The common belief that the historic manor-house of Groot Constantia was erected by Simon van der Stel at the end of the seventeenth century is completely fallacious. Although the proud structure of the present day probably rests on the foundations of Governor Simon’s original building, there is not a vestige of a superficial trace of resemblance between the two buildings.

In her beautiful Historic Houses of South Africa, Miss Dorothea Fairbridge advanced what is on the surface, a perfectly logical argument, that “Simon van der Stel built the house which is the best example of seventeenth century architecture left to the country”. She had never come across any evidence to the contrary, she wrote; while there is ample evidence to show that it was built by Simon van der Stel. The glowing description of Kolbe, in the face of his fierce hatred for the Van der Stels, implied great beauty: and who but a Van der Stel would have decorated the floor of his house with the star in red stone that we find at Groot Constantia? The severe simplicity of the gables also suggested a link with Van der Stel: they radiated “that feeling of classical severity that made me think they were built for Simon van tier Stel”.

She was probably strengthened in her belief by the writings of Mrs. A. F. Trotter at the turn of the present ‘century, a lady who did her research on a bicycle, and who was an artist of no mean ability. “Here”, wrote Mrs. Trotter, ”he built a house … gabled like the houses of the fatherland . . . yet individual and distinct; the first great homestead of the Cape”. She was sceptical, however, of the genuineness of the white-washed lime walls and speculated whether Constantia . . . “being built early, arid almost certainly of good bricks from the Netherlands, was originally left unplastered”. An intelligent observation, ‘suggested no doubt by Sparrman’s reference in 1772 to “the old or red Constantia”. However, this probably refers to the type of wine manufactured on the estate, rather than to the colour of the house, for Sparrman was an enthusiastic botanist deeply interested in the viticulture of the Cape. After the fire, it was shown that the original building was built of small red Klinker bricks, but there is evidence that, at the time of remodelling at any rate, the building was plastered and whitewashed.

Nothing new was added to our knowledge of the history of Groot Constantia until 1926. On December 19th of that year, the manor-house was completely gutted by fire. Nothing was saved, and only the bare walls remained.

In the following year, the Public Works Department, entrusted the task of restoring the house to the well-known Cape architect, F. K. Kendall, who subsequently published his findings in book forth, entitled The Restoration of Groot Constantia. His conclusions, persuasively drawn, suggested that at one stage almost the entire house had been rebuilt and considerably enlarged. He accepted the drawing of J. W. van der Heydt as being in conformity with his findings in the walls and probably representing the original appearance fairly accurately. Previous to this, the Van der Heydt drawing done in 1741 from a point in the orchard above the house had been regarded in the same light as the illustrations in most of the travel chronicles relating to the Cape.

Examination of the front wall of the house revealed that small Dutch Klinker bricks existed up to the level of the window-sills, but that above that level a larger and more modern brick was used. In the central gable an indiscriminate mixture of Klinker and “modern” was found. At the end of the building, in the wall of the front (drawing) room two narrow voids were discovered, stretching from floor level to two segmental arches, and filled up with Klinker bricks. This provided the clue to the front of the house, for Kendall was able to show that these levels corresponded with those of the casement windows set further back in the wall, and that originally these spaces contained casement windows as well. He postulated that when the house was remodelled, the sash-window was already in vogue in the Cape, and the front was broken down to the level of the sills to include them in the walls; and, to prevent incongruity of sashes and casements in the same room, the latter were walled up in the drawing room. The appearance of Klinker bricks mixed indiscriminately in the upper part of the building with the modern suggests that when the original building was broken down, a great quantity of bricks was in good enough condition to be used again.

Kendall then proceeded to correlate these findings with the Van der Heydt drawing. He located the exact spot in the orchard from which the artist had looked down upon the farm, and he discovered that, allowing for modern developments, as far as the skyline, avenue of oaks, the sea and the mountain were concerned, it was “a remark-ably conscientious and accurate representation in all respects”. He concluded that the omission of the gable was probably accurate. Moreover, the windows, with the aid of a magnifying glass, can all be shown to be casements: not only are they of casement proportion, but the heads of the front ones are in line with those at the end of the house. The accurately-drawn dormer is so eccentrically situated that it was probably one of a pair on the front roof; and indeed this would be corroborated by his remark that “from the upper front windows you have a charming vista of meadows, vineyards and several pretty country seats”, were Kolbe not so unrealiable a chronicler.

The ridge of the roof in Van der Heydt’s drawing is on the same level on all three sides, whereas the present building has a much higher ridge on the front roof than on the sides, necessitated by the extra width of the middle portion of the house. When the plaster was stripped off the back cross-wall, it was found that it was built throughout of a mixture of Klinker and “modern” bricks, and that it had been inserted into the wing walls by chases cut into them to receive it. It thus appeared that this back wall was a product of the remodelling, for its sash-windows corresponded with those in the front of the house. This theory was borne out by the discovery of portions of an old wall well on the inside of the present one, running lengthwise through the middle of the dining-hall. Whitewashed and plastered with lime and showing unmistakable signs of previous exposure, this wall was originally the outside wall of the house. The implications of this are fourfold. Firstly, it eliminated all speculation of Van der Stel regaling his friends with gigantic feasts in the dining hall as we know it to-day; Valentijn must have enjoyed the “matchless fine and delicious fruit” of. his host in more modest surroundings and even Le Vaillant in 1780 was not privileged to be entertained here. In place of a dining-hall, Van der Stel had a fine wide gallery or passage covered with a lean-to roof and opening through a door in the centre onto a concrete platform from which led down steps into the courtyard below, as is the present arrangement. The discovery of this platform, at a slightly lower level than the floor of the hall, supplied conclusive evidence of the extent of the cross-wall. Records refer to this gallery, and there are instances of similar design in other old Cape houses—possibly this was the original one.

The second point that this discovery settles is the question of the pitch of the roof. Had a wider span been used on the front roof, this portion would have been much higher, as it is to-day; but it would have been difficult to build, especially at a time when the construction of such a building was more of an experiment than anything else.

The fact that the original walls of the house that were uncovered were lime plastered and whitewashed seems to allay the fears of Mrs. A. F. Trotter that the original structure was left unplastered. As early as 1675 there is a reference to prisoners being sent to Robben Island “to gather mussel-shells and others, for the burning of lime”, and all descriptions of the settlement remark upon the whiteness of the houses. There is no reason why Simon van der Stel should have been different in the construction of his own house.

The fourth point concerns the so-called Van der Stel arms worked into the stones on the floors of the entrance porch and dining-hall. In both cases the design is identical with that in the banqueting hall in the centre of the room. It therefore appears obvious that these floors were laid at the time when the banqueting hall was built–that is, when the house was remodelled. On the other hand, we know from Kolbe that Simon van der Stel discovered and worked a quarry of the red stone used in the design in the Steenberg, and it was much used in floors and steps. Also the floor design undoubtedly indicates the arms of Van der Stel impaled upon the star of the Sixes, the family of his wife. One can therefore speculate that the design laid down at the time of remodelling the house was a copy of an earlier design dating from the time of the Van der Stels.

The period of remodelling of the façade and courtyard of the house cannot be determined with accuracy, but, according to the evidence of old-records and references in travel-books, and the style of architecture, the year 1792 appears to be the most likely date.

When Hendrik Cloete purchased Groot Constantia from Jan Serrurier in December 1778 for 60,000 Cape guilders, the estate “was in a ruinous state, the buildings were all destroyed and scarcely a vineyard was bearing” according to an attestation by his son Peter Laurence Cloete, in 1827. He also stated that his father had “rebuilt all the buildings on it, and increased the plantations”. As Hendrik Cloete had bought the estate by a mortgage bond for the full amount to be paid off in instalments, and since he had paid an additional 30,000 Cape guilders for the slaves and movable property, it is conceivable that for no small space of time his financial position did not warrant the spending of a large sum of money on the erection of an expensive and lavish building not essential for the good running of his farm. By 1791, however, he had met with sufficient success to invite the architectural giants of his time-Thibault and Anreith—to construct a wine-cellar at the back of his house. There is a quaint tradition that Anreith worked on the pediment behind e screen, and would not allow his patron a glimpse of the work until it was completed.

Groot Constantia 1741

It does not appear that the house was altered until after the completion of the wine-cellar. Being a good farmer, Cloete built the most necessary things first. Then, as Mr. Kendall writes, “it is highly probable that the proprietor would finish his constructive energies with a flourish by adding magnificence .and comfort to the house itself”. By being in constant touch with Anreith and Thibault in connection with the wine-cellar (“the production of which must have in itself been a strong incentive to beautify the house”) Cloete invited them to remodel his house according to the latest style.

The earliest illustration of the present facade of the house—with a window in place of •a statue in a niche—appeared in Milbert’s Voyage Pittoresque a L’Isle de Franee au Cap de Bonne Esperanee (1812 Paris). A sketch by Bowler in 1854 likewise shows a window in place of the niche. This would suggest that the statue and niche are of ‘later erection: but this is contradicted by Kendall, who—feeling it unlikely for two windows to be placed one above the other in the same gable—examined the inside of the gable for previous patching and repair—and found no trace. He therefore concluded that the niche and statue are as old as the gable itself, and that Bowler copied unfinished details from the earlier artist; or, by some strange co-incidence, they both independently made the same mistake. Cloete family tradition assigns the statue of Plenty to an earlier date than 1854—indeed, Dorothea Fairbridge says to before the time of Anreith. This is hardly possible since Anton Anreith’s arrival at the Cape predated the erection of the front gable by at least fourteen years! There is a reference to “a vile painting, of a strapping girl, and ugly enough, reclining on a pillar” (not pillow as Kendall writes) by a Frenchman De Saint-Pierre, who visited the Cape in the seventeen-seventies. “I took it for a Dutch allegorical figure of Chastity : but they told me it was a portrait of Madame Constance, daughter of a Governor of the Cape”. ‘This is confusing from our point of view, but the reference is to a painting and not a statue, and it must be assumed that De Saint-Pierre at least recorded his basic facts accurately. The present-day statue of a girl leaning against a rest is very suggestive of this earlier painting, and provided De Saint-Pierre’s description is correct, we can speculate that Cloete requested Anton Anreith merely to copy the old design, rather than create a new one. For it is quite possible that the statue of Plenty was designed by Anreith as well. Hendrik Cloete would have been in close contact with him in connection with the wine-cellar pediment, and when Thibault began remodelling the house, Anreith was invited to assist. The fortunate partnership of Anreith and Thibault might well be personified in the front gable of Groot Constantia.

Writing from Cape Town on the 1st of October, 1792, Cornelis de Jongh, an accurate and pleasant Dutch visitor to the Cape, praises Hendrik Cloete as “an artistic argriculturalist who has made innumerable improvements to his farm, having built a new wine-cellar, altered the house, and planted new species of tree and vine . . . “  I feel justified in accenting this entry as indicative of the date at which the “alterations” were completed, or at least, under way.

This date is in conformity with the place of Groot Constantia in the ordered sequence of evolution of the architectural style at the Cape: the façade is certainly the product of a later development than existed in the time of Simon van der Stel. It is more likely the “country” version of the double-storeyed town house with the dak kamer on the roof, such as the Martin Melk house next to the Lutheran Church in Strand Street. At the same time it was probably the precursor of the common triangular-topped square gable seen so extensively in the country districts, particularly in the Worcester-Robertson area. But its Renaissance cap distinguishes it as something apart, and earlier in conception than these.

There is something very comforting about Groot Constantia, lying so close to the great Mother City, and yet breathing the life of another, an easier and more carefree world of the past. All the old ghosts are there—Hendrik Cloete with le Valliant, Lady Anne Barnard and a whole train of distinguished guests; and Kolbe, Valentijn and “if you dream there long enough, you will see wandering among the flickering shadows, the shadow of Simon van der Stel”.

E. H. BURROWS. Africana Notes and News,  December, 1948        Vol. VI, No. 1

Top image is Groot Constantia in 1812

The women in the slave lodge were in a vastly different situation from the settlers’ women slaves. Lodge women, for instance, were not under the direct domestic supervision of any settler or European official. There were almost as many slave women in the lodge as there were men. There were thus possibilities of finding a slave spouse among the Lodge inmates. Slave women in the Lodge, in contrast to their counterparts owned by settlers, could “be effectively married” to slave men from as early as 1671, although this did not entail a wedding solemnized by the Dutch Reformed Church across the way (actually a graveyard physically and symbolically separated the two buildings until the 1750s).

According to Lord Adriaan Van Rheede’s more carefully worded instructions issued in 1685, “[Company slave] man and wife were to be left together” and to be “married in their manner.” If a slave couple wished to be wed, they had to ask permission to be placed on the “marriage list.” It is important to establish that the official church of the colony never sanctioned or even recorded such marriages, moreover the mandated “lists” of such Company slave couples have never been found in the voluminous Company books or censuses of company slaves. Significantly, one year after Van Rheede had left the colony, the local authorities used the Dutch word “wijven” to describe these Company slave spouses and not the expected word ” vrouwen ” which was used for the settlers’ wives. Several scholars of the period have suggested that local officials regarded Van Rheede as an aristocratic busybody and all but ignored his heavily touted reforms.

Getting on to one of these married lists also meant moving to new quarters, since the architecture of the Lodge was based on sex: young bachelors on the east wing, spinsters on the west wing, married couples in their own quarters. According to the 1717 report on the new slave lodge, the entire second story of the lodge was to be given over “to the best and most respectable paired slaves.” This “pairing” spilled over into the work-place; even the heaviest labour contingent on the “general works” in 1693, where one would expect to find a high proportion of males who were physically more capable of the heavy labour, suggested this pairing. Whether this racial pairing was organized by the Company or the slaves themselves is obscure: the Company though, recorded the following:

Male Female
Half Breed 6 7
Full Breed 60 61
For each “half-breed” [ halfslag ] male slave there was one half-breed female slave; for each full-breed [ heelslag ] female slave there was one full-breed male. Only two extra “overlapping” women spoilt the otherwise perfect symmetry of what one might term descent pairing.

All half-breed females in the lodge were actually encouraged to marry “a man from the Netherlands,” who would be expected to pay back the cost of upkeep and education of the slave women and to free her. The process of settlers formally marrying Company “half breeds” was common enough for the Company to resolve to exact compensation from the bridegroom, who was, after all, acquiring property from the company. Not all bachelor settlers could afford this expense. Consequently, there are several examples of ante nuptial contracts, whereby the settler or soldier promised that should his slave bride die before him and not have any heirs, he would leave half of the estate of the marriage to the Company as compensation for the education and upbringing of the slave bride. As can be seen from the following extract from just such a contract, the process of metamorphosis from slavery to freedom and incorporation into the settler family-so dramatic and strange to us-was carefully monitored just as any other humdrum corporate accounting transaction:

…Andries Oelszen, free settler at Stellenbosch presently intending to marry Sara van de Caap, the Company’s half-breed slave, declares that in the event of his bride’s pre-deceasing him and in the event of her leaving no legal heirs, that a half of the estate, including land and movables, should be given over to the company, at the death-house [ sterfhuijsje ], before the debts of the estate are settled, to acknowledge and pay off the Company’s role in bringing up and feeding the abovementioned bride…

According to Van Rheede’s calculations in 1685, at 22 years of age, this amounted to 150 Guilders. European males were often willing to pay. Full-breed women slaves, on the other hand, had to wait much longer for their manumission. Officials obviously presumed that no European would want to marry a full-breed, since no provisions were made for such an eventuality, one secondary source even claiming these unions were illegal.

Because of the long-term shortage of women at the Cape, half-breed company slave women had a good chance of being married to a European- and this was encouraged officially at the same time as regulations were promulgated against concubinage with full-breed slaves. This seeming contradiction represents a head-on clash between racial attitudes of the time and the demographic reality of the shortage of European women at the Cape. Basing arguments about miscegenation (and indirectly race relations) at the Cape on the marital trajectories of the Company’s few half breed slave women should not be regarded as evidence of racial fluidity. In those regions of the colony where European women were more plentiful, the incidence of miscegenation declined.

The Lodge slave censuses disclose that the women were under the overall supervision of a male mandoor at the work-place outside the lodge. In the lodge itself, the women had an equivalent authority figure in the matres, literally a schoolmistress. Her separate lodging, strategically located next to the chamber set aside for the schoolgirls, discloses that her duties exceeded those of the traditional “schoolmarm.” Therefore, the translation “matron” seems more appropriate.

The two references where matrons were mentioned by name confirm that they enjoyed the same, or greater, privileges of manumission as did the male half-breed mandoors, but then as mothers they had their own children to free. Significantly both matrons mentioned were half-breeds; both were allowed to manumit their children. For example, Armozijn van de Caab, the matron before 1711, who had been manumitted because of good service by the previous Governor, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, made a special request to free her daughter, Marie van de Caap, who still languished in the Lodge. The Company granted the request, but the resolution stipulated that the slave-girl would still have to work for the Company for three years after which she would be sold to her mother at the price which Lord van Rheede had laid down in 1685 for all such miscegenated children. In August, 1728 Christijn van de Caab, another matron, freed her 13 year old child, Johanna Barbara van de Caab, before she thought of her own freedom.

Below the matron was the under-mistress. Again the documents confirm the half-breed descent status. Women slaves in these supervisory positions somehow managed to obtain cash as well as their normal perquisites. For example, the Company instantly freed Anna van Dapoer van de Caap, who had worked for “ten unbroken years” as an under-mistress in the lodge, when on the 23rd September, 1727 she presented a male slave, Julij van de Kust, whom the Company surgeon, Jan van Schoor, had examined and pronounced “upstanding and healthy.” She had bought Julij out of her own pocket to exchange him for her freedom.

This exchange system was the Cape equivalent of the Cuban coartición, which entitled any slave to purchase freedom at a stipulated price. But unlike the Cuban custom, the Cape practice usually involved an exchange of persons, rather than money, and a slave’s chances of freedom were statutably greater if the slave could prove European descent. The purchase price of an exchange slave was large by contemporary standards, where such a slave might be worth (say) several horses. Illustrating Anna van Dapoer’s ordeal, a further twelve years’ work as a free woman was needed before she was able to free her children, Jan and Frans, in 1739.

Women slave officers
Each of the two women slave officers, the last and lowest rung in the Lodge’s female hierarchy, had an average of seventy-nine “work-maidens” under her supervision, i.e. many more underlings than her male fellow officer which suggests greater compliance among the Lodge women. Like her male counterpart she received more clothing than her fellows. The women slave officers however also received bolts of linen. Each officer, male and female, received a length of cotton cloth, presumably as part of the overall incentive scheme of the lodge.

Elements of the family mode of slave management were fused into the control of the Lodge slave women, but noticeably never among the men, who lived according to strict army style regulations. The interpolation of the family trope was accomplished through the offices of the “internal” and “external” mothers. External mothers were surrogate slave mothers outside the lodge, usually European official’s wives, who must have served as ombudspersons. In 1687, the political Council appointed and charged four external mothers with seeing that the maidens and younger girls of the Lodge were well brought up, were familiar with the handicrafts of the “fatherland,” specifically the sewing of linen and making of woollen clothes.

