INSIGHTS
INTO THE VOC STAMOUERS
Compiled by AM van Rensburg
Included
are a number of description of the kind of people who served the VOC and
went to the East, the accounts vary from Leibbrandt's saintly portrayal
to Pieter de la Court total contempt of VOC servants. A large number of
South African stamouers were for a time servants of the VOC. This gives
us some insights into what kind of persons they may have been:
A. According
to H.C.V.
Leibbrandt:
In
going through the list, one often recurring word will, no doubt, cause
some surprise. It is that of "soldier," the rank which many
memorialists held when they entered the Service ; and the impression may
thus easily be caused that most of the earlier, as well as of the later
Colonists, were of humble origin, and not of the best class of
Europeans. No greater fallacy is possible, and an explanation is
therefore necessary. As the Dutch East India Company always required
large numbers of new men and boys to fill the ranks in the different
branches of its Service, volunteers from all parts of the Continent
naturally flocked to Amsterdam with the intention of going to the East
Indies to try their fortunes there. Men of every profession and trade
offered themselves, and, before their acceptance, were carefully
examined and classified. But whether they were Doctors, Lawyers,
Surveyors etc, every one was entered on the books of the Civil Service
as a "soldier," with the pay of nine guilders per month. This
was the lowest rank with which all had to commence their careers, and
therefore it was very natural, and no anomaly, when e.g., a surgeon
died, that he was succeeded nominally by a "soldier", but
really by another qualified surgeon, still holding the rank of
"soldier". ? In the Civil Service the ranks appear to have
been as follows:- (1) Soldier; (2) Assistant; (3) Bookkeeper; (4) Junior
Merchant; and (5) Senior Merchant, with perhaps the additional title of
Extraordinary or Ordinary Councilor of India. And hence it becomes
perfectly clear that a person described as a "Soldier" was, as
a rule, no more a "Soldier" than a "Junior" or
"Senior Merchant" was a "Merchant".
H.C.V. Leibbrandt, Keeper of the Archives, Precis of the Archives of the
Cape of Good Hope 1715-1806 (Requesten or Memorials), vol 1, A-E , Cape
Times Limited, Government Printers 1905.
B. The following
interesting account is given concerning the kind of burghers which
settled in Banda Indonesia by WA Hanna:
On the island of Banda, Indonesia was a VOC base, here the vrijburghers
were called "perkeniers", they are described as - "Rude
one-time servants of the VOC ... mostly were misfits, rakes or
scoundrels, nobody's first choice as model colonials" p 39.
Few
Dutch woman migrated, most who came were the so called "company
daughters" - orphans, paupers, and prostitutes which the VOC
shipped out, "they were more sluttish than the most uncouth
slave." p 96
In
Banda the burghers were prohibited to marry local women, having a sexual
relation with them was considered fornication for which they would
receive a whipping. "They therefore resorted to the subterfuge of
purchasing, baptising and adopting attractive young slave girls, who,
having been some what Christianised and domesticated, might win the
governor's approbation for a wedding." p 96.
WA Hanna: Banda A Journey through Indonesia's Fabled Isles of Fire and
Spice.
C. When High
Commissioner Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein came to the Cape
in 1685, the fiscal told him that the Free Burghers came from lower
class families in Europe and, when they suddenly found themselves in a
position of authority, they abused this power by asking the fiscal to go
give their slaves a severe canning.
(Refer to A Hulshof: H.A. van Reede tot Drakenstein, Journaal van zijn
verblijf aan de Kaap p 97)
D. Bruijns
in Dutch Asiatic Shipping gives the following statistic p 143, The VOC
fitted out 4,700 ships, sending 1 million people to Asia and only about
one third ever returned to Europe.
p
151 Quoting Warnsinck: Reizen van Nicolaas de Graaf, Oost-Indise Spiegel
p44 "With some exaggeration the Company was said to be in
contemporary opinion 'a great refuge for all spoilt brats, bankrupts,
failed students, cashiers, brokers, tenants, bailiffs, informers and
such like rakes'"
The
Company was content with inexperienced and the beggarly unemployed.
Research
into the Cape stamouers should include the reasons and circumstances why
a specific stamouer joined the VOC and came to the Cape. In this book is
listed the following categories of migrants:
1. There were the economic Migrants - Many Germans came for this reason,
due to unemployment (Hannekemaaiers - mowers or haymaking or
harvesting.)
2.
There were the expulsion of emigrants from other countries for political
and religious reasons -
a) Germans came and sought refuge in the Netherlands during and after
the Thirty Year War (1618-1648)
b) Jews were fleeing the pogrom in Poland
c) French Huguenots fled
after the repeal of in 1685 of Edict of Nantes
E. J de
Hullu Op de schepen der Oost-indische Compagnie. p 59 "Bijna altoos
was de bemanning voor een deel, en dikwijls een aanzienlijk deel,
samengesteld uit vreemdelingen." p 62 " Wat naar Indi?gaat,
alzo was klaarblijkelijk de ganse 17de eeuw door de publieke opinie, is
niet anders dan slecht volk, dat nergens toe deugt of door wangedrag
zijn fortuin heeft zoek gemaakt. .... Johannes Thedens, een geboren
Duitser, die zijn loopbaan als soldaat begon en als Goeverneur-Generaal
eindigde".
