Into The Hitherto Unknown: Ensign Beutler's Expedition To THe Eastern Cape, 1752

Into The Hitherto Unknown: Ensign Beutler's Expedition To The Eastern Cape, 1752

Hardcover 2013

Second Series No 4 

Van Riebeeck Society Publishers 

In February 1751, Rijk Tulbagh became Governor of the Dutch colony at the Cape after serving many years as the Secretary to the Council of Justice. Having arrived in the Cape in 1716 barely seventeen years old, he became passionately interested in every aspect of his adoptive land, its geography, botany, and its peoples. One of the first things he did after he became Governor was to appoint an expedition to obtain a thorough knowledge of the hitherto unknown condition of these interior lands and peoples. The expedition, under the command of Ensign August Frederik Beutler, comprising of 71 persons, was exhorted to gather all possible information on the countrys natural resources, commercial potential, as well as the customs and attitudes of its indigenous peoples. They left the Castle at the end of February 1752 with instructions to follow the well-established route to the vicinity of Mossel Bay and from there through the most suitable places.