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Home , Algoa Bay, Bartolomeu Dias, Da Gama Park, Portuguese name, Toponymy

Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 18, Nr 3, 1988. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

THE PORTUGUESE CONTRIBUTION TO SOUTH AFRICAN Dr. P.E. Raper*

In hierdie artikel weergee dr. Raper, verbonde aan die Onomastiese Navorsingsentrum van die RGN, die reise van die onverskrokke Portugese seevaarders, ondermeer Oias en Oa Gama, en die plekname wat hulle agtergelaat het. Na 'n deeglike bespreking van 'n paar van hierdie kom dr. Raper tot die gevolgtrekking dat hierdie name, op grond daarvan dat hulle die eerste name in suider Afrika was wat deur Europeers nagelaat is, van belang is vanuit 'n kulturele, historiese en Iingu'istiese oogpunt.

Names are a vital part of language. They not necessitated frequent tacks or changes in direc- only facilitate communication but also make it tion. possible for us to orientate ourselves in the world in which we live. identify entities and Having then been blown out to and driven distinguish them from others. In contrast to 'ordi- eastwards, Dias found himself at the present- nary' words in a language, names are used day , which he named Angra dos freely in other languages and thus have a Vaqueiros, 'bay of herdsmen'. A later expedition greater international impact. Yet in the first named it Anguada de SEW Bras, 'watering-place place, at the time of their bestowal, they were at St Blaize', after the saint to whom the day is derived from a specific language and reflect the dedicated on which Dias first saw it. culture, life- and attitudes of the people who bestowed them. Names constitute a most im- On the return voyage Dias in 1487 discovered portant historical record and form a valuable the headland he named Cabo Tormentoso or component of cultural heritage. They may be Cabo das Tormentas, 'cape of storms', subse- regarded as a monument to the pioneers who quently renamed Cabo da Boa Esperanc;a and gave them. still today known as .

At the same time place names are of vital stra- Emanual, who succeeded King John II after his tegic importance in the geographical framework death in 1495, equipped a small fleet and en- within which military activities take place. trusted it to who in 1497 set sail, attempting to discover a sea-route to India via Portuguese place names are among the oldest . After a voyage of five and a half months European names borne by geographical fea- he reached St. Helena Bay, which he named. tures in southern Africa. For the most part they date from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His next port of call was Mossel Bay, after which At that time Portuguese navigators, then the he reached the present-day Pondoland coast on mo.st itrepid mariners of , were seeking Christmas Day. For this reason he named it Terra a sea-route to India. They had already worked do Natal. Having then touched at Mozambique their way down the west coast of Africa and had and Melinda, Da Gama sailed to Cali cut, thus discovered and occupied the islands of the achieving the object after which had for north-western coast, from the Azores to the so long striven. group. The extent of the African continent, and the situation of its southernmost Subsequent voyages by Portuguese mariners extremity, were still unknown. Cape Cross was added to the . It will be noticed, the furthest point to have been reached by 1485. however, that these names are mainly limited to the coastal belt of the subcontiment. There are In 1486 King John II sent Bartholomeu Dias with several reasons for this. The early explorers had three small ships on a new exploratory expedi- set out with a definite purpose in mind, namely to tion. Having passed Cape Cross, Dias called at discover a new sea-route to the Orient with its Angra dos IIMus, 'the bay of islets', later desig- vast wealth. They probably had no intention of nated Angra Pequena or 'little bay', now known achieving anything more than opening up new as LOderitzbucht. Continuing southwards along channels of trade and commerce for Portugal. the coast he met with contrary winds which Moreover, the inhospitable terrain and, particu-