Internal mothers looked after their own children and other mothers and their children in the lodge creche and hospital. If the slave-child became sick, the biological mother would be called in, and placed in the Company hospital with her child. However, the child would have to be seriously sick. According to the complete hospital records of the year 1710, nineteen slave children were bed-patients, yet only one mother, Margriedt, was recalled from her work to look after her children. The company also consulted the internal mothers about conditions in the lodge, which suggests that they had some control over the other female slaves. They did not, however, receive any extra rations. Their continuance through the remainder of the eighteenth century is dubious. Perhaps they did their job too efficiently and became a nuisance, but this is arguing from silence. We do know that the internal mothers all but disappear from the sources.

Gender deference within the Lodge
The most important aspect of female slave labour in the lodge was that apart from child-bearing, the Company made little distinction in the type of labour which men and women could do. The Company throughout this period had no hesitation in assigning slave women to the most gruelling tasks. For example, at the Company mine at Silvermine (on the road to present-day Kommetje), a mine which was worked around the clock, a small undivided hut was set aside for the men and women slaves.

It should be remembered that woman in contemporary England had proved efficient miners as they could crawl through the narrow coal tunnels dragging carts with ropes between their legs without encumbrance. The legend in the Dutch illustration of a mine shows that the Dutch made a distinction between the maximum number of Europeans (50) and slaves (150) who could safely be in the mine at one time, but no mention was made of women, a further hint that no gender deference was shown to Company slave women with regard to heavy manual labour.

European women, on the other hand, never appear on the Company payrolls, except as midwives or “external mothers.” When adventurous individual Dutch women did disguise themselves as men, joined the Dutch East India Company to come to the Cape, and were caught, they were tried and sent home, even though several male settlers “instantly asked for their hand in marriage.” Settler women at the Cape, like their Virginian counterparts, were supposed to work at home; it was left to settler and slave men and Lodge slave women to work in the field and the ditch.

The only evidence of gender differentiation for the slave women of the lodge was that the Company did not allow them to work in the Company hospital as nurses because of the “rough soldiers and sailors” who were often afflicted with the “Venus sickness [venereal disease].” Such nursing “work was wholly incompatible for a woman” the internal mothers complained on the 10th February, 1710. The Political Council agreed to use fewer women in the hospital, but did so on epidemiological grounds rather than from notions of gender deference. However, according to Kolbe, the slave women in the Lodge were excused from work if they fell pregnant:

The Negro-Women at the Cape are very lascivious Creatures. As they are excused there from working, and indulged in an idle Life, for about Six Weeks before and Six Weeks after Travail, they are the most intemperate Wretches upon Earth in the Article, and greedily swallow, and enflame themselves with, all the Provocatives they can come at, till they are got with Child. The Provocative they mostly take, and are the fondest of, is one of their own preparing, consisting of milk, wine, eggs, sugar, saffron and cinnamon. The Slaves Lodge at the Cape swarms with Children.

Self perception and identity
How the slave women perceived themselves in the hierarchy in the lodge is a difficult question. The detailed crime records rarely provide a glimpse. Attitudes have perforce to be inferred from behaviour, reconstructed from the baptismal records, and also deduced from European commentary originating outside the walls of the lodge. If the women slaves of the settlers had to be coerced to make love to European visitors, this did not apply to the lodge slave women. Their reputed slave “husbands” forced them to sleep with visitors, both settlers and the famous “Lords of six weeks,” those soldiers and sailors who had money and only a short time to spend it.

Ambrose Cowley, an English visitor to the Cape in 1686, claimed the lodge “husbands” were easily persuaded to pimp their wives: “If a slave of the Company’s should have a mind to have carnal knowledge of one of their women, let him but give her husband a bit of Tobacco-Roll of about three inches long, he will fetch her forthwith to the slave and cause her to lie with him.” Mentzel, who actually delivered salt to the Lodge and was thus one of the few settlers to pass through the Lodge’s portals, confirms Cowley’s accounts, namely that male slaves actually forced their partners to take a European lover. Elsewhere he suggests that not all lodge women were “loose,” those that were however, scrupulously insisted on advance payment from their patrons.

There was another side to these accounts of the lodge women. Many travellers and other sources emphasized that Lodge slave women willingly courted European sexual attention. For instance, according to the genuinely pained Political Council members in 1681, the slave women in the lodge flaunted their European lovers in public: “dancing, stark naked even on Sundays, in full aspect.” Charles Lockyer, who visited the Cape in 1711, claimed that: “There is little notice taken of the sailors who lodge in their rooms, and as for the women themselves, they are so fond of white children, that they would willingly have no other, whence the breed is highly improved, many of them being as white as Europeans.” Johan Daniel Buttner, a doctor who stayed at the Cape in the 1720s also remarked on the mixed race children in the Lodge, the result of willing miscegenation from “men of many nations.”

The most compelling evidence comes from the church records: the independent church archives reveal that Company slave women took great pains to drive a genealogical stake into the baptismal records of the colony, always naming their invariably absent European lover as the “father” by providing an exact patronym. Whether the slave women were coerced by their slave spouses, or were willing partners, the result was the same, what Mentzel termed an entire ” mestiço class ” in the lodge.52 Were the slave women of the lodge being defiant of the growing racial order by flaunting their European partners, or simply establishing for their offspring the best possible chance in a colony where the advantages depended so clearly on a light skin color? If slavery became increasingly racially based in the colony, than the genius of the lodge women lay in their success in making that association as difficult and troublesome as possible for the ruling order and by flaunting European fatherhood, they also put their pimping slave spouses in their places.

Conclusions
Emerging racial descent criteria came to override long-established patterns of European gender deference in the lodge. No European women worked at heavy manual labour, while all lodge women were used in the heaviest work. Further, it was more important in the lodge to be mestiço than female, at least as far as the allocation of easier tasks and the granting of freedom were concerned. But lodge women used the system to acquire the best life chances for their offspring and then themselves.

By Prof Robert Shell – from his book Diaspora to Diorama

Rev. MARCUS GABASHANE, a Msutu, lived the greater part of his life in the Orange Free State. He was one of the foremost ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A powerful preacher, a hard worker and a loyal servant of God. He laboured for many years among his people amidst great hardships and difficulties. He took keen interest in the welfare of his people, and was much respected by all who knew him. During the trying times when the A.M.E. Church was first established in South Africa, Rev. ‘Gabashane distinguished himself as a faithful Christian. In those .days many Europeans looked upon African Churches as a danger to the country, as the following extract from a European paper of those .days shows:-
" It is difficult to realise such a catastrophe, but the proof of its inevitable occurrence is perfectly logical. The Black Men are not like the Red Indians of America or the Australian natives, who have -withered under the influence of the white invaders. It was the -weakest of the African natives who were captured and sold as slaves to the American planters. These weaklings have grown to be a great power in their new home. The stronger African natives, living in the climate they are used to, will develop into a still more powerful ,community. They are courageous, capable, virile and intelligent. They are increasing in numbers faster than the whites. They make splendid soldiers when capably led." •
" With knowledge of the facts," says Mr. R. Jones, in the nineteenth century, " nobody in his senses imagines it possible to stem the rising flood of native aspirations in South Africa."
"But what is the black man's aspiration? There is no mistake about it. For some years past a number of negro missionaries from America have been stumping the country, ever telling the natives what they must fight for. They go as representatives of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and are the authors of the Ethiopian movement. This Ethiopianism has, on the surface, for its objects the freeing of the native Christian churches. from European control, but wherever the missionaries go to Natal, the Cape, the Transvaal – they carry political unrest, and have been condemned by the authorities. The Natal Government discussed the question of expelling these American negro missionaries. After the war they were forbidden to enter the Transvaal or Orange Free State, but trouble arose with the 'United States Government, and they have lately had a free hand. What they are teaching the natives is that South Africa is a black man's land and that they must stand up for their rights. The official organ of the Society, published in the United States, says that the "Kaffir 'to will eventually master the white man, and whip the British back to the Thames."
This unpleasant feeling has since died away, but the good work of Rev. Gabashane and other pioneers stands.

BISHOP SAMUEL ADJAI CROWTHER, D.D., was born about 1800, in Zomba, Central Africa. From his youth the boy showed signs of greatness and it was clear that he had a future. The country frequently suffered from raids and petty wars. It was in 1821 that the community of Adjai’s village had a rude awakening-slave traders had made another unwelcome visit and raided the village. While peace reigned only a’ few short hours before, now everything was in confusion and the terror-stricken people were running this way and that way to avoid being captured. ‘ Men,women (with babies on their backs), boys and girls, aged and infirm, were all seeking a safe shelter. Adjai, his mother and sister were captured together with many others, and whether his father. and other relatives were killed or captured they never knew.Adjai with a group of. other boys about his age were parted from their mothers and sisters and exchanged for goods, animals, and in some cases for tobacco. They changed hands ‘until a European took them over, the slaves being chained together,: bundled into canoes and put aboard a Portuguese vessel which sailed the following morning. Packed like logs, in an ill-ventilated place, suffering from thirst, hunger and the cruelty meted out to them, some of the slaves died in the chains. The following morning the miserable slaves, trembling with fear, were allowed to come on deck. They were soon to rejoice in the knowledge that they were no longer in the hands of ‘slave-traders and owners-who were now bound with ropes. They had been rescued by British Menof-War. Their rescuers were kind to them, and in June, 1882, they landed at Sierra Leone. Here Adjai was sent to a mission school and made wonderful progress. He was able to read and write in. six months. Became a Christian and was baptised; adopted the name of Samuel Adjai Crowther. He went to England with a missionary for a few months and while there he attended school. On his return he attended classes at the Fourah Bay College, which had just been opened by the Church Missionary Society. After the days. at Fourah Bay College, Adjai became schoolmaster, and was assisted by a class, mate, Asano Susan, whom he afterwards married. Adjai studied Latin and Greek. He became a parish assistant.

In 1841 Samuel Adjai Crowther was sent to Niger for missionary work. Later he was recalled to England where he attended a college for training ministers, and was ordained a priest in 1842. He returned to his home where he did splendid work. A pioneer, he also undertook to translate the Bible into his own language. Went from place to place visiting the people, speaking to them and teaching them. He had something to say to all, young and old. After a time he found his long-lost mother and sister who were taken away from him by the slave-traders when he was captured. It was about 25 years that they had been parted. Adjai was a Christian and they were not, but soon he won them over to Christianity. Opened a minion station at Abeokata and soon had a” very large congregation. On his return to England by request, he was received by Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her Ministers. Later he returned with his wife to Africa, and his work. In .1857 he was leader of a Christian Mission, having been commissioned to accompany the third Niger Expedition up the great river: In 1864 he returned to England to report on the work done. His work had exceeded expectations. Everybody thought him a wonderful man. Large numbers of baptised Africans awaited confirmation, no bishop could- be spared; Henry Venn, the Church Missionary Secretary, proposed that Adjai be made a Bishop. When the proposal was made to him he objected, but his European friends approached him and reasoned with him. At last Adjai’s consent was won, and he humbly yet reluctantly agreed. The Queen’s licence was issued empowering the Archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate Samuel Adjai Crowther to be a Bishop of the Church of England in West Africa. The University of Oxford conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon the Bishop-elect.

Special trains ran on St. Peter’s Day, 29th June, 1864, between London and Canterbury. The old cathedral was full of memories. In the same cathedral bishops of many lands had been consecrated, but this was the first time that an African was’ to be made bishop in Canterbury. Can the reader wonder that special trains were needed. The cathedral was full, and there were far more men than seats.. On that day two of his friends were foremost. The man who rescued him from slavery-Captain Sir Henry Leekeand Mrs. Weeks, who taught him his first lessons at school in West Africa. The service was never more impressive than on the morning when Samuel Adjai Crowther was consecrated for his work. After this the new bishop, the first African bishop, returned to his native land and continued his good work with greater vigour than ever. Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther, his wife and children lived happily. He was patient, humble, persevering, loyal and progressive. He was an example of what an African could be. He educated his children, and one of his sons became Archdeacon Crowther. Bishop Crowther was able to view the fruits of his labours before he died.

The Living History research enterprise aims to take DNA samples from about 500 – 1000 South Africans in order to trace their geographical ancestry.

It will provide the first national database available in the public domain. The gene pool found in the present-day South African population draws from the indigenous people of Southern Africa, namely the former hunters or San groups, the pastoral Khoikhoi who are thought to have migrated to the Cape in the last 2,000 years introducing sheep and cattle to the region, and people originating from the Niger-Congo area speaking Nguni-languages who migrated south in the last 1,200 years. In addition, sea-borne immigrants from Western Europe (largely from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and France), indentured labourers from India and slaves from the Malaysian Archipelago, Madagascar and other parts of Africa, have also contributed to the gene pool

We wish to provide a DNA map of the genetic heritage and, thereby, adding an additional layer of information to our self-understanding of where we come from and who we are.

Project Associates:

Mr Anton van Dorsten (Ancestry24),
Associate Professor Himla Soodyall (University of the Witwatersrand) and
Professor Raj Ramesar (University of Cape Town).

Funded by Ancestry24.com

This research enterprise is to take DNA samples from about 500-1000 South Africans in order to trace their geographical ancestry. It will provide the first national database available in the public domain. The gene pool found in the present-day South African population draws from the indigenous people of Southern Africa, namely the former hunters or San groups, the pastoral Khoikhoi who are thought to have migrated to the Cape in the last 2,000 years introducing sheep and cattle to the region, and people originating from the Niger-Congo area speaking Nguni-languages who migrated south in the last 1,200 years. In addition, sea-borne immigrants from Western Europe (largely from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany and France ), indentured labourers from India and slaves from the Malaysian Archipelago, Madagascar and other parts of Africa, have also contributed to the gene pool. Varying degrees of gene admixture between the different parental gene pools have resulted in the rich diversity of South Africans and this is evident also from the cultural and linguistic diversity of the ‘Rainbow Nation.’ We wish to provide a DNA map of the genetic heritage adding thereby an additional layer of information to our self-understanding of where we come from and who we are.

Method

Two genetic histories are recovered using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA testing as follows:

Maternal ancestry testing (mtDNA analysis): Females and males

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed on from mothers to both her sons and daughters. However, only her daughters will transmit their mtDNA in successive generations. Both males and females can be tested for mtDNA to trace their maternal ancestry. We sequence a region of about 1000 base-pairs (bp) of the mtDNA control region (also called the hypervariable region of which there are two, HVRI and HVRII). The sequence is then compared to a published reference sequence (also referred to as the Cambridge Reference Sequence, CRS) to identify the positions at which your sequence differs from the CRS. This information is used together with an internationally adopted nomenclature to identify the name of your mtDNA lineage. These lineages are also called haplogroups. Haplogroups are continent specific and subdivisions of these haplogroups have a regional geographic distribution.

Database Matches

After we obtain your mtDNA sequence and deduce the haplogroup, we then compare the sequence to a database of mtDNA sequences in individuals we have examined for our research as well as other published data collected on individuals sampled throughout the world by other researchers. This comparison allows us to find matches or close matches to one’s sequence, to give you information about the distribution of your mtDNA haplogroup, and the most likely region where your mtDNA profile originated.

Y chromosome analysis (only males)

Fathers pass on their Y chromosome to their sons only, who then pass on their Y chromosome to their sons, and so on. We make use of two types of markers on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome to resolve the Y chromosome lineages in males. The first type of marker, so-called bi-allelic variants (two states or alleles can be found at one site on the chromosome) is used to classify Y-chromosomes into lineages or haplogroups. These haplogroups, or major branches of the Y chromosome tree, show specific ethnic and/or geographic distribution patterns. The second type of marker, micro satellites or short tandem repeats (STRs) consist of repetitive DNA elements that are tandemly repeated and are highly variable in humans. STRs are used to define haplotypes (like a DNA fingerprint, but on the Y chromosome) within the haplogroups.

Database Matches

After we deduce your Y chromosome haplogroup, we use the STR data to derive your haplotype. We then compare your haplotype to our database and with information from a global database ( www.ystr.charite.de ). This comparison allows us to find matches or close matches to your Y chromosome lineage, to give you information about the distribution of your Y chromosome haplogroup, and the most likely region where your Y haplotype originated.

Limitations of genetic ancestry testing

The limitation of using mtDNA and Y chromosome DNA for genealogical testing is that this DNA will trace only two genetic lines on a family tree in which branches double with each preceding generation. For example, Y chromosome tracing will connect a man to his father but not his mother, and it will connect him to only one of his four grandparents: his paternal grandfather. In the same way it will connect him to one of his eight great grandparents (see figure below). Continue back in this manner for 14 generations and the man will still be connected to only one ancestor in that generation. Y-chromosome DNA testing will not connect him to any of the other 16 383 ancestors in that generation to whom he is also related in equal measure. The same scenario applies when using mtDNA.

Outcomes
• National database of the geographical ancestry of a sample of South Africans;

• Workshop to train journalists and academics to interpret the information and contribute to an edited anthology; Bringing History Alive: DNA and the Rainbow Nation.

• Special website to make ancestry information available for public use and dissemination.

Raj Ramesar is Professor and Head of the Division of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Town. He is also Director of the MRC’s Human Genetics Research Unit. Raj’s interest is in identifying those aspects of the human genome that are worth investigating for their most rapid benefit to our communities in South Africa.

Himla Soodyall is Principal Medical Scientist at the National Health Laboratory Service and holds a joint appointment as an Associate Professor in the Division of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was appointed Principal Investigator of the Sub-Saharan Africa part of the global Genographic Project, a joint initiative of the National Geographic Society and IBM.

Wilmot James is Chief Executive of the Africa Genome Education Institute and Honorary Professor in the Division of Human Genetics, University of Cape Town. He is also Chairman of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, director of Sanlam, Media24 and the Grape Co and Trustee of the Ford Foundation of New York.

Written by: Dr Wilmot James

An excerpt from the thesis “British Policy Towards the Malays at the Cape of Good Hope 1795-1850)

By Ghamim Harris B.A. (UCT) M.A. (U. W. Wash.)

The building of mosques was one of the most important activities of the Malay community at the Cape of Good Hope. Very few accounts, except that of Rochlin (1), have been written to examine this aspect of the development of Islam at the Cape. In recent years an excellent attempt was made by Bradlow and Cairns, on the Muslims at the Cape, with information on the Auwal mosque, (2) which other contemporary writers (3) have ignored.
There is no documentary evidence that an attempt was made to build a mosque before 1790. There is evidence that the Muslims at the Cape made an attempt to build a Mosque in the late 1790′s. The invasion by the British in 1795 and the Dutch defense of the Cape gave the Muslims the opportunity to enlist the support of the governing authorities to grant them permission to build a mosque. The Dutch authorities before 1750 did not condone the spread of Islam; they were only interested in converting slaves to Christianity. However, this all change with the publication of Van der Parra’s Plakaat, or Code of Laws (4); the Dutch followed more tolerable attitude towards Muslims at the Cape and in the East Indies. This action may have fostered the development of a positive attitude towards Muslim community in Cape Town.

