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The Cape of Good Hope

The Dutch East India Company's fortified anchorage and refreshment station at Table Bay, where William Dampier and Woodes Rogers both put in: a fort with the Governor in it, a town of fifty or sixty houses, a walled Company garden worked by enslaved people, a tavern taxed by the Company and a monopoly of the cattle trade with the Khoi, and used in English statutes and proclamations as the headland beyond which prizes, pardons and the African trade were reckoned.

Also writtenthe Cape (the everyday form in Dampier's narrative and in Rogers's journal); Table Bay (the anchorage under the town); Cape Toun (Rogers's spelling of the town above the harbour, in his journal entry on the approach)

The Cape of Good Hope, in a seaman's journal or a company letter, means the settlement and anchorage the Dutch East India Company kept at Table Bay, in what is now South Africa's Western Cape.1

The road under the Table Land

The Cape lies at the southern end of Africa, in 34 degrees 30 minutes south latitude. What shows first from the sea is a high mountain with a flat top, which Dampier calls the Table Land. The harbour is on the west side, with a low flat island off the entrance that a ship can pass either way.5,6

The Dutch, being settled on this promontory, always touched here on their East India voyages, out and home.7

Rogers came abreast of the Cape by noon and saw the Table-Land. The next day brought "very hard Flaws of Wind off the High Land" until the two hills he calls the Liona Head and Rump showed over the Cape Toun. He wrote to the owners that the ships came in on 29 December 1710.8,9

Dampier came in aboard the Defence, homeward from Bencoulen under Captain Heath. The night before they entered the harbour, about the beginning of April, they fired a gun an hour to give notice of distress. A Dutch captain came aboard next day, saw them too weak to trim their sails, and sent ashore a hundred men to bring the ship in.10,11,12

His sick went ashore at once to quarters provided for them; those able to work stayed aboard, with mutton and fresh beef sent out every day. Dampier landed too, with the tattooed man he calls his painted Prince, and stayed about six weeks.13,14

Rogers did the same. He moored, got his yards and topmasts down against the flaws off the Table-Land, put sixteen sick men ashore and spent till 18 January watering and refitting.15

A Company town

The Dutch had a strong fort by the shore facing the harbour, with the Governor living in it, and two or three hundred paces west of that a town of about fifty or sixty houses.16

Behind the town the Company kept a large house and a stately garden inside a high stone wall. It was worked, Dampier wrote, by "a great number of Negro Slaves brought from other parts of the World", continually weeding, pruning and trimming.17,18

Corn and wine were plentiful, drink dear, from the extraordinarily high taxes the Company laid on liquor. None could be bought except at the tavern, or secretly, and three houses in the town sold strong drink.19

His landlord told him the country people had kept sheep and cattle before the Dutch settled among them, and that the inland Hottentots still had great herds, sold to the Dutch for rolls of tobacco. Others said the same, and added that they could not buy beef so cheaply themselves: dealing with the Hottentots was a privilege the Company kept to itself.20,21

He calls the people the Hodmadods, a corruption of the name they call to one another by, in their dances or on any occasion. Inland, farms, Dutch families and French refugees spread twenty or thirty leagues up; near the harbour there were few.22,23

The business of a stay

Rogers "made a Rummage for Bale Goods to dispose of ashore, having Leave of the Governour". A later entry runs: "I took in more Water and Provisions, sent more Goods ashore to the Storehouse, and disposed of 12 Negroes."24,25

The Duke had been leaky the whole way from Batavia. Rogers moved in council to take her to a place he calls Sardinia Bay and careen. The carpenters agreed only careening would answer, but Captain Dover and the majority would not consent, and she was left as bad as ever.26,27

They were waiting for a convoy. Twelve sail of Dutch ships from Batavia were expected every hour, and the English resolved in council to go home with them. It came in about noon, eleven sail; the fort saluted the flag with twenty one guns, and every English ship saluted but Rogers's own, which lay heeled over.28,29

He had argued for running home alone, and was outvoted.30

Rounding it

John Graves wrote that the pirates, coming out, "go first to the Isle of May for salt, then to Fernando for water, then round the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar to victual and water and so for Batsky", to wait for the traders between Surat and Mecca.31

