Notes on the So-called ‘‘ Post Office Stone.” 203 
schip en deszelfs kapitein, alsmede het tijdstip van deszelfs aankomst 
alhier, zijnde het jaar 1500 of 1501.” 
PUALO.. (Cia | 
BARK 2 ERA: 19 00 
The above is the inscription as far as I have been able to tran- 
scribe it. As the stone is broken off on the left-hand side, it is 
imperfect, but the first word appears to be Nova and the last a 
date—1500. 
The facts mentioned by Mr. van der Riet are corroborated by 
G. Danvers in his ‘‘ Portuguese in India,” published in 1894. He 
states that Joao de Nova left Portugal in April, 1501, and after 
discovering the island of Ascension, anchored on 7th July in the 
Bay of San Bras (7.e., Mossel Bay); there he found a letter in an 
old shoe left by Pero de Ataide the year before. This latter was 
one of the Captains of the fleet of Cabral, which left Portugal in 
March, 1500, and after discovering Brazil encountered a storm in 
the Atlantic. Out of the eleven ships composing the fleet, only six 
reached Calicut in India, the other five were dispersed and most of 
them lost, That of Pero de Ataide, however, apparently weathered 
the storm, reached Mossel Bay, left the above-mentioned letter 
there, and got back to Lisbon shortly after Cabral. 
I think it quite possible that the ‘‘ Mossel Bay Stone”’ refers to 
Nova’s visit. | 
I must add that Mr. Ferguson, to whom I have sent rubbings 
and copies of the inscription, does not appear to be of my opinion. 
Although I have endeavoured to do so, I have been unable to 
find a copy of the newspaper The Observer, which was referred to in 
Mr. van der Riet’s note, so that I cannot trace where the story of 
the old shoe originated. 
VII.—Tue St. Hetena STONE. 
An inscribed stone is still preserved in St. Helena to which 
allusion was made in a letter by Mr. G. B. Bennett to the Cape 
Monitor of August 22, 1855, and which is described and figured in 
Melliss’s ‘‘ St. Helena,’ p. 6. : 
“This stone was built into the base of a cairn which supports 
the tomb of the wife of Governor Pike (about 1716), and is still to 
