or as M. le Dr. du Rieu once puts it-the settlers were 'des fils de nobles et de roturiers.'

They were sent out to a great extent with a view to supplying practical men for growing wheat, cultivating vines and olives, rearing cattle, and so forth, but it does not necessarily follow that they had always been employed in menial capacities in those industries. Thousands of Huguenots when driven out of France had lost everything in their hasty flight except their lives, and were forced to earn their daily bread as best they could. For example the three brothers De Villiers-Abraham, Pierre, and Jacob, described as vine dressers, may very possibly have been owners of vineyards before they fled from La Rochelle. We know that Jean Prieur du Plessis was a surgeon, and belonged to a noble family of Poitiers, before he became a wine farmer at the Cape; and most probably the proverb of beggars not being choosers is applicable in many other cases.

It is said that when Napoleon I, in the early part of his reign, wished to rally round his throne all the old French families he could induce to acknowledge his pretensions, he offered to the Du Plessis at the Cape-a simple minded farmer of Stellenbosch, who then represented the ancient ducal house-the restoration of his family title and estates: but the offer was declined. The Cape boer, in whose mind all recollections of his family traditions had died away, preferred his quiet vineyard to the brilliant saloons of the Tuileries. (Smiles' Huguenots in England and Ireland.)

It is now quite time to turn our attention to the Cape of Good Hope itself.

It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1486, but no settlement was made there until the Dutch East India Company in 1652 formed a refreshment station in Table Bay. In those days a passage to Batavia, their head quarters in the East, was considered a very quick one if made in six months, and the loss of life on these long voyages, through scurvy, was so great that a port of call rather more than half-way was very desirable.

In 1679 Simon van der Stel was appointed Commander, and outlying posts were formed at Stellenbosch and Drakenstein some thirty miles away.

About this time the Council of Seventeen, which controlled the various Dutch East India Companies having offices at Delft, Middelburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and Enkhuizen, were doing all they could to induce suitable families to emigrate to the Cape-with ill success; few could

be prevailed upon to volunteer, and they were scarcely of the class required.

Before long however the Huguenot persecutions in France, culminating in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, drove thousands of all classes to take refuge in Holland and thus flooded the labour market. These immigrants had been arriving to some extent for years, and as most of them spoke only French, wherever their numbers became large, clergymen were appointed to conduct services for them in French; but the congregations so formed only became new branches of those already in existence. It is partly for this reason that I feel sure that much valuable information about many of the Cape Huguenot families will be obtainable from the registers and records of these Churches. Members of some of these families were living in Holland for years, Le Fèbres at Middelburg; De Lanoys, Du Toits, Jouberts, Malans, and Mesnards at Leiden; Nels at Utrecht; Cordiers at Haarlem ; and Malherbes at Dordrecht.

6

The Directors offered these exiles for conscience sake' a home in South Africa, with liberty to return to Europe at the end of five years should they wish to do so. In addition to free passages they further promised the engagement of a French clergyman to accompany them, gratuities to the head of each family and to every unmarried man and woman, farms without payment, and all necessary farming stock at cost price on credit.

Fully two hundred accepted this offer. The Directors hoped that these would supply the technical knowledge needed in various branches of agriculture which it appeared desirable to start or to improve.

'Among them' (says one of the despatches to the Cape Government) are persons who understand the culture of the vine, who will in time be able to benefit the Company and themselves. We consider that as these people know how to manage with very little they will without difficulty be able to accommodate themselves to their work at the Cape, especially as they will feel themselves safe under a mild government, and freed from the persecution which they suffered. It will be your duty, as they are destitute of everything, to furnish them on their arrival with what they may require for their subsistence, until they are settled and can earn their own livelihood. Further you will have to deal with them as we have on former occasions directed you in regard to the freemen of our own nation.'

Thus they were to take the same oaths of allegiance and to

enjoy the same privileges as natives of the United Provinces. The Company's orders were not exactly to the liking of Commander van der Stel, for he was an immense believer in anybody and anything Dutch, and would have greatly preferred that the settlement should be peopled entirely by his own countrymen. He appears however to have acted according to his instructions.

Several vessels were despatched with numerous Huguenots on board, one of which sailed from Delftshaven, one from Rotterdam, and two from Middelburg; and they arrived in Table Bay, after passages varying from three to six months, between April 1688 and May 1689. Some few Huguenots

In

did however arrive both before and after these dates. despatches sent out to the Cape Government the names and some other details of many of the Huguenot passengers are given; there are seventy-three names &c. given in the Passenger Lists quoted in Theal's History of South Africa. It is rather a pity he has not given us the names of those known to have died on the voyage.

Shortly after their arrival a sum of money, Rds.6000equal to about £1250 was sent at the request of Commander van der Stel by the board of deacons of Batavia for the relief of those in want, and from the lists showing in detail how this money was distributed in April, 1690, a copy of which is preserved among the archives at the Hague, an almost complete list of the Huguenots at that time is obtained. This is also given in Theal's History, those who received a share numbering 158, and those who were not in need of assistance only eighteen.

