The Dutch Were
Forming Other Schemes To The Prejudice Of Our Trade, Wherefore Cowley,
With Hill And Another Of The Englishmen, Resolved To Make All The Haste
They Could To Batavia, To Avoid Being Involved In The Subsisting
Disputes.
They were kindly received by the governor of Batavia, who
promised them a passage to Holland.
[Footnote 159: The Natuna Islands, in long. 108 deg. E. from Greenwich. - E.]
Cowley and his remaining companions embarked at Batavia in a Dutch ship
in March, 1686. They arrived in Table bay at the Cape of Good Hope on
the 1st June, where they landed next day, and of which settlement, as it
then existed in 1686, Cowley gives the following account: -
"Cape Town does not contain above an hundred houses, which are all built
low, because exposed to violent gales of wind in the months of December,
January, and February. The castle is very strong, having about eighty
large cannon for its defence. There is also a very spacious garden,
maintained by the Dutch East India Company, planted with all kinds of
fruit-trees, and many excellent herbs, and laid out in numerous pleasant
walks. This garden is near a mile in length and a furlong wide, being
the greatest rarity at the Cape, and far exceeding the public garden at
Batavia. This country had abundance of very good sheep, but cattle and
fowls are rather scarce. We walked out of town to a village inhabited by
the Hodmandods, or Hottentots. Their houses are round, having the
fire-places in the middle, almost like the huts of the wild Irish, and
the people lay upon the ashes, having nothing under them but
sheep-skins.
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