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carriage considerably and also avoiding the soft and even, quicksand, of Fish Hoek and
Glencairn Beach, in particular (34) . Still the cost of providing these necessities remained
significantly greater than was the case in Table Bay. In 1748 Commissioner D. Nolthenius is
on record noting that every ship supplied in Simon’s Bay costs the Company double in
transport costs (35) . Nor was this situation soon to improve. While visiting the Cape in 1792,
Cornelius De Jong described this road as the “most neck-breaking defile imaginable” adding
with some apparent authority that, “no road in Spain is as bad as this one – the only one to
reach Cape Town from Simon’s Bay” (36) . Even as late as 1822 the British Comptroller of
Customs, William Wilberforce Bird would record:

“Provisions of every description whether for mere necessary supply, or for
indulgence, must be carried in wagons from Cape Town and many articles by the
labour of coolies; both wagons and road being of a roughness destructive to what is
not solid. A legger of wine, which may now be put on board a vessel in Table Bay for
100 rix-dollars will, by carriage and other expenses, be increased to near 150 rix-
dollars in Simon’s Town; and everything of bulk in proportion” (37) .

Thus it can be said that from the earliest days of Simon’s Town, and for a good time
thereafter, it remained expedient and cost effective for both the authorities and private
residents to meet as many of their provisioning needs as possible from the immediate
hinterland of Simon’s Bay. As long as this remained the case, and even as unpromising as the
agricultural potential of the southern Cape Peninsula would prove to be, fresh produce and
stock farming and a few other activities such as fishing, fuel-wood collecting, and lime
burning would remain cost-effective employment opportunities/sources of income for local
residents.

Imhoff’s Gifts

In 1743 Baron Gustof Willem van Imhoff arrived at the Cape on his way to Batavia to
assume the duties of Governor-General. One of his mandates while at the Cape was to select
a site and see to the establishment of the necessary infrastructure called for by the station at
Simon’s Bay. To provide services which the V.O.C. did not wish to engage in - such as

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