Cape Good Hope 1652-1702

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104 Abraham Bogaert
(Plates 64 & 65)

Translated from his ‘Historische Reizen door d'oostersche Deelen van Asia ...’, Amsterdam 1711. He tells nothing of his earlier life - his use of dialect words suggests that he was from South Holland or Flanders - starting right away with ‘Only 4 months after my return from the Indies to Holland, I resolved to go there again, despite the pleadings of my mother and my wife; and signed on for the third time, as Upper-Surgeon with the Amsterdam Chamber*.’ On December 15, 1701 he embarked at Texel in Vosmaar, sailing on December 21 with 8 other ships (Hague codex 4390 A, folio 14). Storm-damage forced his ship to put in for repairs at Plymouth (DR 26/7), which he describes, sailing again on April 26. Tenerife Peak sighted, ‘considered the highest in the world’.

... Soon we saw this so longed-for promontory, and on July the twenty-sixth [1702: dr 26/7] anchored in the spacious Table Bay, where at this time we found no other ships at anchor.

This southermost cape of Africa [sic] ... lies on 34 degrees and 30 minutes of south latitude, and was now trodden by me for the fifth time. When one arrives from Europe and first sights it, it looks like a long chain of hills stretching from North to South and ending in a point; and as one comes nearer lies in the form of a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a very narrow stretch of land between two bays, and including various steep and very high hills.

One of these is called the Table Mountain, because its top is very flat, not ill resembling a table, and lies an hour from the shore, to the south of two rivers, one called the Fresh, the other the Salt River. It is truly high, and difficult to climb because of its unusual steepness. At my first coming here my youth and curiosity pricked me to undertake its ascent with three companions, and after much toil I reached my goal on the top. We took the usual route, near the Salt River climbing up a gorge [Platteklip Gorge], which at first because of our zeal seemed pretty easy; but later we had much toil and no little danger, since at various points we must hold on with our hands. On the way we saw mighty fragments torn off from the rock by the fierce winds or the raging thunder: at times a very unpleasant precipice, then again valleys beset with thick jungles and horrible caves which gave the wild beasts convenient hiding-places. When we were come half-way up the path became not only narrower but steeper, for which reason we must continually use our hands to grasp the undergrowth; and my zeal began to slacken, especially when at moments I looked down along the slope below me, which was a terrifying sight. When at last we came to the topmost gorge, finding it richly grown with grass, our courage rose

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again; but now the path became even worse, with precipices rising on both sides, looking like overhanging walls. So we went on, and reached the top about noon, having set out in the morning: now our first task, to which overpowering thirst pressed us, was to seek for the large lake, rich in fish, which we had been assured we should find. But we found nothing of the sort, only pools in the flat rocks with which this area is floored, and in them clear water which we found unusually pleasant of taste, whether because this was truly the case or because the mighty thirst we suffered made us think so. It is in my opinion not far from the truth to suppose, that this water comes from the abundant moisture of the thick clouds which so often cover this hill.

After taking a frugal but pleasant midday meal in the grass on the top of the hill, we walked around the flat, which we found unusually level, and grown almost everywhere with long grass and plants unknown to us. We found nothing but the aforesaid pools of water, except, not far from the path by which we had come up, a bare rock on which some letters were engraved. When I turned my eyes to the mountains around us I was astonished to see how high we had come, since now they looked like little hills. The high Lion Hill seemed to be but a plain; and I could barely see the Dutch Castle, although the weather was unusually clear, and even less could distinguish the ships in the road, which appeared only as separate dots to my eye. But to look down at the path by which we had climbed the hill was terrifying, since it now appeared like a steeply-rising wall, along which we looked down into a dangerous abyss. We had passed fully two hours in looking around before we decided to go down again by the same path which we had taken in our ascent; but in many places this was hardly possible, and often we were forced to let ourselves slide down sitting, and grasp the bush with our hands to secure ourselves. About halfway, where the path seemed easier, we came upon the apparently fresh dung of wild beasts, which made our hearts flutter, and pressed us to hasten out of these horrible places, the more so that the sun now began to leave us: the snakes which we had seen here and there caused us less fear than the thought of the lions and tigers which dwelt here plentifully in the thick scrub and horrid caves. And indeed, I had never before learned how fright can be such a powerful goad to make one endure all hardships, since we cared nothing for the sharp rocks, grasped at stinging nettles, and falling and rising again made such speed that at last at dusk we came to the plain, and so with tired-out limbs to our lodging.

