followers came to his aid, and enabled him to resist for some time. In the end, however, he was beaten, and the English got possession of the two fieldpieces which were on shore and eleven thousand kilogrammes of gun- powder. The remainder of the cargo was plundered and carried away by the blacks while the skirmishing was going on.
The Haasje was got afloat again, and Alexander Dixon, chief officer of the Hope, with a prize crew of five men, brought her to Simon's Bay, where she arrived on the 11th of August. De Freyn and some others were left behind.[1] After vainly trying a second time to make his way to Graaff-Reinet, the skipper and his companions returned to Lourenço Marques, and obtained passages to Table Bay in some whalers that put in shortly afterwards. On his arrival at Capetown De Freyn entered a protest against the seizure of the Haasje by the crew of a vessel not provided with letters of marque, and in a neutral port belonging to a sovereign who was not at war with the Batavian Republic. But his protest was of no avail. He was arrested and sent to England, where he remained in confinement as a prisoner of war until March 1800, when he was exchanged.
General Craig did his utmost to place English rule before the colonists in as favourable a light as possible. As a conqueror he could not be loved, but as a man he was highly respected. His government was just without being severe, and though the system was retained of civil servants deriving the larger part of their incomes from fees,[2] bribery and corruption were not tolerated.
- ↑ De Freyn, in his deposition, says that the English and Portuguese refused to make prisoners of the pilot Willem Sluyter, a mate named De Moor, and himself; but abandoned them and some Indian seamen in the Kaffir country. Dixon, in his report, states that the master of the Haasje and two mates fled inland.
- ↑ As an instance, the salary of the landdrost of Stellenbosch at this time was £120 a year, with house and garden. But his perquisites were officially stated to amount to at least £1500 a year.
