12 Annals of the SoutJi African Museum. 



with the inscription outwards. But as from 1602 the vessels of the 

 English and Dutch East India Companies called nearly every year 

 at the Cape, and as moreover the captains of the English vessels 

 were instructed to leave such records, it is possible that graved stones 

 other than those now recorded will be found at some future time. 



While digging foundations for an extension of the present railway 

 station in Cape Town in 1906, the old landing-place at the foot of 

 Adderley Street was uncovered, and a number of graved stones that 

 had evidently been collected and brought to the spot in former days 

 were exposed to view. These stones, and others recovered before, 

 form the series bearing the name of " Post Office Stones." 



An extract of a letter addressed by Edward Blitheman to Sir 

 Thomas Smith (East India Company's Records) leaves no doubt 

 as to the object for which these stones were inscribed, and seems 

 to explain also the presence of the two inscriptions in the Castle 

 at some distance from the customary place : 



" And in the time of our being there (Table Bay, October, 1613) 

 the Dutchman (also in the Bay) made known unto us a packet of 

 letters which their company had found on the top of a hill. So our 

 General sent myself and Mr. Millward for the fetching of them, 

 being a place at least distant two miles from our tents. So finding 

 them we perceived them to be the letters of the factors of Captain 

 Downston's fleet . . . and afterwards our General sealed them up 

 again in a letter of his directed to your worship and buried them 

 by the stone where he placed his name." 



The French Commander Beaulieu, who sailed on the 2nd of 

 October, 1619, from Harfieur, in Normandy, on a voyage to 

 Bantam, via Senegal and the Gold Coast where he traded, landed 

 in Table Bay on the 16th of March, 1620, and he writes thus : 



" Some of our men going ashore happened to light upon a great 

 stone, with two little packets of pitched canvass underneath, which 

 we afterwards found to be Dutch letters. When we opened them 

 we found first a strong piece of pitched canvass, then a piece of lead 

 wrapped round the packet ; under that two pieces of red cloth, then 

 a piece of red frieze, all wrapped round a bag of coarse linen in 

 which were the letters very safe and dry. They contained an 

 account of several ships that had passed that way ; particularly 

 of an English advice boat that was gone to England to acquaint the 

 Company with the injury the Dutch had done them in the East 

 Indies. They likewise gave notice to ships that passed that way 

 to take care of the natives who had murdered several of their crew, 

 and stolen some of their water-casks." 



