1652 - Exploration, Colonization

Exploration, Colonization

Cape Town, South Africa, is founded by Dutch ship's surgeon Jan van Riebeeck, 32, who goes ashore at Table Bay April 6 with 70 men carrying seeds, agricultural implements, and building materials (see 1648). Van Riebeeck joined the Dutch East India Company 13 years ago, sailed to Batavia and thence to Japan, took charge of the company's trading station at Tonkin in 1645, was dismissed for trading on his own behalf in violation of the company's ban on such practice, but has been reinstated to command the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, where the company wants a provisioning station for the ships that it sends to the East Indies (see 1655).