THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM 1505 TO 1700.

CHAPTER XVII.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH.

Though the Dutch were soon in almost undisputed possession o£ the valuable Spice islands, they were never able to eject the Portuguese from the comparatively worthless coast of South-Eastern Africa. That coast would only have been an encumbrance to them, if they had secured it, for its commerce was never worth much more than the cost of its maintenance until the highlands of the interior were occupied by Europeans, and the terrible mortality caused by its malaria would have been a serious misfortune to them. It was out of their ocean highway too, for they steered across south of Madagascar, instead of keeping along the African shore. But they were drawn on by rumours of the gold which was to be had, and so they resolved to make themselves masters of Mozambique, and with that island of all the Portuguese 'possessions subordinate to it. In Lisbon their intentions were suspected, and in January 1601 the king issued instructions that Dom Alvaro d'Abranches, Nuno da Cunha's successor as captain of Mozambique, was on no account to absent himself from the island, as it might at any time be attacked by either the Turks or the Dutch.

On the 18th of December 1603 Steven van der Hagen left Holland for India with a strong armed fleet, consisting of the Vereenigde Provincien, Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Hoorn, and West Friesland, each of three hundred and fifty tons burden, the Gelderland and Zeelandia, each of two hundred and fifty tons, the Hof van Holland, of one hundred and eighty tons, the Delft and Enkhuizen, each of one hundred and fifty tons, the Medenblik, of one hundred and twenty-five tons, and a despatch boat named the Duifken, of thirty tons burden. In those days such a fleet was regarded as, and actually was, a very formidable force, for though there were no ships in it of the size of the great galleons of Spain and Portugal, each one was much less unwieldy, and had its artillery better placed. There were twelve hundred men on board, and the equipment cost no less than £184,947 6s. 8d.

Van der Hagen arrived before Mozambique on the 17th of June 1604. Fort Sao Sebastiao had not at the time its ordinary garrison of one hundred soldiers, owing to a disaster that had recently occurred. A great horde of barbarians, called the Cabires by the Portuguese, had entered the terri- tory of the monomotapa, and were laying it waste, so the captain Lourenco de Brito went to the assistance of the Kalanga chief, but was defeated and lost ten or twelve Portuguese and part of his stores. Sebastiao de Macedo was then in command at Mozambique. He sent a vessel with fifty soldiers to De Brito's assistance, but on the passage she was lost with all on board. None had yet arrived to replace them, but the resident inhabitants of the island had retired to the fort with everything of value that they could remove, so Van der Hagen considered it too strong to be attacked and therefore proceeded to blockade it. There was a carrack at anchor, waiting for some others from Lisbon to sail in company to Goa. The boats of the Dutch fleet cut her out, in spite of the heavy fire of the fort upon them. She had on board a quantity of ivory collected at Sofala and other places on the East African coast, but nothing else of much value.

On the 30th of June a small vessel from one of the factories, laden with rice and ivory, came running up to the island, and was too near to escape when she discovered her danger. She was turned into a tender, and named the Mozambique. Then, for five weeks, the blockade continued, without any noteworthy incident. On the 5th of August five pangayos arrived, laden with rice and millet, and were of course seized. Three days later Van der Hagen landed on the island with one hundred and fifty men, but found no sign of hunger, and saw that the prospect of the surrender of the fort was remote. He did no other damage than setting fire to a single house, and as night drew on he returned on board.

He was now anxious to proceed to India, so on the 12th of August he set fire to the captured carrack, and sailed, leaving the Delft, Enkhuizen, and Duifken, to wait for the ships expected from Lisbon. These vessels rejoined him, but without having made any prizes, before he attacked the Portuguese at Amboina and Tidor, and got possession of the Spice islands. In this manner the first siege of Mozambique was conducted, and failed.

1607] Second Siege of Mozambique.

The next attempt was in 1607. On the 29th of March of that year a Dutch fleet of eight large ships — the Banda, Bantam, Ceylon, Walcheren, Ter Veere, Zierikzee, China, and Patane, — carrying one thousand and sixty men, commanded by Paulus van Caerden, appeared before the island. The Portuguese historian of this event represents that the fortress was at the time badly in want of repair, that it was insufficiently provided with cannon, and that there were no artillerymen nor indeed regular soldiers of any branch of the service in it, its defence being undertaken by seventy male inhabitants of the town, who were the only persons on the island capable of bearing arms. But this statement does not agree either with the Dutch narrative or with the account given by Dos Santos, from which it appears that there were between soldiers and residents of the island one hundred and forty-five men in the fortress. It was commanded by an officer — Dom Estevao d'Ataide by name — who deserves a place among the bravest of his countrymen. He divided his force into four companies, to each of which he gave a bastion in charge. To one, under Martim Gomes de Carvalho, was committed the defence of the bastion Sao Joao, another, under Antonio Monteiro Corte Real, had a similar charge in the bastion Santo Antonio, the bastion Nossa Senhora was confided to the care of André de Alpoim de Brito, while the bastion Sao Gabriel, which was the one most exposed to assault on the land side and where the stoutest resistance would have to be made, was entrusted to the company under Diogo de Carvalho. The people of the town hastily took shelter within the fortress, carrying their most valuable effects with them.

