Inscriptions left by Early European Navigators. 19 



order doubtless of the East India Company. That the relations 

 between the commanding officers of the vessels and the factors who 

 had really charge of the commercial side of the ventures were not 

 always of the most amicable kind would seem to be proved by the 

 following extracts : the complaints to the Company emanating from 

 the factors (East India Records, 1613-15) : 



" It is good to distinguish or limit the officers and charges of 

 captain and cape merchant, for thecaptaics do arrogate all authority 

 to themselves from your merchants." 



Again. Robert Gipps, Cape Merchant, in the Peppercorn, 19th 

 June, 161-5, in Saldania, to the East India Company. Discord 

 between Captain Harris and Robert Gipps. The Captain reviled 

 the Merchant and threatened him. "The Captain arrogates much 

 over the Merchants. He brings 100 to sea for private purposes." 



This falling out between Captain Harris and the Cape merchant 

 was, however, smoothed over, and the two men reconciled by the 

 Council of the fleet. 



Thomas Brockedon, the Cape merchant on board the Pn/.sv/w/v, 

 subsequently became the chief agent of the British East India 

 Company at Batavia. 



Although the inscriptions give the date of departure of vessels, 

 this does not necessarily imply the absolute date when the ships 

 sailed. Thus, a factor named Mills, writing from Tiku, in Sumatra, 

 which was reached on August 23rd, says : 



"The 3rd of August before day we sett sayle from the Cape 

 where we were 16 dayes wynde bound." The vessel had evidently 

 been retained in the roadstead by adverse winds for fourteen days. 



At the Cape they had met the Lesser James, homeward bound. 



This No. 9 inscription, cut into solid rock, was found a few feet 

 below the surface, when Messrs. Wilson, Miller, & Gilmore, of 

 Adderley Street, were rebuilding their premises in Adderley Street, 

 opposite the Post Office. 



Stone VII. 



Four months after the departure of Clevenger outward bound, 

 and of the Lesser James, returning to England, another English 

 vessel recorded its arrival and departure from Table Bay. 



This stone bears an inscription on each face. The oldest in date 

 is that of the Bull of 400 tons, which touched at Table Bay in 1619, 

 but not for the first time, because one reads in the "English 

 Factories in India " that the ship was sent home in 1618. 



On the reverse of this stone are graved letters which, judging 



