ii6 TRAVELS IN 
ufelefs to me in the bufmefs I was engaged irt^, 
I was defiroiis of deriving fome other benefit 
from them, by employing them, for the reft of 
the day, to fearch on the mountain for a pre?- 
' ^ tended monument, refpeding theexiftence of 
which I had long been tormented. 
Kolben fays, that in 1680 the governor 
Van der Stel having made an excurfion to the 
Table mountain, in company with feveral 
ladies of the Cape, and particularly the lady 
of the governor of the Indies ; and being defi- 
rous of leaving to pofterity a folemn monu- 
ment of this party of pleafure, and of the greal 
efforts made by his young companions, he cau- 
fed to be erefted on the fpot a column or pyra- 
mid, with an infcription proper to tranfmit to 
after ages the remembrance of his great na:ne. 
The author even enters into details, and relates 
particular circumftances of this journey, to in- 
duce the reader to give creditto it : but notwith- 
ftanding the diligent fearch made by my compa- 
nions, they found not the fmalleft veftige of this 
pretended column ; which, if the ftory of it be 
true, muft either have been deftroyed by time, or 
fome other hand inimical to fuch erections. 
I ftill continued to follow all the move- 
ments 
