The covenant - James A. Michener [87]
The men nodded, and Van Riebeeck concluded: 'Their Honors will allow you to sell any surplus vegetables to passing ships, but you may go aboard to do so only after said ships have been in harbor three days, because the Compagnie must have a chance to sell its produce first. You are forbidden to buy liquor from ships. And you must always remember that the Lords XVII are giving you this land not for your indulgence but in the hope that you will turn a profit for the Compagnie.' Van Doorn, listening to the restrictions, muttered to himself, 'He says they're free, but the rules say they're not free.'
Van Riebeeck, wishing to solemnize this significant moment, and totally unaware that he had imposed any unreasonable restrictions, asked the men to bow their heads: 'Under the watchful eye of God, you are now free burghers,' and to sanctify this status he read from the Bible that glowing statement of God's covenant which had excited Willem:
'And I will give unto thee, and unto thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession . . .'
With this benediction these nine became the first free white men in South Africa, the progenitors of whatever nation might subsequently develop. Suddenly the quiet was broken with cheers for the commander, after which the two groups set forth to line out their future farms.
One of the Hottentots had listened intently to this ceremony, and late that afternoon he crept off, taking a route past the fields the free burghers were surveying. At a small stream he stopped to watch as two antelope dipped toward the sparkling water; then he moved to break the news to his people: 'They are taking our land.'
The joy with which the nine free burghers had greeted their release was short-lived, for during the first year of backbreaking effort they came to know the Compagnie's interpretation of freedom. Two of the more adventurous, alarmed by their growing indebtedness to the Compagnie stores, began clandestine trading with the Hottentots for elephant tusks, rhino horns and ostrich feathers. For this they were severely disciplined, but Van Riebeeck did reluctantly agree that they might trade for cows, if they never paid more than the Compagnie did.
An argument arose over whether they might kill one of their own sheep for their personal use; the commander recognized this as a threat to the Compagnie's butchery, but he did compromise: 'You can slaughter one animal occasionally, but before you do so, you must pay a fee to the butchery.'
In the evenings, in their rude huts, the burghers grumbled, and sometimes Van Doorn would be present, for the things these men said he understood. No complaint was voiced more constantly than the one regarding labor.
'Is this what freedom means?' one farmer asked. 'We're peasants, working eight days a week.'
'The Hottentots are better off than us,' another said. 'They have their herds and all that free land out there. We're free ... to be slaves.'
Relations with the Hottentots had deteriorated: few brought animals to be traded, almost none wanted to work for the burghers. Most kept their herds at the edge of the settlement, watching sullenly as the Dutchmen's cattle encroached.
'In Java no man would work like this,' one stout burgher complained. 'I think I'll hide in the next ship and sail back to Holland.'
And that's precisely what several of the free men did, so guards were posted about any vessel that put into Table Bay, and then one morning in 1658 the lookout atop the fort awakened everyone by hammering on a length of metal suspended from a post and shouting, 'Warship coming!'
Apprehension gripped the tiny group