Probably no section of the continent is more interesting in its history than South Africa. The books which have been written upon the subject would make quite a library in themselves.
Its coast was first visited in the latter part of the fifteenth century, by Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese, in search of a passage to India. He sailed along the western coast till he came to an inlet with a group of islets at its mouth. Here he cast anchor, and landed with his crew.
The neighboring country was a dreary waste of sand. Not a trace of human beings was to be found, nor could any food other than sea birds' eggs be obtained there. Little wonder then that, after planting a cross as a sign of possession, the Portuguese commander sailed away.
Early in the sixteenth century some white men, landing on the South African coast, found that on one side rose a great mass of rock, over three thousand feet in height, with its top marking a level line more than a mile in length on the sky.
This grand mountain was flanked at either end with peaks less lofty, which were supported by buttresses projecting towards the shore.
The recess was a capacious valley, down the center of which flowed a stream of clear sweet water. The valley seemed to be without people, but after a while some Hottentots made their appearance; and from them a cow and two sheep were purchased.
The commander of the white men climbed to the top of the rock to which he gave the name of Table Mountain.
The bay in which he had anchored his little fleet is the so-called Table Bay.
The general conformation of the country is such that there are no navigable rivers. The streams, even the very largest of them, are all of the nature of mountain torrents, obstructed with rapids and falls, and varying in volume with rain and drought.
There is an utter absence of secure harbors on the coast, except in positions where they could be of little service in the early days of exploration. In addition to all this, a very large portion of the land along the eastern seaboard, as well as of the interior plains, is so dry that it could be traversed only by degrees, as its slender resources became known.