BARTHOLOM1EU DIAS'S FURTHEST EAST. 



By Prof. Ernest II. L. Schwarz, A.R.C.S., F.G.S. 



Some two years ago an iron-bound box, filled with the 

 remains of documents, and bits of a devotional image were un- 

 earthed at the Kowie. The place was near a well that had been 

 dug on what was then Mr. William Cock's property; it is now- 

 called St. Mary's Cove, and is on the west bank of the Kowie. 

 Mrs. Irving, Mr. Cock's daughter, informs me that the well was 

 dug by a party of soldiers who camped near it in about 1823 ; it 

 was the custom in those days for the soldiers to be sent out to 

 help in reaping the harvest in the early days of the settlement. 

 According to Mrs. Irving, the cove was named Mary's Cove after 

 her sister, and the " Saint " was added subsequently ; it is, how- 

 ever, just possible that an image of the Virgin was dug up by 

 the soldiers, who then christened the place St. Mary's Cove, and 

 that the bracket recently found formed part of it. The papers 

 in the box were too thoroughly sodden with water to be of any 

 use, and, unfortunately, they were thrown away without proper 

 examination. 



The importance of the find lies in the fact that De Barros 

 relates that Bartholomieu Dias landed at the Penedo das Fontes 

 the Fountain Rocks. The passage is obscure, as he identifies the 

 Penedo das Fontes with the St. Croix Islands, but Perestrello, who 

 made a survey of the coast in 1575, immediately after Dias's 

 royage, puts the Fountain Rocks off the Kowie, and the rocks 

 there bear this name to the present day. Pacheco, in his 

 " Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis," which is the source from which 

 De Barros obtained his information, further states that the 

 Penedo das Fontes is the tallest of the Ilheos da Cruz. After 

 leaving St. Croix Island Dias passed the " Ilheos Chaos" (Low 

 Islands), and set up a pillar at or near a sandy cliff identified 

 with Cape Padrone. Pacheco mentions the Ilheos Chaos in 

 considerable detail as occurring between the Penedo das Fontes 

 and the Rio do Infante, and gives their distance from the latter 

 as fifteen leagues (51 miles). This would seem to identify 

 them with Bird Island and the rocks near it. He further states 

 that between these islets and the Rio do Infante there are the 

 mouths of three small rivers, possibly the Bushman, Kariega, 

 and Salt Vlei Rivers. If the Bird Islands are the Ilheos Chaos, 

 51 miles brings us just midway between the Kowie and the Great 

 Fish River, and the presumption is that the distance would be 

 over-estimated rather than under-estimated, so that there is a 

 possibility that the Kowie is the original Rio Infante. Duarte 

 Pacheco was a contemporary of Dias, and himself made a voyage 

 to India and back before 1505, so that he would be in a position 

 to gather information on the points visited by Dias. He defi- 

 nitely states that the pillar set up by Dias at St. Croix Island 

 had a cross on top — " Bartholomieu Dias pos aly hum padram de 



