George McCall Theal

“ But now, notwithstanding this error, there should have been no doubt in any mind that they had reached the end of the southern seaboard, which in a distance of over nine hundred kilometres does not vary a hundred and seventy kilometres in latitude. The coast before them trended away to the north-east in a bold, clear line, free of the haze that almost always hung over the western shore. And down it, only a short distance from the land, flowed a swift ocean current many degrees warmer than the water on either side, and revealing itself even to a careless eye by its deeper blue. ”

“ At last in July 1588 the armada, consisting of a hundred and thirty-four ships of war, with twenty thousand soldiers on board, sailed from Coruña, and on the 29th of that month came in sight of the English coast. Never in the world’s history were more important issues in the balance than those dependent on that mighty fleet. Absolutism or political liberty, iron bound religious conformity or freedom of conscience, these were the issues at stake, not only for England and Holland, but for mighty nations still unborn. ”

“ There have never been people less inclined to submit quietly to grievances, real or imaginary, than the early colonists of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. Even at this infant stage of the settlement’s existence they showed that great difference from the inhabitants of Capetown which is observable to the present day. They did not know it then, but it was they who were destined to impart that spirit of hostility to oppression and wrong which has ever since marked the country people of South Africa. ”

“ Their ideal of a happy life was a life on a farm where a man could look north, south, east, and west, and see nothing that was not his own, where a few fruit trees and vines provided him with peaches and oranges, apples and grapes, and a little garden, irrigated from a running stream or a fountain, yielded him all the vegetables he needed, and where his horned cattle, horses, and sheep throve and increased. ”

“ Then in man’s deepest extremity came God’s hand to aid the cause of freedom. During the night of the 1st of October a violent gale set in from the north-west, which drove gigantic waves along the coast of Holland, then the wind veered round to the south-west and sent the heaped up water through the broken dykes, and soon the flotilla was free again. Valdez was a brave soldier, but he felt unequal to a contest with the rising flood and the Sea Beggars on their own element. ”

“ They were the ideals of the proper working and spirit of government held by the great bulk of the people of the Netherlands at the beginning of the eighteenth century, before democratic principles or socialistic views had gained ground among the labouring classes or were even dimly foreshadowed in the minds of men who toiled with their hands for their bread. Such a system answered admirably in the fatherland, and the Cape burghers desired to maintain it unimpaired in South Africa. ”

“ If there were no other charges against him than this one alone, an honest historian, whose duty it is to expose to scorn the evil deeds of ignoble men as well as to hold up to admiration the good deeds of the upright, would{216} be compelled to pronounce Willem Adriaan van der Stel one of the most faithless and contemptible men of whom the records of any nation, ancient or modern, furnish an example. Many a governor has lost his head for crimes less glaring than his reckless neglect of duty for the sake of private interest. ”

“ The discovery of an ocean route from Europe to India, followed by the establishment of the Portuguese as the preponderating power in the East, is one of the greatest events in the history of the world. ”

“ As pitiless as Tshaka in South Africa, as treacherous as Dingan, he stands out in the history of the Netherlands as a cold-blooded murderer, a malignant fiend in human form. His commission as the king’s captain-general was issued on the 31st of January 1567, and his instructions were in keeping with his disposition and character. ”

“ Mechlin was almost entirely a Catholic city, but it had welcomed the prince of Orange, and had received a garrison from him. This was to be its punishment by Alva. The horrors of the sack of the doomed city cannot be fully told, but they can be imagined. The Spaniards knew that the richest spoil would be found in the churches, and they resolved not to leave it for others. In their lust for spoil the churches, the monasteries, and the convents of Mechlin were treated by these Catholics as the cathedral of Antwerp had been by the fanatic Protestants. ”

“ There was indeed peace in Europe between the Netherlands and Portugal, now independent of Spain once more, but that did not prevent the continuance of the struggle in the East. The chief Dutch stronghold was Galle, in the south of the island. The king of Kandy, Raja Singha Rajoc, was styled emperor of Ceylon, but had really lost all authority over the coast-lands, which were subject either to the Dutch or the Portuguese. His policy was to keep them pitted against each other, and occasionally to assist whichever appeared weakest, for he bore neither of them any love. ”

“ The Arabs, under the influence of the religion of Mohamed, had overrun Egypt and the whole northern coast of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, converting everywhere the people to their faith. In the second decade of the eighth century one of their armies passed from Africa by way of Gibraltar into Spain, and speedily overran the whole peninsula except the Basque territory in the north. For a long series of years they were not harsh conquerors, and by their love of learning, their splendid schools, and the beauty of their architecture unquestionably did much to improve the subject people. ”

“ From the union of Philippe and Joanna was born in the year 1500 a son, who as the emperor Charles V was the most powerful monarch in Europe. From his mother he inherited the sovereignty of Spain, of portions of Italy, and of the greater part of the New World, with the title of king, from his father he inherited the sovereignty of all the Netherlands except Gelderland, Utrecht, the Frisian provinces, and Liege, with the titles of count and duke, and by election of the German princes he became the head of the Holy Roman Empire, with the title of emperor. ”

“ In 1580 Philippe II added Portugal to his dominions. At the time there was no thought that by this union the Portuguese possessions in the eastern seas would be laid open to conquest by the Netherlands, but that was the result. Before the close of the century the provinces within the Union of Utrecht were destined to become the foremost sea power of the world, and then the addition of Portugal to their foes was simply the addition of a vast amount of valuable spoil for them to gather. ”

