ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 
131 
first to brave the terrors of the Stormy Cape, as they called it. In 
i486 Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape, and pushed his way 
beyond the present site of Port Elizabeth. 
In 1497 that great sailor, Vasco da Gama, passed the Cape, 
and penetrated by sea as far to the eastward as the Mozambique 
coast. Although the early navigators occasionally touched at the 
Cape on their way to the Indies, there seems to have been no regular 
settlement there until well into the seventeenth century. In 1591 
Captain James Lancaster, with an English squadron, visited Table 
Bay. 
In 1595 four Dutch vessels, the first fleet to cast anchor in 
these waters, touched at Mossel Bay, a little to the east of the Cape. 
From this time fleets of the various nations were in the habit of call¬ 
ing at the Cape of Good Hope for rest and refreshment, obtaining 
oxen and sheep from the Hottentot aboriginals, and picking up 
wild fowl, fish and green herbage. 
THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY TAKES POSSESSION. 
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company finally took possession 
of the Cape, and founded a settlement there. Jan Van Riebeck 
landed with a number of colonists, and at once set vigorously to 
work to establish the foundations of Dutch supremacy in this 
quarter of the globe. 
In 1672 the Dutch East India Company purchased from the 
Hottentot chiefs, who claimed to be lords of the soil, the whole 
vast tract of country stretching from Saldanha Bay to the Cape 
peninsula. 
Between 1685 and 1688 came a most important accession of 
strength to the Dutch settlers. Thanks to the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., large numbers of Huguenots were 
driven from France. By arrangement with the authorities in Hol¬ 
land, it came to pass that some of these French Protestants, to the 
number of between two and three hundred, were taken to the Cape. 
They were granted free passages and as much land as they could 
bring under cultivation, and were assisted with money to buy imple¬ 
ments, seed and other necessities, on condition of thereafter repay- 
