In Johan Saar’s Account of Ceylon 1647-1657, this event is related as follows: “To pick a quarrel they (the Hollanders) seized upon four of the best elephants of the King of Candi. He, as a sensible man, sent word to the Hollanders that he had no intention to do anything against them, and he expected them, for their part, to act likewise; he had called them in as friends to be his allies against the Portuguese, and he hoped therefore that they would not settle in his territory. But the Hollanders from the beginning were bent upon war. When the king saw that it could not be avoided, he collected by one of his generals (a Saude, or what we should call a Count) about 60,000 men, chiefly natives, besides a few Portuguese whom he had formerly made captives, and who had entered his service. He would no longer trust the Hollanders.... In the following year (Anno Christi 1646) in the month of May, Mr. van der Stält (Van der Stel) received fresh orders to march with 150 men (picked soldiers), plenty of ammunition, powder, lead, and other materials of war, and also two field guns. He met with the heathen Saude in a small clearing, but as the latter had no orders to fight, because the king was still disinclined to go to war, he withdrew into the forest. The Hollanders opened a heavy fire from their field-guns and fire-arms, so that 400 were killed, and many were wounded. As the Hollanders had taken the offensive, the Saude did not care to act only on the defensive. He therefore came out of the forest, and closing round our people, attacked them with such energy that he cut off the head of Mr. Van der Stel, who had been carried in a palanquin or litter, clad in red scarlet. Of our men, who had numbered 150, they got 103 heads. The rest fled into the jungle and hid themselves as best they could. When the King, who had been near, heard of the onslaught he hurried to the spot, and although he was told that his men had been forced to fight, he showed displeasure. At once he ordered drums to be beaten and proclamation to be made that none of the Hollanders who had fled into the jungle were to be killed, but they were to be brought alive before him; that he would treat them well; and that he would swear by his God that he was innocent of the bloodshed. He then gave directions to have the head of Mr. Van der Stel put into a silver bowl, and covered it with white cloth, and sent it by one of the prisoners to their Captain in the great camp, to say that this was the head of Mr. Van der Stel, and that the King would see his body as well as the other 103 bodies decently buried.”
[44] The instructions and orders of the lord of Mydrecht were copied by me from the original document in the Cape archives, and were published in 1896 in Deel I Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten. They occupy pages 1 to 48 of that pamphlet.
[45] “Wij cunnen geensints verstaen dat den Commandeur en die van zijnen Raden voortaen haer eygen thuynen en bestiael sullen hebben of houden, meer als hij off sij tot hun eygen gesin sullen van noden hebben maer gehouden wesen haer daer van t’ ontledigen.” Despatch dated at Amsterdam on the 26th of April 1668, and signed by all of the seventeen directors. In the Cape archives, and copy in those at the Hague.
[46] See the Resolutions of the Assembly of Seventeen, copied by me from the original volumes in the Archives at the Hague, and published in Deel III Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, an octavo volume of 435 pages, printed for the Union Government in 1911.
[47] In secluded parts of South Africa, where it would not be possible to have one made in time after death, this precaution is still taken, but elsewhere the custom has died out. I have known instances of it in Canada also.
[48] Two fragments of a journal kept by Adam Tas have been preserved: one from the 13th of June to the 14th of August 1705, in the archives at the Hague, the other, from the 7th of December 1705 to the 27th of February 1706, in the South African public library in Capetown, and they give a graphic picture of life in the country districts at the time. Whenever a friend came to his house or he went to a friend’s, they at once sat down to chat and drink wine and smoke tobacco, when if the party was large and included wives and daughters, playing cards was resorted to as a pastime. The quantity of coffee and tea consumed was very large. The vicious custom of returning incorrect numbers of cattle and sheep for taxation purposes was already prevalent, and Tas, who was certainly not a dishonest man in other matters, was unable to see that this was a crime deserving punishment. Professor Leo Fouché, of Pretoria, has copied these interesting fragments, and informs me that he intends to publish them.
[49] It was only natural that the Huguenot refugees should be warmly attached to their native country, and long to be able to return to it. It was noticed in England as well as in Holland and Prussia that the French exiles had no hesitation in declaring that if Louis XIV would only restore the edict of Henri IV and pledge himself to observe it faithfully, they would return to the land of their birth and be his most faithful subjects. It was believed that they would not return and profess adherence to the state church while in their hearts remaining Calvinists and secretly practising the Calvinistic form of worship, as many of those who remained behind were doing, but the governments of the countries in which they had taken refuge were at this time suspicious of their attachment under all circumstances. In South Africa the Dutch section of the population—or at least some of them—believed that the Huguenots would not assist to repel a French invasion. It was only when the children born in the lands of refuge grew up that the strong attachment of the Huguenots to France died out.
[50] “Op het rapport van de heeren commissarissen ingevolge van de resolutie commissorial van den 16 deses, geëxamineerd hebbende het wensch van de colonie van de Caap de Bonne Esperance, en het senden van vrije luijden derwaarts breeder in voorn. resolutie ter nedergestelt, is in conformite van ’t geadviseerde goetgevonden en geresolveert de respectieve kameren te authoriseeren omme eenige vrije luijden soo mannen vrouwen als kinderen vrij van kost en transport gelt derwaarts te senden, mitsgaders zorg dragende en lettende dat het soo veel doenlijk is mogen zijn Nederlanders of onderdaanen van dese Staat of van Hoogduijtsch natien geen trafieq ter zee doende, mitsgaders van de gereformeerde of Luyterse godsdienst, hun op de lantbouw of culture der wijnen verstaende, dogh geen franschen, de selve om redenen in voorn. als anders in ’t geheel excuserende.” Résolution of the Assembly of Seventeen adopted on the 22nd of June 1700, copied by me from the original records at the Hague, and published in 1911 on page 2 of Belangrijke Historische Dokumenten over Zuid Afrika, Deel III.
[51] See resolution of that date on page 6 of the volume already mentioned.
[52] These instructions are given in the original on page 192.