The Malays had always held their religious services in prayer rooms set aside in the houses of imams. They now saw a changed attitude, which may lead to the building of a mosque.
The first literary reference to any kind of mosque was made by Thunberg:

On the 20th of June (1772), the Javanese here celebrated their new year. For this purpose they had decorated an apartment in a house with carpets, that covered the ceilings, walls and floor, At some distance from the furthest wall an altar was raised, from the middle of which a pillar rose up to the ceiling, covered with narrow slips of quilt paper and gilt alternately; from above, downwards ran a kind of lace between the projecting edges. At the base of this pillar were placed bottles with nosegays stuck in them. Before the altar lay a cushion, and on this a large book. The women, who were still standing or sitting near the door, were neatly dressed, and the men wore nightgowns of silk or cotton. Frankincense was burned. The men sat crosslegged on the floor, dispersed all over the room. Several yellow wax candles were all lighted up. Many of the assembly had fans, which they found very useful for cooling themselves in the great heat necessarily produced by the assemblage of a great number of people in such a small place. Two priests were distinguished by a small conical cap from the rest, who wore handkerchiefs tied about their heads in the form of a turban. About eight in the evening the service commenced when they began to sing, loud and soft alternately, sometimes the priest read out of a great book that lay on the cushion before him.

I observed them reading after the Oriental manner, from right to left, and imagined it to be the Alcoran they were reading, the Javanese being mostly Mohamedans. Between the singing and reading, coffee was served up in cups, and the principal man of the congregation at intervals accompanied their singing on the violin. I understood afterwards that this was a Prince from Java (5) , who had opposed the interest of the Dutch East India Company, and for that reason had been brought from his native country to the Cape, where he lives at the Company’s expense. (6)

Writing about the same time as Thunberg was at the Cape, George Forster, wrote of the Malays that: “A few of them follow the Mohommedan (sic) rite, and weekly meet in a private house belonging to a free Mohommedan, in order to read, or rather chant several prayers and chapters of the Koran.” (7)

The above two quotes support earlier testimony that Malays owned property and that the Dutch had become more tolerant after 1750. The Dutch tolerated the practice of Islam, while denying official recognition. In an earlier chapter it was pointed out that some plakaats were not really enforced, although they remained on the statute books.
The free Malays obtained the right to own land. Not necessarily because of changes in the legal system, but de facto, by the purchase of property, this was legally registered in the name of the owner. This is an acknowledgement that they had the right to purchase and own real estate. Moodie mentions many Black Free Burghers who owned considerable property. (8)

Since many of the Free Blacks were Malays, it is logical that many Malays owned real estate. In a footnote Moodie observed, “The opinion that the right of Burghership was an exclusive privilege of the Whites, seems to have no foundation in law, …” (9) Another early writer, who visited the Cape in 1799, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, wrote “… among them I met many pious Mussulmans, several of who possessed considerable property.” (10) The records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town, supports the fact that many Malays owned property in the central and upper part of the Cape Town during the first two decades of the administration of the British Government at the Cape of Good Hope.

On the other hand, according to Commissioner de Mist (11) and Theal’s commentaries on the administration of the Batavian Republic, (12) the Malays did not enjoy the freedom to worship in public. Public worship also included the right to build a mosque and to use it as a public place of worship. For the liberal de Mist, imbued with the spirit of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” of the French Revolution, there was far too much opposition on the Council of Policy for him to extend freedom of religion to anyone, other than the members of the Dutch Reformed and the Lutheran Churches. The Batavian government at the Cape of Good Hope was not in control long enough to enforce their liberal ideas nor did they have the support of the majority of the white inhabitants.

In the late 1790′s some Muslims, among them Tuan Guru (Imam Abdullah Kadi Abdussalaam), and Frans van Bengal petitioned the British authorities for a mosque site, but were refused. Barrow wrote, “… The Malay Mohomedans (sic), being refused a church performed their public service in the stone quarries at the head of the town. (13)” This statement by Barrow has not been corroborated by any other documentary evidence.
A statement by Samuel Hudson, who was chief clerk of the customs, confirmed the fact that permission was granted to build a mosque. Samuel Hudson was a keen observer of events and gives a graphic description of the people, their attitudes and events at the Cape during in the period from 1798 to 1800.

The heads of them (Muslims) have petitioned the government and obtained permission to erect a church or mosque for celebrating their public worship, so that in a few months we shall see a temple dedicated to Allah and the Mohametan religion openly professed. (14)

Theal stated that The Muslims petitioned General Janssen for a mosque site. This was granted because of the impending war against Britain. Although permission was granted for the building of a mosque, the actual building did not begin, because of the invasion and occupation of the Cape by the British. Later the Muslims building on this strength again petitioned the new British Governor Sir George Yonge to build a mosque. This was their petition:

To His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir George Yonge, Baronet, and Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, one of His Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council, Governor and Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Castle, Town and Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and the Territories and Dependencies thereof, and Ordinary and Vice Admiral of the same.

The most humble Petition of the inhabitants of Cape Town professing the Mohometan faith:

The aforesaid humble Petitioners beg permission to approach your Excellency with all possible humility, and to represent to your Excellency that they labour under the greatest distress of mind by having no place of worship in which they may pay their adoration to God, conformably to the principles of their religion. They assure themselves your Excellency will admit nothing conduces so much to the good order of Society as a due observance of religious worship, and though they trust it will be allowed them that few enormities have been committed by the persons subject to your Majesty’s Government who profess their faith, yet they believe their being by your Excellency’s paternal indulgence furnished with the means of regular worship, that the manners and morality of their brethren will be greatly improved, and that they will thereby become more valuable members of society. They therefore implore your Excellency to grant then a little spot of unoccupied land of the dimensions of one hundred and fifty squareroods whereon to erect at their own expense a small temple to be dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. Your Excellency knows that the form of the religion requires frequent ablutions from whence it is indispensable that their mosque should be contiguous to water. A suitable spot is situated at some distance above the premises of General Vanderleur, and they humbly conceive there will be no objections to their little temple being there placed. They throw themselves at your Excellency’s feet, and beseech you to their humble and pious solicitations, and if your Excellency is pleased to give a favourable ear to their Petition they will by their conduct demonstrate they are not unworthy of your Excellency’s indulgence and protection.

And your Excellency’s humble petitioners will as in duty bound ever pray, etc., etc., etc.

Signed by “Frans van Bengal,” for himself and the rest of the inhabitants professing the Mohametan faith. (16)

The petition was signed by Frans van Bengalen in Arabic.
The request was approved by the Governor Sir George Yonge on January 31, 1800. Sir George wrote over the petition in his handwriting, “Approved.” ‘That was pending a report being prepared by the Proper Officer regarding the land described in the petition. Signed: ‘in G.W. Yonge, Government House, Jan’y 31 1800.’
On February 1, 1800, the Colonial Secretary, Andrew Barnard, wrote to the President and Members of the Burgher Senate:
Castle Cape of Good Hope
1 February 1800

Mr. President and Members of the Burgher Senate:
Gentlemen:

I am commanded by His Excellency the Governor and Commander in Chief to send you the enclosed petition from the Mohametan (sic) inhabitants of this place requesting that a piece of ground may be granted them for the purpose of erecting a place of worship thereon. His Excellency therefore desires that you will depute two of your members to examine the ground and report thereon if it may be granted without injury to the public or any individual.

I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant, Signed A. Barnard. (17)

Unfortunately there is no record that the Burgher Senate inspected the ground or sent the Governor a report either approving or disapproving the request. Opposition by members of the Burgher Senate may have been responsible that the Muslims did not receive permission to proceed with the building of a mosque. By that time the Batavian Republic had taken over the Cape under General Janssens.

During the Batavian period form1803 to 1806, the Malays again petitioned for permission to build a mosque. Janssens true to his liberal attitude readily agreed. The Batavian administrators had a greater sense of tolerance than the Dutch East India Company officials towards the Malays, but they were also realists since they needed the assistance of the Malays to defend the Cape against the British. The mosque site was granted, on the condition that the Malays commit themselves to defend the Cape militarily (18). Janssens thereupon formed the Malay Artillery. The officers trained them to be a very efficient fighting force. However, before Janssens could execute this promise, the British occupied the Cape in 1806. The Malay Artillery fought bravely to resist the invaders that General Baird with no hesitation confirmed the promise made by Janssens. Theal noted:

The Mohamedan religion was never prohibited in South Africa, though during the government of the East India Company people of that creed were obliged to worship either in the open air or in private houses. Permission to build a mosque, which was granted without hesitation, and a commencement was about to be made when the colony was conquered by the English. General Baird confirmed the privilege granted by his predecessor, and very shortly there was a mosque in Cape Town. Another was build during the government of Lord Charles Somerset. (19)

The initial mosque may have been built in the stone quarry. This is located near Chiappini and Castle Streets. Little evidence remains of this mosque. This mosque could have been a temporary building. Since no land was granted to the Muslims to build a mosque, Somerset had noted later that the governor had the right to grant citizenship and to issue land grants to any person or group of people. Somerset granted the Malays permission to build a mosque. This mosque was the Auwal Mosque. Unfortunately this led to a disagreement in the Malay community regarding the leadership or the appointment of an imam at this mosque.

Tuan Guru (Imam Abdullah) died in 1807. His death resulted in a major dispute within the Malay community. According to letters written to the editor of the South African Commercial Advertiser, Tuan Guru did not want Jan van Boughies to succeed him as Imam.

Cape Town, 17th Feb., 1836.

Sir, – I present you my best compliments, hoping that you will hearken to my prayer. Sir, I have seen in the paper that they published, that my father, Imaum Abdulla, did not raise Achmat, who is Imaum now. I can assure you Sir, that my father called Imaum Achmat in, and made him promise that he would take care of me and of my brother, according to my late father’s wish; and therefore I wish to state to you the truth if I am called upon for the circumstance: but, Sir, you do not think it is pleasant for me to hear these uncomfortable circumstances. I can assure you, that my father having given the situations over to Imaum Achmat, so he acted according to my father Imaum Abdulla’s wish: and I can assure you that since my father’s death, Imaum Achmat treated us two as his own children; in fact, he could not have done better towards us; and may I wish that he may live twenty years longer in this world, for his is like a father and mother to me; my whole power is from him. Sir, I beg leave to say, also, that it is my place to stand at the head of all, because I had to promise my own father Imaum Abdulla, that we were not to stand before we were of the age of 40 years: but, Sir, because I am not studied through the books, therefore I gave it over to Imaum Achmat until I shall be able to take his place. And I can assure you that none of the others ever assisted me since my father’s death – neither Abdul Wassa, nor Jan of Bougies; as for Manzoor, I don’t count him at all – he is nothing.

And I wish, Sir, that the Almighty God will never change my heart from that church, or from Imaum Achmat, and May I wish that no one will bury me but Imaum Achmat, and myself had to promise my brother, on his dying bed, (my emphasis) never to leave Imaum Achmat, and that Imaum Achmat is to teach me exactly like my own brother. And therefore I shall stay with him as long as I live, please God that he may see me on the righteousness of the world. Honored Sir, may I pray of you that you will do justice to me and to Imaum Achmat, and may I hope that you will see into the case, whether it is justice. And may I pray to the Almighty God that your heart will be good enough to do what you can for me and my father Imaum Achmat.

I am Sir, your most obedient servant.
Prince Abdul Roove. (20)

This is the first evidence of a major split in the Malay community. Although most services were previously conducted in the houses owned by the Free Malays, before the building of the first mosque, some services were still conducted by other imams in their own homes. Many mosques were built at the death, of an imam, because the congregation could not agree on a successor, or if a successor was chosen an opposition faction would break away to form their own group and build a mosque. There is evidence in the Cape Archives of two major civil cases questioning the right of certain persons to be imams. (21)
PALM TREE MOSQUE or Langar:
This split in the Malay communtiy occured in 1807. Jan van Bhougies and Frans van Bengal broke away from Guru’s congregation to form a new congregation.
Since Tuan Guru stated quite clearly, according to Prince Abdul Roove’s the letter to the editor of the South African Commercial Advertiser, that he did not want Frans van Bengal as the imam of his congregation.
The free Malay community in Cape Town was growing rapidly in Cpe Town and numbered 1,130 in 1806. (22) By 1811 the number of Muslims would have been as high as 1,500, not counting the slaves. It is quite obvious that one mosque would have been too small to meet the needs of all the Muslims.
In 1811 the land on which the Auwal Mosque is located was donated to Tuan Guru’s congregation for the building of the first mosque.

Immediately after the death of Tuan Guru Jan van Boughies and Frans van Bengal (Frank) purchased the house in Long Street and took legal transfer of the property on November 30, 1807. The upper floor of the two-storey house was converted into a large prayer hall or langar. (23)

This was the first time that a house was converted for use as a mosque, since imams formerly used rooms in their homes, which was set aside as a prayer room. Because this house was located in “die Lange Straat,” houses that were later converted as mosques were called, “Langar.”
This has been the popular interpretation of the origin of the term. However, subsequent research discovered a much more plausible explanation of the use of the term “langar” at the Cape to describe places of worship which were not mosques. The Encyclopedia of Islam provides the following description.

In the Dutch Indies, two kinds of mosques have to be distinguised, the mosque for the Friday service (Jumah) – these alone were called mosque (masagijid, also mistjid) – and simple houses of prayer. This second category is found all over the country, especially in smaller villages and owes its origin to private initiative and partly to public efforts; they have native names (langar [Javan], tajug [Sum], surau [Malay]). The langar, or whatever it may be called, of the village, is a centre at which the salat (prayers) can be performed, but it also serves other purposes of general interest. The upkeep of the building is the affair of the community and in particular one of the tasks of the religious official of the village. The upkeep of the other langars, erected by private individuals , is left to them. The building stands on its own site and is maintained by the founder or his descendants. The owner, cannot, refuse admission to strangers who desire to use it for salat or as shelter for the night. Such private chapels are always found near Mohammadan seminaries (Jav. passantren). We sometimes find that these langars are endowned as as wakf (Jav wakap). The village langar on the other hand has a more public character.

The Mosques, i.e. the masjid djami, are found in larger places usually in those which are also centres of administration. Their erection and maintenance is regarded as a duty of the Muslim community. (24)

In 1811 Burchell noted that, “The Malays have also a house dedicated and supported by them. This latter building is nothing more than a private dwelling house converted to that use.” (25) This information refers to the house of Jan van Bougies and Frans van Bengal in Long Street. In 1811 Frans van Bengal left Cape Town permanently and made Jan van Bhougies the sole owner and imam of the mosque in Long Street. This house was then transferred to the sole ownership of Jan van Bhougies. (26)
Although the legend on the door of the house that is home to the Palm Tree Mosque says 1777, that date refers to when the house was built, not when it became a mosque or a langar.

One has to consider Jan and Frans visionaries and persons committed to the religion and their principles. They were aware of that the population was growing and and that the Malay community did not have the financial resources to build a mosque, so they literally put their money where their mouths were.

Frans van Bengalen was involved in the military when he assisted the Dutch against the British. He was the Javaansche Veld Priester in the “Auxillarie Artillerie.” We know that he witnessed the translation of Tuan Guru’s will from the Arabic (Malayu written in Arabic characters) to Nederlands. The original will was copied, by hand, in the presence of Frans van Bengalen on May 2, 1807. The other witnesses to this signature, was a person by the name of Watermeyer and the other witnesses were Enche Abdul Malik and Enche Abdul Wasing. (27)

Frans van Bengal was called a “Field Priest” in the street directories of Cape Town. He was an important personality at the Cape Malay community. He, together with the French officer, Madlener, led the Javanese artillery at the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806. The other mention of Frans was in the records when he requested to manumit his slave, February 1789. (28)

Frans was one of those industrious slaves, who worked hard to accumulate his savings. By dint of good behaviour and determination and hard honest work to free him from the drudgery of slavery he bargained with his master for a price for his freedom. He was determined to raise the agreed amount of money, which he did and thus paid for his freedom. He continued with this attitude by raising more money, to become a fruit dealer and a fish seller. A few years later he purchased two slaves and a boat and furnished his house as those of other free Malays.

During this time slaves were apprenticed by their masters to become tradesmen. After they became qualified they were hired out to bring in a share of their labour to their masters. They were allowed to keep a portion for themselves. In this way many slaves were able to purchase their freedom.

Frans made it clear to his slaves that should one of them decide to embrace Islam, then that slave would be manumitted. He also made a condition with them that if they serve him faithfully over a specified period they would be freed and given sufficient money to start their own businesses. He was an honest man who kept his word. When the slave did not serve him faithfully, he was told, he would be sold. Several slaves received their liberty from him in this way. Business was good for Frans, and when the English took over the Cape in 1795 he was held in high esteem by the captains at the station, who recommended him as an honest person, who received work for several thousand rix-dollars at a time. Because of his stature as a respectable and honest businessman he made friends amongst the influential people of the Colony, like Admiral Sir Roger Curtis. He had become rich and deserved his honest gains. He was also instrumental in helping the Muslim community receive a grant of land on Lion’s Rump as a cemetery. Frans was often seen, when he was free from his numerous business endeavours using his leisure time working with his slaves building a wall around this cemetery to keep out the cattle that was always grazing at this sacred spot.

He intended to leave the Cape and had thus made over all his property to his wife and adopted children, and was determined to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and to visit the grave of the Prophet Muhammad (O.W.B.P.) He had made several applications to captains of ships going to the east but have not been successful, until later in 1811, when he sold his half share in the Long Street Mosque to Jan van Bhougies and left the Cape permanently.
He married Mariam. At the time of their marriage, which happened sometime during the 1770′s? The name would have been Nederlands with an appelation “van de Kaap”. They had one son.

Frans’ name first appeared in the records when he manumitted his slave Februarij in 1789. He also signed the petition to Governor Janssens in 1794 for a mosque site, before the British occupied the Cape. He lived at 21 Longmarket Street, before he moved to Long Street.

Frans van Bengalen’s partner in the purchase of the Palm Tree Mosque was Jan van Boughies or rather, Enche Rajap Boughies. His will stated that he was a free man and his wife, Samida van de Kaap, a free woman. He was another one of those persons of whom there are many legends generated in oral history and void of documentary evidence. Jan van Bhougies was not White. The appellation “van Bhougies” was used because he came from Bhougies, in the East Indies.

