Briefwisseling oor Kaapse sake 1778-1792

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XXIX Swellengrebel to J.E. Huydecoper van Maarseveen
(April 1784)

Thank you for communicating to me this Resolution (which I return), Opinion and Draft Instruction. I shall do my best to meet your request. I wish I could convince others of my lack of prejudice, particularly as, in my view, a false step in the present situation in the Colony may be fatal to its welfare and to that of the mother-country.

I have often heard its fertility denied, and I understand that young Serrurier has given unfavourable reports. But, in judging what weight must be given to reports, one must bear in mind that the interests of the officials and the burghers are not the same. The officials benefit when the Company's establishment is large, i.e. from maintaining the present position of a Company trade monopoly. The colonists would benefit from lack of restrictions of the market for their produce; and this could result in the abolition of various administrative and supervisory posts.

A casual glance at the lands as they are cultivated today is not enough; one must go more deeply into how they are cultivated, and if with sufficient skill and application. What might be expected of lands in other parts of the world, were they farmed no better than these? Moreover, in investigating how far the Cape Colony would be able to produce enough grain and other produce to sustain a worth-while trade, what is now cultivated is limited by costs of waggon transport, yet there are ample territories lying along the South Coast now used only for pasture.

It may be agreed that, if these pastures were brought under the plough, there would not be enough pasturage left for the livestock. At present the Company concludes its contracts for the supply of meat at a low price. Yet the animals must be driven 20 to 40 days' journey to Cape Town. Transport by sea would prove cheaper. Even if the Company had to pay more for its meat, this would be more than offset by the wider cultivation of products upon which tithes are levied.

Another objection has been put to me, viz. that the fierce south-east winds make such navigation impossible. People seem to have reasoned on the basis of what is experienced in the neighbourhood of Cape Town. In my journey, in December at the height of the south-easter season, I did not notice that the wind blew more strongly from the south-east than from other quarters. It is also said that there are no good harbours along that coast. The same was said of Hout Bay - yet, since my return, it has been found that 5 or 6 ships can be moored there.

The Company's servants are too tied to their posts to gain much

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acquaintance with agricultural conditions much beyond the foothills. Two knowledgeable sea-faring men ought to be stationed for a whole year at two different points on the coast to observe the prevailing winds, and how strong they are, and how safe the coast is.

Even admitting that the Cape Colony has limited agricultural possibilities, it becomes still more necessary for the Company to have a policy in respect of its inhabitants. There is no shipping or manufacture to provide employment. If a belief in the fertility of the land is so faulty, is it also the case that the fertility of its people is very moderate?

‘Those who - unlike the Company's servants - have seen at close quarters these descendants of fine European forebears, and have observed their manner of life, can only regard it as pitiful. Their forefathers were induced by promises to people the Colony and provide the Company with fresh produce. Now that the Company's need for provisions is amply met, they are left to take up a wild herdsman's life in the veld. There a farmer, himself of staitened means, can provide no more to set his child up in life than a waggon with a span of oxen, with which to go out into the veld and make shift along with Hottentots. What race of men will eventually emerge?’

Van Plettenberg made a tour through the faraway districts; but he travelled as Governor and saw everybody in his Sunday suit. He thought they would be happier if they were less quarrelsome! But are not the misunderstandings between them the natural consequences of life as herdsmen in the wild veld?

The Company would gain by abolishing the farms - buitenposten - run directly as Company establishments, and buying from the colonists the produce which these buitenposten are supposed to provide. As a result there would be fewer grounds for complaints. If the Governor's salary were raised to Rds. 10 000 which is approximately his present total from salary and perquisites combined, this could be done.

That the Governor's instructions are known at the Cape can have a calming influence; yet I doubt whether it will eliminate distrust, especially when more troops are stationed there, when their own complaints are rejected and those complained of are honoured; and when a military Governor is appointed.

The best source of information would be through a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and, as far as possible, neutral correspondent. But, from what I have said earlier, such a person is hardly to be found when people unconnected with either Company's servants or with the colonists are held to be biassed.