What I would deduce from this, besides a confirmation of that ingenious theory of the tides, by Captain Halley; is first, that the ships bound to Angola, Cabenda, and other places on the southern coast of Africa, should cross the equinoctial from Cape Palmas, and run into a southern latitude, without keeping too far to the westward; and the reason seems plain, for if you endeavour to cross it about the islands, you meet calms, southerly winds and opposite currents; and if too far to the westward, the trade winds are strong and unfavourable; for it obliges you to stand into 28° or 30° southern latitude, till they are variable.
Secondly, On the northern side of Guinea, if ships are bound from the Gold Coast to Sierra Leone, Gambia, or elsewhere to windward, considering the weakness of these currents, and the favourableness of land breezes, and southerly in the rains, tornadoes, and even of the trade wind, when abreast of Cape Palmas, it is more expeditious to pursue the passage this way, than by a long perambulatory course of 4 or 500 leagues to the westward, and as many more to the northward, which must be before a wind can be obtained, that could recover the coast.
Lastly, it is, in a great measure, owning to this want of inlets, and the rivers being small and unnavigable, that the seas rebound with so dangerous a surf thro’ the whole continent.
Round the shores of this island, and at this season, (July, August and September,) there is a great resort of whale-fish, tame, and sporting very nigh the ships as they sail in, always in pairs, the female much the smaller, and often seen to turn on their backs for dalliance, the prologue to engendering: it has an enemy, called the thresher, a large fish too, that has its haunts here at this season, and encounters the whale, raising himself out of the water a considerable height, and falling again with great weight and force; it is commonly said also, that there is a swordfish in these battles, who pricks the whale up to the surface again, but without this, I believe, he would suffocate when put to quick motions, unless frequently approaching the air, to ventilate and remove the impediments to a swifter circulation: nor do I think he is battled for prey, but to remove him from what is perhaps the food of both. The number of whales here has put me sometimes on thinking an advantageous fishery might be made of it, but I presume they (no more than those of Brazil) are the sort which yield the profitable part, called whalebone: all therefore that the islanders do, is now and then to go out with two or three canoes, and set on one for diversion.
The rocks and outer lines of the island, are the haunts of variety of seabirds, especially boobies and noddies; the former are of the bigness of a gull, and a dark colour, named so from their simplicity, because they often sit still and let the sailors take them up in their hands; but I fancy this succeeds more frequently from their weariness, and the largeness of their wings, which, when they once have rested, cannot have the scope necessary to raise and float them on the air again. The noddies are smaller and flat footed also.
What I would remark more of them, is, the admirable instinct in these birds, for the proper seasons, and the proper places for support. In the aforemention’d months, when the large fish were here, numerous flocks of fowl attend for the spawn and superfluity of their nourishment; and in January few of either; for the same reason, there are scarce any sea fowl seen on the African coast; rocks and islands being generally their best security and subsistence.
The harbour of Prince’s is at the E. S. E. point of the island; the north side has gradual soundings, but here deep water, having no ground at a mile off with 140 fathom of line. The port (when in) is a smooth narrow bay, safe from winds, (unless a little swell when southerly) and draughted into other smaller and sandy ones, convenient for raising of tents, watering, and hawling the seam; the whole protected by a fort, or rather battery, of a dozen guns on the larboard-side. At the head of the bay stands the town, about a mile from the anchoring place, and consists of two or three regular streets, of wooden built houses, where the governor and chief men of the island reside. Here the water grows shallow for a considerable distance, and the natives, at every ebb, (having before encompassed every convenient angle with a rise of stones, something like weirs in England) resort for catching of fish, which, with them, is a daily diversion, as well as subsistence, 500 attending with sticks and wicker baskets; and if they cannot dip them with one hand, they knock them down with the other. The tides rise regularly 6 foot in the harbour, and yet not half that height without the capes that make the bay.
Here are constantly two missionaries, who are sent for six years
