Bernert Willemsz Wijlant, the first White baby, is born at the Cape

Two months after Dutch man Jan Van Riebeek and the Dutch East India Company arrived in the Cape, the first white baby was born. The baby was named Bernert Willemsz Wijlant and he would be the first of many European babies to be born in the Cape. Baby Wijlant and his parents were officially the first family to move into the Cape Fortress. His father Barenz Wijlant was a sick-comforter. Sick-comforters would comfort the dying, read them Christian scriptures and help them draw up wills. The birth of baby Wijlant signaled the beginning of a second generation of settlers in the Cape.