Cape Good Hope 1652-1702

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24 Frederick Andersen Bolling
(Plate 23)

(See also in item 31.) Translated from Danish microfilms of ‘Friderici Bollingii, Oost-Indiske Reise-bog....’, Copenhagen 1678, by courtesy of the University Library, Leiden. There is also a translation into Dutch by Mrs. J. Visscher, in ‘Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, Part 68, The Hague 1916, with valuable background-information. He was from Tönsberg in Norway, student in Copenhagen and private tutor to the sons of a Norwegian Major-General (Visscher); but on December 1, 1669 signed on with the V.O.C. at Amsterdam as a Cadet*, at 10 gld. per month. Two months advance of pay. Oath taken at the East-India House (now a Museum), and issued with full kit, chest, mattress, hammock. December 5 by lighter* to Texel and embarked in Sticht Utrecht, ‘a magnificent large ship of 500 last*, with 60 guns, most of them metal* cannon-royal (halve kartouwen). Various nationalities aboard, Danish, English, French, Norwegian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, German, Swedish. Sailed December 8 (Hague codex 4389 folio 60 has December 7). 339 souls including 14 women. 7 to a mess. Two watches of 139 men each. Hackius on board, going out to be Governor at the Cape, Admiral* of the fleet of seven ships. Channel. December 19 heavy storm, fleet dispersed, Utrecht now alone. Already 69 sick. January 5, eve of Epiphany, the 15 students on board (German, Dutch, English, French, Danish) performed the ‘Star-Procession’: given 30 ducats* by Hackius January 14 near Cape Verde, first flying-fishes seen, in thousands. ‘One pot of beer daily, called in Dutch a flapkan, holding 6 pints’ (see Can*). Soldier who had wounded another condemned to be keelhauled thrice, 300 blows with rope's-end (‘but if a soldier, with a wooden club shaped like a musket-stock’), and hand nailed to mainmast with a knife until he should tear it loose, 6 months' pay forfeited; ‘but this last excused, ‘because of his wife and small children who drew the half of his pay each month from the Company’. February 12, Equator: no ceremony, but everyone swam. February 12, the students performed the story of Holofernes ‘as in the Bible’, and March 5 that of the Prodigal Son. March 7 Abrolhos passed: double rations and a flapkan of Spanish wine to each mess. March 9, course now westerly for the Cape. March 10, beer finished, now water only.

On the 14th we saw various signs of the Cabo de bona Esperanca, which were principally swallows [? Cape Doves], whales, Trombas (long floating reeds with stems and all, thus called because they are shaped like trumpets) and a quantity of particoloured birds called Mangas de Veluelo [sic: Velludo], in Danish ‘Floyels Ermer’ [‘Velvet Sleeves’] because the wings are black: we caught some to amuse ourselves, although they are uneatable because of their oily taste. All this is a sure sign, that the Cabo de bona Esperanca is not far away, since all of them remained with us until we reached the Cabo. Also it is an

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nfailing sign of sighting the Cabo de bona Esperanca when the compass shows true South-North [without Declination*; but incorrect], and then land must be looked for. That same day the Captain announced that whoever first sighted land would receive a fresh-milk cheese, a new hat, a little keg [‘Anker’] of brandy, and 4 Rixdollars in cash; every day was now called ‘Land! Land!’, but it was always imagined land and soon disappeared. (It was clouds which looked like land.)

On March 20 a sailor who sat at the masthead [‘op ved Floyen’] also called ‘Land! Land!’ as soon as daylight came ... and at 8 o'clock we clearly saw land, namely the Taffel-Baj, for which we were all joyful, and each of us longed to see Africa and set foot on it, since we should then be at the Antipodes of our Fatherland [sic]....

This Cabo de bona Esperanca is the outer edge and uttermost point of Africa [sic], lying on 34½ degrees South, and is formed by the Taffel-Bay, where the late noble lord Ofve Giedde had carved on a stone the name and Symbol of our most gracious King CHRISTIAN the Fourth [in 1619]. The Taffel-Bay has received its name from the hill which lies near it, and was first discovered by the Portuguese, who later fortified the place with a fine castle [sic] and laid up supplies there, because it was half-way to the Indies, namely 1600 miles* from Norway, and the Portuguese called the place Cabo de bona Esperanca; but later the Dutch called the place Caput bonae Spei or ‘Fort of Good Hope’, that is to say the Castle where they had good prospects. The Dutch have fortified the Cabo with two large forts: the one which was first built has two walls around it; around the first wall, which is made of brick, there is no water, but within the second, which is made of mud and clay, there are moats [confused and incorrect]. The Governor and also the Council live within the inner wall.