Not far from this hill to the west lies the Lion Hill, on the top of which I often walked. It is thus named because of the quantity of lions that are accustomed to dwell there, or because from far off it does not ill resemble the shape of a lying lion, of which the tail forms the west shore of the Table Bay. Its top, called the Lion's Head, is unusually rough and steep, and in overcast weather reaches into the clouds. It boasts a strong flagstaff, beside which stand a little hut and a cannon, a soldier being set on guard there to watch for the coming of ships; and as soon as he gets sight of them he hoists the flag, and fires so many times as there are ships in sight, the sentry at the Castle having orders to watch for this and send one of the guard to advise the Administrator. The same is

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done also from the Lion's Rump, which is grown over with luxuriant grass and a few trees; and the colour of the flags is changed each year, and advice given of this by the Administrator to the Government at Batavia. This hands over sealed letters to those in charge of the return-fleets, with orders not to open them until they sight the Cape, so that they can then steer for it without fear, on seeing the correct signal.

The Bay, adorned by Spilbergen with the name of Table Bay, is fully four miles around, and is covered by a chain of very high hills on almost all sides from the blustering winds, except those that blow from the north-west, since in that direction is the opening, almost two miles wide, into which the whole ocean can roll, making not only a dangerous sea but also a terrible surf near the Salt River, so that ships are torn from their anchors and smashed against the rocks, disasters which more than once have afflicted the Company. This opening has as its limits, to the west the tail of the Lion Hill, to the north the bases of the hills which join the Tiger Hill; and the bay is dangerous from this latter cape to the Salt River not far from the hills, because of hidden reefs and rocks: further in and towards the Table Bay it is safe and has good holding-ground. A little in front of this opening there lies a low and sandy island called Robben Island, because of the quantity of seals that bask in the rays of the sun there. It is rich in rabbits, and is the terror of mutineers and evildoers who are banished there and are forced to collect the shells from the shore, from which lime is burned.

The Dutch Fort*, built by Governor Ysbrant Goskens at the foot of the Table Mountain, was founded to keep the bay clear of enemy ships, and to protect the settlements of the Europeans inland from natives and other enemies. It has four [sic] bastions built of heavy stone and armed with large cannon, which for the most part are of metal*. Its gateway, ornamentally carved from yellow bricks, looks towards the west and the town. Within it the Governor has a noble residence, as also the Secunde*, the Commander of the troops, and other senior Servants of the Company, this being two stories high, and roofed with a flat of large stones, made safe all around with railings and giving an exceptional view. I make no mention of the magazines and storehouses, in which are kept all that appertains to the defence of the Castle, and a great treasure of goods.

The town*, lying a good musket*-shot to the west of the Castle, stretches from the sea to the Table Mountain, and at the back touches the outermost slopes of the Lion Hill. It has wonderfully increased the number of its houses since the Company chose this place for a settlement, beginning in the year 1653 [sic]. All are built of stone, and few are higher than one storey because of the mighty force of the winds that blow there, for which reason also they are roofed with thatch. They look very well from far off because of the snow-white lime with which they are plastered outside, and many shine with Dutch neatness; but none more attract the eye of the observer than those of the Fiscaal* Joan Blezius, and of the Burgerraad* Henning Huizing, both finely built and higher than all the others. It now boasts of a Church*, built in the Dutch fashion and adorned with a fair-sized tower, in which on Sundays the Word of Truth is preached [sic: not until 1704]. It is set in a large cemetery surrounded by a stone wall.

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Not far from there is the Company's Garden*, founded so that there should always be a storehouse of all sorts of refreshments for the outward- or homeward-bound ships. It covers in all, I was told, fifteen morgen* of land: I found it to be 1430-odd ordinary paces long and some 240 wide. It is cut through by many avenues, and divided into separate squares surrounded by high and thick hedges of laurel, which shelter the plants from the strong winds. In some of these squares are found the plants of Asia, in others those of Africa and America, and those of Europe are grown in many. The central avenue, of which one can scarcely see the end, is entirely planted with citrus-trees, between which roses emit their pleasant smell and attract the eye of the observer when they are in bloom. A stream of sweet and clear water flows down from the hills and runs through the garden in various artificial channels, which waters the soil continually and cause the plants to grow luxuriantly. And nothing would lack here for the sick, if the things to which they are entitled were properly issued; but here also is to be found that plague which is common to almost all the Governments of the Indies, in that the greenstuff which is supplied to the ships from here and from a still larger garden [Rondebosch] of the Company, is often so paltry that it might well blush for itself. It is mostly green cabbage leaves, except for a little better greenstuff which those of the Cajuit* get, although to be reasonably well provided with it they must make a friend of the Gardener, at the cost of the Company. The greatest good that the Servants of the Company obtain from it is the freedom to walk in it, which does much to restore their worn-out strength when they land here after a long journey, since the eye, if not the tongue, may taste all that it pleases.

