Going postal at the Cape to outwit a rival

ACCORDING to the latest statistics, more than 3.645 billion individuals – about 40% of the world’s population – are able to access the internet from home, and landline usage is dwindling as instant messaging takes over.

When sailors set out on long voyages 400 years ago, their only means of communication was to “speak” to the skippers of friendly vessels at sea in order to exchange news and letters, or to cache despatches and warnings at strategic watering points like St Helena, Table Bay and Madagascar.

This is the origin of the flattish postal stones which predate European settlement at the Cape and are now preserved in local museums. The stones, which were often engraved, protected waterproof packets of documents which were concealed above the high-water mark.

One such cache was discovered by the crew of a French expedition financed by merchants from Paris and Rouen and led by Augustin de Beaulieu (1589–1637) between 1619 and 1622. His ships Montmorency, Espérance and Hermitage reached Table Bay on March 15, 1620 en route to the East.

The weather was so bad that he had difficulty taking in water. While walking ashore, his pilots discovered a postal stone covering two packets apparently containing English or Dutch letters. These two nations had recently been at war but had since made peace and divided the Asian spice trade between them.

Beaulieu was aware that his commercial venture would be viewed with hostility and decided to read the letters for intelligence purposes. Each tarred cloth packet was opened in the presence of his senior officers and a translator, revealing a coarse bag containing layers of protective wrapping, including lead sheeting, canvas coverings and red woollen cloth.

The letters inside were quite dry and had been left by the first VOC admiral, Steven van der Haghen (1563-1624) who had touched at the Cape during a stormy return voyage aboard the Goude Leeuw in February 1620. There he met a large outward-bound Dutch transport which had made a very long passage and was almost immobilised by widespread death and disease among her crew.

Van der Haghen also recorded the arrival of two English ships from different directions, one detailing English losses sustained during the recent commercial war and the other bringing news of the peace agreement between the two East India Companies.

The most important news, from Beaulieu’s point of view, was that the Dutch were besieging the city of Bantam in Java, where he had intended to trade. After carefully replaced the letters, he resolved to send his second ship ahead to reconnoitre, and left the Cape in midApril. Despite this prior warning, the Espérance was later captured and burned and Beaulieu returned to France with the Montmorency and just 60 of his 273 men in 1622.