Van Caerden, in the Banda, led the way right under the guns of Sao Sebastiao to the anchorage, where the Sofala packet and two carracks were lying. A heavy fire was opened on both sides, but, though the ships were slightly damaged, as the ramparts were of great height and the Portuguese guns could not be depressed to command the Dutch position thoroughly, no one except the master of the Ceylon was wounded. Two of the vessels at anchor were partly burned, but all were made prizes, after their crews had escaped to the shore.

On the 1st of April Van Caerden landed with seven hundred men and seven heavy guns, several of them twenty-eight-pounders, in order to lay siege to Fort Sao Sebastiao. The Portuguese set fire to the town, in order to prevent their enemy from getting possession of spoil, though in this object they were unsuccessful, as a heavy fall of rain extinguished the flames before much damage was done. The Dutch com- mander took possession of the abandoned buildings without opposition, and made the Dominican convent his headquarters, lodging his people in the best houses. He commenced at once making trenches in which the fortress could be approached by men under shelter from its fire, and on the 6th his first battery was completed. The blacks, excepting the able-bodied, being considered an encumbrance by both combatants, D'Ataide expelled those who were in the fort, and Van Caerden caused all who were within his reach to be transported to the mainland.

From the batteries, which were mere earthen mounds with level surfaces, protected on the exposed sides with boxes, casks, and bags filled with soil, a heavy fire was opened, by which the parapet of the bastion Santo Antonio was broken down, but it was repaired at night by the defenders, the women and others incapable of bearing arms giving assistance in this labour. The musketeers on the walls, in return, caused some loss to their opponents by shooting any who exposed themselves. The Portuguese historian makes special mention of one Dutch officer in a suit of white armour, who went about recklessly in full view, encouraging his men, "and apparently regardless of danger, until he was killed by a musket ball.

The trenches were at length within thirty paces of the bastion Sao Gabriel, and a battery was constructed there, which could not be injured by the cannon on the fortress owing to their great elevation, while from it the walls could be battered with twenty-eight pound shot as long as the artillerymen took care not to show themselves to the musketeers on the ramparts. The Dutch commander then proposed a parley, and D'Ataide having consented, he demanded the surrender of the fortress. He stated that the Portuguese could expect no assistance from either Europe or India, as the mother country was exhausted and the viceroy Dom Martim Affonso de Castro had been defeated in a naval engagement, besides which nearly all the strongholds of the East were lost to them. It would therefore be better to capitulate while it could be done in safety than to expose the lives of the garrison to the fury of men who would carry the place by storm. Further, even if the walls proved too massive for cannon, hunger must soon reduce the fortress, as there could not be more than three months' provisions in it. The Portuguese replied with taunts and bravado, and defied the besiegers to do their worst. They would have no other intercourse with rebels, they said, than that of arms.

During the night of the 17th some of the garrison made a sortie for the purpose of destroying a drawbridge, which they effected, and then retired, after having killed two men according to their own account, though only having wounded one according to the Dutch statement. A trench was now made close up to the wall of the bastion Sao Gabriel, and was covered with movable shields of timber of such thickness that they could not be destroyed by anything thrown upon them from the ramparts. During the night of the 29 th, however, the garrison made a second sortie, in which they killed five Hollanders and wounded many more, and on the following day they succeeded in destroying the wooden shields by fire.

In the meantime fever and dysentery had attacked Van Caerden's people, and the prospect was becoming gloomy in the extreme. The fire from the batteries and ships had not damaged the walls of the fortress below the parapet, and sickness was increasing so fast that the Dutch commander could not wait for famine to give him the prize. He therefore resolved to raise the siege, and on the 6th of May he removed his cannon.

War between nations of different creeds in those days was carried on in a merciless manner. On the 7th of May Van Caerden wrote to Captain d'Ataide that he intended to burn and destroy all the churches, convents, houses, and palm groves on the island and the buildings and plantations on the mainland, unless they were ransomed ; but offered to make terms if messengers were sent to him with that object. A truce was entered into for the purpose of correspondence, and six Hollanders dressed in Spanish costume went with a letter to the foot of the wall, where it was fastened to a string and drawn up. DAtaide declined the proposal, how- ever, and replied that he had no instructions from his superiors, nor intention of his own, except to do all that was possible with his weapons. He believed that if he ransomed the town on this occasion, he would only expose it to similar treatment every time a strong Dutch fleet should pass that way.

