chap, xiv FOUNDING A COMMERCIAL COMPANY 27
food,
both when going and returning from the Indies, especially when
returning, because, the vessels being then loaded up, they cannot carry
a supply of water sufficient for a long voyage. In the meantime the
Dutch have put this advantage out of the reach of other nations, by
means of the fort which they have built at the Cape,1 and the English have done the same thing at St. Helena,2
although, by the law of nations and the general consent of the people
of Europe, liberty to use these two places of refreshment has been for
many years free to the whole world. Nevertheless, there may still be
some mouth of a river near the Cape where another fort might be
constructed, and this position would be worth more than all that can be
made in the island of Daufine,3 where there is no trade
except in the purchase of cattle for their hides. But this trade is so
insignificant that it would quickly ruin any Company, and the French
have hitherto engaged in it without any advantage to themselves.
My
reason for making this suggestion is the fact that in the year 1648 two
Portuguese vessels coming from Lisbon to India, desiring to touch at
the Cape to take in water, made their observations incorrectly, and the
sea being very high, entered a bay 18 or 20 leagues from the Cape on
the western side. They found in this bay a river, the water of which is
very good, and the negroes of the country brought them supplies of all
kinds of river-birds, fish, and beef. They remained there about fifteen
days, and before leaving took two of the inhabitants to Goa, intending
to teach them Portuguese, and endeavour to draw from them some
information as to the trade which could be carried on there.4 The Dutch
1
In 1652 Jan van Biebeck built a fort at Table Bay, and in 1671 the
Dutch purchased land from the Hottentots and founded the colony: cf. n. 5 on p. 305 below (Ency. Brit., v. 237).
8 The English appropriated the island after the departure of the Butch in 1651, and built a fort in 1658 (ibid., xxiv. 8). [See Introd.]
3 The
' Daufine island ' of the original stands for the Fort of Dauphin, on
the south-east coast of Madagascar. It was held by the French for some
years, but was afterwards abandoned (ibid., xvii. 276).
*
The details in vol. i, p. 173, differ from those here given. The
distance is there stated to be 30 leagues from the Cape ; the only
conclusion which can be drawn is that this bay was a part of, or in the
vicinity of, Table Bay. Or he may mean Saldanha Bay; see Pyrard de
Laval, i. 22.
