The town is of mean building, but large and populous, the residence of the greater part of the natives, who, thro’ the whole island, are computed at 10,000, the militia at 3,000, and are in general, a rascally thievish generation, as an old grave friend of mine can witness; for he having carried a bag of secondhand clothes onshore, to truck for provisions, seated himself on the sand for that purpose, presently gathered a crowd round him, to view them; one of which desired to know the price of a black suit, that unluckily lay uppermost, and was the best of them, agreeing to the demand, with little hesitation, provided it would but fit him; he put them on immediately, in as much hurry as possible, without any co-licentia Seignior; and when my friend was about to commend the goodness of the suit, and exactness they set with, not dreaming of the impudence of running away from a crowd, the rascal took to his heels, my friend followed and bawled very much, and though there was 500 people about the place, it served to no other end but making him a clear stage, that the best pair of heels might carry it; so he lost the suit of clothes, and before he could return to his bag, others of them had beat off his servant, and shared the rest.
Most of the ships from Guinea, of their own nation, and frequently those of ours, call at one or other of these islands, to recruit with fresh provisions, and take in water, which on the coast are not so good, nor so conveniently to come by: their own ships likewise, when they touch here, are obliged to leave the King his custom for their slaves, which is always in gold, at so much a head, without any deduction at Brazil, for the mortality that may happen afterwards; this by being a constant bank to pay off the civil and military charges of the government, prevents the inconveniency of remittances, and keeps both it and Prince’s Isle rich enough to pay ready money for everything they want of Europeans.
Their beefs are small and lean, (two hundred weight or a little more,) but the goats, hogs and fowls very good, their sugar course and dirty, and rum very ordinary; as these refreshments lay most with people who are in want of other necessaries, they come to us in way of bartering, very cheap: a good hog for an old cutlash; a fat fowl for a span of Brazil tobacco, (no other sort being valued, etc.) But with money you give eight dollars per head for cattle; three dollars for a goat; six dollars for a grown hog; a testoon and a half for a fowl; a dollar per gallon for rum; two dollars a roove for sugar; and half a dollar for a dozen of parakeets: here is plenty likewise of corn and farine, of limes, citrons and yams.
The island is reckoned nigh a square, each side18 leagues long, hilly, and lays under the equinoctial, a wooden bridge just without the town, being said not to deviate the least part of a minute, either to the southward or northward; and notwithstanding this warm situation, and continual vertical suns, the islanders are very healthy, imputed by those who are disposed to be merry, in a great measure to the want of even so much as one surgeon or physician amongst them.
Isle del Príncipe, the next in magnitude, a pleasant and delightful spot to the grave, and thoughtful disposition of the Portuguese, an improvement of country retirement, in that, this may be a happy and uninterrupted retreat from the whole world.
I shall divide what I have to say on this island, into observations made on our approach to it, on the seas round it, the harbour, produce of the island and seasons, way of living among the inhabitants, some custom of the Negroes, with such proper deductions on each as may illustrate the description, and inform the reader.
We were bound hither from Whydah, at the latter part of the month July, when the rains are over, and the winds hang altogether S. W. (as they do before the rains, S. E.) yet with this wind (when at sea) we found the ship gained unexpectedly so far to the southward, (i.e. windward,) that we could with ease have weathered any of the islands, and this seems next to impossible should be, if the currents, which were strong to leeward, in the road of Whydah, had extended in like manner cross the Bight of Benin: no, it must then have been very difficult to have weathered even Cape Formosa: on this occasion, I shall farther expatiate upon the currents on the whole coast of Guinea.
The southern coast of Africa runs in a line of latitude, the northern on an eastern line, but both straight, with the fewest inlets, gulfs or bays, of either of the four continents; the only large and remarkable one, is that of Benin and Calabar, towards which the currents of each coast tend, and is strongest from the southward, because more open to a larger sea, whose rising it is (though little and indiscernible at any distance from the land,) that gives rise to these currents close in shore, which are nothing but tides altered and disturbed by the make and shape of lands.
For proof of this, I shall lay down the following observations as certain facts. That in the rivers of Gambia and Sierra Leone, in the straits and channels of Benin, and in general along
