Inscriptions left by Early European Navigators. 13 



This narrative of the French Commander throws, in addition, a 

 singular light on the dangers attending at that time landing in Table 

 Bay, for he adds : " The next day I sent fifty men on shore with 

 sails to make tents of ; when the boat returned they told me they 

 had found several corpses of dead men and clothes scattered up and 

 down, and a small fortification of earth which we guessed to be 

 built by the Danes, for one of the natives that spoke a sort of jargon 

 of broken English gave us to understand more by signs than by his 

 language that five ships had sailed from thence to the eastward 

 about three months before." 



ENGLISH INSCRIPTIONS. 



Stone IV. 



If the French followed very early in the wake of the Portuguese, 

 such cannot be said of the English, for it is only in 1577 that the 

 famous sea Captain Drake, and, nine years later, Thomas Candish, 

 sighted the Cape ; but they did not land. 



In July, 1591, however, the fleet of Admiral Raymond put into 

 Table Bay, and on the 22nd of April, 1601, the first fleet fitted out 

 by the " Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading 

 to the East Indies," and commanded by Sir James Lancaster, sailed 

 from Torbay. It consisted of the Dragon (600 tons) ; the Hector 

 (300 tons); the Ascension (260 tons); and the Sit-in (240 tons). 

 It is not known if Admiral Raymond, or Lancaster, left any inscribed 

 stones to denote their landing in Table Bay, but the ship Hector of 

 Lancaster's fleet was again at the Cape homeward bound in 1605, 

 i.e. 1606 present style, as proved by the graved stone No. 6. 



Antony Hippon, who was mate or master of the Hector, and had 

 put into Table Bay in 1605, did again call at the Cape as mate or 

 master of the Drat/on in 1607. He looked for and found his first 

 inscription, and added to it the date of his second arrival or 

 departure. He was in charge of the Globe in the seventh voyage, 

 and reached the Cape on May 21, 1611, sailing hence on June 6th. 

 Possibly the name Ant lion if II. in smaller letters on the lower part 

 of the slab is a record of this occasion. It is this Captain Hippon 

 who planted the first English factory on the mainland of India 

 (Masulipatan). He died on board the Globe one month after leaving 

 Table Bay. 



The stone bearing this inscription was discovered lately, embedded 

 in one of the walls in the Castle, and it is the oldest in date of the 

 English records of call in Table Bay. 



