uncongenial alternative, of maintaining my command by violent
measures.
25th. In the evening, when my cattle returned home, I found
that they had been the whole day under the care of Platje; that Van
Roye, who had again absented himself till the hour of their return,
had ordered this Hottentot to attend them, and had himself not gone
near them till a little before that time. In order more clearly to
show me his disposition, and his inclination to disrespect, he conducted
himself before me with a gait and looks, which were too clear
and visible to the rest of my men and the natives, to admit of my
pretending not to see and understand them.
It became therefore unavoidable, to take serious notice of his
conduct; and I immediately ordered all my men to be present at
the waggons, and declared that it was now my intention to punish
his disobedience; but that I would first hear, in the presence of all,
what he had to say in his defence. Jan Hendrik was in the mootsi
at this time, and I desired him to seek for Berends with a message
requesting his attendance, as being a Hottentot captain, to witness
my proceedings with one of my men who had dared openly to disobey
me.
I laid my pistols and sword close at hand on the chest in my
waggon, to impress more strongly on my people the serious nature
of the affair. The formalities with which I conducted every thing, and
the approach of night, rendered the whole more solemn, and commanded
a certain degree of respect from all those who were present.
The Hottentots waited in silence the arrival of Berends and Hendrik,
and stood motionless around my waggon. Mattivi and his
chieftains, whose whole attention was fixed on us, were sitting at a
little distance: not a word was spoken by any on e; nor was the
least sound to be heard in the mootsi. Neither the Chief, nor any
of the natives, attempted to interfere with these transactions; nor
did they make the smallest remark: all were serious and still.
At length Berends and Hendrik arrived; together with most of
their people; I commenced the business by informing them that I
had desired their presence, in order that what I was about to say
and do, as well as the conduct of one of my men, might have some
credible witnesses and pass before impartial judges whose opinion 11
wished to have: and that Berends more especially, who was a captain
acknowledged by the Cape government, should take notice of the
proceedings.
I then, with the aid of a light, read aloud the written agreement
by which he, and Cornelis, had legally bound themselves in
the obligation to go with me wherever I should think advisable, and
punctually to obey every order, under penalty of all his wages, and
of legal punishment.
After this I called on my men to declare freely, and without
any apprehension of gaining my displeasure by giving an opinion
against me, whether I had ever issued to Van Roye or any of them,
orders to which they were not bound, or not able, to conform: their
answers I wished to be directed rather to Berends than to me. They
replied that it could not with truth be said that I had ever given a
harsh order. I then required them to declare whether they were of
opinion that I had, or had not, just cause of complaint against that
Hottentot for having done so much less work than any of the rest of
my people, that he might be considered as having done nothing.
All immediately answered, that it was not to be denied that he had
done very little.
When Platje was called forward to give his evidence, he made
attempts at prevarication, and would have given answers different
from those which I received when interrogating him at the moment
of his return home with the oxen.
On being questioned where Van Roye was during the day, or
if he had been with the cattle, he replied that he did not know,
but believed him to have been passing his time with some of the
Hottentots of Berends’s party. Philip followed his example in offering
a statement very contradictory to that which he had made to
me in the morning; at which time he told me that, on the previous
evening, in answer to the orders communicated by him, Van Roye
said that he would never attend the oxen.
Van Roye, on being applied to for his defence, asserted that he