1741 Julij van Bengalen
Julij van Bengalen accidentally set fire to the veld when cooking fish out of doors. The case was not considered serious enough to send to the Council of Justice,1 but Julij received a whipping and a stern warning from the landdrost. Fire was a particular danger in a community where wood was used extensively in building, and detailed measures were taken to punish those who caused it, either deliberately or by accident.2
Footnotes
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There is no record for this case in the criminal regtsrollenregtsrollenLiterally ‘rolls of justice’, the minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Justice. or criminal case documents for 1741, CJ 23 and CJ 346. ↩
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There was a standard article relating to making fires in the veld in all the generale plakkaten re-issued regularly, see e.g. Kaapse Plakkaatboek II: 52-3 (art. 65, 1715), 125 (art. 77, 1727), 191 (art. 77, 1740), in which the punishment for a second offence was death by hanging. Just before this case, there was also a special plakkaatplakkaatAn ordinance or decree of the Council of Policy read in public places and posted on buildings. The name is derived from the seal, a ‘placaat’, which was impressed on the document containing an ordinance. re-iterating the dangers, Kaapse Plakkaatboek II: 196-7 (1741). Arson was particularly severely punished (see, for example, 1717 Aaron van Bengalen and 1724 Andries van Ceijlon). ↩
1/STB 3/8 Criminele Verklaringen, 1702-1749, unpaginated.
Today, 6 February 1741, Julij van Bengalen, bondsman of the widow of Jurgen Radijn, confessed to us that, some days ago now, he was in the veld with the sheep of his mistress and, because he wanted to roast the fish which he had in his knapsack, he made a fire in a porcupine hole, as a result of which the veld caught fire heavily. This slave Julij was then, in the presence of the honourable landdrost and us, the undersigned deputised heemradenheemradenThe origin of this word is uncertain, but is connected to the Dutch words heem (‘homestead’) and raad (‘councillor’). This was the title of a free burgher who served on the Collegie van Heemraden in the rural districts of the Cape, usually for a term of two years., severely whipped here by the cafferscaffersTerm for the slaves and bandieten used as assistants of the executioner and who also acted as the ‘police force’ of the town under the leadership of the geweldiger. Both the function and word derived from Batavia. for this, while the honourable landdrost also advised this slave Julij to refrain in future from making fire in the veld, or, if he did not, to be punished, in accordance with the plakkaatplakkaatAn ordinance or decree of the Council of Policy read in public places and posted on buildings. The name is derived from the seal, a ‘placaat’, which was impressed on the document containing an ordinance., with the rope on the gallows until death follows.
Done at Stellenbosch, the date as above,
[signed] Jacob Cloete, G. v.d. Bijl.
In my presence, [signed] A. Schephausen, secretary.
Huijden, den 6e Februarij 1741, heeft Julij van Bengalen, lijfeijgen van de weduwe Jurgen Radijn, aan ons bekend dat hij, nu eenige daagen geleeden, met zijn meesteresses schaapen in ’t veld sijnde, visch, die in sijn knapsak hadde, willende braaden, vuur in een ijzervarkensgat hadde gemaakt, waardoor het veld in een swaare brand was geraakt; welke slaaf Julij vervolgens in ’t bijweesen van den heer landdrost, en ten overstaan van ons ondergetekende gecommitteerde heemraaden, daarover alhier door de caffers strengelijk gegeesselt is geworden; recommendeerende den heer landdrost voorts gemelten slaaf Julij sig in ’t toekomende te wagten van vuur in ’t veld te maaken, ofte dat andersints, volgens placccaat, met de koorde aan de galg soude werden gestraft, dat er de doot naarvolgt.
Actum Stellenbosch, datum ut supra,
[get.] Jacob Cloete, G. v.d. Bijl.
Mij present, [get.] A. Schephausen, secretaris.