The opinion that he was white was because his house was the first house in Long Street to have had a prayer room set aside as a mosque. Jan van Bougies owned this house at a time when Malays weren’t generally allowed to own land. Jan van Bougies was the only other person, besides, Tuan Guru, in South Africa to have transcribed the Quran from memory. The last page of the Quran, written in Malayu with the Arabic script, indicated that his monumental task was completed after Assar on the 14th day of Jamaadiel Thani (29) in the year of 1218 A.H. (30) of the Prophet (O.W.B.P.) (31) by Enche Rajab Bougies (Jan van Bougies), son of Jafaar Abu Nya Yakiem. The Quran (32) was passed on to Imam Mammat, (33) who was the successor of Jan van Bougies (Jan van Batavia).
The date corresponds to approximately September 30th 1803 A.D and the translation was made by Hajjie Achmat Brown.

Jan van Bhougies died in 1845, at the age of 112. This age must have been according to the Islamic calendar. This was quite an achievement to live to such a ripe old age. His will made in 1811 he described himself as a free person. He was at that time a man of property who accumulated enough money to have a half share in the purchase of the Long Street property, of which he later assumed full ownership. In 1848 his wife, Samida van de Kaap made her will in which she stipulated that the house in Long Street, used by her late husband, Jan van Bhougies, as a Mohammedan church should be left to the then priest, Maamat van de Kaap, elders, and deacons of the Church of Jan van Bhougies. After their deaths it shall not be sold, pawned or rebuilt, and it will remain the sole property of the Mohammedan congregation under the name of The Church of Jan van Bhougies. Jan van Bhougies also owned a house at 19 Long Street, which was worth £300 at that time. This is quite a princely sum of money in 1845. The administration of his estate was ordered by the Supreme Court. The file on his estate was closed on 11th July 1872.

Samida’s will transferred the property in Long Street, which housed the Church of Jan van Bhougies to Maamat, who was the sole survivor of all the persons named in the will, and who was then the imam.
Samida’s will led to a protracted civil case which, commenced on February 26th 1866, when the case of Ismail and others, Imams, Gatieps and Bilals of the said church came before Justice J. Bell.

“Mammat, the priest who was a member of the corps, was wounded in the battle.” (34) He died at the age of 104 in 1864. His obituary, in a local newspaper, said: “He was much respected by the Malay population, and deservedly so, having led a good life, and devoted his services to the cause of his religious calling with credit to himself and satisfaction to those with whom he came into contact.” The age is most probably according to the Islamic calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar he would be over 100 years old. He was listed in the street directories of Cape Town between 1811 and 1834 as a fisherman.
When the Javanese artillery was formed in 1804, Imam Maamat served under Madlener and Frans van Bengal, at the Battle of Blaauwberg. He died at the age of 104 in 1864 and his obituary, in a local newspaper, said: “He was much respected by the Malay population, and deservedly so, having led a good life, and devoted his services to the cause of his religious calling with credit to himself and satisfaction to those with whom he came into contact.” (35) He was listed in the street directories of Cape Town between 1811 and 1834 as a fisherman.

In 1862 Mahmat executed a deed, based on the will, appointing the defendants to be the imam, Gatieps and Bilals of the Church of Jan van Bhougies. However, he gave himself the right to dismiss any of those persons and appoint others in their stead. He also stated that the house should be transferred to those persons who were last mentioned in this deed and who were still living. Mamaat died in 1864. Between the transfer in 1861 and Maamat’s death, the plaintiffs, left the congregation, because of a dispute with Imam Maamat. According to the evidence the defendant, Ismail, performed all the duties of the Imam, because Imam Maamat was not able to perform those duties due to infirmity. He performed these duties with the full consent and support of the congregation.

The court held that Imam Maamat did not have the power to make the appointments by deed. Under the circumstances they were entitled to be held as duly appointed officers of the church and would be entitled to hold the premises in trust for the congregation. The plaintiffs also, did not lose their rights when they left the church to avoid confrontation with Imam Maamat, and were still entitled to join the service and the congregation at any time they desired. The judge also stated the both custom and law was proved that the senior Gatiep would succeed the deceased as imam. Lastly there is no provision in law or in custom that the imam has the sole right to appoint anyone to succeed him as imam.

The dispute in the mosque occurred when Gatiep with the greatest seniority, Hajjie Danie, returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca and started a campaign to change the manner in which the services were to be conducted. He obtained the key to the mosque and immediately excluded Imam Maamat from the mosque. Imam Maamat took legal action against Danie and others to re-instate him as imam and to have the keys return to him. This action resulted in Imam Maamat being return to his position as imam, which restored his control over the congregation. Danie and his congregation left the Mosque of Jan van Bhougies to establish their own “langar” in a private house. Maamat executed a second deed appointing Ismail as his successor and confirmed the other defendants in their previous positions as Gatieps and Bilals. Danie was the next senior Gatiep and Ismail was the Gatiep next in succession. This action effectively prevented Danie from again usurping the role as imam.

He died intestate, only a death noticed was filed. The death notice was filed on March 27, 1871. On March 27, 1871 an edict was published for a meeting to be held on May 9, 1871 regarding the Estate Late Imam Maamat. On June 9, 1871 the minutes of the meeting indicated that Letters of Administration was granted to Gatiep Moliat as Executive Dative with Kaliel Gafieldien, Mishal Kalieldeen, William Humphrey and Arthur Crowley as sureties. The liquidation account was filed on July 15, 1872.

Auwal Mosque:
Saartjie van de Kaap, the wife of Imam Achmat, who was one of Tuan’s Guru’s Ghateebs (36) donated the land in Dorp Street (Wallenberg) to build the Owal Mosque.

In 1811 Imam Achmat and Prince Abdul Raouf took over a three lot parcel of land on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets to build a mosque.(37) The site was owned by Saartjie van de Kaap. Her name indicates she was born at the Cape, because slaves were given names in that manner during the early reign of the D.E.I.C. The property was given to the Muslim community in perpetuity. She was the first female Malay land-owner in Cape Town. She gave the land as a gift to the Muslim community for the building of a mosque. The mosque (38) and a house were built on this site. The house was to serve as a rectory for the imam. Another house was added later on the site; on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets. Imam Achmat in his evidence, given to the Governor in 1825, confirmed the existence of this mosque. (39) The Auwal Mosque is regarded as the first mosque built in Cape Town. At this time it was not called the Auwal Mosque, it was called the Buitengracht Mosque. This mosque was built before 1814. General Craig gave the Malays permission to build this mosque. Contrary to popular opinion, and the date on the minaret, that the mosque was built in 1840, it was built earlier before 1814. It was built for Tuan Guru’s son, Abdul Raouf. However, Imam Abdul Raouf did not immediately assume leadership of the congregation. He only became imam on reaching the age of 40. (40) Imam Achmat was not to become imam after Guru’s death. However, he did become imam before Abdul Raouf reached the age of 40.

The land on which the Owal (Auwal) mosque is located and the adjoining house, is still registered in the name of Saartjie van de Kaap according to the records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The above property was first registered in the name of Saartjie van de Kaap on 13th February, 1809.

The properties were originally registered in the names of Douw Steyn. On December 16, 1777 they were transferred from the Estate of Douw Steyn to Jan Minnie, who later transferred the properties to Coenraad Frederick Faasen on September 30, 1784. Faasen transferred it ten years later to Coridon of Bengal on September 26, 1794. He appears to be the first Free Black owner of the property and may have set a trend for the acquisition of nearby properties by Muslims. Cathryn, also a Free Black, inherited the properties from her husband and on his death, became the sole owner of the property. Although Saartjie van de Kaap was already married to Imam Achmat the property was transferred to Saartjie in her maiden name. This didn’t make a real difference since Muslim marriages were not legally recognized. On February 13, 1809 Cathryn transferred the property to her daughter Saartjie van de Kaap.

Saartjie van de Kaap was an independent and strong willed lady who was able to run a household, raise seven children and run her own business at the same time. She has much to be admired when one considers the period during which she lived. The African Court Calendar and Almanac of 1811 listed her as owner of the Preserved Fruit Shop at 2 Boom Steeg. She also listed her as washerwoman at 28 Buitengracht Street. Another listing shows her as the owner of a retail shop at 20 Keerom Street. Her husband, Imam Achmet van Bengalen was listed as a Malay priest living at 42 Dorp Street. In 1821 she was listed as a seamstress at 2 Spin Steeg. Imam Achmet was listed in 1830 at 40 Dorp Street. The information indicates a lady with varied interests and business who was quite an entrepreneur for her day. It could have meant she owned these businesses at different periods, since that the family address was consistent with the location near the Owal Mosque in Dorp Street.

There still exists a belief that Saartjie van de Kaap was White. This was because of the official government position that only Whites or baptized Free Blacks could own property, both Cathryn and Coridon of Bengal were neither, although they still acquired freehold rights and became the registered owners of the property. Both Saartjie and Coridon were Muslims. They were able to purchase the properties and had it registered in their names. The information of the street directories indicate she was a woman with strong business acumen and was continually exploring new business opportunities. This act may have been responsible for her being thought of as a White person. It is rather unfortunate that the oral history and the myths surrounding the acquisition of these sites are not supported by documentary evidence. The other myth is the site was taken over by the Muslim congregation as early as 1794, when Coridon of Bengal bought this site.

Saartjie van de Kaap left the properties in her Estate to the Muslim community to be used as a mosque “as long as the government of the colony should tolerate the practice of the Mohammadan religion.”
She was blessed and fortunate to witness the building of a mosque on that site during her lifetime. According to Saartjie’s will there were four daughters, Noran, Somila, Jumie, and Rosieda and three sons, Mochamat (Muhammad), Hamien and Sadiek. Hamiem became an imam later. He was one of the signatories of a petition to Governor regarding the Khalifa.

It is interesting to note that many Muslims, whose last names was their father’s first name, thus Mochamat became Mochamat Achmat, born 1837, who in turn was the father of Gamja Mochamat Achmat, who died in 1915. This also follows the Islamic tradition but leaves out the “Ibn” (son of appellation). The other problem that one faces with the names of these individuals is that the White clerks who recorded there names on official documents had no idea how to spell them and would write the name as it it sounded to them. Another reason was the standard of literacy of these Muslims. They were not literate in Nederlands or in English so that they had to make a cross on official documents and were not always able to verify the correct information contained in those documents. The majority of them who left estates and wills, signed their names in Arabic, but had to trust their attorneys that they would implement their wishes correctly.

The following letters give a further insight into the problems of the Muslims community regarding the Imam at the Owal mosque.

Honoured Gentlemen,

I fall at your feet and entreat your forgiveness for thus intruding on your time, but I feel it my duty to add a few words. I can declare that Prince Emaum Abdulla, when he became weak, made Rujaap Emaum; who did not live long, at his death Prince Emaum Abdulla made Abdulalim, Emaum. I can also declare that before the death of this Prince, he sent for Achmat, and fully explained to him our Laws and Regulations, which Achmat swore to follow and never alter, it was also the wishes of this Prince – that Achmat would assist Abdulalim in performing his duties, this Emaum being very weak, and that Achmat would not leave him so long as he lived, which orders Achmat observed, until Emaum Abdulalim’s death. At the death of Emaum Abdulalim Serrdeen became Emaum; and at his death Achmat became Emaum. Before the death of the Prince Emaum Abdulla, he said to me and many other of his scholars – that it was his wish that we should all go to Achmat, and remain with him, and he would instruct and direct us in all things necessary which I did, and still remain with him.

This letter was signed by Abdolbazier. Similar information was contained in another letter written by Abdol Barick. (42)

Honoured Gentlemen.

I declare that when I was a scholar of Prince Emaum Abdulla, there was no church for our religion but afterwards there were so many Islams in the Cape that it was necessary to have a church; so Prince Imaum Abdulla made a church of the house of Achmat, which still stands; the second (Imam after) of Prince Imaum Abdulla was Rujaap, and I was a scholar of the Prince E. Abdulla. About this time Emaum Rujaap died; at which period Prince Emaum Abdulla made Abdulalim, Emaum; and me Clerk. It was Emaum Abdulalim’s wishes, that after his death Sourdeen should become Emaum, which took place; and I became under Priester, and Achmat was second of Emaum Sourdeen; so that at his death Achmat was Emaum. All I have to add is that from that time until now, I have never had reason of complain of our regulations. My prayers and supplications are for the welfare of our country and King, and I constantly offer up my prayers that the Almighty may shower down his blessings and prosperity on our Emaum, and all the worthy gentlemen of our Government.

I remain with respect, Honored Gentlemen,
Your humble servant,
ABDOLBARICK. (43)

In 1825 Imam Medien declared that there were two large mosques and five smaller ones in Cape Town. (44) The smaller ones would most probably be houses with prayer rooms. Imam Achmat confirmed this and added further:

I have officiated for many years, and for the last three I have been high priest. My predecessor, who died about three years ago, was the first to have been allowed to officiate and build a place of worship in Dorpstreet, where I reside. General Craig permitted him to erect it, and allowed the exercise of the Mohametan worship. This had not been permitted by the old Dutch government, but General Janssens gave authority for when the Dutch resumed the government, and when he enlisted the free Malays to serve as soldiers.

What number of places of worship has been erected? -

We have two regular ones that are acknowledged; the other is in Long-street. There was originally but one. The second was erected by a man named Jan; in consequence of a separation, he is not acknowledged by us. There are many persons who officiate as priests and instruct the people but they are not authorized to do so.

What number of people attend your mosque? –
About 50 attend every Friday, and there may be from 80-90 who belong to the mosque. There is no room for their families to attend. (45)

Imam Achmat states quite clearly that there were two established mosques in Cape Town; The Owal Mosque in Dorp Street and the mosque in Long Street. The latter one he states quite clearly was established because all split in the Malay community. It is also implied he would like to be responsible for “acknowledging” mosques and imams, hence his self-styled title, “high priest.” One can also infer from Imam Achmat’s statement that the first mosque, built in the quarry was not recognized as a mosque. He states clearly that the first mosque was the one in Dorp Street.

The Rev. John Campbell, who visited the Cape, wrote a description of the Jumah prayers held on Friday February 11, 1814 in the Auwal mosque.

On Friday, the 11th February, I visited a Mohametan (sic) mosque. The place was small; the floor was covered with green baize, on which sat about a hundred men, chiefly slaves, Malays and Madagascars. All of them wore clean white robes, made in the fashion of shirts, and white pantaloons, with white cotton cloths spread before them, on which they prostrated themselves. They sat in rows, extending from one side of the room to the other. There were six priests, wearing elegant turbans, a chair having three steps up to it, stood at the east end of the place, which had a canopy supported by posts, resembling the tester of a bed without trimmings. Before this chair stood two priests, who chanted something, I suppose in the Malay language, in the chorus of which the people joined. At one part of it the priests held their ears between the finger and the thumb of each hand, continuing to chant, sometimes turning the right elbow upwards and the left downwards, and then the reverse. After this form was ended, one of the priests covered his head and face with a white veil, holding in his hand a long black staff with a silver head, and advanced in front of the chair. When the other had chanted a little, he mounted a step, making a dead halt; after a second chanting he mounted the second step, and in the same way the third, when he sat down upon the chair. He descended in the same manner.

The people were frequently, during this form, prostrating themselves in their ranks as regularly as soldiers exercising. A corpulent priest then standing in the corner, near the chair with his face to the wall, repeated something in a very serious singing manner, when the people appeared particularly solemn; after which the service concluded. (46)

Further confirmation was the statement by Campbell was the statement, “… holding in his hand a long black staff with a silver head …” This “staff” was Tuan Guru’s tonka. The tonka is a staff which the imam holds in his hand during the sermon (khutbah). The silver head is the identification mark of Tuan Guru. Since Campbell visited the mosque in 1814, is clear evidence that the mosque was completed before 1814.

In 1822 William Wilberforce Bird noted that the Malays met in private houses and rooms. It appears that this civil servant was not aware that there were two mosques in Cape Town. It is strange that such a well known civil servant was not aware of the Auwal Mosque was built, so that in 1822 it went unmentioned in an account.

The Malays, who are supposed to amount to nearly three thousand, carry on their devotion in rooms and halls fitted up for the purpose and occasionally in the stone quarries near the town. One of their Imams is said to be a learned man, well versed in the Hebrew and Arabic tongues, and in Al Coran, which he chants with taste and devotion. It must be acknowledged with shame and sorrow, that Mohametanism makes great progress amongst the lower orders at the Cape. But where there is the greatest zeal, there will be the most effect. (47)

Bird clears up a very important point, that in spite of building the Auwal Mosque, the stone quarry continued to be used as a place of assembly and a place for prayer. It could also be because the original mosque was still there, and he simply thought the quarry was used as an “open air” assembly.

Tuan’s Guru’s sons, Abdul Raouf and Abdul Rakiep followed their father, but were only able to become imams when they reached 40. A person by the name of Isaac Muntar who appeared as a witness in this civil action in the civil action of Achmat Sadick and Others vs. Abdul Rakiep or Ragiep, August 28 to September 2, 1873; stated that Imam Abdul Roove was the first imam, although Imam Achmat van Bengalen was the imam but had the step aside when Imam Abdul Roove reach the age of majority (40 years). Witnesses also mentioned that Imam Abdul Rakiep was imam at the same time as his brother. Both of them became imams at the Auwal Mosque.

The court case, Achmat Sadick and Others vs. Abdul Rakiep verified this information, but it calls the mosque in dispute, the Buitengracht Mosque. The civil action was brought by the youngest son of Imam Achmat and Saartje van de Kaap, Achmat Sadick against Tuan Guru’s grandson, Abdul Rakiep, the son of Imam Abdul Roove. The plaintiffs, Achmat Sadick and Others, wanted to evict the Imam Abdul Rakiep, because he had become a Hanafee, since he was taught by Abu Bakr Effendi. Although Imam Abdul Rakiep was awarded the judgment with cost and thus won the civil suit. One could say he won the battle but lost the war, because he actually lost the role of imam of that mosque. The descendants of Tuan Guru moved to the Mosque in Main Road, Claremont, while the Achmat family resumed their roles as imams of the Owal Mosque. This was evidence in the book by Bradlow and Cairns on the family of Imam Achmat. Imam Mochamat Achmat’s will stated that he appointed his son, Amienodien Gamja imam at the “Mohammedan Church” corner of Dorp and Buitengracht Streets. The inference is that the present house on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets was a later addition.

The mosque that was called in the civil case, the “Buitengracht Mosque” and the Nurul Islam Mosque, located at 134 Buitengracht Street is not the same mosque. The following information will help to explain the history of the two mosques. The land on which the Owal Mosque is located is designated as Erf #2839. This parcel of land was transferred to Coridon van Bengal on September 26, 1794, and was later transferred from the Estate late Coridon van Bengal to Saartjie van de Kaap on February 3, 1809. Coridon was Saartjie’s father. The other lot, which is Erf # 2840 was transferred from Cathryn van de Kaap, the mother of Saartjie van de Kaap, to Saartjie van de Kaap on December 6, 1811. The mosque site is still in the name of Saartjie van De Kaap, when I examined the records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The other lot, Erf #2840, was owned by Achmat van Bengalen. That lot was on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets.

