George McCall Theal - Willem Adriaan Van Der Stel, and Other Historical Sketches

WILLEM ADRIAAN VAN DER STEL
AND OTHER HISTORICAL SKETCHES

BY
GEORGE McCALL THEAL, Litt.D. , LL.D.
CAPETOWN
THOMAS MASKEW MILLER, PUBLISHER
1913
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON AND BECCLES

The discovery of an ocean route from Europe to India, followed by the establishment of the Portuguese as the preponderating power in the East, is one of the greatest events in the history of the world. It is not too much to say that every state of Central and Western Europe was affected by it. The time was critical, for the Turks were then menacing Christendom, and if they had secured a monopoly of the Indian trade their wealth and strength would have been so augmented that it is doubtful whether they might not have succeeded in entering Vienna in 1529. As yet the Moslem power was divided, for Egypt was still under the independent Mameluke rulers, and the greater portion of the Indian products that found their way to Europe was obtained by the Venetians at Alexandria. To that city they were conveyed in boats down the Nile from Cairo, after being carried by camels from the shore of the Red sea, whither they were brought by ships from the coast of Malabar. From this traffic Alexandria had thriven greatly, and from it too Venice,whose merchants distributed over Europe the silk and cotton fabrics, gems, pepper, and spices of the East,had become wealthy and powerful. That portion of the Indian merchandise which was brought overland by caravans from the Persian gulf to the Mediterranean coast was under the control of the Turks, and a few years later, when in 1517 the sultan Selim overthrew the Mamelukes and made Egypt a province of his dominions, the whole would have been theirs if the Portuguese had not just in time forestalled them.

Historical Sketches.

In the early years of the fifteenth century the Christian nations were little acquainted with distant countries, America and Australia were entirely unknown, Eastern Asia was very imperfectly laid down on the maps, and the greater part of Africa had never been explored. This continent might have terminated north of the equator, for anything that the most learned men in Europe knew with certainty to the contrary. They had only the map of Ptolemy and perhaps that of Edrisi as their guide, and these were extremely vague as regards its southern part, and, as is now known, were most incorrect.

The little kingdom of Portugal at the south-western extremity of Europe was more favourably situated than any other Christian state for prosecuting discovery along the western coast of Africa, though its shipping was small in quantity compared with that of either Venice, Genoa, the Hanseatic league, or the Netherland dominions of the dukes of Burgundy. A glance at its history may not be uninteresting, and will show how it came to embark in maritime exploration.

In Portugal, as throughout Southern Europe, and as in South Africa, great numbers of ancient stone implements are found of such rude workmanship as to prove that the men who made and used them were savages of a very low type, and there is further evidence that they were cave dwellers. In South Africa the primitive race has continued to exist until our own times, but in Portugal it disappeared ages ago, no one can do more than conjecture how or when.

Later, but still in the far distant past, the whole of the Iberian peninsula came to be inhabited by the race of men of whom the Basques are the present representatives, but whether they succeeded immediately to the palolithic savages, or whether some other people came between them, is as yet unknown. The Basques in Europe correspond to the early Egyptians and the light coloured men of the North African coast, so that in speaking of them we are speaking of a race that led the van of civilisation at a very remote period in the history of the world.

The Romans in Spain.

Next to appear in the Iberian peninsula were the Celts, by whom the earlier inhabitants of the south and centre were destroyed, though probably some few were incorporated. Those living in the mountainous region in the north, particularly in the western part of the Pyrenees and along the adjoining coast of the bay of Biscay, however, managed to hold their own, and their descendants are found in those localities at the present day. The Phnicians and Carthaginians followed long afterwards, and occupied many stations in the southern section of the peninsula, but never succeeded in establishing their authority in the northern part of the country. The Greeks also are believed by some historians to have formed trading stations at the mouths of the rivers on the western coast as well as on the Mediterranean shore, and it has even been supposed that Lisbon was founded by a Hellenic colony, though that seems to be extremely doubtful.

In the Punic wars the Romans obtained assistance in Spain, by which name the entire peninsula is meant, and in the year B.C. 206 the Carthaginians were finally expelled from the country. But now the Romans turned their arms against the Spaniards, and after a long struggle succeeded in establishing their authority over the Celtic part of the country, though insurrections were frequent, and it was only in the time of Augustus that the Basque section was subdued and the whole peninsula was reduced to perfect obedience.

During the next four centuries Spain became thoroughly Romanised, to such an extent indeed that not only the arts, customs, laws, and municipal institutions, but even the language of Rome came into general use, and that language is the basis of the tongue of the Celtic portion of the people at the present day. The Christian religion also, which had become that of the ruling power, was firmly adopted. No conquerors ever left their impression upon a whole people more thoroughly than the Romans left theirs upon the inhabitants of the greater portion of the Spanish peninsula.

Historical Sketches.

So matters went on until the early years of the fifth century of our era, when the Western Empire was overrun by hordes of warlike intruders pressing down from the north, and the Alani, the Vandals, and the Suevi made their way over the Pyrenees, and took possession of Spain. They were followed by the Visigoths, when the Vandals and most of the Alani went on to Africa, the Suevi remaining in Galicia and part of Old Castile, and the Gothic monarchy of Spain was established. These Goths held the Romanised Celts in subjection, and lived among them as an aristocracy, but soon adopted their language, when the two peoples blended into one.