Page 22 - Bulletin 20 2016

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Whether or not these two men ever took up this requested grant of land is doubtful. Surely
they by now had an eye for what would prove to be fertile soil and therefore, would provide
resultantly higher quality grazing for their livestock. This is in short supply south of the
Noordhoek Valley but they had little choice for the present. In the meantime the V.O.C.
directors at last concluded that in order to meet the needs of the growing number of ships
calling at the Cape, as well as the garrison and settlers, the boundaries of the settlement
would need to be officially expanded. This became one of the first priorities for Simon van
der Stel when he arrived at the Cape in 1679 to assume the duties of Commander and later
Governor. As for Hennie Huysing and Klaas Geritz they eventually received a grant of land
on the Eerste River still known today as Vergenoegd (Far enough) (18) .

The time of Simon van der Stel

Among Van der Stel’s first actions at the Cape was the survey of a valley beyond the Cape
Flats out of which flowed, what in time, would be known as the Eerste or ‘First’ River. Here
he established, and named after himself, the township of Stellenbosch in 1680. The success of
the earliest farmers here along the foot-hills of the Hottentots Holland Mountains was such
that when Van der Stel himself was allowed to select a grant of land on the Peninsula in
1685, later to be known as Constantia, historian , G. M. Theal records:

“The commander Van der Stel selected a waste tract of land next to the last farm that
was occupied in Wynberg. Most of the burgers who had once been living on that side
of the mountain had removed to Stellenbosch so that there were then only twenty-four
families remaining between this ground and the castle” (19) .

And so we can see that the greater thrust of settlement at this time was directed eastward
rather than southward down the Cape Peninsula. This was apart from one stout-hearted lady,
Caterina Ras, who in 1683 had been granted the now disused Buitepos - An de Steenberg and
renamed it as the farm Swaanswyk (present day Steenberg.)

In addition to his many other duties, the seemingly tireless Van der Stel also undertook a
survey of False Bay and its shores in 1687. Assisted by the galiot, De Noordt, Van der Stel
and his party explored the southern Cape Peninsula by land and sea as far as Cape Point. In

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