Van Caerden then burned all the boats, canoes, and houses, cut down all the cocoa-nut trees, sent a party of men to the mainland, who destroyed everything of value that they could reach there, and finally, just before embarking, he set fire to the Dominican convent and the church of Sao Gabriel. What was more to be deplored, adds the Portuguese historian Barbuda, "the perfidious heretics burned with abominable fury all the images that were in the churches, after which they treated them with a thousand barbarous indignities." The walls of the great church and of some other buildings were too massive to be destroyed by the flames, but everything that was combustible was utterly ruined.

On the morning of the 16th of May, before daylight, the Dutch fleet set sail. As the ships were passing Fort Sao Sebastiao every gun that could be got to bear was brought into use on both sides, when the Zierikzee had her tiller shot away, and ran aground. Her crew and the most valuable effects on board were rescued, however, by the boats of the rest of the fleet, though many men were wounded by the fire from the fort. The wreck was given to the flames.

In the second attempt to get possession of Mozambique the Dutch lost forty men, either killed by the enemy or carried off by fever, and they took many sick and wounded away. The Portuguese asserted that they had only thirteen men killed during the siege, and they magnified their slain opponents to over three hundred.

After Van Caerden sailed the Portuguese set about repairing the damage that had been done. In this they were assisted by the crews of three ships, under command of Dom Jeronymo Coutinho, that called on their way from Lisbon to Goa. The batteries were removed, the trenches were levelled, the walls of the ruined Dominican convent were broken down, and the fortress was repaired and provided with a good supply of food and munitions of war. Its garrison also was strengthened with one hundred soldiers landed from the ships. The inhabitants of the town returned to the ruins of their former habitations, and endeavoured to make new homes for themselves. These efforts to retrieve their disasters had hardly been made when the island was attacked by another and more formidable fleet.

1608] Third Siege of Mozambique.

It consisted of the ships Geunieerde Provintien, Hollandia, Amsterdam, Roode Leeuw met Pylen, Middelburg, Zeelandia, Delft, Rotterdam, Hoom, Arend, Paauw, Valk, and Griffioen, carrying in all between eighteen and nineteen hundred men, and was under the command of Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, an officer who had greatly distinguished himself after Admiral Heemskerk's death in the famous battle in Gibraltar Bay. Verhoeff left the Netherlands on the 22nd of December 1607, and after a long stay at the island of St. Helena where he waited for the westerly winds to take him past the Cape of Good Hope, on the 28th of July 1608 arrived at Mozambique. He was under the impression that Van Caerden had certainly obtained possession of the fortress, and his object was to lie in wait for Portuguese ships in the Channel ; but he was undeceived when his signals were answered with cannon balls and a flag of defiance was hoisted over the ramparts.

In the port were lying four coasting vessels and a carrack with a valuable cargo on board, ready to sail for Goa. In endeavouring to escape, the carrack ran aground under the guns of the fort, where the Dutch got possession of her, and made thirty-four of the crew prisoners. These were removed, but before much of the cargo could be got out the Portuguese from the fortress made a gallant dash, retook the carrack, and burned her to the water's edge. Two of the coasters were made prizes, the other two were in a position where they could not be attacked.

Within a few hours of his arrival Verhoeff landed a strong force, and formed a camp on the site of the destroyed Dominican convent. Next morning he commenced making trenches towards the fortress, by digging ditches and filling bags with earth, of which banks were then made. The Portuguese of the town had retired within the fortress in such haste that they were unable to remove any of their effects, and the blacks, as during the preceding siege, were now sent over to the mainland to be out of the way. Some of the ships were directed to cruise off the port, the others were anchored out of cannon range. A regular siege of the fortress was commenced.

In the mode of attack this siege differed little from that by Van Caerden, as trenches and batteries were made in the same manner and almost in the same places. But there were some incidents connected with it that deserve to be mentioned. At its commencement an accident occurred in the fortress, which nearly had disastrous consequences. A soldier, through carelessness, let a lighted fuse fall in a quantity of gunpowder, and by the explosion that resulted several men were killed and a fire was kindled which for a short time threatened the destruction of the storehouses, but which was extinguished before much harm was done.