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larly, the hostile disposition of the indigenous Cabo das Serras means 'cape of mountains'. peoples, probably deterred them from attempt- This descriptive name was given to the promon- ing to penetrate into the interior. tory where the mountains end which start at the Cape of Good Hope. Cape St Francis also bore The fact that names bestowed by Portuguese in this name. were generally limited to coastal and maritime features, is reflected in the generic Cape Recife, near , takes its name terms occurring in the names: aguanda, 'water- from Cabo de Recife, 'cape of reefs', while 11- ing place'; baia or , 'bay'; cabo, 'cape'; heus Caos, meaning 'flat islands', was given to a i1ha, 'island'; penedo, 'rock'; pic, 'peak'; ponta, group of islands in . When the British 'point'; praia, 'shore'; rio, 'river'. ship Doddington was wrecked there in 1755, the survivors named these the Bird Islands, after the many seafowl, particularly gannets, they saw A fair number of names bestowed by the Portu- guese have survived in their original form, while there. others have been adapted, translated (wholly or Another island which takes its name from birds, in part), or supplanted. Hybrid forms, with part of though indirectly, is IIha Branca, 'white island', the name Portuguese and part English or Afri- presumably after the colour of the guano. In kaans, are also encountered. 1601 the Dutch navigator Joris van Spilbergen called the island Elizabeth Island, but four years A perusal of Portuguese place names in south- later the name was changed by Sir Edward Mi- ern Africa indicates that nomenclature was moti- chelburne to Coney Island, on account of the vated by several considerations, primarily geo- many seals and conies there. Today the island is graphical, religious, social, and historical. known in its translated form as Dassen Island.

As may be expected, many place names were In 1486 Dias named an island in Algoa Bay IIheu based on the appearance of the entity con- da Santa Cruz. Some of his followers, however, cerned, the presence there of some prominent gave it the name of Penedo das Fontes, from feature, climatic condition prevailing, and so penedo, 'rock', fontes 'a spring'. It seems that forth. A Mesa, 'the table', described the flat- there were two springs of fresh water on the topped mountain now known as . island. In the vicinity of the Kowie River there are It also bore the Tabua do several rocks, known as Fountain Rocks, and Cabo, 'table of the Cape'. Algoa Bay, a name some consider this name to be a direct descen- now borne by the inlet on which the city of Port dant of the Portuguese name Penedo das Elizabeth is situated, was at various times ap- Fontes. The island in Algoa Bay later became plicable to several different bays along the known as St Croix. coast, including the present-day Plettenberg Bay. It is derived from the word lagoa, 'marsh', or 'morass'. The name Delagoa is said to be Green Point is said to be the second oldest Eng- based on this same word. Algoa Bay has an- lish place name in South Africa, having been other Portuguese name, Bahia da Roca or 'rock' bestowed in 1675. This point was known by the bay'; it was given by Dias in 1576. Portuguese name Ponta da Praia, 'point of shores', 'point with a beach'. Plettenberg Bay, too, had another Portuguese name, namely Baia Formosa, meaning 'beautiful Ponta Espinhosa, 'thorny point', presumably re- bay', later anglicized to Formosa Bay. The Kra- fers to the sharp rocks at or in the sea there. This keel River Peak took its name from this bay and name could have referred to either the pesent- was known as Formosa Peak, also Peak Form- day Bok Point or Cape Hangklip. osa, from Pico Formoso, Pic Fermosa, etc. An interesting popular etymological adaptation of Serra Branca, a name meaning 'white mountain', this name has resulted in the '' name was applied to what is today known as the Zuur- Van der Mosesberg. berg or Addo Heights, while Soco Reefs has a name derived from the Portuguese name IIheus Angra dos IIheus, 'bay of small islands', has Siccos, 'arid islands'. been mentioned above as an early name for LOderitzbucht, as has its other Portuguese A final descriptive name to be mentioned is name, Angra Pequena or 'small bay'. Terra dos Bramidos, 'land of the roaring of the

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sea'. This designation was applied to the Atlantic Sao Francisco and Baia de Sao Francisco. The coast south of the Orange River Mouth. latter name was given by Manuel Perestrelo in 1575 to modern-day Jeffreys Bay, which is in- Besides physical descriptions of the named enti- cluded in St Francis Bay. ties or of geographical features in the vicinity, climatological considerations are reflected in the Ponta de Sao Brandao was the name Dias gave toponymy. Cabo Tormentoso, 'stormy cape', or to the southernmost extremity of the African con- Cabo das Tormentas, 'cape of storms', was the tinent. It means 'point of St Brandon', whose first name of Cape of Good Hope, Terra dos name-day is 16 May. The English toponym Point Trovoadas, 'land of thunderstorms', was an ap- St Brandon has also been documented; at pre- pellation applied to the Langkloof which is situ- sent the name it bears is . ated between the Kammanassie and Kouga ranges in the north and the Tsitsikamma Moun- The Mthathe River, to which Umtata owes its tains in the south. name, was named Rio de Sao Thome by the Portuguese, 'river of St Thomas'. St Sebastians Finally, reference is made to creatures encoun- Bay was dedicated to that saint by Perestrelo, tered. Walvis Bay bears a name referring to while St Helena Bay was named by Vasco da whales; it is translated from the Portuguese Baia Gama. das Baleas, 'bay of whales'. Golfo da Baleia, with the same origin, was the designation ap- Lake St Lucia, La Lucia and similar names hon- plied to the vicinity of the present-day LOderitz- our that saint; the Portuguese form of the name bucht. It is also found as Golfo de Balena and is Santa Luzia. The Tugela River once bore the Gulf d'Baleines. name Rio S. Luzia.

