Another great change was notified by the directors in March 1791. They had abandoned the exportation of all European wares on their own account, except to China and Japan, and had thrown that trade open to private individuals upon payment of customs duties. Foreigners, however, were not to be allowed to take part in it. From the Cape, wine could be exported by private individuals, and in February 1791 permission to send a cargo of wheat to Europe was accorded by the council to the burgher Tieleman Roos, of Drakenstein.

For several years there had been an impression among certain burghers that gold was to be found in large quantities in the desert region north of the Orange river and bordering on the Atlantic. It was currently reported and believed that the English traveller Paterson had discovered rich ore there, though he had not made his discovery known. Mr. Sebastiaan Valentyn van Reenen, who accompanied Lieutenant Paterson on one of his excursions, had really become possessed of a piece of ore or rock from which a chemist extracted some grains of gold, though the place where the substance had been found was unknown.

Fired with the idea of making a discovery that would enrich himself and benefit his native country, Mr. Willem van Reenen, of the farm Zeekoevlei, on the Elephant river, with the permission of the council fitted out an exploring expedition at his own expense, and on the 17th of September 1791 set out for the north.