In the 1873 court case , Sedick vs Rakiep (Tuan Guru’s grandson) the Owal Mosque was referred to as the Buitengracht Street Mosque. The mosque at that time was located on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets.
The present Buitengracht Street mosque is Erf # 2797. (48) The Erf #2797 was transferred by JHM Isleb to Jassar Mohamed Saadien in 1905. Erf #2797 was subidivided into Erf #2797 (Lot B) and Erf # 2796. Erf #2797 or Lot B was later transferred from Jassar Mohamed Saadien to the Nurul Islam Congregation on September 30, 1912. On November 2 1928 The Noorel Islam Congregation sold that lot to Imam Gabebodien Hartley. On June 6, 1939 the property was transferred by Imam Gabebodien Hartley to the Trustees of the British Nizan of Afghanistan Society. This mosque is today called the Nurul Islam mosque. The records of the Deeds office show conclusively that the mosque could only have been built after 1912, when it was transferred to the Nurul Islam Congregation.

The Bulding of the Second Mosque

After the emancipation of the slaves there was a definite spurt in the growth of Islam. This led to further efforts to build another mosque in Cape Town. This mosque was built about 1850 in Chiappini Street.
Mayson describes a visit to the mosque in 1854:

There is only one mosque in Cape Town. This large, substantial but plain and unminaretted edifice has lately been erected with the concurrence and favoured by the patronage of the municipal authorities: with an implied guarantee that it was to be used by the Mohametans in common, irrespective of their misunderstandings. It is occupied by one section of them only. A smaller mosque was used before the present one was built; before its erection the Malays performed their religious services in the adjacent stone quarries. There are about twelve chapels or mosjids, for daily service, in the houses of superior priest. Each of these, as well as the mosque, contains a painted and arched recess at the end opposite the entrance, indicating the direction of Mecca; and is scrupulously clean. (49)

This description applies to the second mosque built in Cape Town. This mosque is the Jamia Mosque, located on the corner of Chiappini and Castle Streets, constructed about or before 1850.

This mosque site was granted by the British authorities in co-operation and exchange for their support in the border War of 1846 against the Xhosas. A description of their participation was given in an earlier chapter. Queen Victoria made good her promise of the mosque site as well as the rights to the land area in Faure, near the site of Sheik Joseph’s grave. The mosque site was originally owned by the Municipality of Cape Town and transferred to Imam Abdul Wahab in 1857. The two sites were granted in freehold to the Muslim community under the trusteeship of Imam Abdul Wahab. This mosque, because of the grant of the British authorities, had the British Coat of Arms above the Mighrab (or niche), and is the only one that had the feathers of the Prince of Wales above the mimbar (altar). For this reason the Jamia Mosque was sometimes called the Queen Victoria Mosque. (50) The first imam was Imam Abdulbazier, who was only Imam for a few months. He was succeeded by Imam Abdul Wahab in 1852.

This was the same mosque which Lady Duff Gordon visited on Friday, March 21, 1862.

I had just come from prayer, at the Mosque in Chiappini Street, on the outskirts of the town. A most striking site. A large room like the country ballroom with glass chandeliers, carpeted with a common carpet, all but a space at the entrance, railed off for shoes; the Caaba and pulpit at one end; over the niche, a crescent painted; and over the entrance door a crescent, an Arabic inscription and the royal arms of England! A fat jolly Mollah looked amazed as I ascended the steps; but when I touched my forehead and said ‘Salaam, Aleikoom,’ he laughed and said, ‘Salaam, Salaam,’ come in, come in! The faithful poured in, all neatly dressed in their loose drab trousers, blue jackets, and red handkerchiefs on their heads; they left their wooden clogs in company with my shoes, and proceeded, as it appeared to strip. Off with jackets, waistcoats, and trousers, with the dexterity of a pantomime transformation; the red handkerchief was replaced by a white skull-cap, and a long large white shirt and full white drawers flowed around them. How it had all been stuffed into the trim jacket and trousers, one could not conceive. Gay sashes and scarves were pulled out of a little bundle in a clean silk handkerchief and a towel served as prayer-carpet. In a moment the whole scene was as oriental as if the Hansom cab I had come in existed no more. Women suckled their children, and boys played among the clogs and shoes, all the time, and I sat on the floor in a remote corner. The chanting was very fine, and the whole ceremony decorous and solemn. It lasted an hour; then the little heaps of garments were put on, and the congregation dispersed, each man first laying a penny on a curious little old Dutch-looking, heavy ironbound chest, which stood in the middle of the room. (51)

In my interview with Imam M. Nacerodien in 1976 he stated that the mimbar and the tonga were the original ones that were used when the mosque opened in 1857. He claimed that the mosque was opened on November 9, 1857. He stated that this statement would be verified by an article in the Cape Argus of November 9, 1957, when they celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Jameah Mosque. Unfortunately I have not been able to verify these dates and the information.

The mosques in Cape Town were built in the same styles as the mosques in the East or in other Islamic countries. One reason for this could be the cost of building a mosque and the financial state of the Muslims. In 1861 an article on “Islam at the Cape” which appeared in the Cape Monthly Magazine, an unknown observer gives the following description about the Muslims of Cape Town:

Their mosques are assimulated externally as near as may be, to the style of Christian churches of the locality, and have precisely the appearance of the ‘Bethel’ of some English country place designed by the village carpenter. These structures are called, even by the Dutch, ‘Islamsche Kerk’, and we all remember that the priests, although they were probably put up to it, as a political manoeuvre, did actually petition the Colonial Parliament for a share of the sums voted for Ecclesiastical purposes.

The original building gave the appearance of a church. The only explanation I can offer for this is that the architect or the draughtsman was familiar with the appearance of a church and had never seen mosque.
A few years later a fourth mosque was built in Claremont. This mosque was built about 1855 (53) the site was donated by a Slamdien for the building of a mosque. A member of Abdul Raouf’s family became the imam at this mosque, and the trustee of the mosque was to be the imam at the Auwal Mosque in Dorp Street. Tuan Guru’s family became imams at this mosque. Their involvement at the Owal Mosque may have ended with the court case of Sedick vs Rakiep.

The evidence of the civil case, Sadick Achmet and Others vs. Abdol Rakiep indicated there was no Hanafee Mosque at the Cape by 1873. The Hanafee congregation decided to build a mosque. On December 12, 1881 Erf #2627 in Long Street was transferred from John Coenraad Wicht to the Moslem Sect Aghanaf. This mosque was completed shortly after it was acquired.

This has been an attempt to delineate the efforts to build mosques in Cape Town to serve the large and growing Muslim population during the administration of the British Government. Starting from a negative attitude in 1797 and developing towards a positive position, with the granting of the first mosque site in 1806. This grant acknowledged the Malays as an integral part of the population and de facto, their right to practice their own religion. Whether it was in fact an open admission of freedom of religion, which it appears to be, or it was an attempt to show the judicious and humanitarian attitude of the British authorities, is not clear. The development of Islam continued to grow and foster, and although it was a common policy of the British to grant church sites for all denominations, the Malays decided to apply for sites to ensure that this privilege applied to them as well. In spite of Theal’s assertion that another site was granted during the rule of Somerset, I have been unable to find any evidence of a mosque built during his administration. On the other hand, it may refer to the site of the Auwal Mosque. This site was not granted by Somerset, but he may have given them permission to build the mosque.

The last two sites were definitely an attempt by the British to offer the Malays complete freedom to practice their religion. British policies during this period seemed to have been more liberal, and definitely a positive reaction to a previous negative position as far as the administrations of various governors, and the Colonial Office, were concerned.

Footnotes:

1. S.A. Rochlin, “The First Mosque at the Cape,” South African Journal of Science, XXXIII (March, 1937) pp 1100-1105.
2. F.R. Bradlow and M. Cairns, The Early Cape Muslims, (Cape Town: Balkema 1978)
3. I.D. du Plessis, “The Cape Malays, (Cape Town: Balkema, 1972)
4. Roos, The Plakaat Books of the Cape.
5. Tuan Guru
6. Charles Peter Thunberg, Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia Made Between the Years 1770 and 1779. 4 vols. (London: Richardson, Cornhill and Egerton, 1796) I, pp. 132-4.
7. George Forster, A Voyage Round the World. pp. 60-61.
8. Moodie, The Record.
9. Ibid.
10. Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, Travels in Asia, Africa and Europe, I, p. 68.
11. De Mist, Memorandum.
12. Records, V, p. 120.
13. John Barrow, An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa in the Years 1797 and 1798. (London: T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1801) p. 427.
14. Cape Archives A602/9, Book No. 9, Hudson S.E., Manuscript Diary
16. Cape Archives, BO/154, Item 17, Incoming letter
17. Cape Archives, BO/154, item 236, Covering letter
18. It was because of this commitment that the Malays were formed into the Javanese or Malay Artillery, as it has been indicated in an earlier chapter.
19. George M. Theal, The History of South Africa Since 1795, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915) 5 vols. I, p. 4190.
20. South African Commercial Advertiser, February 27, 1836. The letter by Prince Abdul Raouf is printed in full.
21. Achmat Zadick and Others vs. Abdul Ragiep, August 28, 1873. and the civil case of Mahmat vs. Danie, 1866
22. George M. Theal, The History of South Africa Since 1795, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915) 5 vols. I, p. 419-420
23. This was called the Palm Tree Mosque (also known as the church of Jan van Bhougies). It was called a langar since it was located in the “Lange Straat” or Long Street. See another explanation in this chapter.
24. “Encyclopedia of Islam,” E.J. Brill, (London: 1913)
25. Burchell, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, p. 55.
26. The information was obtained from records at the Deeds Office in Cape Town. The transfer took place on October 25, 1811. The house was later transferred from Frans van Bengal to Jan van Bhougies.
27. The will was written in Malayu using the Arabic script. It was witnessed by Frans van Bengalen on May 2, 1807.
28. Leibrandt, Requesten, p. 463.
29. The sixth month of the Islamic calendar
30. It is approximately September 30th 1803.
31. O.W.B.P. On Whom Be Praised refers to the Prophet Muhamad. Whenever his name is mention, a Muslim would say O.W.B.P.
32. This Qur’an is currently in the possession of my brother Imam Yaseen Harris. It was passed from Jan van Bhoughies to Imam Mammat. It was owned by my grandfather Hajjie Mohummad Ghanief Harries and then my father Imam Sulaiman Harris. We were fortunately to find a person who was able to translate the Malay, Hajjie Ahmad Brown.
33. He was appointed Imam after the death of Jan van Bhougies at the Palm Street Mosque.
34. Eric Aspeling, pp. 16-17. Maximilien Kollisch, pp. 36-37.
35. Ibid,
36. Assistant imams
37. This mosque was called “The Auwal Mosque.”
38. The building of this mosque on the corner of Buitengracht and Dorp Streets has caused some confusion., since the court records of Sadick Achmat and Others vs. Abdul Ragiep of August 28, 1873, refers to this mosque as the Buitengracht Mosque, whereas it was actually the Dorp Street Mosque or Owal Mosque,. The Nurul Islam Mosque in Buitengracht was not the one referred to in the court case. This latter mosque site was only transferred to the Nurul Islam congregation in 1905.
39. British Parliamentary Papers #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
40. South African Commercial Advertiser, February 27, 1836. The letter by Prince Abdul Roove is printed in full in this chapter.
41. South African Commercial Advertiser. February 27, 1836.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid. Similar letters were published from Imam Achmat, Achtardeen and Hagt.
44. British Parliamentary Papers #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
45. British Parliamentary Papers, #50 of 1835, pp. 207-210.
46. John Campbell Travels in South Africa, (London: Flagg and Gould, 1816), pp. 327-328.
47. W.W. Bird, The State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822. p. 68
48. Erf #2797 This lot was first transferred by deed of transfer # 160 on 28th June 1811. This land was transferred 24th October 1905 by JHM Isleb to Jassar Mohamed Saadien. Part of this lot was then sold (Lot B) and became Erf # 2796 by JM Saadien on 30th September 1912 to the Noorel Islam Congregation of Cape Town. Erf # 2796 was then sold on 2nd November 1928 by the Noorel Islam Congregation to Gabebodien Hartley. He then sold it on 6th June 1939 to the Trustees of the British Mizan of Afghanistan Society.
49. John Schofield Mayson, The Malays of Cape Town, (Manchester: John Galt, 1861), pp. 21-22.
50. Mayson, p. 32.
51. Dorothy Fairbridge, ed. , Letters From the Cape by Lady Duff Gordon, (London: Oxford University Press, 1927).
52. Mayson, p. 32.

The general mode adopted by the inhabitants of Cape Town for the disposal of their goods, wares & merchandise. If a shopkeeper or indeed our principal merchants find themselves hard run for cash they apply to the Vendue Master for a day for his sale which is regularly entered in a book kept at his office. If the occasion is immediate he gets handbills distributed round the town and affixed at the usual places and the clerks or salesmen have notice to make the sale known at all the auctions they are employed at in the intermediate time by which means it becomes [known] throughout the town. On the morning of the auction a boy is sent round with a brass dish to tinkle at each corner of the streets to give notice to the inhabitants that there will be a vendue at such a house and by way of encouragement he declares the goods will be sold without reserve. This is not always the case but when the necessities of the seller are great, and immediate the goods are exhibited and at half-past-nine business commences. The highest bidder becomes the purchaser. Sometimes there are two bidders and neither of them will advance a sixpence more. On such occasions the auctioneer takes several pieces of money from his pocket and cries even or odd. By this means they instantly decide who is the purchaser. The money is not paid at the time of the auction as in England & other places nor is any deposit made at the time of sale.

If the person is known or has any friend who will stand forward as his security he has the usual credit of two months after which period he must attend at an office established for that purpose and take up his auction bills. Some of the inhabitants meet with great indulgences from the manager of this concern who is a man of the World, loves to eat and drink of the best things a good providence provider for the sons of luxury and extravagance. A well timed present procures you another month’s credit perhaps two and some I am assured now let their accounts remain unsettled six months to the great injury of the principal Vendue Master who is allowed by government great privileges in the disposal of this kind of property. When the sale is concluded the Vendue clerk furnishes you with an extract from his Vendue list which is in general very correct the necessary deductions made for the expenses of the auction salaries duties stamps &c.&c.. This upon being presented to the Vendue Master he pays the amount deducting two and a half per cent for ready money and takes upon himself the whole risque of the property sold. Here is the whole proceeding of the seller. But what are the consequences to the buyer?

Many persons who attend these auctions have small shops which from having no capital they gradually furnish by these means and sometimes are very fortunate in their endeavours. Several respectable tradesmen in Cape Town of great property have begun by the same means and now have capitals to import their own merchandise to a considerable amount. Others who are the purchasers come with a determination to buy to enable them to hold an auction in a few days with the very articles they now purchase to raise money to take up their former Vendue bills. To them the scheme is a very ruinous one and which must evidently end in an immediate bankruptcy. They buy dear. They sell at their own sale without reserve. Of course they must lose considerably upon the first purchase thus: with the additional seven & a half per cent which is the usual expense unless you employ an agent and then it amounts to full 10 per cent. This must in a short time swallow up principal and plunge the unwary adventurer in a prison. Frequently there are very good speculations to be made at Vendues.

I have myself attended them constantly for eight or nine years and have many times purchased a variety of articles at these places twenty per cent cheaper than their first purchase from the manufacturer at home and though perhaps not in immediate demand a few months has brought a want of them and they have sold at a hundred and sometimes two hundred per cent profit. The wary old auction hunters who have established themselves by a perfect knowledge of the various articles brought to the hammer and who have some capital to begin with will ever be gainers as ’tis with them a never failing maxim to not purchase but when they are sure of advantage.

The principal amusement of the ladies of the Cape is attending these auctions and (they) will sit mixed-up among a variety of frowsy smells that would really make an English woman extremely ill for three or four hours listening to the low and not infrequently obscene jokes of the auctioneer whose chief object is to keep his audience in good humour which can only be accomplished by the witty slang of double entendres suited to the capacity of his motley hearers. There is a great deal of trick and knavery in these sales which the government would act wisely to put a stop to. They have attempted it but unfortunately have acted upon a plan started by some person who has mistaken the whole business and instead of remedying has only given a sanction to a system of corruption and left the errors of the whole where they found them.

One method too frequently practiced by the sellers is to have several of their friends that they fee by little presents at times to keep them steady in their services who run up their goods to a high price considerably more than their value and this is knocked down to them. The credulous and unwary seeing these old rocks whose judgment they know is infallible become purchasers bid and from one to another the mania spreads and by this trick a tradesman has disposed of his property to a very considerable advantage. another defraud upon government is constantly practiced. all purchases at public auctions above 100 rixdollars are obliged to be upon a stamp of a certain value which rises according to the amount of the sum purchased at one morning or afternoon’s sale. Now to avoid this: the wary buyer bids up to 99 rixdollars in his own name but the moment he finds he has upon his list to that amount the purchases in the name of his Wife his sisters Brothers and in short goes around the whole of his connections of relations & acquaintance(s). By this paultry means sometimes saves to himself 20 or 30 rixdollars in a day which is actually defrauding the government revenue of a very considerable sum annually and which might be easily prevented by permitting no person to purchase for others. another scheme is practiced but that carries with it its own punishment.

‘Tis not unusual for a man to become in the name of a second person the procurer of a great part of his own property. By this means he saves money at the rate of 30 per cent which may sometimes save his sinking credit by enabling him to make a good purchase by which he is assured he can make fifty to 60 per cent but this seldom happens and where it is not the case such exorbitant interest will only hurry him on to that rock he is perhaps striving to avoid. Upon the whole auctions are fraught with good and evil. It always affords a person a sure and speedy way of disposing of his property without trouble & at a certain expense. No waste of time in running after the proceeds of your sale. The Vendue Master takes that upon himself and the moment your goods are disposed of he pays you the whole amount. A person coming to the Cape of Good Hope a perfect stranger having no regular appointed agent will find it much to his advantage if he has no offer for what property he may bring that he thinks to his advantage to accept to try the state of the market by public auction. Here he is certain to have a guide that will be an unerring one for though he puts up his goods at auction he is not obliged to sell them unless he finds they will bring the price he expects to get for them. So far auctions are serviceable. On the other hand ’tis a temptation that has ruined many.

The idea of two or three month[s] credit is irresistible. The young the giddy can herein satisfy their wants with articles of dress & finery which from the shops they have not sufficient credit to procure. A thousand ways their imagination points out to them that will enable them to pay at the appointed time. The dreaded moment arrives no money no friend to advance it for them. The consequence is they have a suit instituted against them in the court. Sentence is past with a long list of expenses swelling the original bill to double its amount. This sentence is given from the Court of Justice to the Chamber of insolvency who put it in execution [as] soon as convenient by selling whatever property there is belonging to the person ’till a sufficient sum is raised to satisfy all demands. This is one of the ill consequences attending credit being given at auctions. Many others may be brought forward big with danger to the unwary frequenter of public sales. ‘Tis in my humble opinion opening a door which will ever enable the deep designing villain to prey with certainty upon the property of others.