A large number of Portuguese place names re- St James is honoured by the early Portuguese flects the devout Catholic religious beliefs of name for the Berg River, namely Santiago, also these intrepid mariners. The name of the prov- occurring as S. Tiago, Samtiaguo and Santia- ince of Natal is derived from Terra do Natal, guo. 'land of the birth (of Christ)'. It was bestowed by Vasco da Gama in 1497 because it was on 25 Port St John was indirectly named after a saint; December, Christmas Day, that he passed this the Galleon Sao Joao was wreched at the mouth coast. of the Mtamvuna River on 18 June 1552, and it was in commemoration of that event that the On the west coast is a related name, Golfo da name was bestowed. Concek;ao, a shortened form of Golfo de Santa Maria da Conce09ao. The reference is to the Cape Padrone, too, bears a name indirectly de- Immaculate Conception of Mary, mother of rived from that of a saint. A padrao, Le. a stone Christ. At present this bay is known as cross, pillar or monument, was erected there by Walvis Bay. Dias and dedicated to St Gregory, as a conse- quence of which the name Padrao de San Gre- Saints' names often feature in place names. gorio came to' be applied to it. It was from this These were generally bestowed because it was that the modern-day name was derived. on the name-day of the particular saint that the place was reached. Aguada de Sao Bras means Socially motivated names are those which refer 'the watering-place of St Blaize'; it was here that to people. In this category two types may be Vasco da Gama in 1497 went ashore to replen- identified here, namely those referring to indi- ish his supply of fresh water, on the day ded- viduals and those referring to groups. Since the icated to St Blaize. The bay was renamed Mos- early Portuguese mariners did not come into selbaai by the Dutch in 1601 because all they contact with groups of people on many occa- could find to eat were mussels (Dutch mosse~. sions, the number of toponyms of the latter type The promontory at Mossel Bay was accordingly is limited. named Cabo Sao Bras and it still today bears the name;' albeit in the translated form of Cape St Angra dos Vaqueiros, 'bay of herdsmen', was so Blaize. named by Bartholomeu Dias because of the pastoral nature of the people and the large Cape St Francis and St Francis Bay also have droves of cattle they kept. A subsequent expedi- translated names, respectively from Cabo de tion named the bay Aguada de Sao Bras, a

26 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 18, Nr 3, 1988. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

