40 



Annals of the South African Museum. 



DANISH INSCRIPTION. 

 Stone XVIII. 



At about the same time as the Dutch, the Danes also founded an 

 East India Company, and the French did likewise. 



Of what port of call the Danes made use is not very well known ; 

 but that they touched at the Cape is proved by Kerridge and 

 Beaulieu's accounts. 



There has, however, been found an inscription which may be 

 considered as Danish. It is unfortunately very fragmentary. 



FI.L -23. 

 23 cm. x 13 cm. 



It reads : 



PAUL . STEUR SOMMER. 



P. S. UEIS. DIG. 

 N. 1614. DEN NOV. 



The date is, however, veiy plain, and thus the Danes were not 

 far behind the English and the Dutch in their enterprises of 

 Merchant Adventurers trading by sea with the East. 



From the above account it will be seen that the rediscovered 

 inscriptions left by early European navigators date from 1485 

 to 1632. 



Twenty years after (1652) Cape Town is founded by the first 

 Dutch Governor, Johan van Riebeek, and the records of passing 

 ships are no longer recorded by inscriptions graved on stones. 

 A new order of things has begun. It may seem a prosaic one 

 for those who read in these brief letters the tales untold of hard- 

 ship and misery ; of courage and devotion ; of heroism and also 

 of motives sordid. 



