More important though, is another account of a stud, situated in the 

 locality which has gained undying fame for the Cape Horse. 



This stud of Mr. van Reenen situated in the then Hantam dis- 

 trict is described as "an excellent stud, containing over three hun- 

 dred breeding horses, all bred from the best English and Arab 

 breeds. He possessed among others an Arabian stallion for which 

 he paid three thousand thalers, (approxim^ately 2250 dollars)." 



At this time the ruling governor van der Graaf, a great lover 

 of horses, pomp, and show, doubled the number of horses in the 

 company's stables which he took over with 66 horses. Most luxur- 

 iant equipages were kept for the governor and his folloAving. All 

 this and also the luxurious life based on the fluctuating wealth of 

 the military life of two hired French regiments from Luxembo^^rg 

 gained for the Cape of those days the name of "little Paris." The 

 horse had an aristocratic career in that age and figured largely in 

 the pomp and splendor of great state occasions, and this luxuriant 

 life at the greatest half way of the world 's trade traffic has undoubt- 

 edly called for the maintenance and possession of the best horses 

 procurable. 



From these several accounts we have sufficient circumstantial 

 evidence to strengthen the supposition that the majority of the 

 horses imported from England during the eighteenth century were 

 Thoroughbreds, or as they seem to have been called at the Cape "Na- 

 tional English Horses" and it is quite clear that some very good 

 Arabs also found their way to the best studs in the colony. 



During the same year (1782) five stud horses were imported 

 from Boston, U. S. A.^*^ As in the case with the importations from 

 England we have no reliable information as to the breed and other 

 details of these horses. To throw any light on the question it is 

 necessary to review the contemporary breeds of horses in America, 

 and determine which was the popular one that would likely attract 

 the attention of foreign buyers. 



The foundation stock of the American horse is most fully 



(37) The German "Thaler" of tlmt period equalled three shillings.. .McC all 

 Theal in his "History of South Africa" remarhs on the dollar: "Its 

 real value as determined hij the rate of exchange fluctuated so much that 

 it is impossiNe to give statistics toith absolute accuracy in English money. 

 Up to 1789 the rix-dollar equalled four shillings (still the standard coin- 

 age in the U. S. A., as introduced hy the Dutch to New Amsterdam, in 

 1635). In 1816 it equalled two shillings and sixpence and later one shil- 

 ling and sixpence. In 1820 English coinage was introduced- 



19 



