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the northern area of South Africa how San bushmen attacked his oxen convoy, stole his oxen
and sheep, and out of pure spite killed or poisoned most of the livestock (28 oxen), eating very
little of the meat. He arrived at Colesberg where there was a rumor he had been killed by
Mzilikazi. His trip had cost 800 pounds sterling. The Khoi Khoi was also well known for
cattle raiding and later their descendants, the East and West Griquas, fought pitched battles
with Mzilikazi for his cattle. Indeed, for a long time the Dutch East India Company did not use
the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) for stocking of supplies, including cattle, because of the
fierce battles they had with the Khoi Khoi in the area. The first confrontation occurred on
Bartholomew Diaz's return in 1488 when his crew was harassed by the Khoi Khoi. He chose
to shoot one with a bow and arrow and subsequently in 1510 when another ship from India
stopped for supplies at Table Bay the crew was massacred. As a result, the Portuguese ships
would not stop at the Cape of Storms, as Diaz labeled it, but Vasco Da Gama euphemistically
relabeled as the Cape of Good Hope. The history of Portuguese exploration started with Prince
Henry the Navigator. His knowledge came from the history from about 600BC when Herodotus
had written of Phoenician sailors circumnavigating Africa and so he encouraged his captains to
repeat the feat in the hopes of finding legendary gold. After his death, in 1462 Pero de Sintra
reached the mouth of the Gambia and labeled the shore beyond Sierra Leone after roaring
lions.
Diogo Cao reached the Namibian coast in 1485 and planted a stone cross at Cape Cross and
then Bartholomew Diaz turned the corner around the Southern tip. It was only in 1652 that a
fort and settlement under Dutch surgeon Jan van Riebeck was established, despite the southern
sea route to India having first been discovered by Portuguese sailors Vasco Da Gama and Diaz
in the late 1400s. In 1689 180 French Huguenot were brought to the Cape after King Lois XIV
banned Calvinism in France and they settled mostly in the area of Franschhoek and the Hugenot
Museum.
Cape Dutch Style House, Vergelegen
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