At the entrance of this Garden stands a large building, where the slaves of the Company live, of whom the number at times runs well into five hundred, part of them working in this Garden, part at other tasks. Not far from there, and just opposite the Church, is the new Hospital*, which is tolerably extensive and properly provided with beds and cribs for the sufferers. Its main gable boasts of this Latin verse by Heer Daniel Heinsius:

Excipit Hospitio fractos, morbisque, viisque
Haec domus, & medicam larga ministrat opem
Belga, tuum nomen, populus fatale domandis
Horreat, & leges Africa terra tuas.

The Cape not only boasts of the thus-named Town, but has also about ten miles* to the east a fine town called Stellenbosch. The noble valleys of this place grown with healthful grass and herbs, its lovely fresh rivers, and the luxuriant richness of its soil, induced and pressed Adriaan [sic] van der Stel, then Governor of the Cape, to establish here a new settlement, which had its beginning in the year 1681 [sic], consisting at first of eighty-two [sic] families. But it is incredible how by the zeal of the Dutch this place has grown with fine dwellings, and how great a treasure of wine and grain is grown there

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every year, whereof the Company takes the tenth part.... This fruitfulness depends on the very temperate climate in which this region lies, since neither heat nor cold are great there, the air is always clear and temperate, things which are exceptionally helpful to good health, and can be enjoyed there to one's full content. The Spring begins there with October and ends in December; January, February and March make up the Summer; April, May and June the Autumn; July, August and September the Winter. In the Autumn the strongest and fiercest winds blow there from the south, and then there is mist, and sometimes snow, and at times frost which wrinkles the water in the pools. At times the squalls come down so strongly over the hills as if they would tear everything above ground to shreds; and then the billows rise, whipped by this fierce wind, and make navigation dangerous. The clouds pour down mighty floods in the Winter, as if poured from jars, which entirely cover the whole of the lowland; but it again raises its green crest unscathed, and grants to its cultivators an abundance of fruits.

The soil around the Cape in the flats, and further inland, is in many places exceptionally good for cultivation and the growing of all sorts of crops: the bases and tops of the hills are in some places rocky, in others shelly, in others sandy. A considerable quantity of bush is found, but hard and knotty, good for nothing but firewood. Far inland the forests produce mighty timber, of which Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel made wonderful use in the building of his magnificent farm called Vergelegen, of which the extent greatly strikes the eye.

In the valleys and flats, as also on the hills, there grow of themselves an endless quantity of rare plants and herbs.... The tree- and ground-fruits planted there by the Dutch grow luxuriantly, and seem to be in their own element there. There are many sorts of apples and pears, pomegranates, oranges, limes, lemons, chestnuts, apricots, peaches, quinces and other fruit trees. Currants will grow and bloom there, but not produce fruits. An enormous quantity of red and white grapes is cut, from which an abundance of good wine is pressed. The cereals grow so luxuriantly there, that I was assured that wheat-stalks are found with over 160 ears. Pulses and other potherbs flourish no less well, such as cabbages, carrots, turnips, beets, and especially cauliflowers, which are salted by whole caskfulls and sent to many places of the Indies.... But in spite of the fruitfulness of Dutch plants in African soil, especially the tree-fruits, it must be noted that they keep their shape but lose much of their taste and juiciness. The peach lacks there its rosy and scarlet colours and tongue-tickling juice, and seems to languish as if under the rod of a harsh stepmother. The astringency of the quinces, their true property, is altered to a sweet mellowness. The savour of the apples and pears, which to a great extent retain their colour, seems flown away, and the fruits look better than they taste....

