Trekboer expansion from 1703 to 1780
In 1714 another fateful decision was taken. Considering the area west of the mountain ranges fully settled, the government allowed the loan farm system to develop beyond the mountains through the issuing of grazing licences. This gave a farmer the use of a minimum of 6 000 acres of land for a small annual fee of 24 rixdollars, which was equal to the value of two cows. The opstal, though not the land, could be purchased. Many farmers stayed on their farms but instructed their sons to take out farms for themselves. A special class of colonists came into existence, called the trekboers. They combined hunting with the seasonal migration of their livestock.
In a country in which ‘free land’ initially seemed unlimited and game abounded, the pioneer could penetrate the interior without concerns about food. When a trekboer in 1834 was asked how far he intended to penetrate into the interior, he lifted his hand to indicate a spot far away and remarked: ‘To beyond the other side.’
The system of loan farms provided the foundation for the unsystematic colonisation of the interior. It saw a thin layer of colonists spreading themselves over a vast area. As a result roads, towns, markets and a more stratified society with a division of labour were very slow to develop. The government did not like it, but unwittingly it had created an important safety valve for the poorer burghers, whose opportunities in the west of the colony were rapidly declining. Life as a trekboer could be lonely but it beat that of a labourer on a wine or wheat farm.
The administrative system of the interior districts rested on a local board called the collegie, or college. It consisted of a landdrost, who was a government official, and heemraden, who were prominent burghers. A College of Landdrost and Heemraden was introduced in Swellendam in 1743 and in Graaff-Reinet in 1786. The college dealt monthly with conflicts over land and applications for land and water rights. It mediated in civil disputes and settled minor criminal cases, such as assault, though it could also impose severe punishment, like lashes, on insubordinate slaves. In serious criminal cases, as when a slave died at the hands of the master, the college collected evidence for the Court of Justice to hear the case.
The system relied heavily on burghers filling the office of veldwachtmeester (later fieldcornet), one for each wyk (ward or division) of the district, doing their duty. They had to inform the burghers of government proclamations, report on crimes, hold post-mortems into unnatural deaths, inspect land claims, and call the burghers out on commando. From the start the burghers played a key role in the defence of the district. All male burghers had to perform military service and take part in annual training. In each division the burghers elected their officers and each district had a Krygsraad, or Council of War, of senior officers, who supervised the militia under the overall control of the landdrost. Soon it was apparent that an unofficial division of labour was taking place. After 1715 the Company largely turned the defence of the interior over to the burghers, who now indeed had become the ‘defenders of the land’ (see Burghers in government).
