Language in the Land of the ‘Hottentots’ and ‘Caffres’: European Travellers to the Eastern Cape, 1652–1806

The southernmost part of Africa entered Europe’s purview only gradually, through the development of maritime trade routes. At the end of the fifteenth century the Portuguese mariners Bartholomew Dias and Vasco da Gama successfully rounded the Cape peninsula, demonstrating as they did so a crucial new means of access to the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese exploited this new development, working to divert European trade with southeast Asia from the traditional routes via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Soon Dutch, English, French, and Scandinavian merchant ships also started using the Cape route, landing at Table Bay in order to barter for supplies with the Khoikhoi people there. By the early part of the seventeenth century, as the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company) grew to dominate trade in southeast Asia, it became apparent that an established trading post at the Cape would offer a particular advantage, in allowing the Dutch fleet to restock supplies between the Netherlands and the Company’s eastern empire. Consequently, in 1652 a party of 80 VOC representatives landed at Table Bay under the command of Jan van Riebeeck for the purpose of fulfilling this plan. Their original intention was simply to gather the necessary supplies through establishing trading links with the Khoikhoi people around Table Bay, but it quickly became apparent that the Khoikhoi were not much interested in extensive trade. Instead, the Dutch seized land and resources, establishing a small settlement around Table Bay whose economy was based upon its role as a staging post for the fleet of the VOC.