The country is rich in fierce lions, which appear from their hiding-places in the dark of the moon and prowl for prey even close about the houses. The damages done to men and tame beasts by spotted tigers and devouring wolves are terrible. There are elephants there, rhinoceroses, leopards, porcupines, wild horses and asses of unusual beauty,

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bush-cats, and jackals, beasts not unlike foxes which because of their keen scent is used by the lion as its spy, to smell out carrion for him. The grass- and bush-rich valleys feed many wild cows, roebuck-calves and deer, which sometimes flock together in great herds of hundreds together. There are also steenbucks, hares, rabbits and red-haired steendassen, which are unusually slow in running but not unpleasant in taste. A certain beast is also found there which has two horns of the same length on its nose, as the rhinoceros has one. It is as large as an average elephant, and in tail and feet well resembles that animal. The ears are erect and round, and its skin has short mouse-grey hair, except for the neck which boasts a small bunch of black hair. The horses mentioned above are unusually small of head, and very long-eared. Their whole hide is covered with white and black stripes from above downwards, to the width of four fingers, giving a pleasant variation [Zebra]. No less unusual are asses whose hide is of many colours [Quagga]. A wide blue stripe runs over the back from head to tail: the rest of the marking consists of wide bands, one being yellow, or green, blue, black, white and all such lively colours, at the strangeness of which I often marvelled when admiring their stripped-off hides.

The tame beasts are in great numbers everywhere, such as oxen, cows, calves and sheep. The oxen are fine, fleshy and wide-bodied, and taller than those in Holland, but not fat. Their horns are long and crooked, and some are found whose horns lie flat to the body. With these beasts the earth is plowed. They go eight together before one farmwaggon, and can carry a suitable load for a long distance. The sheep there are without wool, large and short-legged, and covered with a red-haired skin like goats, though considerably larger than these. Their tails are long and wide, and nothing but fat, some being found which weight twenty pounds. Their meat is rank, but when they are bred with Dutch sheep the progeny are much more tender, and the tallow of the latter [?: ‘d'ongeligheid, waar van de laaste veel nood hebben’] seems then to be changed to a pleasant fat.

The sea produces a quantity of creatures, such as sea-horses of a horrible shape and size, sea-pigs, sea-cats, sea-cows, and seals, by some called sea-bears. The sea-cows are of the size of a rhinoceros. They are short but wide-bodied, and for that reason their belly hangs very low. They have two short ears on the head, and two teeth in the mouth which stick out forwards in the same manner as do those of the elephant. They not only make use of the sea, but also at times go ashore to graze; and their flesh is pleasant and good to eat, and was often enjoyed by me, though always smoked. The sea-bears are fierce-looking, and bite viciously: they are bold and tireless, somewhat sharp-snouted, with jet-black hair, and lame in the hind-legs. Nevertheless they run so swiftly, in spite of having to drag their hind feet, that an agile man finds it hard to keep up with them on land, since they also make use of this, to bask in the rays of the sun. The land- and seatortoises should also be mentioned here, which are found in great quantities.

Many sorts of large and small birds are found here, such as cormorants, blackfeathered, about the size of geese; also yellow-billed hill-ducks, pintail ducks, shovellerducks, wigeons, pheasants, four sorts of partridges, wood- and water-snipes, red geese,

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quails, larks, canaries, and many sorts of sparrows. There are also reed-birds with red legs and beaks, white and black herons, white spoonbills, not large of body and with very crooked necks, peacocks, cranes, various sorts of hawks, magpies, ravens, and also ostriches. On the islands lying around there are endless quantities of white and speckled gulls, white pelicans, Cape-birds, Jan van Gents, and others to which the Portuguese gave the name of Gavoitoyns, Faysons, Mangas de Velludo, Garagiaus and Alkatraces, all with unusual plumage. Also on my second journey I saw on Dassen Island a certain bird called pinguyns. These are somewhat smaller than geese, black and white in colour, short but with thick plumage, hard-skinned, sharp in biting and diving, and shortwinged, so that they cannot fly. To make up for that disadvantage compassionate Nature has given them a leathery fin on each foot with which they can swim, but their walk on land looks clumsy and they are readily overtaken. They lay their eggs in the scrub in holes scratched in the sand, rarely more than four in number, of the size of goose-eggs and white, which they brood and defend with great pertinacity.

Also the meadows and woods produce many sorts of insects, of which nearly all have unusual and lovely colours, so that they are put in cabinets as great treasures by the lovers of rarities in Holland. There are also bees, which make their honey and wax in the hollow stems of trees.