On the second day after the batteries were in full working order the wall of the fortress between the bastions Santo Antonio and Sao Gabriel was partly broken down, and, according to the Portuguese account, a breach was opened through which a storming party might have entered. " If," says the historian Barbuda, " they had been Portuguese, no doubt they would have stormed ; but as the Dutch are nothing more than good artillerymen, and beyond this are of no account except to be burned as desperate heretics, they had not courage to rush through the ruin of the wall." That this was said of men who had fought under Heemskerk leads one to suspect that probably the breach was not of great size, and the more so as the garrison was able to repair it during the following night. It is not mentioned in the Dutch account, in which the bravery of their opponents is fully recognised.

On the 4th of August Verhoeff sent a trumpeter with a letter demanding the surrender of the fortress. DAtaide would not even write a reply. He said that as he had compelled Van Caerden to abandon the siege he hoped to be able to do the same with his present opponent. The captain of the bastion Sao Gabriel, however, wrote that the castle had been confided by the king to the commandant, who was not the kind of cat to be taken without gloves. Verhoeff believed that the garrison was ill supplied with food, so his trumpeter was well entertained, and on several occasions goats and pigs were driven out of the gateway in a spirit of bravado.

Sorties were frequently made by the besieged, who had the advantage of being able to observe from the ramparts the movements of the Dutch. In one of these a soldier named Moraria distinguished himself by attacking singly with his lance three pikemen in armour at a distance from their batteries, killing two of them, and wounding the other.

D'Ataide was made acquainted with his enemy's plans by a French deserter, who claimed his protection on the ground of being of the same religion. Four others subsequently deserted from the Dutch camp, and were received in the fortress on the same plea. Verhoeff demanded that they should be surrendered to him, and threatened that if they were not given up he would put to death the thirty-four prisoners he had taken in the carrack. D'Ataide replied that if the prisoners were thirty-four thousand he would not betray men who were catholics and who had claimed his protection, but if the Portuguese captives were murdered their blood would certainly be avenged. Verhoeff relates in his journal that the whole of the prisoners were then brought out in sight of the garrison and shot, regarding the act in the spirit of the time as rather creditable than otherwise ; but the version of the Portuguese historian may be correct, in which it is stated that six men with their hands bound were shot in sight of their countrymen, and that the others, though threatened, were spared.

Until the 18th of August the siege was continued. Twelve hundred and fifty cannon balls had been fired against the fortress, without effect as far as its reduction was concerned. Thirty of Verhoeff's men had been killed and eighty were wounded. He therefore abandoned the effort, and embarked his force, after destroying what remained of the town.

On the 21st a great galleon approached the island so close that the ships in the harbour could be counted from her deck, but put about the moment the Dutch flag was distinguished. Verhoeff sent the ships Arend, Griffioen, and Valk in pursuit, and she was soon overtaken. According to the Dutch account she made hardly any resistance, but in a letter to the king from her captain, Francisco de Sodre Pereira, which is still preserved, he claims to have made a gallant stand for the honour of his flag. The galleon was poorly armed, but he says that he fought till his ammunition was all expended, and even then would not consent to surrender, though the ship was so riddled with cannon balls that she was in danger of going down. He preferred, he said to those around him, to sink with his colours flying. The purser, however, lowered the ensign without orders, and a moment afterwards the Dutch, who had closed in, took possession. The prize proved to be the Bom Jesus, from Lisbon, which had got separated from a fleet on the way to Goa, under command of the newly appointed viceroy, the count De Feira. She had a crew of one hundred and eighty men. The officers were detained as prisoners, the others were put ashore on the island Saint George with provisions sufficient to last them two days.

On the 23rd of August the fleet sailed from Mozambique for India. There can be little question that this defeat of the Dutch was more advantageous to them than victory would have been, for if their design had succeeded a very heavy tax upon their resources and their energy would have been entailed thereafter. They did not realise this fact, however, and fifty-five years later another unsuccessful attempt was made to acquire the coveted East African possessions.

Although Fort Sao Sebastiao after the last siege was provided with a garrison of one hundred and fifty men and some small armed vessels were kept on the coast to endeavour to prevent the Dutch from communicating with the inhabitants or obtaining provisions and water, their ships kept the Portuguese stations in constant alarm. In the eastern seas they were by this time the dominant power, and were fast building up a commerce greater by far than the Portuguese had ever carried on. They distributed their spices and silks over Europe, whereas their predecessors were satisfied with making Lisbon a market, to which purchasers of other nations might come for whatever they needed.

On the 21st of November 1609 Pieter Both was appointed first governor-general of Netherlands India. He left Texel with the next fleet, which sailed in the following January. In a great storm off the Cape his ship got separated from the others, so he put into Table Bay to repair some damages to the mainmast and to refresh his men. In July 1610 Captain Nicholas Downton called at the same port in an English vessel, and found Governor-General Both's ship lying at anchor and also two homeward bound Dutch ships taking in train oil which had been collected at Robben Island.