F. CR
Boxer Jan Companjie in War and Peace p 5 "It is undeniable that
many unscrupulous individuals enlisted in the service of the VOC ...
with the sole object of enriching themselves as quickly as possible,
irrespective of the means. Others hoped to live a life of luxury in the
East, which they could never afford to do at home. Others enlisted
because through no fault of their own, they had no options but to
emigrate. Others, such as bankrupts, might hope to recoup their losses
and even to repay their creditors. Still others left their country for
their country's good, or simply because their friends and families
wanted to be rid of them." He also quotes Pieter de la Court who
complains against the restrictions of the VOC p6 "so that it is no
wonder that so few admirable, and that so many ignorant, lazy, prodigal
and vicious men sail to the Indies in the service of the companies. But
it is twice as astonishing that we find any intelligent, thrifty,
industrious, and virtuous men, especially Hollanders, who are prepared
to enlist in such a slavish service unless in the greatest need."
Boxer continues "The servants of the VOC were not recruited almost
exclusively from 'the dregs of the Dutch and many other nations",
as the scandalized de la Court complained. That a fair number of
respectable men from respectable families, as wells as many wastrels and
misfits, were to be found in the service of the VOC, is clear from the
biographical details copiously supplied in works such as Wijnandts van
Resandt's study of the chiefs of the outlying agencies in Asia, from Dr
Philip W. Coolhaas truly monumental edition of the correspondence of the
Governors-General and their councils at Batavia with the Heren XVII
(1610-1713), and from ongoing work by Frank Lequin on the socio-economic
history of the VOC employees of all ranks in Bengal.
G. J
de Hullu Op de schepen der Oost-indische Compagnie p139, Hy het 'n
steekproef geneem en bepaal dat van die VOC seelieden 60.2%
was van Nederland, en 39.8% was buitelanders.
p140
Hy het ook 'n steekproef van soldaten in
die VOC geneem en het bepaal dat 33.2% was Nederlanders en 66.8% was
buitelanders
H. GC
de Wet gee die volgende statistieke oor watse beroepe die vryburgers
tevore in die VOC verrig het. 'n Mens wonder met die inligting wat de
Wet verskaf of wat Leibbrandt ges?het waar kan wees, wanneer al die
ander poste van melding gemaak was:
HO薌 AMPTENARE
Goewerneur ------------- 1
Onderkoopman ---------- 1
Boekhouer -------------- 1
Assistent --------------- 4
Adelborst -------------- 33
Chirurgyn --------------- 3
Krankbesoeker ---------- 2
TOTAAL --------------- 45
DIENAARS
Landmeter -------------- 1
Kuiper ------------------ 1
Saalmaker -------------- 1
Wamaker --------------- 2
Klipkapper -------------- 1
Messelaar -------------- 3
Houtkapper ------------- 1
Timmerman ------------- 1
Tuinier ----------------- 3
Stalmeester ------------ 1
Wadrywer -------------- 2
Kok -------------------- 1
Koksmaat -------------- 1
Slagter ---------------- 2
TOTAAL -------------- 21
BEROEPSOLDATE
Luitenant ------------- 1
Vaandrig -------------- 2
Sersant --------------- 3
Korporaal ------------- 6
Landspassaat --------- 1
Soldaat ------------ 223
Bosschieter ---------- 33
Konstabel ------------- 1
Konstabelsmaat ------- 1
Trompetter ----------- 1
Geweldiger ------------ 1
TOTAAL ------------ 273
SEELUI
Ekwipasiemeester ---- 1
Skeepstimmerman ---- 3
Seilmaker ------------ 2
Skeepskorporaal ------ 2
Schieman ------------ 1
Bootsman ----------- 20
Matroos ------------ 74
Skeepsjonge --------- 7
Hooploper ------------ 6
TOTAAL ----------- 116
Hierdie
inligting dek die periode 1657 - 1705. Uit die inligting wat hy kon
insamel was daar 528 vryburger en hy kon net die rang van 455 bepaal,
daar was 73 persone wie se rang onbekend was. Let wel, die inligting
sluit nie die statistieke vir immigrante soos die Hugenote in nie.
Uitreksel van GC de Wet Die Vryliede en Vryswartes in die Kaapse
Nedersetting 1657-1707, p 24
I. "The
VOC had something of the character of the French Foreign Legion and
attracted Europeans from other countries to its service" Michael
Roberts, Ismeth Raheen and Percy Colin-Thome: People inbetween: The
Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformation within Sri Lanka, p
39.
J. "Bovendien
kan worden vastgesteld, dat die recruteringsgebieden .... Bij zeelieden
kwam het merendeel nog wel uit kusstreken, zoals uit de aan die Noordzee
en Oostzee gelegen Duitse staten en uit Scandinavie, maar bij de
soldaten kwm de meerderheid uit ver van zee gelegen gebieden als de Pats
en Hessen." Femme S Gaastra, De Geschiedenis van de VOC p 81.
K. Daar
is 'n intersante navorsing oor die tipe persoon wat na die Kaap toe
gekom het. Was hulle lae klas mense, kon hulle gelees het en geskrywe
het? Ad Biewenga het navorsing gedoen en statistieke vir handtekeninge
ingewin. Hy het die Stellenbosche distrik vir die jaar 1704 nagevors.
49% van die manlike en 42% van die vroulike burghers kon lees of skrywe.
Hy vergelyk die data dan met data vir Holland gedurende die selfde
tydperk. Vir sy hele artikel gaan kyk na http://www.sun.ac.za/afrndl/tna/962/Biewenga.html
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