As soon as we had dropped anchor on March 21 [dr 18/3] the Admiral* went ashore with his wife, children and servants, since he was to be the Governor of this same land. We at once struck our Admiral's flag*, since the flag was flying from the Fort and from all the watch-posts, until further orders from the Governor. When the Admiral bade us farewell and went ashore we fired 9 guns in his honour, and when he stepped on land all the guns of the Fort were fired, and all the soldiers fired three volleys from their muskets.

On March 22 our Captain received orders from the Governor to fly the flag and go on to the East Indies as Admiral. At the Cabo bonae Spei we found the ship Gouda [error for Cogge, dr 8/3], which had arrived three days previously, and our other 5 ships joined us here day by day [Swemmer 20/3, Huys te Velsen 21/3, Batavia 30/3, Middelburg 31/3, Gouda 1/4 by dr]: we had not seen them since the storm dispersed us in the Spanish Sea as has already been told. The sailors set the ship in order, by scrubbing and so forth, and brought out fresh water every day: moreover, refreshing was issued daily, as much as we wished, fresh mutton, water-lemons, radishes, ‘Barcken-Roder’ [? beetroots], ‘Kabuss-Kall’ [? cabbages], and all sorts of the tasty greenstuffs which grow in abundance in that land, also fresh and dried fish. The Dutch keep a very vigilant watch, not from fear of the Heathen but of the Christian rulers, who, as is well known, are at war with the Dutch in the Fatherland [?]: for this reason when a ship approaches, a flag is flown by all the

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[23] Frontispiece of item 24. The bird may be intended for a cassowary or an ostrich: the rhinoceros has the legendary armour-plating.

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watch-posts, and then it is soon known what sort of a ship it is [confused: see Flag*]. Also as a rule they bring out farmers from Holland each year [sic] to cultivate this Cabo, so that there are already nearly 100 farms which have spread themselves over the land, and who day by day plant vineyards. The soil in itself is very fruitful. The Taffel Mountain is covered with clouds before storms and bad weather, and it is lovely to see when the evening star rises on a clear evening: it rises just over the Taffel Mountain, and it looks as if a fire were burning in the centre of the table.

At this time a Lieutenant came aboard, and from our ship took off 28 soldiers, 6 cadets* and 8 sailors, in all 42 men, who must at once let down their chests into the longboats [‘Baaden’] and go ashore to remain there: my comrade was among these men, and although we parted unwillingly we could do nothing about it, since it was as though we had sold ourselves for money and must therefore obey orders: our parting grieved us as though we had been husband and wife. Now also we must sell the few goods which we had bought on our joint account: we got 32 Rixdollars at the Cabo for a little keg of brandy which in Amsterdam had cost us 6 Rixdollars; for 40 pounds of tobacco half a Rixdollar per pound, or 20 Rixdollars in all, which had cost us 5 Rixdollars; for 20 sweet-milk cheeses 1 Rixdollar each (14 of which we had ourselves brought from Holland and 6 had been given us on board as rations, since the Company gives each 3 cheeses, which must suffice him for the whole journey). And so we bade each other a sorrowful good-bye.

As regards the Heathen found here at the Cabo bonae Spei, who are the [original] inhabitants of the land, they are the most hideous folk that can be found in the world. A party of these Hottentots came to our ship (since these inhabitants are called Hottentots).

