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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
I propose in the following remarks to note briefly the leading events, as far as they are known to us, in the history of South Africa, adding in an appendix a chronological table of dates.
This sketch can make no pretensions to throwing any new light, from original documents, on the transactions noticed. It is simply a popular summary of events without some knowledge of which no fair judgment can be formed on questions affecting South Africa.
page 1 note 1 Among the works to which I am more especially indebted I would mention:— MrNoble's, JohnSouth Africa, Past and Present. (London: Longmans & Co. Cape Town: J. C. Juta. 1877. I volGoogle Scholar. small 8vo.) A well-written history of European settlements in South Africa.
History of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, from its Discovery to the year 1819, by Wilmot, A., Esq. From 1820 to 1868, by the HonChace, John Centlivres, M.L.C. (I vol. large 8vo. Cape Town: J. C. Juta, Wale Street. 1869Google Scholar.) A valuable work.
History of the Cape Colony for the Use of Schools. By Wilmot, A., , F.R.G.S. (3rd ed. 12mo. Cape Town: J. C. Juta. 1880Google Scholar.) A useful little compendium of the leading facts in the history of the colony.
Compendium of South African History and Geography. By Theal, Geo. McCall. (3rd ed. 2 vols. 8vo. Institution Press, Lovedale, S. Africa. 1877Google Scholar.)
Chronicles of Cape Commanders. By Theal, G. M.. (1 vol. 8vo. Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, Castle Street. 1882Google Scholar.) After the publication of his History, Mr. Theal was made Keeper of the Archives of the Cape Colony, and these chronicles are, in great part, from materials previously unpublished in the Records of the Government at Cape Town and in the Nether, lands. The book contains a vast mass of interesting matter relating to the early Dutch rulers, and is illustrated by four reprints of early Dutch maps, and notes on English, Dutch, and French books published before 1796, containing references to South Africa.
page 4 note 1 Melpomene, iv. 42.
page 5 note 1 Book II. chap. iii. § 4.
page 5 note 2 I am indebted to my friend Mr. Major, late keeper of the department of maps and charts in the British Museum and Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society, for the correction of many errors in the ordinary accounts of the Portuguese discoveries in South Africa, and in particular for calling my attention to the fact that the Cape of Good Hope was first sighted on Dias' return voyage, and not when he was outward-bound. Flesh Bay, near Gauritz River, was the first land seen after passing Cape Voltas, the south point of the Orange River mouth. Coasting eastward, Dias reached Algoa Bay, where he erected a stone cross on an islet thence named Santa Cruz. He had discovered the Great Fish River when the murmurs of his wearied crew, to his great grief, compelled him to turn homewards. Mr. Major doubts whether September 14th can be the correct date of the landing in Algoa Bay. Dias left Portugal in August 1486, and got back in December 1487, having been out sixteen months and seventeen days. For details of Dias' discoveries, with their interesting and affecting incidents up to the sad fate of the great navigator, who perished in a storm off the Cape of Good Hope after assisting Cabral in his Brazilian discoveries, I would recommend the reader to consult pp. 218 and 220 and p. 260 of MrMajor's, Discoveries of Prince Henry, and pp. 343, c. 345Google Scholar, and 410 of his beautiful work the Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, Asher, 1868Google Scholar.
page 7 note 1 Sir E. Mechalborne in 1605, Sir Henry Middleton in 1607 and 1609, and other navigators whose names are recorded by Hacluyt and Purchas, called at the Cape and have left accounts of the place as they then found, it. Captain Dorniton, in Middleton's fleet in 1609, describes Table Bay as formerly ‘a comfortable retreat, for the English,’ and attributes to the depredations of the Dutch a change for the worse. The Portuguese, as far back as 1525, had made an abortive attempt to form a settlement on Robben Island, and the English repeated the attempt with equal want of success in 1614, when Captain Peyton, at the request of the English East India Company, brought out and landed ten men, sentenced at the Old Bailey to banishment for crime; but they quarrelled with the natives: the leader, Cross, was killed, four were drowned in trying to reach a passing vessel, and three escaped home, where they were subsequently executed for theft in 1619.