Thomas Tew abandoned his voyage to the Gambia, made for the Cape of Good Hope and steered for the Straits of Babel Mandel. Every's Fancy went the same way, from Annibo about the Cape to Madagascar, where they watered and took in cattle to salt.32,33

Kidd's own narrative has the Adventure Galley sail for the Cape of Good Hope, meet four English men-of-war on 12 December and sail a week in their company. The Archive's Kidd record makes it a near miss, Kidd slipping away by night from Warren's squadron in a calm.34,3

Dalton's Real Captain Kidd prints that narrative at the back with "Four English Men of War" in it, and quotes it in his own chapter as five.35

A line in English law

The prize act of 1692 provides that a ship taken as prize in the East Indies, or in any place beyond the Cape of Good Hope, may be carried into any port where an English factory is established and put into its Governor's possession, to be kept there until condemnation.36

William III's proclamation of 8 December 1698, given at Kensington and transcribed on the Archive's Kidd at Madagascar record, pardoned piracies committed east of the Cape of Good Hope and excepted Henry Every and William Kidd by name.4

Governor Cranston, denying that Rhode Island entertained pirates, wrote from Newport to the Council of Trade and Plantations: "As to Captain Want we do not know the man and have never seen his ship. William Mayes is the only man commissioned by this Government who has been to the south of the Cape of Good Hope."37

Nothing here comes from the Dutch side. The Cape Council of Policy minuted its decisions, and those resolutions survive as the C series in the Cape Town archives; they would say which ships it let into the road, which it turned away, and what a stranger paid for water. Until they are opened the town is described by two Englishmen fed in it, and the herdsmen through a Dutch landlord's talk. Dampier gives no number and no names for the enslaved people who worked the Company's garden. His stay carries a month and no year, the running date at the head of his chapters being broken in the scan. Nothing yet found puts a pirate careening or watering on this coast, a gap in the reading rather than a finding.

