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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
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 Estevão 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 São
João, 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 São 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 abandoned their houses and
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
São Sebastião 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- Historical
Sketches.
eight-pounders, in order to lay siege to Fort São Sebastião.
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 commander 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 São Gabriel, and a battery was constructed there, Second Siege
of
which could not be injured by the cannon on the fortress Mozambique.
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 São 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 29th, 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 Historical
Sketches.
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. D’Ataide declined the proposal, however, 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 São
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 São Retirement of
Van Caerden.
Sebastião 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 his arrival in India Van Caerden obtained possession of a couple of
Portuguese forts of small importance, but on the 17th of September 1608 he
was taken prisoner in a naval battle, and was long detained in captivity.
As soon as their opponents were out of sight of Mozambique 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.
It consisted of the ships Geunieerde Provintien,
Hollandia, Amsterdam, Roode Leeuw met Pylen, Historical
Sketches.
Middelburg, Zeelandia, Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn, 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 Third Siege of
Mozambique.
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 São 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. D’Ataide 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
São 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 Historical
Sketches.
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 Third Siege of
deck, but put about the moment the Dutch flag was Mozambique.
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. After this siege Fort São Sebastião 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, but their ships kept the
Portuguese stations in constant alarm.
On his arrival in India Verhoeff entered into a treaty of
alliance with the ruler of Calicut against the Portuguese, in Historical
Sketches.
which he secured commercial privileges. In May 1609 he
and twenty-nine of his principal officers, when holding a conference with
some Bandanese, were murdered on the island of Neira, and all the Dutch at
Lonthor shared the same fate. This led immediately to the conquest of
Neira, and the erection of the strong fort Nassau in a commanding position
on the island. On the 10th of August 1609 a treaty of peace was concluded
with the Bandanese government, in which the sovereignty of Neira was
ceded to the Dutch, and a monopoly of the spice trade in all the islands
dependent on Banda was secured. In June 1609 a treaty was concluded with
the ruler of Ternate, by which that island and all its dependencies came
under the protection of the Dutch, and a monopoly of the spice trade was
secured. In September 1609 a factory was established at Firato in Japan,
where the Dutch obtained from the emperor liberty to trade. On the 25th of
November 1609 the Portuguese fort on Batjan, one of the Molucca islands,
was taken, and became thereafter Fort Barneveld.

V.

The Truce with Spain and English Rivalry.

By this time the Dutch had factories or trading stations at
Masulipatam, Pulikat, and two smaller places on the eastern Conquest and
Trade in the
coast of Hindostan, they had liberty to trade at Calicut, they East.
had entered into a new treaty with the maharaja of Kandy in
Ceylon, they had factories at Bantam and Grésik in Java, and in November
1610 they entered into a treaty with the ruler of Jakatra in the same island,
in which they secured the site of the future city of Batavia, they held the
protectorate of Ternate, although the Portuguese still had a fort there, Neira
was theirs with a monopoly of the spice trade of all the Banda islands,
Batjan was theirs also, as was Amboina, they had factories at Patani on the
eastern coast of the Malay peninsula, established in 1604, and at Johor at its
southern extremity, also at Achin in Sumatra, at Landok in Borneo, on the
island of Celebes, and in the empire of Japan. The foundation of the vast
realm which they subsequently acquired in the eastern seas was thus
established on the ruins of the gigantic dominions of Portugal, though much
fighting was still to be done before it should be fully built up.
A great defect appeared to be the want of some local authority to control
the conquests and supervise the trade. To meet this want the assembly of
seventeen resolved to establish a strong government in the East, though the
seat of authority was not fixed upon. On the 21st of November 1609 Pieter
Both was appointed first governor-general of Netherlands India, and
councillors, consisting of the principal officials, were named to assist him.
He left Texel on the 30th of January 1610 with a fleet of eight ships. 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 that had been
collected at Robben Island. The governor-general arrived at Bantam on the
19th of December 1610, and in the factory at that place, in a town
belonging to an independent though friendly sovereign, an authority, soon
to eclipse that of any Indian prince, was first established.
The great successes of the Dutch in the eastern seas
caused the Spaniards to desire peace, and they were Historical
Sketches.
prepared to acknowledge the independence of the United
Provinces if two conditions only could be obtained: the right of Roman
Catholics to worship in public and the prohibition of the Indian trade. The
archduke Albert made the first advance by sending two secret agents to the
Hague at the close of 1606. The Dutch people were divided in opinion: one
party, under the leadership of the prominent statesman Johan van Olden-
Barneveld, favoured peace on reasonable terms, the other, under Maurits of
Nassau, desired to continue the war until Spain should be thoroughly
humiliated. The peace party was in the majority, and as the other European
governments were urgent that hostilities should be brought to an end, in
April 1607 an armistice was agreed to for eight months from the 4th of
May, in order that negotiations might be entered into.