The men are as tall as a boy of 15 at home, very slim-bodied, but with flat noses: their hair looks like black wool, and in it they hang as ornaments beads [‘uechte Perler’] which they get from the Dutch. Their skin is brownish, but they take the fat and the dung of animals and smear themselves with it, which makes them foul-looking and foul-stinking. They are quite naked, except that they wear on their shoulders a sheepskin, as it might be a cloak, this skin being just as it is taken off the sheep: they turn the wool inwards towards their bodies for warmth (since there are Winters and Summers here, the Winter beginning in March). On their arms they have copper and iron rings, which among them is a great ornament, while around the left arm [sic] they have some guts, just as they are taken from the beasts with the dung in them, as also around their necks and their waists, which guts they change and renew each year in May, since this is their New Year [in no other writer]. They have large holes in their ears, in which they hang false corals [beads] which they get from the Dutch. They have always a spear in their hands, of which the end is hardened in the fire and made like a spike. They can throw stones with great accuracy, even to killing a bird in the air: the men practice themselves in such throwing. They run races against a horse, never losing [‘uden all Skade’].

As regards the women, they are no taller than a girl perhaps 12 years old among us.

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Their heads are always covered with a sheepskin, and they have another sheepskin hanging over their shoulders, and a scrap like the tail of a fox before their privities. They have also these aforesaid guts* hanging in quantities around their necks, arms and legs, also copper and iron rings and false pearls. Of these 10 came aboard our ship, with women and children: the women had the children on their backs, and their breasts were like long and narrow flasks, which they could throw back over to their backs and feed the children from them. They leapt and hopped up and down before us, so that we should give them a piece of tobacco. They are very avid for tobacco, one can get them to do anything one desires for tobacco: while we lay at the Cabo Bonae Spei they killed a Pole because they saw that he was carrying a roll of tobacco under his arm [not confirmed elsewhere]. Their speech is rather inarticulate than articulate, we could understand no word of it since when they speak they click with the tongue against the palate. Good tobacco they call Tubaccum tzicum [sic: actually ‘bad tobacco’]. They must go back ashore again at once, since we did not wish to have them on board any longer, because they are thievish, and take all the iron and small things they can lay their hands on.

As regards the religious observances of these Hottentots, I learnt much from a Hottentot who had been with the Dutch for a long time and spoke good Dutch. [Was he a humorist who liked to tell tall tales to strangers?] Chastity is regarded by them as one of the greatest virtues, so that, if a man or a woman live together outside or before marriage, both if found guilty must be stoned to death. They pray to the moon and the sun, and believe, that there is a Great Captain above and a Great Captain below. The Captain who is above is sometimes good, when he gives good weather, and sometimes evil, when he gives storms and cold; but the Captain below is always good, since he gives them cattle for their food, fish for their sustenance; and indeed this Captain makes it unnecessary for them to work (since they find it strange that we, the Christians, work, and they say, that we are all mortal, that we gain nothing from our toil, but at the end are thrown underground, so that all we have done was done in vain).

[None of the following is supported by any other writer.] As regards their marriage, they enter this when they are 12 years old, and when it pleases the elders of both (but they must [? ‘not’ omitted] be cousins in the first or second degree. Then they are brought together, and before they may enter into copulation they are first examined by the priest. (He is distinguished from the others since the priest wears two sheepskins, one on his shoulders and one around his waist, further a priest is not allowed to marry, and above all no one may be a priest who has not first let both his testicles* be cut away). They are examined by the priest as to whether they are sound in health and lack nothing. Then the priest cuts off the right testicle of the man, and a joint from a finger* of the woman's right hand (so that it can be seen how often she has been married, since she must lose a joint for each marriage, whereas the man loses a testicle at the first occasion only). When now the man is recovered, and the woman's finger is healed (since these signs serve as engagement tokens for them) then they come together in May, when their New Year begins when the moon is full: they are then both adorned with sheeps' guts full of

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dung, and with a garland of ostrich-feathers on their head and waist (since their country is full of ostriches, but an ordinary Hottentot may not go adorned with ostrich-feathers, but only their Kings or Dukes, but they are allowed to wear them at their marriage). Thereafter there is a great assembly, the bride and bridegroom come hand in hand, and the whole assembly shouts and screams when the priest approaches with a burning torch in his right hand, and with his left hand waves up and down a piece of wood in the shape of a half moon. As soon as the priest waves the fire and the moon around them they both fall on their knees, pointing with their hands to the half moon and to heaven, thus declaring that sun and moon shall turn away from them if they are not true to one another. After that the priest speaks some words over them, and then everyone returns home to his dwelling.

