CHAPTER XXVI - MR. VAN RIEBEEK'S ADMINISTRATION—(continued)

Summary

An attempt to reach the fabulous empire of Monomotapa was also made from the Cape in this year 1660. Under the stimulus of large rewards, which were offered for any discoveries of importance, a number of volunteers offered their services to the commander. Since the return of the last exploring expedition, Mr. Van Riebeek had been diligently studying different books and atlases which treated of the geography of South Africa, and he believed, therefore, that he could now fix the exact position of Monomotapa and its chief cities. As authorities he had Linschoten's celebrated work, Father Martinus Martini's verbal description of the country, a number of maps, and several Portuguese books, though certainly neither the great histories of De Barros and De Couto nor the volume of the Dominican friar João dos Santos. The commander was of course familiar with the Portuguese language, which was then the common medium of conversation between Europeans of different nationalities in the east, and it must have been frequently used at the fort Good Hope, for it is stated that Eva could speak it tolerably well.

From the sources of information at his command, Mr. Van Riebeek laid down the city of Davagul, in which the emperor of Monomotapa was believed to keep his treasures, as thirteen hundred and twenty-five kilometres or eight hundred and twenty-eight English miles in a north-easterly direction from the Cape of Good Hope, and five hundred and fifteen kilometres westward from the coast of the Indian sea, that is, in the neighbourhood of the present town of Pretoria.