HISTORICAL BARTICA 33 



possessed of more discretion than valor, for he kept within 

 the fort. The manager of Vryheid, with his few slaves was 

 quite powerless against such a number of disciplined, well- 

 armed men, and it therefore soon followed that the French 

 were masters of the Point, driving away its defenders with 

 a loss on their part of two killed and several wounded. Being 

 now landed, Captain Ferry commenced a series of raids on 

 all the neighboring plantations, plundering them of every- 

 thing portable, the managers and planters taking refuge in 

 the fort. Here everything was in confusion, the Comman- 

 deur being blamed by the planters for allowing their estates 

 to be plundered, when he ought to have gone to their assist- 

 ance. He excused himself by insisting that his fifty soldiers 

 were useless against such an enemy while it was his duty to 

 defend the fort and so prevent the loss of the whole colony. 

 No attempt was made to storm Kyk-over-al, but Ferry sent 

 an officer under a flag of truce to demand ransom, with 

 threats that if it were not paid all the estates would be burned 

 and destroyed. To preserve the Colony the Commandeur 

 ca])itulated and entered into negotiations with the enemy. 

 Finally Ferry undertook to leave the Colony unmolested 

 on a payment of fifty thousand florins. This amount was 

 paid in slaves at three hundred florins per head, meat and 

 other provisions, besides one tliousand pieces of eight in cash 

 for the Captain and his officers. One third of this ransom 

 had to be paid by the almost-ruined owners of the private 

 estates, while the remaining two-tliirds was settled by one 

 hundred and twelve of the Company's slaves. 



With the realization that the soil of the interior was 

 not nearly as well suited to the raising of sugar-cane as that 

 of the coastal lowlands, there began, about 1721, a migra- 

 tion toward the coast, which eventually resulted in the dyk- 

 ing and settlement of that region and the relinquishment 

 of all the interior part of the Colony. The last authentic 

 note of this period of man's occupation is that in 1764 Fort 

 Kyk-over-al was partly torn down to furnish hewn stone 



