During that time the commander of the station secured in barter more than two hundred head of cattle and nearly six hundred sheep.
At the end of the first year, the station was well established and prosperous. A garden had been planted, a system of irrigation introduced sufficiently great to water the whole extent of cultivated ground, some acres in all. A hospital, plain but substantial, with earthen walls and thatched roof, and large enough to give accommodations to two or three hundred men, had been built; while a cattle trade had been opened with another friendly clan that had visited the peninsula.
The second winter was not very eventful. True, some building was done, oxen were trained to draw timber from the forests behind Devil's Peak, and much new ground was broken up.
"Wild animals gave more trouble than anything else. The lions were so bold that they invaded the cattle pens by night, though armed men were always watching them; and leopards came down from the mountains in broad daylight and carried away sheep under the very eyes of the herdsmen.
"One morning before daybreak there was a great noise in the poultry pens, and when the guards went to see what was the matter, they found that all the ducks and geese had been killed by wildcats. The country appeared to be swarming with ravenous beasts of different kinds."
The Europeans had been settled in Table Valley about a year and a half, when they had their first difficulty with the Hottentots. The treacherous natives, one Sunday, while the settlers were holding church, killed the little white herdsman of the settlement and ran away with almost the entire herd of cattle.
This was a sad blow. The fort needed to be strengthened by palisades made from the timber cut in the forests back of Devil's Peak. The working oxen were gone, and all timber had to be carried on the shoulders of the settlers. Then, too, the clans that had supplied the settlers with meat deemed it wise to remain at a distance, and the loss of this article of food was keenly felt.
After a few months, quiet and apparent peace were restored. During the next few years, exploring parties were sent out to learn of the physical features of the neighboring country, and to make the acquaintance of well-disposed Hottentot clans.
During these years, nearly every garden plant native to Europe or India was grown at the Cape. Potatoes and maize, however, had not yet been introduced. The oak and the fir tree, various kinds of fruit trees, varieties of vines from France and South Germany, strawberries and blackberries, were all in a thriving condition. Horses had been introduced from Java, and pigs and sheep, together with dogs, rabbits, and poultry, from Europe.
In February, 1657, the first real colony was established along the Liesbeek River, at Rondebosch, by nine of the Company's servants, who obtained their discharges and had small lots of land allotted to them. In this manner the colonization of South Africa was begun.