[108] The first Dutch settlement at the present site of Cape Town was made in 1652; it grew very slowly for a long time, for at the end of that century it contained only some eighty private houses. In 1658 negro slaves were carried thither, and later the Dutch sent to Cape Town Javanese criminals who had been sentenced at Batavia to penal servitude, and political prisoners of rank from India, some of whom preferred to remain there for life. With these elements of population and the aboriginal Hottentots arose innumerable mixtures of blood, and the utmost diversity of color and features among the inhabitants. The castle of Good Hope (still standing) was built in 1666-74, as a defense for the colony; and in 1672 a formal purchase of land was made from the Hottentots by the East India Company. The great garden of the Company was partly converted into a nursery for foreign plants and trees by Simon van der Stel, commander of the colony from 1680 to 1699. See Theal's South Africa (New York and London, 1894), pp. 20-57. In 1688-90 nearly 200 Huguenot refugees from France arrived at the Cape, and formed settlements near Cape Town. See Worsfold's South Africa (London, 1895), p. 15. [109] Desiderius Erasmus was born at Rotterdam October 28, 1467. When a boy, he was sent to a convent; and in 1492 was ordained a priest, at Utrecht. He afterward devoted himself to the study of the classics and of divinity, and to literary work; he resided successively in Paris, England, and Basle. His Colloquies offended zealous Catholics, by attacking the superstitions and abuses in the Church; but he was not a supporter of Luther. Erasmus died on July 12, 1536. [110] They took Father Samper to the island of Paragua, and abandoned him there. When this event was learned in Manila, they sent for him; but on the way he fell into the hands of the Camucon pirates, who took his life.--Fray Tirso López. [111] Basilitano obviously refers to some suppressed or extinct see in pagandom, and Fray López would now be styled a "titular bishop." The word cannot be found in the lexicons or gazetteers of classical, mediæval, and early Christian geographical terms; and it is evidently an adjective of local meaning.--Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A. [112] See the Epodes of Horatius, i, 2, l. 14; at first referring to the Greeks before Troy, but afterward becoming a general proverb--"Whatever errors the great may commit, the people must atone for."