Then I should live at the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope
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For other uses, see Cape of Good Hope (disambiguation).

The Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point.
A triangular postage stamp from the Cape of Good Hope, 1855.The Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: Kaap die Goeie Hoop, Dutch: Kaap de Goede Hoop (help·info), Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa.

There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas ("ah-GOOL-yuss"), about 150 kilometres (90 mi) to the east-southeast. The Atlantic and Indian oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold-water Benguela current and turns back on itself - a point that fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point, about one kilometre east of the Cape of Good Hope.

When following the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the psychologically important point where one begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus the first rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a major milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish direct trade relations with the Far East.

As one of the great capes of the South Atlantic Ocean, the Cape of Good Hope has been of special significance to sailors for many years and is widely referred to by them simply as "the Cape."[1] It is a major milestone on the clipper route followed by clipper ships to the Far East and Australia, and still followed by several offshore yacht races.

The term Cape of Good Hope was also used to indicate the early Cape Colony established in 1652, in the vicinity of the Cape Peninsula. Just prior to the formation of the Union of South Africa, the term referred to the entire region that was to become the Cape Province in 1910.

Contents [hide]
1 Geography
2 History
3 Legends
4 Fauna
4.1 Chacma Baboons
5 Flora
6 See also
7 References


[edit] Geography

Map showing the locations of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas.The Cape of Good Hope is located at 34°21′29″S 18°28′19″E / 34.35806°S 18.47194°E / -34.35806; 18.47194.[2] It is at the south-west corner of the Cape Peninsula, about 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi) west and a little south of Cape Point on the south-east corner. Cape Town is about 50 kilometres to the north of the Cape, in Table Bay at the north end of the peninsula. The peninsula forms the western boundary of False Bay. Geologically, the rocks found at the two capes -and indeed over much of the peninsula- are part of the Table Mountain Group, and are formed of the same type of sandstones as those exposed in the faces of Table Mountain itself.


Map showing the Cape Peninsula, illustrating the positions of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.Both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point offer spectacular scenery. Indeed, the whole of the southernmost portion of the Cape Peninsula is a wild, rugged, scenic and generally unspoiled national park. The term Cape of Good Hope has also been used in a wider sense, to indicate the area of the early European colony in the vicinity of the cape.[3]

[edit] History
Main article: History of Cape Colony

1888 Map of the Cape of Good Hope with German text
Reproduction of the Cross of Vasco da Gama at the Cape of Good Hope.The first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, who named it the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as "Cape of Good Hope" (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East.

The land around the cape was home to the Khoikhoi people when the Dutch first settled there in 1652. The Khoikhoi had arrived in these parts about fifteen hundred years before.[citation needed] They were called Hottentots by the Dutch, a term that has now come to be regarded as pejorative.

Dutch colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck established a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company some 50 km north of the cape in Table Bay on 6 April 1652 and this eventually developed into Cape Town. Supplies of fresh food were vital on the long journey around Africa and Cape Town became known as "The Tavern of the Seas".

On 31 December 1687 a community of Huguenots arrived at the Cape from the Netherlands. They had escaped to the Netherlands from France in order to flee religious persecution there, examples of these are Pierre Joubert who came from La Motte-d'Aigues for religious reasons. The Dutch East India Company needed skilled farmers at the Cape of Good Hope and the Dutch Government saw opportunities for the Huguenots at the Cape and sent them over. The colony gradually grew over the next 150 years or so until it stretched for hundreds of kilometres to the north and north-east.

The United Kingdom invaded and occupied the Cape Colony in 1795 The First Occupation but relinquished control of the territory in 1803. However, British forces returned on 19 January 1806 and occupied the Cape once again The Second Occupation The territory was ceded to the UK in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 and was henceforth administered as the Cape Colony. It remained a British colony until incorporated into the independent Union of South Africa in 1910 (now known as the Republic of South Africa).

The Portuguese government erected two navigational beacons, Dias Cross and Da Gama Cross, to commemorate Vasco da Gama and Bartolomeu Dias as explorers who as mentioned were the first explorers to reach the cape. When lined up, the crosses point to Whittle Rock (34°14.8′S 18°33.6′E / 34.2467°S 18.56°E / -34.2467; 18.56), a large, permanently submerged shipping hazard in False Bay. Two other beacons in Simonstown provide the intersection.

In 1992 Rebecca Ridgeway became the first woman to single handedly kayak around the Cape. In 1993 she published a book telling of her adventures titled 'Something Amazing' published by Hodder and Stoughton.

[edit] Legends
The Cape of Good Hope is the legendary home of The Flying Dutchman. Crewed by tormented and damned ghostly sailors, it is doomed forever to beat its way through the adjacent waters without ever succeeding in rounding the headland.

Adamastor is a Greek-type mythological character invented by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his epic poem Os Lusíadas (first printed in 1572), as a symbol of the forces of nature Portuguese navigators had to overcome during their discoveries, and more specifically of the dangers Portuguese sailors faced when trying to round the Cape of Storms.