1698.] DKAKENSTEIN. 277 



Ten Leagues from tlie Cape up in the Country, there is a 

 Colony call'd Bragucstain} It consists of about 300 Souls 

 as well Hollanders as French Protestants, which last fled from 

 France upon revoking the Edict of Nantz. 



This Colony extends eight or ten Leagues about, because 

 the Soil not being equally good everywhere, tliey were fain 

 to cultivate those spots they found to be good, and which 

 occasion'd them to scatter themselves abroad. The Earth 

 produces here without much Labour, Wheat and other Corn, 

 which yields from thirty to sixty for one. As every Grain 

 shoots up a great many Stalks, they sow here very thin ; the 

 Harvest is in the Month of January. 



The Vine bears Grapes two years after it has been 

 Planted, and that in great abundance without Cultivating, 

 insomuch that in some Places a thousand foot of Vineyard 

 will yield six Hogs-heads of Wine. To speak Truth the 

 Wine is none of the best, being apt to be Green, which pro- 

 ceeds partly from the Peoples not giving themselves the 

 trouble to chuse such Plf^nts as are most agreeable to the 

 Soil and Climate, and partly in that they are not accustom'd 

 to support the Branches with a Vine-Prop. They are like- 

 wise wanting in not leafing the Vines well, for as the Soil 

 is Itich, they shoot forth Wood and Leaves in such great 

 abundance, that the Sun is not able to penetrate to the 

 Grapes, and this Conjecture is the better grounded, in that I 

 my self have frequently seen and eaten Grapes here, that 



1 The first party of Huguenots left the Netherlands in July 1688, and 

 arrived in Table Bay in January 1689. Shortly after, the refugees 

 were located at Drakeustein and Fransche Iloek, near Stellenboscb. 

 They were without goods or money, and the board of deacons at 

 Batavia sent £1,200 to be distributed amongst them. Among the 

 names of those receiving assistance is that of Isaac Taillefer, witli wife 

 and four children, who is mentioned by Leguat. These families inter- 

 married with the Dutch. The number of Huguenots in the colony is 

 stated to have been at this time one hundred and fifty-five souls. In 

 French edition of Leguat it is " trois uiille persounes." (Vide Cape 

 (luarlcrly Bcvicw, vol. i, pp. 395, 398.) 



