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Inscribed: IOVA:CAPIA HO
BRA:ERA:1505 In March or April; 1505 a fleet of 22 or 23 ships under Francisco
d'Almeida left Portugal on their way to the East. The main purpose of
the expedition was to establish Portuguese supremacy in the Indian
Ocean. Eight ships arrived at the harbour of Kilimane situated on the
east coast of Africa on 22 July where João da Nova, one of D'Almeida’s
captains, was sent ashore to negotiate with the local sheik. It is
therefore known that Da Nova sailed past the South African coast
during 1505. The Portuguese called Mossel Bay Aguada de São Bras. In the early 1850s, Government House in Mossel Bay was demolished and
two stones were discovered, this one inscribed in Portuguese and
another with an engraving of a cannon. The latter stone was lost
before 1913. It is very difficult to decipher the inscription on the stone due to
it being incomplete. IOVOA may refer to Novoa or Da Nova,
BRA for Bras. To this day only three Portuguese inscriptions have survived.
(SACHM6094)
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