RETOERVLOOT, Kaapstad en die VOC in 1713

415pp., b/w & colour illus., maps, hardback, d.w. Cape Town, 2022

In 1713, as Admiral Johannes van Steelant of the VOC sailed his Batavian fleet home to the Netherlands, his five children on board the flagship fell ill with smallpox. The family came ashore in Cape Town on 12 February. Some months later, roughly half the Cape’s population had died of smallpox.

Daniel Sleigh was born on the West Coast in 1938. His books include the poetry collection Duif oor water, the historical works Die Buiteposte and Tussen Twee Vlae and the novel Eilande (2021), which won the Sanlam/Insig/Tafelberg Competition and was awarded the WA Hofmeyr, RAU, M-Net and Helgaard Steyn Prizes. It was translated into English by André Brink under the title Islands.