and cast anchor in the harbour of Batticaloa on the eastern shore. The maharaja of Kandy was then the most powerful ruler in the island, and was at war with the Portuguese. Spilbergen had been to visit him, and now De Weert followed, he and his attendants riding inland on elephants. He was received with great state by the maharaja and the people. An agreement was made of close friendship and commercial intercourse, and a plan of operations against the Portuguese was arranged. De Weert returned to Batticaloa, and proceeded to Atchin for assistance, from which place he came back with seven ships.

But now a great blunder was made. No meat was to be purchased, and as some cows were seen a party of men went ashore and shot them, in absolute ignorance of the Buddhist belief in the transmigration of souls and the commandment not to take life. [35] Full payment was offered, but was indignantly refused, and a complete revulsion of feeling towards the Dutch took place. De Weert could not imagine the cause of this, but prepared to give the maharaja, who was on his way to the coast, a splendid reception on board his ship. Meantime four Portuguese vessels were captured, and their crews were {135} released and sent away. One of the maharaja’s sons was a prisoner in the hands of the Portuguese, and he thought to obtain his liberty in exchange for the Portuguese officers. When the captives were released without an exchange having been effected the prince’s rage knew no bounds. On the 1st of June 1603 De Weert and forty-six others went ashore unsuspicious of danger, when they were suddenly attacked by the maharaja’s order, and all were put to death. This ended commercial intercourse for a time, but in 1610 another treaty of friendship was entered into with the ruler of Kandy.

Wybrand van Waerwyk with the principal division of the fleet cast anchor before Bantam in the island of Java, and in August 1603 concluded an arrangement with the sultan for the establishment of a permanent factory or trading station in that town. A strong stone building was procured for the purpose, goods were landed and stored, and an officer named François Wittert was placed in charge with a staff of assistants. This factory at Bantam was for several years thereafter regarded as the principal establishment of the Dutch in India. Another, but much smaller one, was soon afterwards formed at Grésik in the same island.

Though the Dutch were soon in almost undisputed possession of the valuable Spice islands, they were never able to eject the Portuguese from the comparatively worthless coast of South-Eastern Africa. That coast would only have been an encumbrance to them, if they had secured it, for its commerce was never worth much more than the cost of its maintenance until the highlands of the interior were occupied by Europeans, and the terrible mortality caused by its malaria would have been a serious misfortune to them. It was out of their ocean highway too, for they steered across south of Madagascar, instead of keeping along the African shore. But they were drawn on by rumours of the gold which was to be had, and so they resolved to make themselves masters of Mozambique, {136} and with that island of all the Portuguese possessions subordinate to it. In Lisbon their intentions were suspected, and in January 1601 the king issued instructions that Dom Alvaro d’Abranches, Nuno da Cunha’s successor as captain of Mozambique, was on no account to absent himself from the island, as it might at any time be attacked by either the Turks or the Dutch.

On the 18th of December 1603 Steven van der Hagen left Holland for India with a strong armed fleet, consisting of the Vereenigde Provincien , Amsterdam , Dordrecht , Hoorn , and West Friesland , each of three hundred and fifty tons burden, the Gelderland and Zeelandia , each of two hundred and fifty tons, the Hof van Holland , of one hundred and eighty tons, the Delft and Enkhuizen , each of one hundred and fifty tons, the Medenblik , of one hundred and twenty-five tons, and a despatch boat named the Duifken , of thirty tons burden. In those days such a fleet was regarded as, and actually was, a very formidable force, for though there were no ships in it of the size of the great galleons of Spain and Portugal, each one was much less unwieldy, and had its artillery better placed. There were twelve hundred men on board, and the equipment cost no less than £184,947 6 s. 8 d.

Van der Hagen arrived before Mozambique on the 17th of June 1604. Fort São Sebastião had not at the time its ordinary garrison of one hundred soldiers, owing to a disaster that had recently occurred. A great horde of barbarians, called the Cabires by the Portuguese, had entered the territory of the monomotapa, and were laying it waste, so the captain Lourenço de Brito went to the assistance of the Kalanga chief, but was defeated and lost ten or twelve Portuguese and part of his stores. Sebastião de Macedo was then in command at Mozambique. He sent a vessel with fifty soldiers to De Brito’s assistance, but on the passage she was lost with all on board. None had yet arrived to replace them, but the resident inhabitants of the island had retired to the fort with {137} everything of value that they could remove, so Van der Hagen considered it too strong to be attacked and therefore proceeded to blockade it. There was a carrack at anchor, waiting for some others from Lisbon to sail in company to Goa. The boats of the Dutch fleet cut her out, in spite of the heavy fire of the fort upon them. She had on board a quantity of ivory collected at Sofala and other places on the East African coast, but nothing else of much value.

On the 30th of June a small vessel from one of the factories, laden with rice and ivory, came running up to the island, and was too near to escape when she discovered her danger. She was turned into a tender, and named the Mozambique . Then, for five weeks, the blockade continued, without any noteworthy incident. On the 5th of August five pangayos arrived, laden with rice and millet, and were of course seized. Three days later Van der Hagen landed on the island with one hundred and fifty men, but found no sign of hunger, and saw that the prospect of the surrender of the fort was remote. He did no other damage than setting fire to a single house, and as night drew on he returned on board.

He was now anxious to proceed to India, so on the 12th of August he set fire to the captured carrack, and sailed, leaving the Delft , Enkhuizen , and Duifken , to wait for the ships expected from Lisbon. These vessels rejoined him, but without having made any prizes, soon after his arrival at Amboina, which was assigned as the place of meeting. He then attacked the Portuguese fort on that island, which was surrendered to him on the 23rd of February 1605. Having placed a Dutch garrison in the fort, and thus secured possession of this valuable island, he sailed to Tidor, where the Portuguese had a fortress. This stronghold he gained in May 1605, but in March 1606 it was recovered by the Portuguese, who at the same time overran a great part of the island of Ternate, where Van der Hagen had obtained trading {138} privileges. In 1605 a factory was also established by the Dutch on the island of Banda.

On the 12th of May 1605 Cornelis Matelief sailed with eleven ships for India. One of the most important strongholds of the Portuguese in the East was Malacca, as it commanded the navigation of the strait of the same name. Matelief entered into a treaty with the sultan of Johor at the southern extremity of the Malay peninsula, and with his assistance endeavoured to obtain possession of the stronghold, which was bravely defended by André Furtado de Mendoça. The first blockade of Malacca lasted four months, and ended by Matelief’s being obliged to retire from a very superior naval force sent from Goa. The second blockade was shorter, but though seven Portuguese ships were taken and five hundred Portuguese soldiers were killed, it was unsuccessful. At Amboina, Matelief strengthened the garrison of the Dutch fort, and gave the soldiers and sailors there permission to marry native women. He did not get possession of the Portuguese castle on Ternate, but he built Fort Orange on another part of the island, and left an effective garrison in it.

On the 28th of January 1608 Matelief sailed from Bantam in the Oranje to return home. On the 12th of April he put into Table Bay, as he was badly in want of meat, and hoped to obtain as much as he needed here. In this he succeeded, for he bartered thirty-four oxen, five calves, and a hundred and seventy-three sheep from the Hottentots for pieces of old iron hoop and rings, valued at less than a halfpenny for each animal. His description of the Hottentots is one of the best of that time, and is accurate in all its details. The greatest plague in Table Valley he found to be the flies, which from this and other accounts appear to have been even more troublesome then than they are to-day. On Robben Island he killed about a hundred seals for the sake of their skins, and as he had more sheep than {139} he needed, he left twenty there to breed. He remained in Table Bay longer than two months, and with a crew thoroughly refreshed he set sail for Holland on the 22nd of June.

Another attempt to get possession of Mozambique was made in 1607. On the 29th of March of that year a Dutch fleet of eight large ships—the Banda , Bantam , Ceylon , Walcheren , Ter Veere , Zierikzee , China , and Patane ,—carrying one thousand and sixty men, commanded by Paulus van Caerden, appeared before the island. The Portuguese historian of this event represents that the fortress was at the time badly in want of repair, that it was insufficiently provided with cannon, and that there were no artillerymen nor indeed regular soldiers of any branch of the service in it, its defence being undertaken by seventy male inhabitants of the town, who were the only persons on the island capable of bearing arms. But this statement does not agree either with the Dutch narrative or with the account given by Dos Santos, from which it appears that there were between soldiers and residents of the island one hundred and forty-five men in the fortress. It was commanded by an officer—Dom Estevão d’Ataide by name—who deserves a place among the bravest of his countrymen. He divided his force into four companies, to each of which he gave a bastion in charge. To one, under Martim Gomes de Carvalho, was committed the defence of the bastion São João, another, under Antonio Monteiro Corte Real, had a similar charge in the bastion Santo Antonio, the bastion Nossa Senhora was confided to the care of André de Alpoim de Brito, while the bastion São Gabriel, which was the one most exposed to assault on the land side and where the stoutest resistance would have to be made, was entrusted to the company under Diogo de Carvalho. The people of the town abandoned their houses and hastily took shelter within the fortress, carrying their most valuable effects with them. Van Caerden, in the Banda , led the way right under {140} the guns of São Sebastião to the anchorage, where the Sofala packet and two carracks were lying. A heavy fire was opened on both sides, but, though the ships were slightly damaged, as the ramparts were of great height and the Portuguese guns could not be depressed to command the Dutch position thoroughly, no one except the master of the Ceylon was wounded. Two of the vessels at anchor were partly burned, but all were made prizes after their crews had escaped to the shore.

On the 1st of April Van Caerden landed with seven hundred men and seven heavy guns, several of them twenty-eight-pounders, in order to lay siege to Fort São Sebastião. The Portuguese set fire to the town, in order to prevent their enemy from getting possession of spoil, though in this object they were unsuccessful, as a heavy fall of rain extinguished the flames before much damage was done. The Dutch commander took possession of the abandoned buildings without opposition, and made the Dominican convent his headquarters, lodging his people in the best houses. He commenced at once making trenches in which the fortress could be approached by men under shelter from its fire, and on the 6th his first battery was completed. The blacks, excepting the able-bodied, being considered an encumbrance by both combatants, D’Ataide expelled those who were in the fort, and Van Caerden caused all who were within his reach to be transported to the mainland.

From the batteries, which were mere earthen mounds with level surfaces, protected on the exposed sides with boxes, casks, and bags filled with soil, a heavy fire was opened, by which the parapet of the bastion Santo Antonio was broken down, but it was repaired at night by the defenders, the women and others incapable of bearing arms giving assistance in this labour. The musketeers on the walls, in return, caused some loss to their opponents by shooting any who exposed themselves. The Portuguese historian makes special mention of one Dutch officer in a {141} suit of white armour, who went about recklessly in full view, encouraging his men, and apparently regardless of danger, until he was killed by a musket ball.

The trenches were at length within thirty paces of the bastion São Gabriel, and a battery was constructed there, which could not be injured by the cannon on the fortress owing to their great elevation, while from it the walls could be battered with twenty-eight pound shot as long as the artillerymen took care not to show themselves to the musketeers on the ramparts. The Dutch commander then proposed a parley and D’Ataide having consented, he demanded the surrender of the fortress. He stated that the Portuguese could expect no assistance from either Europe or India, as the mother country was exhausted and the viceroy Dom Martim Affonso de Castro had been defeated in a naval engagement, besides which nearly all the strongholds of the East were lost to them. It would therefore be better to capitulate while it could be done in safety than to expose the lives of the garrison to the fury of men who would carry the place by storm. Further, even if the walls proved too massive for cannon, hunger must soon reduce the fortress, as there could not be more than three months’ provisions in it. The Portuguese replied with taunts and bravado, and defied the besiegers to do their worst. They would have no other intercourse with rebels, they said, than that of arms.

During the night of the 17th some of the garrison made a sortie for the purpose of destroying a drawbridge, which they effected, and then retired, after having killed two men according to their own account, though only having wounded one according to the Dutch statement. A trench was now made close up to the wall of the bastion São Gabriel, and was covered with movable shields of timber of such thickness that they could not be destroyed by anything thrown upon them from the ramparts. During the night of the 29th, however, the garrison made a {142} second sortie, in which they killed five Hollanders and wounded many more, and on the following day they succeeded in destroying the wooden shields by fire.

In the meantime fever and dysentery had attacked Van Caerden’s people, and the prospect was becoming gloomy in the extreme. The fire from the batteries and ships had not damaged the walls of the fortress below the parapet, and sickness was increasing so fast that the Dutch commander could not wait for famine to give him the prize. He therefore resolved to raise the siege, and on the 6th of May he removed his cannon.

War between nations of different creeds in those days was carried on in a merciless manner. On the 7th of May Van Caerden wrote to Captain d’Ataide that he intended to burn and destroy all the churches, convents, houses, and palm groves on the island and the buildings and plantations on the mainland, unless they were ransomed; but offered to make terms if messengers were sent to him with that object. A truce was entered into for the purpose of correspondence, and six Hollanders dressed in Spanish costume went with a letter to the foot of the wall, where it was fastened to a string and drawn up. D’Ataide declined the proposal, however, and replied that he had no instructions from his superiors, nor intention of his own, except to do all that was possible with his weapons. He believed that if he ransomed the town on this occasion, he would only expose it to similar treatment every time a strong Dutch fleet should pass that way.

Van Caerden then burned all the boats, canoes, and houses, cut down all the cocoa-nut trees, sent a party of men to the mainland, who destroyed everything of value that they could reach there, and finally, just before embarking he set fire to the Dominican convent and the church of São Gabriel. What was more to be deplored, adds the Portuguese historian Barbuda, “the perfidious heretics burned with abominable fury all the images that {143} were in the churches, after which they treated them with a thousand barbarous indignities.” The walls of the great church and of some other buildings were too massive to be destroyed by the flames, but everything that was combustible was utterly ruined.

On the morning of the 16th of May, before daylight, the Dutch fleet set sail. As the ships were passing Fort São Sebastião every gun that could be got to bear was brought into use on both sides, when the Zierikzee had her tiller shot away, and ran aground. Her crew and the most valuable effects on board were rescued, however, by the boats of the rest of the fleet, though many men were wounded by the fire from the fort. The wreck was given to the flames.

In the second attempt to get possession of Mozambique the Dutch lost forty men, either killed by the enemy or carried off by fever, and they took many sick and wounded away. The Portuguese asserted that they had only thirteen men killed during the siege, and they magnified their slain opponents to over three hundred.

After his arrival in India Van Caerden obtained possession of a couple of Portuguese forts of small importance, but on the 17th of September 1608 he was taken prisoner in a naval battle, and was long detained in captivity.

As soon as their opponents were out of sight of Mozambique the Portuguese set about repairing the damage that had been done. In this they were assisted by the crews of three ships, under command of Dom Jeronymo Coutinho, that called on their way from Lisbon to Goa. The batteries were removed, the trenches were levelled, the walls of the ruined Dominican convent were broken down, and the fortress was repaired and provided with a good supply of food and munitions of war. Its garrison also was strengthened with one hundred soldiers landed from the ships. The inhabitants of the town returned to the ruins of their former habitations, and endeavoured to make new homes for themselves. These efforts to {144} retrieve their disasters had hardly been made when the island was attacked by another and more formidable fleet.

It consisted of the ships Geunieerde Provintien , Hollandia , Amsterdam , Roode Leeuw met Pylen , Middelburg , Zeelandia , Delft , Rotterdam , Hoorn , Arend , Paauw , Valk , and Griffioen , carrying in all between eighteen and nineteen hundred men, and was under the command of Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself after Admiral Heemskerk’s death in the famous battle in Gibraltar Bay. Verhoeff left the Netherlands on the 22nd of December 1607, and after a long stay at the island of St. Helena where he waited for the westerly winds to take him past the Cape of Good Hope, on the 28th of July 1608 arrived at Mozambique. He was under the impression that Van Caerden had certainly obtained possession of the fortress, and his object was to lie in wait for Portuguese ships in the Channel; but he was undeceived when his signals were answered with cannon balls and a flag of defiance was hoisted over the ramparts.

In the port were lying four coasting vessels and a carrack with a valuable cargo on board, ready to sail for Goa. In endeavouring to escape, the carrack ran aground under the guns of the fort, where the Dutch got possession of her, and made thirty-four of the crew prisoners. These were removed, but before much of the cargo could be got out the Portuguese from the fortress made a gallant dash, retook the carrack, and burned her to the water’s edge. Two of the coasters were made prizes, the other two were in a position where they could not be attacked.

Within a few hours of his arrival Verhoeff landed a strong force, and formed a camp on the site of the destroyed Dominican convent. Next morning he commenced making trenches towards the fortress, by digging ditches and filling bags with earth, of which banks were then made. The Portuguese of the town had retired {145} within the fortress in such haste that they were unable to remove any of their effects, and the blacks, as during the preceding siege, were now sent over to the mainland to be out of the way. Some of the ships were directed to cruise off the port, the others were anchored out of cannon range. A regular siege of the fortress was commenced.

In the mode of attack this siege differed little from that by Van Caerden, as trenches and batteries were made in the same manner and almost in the same places. But there were some incidents connected with it that deserve to be mentioned. At its commencement an accident occurred in the fortress, which nearly had disastrous consequences. A soldier, through carelessness, let a lighted fuse fall in a quantity of gunpowder, and by the explosion that resulted several men were killed and a fire was kindled which for a short time threatened the destruction of the storehouses, but which was extinguished before much harm was done.

On the second day after the batteries were in full working order the wall of the fortress between the bastions Santo Antonio and São Gabriel was partly broken down, and, according to the Portuguese account, a breach was opened through which a storming party might have entered. “If,” says the historian Barbuda, “they had been Portuguese, no doubt they would have stormed; but as the Dutch are nothing more than good artillerymen, and beyond this are of no account except to be burned as desperate heretics, they had not courage to rush through the ruin of the wall.” That this was said of men who had fought under Heemskerk leads one to suspect that probably the breach was not of great size, and the more so as the garrison was able to repair it during the following night. It is not mentioned in the Dutch account, in which the bravery of their opponents is fully recognised.

On the 4th of August Verhoeff sent a trumpeter with a letter demanding the surrender of the fortress. D’Ataide {146} would not even write a reply. He said that as he had compelled Van Caerden to abandon the siege he hoped to be able to do the same with his present opponent. The captain of the bastion São Gabriel, however, wrote that the castle had been confided by the king to the commandant, who was not the kind of cat to be taken without gloves. Verhoeff believed that the garrison was ill supplied with food, so his trumpeter was well entertained, and on several occasions goats and pigs were driven out of the gateway in a spirit of bravado.

Sorties were frequently made by the besieged, who had the advantage of being able to observe from the ramparts the movements of the Dutch. In one of these a soldier named Moraria distinguished himself by attacking singly with his lance three pikemen in armour at a distance from their batteries, killing two of them and wounding the other.

D’Ataide was made acquainted with his enemy’s plans by a French deserter, who claimed his protection on the ground of being of the same religion. Four others subsequently deserted from the Dutch camp, and were received in the fortress on the same plea. Verhoeff demanded that they should be surrendered to him, and threatened that if they were not given up he would put to death the thirty-four prisoners he had taken in the carrack. D’Ataide replied that if the prisoners were thirty-four thousand he would not betray men who were catholics and who had claimed his protection, but if the Portuguese captives were murdered their blood would certainly be avenged. Verhoeff relates in his journal that the whole of the prisoners were then brought out in sight of the garrison and shot, regarding the act in the spirit of the time as rather creditable than otherwise; but the version of the Portuguese historian may be correct, in which it is stated that six men with their hands bound were shot in sight of their countrymen, and that the others, though threatened, were spared. {147} Until the 18th of August the siege was continued. Twelve hundred and fifty cannon balls had been fired against the fortress, without effect as far as its reduction was concerned. Thirty of Verhoeff’s men had been killed and eighty were wounded. He therefore abandoned the effort, and embarked his force, after destroying what remained of the town.

On the 21st a great galleon approached the island so close that the ships in the harbour could be counted from her deck, but put about the moment the Dutch flag was distinguished. Verhoeff sent the ships Arend , Griffioen , and Valk in pursuit, and she was soon overtaken. According to the Dutch account she made hardly any resistance, but in a letter to the king from her captain, Francisco de Sodre Pereira, which is still preserved, he claims to have made a gallant stand for the honour of his flag. The galleon was poorly armed, but he says that he fought till his ammunition was all expended, and even then would not consent to surrender, though the ship was so riddled with cannon balls that she was in danger of going down. He preferred, he said to those around him, to sink with his colours flying. The purser, however, lowered the ensign without orders, and a moment afterwards the Dutch, who had closed in, took possession. The prize proved to be the Bom Jesus , from Lisbon, which had got separated from a fleet on the way to Goa, under command of the newly appointed viceroy, the count De Feira. She had a crew of one hundred and eighty men. The officers were detained as prisoners, the others were put ashore on the island Saint George with provisions sufficient to last them two days.

On the 23rd of August the fleet sailed from Mozambique for India. There can be little question that this defeat of the Dutch was more advantageous to them than victory would have been, for if their design had succeeded a very heavy tax upon their resources and their energy would have been entailed thereafter. After this {148} siege Fort São Sebastião was provided with a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, and some small armed vessels were kept on the coast to endeavour to prevent the Dutch from communicating with the inhabitants or obtaining provisions and water, but their ships kept the Portuguese stations in constant alarm.

On his arrival in India Verhoeff entered into a treaty of alliance with the ruler of Calicut against the Portuguese, in which he secured commercial privileges. In May 1609 he and twenty-nine of his principal officers, when holding a conference with some Bandanese, were murdered on the island of Neira, and all the Dutch at Lonthor shared the same fate. This led immediately to the conquest of Neira, and the erection of the strong fort Nassau in a commanding position on the island. On the 10th of August 1609 a treaty of peace was concluded with the Bandanese government, in which the sovereignty of Neira was ceded to the Dutch, and a monopoly of the spice trade in all the islands dependent on Banda was secured. In June 1609 a treaty was concluded with the ruler of Ternate, by which that island and all its dependencies came under the protection of the Dutch, and a monopoly of the spice trade was secured. In September 1609 a factory was established at Firato in Japan, where the Dutch obtained from the emperor liberty to trade. On the 25th of November 1609 the Portuguese fort on Batjan, one of the Molucca islands, was taken, and became thereafter Fort Barneveld. {149}

V.

The Truce with Spain and English Rivalry.

By this time the Dutch had factories or trading stations at Masulipatam, Pulikat, and two smaller places on the eastern coast of Hindostan, they had liberty to trade at Calicut, they had entered into a new treaty with the maharaja of Kandy in Ceylon, they had factories at Bantam and Grésik in Java, and in November 1610 they entered into a treaty with the ruler of Jakatra in the same island, in which they secured the site of the future city of Batavia, they held the protectorate of Ternate, although the Portuguese still had a fort there, Neira was theirs with a monopoly of the spice trade of all the Banda islands, Batjan was theirs also, as was Amboina, they had factories at Patani on the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula, established in 1604, and at Johor at its southern extremity, also at Achin in Sumatra, at Landok in Borneo, on the island of Celebes, and in the empire of Japan. The foundation of the vast realm which they subsequently acquired in the eastern seas was thus established on the ruins of the gigantic dominions of Portugal, though much fighting was still to be done before it should be fully built up.

