• President's Address. 5 



was more favoured than others who had attempted to penetrate the 

 dark continent. The time of year chosen for the start was precisely 

 the same as for Bergh's expedition two years before, but the differ- 

 ence in the face of the country was amazing. After the long drought 

 heavy rains had fallen. Grass was growing everywhere, and the 

 water courses which had been dry so long were^full to overflowing. 



As the expedition advanced it found rich croppings of copper in 

 a range lying a little below the 30° 11' of south latitude. Van der 

 Stel had reached the line of the supposed location of the golden city 

 of Vigiti Magna. He followed this line to the Atlantic, but saw no 

 trace of the traditional city or of the realm of Monomotapa. 



After months of travel, this notable exploring party came back 

 to the Cape. It had found rich copper ore in Namaqualand, but the 

 deposits were too far from the Cape to be of any immediate value. 

 These copper mines have been worked since 1853, and have produced 

 copper to the value of ^11,000,000. Van der Stel had pricked the 

 bubble of Vigiti Magna and the myth of the realm of Monomotapa 

 was practically dead. 



So the credulous search for Ophir came to an end, and for more 

 than one hundred and fifty years there was little life in the tradition 

 of King Solomon's mines. 



About the middle of the last century search for the mines of King 

 Solomon was again commenced. The expeditions of Carl Mauch, 

 Adan Renders, Hartley, Baines and Nelson, and later explorers are 

 well known to most of you. 



A precise and graphic study of the ancient structures in Mash- 

 onaland was made in 1891-92 by Theodore Bent and his associates 

 in the expedition promoted by the Royal Geographical Society, the 

 Chartered Company and the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. 



Bent saw in the ancient ruins and workings " evidence of a cult 

 known to Arabia and Phoenicia alike, temples built on accurate 

 mathematical principles, containing kindred objects of art, methods 

 of producing gold known to have been employed in the ancient world 

 and evidence of a vast population devoted to the mining of gold." 



The main conclusions summarized by Professor Keane are 

 strongly backed by others. Ophir was not a source of gold, but its 

 distributor, as the port on the south coast of Arabia through which 

 the flow of gold came by sea. Havilah (Rhodesia) was the land 

 whence came the gold of Ophir. 



Dr. Theal, South Africa's greatest historian, has given this 

 subject much thought and study, and his conclusions are that " the 

 influences responsible for the oldest gold mines and the oldest build- 

 ings in what is now called Rhodesia, emanated from South Arabia, 

 but that there were other Asiatic influences, especiallv from western 

 India." 



From the earliest settlement of the Cape by the Dutch there had 

 been a slow but continuous advancement to the north. Year after 

 year the pioneers pushed out farther into tlTe interior, settling upon 