I come now to the fish, which are caught in great quantity in the Table Bay and the so-called Fish Bay, as also in the Soldanha Bay lying about eighteen miles northwest of the Cape. There are scaly mullets, shad, bream, sandkruipers, a sort of flatfish called Huigen by some, klip-fish, large and small crayfish, and various others. Large and small oysters are also found on the rocks of the Table Bay, in which at times pearls are discovered; also large mussels, and a little to seawards fine soles.

All the usual inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope, and those who have their abodes or villages far inland, are called by the Dutch ‘Hottentots’ because of their clicking and clumsy speech [see Hottentots, Name*], which has also been adopted for themselves by those who usually dwell at the Cape. These people are divided into various tribes, all having their own customs and manners of living. In their own tongue they have the names of Sonquas, Namaquas, Gorachouquas, Cochoquas, Kariguriquas, Heuzaquas, Chainouquas, and so on.

The Sonquas, who are unusually bold, strong, and agile, excel all the others in the use of the assagayen, a certain sort of throwing-spear, and in the use of bows and arrows, for which reason they go to serve as soldiers with the other nations, which always have Sonquas in service besides their own soldiers. And these are they who at certain times collect the honey made by the bees in the hollows of trees and rocks.

The Namaquas, lying fully eighty miles east-north-east of the Cape and far inland, are under a King or Chief, and are all of a very heavy and high stature. They are modest in their ways, slow and brief in their replies, and laughter seems something rare among them, although solemnity is not found among their women.

The Gorachouquas are known to us and the Africans as thieves. The Cochoquas,

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who are also called Saldanhars because they live near the Saldanha Bay, at one time excelled by their richness in cattle, of which the number was reckoned at fully a hundred thousand oxen and twice that number of sheep. The Kariguriquas [Griquas*], also called Hosaas [? error for Sousas*; but these were the Chainouquas] and divided into ‘Great’ and ‘Little’, are neighbours of the Cochoquas, and subsist from their cattle, having their villages in the valleys around there. The Heuzaquas dwell very far inland, northwestward from the Cape, and are the only ones who live from the cultivation of the Dacha root, which they not only eat but also drink mixed with water, and which has the power of causing the mind to wander. The Chainouquas are not many in numbers, but rich in cattle, and at one time dwelt near the region of the Cape, but later retired so far inland that no one now knows where they have settled.

The Hottentots who live at or near the Cape are of a moderate stature, rather slim than fat, and brown in colour, although some are also found who tend to yellowish. Their hair is short and curly, like lambswool, the forehead pretty wide but wrinkled. The eyes are black, piercing and clear, the nose flat, the lips thick, especially the lower lip which projects forward and upwards. The mouth is of a proportionate size, the teeth rival ivory for whiteness, and bite strongly. The neck is pretty long, the shoulders are narrow, the arms sinewy and slim at the wrists, the hands well-shaped, with longish fingers, of which they let the nails grow to an unusual length, which they consider as an ornament. They are very flat-bellied, and their buttocks stick out, since the body is not kept in symmetry by any clothing. Moreover Nature has provided them with an unusually large rod [penis], but they have one testicle only, since the right one is pressed out in early youth, which they claim helps very greatly to the maintenance and increase of agility.

The women are smaller in stature, but with fine and slender legs. It is to be regretted that they are flat-nosed, since among them some are to be found who are so handsome of face that it is beyond belief, since their form is never damaged by measles or smallpox, things unknown to them. The breasts of the girls are not mis-shapen, but so soon as they have born a child the breasts swell to such a length that they can give suck over their shoulders to the children which they usually carry on their backs.

The clothing of the men is slovenly and repulsive. They all wear a sheepskin dressed with cowdung and a certain black fat of an unbearable stink, which hangs with the hair inwards over their shoulders like a cloak, down to the buttocks, being tied below the chin with something. This cloak consists of three parts, not badly sewn together with the sinews of animals for thread and using a sharp thorn as a needle. At night or when it rains they use a cap as head-covering, made from a lambskin with the wool inwards, and with a knot at the top. A piece of rhinoceros-hide serves them for shoes, which is fastened with two leather thongs crosswise over the back of the foot and a heel-band behind. The male organ is either hidden in a little bag made of the skin of a bush-cat, or is covered with a scrap of such a skin or that of a jackal, which is held in place by two little leather thongs above the buttocks, with downward-hanging ends.