A great defect appeared to be the want of some local authority to control the conquests and supervise the trade. To meet this want the assembly of seventeen resolved to establish a strong government in the East, though the seat of authority was not fixed upon. On the 21st of November 1609 Pieter Both was appointed first {150} governor-general of Netherlands India, and councillors, consisting of the principal officials, were named to assist him. He left Texel on the 30th of January 1610 with a fleet of eight ships. In a great storm off the Cape his ship got separated from the others, so he put into Table Bay to repair some damages to the mainmast and to refresh his men. In July 1610 Captain Nicholas Downton called at the same port in an English vessel, and found Governor-General Both’s ship lying at anchor and also two homeward bound Dutch ships taking in train oil that had been collected at Robben Island. The governor-general arrived at Bantam on the 19th of December 1610, and in the factory at that place, in a town belonging to an independent though friendly sovereign, an authority, soon to eclipse that of any Indian prince, was first established.

The great successes of the Dutch in the eastern seas caused the Spaniards to desire peace, and they were prepared to acknowledge the independence of the United Provinces if two conditions only could be obtained: the right of Roman Catholics to worship in public and the prohibition of the Indian trade. The archduke Albert made the first advance by sending two secret agents to the Hague at the close of 1606. The Dutch people were divided in opinion: one party, under the leadership of the prominent statesman Johan van Olden-Barneveld, favoured peace on reasonable terms, the other, under Maurits of Nassau, desired to continue the war until Spain should be thoroughly humiliated. The peace party was in the majority, and as the other European governments were urgent that hostilities should be brought to an end, in April 1607 an armistice was agreed to for eight months from the 4th of May, in order that negotiations might be entered into.

Just at this time an event occurred which greatly promoted the desire of the Spaniards for peace. A fleet of twenty-six small ships of war and four tenders, under Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk, had recently been sent {151} by the states-general to cruise in the Atlantic. Heemskerk came to learn that a Spanish war fleet of ten great galleons and eleven smaller vessels, under command of Don Juan Alvarez d’Avila, was lying at anchor in Gibraltar Bay under the guns of the fortress. Notwithstanding the tremendous disparity of force, he determined to attack the enemy, and on the 25th of April 1607 he stood into the bay and boldly grappled with the monster galleons. It was like a fight between giants and pygmies, but so daring were the Dutch sailors that every galleon was destroyed. Before nightfall nothing of the Spanish fleet but burning fragments could be seen floating in the bay or stranded on the shore. It was one of the most brilliant naval victories ever recorded, and it was won against such odds that it seemed to be due to God alone. Heemskerk fell in the battle, killed by a cannon ball, leaving a deathless name of glory behind him. The Spanish admiral also was killed in the engagement. Unfortunately the victory was tarnished by a ferocious massacre of all the Spaniards that could be laid hold of, for which barbarous act Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, captain of the admiral’s ship, was chiefly responsible.

The Dutch now rejected the two Spanish conditions with disdain, and had it not been for the intervention of the agents of other governments, the negotiations would have been broken off. As it was, they were continued, but such difficulties were experienced in coming to terms that it was necessary to prolong the armistice from time to time, and it was not until the 9th of April 1609 that matters were finally arranged and a treaty was signed at Antwerp. Even then it was not a final peace that was concluded, but only a truce for twelve years, during which time each party was to retain whatever territory it possessed on that day, and could carry on commerce freely with the other.

The republic of the United Netherlands thereafter consisted of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, {152} Groningen, Overyssel with Drenthe except the town of Oldenzaal, which was held by the archduke, and about three quarters of ancient Gelderland, which retained that name. In this, however, the town of Groenlo or Grol was held by the archduke. South of the Schelde the republic was in possession of Sluis and Axel, with the forts along the river in Flanders, which with Flushing gave it control of the navigation of the stream and enabled it to stifle Antwerp. South of the Maas it possessed in Brabant all the territory belonging to the marquisate of Bergen op Zoom, the barony of Breda, and the land of Grave with Kuik. This territory in Flanders and Brabant was governed directly by the states-general, being of course detached from the provinces to which it properly belonged. The seven provinces were in one sense seven sovereign states, as they voted separately in the states-general, and no one of them was bound by any act to which it did not individually consent. It was the weakest form of a federal government, being rather a loose alliance than a firm union. That was its great defect, which, however, was not remedied until nearly two centuries more had passed away.

The provinces that remained under the government of Albert and Isabella covered much more ground than the present kingdom of Belgium. [36] France always coveted them, and never lost an opportunity to gnaw portions of them away. By the treaty of the Pyrenees on the 7th of November 1659 Louis XIV obtained a strip of territory containing Thionville, Montmedi, Damvilliers, Ivoix, and Marville. By the treaty of Aix la Chapelle on the 2nd of May 1668 he obtained Lille, Douai, Courtrai, and Charleroi. On the 17th of March 1677 Valenciennes was {153} taken by the French, and on the 5th of April 1677 Cambrai fell into their hands. By the treaty of Nymegen on the 17th of September 1678 France was recognised as the owner of a slice of Belgian territory containing these cities, and by the treaty of Ratisbon on the 15th of August 1684 she acquired part of Luxemburg.

Thus before the close of the seventeenth century Belgium had lost to France two entire provinces—Artois and Lille with Douai and Orchies—and part of Flanders containing Dunkirk, Gravelines, and Menior, part of Hainaut, containing Valenciennes, Bavay, Maubeuge, Conde, Marienbourg, and Philippeville, part of Namur containing Charlemont, part of Luxemburg containing Thionville and Montmedi, and the city and bishopric of Cambrai, which then ranked as a duchy. The present boundary between France and Belgium was not fixed until 1814.

By the treaty of Utrecht the portion of Gelderland that remained subject to Albert and Isabella in 1609, excepting the town of Venlo, which passed to the republic, and the town and district of Roermonde, which went to Austria, was ceded to Prussia and became the circle of Düsseldorf. Roermonde was added to the kingdom of the Netherlands in 1831. Luxemburg was divided into two portions by the treaty of London in 1839, one of which is now part of the German empire, and the other remains a province of Belgium. By the same treaty Limburg was divided into two sections, one of which remained to Belgium, the other became part of the kingdom of the Netherlands.

By the treaty of Munster on the 30th of January 1648, in which the king of Spain recognised the independence of the United Netherlands, the present province of North Brabant went to the republic, [37] as did also the city and jurisdiction of Maastricht and a small portion of Flanders. A map of Belgium as it is to-day is thus very different {154} from one in 1610, but it contains the province of Liege, which did not then belong to it.

The trade of the Dutch with India now increased rapidly, but South Africa was hardly affected by it, except through the visits of passing ships and occasionally the residence of parties of Europeans for a short time on its shores.

In May 1611 the Dutch skipper Isaac le Maire, after whom the straits of Le Maire are named, called at Table Bay. When he sailed, he left behind his son Jacob and a party of seamen, who resided in Table Valley for several months. Their object was to kill seals on Robben Island, and to harpoon whales, which were then very abundant in South African waters in the winter season. They also tried to open up a trade for skins of animals with the Hottentots in the neighbourhood, but in this met with no success, as those barbarians needed all the peltry they could obtain for their own use.

In 1616 the assembly of seventeen resolved that its outward bound fleets should always put into Table Bay to refresh the crews, and from that time onward Dutch ships touched there almost every season. A kind of post office was established by marking the dates of arrivals and departures on stones, and burying letters in places indicated. But no attempt was made to explore the country, and no port south of the Zambesi except Table Bay was frequented by Netherlanders, so that down to the middle of the century nothing more concerning it was known than the Portuguese had placed on record.

The Dutch had now to fear the competition of the English in the East much more than that of the Portuguese. Our countrymen were equally enterprising and courageous, and however friendly the two nations might be in Europe, in distant lands they were animated by a spirit of rivalry which on some occasions went so far as to cause them to act unscrupulously towards each other. It will not be necessary to relate here the {155} proceedings of the English in the eastern seas, but some references to their visits to Table Bay in those early times must be made.

They too had established an East India Company, whose first fleet, consisting of the Dragon , of six hundred tons, the Hector , of three hundred tons, the Ascension , of two hundred and sixty tons, and the Susan , of two hundred and forty tons burden, sailed from Torbay on the 22nd of April 1601. The admiral was James Lancaster, the same who had commanded the Edward Bonaventure ten years earlier. The chief pilot was John Davis, who had only returned from the Indies nine months before. On the 9th of September the fleet came to anchor in Table Bay, by which time the crews of all except the admiral’s ship were so terribly afflicted with scurvy that they were unable to drop their anchors. The admiral had kept his men in a tolerable state of health by supplying them with a small quantity of limejuice daily. After his ship was anchored he was obliged to get out his boats and go to the assistance of the others. Sails were then taken on shore to serve as tents, and the sick were landed as soon as possible. Trade was commenced with the Hottentots and in the course of a few days forty-two oxen and a thousand sheep were obtained for pieces of iron hoop. The fleet remained in Table Bay nearly seven weeks, during which time most of the sick men recovered.

On the 5th of December 1604 the Tiger —a ship of two hundred and forty tons—and a pinnace called the Tiger’s Whelp set sail from Cowes for the Indies. The expedition was under command of Sir Edward Michelburne, and next to him in rank was Captain John Davis. It was the last voyage that this famous seaman was destined to make, for he was killed in an encounter with Japanese pirates on the 27th of December 1605. The journal of the voyage contains the following paragraph:—

“The 3rd of April 1605 we sailed by a little island which Captain John Davis took to be one that stands {156} some five or six leagues from Saldanha. Whereupon our general, Sir Edward Michelburne, desirous to see the island, took his skiff, accompanied by no more than the master’s mate, the purser, myself, and four men that did row the boat, and so putting off from the ship we came on land. While we were on shore they in the ship had a storm, which drove them out of sight of the island; and we were two days and two nights before we could recover our ship. Upon the said island is abundance of great conies and seals, whereupon we called it Cony Island.”

On the 9th of April they anchored in Table Bay, where they remained until the 3rd of the following month refreshing themselves.

On the 14th of March 1608 the East India Company’s ships Ascension and Union sailed from England, and on the 14th of July put into Table Bay to obtain refreshments and to build a small vessel for which they had brought out the materials ready prepared. The crews constructed a fort to protect themselves, by raising an earthen wall in the form of a square and mounting a cannon on each angle. They found a few Hottentots on the shore, to whom they made known by signs their want of oxen and sheep, which three days afterwards were brought for barter in such numbers that they procured as much meat as they needed. They gave a yard (91·4 centimetres) of iron hoop for an ox, and half that length for a sheep. After bartering them, the Hottentots whistled some away and then brought them for sale again, which was not resented, as the English officers were desirous of remaining on friendly terms with the rude people. For the same reason no notice was taken of the theft of various articles of trifling value.

Boats were sent to Robben Island to capture seals, as oil was needed, and many of these animals were killed and brought to the fort. After cutting off the oily parts the carcases were carried to a distance as useless, but {157} for fifteen days the Hottentots feasted upon the flesh, which they merely heated on embers, though before the expiration of that time it had become so putrid and the odour so offensive that the Europeans were obliged to keep at a great distance from it.

Great quantities of steenbras were obtained with a seine at the mouth of Salt River, and three thousand five hundred mullets were caught and taken on board for consumption after leaving. The object of refreshing was thus fully carried out, as was also that of putting together the little vessel, which was even made larger than the original design, and which when launched was named the Good Hope .

Mr. John Jourdain, an official of the East India Company, who was a passenger in the Ascension , and from whose journal this account is taken, with some others ascended Table Mountain. From its summit they saw the same sheet of water on the flats which Antonio de Saldanha a hundred and five years before had mistaken for the mouth of a great river, and which Mr. Jourdain now mistook for an inland harbour with an opening to the sea by which ships might enter it. He, however, unlike his Portuguese predecessor, had an opportunity afterwards of visiting the big pond and ascertaining that his conjecture was incorrect.

Mr. Jourdain was of opinion that a settlement of great utility might be formed in Table Valley. In words almost identical with those of Jansen and Proot forty years later he spoke of its capabilities for producing grain and fruit, of the hides, sealskins, and oil that could be obtained to reduce the expense, of the possibility of opening up a trade in ivory, as he had seen many footprints of elephants, and of bringing the Hottentots first to “civility,” and then to a knowledge of God.

After a stay of little more than two months, on the 19th of September the Ascension and Union sailed again, with the Good Hope in their company. {158}

From this date onward the fleets of the English East India Company made Table Bay a port of call and refreshment, and usually procured in barter from the Hottentots as many cattle as they needed. In 1614 the board of directors sent a ship with as many spare men as she could carry, a quantity of provisions, and some naval stores to Table Bay to wait for the homeward bound fleet, and, while delayed, to carry on a whale and seal fishery as a means of partly meeting the expense. The plan was found to answer fairly well, and it was continued for several years. The relieving vessels left England between October and February, in order to be at the Cape in May, when the homeward bound fleets usually arrived from India. If men were much needed, the victualler—which was commonly an old vessel—was then abandoned, otherwise an ordinary crew was left in her to capture whales, or she proceeded to some port in the East, according to circumstances.

The advantage of a place of refreshment in South Africa was obvious, and as early as 1613 enterprising individuals in the service of the East India Company drew the attention of the directors to the advisability of forming a settlement in Table Valley. Still earlier it was rumoured that the king of Spain and Portugal had such a design in contemplation, with the object of cutting off thereby the intercourse of all other nations with the Indian seas, so that the strategical value of the Cape was already recognised. The directors discussed the matter on several occasions, but their views in those days were very limited, and the scheme seemed too large for them to attempt alone.

In their fleets were officers of a much more enterprising spirit, as they were without responsibility in regard to the cost of any new undertaking. In 1620 some of these proclaimed King James I sovereign of the territory extending from Table Bay to the dominions of the nearest Christian prince. The records of this event are interesting, {159} as they not only give the particulars of the proclamation and the reasons that led to it, but show that there must often have been a good deal of bustle in Table Valley in those days.

On the 24th of June 1620 four ships bound to Surat under command of Andrew Shillinge, put into Table Bay, and were joined when entering by two others bound to Bantam, under command of Humphrey Fitzherbert. The Dutch had at this time the greater part of the commerce of the East in their hands, and nine large ships under their flag were found at anchor. The English vessel Lion was also there. Commodore Fitzherbert made the acquaintance of some of the Dutch officers, and was informed by them that they had inspected the country around, as their Company intended to form a settlement in Table Valley the following year. Thereupon he consulted with Commodore Shillinge, who agreed with him that it was advisable to try to frustrate the project of the Hollanders. On the 25th the Dutch fleet sailed for Bantam, and the Lion left at the same time, but the Schiedam , from Delft, arrived and cast anchor.

On the 1st of July the principal English officers, twenty-one in number,—among them the Arctic navigator William Baffin,—met in council, and resolved to proclaim the sovereignty of King James I over the whole country. They placed on record their reasons for this decision, which were, that they were of opinion a few men only would be needed to keep possession of Table Valley, that a plantation would be of great service for the refreshment of the fleets, that the soil was fruitful and the climate pleasant, that the Hottentots would become willing subjects in time and they hoped would also become servants of God, that the whale fishery would be a source of profit, but, above all, that they regarded it as more fitting for the Dutch when ashore there to be subjects of the king of England than for Englishmen to be subject to them or anyone else. “Rule Britannia” was a very strong {160} sentiment, evidently, with that party of adventurous seamen.

On the 3rd of July a proclamation of sovereignty was read in presence of as many men of the six ships as could go ashore for the purpose of taking part in the ceremony. Skipper Jan Cornelis Kunst, of the Schiedam , and some of his officers were also present, and raised no objection. On the Lion’s rump, or King James’s mount as Fitzherbert and Shillinge named it, the flag of St. George was hoisted, and was saluted, the spot being afterwards marked by a mound of stones. A small flag was then given to the Hottentots to preserve and exhibit to visitors, which it was believed they would do most carefully.

After going through this ceremony with the object of frustrating the designs of the Dutch, the English officers buried a packet of despatches beside a stone slab in the valley, on which were engraved the letters V O C, they being in perfect ignorance of the fact that those symbols denoted prior possession taken for the Dutch East India Company. On the 25th of July the Surat fleet sailed, and on the next day Fitzherbert’s two ships followed, leaving at anchor in the bay only the English ship Bear , which had arrived on the 10th.

The proceeding of Fitzherbert and Shillinge, which was entirely unauthorised, was not confirmed by the directors of the East India Company or by the government of England, and nothing whatever came of it. At that time the ocean commerce of England was small, and as she had just entered upon the work of colonising North America, she was not prepared to attempt to form a settlement in South Africa also. Her king and the directors of her India Company had no higher ambition than to enter into a close alliance with the Dutch Company, and to secure by this means a stated proportion of the trade of the East. In the Netherlands also a large and influential party was in favour of either forming a federated company, or of a binding union of some kind, so as to {161} put it out of the power of the Spaniards and Portuguese to harm them. From 1613 onward this matter was frequently discussed on both sides of the Channel, and delegates went backward and forward, but it was almost impossible to arrange terms.

The Dutch had many fortresses which they had either built or taken from the Portuguese in Java and the Spice islands, and the English had none, so that the conditions of the two parties were unequal. In 1617, however, the king of France sent ships to the eastern seas, and in the following year the king of Denmark embarked in the same enterprise, when a possibility arose that one or other of them might unite with Holland or England. Accordingly each party was more willing than before to make concessions, and on the 2nd of June 1619 a treaty of close alliance was entered into at London between the two Companies, which was ratified by their respective governments. [38]

It provided that all past differences should be forgotten, and all persons, ships, and goods detained by either side be immediately released. That the servants of each Company should act in the most friendly manner towards those of the other, and give them assistance when needed. That commerce in all parts of India should be free to both. That joint efforts should be made to reduce the price of products in India to a fixed and reasonable rate, and that a selling price in Europe should be agreed upon from time to time, below which it should not be lawful for either party to dispose of them. That pepper should only be purchased in Java by a commission representing both parties, and be equally divided afterwards between the two Companies. That the Dutch Company should have two-thirds of the trade at the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboina, and the English one-third. That twenty ships of war from six to eight hundred tons burden, armed {162} with thirty heavy cannon, and carrying one hundred and fifty men each, should be maintained in the eastern seas for the protection of commerce, half by each Company. And that a council of defence should be established, consisting of four of the principal officers on each side, to appoint stations for the ships and to engage and pay land forces.

There were thirty-one articles in all, of which the above were the principal, the others referring to matters of less importance, but dealing with them in the same spirit. The treaty was intended to bring the two East India Companies into as close a union as that existing between the different provinces of the Netherlands republic.

The rivalry, however,—bordering closely on animosity—between the servants of the two companies in distant lands prevented any agreement of this nature made in Europe being carried out, and though in 1623 another treaty of alliance was entered into, in the following year it was dissolved. Thereafter the great success of the Dutch in the East placed them beyond the desire of partnership with competitors.

While these negotiations were in progress, a proposal was made from Holland that a refreshment station should be established in South Africa for the joint use of the fleets of the two nations, and the English directors received it favourably. They undertook to cause a search for a proper place to be made by the next ship sent to the Cape with relief for the returning fleet, and left the Dutch at liberty to make a similar search in any convenient way. Accordingly on the 30th of November 1619 the assembly of seventeen issued instructions to the commander of the fleet then about to sail to examine the coast carefully from Saldanha Bay to a hundred or a hundred and fifty nautical miles east of the Cape of Good Hope, in order that the best harbour for the purpose might be selected. This was done, and an opinion was pronounced in favour of Table Bay. In 1622 a portion {163} of the coast was inspected for the same purpose by Captain Johnson, in the English ship Rose , but his opinion of Table Bay and the other places which he visited was such that he would not recommend any of them. The tenor of his report mattered little, however, for with the failure of the close alliance between the two companies, the design of establishing a refreshment station in South Africa was abandoned by both.

Perhaps the ill opinion of Table Bay formed by Captain Johnson may have arisen from an occurrence that took place on its shore during the previous voyage of the Rose . That ship arrived in the bay on the 28th of January 1620, and on the following day eight of her crew went ashore with a seine to catch fish near the mouth of Salt River. They never returned, but the bodies of four were afterwards found and buried, and it was believed that the Hottentots had either carried the other four away as prisoners or had murdered them and concealed their corpses.

This was not the only occurrence of the kind, for in March 1632 twenty-three men belonging to a Dutch ship that put into Table Bay lost their lives in conflict with the inhabitants. The cause of these quarrels is not known with certainty, but at the time it was believed they were brought on by the Europeans attempting to rob the Hottentots of cattle.

An experiment was once made with a view of trying to secure a firm friend among the Hottentots, and impressing those people with respect for the wonders of civilisation. In 1613 two Hottentots were taken from Table Valley on board a ship returning from India, one of whom died of grief soon after leaving his home. [39] The other, who was named Cory, reached England, where he resided six months and learned to understand and speak a little English. He was made a great deal of, and received many rich and valuable presents from benevolent people. {164} Sir Thomas Smythe, the governor of the East India Company, was particularly kind to him, and gave him among other things a complete suit of brass armour. He returned to South Africa with Captain Nicholas Downton in the ship New Year’s Gift , and in June 1614 landed in Table Valley with all his treasures. But Captain Downton, who thought that he was overflowing with gratitude, saw him no more. Cory returned to his former habits of living, and instead of acting as was anticipated, taught his countrymen to despise bits of copper in exchange for their cattle, so that for a long time afterwards it was impossible for ships that called to obtain a supply of fresh meat.

Mr. John Jourdain, when returning from India to England, put into Table Bay on the 25th of February 1617. A few lean calves were obtained on the day the ships anchored, but nothing whatever afterwards, though at one time about ten thousand head of cattle were in sight. Mr. Jourdain and a party of sixty armed men went a short distance into the country, and he was of opinion that through the roguery of “that dogge Cory” they would have been drawn into a conflict with some five thousand Hottentots if they had not prudently retired. Thereafter he believed no cattle would be obtained except at dear rates, for the Hottentots no longer esteemed iron hoops, copper, or even shining brass. A fort, he considered, would be the only means of bringing them to “civility.” On this occasion Mr. Jourdain remained in Table Bay eighteen days, of which only four were calm and fine.

According to a statement made by a Welshman who was in Table Bay in August 1627, and who kept a journal, part of which has been preserved, [40] Cory came {165} to an evil end. The entry reads: “They” (the Hottentots) “hate the duchmen since they hanged one of the blackes called Cary who was in England & upon refusall of fresh victuals they put him to death.”

