Cape Good Hope 1652-1702

20 Gerrit Vermeulen

(See also item 33.) His ‘Merkwaerdige Voyagie ...’, Amsterdam 1677 is here translated from microfilm, by courtesy of the British Museum: no copy seems to be available in South Africa. Two long ‘Supplements’, dealing with the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands, were obviously inserted by the publisher as padding, and have been omitted here. His outward journey was in Eendracht, the same ship as Schreyer (item 21), although there is nothing to indicate that they ever met on board. He gives no details about himself, but starts directly with:

On the twenty-ninth of July of the year sixteen hundred and sixty-eight we left from Hellevoetsluis for the East Indies with a favorable wind [Hague codex 4389 folio 58 confirms, as from Goeree], which in fifteen days brought us in sight of the Canary Islands, of which I will here say nothing except that on one of them [Tenerife] is a hill of very exceptional height, which can be seen from sixty miles* distance, and which we had in sight for three days in spite of a favourable wind.

Eight days after this we again saw some islands, to wit those of Fuogo, Mayo and Saint Jago [Fogo, Maio, São Tiago in Cape Verde Islands], to which we steered to get water. But this was not without great danger to the lives of all, although the weather was good; since having taken in our sails and dropped our anchor, this could not reach the ground because the cable was in a tangle, so that our ship drove towards the shore, the wind being from seawards.

[A ridiculous plate is inserted, showing a ship with sails set in a furious gale, directly contrary to Vermeulen's statements.]

Our skipper, seeing the shore so near, lost all hope of saving his ship, and therefore got into the longboat with many of the officers. The crew and the soldiers began to strip

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themselves in order to leap into the water and swim ashore, and then make for a town belonging to the Portuguese, which lay two miles distant. The Portuguese standing on the shore had their eyes fixed on us, in the hope of getting some booty from our wreck; but God showed his mercy towards us, and spoiled their desire and intent, since we dropped our second anchor and this took hold and the ship swung to it, to the great joy of all in her. But we were busied for fully three days and two nights before we could get our ship out to sea again. The place where we lay was very dangerous for us, since the ground was very hard and rocky. We broke one anchor there, and lost two in kedging ourselves off into deep water. On the third day we came somewhat into safety; and the Portuguese seeing that we were out of danger, greeted us with the firing of three guns, and by hoisting the white flag told that we could come ashore. We also greeted them with three guns, and let fly our Dutch flag. They thanked us with one gun, and we did the same. Our skipper and some others went ashore to salute the Commander of the fort which lay above the town on the top of a hill. They were very well received by this Castellan, for whom they took a present which he received with great pleasure and many signs of thanks. He ordered the townsfolk to be helpful to us; and they provided us with much refreshment, which was very helpful to our sick who thereby were again able to get onto their legs.

All these islands which I have just mentioned are very large and fertile, and belong to the Portuguese. The island of Fuogo is very notable by cause of the sulphur mountain which burns perpetually. The Portuguese say that this is Hell. When I first saw it I thought that a house was ablaze there; but when I asked about it I was told that this was a mountain of sulphur which burns continually. By day the fire is not so well to be seen as by night because of the glare of the sun; but much smoke and steam is seen coming from it.

Three months after we had put out to sea from S. Jago we sighted the Cape of Bone esperance, or the Promontory of Good Hope, which we longed for with the greater impatience because our ration of water had been cut to one half, not only a very small measure but also very bad and unpleasant to drink. We were also docked one of our three meals, the one which was better than the two others. But I will not delay to tell of the bad condition of our food in our journey to the Indies, since that of our return journey was fully four times as bad.

Thus we arrived on the second of December [dr] at the Cape de bone Esperance, with many sick who were taken ashore into the hospital*.

The Cape de bone Esperance is in Africa, and lies on the furthest point which stretches into the sea [sic], as is shown on the charts. The air there is very temperate and the soil fertile, since corn grows there, and rice, and all sorts of fruit and herbs. This region is very wild because of the great mountains which are found there, and which are uninhabited and inaccessible. The inhabitants are called Hottentots. The Christians who are there are Dutch, who have possession of the land along the sea where the ships touch, and where they have built a strong fort* of stone with four bastions. I add that this fortress is impregnable as far as regards the inhabitants, who fight with arrows and

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half-pikes only; and they truly be called savages, since they go almost entirely naked although the cold there in winter is very severe. The men only cover their privities with the skin of a sheep's tail, and use a complete sheepskin to cover themselves when they are cold. Their wives are more warmly clad, since they wear five or six sheepskins with the wool wherewith they cover their whole body. They wind the guts of sheep around their legs, and these serve them as stockings. These sheepskins are of great service to them, both to shield themselves from the cold, as also to foster the lice, which they greatly like to eat. These Hottentots bring their speech from deep within their throats. They are very bold, and well-made and agile of body. They never walk but always run when they wish to go anywhere. They have no interest in gold and silver, but desire copper, to make armbands therefrom. Their riches consist of cattle, such as oxen and sheep, since they have herds of nine or ten thousand, with which they deal with the Dutch, bartering them for tobacco, bread, or brandy, since they themselves have neither bread, nor wine, nor any strong drink. They have no food other than meat and fish, which they barely half-cook. They build no houses, because they always wander with their cattle, and never stay longer than six weeks in one place, remaining there only so long as their beasts find pasture there, and then moving away to another region which is suited to their animals. If any of their wives fall sick in their journeying they enclose her in a hedge of thorns so that she cannot come out nor can be devoured by the lions and tigers which are found there in great numbers, but shall die there [see Hottentots*, Abandonment]. The Christians who live there dare not go unarmed far from the fortress, and are always well provided with arms when they watch their cattle. The Hottentots are very sharp-sighted, and can see much further than the Christians. They never eat good food, since if they will slaughter an ox or other beast they choose always the worst and thinnest, saying that it would be a pity to kill a fat animal. When they are born their right testicles* are taken off, since they say that the left ones suffice for breeding. They are very dirty and grubby in all ways, and give off a nasty stink because they smear their bodies with some smelly fat, and then blacken themselves with soot since they imagine that they are not black enough. They have short and curly hair, but otherwise are well made both in body and face.

The region around the Cape is very strange to see, both because of the inhabitants who are such as we have described them, and also because of the wild beasts, which are lions, tigers, ostriches and iron pigs. Of these the last are interesting to see, since although they somewhat resemble those [pigs] of Europe in bodily shape they are not so large, and in place of hair have feathers five inches long, black and white with sharp points like nails and as hard as iron; and when these iron pigs are disturbed or fight they set up their feathers, and with them make deep wounds in any that oppose them. I will not speak of the lions and tigers, since we see these daily in Europe [?]; and I will mention the ostrich only in passing, which for size is the King of Birds, since they are ten feet tall, and do not fly but run as swiftly as a horse. They do harm to none, and dwell in the mountains, and lay eggs so large that they are many pounds in weight. They lay fully forty of such eggs

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before they sit to hatch them. The Hottentots find many of such eggs, which they barter with the soldiers of the Fort for tobacco or rice.

After we had provided ourselves with water, and again made ready our ship, we weighed anchor on the thirteenth of December [dr] to continue our voyage. We took on board again a part of our sick men who had gone ashore, and had two ships with us, with whom we were in company not more than fifteen days, by reason of a storm which separated us from each other.... [Batavia etc. until 1673.]