Mossel Bay, seaside town on the southern Cape coast, is set in a natural, rocky “amphitheatre” rising sharply from the shoreline, and faces north over a wide bay to the Outeniqua Mountains. With its history going back thousands of years, it retains vestiges of its past with stone buildings erected in the 19th Century to be found at almost every turn in the town centre and beyond. For many years a sleepy coastal village, it has become a vibrant town, with an aura all of its own. The safe and beautiful beaches flanked by rocks, its bay of blue waters and panoramic view of the Outenqiua mountains, the clarity of its late afternoon light and the full moon rising over the Bay make it a place to which visitors return again and again.
Historical Overview
Long before Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz and his crew became the first Europeans to step ashore on the southern coast of Africa on 3 February 1488, the area was home to the great Khoi-Khoi people. Diaz and his crew were greeted by members of the Attaquas, a clan of the Khoi Khoi. They inhabited the area between the Outeniqua Mountains to the north and Gouritz River Mouth to the west of Mossel Bay, and many local place names bear witness to their occupation of the land long before the arrival of the 15th century explorers.
Diaz found fresh water where he first set foot at what is today called Munro's Bay and so he named the place “Aquada de Sao Bras” the Watering Place of St Blaize as it was that Saint's festival day. The Portuguese and the Khoi inhabitants clashed initially over the sailors' need for fresh water and, no doubt due to a lack of understanding, a crossbow was fired killing one of the Khoi. In 1497 Vasco da Gama anchored at Aquada de Sao Bras, described by a later sailor as much like Portugal with “its many reeds, rushes, mint, wild olive trees”, and this time gained a better understanding with the Khoi. It was during this visit that Da Gama erected one of the famed “padrao” (stone cross) as well as a wooden cross before continuing his voyage to India.
Another Portuguese explorer, Pedro Cabral, followed Da Gama. In 1501 one of his commanders, Pedro de Aitaide, called at Sao Bras and, legend has it, left a letter of importance in “a boot” hanging in a large Milkwood tree. Joao da Nova, commander of the third East Indian fleet, discovered the letter months later. For some years it continued to be used as a place in which Portuguese sailors left messages, sometimes scratched on stones, beneath it. Joao da Nova erected a chapel at Sao Bras, the first-known place of Christian worship to be built in South Africa. But the legend of the Post Office Tree has lived on as indeed has the tree itself - it stands in the Bartolomeu Diaz Museum complex (see page 2) and is well over 500 years old! Today, mail posted in a boot-shaped letter-box at the tree is marked with a special stamp. A statue of Bartolomeu Diaz was erected in 1988 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his landing, and stands alongside the Post Office Tree. For many years Portuguese explorers called at Aquada de Sao Bras for fresh water, for bartering cattle with the Khoi, and for sheltering from stis a big sea running, many fishing trawlers anchor in
the Bay to ride out the worst of the storms and the sight of their lights bobbing out in the Bay on a dark and windy night recalls the times of long ago. In 1595, a fleet of four Dutch ships of the Compagnie van Verre, commanded by Cornelis de Houtman, followed the pattern set by the Portuguese explorers and landed at Sao Bras to take on fresh water. In the oldest existing map of the place, signed by de Houtman, he describes the water source and refers to the giant Milkwood tree which the Portuguese had used as their “post office”. It was to be another 50 years before the Dutch East India Company decided to set up a refreshment station at the Cape, and another 100 years before any settlement at Sao Bras was planned. The Governor of the Cape was aware of the value of Sao Bras to passing ships and, from 1667, the Dutch explored the coast more thoroughly.
It was only in 1733, however, that real progress was made when the Company's ship, the Huijs te Marquette, was severely damaged at sea and struggled into the Bay. Dutch settler Esaias Meijer and his wife were the only inhabitants of the area, living on a loan-farm, “Hartenbosch”. Esaias, after helping the crew, rode to the Cape with the news of the damaged vessel. It was a mighty journey, taking him seven days and fifteen changes of horse. As a reward for undertaking this courageous journey Meijer was given the farm together with another piece of land near the farm and there are many descendents of this intrepid man - now known as Meyer - living in Mossel Bay and the district. After this episode, the Dutch East India Company erected a beacon so that all strangers could see that this place was now their property. In 1778 Governor van Plettenberg visited the area and two years later a map of the coast was made. In 1787 a granary was built for the storage of grain until it could be shipped to the Cape. In 1788, the first cargo of wheat was shipped at the Bay for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. There are two theories on the origin of the name “Mossel Bay”. One is that the Dutch named it after the prolific supply of mussels they found in the bay, and the other theory is that it may have been named after a senior official of the Dutch East India Company, Governor Jacob Mossel (at that time Governor of Batavia).