It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of convicts when they were exploring unknown countries, or when there were duties of a particularly hazardous or unpleasant nature to be performed. The English employed criminals in the same manner. In January 1615 the governor of the East India Company obtained permission from the king to transport some men under sentence of death to countries occupied by savages, where, it was supposed, they would be the means of procuring provisions, making discoveries, and creating trade. The records in existence—unless there are documents in some unknown place—furnish too scanty material for a complete account of the manner in which this design was carried out. Only the following can be ascertained with certainty. A few days after the consent of the king was given, the sheriffs of London sent seventeen men from Newgate on board ships bound to the Indies, and these were voluntarily accompanied by three others, who appear to have been convicted criminals, but not under sentence of death. The proceeding was regarded as “a very charitable deed and a means to bring them to God by giving them time for repentance, to crave pardon for their sins, and reconcile themselves unto His favour.” On the 5th of June, after a passage from the Thames of one hundred and thirty-two days, the four ships comprising the fleet arrived in Table Bay, and on the 16th nine of the condemned men were set ashore with their own free will. A boat was left for their use, and to each a gun with some ammunition and a quantity of provisions was given.

Of some of these convicts the afterlife is known. Two were taken on to India by Sir Thomas Roe, one of whom, Duffield by name, returned with him to England, where he requited the kindness shown to him by stealing some {166} plate and running away. Of those set ashore in Table Valley, one, named Cross, committed some offence against the Hottentots shortly after the ships sailed, and was killed by them. The other seven [41] escaped to Robben Island, where their boat was wrecked. They lived five or six months on the island, when an English ship put into the bay, and four of them made a raft and tried to get to her, but were drowned on the way. The next day the ship sent a boat to the island, and took off the other three. They behaved badly on board, commenced to steal again as soon as they reached England, and were apprehended and executed in accordance with their old sentences.

In one of the ships that brought these convicts in 1615 Sir Thomas Roe, English envoy to the great Mogul, was a passenger. A pillar bearing an inscription of his embassy was set up in Table Valley, and fifteen or twenty kilogrammes weight of stone which he believed to contain quicksilver and vermilion was taken away to be assayed in England, but of particulars that would be much more interesting now no information whatever is to be had from the records of his journey. {167}

Again, in June 1616, three condemned men were set ashore in Table Valley from a fleet under Commodore Joseph on its way to the East. A letter signed by them is extant, in which they acknowledge the clemency of King James in granting them their forfeited lives, and promise to do his Majesty good and acceptable service. Terry, who was an eye witness, says that before they were set ashore they begged the commodore rather to hang them than to abandon them, but he left them behind. The Swan , one of the vessels of the fleet, however, was detained in Table Bay a day or two longer than her consorts, and she took them on to Bantam in Java.

There may have been other instances of the kind, of which no record is in existence now, but this seems unlikely. It is certain that no information upon the country, its inhabitants, or its resources was ever obtained from criminals set ashore here.

No further effort was made by the English at this time to form a connection with the inhabitants of South Africa, though their ships continued to call at Table Bay for the purpose of taking in water and getting such other refreshment as was obtainable. They did not attempt to explore the country or to correct the charts of its coasts, nor did they frequent any of its ports except Table Bay, and very rarely Mossel Bay, until a much later date. A few remarks in ships’ journals, and a few pages of observations and opinions in a book of travels such as that of Sir Thomas Herbert, from none of which can any reliable information be obtained that is not also to be drawn from earlier Portuguese writers, are all the contributions to a knowledge of South Africa made by Englishmen during the early years of the seventeenth century. Though our countrymen were behind no others in energy and daring, as Drake, Raleigh, Gilbert, Davis, Hawkins, and a host of others had proved so well, not forgetting either the memorable story of the Revenge, {168} which Jan Huyghen van Linschoten handed down for a modern historian to write in more thrilling words, England had not yet entered fully upon her destined career either of discovery or of commerce, the time when “the ocean wave should be her home” was still in the days to come.

The Danes were the next to make their appearance in the Indian seas. Their first fleet, fitted out by King Christian IV, consisted of six ships, under Ove Giedde as admiral. On the 8th of July 1619 this fleet put into Table Bay, where eight English ships were found at anchor, whose officers treated the Danes with hospitality. Admiral Giedde remained here until the 5th of August, when his people were sufficiently refreshed to proceed on their voyage. On the 30th of August 1621 he reached Table Bay again in the ship Elephant on his return passage from Ceylon and India, and remained until the 12th of September. Before leaving he had an inscription cut on a stone, in which the dates of both his visits were recorded. {169}

III.

Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel. A History of the Successful Struggle of a few Hollanders and Huguenots against Tyranny and Corruption.

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SKETCH III.

I.

Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel.

The days of John the son of Peter and Peter the son of John were passing away, though not quite entirely gone, and surnames such as are now in use were becoming generally adopted by working people, when one Adriaan van der Stel, otherwise Adriaan the son of Simon, is found among the citizens of the town of Dordrecht in the province of South Holland. He was by occupation a cooper, and like many of his energetic countrymen at that time he tried to improve his position by entering the service of the East India Company and going abroad. Accordingly he engaged as cooper and junior assistant or clerk, a combination of duties by no means uncommon in the Company’s service in the early days, and in 1623 went to India in the yacht Star . He was engaged at a salary of ten guldens or 16 s. 8 d. a month, besides his maintenance, but there were little privileges allowed to men in his position, which often were of greater value than the wage received.

This Adriaan van der Stel was a man of ability, and as early as the 28th of March 1624 was promoted in the service and had his pay increased to eighteen guldens or £1 10 s. a month. Time went on, and by 1638, under the governor-generalship of Anthonie van Diemen, he had advanced so far that he was chosen to succeed Pieter de Goyer as commander of the island of Mauritius. This island, which was uninhabited, had recently been taken possession of by the East India Company, and De Goyer had been sent to occupy it with a small party of men. {172} The position was not indeed a very dignified one, corresponding as it did to that of ensign in charge of a little military outpost, but his selection to fill it was proof that the high Indian authorities placed confidence in him.

He had followed a custom prevalent in India ever since 1607, when the Dutch commander-in-chief Cornelis Matelief gave his soldiers and sailors permission to form alliances with native women, with a view of raising a class of mixed breeds who would form a link between the European and Asiatic races. The Portuguese had set the example in this, and the advantage of it to them was evident, as they could not have continued to hold a single station in the East without the assistance of the large Eurasian element in the population of their settlements. If not actually encouraged by the Dutch, this practice was by no means looked upon with disfavour in the seventeenth century, and a half-breed, if at all worthy, was as certain of employment and promotion as a white man. And as the form of marriage could not be gone through when the woman was not a professed Christian, looser alliances were regarded as throwing little or no discredit upon either father or child.

Adriaan van der Stel formed a connection of this kind with an Indian woman named Monica of the Coast, who accompanied him to Mauritius, and there on the 14th of November 1639 bore him a son, whom he named Simon. After serving for a time satisfactorily at Mauritius, where no one wished to remain long, he was removed to Batavia, and shortly afterwards was transferred to Ceylon in a military capacity as commander of a body of troops. Such changes of occupation are constantly met with in following the careers of men in the East India Company’s service, and some of the ablest officials were alike skilful as diplomatists, as traders, and as commanders in war on sea or on land.

At this time, which was shortly after Cornelis van der Lyn became governor-general, the Portuguese were making {173} a desperate effort to retain their last strongholds on the western coast of Ceylon. Their most important possession on the island was Colombo, which they retained until May 1656, and when it surrendered the Dutch had the seaboard entirely to themselves. There was indeed peace in Europe between the Netherlands and Portugal, now independent of Spain once more, but that did not prevent the continuance of the struggle in the East. The chief Dutch stronghold was Galle, in the south of the island. The king of Kandy, Raja Singha Rajoc, was styled emperor of Ceylon, but had really lost all authority over the coast-lands, which were subject either to the Dutch or the Portuguese. His policy was to keep them pitted against each other, and occasionally to assist whichever appeared weakest, for he bore neither of them any love. And in point of fact he was able whenever he chose to fall upon one or the other with impunity, as that one was unable to retort by falling upon him. A few years later, after the Portuguese had been expelled, the condition of things was of course very different.

Commander Adriaan van der Stel was directed with a considerable body of troops to occupy a certain position in territory claimed by the Dutch. On the march he was surrounded by a Cingalese army, and his whole force, only four men excepted, was destroyed, 19th of May 1646. His head was fixed on a stake and exhibited in triumph, and was then rolled in silk and sent to Joan Maatzuiker, the Dutch governor of Galle. [42]

{174}

Simon van der Stel was not seven years old at the time of his father’s death. Kolbe says that he was in Ceylon and saw the head of his parent after the disaster, but nothing is more unlikely. The strong probability is {175} that upon the arrival of Adriaan van der Stel at Batavia from Mauritius, or shortly afterwards, he sent his son to Holland to be educated, as was then the custom, though there is no actual proof of this. At any rate, at a very early age he was at school in Amsterdam, and was baptized either there or in Batavia when he was about five years old. His mother, Monica of the Coast, can no longer be traced, and whether she had died or remained in Batavia is quite uncertain. The property accumulated by his father was invested by the orphanmasters for his benefit, but it was inconsiderable, and he might have been destitute had not the directors of the East India Company regarded him as their protégé on account of his parent’s losing his life in their service. The Indian blood in his veins was no detriment whatever to him.

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: {176} 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.

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 {177} speculating in cattle, as the Company was desirous of encouraging colonists.

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 {178} tot Drakenstein, but he was more commonly known by his title of lord of Mydrecht.

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 {179} 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.

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 {180} 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.

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 {181} 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.

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 {182} 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.

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 {183} 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.

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. {184}

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 {185} they were agriculturists or vinedressers; but not to send out any more French. [50]

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 {186} 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.

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. {187}

II.

Ordinary Events during the Administration of 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 {188} 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.

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 {189} 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.

Though not greatly elevated, this basin is in the second of the steps by which the mainland of South Africa rises from the ocean to the central plain. If a cane with a large round head be laid upon soft ground, the mark will give an idea of its form. The hollow caused by the head of the cane will represent the basin, the long narrow groove will indicate the valley between the Obiqua mountains and a parallel range ten or eleven kilometres farther inland. The Breede river has its source in the third terrace, and, rushing down a gorge in the interior range, now called Michell’s pass, flows south-eastward through the valley. Close to Michell’s pass the mountain retires, but shortly sweeps round and joins the Obiqua range, the keystone of the arch thus formed being the Great Winterhoek, two thousand and eighty-five metres in height, the loftiest peak visible from Capetown.

It was the basin thus enclosed that the governor and his party entered. It was found to be drained by the Little Berg river and its numerous tributary rills, whose waters escape through a gorge in the Obiqua mountains, and flow north-westward. The watershed between the Breede and Little Berg rivers is merely a gentle swell in the surface of the ground. At the foot of Michell’s pass, at the present day, a mill-race is led out of the Breede and turned into the Little Berg, and thus a few shovelsful of earth can divert water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean.

The basin excels all other parts of South Africa in the variety and beauty of its wild flowers, which in early spring almost conceal the ground. It was too late in the season for the governor’s party to see it at its best, still the visitors were charmed with its appearance. Very few {190} Hottentots were found. In the recesses of the mountains were forests of magnificent trees, and although the timber could not be removed to the Cape, it would be of great use to residents. Immigrants were arriving in every fleet from the Netherlands, so the governor resolved to form a settlement in the valley, where cattle breeding could be carried on to advantage. Agriculture, except to supply the wants of residents, could not be pursued with profit, owing to the difficulty of transport. The governor named the basin the Land of Waveren, in honour of a family of position in Amsterdam. The range of mountains enclosing the valley on the inland side and stretching away as far as the eye could reach, as yet without a name, he called the Witsenberg, after the justly-esteemed burgomaster Nicolaas Witsen of Amsterdam. The land of Waveren has long since become the Tulbagh basin, but one may be allowed to hope that the Witsenberg will always be known by the honoured name it has borne since 1699.

Several burghers who had been living at Drakenstein were now permitted to graze their cattle at Riebeek’s Kasteel, and on the 31st of July 1700 some recent immigrants from Europe were sent to occupy the land of Waveren. As it was the rainy season, the families of the immigrants remained at the Cape until rough cottages could be put up for their accommodation. At the same time a corporal and six soldiers were sent to form a military post in the valley for the protection of the colonists. This post was termed the Waveren outstation, and was maintained for many years. On the 16th of October several additional families were forwarded to the new district to obtain a living as graziers.

For a time after his arrival the Company’s garden in Table Valley was kept by the new governor in the same state of cultivation as that in which his father left it. To its former attractions he added a museum—chiefly of skeletons and stuffed animals—and a small menagerie of wild animals of the country, to which purposes one of the {191} enclosed spaces at the upper end was devoted. Near the centre of the garden he erected a lodge for the reception of distinguished visitors and for his own recreation, which building by enlargement and alterations in later years became the governor’s town residence.

As the garden in Capetown was thus reduced in size, and that at Rondebosch did not produce as large a quantity of vegetables and fruit as was required for the hospital, the garrison, and the ships, in the winter of 1700 Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel caused a new one to be laid out a short distance beyond Rustenburg, and spent much money in its ornamentation. As originally planned, this garden and the plantations attached to it covered forty morgen of ground; but in course of time from twenty to thirty morgen more were added to it. A superintendent was stationed here with assistants and a strong party of slaves, by whose labour the place soon became exceedingly attractive. In this garden, which bore the name of Newlands, a small lodge was erected, which grew half a century later into the favourite country residence of the governors.

Ever since 1658 trade between the burghers and the Hottentots was strictly forbidden. The chief object was to prevent any act that might bring on a collision with the nomadic people or irritate them in any way. In opposition to the law, however, parties of deserters and other persons of loose character carried on a cattle trade, and were often guilty of conduct that cannot be distinguished from robbery. Governor Simon van der Stel thought to check this by threatening more severe punishment, and on the 19th of October 1697 he issued a placaat in which the barter of cattle from Hottentots was prohibited, under penalty of whipping, branding, banishment, and confiscation of property.

The directors disapproved of this. They wished to encourage the colonists, and for that purpose they had already, on the 14th of July 1695, issued instructions that their own farming operations should be gradually discontinued, and that the cultivation of the vine and wheat {192} together with the rearing of cattle should be left entirely to the burghers. They were now disposed to allow the colonists to purchase cattle from the Hottentots and fatten them for sale to such persons as would contract to supply the hospital, the garrison, and the ships with beef and mutton. They therefore annulled the placaat, and on the 27th of June 1699 issued instructions that the cattle trade should be thrown open, care being taken that the Hottentots suffered no ill-treatment in connection with it. Servants of the Company having seats in the council of policy or in the court of justice were excluded from this trade, and forbidden to supply meat for the public service. [54]

This order reached Capetown by the flute De Boer on the 24th of November, but the governor, who paid little regard to the instructions of the directors when they clashed with his own interests, did not make it known at the time. After long delay tenders were called for, and in February 1700 the burgher Henning Huising entered into a contract to supply the garrison, hospital, and Company’s fleets with beef and mutton at 5½d. a kilogramme, he to have the use of the Company’s slaughter houses, and as a cattle run the whole of the district of Groenekloof that was not occupied by Hottentots. The contract was signed provisionally for ten years, but the directors reduced it to five. With this transaction the Company designed to relinquish sending out expeditions to purchase cattle, as {193} had been the custom for nearly half a century; and henceforth it was only when working oxen were needed in greater numbers than the burghers could supply that military bartering parties went out. By a placaat of the council of policy presided over by the commissioner Wouter Valckenier, on the 28th of February 1700 the trade was thrown open to the burghers, with such restrictions as were considered necessary to prevent its abuse.

From this date cattle-breeding became a favourite pursuit with yearly increasing numbers or colonists. There was as much to be made by it as by agriculture, and it was attended with less expense and less anxiety. The government gave permission to applicants to use land for grazing purposes at some defined locality north or north-east of Stellenbosch, but if the pasture failed or did not prove as good as was anticipated, the occupiers did not hesitate to seek other and better places. East of the Hottentots-Holland mountains permission was not given to the burghers in general to graze oxen and sheep until after the governor’s recall in 1707, as he kept the pastures there as far as the Ziekenhuis in one direction and Zoetendal’s Vlei in another for his own use and that of one of his brothers. In defiance of the instructions or the 27th of June 1699 and of the avowed policy of the Company at the time, he himself was rapidly becoming a cattle farmer on a very extensive scale.

Many men and women were thus undergoing a special training for pushing their way deeper into the continent. They were learning to relish a diet of little else than animal food, and to use the flesh of game largely in order to spare their flocks and herds. They were becoming accustomed also to live in tent waggons for months together, so that the want of houses soon ceased to be regarded as a matter of much hardship by these dwellers in the wilds. They were acquiring a fondness for the healthy life of the open country, with its freedom from care and restraint, and its simple pleasures. For the {194} town, with its government officials and law agents and tradesmen and speculators of many kinds always seeking to take advantage of their simplicity, they acquired such a dislike that they never visited it when they could avoid doing so. They took with them no other books than the bible and the psalms in metre, so their children came to regard education in secular subjects as entirely unnecessary. In self-reliance, however, they were receiving the most complete training possible. The tastes and habits which were thus formed were transmitted to their offspring, and in a few generations there was a body of frontiersmen adapted, as no other Europeans ever were, for acting as the pioneers of civilisation in such a country as South Africa.

To encourage the cattle breeders, no rent for ground was charged until 1714, and no other tax than the one for district purposes was laid upon their stock. A little experience proved that occasional change of pasture was advantageous in the rearing of oxen and sheep, and the authorities made no objection to the graziers going yearly for three or four months to a tract of land far from that on which they lived at other times. This grew into a custom for each one to select as winter grazing ground a particular part of the karoo on the third terrace upward from the sea, his right to which was respected by all the others, though it was not directly recognised by the government.

With the enlargement of the settlement, fresh troubles arose with the Bushmen. In March 1701 a band of those people drove off forty head of cattle from Gerrit Cloete’s farm at Riebeek’s Kasteel. A commando of ten soldiers and thirty burghers was sent after the depredators, but was unable to find them. A temporary military post was then established at Vogelvlei, at the foot of the Obiqua mountains.

This protection soon proved insufficient. In April Gerrit Cloete was again robbed, and eleven head of cattle were {195} lifted from the Waveren post. A commando of twelve soldiers and fifty burghers was then organised to clear the country of Bushmen, but did not succeed in effecting its object. It was hardly disbanded when one hundred and thirty-seven head of cattle were lifted within sight of the Vogelvlei post. Upon this a reinforcement of six mounted soldiers was sent to each of the two posts already occupied, and twelve men were stationed at Riebeek’s Kasteel.

The Goringhaiqua and Cochoqua Hottentots now tendered their services to assist the Europeans against the Bushmen, and requested that the captain Kees, who was then living at Groenekloof, might be recognised as their leader in the expedition. But it was discovered that Kees, who had suffered severely from the Bushmen, had already joined a commando of Gerrit Cloete’s friends, and that the joint force was scouring the Obiqua mountains. On receipt of this information, the governor sent instructions to the landdrost of Stellenbosch to have Cloete arrested and brought to trial for waging war without leave, and to ascertain and send in the names of those who had joined him in the expedition.

The prosecution fell through, and the governor thought it best after this to send out only parties of soldiers against the robbers. In September one of these parties recovered a hundred and twenty head of cattle belonging partly to burghers and partly to Hottentots; but in the following month more than two hundred head belonging to the contractor Henning Huising were lifted at Groenekloof, and a patrol of thirty-five soldiers was obliged to fall back from Piketberg, where the Bushmen made a resolute stand.

In November a sergeant and ten men were sent to form a permanent military post at Groenekloof. In the land of Waveren forty head of cattle, mostly belonging to Etienne Terreblanche, were seized by Bushmen, and one of the soldiers who tried to recover them was killed. Two hundred and seventy-four head belonging to Hottentot {196} kraals at Riebeek’s Kasteel were driven off, but a party of soldiers followed the robbers to Twenty-four Rivers, and retook most of the spoil. In trying to afford protection, no distinction was made by the government between burghers and Hottentots, the officers at the outposts being instructed to do their utmost to recover cattle stolen by Bushmen and deliver them to their proper owners, whoever these might be.

In 1702 the military patrols were kept busy on behalf of the Hottentots, for no complaints of depredations were made by burghers. A large number of cattle were recovered and restored to various kraals, and so many Bushmen were shot that those who were left seem to have been terrified. At any rate they gave less trouble during the next few years, though occasionally it was considered necessary to chastise them. The sergeants and corporals in command of the outposts were directed to endeavour to induce the Bushmen to keep the peace. When those wild people committed depredations they were to be followed up and punished, but under no circumstances were they to be attacked without provocation. The ruthless nature of the warfare pursued by the Bushmen was exemplified in February 1702, when a Hottentot captain came to the castle and reported that they had killed five of his wives and every one of his children.

There is little else on record concerning the Hottentots at this period. Some of them made such complaints of the rapacity and violence of burgher trading parties that the council of policy provisionally suspended the liberty of free barter, and, owing to the governor’s representations, in 1703 the assembly of seventeen withdrew the privilege. Commercial intercourse between the two races was again made illegal, and the European graziers were chiefly depended upon to provide as many cattle as were needed.

In September 1704 several Namaqua captains visited the Cape, when an agreement of friendship was made with them. This tribe, like the others with which the Europeans had {197} come in contact, at once accepted as a matter of course the position of vassals. This was shown in October 1705, when three Namaqua captains came to the castle for the purpose of requesting the governor to confirm their authority. They were kindly treated, their request was complied with, and they left carrying with them presents of beads and other trifles and copper-headed canes upon which the new names given to them—Plato, Jason, and Vulcan—were inscribed. Thenceforth they were termed allies of the honourable Company. The number of captains mentioned as having applied for staffs is an indication that the tribes were now more broken up than formerly. Sometimes a clan requested the appointment of a regent, as its hereditary captain was a minor. There are instances of clans applying for a brother of a deceased captain to be appointed in his stead, but in such cases they always gave as a reason that the dead chief had left no children. Feuds between clans of the same tribe caused frequent disturbances, though these same clans usually acted together against the adjoining tribe.

After the removal in 1694 of the reverend Pierre Simond to Drakenstein, there was no resident clergyman at Stellenbosch for nearly six years. Once in three months the clergyman of the Cape visited the vacant church and administered the sacraments, and occasionally Mr. Simond attended for the same purpose. On the remaining Sundays the sick-comforter conducted the services. At length the assembly of seventeen appointed the reverend Hercules van Loon, who had once been acting clergyman of the Cape, resident clergyman of Stellenbosch. He arrived from the Netherlands on the 11th of April 1700.

In April 1678 the foundation of a church in Table Valley had been laid, but with that the work had ceased. For another quarter of a century services were conducted in a large hall within the castle. But in course of time the poor funds accumulated to a considerable amount, and the consistory then consented to apply a sum equal to {198} £2,200 of our money to the erection of the building. As the original plan was now considered too small, it was enlarged, and a new foundation stone was laid by the governor on the 28th of December 1700. By the close of the year 1703 the edifice was finished, except the tower. The first service in it was held on the 6th of January 1704, the reverend Petrus Kalden being the preacher. Of the building then constructed the tower and one of the end walls still remain, the last forming part of the eastern wall of the present church.

At Drakenstein service was conducted sometimes in the front room of a farmer’s house, sometimes in a large barn, or under a screen, there being as yet no church building. There was a French clergyman, who was assisted by a French sick-comforter. In April 1700 a sick-comforter and schoolmaster was first appointed for the Dutch portion of the congregation, that had previously been neglected. An able and zealous man named Jacobus de Groot, who was returning from India to Europe, was detained here for the purpose.

