Illegal Imprisonment of Burghers.
By these high-handed proceedings, which were hardly ever equalled by the most despotic monarch in Europe, and which were in direct opposition to the laws and customs of the Netherlands,[75] though indeed more than once violated there in times of popular uprisings, the governor hoped to terrify his opponents into signing the certificate in his favour and denying the truth of the charges against him. But not one of those who were confined on board the ships in the bay faltered for a moment. Their wives petitioned that the prisoners should be brought to trial at once before a proper court of justice, which was their right as free-born Netherlanders, and when it was hinted that if they would induce their husbands to do what was desired, release would follow, these true-hearted women indignantly refused.
The arrest and committal to prison of Nicolaas van der Westhuizen, Christiaan Wynoch, Hans Jacob Conterman, and Nicolaas Meyboom followed shortly. The governor felt sure now that the complaints of the burghers would reach Holland by some means or other, and therefore on the 31st of March 1706 he and the council addressed a letter to the directors, in which a very unfavourable description of the burghers who signed the memorial was given, and their conduct in doing so was styled conspiracy, sedition, mutiny, and rebellion.[76] With this letter was sent an attested copy of the certificate in his favour, as if it had been a voluntary and spontaneous act on the part of those whose names or marks were attached to it.
Historical Sketches
In the meantime the memorial had been committed to the care of Abraham Bogaert, a physician in the return fleet, who was refreshing himself on shore, and who had warm sympathy with the oppressed burghers. He afterwards wrote a history of these events, which is one of the best ever published, and which agrees in all respects with the records in the Cape archives. The Ceylon ships did not reach Table Bay until the 5th and 6th of March, and the two from Batavia only on the 24th and 26th of that month. The last arrival required a few days’ delay for refreshment, but at length all were ready for sea, as were the English ships that had been waiting to sail in their company. On Sunday, the 4th of April 1706, the anchors were raised, and the fifteen Dutch and nine English Indiamen stood out to sea with a favouring breeze. What a gallant sight it must have been for all but the four banished men, who were forced to leave all that was dear to them here in Africa, and their farms to be looked after by their wives alone! When the fleet was at sea and all fear of search was over, Bogaert delivered the memorial to Henning Huising.
The anchors of the ships were being raised and the topsails being sheeted home when the governor must have reflected that he was making a mistake in sending four of the burghers to Europe. In great haste he embarked in a galiot and followed the fleet as far as Robben Island. In the official records it is stated that he did this to show respect to the admiral, but no such method of showing respect was practised here before or since, and his opponents were probably right when they asserted that his object was to overtake the ship in which the burghers were, and release them. He did not succeed in doing this, however.
Treatment of Imprisoned Burghers.
Within a week or two further arrests were made, when Jacob de Savoye, Pierre Meyer, Jacob Cloete, Jacob Louw, and one or two others were placed in detention. The health of some of the prisoners broke down under the rigorous treatment to which they were subjected: one—Jacobus van der Heiden—was confined for twenty-seven days in a foul dungeon, with a black criminal as his companion. Thirteen of them then, with a hope of obtaining liberty and the companionship of their families as an inducement on one side, and the horrible suffering of confinement on coarse and scanty fare in dark and noisome dungeons and debarred from the visits of relatives or friends on the other, gave way to the temptation, and replied to questions put to them disowning the truth of the assertions in the memorial and expressing contrition for having signed it. Among these thirteen was Adam Tas, and the circumstance of his having done so is certainly a blemish upon his reputation, though it would not be fair to speak harshly of him, considering the position in which he was placed. His recantation, however, was of no service, for the governor was devoid of anything like compassion towards him. These declarations, as they were termed, which were really of no more value than the confessions of men on the rack, were obtained at different dates from the 8th of March to the 7th of May 1706. The men who made them excused themselves afterwards for so doing by stating that it could not affect the charges against the governor and the other officials, which would be brought before the directors by those who were then on the way to Europe. And so, after an imprisonment varying in duration from a few days to a few weeks, all were released except Adam Tas and Jacob Louw.
On the 24th of June 1706 the governor and council of policy wrote again to the directors, vilifying in very strong language the burghers who had signed the memorial, enclosing copies of the declarations of those who had been terrified into denying the truth of their former assertions, and asking that a special commissioner should be sent out to inspect matters of every kind and report upon them. This request must have been made with the object of gaining time, for the governor knew well that his conduct would not bear such an inquiry.
Historical Sketches.