Notes on the So-called ‘Post Office Stone.” ie) 
ference, and only exposed to east, north-east, and south-east winds. 
Tt is on the confines of the Cape of Good Hope. 
13. Our vessel having cast anchor in this place towards the 
middle of June, instead of taking advantage of the weather to land 
without loss of life, and rescue the goods that had been jettisoned to 
lighten the ship, the misguided officers would persist that they could 
navigate the vessel after pumping her dry (strange indeed that the 
direction should be entrusted to people incapable of thinking reason- 
ably). For that purpose a man was sent down to clean the pump, 
and as he was slow in returning, another one went down, and then 
another was sent after him. None of the three coming back, 
another man was lowered with a rope. He found the other three 
already dead, and came up himself almost at his last gasp. He 
would have died like the other three had he not been promptly 
hauled to the air, because the pungent aroma of the damp pepper 
had choked them. 
14, They then endeavoured to put the ship straight, and a hundred 
sailors having jumped on the shore, there remained on board 150 
people, who at the end of about fifty days met with a sudden death 
owing to a violent tempest which shook the vessel and broke it into 
pieces on the shore. Having faced this terrible sight, the hundred 
people that were on the shore set to building huts, realising that it 
would be long before they could build two vessels from the wreck 
and the trees growing on the mountains, and set to sea again. The 
Captain, who was old and ailing, finding that he could no longer 
retain the command, allowed the people to choose another in his 
stead, and they chose Roque Borges, who knew his profession well, 
but a Sindo de Figueyredo, who was coveting this post, opposed the 
choice. Covetous people are found even in misfortunes. One 
evening he attacked him with the intention of putting him to death, 
and although he did not succeed in his design, he left Borges 
seriously wounded. The latter dissembled much, but eventually 
killed him with a dagger as a punishment for such an audacity, and 
every one was quiet (hereafter). 
15. They sowed some seeds and reaped the fruit, such as 
gourds, melons, cucumbers, et. ct., which grew while the two 
small vessels were being built. They lived upon rice which they 
had saved, and upon other things, such as fish and roots, which they 
dug, and also oxen and sheep, which they exchanged for iron with 
the natives (Barbars). ‘The latter spoke in such a manner that they 
could not understand them, and they used signs to make them 
understand. These natives are not quite black; they go naked, but 
cover their (immodest) private parts with a small (piece of) skin ; 
