6.1 Khoikhoi
PS
6.1 Khoikhoi
Peter Snyders, in association with Unison Music and Literary Publications, 17.9.2024.
We will, if time permits, give you many proofs of exactly how civilised the Khoikhoi were. They not only made music with flutes, but they also made musical instruments in guitar fashion with bows.
When they retaliated against the Viceroy D’almeida in 1510, eighty Khoikhoi matched the Portuguese 100 of the best soldiers, who were armed with daggers, lances and swords, the Khoikhoi made use of their cattle. By whistling to the oxen and with other signs, the cattle surrounded the soldiers. The Khoikhoi then threw very accurately fire-hardened assegais as well as stones from slings. More than eighty soldiers (Castanheda has 65), including twelve Captains, met their end. Instead of complimenting the Khoikhoi on their Art of War, the writer called the Cape ‘this barbarous place.’
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.8 – 9
Sir James Lancaster, in 1591, traded 24 oxen and as many sheep from people at the Cape, whom he called ‘certaine blacke salvages, very brutish.’ The writers, Edmund Barker and Henry May, say, ‘We bought an ox for two knives, a sterke [calf] for a knife, and a sheep for a knife; and some we bought for lesse value then a knife.’
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.15
Cornelis de Houtman, from Holland, bought on 9th August 1595 a fine ox for a poor, short curving sword; one ox for an old cutting tool that has a thin [adze] arched blade set at right angles to the handle and is used chiefly for shaping wood. When they wished for two oxen for a new adze, they gave him a third large ox.
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.17
We learnt that some of the Leendert and Proot’s men who were stranded at the Cape for a year shot and stole the Khoikhoi cattle. The Khoikhoi, who came daily to bring wood and herbs to the sick Dutchmen, also bartered cattle with them. The gentle people became furious and killed the raiders. The same thing happened when some of the crew of Willebrand Geleynscz Jr. in 1648 did the same with 15 or 16 cows while they were at the Cape for 18 days.
Remonstrantie, 1649, Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.177
For how long have the Dutch been doing this? It must have been before 1610 because Nicholas Downtown a skipper from England says in late July, ‘… Saldinea having beene in former times comfortable to all of our nation trauiling [travelling] this way, both outwards and homewards, yeeldeing them aboundance of flesh, as sheepe and beefes, brought downe for an iron hoope of 14 inches long, and a sheep for a lesser peece, whereby weake sick men in former Voyages haue beene easilye recouvered, and made strong. Which now (contraryewise) whither our trade heere were spoiled by the Dutch men we heare found, who vus [used] to spoile all places where there come (onlye respecting there owne present occasions) by there [their] ouermuch libertys.’* [The *libertys is given in the index as ‘that they did so by stealing the cattle.’]
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.47
The text shows how cheap the cattle were, but the Dutch still stole (raided) the livestock without paying for them. This was why no bartering was done any longer, and the Khoikhoi’s homes were moved further inland.
We will come across Aushumao, who will regularly be asking Jan van Riebeeck when the English will be coming. The second English captain on record is Thomas Best, who on the 29th June 1612 writes: ‘They had thirtie nine Beeves, one hundred and fifteene sheepe for a little Brasse cut out of two or three old Kettles. For the sheepe worth one penny, or one penny halfe penny, the [a] piece; the Beeves twelve pence. The people are loving, afraid at first, by reason of the unkindnesse of Dutch who came there to make traine Oyle, who killed and stole their Cattell; and at our returning more kind.’
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.59
Here we have once again the cheapness of the livestock contrasted with the Dutch, who killed and stole the cattle of the Khoikhoi. I taught myself Arithmetic in 1943 at a time when the country was under the English. At that time, a quarter-penny was the smallest value of their money. In 1612, they might have had half a penny. It was not in shillings or pounds that the Khoikhoi wanted for their livestock, but in pennies. Pennies were frequently spoken of as pence, the plural of penny.
Walter Peyton on 18 January 1617, says about Coree, the ‘Black gent’ who had been taken to England for a year that he came only with three sheep, gave one as a gift and bartered the other two at his rates then ‘hastening awaye with all the speed hee could, vnto his wyfe & children, whome hee sayd lyued [lived] nowe farder off then they did before, for more securitie fro strange Shipps coming thither; I think it is the Hollanders that haue [have] afrighted the people, from in habiting neare Saldania [Table Bay], by their goeing vp into the Contrye with one hundred menn at a tyme out of a Fleete of Shipps, by which meanes they obteyne soe many Cattell as they will haue for nothing …’
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.75
Besides showing how the Dutch came with 100 men at a time from their fleet, raided as many cattle as they wanted without paying/bartering for them, we have once again an insight into how English was spoken and written at the time.
Coree and another Khoikhoi were captured by the English in late 1613. Towerson, in the ship Hector, took Coree to England. Coree’s partner died soon after while still on the ship. The reason for Coree’s capture was so that he could learn English and ensure that the English acquired livestock whenever their ship came into Table Bay (Saldania).
He remained in London for six months in the house of Sir Thomas Smith, the governor of the East India Company. He learnt a little of European economics and, for instance, discovered that brass was a cheap commodity. This made them want copper and not brass. Downtown returned Coree on 15th June 1614.
Before this time, everyone who wanted to barter with the locals had to do so with signs and sometimes simple one-syllable sounds. We will discuss this in our next, perhaps the last, post of the Khoikhoi.
Because Coree understood the value of things and learnt in London that his people were getting scraps for what is rated valuable by the English, he became strict in bartering, frequently not trading at all. The English regretted housing him in the capital. So, although we have more information on the raids of the Hollanders, we would like to say that on page 89, the English also took Khoikhoi livestock by force:
Robert Adams, 1617, 13th July ‘… having dispatched all our business and recovered our sick men and well refresht all the rest with Beefe and mutton which wee weare [one word elligible] constrayned to fetch and take pforce [by force] to the number of 500 hed.’
Before Van Riebeeck, R. Raven-Hart p.89
There are four more notes on the raiding cattle for nothing, but if you can get hold of
the book Before van Riebeeck by R. Raven-Hart and published by C. Struik (Pty) Ltd in 1967, go to pages 103, 135, 137 and 172 if you are interested. There was more such treachery by the Dutch, but it is either not recorded or else the unofficial documents are missing.
Coree was reluctant to barter with the Dutch, always expecting they would disgust him with their dishonest seizure of the wares. For this, ‘they butchered him.’
(by Thomas Herbert, 1627 on p.121.)
Two years later, in 1629, John Pynne took Aushumao, (also called Hadah, Harry or by the Dutch, Herrie) to Bantam. He, too, set up the trading reality at the Cape. He became later the interpreter of Jan van Riebeeck and often features in the latter’s Journal. Harry was sometimes invaluable to Van Riebeeck, but they were nevertheless wary of each other. We will frequently come across Harry, the ‘substitute’ of the Van Riebeeck halfway station.
16.10.2025. 23.7.2026