This report was adopted by the assembly of seventeen on the 26th of October, and four days later, 30th of October 1706, a letter signed by the directors was delivered to the master of the ship Kattendyk, then lying at Texel ready for sea, with orders to deliver it to the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel in presence of witnesses.[86] The Kattendyk with four other Indiamen left Texel on the 25th of December 1706 under convoy of four ships of war, but after leaving the Channel she lost sight of the rest of the fleet, so she came on alone, fortunately without falling in with French cruisers, and anchored in Table Bay in the morning of the 16th of April 1707. The skipper took the letter on shore, and delivered it to the governor as directed.
Recall of the Governor.
On Sunday the 17th the council of policy assembled, when the despatch of the directors was read. It announced that the governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the secunde Samuel Elsevier, the clergyman Petrus Kalden, and the landdrost Jan Starrenburg were removed from office and ordered to proceed to Europe with the least possible delay. That everything might be conducted fairly and justly with regard to them, however, they were allowed to retain their rank and pay until they should have an opportunity of clearing themselves from the charges against them, if that was possible. The governor’s brother, Frans van der Stel, was to betake himself to some place outside of the Company’s possessions. The burghers were acquitted of the absurd charge of conspiracy, sedition, mutiny, and rebellion, they were reinstated in all their former rights and privileges, the three sent to Europe were restored to their homes at the Company’s expense, and orders were given that if any were in prison in the colony they should immediately be released. The governor was ordered to pay out of his own pocket at the rate of 6s. 8d. each for the woolled sheep he had acquired, and the wine and slaughter licenses were to be issued at once in the same manner as had been the custom before he altered them to suit his own purposes.
It was announced that Louis van Assenburgh, who had previously been an officer in the army of the German emperor, had been appointed governor, and Johan Cornelis d’Ableing, recently commander at Palembang, secunde. In case neither of these should arrive in the colony at an early date, the administration was to be assumed by the independent fiscal Johan Blesius and the other members of the council of policy acting as a commission.[87]
The Mauritius packet had not yet sailed, and the fiscal, who was directed by the assembly of seventeen to carry out their instructions, at once set at liberty the five burghers Adam Tas, Jacob Louw, Jacobus van Brakel, Hercules du Pré, and Guillaume du Toit. Tidings that they were to be released and that the tyranny of the governor was at an end had reached the townspeople, and the principal inhabitants assembled on the open ground before the castle to welcome their countrymen as they landed on the jetty or came from the dungeons in which they had been confined, and great was the joy and sincere were the thanks poured out to the God of heaven, mingled with gratitude to the directors, that justice had triumphed and oppression and misrule were things of the past. Of what occurred at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein when the glad tidings reached those places no information is given in our archives, but it may be taken as certain that the joy there was at least as great and deepfelt as it was in Capetown. To the men of those districts it was due that tyranny and corruption had been overthrown, and from that time forward Stellenbosch and Drakenstein have been the centres of Dutch South African thought and action to a much greater extent than any other parts of the country.
Historical Sketches.
There is a legend that the man who suffered most from violence henceforth called his farm Libertas, to signify that freedom had been won, or, as he wittily explained to inquirers as to the meaning of the term, to denote that Tas was free. The place is still so called.
The council resolved that the administration should be transferred to the fiscal and others on the 15th of May, if the newly-appointed secunde, who was on his way out, should not arrive before that date. It was Sunday, and the reverend Mr. Kalden preached twice in the church.
During the week an arrangement was made by which the reverend Messrs. Le Boucq and Bek should conduct the services on alternate Sundays in Capetown, and Mr. Kalden ceased to officiate. Starrenburg, whose last report was that the mutineers were constantly reviling him and that only a Masaniello was wanting to produce an open outbreak, was sent by the fiscal on board a ship in the return fleet. An officer named Samuel Martin de Meurs was appointed to act provisionally as landdrost.