![]() ![]() The settlers of the seventeenth century reacted in several ways: they engaged heavily in smuggling and illegal trade with the sailors of non-company ships, and they organized themselves into their own variation of the sheriff's posse of the American West, called commandos. All the food grown by the settlers had to be sold to the Company at low prices set by the Company. The East India Company attempted to keep the conflict to a minimum and put tight restrictions on the amount of land the settlers could use and on the crops they could grow. ![]() ![]() This way of life brought them immediately into conflict with the native tribes in the area, the Hottentots, who resented their cattle-grazing lands being taken over by the foreigners. The supply post, which was located on the site of present-day Cape Town, was not meant as a settlement, but the men posted there built homes, started the cultivation of crops, and made themselves as comfortable as possible. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company set up a supply post near the Cape of Good Hope to supply the crews of its ships with fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables to reduce the amount of illness on shipboard, particularly scurvy. ![]()
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