~ Uma colônia salva por uma vaca ~
Exploiting the riches that Portugal had gained access to in the Orient was no easy task. The “Carreira da Índia” (“India Run”) was not for the weak-willed, as it required ships to round the entire African continent without a consistently friendly port to resupply at anywhere from the isle of Saõ Tomé to the isles of Sofala or Moçambique. The northward Benguela current and westward Agulhas current also made rounding the Cabo da Boa Esperança exceptionally perilous. South of the Cabo is some of the world’s worst maritime weather, so maintaining a relatively close proximity to the coast was needed. While this was the safer approach, it also slowed down the voyage time, making it necessary to frequently send parties ashore for fresh water. Relations between the Portuguese and the native peoples of the Cabo had been soured, however, by a few ill-advised raids on the coast. By the 1530s, the need for a reliable stop-over at the Cabo became obvious. It was a certain Diogo Rodrigues, discoverer of the Ilhas Mascarenhas and Captain of Moçambique, who would head such a venture. After an abortive attempt at establishing permanent settlements at Baía de Saldanha [1] in 1536 and Baía de Madeira [2] in 1541, Rodrigues was finally able to receive a crown commission for a new port in 1551, complete with some 300 Portuguese soldiers, 18 horses, 63 pigs, 70 arquebuses, and 3 cannons. Good deepwater harbors with a ready access to fresh water and firewood are far and in-between on the Cabo, and ones with protection from the buffeting winds are virtually non-existent. Nonetheless, Rodrigues chose the most sustainable option at the Baía de Taboa (so named for the flat, tabular mountain that overlooks it [3]), and promptly built a stone fort (São João do Cabo da Boa Esperança) and a modest jetty to function as both a dock and a breakwater.
The first issue was the food supply. The terrain in the immediate vicinity of Boa Esperança was rocky, steep, and somewhat dry - causing two food shortages in the first two years. Luckily for the Portuguese, the residents of the area, the Coí-Sã (actually two tribes, the “Coí e Sã,” which were grouped together due to their similar lifestyle and languages [4]) were primarily drovers, herding a Sanga cattle native to the area, which the Portuguese simply termed the “sulafricano.” The sulafricano was hardy, strong, and an excellent source of beef and milk - all of which made it essential for the Portuguese to acquire. With his men barely scratching a living off the rocks of the windy Baía de Mesa, Rodrigues was able to resist his subordinate’s demands to seize the cattle of the Coí-Sã, instead selling the locals the Portuguese brandy supply in exchange for 24 head of sulafricanos (of which 4 were bulls). Brandy, and other such spirits, soon became an irreplaceable bartering tool for the Portuguese in dealing with the African populace.
The semi-nomadic Coí-Sã - who numbered around 15,000 to 20,000 in the area of the Cabo - were decimated by the introduction of European smallpox, and found their way of life increasingly hard to maintain. With the introduction of the Portuguese Lusitano horse, the European settlers and their African associates and in-laws were able to easily out-compete the Coí-Sã - who primarily herded on foot - causing a number of violent feuds. The dire straits of the Coí-Sã did not lead to their extinction, however. Unlike the peoples to their east, the Coí-Sã were comparatively light-skinned in the eyes of the Portuguese, and both the male predominance of the Portuguese populace and the relative comfort of the Portuguese with racial intermarriage all caused the Coí-Sã to be rapidly integrated into the nascent fabric of Portuguese “Sulafricano” society. The success of the Cabo prompted the Casa da Índia to assent to Rodrigues’ request for Portuguese families in good standing to be sent to settle and work the land, and shipped 23 families from Alentejo in 1556, and another 40 families in 1563 - while upping the Cabo’s standing garrison to 900 by 1560. By 1600, another 114 families had been planted in the colony over the years and as many as 3,000 Portuguese lived in settlements, forts, farms, and ranches on the Sulafrican coast and its hinterland, combined with a population of 5,000 mulatos and Lusitanized Africans.
Apart from the Lusitano horse, many trees native to the Iberian peninsula were also brought in: junipers and cypresses for ornamentation, hardwood and protection against the wind; cork and holm oaks for housing, barrelling, and acorn fodder for pigs; and olive and citrus trees for victuals (the latter primarily for scurvy-ridden sailors). A plethora of other fruit trees - such as apricot, pear, peach, plum and apple - were also planted to provide a quick source for fruit brandy. However, what was by far the most successful horticultural import was the grapevine. The quasi-Mediterranean climate of the Cabo made it perfect for viticulture, allowing the Portuguese garrisons in India, Africa and the East Indies a much more accessible source of much-needed wine (the average Southern European male in the 16th century drank a liter of wine every day), while also providing them with another bargaining chip in their trade. Over less than 50 years, the Cabo and its satellites had become not only a much needed and quite comfortable port of call, but also had grown its own minor consumer economy and had become a supplier of manpower - “Cabeiros” soon became valued as soldiers, as their height and stockiness exceeded that of the average Portuguese due to their ready access to high quantities of beef and dairy products.
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[1] OTL Saldanha Bay
[2] OTL Hout Bay
[3] OTL Table Bay
[4] OTL's Khoisan peoples