There have been some few instances of it already but of this I am positive that were auctions conducted upon the same principles in England as they are at the Cape the Vendue Master would keep upon his legs twelve months thinking he had the wealth of Crossus. Half the paper currency in circulation passes through the hands of the auctioneer who is allowed by government 2 1/2 per cent for advancing ready money upon sales. Though this very money is what he has received as the proceeds from other sales which sometimes remain in his hands for a considerable time and draws out in small sums as the convenience of the owner may require it. Therefore he is making an amazing property by the interest of other peoples money. ‘Tis upon an average about 15 per cent per Year he receives for what money he advances. This I believe is considerably more than our pawn brokers are allowed even adding to the lawful the unlawful practices they make use of.

A great deal more might be said respecting Vendues and their good and evil tendency. These few remarks are the result of actual observation in a long residence at Cape Town. Auctions in the country are conducted in the same manner except it is considered a treat to which people flock for many miles round the country and according to the respectability of the person at whose house the auction is held an entertainment is provided if the company is very numerous. They eat from a clean cabbage leaf instead of a plate & each provides himself with a knife and fork for the occasion as these are seldom furnished by the proprietor of the auction . Sometimes these sales continue a week and those who come from a considerable distance remain the whole time generally providing themselves with a bed in their wagon which is their usual accommodation when traveling from the interior to the Cape Town.

These sales frequently occur as the Dutch Wills generally – if the surviving parties are young – provide for the children in this way. In case the surviving husband or Wife marries again the property is immediately sold by the Orphan Chamber the widow taking one half & a child’s share. The remainder is sealed in the above chamber for the benefit of the children when they arrive at twenty five or upon their marriage. therefore the frequency of public auctions & estates changing their original owners. ’tis a bad thing in respect of landed property as it prevents many proprietors from setting afoot improvements which would benefit the estate and beautify the face of the country could their property descend from father to son in regular succession but when he knows the improvements he makes and which ’tis probable he may not himself live to enjoy and at his death the seat of his pleasures of his enjoyments and his toils may go into the hands of his greatest enemy it prevents him doing a thousand things that he would otherwise would execute with pleasure.

In the Article of Estates selling by auction is somewhat different than other moveable property. When you put up a house or land the auctioneer says after having read the regular title deeds and transfer of the property to its present owners to show the intended purchaser his right to the estate to be sold. The proprietor as an encouragement to the bidders puts in so many hundred rixdollars which goes to the highest bidder. As the estate is run up on value there is a stated time for bidding which they seldom exceed.

When this time is expired the highest bidder is entitled to what they call the Strike Gelat though he may not be the purchaser. As the auctioneer says Mister – such name – has bid such a sum for the house or estate but the owner conceiving the property to be worth much more he begins at several thousand guilders more than the sum already bid and descends down unless someone cried (mine) before it reaches the sum originally bid by the first purchaser he must take it at his first price. But should any one cry mine the former purchaser retains the Strike Gelat and the person who says mine becomes the owner of the house or estate at the price he says mine. He produces his securities, signs the new transfer and within six Weeks pays his 4 per cent transfer duty to government and the business is concluded.

All bonds are registered and lodged in the castle and must be cancelled there which is done by cutting them several times across with a penknife and delivering them to the proprietor. Estates are generally sold upon three payments. The first in six weeks after the sale the second in six months and the third in twelve months. The periods are sometimes lengthened to three years and some keep the whole purchase money upon interest. The clerks to the auctioneers are all sworn in and the auctioneers are obliged to find good security for their fidelity and honesty to the principal Vendue Master – there are as I have pointed out many abuses in this department that call for the active interference of government. Since writing the above some new regulations have taken place. An order has been issued forbidding any person from selling at these Vendues goods upon commission unless they are kept separate entered in the real proprietor’s name and carried to account upon a separate extract as there has been some strange swindling transactions carried out in this way to the evident detriment of the Vendue Master and the public in general.

A person in debt to the Vendue Master by this means secured to himself the proceeds of property not his own and when the law insisted upon payment of his just debts the whole of his merchandise and effects were [taken] away. Now unless he sells them privately all accounts must pass through the hands of the Vendue Master who can assess the proceeds of such sales to reimburse the accounts standing open against him. A new system entirely is much wanted in this department framed upon such a plan as to secure the buyer from impostors and the seller from the many acts practiced against him and his property. At the same time to curtail the very heavy expenses attending public auctions and to prevent the Vendue Master from being a sufferer & by giving him such security that the percentage might be lowered which he might very well do as he has then no risque to encounter which at present is great.

The present Vendue Master is supposed to be the richest man in the colony and from the immense advantages he enjoys it is morally [...nearly...?] impossible he should be otherwise. I should suppose if the English retain this place many alterations must take place particularly in this department and I think none wants it more. Another abuse of auctions in this colony and at the same time an actual default in government instances of which I am fearful are too common even in those circles where one would naturally suppose their high situation would effectively preclude them from such dishonourable practices.

The government stores are not infrequently brought to the hammer. After a partial survey has been taken of them by persons whose interest it is to say and act as these men in power would have them. They find their account in this acquiesence by furnishing those articles they deal in and so become links in the great chain of peculation. At these sales a sample is produced bad enough from which the whole is sold and not infrequently bought in again and I am afraid finds its way under another head into the government stores again at the advance of fifty or a hundred per cent. I do not speak this from hearsay having more than once become the purchaser at these sales of articles no way damaged but equal in quality to those regularly served out for actual service. I do not exactly say the principle in these departments does this but if he has under him ones who act upon his authority and do these things without check or control he himself by his neglect and inattention becomes a party in the defraud. This is with prize goods so frequently the case.

They are intrusted to the care of men regardless of everyone’s interest save their own. I could produce proofs where things have been purchased at these sales & afterward changed by the connivance of the person intrusted with the management for articles of more than double worth and these resold at the next day’s sale. For example I will venture to say that in the disposal of one prize brought in from the Isle of France at least a tenth was plundered of the whole cargo by these very means to the injury of the captors and the advantage of these public pillagers who fatten on the spoil of the men who nobly venture their lives in the service of their country and shed their blood to fatten these reptiles at home who prey viciously upon the hard earnings of our naval defenders.

From such prize agents and their under puppets good Lord deliver us – the auctioneer too frequently has a fellow feeling in their depredations for knowing of the chicanery practiced he makes his advantage in becoming a party whenever he finds opportunity of getting a bargain at half its value he knocks it down and has it set on the Vendue roll in a friend’s name who countenances the deceit because he hopes of reaping the same advantage in some other article. To sum up the Whole with an incontrovertible proof every one knows What the salary of these men are and the manner in which they live which must necessarily take the whole of their income to support their appearances. Yet a few years find these men masters of horses inferior to none slaves rich furniture monies at interest and become sleeping partners in some of the first mercantile houses. I only leave impartial persons to judge how this is all accomplished and from it to show the necessity there is for some wise regulations to counteract these villainous proceedings and to prevent such depredations being made upon the property of the credulous & unwary. Another source of plunder by these auctions is in goods and merchandise sent out from England to merchants at the Cape.

When the market has been found overstocked they have been said to be damaged in the voyage or from some other cause or other a survey has been made by those mostly interested in making a good thing out of a seeming misfortune. The goods have been put up to public auction purchased in again by the very persons to whom they were consigned for a third of their first cost and the shippers have recovered the whole from the underwriters. How easily may this nefarious business be carried on in a far distant part of the world where there are no checks upon such a combination of villainy and that it is so I have had ocular demonstration. I should imagine an agent for underwriters upon a liberal establishment here would answer a good purpose particularly where the person appointed was of known integrity and had penetration and discernment to cope with these unfair speculators. Had that enlightened statesman the Earl of Macartney remained at the Cape a few years all these things would have been differently regulated but unfortunately we have had governors who had no eyes to see no ears but to listen to the most ready way of securing to themselves the one thing needful.

If we may judge from the numerous abuses not only in this but in other departments that have remained unattended to it will be the most convincing proof either of the inattention or inability of those whose duty and interest it was to have them as speedily as possible redressed. These practices by long use become almost sacred and woe to the man who had firmness or honesty (enough) to innovate upon long established customs. He must be above the common stamp of fortune getting mortals. His must be the Herculean task to cleanse this Augean stable – and bring the different departments of the colony into anything like regularity or order to curb the licentious spirit of peculation and establish the character of honor and honesty among those whose forlorn hopes are become stationary at the Cape of Good Hope.

Whilst there are bills brought forward at home to prevent mock and fraudulent auctions and to protect the respectable and fair trader in the disposal of his property it is to be hoped that the same endeavour will be used to check the same growing evil on the other side (of) the Water and to prevent as much as possible the possibility of injury being sustained by those who through necessity are obliged to trust their property to a public Auction – and the manifest injury sustained by government in the constant frauds practiced by both purchasers and sale(s)men at these places. I may venture to say many thousands of dollars annually in the article of stamps only. The ends of justice are frequently defeated by the combination of those persons who are set as guards upon the property they are to sell and the auctioneers.

The Insolvency Chamber undertakes to dispose of the goods chattels houses and slaves of all unfortunate persons who cannot pay their debts. The proceedings are short summary and the expenses attendant on them exorbitant. The day of sale arrives. The auctioneer has his friends who receive his account of those things he has commissions for on the part of others or wishes to purchase himself. These articles are too frequently knocked down at half their value to the evident injury of the man’s estate and also to the creditor for the laws of the colony are if a man becomes a bankrupt (he must) pay 10 shillings in the pound gives up all he has to accomplish this. The remaining ten shillings must at some future period by paid. Though at the distance of years the debt hangs over him in terrorism and is exacted whenever he is in ability to pay it and the Insolvent Chamber generally takes good care to have a fellow feeling with the creditors so that with expenses of auction and a variety of fees and exactions the debtor too frequently instead of paying twenty shillings to his creditors finds thirty will scarce clear him from the expenses attendant on these lawful and humane proceedings. Yet all is carried on with the semblance of justice. The forms are outwardly observed with – to the strict letter of the law but the tricks of office which are seldom dragged to the tribunal of the public escape notice, for whilst such facilities are allowed its officers to act corruptly there remains but little chance for honesty to find room amongst such an assemblage. I recollect once at the sale of some furniture belonging to an American vessel from Boston I wanted to purchase a convenience for my bed chamber of which there were several.

The person who had the agency a Mister T____ and myself were not on the best terms from some disagreement respecting official business. I attended the sale & saw one of the conveniences knocked down to a friend of Mr. Smith’s for twenty odd dollars. This was in the morning (in the course of the) afternoon sale another of these articles was put up. I went as high as thirty dollars. It was bought in by the (friend, agent?) which I thought somewhat extraordinary and happening to mention the circumstance in the evening before the purchaser of the one which was bought in the morning he said: “Yes my dear sir, but Mister Smith is my very good friend and we accommodate each other in this way,” and when I expressed my indignation at such a palpable fraud upon the property of another he was aware he had gone too far without trying his ground first and attempted to draw back with a paltry excuse of the article being damaged. This I knew was adding a lie to the crime as I had particularly examined it and found it a much better article than the one I had bid thirty dollars for in the afternoon sale. Here was a connivance with agent, auctioneer and buyer and I am confident when a man is not upon the spot to see the property fairly disposed of these tricks and rascally proceedings are pretty general at most of the Cape auctions. I conceived it a duty I owed to Captains Folges, the owner of the furniture, to mention the circumstances and upon the matter being investigated the only satisfaction he got was the article was damaged an assertion I had convinced him was untrue. It operated so forcibly on the American that Mynheer lost his credit with the American and I believe it was nearly the last agency he was honoured with.

Another very dishonourable mode is that of the friends of auctioneers looking out the prime articles laying them by ’till after the sale and have them put down by the auctioneer’s clerk at the very lowest price the inferior articles of this description have brought at the sale. This is done at most auctions where the actual proprietor is not on the spot to counteract such fraudulent transactions. These damning proofs I should presume are quite sufficient to open the eyes of those who have dealings with auctioneers and to set every engine at work to put an end to this iniquitous mode of plunder. Where many nay most of the trading Jews are concerned with the unprincipled salesmen and share no doubt the profits of their deep laid schemes of peculation. Every one must be aware how impossible it is to always guard against these depredations however much might be effected by a firm and persevering system to detect and bring to justice these pests to society who leave an honest and fair trader no chance.

As from their successful method of purchasing at these auctions they are enabled to under sell the upright conscientious shop keeper at least ten or fifteen per cent. What a manifest advantage! This is in many countries where the sales are quick ’tis a decent and reasonable profit – against all risks but here it puts an end to all fair speculation and gives the general trade of the colony into the hands of a set of sharpers whilst the honest plodding man finds himself without custom – becomes unable to make his regular remittance home so that in a short time his stock is brought to the scene of iniquity the public auction and he gets his name in the gazette. To sum up the business: their honesty is no match against such villainous combinations.

By Samuel E. Hudson 1806

The Vendue Master, more properly the Commissary of Vendues, was a civil officer of the Cape government and the only person in the colony allowed to sell by auction which was “a state monopoly.” By 1822, the Vendue Master employed four auctioneers, and a “proportionate number of clerks”; see W. W. Bird, State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822 (Cape Town: Struik reprint of 1823 edition, 1966), pp. 44-45.

i. e. slave.

In New York, ‘”A credit of three, four, or six months, is usually given on sales by the piece. . .”‘ as quoted in Westerfield, “Early History of American Auctions”, p. 176.

Elsewhere Hudson modifies this, pointing out that only the English merchants managed to prosper, the Dutch inhabitants remaining the pettiest of shopkeepers, an observation buttressed by other travellers to Cape Town. William M. Freund points out that even the established Cape Dutch entrepreneurs, e.g. D. G. van Reenen, J. F. Kirsten, and W. S. van Ryneveld “all fared poorly under British rule.” Idem, “The Cape under the transitional governments, 1795-1814, “in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1820 (Cape Town: Longmans, 1978), p. 215. Hudson was sometimes a solipsistic observer: what happened to him he often ascribed to some unidentified “many.” Possibly, this is his form of self-justification. An excellent example of this trait occurs in his essay on “Slaves,” when he informs us that generally the slaves at the Cape are well looked after: his own establishment of slaves is the only one cited, see Ray Bert Westerfield, “Early History of American Auctions-A Chapter in Commercial History,” Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 23 (May, 1920): 159ff., esp. 193 et seq .; at this stage we cannot say how many of these findings are directly applicable to the Cape, nevertheless there are sufficient points of similarity to stimulate an investigation.

James Ewart, a contemporary of Hudson, confirms this: “…the females, if not engaged at home, attend the venduties or public sales, which they are extremely partial to, and where they are as busy trying to overreach each other in small matters as their husbands are in greater ones.” Idem, James Ewart’s Journal, covering his stay at the Cape of Good Hope (1811-1814) (Cape Town: Struik, 1970), p. 25; also see Bird, State of the Cape ,” p. 346.

Possibly this is a reference to the Publicatie issued in November, 1805, which prohibited auctioneers from buying articles for themselves by using accomplices in the audience as fake buyers. The legislation, among many restrictions, forbade the auctioneer from directing the attention of the audience to other objects and then suddenly and unexpectedly closing the sale, PB., 6: 275-76. When the British took over the Cape in 1795, one of their first acts was to confirm the office of Vendue Master; they also streamlined the tax structure somewhat; see Placcaat Boek, 5: 15. According to George McCall theal, this 1795 legislation was “a popular proclamation.” Idem, History of South Africa, 1:3.

The Court of Justice during the Dutch East India Company consisted of one chief justice and eight justices. Although this number varied see G. G. Visagie, Regspleging en Reg aan die Kaap van 1652 tot 1806, met ‘n Bespreking van die Historiese Agtergrond (Cape Town: Juta, 1969) pp 40 to 62; also see C. Graham Botha, Social Life in the Cape Colony with Social Customs in South Africa in the Eighteenth Century (Cape Town: Struik reprint of 1926 edition, 1973), p. 16; for a fuller treatment, see Bird, State of the Cape, pp. 9-16 and 249-281; the British administration introduced payment for the justices and reduced their number.

Shortly after Hudson wrote this, the Chamber of Insolvency merged into the Office of the Sequestrator, which, however, was also at liberty to sell by public auction the assets of the insolvent person; see Bird, State of the Cape, pp. 28-9.

i.e. Croesus, last king of Lydia, ruled c. 560-546 B.C., renowned for his great wealth.

Hudson might well be correct. Bird calculated that in 1822, there was 3,000,000 Rixdollars in circulation, State of the Cape, p. 35; elsewhere he tells us that “The gross amount of vendue sales” is “computed to be about 250,00 Rixdollars monthly,” Ibid, p. 45. During one year then, 3,000,000 Rixdollars would pass through the Vendue Office. The amount of money passing through the Vendue Office during one year was equivalent to all the money in circulation.

If we believe Hudson’s title to this set of Essays, the “long residence” could only have been 10 years; however, there is later, internal evidence which suggests that he returned to these manuscripts after 1806, see p. (000).

Bird augments Hudson’s description: “An auction in the country is an important event for the vicinage. It furnishes what is there extremely rare, a cheerful pastime. A wedding and an auction are the only occasions of lively assemblage. The resort of boers, with their families, from the neighbourhood, is general; from distant places frequent. The ladies repair to the vendutie, dressed as for a gay assembly. The men resort to it as they would to a fair or a country wake. “Idem, State of the Cape, p. 346, and also see pp. 347-8.

Possibly this was done for the good reason that the cutlery was on sale: James Ewart, however, suggests the cabbage leaf was not a universal phenomenon at rural auctions “Soon after dinner the auctioneer, who was by this time as drunk as his neighbours, commenced selling off the remaining articles which consisted of little more than the wretched utensils in which the dinner had been cooked and served up.. . Idem, James Ewart’s Journal, p. 83.

In the Cape colony a form of compulsory partible inheritance prevailed; in contrast to the same practice in colonial America, partible inheritance did not result in subdivision of the property itself. This practice ensured that the heirs in the Cape colony sold the ‘family farm’ and divided up the money. In colonial Andover, Massachusetts; land itself was divided up until there were many small holdings. These differences in inheritance customs gave rise to quite different settler persistence rates and geographical mobility patterns in the two areas; see Phillip Greven, Four Generations: Population, Land and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970), pp. 83, 130, 230; and R. Cole Haris and Leonard Guelke, “Land and Society in Early Canada and South Africa,” Journal of Historical Geography 3 (1977): 135-53. Entail, which has now entered Afrikaner culture, was probably introduced by the 1820 settlers.

