August Frederik Beutler (c. 1728 in

Dinkelsbühl Dinkelsbühl () is a historic town in Central Franconia, a region of Germany that is now part of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Dinkelsbühl is a former free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In local government terms, Dinkelsb ...

– ? in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

) was an

ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

(

sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

1747–49,

1749–54) in the employ of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

who headed an epic 1752 reconnaissance expedition lasting 8 months from 29 February to November, eastward from

as far as the present-day site of Butterworth. Beutler wrote a comprehensive account of his pioneering expedition which was first published in 1896 by the historian George McCall Theal and in 1922 by the Dutch historian Everhardus Cornelis Godée Molsbergen (1875–1940). The mandate of the expedition was to report on the tribes living along the route, the possibility of trade and on anything else that might be profitable to the Dutch East India Company. That Beutler's expedition was no lightweight affair, may be judged from his records. His diary lists two sergeants, four corporals, a drummer and 30 soldiers, a wagonmaster Pieter Clement, a surgeon Jan Hendrik van Ellewe, a botanist, a blacksmith, a wainwright, 11 wagons, and a boat for crossing impassable rivers. In addition Beutler was accompanied by the surveyor and cartographer, Carel David Wentzel, Hendrik Beneke, the naturalist, and Carel Albregt Haupt, the official diarist. On their journey they crossed the

Great Fish River The Great Fish River (called ''great'' to distinguish it from the Namibian Fish River) () is a river running through the South African province of the Eastern Cape. The coastal area between Port Elizabeth and the Fish River mouth is known as ...

and following trails blazed by hunters and game, penetrated

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

country up to the Qora River. He erected beacons denoting possession at St. Francis Bay and

Algoa Bay Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located on the east coast, east of the Cape of Good Hope. Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to deep. The harbour ...

in an effort to thwart suspected efforts by the French to colonise the coast. On 14 August, coming across Bushman paintings near present-day Cradock, Haupt wrote:
''"We noticed that in places here many pictures were found painted on the rocks, these being the work of the d'Gaua, who are called Little Chinese by our travellers. We went to a place about two hours from our camp to see these. Under the ridge of a kloof, in a kind of cave in which one could shelter from wind and rain, we saw pictures of wild horses, baboons and people in various positions, painted on the rocks in red, white and black. Some were rather well drawn, others not, the latter seeming to be the work of pupils. It is astonishing to find such things among such a coarse and ignorant people".'' 'Vaandrigsdrif' west of

Swellendam Swellendam () is the third oldest town in South Africa (after Cape Town and Stellenbosch), a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them buildings of Cape D ...

and 'Bottelierskop' near Klein-Brakrivier were named after Beutler, 'Bottelier' being a corruption of his name, and 'Vaandrig' being Dutch for ensign. Beutler married Anna Magdalena van den Heever on 4 January 1750 in Cape Town. She was the daughter of Pieter Petersen van den Heever (1705

Husum Husum (, ) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home of the annual i ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

- 1767 Cape Town) and Johanna Bockelenberg (c1708-) who were married on 23 June 1726 in Cape Town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beutler, August Frederik 1720s births 18th-century explorers from the Holy Roman Empire Dutch East India Company German explorers of Africa Year of death missing