THE CAPE MOUNTED RIFLEMEN;
WITH A
BRIEF ACCOUNT
OF THE
COLONY
OF THE
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
1490
1497
1498
The spirit of enterprise which led intelligent Europeans to penetrate to every part of the globe, and to procure the advantage of the productions of every climate for the use of their own country, has multiplied the commerce of the world, and added numerous colonial possessions to the nations of Christendom. Among the enterprising navigators of the fifteenth century, Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese officer of sagacity and fortitude, prosecuted a voyage of discovery until he arrived at the lofty promontory which marks the southern extremity of Africa; being prevented by violent tempests from proceeding farther, he called it Stormy Cape; but his sovereign, entertaining the hope that this success would lead to the discovery of the long-desired route to the East Indies, called it the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497, Emanuel, king of Portugal, inheriting the enterprising genius of his predecessors, sent Vasco de Gama, a man of talent and noble birth, with three vessels, to pursue the grand scheme of discovering a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope; and this officer, surmounting the difficulties which had deterred his predecessors, doubled that formidable promontory which had long been the boundary of navigation, and European ships were seen, for the first time, navigating the Indian sea, which forms the greatest event, next to the discovery of America, in modern maritime history. The route to Hindoostan was thus established; but this important event was not immediately followed by the formation of a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. Admiral Rio d’Infanté landed there in 1498, and fixing upon the mouth of a river for the site of a settlement, recommended his countrymen to establish a colony there; his advice was, however, not followed, and other Portuguese navigators failed in some slight attempts which they made to colonize this interesting part of Africa.