by Mansell George Upham ©
The earliest recorded mention of Macassar as Cape place name that I am aware of, is 1791.
This is when Hendrik Cloete Sr. (1725-1799) makes mention in a memorial of “the real Macassar Downs as being part of his farms Zandvliet and Vogelzang (consolidated 1765) as opposed to the adjoining other Macassar Downs so-called, behind the Buffels Valley …”.
In the memorial he explains further: “… When the Colony was in its infancy, some Macassar exiles had been located on it, but when these exiles had been got rid of, the Government sold it, giving diagram and title deeds to Memorialist’s predecessors, and which are still in the hands of Memorialist.”
It seems that the name Macassar had become established by the time the land was re-allocated following the removal / repatriation of the Macassar exiles in 1704.
Muatze 