78 



EARLY PORTUGUESP; ])IS<. (AICKIKS IN AFRTCA. 



that great State is now a vivid proof, lie sailed again towards 

 the Cape, in the neighbourhood of which he lost four vessels in a 

 tornado. One was under the command of Bartholomeu Dias. Is 

 it not a strange irony of fate that this man should have found his 

 grave on the spot he had discovered, and which he himself had 

 described as being so deadly? 



Two years later, in 1502, John da Nova discoveretl St. 

 Helena. No efforts were made to colonise this island, but, in 

 later years, a Portuguese called Looes acclimatised there some 

 domestic animals, such as pigs, goats, rabbits, partridges, etc., and 

 made some plantations. 



Pedro Alvares Caf.ral. 



The following year, on his way to India, Antonio de Saldanha 

 landed and fought the Natives in a bay in the vicinity of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, which bay still retains his name. 



In the course of the years 1505 and 1507 the East and West 

 coasts of Madagascar were discovered and explored by Tristao 

 da Cunha. and by Ruy Pereira and Fernando Soares, who gave 

 the island the name of St. Lawrence. The first captain's name 

 is well known to us, on account of the islands which he was the 

 first to sight, and of which some interesting news has been pub- 

 lished recently in the South African newspapers. He was the 

 man who, a few years later, visited Rome, at the head of a bril- 

 liant embassy from King Manoel to Pope Leo X. Rich presents 

 from India and Africa were sent to show the Pontiff the import- 

 ance of the trade which had been opened up with those continents. 