Just at this time an event occurred which greatly promoted the desire of
the Spaniards for peace. A fleet of twenty-six small ships of war and four
tenders, under Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk, had recently been sent by the
states-general to cruise in the Atlantic. Heemskerk came to learn that a
Spanish war fleet of ten great galleons and eleven smaller vessels, under
command of Don Juan Alvarez d’Avila, was lying at anchor in Gibraltar
Bay under the guns of the fortress. Notwithstanding the tremendous
disparity of force, he determined to attack the enemy, and on the 25th of
April 1607 he stood into the bay and boldly grappled with the monster
galleons. It was like a fight between giants and pygmies, but so daring were
the Dutch sailors that every galleon was destroyed. Before nightfall nothing
of the Spanish fleet but burning fragments could be seen floating in the bay
or stranded on the shore. It was one of the most brilliant naval victories ever
recorded, and it was won against such odds that it seemed to be due to God
alone. Heemskerk fell in the battle, killed by a cannon ball, leaving a
deathless name of glory behind him. The Spanish admiral also was killed in
the engagement. Unfortunately the victory was tarnished by a ferocious
massacre of all the Spaniards that could be laid hold of, for which barbarous
act Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, captain of the admiral’s ship, was chiefly
responsible.
The Dutch now rejected the two Spanish conditions with
disdain, and had it not been for the intervention of the agents Conclusion of
of other governments, the negotiations would have been a Long Truce.
broken off. As it was, they were continued, but such difficulties were
experienced in coming to terms that it was necessary to prolong the
armistice from time to time, and it was not until the 9th of April 1609 that
matters were finally arranged and a treaty was signed at Antwerp. Even then
it was not a final peace that was concluded, but only a truce for twelve
years, during which time each party was to retain whatever territory it
possessed on that day, and could carry on commerce freely with the other.
The republic of the United Netherlands thereafter consisted of the
provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overyssel
with Drenthe except the town of Oldenzaal, which was held by the
archduke, and about three quarters of ancient Gelderland, which retained
that name. In this, however, the town of Groenlo or Grol was held by the
archduke. South of the Schelde the republic was in possession of Sluis and
Axel, with the forts along the river in Flanders, which with Flushing gave it
control of the navigation of the stream and enabled it to stifle Antwerp.
South of the Maas it possessed in Brabant all the territory belonging to the
marquisate of Bergen op Zoom, the barony of Breda, and the land of Grave
with Kuik. This territory in Flanders and Brabant was governed directly by
the states-general, being of course detached from the provinces to which it
properly belonged. The seven provinces were in one sense seven sovereign
states, as they voted separately in the states-general, and no one of them
was bound by any act to which it did not individually consent. It was the
weakest form of a federal government, being rather a loose alliance than a
firm union. That was its great defect, which, however, was not remedied
until nearly two centuries more had passed away.
The provinces that remained under the government of
Albert and Isabella covered much more ground than the Historical
Sketches.
present kingdom of Belgium.[36] France always coveted
them, and never lost an opportunity to gnaw portions of them away. By the
treaty of the Pyrenees on the 7th of November 1659 Louis XIV obtained a
strip of territory containing Thionville, Montmedi, Damvilliers, Ivoix, and
Marville. By the treaty of Aix la Chapelle on the 2nd of May 1668 he
obtained Lille, Douai, Courtrai, and Charleroi. On the 17th of March 1677
Valenciennes was taken by the French, and on the 5th of April 1677
Cambrai fell into their hands. By the treaty of Nymegen on the 17th of
September 1678 France was recognised as the owner of a slice of Belgian
territory containing these cities, and by the treaty of Ratisbon on the 15th of
August 1684 she acquired part of Luxemburg.
Thus before the close of the seventeenth century Belgium
had lost to France two entire provinces—Artois and Lille Partition of
Belgian
with Douai and Orchies—and part of Flanders containing Territory.
Dunkirk, Gravelines, and Menior, part of Hainaut,
containing Valenciennes, Bavay, Maubeuge, Conde, Marienbourg, and
Philippeville, part of Namur containing Charlemont, part of Luxemburg
containing Thionville and Montmedi, and the city and bishopric of
Cambrai, which then ranked as a duchy. The present boundary between
France and Belgium was not fixed until 1814.
By the treaty of Utrecht the portion of Gelderland that remained subject
to Albert and Isabella in 1609, excepting the town of Venlo, which passed to
the republic, and the town and district of Roermonde, which went to
Austria, was ceded to Prussia and became the circle of Düsseldorf.
Roermonde was added to the kingdom of the Netherlands in 1831.
Luxemburg was divided into two portions by the treaty of London in 1839,
one of which is now part of the German empire, and the other remains a
province of Belgium. By the same treaty Limburg was divided into two
sections, one of which remained to Belgium, the other became part of the
kingdom of the Netherlands.
By the treaty of Munster on the 30th of January 1648, in which the king
of Spain recognised the independence of the United Netherlands, the
present province of North Brabant went to the republic,[37] as did also the
city and jurisdiction of Maastricht and a small portion of Flanders. A map of
Belgium as it is to-day is thus very different from one in 1610, but it
contains the province of Liege, which did not then belong to it.
The trade of the Dutch with India now increased rapidly,
but South Africa was hardly affected by it, except through Historical
Sketches.
the visits of passing ships and occasionally the residence of
parties of Europeans for a short time on its shores.
