Keeping down the Berg river, the range of mountains on the right was reported to be tenanted by Bushmen, who were in the habit of descending from their fastnesses and plundering the burghers and Hottentots below. The range was on this account known as the Obiqua mountains. The governor crossed over at a place since termed the Roodezand pass, just beyond the gorge through which the Little Berg river flows, and entered the valley now called the Tulbagh basin.
Description of the Tulbagh Basin.
Though not greatly elevated, this basin is in the second of the steps by which the mainland of South Africa rises from the ocean to the central plain. If a cane with a large round head be laid upon soft ground, the mark will give an idea of its form. The hollow caused by the head of the cane will represent the basin, the long narrow groove will indicate the valley between the Obiqua mountains and a parallel range ten or eleven kilometres farther inland. The Breede river has its source in the third terrace, and, rushing down a gorge in the interior range, now called Michell’s pass, flows south-eastward through the valley. Close to Michell’s pass the mountain retires, but shortly sweeps round and joins the Obiqua range, the keystone of the arch thus formed being the Great Winterhoek, two thousand and eighty-five metres in height, the loftiest peak visible from Capetown.
It was the basin thus enclosed that the governor and his party entered. It was found to be drained by the Little Berg river and its numerous tributary rills, whose waters escape through a gorge in the Obiqua mountains, and flow north-westward. The watershed between the Breede and Little Berg rivers is merely a gentle swell in the surface of the ground. At the foot of Michell’s pass, at the present day, a mill-race is led out of the Breede and turned into the Little Berg, and thus a few shovelsful of earth can divert water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean.
The basin excels all other parts of South Africa in the variety and beauty of its wild flowers, which in early spring almost conceal the ground. It was too late in the season for the governor’s party to see it at its best, still the visitors were charmed with its appearance. Very few Hottentots were found. In the recesses of the mountains were forests of magnificent trees, and although the timber could not be removed to the Cape, it would be of great use to residents. Immigrants were arriving in every fleet from the Netherlands, so the governor resolved to form a settlement in the valley, where cattle breeding could be carried on to advantage. Agriculture, except to supply the wants of residents, could not be pursued with profit, owing to the difficulty of transport. The governor named the basin the Land of Waveren, in honour of a family of position in Amsterdam. The range of mountains enclosing the valley on the inland side and stretching away as far as the eye could reach, as yet without a name, he called the Witsenberg, after the justly-esteemed burgomaster Nicolaas Witsen of Amsterdam. The land of Waveren has long since become the Tulbagh basin, but one may be allowed to hope that the Witsenberg will always be known by the honoured name it has borne since 1699.
Historical Sketches.
Several burghers who had been living at Drakenstein were now permitted to graze their cattle at Riebeek’s Kasteel, and on the 31st of July 1700 some recent immigrants from Europe were sent to occupy the land of Waveren. As it was the rainy season, the families of the immigrants remained at the Cape until rough cottages could be put up for their accommodation. At the same time a corporal and six soldiers were sent to form a military post in the valley for the protection of the colonists. This post was termed the Waveren outstation, and was maintained for many years. On the 16th of October several additional families were forwarded to the new district to obtain a living as graziers.
For a time after his arrival the Company’s garden in Table Valley was kept by the new governor in the same state of cultivation as that in which his father left it. To its former attractions he added a museum—chiefly of skeletons and stuffed animals—and a small menagerie of wild animals of the country, to which purposes one of the enclosed spaces at the upper end was devoted. Near the centre of the garden he erected a lodge for the reception of distinguished visitors and for his own recreation, which building by enlargement and alterations in later years became the governor’s town residence.
Illegal Cattle Trade.
As the garden in Capetown was thus reduced in size, and that at Rondebosch did not produce as large a quantity of vegetables and fruit as was required for the hospital, the garrison, and the ships, in the winter of 1700 Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel caused a new one to be laid out a short distance beyond Rustenburg, and spent much money in its ornamentation. As originally planned, this garden and the plantations attached to it covered forty morgen of ground; but in course of time from twenty to thirty morgen more were added to it. A superintendent was stationed here with assistants and a strong party of slaves, by whose labour the place soon became exceedingly attractive. In this garden, which bore the name of Newlands, a small lodge was erected, which grew half a century later into the favourite country residence of the governors.