The reverend Mr. Simond had prepared a new version in metre of the psalms of David, which he was desirous of submitting to a synod of the French churches, as great interest had been taken in the work by the Huguenots in Europe. He therefore tendered his resignation, to the regret of the Drakenstein people, and requested permission to return to the Netherlands. The assembly of seventeen consented to his request, on condition of his remaining until the arrival of the reverend Hendrik Bek, whom they appointed to succeed him. Mr. Bek reached the Cape in April 1702, and was installed at Drakenstein a few weeks later.

There was a desire on the part of the directors that in the families of the Huguenot immigrants the French language should be superseded by the Dutch as speedily as possible. It was only a question of time, for the proportion of French-speaking people was too small compared {199} with those of Dutch and German descent for their language to remain long in use in the mixed community. To expedite its decay the new clergyman was directed to conduct the public services in Dutch, though he had been selected because he was conversant with French and could therefore admonish, comfort, and pray with the aged Huguenots who understood no other tongue. Instructions were at the same time sent out that the school children were to be taught to read and write Dutch only. The sick-comforter Paul Roux was not prevented, however, from ministering to the Huguenots of any age in whichever tongue was most familiar to them.

This arrangement created much dissatisfaction. The French immigrants sent in a memorial requesting that Mr. Bek should be instructed to preach in their language once a fortnight. They stated that they comprised over a hundred adults, not more than twenty-five of whom understood sufficient Dutch to gather the meaning of a sermon. There was also even a larger number of children of their nationality. The council of policy recommended the memorial to the favourable consideration of the assembly of seventeen; but before action could be taken upon it, Mr. Bek requested to be removed to Stellenbosch as successor to Mr. Van Loon, who died by his own hand on the 27th of June 1704. The directors then appointed the reverend Engelbertus Franciscus le Boucq [55] clergyman of Drakenstein, and gave instructions that upon his arrival from Batavia Mr. Bek should be transferred to Stellenbosch. They gave the council of policy permission to allow the {200} French language to be used alternately with the Dutch in the church services at Drakenstein, if it should seem advisable to do so.

The newly appointed minister did not reach the Cape until the 30th of March 1707. Mr. Bek then took charge of the Stellenbosch congregation, which had been for nearly three years without a clergyman, except once in three months when he had preached and administered the sacraments. Mr. Le Boucq should have taken up the duties in the parish to which he had been appointed, but instead of doing so, he got into difficulties at the Cape, as will be related in another chapter, and Drakenstein was for several years without a resident clergyman.

In the evening of the 3rd of April 1702 the outward bound ship Meresteyn , an Indiaman of the first class, ran ashore on Jutten Island, and in less than an hour broke into little pieces. Her skipper was endeavouring to reach Saldanha Bay, and the ship was in a heavy surf before any one on board suspected danger. The majority of her crew were lost, as also were two women and five children passengers for the Cape. Ninety-nine persons managed to reach the shore.

In March 1702 a marauding party, consisting of forty-five white men and the same number of Hottentots, whose deeds were afterwards prominently brought to light, left Stellenbosch, and remained away seven months. They travelled eastward until they reached the neighbourhood of the Fish river, where at daylight one morning they were attacked unexpectedly and without provocation by a band of Xosa warriors who were fugitives from their own country and were living in friendship with the Hottentots. The assailants were beaten off, followed up, and when they turned and made another stand, were defeated again, losing many men. One European was killed. The party then commenced a career of robbery, excusing their acts to themselves under the plea that they were undertaken in retaliation. They fell upon the Gonaquas and other Hottentot hordes, shot many of them, and drove off their cattle. {201}

The perpetrators of these scandalous acts were not brought to justice. In after years when the governor and the colonists were at variance, and each party was endeavouring to blacken the reputation of the other, the governor stated that they were in league with the colonists and were too numerous to be punished without ruining half the settlement. This statement was, however, indignantly contradicted by the most respectable burghers, who asserted that the marauding Europeans were miscreants without families or homes, being chiefly fugitives from justice and men of loose character who had been imprudently discharged from the Company’s service. The burghers maintained that they ought to have been punished, and that the real reason why they were not prosecuted was that the governor’s agents had obtained cattle for him in the same manner, which would be brought to light at a trial. The names of the forty-five white men who formed the robber band are given. Forty of them are quite unknown in South Africa at the present day, and the remaining five are of that class that cannot be distinguished with certainty, so that the statements of the burghers are strongly borne out.

Owing chiefly to the scarcity of timber and fuel, in 1705 it was resolved to send an expedition to Natal and the adjoining coast, to make an inspection of the country and particularly of the forests there. The schooner Centaurus , which had been built at Natal in 1686-7, principally of timber growing on the shore of the inlet, was a proof that the wood was valuable, for she had been in use nearly fourteen years before needing repair. The galiot Postlooper was made ready for the expedition. Her master, Theunis van der Schelling, had visited Natal when he was mate of the Noord in 1689 and 1690, and therefore knew the harbour. He was instructed to make a thorough exploration of the forests, and to frame a chart of the coast. A sailor who was expert in drawing pictures was sent to take sketches of the scenery. {202}

The Postlooper sailed from Table Bay on the 20th of November 1705. She reached Natal on the 29th of December, and found the bar so silted up that she could only cross at high water. There were not so many cattle in the neighbourhood as there had been sixteen years before. Wood still remained on the shores of the inlet in considerable quantities.

In December 1689 a purchase of the inlet and surrounding land had been made from the chief then living at Port Natal, and had been recorded in a formal contract, two copies of which had been drawn up. The one kept by the Dutch officers was lost when the Noord was wrecked in January 1690, and the master of the Postlooper had therefore received instructions to endeavour to procure the other, that had been left with the chief, in order that a notarial copy might be made. The chief who sold the ground was dead, and his son was now the head of the tribe or clan, whichever it may have been. Upon Skipper Van der Schelling making inquiry of him concerning the document, the chief stated that he knew nothing about it, and supposed it had been buried with his father’s other effects. It was evident that he did not recognise the sale as binding upon him or his people.

At Natal an Englishman was found who gave his name as Vaughan Goodwin, and who stated that he was a native of London. He had two wives and several children. His story was that he arrived in February 1699 in a vessel named the Fidele , and with two others had been left behind by Captain Stadis, who intended to form a settlement there. They were to purchase ivory from the blacks, for which purpose goods had been left with them, and were to keep possession of the place until Captain Stadis should return, which he promised them would certainly be within three years; but he had not yet made his appearance. In 1700 the blacks some distance inland had killed the other white men on account of their having become robbers. {203}

The life which Goodwin was leading seemed so attractive to two of the Postlooper’s crew that they ran away from the vessel. When crossing the bar in leaving Natal the galiot lurched, and the tiller struck the skipper in the chest and hurt him so badly that he became unfit for duty. There was no one on board who could take his place, so the vessel returned to the Cape without any further attempt at exploration being made. She dropped anchor again in Table Bay on the 8th of March 1706.

The directors were desirous of procuring sheep’s wool from South Africa, as some samples sent to Europe were pronounced of excellent quality. They were of opinion that if it could be produced at seventeen pence halfpenny a kilogramme, they would be able to make a good profit from it, and the colonists would have another reliable source of income. Instructions were sent to the government to have this industry taken in hand by the burghers. But it was not a pursuit that commended itself to South African farmers at that time. Although a good many European sheep had been imported in former years, there were very few of pure breed left, nearly all having been crossed with the large tailed animal. It was commonly believed that woolled sheep were more subject to scab than others, and the havoc created by that disease was so great that the farmers were in constant dread of it. Then there was the expense of separate herds. Further the carcase of the woolled sheep was not so valuable as that of the other, so that the graziers who bred for slaughter could not be induced even to make experiments.

In 1700 the government sent home one hundred and twenty-nine kilogrammes of wool shorn from sheep belonging to the Company. This was received with favour, but instead of increasing, the quantity fell off in succeeding years. In 1703 one small bale was all that could be obtained. It realised about thirty-two pence English money a kilogramme on the market in Amsterdam. In 1704 a very small quantity was procured, in 1705 none at all, {204} and in 1706 fifty-two kilogrammes. In the meantime the governor took the matter in hand as a private speculation. He collected all the wool-bearing sheep in the settlement at a farm of his own, wrote to Europe for rams and ewes of good breed and to Java for some Persian sheep, and was about to give the industry a fair trial when he was recalled.

The governor had previously endeavoured to encourage the production of silk. He made experiments with the white mulberry, which was found to grow and thrive well, but the silkworms which he obtained from imported eggs all died. He then gave up the trial, being of opinion that the mulberry was in leaf at the wrong season of the year for worms from the south of Europe.

A less important but more successful experiment made by this governor was placing partridges and pheasants on Robben Island to breed.

From 1698 to 1705 the seasons were very unfavourable for farming, and no wheat could be exported. In 1700 it became necessary to import rice from Java, as there was not sufficient grain in the country for the consumption of the people and the supply of fresh bread to the crews of ships. In 1705 the long drought broke up, and the crops were very good; but as the wheat was being reaped heavy rains set in and greatly damaged it. There was, however, a surplus above the requirements of the country, and in 1706 exportation was resumed, and fourteen hundred muids were sent to Batavia.

The population of the colony was at this time increasing rapidly. The families of the burghers were generally large, they married at an early age, and no young women remained single. From Europe every year a few settlers were received. A custom had come into vogue of allowing soldiers and convalescent sailors to engage for short periods as servants to burghers, their wages and cost of maintenance being thus saved to the Company, while they were at hand in case of need. From a hundred to a hundred and fifty {205} of the garrison and seamen were commonly out at service. A great many slaves were being introduced from Madagascar and Mozambique.

The bad seasons tended to produce a spirit of restlessness among the farming population, which was increased by the conduct of the principal officers of the government. Between Willem Adriaan van der Stel and the colonists of South Africa there was not the slightest feeling of sympathy, nor could there be between men who had a difficulty in making more than a frugal livelihood and a governor who was unscrupulous in his manner of acquiring wealth, and who regarded their interests as entirely subordinate to his own. In all the official documents of the period during which he was at the head of affairs, and the quantity is great, there is not a single expression like “our own Netherlanders” of his father. He requested the directors, indeed, to send out industrious Zeeland farmers and no more French cadets, but the sentence displays as little affection for the one as for the other.

The condition of things in the country districts was one of discontent, mingled with indignation towards the governor and some others, the reasons for which will presently be explained. In Capetown it was different. The people there could more easily be kept in restraint, and were less affected by the causes which at this time tended to produce intense dissatisfaction among the farmers. Those causes were not trifling ones, as will be seen in the following pages.

The East India Company had now been a century in existence, and the honesty and rectitude of conduct which distinguished its officials in early times were no longer noticeable except in a very few instances. Its mode of paying its servants, largely by perquisites, had tended to create a spirit of greed, and most of them were actuated more by the desire of acquiring wealth with which to retire than of advancing the interests of the association that employed them. To such an extent was private {206} trading carried on in the East that the Company feared its utter ruin would be the result. There were even instances of Indian produce being sent to Europe in its own ships, and transferred to smuggling vessels off the coast of Holland, when it was landed and sold stealthily at rates with which the legitimate trade could not compete.

In November 1699 the directors found it necessary to instruct the governor-general and council of India to appoint two of the ablest men they could find to proceed to the various stations and check the abuses. They were to be empowered to dismiss from the service all of the Company’s officials who should be found guilty of abusing their trust, and to confiscate summarily all goods found in their possession which they were not entitled to have according to the regulations. They did not then imagine that the man whom they had recently appointed governor of the Cape settlement would in coming years prove to be the foremost of all the offenders in this respect. {207}

III.

Faithless Conduct of the Governor.

Willem Adriaan van der Stel, as soon as he assumed the administration, looked around for some means of acquiring money. The Cape settlement did not offer such facilities for this purpose as an Indian island or province would have done, still there were means for making large profits on trade even here. One plan that he adopted was by obtaining—purchasing as he termed it, constraining them to sell, as the burghers called it—from the poorer viticulturists their wines at from £3 2 s. 6 d. to £4 3 s. 4 d. the legger, and selling it to English and Dutch ships at £28 15 s. or more. When these transactions were brought to light in later years, his explanation was that he had naturally purchased at as low a rate as he could, and that the ships’ people were willing to pay more for wines which he had improved by his skill than for those which the burghers made quite carelessly. [56] The farmers asserted that until his own vineyards were productive he bought and sold in this manner about one hundred leggers yearly; in the Korte Deductie , a kind of excuse for his conduct which he published after his dismissal, he stated that he had not bought and sold twenty leggers altogether, and there are no means now of ascertaining which statement is correct. There may have been nothing actually criminal in dealings of this kind, but they certainly did not tend to create respect, much less affection, for a governor who could act in this manner. {208}

This was, however, a small matter compared with the governor’s conduct in carrying on farming operations on a very large scale on his own account, in disregard of the Company’s desire to favour the colonists by relinquishing the breeding of cattle and the cultivation of wheat and the vine in order that they might have better means of making a living, and in direct opposition to the express orders of the directors of the 26th of April 1668, the 14th of July 1695, and the 27th of June 1699. In the first of these instructions the directors had forbidden the members of the council to have larger gardens or a greater number of cattle than they required for the use of their own households, and this order had never been cancelled. The high commissioner Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede, lord of Mydrecht, had indeed made a grant of Constantia after that date to the governor’s father, Simon van der Stel, but he possessed very great and special powers, and the ground was given under circumstances which no longer existed. No one except the directors themselves or some official possessing equal authority to that of the lord of Mydrecht could legally grant land to a governor of the colony.

In February 1700, when Willem Adriaan van der Stel had been a year at the head of affairs, a commissioner, Wouter Valckenier by name, holding authority from the governor-general and council of India to inspect matters at the Cape and rectify anything that was wrong, on his way from Batavia to Europe called here, and during his stay took precedence of all the local officials. [57] What representations were made to him cannot be ascertained, for there is nothing concerning the matter in the Cape archives or those at the Hague, but at any rate he made {209} a grant to the governor of four hundred morgen of ground at Hottentots-Holland, and signed a title-deed of it. He could not have foreseen the consequences, for he knew that the policy of the Company at the time was directly opposed to the head of the government being engaged in farming, and he could not have imagined that an official, whose duties required his presence at the castle almost constantly, would so far forget his obligations as to leave his post and devote his time and attention to private affairs. Probably he thought that the possession of a tract of land at such a distance could signify very little, but he realised afterwards that he had made a great mistake, for he was one of the directors of the Company when the grant was annulled on the ground of its having been improperly and fraudulently obtained.

Of the two precedents for heads of the government holding farms—not mere gardens—at the Cape, [58] both dated from a time when the settlement was very small, and the land assigned was so close to Table Valley that it could be cultivated without detriment to the public service. There was no precedent for a grant to a commander or a governor at such a distance from the fort or the castle that it could not be visited in a couple of hours. The policy of the directors recently made known was entirely opposed to such grants, and Willem Adriaan van der Stel was perfectly acquainted with that fact, as has already been shown. This policy remained unaltered ever afterwards. It was again impressed upon the governor in the strongest language in a despatch from the directors dated the 28th of October 1705, in which instructions were given that all the burghers should be permitted to tender for the supply of the beef and mutton required by the Company, that this should be regarded as a right belonging {210} exclusively to them, and that no servant of the Company, the governor included, should be allowed to supply any meat to the ships, the hospital, etc., directly or indirectly. [59]

The farm at Hottentots-Holland the governor named Vergelegen. He lost no time in turning it to account, for he immediately began to build upon it, to break up and cultivate the ground, and to adorn it in every possible way. The choicest plants from the Company’s gardens were removed to it, and the Company’s master gardener, Jan Hertog by name, was sent there to lay out the grounds and superintend the work. [60] Great gangs of slaves {211} and a large number of soldiers and convalescent sailors, who were skilful agriculturists or mechanics, [61] were constantly at work there, until the farm, which he expanded to six hundred and thirteen morgen, assumed the appearance of the most highly cultivated ground in South Africa.

On it were planted over four hundred thousand vines, or fully one-fourth of the whole number in the colony in 1706. Groves, orchards, and corn lands were laid out to a corresponding extent. [62] On the estate were built a very commodious dwelling-house, 82·4 by 74 English feet or 25·11 by 22·55 metres in size and with walls 19½ English feet or 5·94 metres in height, forming a storey and a half as it is termed at the Cape, a flour mill, a leather tannery, a workshop for making wooden water pipes, wine and {212} grain stores, an overseer’s cottage, a slave lodge, and very extensive out-buildings.

Beyond the mountains he had eighteen cattle stations or runs, on which he kept fully a thousand head of horned cattle and over eighteen thousand sheep. [63]

With the instructions of the directors before him, it is difficult to imagine how a sane man could have embarked in such an enterprise. If it should become known, he must be ruined, for his friends and connections in Amsterdam, though influential, could not support him in opposing the highest authority. His only hope must therefore have been that his transactions would never be known in Holland. No ships’ officers were likely to see, or perhaps even to hear of, Vergelegen and the cattle stations, and no one in South Africa, he must have thought, would be likely to report upon it. The burghers knew nothing of the orders that had been issued—that is very evident,—and probably he thought that they supposed he was permitted to farm on such a scale. No information was ever sent by him to the directors concerning Vergelegen, and the utmost care was taken that in no official document of any kind, of which duplicates had to be sent to Europe or India, was mention made of the place or of any of the governor’s farming transactions. Actually for more than five years the whole thing was kept secret, and it might have been so for an indefinite time if the governor had not provoked the burghers to complain of him.

His inordinate desire to acquire wealth had stifled all feeling of fidelity to the trust reposed in him by the authorities in Holland. On the 15th of March 1701 the directors wrote to him and the council that Carlos II, {213} king of Spain, had died childless, leaving by will his crown to Philippe duke of Anjou, grandson of the king of France, that Louis XIV had thereupon sent troops into the Spanish Netherlands and garrisoned the principal cities to the very border of the republic, which had caused the greatest apprehension of danger. The country was being placed in a condition of defence, and the emperor and the king of England were preparing for eventualities. The governor and the council were enjoined to be on their guard. [64]

In another despatch from the directors, dated the 18th of February 1702, the governor and council were informed that there was every probability of the outbreak of hostilities. Spain had accepted Philippe as her king, which was regarded as equivalent to her becoming subject to Louis XIV. And on the 15th of May 1702 England, Holland, and the Empire issued a declaration of war against France, Bavaria, and Spain, when the great contest known in history as the war of the Spanish Succession commenced, in which our English Marlborough won so much renown. As far as England and Holland were concerned, the war continued until the 11th of April 1711, when the treaty of Utrecht was signed, so that nearly the whole term of office of Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel was a period of hostilities.

He was entrusted with the care of what was rightly regarded in Holland as the frontier fortress of India. He was directed to reflect every night when he retired to rest that when he awoke in the morning he might find an enemy ready for attack before the gate of the castle, if due precautions were not taken. The officer in command of the garrison, Olof Bergh, was only a captain in rank, and was required to carry out his instructions. Every evening after prayers it was his duty to give the password and countersign for the night, to issue directions where {214} sentries were to be placed, and to ascertain that everything connected with the military department was in proper order. He only could call out the burghers to aid in the defence of the colony. It was a post of extreme importance, which required the strictest attention to the obligations of duty. Tidings frequently came of English or Dutch ships being captured by French men-of-war and privateers in the Indian sea as well as in European waters, and although the captures of French ships by the allies were more numerous, there was nothing extravagant in the supposition that a few men-of-war with a strong body of troops on board might sail from some port of France or Spain and attempt to get possession of the castle of Good Hope. The temptation to do so was very great. The colony was not thought of, for that was of small importance in the great war. But if the castle of Good Hope was occupied by a French garrison, the ships of the Dutch East India Company could be all seized as they came with their rich cargoes from the East, and one of the sources of that wealth which enabled the Netherlands republic to supply the funds for carrying on the war would be cut off.

Avarice is the blindest of vices, and the eyes of Willem Adriaan van der Stel were closed to everything except the money that flowed into his coffers from an estate built upon and cultivated almost entirely at the Company’s expense, [65] and from flocks and herds practically pillaged {215} from the Hottentots. The trust confided to him the governor disregarded to such an extent that he was frequently absent at his farm Vergelegen for two to six weeks at a time as the burghers asserted, six or seven days he himself admitted in his Korte Deductie , [66] surely the weakest attempt as an excuse for such conduct that ever was penned. It was a journey of twelve hours by a single span of horses from the castle to Vergelegen, but by keeping relays of fresh teams along the road, as he did, it could be done in six hours. What might not have happened in even six hours if a French fleet had sailed into the bay? Fortunately for the colony, none appeared. But the burghers were certainly justified in the fear which they expressed that the governor was imperilling the very existence of the settlement and exposing it to foreign conquest by absenting himself from his duty.

If there were no other charges against him than this one alone, an honest historian, whose duty it is to expose to scorn the evil deeds of ignoble men as well as to hold up to admiration the good deeds of the upright, would {216} be compelled to pronounce Willem Adriaan van der Stel one of the most faithless and contemptible men of whom the records of any nation, ancient or modern, furnish an example. Many a governor has lost his head for crimes less glaring than his reckless neglect of duty for the sake of private interest.

The governor was not the only official of the Company in South Africa who was farming on his own account, though he was the most prominent of them all, and his operations were far more extensive than those of any of the others. The secunde, Samuel Elsevier, an old and somewhat weak-minded man, had obtained a grant of the farm Elsenburg, near Klapmuts, from Governor Simon van der Stel, [67] which brought him in about £250 yearly after all expenses were paid. He might have cultivated it without reproach from the burghers if he had not always submitted his will to that of the governor. In the council he was regarded as a nonentity, simply giving his vote in accordance with the wishes of the head of the government. Two other members of the council of policy, the fiscal Johan Blesius and the military captain Olof Bergh, had also obtained grants of land, but were so moderate in their use that the burghers did not complain of them.

The reverend Petrus Kalden, clergyman of Capetown, had also obtained a grant of a farm, Zandvliet, between Stellenbosch and the head of False Bay. He spent a good deal of time there, but he afterwards proved to the satisfaction of the authorities in Holland that his object in {217} doing so was not purely mercenary, but was mainly a wish to acquire a perfect knowledge of the Hottentot language, in order that he might attempt to teach those people the doctrines of Christianity, and so improve their condition. [68] The yearly income he derived from it cannot be ascertained, but the ground with the buildings which he erected upon it realised £1424 by public auction after his recall.

The governor’s brother, Frans van der Stel, who was not in the Company’s service, had a farm at Hottentots-Holland. He was intensely disliked by the other burghers, on account of his assuming an air of superiority over them, and, depending upon his relative’s support, doing pretty much as he liked. He was in the habit of requiring them to plough his land, to convey his produce to town, and perform other work for him, under threats that if they did not he would see that they should regret it.

