1730s in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during the 1730s in South Africa. Jan de la Fontaine continues as Governor of the Cape Colony.

Events

1730

• The Dutch East India Company imports slaves from Mozambique and Zanzibar
• The first trekboers reach the George area, trek inland into Langkloof
• 8 March - Jan de la Fontaine becomes Governor of the Cape Colony
• 8 April - The first Jewish congregation consecrates their synagogue
• Phalo becomes ruler of the AmaXhosa, but rivalry between his sons ended up causing political rifts.
• A Dutch commando kills six Khoi-San, captures a woman and three children. This is the first recorded instance of indigenous women and children taken as war captives for forced labor.
• The VOC abandons Delagoa Bay after its failed occupation, and 103 soldiers return to the Cape Colony.
• The French language disappears from the Huguenot immigrants within two generations, an unprecedented event in French emigration history.
• The Little Karoo valley is reached by the Dutch South Africans.
• The economic fortunes and profits of the VOC start to decline.Over the next 50 years, 4 million guilders is drawn from the Asia capital stock, an liquid capital in Europe decreases by 20 million guilders during the same period.

1732

• The Trek Boers, the first Dutch farmers, settled along the Olifants River

1733

• Matthias Lotter, master Gold and Silver Smith arrives at the Cape.

1734

• Jan de la Fontaine, Governor of the Cape, claims Mossel Bay for the Dutch East India Company and the Great Brak River is proclaimed the eastern boundary of Cape
• The VOC establishes an administrative post at Rietvlei.
• VOC outposts are established at Riviersonderend and St Helena Bay.
• The Great Brak River is declared the eastern boundary of the Cape Colony.
• Jan de la Fontaine colonizes Mossel Bay by erecting a stone beacon with the VOC and Dutch Republic coats of arms.
• Jan Smiesing, a former slave and schoolteacher, dies.

1736

• 14 November Adriaan van Kervel is appointed Governor of the Cape
• Phalo becomes King of the Xhosa Nation

1737

• 21 May - Nine ships are wrecked in a gale in Table Bay with a loss of 208 lives
• 9 July - George Schmidt, the first Protestant missionary (Moravian Brethren) in southern Africa, arrives at the Cape
• 20 September - Daniël van den Henghel is appointed acting Governor of the Cape
• 18 December - The first Moravian mission station in South Africa is established in Genadendal near present-day Caledon by George Schmidt, "The Apostle of the Hottentots"

1739

• 1 March - Etienne Barbier's insurrection at Paarl
• 1 April Hendrik Swellengrebel becomes the first South African-born governor when he is appointed Governor of the Cape

Deaths

• 1733 - Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Governor of the Cape, dies
• 1737 - Adriaan van Kervel, Governor of the Cape, dies

References

Bibliography

See Years in South Africa for further sources.