Hitching Post

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bartered livestock with the local KhoiKhoi. From here, Dias sailed east and eventually landed at Algoa Bay, where he erected a wooden cross on St Croix Island.

Continuing up the coast, he reached a river mouth he named Rio de Infante, in honour of João Infante, the captain of the second caravel. It is generally accepted today that this was the Keiskamma River. Here, Dias was persuaded by his men to return to Portugal. Not long after backtracking down the coast, Dias instructed his men to erect a padrão at Kwaaihoek, a promontory near Bushman’s River Mouth in the Eastern Cape, on 12 March 1488.

A dedicated search

Although the Kwaaihoek padrão is said to have been a beacon for later seafarers, it seems to have disappeared by the end of the 16th century. Early European travellers penetrating the Eastern Cape by land in the 18th and 19th centuries could find no trace of it. By the early 20th century, many theories about its original location had been put forward.

It would, however, be Axelson from Wits University who put an end to the controversy after two years of intensive research in libraries and archives in Portugal, Italy, France and Britain.

By late 1937, he was convinced that the Padrão de São Gregorio had been erected by Dias on top of the headland at Kwaaihoek. In mid-January the following year, he found the first fragments of the elusive cross under the sands at Kwaaihoek.

These initial discoveries led to more, including a sizeable piece of the padrão found at low tide in the rock pools below the 30m-high cliff at Kwaaihoek.

Extensive excavation work led to the recovery of thousands of pieces over the course of three visits to the site. The fragments, which did not match limestone deposits in the area, found their way to Wits, where reconstruction began.

After being painstakingly pieced together, the padrão was declared a national monument in 1939. Several replicas were produced, one of which was erected at Kwaaihoek in the early 1940s. Others were donated to the Portuguese government and various institutions across Southern Africa.

• Sources: Howcroft, P. ‘Bartolomeu Dias’. Retrieved from sahistory.org. za/people/bartolomeu-dias; RavenHart, R (ed). 1967. Before Van Riebeeck. Struik; ‘Dias Cross. 2013. Retrieved from bushmansratepayers. co.za/dias-cross; artefacts.co.za /Dias Cross; libguides.wits.ac.za›c.php/ Dias Cross.

Mike burgess ABOVE: The reconstructed Padrão de São Gregorio in the foyer of the University of the Witwatersrand’s William Cullen Library. The structure consists of approximately 5 000 limestone fragments found under the sands at Kwaaihoek. The original stone is thought to have been quarried at Alcantara outside Lisbon, Portugal.