James Lancaster barters livestock with Khoekhoe at Table Bay

On Sunday, 1 August 1591, Lancaster’s fleet anchored in the Bay of Saldanha, the Portuguese name used in the account for Table Bay. The crews were weak and sick after the voyage and initially found no relief from local residents. For fifteen or twenty days they survived on birds they shot, including cranes and geese, and on mussels and other shellfish gathered from the rocks. They later obtained penguins and seals from an offshore island.

Lancaster’s account says that the crew brought an enslaved African man ashore and compelled him to lead them inland towards cattle; after finding none, they released him with small gifts. Within eight days he returned with thirty or forty others, bringing about forty cattle and as many sheep. A later visit brought similar numbers. The English exchanged knives for the animals: two knives for an ox, one knife for a smaller ox, and one knife for a sheep, with some animals obtained for less. The account describes the cattle as large and well-fleshed but not fat.

The episode records a negotiated livestock trade, but also the coercive action that preceded the first successful approach. The broader pattern of repeated provisioning calls is treated in the related Cape process record.

Significance

The encounter documents Khoekhoe decisions about livestock exchange and the value assigned to imported iron goods within a maritime provisioning economy.