Editing Post box (section)

===Africa===
<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-post-office-tree-mossel-bay-south-africa |title=The Post Office Tree: South Africa's First Mailbox |website=www.atlasobscura.com |access-date=13 June 2019}}</ref> In 1500, a Portuguese sea captain named [[Pêro de Ataíde]] lost much of his fleet in a storm off the [[Southern Cape]]. He wrote a message reporting the damage and a warning relating the state of affairs in India, for future Portuguese captains to avoid Calicut, which was now hostile. Ataíde tucked the message in a boot dangling from a [[Sideroxylon inerme|milkwood]] tree near a spring where sailors often drew water, Aguada de São Brás ([[Mossel Bay]]).

Miraculously, the message was retrieved by its intended recipient, [[João da Nova]], admiral of the outgoing [[3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)|3rd armada]], the very next year. The tree became a de facto post office box, where sailors would exchange letters protected in boots, iron pots, or beneath rocks. Seamen would leave their messages behind, trusting that their countrymen would pick them up and deliver them to their correct destination, albeit very slowly.

The [[Post Office Tree]], now believed to be approximately 600 years old, still continues to send and receive mail. A large post office box shaped like a giant boot has been constructed beneath the tree, where people can send letters anywhere in the world and receive a special stamp. Presumably, delivery now takes less than a year.