WniTK Population at C'apk hkkork Ahkivai, of Huouenots. 395 



saik)rs were allowed, after the expiration of the coritiact, to marry 

 native women, and these marriages were recognised as legal. Later 

 on, families and women were sent from Holland. But the stimulu.s 

 of religious perseeutitm, inducing Englisii and French to leave for 

 otiier countries, did not exist in the Dutch Kepublic, and those who 

 were making a living in their wealthy fatherland were not anxious to 

 venture upon the hardships of a new life under the very uni)opular 

 rule of the East India Conipan}'. An actor at Ani.stei-dam expressed 

 his view by .saying : " I prefer acting as king or prince, while fiee in 

 Holland, to being a slave in India." The better class of people declined 

 to go, and the poor and wretched were not good material out of which 

 to form a colony. The same complaints as those that were written l)y 

 the Governors of Virginia are to be found in the letters frt)m the ()fh- 

 cials in India. Their attempt to settle in that country was such a 

 failure, tliat about 16"{0the majority I'eturned to Holland. For nearly 

 twenty years no w(mien were sent out. The Company tried to keep 

 the freeburghers in India by raising tlie fares on the homeward-bound 

 vessels. The directors difl not wish to send out well-to-do people, who 

 might be able to encroach upon the monopoly, so carefully guarded by 

 the Company. The only way open seemed to be to release ser\ants 

 who had completed their contract, not allowing them the right of 

 trading privately. 



As soon as the settlement at the (.'ape pro\ed a success, the direc- 

 tors tried to form a class of free farmers, consisting at first of late 

 servants of the Company, but later on including aho freed slaves. 

 Their corn and cattle would be of use for supplying the outward and 

 homeward-bound fleets, in addition to the Company's stock. Many 

 soldiers, however, who expected an improvement of position, were dis- 

 appointed, and found out that there was a great difference between a 

 free burgher and a "freeburgher " ; as many of them were unfit for 

 farming under circumstances quite different from those obtaining in 

 their native land, they re-entered the service of the Company or tried 

 to settle near the Castle. Very soon after the first farming experi- 

 ments we see the farmers mentioned as lazy, inactive, unwilling to try 

 their best to increase the crop. Unkind and severe words are used in 

 proclamations to compel the farmers to do their duty ; they were 

 reminded that the Company was not there for the [)urpose of providing 

 an a.sylum for idlers. 8ome good harvests, however, enabling many 

 farmers to repay to the Company the debts incurrefl by buying tools, 

 oxen, slaves and materials, induced a large number to leave tlie service 

 of the Company and to join the colonists. 



Politically they were in as good a position as in Holland, and 

 possessed more rights than anywhere else on the Continent in the 

 seventeenth century. Government in Holland was in the hands of 

 an aristocratic section, and the rich merchants ruled in town, province 

 and country. The "burgher" or the farmer was not represented in 

 municipal council, provincial government or States-General. But they 

 were well cared for and enjoyed in liberty the results of the labour and 

 ability which they had put into their business. The heavy taxes of 



