The revenue rose rapidly after 1796. During the period 1797 to 1802 it was on an average £73,518 a year. The accounts were kept in rixdollars, and the figures here given are obtained by computing the rixdollar at its nominal value of four English shillings. Its real value, as determined by the rate of exchange, fluctuated so much that it is impossible to give statistics with absolute accuracy in English money.
Between the date of the surrender of the colony to the British forces and the close of the eighteenth century seven hundred and forty-two vessels, exclusive of coasters, touched either at Table Bay or Simon's Bay. Of these, four hundred and fifty-eight were English, one hundred and twenty-four were American, ninety-one were Danish, thirty-four were prizes to English men-of-war, and the remaining thirty-five belonged to various nations. The average number that touched yearly was one hundred and seventy-one.
In 1798 the district of Swellendam was first provided with a clergyman. The reverend Mr. Von Manger, who had retired from Graaff-Reinet, objected to return to duty there, and in consequence his salary was stopped at the end of June 1797. But in the following year he was again taken into service, and was sent to Swellendam. On the 31st of May the governor approved of elders and deacons, and on the 18th of June the clergyman commenced duty. The erection of a church in the village was taken in hand immediately afterwards.
Graaff-Reinet was not left long without a clergyman. In August 1797 the reverend Hendrik Willem Ballot, recently minister at Malacca, arrived in South Africa in a Danish ship from the East Indies, and as he expressed a wish to be employed here, he was shortly afterwards sent to Roodezand to perform the duties temporarily while the reverend Mr. Vos went on a pastoral tour to the eastern frontier. In February 1798 he was appointed permanent minister of Graaff-Beinet.
