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.”
English Convicts sent to Table Valley.
It has been seen what use the Portuguese made of convicts 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 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.
Historical Sketches.
In one of the ships that brought these convicts in 1615 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 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.
Scanty Information supplied by Englishmen.
There may have been other instances of the kind, of which no record is in existence now, but this seems unlikely. It is certain that no information upon the country, its inhabitants, or its resources was ever obtained from 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.