and
his successor was a man of much fainter heart and energy. So for nearly
a score of years the search for the traditional empire lagged, although
there was a considerable show of less venturesome prospecting. One
notable undertaking was the despatch of a party of expert assayers and
miners from the Netherlands to Cape Town in 1669 by the Dutch East
India Company, with instructions to search for any promising outcrops
of ore in the region of the Cape. This party prospected for several
years, but found nothing to inspire any investment in mining.1
A
revival of the dazzling old visions came in 1681, with the appearance
at the Cape of a party of Namaquas bearing pieces of rich copper ore.
This exhibit spurred the East India ComÂpany to direct another
exploration of Namaqualand. Then the commandant at the Cape was a man
of the stamp of van Rie-beeck, commander Simon van der Stel.2
He was quick to despatch a company of thirty soldiers, a draughtsman,
and a reporter to make the venture so often tried in vain. Again, after
months of struggle, the desert drove them back. Van der Stel then
resolved to make an effort far surpassing any put forth before by
adventurers from the Cape. He formed a party of forty-two white men,
soldiers, miners, and draughtsmen, with ten Hottentot servants and
guides. The expedition was provisioned for four months, and equipped
with two boats, a train of wagons, several horses, and a herd of pack
oxen. Ensign Olaf Bergh was put in command and led his company on to
Namaqualand. But it was the same old story. No strength of men or oxen
availed against the desert. No rain had fallen in the wilderness north
of the Olifants River for twelve months, and the whole region was an
arid waste without a trickle of moisture. So Bergh and his companions
faced about in despair, and marched back to report their failure.
Sergeant Izaak Schuyver and another forlorn-hope party tried their luck
in the following year, and pushed over the desert a little farther than
Bergh, but brought nothing back except a sack of copper ore on a pack
ox.
1 "South Africa," Theal, Vols. 1 and 2.
2 Commander from 12th October, 1679, t0 1st June, 1691.
