Canon W. J. Little, M.A., author of “South Africa”; George McCall Theal, M.A., Official Historiographer and sometime Keeper of the Archives at Cape Town; Professor James Bryce, author of “Impressions of South Africa,” “The American Commonwealth,” etc.; F. Reginald Statham, author of “South Africa as It Is”; Olive Schreiner, author of “The South African Question”; the British Blue Books and other sources of reliable information.
THE AUTHOR. [[11]]
THE AFRICANDERS.
CHAPTER I.
THE DUTCH AT THE CAPE.
(1652–1795.)
This is the story, briefly told, of the Dutch Boers in South Africa.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the shores of South and Southeastern Africa, but they made no attempt to settle the country south of Delagoa Bay. They were traders. The Hottentots had little to sell that they cared to purchase. The route for Portuguese commerce with the East was west of Madagascar, consequently they found it unnecessary to put into Table Bay; the voyage from St. Helena to Mozambique could be made comfortably without seeking a port of supply.
But when the Dutch wrested the eastern trade [[12]]from the Portuguese, the southeastern portion of Africa assumed an importance to them that it had never before possessed in the esteem of any other nation. Their sea route to the East was south of Madagascar, and it was all but imperative that they should have a port of supply at the turning point of the long voyage between Holland and Batavia. It soon became their practice to call at Table Bay for the purpose of obtaining news, taking in fresh water, catching fish, and bartering with the natives for cattle—in which they were seldom successful.