MUTINY!

Meermin (1766)

n January 1766 the Dutch East India Company ship left Madagascar with about 140 slaves destined for servitude at a burgeoning settlement in what is now part of Cape Town, South Africa. Days into the 1,700-mile journey, ’s novice captain ordered that some of his captives be unchained and allowed to occupy portions of the decks, where they were to clean swords and metal-tipped spears collected as souvenirs during the slave-gathering mission. But the Malagasy captives used the weapons to attack and kill half the 60-man crew, while their fleeing cohorts barricaded themselves in the ship’s lower quarters. The mutineers were bent on returning home, but with no knowledge of sailing, they freed some crew members to show them the ropes. Under cover of darkness, however, the ’s navigators covertly piloted the three-masted vessel toward South Africa, finally arriving off its coast at the end of February. Six dozen Malagasy headed ashore in small craft, thinking they had successfully reached their homeland, only to be captured by a militia of Dutch farmers. The others on board soon surrendered, and by March more than a hundred of them were transported by land to Cape Town, where they spent the