“ Every member of the council of policy was sworn to secrecy, and the contents of no document were made known without the governor’s order. With our knowledge, now that the old records are open for examination, it is with a feeling akin to amazement that we observe in the struggle for justice about to be recorded that the burghers made no use of a weapon which would at once have demolished their opponent, and employed only instruments feebler in every way because they were not so capable of being handled. ”

“ The preparations of Philippe for the invasion of England were rapidly advancing, and it had been arranged between him and Parma that a powerful army was to be massed in Flanders and Brabant, which should be embarked in small vessels and convoyed across the straits by a great fleet to be sent from Spain. Until all was ready, the queen was to be kept unsuspicious of danger by pretended negotiations for peace, which were never to be more than a blind. ”

“ It was during the reigns of the sovereigns of the dynasty of Avis that the Portuguese led the way in those geographical discoveries which have conferred such lustre upon the little kingdom. When João I ascended the throne Europeans knew far less of the western coast of Africa than was known by the Carthaginians five centuries before the Christian era, and of the southern and eastern coasts they were absolutely ignorant. The Arabs, Persians, and Indians were far more enlightened in this respect than were the people of Europe. ”

“ The new king was twenty-six years of age when he succeeded his father. Though inclined to be a despot, he was one of the wisest and ablest princes that ever sat on the throne of Portugal. His great object was to reduce the power of the nobles, who under the feudal system of government were really masters of the country, and he therefore instituted an inquiry into the nature of their tenures, which provoked their resentment. First among them was the third duke of Bragança, who was lord of many towns, and owned more than one-fourth of the whole territory of the kingdom. ”

“ The reformation had commenced, and its principles were spreading in the Netherlands. Charles, who regarded schism as even more criminal than rebellion, attempted to stamp out the new teaching, and for this purpose introduced the inquisition. His sister Mary, dowager queen of Hungary, acted as regent of the country for twenty-five years, and carried out his instructions in letter and in spirit. Many thousands of people perished by various forms of death, but wretched as the condition of the unhappy Netherlanders was, a still darker day was about to dawn upon them. ”

“ What kind of man Willem Adriaan van der Stel was in person cannot be ascertained from any document in the archives of the Netherlands or of the Cape Colony, or from anything contained in the vast mass of printed matter of the period concerning him. He may have been tall and stout or he may have been small, he may have been darker coloured than his father, for atavism sometimes plays curious freaks in this respect, or he may have been as light skinned as a pure Netherlander: there are no means of getting information on this now. ”

“ During the next four centuries Spain became thoroughly Romanised, to such an extent indeed that not only the arts, customs, laws, and municipal institutions, but even the language of Rome came into general use, and that language is the basis of the tongue of the Celtic portion of the people at the present day. The Christian religion also, which had become that of the ruling power, was firmly adopted. No{6} conquerors ever left their impression upon a whole people more thoroughly than the Romans left theirs upon the inhabitants of the greater portion of the Spanish peninsula. ”

“ The East India Company had now been a century in existence, and the honesty and rectitude of conduct which distinguished its officials in early times were no longer noticeable except in a very few instances. Its mode of paying its servants, largely by perquisites, had tended to create a spirit of greed, and most of them were actuated more by the desire of acquiring wealth with which to retire than of advancing the interests of the association that employed them. ”

“ The whole population of the Netherlands was at its mercy. Its agents sent in lists of names, and with hardly a pretence of examination, men, scores of men at a time, were sentenced to confiscation of all their property and death on the scaffold. This infamous Council of Blood met for the first time on the 20th of September 1567 in an apartment of Alva’s residence in Brussels. His intention was to crush out all opposition to absolutism, to exterminate all adherents of the reformed religion, and to raise a large revenue by confiscation of property. ”

“ Later, but still in the far distant past, the whole of the Iberian peninsula came to be inhabited by the race of men of whom the Basques are the present representatives, but whether they succeeded immediately to the palæolithic savages, or whether some other people came between them, is as yet{5} unknown. The Basques in Europe correspond to the early Egyptians and the light coloured men of the North African coast, so that in speaking of them we are speaking of a race that led the van of civilisation at a very remote period in the history of the world. ”

“ Charles had been a despot, it is true, but he was by birth a Netherlander, he spoke the language of the people, and took an interest in their commerce and their manufactures; Philippe was a Spaniard, ignorant of Flemish (i.e. Dutch) and of French, and without a particle of sympathy with them in any particular.
For the first four years of his reign Philippe resided in the Netherlands, though he appointed the duke of Savoy regent of the country. They were years of war between Spain and France, and the Netherlands were obliged to aid their sovereign very largely with money and with men. ”

“ If an average be taken the old colonists need not fear a comparison of intellect with the inhabitants of any country in Europe.
Character of Pieter Uys.
Pieter Uys was of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa. He had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good school education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from every source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could write a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch, and he was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. ”

“ In the Netherlands at that period representative institutions, such as are now believed to be indispensable to liberty, were unknown. Yet the people were free in reality as well as in name. There is not a word expressing a wish on the part of the burghers for an alteration in the form of government, what they desired being merely that the administration should be placed in honest hands, and that their rights should be respected. ”