SOUTHERN AFRICA. 247 
it was taken possession of, in form, by any European power. 
The native Hottentots, at that time, were numerous on tlie 
Cape peninsula, and rich in cattle, which they supplied to 
passing ships on easy terms. 
In the reign of John Ild of Portugal, Bartholomew Diaz 
made the first successful attempt to reach the southern pro- 
montory of Africa, which he effected in the year 1487 ; but 
whether he quarrelled with the natives, and was driven away 
by them, as some historians have pretended, seems to be 
doubtful. Vasco-de-Gama, ten years afterwards, touched at 
the Cape, but made no attempt to form a settlement there. 
Next to Vasco-de-Gama, was the Portugueze Admiral Rio 
dTnfante, who strongly recommended to his Government the 
establishment of a colony on the southern coast of Africa ; 
and fixed upon the mouth of a river for that purpose, to 
which was given his own name, and which is now called the 
Great Fish River. Some other attempts, by different Por- 
tugueze navigators, were made to colonize the Cape, but 
they all failed. 
After this the English and the Dutch were frequent visitors 
to the bays of the Cape. 
The English, in their outward-bound voyage, had a custom 
of burying their dispatclics for the directors, and to point out 
where they were to be found by cutting a sentence, to that 
effect, on some large blue stone laid on a particular spot. 
The intelligence, engraven on the stone, was usually limited 
to the name of the ship and captain, the date of her arrival 
