History of Jeffreys Bay

By Bert Behrens.

Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator, was born on 4 March 1394,Porto, Portugal. He was the fifth eldest child of King John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster England.

 Prince Henry, founded his Institute which included, Libraries, Astronomical Observatory, Ship Building Facilities and he also built the Church of the Navigators in the south of Portugal in the small Village of Sagres. Price Henry died in Sagres on the 13 November 1460, aged 66 years and was buried in a tomb in the Batalha Monastery.

  Soon after his death King John II assumed the responsibility of discovering the sea-route to India and the thriving and lucrative spice fields of the East.

  In August 1487, King John II was present at the dockside to finally brief the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dais and his men who were due to set sail from the small port of Belem, on the Tagus River in Lisbon Portugal, and head for the African Coast. Along the way Dias planted many Padrãos.

  His fleet then sailed around Cape Point and up the east coast of Africa. In In 1488 after passing the dangerous Tsitsikamma coastline they anchored in a bay which Dias named "Golfo dos Pastores", which is Portuguese for Bay of the Shepherds. This was because of the many Aboriginal herdsman, probably “Strandlopers”, which were seen, on shore driving their cattle and sheep, from his Caravel.

  St. Francis Bay stretches from Cape Receife in the east to Cape St. Francis in in the west. The area today know as Jeffreys Bay, with Port Elizabeth and the Gamtoos River lying to the east of it and St. Francis, Cape St. Francis, the Krom River and Tsitsikamma to the west was inhabited many, many years ago by coastal Aboriginals. Proof of this was discovered way back in the early 1900's Mr R W FitzSimons, who at that time was the Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum and Snake Park, (today Bay World), when he excavated a rock cave in the Outeniqua Mountains near the Tzitzikama coast in an area which was once occupied by the early coastal Aboriginals. (possibly Khoikhoi Cave dwellers or Strandlopers).Here he unearthed a number of skeletons, many of which can be seen in a photograph that was taken of him sitting inside the cave with the skulls displayed on the ground around him.

  The fact that “Strandlopers” once roamed these shores was once again proved to be true when a valuable archaeological discovery was made between the Kabeljouws and Gamtoos Rivers. In 1997 whilst walking on the beach Kobus Kobus Reichert and Bianca Fenner discovered a partly exposed skeleton lying in the sea sand near a shell midden. They reported their discovery to Dr Johan Binneman of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown who excavated the site. At the time it was thought that the skeleton had lain under the sand for about 600 years.

  Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo, a Portuguese navigator and cartographer, was commissioned to chart the coast of Africa. In 1575 when his fleet anchored in the bay already named “Golfo dos Pastores” by Dias, he renamed the bay “Bahia de St. Francisco”, again Portuguese,in English St. Francis Bay), in honour of the patron saint of sailors. It is also believed that incorrect charts and maps drawn up by Perestrelo, caused many shipwrecks along the Tsitsikama Coast because water was shown where land actually existed. A Monument to Discoverers is situated on the banks of the Tagus River in Lisbon Portugal.