Many rural inhabitants took advantage of Vendues organized by the Orphan Chamber by bringing their own goods to such a sale, see ‘Interdictie’ 17th April, 1780, PB ., 3: 106. Some colonies in the New World also devised such safeguards for orphans. In Virginia, for instance, where mortality was quite high, at least in the first half of the 17th century, the father often took precautions that his children, and not his widow’s husband, would obtain their legacy. E. S. Morgan informs us that; “In making a will, men often named a guardian other than the mother to protect the child’s interests, and in addition, appointed feoffes in trust to see that the guardian did his job properly. Where a child was left without either parent, the county court appointed a guardian.” Idem, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975) p. 168.

i. e. Strykgeld [= bidder's premium]: Botha clearly explains the somewhat obscure mechanism of strykgeld: the landed “property was first sold by opslag, advance bidding, and then put up again and sold by afslag, or downward bidding. The bidder in the first instance did not intend to make the purchase, but rather to increase the final sum. For this service, he received a bonus, or as it was called, strykgeld. If on the downward bidding no more was offered than the price he bid, he was obliged to take the property. The risk was, however, negligible, and there was many a one who made a reasonable income by attending such sales regularly and receiving strykgeld. Advertisements of sales invariably stated that “liberal strykgeld” would be given, which naturally tended to bring many to the sale and also enhanced the purchase price.” Idem, Social Life and Customs, pp. 84-5.

According to Ralph Cassady, who wrote a global comparative study of auctions, this is called ‘upside down or Dutch’ bidding, and is only practiced in Dutch areas, although some fishing ports in England, where the Dutch had traded, also used the upside down system. It is heavily disputed whether the system favors the buyer or seller, however it does, concludes Cassady, save the auctioneer much time. Idem, Auctions and Auctioneering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), passim.

Westerfield suggests that much the same process was occurring in New York, only a decade later. In that city, however, there was no limit on the number of auctioneers: “As the auctioneers grew in number and wealth they became a powerful influence in the money market. They were directors in nearly every bank in New York and obtained almost indefinite lines of credit.” Idem, “Early History of American Auctions”, pp. 176-7.

i. e. goods seized in maritime war.

Former name of Mauritius.

Hudson would have been in a commanding position to observe such goings-on, after he became first Clerk of the Customs in the closing years of the eighteenth century.

George Macartney (1737-1806) was born in Lisanoore, Ireland. After being educated in Trinity College, Dublin, he entered the British Parliament, was knighted in 1764 and sent to Russia where he concluded a treaty with the Czar. Between 1769 and 1772 he was Chief Secretary for Ireland. Appointed Governor of the Antilles (West Indies) in 1775, he stayed there until 1780, when he was captured by the French and taken to France. After his release in 1781 he was appointed Governor of Madras, where he remained until 1785. Returning home to England in that same year, he spent a fortnight at the Cape. In 1792, he was sent as British Envoy to the Emperor of China. In 1797 he arrived at the Cape with a brilliant staff including John Barrow and the Barnards – Hudson’s employers, see Dictionary of South African Biography., 3: 551-552.

i.e. money; this is a reference to Sir George Yon ge, Macartney’s ill-fated successor, whom even the sanguine Theal castigates as “decidedly the most incompetent man who has ever been at the head of affairs in the colony…” Idem, History of South Africa since 1795, 1:71 et seq. Yonge was forced to leave the Cape ignominiously under heavy suspicion of, among other charges, an association with bribes concerning the slave trade to the Cape. Hudson loathed the governor, and made him the butt of his “new comic opera He would be Governor”; see “The diary of Samuel Eusebius Hudson, Chief Clerk in the Customs, Nov. 1798 – April 1800″ pp. 16 et seq., S.A.L.

Ellipsis in original.

Possibly a pseudonym, but there were several ‘Smiths’ in Cape Town at this time; possibly though, this one is William Proctor Smith who was listed in the 1800 street directory as “van America”, Eric Rosenthal, compiler, Cape Directory 1800 (Cape Town: Struik, 1969), p. 77. This bit of guesswork is buttressed in that some other Americans were settling at the Cape at this time, and setting up as merchants, see, for example, the Semple family from Boston, in Frank Bradlow’s “Introduction” to Robert Semple’s Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town: Balkema, 1968), pp. 1-3.

i. e. Dutch appellation = ‘Mister’, here a sarcastic usage.

The first British in SA
Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape in 1580 and was probably the first Briton to see what he called “the fairest Cape in all the world”. But the first Englishmen to go ashore, a party led by James Lancaster, only landed at Saldanha Bay 11 years later. The Dutch and the English were interested in the Cape’s strategic position on the sea route to the East, and it was inevitable that one or the other would annex it.

In 1615 Sir Thomas Roe attempted to land some deported British criminals, but those who were not drowned or killed by Khoi were soon removed. In June 1620 captains Andrew Shillinge and Humphrey Fitzherbert formally annexed Table Bay for King James I, naming the Lion’s Rump King James’ Mountain. Their sovereign refused to confirm the act. It was left to the Dutch to act, after the wreck of the Haarlem in 1647. A previous visitor, Jan van Riebeeck, returned in 1652 to administer the territory for the benefit of the Dutch East India Company.

During the 18th century the rich Cape flora excited the interest of several British botanists who made long, arduous journeys through the interior in search of plants. Francis Masson, a Scot from Kew, arrived in 1772, a few months after the Swedes C P Thunberg and A Sparrman. Many plant species which Masson collected and classified remain European favourites. His work was continued by several British researchers, including W J Burchell, who arrived in 1810, after the Cape had become a British colony. About 8 700 South African plants are recorded in Burchell’s Catalogus geographicus plantarum.

William Harvey, who arrived in 1835 and later became Treasurer-General of the Cape Colony, produced his Genera of South African Plants in 1838. In collaboration with the German Otto Sender he produced the first three volumes of Flora Capensis, the work being taken over by the staff of the Kew Herbarium, London . This monumental work on the flora of the Cape was completed in England in 1933. British-born botanist, Professor H Pearson founded the National Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch in 1913. In its first half-century all three directors of Kirstenbosch, Profs Pearson, R H Compton and H B Rycroft, were of British descent.

The British occupied the Cape in 1795, but it was administered by the Batavian Republic from 1803 to 1806, before reverting to British control. The objective was to secure the trade route to India but British army units also kept Xhosa tribes at bay and allowed British influence to spread. The army was a safety net allowing government and education to develop and its presence encouraged the growth of eastern frontier towns such as Port Elizabeth, Cradock, Grahamstown, King William’s Town and East London.

Various governors attempted to keep the frontier peaceful, the most successful being those who sought to establish settlements as a barrier to incursions. The first group of settlers for this purpose arrived in 1820. It is a tribute to their courage that, knowing nothing of the country, they remained after the Voortrekkers had left. Many of their descendants are established in the Eastern Cape, where a distinct British culture is rooted.
This holds true for much of KwaZulu-Natal, where British settlement dates to 1824, when Lieutenant Francis Farewell obtained a grant of Port Natal and the surrounding country from the Zulu king, Shaka. This settlement was mainly for the purpose of trading. In 1835 the township of Durban was laid out on the site of Port Natal.

Two years later the first Boer settlers arrived, but their short-lived republic ended in 1843, when British sovereignty was proclaimed over Natal. Large parties of British settlers arrived in Natal from the late 1840s onward.

The British of the Eastern Cape and Natal were not content merely to settle. They adapted to a completely new environment and, imbued with the progressive spirit of 19th-century Britain, were often eager to alter and improve their new homeland.

South African agriculture benefited immensely. Agricultural machinery was introduced to a country which had few. The 1820 Settlers realised that the Eastern Cape and adjacent karoo were potentially good sheep country and merino wool became a leading export.

The British introduced sugar to the KwaZulu-Natal coastal belt and developed it into a major industry. Although deciduous fruit and citrus had long been grown in South Africa , the British were primarily responsible for the rise of commercial fruit-growing at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

British explorers
British explorers played a major part in opening up Africa’s interior. Early in the 19th century John Barrow traveled widely in the arid parts of the Cape Colony. Burchell reached the Vaal and Orange Rivers, and John Campbell explored north of the Orange. In the 1800s Farewell, James King, Henry Fynn and others explored Natal, and in 1835 Allen Gardiner became the first to describe the Drakensberg.

Robert Moffat established a settlement north of the Orange River and surveyed the greater part of the river’s course. In 1836 William Cornwallis-Harris and Richard Williamson journeyed through Bechuanaland and the western Transvaal. Francis Galton was apparently the first European to reach Ovamboland, and his friend Charles Andersson, the Anglicised son of an English father and a Swedish mother, traveled through the desert of the Kaokoveld to reach the Okavango in 1858.

The meeting between Gen Louis Botha (second from left, front row) and Lord Kitchener (third from left, front row). After the Anglo-Boer War hostility between the Boers and the British continued. Transvaal and the Free State lost their independence and were governed as British crown colonies.

The greatest of all explorers was the Scottish missionary, David Livingstone. In 1849, accompanied by W C Oswell, he arrived at Lake Ngami, and in 1851 reached the Zambezi River. In 1855, while traversing the continent from Luanda to the Zambezi delta, he was shown the Victoria Falls . Later he explored and mapped lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. Henry Hartley discovered gold in what is now Zimbabwe in 1867, and shortly afterwards the hunter Frederick Selous began his explorations from there.

British missionaries
British missionaries played a major part in the development of South Africa. They preached the gospel at a time when religious fervour ran high in Britain and they believed that Christianity and European civilisation were inseparable. They strove to introduce western ideas, including the inherent equality of man before the law, a notion which found expression in Cape law even before the emancipation of slaves in 1834. Five years later civil rights were extended to all in the Cape, a principle kept after responsible government was granted in 1872.
The breaking down of the legal colour bar was the greatest striving of the missionaries in the Cape. Exploration was an important second. English missionaries were early travelers to the Free State and former Transvaal, which Thomas Hodgson and Samuel Broadbent reached in 1823 coincident with a period of deep unrest. They settled among the Barolong who later helped the Voortrekkers after their cattle were stolen by the Matabele.

Missionaries founded many schools, including famed East Cape institutions such as Lovedale and Healdtown. Settler education was not neglected. Scottish missionaries and teachers resisted the plans of Governor Somerset to use the schools to anglicise pupils. Andrew Murray, Alexander Smith, William Ritchie Thomson, Henry Sutherland, George Morgan and Colin Fraser had an important part in strengthening and developing the Dutch Reformed Church. Of schoolmasters recruited by Somerset, James Rose Innes became the Cape’s first Superintendent of Education in 1839 and set about providing a firm educational grounding for people of all races. John Fairbairn and James Adamson founded the South African College in 1829, later to become the University of Cape Town.

English media
The first South African newspaper, The Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser, appeared on August 16, 1800 during the first British occupation. It was published in English and Dutch and later became the Cape Government Gazette, which has continued in modified form to the present day. The first unofficial newspaper, the South African Commercial Advertiser, was founded in 1824 by Thomas Pringle and John Fairbairn, settlers of Scottish descent. George Greig, the printer, was also a British settler.

The establishment led to a dispute about censorship which had far-reaching effects for the South African press. The paper was suppressed by Governor Somerset, but in 1829, an ordinance removed from the Government the power of interfering with the Press and made newspapers subject only to the law of libel.

This success led to the first unofficial Dutch newspaper, De Zuid-Afrihaan, being established in 1830. The following year the Graham’s Town Journal was launched in the East Cape. Press freedom was later accepted in other parts of South Africa, with the result that newspapers played an important political role.

Government
The Cape developed a system of parliamentary government modeled on Westminster. In 1834 it received its first bicameral governing institution with the creation of a Legislative Council and an Executive Council. For the first time a clear distinction was drawn between legislative and executive functions.

John Campbell

As a result of agitation for a form of representative government, mainly by British colonists, the Cape in 1854 was granted an elected parliament. Another 18 years elapsed before the constitution was changed to provide for an executive chosen from the party which commanded the majority in the lower house, to which it was also responsible.

In 1834 the Cape received its first bicameral governing institution with the creation of a Legislative Council and an Executive Council. Until the end of the 19th century, in both the Transvaal (ZAR) and Free State republics, there was an elected Volksraad and an Executive Council with an elected President. Thomas François Burgers (above) was the second president of the ZAR.

The other territories also had representative governments. In Natal the colonists got theirs in 1856 and responsible government in 1893. Until the end of the 19th century, in both the Transvaal and Free State republics, there was an elected Volksraad and an Executive Council with an elected President. With Union in 1910 it was the Cape and Natal form of responsible parliamentary government which had served as the model for parliament.

Politics
English-speaking South Africans played a far greater role in politics prior to Union than afterwards. Between 1872 and 1910 all but one of the prime ministers of the Cape were of British descent. The influence of two, Cecil Rhodes and Dr Leander Jameson, was felt far beyond the borders of the Cape. By contrast, between 1948 when the National Party took office and 1990 when a decision was made to negotiate a democratic future the number of English-speakers who reached cabinet rank numbered barely the fingers of a hand.

An ambitious British imperialist Rhodes had by 1890 made Bechuanaland and the territory north of the Limpopo River part of empire. Most British immigrants to the Transvaal were denied full franchise rights. Rhodes used Jameson to raid the Transvaal in 1895 to stir rebellion but the venture was easily crushed. At the national convention of 1908-09 to draft a constitution for South Africa, English-speakers were well represented, among them being John X. Merriman, Jameson, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Sir Frederick Moor and Sir Thomas Smartt.

Infrastructure
Road-building was a great contribution of the British. The arrival of the settlers and the many frontier wars made good roads essential. The route to Grahamstown was the Cape’s main thoroughfare. An early engineering feat was the Franschhoek Pass, begun in 1823, followed in 1830 by the road over the Hottentots Holland range and named for the governor, Sir Lowry Cole.

In 1837 Scotsman Andrew Geddes Bain began to build an excellent military road across rugged terrain between Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort . The so-called Queen’s Road, was a continuation of the main route from Cape Town. The work led to Bain making palaentological fossil finds, many of them new to science.

John Montagu, who arrived at the Cape in 1843, helped establish a central and divisional road boards. Both were involved in systematically extending the road network. In the Free State and Transvaal road building awaited the revenue which accrued from gold mining.

Ports and coasts
In 1824 the British built the first lighthouse and in 1860 a start was made on a breakwater and docks at Cape Town. They were also responsible for the construction of all other harbours along the Cape and Natal coast.

Railways
The first railways operated privately around Durban and Cape Town. By 1885 there was a railway from Cape Town to Kimberley, built by British engineers to serve the diamond-fields, then being developed chiefly with British capital. The Transvaal and Orange Free State were without railways, and it was the progressive extension of railways by the colonial governments which led to rail development in the Boer republics.

By September 1892 Johannesburg was linked to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, two years before the line, sponsored by President Paul Kruger and built by the a Dutch company, was completed to Lourenço Marques, now Maputo.

Mineral Revolution
Diamond-mining led to the establishment of South Africa’s first capitalist concern organised on a national basis, and very largely dependent on capital from Great Britain. This was De Beers Consolidated Mines, stated by Rhodes, son of a Hertfordshire parson, whose chief rival had been Barney Barnato, a London-born Jew.

The nature of the gold deposits of the Witwatersrand also favoured capitalist concerns. Were it not for the advanced technology and chemistry of the predominantly British Uitlanders, the finely disseminated gold could not have been extracted from the hard quartzite conglomerate of the Witwatersrand, the richest gold-field of the world.

Gold-mining revolutionised the economy of South Africa. They gave birth to manufacturing industries and boosted agriculture. Factories established directly or indirectly through British capital have drawn millions to the cities, transforming the demographic landscape.

Law
The common law in South Africa is Roman-Dutch, derived from the 17th century law of the Netherlands. When the Cape was ceded to the British in 1806 the common law remained unaltered. In certain fields, however, English law, being seldom in conflict with Roman-Dutch law, was gradually absorbed into the South African system.
Reference has already been made to the role of the British missionaries in the field of South African law. They succeeded in persuading the Cape government to open the courts to people of all races, a policy eventually adopted throughout South Africa.

The British were always a minority group and their influence has come to be expressed through their control of major mining and industrial concerns rather than politics.
Source: South African Encyclopedia

The preliminary arrangements for releasing some of the Company’s servants from their engagements and helping them to become farmers were at length completed, and on the 21st of February 1657 ground was allotted to the first burghers in South Africa. Before that date individuals had been permitted to make gardens for their own private benefit, but these persons still remained in the Company’s service. They were mostly petty officers with families, who drew money instead of rations, and who could derive a portion of their food from their gardens, as well as make a trifle occasionally by the sale of vegetables. The free burghers, as they were afterwards termed, formed a very different class, as they were subjects, not servants of the Company. For more than a year the workmen as well as the officers had been meditating upon the project, and revolving in their minds whether they would be better off as free men or as servants. At length nine of them determined to make the trial. They formed themselves into two parties, and after selecting ground for occupation, presented themselves before the Council and concluded the final arrangements. There were present that day at the Council table in the Commander’s hall, Mr Van Riebeek, Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, and the Bookkeeper Roelof de Man. The proceedings were taken down at great length by the Secretary Caspar van Weede.

The first party consisted of five men, named Herman Remajenne, Jan de Wacht, Jan van Passel, Warnar Cornelissen, and Roelof Janssen. They had selected a tract of land just beyond Liesbeek, and had given to it the name of Groeneveld, or the Green Country. There they intended to apply themselves chiefly to the cultivation of wheat. And as Remajenne was the principal person among them, they called themselves Herman’s Colony. The second party was composed of four men, named Stephen Botma, Hendrik Elbrechts, Otto Janssen, and Jacob Cornelissen. The ground of their selection was on this side of the Liesbeek, and they had given it the name of Hollandsche Thuin, or the Dutch Garden. They stated that it was their intention to cultivate tobacco as well as grain. Henceforth this party was known as Stephen’s Colony. Both companies were desirous of growing vegetables and of breeding cattle, pigs, and poultry.

The conditions under which these men were released from the Company’s service were as follows :
They were to have in full possession all the ground which they could bring under cultivation within three years, during which time they were to be free of taxes. After the expiration of three years they were to pay a reasonable land tax. They were then to be at liberty to sell, lease, or otherwise alienate their ground, but not without first communicating with the Commander or his representative. Such provisions as they should require out of the magazine were to be supplied to them at the same price as to the Company’s married servants. They were to be at liberty to catch as much fish in the rivers as they should require for their own consumption.

They were to be at liberty to sell freely to the crews of ships any vegetables which the Company might not require for the garrison, but they were not to go on board ships until three days after arrival, and were not to bring any strong drink on shore. Called Stephen Janssen, that is Stephen the son of John, in the records of the time. More than twenty years later he first appears as Stephen Botma. From him sprang the present large South African family of that name.

They were not to keep taps, but were to devote themselves to the cultivation of the ground and the rearing of cattle. They were not to purchase horned cattle, sheep, or anything else from the natives, under penalty of forfeiture of all their possessions.

They were to purchase such cattle as they needed from the Company, at the rate of twenty-five gulden for an ox or cow and three gulden for a sheep.
They were to sell cattle only to the Company, but all they offered were to be taken at the above prices.
They were to pay to the Company for pasturage one tenth of all the cattle reared, but under this clause no pigs or poultry were to be claimed.