In May 1611 the Dutch skipper Isaac le Maire, after whom the straits of Le Maire are named, called at Table Bay. When he sailed, he left behind his son Jacob and a party of seamen, who resided in Table Valley for several months. Their object was to kill seals on Eobben Island, and to harpoon whales, which were then very abundant in South African waters in the winter season. They also tried to open up a trade for skins of animals with the Hottentots in the neighbourhood.

In 1616 the assembly of seventeen resolved that its outward bound fleets should always put into Table Bay to refresh the crews, and from that time onward Dutch ships touched there almost every season. A kind of post office was established by marking the dates of arrivals and departures on stones, and burying letters in places indicated. But no attempt was made to explore the country, and no port south of the Zambesi except Table Bay was frequented by Netherlanders, so that in the middle of the century nothing more concerning it was known than the Portuguese had placed on record.

In England an East India Company was also established, whose first fleet, consisting of the Dragon, of six hundred tons, the Hector, of three hundred tons, the Ascension, of two hundred and sixty tons, and the Susan, of two hundred and forty tons burden, sailed from Torbay on the 22nd of April 1601. The admiral was James Lancaster, the same who had commanded the Edward Bonaventure ten years earlier. The chief pilot was John Davis, who had only returned from the Indies nine months before. On the 9th of September the fleet came to anchor in Table Bay, by which time the crews of all except the admiral's ship were so terribly afflicted with scurvy that they were unable to drop their anchors. The admiral had kept his men in a tolerable state of health by supplying them with a small quantity of limejuice daily. After his ship was anchored he was obliged to get out his boats and go to the assistance of the others. Sails were then taken on shore to serve as tents, and the sick were landed as soon as possible. Trade was commenced with the Hottentots, and in the course of a few days forty-two oxen and a thousand sheep were obtained for pieces of iron hoop. The fleet remained in Table Bay nearly seven weeks, during which time most of the sick men recovered.

On the 5th of December 1604 the Tiger — a ship of two hundred and forty tons — and a pinnace called the Tiger's Whelp set sail from Cowes for the Indies. The expedition was under command of Sir Edward Michelburne, and next to him in rank was Captain John Davis. It was the last voyage that this famous seaman was destined to make, for he was killed in an encounter with Japanese pirates on the 27th of December 1605. The journal of the voyage contains the following paragraph : —

"The 3rd of April 1605 we sailed by a little island which Captain John Davis took to be one that stands some five or six leagues from Saldanha. Whereupon our general, Sir Edward Michelburne, desirous to see the island, took his skiff, accompanied by no more than the master's mate the purser, myself, and four men that did row the boat, and so putting off from the ship we came on land. While we were on shore they in the ship had a storm, which drove them out of sight of the island ; and we were two days and two nights before we could recover our ship. Upon the said island is abundance of great conies and seals, whereupon we called it Cony Island."

On the 8th of April they anchored in Table Bay, where they remained until the 3rd of the following month refreshing themselves.

On the 14th of March 1608 the East India Company's ships Ascension and Union sailed from England, and on the 14th of July put into Table Bay to obtain refreshments and to build a small vessel for which they had brought out the materials ready prepared. The crews constructed a fort to protect themselves by raising an earthen wall in the form of a square and mounting a cannon on each angle. They found a few Hottentots on the shore, to whom they made known by signs their want of oxen and sheep, which three days afterwards were brought for barter in such numbers that they procured as much meat as they needed. They gave a yard (91-4 centimetres) of iron hoop for an ox, and half that length for a sheep. After bartering them, the Hottentots whistled some away and then brought them for sale again, which was not resented, as the English officers were desirous of remaining on friendly terms with the rude people. For the same reason no notice was taken of the theft of various articles of trifling value.

Boats were sent to Robben Island to capture seals, as oil was needed, and many of these animals were killed and brought to the fort. After cutting off the oily parts the carcases were carried to a distance as useless, but for fifteen days the Hottentots feasted upon the flesh, which they merely heated on embers, though before the expiration of that time it had become so putrid and the odour so offensive that the Europeans were obliged to keep at a great distance from it.

Great quantities of steenbras were obtained with a seine at the mouth of Salt River, and three thousand five hundred mullets were caught and taken on board for con- sumption after leaving. The object of refreshing was thus fully carried out, as was also that of putting together the little vessel, which was even made larger than the original design, and which when launched was named the Good Hope.