There have never been people less inclined to submit quietly to grievances, real or imaginary, than the early colonists of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. Even at this infant stage of the settlement’s existence they showed that great difference from the inhabitants of Capetown which is observable to the present day. They did not know it then, but it was they who were destined to impart that spirit of hostility to oppression and wrong which has ever since marked the country people of South Africa. It is not without reason that the farmers of the distant north and east to-day regard Stellenbosch and Drakenstein as the mother settlements of the country, and look upon Capetown almost as a foreign city. The spirit of the town is widely different from that of the country. And in 1705, when the first great struggle against tyranny and corruption commenced, the very best men of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, those who had filled the posts of elders and deacons {218} in the church, of heemraden in the district court, and of officers in the militia, were those who threw themselves into it. Among them was Jan Willem Grevenbroek, the most learned man in South Africa at the time, who had retired from the Company’s service, and had recently been an elder at Stellenbosch. His name should command the respect of students of ethnology, though his work has been to some extent distorted by a later writer. He took as active a part in the movement against the governor as was consistent with his character as a modest and godfearing student, though his name does not appear on the principal memorial that will presently be referred to.

The farmers did not know that instructions in their favour had been sent out by the directors, which the governor had disregarded, but they saw plainly that nothing but ruin was before them if matters went on longer as they were then going. The governor was turning every possible source of profit to his own account and that of his relatives and friends. He had eighteen different cattle stations or enormous grazing farms beyond the mountains, and would allow no one but himself and his brother to use the pasture there. His horned cattle numbered, as afterwards ascertained, fully a thousand head, and his sheep were eighteen thousand eight hundred all told. He had a vineyard sixty-one morgen and a half in extent at Vergelegen, and besides his plantations and cornlands there, he had taken possession of another tract of land nearly a hundred and nineteen morgen in extent, upon which he was growing wheat. His expenditure was very small, for he made use of the Company’s servants largely to do his work, and he paid no tithes of his grain to the Company, as the burghers were obliged to do. [69]

{219}

The governor had the first entry into the market, and high prices from foreign ships went into his pocket. Then his brother Frans at Hottentots-Holland, his father at Contantia, and the secunde at Elsenburg followed, and by the time all their produce was disposed of little indeed was left that the burghers of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein could sell to good account. In another way too the governor’s conduct was believed to be such as to forfeit the respect of the burghers, who were godfearing men. In his domestic life he was said to follow closely the example of our Charles II, and it was asserted that he had given strict orders that the ten commandments were not to be read in the church when he was present. [70] There is no way of either proving or disproving these charges against him, but the fact that they were made shows in how little esteem he was held.

In 1705 some of the farmers determined to complain to {220} the Indian authorities, and they succeeded in forwarding to the governor-general and council at Batavia a list of charges against him. It was a dangerous thing to do, for if their names should become known, and no redress be afforded, they knew, that they would be made to feel the governor’s vengeance. The council was not regarded as any check upon him, and the military power was entirely at his disposal, so that to brave his anger was an act requiring more than ordinary moral courage. It was the commencement of the struggle against corruption and tyranny by the burghers of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein.

At Batavia no immediate action was taken in the matter, but a copy of the complaints, without the signatures to the document, was forwarded to the governor, who was required to answer to them. While the complainants were awaiting a reply from the Indian authorities, one of them, Adam Tas by name, a respectable burgher and a deacon of the Stellenbosch church, drew up a memorial to the directors in Holland. Tas was a native of the city of Amsterdam, who had received a good commercial education, and had come to Capetown in the capacity of bookkeeper in the service of the contractor Henning Huising, whose wife, Maria Lindenhof, was a sister of Tas’s mother. After serving as a bookkeeper for some time, Tas married a widow named Elizabeth van Brakel, whose former husband had left her a well-cultivated farm in the Stellenbosch district, and he then went to reside there. He had thus the qualifications and much of the knowledge necessary for the task he had taken in hand, but as he was ignorant of the instructions of the directors, the document which he drew up was in some points very much weaker than it might have been made if the official documents had been open for his inspection as they are now for ours. On the other hand, for the same reason some of the charges were perhaps slightly overdrawn, but the governor was subsequently unable to prove that the most serious of them were without solid foundation. {221}

In this document the directors were informed of the governor’s extensive farming operations, and of his employment of the Company’s servants and slaves and of the use of the Company’s materials for his private service. He was accused of obtaining cattle by violent means from the Hottentots, who were provoked to retaliate upon innocent people for the wrongs done to them. [71] He was also accused of extorting cattle from burghers by improper means. He was stated to have been frequently absent at Vergelegen from two to six weeks at a time, when his public duties were neglected. He was charged with selecting all the best timber and staves for casks out of the Company’s stores, and paying less than the burghers had to pay for what was left; of preventing free trade in wine, and then extorting it from poor farmers at a very low price and selling it to foreign ships at an enormous profit; of monopolising all trade with foreigners; of requiring farmers to convey materials to Vergelegen without payment; of compelling the bakers, by threats of his displeasure if they did not, to buy his wheat at high prices; of defrauding the {222} Company by not paying tithes of his wheat; of commandeering—to use an expressive colonial word—over four hundred woolled sheep from them without payment; of requiring to be bribed before he would issue title-deeds to farms; and of arranging the wine and slaughter licenses in such a manner that the holders could obtain what they needed at very low prices from the farmers by paying him very high prices for what he had to sell.

There were some other charges against him, but they were of less importance than these, and they need not be mentioned.

The secunde, Samuel Elsevier, and the clergyman, Petrus Kalden, were charged with being occupied with agriculture to a very large extent, and of neglecting their duties in consequence. Frans van der Stel, the governor’s brother, was declared to be a perfect pest to the settlement.

This memorial was dated the 5th of January 1706, and was signed by Jan Rotterdam, Henning Huising, Abraham Diemer, Nicolaas Diepenauw, Jan van Meerland, Jacob de Savoye, Willem Mensink, Stephanus Vermey, Guillaume du Toit, Pieter van der Byl, Adam Tas, Jacob van Brakel, Jacob Plunes, Hercules du Pré, Jacobus van der Heiden, Wessel Pretorius, Jan Elberts, Hans Jacob Conterman, Nicolaas Elberts, Jean le Roux, Ary van Wyk, Pieter de Mont, Pierre Meyer, Reinier van de Zande, Jacobus Louw, Daniel Sevenhofen, Ferdinandus Appel, Matthys Greef, Willem van Zyl, Daniel Hugo, Jacques Theron, Etienne Niel, Jean du Buis, Jacques Malan, Douwe Frederiks, Christiaan Wynoch, François du Toit, Claude Marais, Arend Gildenhuis, Cornelis van Niekerk, Nicolaas van der Westhuizen, Pierre de Villiers, Paul Couvret, Abraham Vivier, Abraham Bleusel, Jacques Pienard, Pierre Vivier, Esaias Costeux, Pierre Mouy, Etienne Bruere, David Senekal, J. le Roux, Jacob Vivier, Pierre Rousseau, Salomon de Gourney, Pierre Cronje, Coenraad Cyffer, Charles Marais, Louis le Riche, Nicolaas Meyboom, Jacob Cloete, and Jan Hendrik Styger. {223}

In a volume published by the governor some time afterwards, as well as in his statements to the directors and the Indian authorities, [72] he attempted to explain away some of these charges, and he succeeded so far that several must be pronounced not proven, while in some others he established his innocence, but in all that related to his extensive farming operations and to his making use of the Company’s servants, slaves, and materials, he failed completely in overthrowing the charges made against him. He does not refer to his not having paid tithes of his grain, for he certainly could not refute that charge.

During the night of the 3rd of February 1706 the first five ships of the return fleet of that year, which sailed from the roads of Batavia on the 2nd of December 1705, cast anchor in Table Bay, and they were followed in the morning of the 4th by five others, all under the flag of Commander Jan de Wit. They had orders to remain here until the arrival of three ships from Ceylon and two others to be despatched later from Batavia, that all might sail together for Europe. It had been arranged with the English authorities in India that their return ships should also call at Table Bay, in order to proceed farther with the Dutch fleet, so that there might be a very strong force to oppose any French cruisers in the Atlantic.

With these ships the governor received a despatch from the Indian authorities enclosing a copy of the document in which he was accused of malpractices, that had been sent to Batavia in the previous year. He immediately concluded that similar charges would be forwarded to the Netherlands, and that a memorial embodying them must be in existence; but he was unable to learn where it was, or who were parties to it. The danger of his position, {224} which he at once realised, now drove him to acts of extreme folly as well as of the grossest tyranny. To prevent the knowledge of his farming operations reaching the directors became the object of highest importance to him. If that could be done, he might still be safe, but if it could not, it would matter little what additional charges were brought against him, for in any case all would be lost. There is no other way of accounting for the absurd and violent measures that he now resorted to, for he cannot be regarded as insane, though the remark of one of his opponents that avarice had intoxicated him was doubtlessly true.

He now caused a certificate to be drawn up, in which he was credited with the highest virtues, and the utmost satisfaction was expressed with his administration. The male residents of Capetown were then invited to the castle, and were there requested to sign the certificate. His servants were sent out to collect in turn all the mechanics and labourers of every description in the town and all the fishermen, white and black, and to bring them to the castle to drink wine and beer and to smoke a pipe of tobacco at his expense. They mustered there party after party, and after making merry, allowed their names to be attached to the document, probably without knowing or caring what its contents were.

The landdrost of Stellenbosch, Jan Starrenburg by name, a mere tool of the governor, who had held office since July 1705, was directed to proceed with an armed band from house to house in the country, and require the residents there to sign it also. This was a much more difficult matter to effect than to get the signatures of the town’s people. Many of the farmers refused, even under the landdrost’s threats that they would be marked men if they did not. Not a few of the respectable names found on that extraordinary document are certainly not genuine, for they appear with a cross, though the men that they professed to represent could write letters and sign other papers as well as the governor himself could do. Of the two {225} hundred and forty names found on it, less than one hundred are known in South Africa to-day, and of these, as already stated, many must have been placed there fraudulently. Surely no such means of obtaining a certificate of good conduct was ever resorted to by any other officer of rank in a colony. [73]

The governor suspected that a memorial to the directors concerning his conduct had been prepared to be sent to the Netherlands by some officer in the return fleet, and that Adam Tas, as a competent penman, had most likely written it. To get possession of his papers, an act of extreme violence, contrary to all law and justice, was then resolved upon. The landdrost of Stellenbosch was directed to arrest Tas, and without a warrant or any legal authority whatever, with a strong armed party he surrounded the house of that burgher at early dawn in the morning of Sunday, the 28th of February 1706, arrested him, sent him a prisoner to Capetown, searched his house, and carried away his writing desk. After this outrage there could be no truce whatever between the governor and his opponents, for if a burgher could be treated in this manner, upon mere suspicion of having drawn up a memorial to the high authorities, no man’s liberty would be safe. Bail was immediately offered for the appearance of Tas before a court of justice, but was refused. He was committed to prison, where he was kept nearly fourteen months in close confinement, without his wife or friends being permitted to see him, without writing materials, and even when his little son died, without being allowed to see the corpse.

In his desk was found the draft from which the memorial to the directors had been copied. It was unsigned, but a list containing a number of names and various letters which were with it indicated several of those who had taken part in the compilation. The completed memorial, with {226} sixty-two names, thirty-one of which were those of Frenchmen, attached to it, was at the time in the house of a burgher in Capetown, where it was intended to be kept until it could be sent away with the return fleet.

The governor thus became acquainted with the nature and terms of the charges against him. On the 4th of March a number of ships’ officers were invited to assist in the deliberations of the council of policy, and some of the retired and acting burgher councillors were summoned to give evidence. These answered a few questions put to them by the governor, in a manner favourable to him. The broad council then consented to the issue of a placaat, in which all persons were forbidden to take part in any conspiracy or to sign any malicious or slanderous document against the authorities of the country, under pain of severe punishment. The ringleaders in such acts were threatened with death or corporal chastisement. The fiscal and the landdrost were authorised to seize persons suspected of such offences, and to commit them to prison. This placaat was on the following Sunday affixed to the door of the Stellenbosch church.

Within the next few days the governor caused the burghers Wessel Pretorius and Jacobus van der Heiden to be arrested and committed to prison, the retired burgher councillor Jan Rotterdam to be banished to Batavia, and the burghers Pieter van der Byl, Henning Huising, Ferdinandus Appel, and Jan van Meerland to be put on board a ship bound to Amsterdam. Jan Rotterdam was seventy years of age, and afflicted with diabetes, a disease that made it difficult for him to rise quickly from his seat. He was respected by every one, but the governor had taken a dislike to him because he did not rise in church when his Excellency entered, and only saluted by taking off his hat and bowing when seated on a stoep and his Excellency passed by. This was termed by the governor insolence, malice, and disrespect, and formed the principal complaint {227} against him. [74] To this offence he had added, as had the others named, by signing the memorial. These men had no time given to them to arrange their affairs, but were hurried out of the country as if they had been malefactors. They were informed that they must answer before the supreme authorities at the places of their destination to the charges of sedition and conspiracy that would be forwarded by the Cape council, and if they had any complaints they might make them there also.

By these high-handed proceedings, which were hardly ever equalled by the most despotic monarch in Europe, and which were in direct opposition to the laws and customs of the Netherlands, [75] though indeed more than once violated there in times of popular uprisings, the governor hoped to terrify his opponents into signing the certificate in his favour and denying the truth of the charges against him. But not one of those who were confined on board the ships in the bay faltered for a moment. Their wives petitioned that the prisoners should be brought to trial at once before a proper court of justice, which was their right as free-born Netherlanders, and when it was hinted that if they would induce their husbands to do what was desired, release would follow, these true-hearted women indignantly refused.

The arrest and committal to prison of Nicolaas van der Westhuizen, Christiaan Wynoch, Hans Jacob Conterman, and Nicolaas Meyboom followed shortly. The governor felt {228} sure now that the complaints of the burghers would reach Holland by some means or other, and therefore on the 31st of March 1706 he and the council addressed a letter to the directors, in which a very unfavourable description of the burghers who signed the memorial was given, and their conduct in doing so was styled conspiracy, sedition, mutiny, and rebellion. [76] With this letter was sent an attested copy of the certificate in his favour, as if it had been a voluntary and spontaneous act on the part of those whose names or marks were attached to it.

In the meantime the memorial had been committed to the care of Abraham Bogaert, a physician in the return fleet, who was refreshing himself on shore, and who had warm sympathy with the oppressed burghers. He afterwards wrote a history of these events, which is one of the best ever published, and which agrees in all respects with the records in the Cape archives. The Ceylon ships did not reach Table Bay until the 5th and 6th of March, and the two from Batavia only on the 24th and 26th of that month. The last arrival required a few days’ delay for refreshment, but at length all were ready for sea, as were the English ships that had been waiting to sail in their company. On Sunday, the 4th of April 1706, the anchors were raised, and the fifteen Dutch and nine English Indiamen stood out to sea with a favouring breeze. What a gallant sight it must have been for all but the four banished men, who were forced to leave all that was dear to them here in Africa, and their farms to be looked after by their wives alone! When the fleet was at sea and all fear of search was over, Bogaert delivered the memorial to Henning Huising.

The anchors of the ships were being raised and the topsails being sheeted home when the governor must have reflected that he was making a mistake in sending four of the burghers to Europe. In great haste he embarked in a galiot and followed the fleet as far as Robben Island. {229} In the official records it is stated that he did this to show respect to the admiral, but no such method of showing respect was practised here before or since, and his opponents were probably right when they asserted that his object was to overtake the ship in which the burghers were, and release them. He did not succeed in doing this, however.

Within a week or two further arrests were made, when Jacob de Savoye, Pierre Meyer, Jacob Cloete, Jacob Louw, and one or two others were placed in detention. The health of some of the prisoners broke down under the rigorous treatment to which they were subjected: one—Jacobus van der Heiden—was confined for twenty-seven days in a foul dungeon, with a black criminal as his companion. Thirteen of them then, with a hope of obtaining liberty and the companionship of their families as an inducement on one side, and the horrible suffering of confinement on coarse and scanty fare in dark and noisome dungeons and debarred from the visits of relatives or friends on the other, gave way to the temptation, and replied to questions put to them disowning the truth of the assertions in the memorial and expressing contrition for having signed it. Among these thirteen was Adam Tas, and the circumstance of his having done so is certainly a blemish upon his reputation, though it would not be fair to speak harshly of him, considering the position in which he was placed. His recantation, however, was of no service, for the governor was devoid of anything like compassion towards him. These declarations, as they were termed, which were really of no more value than the confessions of men on the rack, were obtained at different dates from the 8th of March to the 7th of May 1706. The men who made them excused themselves afterwards for so doing by stating that it could not affect the charges against the governor and the other officials, which would be brought before the directors by those who were then on the way to Europe. And so, after an imprisonment varying in duration from a few days to a few weeks, all were released except Adam Tas and Jacob Louw. {230}

On the 24th of June 1706 the governor and council of policy wrote again to the directors, vilifying in very strong language the burghers who had signed the memorial, enclosing copies of the declarations of those who had been terrified into denying the truth of their former assertions, and asking that a special commissioner should be sent out to inspect matters of every kind and report upon them. This request must have been made with the object of gaining time, for the governor knew well that his conduct would not bear such an inquiry.

For a short time matters were now quiet, but on the governor coming to learn the names of some more of his opponents, Willem van Zyl, François du Toit, Guillaume du Toit, Hercules du Pré, Cornelis van Niekerk, Martin van Staden, Jacobus van Brakel, Jan Elberts, and Nicolaas Elberts were cited to appear before the court of justice. These came to a resolution not to obey the summons before the decision of the directors should be known, and so they failed to attend. They were cited by placaat, but in vain. In consequence, on the 9th of August, by a majority of the court of justice sitting with closed doors each of them was sentenced for contumacy to be banished to Mauritius for five years and to pay a fine of £41 13 s . 4 d ., half for the landdrost as prosecutor and half for the court. They were at the same time declared incapable of ever holding any political or military office in the colony.

This sentence was made public on the 23rd of August, and it tended to increase the hostility to the government. The whole of the Stellenbosch and Drakenstein district was now in a state of commotion. Work on the farms practically ceased, for no man or woman could tell what might not happen from hour to hour, and no one considered himself safe. The military outposts, excepting those at Waveren, Klapmuts, Groenekloof, and Saldanha Bay, at which twenty-four men in all were stationed, had been broken up before this date, so the burghers felt free to act. In the early morning of the 18th of September the {231} farmers of Waveren, Riebeek’s Kasteel, and Drakenstein rode armed into the village of Stellenbosch, and at beat of drum drew up near the landdrost’s office. Starrenburg went out to them, and requested the drummer to be still; but that individual, who was a Frenchman, kept on beating, only observing that he did not understand Dutch. Some persons, to show their contempt for the landdrost, began to dance round the drum. Others inquired why there was to be no fair this year, such as there had always been since 1686. Starrenburg replied that the Indian authorities had prohibited it; but they would not believe him, and laid the blame upon the Cape government. Yet it was correct that the Indian authorities were solely responsible in this matter, as with a view to save expense, on the 29th of November 1705 they had instructed the council of policy not to contribute longer towards the prizes or to furnish wine and ale at the cost of the Company. There was thus no kermis or fair in 1706 and later.

After this the women expressed their views. The wives of Pieter van der Byl and Wessel Pretorius, speaking for all, informed the landdrost that they had no intention of submitting to his tyranny, but were resolved to maintain their rights. The spirit of the women of the country districts was thoroughly roused, and their opposition was as formidable as that of their husbands. [77] Starrenburg was obliged to return to his house in humiliation. The burghers remained in the village the whole day, setting him at defiance, but otherwise preserving perfect order.

A few days later two of the persons sentenced to banishment appeared in Stellenbosch without any support, and jeered at the landdrost, who dared not attempt to arrest them, as he could not even depend upon his subordinates. All respect for the government was gone. {232}

It was now arranged between the governor and the landdrost that during the night of the 28th of September, after the closing of the castle gate, a party of mounted soldiers should march secretly to the Kuilen. At two o’clock in the morning of the 29th the landdrost was to meet them there, and was then before daylight to arrest those who were believed to be the leaders of the defiant party. But a petty official at the Kuilen, who sympathised with the burghers, managed to detain the party for a time, and when they at length left to try to seize Cornelis van Niekerk in his bed, the alarm had been given.

Daylight broke, no one had been captured, and there was nothing left for the landdrost and the soldiers but to retire to the village of Stellenbosch. No one there would give any information or sell a particle of food to the troops, and the landdrost was obliged to kill his own goats for their use until provisions could be sent from Capetown. Starrenburg having now soldiers at his back, the burghers sentenced to exile fled to Twenty-four Rivers, where they concealed themselves. The landdrost did his best to capture them, and on the 4th of February 1707 succeeded in arresting Hercules du Pré and Jacobus van Brakel, who were sent on board the Mauritius packet then lying in Table Bay. A month later Guillaume du Toit was arrested also and sent on board the same vessel. During this time the governor dismissed the heemraden and other officers who had been elected in the legitimate manner, and arbitrarily appointed creatures of his own to the vacant places.

On the 20th of February 1707 the frigate Pieter en Paul arrived in Table Bay. She had left Texel on the 2nd of November, and brought letters to some of the burghers, in which they were informed that their case had been decided favourably by the directors. She brought no official despatches, however, and the governor, who affected to disbelieve the assertions of the burghers, continued his tyranny as before. {233}

On the 3rd of March five ships from Ceylon dropped their anchors in Table Bay, and were followed, 31st of March to 6th of April by six others from Batavia, forming the return fleet of that year, under Admiral Meynderts de Boer. In one of the ships from Batavia was Jan Rotterdam, who returned to South Africa in triumph. Upon the receipt of the complaints from the Cape concerning him and the governor’s comments upon what had occurred, the governor-general and council of India appointed a commission consisting of the ordinary councillor Pieter de Vos and the councillor extraordinary Hendrik Bekker to investigate the matter, and take Rotterdam’s evidence. On the 18th of September 1706 these gentlemen sent in a report, of which there is a copy in the Cape archives. On this the governor-general and council decided, on the 5th of October, to send all the papers to the Netherlands, that the directors might take what action they chose in the matter. On the 31st of August they had decided to give Rotterdam a free passage to Holland, with liberty on his arrival at the Cape to request permission to remain here to attend to his affairs, if he chose to do so. [78] There was no necessity for him to make any request, as before the fleet left Table Bay the tyranny of the governor was at an end. {234}

IV.

Proceedings in the Netherlands regarding Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel.

While these events were taking place in South Africa, a commission in Amsterdam was actually making inquiries into the conduct of Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel. He knew nothing of this, nor did the burghers know how information concerning his conduct had reached the Netherlands. [79] By some means, however, which cannot be ascertained now, the directors had obtained an inkling of the state of affairs, and on the 26th of October 1705 they appointed the members of the chamber of Amsterdam a commission to inquire into the matter and report upon it. This commission had the official correspondence from the Cape before it, but no mention could be found in that of either Vergelegen or the governor’s movements. It would seem from it as if everything was going on smoothly and satisfactorily at the Cape, and the governor was doing his duty as an honest man.