name which, as has been noted above, was Then there are Portuguese names in the interior, superseded by Mossel Bay. The name Rio dos given in comparatively recent times. A/basini Vagueiros, 'river of herdsmen', was given to the and the Albasini Dam, at the foot of the Sout- Gourits. angra das Vacas or 'bay of cows', now pansberg range in Transvaal, were named after Vlees Bay or Flesh Bay, and Cabo das Vacas, Joao Alba9ini. He was Vice-Consul for Portugal 'cape of cows', are also names referring to the and Superintendent of the African people in the keeping of cattle. Terra da Boa Gente, 'land of Soutpansberg under the South African Republic. good people', was the name Da Gama be- Several clans of the Magwamba accepted him stowed on the area near the mouth of the Lim- as their chief. popo River. The coastal area south of Delagoa Bay was called Terra dos Fumos by him, a name Also in Transvaal is Machadodorp, a town about said to mean 'land of petty chiefs'. 25 km east of Belfast. It waas named in honour of Joachim Jose Machado, Governor-General of Names referring to or commemorating individ- Mozambique, who played a prominent role in the uals are more numerous. In some instances a survey of the railway line from Pretoria to Lou- specific occurrence involving a person was the renco Marques, now Maputo. motivating factor leading to the name. Thus, for example, Aguada de Saldanha commemorates In conclusion, the historical motivation for nam- Admiral Antonio de Saldanha and means 'the ing can be discerned in designations based on water-place of Saldanha'. However, it was not occurrences. On his voyage southward in 1488, the fact that he took in water there in 1503 that Dias was compelled by contrary winds to make gave the place its name as much as the fact that many tacks or changes of direction. When he at he and his men were attacked by Khoekhoen last found anchorage in an inlet, he named it ('Hottentots'). The place thus designated was Angra das Voltas, 'bay of tacks'. the pesent-day , and for nearly a cen- tury it was known as such. Then, however, the takes its name from Cape False, Port- name was translated to the present Saldanha uguese Cabo Falso, an old name for Cape Bay. Hangklip. It was thus named because early navi- gators sailing westwards mistook it for Cape is commemorated in the name Point and turned north too soon. Dias Point, a rocky promontory at the south- western extremity of LOderitz Bay, where Dias erected a padrao to St James on 25 July 1488; Cape of Good Hope is an important name in Da Gama Park, a township in the district of Sim- South Africa, referring as it does not only to the on's Town, was so named in honour of Vasco da southernmost tip of the but also Gama. inter alia to the modern Cape Province. The pro- montory was, as has been indicated, designated Cabo Tormentoso by virtue of the foul weather Cape Infanta, on the estuary of the Breede River, encountered there. Subsequently it was re- takes its name from Joao de Infante, captain of named, either by Dias himself or by King John, Dias's second caravel. The Portuguese name Cabo da Boa Esperam;a, 'cape of good hope', from which it is derived, was Cabo de Infante. because the doubling of the Cape gave hope of Also named after him was rio de Infante. It is a sea-route to the East. said that infante was the first to leap ashore, but precisely where that happened is uncertain. Rio Cape Agulhas takes its name from the Portu- do Infante has been variously identified as the guese form Cabo das Anguillas which means Great Fish River, the Kowie, the Keiskamma, and 'cape of the needle'. This does not refer to the the Oliphants. needle-like quality of reefs there, as has been thought, but to the fact that the compass-needle Several names with Portuguese elements were showed no magnetic declination there but given after non-Portuguese people. Isla de pointed directly north. Consequently other Cornelia and Isla d'Elizabeth were both named names of this headland include Cape of Com- by Joris van Spilbergen, the Dutch mariner. His passes, Needles of the Compass, and The mother's name was Cornelia, and that of his wife Needles. was Elizabeth. These two islands are today known as and Dassen Island re- Port St Johns takes its name from the fact that spectively. the galleon Sao Joao was wrecked nearby on 18

27 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 18, Nr 3, 1988. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za

June 1552; Sf John as a translation of the name * Dr P.E. Raper is altached to the Onomastic Research Centre, Human of the ship. Sciences Research Council.

From what has been stated above, it may be seen that Portuguese place names in Southern Africa are of importance from a cultural, histori- cal and linguistic point of view. They were the Bibliography first names in Southern Africa bestowed by Euro- Axelson, Eric. 1940. South-East Africa, London: Longmans, Green. peans; they give us an insight into the customs Botha, C.G. 1927. Place Names in the Cape Province. : Juta. Du Plessis, E.J. 1973. 'n Ondersoek na die Oorsprong en Betekenis van and beliefs of those early mariners; and histori- Suid-Afrikaanse Berg- en Riviername, Kaapstad: Talelberg. cal and linguistic facts can be deduced by Nienaber, P.J. 1973. Suid-Afrikaanse Pleknaamwoordeboek, Deel f, 2de studying the names and ther variants as en- druk. Kaapstad: Tafelberg. . Peltmann, Rev. C. 1931. South African Pface Names Past and Present. countered in different sources. The names were Queenstown: Daily Representative. also aesthetically pleasing, being euphonious Raper, P.E. 1975. Portuguese Place Names in South Africa. frr. M. Valkhoff, ed. Miscelanea Luso-Africana. : Junta de Investigac6es Cientifi- and accurately descriptive. We at the southern cas do Ultramar, 265-291. tip of the African continent are the richer for Raper, P.E. 1987. Dictionary of Southern African Place Names, Johannes- those Portuguese place names which have sur- burg: Lowry. Raven'Hart, R. 1967. Before Van Riebeeck. Cape Town: Struik. vived, albeit in adapted form; we are the poorer Ravenstein, E.G. 1898. Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1491-1499. London: for having lost many, either directly or through printed for Hackluyt Society. Skead, C.J. 1973. loo-historical Grahamstown: Cape Provincial supplantation Museums.

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