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NOTES ON SOME EECENTLY EEDISCOVEEED IN- 

 SCRIBED STONES BEAEING ON THE HISTOEY 

 OE THE CAPE COLONY. 



By W. L. Sclater, Director of the South African Museum.* 



(Eead June 28, 1905.) 



I. J. VAN PLETTENBEEG'S BOUNDARY STONE. 



In the year 1778, in consequence of complaints from burghers 

 living on the eastern frontier of the Colony, the Governor, Joachim 

 van Plettenberg, resolved to make a visit to the borderlands of the 

 Colony and investigate the condition of affairs there. Leaving Cape 

 Town on September 3, 1778, he travelled to Graaff Eeinet with ox- 

 waggons and saddle-horses. Thence, crossing the Sneeuwberg to 

 the north, he descended the valley of the Zeekoe Eiver to a point 

 about 18 miles due west of the present village of Colesburg. Here 

 on October 4th, some 200 yards from the bank of the stream, he 

 erected a " baaken," or boundary beacon, to mark the extreme north- 

 eastern boundary of the Colony. 



A month later, on November 6th, the Governor arrived at the bay 

 where the Keurboom Eiver falls into the sea, now known as Pletten- 

 berg's Bay. Here a stone pillar prepared in Cape Town, having 

 the arms of the United Provinces, the monogram of the Dutch East 

 India Company, the arms of the Governor, and a suitable inscription, 

 which had been conveyed to its destination on the waggon of Jacob 

 Joubert, was placed in position, and here it has remained ever since. 

 It has recently been enclosed by a stone wall in order to preserve it, 

 and will be found figured in Moodie's " History of the Battles and 

 Adventures of the British, Boers, and Zulus," vol. i., p. 62, published 

 in 1888. 



The above facts will be found in the new edition of Mr. Theal's 

 " History," vol. ii., pp. 149-154, while a complete transcription of a 

 diary of the journal of Plettenberg's journey in the original Dutch, 



* For previous papers see these Transactions. 



