XXXII. H. Cloete to Swellengrebel
News from the Cape
May the 1st, 1786. The residence and three storehouses of the elderly Mr. A. van Schoor have been sold by public auction to the wine merchant Van den Berg, former chief surgeon on one of the Company's ships. He bought them for f107 250:-:-
The government has seen fit to create a new district in the Camdebo, called Graaff Reinet. Morits Herman Otto Woeke has been appointed landdrost and Frederik Wagenar secretary. They had been sent on the 20th of January to choose a suitable site for the drostdy and returned on the 4th of May. (Wagenar, a relative by marriage, stayed with us after your departure for four years as instructor.) He told me that they chose a site for the Drostdy near the source of the Sundays River on a farm which belonged to Dirk Coetsé on the Camdeboo. Wagenaar informed me that the inhabitants were very pleased and have contributed f18 000 towards the Drostdy. This sum was collected amongst about half of the inhabitants of the district. Probably about f15 000 will be raised. I asked Wagener where the boundaries of the district should be. He thought that the Gamka should be the boundary between the new district and Stellenbosch and the Gamtoos between Graaff Reinet and Swellendam.
May the 8th. The widow Mostert of Koeberg has sold by auction 30 muids of wheat for 112 to 113 Rds. for a load of 10 muid; and barley for 87 Rds. a load.
A little more than a year ago, an English ship, the Pigot, anchored near the mouth of the Kromme River. After several days ashore to recover from scurvy, the Pigot then left with a healthy crew, leaving Col. William Dalrymple (said to be a famous engineer) and some ladies to travel overland to the Cape, on the pretext that the ladies were unable to endure the sea voyage.
N.B. Now that attention has been drawn to this part of the colony the governor has sent a sergeant and a number of carpenters to build huts for a military detachment, presumably to protect the bay against a sudden attack.
May the 15th. Three groups of delegates have been sent from the Council of Justice to make a survey of the wheat harvest. Some went to False Bay, others to the Eerste River and a third group by way of the Koeberg to Roode Sand etc. etc. And precisely on the 15th when all the ships had departed export was forbidden on penalty of corporal punishment.
The delegates have obtained 1 000 muid wheat.
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