Table
Mountain has through the ages offered refuge to many interesting
people. Indigenous peoples, runaway slaves, an assortment of
vagabonds, ascetics and bergies have over time all lit their fires
in the caves and rock shelters of the mountain.
Arguably the
most fascinating character to have lived like a Robinson Crusoe in
the caves of Table Mountain, allegedly for 14 months, was one
Joshua Penny.
Penny was
born from a poor family at Long Island, New York on 12 September
1773. In 1815 he published his life story in New York in a sixty
page pamphlet titled: "The life and adventures of Joshua
Penny"
This is his story…..
Penny
started out as a youngster trying his fortune at sea, but his
independence was cruelly terminated when he was "impressed" into
the British Navy. Impressment was an unpopular and harsh system of
forced recruitment that allowed the Royal Navy to compel
able-bodied men, including American seamen, to work as crew on
British warships. The system was justified and maintained at the
time as a necessary means to ensure the strength of the British
navy and the survival of the British Empire.
He soon
developed an enduring hatred for the British. In June 1795, as an
impressed sailor, the unhappy Joshua became an incidental
participant in the first British occupation of the Cape. But soon
after landing he and others succeeded in escaping from the Brits.
The Dutch defenders of the Cape welcomed them "with Constantia wine
and Mutton tails of the best quality". But our Joshua backed the
wrong side, and when the British took the Cape, Penny and the other
deserters were forced to retire into the hinterland. Penny reached
areas such as the "Koue Bokkeveld" where he befriended a group of
Dutchmen. They set off after a group of marauding "Bosjesmen" The
party was accompanied by Hottentot helpers who taught Penny how to
survive on flour, wild honey, and roots.
About a year
later our adventurer returned to Cape Town, where the occupiers
again forced him to work on British warships. He then became a
crewman on the HMS Sceptre. On America's National Day, he applied
successfully "for liberty to get drunk" from the Captain of the
ship. One thing led to the other and Penny soon felt obliged to
pick a fight with the ship's bully. Penny recounted how this fight
ended with two teeth stuck in the joint of one of his fingers. He
then feigned sickness for some months thereafter, and when the
Sceptre sailed into Table Bay again, he was dispatched to the local
hospital. But this resourceful "patient" persuaded his two-man
escort to share a bottle with him at a local watering hole. And as
soon as they become rather sociable, he promptly escaped into the
bushes at the foot of Table Mountain.
Historical
records show that the Sceptre entered Table Bay during October
1799. This means that Penny was 26 years old at this time. It
turned out that fate smiled on Joshua… A strong
north-westerly gale hit Table Bay shortly afterwards and the
Sceptre sank with terrible loss of life at Woodstock Beach on 5
November 1799.
With very
few items he started his ascent on Table Mountain. He resolved that
he would rather be "breakfast for a lion", than be taken on another
floating dungeon. He mentions encountering goats, antelopes,
hyenas, leopards and baboons during his climb to the summit which
took him more than four days. He then took up residence in view of
the Western Ocean in a cavern near a spring of good
water.
He soon ran
out of provisions, and had to take to killing antelope. He ate the
dried meat with toad-sorrel for sauce. He does however mention that
he had to adapt to surviving without salt. He also raided beehives
for honey. Honey beer was made using "some pounded root" as
fermenting agent (a trick he learned from the Hottentots earlier)
He also described rock dassies as choice food.
He often
moved to another dwelling on the mountain face. He states that he
had an abundance of meat, sorrel, honey and water. He could "every
night sing my song with as much pleasure as at any period of my
life… In fine, I never enjoyed life better than while I
lived among ferocious animals on Table Mountain, because I had
secured myself against the more savage English"
At each full
moon he would cut a notch into a root which hung to a silken cord
around his neck. Thus he determined the duration of his stay to be
14 months. Then one day he ventured into town again. There was just
one single vessel harboured in the bay, flying the Danish flag. He
walked up to the Captain, dressed in animal skins, and sporting a
wild beard. The Captain gave him one look and exclaimed: "What
in the name of God are you! Man or Beast?" Hearing his story,
the Captain informed him that the Sceptre perished 14 months
previously, and pointed to a monument on shore covering the bodies
of the crew.
Our Vagabond
finally left Cape Town on this Danish ship, and ultimately became
reunited with his family in America. By 1812 war broke out between
America and Britain. Penny's slumbering dislike for the British was
still as strong as ever and he full heartedly threw himself into
altercations with his old enemy on the American East
Coast.
Almost a
century later the Cape Times of 11 January 1892 reported the recent
discovery of a cave on Table Mountain by Jim Searle, a member of
the Mountain Club that evidently held relics of human habitation.
This included a piece of wood, about a foot long, curiously carved
and notched. The cave was in a very wild portion of the mountain,
in Fountain Ravine.
It would
however take many more years, until around 1957 to be exact, before
the connection between this cave, the relics and Joshua Penny would
be made by one WH Crump. He then revisited the cave, and
successfully recovered the relics for identification by the SA
Museum. The recovered items are now being preserved in two glass
covered display cases at the Mountain Club of South Africa's
premises in Hatfield Street, Cape Town.
Only the
most experienced mountaineers would be able to reach Penny's Cave
without injury, therefore I placed the cache at the foot of
Fountain Ravine. Look up at the mountain from the cache site and
ask yourself this question…. "Would I have survived
living on that rock face for fourteen months?"