EVEN THE COWS WERE AMAZED

Softcover with illustrated covers. 176 pp, full colour illustration. Some slight ink transfer opposite dark photos but overall the book is in good, clean condition.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries a number of European ships involved in trade with the East came to grief on the south-east African coast, the most famous being the Grosvenor (1782). In almost all cases there were survivors, both passengers and crew, whose stories were later recounted and written down. And what stories these are.

Many parties undertook epic journeys on foot from the wreck site to reach places where they might be rescued. The survivors of Portuguese vessels headed north towards present-day Mozambique, where it was known that Portuguese trading vessels occasionally made anchor. The Dutch and the British, on the other hand, headed west towards the Cape.

These hazardous journeys involved great feats of endurance for the survivors, who tramped by foot for hundreds of kilometres through unknown territory and met (and bartered with) local people along the way whom common stereotypes of the time demonised as hostile savages. Even more remarkably, a few parties of survivors constructed their own small ships from the wreckage and sailed off to seek rescue.

Dr. Gillian Vernon was formerly the director of the East London Museum.