34 Annals of the South African Museum. 



stayed six days. He was again in Table Bay in April, 1606 and 

 1609. It is he who is credited with having arranged caches on 

 Kobben Island for the exchange of letters between the outward- and 

 inward-bound vessels of the Dutch fleets. 



In the year 1601, the Dutch Admiral, Joris van Spilbergen, who 

 had left Holland in May with the Bain, the Scliaap, and the Lceuw, 

 landed at St. Helena Bay, from where he set sail on November 20th, 

 and came on the 28th to a small island, which he named 

 Elizabeth Island, but which was afterwards called Dassen 

 Island. He weighed anchor on the 29th, and reached Robben 

 Island and Table Bay on December 2nd. He seems not to have 

 met any aborigines in the bay, although he is said to have sent some 

 people into the country to get cattle. He departed on January 1, 

 1602, and changed in his new map the name of Saldanha Bay into 

 Table Bay (it was the Portuguese, Antonio Saldanha, who had 

 discovered the present Table Bay in 1503), but the name Saldania 

 was retained by the English long after that change. 



In 1604, the ships Zirikzec, Hollandsche Turn, and Gans, still 

 following the Portuguese itinerary, came to Saldanha Bay, where 

 they remained till the end of September, and enjoyed much friend- 

 ship from the Hottentots. 



The Dutch Admiral, Cornelis Matelief, came on April 7, 1606, into 

 Table Bay no longer Saldania for the Dutch. He is said to have 

 found on Eobben Island several English names of 1604, and one of 

 December 28, 1607, engraved on the stones. 



Matelief commanded the Orange, Middelburgh, Mauritius, Swarte 

 Leemv, Wilte Leemv, Groote Son, Kleyne Son, Amsterdam, Nassauiv, 

 Erasmus, and Provincien. 



By this time it had become customary for the English and Dutch 

 Commanders to bring from the mainland some of the bartered sheep 

 and cattle to Robben Island, for the benefit of the other vessels 

 calling, who in turn restocked the island by leaner beasts. Thus, 

 Alexander Sharpey, in July, 1608, " took twenty fat sheep from the 

 island, which had been left there by the Dutch, and put some oxen 

 on it." 



Paulus van Caerden commanding the Banda, Bantam, Ceylon, 

 Walcheren, Tcr Veere, China, and Patana, anchored March, 1609, 

 etc., etc. And from that date onwards the Dutch continued to touch 

 for refreshments, as did also the English. The two English fleets 

 under the command of Andreas Shilling, and Humphrey Fitz- 

 herbert, which were going to Surat and Bantam, found on their 

 arrival at Table Bay, on July 1, 1620, a Dutch fleet of nine ships 