Mr. John Jourdain, an official of the East India Company, who was a passenger in the Ascension, and from whose journal this account is taken, with some others ascended Table Mountain. From its summit they saw the same sheet of water on the flats which Antonio de Saldanha a hundred and five years before had mistaken for the mouth of a great river, and which Mr. Jourdain now mistook for an inland harbour with an opening to the sea by which ships might enter it. He, however, unlike his Portuguese predecessor, had an opportunity afterwards of visiting the big pond and ascertaining that his conjecture was incorrect.

Mr. Jourdain was of opinion that a settlement of great utility might be formed in Table Valley. In words almost identical with those of Jansen and Proot forty years later he spoke of its capabilities for producing grain and fruit, of the hides, sealskins, and oil that could be obtained to reduce the expense, of the possibility of opening up a trade in ivory, as he had seen many footprints of elephants, and of bringing the Hottentots first to "civility," and then to a knowledge of God.

After a stay of a little more than two months, on the 19th of September the Ascension and Union sailed again, with the Good Hope in their company.

From this date onward the fleets of the English East India Company made Table Bay a port of call and refresh- ment, and usually procured in barter from the Hottentots as many cattle as they needed. In 1614 the board of directors sent a ship with as many spare men as she could carry, a quantity of provisions, and some naval stores to Table Bay to wait for the homeward bound fleet, and, while delayed, to 5 carry on a whale and seal fishery as a means of partly meeting the expense. The plan was found to answer fairly well, and it was continued for several years. The relieving vessels left England between October and February, in order to be at the Cape in May, when the homeward bound fleets usually arrived from India. If men were much needed, the victualler — which was commonly an old vessel — was then abandoned, otherwise an ordinary crew was left in her to capture whales, or she proceeded to some port in the East, according to circumstances.

The advantage of a place of refreshment in South Africa was obvious, and as early as 1613 enterprising individuals in the service of the East India Company drew the attention of the directors to the advisability of forming a settlement in Table Valley. Still earlier it was rumoured that the king of Spain and Portugal had such a design in contemplation, with the object of cutting off thereby the intercourse of all other nations with the Indian seas, so that the strategical value of the Cape was already recognised. The directors discussed the matter on several occasions, but their views in those days were very limited, and the scheme seemed too large for them to attempt alone.

In their fleets were officers of a much more enterprising spirit, as they were without responsibility in regard to the cost of any new undertaking. In 1620 some of these proclaimed King James I sovereign of the territory extending from Table Bay to the dominions of the nearest Christian prince. The records of this event are interesting, as they not only give the particulars of the proclamation and the reasons that led to it, but show that there must often have been a good deal of bustle in Table Valley in those days.

On the 24th of June 1620 four ships bound to Surat, under command of Andrew Shillinge, put into Table Bay and were joined when entering by two others bound to Bantam, under command of Humphrey Fitzherbert. The Dutch had at this time the greater part of the commerce of the East in their hands, and nine large ships under their flag were found at anchor. The English vessel Lion was also there. Commodore Fitzherbert made the acquaintance of some of the Dutch officers, and was informed by them that they had inspected the country around, as their Com- pany intended to form a settlement in Table Valley the following year. Thereupon he consulted with Commodore Shillinge, who agreed with him that it was advisable to try to frustrate the project of the Hollanders. On the 25th the Dutch fleet sailed for Bantam, and the Lion left at the same time, but the Schiedam, from Delft, arrived and cast anchor.

On the 1st of July the principal English officers, twenty-one in number, — among them the Arctic navigator William Baffin, — met in council, and resolved to proclaim the sovereignty of King James I over the whole country. They placed on record their reasons for this decision, which were, that they were of opinion a few men only would be needed to keep possession of Table Valley, that a plantation would be of great service for the refreshment of the fleets, that the soil was fruitful and the climate pleasant, that the Hottentots would become willing subjects in time and they hoped would also become servants of God, that the whale fishery would be a source of profit, but, above all, that they regarded it as more fitting for the Dutch when ashore there to be subjects of the king of England than for Englishmen to be subject to them or any one else. "Rule Britannia" was a very strong sentiment, evidently, with that party of adventurous seamen.

On the 3rd of July a proclamation of sovereignty was read in presence of as many men of the six ships as could go ashore for the purpose of taking part in the ceremony. Skipper Jan Cornelis Kunst, of the Schiedam, and some of his officers were also present, and raised no objection. On the Lion's rump, or King James's mount as Fitzherbert and Shillinge named it, the flag of St. George was hoisted, and was saluted, the spot being afterwards marked by a mound of stones. A small flag was then given to the Hottentots to preserve and exhibit to visitors, which it was believed they would do most carefully.