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The women are attired in a similar cloak, turned with the wool inwards, but hanging much lower, as far as the calves. In addition they have a skin wound around the lower body and the buttocks, and a little square piece of animal skin to cover their pudenda. The head is covered with a high and wide cap, made from the skin of a seal, sheep or dassie, and held in place by a wide thong of sheepskin around the head. Their shoes are of the same material and shape as those of the men.

It is surprising that there is room for pride in their slovenliness: since for adornment both men and women grease their heads, faces and hands with the soot from cookingpots; or if this lacks, with a stinking black fat, by which smearing the hair of their heads is matted into little balls, on which they hang pieces of copper, coral [beads], glass, seashells [‘horentjes’] and such-like trifles. The men pluck out their chin-hair. The chief among them wear as ornaments large ivory rings above and below their elbows. If they are rich in cattle, both men and women smear the outsides of their cloaks to make them greasy and soft, an adornment which is also the ostentation of their Kings, Chiefs and nobles. These also hang on their necks chains of red and yellow copper, made by themselves, and set off their hands with rings of copper, a metal much prized by them. Some wear on their necks chains of little roots which they pluck up somewhere, considering them, when chewed and spat out, to have great power to shield them by night from the wild beasts, although they have neither smell nor taste. They also adorn their ears with large bunches of beads, their greatest ornaments and riches, bartered to them by our folk for cattle. The women roll around their legs the guts of wild beasts, or strips of small skins plaited together, which serve them as an ornament and protect them from the pricks of the sharp thorns, and serve also to increase their pleasure in dancing by their noise and rattling; and at times serve as a useful remedy for hunger, when they are attacked by famine. Further, they will never go out without a square leather bag, from the lower corners of which hang bunches of such-like tassels, this either hanging on their belly or their back, into which they cram in everything and which greatly hinders them in walking. Also they use a handkerchief, made from the tail of a wild cat drawn over a short stick, which they call Zou; and this they always have in their hand to wipe off the sweat, mucus, dust and sand, and to keep off the flies.

As weapons they use bows and arrows, with which they are pretty skilful, also stones which they throw and thus resist the enemy, and you would be astonished at the accuracy of their aim. They also use assegais, a sort of throwing-spear, thin, about five feet long, and mounted with a wide piece of iron, which is pointed and sharp at the front end, and they can wield these with a mighty force.

Their usual food is milk and the flesh of animals, without taking out the intestines. Seldom, however, do they kill an ox or a sheep for food, unless from sickness or old age or lameness it can no longer keep up with the herd. They seldom cook these, but like dogs fall on them and on all dead beasts, and gulp down the meat raw together with the intestines and the guts, after they have squeezed out the coarser part of the dung, or after roasting them on the fire for a little time. If such are lacking, they hunt seals and

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other oily sea-beasts, which they kill with clubs, or they seek for dead fish along the shores, or gather mussels, topshells, and abalones from the rocks. Also they gulp down much oil, and allay their hunger with pieces torn from their cloaks and roasted a little on the embers, in which that most well known of vermin, one of the Plagues of Egypt, happily graze, and are gnawed by them as a tasty game. They know almost nothing of greenstuffs, but they greatly enjoy certain small round roots*, about the size of earth-nuts [‘aart-ekelen*’], which the women daily dig out from the rivers and elsewhere, and which they boil or roast. They greatly like our bread and are very greedy for it. They gulp down honey with the wax and all.

Their drink is water, or if they are rich in cattle, the milk of these. But they are madly avid for wine and strong drinks, which at times they sit drinking to excess, and then do wonderful monkey-tricks: a greed which seems inherent in all the Negroes of Africa. They are no less avid for tobacco, which they obtain by begging it from newcomers, and for which they barter quantities of their best cattle.

They have no fixed dwelling-places, but like the Arabs live where they please in the plains and fields. There they set up their houses or huts, made of tree-branches bent crooked, set in a circle in the ground and covered with beast-skins or mats made from reeds. These are so low, that no fully-grown man can stand upright in them, and the entrance is so low that they must creep in on hands and knees. The fire is made in the centre of the tent, and the smoke must find its way out through the door; and the ‘apartments’ are nothing but hollows dug about two feet deep in the earth. The size [of the hut] is according to the size of the family which dwells in it, and can be judged from the fact that fully five families live in one hut which is not even eight Rhineland roods in circumference.

