Note 65 — III. Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel. A History of the Successful Struggle of a few Hollanders and Huguenots against Tyranny and Corruption.

He was able to prove that he had paid for some timber drawn from the Company’s magazine, but the evidence of the master of a ship shows how articles could be obtained even where invoices and disbursements were audited. The skipper of one of the Company’s vessels needed a small quantity of iron for repairs, which he drew from the magazine. Before he sailed he was required to sign a receipt for a very much larger quantity, and on his remonstrating he was told that such was the usual custom. He grumbled, but was at length induced to attach his signature to the document. The receipt then became a voucher for the use of so much iron in the Company’s service. Willem Adriaan van der Stel was a poor man when he arrived in South Africa, and could not have established Vergelegen with his own means, although he received large bribes for favours granted. In Tas’s journal it is stated that from the contractor Henning Huising he obtained three thousand sheep, two slaves, and over £833, but no particulars are given as to the nature of the transaction. The bribers may be morally as guilty as the bribed, but with such a man as Willem Adriaan van der Stel there was no other way of getting any business transacted.