| (Slave) ShipVoyage | On 10 September 1657 the Hasselt departed the Cape (after an earlier false start) for Angola and the coast of 'Guinea' with orders to acquire slaves for the Cape. They had been deterred from attempting to purchase slaves at the bay of Luanda de St. Paulo by the presence of four other ships anchored there, and sailed on. They went first to Cape Lopez on the Gabonese coast for water and wood, and then proceeded to Andra, a slave-trading centre on the coast of upper Guinea. The vessel arrives at the Cape with 226 or 228 [different figures recorded contemporaneously] remaining from 271 originally embarked. Forty three or 45 died enroute and some women were already pregnant according to a later account. Eighty of the best 'Guinea' slaves were sent on to Batavia, and at the Cape a few abscond and many succomb to illness — by 5 March 1659 only 41 remain. The slaves had been purchased at what is now Grand Popo in present day Benin and would have come from as far afield as Sudan. The Hasslt arrived back at the Cape on 6 May 1658 and its slave cargo was discharged the following day. The following slaves would most likely have been among those who survived at the Cape: Abraham van Guinea, Adouke van Guinea, Anna van Guinea, Claas van Guinea, Deuxsous van Guinea, Evert van Guinea, Koddo van Guinea, Louis van Guinea, Maria van Guinea, Oude Hans van Guinea, Pieter van Guinea, Regina van Rapenberg van Guinea and Gegeima van Guinea.2,3 |