Other tidings reached Amsterdam, however, in the course of the next few months which caused the directors to become alarmed. What these reports were exactly it is not now possible to discover, nor can the channels be ascertained by which they were conveyed, but it cannot be far wrong to conclude that they referred to the governor’s frequent visits to Vergelegen and his long sojourns there, {235} when the castle and the garrison were left to take care of themselves. With a governor so faithless, if what they heard was true, they might lose the half way house to India any day, and so on the 8th of March 1706 they appointed a special committee representing all the chambers and including their two advocates to devise measures for the security of the settlement. [80]

Meantime, on the 15th of February 1706 the chamber of Amsterdam had appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Bas, Van Castricum, De Witt, Lestevenon, and Trip, with Advocate Scott, to examine thoroughly into the complaints against the governor and bring up a report on the subject. [81] So there can be no doubt that even if the charges drawn up by Adam Tas and sent to Holland by the return fleet of 1706 had not reached the directors, the circumstances connected with Vergelegen would have become known, and the faithless and rapacious governor have met with his deserts. But as the material upon which to form a judgment was not as perfect in Holland as could be wished, the arrival of the fleet then on its way from India to Europe was looked forward to with some anxiety by both the committees, as it would probably bring despatches from the governor and council of policy that would assist them to come to a decision.

On the 27th of July 1706 that fleet which, as has been {236} recorded, sailed from Table Bay on the 4th of April under Admiral Jan de Wit, reached Texel in safety. There was then no lack of evidence as to what had transpired at the Cape, it was to hand in fact in superabundance. As soon therefore as the directors had read the official despatches from the governor, including the testimonial in his favour which he had caused to be drawn up and which must have excited their contempt for a man who could adopt such a measure in face of his treachery that could no longer be concealed, they sent the whole to the chamber of Amsterdam. Of the four burghers exiled to Europe, one, Jan van Meerland, died on the passage. The others, as soon as they could do so after their arrival in Amsterdam, presented to the directors the memorial that Tas had drawn up, with the various documents attached to it. After being read by them, it also was sent to the chamber of Amsterdam.

But now a great change in the attitude of the East India Company towards the nature of the various offences committed by the governor took place. His defiance of their orders not to cultivate ground or own cattle, his treachery in leaving his duty and residing frequently at Vergelegen, thus exposing the colony to the utmost danger, and his use of their materials and their workpeople at Vergelegen and elsewhere, robbery as it was, was permitted to fall into the background, and his lawless violence towards the burghers who had complained of his misdeeds became the most prominent subject enquired into. The whole of the tyranny displayed by him was not indeed known, but sufficient had transpired before the departure of the fleet from Table Bay to rouse the indignation of the free Netherlanders, and the directors, even if they had not been disposed to do justice themselves, dared not provoke an outcry that one of the most cherished rights of a citizen was being violated in their dependency at the Cape. The opponents of the Company, the men who wanted something in its place in which they should have {237} a personal interest, would certainly make use of such an outcry to attack it in the States-General, and therefore this charge must be attended to before any other.

The committee of the chamber of Amsterdam investigated the matter very thoroughly. Unfortunately the debates were not recorded, and only the resolutions were preserved, just as in the proceedings of a legislative body to-day. But these resolutions show that all possible trouble was taken to arrive at the truth, and notwithstanding the urgency of the case, there was no undue haste, for it was only on the 11th of October 1706 that a report to the chamber was sent in. [82] In addition to the documents examined by the committee, it had taken the evidence of the exiled burghers and of the ships’ officers who had been two months at the Cape. Some of these had lived on shore during that time, and had witnessed the violent acts that had put the whole settlement into confusion and the manner in which signatures to the certificate in the governor’s favour were obtained, so that document was held as of no weight whatever. The governor’s comments upon the charges against him also were so weak that they were utterly valueless. [83]

For instance, his only excuse for his possession of Vergelegen was that if the Company’s servants had no land they, himself included, would be obliged to buy what grain, cattle, wine, vegetables, fruit, and other necessaries they required from unreasonable farmers at whatever rates might be demanded, and might even be at the mercy of those farmers to be supplied or not. This would surely, he said, be intolerable to officials of rank. That was the best and indeed the only excuse he could make for having in his possession, in opposition to the direct orders of the {238} directors, a thousand head of horned cattle and eighteen thousand eight hundred sheep, for producing eleven hundred muids of wheat and fifty-six leggers of wine yearly. And that too when he was provided by the Company with rations [84] on an exceedingly liberal scale, when he was legally and honestly entitled to whatever vegetables and fruit he needed for his own family’s use out of the Company’s gardens in Capetown, at Rustenburg, and at Newlands, when he had an adequate table allowance in money to purchase anything else that was needed, as may be seen in the yearly accounts, and when he was provided with twenty slaves as domestics, who were entirely maintained by the Company.

As for the woolled sheep that he was accused of taking from the farmers without payment, his defence was that he had sent out two men to obtain them either in exchange for others or for money, that they had returned with one hundred and seventy-eight, and that he thought he had paid for them. He denied positively that he had taken bribes for giving title-deeds to ground, but it was proved conclusively that he had received large presents and had made extensive purchases without payment from those whom be favoured. The whole defence was as weak as these examples, except in a few particulars, and with the {239} oral evidence against him, the committee could only come to one conclusion.

The chamber of Amsterdam approved of the report of its committee, and requested the members to go over it again carefully and draw it up in such a form that it could be presented in the name of the full body to the assembly of seventeen. On the 25th of October accordingly the report was brought before the full chamber and adopted, when it was signed by all the members present, sixteen in number, and was then forwarded to the directors. Among those who signed it was the same Wouter Valckenier [85] who had granted Vergelegen to Van der Stel, who was then a member of the chamber of Amsterdam, and immediately afterwards was elected to a seat in the directorate.

In this report the burghers who signed the complaints against Van der Stel and others were acquitted of sedition, conspiracy, or treason, and the action of the governor towards them was consequently declared to have been unjust.

It was recommended

That all those banished from the Cape should be restored to their homes at the Company’s expense, and all those imprisoned be liberated.

That recompense should be made to the banished men for the damages sustained by them, either by giving contracts to them or allowing them to take anything they needed to the Cape free of charge for freight.

That the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the secunde Samuel Elsevier, the clergyman Petrus Kalden, and the landdrost Jan Starrenburg should be recalled at once, but be permitted to retain their salaries and rank, though without any authority. {240}

That Frans van der Stel should be required to remove from the Company’s possessions.

That the estate Vergelegen at Hottentots-Holland, as acquired wrongfully and without proper authority, and for the possession of which approval was never obtained, should be restored to the Company with all the plants on it, and that the buildings should be taken over on a valuation.

That enquiry should be made into the manner in which the retired governor Simon van der Stel became possessed of his landed property, especially of the Great Rietland or Zeekoe Valley, and a report thereon be sent to the Assembly of Seventeen.

That thereafter no servant of the Company should be permitted to hold any land in property or on lease, or possess any cattle, or traffic in cattle, corn, or wine, directly or indirectly.

That every colonist should be free to slaughter and sell cattle, and that contracts should be made to supply the Company’s passing ships with flesh at thirteen duiten a pound.

That the license to sell wine should be disposed of in four parts.

And finally that emigration to the Cape should cease.

This report was adopted by the assembly of seventeen on the 26th of October, and four days later, 30th of October 1706, a letter signed by the directors was delivered to the master of the ship Kattendyk , then lying at Texel ready for sea, with orders to deliver it to the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel in presence of witnesses. [86] The Kattendyk with four other Indiamen left Texel on the 25th of December 1706 under convoy of four ships of war, but after leaving the Channel she lost sight of the rest of the fleet, so she came on alone, fortunately without falling in with French cruisers, and anchored in Table Bay in {241} the morning of the 16th of April 1707. The skipper took the letter on shore, and delivered it to the governor as directed.

On Sunday the 17th the council of policy assembled, when the despatch of the directors was read. It announced that the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the secunde Samuel Elsevier, the clergyman Petrus Kalden, and the landdrost Jan Starrenburg were removed from office and ordered to proceed to Europe with the least possible delay. That everything might be conducted fairly and justly with regard to them, however, they were allowed to retain their rank and pay until they should have an opportunity of clearing themselves from the charges against them, if that was possible. The governor’s brother, Frans van der Stel, was to betake himself to some place outside of the Company’s possessions. The burghers were acquitted of the absurd charge of conspiracy, sedition, mutiny, and rebellion, they were reinstated in all their former rights and privileges, the three sent to Europe were restored to their homes at the Company’s expense, and orders were given that if any were in prison in the colony they should immediately be released. The governor was ordered to pay out of his own pocket at the rate of 6 s. 8 d. each for the woolled sheep he had acquired, and the wine and slaughter licenses were to be issued at once in the same manner as had been the custom before he altered them to suit his own purposes.

It was announced that Louis van Assenburgh, who had previously been an officer in the army of the German emperor, had been appointed governor, and Johan Cornelis d’Ableing, recently commander at Palembang, secunde. In case neither of these should arrive in the colony at an early date, the administration was to be assumed by the independent fiscal Johan Blesius and the other members of the council of policy acting as a commission. [87]

{242}

The Mauritius packet had not yet sailed, and the fiscal, who was directed by the assembly of seventeen to carry out their instructions, at once set at liberty the five burghers Adam Tas, Jacob Louw, Jacobus van Brakel, Hercules du Pré, and Guillaume du Toit. Tidings that they were to be released and that the tyranny of the governor was at an end had reached the townspeople, and the principal inhabitants assembled on the open ground before the castle to welcome their countrymen as they landed on the jetty or came from the dungeons in which they had been confined, and great was the joy and sincere were the thanks poured out to the God of heaven, mingled with gratitude to the directors, that justice had triumphed and oppression and misrule were things of the past. Of what occurred at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein when the glad tidings reached those places no information is given in our archives, but it may be taken as certain that the joy there was at least as great and deepfelt as it was in Capetown. To the men of those districts it was due that tyranny and corruption had been overthrown, and from that time forward Stellenbosch and Drakenstein have been the centres of Dutch South African thought and action to a much greater extent than any other parts of the country.

There is a legend that the man who suffered most from violence henceforth called his farm Libertas, to signify that freedom had been won, or, as he wittily explained to inquirers as to the meaning of the term, to denote that Tas was free. The place is still so called.

The council resolved that the administration should be transferred to the fiscal and others on the 15th of May, if the newly-appointed secunde, who was on his way out, should not arrive before that date. It was Sunday, and the reverend Mr. Kalden preached twice in the church.

During the week an arrangement was made by which the reverend Messrs. Le Boucq and Bek should conduct the services on alternate Sundays in Capetown, and Mr. Kalden ceased to officiate. Starrenburg, whose last report {243} was that the mutineers were constantly reviling him and that only a Masaniello was wanting to produce an open outbreak, was sent by the fiscal on board a ship in the return fleet. An officer named Samuel Martin de Meurs was appointed to act provisionally as landdrost.

Johan Cornelis d’Ableing, the newly-appointed secunde, arrived on the 6th of May 1707. He was a nephew of the recalled governor Van der Stel, and, under pretence that the books required to be balanced, postponed taking over the administration until the 3rd of June. The recalled officials could not then leave for Europe before the arrival of the homeward bound fleet of the following year.

From the vast quantity of contemporaneous printed and manuscript matter relating to the conduct of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the views of the directors and of the colonists concerning the government of the country and the rights of its people can be gathered with great precision. In the Netherlands at that period representative institutions, such as are now believed to be indispensable to liberty, were unknown. Yet the people were free in reality as well as in name. There is not a word expressing a wish on the part of the burghers for an alteration in the form of government, what they desired being merely that the administration should be placed in honest hands, and that their rights should be respected.

The directors desired to have here a large body of freemen in comfortable circumstances, loyal to the fatherland, ready and willing to assist in the defence of the colony if attacked, enjoying the same rights as their peers in Europe, and without much diversity of rank or position. They stated clearly and distinctly that the closer the equality between the burghers could be preserved the more satisfactory it would be to them. Positive orders were issued that large tracts of land, upon which several families could obtain a living, were not to be granted to any individual.

In giving directions concerning Vergelegen, they stated that as its grant by the commissioner Valckenier to the {244} governor was improper and had never been reported to them and much less had their approval been requested or given, they resumed possession of the ground. The large dwelling-house upon it, being adapted for ostentation and not for the use of a farmer, must be broken down. The late governor could sell the materials for his own benefit. The other buildings could be fairly valued, and the amount be paid to Mr. Van der Stel, or he could break them down and dispose of the materials if he preferred to do so.

An estate such as Vergelegen would by many people to-day be considered useful as a model. Van der Stel had laid it out with the choicest vines, plants, and trees, and was making extensive experiments there. The ground was the most skilfully tilled in the whole country. But the directors held that such a farm as this, owned by one individual and cultivated chiefly by slave labour, could not be of the same advantage to the infant colony as a number of smaller ones, each in possession of a sturdy European proprietor. It was therefore not to be sold as a single estate, but was to be divided into several farms, each of which was to be disposed of by public auction separately from the others.

Frans van der Stel was required to sell his property and remove to some country not included in the Company’s charter. The former governor Simon van der Stel was left in possession of his farm Constantia, but directions were given that upon his death the other land which he held should revert to the Company.

Emphatic instructions were issued that for the future, in accordance with the orders of the 26th of April 1668, no servant of the Company, from the highest to the lowest, was to own or lease land in the colony, or to trade directly or indirectly in corn, wine, or cattle. Those who had landed property could sell it, but if they should not do so within a reasonable period, it would be confiscated. The burghers were not to be molested in their right to dispose of their cattle or the produce of their ground in any {245} way that suited them. They were to be governed in accordance with law and justice.

On their part, the colonists claimed exactly the same rights as if they were still living in the fatherland. They held that any restrictions to which the early burghers had agreed were of a temporary nature, and affected only those who had consented to them. In their opinion they had forfeited nothing by removal to a dependency, and the violence displayed by the governor towards Adam Tas and his associates was as outrageous as if it had taken place in the city of Amsterdam. They asserted their undoubted right to personal liberty, to exemption from arrest unless under reasonable suspicion of crime, to admission to bail, to speedy trial before a proper court of justice, to freedom to sell to anyone, burgher or foreigner, whatever their land produced, after the tithes had been paid and the Company’s needs had been supplied, except under special circumstances when restriction was needed for the good of the community. And these claims, made in as explicit terms as they could be to-day by an Englishman living in a crown colony, were not challenged by the directors or the Indian authorities, but were accepted by every one as unquestioned. They were the ideals of the proper working and spirit of government held by the great bulk of the people of the Netherlands at the beginning of the eighteenth century, before democratic principles or socialistic views had gained ground among the labouring classes or were even dimly foreshadowed in the minds of men who toiled with their hands for their bread. Such a system answered admirably in the fatherland, and the Cape burghers desired to maintain it unimpaired in South Africa.

Mr. Van der Stel retired to Vergelegen, and began arranging matters so that he could leave the country with as little pecuniary loss as possible. His friends and connections in Amsterdam were numerous and influential, and he cherished the hope that through their agency the directors might be induced to leave him in possession of {246} the estate. He does not seem to have realised how serious his offences had been and how impossible it was that he should be forgiven. But as he had now only his own servants and slaves to work with, it was necessary to contract his farming operations, and under any circumstances it would be wise to dispose of his great flocks and herds with the least possible delay. For this, so unlike the case of the men whom he had hurried out of the colony, he had ample time. There is very little information in the archives of occurrences at Vergelegen during those months, though several commissions visited the place, so nothing beyond what is here mentioned can be related.

On the 25th of January 1708 Governor Louis van Assenburgh arrived. He had been eight months on the passage from Holland, and had been obliged to put into a port on the coast of Brazil. In the same ship with the governor was Henning Huising, one of the deported burghers, who had entered into a contract with the directors for the supply of half the meat required by the Company at the Cape during the next three years, the object of dividing the contract being to secure competition in purchasing cattle from the burghers. Pieter van der Byl and Ferdinandus Appel had reached the colony seven months before.

When the arrival of the governor was known at Vergelegen, Mr. Van der Stel sent a petition to the council of policy requesting that he might be allowed to retain the estate a few months longer, as he had hopes that by the next fleet from Europe intelligence would be received that the directors had mitigated their decision. As compliance with this request would have been directly opposed to the orders of the 30th of October 1706, a matter which he seemed to regard as of little importance, but which the new governor decidedly objected to, the council refused to entertain it, and the utmost that he could obtain was permission to press the grapes then ripening and dispose of half the wine on his own account, the other half to be {247} for the Company. The quantity pressed was fifty-six leggers of five hundred and seventy-six litres each.

On the 23rd of February 1708 Henning Huising summoned Mr. Van der Stel before the court of justice for £3,056 in addition to the value of nine thousand sheep. This gave the late governor an opportunity to request the council of policy to allow him to remain in South Africa another year, in order to get evidence to defend himself in this case; but upon Huising stating that he preferred bringing the action in Holland to being the means of keeping Van der Stel longer in the colony, the council declined to accede to his request.

On the 23rd of April 1708 the return fleet of this year sailed from Table Bay for Europe, having on board the late governor, secunde, and clergyman of Capetown with their families. Upon their arrival at Amsterdam Van der Stel and Elsevier were dismissed from the Company’s service. They had left agents in the colony to wind up their affairs and to transmit the proceeds to them. Mr. Kalden was more fortunate, for, though his possession of a farm was not approved of, he did not come in the same category as members of the council and of the court of justice, and he was able to make a good defence as far as his motives were concerned. He was retained in the service, and several years afterwards was sent as a chaplain to India.

Vergelegen was divided into four farms, which were sold by auction in October 1709. The cultivated land was found on measurement to be six hundred and thirteen morgen in extent. The large dwelling-house was broken down, and the material was sold for Van der Stel’s benefit. The other buildings were taken over by the Company for £625, though the materials of which they were constructed were appraised at a much higher sum. The four farms brought £1,695 at public sale, the purchasers being Barend Gildenhuis, Jacobus van der Heiden, Jacob Malan, and the widow of Gerrit Cloete. {248}

Frans van der Stel returned to Europe in the same fleet with his brother, and took up his residence in Amsterdam. His wife, Johanna Wessels, was a daughter of one of the leading burghers of the colony. She remained behind with her parents to dispose of the property to the best advantage, and did not leave to rejoin her husband until April 1717.

After his dismissal from the Company’s service, Willem Adriaan van der Stel was in the most unenviable position that can be imagined, though he was now possessed of considerable wealth. In the city of Amsterdam, where he had once been a magistrate and where he had numerous respectable relatives and connections, he was a disgraced man. In order to try to make his conduct appear less reprehensible in the eyes of the public, he prepared and published the volume called the Korte Deductie , in which the most serious of his offences were entirely ignored, and the certificate in his favour and the forced declarations from several burghers that have been described were set forth as proofs of his innocence with regard to others. As may well be believed, such a volume completely failed in its object. The burghers in South Africa were under no necessity to reply to it, for its weakness was evident to every one, but two of them did so, and in their Contra Deductie published such a number of depositions made under oath as utterly to destroy it.

There is one circumstance in connection with this matter that has been commented upon by several historians, notably by the late Judge Watermeyer in his Lectures , that is the lightness of the punishment inflicted on Van der Stel. Mr. Watermeyer attributed it to the assembly of seventeen not feeling aversion towards his tyranny. But that view is not borne out by the documents of the time when minutely examined, for the directors certainly did express the strongest disapprobation of his conduct in trampling on law and justice. Nor was the leniency of their treatment of him altogether due to their wish to avoid irritating his influential relatives, though that may have had something {249} to do with it. The main cause was simply that Mr. Wouter Valckenier, who was one of the directors at the time, could not absolve himself from all blame in the matter, for he had granted part of Vergelegen to Van der Stel, without reflecting upon what the consequences might be. The governor had abused his confidence, still he was not free of blame. And so nothing but the ground was resumed, and the delinquent was not even compelled to make good to the Company the amount which he had defrauded it of.

The punishment of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, though mild, had the effect of securing to the Cape colonists good government, as it was then held to be, for more than half a century after his recall. The spirit of the burghers was not broken, as it would have been if he had remained in power, and a liberty loving people had time, in God’s good providence, to secure a firm foothold in South Africa.

There was an effect upon the South African colonists that these troubles produced which makes them memorable in our history. They blended the different nationalities together so firmly that thereafter they were absolutely inseparable. There is nothing that tends more to make men and women sympathise with each other than suffering in a common cause, and in this instance Hollander and Huguenot alike had resisted and felt the vengeance of the tyrant. When Du Toit and Du Pré, liberated from the vessel that was to have taken them into exile at Mauritius, met Tas and Louw, staggering from the dungeons in which they had been so long confined, can anyone doubt that they greeted each other as brothers? Our archives tell us nothing of that scene on the parade ground before the castle, but they do tell us very plainly that from that day onward there was no jealousy, no ill-feeling of any kind, between Dutchmen and Frenchmen in the colony. Thereafter all were Afrikanders.

How could it be otherwise? It is not too much for even a historian seeking only for truth to assume that the sisterhood of the women also had been cemented by their {250} common misery, that Mevrouw Van der Byl, for instance, would feel an affection stronger far than mere sympathy for Madame Du Toit, who, like herself, had seen her husband torn from her and sent into banishment, probably for ever unless God and the directors should curb the merciless oppressor’s will. The names on the memorial show an equal number of French and Dutch, and among them are those of the heads of many of the best families in South Africa at the present day. They can look back with pride to the action of their ancestors in resisting corruption so gross and tyranny so outrageous as that of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, and in thinking of the suffering those brave men and women endured, they can thank God that it was not in vain, since it was productive of so much good.

The Van der Stel family attained its highest point of celebrity in the time of the sons of Simon, the grandsons of Adriaan who went to India in 1623. According to Van der Aa, Willem Adriaan, after his dismissal, purchased the estates of Old and New Vossemeer, and died on the 1st of July 1723, leaving five children. Adriaan became governor of Amboina and councillor extraordinary of India, and left three children. Hendrik was warehouse keeper at Malacca in 1705, but nothing more is known of him. It is a saying in the United States that the stage from shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve is usually covered in only three generations, and the observation would seem to be correct in this case. Van der Aa could find no one of the name of Van der Stel worthy of notice after the third generation had passed away, except A. van der Stel, who drew plates for a work on natural history published in 1754, and a woman of the name who was an actress and stage dancer in the middle of the eighteenth century. [88]

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IV.

Chronicles of Two Leaders of the Great Emigration, Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys.

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{253}

SKETCH IV.

I.

Chronicles of Two Leaders of the Great Emigration, Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys.

No history has yet been written that cannot be improved upon. In the opinion of most students the greatest work of this kind in the English language is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , but if Gibbon were now alive he could certainly improve that masterpiece by means of discoveries that have been made since he last revised it. If this can be said of volumes prepared by a man of means, who was able to devote his whole time and thought to his work, it is infinitely more true of such a book as my History of South Africa , which has been produced under difficulties little short of being insurmountable.

Half a century has passed away since I commenced to gather materials for my history, but during all that time I have had to toil for my bread, and whenever I have gained a point of advantage I have found myself speedily hurled from it. In a country like South Africa, where racial prejudice has always been passionate, one who would try, as I have done, to write impartially must expect to meet with opposition from the extreme wings of both sections of the community, and unfortunately for me that opposition, or more properly speaking animosity, has frequently been sufficient to deprive me for a time of the power of making researches or continuing my work.