After going through this ceremony with the object of frustrating the designs of the Dutch, the English officers buried a packet of despatches beside a stone slab in the valley, on which were engraved the letters V O C, they being in perfect ignorance of the fact that those symbols denoted prior possession taken for the Dutch East India Company. On the 25th of July the Surat fleet sailed, and on the next day Fitzherbert's two ships followed, leaving at anchor in the bay only the English ship Bear which had arrived on the 10th.

The proceeding of Fitzherbert and Shillinge, which was entirely unauthorised, was not confirmed by the directors of the East India Company or by the government of England, and nothing whatever came of it. At that time the ocean commerce of England was small, and as she had just entered upon the work of colonising North America, she was not prepared to attempt to form a settlement in South Africa also. Her king and the directors of her India Company had no higher ambition than to enter into a close alliance with the Dutch Company, and to secure by this means a stated proportion of the trade of the East. In the Netherlands also a large and influential party was in favour of either forming a federated company, or of a binding union of some kind, so as to put it out of the power of the Spaniards and Portuguese to harm them. From 1613 onward this matter was frequently discussed on both sides of the Channel, and delegates went backward and forward, but it was almost impossible to arrange terms.

The Dutch had many fortresses which they had either built or taken from the Portuguese in Java and the Spice islands, and the English had none, so that the conditions of the two parties were unequal. In 1617, however, the king of France sent ships to the eastern seas, and in the following year the king of Denmark embarked in the same enterprise, when a possibility arose that one or other of them might unite with Holland or England. Accordingly each party was more willing than before to make concessions, and on the 2nd of June 1619 a close alliance was entered into. The English Company was to bear half the cost of offensive and defensive operations in the Indian seas, and was to have one-third of the trade of the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboina, the remaining eastern commerce to be free for each party to make the most of.

The rivalry, however, — bordering closely on animosity — between the servants of the two companies in distant lands prevented any agreement of this nature made in Europe being carried out, and though in 1623 another treaty of alliance was entered into, in the following year it was dissolved. Thereafter the great success of the Dutch in the East placed them beyond the desire of partnership with competitors.

While these negotiations were in progress, a proposal was made from Holland that a refreshment station should be established in South Africa for the joint use of the fleets of the two nations, and the English directors received it favourably. They undertook to cause a search for a proper place to be made by the next ship sent to the Cape with relief for the returning fleet, and left the Dutch at liberty to make a similar search in any convenient way. Accordingly on the 30th of November 1619 the assembly of seventeen issued instructions to the commodore of the fleet then about to sail to examine the coast carefully from Saldanha Bay to a hundred or a hundred and fifty nautical miles east of the Cape of Good Hope, in order that the best harbour for the purpose might be selected. This was done, and an opinion was pronounced in favour of Table Bay. In 1622 a portion of the coast was inspected for the same purpose by Captain Johnson, in the English ship Rose, but his opinion of Table Bay and the other places which he visited was such that he would not recommend any of them. The tenor of his report mattered little, however, for with the failure of the close alliance between the two companies, the design of establishing a refreshment station in South Africa was abandoned by both.

Account of the Hottentot Cory

Perhaps the ill opinion of Table Bay formed by Captain Johnson may have arisen from an occurrence that took place on its shore during the previous voyage of the Rose. That ship arrived in the bay on the 28th of January 1620, and on the following day eight of her crew went ashore with a seine to catch fish near the mouth of Salt River. They never returned, but the bodies of four were afterwards found and buried, and it was believed that the Hottentots had either carried the other four away as prisoners or had murdered them and concealed the corpses.

This was not the only occurrence of the kind, for in March 1632 twenty-three men belonging to a Dutch ship that put into Table Bay lost their lives in conflict with the inhabitants. The cause of these quarrels is not known with certainty, but at the time it was believed they were brought on by the Europeans attempting to rob the Hottentots of cattle.

An experiment was once made with a view of trying to secure a firm friend among the Hottentots, and impressing those people with respect for the wonders of civilisation. A savage named Cory was taken from the Cape to England, where he was made a great deal of, and received many rich and valuable presents. Sir Thomas Smythe, the governor of the East India Company, was particularly kind to him, and gave him among other things a complete suit of brass armour. He returned to South Africa with Captain Nicholas Downton in the ship New Year's Gift, and in June 1614 landed in Table Valley with all his treasures. But Captain Downton, who thought that he was overflowing with gratitude, saw him no more. Cory returned to his former habits of living, and instead of acting as was anticipated, taught his countrymen to despise bits of copper in exchange for their cattle, so that for a long time afterwards it was impossible for ships that called to obtain a supply of fresh meat.