They trouble themselves little with arts or crafts. They only beat out old iron thrown away by us, with a hammer of stone on a stone anvil, to make points for their assegais; and they make reed mats to cover their dwellings, although those who are rich in cattle make use of the hides of these. Those who have no cattle earn their living by fishing, by bringing in brushwood from the hills to sell to the Europeans, whom also they serve in the houses or on the farms for a little bread or tobacco, but yet consider themselves no slaves but the lords of the land, since they do not demean themselves by ploughing the soil: they cultivate the estates of their land [? ‘zy de landeryen van hun land bebouwen’ - not understood]. Others subsist from their cattle, their only hope and trust in the Summer, but in Winter from the little roots of which we spoke above, which are then their nourishment. Their manner of milking the cows is unusual, since while one milks another blows into the rear of the beast, which they say greatly helps the flow of the milk, as is to be seen in the picture of the Cape of Good Hope [Plate 65].

All their riches and all their trade-goods consist of tame cattle, namely oxen and sheep which they barter to our folk for such goods as they most chiefly desire: these consist principally of iron, copper, beadwork, tobacco and brandy, things for which they are most particularly avid. And it has often been seen that these folk, in whom one judges

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no true soul to reside, show more honesty and less deceit and covetousness in their trading than folk of a more civilised nature, who boast themselves to be the namesakes and participants of that most perfect Person, in whose mouth never is to be found deceit, in whose heart never covetousness: so that they not unjustly have revenged themselves for the crying wrongs done to them, and this often to the detriment of the Company and of the guiltless.

As regards their religion, from close examination I have perceived that the saying of the Apostle Paul* is true of them, ‘that the Heathen who know not the Law, by nature do the things of the Law’. Since although they have only a very confused knowledge of God, they nevertheless pray to His Majesty, and to His honour kill cows and sheep, offering up with gratitude the flesh and milk of them, to show their thankfulness to a Godhead which they believe grants then rain, fine weather, and whatever they have need of. Moreover their love and loyalty to one another and their sympathy are fully as great as among Christians; and I must also mention that they punish adultery and theft with death as being capital offences. They however know of no Creation, no Redemption, nor anything of the holy Mystery which we with reverence call the Trinity. They are convinced that after death there shall be no other life, and for this reason have no care other than to pass this life in comfort. Furthermore, they show reverence for the New Moon, since as soon as this can be seen in the sky, whole troops of them turn their faces towards it, and greet its light with shouting and hand-clapping, and pass the whole night in leaping and dancing, and murmur something within their mouths. There exist also certain vain beliefs with which they are deceived, since they imagine themselves to be able to cause the rain to cease, and the wind to fall. If they desire to do the former, they lay in a dug-out hollow a little fire on a small chip of wood and throw on this some hair from their head; and as soon as the hair begins to smoulder they cover up the hollow with sand: on this they make water, and run off with a great cry. The calming of the wind is also an illusion, and has little unusual in it.

All the Hottentots come under Kings, or Chiefs, or Overlords who rule them, and these posts are hereditary and pass from father to son. The right of succession is to the eldest, and the other sons must have respect for him, since he alone is the true heir of his father, the younger ones having no inheritance but to serve their elder brother. These Chiefs have the power of life and death, and are obeyed without murmuring. Some nevertheless assert that the Sonquas cannot be included among these, but that they alone have no Chief, living like wild beasts.

If a youth is pricked by love to set his eye on a girl, and desires her for a wife, he speaks of this with his father, and after receiving permission speaks with the father and mother of the girl, to whom he sets forth his desire. If they agree with his request, the girl is bound to obey their orders, whether this husband pleases her or not. She then hangs a fat cow-gut around the neck of her suitor, to bind herself to him, and this hangs there until it is rotted away. The marriage then follows. Two of the fattest sheep are chosen from the whole village, and these are eaten, in part boiled, in part roasted, only

[p. 488-489]

[65] From item 104. For the Table Mountain ‘crater’ cf. plates 21, 53, 63. The Fort-tower and flag on it are erroneous, as also is the Church (?) in the town. Elephant-hunt in middle distance: in the foreground are milking, dancing, women musicians and lice-hunting.

[p. 490]

by the newly-married couple and their parents. Then the hides are cut in pieces, the hair is scraped off, and they are laid on the embers, and then pounded between stones, and eaten with gusto. Besides this wife he is allowed to take as many more as he can support; but no one is to be found, even among the rich, who has more than three. Their love also is constant, and there have been exemplary instances of true-heartedness: thus one widow, unable to console herself for the loss of her husband, from sorrow sprang into a blazing fire which had been kindled in a hollow. Others have dashed themselves to pieces from a rock for the same reason.