And so great is the quantity of material to be examined for the preparation of a history of South Africa, so scattered is it, and so disordered is the manuscript portion, that fifty years, even if devoted entirely to the work, would {254} not be too long to master it all. Many languages have to be learned, and libraries and archive departments visited and worked in half over Europe as well as in South Africa. I am speaking now only of the period since the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese, if one wants to go further back a knowledge of Arabic and prolonged visits to many eastern towns would be indispensable. This I was prevented from even attempting. In Indian literature also much important information may possibly—even probably—be found, for beyond a doubt there was intercourse between Hindostan and Eastern Africa in ancient times. No man could grapple with all this single-handed, and if any one were to try to do it, at the end of fifty years he would find a very great deal still to be done.

Owing to this cause—the vast amount of research that was needed and the many interruptions I met with—my history, though correct, is defective, that is there is nothing untruthful or misleading in it, but there are sections that could be enlarged to advantage. Among such sections are the deeds of Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys. I commenced my study of the great emigration by getting accounts of it from numerous men and women who had taken part in it. I soon found—as every one else has done who has attempted to collect such materials—that the various relations did not agree, and that something more reliable was needed to base a description upon. I then read whatever was to be found in printed books and the newspapers of the period, and as soon as I had an opportunity of doing so I examined all the manuscripts that I could find in the Cape archives bearing on the subject.

It is a quarter of a century since I published a volume containing the history of the emigration, the first book on the subject prepared in South Africa. The facts as related by me have never been disputed, but there are some who profess to believe that they are described in a spirit too favourable to the emigrants, and others that they are just the reverse. I shall not alter a single word owing to such {255} opinions, but when I find new and reliable materials that enable me to enlarge my former accounts, I shall certainly make use of them. Such materials have recently come to hand with regard to Louis Triegard and Pieter Uys in a collection of important documents made by Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban, taken by him to England, and preserved in the archives of his family until 1911, when they were most generously presented by his grandson through me to the Union government.

Two centuries lacking less than two decades had passed away since European farmers first made homes for themselves on the banks of the Liesbeek river, near the foot of Table Mountain, and in 1835 white men were cultivating ground and pasturing their flocks and herds as far away as the banks of the Kat and the Fish in one direction and the great plain bordering on the Orange in another. The area they had spread over was thus wide and long, though its occupation had been slower than that of any other settlement of Europeans possessing a tithe of its attractions. In most parts of the districts beyond the coast belt it was very sparsely peopled, the farms, which might with greater propriety have been termed cattle-runs, being seldom less than five or six thousand English acres in extent, and often carrying only a single family upon them.

The small district of Albany was an exception to this general statement. It was occupied chiefly by British settlers, who had originally plots of ground only one hundred acres in size allotted to them, but these had proved insufficient for the maintenance of a family, and most of them had been abandoned. Those that remained occupied had then been enlarged, though not to the extent of the great cattle-runs which the older Dutch-speaking colonists considered necessary for their subsistence.

There was a marked difference in disposition between the Dutch-speaking and the English-speaking colonists. The former, being cattle-breeders by descent through several generations, were strongly attached to country life, and {256} disliked residence in a village or town, where they seldom remained longer than a few hours. Restraint of any kind was exceedingly irksome to them, even the slight restraint of conforming to urban conditions. Their ideal of a happy life was a life on a farm where a man could look north, south, east, and west, and see nothing that was not his own, where a few fruit trees and vines provided him with peaches and oranges, apples and grapes, and a little garden, irrigated from a running stream or a fountain, yielded him all the vegetables he needed, and where his horned cattle, horses, and sheep throve and increased. Cry down such a life as one will, call it unprogressive, devoid of culture, wanting in refinement, destructive of energy, it cannot be denied that it was a happy life and one that brought man into closer communion with nature and with God than if he passed his existence in a town or a village. Except in the most secluded districts there is no longer room for such a life in South Africa, though some there are even in the more fertile parts who strive to cling to it still, but in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century it was the ideal which nearly every Dutch-speaking colonist in the eastern districts of the Cape settlement kept constantly before his eyes.

The English settler as a rule viewed life differently. He disliked a lonely country home, where there was no opportunity of exercising his spirit of enterprise, where the means of giving his children an education in books were lacking, and where companionship with his species was uncertain and scanty. He preferred to reside in a town, where he would have greater scope for his abilities, and where he could have more of such comforts and enjoyments as he desired. There were indeed Englishmen to be found among the leading farmers, but the great majority of them were traders or mechanics. Besides this in most cases they had not the means to purchase stock to commence cattle-breeding with, even if they had the disposition to do so, and they had no heart to face the privations that many {257} a Dutch-speaking youth underwent as a matter of course to obtain a few sheep and cows to make a beginning with. An Englishman could not, for instance, live almost entirely on game for years, as they often did, to spare their domestic cattle and allow them to increase. And so in Albany a town speedily rose, which contained a large proportion of the British settlers, and which was by far the most important centre of population in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony. Grahamstown it was called, and it was as purely English as if it stood in Kent or in Sussex.

For several years there had been great discontent throughout the settlement. In England the party that wished to undo the errors of the past, to atone for the crime of slave-trading in which earlier generations had been deeply involved, and to make strenuous efforts for the elevation of the coloured races, sunk in barbarism and heathenism throughout the world, had been steadily growing in numbers and in influence until at length it had become the dominant power in the state. Its leaders were earnest well-meaning men, but they did not realise that improvement to be most effective should be gradual rather than sudden. They acted as did the men of the French revolution, and in both cases an enormous amount of misery was the immediate consequence, though as time went on the good that they did gradually came to surpass the evil which was at first the result of too much haste. They did not study the condition of things in South Africa, and the parliament at Westminster applied laws to this country that were quite unsuitable to it.

They placed the Hottentots on a perfect political equality with the European colonists and refused to sanction a vagrant act, thereby creating a host of idlers and wanderers, that only time and missionary effort could reduce to order. They emancipated the slaves of a sudden, paying one-third of their appraised value as compensation, and by doing so brought utter ruin upon many of the best families in the country and deep distress upon nearly all. The gradual {258} emancipation which the colonists favoured they rejected, simply because it would take a generation to work out, though all possible protection against ill-usage of the slaves could have been secured under it, and the negroes as a whole would have been better prepared for freedom.

There were other causes of dissatisfaction among the Dutch-speaking colonists. The suppression of their language in courts of law and official documents was one. Another was the change of land tenure from leases renewable yearly to perpetual quitrent, necessitating heavy charges for surveying and much larger annual payments. This measure, by giving security of tenure and permitting transfer on sale, was undoubtedly beneficial, but the frontier farmers and graziers, accustomed to the old system, regarded the new one as a plan for extorting money from them, especially as in most instances the charges for surveying were paid years before the issue of titles. The great extent of the magisterial districts prevented the government officials from explaining the real object of such changes to the farmers, and this could not be remedied for want of funds.

Still another cause of dissatisfaction was owing to the swarms of barbarians that of recent years had entered the colony from the north and the east, who were a menace to the cattle farmers, from whom they demanded food which, if not given at once, was taken by force. These barbarians were the remnants of various Betshuana tribes that had been nearly exterminated in the wars that originated with Tshaka and Umsilikazi, [89] to whom was added a large section of the Tembu tribe driven westward by Matiwane, himself a fugitive from the Zulu spears. The government did what it could, without actual violence, to induce these invaders to remove beyond the borders, but without success, and public opinion in England would not admit of sterner measures being resorted to, such as the cattle farmers desired. {259}

But more than all that has been mentioned, the greatest cause of irritation was due to the tone of the missionary and so-called philanthropic press. By it the farmers were vilified as if they were cruel tyrants who treated the coloured people as mere animals, and all their misfortunes, which were diminished to next to nothing, were alleged to be due to themselves. Extracts from books and pamphlets of this tone found their way to the farms and were discussed whenever individuals met, until a general feeling of indignation was aroused. By no one was it disputed that in South Africa, as in all other countries of the world, there were violent men to be found, and that instances of extreme cruelty to coloured dependents could be pointed out; but that a whole community should be branded with infamy on account of the misdeeds of a few individuals seemed to be as unjust as if the inhabitants of London should be termed murderers because occasionally a terrible crime was committed there.

And now in the closing days of 1834 a calamity more dreadful than any that preceded it had overtaken the English settlers of Albany and the Dutch-speaking farmers of Somerset, and had reduced them all alike to a condition of the direst distress. [90] Without notice, without anything {260} that a European can regard as sufficient provocation, great bands of Xosas suddenly crossed the border and spread over these frontier districts, murdering all the male inhabitants who had not time to escape to places where they could defend themselves and their families, burning their farmhouses and outbuildings, and driving off the horses, horned cattle, sheep, and goats. The whole frontier, with the exception of Grahamstown and a few of the most important villages which were left like oases, was reduced to an absolute desert. Seven thousand individuals, the majority of whom had previously been in comfortable circumstances, were reduced to such destitution that the government was obliged to supply them with food, or they must have starved.

By dint of great exertion the burgher forces, with two regiments of British infantry and a strong contingent of Hottentots, drove the Xosas out of the colony and reduced them to partial subjection in the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers. A British and colonial army penetrated the country beyond the Kei, captured some thousands of cattle, and released the Fingoes from subjection to the Xosas. These Fingoes were the remnants of tribes that had lived in Natal, where they were all but exterminated in the wars of Tshaka. They were brought westward, and were located chiefly in what is now the district of Peddie, that they might become a kind of buffer between the colonists and the Xosas. Then the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers was proclaimed a British possession, under the name of the Province of Queen Adelaide.

Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, enjoyed the esteem and affection of a great majority of the colonists, English and Dutch-speaking alike, in a larger degree than any one {261} before him had done, and Colonel H. G. Smith, who was stationed at King-Williamstown as the governor’s representative in the new province, was deservedly popular with all but a few persons of malignant disposition. A more energetic man never lived, nor one who had the happiness of the people committed to his charge more at heart. The Xosa chiefs were permitted to govern their dependents in their old way, though they were now officially termed British magistrates, fieldcornets, &c., but they were supposed to act under the supervision of English commissioners, and the most serious crimes were legally punishable only after trial before European courts. Missionary effort was encouraged, and respectable traders were permitted to settle at selected stations, but traffic in munitions of war or in intoxicating liquor was strictly prohibited.

There were no colonists so simple as to believe that this measure would immediately put an end to depredations by the Xosas, or that it would in some almost miraculous way turn barbarians suddenly into civilised men. But it was generally supposed that under the circumstances then existing this system was better than any other that could be adopted, and that it really offered some hope that in course of time a great improvement in the condition of the Xosas might take place. A small section of the missionary party thought differently, however, as in their view the system placed too much restraint upon the black people. With this trifling exception Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s plans in general were heartily approved of by nearly every frontier colonist, though many of them feared that the settlement of the Fingoes on the border might prove to be a mistake.

Looking back now after the experience of three-quarters of a century, we can say positively that Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s policy was wise and benevolent. It might have been better if the Fingoes had not been located where they were, but this was at the time the best thing that could be done with them. We can see too that Colonel Smith {262} was over confident in his influence with the people,—he even believed that he could depose the chiefs at his will,—for he did not know, as we do, the cause of the fidelity of the commoners to them. But upon the whole things were working well, infinitely better indeed than ever before as far as the European colonists were concerned, while the blacks were in a position where improvement was much more easy than it had previously been.

The party in power in England, however, was decidedly of opinion that a great wrong of some kind or other must have been done to the Xosas, or they would not have made war upon the colony. The white people, consequently, must have been at fault. Lord Glenelg, then secretary of state for the colonies, in whose hands the destiny of South Africa was at the time, held this opinion, and issued instructions that British rule was to be withdrawn from the Province of Queen Adelaide, all the land east of the Fish and Kat rivers be abandoned to the Xosas, and treaties of friendship be entered into with the chiefs as independent and sovereign powers. An officer who was not favourably regarded at that time by the farmers, though in later years he performed eminent services for the country, was appointed to carry out these measures, and it was announced that he would leave England at once. When this information reached South Africa, the last ray of hope died out in the hearts of the Dutch-speaking farmers in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, and there was a general resolution to abandon the land of their birth and seek a new home somewhere beyond the border. The British government had repeatedly announced its fixed determination not to enlarge its domain in this part of the world, so they believed that upon their removal they would be free and independent.

The enormous destruction of human life in the wars of Tshaka and Moselekatse had left wide tracts of land in South Africa almost—in some instances quite—uninhabited, and although the extent of these wastes was unknown, the {263} farmers were cognisant of the fact that there were unoccupied areas where, they thought, they might settle without doing wrong to any one. One of these nearly vacant tracts was the country called Natal, which at that time was taken to signify the land between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers, the Kathlamba mountains and the sea. It was the most beautiful and most fertile part of South Africa, rising in steps from the ocean to the great wall that bounds the interior plain, and thus embracing a variety of climates. It was abundantly watered by the rains driven up from the Indian ocean, and was well drained by rivers and rivulets that carried the surplus moisture to the sea. Every one who saw the land spoke of it with enthusiasm, as being one of the fairest regions on earth, and one of the best adapted to make comfortable homes in.

Some forty Englishmen had settled on the shore of the inlet called Port Natal, where they made a living chiefly by hunting elephants and buffaloes and trading with the Zulu chief for ivory. Some of them were living more like barbarians than civilised men, and were the only acknowledged heads or chiefs of little bands of fugitives from Zululand, who placed themselves under the white men’s guidance and protection. A petty chief named Umnini, who with a few followers lived in a thicket adjoining the Bluff, and who had concealed himself during the Zulu invasions, was also a dependent of the white people. [91] On the 23rd of June 1835 fourteen of these men under the guidance of Captain Allen F. Gardiner, recently of the royal navy, who was then on a visit to the country {264} with a view of preparing for the establishment of missions among the Zulus, signed a petition to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, requesting him to forward it to the authorities in England, asking that the territory might be annexed and a proper government be established in it. They estimated the number of Bantu inhabitants at not less than three thousand. [92] As some of these men were hunters who knew every inch of the country, this number might be accepted as at least approximately correct, though from the observations of others perhaps five or even six thousand would be more accurate.

This low estimate is supported by such an amount of trustworthy testimony that only those who refuse to accept any evidence that is in conflict with their prejudices can reject it. Nathaniel Isaacs’ Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal , two volumes, London, 1836, [93] and Gardiner’s Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa , London, 1836, [94] support it in {265} general terms. Mr. Henry Fynn, who lived in Natal from 1824 to 1834, writing in 1838, says: “The number now under the management of the Europeans at Port Natal amounts to nearly six thousand souls, who would all be massacred if the Europeans were to be withdrawn from the Port.” [95] All the documents of the next five years in which mention is made of the number of black people in Natal agree with it. Only a few years ago Mr. G. M. Rudolph, when giving evidence before the last Native Affairs Commission, stated that he did not think there were more than three thousand natives ( i.e. Bantu) in Natal when he as a boy nine years of age went there with the first voortrekkers. A party of farmers, one of whom was Pieter Lavras Uys, travelled through Kaffraria in 1834 with fourteen waggons to Port Natal, and after thoroughly inspecting the uplands as well as the coast belt and the harbour, returned to the Cape Colony highly satisfied with the country as a desirable locality to migrate to.

Of the vast regions north of the Orange river that had been swept nearly clean by war the farmers knew very little except from the statements of Betshuana refugees, whose intelligence was vague and often contradictory. No one of them seemed to know anything beyond the fate of the particular tribe or clan to which he belonged, and there was always so much that was fabulous mixed with their accounts that in general no credence was given to them. Then they could only be spoken to through interpreters, who were rarely obtainable and whose knowledge of any {266} other language than their own was usually very defective.

This was the condition of things on the frontier of the Cape Colony when the emigration of the Dutch-speaking farmers commenced, an emigration without parallel in any other dependency of Great Britain. The farmers formed themselves in little bands and moved away together, under the leadership of an elected commandant, whose authority, however, was very limited.

The first band to leave the colony with the intention of never returning to it had as its head a man named Louis Triegard, fifty-three years of age, who had been living in the district of Somerset. He was the grandson of a Swede, who came to South Africa in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and married here in 1744. His father, Carel Johannes Triegard, was one of those farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte who in 1796 were most opposed to the recognition of British authority in Graaff-Reinet, and he inherited his parent’s prejudice in this respect. He was married to Martha Elizabeth Susanna Bouwer, and had a family of five children.

Triegard had received only an elementary education from an itinerant schoolmaster, just sufficient to enable him to write a letter or keep a journal in such a way that his meaning could be made out, but his understanding was by no means defective. He had a passionate temper, though he was usually able to keep it under control. Among the farmers he was regarded as a wealthy man, and his establishment was much larger than those of his neighbours.

In June 1834 Louis Triegard moved away from the district of Somerset, and camped out for a time on the banks of the White Kei river, beyond the border of the colony. According to the declaration of one of his slaves, who ran away from him there, and who appeared before the civil commissioner of Albany at Grahamstown on the 10th of September, he had previously purchased from a storekeeper in that place one large and two small kegs of {267} gunpowder, which he had taken with him. On the banks of the White Kei about thirty emigrant families were then living, among whom were those of Adriaan de Lange, his four sons Adriaan, Hans, Robert, and Gerrit, Frans van Aardt, Hans van der Merwe, and Sybrand van Dyk. Triegard had three female and seven men slaves, but the others had only five slaves among them all. While in the colony Triegard was a mild master, but when he got beyond the border his conduct changed, and he became harsh.

On the 21st of November 1834 the civil commissioner reported that all of Triegard’s slaves and four of the others had run away and reached Grahamstown safely, only one, belonging to Frans van Aardt, remaining at the White Kei. By removing them beyond the border, their masters had forfeited their right to them, [96] so they were all declared emancipated without any further action, and were permitted to take service as free persons with any individuals in the town who might care to employ them.

At the close of this year the sixth Kaffir war commenced, and the Rarabe clans held out until September 1835. When negotiations for peace were being conducted, the chief Tyali stated that Louis Triegard had persuaded the Xosas to continue hostilities so long, but there is no other positive evidence to this effect. It is difficult to believe that he would have tried to bring evil upon his own countrymen, but there is the incriminating fact against him that he moved northward with the notorious robber captain Jalusa, who carried on a career of violence and indiscriminate plunder until his entire band of between a thousand and twelve hundred individuals, with only eight exceptions, was exterminated in September 1836 by the {268} Basuto of Moshesh. The authorities on the frontier in the meantime, being convinced that he was doing much harm, but being unable to arrest him in his retreat beyond the border, were making secret inquiries into his conduct and movements, of which very likely he came to learn, for early in September 1835 he crossed the Orange river and became the leader of the first band of emigrants into the then unknown interior.

He had with him his wife and four children, his son Carel with wife and two children, Pieter Johannes Hendrik Botha with wife and five children, J. Pretorius with wife and four children, G. Scheepers with wife and nine children, H. Strydom with wife and five children, an old man named Daniel Pfeffer who made his living as a schoolmaster, and a Frenchman named Isaac Albacht, who had a coloured woman as a consort and five children.

This party was joined before it crossed the Orange river by another of equal size, consisting of Jan van Rensburg as leader, with wife and four children, S. Bronkhorst with wife and six children, G. Bronkhorst the elder with wife and one child, G. Bronkhorst the younger with wife, Jacobus de Wet with wife, F. van Wyk with wife and two children, P. Viljoen with wife and six children, H. Aucamp with wife and three children, N. Prins with wife and eight children, and M. Prins.

Together they had thirty waggons. After crossing the Orange they continued their course northward, travelling just as suited their inclination or convenience until they reached the place now known as Potgieter’s Rust, in the Zoutpansberg, where they arrived in May 1836. In passing through the vast almost uninhabited waste beyond the Orange river they had escaped the observation of Moselekatse’s warriors, and had met so few blacks that they considered themselves quite secure. The men hunted game constantly on horseback, and had seen vast areas of land suited for settlement, but as they wished to open communication with the outer world through Delagoa Bay, {269} they had gone on until they believed themselves to be in the latitude of that port.

At the Zoutpansberg they halted while the young men explored the country around, which they considered admirably adapted for stock-breeding and agriculture. They were in ignorance that Moselekatse’s kraals were only four hundred kilometres or two hundred and fifty English miles to the south-west, and of the ferocity of the Matabele they likewise knew nothing, or they would not have been so satisfied with the locality. They were almost at the mouth of a lion’s den, and yet were so utterly careless that in July 1836 the families composing Rensburg’s division, consisting of forty-nine individuals, left the others with the object of proceeding to Delagoa Bay to open up communication and trade with the Portuguese who had recently rebuilt a fort there. From that time nothing definite is known of these people. A report reached Triegard some months afterwards that they had all been murdered by a band of Magwamba robbers, and this was confirmed in later years by the accounts of various blacks, but just when and where it occurred could never be ascertained.

It was commonly believed in the Transvaal Republic a generation later, and the newspapers circulated the statement widely, that in August 1867 a white man and woman, who spoke no language but that of the Eastern Bantu, and whose habits were those of barbarians, were sent to Commandant Coetzer, of Lydenburg, by a Swazi chief who had obtained them from the Magwamba. They could tell nothing of their history except that they believed they had always lived among Bantu; but as they had never seen other whites that they could remember, it was concluded that they were the sole survivors of Rensburg’s party, and that they were very young when their relatives were murdered. For some time they had lived as man and wife, and had two children when they were handed over to Commandant Coetzer. This was the tale generally accepted as correct at the time, but the man and woman believed to {270} be Europeans were in reality albinos of pure Bantu blood. [97]

From a journal kept by Triegard, a fragment of which, commencing on the 25th of January 1837 and ending on the 1st of May 1838, has fortunately been preserved, the history of those who were left behind at the Zoutpansberg is known. On the 11th of May 1837 Triegard wrote to the authorities at Lourenço Marques that the party was in great want of clothing and ammunition, and asking if horned cattle, wethers, wool, and hides would be received in barter. They were then seven families of forty-six souls, only nine of whom were males capable of bearing arms. This letter was sent by Gabriel Buys, accompanied by a Knobnose black named Waiwai. Buys was a son of the notorious freebooter Coenraad du Buis, who had fled from the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony many years before, and after carrying on extensive depredations in Southern Betshuanaland, at the head of a band of ruffians, had become afraid that ministers of justice might be sent to apprehend him there, so had moved on to the Zoutpansberg and become the first European resident in the present Transvaal province. As he had done at the Keiskama he did in his new home in the north: he took to himself a harem of Bantu women, by whom he had numerous children. Among these were Gabriel and an {271} elder brother named Doris, who attached themselves temporarily to Triegard’s party, and as they spoke Dutch and Setshuana, were of great service. Doris remained behind as interpreter and general servant when Gabriel proceeded to Delagoa Bay with the letter.