Among the many legacies for which the old Cape families are indebted to the late Mr. C. C. de Villiers is a series of four sheets published by Messrs. Van der Sandt de Villiers & Co., of Cape Town (at ten shillings the set) giving in fac-simile the signatures of a large number of their founders, both Dutch and French. I have brought with me a set-the first sent to England, feeling sure that many here will be interested in seeing them. Collected from the Church books, Deeds offices, and other sources, there are no less than 568 autographs given, with the dates of signature written against them. At the foot of each sheet is a list of all the names in order as they appear upon it. Those of fifty-two Huguenot Refugees are given on the first sheet, which is therefore to us the most interesting of the four, but other Huguenot signatures of later generations may be seen scattered throughout them. Most of

the signatures are fairly legible, though the old-fashioned cramped hand-writing of some is fearfully and wonderfully designed, and the spelling is curious. Many a good man in that age was content with making his mark, while others did not venture upon more than their initials. Number six is a specimen of the former, an anchor being drawn as Pieter Visagie his mark, and there are several instances of the initials only being printed in capital letters. Those of Jan du Buisson (No. 389) look full of suggestion to the latter-day colonist, as the letters 'I. D. B.' are now used as an abbreviation of Illicit Diamond Buyer," the term employed to designate the gentry who deal in diamonds stolen from the mines at Kimberley.

The supply of a single copy to each colonist whose name is to be found in this collection would be no light task, as their numerous descendants are now widely scattered over the whole of South Africa, from Cape Town to Delagoa Bay or Mashona Land. While Sir Henry de Villiers is without doubt the most distinguished descendant of these Refugees in Cape Colony, the chief military command in the South African Republic is vested in one who bears, à la hollandaise, the same two names as his French Huguenot forefather, Pierre Joubert.

From the valuable paper of M. H. de Jager on the Walloon Church of Brielle in the Bulletin de la Commission des Eglises Wallonnes, vol. 1 p. 243, we learn that this Pierre Joubert was married there. The marriage entry quoted from the Church Register runs as follows:

'Le 1 de février 1688 fut faite la benediction du mariage de Pierre Joubert, natif du lieu de la Motte d'Aigues en Provence, et de Susanne Reyne de la Roque, native d'Antheron en Provence; tous deux embarquirent dans le vaisseau le Mont de Sinai faisant voile pour le Cap de Bonne-Espérance sous la conduite du Capitaine Samuel van Groll, et celà après trois annonces publiées dans un même jour du consentement de Messrs du Ven. Magistrat de cette ville.'

According to Mr. Theal's Passenger List however he arrived at the Cape with Isabeau Richard his wife' (in the China, which sailed from Rotterdam on the 20th March, 1688), and 'Susanne Réné, 20 years old, a young unmarried woman.'

Most probably Susanne Reyne de la Roque and Susanne Réné are one and the same person, and le Mont de Sinaï and the China the same vessel, as very kindly suggested by Doctor W. N. du Rieu. If Pierre Joubert landed at the Cape with Isabeau Richard already his wife, Susanne, his first wife, must

have died in Holland, or on the voyage out. Her hasty marriage readily accounts for her appearing as a spinster in the Passenger List. The same thing occurred in the case of Jacques Pinard and Esther Fouché, though in their case a marginal note was added to say they were man and wife. The name of one of the farms afterwards owned by Pierre Joubert was La Rocke or La Roche, probably a memento of his first wife.

It would be interesting to obtain further particulars as to these marriages, and also about a tradition of the same family, according to which a Guillaume Adolphe Joubert was the first victim of the persecutions to which the French Protestants were subjected.

Some of the Refugees were settled at Stellenbosch, but the greater number were placed by Commander van der Stel upon lands along the Berg river valley, at Drakenstein, now known as the Paarl, and La Petite Rochelle afterwards called Fransche Hoek, which means French Corner, and is still so named. There, in addition to growing wheat, and planting vines, olives, and fruit trees, they planted a large number of French and Scriptural names throughout the district, such as Le Parais, Lamotte, Cabrier, Normandie, Rhône, Champagne, Languedoc, Lorraine, Orléans, Orange, La Provence, La Providence, La Vallée de Josaphat, &c. The titles of many of these estates still remain as memorials of the localities where they fixed their abode, and will be found marked on large scale maps. The Bible names are interesting as shewing their devout belief that under Divine protection they would one day be gathered from the lands into which they had been scattered, and would be avenged upon those who had persecuted them, (Vide Joel chapter iii. 2.)

The Refugees were not long in settling down in their new homes. As they did not possess the ordinary necessaries of life on landing, ships' biscuit, peas, and salt meat were issued to them for the first few months; timber was also supplied for building purposes, as well as other stores on credit. A fund was raised for their benefit in the Colony, and this rendered them considerable assistance. They set about building and planting with alacrity, and those more or less accustomed to work with their hands had soon put up rough dwellings and laid out vegetable gardens. Others there were quite unused to manual labour, and these suffered severely until, with the help of others, who had been less fortunate in former years but now had all the best of it, they too were able to make a start in farming. Ere long the plantations of several