What the evidence does not settle

Naval squadrons at Table Bay

  • Whether Warren's squadron anchored in Table Bay in 1699Likely

1698 proclamation date

  • Exact date of the 1698 proclamation (8 Dec) is unclearLikely

1722 Table Bay disaster

  • 1722 Table Bay disaster ship count and deaths vary

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. In golden-age documents, far more often in seamen's journals and company correspondence, "the Cape of Good Hope" means the Dutch East India Company settlement and anchorage at Table Bay in what is now South Africa's Western Cape. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archival finding aids: The VOC archive at the Nationaal Archief, access number 1.04.02, and the Resolutions of the Council of Policy of the Cape of Good Hope, C series, Western Cape Archives and Records Service, for the VOC settlement and anchorage at Table Bay as the commoner referent (Confirmed)
  2. Throughout the golden age of piracy the Cape settlement was governed by the Dutch East India Company and by nobody else, so that for the whole span 1690 to 1725 a pirate approaching Table Bay was approaching a foreign company's fortified and garrisoned port answerable to a Council of Policy. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archival finding aids: The C series Resolutions of the Council of Policy with the TANAP and GLOBALISE transcriptions for the Governor and Council of Policy as the executive and for the resolutions as the backbone of the administrative record (Confirmed)
  3. In mid-December 1696 William Kidd's Adventure Galley fell in with Commodore Thomas Warren's warships on the approach to the Cape, and Warren, short of provisions and with scurvy aboard, ordered Kidd to help his ships to Cape Town; Kidd, fearing his healthy men would be pressed, slipped away by night when the ships were becalmed, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in the last days of December 1696 and stood away for the Indian Ocean, his landfall at Tulear in Madagascar about 29 January 1697 by his own narrative fixing the rounding to the end of 1696 rather than to February 1697. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Secondary narrative: Cindy Vallar, Pirates and Privateers, Captain William Kidd, for the mid-December 1696 encounter with Warren's warships, Warren's shortage of provisions and scurvy, his order that Kidd assist his ships to Cape Town, Kidd's fear of a press and his slipping away by night while becalmed, and for the rounding in late December 1696 with the Tulear landfall of 27 January 1697 fixing the date against the alternative of February 1697 (Probable)
  4. The Cape was a boundary in English law as well as in navigation: William III's proclamation of 8 December 1698, given at the court at Kensington and transcribed on the Archive's record of Kidd at Madagascar, pardoned piracies committed east of the Cape of Good Hope and expressly excluded Henry Every and William Kidd. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Printed royal proclamation in transcription: By the King, a Proclamation, given at Kensington, 8 December 1698, as transcribed and collated with the 1701 trial text on the Archive's record of Kidd at Madagascar (CLM-522, Confirmed)
  5. Dampier's narrative places the Cape of Good Hope at the utmost bounds of the continent of Africa towards the south, in 34 degrees 30 minutes south latitude and a very temperate climate. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52926-52928)
  6. Dampier's narrative names the high flat-topped mountain over the road the Table Land and places a spacious harbour on the west side of the Cape a little to the northward, with a low flat island off it that a ship may leave on either hand. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53079-53082)
  7. Dampier's narrative states that the Dutch, being settled on this promontory, always touched at the Cape on their East India voyages, both going and coming. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53108-53111)
  8. Woodes Rogers's journal records his ships coming abreast of the Cape by noon and seeing the Table-Land, and hard flaws of wind off the high land on the 28th until they came within sight of the Liona Head and Rump, two hills over the Cape Toun. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19567-19572)
  9. Rogers's letter to the owners, printed in his journal, dates the ships' arrival at the Cape of Good Hope 29 December 1710. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19654-19655)
  10. Dampier came to the Cape aboard the Defence, homeward from Bencoulen under Captain Heath, according to the summary of contents at the head of the chapter. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52108-52111)
  11. Dampier's narrative records that the night before his ship entered the harbour, about the beginning of April, they fired a gun every hour to give notice that they were in distress. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52759-52762)
  12. Dampier's narrative records that a Dutch captain came aboard, saw the ship too weak to trim her sails and turn into the harbour, and sent ashore for a hundred lusty men, who brought the ship to an anchor. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52762-52771)
  13. Dampier's narrative records that the sick were sent ashore at once to quarters provided for them, while those able to work stayed aboard and had good fat mutton or fresh beef sent aboard every day. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52914-52918)
  14. Dampier's narrative records that he went ashore with the tattooed man he calls his painted Prince and remained at the Cape about six weeks, until the ship sailed. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 52918-52920)
  15. Rogers's journal records the ships mooring and getting down yards and topmasts against the hard flaws off the Table-Land, sixteen sick men sent ashore, and the time to 18 January spent watering and refitting. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19583-19587)
  16. Dampier's narrative describes a strong Dutch fort by the sea side against the harbour, where the Governor lives, and two or three hundred paces west of it a small Dutch town of about fifty or sixty houses. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53306-53310)
  17. Dampier's narrative records that the Dutch East India Company had a large house and a stately garden walled in with a high stone wall on the back side of the town, towards the mountains. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53327-53330)
  18. Dampier's narrative records that a great number of enslaved people, whom he calls Negro Slaves brought from other parts of the world, were continually weeding, pruning and trimming the Company's garden. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53354-53358)
  19. Dampier's narrative records that the extraordinary high taxes the Company laid on liquor made it very dear, that none could be had but at the tavern or by stealth, and that only three houses in the town sold strong liquor. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53448-53453)
