It was just north of the Mzimvubu River that the first of the Wild Coast shipwrecks of european vessels occurred in 1552. This was the Sao Joao. She was followed by the Sao Bento [1554], the Santo Alberto [1593], the Sao Joao Baptista [1622], the Nossa Senhora de Belem [1653] and the Stavenisse [1686]. It was from the survivors of these shipwrecks that Europe obtained the earliest descriptions of the people and geography of the Wild Coast of Africa.