I06 ISARTHOLOMIEU DIAS's FURTHEST EAST. 



surf off the open shore of Cape Padrone would have been mad- 

 ness. At the Kowie, too, both on the east bank as well as the 

 west, there are lofty sand cliffs, which would have made admir- 

 able places on which to erect a cross, and when erected, it would 

 have formed a conspicuous object from the sea. 



The tale of the Portuguese establishing a slaving station at 

 the Kowie subsequently is usually ascribed to an imaginative 

 story that was published in Grocott's Penny Mail. The tale is 

 discredited, as the Kaffirs only came into the country long subse- 

 quently, but at the time of the Portuguese, in the early part of 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the country was 

 inhabited by Bushmen ; indeed, the country between the Bush- 

 man's River and the Great Fish River was the last stronghold of 

 the Bushmen in the eastern districts ; it is quite possible, there- 

 fore, that the Portuguese, knowing from Dias that there was a 

 watering-place at the Penedo das Pontes, did establish a slaving 

 station here, and caught the Bushmen. Local tradition states 

 that the old Custom House, whose ruins can still be seen on the 

 east bank just above the old mouth of the river, was built on the 

 site of an old Portuguese fort. I have myself obtained Bush- 

 man pottery in the kitchen midden just behind it. I can find no 

 account of a slaving station so low down in any accounts of the 

 east coast of South Africa, though they were plentiful further 

 up, and a great trade existed in slaves between the east coast of 

 Africa and India. 



In regard to the name Kowie, it is from the Kaffir word 

 Ikowa, the Sabbath. In reality it is a Bushman word taken over 

 by the Kaffirs. Although all the east coast districts are now 

 inhabited by Kaffirs, the area occupied by the Bushmen in formei 

 days is clearly defined by the names of places, especially the 

 rivers. All the rivers in the Bushman country have clicks in 

 their names, such as the Kareiga, Kowie, Keiskama, Kei, 

 Kologha, and so on. North of Umtata all the rivers have pure 

 Kaffir names, and the old Kaffir had not the Bushman clicks ; 

 hence the names are soft — Umzimvubu, Umzimhlava, Umtam- 

 vuna, Umzimkulu, and so forth. It is quite possible, therefore, 

 that the name Kowie has something to do with the devotional 

 image, part of which was dug up recently at St. Mary's Cove. 



As far as one can sift the accounts, then, the Kowie is the 

 Rio Infante, and Bartholomieu Dias anchored his ships under 

 the lee of the Fountain Rocks, took his boats up to St. Mary's 

 Cove for water, and, as this was his furthest east, selected one 

 of the highest sand cliffs to erect his last stone cross. 



A photograph of the Kowie angel, as the devotional image 

 is called locally, was published recently in the Geographical 

 Journal. Dr. Scot Keltie, however, before publishing my letter 

 accompanying the photograph, asked Mr. Edward Heawood to 

 look up the facts from the Portuguese records, and I am very 

 greatly obliged to Mr. Heawood for so kindly sending me 