They also carry out punishments, and regulate these according to the gravity of the offence. If something of small value is stolen, the culprit is merely beaten with a stick by the Chief: if the theft is greater, so also is the punishment. Should anyone be caught who has stolen the cattle of another and again bartered this to someone else, the punishment is carried out as follows: he is left, with bound hands and feet, for twentyfour hours without food or drink. Then some of the elders ask the Chief, whether the punishment shall continue. He comes, with a great number of unarmed followers, to a place where a tree stands, and orders the culprit to be brought before him. Being come there, and having been bound to the tree, he is severely beaten from behind on his naked body: then he is turned round to face the Chief, and boiling resin is poured over him from neck to breast. He is then unbound and given food, and then again trussed up by hands and feet, and thus left without food for three days; and finally he is turned out from the village, as unworthy to be one of the tribe.

Adultery is often punished in the same manner, or at times with death; but for incest the punishment is even more severe, since if a father has intercourse with his daughter, a son with his mother, a brother with his sister, they thus incur this punishment - with one single cord the hands and feet of the man are pulled tight together, and he is tossed into a hollow together with the woman, where he is left until the next day. Then he is taken out, and set thus fettered under a tree, with his neck made fast to a strong branch which some men hold down by force. There he is dismembered limb by limb, after which, by letting loose the branch, his mangled body is carried up into the air and hangs there as a beacon for the warning of others. Then the woman is dragged to her punishment, being set in the centre of a circle composed of a large quantity of dry brushwood, and there burnt to ashes.

Murder is also punished by death, and the offence is considered the more heinous when it is committed by a person of standing, since they consider, that one who sentences others as a Judge, must serve as an example to others. Such a one is strangled at a tree, and thrown into the same grave with his victim. Men of lesser importance may atone for the offence with lesser punishments, at times with [the forfeiture of] cattle. Other offenders are put to death with long-lasting tortures.

These people hold freedom very much to heart, and are very jealous of it. They will obey no laws other than those of Nature. Their mutual love and tenderness is great, and their helpfulness no less. All that they get they divide with their companions, and keep

[p. 491]

the least part for themselves. Also they keep the law of Nations so unimpaired, that they can rival the most civilised peoples of Europe.

Furthermore, it has been seen that they are brave in battle as was experienced by Franciscus Almeida [story of 1510 massacres as in bvr].

The Hottentots usually reach a great age. If anyone is sick, he calls in the doctor, who opens his dorsal vein with a double-edged knife, and burns his arms with a red-hot iron which has a little knob in front, laying over the blisters a certain herb boiled in milk. If this does not suffice, and the sick man breathes his last, preparations are made for the burial. They dig out a deep hole, and in it place the dead man, in a sitting position, stripped of all his clothes and entirely naked, after which they shovel in the earth again, laying on the simple grave a great quantity of stones, so that no wild beast shall drag out the body from the grave or devour it.

The sick man, if he is rich in cattle, is not permitted to give away the very least thing on his deathbead, except to those to whom the inheritance is due. But those on whom the cattle devolves (whether from sister to sister, mother from grandmother, daughter from mother, since this applies only to females) are compelled to lose a joint of each little finger, and may take possession of the cattle only when they have sacrificed these. Also a woman whose husband has died, so often as she again marries another, must cut away that number of joints of her fingers, beginning with the little fingers. These are the principal matters of which I took note in my three journeys to the Cape of Good Hope, which place I do not purpose to describe again during my return passage....

We had lain for six days in the wide Table Bay when the ship Gein [dr Gend, 25/3] came from Holland to anchor near us....

After ten days we found ourselves in a state to continue our journey to Batavia with the gentle blessing of Heaven, since our watercasks were filled, our sick recovered, and all necessaries provided. So we raised anchor on the fourth of August [dr 8/8], and with happy spirits and favoured by a south-easterly breeze, we left this boisterous promontory of Africa, where however the winds seemed as if imprisoned during our stay....

Batavia, Bantam, Ceylon, Malabar, Bengal, Moluccas, Batavia, sailing thence in 1705 and touching at the Cape. This part of his book deals at length with the disputes between the colonists and W.A. van der Stel, in which he helped the former by taking home their memorial to the Lords XVII which led to the recall of the Governor.