The commissioner’s council was convened at six o’clock in the evening of the 14th of September to consider a very serious situation. A British force of over four thousand men, thoroughly disciplined and equipped, was then in bivouac at Newlands, less than ten miles from Cape Town. The colonial force was only about seventeen hundred strong and nearly half of these had that day retreated before the enemy without giving battle; the remainder were distributed among the fortified posts at Hout Bay, Camp’s Bay and Table Valley. If these were all loyal and united in a determination to fight to the last they would certainly be overpowered in the end. But they were not at one in their loyalty. Some were for the deposed and banished prince of Orange, and [[63]]therefore favorable to the English who professed to be his friends. Others were strong in their preference for the new republican government in the Netherlands. While thus divided in political sentiments they were without leaders in whom they could place confidence. Further effort at defense seemed unjustifiable in view of certain defeat, and of the useless destruction of property and life it would cause.
One member of the council, Mr. Van Reede von Oudtshoorn, stood out against capitulation, offering to take, with the corps of pennists he commanded, the brunt of a final battle with the English. The other members were unanimous in deciding to send a flag of truce to the British at Newlands, asking for a suspension of hostilities during the next forty-eight hours in order to arrange terms of surrender. General Clarke consented to an armistice of twenty-four hours only, beginning at midnight on the 14th of September.
As a result of conference between the representatives of the Cape government and the British commanders the following terms of capitulation were agreed to: The Dutch troops were to surrender as prisoners of war, but their officers might remain free in Cape Town or return [[64]]to Europe on their parole of honor not to serve against Great Britain during the continuance of hostilities. No new taxes were to be levied, and the old imposts were to be reduced as much as possible in order to revive the decaying trade of the colony. All the belongings of the Dutch East India Company were to be handed over to the English, but private rights of property were to be respected. The lands and other properties of the Dutch East India Company were to be held in trust by the new authorities for the redemption of that portion of the company’s paper currency which was not secured by mortgage.
Early in the morning of the 16th of July these terms of surrender were officially completed by the signing of the document in which they were written by General Clarke and Admiral Elphinstone. At eleven o’clock on that day the council ordered the publication of the articles, and that official notice of what had been done be sent to the heads of departments and other officers in the country districts. Then the council formally closed its last session and its existence.
The ceremonial in connection with the capitulation took place at three o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, the 16th of September, 1795. [[65]]Twelve hundred British infantry and two hundred artillerymen under command of General Craig drew up on the open grounds in front of the castle. The Dutch troops marched out of their late stronghold with colors flying and drums beating, passed by the British line, laid down their arms and surrendered as prisoners of war. Some of them did so in great bitterness of soul, muttering and calling down curses upon Commissioner Sluysken and Colonel Gordon for having betrayed and disgraced them. Lieutenant Marnitz, in writing of these events, emphasized the fact that the only occasion on which the head of the colonial military establishment, Colonel Gordon, drew his sword in the conflict with the English was when he gave the order for the troops he had commanded to lay down their arms.
Thus it was, after an almost bloodless war, that Cape Colony, founded by the Dutch and governed continuously by the Netherlands for one hundred and forty-three years, passed into the possession of Great Britain and became a crown colony thereof. The charges made by some that Commissioner Sluysken and Colonel Gordon were either imbeciles or traitors may not be quite in accordance with the facts. Certainly [[66]]there is a wide disparity between the always strong and defiant words in which they announced, to the last moment, their determination to defend the colony, and the puerile efforts they made to do so. The only rational explanation of their conduct is that they preferred yielding to the British, after making a show of resistance, to accepting in the colony the new regime of republicanism that prevailed in the mother country. In all probability their secret thought was that by prolonging a nominal resistance they might gain time enough for something to occur in Europe—where events were moving with bewildering rapidity—something that would reinstate the Prince of Orange as Stadtholder of the Netherlands, and so leave the British no pretext for seizing the colony in his interest.
This chapter may fittingly close with a few brief records of events that lead up to the first trek northwards of the Africanders.
The Cape colony was restored to the Dutch on the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, in 1802. When war broke out afresh in Europe, in 1806, the English again seized the Cape to prevent Napoleon from occupying so important a naval station and half-way house to the British possessions in India. The second seizure was [[67]]accomplished after a single engagement with the Dutch. In 1814 the colony was formally ceded to the British crown together with certain Dutch possessions in South America, by the reinstated Stadtholder of the Netherlands, who received in return therefor a money consideration of thirty million dollars. [[68]]