The Africanders

by Le Roy Hooker

De Lille’s conduct in the field caused widespread indignation. In a formal document drawn up by a number of burgher officers and forwarded to the Commissioner, he was charged with treason. The fiscal who investigated the case acquitted De Lille of treason, there being no proof that he had conspired with the British to betray his trust. And yet he was neither a coward nor an imbecile. His conduct can be explained in no other way than to say that he was a devoted partisan of the House of Orange, that he regarded the nationals as traitors to their legitimate ruler and that he believed the English [[57]]were the loyal friends of the rightful sovereign and the ancient government of the Netherlands. For these reasons he would not fight against the British. He held that success in repelling them would result in handing the country over to the colonial national party and to republicanism, which would be an offense against the divine rights of the Prince of Orange. Later he took service with the British and was made barrack master in Cape Town. Thereafter he wore the Orange colors, and openly vented his abhorrence of all Jacobins—whether French, Dutch or South African.

On the 9th of August the expected British re-enforcements began to arrive. On the 12th Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig wrote the Commissioner and his council announcing that already they had received an accession of strength, and that they expected the immediate arrival of three thousand more soldiers. They also repeated the offer to take the Cape colony under British protection on the same terms as were proffered at first, and added, as a threat, that their men were becoming exasperated at the resistance offered and it might become impossible to restrain their fury.

The letter of the British commanders was laid [[58]]before the Commissioner’s council, the councillors representing the country burghers and the burgher militia; and these were all requested to express their judgment and their wishes freely. With a single exception they were unanimous in adopting a resolution declaring that the colony ought to be and would be defended to the last. In accordance therewith the Commissioner transmitted to the British officers the decision of the people, notifying them that the colony would still be defended.

Notwithstanding the brave front thus presented to the invaders, influences were at work which tended toward the rapid disintegration of the burgher forces. It was being rumored among them that the Bushmen were threatening the interior, and that the Hottentots in Swellendam, and the slaves in Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, were about to rise in revolt. True or false, these alarming rumors caused many burghers to forsake the ranks and go to the protection of their homes and their families. In July the burgher cavalry numbered eleven hundred and forty; by the first of September it was reduced to nine hundred. Efforts to keep up the original strength by the enlistment of foreign pandours, native half-breeds and Hottentots were [[59]]unsuccessful. Only the burgher infantry, numbering three hundred and fifty, remained intact—being composed of residents of the town.

The colonists were further dispirited by an abortive attempt to capture certain English outposts on the Steenberg. The attack was gallantly made by the burgher militia and pandours, but being unsupported by regular troops and field artillery they were repulsed. On the same day the pandours mutinied. One hundred and seventy of them marched in a body to the castle and made complaint that their families had been ill-treated by the colonists, that their pay was inadequate, that they were insulted by abusive remarks, that a bounty of £40 promised them for good conduct had not been paid, and that their rations of spirits were too small. Commissioner Sluysken so far pacified them with promises of redress that they returned to the ranks, but from that time they were disaffected and sullen, and their service was of little value.

The Dutch officers had planned a night attack in force on the British camp at Muizenburg. When they were about to attempt it, there arrived, on the 4th of September, a fleet of East Indiamen bringing the main body of the British re-enforcements. These consisted of infantry of [[60]]the line, engineers and artillerymen, numbering, in all, three thousand troops under the command of General Alured Clarke. This had the effect of so completely discouraging the burgher cavalry that many of them gave up hope and returned to their homes. By the 14th of September only five hundred and twenty-one of this branch of the colonial force remained in the ranks.

Once more, on the 9th of September, the British commanders issued an address to the colonists calling upon them to give peaceable admission to the overwhelming force now at their gates, and warning them that, otherwise, they would take forcible possession. Commissioner Sluysken replied, as before, that he would hold and defend the colony for its rightful owners, for so he was bound to do by his oath of office.

The English army in two columns, between four and five thousand strong, marched from Muizenburg to attack Cape Town, at 9 o’clock in the morning of the 14th of September. This movement was signaled to the colonial officers at the Cape, who ordered all the burgher cavalry, with the exception of one company, to the support of the regular troops at Cape Town. A part of the burgher force was sent out to strengthen the Dutch camp at Wynberg, about [[61]]half way from Muizenburg to Cape Town on the route of the British. Some attempt was made to harass the columns on the march, but with so little effect that only one was killed and seventeen were wounded.

Major Van Baalen, then in command of the regular troops at Wynberg, arranged a line of battle that was faulty in the extreme, and planted his cannon in such position that they were practically useless as weapons of offense against the advancing army. Certain officers of the artillery and of the burgher militia contingent remonstrated against his plan of battle, but it was in vain, and when the English came within gunfire he retreated with the greater part of the regulars. Then followed a scene of confusion. The burghers protested, and cried out that they were being betrayed in every battle. One company of infantry and most of the artillery made a brief stand and then retreated toward Cape Town, leaving the camp and all its belongings to the British.

It had now become clear to the burgher cavalry that Commissioner Sluysken, Colonel Gordon, and most of the officers of the regular force intentionally fought to lose—that so far as the republican government then prevailing in Holland [[62]]was concerned they were traitors at heart, and that they were willing—after a mere show of resistance—to let the colony fall into the hands of the British in order to have it held in trust by them for the fugitive prince of Orange. The burghers, therefor, not being willing to risk capture or death in battles that were not meant to win by those who directed them, dispersed and returned to their homes. Meantime a British squadron was threatening Cape Town, but keeping out of range of the castle guns.