Page 27 - Bulletin 20 2016

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scurvy and “various maladies” and 75 in urgent need of medical assistance and fresh food.
Visser supplied not only provisions but shelter for the infirm ashore in tents (presumably
provided by the Governor / Company). Also by this time Visser seems to have formed
something of a partnership with Frederick Russouw who in 1717 had inherited the original
farm founded by Caterina Ras, Swaanswyk. Faced with the choice of taking his produce to
market in Cape Town Russouw seems to have recognised that there was greater profit to be
made (with no apparent competition at this time) working with Visser to develop the coastal
wagon road to Simon’s Bay and selling his produce there, most probably with Visser as his
th
‘middleman’. Lastly, on May 27 , 1743, Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel ‘in support of the
Council of Policy’, converted Visser’s vergunning of eighteen years to a ‘Loan Place’, and
thereby as close to full ownership as was possible at that time, in recognition of his many
years of faithful service to the Company (31) .

Schuster’s Kraal

It was also around this time that the first actual loan place in this area of the South Peninsula
was taken up and, a part of which, some two hundred years later, would be incorporated into
the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. In 1738 Jurgen Schuster or Schoester, as it is
variously spelled, was granted on loan the area of Wildschutsbrand on the other side of
present day Redhill from Simon’s Town. The name Wildschutsbrand or, roughly translated,
‘wild shooter’ or Hunter’s Campfire or ‘Camp’ is in itself interesting for as noted local
historian, Margaret Cairns, writes:

“Such a grazing license as Schoester was granted had actually evolved from the first
permits for hunting which were recorded in the Wildschutsboeke. When, at a later
date, loan places were added to the hunting permits the books maintained their
original designations and, as such, are preserved in the Cape Archives today” (32) .

The likelihood that Wildschutsbrand was originally an early hunting concessionaire’s camp
may well explain the origin of another place name close by - Klaasjagersberg or Klass de
jagers se berg (Klaas the hunter’s mountain). Could Klaas Gerritz have worked in this area as

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