Genius or villain?

When writing my books, I do like to be as historically accurate as I can be. I research the region, the history and the people. Sometimes knowledge comes from my own experience and sometimes from the Internet. 

I always like to include historical people if at all possible. This may be alluded to as in Nick North: Cross Wires where I based the character Yvette, Nick’s great grandmother, on Eileen Neame a real life SOE operative in World War 2.  You can read about this in my blog: 'The Amazing women of SOE'  published in February 2018. 

However in Nick North: Into Africa I actually used two historical figures – first Governor Willem van der Stel and Lydia Williams. 

Governor Willem van der Stel 1664 - 1733

He was the son of Simon van der Stel, the first Governor of the Cape in South Africa, and later became Governor himself. In those days the Cape was little more than a watering station for the wealthy Dutch East India Company, who traded between the East Indies and Europe. 

Vergelegen

In 1700, Governor Willem established his residence at Vergelegen which literally means Far Away as it was a day’s ride from Cape Town. He transformed the uncultivated land into a paradise, planting vines, fruit orchards and olive groves and he kept thousands of sheep and cattle.  He was gifted in the whole area of horticulture and agriculture and experimented to improve yields and investigated and explored the many species of plants that flourish in southern Africa. He built a beautiful homestead and a hexagonal garden. He planted camphor trees and irrigated his paradise by digging channels from the nearby Lourens River.

The hexagonal garden today

Today, part of the house remains as does the hexagonal garden, a place of great quiet and beauty and the camphor trees stand majestically towering over the homestead. It is a beautiful location and I would recommend a visit there should you ever be in Cape Town.

However Governor Willem fell out with the other free burghers in the Cape as he used Company money to expand and develop his estate giving him an unfair advantage over the others. They complained to the Company and eventually Governor Willem was recalled to the Netherlands and the estate was divided into four.

Many however consider him to be a genius due to his knowledge of plants and horticulture and feel his great vision contributed to the development of the Cape. 

In my book, he makes a brief appearance right at the start. His manager, Master Anton, has whipped a slave to death.

At that moment, a man strode out from the homestead and across the lawns to where Master Anton stood over Jacob. He was wearing black britches, a long, black tunic, a white shirt with a cravat tied at his throat, and he had a grey wig.

‘What’s happening here, Anton? Did you do this?’ he asked, looking at Jacob’s battered and bloody body.

‘Yes, Governor Willem. I caught him stealing.’

‘Bit extreme, wouldn’t you say? Meant to be a couple of lashes, not an execution. You’d better be careful or your temper will get the better of you one day.’

With that, he strode back to the homestead and turned away his son, who had come out to see what had been going on, not realising that his careless actions had cost someone their life.

Next time: Lydia Williams