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 Robben 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, but in this met with no success, as
those barbarians needed all the peltry they could obtain for their own use.
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 down to the middle of the century
nothing more concerning it was known than the Portuguese had placed on
record.
The Dutch had now to fear the competition of the English in the East
much more than that of the Portuguese. Our countrymen were equally
enterprising and courageous, and however friendly the two nations might be
in Europe, in distant lands they were animated by a spirit of rivalry which
on some occasions went so far as to cause them to act unscrupulously
towards each other. It will not be necessary to relate here the proceedings of
the English in the eastern seas, but some references to their visits to Table
Bay in those early times must be made.
They too had established an East India Company, whose
first fleet, consisting of the Dragon, of six hundred tons, the English
Visitors to
Hector, of three hundred tons, the Ascension, of two
hundred and sixty tons, and the Susan, of two hundred and South Africa.
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 9th of April they anchored in Table Bay, where
they remained until the 3rd of the following month Historical
Sketches.
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 English
Visitors to
mullets were caught and taken on board for consumption South Africa.
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 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 refreshment, 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 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 Historical
Sketches.
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 English
Visitors to
joined when entering by two others bound to Bantam, under South Africa.
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 Company 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 anyone 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 Historical
Sketches.
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 Proposed
Alliance of
islands, and the English had none, so that the conditions of English and
the two parties were unequal. In 1617, however, the king of Dutch.
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 treaty of close alliance was
entered into at London between the two Companies, which was ratified by
their respective governments.[38]
It provided that all past differences should be forgotten, and all persons,
ships, and goods detained by either side be immediately released. That the
servants of each Company should act in the most friendly manner towards
those of the other, and give them assistance when needed. That commerce
in all parts of India should be free to both. That joint efforts should be made
to reduce the price of products in India to a fixed and reasonable rate, and
that a selling price in Europe should be agreed upon from time to time,
below which it should not be lawful for either party to dispose of them.
That pepper should only be purchased in Java by a commission representing
both parties, and be equally divided afterwards between the two
Companies. That the Dutch Company should have two-thirds of the trade at
the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboina, and the English one-third. That twenty
ships of war from six to eight hundred tons burden, armed with thirty heavy
cannon, and carrying one hundred and fifty men each, should be maintained
in the eastern seas for the protection of commerce, half by each Company.
And that a council of defence should be established, consisting of four of
the principal officers on each side, to appoint stations for the ships and to
engage and pay land forces.
There were thirty-one articles in all, of which the above
were the principal, the others referring to matters of less Historical
Sketches.
importance, but dealing with them in the same spirit. The
treaty was intended to bring the two East India Companies into as close a
union as that existing between the different provinces of the Netherlands
republic.
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 commander 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.
Perhaps the ill opinion of Table Bay formed by Captain
Johnson may have arisen from an occurrence that took place Disasters in
Table Valley.
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 their
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. In 1613 two Hottentots were taken from Table
Valley on board a ship returning from India, one of whom died of grief soon
after leaving his home.[39] The other, who was named Cory, reached
England, where he resided six months and learned to understand and speak
a little English. He was made a great deal of, and received many rich and
valuable presents from benevolent people. 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 Historical
Sketches.
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,[40]
Cory came to an evil end. The entry reads: “They” (the Hottentots) “hate
the duchmen since they hanged one of the blackes called Cary who was in
England & upon refusall of fresh victuals they put him to death.”
It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of
convicts when they were exploring unknown countries, or English
Convicts sent
when there were duties of a particularly hazardous or to Table
unpleasant nature to be performed. The English employed Valley.
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 provisions, making
discoveries, 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. A boat was left for their use, and to each a gun with
some ammunition and a quantity of provisions was given.
Of some of these convicts the afterlife is known. Two were taken on to
India by Sir Thomas Roe, one of whom, Duffield by name, returned with
him to England, where he requited the kindness shown to him by stealing
some plate and running away. Of those set ashore in Table Valley, one,
named Cross, committed some offence against the Hottentots shortly after
the ships sailed, and was killed by them. The other seven[41] escaped to
Robben Island, where their boat was wrecked. They lived five or six months
on the island, when an English ship put into the bay, and four of them made
a raft and tried to get to her, but were drowned on the way. The next day the
ship sent a boat to the island, and took off the other three. They behaved
badly on board, commenced to steal again as soon as they reached England,
and were apprehended and executed in accordance with their old sentences.
In one of the ships that brought these convicts in 1615 Sir
Thomas Roe, English envoy to the great Mogul, was a Historical
Sketches.
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 from a fleet under Commodore Joseph on its way to the East. 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. Terry, who was an eye witness, says that
before they were set ashore they begged the commodore rather to hang
them than to abandon them, but he left them behind. The Swan, one of the
vessels of the fleet, however, was detained in Table Bay a day or two longer
than her consorts, and she took them on to Bantam in Java.
There may have been other instances of the kind, of
which no record is in existence now, but this seems unlikely. Scanty
Information
It is certain that no information upon the country, its supplied by
inhabitants, or its resources was ever obtained from Englishmen.
criminals set ashore here.
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 refreshment 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, Historical
Sketches.
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.
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