THE SWISS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 1652-1970 - swissroots-za.ch

there to form a settlement to supply fresh provisions to passing ships. This first
European settlement at the Cape ended in failure. Jan van Riebeeck used penguin eggs
gathered on the island as an important source for food during his first year at the Cape.
He considered Robben Island as a place of refuge, if his settlement on the mainland was
endangered by the Khoi. When his position became secure, he threatened the Khoi
leaders with banishment there, should they not comply with his demands. It was not
long before the island became a penal colony to which convicts were sent to labour in
lime stone quarries, breaking much needed building stones. Robben Island was used in
this manner until very recently when the last political prisoners were released from the
island. It also served as a leper colony during the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Altogether 27 Swiss were condemned to corporal punishment, hard labour or
incarceration. Of these at least 14 spent time on Robben Island. See Table 9 (p. 25)
David Hypze “of Switzerland” in 1697 was caught picking up goods washed ashore
from Company ships wrecked in the bay and sentenced to two years hard labour in
chains. Jan Jacob Wald of Milde near Berne was condemned to five years hard labour
after a boisterous drinking party at a burgher’s house. Claas Loubser of Fräschels FR, a
burgher of the Cape, was found guilty of defrauding the Company and sentenced to two
years hard labour on Robben Island, which, let us hasten to add, was commuted to
labour on public works.
For lesser offences painful corporal punishment and deportation was often imposed.
Bartholomeus Jurger of Portels SG, a burgher found guilty of many illegal activities,
was branded, scourged and banished to Mauritius. Leendert Meynraad of Schaffhausen
and Charl Etienne Kiegel of Neuchatel were banned and sent away in 1712 and 1766
respectively.
For any Company servant to absent himself from work or strike his superior was
regarded as a grievous offence and the punishment imposed was certainly a deterrent. In
1733 Adriaan Vermaire of Basel stayed away from work for three days and was sent in
chains to labour for six months in the quarry on Robben Island. When, in 1705, Jan
Jacob Peroude of Neuchatel struck his foreman, he was sentenced to eight years labour
in chains on the island. Three years earlier Willem Soeter of Berne, on loan to a farmer,
was whipped and fined for breaking his contract and taking service with another
because, he said, of poor treatment.
Deserters and mutineers at sea could expect the death penalty or long years on
Robben Island. Nicolaas Basje of Lucens VD was hanged in 1675 and his body left
hanging as a prey for the birds. Jacon Boery of Zurich was placed against the execution
post and shot in 1748. Four Swiss, amongst them 23 year old Honore Brune of Nyon
VD, took part in a plot to mutiny at sea in 1766 and were sent in chains to Robben
Island where all appear to have died.
During periods when the Netherlands was at war with France, French speakers could
expect particularly severe sentences. Jean de Seine from “Griesons”, a freeman, was
heard discussing the possibility of a French landing and was sent in chains to Robben
Island for ten years. Murder of course carried the supreme penalty. When Isaac
Boshuysen of Geneva, a burgher of Stellenbosch, was party to a fatal assault he was
lucky to be convicted to 20 years labour at the public works.
Hangings, corporal punishment and the like were carried out in public by the
executioner, assisted by black slaves. No doubt it takes a special type of person to inflict
the sometimes gruesome sentences and not surprisingly he was shunned by the people.
Jan Weis of Solothurn must have performed his tasks well; he was retained as
executioner for 18 years, from 1762 to 1781. His pay was approximately equivalent to
that of a sergeant. At about the same time the position of head goaler was also filled by
a Swiss, Hendrik Swarts of Winterthur ZH.
4.9 The Swiss Regiment Meuron at the Cape 1783-1795 1
During the American War of Independence 1778-1783 popular sympathies in France
and the Netherlands lay with the Americans and this led to open warfare with England
in 1780. Within a short time England captured several Dutch colonies. But for the
timely arrival of a French fleet under Admiral Suffrens, they would also have taken the
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