The Company was to furnish them upon credit, at cost price in the Fatherland, with all such implements as were necessary to carry on their work, with food, and with guns, powder, and lead for their defence. In payment they were to deliver the produce of their ground, and the Company was to hold a mortgage upon all their possessions.

They were to be subject to such laws as were in force in the Fatherland and in India, and to such as should thereafter be made for the service of the Company and the welfare of the community. These regulations could be altered or amended at will by the Supreme Authorities. The two parties immediately took possession of their ground and commenced to build themselves houses.
They had very little more than two months to spare before the rainy season would set in, but that was sufficient time to run up sod walls and cover them with roofs of thatch. The forests from which timber was obtained were at no great distance; and all the other materials needed were close at hand. And so they were under shelter and ready to turn over the ground when the first rains of the season fell. There was a scarcity of farming implements at first, but that was soon remedied.

On the 17th of March a ship arrived from home, having on board an officer of high rank, named Ryklof van Goens, who was afterwards Governor General of Netherlands India, He had been instructed to rectify anything that he might find amiss here, and he thought the conditions under which the burghers held their ground could be improved. He therefore made several alterations in them, and also inserted some fresh clauses, the most important of which are as follows:

1. The freemen were to have plots of land along the Liesbeek, in size forty roods by two hundred – equal to 133 morgen – free of fixes for twelve years.

2. All farming utensils were to be repaired free of charge for three years. In order to procure a good stock of breeding cattle, the free-men were to be at liberty to purchase from the natives, until further instructions should be received, but they were not to pay more than the Company.

3. The price of horned cattle between the freemen and the Company was reduced from twenty-five to twelve gulden.
The penalty to be paid by a burgher for selling cattle except to the Company was fixed at twenty rix-dollars.

4. That they might direct their attention chiefly to the cultivation of grain, the freemen were not to plant tobacco or even more vegetables than were needed for their own consumption.

5. The burghers were to keep guard by turns in any redoubts which should be built for their protection.

6. They were not to shoot any wild animals except such as were noxious. To promote the destruction of ravenous animals the premiums were increased, viz, for a lion, to twenty-five gulden, for a hyena, to twenty gulden, and for a leopard, to ten gulden.

7. None but married men of good character and of Dutch or German birth were to have ground allotted to them. Upon their request, their wives and children were to be sent to them from Europe. In every case they were to agree to remain twenty years in South Africa.

8. Unmarried men could be released from service to work as mechanics, or if they were specially adapted for any useful employment, or if they would engage themselves for a term of years to the holders of ground.

9. One of the most respectable burghers was to have a seat and a vote in the Council of Justice whenever cases affecting freemen or their interests were being tried. He was to hold the office of Burgher Councillor for a year, when another should be selected and have the honour transferred to him.

Map of Liesbeek River

To this office Stephen Botma was appointed for the first term. The Commissioner drew up lengthy instructions for the guidance of the Cape government, in which the Commander was directed to encourage and assist the burghers, as they would relieve the Company of the payment of a large amount of wages. There were then exactly one hundred persons in South Africa in receipt of wages, and as soon as the farmers were sufficiently numerous, this number was to be reduced to seventy.

Many of the restrictions under which the Company’s servants became South African burghers were vexatious, and would be deemed intolerable at the present day. But in 1657 men heard very little of individual rights or of unrestricted trade. They were accustomed to the interference of the government in almost every thing, and as to free trade, it was simply impossible. The Netherlands could only carry on commerce with the East by means of a powerful Company, able to conduct expensive wars and maintain great fleets without drawing upon the resources of the State. Individual interests were therefore lost sight of even at home, much more so in such a settlement as that at the Cape, which was called into existence by the Company solely and entirely for its own benefit.

A commencement having been made, there were a good many applications for free papers. Most of those to whom they were granted afterwards re-entered the Company’s service, or went back to the Fatherland. The names of some who remained in South Africa have died out, but others have numerous descendants in this country at the present day. There are even instances in which the same Christian name has been transmitted from father to son in unbroken succession. In addition to those already mentioned, the following individuals received free papers within the next twelvemonth : Wouter Mostert, who was for many years one of the leading men in the settlement. He had been a miller in the Fatherland, and followed the same occupation here after becoming a free burgher. The Company had imported a corn mill to be worked by horses, but after a short time it was decided to make use of the water of the fresh river as a motive power. Mostert contracted to build the new mill, and when it was in working order he took charge of it on. shares of the payments made for grinding. Hendrik Boom, the gardener, whose name has already been frequently mentioned.

Caspar Brinkman, Pieter Visagie, Hans Faesbenger, Jacob Cloete, Jan Reyniers, Jacob Theunissen, Jan Rietvelt, Otto van Vrede, and Simon Janssen, who had land assigned to them as farmers. Herman Ernst, Cornelis Claassen, Thomas Robertson (an Englishman), Isaac Manget, Klaas Frederiksen, Klaas Schriever, and Hendrik Fransen, who took service with farmers.

Christian Janssen and Peter Cornelissen, who received free papers because they had been expert hunters in the Company’s service. It was arranged that they should continue to follow that employment, in which they were granted a monopoly, and prices were fixed at which they were to sell all kinds of game they were also privileged to keep a tap for the sale of strong drink.

Leendert Cornelissen, a ship’s carpenter, who received a grant of a strip of forest at the foot of the mountain. His object was to cut timber for sale, for all kinds of which pries were fixed by the Council.

Elbert Dirksen and Hendrik van Surwerden, who were to get living as tailor.

Jan Vetteman, the surgeon of the fort. He arranged for a monopoly of practice in his profession and for various other privileges.

Roelof Zieuwerts, who was to get his living as a waggon and plough maker, and to whom a small piece of forest was granted.

Martin Vlockaart, Pieter Jacobs, and Jan Adriansen, who were to maintain themselves as fishermen.

Pieter Kley, Dirk Vreem, and Pieter Heynse, who were to saw yellow wood planks for sale, as well as to work at their occupation as carpenters’.

Hendrik Schaik, Willem Petersen, Dirk Rinkes, Michiel van Swel, Dirk Noteboom, Frans Gerritsen, and Jan Zacharias, who are mentioned merely as having become free burghers. Besides the regulations concerning the burghers, the Commissioner Van Goons drew up copious instructions on general subjects for the guidance of the government. He prohibited the ompany’s servants from cultivating larger gardens than required or their own use, but he excepted the Commander, to whom he granted the whole of the ground at Green Point as a private farm. As a rule, the crews of foreign ships were not to be provided with vegetables or meat, but were to be permitted to take in water freely. The Commander was left some discretion in dealing with hem, but the tenor of the instructions was that they were not to be, encouraged to visit Table Bay.

Jan van Riebeeck fake painting

Regarding the natives, they were to be treated kindly, so as to obtain their goodwill. If any of them assaulted or robbed a burgher, those suspected should be seized and placed upon Robben Island until they made known the offenders, when they should be released and the guilty persons be banished to the island for two or three years. If any of them committed murder, the criminal should be put to death, but the Commander should endeavour have the execution performed by the natives themselves. Caution was to be observed that no foreign language should continue to be spoken by any slaves who might hereafter be brought into the country. Equal care was to be taken that no other weights or measures than those in use in the Fatherland should be introduced. The measure of length was laid down as twelve Rhynland inches to the foot, twelve-feet to the rood, and two thousand roods to the mile, so that fifteen miles would be equal to a degree of latitude. In measuring land, six hundred square roods were to make a morgen. The land measure thus introduced is used in the Cape Colony to the present day. In calculating with it, it must be remembered that one thousand Rhynland feet are equal to one thousand and thirty-three British Imperial feet. The office of Secunde, now for a long time vacant, was filled by the promotion of the bookkeeper Roelof de Man. Caspar van Weede was sent to Batavia, and the clerk Abraham Gabbema was appointed Secretary of the Council in his stead. In April 1657, when these instructions were issued, the European population consisted of one hundred and thirty-four individuals, Company’s servants and burghers, men, women, and children all told. There were at the Cape three male and eight female slaves.

Commissioner Van Goens permitted the burghers to purchase cattle from the natives, provided they gave in exchange no more than the Company was offering. A few weeks after he left South Africa, three of the farmers turned this license to account, by equipping themselves and going upon a trading journey inland. Travelling in an easterly direction, they soon reached a district in which five or six hundred Hottentots were found, by whom they were received in a friendly manner. The Europeans could not sleep in the huts on account of vermin and filth, neither could they pass the night without some shelter, as lions and other wild animals were numerous in that part of the country. The Hottentots came to their assistance by collecting a great quantity of thorn bushes, with which they formed a high circular hedge, inside of which the strangers slept in safety. Being already well supplied with copper, the residents were not disposed to part with cattle, and the burghers were obliged to return with only two oxen and three sheep. They understood the natives to say that the district in which they were living was the choicest portion of the whole country, for which reason they gave it the name of Hottentots Holland.

For many months none of the pastoral Hottentots had been at the fort, when one day in July Harry presented himself before the Commander. He had come, he said, to ask where they could let their cattle graze, as they observed that the Europeans were cultivating the ground along the Liesbeek. Mr Van Riebeek replied that they had better remain where they were, which was at distance of eight or ten hours’ journey on foot from the fort. Harry informed him that it was not their custom to remain long in one place, and that if they were deprived of a retreat here they would soon be ruined by their enemies. The Commander then rated that they might come and live behind the mountains, along by Hout Bay, or on the slope of the Lion’s Head, if they would trade with him. But to this Harry would not consent, as he said they lived upon the produce of their cattle. The native difficulty had already become what it has been ever since, the most important question for solution in South Africa. Mr Van Riebeek was continually devising some scheme for its settlement, and a large portion of his dispatches has reference to the subject. At this time his favourite plan was to build a chain of redoubts across the isthmus and to connect them with a wall.

Cape Settlement

A large party of the Kaapmans was then to be enticed within the line, with their families and cattle, and when once on this side none but men were ever to be allowed to go beyond it again. They were to be compelled to sell their cattle, but were to be provided with goods so that the men could purchase more, and they were to be allowed a fair profit on trading transactions. The women and children were to be kept as guarantees for the return of the men. In this manner, the Commander thought, a good supply of cattle could be secured, and all difficulties with the natives be removed.

During the five years of their residence at the Cape, the Europeans had acquired some knowledge of the condition of the natives. They had ascertained that all the little clans in the neighbourhood, whether Goringhaikonas, Gorachouquas, or Goringhaiquas, were members of one tribe, of which Gogosoa was the principal chief. The clans were often at war, as the Goringhaikonas and the Goringhaiquas in 1652, but they showed a common front against the next tribe or great division of people whose chiefs owned relationship to each other. The wars between the clans usually seemed to be mere forays with a view of getting possession ‘of women and cattle, while between the tribes hostilities were often waged with great bitterness. Of the inland tribes, Mr Van Riebeek knew nothing more than a few names. Clans calling themselves the Chariguriqua, the Cochoqua, and the Chainouqua had been to the fort, and from the last of these one hundred and thirty head of cattle had recently been purchased, but as yet their position with regard to others was not made out. The predatory habits of the Bushmen were well known, as also that they were enemies of every one else, but it was supposed that they were merely another Hottentot clan. Some stories which Eva told greatly interested the Commander.

After the return of the beach rangers to Table Valley, she had gone back to live in Mr Van Riebeek’s house, and was now at the age of fifteen or sixteen years able to speak Dutch fluently.

The ordinary interpreter, Doman with the honest face, was so attached to the Europeans that he had gone to Batavia with Commissioner Van Goens, and Eva was now employed in his stead. She told the Commander that the Namaquas were a people living in the interior, who had white skins and long hair, that they wore clothing and made their black slaves cultivate the ground, and that they built stone houses and had religious services just the same as the Netherlanders. There were others, she said, who had gold and precious stones in abundance, and a Hottentot who brought some cattle for sale corroborated her statement and asserted that he was familiar with everything of the kind that was exhibited to him except a diamond. He stated that one of his wives had been brought up in the house of a great lord named Chobona, and that she was in possession of abundance of gold ornaments and jewels. Mr Van Riebeek invited him pressingly to return at once and bring her to the fort, but he replied that being accustomed to sit at home and be waited upon by numerous servants, she would be unable to travel so far. An offer to send a wagon for her was rejected on the ground that the sight of Europeans would frighten her to death.

All that could be obtained from this ingenious storyteller was a promise to bring his wife to the fort on some future occasion. After this the Commander was more than ever anxious to have the interior of the country explored, to open up a road to the capital city of Monomotapa and the river Spirite Sancto, where gold was certainly to be found, to make the acquaintance of Chobona and the Namaquas, and to induce the people of Benguela to bring the products of their country to the fort Good Hope for sale. The Commissioner Van Goons saw very little difficulty in the way of accomplishing these designs, and instructed Mr Van Riebeek to use all reasonable exertion to carry them out. The immediate object of the next party which left the fort to penetrate the interior was, however, to procure cattle rather than find Ophir or Monomotapa.

A large fleet was expected, and the Commander was anxious to have a good herd of oxen in readiness to refresh the crews. The party, which left on the 19th of October, consisted of seven servants of the Company, eight freemen, and four Hottentots. They took pack oxen to carry provisions and the usual articles of merchandise. Abraham Gabbema, Fiscal and Secretary of the Council, was the leader. They shaped their course at first towards a mountain which was visible from the Cape, and which, on account of its having a buttress surmounted by a dome resembling a flat nightcap such as was then in common use, had already received the name of Klapmuts. Passing round this mountain and over the low watershed beyond, they proceeded onward until they came to a stream running in a northerly direction along the base of a seemingly impassable chain of mountains, for this reason they gave it the name of the Great Berg River. its waters they found barbels, and by some means they managed to catch as many as they needed to refresh themselves. They were now in one of the fairest of all South African To the west lay a long isolated mountain, its face covered with verdure and here and there furrowed by little streamlets which ran down to the river below. Its top was crowned with domes of bare grey granite, and as the rising sun poured a flood of light upon them, they sparkled like gigantic gems, so that the travellers named them the Paarl and the Diamant. In the evening when the valley lay in deepening shadow, the range on the east was lit up with tints more charming than pen or pencil can describe, for nowhere is the glow of light upon rock more varied or more beautiful. Between the mountains the surface of the ground was dotted over with trees,” and in the month of October it was carpetted with grass and flowers.

Wild animals shared with man the possession of this lovely domain. In the river great numbers of hippopotami were seen ; on the mountain sides herds of zebras were browsing ; and trampling down the grass, which in places was so tall that Gabbema described it as fit to make hay of, were many rhinoceroses.

There is great confusion of names in the early records whenever native clans are spoken of. Sometimes it is stated that Gogosoa’s people called themselves the Goringhaiqua or Goriughaina, at other times the same clan is called the Goringhaikona. Harry’s people were sometimes termed the Watermans, sometimes the Strandloopers (beach rangers). The Bushmen were at first called Visman by Mr Van Riebeek, but he soon adopted the word Sonqua, which he spelt in various ways. This is evidently a form of the Hottentot name for these people, as may be seen from the following words, which are used by a Hottentot clan at the present day :-Nominative singular, sap, a bushman; dual, sakara, two bushmen; plural, sakoa, more than two bushmen. Nominative singular, sas, a bushwoman ; dual, sasara, two bushwomen ; plural, sadi, more than two bushwomen. Common plural, sang, bushmen and bushwomen. When the tribes became better known the titles given in the text were used.

There were little kraals of Hottentots all along the Berg River, but the people were not disposed to barter away their cattle. Gabbema and his party moved about among them for more than a week, but only succeeded in obtaining ten oxen and forty-one sheep, with which they returned to the fort. And so, gradually, geographical knowledge was being gained, and Monomotapa and the veritable Ophir where Solomon got his gold were moved further backward on the charts. During the year 1657 several public works of importance were undertaken.

A platform was erected upon the highest point of Robben Island, upon which a fire was kept up at night whenever ships belonging to the Company were seen off the port. At the Company’s farm at Rondebosch the erection of a magazine for grain was commenced, in size one hundred and eight by forty feet. This building, afterwards known as the Groote Schuur, was of very substantial construction. In Table Valley the lower course of the fresh river was altered. In its ancient channel it was apt to damage the gardens in winter by overflowing its banks. A new and broader channel was therefore cut, so that it should enter the sea some distance to the south-east of the fort. The old channel was turned into a canal, and sluices were made in order that the moat might still be filled at pleasure.

In February 1658 it was resolved to send another trading party inland, as the stock of cattle was insufficient to meet the wants of the fleets shortly expected. Of late there had been an unusual demand for meat. The Arnhem, and Slot van Honingen, two large East Indiamen, had put into Table Bay in the utmost distress, and in a short time their crews had consumed forty head of horned cattle and fifty sheep. This expedition was larger and better equipped than any yet seat from the fort Good Hope. The leader was Sergeant Jan van Harwarden, and under him were fifteen Europeans and two Hottentots, with six pack oxen to carry provisions and the usual articles of barter. The Land Surveyor Pieter Potter accompanied party for the purpose of observing the features of the country, so that a correct map could be made.

To him was also entrusted the task of keeping the journal of the expedition. The Sergeant instructed to learn all that he could concerning the tribes, to ascertain if ivory, ostrich feathers, musk, civet, gold, and precious stones, were obtainable, and, if so, to look out for a suitable place the establishment of a trading station. The party passed the Paarl mountain on their right, and crossing the Berg River beyond, proceeded in a northerly direction until they reached the great wall which bounds the coast belt of South Africa. In searching along it for a passage to the interior, they discovered a stream which came foaming down through an enormous cleft in the mountain, but they could not make their way along it, as the sides of the ravine appeared to rise in almost perpendicular precipices. It was the Little Berg River, and through the winding gorge the railway to the interior passes today, but when in 1658 Europeans first looked into its deep recesses it seemed to defy an entrance.

The travellers kept. on their course along the great barrier, but no pathway opened to the regions beyond. Then dysentery attacked some of them, probably brought on by fatigue, and they were compelled to retrace their steps. Near the Little Berg River they halted and formed a temporary camp, while the Surveyor Potter with three Netherlanders and the two Hottentots attempted to cross the range. It may have been at the very spot known a hundred years later as the Roodezand Pass, and at any rate it was not far from it, that Potter and his little band toiled wearily up the heights, and were rewarded by being the first of Christian blood to look down into the secluded dell now called the Tulbagh Basin.

Standing on the summit of the range, their view extended away for an immense distance along the valley of the Breede River, but it was a desolate scene that met their gaze. Under the glowing sun the ground lay bare of verdure, and in all that wide expanse which today is dotted thickly with cornfields and groves and homesteads, there was then no sign of human It was only necessary to run the eye over it to be assured that the expedition was a failure in that direction. And so they returned to their companions and resumed the homeward march.

Source: Chronicles of the Cape Commanders by George McCall Theal – 1882