When any of them dies, they bury him entirely naked, and the priest again comes with his fire and half moon, whereby he bears witness, that the dead man lived properly in his marriage [unconfirmed elsewhere]. But if a woman dies, and she still has a suckling child, the child is buried alive with her, saying that a child who is still a suckling will not be cared for after the mother's death [elsewhere in cases of death in childbirth only: see Hottentots, Infanticide].

Also every evening when the sun sets they keep watch by a large fire, all leaping and shouting so that the lions shall not come to do them any harm.

As regards their food, these Hottentots eat raw flesh and raw fish (just as they catch it in the water). As soon as they have taken off the skin from a sheep they eat it up. They have stone knives, and they live for 100 years and are seldom sick.

The Dutch now and then send some horsemen, sometimes 100, sometimes 200 [sic: or ? ‘miles’ omitted] on expeditions* inland into the Hottentot country, with tobacco, copper and iron rings and false pearls, with which they barter horses, which are as small as those in Norway [Zebras or Quaggas; but never bartered], cattle, and sheep. These sheep are as large as one of our one-year-old cows, with broad rumps and very short rumps [‘Rumpen’ twice]. The Hottentots at times sell such a sheep for a piece of tobacco as long as a finger. But it is noteworthy, that no merchant or soldier may trade* with these Hottentots on pain of severe punishment, but the Company wishes to have the profit for itself, and sells such a sheep for 8 gulden.

I went ashore every day to see how things were at the Cabo, and saw there various beasts which I had never seen previously. Here in Africa all sorts of beasts are found: lions, leopards, tigers, black-furred bears [sic], foxes, wild horses with black and white stripes which run like a mottling over the whole body [Zebras], and the legs of which are as thin as those of a roedeer. Sea-horses, otherwise called Hippopotamos, are found in the Taffel Bay as in the river Nilo. These have cloven hoofs like an ox [‘Aabne Klaer’, which Visscher translates as ‘very short legs’], a short and blunt tail, long and narrow teeth, the head of an ox with long moustaches: they sometimes come on land and eat the grass that grows on the shore. They are full of oil, which is smeared on against swellings, causing them to disappear: their teeth are good against toothache, if the teeth are rubbed

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[? ‘sticker’] with them: their blood is used by painters in the East-Indies as colouring [‘farve’].

Baboons are also found here, which are as large as pigs but in shape are like apes. Towards evening these Bavianen assemble in great numbers, and themselves make fire with two stones [!], and haul in wood to their fire, and make a hubbub as was told for the Hottentots, so that the lions may not attack them.

The animal Rhinoster or Rhinoceros is also found here, as also is found in India in Bengala and Patana. It is of a dark blue colour, though somewhat whitish, is 5 ells high and 4 ells long, and has quite short legs: its snout resembles that of a pig, and it has a crooked horn on the nose, 1 ell long. Some have white horns and some black horns (during my return journey I bought 4 of each sort at the Cabo bonae Spei, paying 2 rixdollars for each, which the English took from me [in item 31]). They have also another crooked horn on the neck, half an ell long, and from its back to its legs it has as it were hard scales [sic], just as if they had been fixed to it, and has so sharp a tongue that it can devour a man with legs and all [re-sic]. Its appearance is that of the picture [Titlepage, Plate 23]. This beast is the chief enemy of the elephant [a stock yarn], and when he will attack it he sharpens his horn on a stone, and runs between the legs of the elephant and thrusts his horn into its belly, since the elephant has thin skin under its belly. But should he fail in this, the elephant beats him to death with its long trunk and tears him in pieces with its long tusks. Everything that is found in his body is used as medicine in the Indies.

There are various opinions regarding the questions whether this animal is the Unicorn, as it is called, since one cannot find the unicorn in the shape depicted by some, and it is argued that it in no way resembles that form, since these show it like a horse, with the horn in the forehead. Some assert, that the roedeer found at the Cabo de bona Esperanca are the unicorns, since some of them have on the forehead horns 2 ells long, and others have horns of 1 ell, some have white horns and some have black horns, and these horns grow in knots like a Japanese cane [‘Kiepper of Ror’], or others look as if they had been twisted.

