Note 8 — I. Exploration by the Portuguese of the Western Coast of Africa and Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, including a short Sketch of the early History of Portugal.

“On the 21st of November (1825) a heavy south-east gale set in, before which we were carried with great velocity, and in the afternoon saw the remains of the cross erected by Bartholomeu Dias at the southern extremity of Angra Pequena. Passing by it we (H.M.S. Barracouta) anchored in the bay, where, although the wind was directly off shore, yet such was its violence that the whole surface of the water was one vast sheet of foam. Some officers landed with Captain Vidal, for the purpose of examining the cross, and obtaining the latitude and longitude of the point. They found the sand very painful to the eyes, being swept from the surface of the rocks, and almost blinding them as they proceeded to the summit of the small granite eminence on which Bartholomeu Dias erected his cross, as a memento of his discovery of the place. This is said to have been standing complete forty years back, but we found that it had been cast down, evidently by design, as the part of the shaft that had originally been buried in the rock remained unbroken, which never could have been the case had it been overturned in any other way than by lifting it from the foundation. The inducement to this disgraceful act was probably to search for such coins as might have been buried beneath the cross; and it is probable that the destroyers, in order to make some little amende for their desolation, re-erected a portion of the fragments, as we found a piece of the shaft, including the part originally placed in the ground, altogether about six feet in length, propped up by means of large stones, crossed at the top by a broken fragment, which had originally formed the whole length of the shaft. This was six feet above ground, and twenty-one inches beneath, composed of marble rounded on one side, but left square on the other, evidently for the inscription, which, however, the unsparing hand of Time, in a lapse of nearly three centuries and a half, had rendered illegible. In descending by a different and more craggy path, the party suddenly came upon the cross; this was sixteen inches square, of the same breadth and thickness as the shaft, and had on the centre an inscription, but, like the other, almost obliterated.”—Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, performed in H.M. Ships Leven and Barracouta under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N. Two demi octavo volumes, published in London in 1833. The extract given above is to be found in Vol. II, pages 269 and 270. Two fragments of the pillar are now in the museum in Lisbon, and one is in the South African museum in Capetown.