They had over five hundred head of horned cattle and a flock of sheep and goats, the care of which occupied most of their attention. Game was plentiful, and they obtained some millet and sweet cane from the blacks who were thinly scattered about in their neighbourhood, so that there was no want of plain food, but the women missed greatly such articles as coffee and sugar. The men had accustomed themselves to the use of millet beer, and Triegard was always pleased to receive a calabash filled with it as a present from the head of a Bantu kraal, using the precaution, however, of requiring the donor according to the custom of the barbarians to take the first draught. As they had used all their lead, they cast bullets of copper and of tin, both of which metals were obtainable, though no information is given as to how or through whose means they were procured. Occasionally, though very rarely, they were able to get in barter a piece of calico that had passed through the country from Delagoa Bay, being handed on from one clan to another for sale. It is interesting to read in Triegard’s journal that, rough a life as they were leading, they observed Sunday as well as they could, and that a school was kept for the children. It is to be noted also that even in this little party there was a spirit of disagreement, and that Triegard’s leadership, owing to the feeling of absolute equality among the different heads of families, was hardly even nominal, much less real.

On the 7th of August Gabriel Buys and the Knobnose Waiwai returned from Delagoa Bay. No one there could read Triegard’s letter, but the Portuguese officer in command of the fort, understanding that the emigrants wished to visit him, sent two black soldiers to show them the way. Accordingly on the 23rd of that month they broke up their {272} camp, and set out on the journey to the coast, with the intention, however, of returning and settling permanently in the goodly locality they had found. From Gabriel Buys and the men who accompanied him they obtained only a vague idea of the distance they would have to travel or of the obstacles in their way. They were in reality about three hundred and thirty-six kilometres or two hundred and ten English miles in a straight line from Lourenço Marques, which lay almost due south-east, for without knowing it they had gone fully a hundred and ninety kilometres farther north than its latitude. So far they had enjoyed excellent health, as after passing the Stormberg they had been on the high plateau, and travelling from south to north they had not met with any serious obstacles. They were now to have a very different experience.

They travelled past the mountains, since so famous as the strongholds of the Bapedi, where Sekwati, who was then a very petty chief, was living, and who sent them a kindly greeting. They came next to the great range, which lay between them and the coast terraces, where trouble of no ordinary kind was before them. The black Portuguese soldiers had traversed the range on foot, and had no conception of waggon traffic, so they were absolutely useless as guides. A road had to be made, and they managed to obtain some Bantu labourers by paying them in sheep, but when it was completed it was just passable in most places and so dangerous at one spot that some of the party rather than venture on it preferred to take their waggons to pieces and lower the separate parts down the face of a precipice.

In the mountains their cattle were attacked by the tsetse, an insect a little larger than a common fly, but though they had once before suffered loss from this destructive pest, they did not pay much attention to it at first. They were doubtful of its being the same as that they had formerly seen, but soon their oxen began to pine away and die, when they found themselves in a deplorable {273} condition. Still they pushed on, and by dint of almost superhuman exertions, managed to get through the Lebombo, the last range on their way. The cattle were dying fast, when on the 8th of April 1838, to their great joy, they were met by a messenger from the commandant of the Portuguese fort at Lourenço Marques. This messenger had come up the river Umbelosi in a boat, and had brought a present of provisions, rum, medicines, and even some articles of clothing, which were most acceptable.

Triegard now transferred his ivory and other heavy effects to the boat, and with his lightened waggons pushed on to the fort, which he reached on the 15th of April 1838, two hundred and thirty-five days after leaving Makapan’s Poort at the Zoutpansberg. The party then consisted of fifty-seven individuals, namely five married men and their wives, two widowers, one widow, eight lads over sixteen years of age, fourteen lads under sixteen years of age, four girls over sixteen years of age, seven girls under sixteen years of age, four half-caste children of Albacht, and seven Betshuana and Bushman servants.

The Portuguese received them with much kindness, though they were required at first to give up their guns. These, however, were soon restored to them, and whatever could be thought of to make them comfortable was done. Triegard informed the commandant of the fort that he had left the Cape Colony because the frontier had been ruined by the Xosas, the slaves had been set free by the English, and the government desired to make soldiers of the Afrikanders. It was evident that they could not return to the Zoutpansberg, but they had not decided what next to undertake when they were attacked by fever. The first to die was old. Daniel Pfeffer, who expired on the 21st of April, at the age of 78 years. He was followed on the 29th of April by P. J. Hendrik Botha, who was 37 years of age. Next came Louis Triegard’s wife, who died on the 1st of May. When she fell ill the Portuguese commandant had her carried into the best room in the fort, {274} and his own wife tended her day after day with the utmost kindness until she died. With a great cry of anguish over his terrible loss Triegard closed his journal, and no particulars can be ascertained of occurrences during the next fifteen months that the party remained at Lourenço Marques. Months of intense suffering, physical and mental, they must have been, of this there can be no doubt. Actual hunger may have been averted by the kindness of the Portuguese officers, but the resources of these good people were very limited, and such food as was obtainable must have consisted mainly, if not entirely, of millet and other produce of the gardens of the Bantu.

Their number was constantly diminishing by fever, till at length the emigrants who had settled in Natal, hearing where and in what condition they were, chartered the schooner Mazeppa to proceed to Delagoa Bay to their relief, and in July 1839 the remnant of the party, consisting of Mrs. H. Botha and five children, Mrs. G. Scheepers and five children, Mrs. J. Pretorius and two children, three young men, and seven orphan children, were landed at Durban. One young man, son of Louis Triegard, had gone to Mozambique in a Portuguese vessel before the Mazeppa reached the bay, but in the following year he managed to travel overland to his friends in Natal. Thus of the ninety-eight individuals who formed the first party of emigrants all had perished except the twenty-six who reached Natal in a state of utter destitution. {275}

II.

Pieter Lavras Uys.

The second party to leave the colony was under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, and consisted of farmers whose religious tendencies were towards the separatist—equivalent to the Scottish Covenanter—section of the church. They migrated chiefly from the Tarka. A full account of their wanderings and actions, of their sufferings from the Matabele and their heroic conduct until Moselekatse was compelled to flee northward to the territory now called Rhodesia, together with the adventures of the party from Colesberg under Carel Cilliers that joined them is given in my History of South Africa , and it is unnecessary to repeat it here.

The third party was under the leadership of Gerrit Marthinus Maritz, and went from the neighbourhood of Graaff-Reinet. It was much larger than the one under Potgieter. On the 2nd of December 1836 these parties, who were then in the neighbourhood of Thaba Ntshu, attempted to establish a government and elected a court of justice, with Maritz as landdrost or president. Various small parties and even single families now arrived, and joined either Potgieter or Maritz according to the section of the church that they preferred.

The next large party was headed by Pieter Retief, and went from the Winterberg. On the 17th of April 1837 a meeting of the emigrants was held in the camp of Maritz, [98] {276} when Pieter Retief was elected administrative head, but he was not then installed in office, as the section under Potgieter took no part in the proceedings, and the others hoped that they might be induced to join in course of time. Potgieter and Maritz had quarrelled, and from this time forward harmony among the emigrants was rarely seen.

On the 6th of June 1837 Mr. Retief was formally installed in office as governor and commandant-general, a volksraad of six members was elected and entrusted with full legislative power, and a provisional constitution of nine articles was adopted. Whether these proceedings were not premature may be open to doubt. The number of emigrants north of the Orange was then not very great, many more were known to be on their way, and for these few to exercise the power of modelling the future government and appointing the chief executive officer seemed unjustifiable to most of those who arrived afterwards. There was no question as to the ability of Pieter Retief and his fitness for the highest office, but that he should be appointed to it by a section of the community and the others be required simply to concur was regarded as a grievance.

Mr. Retief’s first proceeding proved him to be a man of tact. He actually succeeded in inducing Hendrik Potgieter, the representative of the separatist or Covenanter {277} section of the church, to meet in a friendly manner Gerrit Maritz, the representative of the larger section of the church, [99] a man accused by his opponents of ambitious views and not very conciliatory in demeanour. It is true that these men had once fought side by side, when Maritz generously assisted the other to recover the spoil taken by the Matabele in August 1836 in their murderous onslaughts on the camps north of the Vaal, but the constitution of mind of the Covenanter seems to differ from that of other men so much as to make concord difficult except under unusual circumstances. It need not be asked whether his views are more or less praiseworthy than those of his neighbours, but it must be admitted that as a rule he looks upon most matters from a different standpoint. And so the good feeling between the two leaders brought about by Mr. Retief was only temporary, and from the first Potgieter resolutely declined to give in his adherence to the political faction led by Maritz.

The fifth large party arrived at Thaba Ntshu at this time. It was under the leadership of Mr. Pieter Jacobs, and went from the district of Beaufort West, being composed largely of families connected with the Slachter’s Nek insurrection. These people joined the adherents of Retief and Maritz, though they continued to form a separate camp.

Next to cross the Orange was a large party from Oliphants Hoek, under the leadership of Pieter Lavras Uys, though his father, Jacobus Johannes Uys, was nominally its head. The old man was nearly seventy years of age, and the party was entirely composed of his immediate descendants and connections by marriage. It is of Pieter Lavras Uys, and the part he took in the emigration, that {278} the remainder of this paper will deal, the information being largely drawn from the documents contained in the D’Urban collection.

He was descended from Cornelis Uys, who with his wife and three children migrated from Leyden in Holland as colonists at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the Dutch East India Company was sending to the Cape settlement as many industrious families accustomed to agriculture as it could obtain. Dirk, one of the three children of Cornelis, was born at Leyden, but grew up in South Africa, and in 1722 married Dina le Roux, daughter of a Huguenot refugee from Provence. The fifth child of this marriage, Cornelis Janse by name, in 1766 married Alida Maria Swart, and from this union eleven children were born, the second of whom, Jacobus Johannes by name, in 1793 married Susanna Margaretha Moolman. When grown up, this Jacobus Johannes Uys went to reside in Oliphants Hoek in what became later the district of Uitenhage, and there in 1797 his third child, Pieter Lavras, was born. [100]

Any one who will take the trouble to watch the career of South African students at European universities, say at Leyden or Edinburgh, will find that they occupy prominent places in their classes. The sons of men whose ancestors for many generations had received very little education from books on their farms are found intellectually able to compete in study with the sons of Europeans who have long enjoyed the greatest facilities for acquiring knowledge. This is a most hopeful sign for the future of South Africa. If with vastly increased knowledge our young men only adhere to the sterling virtues and strong confidence in God that characterised their ancestors, there need be no fear for this country in the time to come. {279}

It is true that there are in South Africa many poor white people, some of whom seem to have lost both the power and the inclination to raise themselves in the social scale. But with education, industrial training, and opportunities to acquire property, the great majority of these would undoubtedly rise again, and the residue are at least more capable of improvement than the unemployables in a European city. In all countries of the world there are weak-minded people of different degrees of imbecility, but in South Africa the number of these is very small, and white men and women with criminal instincts are almost unknown. If an average be taken the old colonists need not fear a comparison of intellect with the inhabitants of any country in Europe.

Pieter Uys was of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa. He had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good school education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from every source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could write a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch, and he was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. His upright conduct, his religious convictions, and his kindly disposition caused him to be held in general esteem, not only by his Dutch-speaking neighbours, but by the English settlers of Albany, with whom he was brought into close contact during the Kaffir war of 1835.

When the farmers were temporarily released from duty in the field in order to get crops in the ground, he found himself so thwarted by the unruly conduct of the apprentices, late slaves and Betshuana refugees alike, that he addressed a memorial to the authorities, representing the insufficiency of the existing laws for their correction, and praying for the interference and protection of the government. [101] It was impossible for Sir Benjamin D’Urban to {280} give him any relief, but even if it had been otherwise, he would probably have left the colony, for he had been charmed with the appearance of Natal, the almost uninhabited territory that he had visited in the preceding year.

It is impossible to give even approximately the number of those who had left the Cape Colony before this time. The government called for returns from the civil commissioners of the different districts, and in July 1837 these officials reported that one thousand and sixty-seven persons had left and two hundred and sixty others were about to follow. But these numbers are certainly much too low, though the estimate of Mr. Uys given in his letter of the 7th of August is probably too large.

It was the intention of the party under Uys to proceed to Natal, but not to attempt to go through Kaffraria. He had found such difficulties in travelling there in 1834 that he thought a better road might be found by moving northward over the Orange river, and then seeking a pass through the Drakensbergen that would lead him to the beautiful land below. This was the route that he followed, and at the beginning of August 1837 he and his party were on the northern bank of the Great river, without having met with any accident on the way. On the 7th of that month he addressed a letter to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, of which a literal translation made for the governor’s use and preserved among his papers is given here in extenso :

The political position, or the attitude assumed by Pieter Uys and his party towards the emigrants who had preceded them, was one of independence. As well he thought might he assert authority over Mr. Retief as Mr. Retief over him. The time had not yet come for framing a constitution, which should be deferred until the tide of emigration had slackened, when it could be done with the consent of the whole body of the people, and not merely of a small section of them. Accordingly on the 14th of August 1837 a series of resolutions were drawn up and signed, placing their attitude clearly before their countrymen. These resolutions literally translated were as follows:

At this time Mr. Retief was preparing to send an expedition against Moselekatse, to follow up the blow struck at Mosega in January 1837 by the commandos under Gerrit Maritz and Hendrik Potgieter. The Matabele had provoked hostilities by the robbery and massacre of a hunting party under Fieldcornet Stephanus Petrus Erasmus, of the Kraai river, [103] and of many emigrant families belonging to the party of Potgieter who had imprudently ventured across the Vaal. But this expedition was not carried out, Mr. Retief’s partisans assigning as a reason that they believed the Griquas under Adam Kok and Andries Waterboer would attack the camps while so many of the men were away, but the real cause probably being the dissensions between the emigrants themselves.

In October 1837 Mr. Retief, having found a pass in the Drakensbergen, with some of his followers went down {286} into Natal, and Messrs. Potgieter and Uys determined to carry out the plan of attacking the Matabele again. Uys had no personal interest in the matter, for he had resolved to settle in Natal, but his sympathy with his countrymen led him to assist them against the barbarians who had done them so much injury. On the 19th of this month he concluded an agreement of friendship with Moroko, chief of the principal section of the Barolong at Thaba Ntshu, and immediately afterwards the two commandos set out from the camps on the border of the Caledon and at Winburg. One of the most important campaigns yet entered upon in South Africa between Europeans and Bantu had commenced.

An account of this campaign has been given in my History of South Africa , and Dr. J. C. Voigt has entered even more fully into the details of the nine days’ struggle on the Marikwa than I did. [104] The result of this expedition was the flight of the whole Matabele tribe to the country north of the Limpopo, the opening of the territory now comprised in the Transvaal Province and the Orange Free State to European settlers, and the relief of the remnants of the Betshuana tribes from the misery in which they had been existing. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the victory on the Marikwa in November 1837 to civilisation and the happiness of both white and black people in South Africa. And yet Pieter Lavras Uys, one of the leaders of the little band of brave men who risked their lives against terrible odds and won it, is well nigh forgotten in the land he served so well.

On the 21st of July 1837 Mr. Retief had written to Sir Benjamin D’Urban a letter of which the following is a translation:

This letter seems to have taken a long time to reach the governor. On the 25th of October 1837 he wrote the following note upon it: {288}

Of Pieter Retief’s negotiations with the Zulu chief Dingan, of the removal to Natal of the whole of the party that adhered to him, and of the terrible massacres of the emigrants by the Zulus, nothing needs to be stated here. [105] These events are fully recorded in my History of South Africa and in Mr. G. S. Preller’s Piet Retief: Lewenskets van die Grote Voortrekker , (6de druk), a demi octavo {289} volume of one hundred and ninety-four pages, published at Pretoria in 1909.

It was the intention of Mr. Potgieter to settle on the highlands of the interior and to endeavour to open communication with the outer world if possible through the Portuguese harbour of Delagoa Bay. Mr. Uys, on the other hand, had from the first resolved to make homes for himself and his party in the neighbourhood of Port Natal. But he was not in a hurry to move over the mountains, especially as the pasture around his temporary camp was good, and the cattle, large and small, would be the better of a long rest after their journey from Oliphants Hoek. With a few companions on horseback, however, he rode over to inspect the country again, and on the 15th of December 1837 arrived in the first of the camps under Retief and Maritz on the Bushman’s river in Natal.

There the question of the form and personnel of the government was the topic of discussion again, and it became evident to Mr. Uys that he and his adherents would be in a minority in Natal. He therefore stated that after his party had arrived and settled on farms he would be prepared to abide by the decision of a majority of the whole community, but he could not be induced to sign a document pledging fidelity to Mr. Retief as governor and commandant-general, which was pressed upon him. After a short visit he returned to his camp on the highlands, and was there when the heartrending tidings reached him of the treacherous massacre of Mr. Retief and his companions at Dingan’s kraal on the 6th of February 1838 and of the even more atrocious massacre of men, women, and children alike, near the present village of Weenen on the 17th of the same month.

All political differences disappeared at once on receipt of this sad intelligence, and as soon as possible Uys and his men were on their way to the assistance of their sorely afflicted countrymen and women who were still alive in Natal. So quickly was the commando got together and {290} so rapidly did it ride that it arrived at the camp on the 1st of March 1838. Potgieter also assembled his men as speedily as he could, and went down into Natal with the same intention.

The condition of things there was wretched. The survivors of the massacre were huddled together in lagers, each under a commandant, but all close together to ensure their safety, and recognising Mr. Maritz as commandant-general and president of the council of war. Every day they were expecting another attack from Dingan’s army. Constant watch had therefore to be kept, and the men did not venture to move about unarmed, while the women were confined to the precincts of the lagers.

The accession of strength derived from the commandos of Uys and Potgieter made it unnecessary to act solely on the defensive any longer. Offensive operations were decided upon, not only with a view of punishing the Zulus, but of proving to them that the arms and tactics of Europeans were so superior that a prolonged conflict would be averted, and peace based upon the white man’s supremacy be secured. But the emigrants had still much to learn. The heavy firelocks that they carried were indeed more formidable weapons than the Zulu stabbing spears, but were far short of being as efficient as modern rifles. To load them it was necessary to pour a certain quantity of powder from a horn into the barrel, to insert a wad and beat it down with a ramrod, then to put in the slugs or a ball and wad down again, and finally to put priming in the pan and adjust the flint and lock. All this took time, even with the most expert and practised man, and while the gun was being loaded its owner was practically unarmed. The difference between a modern military rifle and a gun used by a South African farmer in 1838 is vastly greater in point of efficiency in conflict than that between such a gun and a Zulu stabbing spear.

Then as to military tactics. The farmer considered himself superior, simply because he was a civilised man. {291} He was accustomed to circumvent game, and used the same methods in war that he used in the chase. But he had yet to learn that many a Zulu induna as well as the wily chief of the mountain, who was even then gathering strength at Thaba Bosigo, was greatly his superior in military skill. The almost naked black man, whose general knowledge was so defective that he might be regarded as intellectually little superior to a child, in all that relates to tactics and strategy was in advance of the ordinary untrained European.

It was arranged that Uys and Potgieter with all the men they could muster should advance towards Dingan’s residence from the camp on the Bushman’s river, and that the English chiefs with their warriors should cross the Tugela much nearer its mouth and press on towards the same point. It was hoped in this way to divide Dingan’s forces, and it was certain that the black army of Natal, as the English chiefs called their followers, would fight desperately, as their existence depended upon victory over the Zulus. Several hundreds of them were armed with muskets, which their chiefs had imported and paid for with ivory, and their leaders were brave and capable men. But this really formidable force was drawn into an ambush by the strategy of the Zulu commander who was sent to oppose it, and after such a battle as is only fought by men who know that they must conquer or die, it was almost annihilated. [106]

As neither Potgieter nor Uys would serve under Maritz, who may have been wanting in tact and was certainly charged with being overbearing in his manner, though no man could have been more devoted to the public welfare than he, it was resolved that he should remain to protect the camps in case of attack, and that they should lead their respective adherents in separate commandos, but acting in concert with each other, to attack Dingan in his {292} principal kraal Umkungunklovu. The two commandos, when finally mustered, numbered three hundred and forty-seven men, exclusive of a few coloured attendants. Their commissariat and spare ammunition was taken with them on pack horses.

Neither of the leaders had a full conception of the hazardous nature of their expedition. A much smaller force than that under their command could have marched anywhere in the Xosa or Tembu country, and by keeping on open plains or ridges have been perfectly safe. They had served in the Kaffir war, and knew this. Then their decisive defeat of the Matabele had inspired them with the belief that they were invincible. They did not reflect that perhaps the field of operations against Dingan might not be so favourable to them as that against Moselekatse had been, and so they rode on in unbounded confidence. For five days they saw hardly any people, as the inhabitants had removed by order of Dingan to places of greater safety.

On the 11th of April 1838 they were close to the spot where eight months and five days later in the same year the battle was fought that gave to the stream from which they drank the name Blood River and to the date of the memorable engagement the name Dingan’s Day. Here for the first time since they left the camp they saw what appeared to them to be a small Zulu army. They drew hastily into battle order, and then dashed forward to charge, Potgieter with his men on one wing of the enemy, and Uys with his on the centre. The Zulus did not wait to meet the shock, but fled as fast as they could, and the farmers pursued them. Uys and his followers were too eager in the chase to act with proper caution, and did not observe that they were riding into a defile between two parallel chains of hills until a great Zulu army, that had been lying there concealed, suddenly showed itself on each side and in front of them. Its horns were even closing in behind before they realised {293} that they were in an ambuscade and in the utmost danger. [107]

There was no possibility now of carrying out the tactics they had adopted against the Matabele: of firing a volley, riding back and reloading their guns, and then charging again. There were no better horsemen in the world than these farmers, for they had been accustomed from early youth to ride and to hunt the game which then abounded in the country they came from. But the din caused by the Zulus striking their shields with their short spear shafts was so great that the horses became almost unmanageable, and for an instant it seemed as if all was lost. Then realising that there was one chance left, they directed all their fire upon the horns of the Zulu army, that had closed in, shot down hundreds, and dashed through the opening thus made.

Commandant Uys was wounded by a spear thrust, but as he fell from his horse he called out to his followers to leave him and fight their way out, for he must die. All except ten of them escaped by the road that had been opened, but the pack horses, baggage, and spare ammunition had to be left behind. Of the ten who died there, one was Commandant Pieter Lavras Uys. Another was his gallant son Dirk Cornelis Uys, a boy only fifteen years of age, who could have escaped, but seeing his father on the ground and a Zulu raising a spear to stab him, he turned to assist his parent, and fell by his side. The others who lost their lives were David, Jacobus, and Jan Malan, Louis, Pieter, and Theunis Nel, Joseph Kruger, and Frans Labuschagne. Potgieter’s division retreated in time, on finding {294} that it was being drawn into broken ground, and got safely away. The expedition then, being unable to keep the field owing to the loss of all the stores of the division under Uys, fell back to the camp on the Bushman’s river, and Potgieter and his men shortly afterwards returned to Winburg.

The aged father of Pieter Uys survived him only three months. He went down into Natal with the other members of the party, and in July died there. Mr. Maritz too, broken in health by anxiety and trouble, died on the 23rd of September of the same year. Thus of the most prominent leaders of the emigration, all had passed away in this short time except Mr. Potgieter, who lived until 1853. {295}

SYNOPTICAL INDEX.

THE END

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