Mr. John Jourdain, when returning from India to England, put into Table Bay on the 25th of February 1617. A few lean calves were obtained on the day the ships anchored, but nothing whatever afterwards, though at one time about ten thousand head of cattle were in sight. Mr. Jourdain and a party of sixty armed men went a short distance into the country, and he was of opinion that through the roguery of " that dogge Cory " they would have been drawn into a conflict with some five thousand Hottentots if they had not prudently retired. Thereafter he believed no cattle would be obtained except at dear rates, for the Hottentots no longer esteemed iron hoops, copper, or even shining brass. A fort, he considered, would be the only means of bringing them to "civility." On this occasion Mr. Jourdain remained in Table Bay eighteen days, of which only four were calm and fine.

According to a statement made by a Welshman who was in Table Bay in August 1627, and who kept a journal, part of which has been preserved, Cory came to an evil end. The entry reads : " They " (the Hottentots) " hate the duchmen since they hanged on of the blackes called Gary who was in England & upon refusall of fresh victuals they put him to death."

It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of con- victs when they were exploring unknown countries, or when there were duties of a particularly hazardous or unpleasant nature to be performed. The English employed criminals in the same manner. In January 1615 the governor of the East India Company obtained permission from the king to transport some men under sentence of death to countries occupied by savages, where, it was supposed, they would be the means of procuring supplies of provisions, making dis- coveries, and creating trade. The records in existence — unless there are documents in some unknown place — furnish too scanty material for a complete account of the manner in which this design was carried out. Only the following can be ascertained with certainty. A few days after the consent of the king was given, the sheriffs of London sent seventeen men from Newgate on board ships bound to the Indies, and these were voluntarily accompanied by three others, who appear to have been convicted criminals, but not under sentence of death. The proceeding was regarded as "a very charitable deed and a means to bring them to God by giving them time for repentance, to crave pardon for their sins, and reconcile themselves unto His favour." On the 5th of June, after a passage from the Thames of one hundred and thirty-two days, the four ships comprising the fleet arrived in Table Bay, and on the 16th nine of the condemned men were set ashore with their own free will. To each a gun with some ammunition and a quantity of provisions were given, and they were then left to their fate.

In one of the ships of this fleet Sir Thomas Roe, English envoy to the Great Mogul, was a passenger. A pillar bearing an inscription of his embassy was set up in Table Valley, and fifteen or twenty kilogrammes weight of stone which he believed to contain quicksilver and vermilion was taken away to be assayed in England, but of particulars that would be much more interesting now no information whatever is to be had from the records of his journey.

Again, in June 1616, three condemned men were set ashore in Table Valley, and a letter signed by them is extant, in which they acknowledge the clemency of King James in granting them their forfeited lives, and promise to do his Majesty good and acceptable service.

There may have been other instances of the kind, of which no record is in existence now. How the criminals lived, what effect their residence had upon the Hottentot clans, and how they died, must be left to conjecture. The fate of only a very few is known. These made their way back to England, and were there executed for fresh offences.

No further effort was made by the English at this time to form a connection with the inhabitants of South Africa, though their ships continued to call at Table Bay for the purpose of taking in water and getting such other refresh- ment as was obtainable. They did not attempt to explore the country or to correct the charts of its coasts, nor did they frequent any of its ports except Table Bay, and very rarely Mossel Bay, until a much later date. A few remarks in ships' journals, and a few pages of observations and opinions in a book of travels such as that of Sir Thomas Herbert, from none of which can any reliable information be obtained that is not also to be drawn from earlier Portuguese writers, are all the contributions to a knowledge of South Africa made by Englishmen during the early years of the seventeenth century. Though our countrymen were behind no others in energy and daring, as Drake, Raleigh, Gilbert, Davis, Hawkins, and a host of others had proved so well, not forgetting either the memorable story of the Revenge, which Jan Huyghen van Linschoten handed down for a modern historian to write in more thrilling words, England had not yet entered fully upon her destined career either of discovery or of commerce, the time when "the ocean wave should be her home" was still in the days to come.

The Danes were the next to make their appearance in the Indian seas. Their first fleet, fitted out by King Christian IV, consisted of six ships, under Ove Giedde as admiral. On the 8th of July 1619 this fleet put into Table Bay, where eight English ships were found at anchor, whose officers treated the Danes with hospitality. Admiral Giedde remained here until the 5th of August, when his people were sufficiently refreshed to proceed on their voyage. On the 30th of August 1621 he reached Table Bay again in the ship Elephant on his return passage from Ceylon and India, and remained until the 12th of September. Before leaving he had an inscription cut on a stone, in which the dates of both his visits were recorded.

CHAPTER XVIII. FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR SILVER MINES.