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Early European settlersThe Dutch: The original purpose of the Dutch settlement in the vicinity of latter day Cape Town was to provide fresh food and water to the ships of the Dutch East India Company, on their way to the East. Jan van Riebeeck built up fresh meat stock by bartering livestock from the local Khoikhoi. In 1657, Abraham Gabbema led an expedition, to explore the interior. The aim of this mission was to find more Khoi groups to barter from and to search for the legendary treasures of Monomotapa. On the day that this European expedition arrived in the Berg River Valley, the granite boulders, towards the west side of our town, glistened in the sun after some showers. This inspired Gabbema to promptly name this mountain “the Diamond and Pearl Mountain” from which the name Paarl was later derived. Previously, the Khoikhoi knew this landmark as “Tortoise Mountain.” In October 1687, 30 years after the Gabbema expedition, Governor Simon van der Stel granted the first farms to free burghers. Twenty-one of these farms were in Drakenstein (Paarl), and five of them were at the foot of Paarl Mountain.
The FrenchIn 1688, the French Huguenots arrived in the Cape and some of them were given property in the Drakenstein area. Their farms were granted at no cost but they had to give one-tenth of their produce to the Dutch East India Company annually. One of their most important influences was of course their knowledge of the wine industry. Today the headquarters of the South African wine industry, the KWV, is to be found in Paarl. It is situated on one of the earliest farms (La Concorde, as it is known today) to be granted by Governor Simon van der Stel |
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