l62 ORIGIN OF CERTAIN SOUTH AFRICAN I'LACIi NAMES. 



have been in use some thirty years before that, for Mr. John 

 Noble, who had been appointed to examine old papers relating 

 to the affairs of the Cape of Good Hope, which were preserved 

 in the Public Archives. London, in his Report to the House of 

 Assembly, says that among papers dated from 1795 to 1802-3, 

 he found one entitled 



" Report of H.M. Sloop Star," having- examined coast nortlnvards and 

 found several bays affording good shelter and excellent anchorage, but 

 destitute of wood and fresh vi-ater, amdnti those nientinned being Walwich 

 Bay. in 22^ 15". 



Knowing Air. Noble as well as 1 did, 1 cannot think that 

 a man so careful and exact would allow himself to alter the 

 spelling of the name, but would give it as it aopeared in the 

 docuiuent luentioned. If this is so, then we can trace the name 

 Walwich Bay to 1803 at least, and apparently to a sailor origin. 



But I have been able to trace the name Walvisch Baai to 

 twenty years beyond that — 1782. In 1792 the bay was taken 

 possession of for the Dutch bv Chevalier Duminy as Walfisch 

 Baai, but in Rochette's map. dated 1782, the name Walvisch 

 stands opposite this bay, and I am satisfied that this is its earliest 

 fonn. 



The name has assumed no small variety of forms — Walvisch, 

 'Walwich, Walfisch. Walfish, Walwish. Walviss, and now it is to 

 to be Walvis. Theal says that it was also called by sailors 

 Woolwich Bay, Init 1 have found no trace of that form. Neither 

 have I been able to find on any maj) or chart available to me the 

 name Bahia das Baleas (Bay of Whales) which Theal says the 

 Portuguese gave to the bay, and wliich iie further asserts " the 

 Dutch translated into Walfish." It would be interesting to know 

 where this natue appears. The only references to whales that 

 I can find in the nomenclature of the features of the West Coast 

 of the sub-continent are the following:— (i) According to M. 

 J. Codine,* the name Golfo de Balena ap]:)ears twice in the map 

 of Martellus (1489), once slightly to the nortli. and once to the 

 south of .\ngra Pequena. (2) On a map of Africa by John 

 Senex, London (no date, but about 1719). there is a Gulf 

 d'Baleines, south of Angra Peciuena. (3) On the map of South 

 Africa in the Times Atlas there is a Whale Bay, also to the south 

 of Angra Pe(|uena. 



So far as 1 have been able to trace the Portuguese name 

 of this bay, it is invariably called Angra do Ilheo or Angra dos 

 Ilhn)s, though this name appears to have been given originally 

 by Bartholomew Diaz to the bay subsequently known as Angra 

 Pequena. which lies much farther south. t 



M. J. Codine| points out that Barros also gives this name 

 Angra dos Ilhoes to Angra Pequena: — 



* " Extrait du bulletin de la Societe de Geographie," Janvier, Fevrier 

 et Mars, 1876, Paris. 



fVide Major's "Prince Henry the Xavigator.'' ( r-868), p. .343. 

 {"Extrait du bulletin de la Societe de Geographie." O876), 28, note 



