CAARTE Van dei Afgelegenste COLONIEN DRAKENSTEIN en WAVEREN

History and other information.

Peter Kolbe (1675–1726) was an astronomer who visited and worked in the Cape from between 1705 and 1713. His Caput Bonae Spei Hodiernum was published in 1719 in Hamburg. It provided an account of day-to-day life at the Cape; the geography and climate; some flora and fauna and an ethnographic description of the ‘Hottentots’. Reputedly indolent, Kolbe seems to have conducted little astronomical work although he did prove a reasonable accurate estimation of the longitude of the Cape.

After he died, Balthasar Lakeman published the first Dutch translation of Kolbe's book: Naaukeurige en Uitvoerige Beschryving van de Kaap de Goede Hoop; Lakeman  probably commissioned the publication as he was the major subscriber.This map appeared on page 111 of of the first volume of the book. All the maps in this book draw heavily from the map published in 1726 by François Valentijn, which, in turn, drew heavily from VOC sources; Valentijn had visited the Cape in 1685, 1695, 1705 and 1714. 

The map is a distorted depiction of Drakenstein and what became the southern part of the Tulbagh district. The bays within False Bay are grossly distorted (today, Vleesch is Fish Hoek; Visch is Gordon’s Bay and Catharina is Kogel Bay). The names of ‘Hottentot’ groups are shown, as are some of the farms and names of the early settlers in the area shown – they pre-date the year of publication of the. The map also shows a water mill on the Berg River and two drifts across it. 

Condition: This map is in fine condition: it is a crisp imprint on good quality heavy paper.

Summary: This is an historically important map of the Drakenstein & just the southern part of the Waveren (Tulbagh) district that depicts some of the early farms and names the owners of others. It is seldom on the market.