Inscriptions left by Early European Navigators. 7 



" At the demolition of the old Government House, there were found 

 two stones on which were engraved, on the one a cannon, and on the 

 other Portuguese words, of which some were broken off, others were 

 indistinct, yet without doubt are the names of a certain ship and its 

 captain, also the time of the arrival here, being the year 1500 or 

 1501." The stone with " the cannon " seems to have disappeared, 

 or it is no longer to be found. 



The inscription on the Museum specimen is, however, very baffling, 

 owing to its present incompleteness. 



FIG. 3. 

 41 cm. x 2L cm. 



It is skilfully graved, however ; and if we assume, as is highly 

 probable, that " DA NOVA " or " NUEVA " was spelt, by mistake 

 or otherwise, Novoa, and that BEA stands for Braz (the Portuguese 

 name Sao Braz), the inscription refers to the call at Mossel Bay of 

 da Nova's squadron in 1501 ; in spite of the graved date, which 

 appears to be 1500. This, however, has no importance, because 1500 

 in the old style may partly correspond to 1501 new style, the year 

 running then from end of March. 



If da Gama has left in Africa other inscriptions, and if they 

 are found eventually, they would not be much more ancient than 

 that of the Mossel Bay Stone. The latter can, therefore, be 

 looked upon as the third most ancient European relic hitherto 

 found in Southern Africa. 