Elephants are also found here, which are the largest land-animals anywhere in the world: they are also to be seen in Java Majori in the East-Indies. [Elephants there, and their use in war.]

Ostriches are also to be found here, as in the land of the Moors. They are so tall that when they raise their head in the air their head comes higher than that of a tall man on horseback. Each of the paces they take is 18 feet long when they are running at their slowest speed. They cannot fly high in the air. Their claws are like the hooves of deer: when anyone chases them they are so clever, that they can take up a stone in their claws and throw it at their pursuer [sic], so that he must take to flight. It has been written, that they eat steel and iron, but I threw such to them and they would take no notice of it; but they eat stones. The greatest profit from them is from their eggs and feathers: the egg-shells are used as drinking-bowls, and the feathers as plumes. [List of biblical

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references to ostriches.]

The ostrich found in China is entirely different: it is as tall as the African ostrich but has more slender legs, and carries its feathers on its head and not on its back like these. Hence it is easier to catch than those here. Its eggs are as large as those of the other [in Africa], but are yellow whereas those are white.

At the Cabo a sort of bird is also found, called Pingvin, thus named, not because they are fat, but because of their white heads: they are black on the back, their bellies are white, and they have a white ring around the neck. The skin is as thick as that of a pig, the beak is as large as that of a raven, the neck short and thick, the body as large as a goose; instead of wings they have some little winglets hanging down, with which they can swim. Many of them are found in the water, and when they come

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[23a] Specimen page from Bollings Oost-Indiske Reise-bog

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[24] Map of the Cabo de Bona Esperanca and the situation around it From item 25. For the canal-line see in item 26: Nieuhoff does not mention the survey, nor the inland expedition shown. The captions in translation read: Hout Bay. Walvis Rock, ‘blows like a whale because it is hollow.’ Robben Island. Bosbergen, ‘unclimable [? Grootklip in Twelve Apostles]. Berg Valley, ‘good pasturage’. Wintberg [Devils Peak]. Table Mountain. Dassen Island. Hout Valley [? valley of Goede Hoop River]. Lion Hill. Salt River. Steenbergen, ‘om te sluyten’ [?]. ‘Land unsuitable for agriculture.’ Hollandse Rietbeek [Liesbeek River]. Fort. ‘Good land’. Table Bay. ‘The land between both bays.’ ‘Allotted lands.’ ‘Line to be dug through [for proposed canal]. Salt-pan [Riet Vlei]. ‘Bay Tafel’ [error for Bay Vals, False Bay]. ‘Unsuitable land’. ‘Dunes’. ‘Rock’ [Seal Island]. Leopard Hills [Tygerbergen, Tierbergen]. ‘Route of journey made inland by our people’. ‘Unsuitable land’. Saddle Hill [? Riebeeks Castle]. In the cartouche: Wind Hill [Devils Peak], Table Mountain, Lion Hill. Scale of Dutch/English or French miles* [giving 5 Dutch = 4 English].

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on land it is always in threes and fours. Their legs are black and like those of a goose, and they walk erect. They are quite tasty to eat, and although they eat nothing but fish they do not at all taste of these [contradicted by other writers]. In an hour one can catch 100 of them, so numerous are they. They are easily caught because they cannot fly.

Besides these a sea-cow [Elephant-Seal] can be seen in the slaughterhouse, stuffed with hay [see Museum*], which was caught alive, and much oil was got from it. It had two large teeth in its mouth, short legs, and the skin looked like a sail.

[Description of dragons, chiefly from early writers and the classics ‘although many think, that no dragons exist’; and of the Cassowary of Banda, with its picture on the title-page, Plate 23].

All sorts of other beasts and fishes are also to be found there, of which some hang in the entrance-hall of the Governor's residence, all stuffed with hay [see Museum*], with which I will not however detain the kind reader, but will return to the completion of my voyage. Thus, when our ship had taken in the necessary stores, I went back to sea.

On April 1 [dr] we left the Cabo bonae Spei and continued our journey to Batavia.... [April 13 ‘we saw the island called the Terra de Natall’. April 16-18 at Madagascar. June 7 Batavia, and in garrison there until 1671.]