DRAMA IN THE BREAKERS (3)
LA MARÉCHAL, the first French vessel known to have been lost on our coast, ran aground near the Salt River mouth in May 1660, precipitating a minor crisis for Commander Jan van Riebeeck.
Although they were not at war, relations between the two European commercial rivals were often strained. There was also the need to find employment and provisions for the demoralised survivors, who numbered 145.
The Frenchmen wanted to move into the interior to hunt for their subsistence, but this would have jeopardised the precarious peace that had just been concluded following the First Khoikhoi-Dutch War, and was immediately forbidden.
Van Riebeeck also demanded that the visitors give up all weapons for the duration of their stay.
The French regarded this as a slight on their honour. It aroused so much heated resentment that he eventually gave permission for six senior officers to retain firelocks and side arms in order “to keep their men under better control”.
The castaways blithely asked for the services of three or four men and 30 to 40 slaves to help with their salvage operations – far more than the company could possibly spare. Their hosts gave them a patient hearing and then suggested they do the work themselves.
Captain Vesron confessed privately that he and 43 others were French Protestants (Huguenots), while the remainder were Catholics.
His junior officers were proving untrustworthy, and salvage was proceeding in a lax and dangerous manner.
Hearing this, the five-man Council of Policy decided to take some of the Frenchmen temporarily into Company service in order to get them under discipline and enable them to earn a labourer’s pay and rations. Their tasks would be agricultural, including preparing the ground for Van Riebeeck’s notorious bitter almond hedge.
The first 35 were enrolled on June5, 1660, at salaries of 7, 8 or 9 guilders a month, paid in advance, with a supply of tobacco and some clothing and shirts for those who needed them. Soon afterwards, two visiting VOC skippers and four ships’ carpenters inspected the Maréchal at the request of the French and signed a declaration pronouncing her a wreck.
Towards the end of the month the commander managed to get rid of 58 Frenchmen and a woman and child who boarded the VOC ship, Nagelboom, for a voyage to Batavia. The remaining survivors left whenever the opportunity arose.
It wasn’t until March 1661 that orders arrived from Batavia concerning the repatriation of Bishop Estienne and his coterie of priests and servants to Europe. They were distributed among four VOC vessels and some were given places of honour at table.
By this time, the commander and his family had become friendly with the bishop, who was particularly impressed by Maria van Riebeeck, calling her the most exemplary woman he had ever seen and adding that everybody liked her.