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Cape of Good Hope (Promontory near the S)

a promontory near the S. extremity of Africa, at the termination of a small peninsula extending S. from Table mountain, which overlooks Cape Town. This peninsula forms the W. side of False Bay, and on its inner coast is Simon's Bay and Simon's Town, where there is a safe anchorage and a British naval station. Bartholomew Diaz, who discovered the Cape in 1487, called it Cape of Storms; but John II. of Portugal changed this this to its present designation. It was first doubled by Vasco da Gama in 1497. Here is one of the principal astronomical institutions of the world. About the middle of the 16th century the French astronomer, Lacaille, made an exceedingly valuable series of observations at the Cape. Ever since the English have had a colony there they have kept up astronomical work, the Cape having been the scene of the labors of several celebrated English astronomers, among them Sir John Herschel.