António de Saldanha

António de Saldanha was a Portuguese admiral and explorer. He was the first European to set anchor in what is now called Table Bay, South Africa, and made the first recorded ascent of Table Mountain. Mary Gunn, L. e. Codd, L. E. W. Codd. "Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa: An Illustrated History of Early Botanical Literature on the Cape Flora : Biographical Accounts of the Leading Plant Collectors and Their Activities in Southern Africa from the Days of the East India Company Until Modern Times." CRC Press, 1981. p5-7. ISBN 0869611291]

Saldanha left Lisbon on 14 March, 1503, [Wolfgang Haase, Meyer Reinhold. "The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition, Part 1". Walter de Gruyter, 1994. p62. ISBN 3110115727] the captain of a vessel in Afonso de Albuquerque's fleet bound for India to reinforce the Portuguese settlement at Cochin.

On reaching a natural bay in southern Africa, and unsure if he had rounded the Cape of Storms, Saldanha climbed a the flat-topped mountain adjacent to the bay and identified the tip of the Cape further to the south. He named the peak "Table Mountain" and carved a cross in the rock of a nearby formation, traces of which can still be found on Lion's Head today. [ [http://www.cape-town.info/cape-town-information/history-of-cape-town/ History of Cape Town,] www.Cape-town.info, retrieved August 16, 2008] Having replenished his water supplies, the noted the location as "Aguada de Saldanha" (watering-place of Saldanha) in his logbook. In 1601 a Dutch seafarer and cartographer, Joris van Spilbergen identified a bay further to the north of the Cape as "Aguada de Saldanha". Henceforth this location became known as "Saldanha Bay" and the place where de Saldanha anchored was renamed "Table Bay".

Albuquerque and Saldanha continued their journey to the east, where Saldanha became a captain of the Fortress at Cochin. [Frederick Charles Danvers. The "Portuguese in India: Being a History of the Rise and Decline of Their Eastern Empire". Asian Educational Services, 1988. p520. ISBN 8120603915] Later, between 1509 and 1512, he became the colonial head of Mozambique.

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