  20. Dampier's Dutch landlord told him that the people of the country had kept sheep and bullocks before the Dutch settled among them, and that the inland Hottentots still had great stocks of cattle which they sold to the Dutch for rolls of tobacco. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53820-53824)
  21. Men at the Cape told Dampier that they could not buy their beef by trucking tobacco with the Hottentots, dealing with them being a privilege the Dutch East India Company reserved to itself. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53833-53838)
  22. Dampier states that the people he calls the Hodmadods are so called by a corruption of the name by which they call to one another, in their dances or on any occasion. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), CHAP XX, Of the Natural Inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 536-540 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53511-53515)
  23. Dampier's narrative records that the country was pretty well settled with farms, Dutch families and French refugees for twenty or thirty leagues up, but that there were few farms near the harbour. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World (1697), the chapter describing the arrival at the Cape of Good Hope and the description of the Cape, printed pp. 528-534 (library file dampier_new_voyage_1697.txt, lines 53142-53146)
  24. Rogers's journal records a rummage for bale goods to dispose of ashore, made by leave of the Governor, and a store house in which Captain Courtney and the owners' agent took weekly turns during the sale. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19739-19742)
  25. Rogers's journal records in one entry that he took in more water and provisions, sent more goods ashore to the storehouse, and disposed of twelve enslaved people at the Cape. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19749-19750)
  26. Rogers's journal records that the Duke had been very leaky all the way from Batavia and that he moved in council to go to a place he calls Sardinia Bay to careen her. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19699-19703)
  27. Rogers's journal records that the carpenters' survey found nothing could be done from within board and that only careening would answer, that Captain Dover and the majority would not consent, and that the ship lay as bad as ever. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19707-19711)
  28. Rogers's letter to the owners states that twelve sail of Dutch ships from Batavia were expected at the Cape every hour, with six more from Ceylon, and that the English had resolved in council to accompany that fleet to Holland unless they had an account of peace. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19661-19665)
  29. Rogers's journal records the Batavia fleet coming in about noon, eleven sail, the fort saluting the flag with twenty one guns, and all the English ships saluting except his own, which was upon the heel. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19713-19717)
  30. Rogers's journal records that he pressed for one privateer to run home alone while the other kept with the prize and the Dutch, and that the majority was against anything but going home with the Dutch fleet altogether. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712), the journal at the Cape of Good Hope, printed pp. 301-305 (library file rogers1712_djvu.txt, lines 19632-19635)
  31. Dow and Edmonds quote a letter of John Graves, printed in the Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1696-1697, p. 744, giving the pirates' route out as the Isle of May for salt, Fernando for water, then round the Cape of Good Hope to Madagascar to victual and water, and so for Batsky. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship quoting a calendared letter: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, printed pp. 95-96, quoting John Graves's letter as printed in the Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1696-1697, p. 744 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 4362-4367)
  32. The General History states that Thomas Tew, instead of proceeding on his voyage to the Gambia, made for the Cape of Good Hope, doubled it and shaped his course for the Straits of Babel Mandel. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period compilation: A General History of the Pyrates, Vol. I (1724), CHAP. I, Of Captain Avery and his Crew, the digression on Captain Thomas Tew (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 1844-1847)
  33. The 1696 trial print's account of Every's voyage has the Fancy go from Annibo about the Cape, and at Madagascar water the ship and get provisions and cows to salt up. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Trial print: The Tryals of Joseph Dawson, Edward Forseith, William May, William Bishop, James Lewis, and John Sparkes for several Piracies and Robberies committed in the company of Every the grand Pirate (London, 1696), library file every_tryals_1696.txt, lines 1360-1362
  34. The calendar of Kidd's own narrative records the Adventure Galley sailing for the Cape of Good Hope, meeting four English men-of-war on 12 December, sailing a week in their company, then parting and sailing to Telere in Madagascar. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 17, pp. 366-380, item 680 XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd, enclosed in Governor the Earl of Bellomont to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Boston, 26 July 1699 (library file csp_v17_pp366-380.txt, lines 88-90)
  35. Dalton's book prints Kidd's narrative in full with Four English Men of War and quotes it in the text of his own chapter as five. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Sir Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd: A Vindication (London, 1911), the chapter narrating the outward voyage (library file gutenberg-54444.txt, lines 592-595)
  36. The prize act of 1692 provides that a ship taken as prize in the East Indies, or in any place beyond the Cape of Good Hope, may be carried by her captors into any port or place where an English factory is established, put into the possession of the Governor or chief person of that factory, and kept there until condemnation by such persons as shall be lawfully commissioned. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 6, pp. 419-425, William and Mary, 1692: An Act for continuing the Acts For prohibiting all Trade and Commerce with France and for the encouragement of Privateers (chapter XXV), section XVII, Prizes in the East Indies, &c. to any English Port there (library file sr6_pp419-425.txt, lines 248-251)
  37. Governor Cranston of Rhode Island wrote to the Council of Trade and Plantations that as to Captain Want they did not know the man and had never seen his ship, and that William Mayes is the only man commissioned by that government who has been to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16, pp. 191-206, item 434, Governor Cranston to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Newport, Rhode Island, 8 May 1698, endorsed received and read 12 September 1698 (library file csp-col-v16-pp191-206.txt, line 99)