The Portuguese, with Bartholomew Dias reaching the Cape in 1487, and Vasco da Gama, who sailed around the Cape in 1497, are credited for discovering the sea route around Africa to the spices of the East.
Later discoveries, however, of Phoenician and Chinese coins on the east coast of Southern Africa, raised the question of who the first real non-African explorers of Southern Africa could have been? With Portuguese, Dutch, British, Spanish, French and even eastern interests in the sea route around the Cape, many coins of foreign origin came into circulation in Southern Africa.