Note 63 — A JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA IN 1497-99.

This paragraph is of the greatest importance with reference to the voyage of B. Dias, for Pero d’Alenquer, one of his companions, is the real authority for these statements. The usual statement that this pillar was erected on the Ilha da Cruz must henceforth be rejected, as had already been done in 1575, when M. de Mesquita Perestrello made a survey of this coast (see his Report in Pimental’s Roteiro da Navegação da India Oriental).

The distances given by the author are remarkably correct. From the Cape of Good Hope to Mossel Bay (São Braz) is 60 leagues, as stated by him. Thence to Santa Cruz is 56 leagues; from Santa Cruz to the Rio de Infante is 21 leagues.

Santa Cruz is the largest of a group of islands in the western part of Algoa Bay. It is 4 cables in length, rises to a height of 195 ft., and is nearly all bare rock. There are no springs. The Ilhéos chãos are readily identified with a cluster of low rocky islets about 7 leagues to the east. The Cape Padrone of the charts marks the site of the last pillar erected by Dias, and 5 leagues beyond it rises “Ship Rock,” in the locality where Perestrello claims to have discovered the Penedo das Fontes of Barros and other writers. Perestrello had, no doubt, in his possession original documents (now lost) which enabled him to identify the localities named by the early explorers. His substantial agreement with the author of this Roteiro is most satisfactory.