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CHA P. XVI.

Our Arrival at the Cape of Good Hope; fome Remarks on the Run from Java Head to that Place; a Defcription of the Cape, and of Saint Helena; with fome Account of the Hottentots, and the Return of the Ship to England.

Ο

1771.

March.

N Friday the 15th of March, about ten o'clock Friday 15. in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in feven fathoms, with an oozy bottom. The weft point of the bay, called the Lion's Tail, bore W. N. W. and the castle S. W. distant about a mile and a half. I immediately waited upon the Governor, who told me, that I should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place a-fhore for the fick, which were not a few; and a houfe was foon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two fhillings a head per day.

Our run, from Java Head to this place, afforded very few subjects of remark that can be of ufe to future navigators: fuch as occurred, however, I fhall fet down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we got the general fouth-east trade-wind, during which time we did not advance above 5° to the fouthward, and 3° to the weft, having variable light airs, interrupted by calms, with fultry weather and an unwhole fome air, - occafioned probably by the load of vapours which the eaftern trade-wind and wefterly monfoons bring into thefe latitudes, both which blow in these feas at the time of year when we happened to be there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10 or 12° S. and the wefterly as far as 6 or 8°; in the intermediate space the winds are variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome : it certainly aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and particularly the flux, which was not in the leaft degree checked by any medicine, fo that whoever was feized with it confidered himself as a dead man; but we had no fooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to feel its falutary effects: we buried, indeed, feveral of our people after

wards,

1771. March.

wards, but they were fuch as had been taken on board in a ftate fo low and feeble, that there was scarcely a poffibility of their recovery. At first we suspected that this dreadful diforder might have been brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince's Island, or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least reason to believe that this fufpicion was well grounded; for all the ships that came from Batavia, at the fame feafon, fuffered in the fame degree, and fome of them even more feverely, though none of them touched at Prince's Inland in their way.

A few days after we left Java, we faw boobies about the fhip for feveral nights fucceffively; and as these birds are known to rooft every night on fhore, we thought them an indication that fome ifland was not far diftant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which in different charts, is very differently laid down both in name and fituation.

The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java is about 3° W. and fo it continued, without any fenfible variation, in the common track of fhips, to the longitude of 288° W. latitude 22° S. after which it increased apace, fo that in longitude 295°, latitude 23°, the variation was 10° 20' W. In feven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude, it increafed two degrees. In the fame fpace, farther to the weft, it increafed five degrees; in latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24 20'; in latitude 29°, longitude 317o, it was 26a 10', and was then stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the weft; but in latitude 34°, longitude 333°, we obferved it twice to be 2804 W .and this was its greatest variation; for in latitude 35°, longitude 337, it was 24°, and continued gradually to decreate; fo that off Cape Anguillas it was 22° 30′ and in Table Bay 20° 30′ W.

As to currents, it did not appear that they were at all confiderable, till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagafcar; for after we had made 52° of longitude from Java Head, we found, by obfervation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it was the fame when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing partly to a current fetting to the weftward, partly to our not making

proper

proper allowances for the setting of the fea before which we run, and perhaps to an error in the affumed longitude of Java Head. If that longitude is erroneous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of the charts of which I made ufe in reducing the longitude from Batavia to that place; for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia is well determined. After we had paffed the longitude of 307°, the effects of the westerly currents began to be confiderable; for in three days our error in longitude was 10 5'. The velocity of the current kept increasing, as we proceeded to the weftward, infomuch that for five days fucceffively, after we made the land, we were driven to the S. W. or S. W. by W. not lefs than twenty leagues a day; and this continued till we were within fixty or feventy leagues of the Cape, where the current set sometimes one way, and fometimes the other, though inclining rather to the westward.

After the boobies had left us, we faw no more birds till we got nearly a-breast of Madagascar, where, in latitude 27° S. we faw an albatrofs, and after that time we faw them every day in great numbers, with birds of several forts, particularly one about as big as a duck, of a very dark brown colour, with a yellowish bill. These birds became more numerous as we approached the shore, and as soon as we got into foundings we saw gannets, which we continued to fee as long as we were upon the bank which stretches off Anguillas to the distance of forty leagues, and extends along the fhore to the eastward, from Cape Falfe, according to fome charts, one hundred and fixty leagues. The real extent of this bank is not exactly known; it is, however, useful as a direction to shipping when to haul in, in order to make the land.

While we lay here the Houghton Indiaman failed for England, who, during her ftay in India, loft by ficknefs between thirty and forty men, and when the left the Cape had many in a helpless condition with the fcurvy. Other fhips fuffered in the fame proportion, who had been little more than twelve months abfent from England: our fufferings, therefore, were comparatively light, confidering that we had been abfent near three times as long.

1721.

March.

1771. April.

Having lain here to recover the fick, procure ftores, and perform several necessary operations upon the ship and rigging, till the 13th of April, I then got all the Saturd. 13. fick on board, feveral of whom were still in a dangerous ftate, and, having taken leave of the Governor, I unSunday 14. moored the next morning, and got ready to fail.

The Cape of Good Hope has been fo often defcribed, and is io well known in Europe, that I fhall mention only a few particulars, which in other relations are omitted or mifreprefented.

Notwithstanding all that has been faid to the contrary, no country that we saw during the voyage makes a more forlorn appearance, or is in reality a more sterile defart. The land over the Cape, which conftitutes the peninfula formed by Table Bay on the north, and Falfe Bay on the fouth, confits of high mountains, altogether naked and defolate: the land behind these to the east, which may be confidered as the ifthmus, is a plain of vaft extent, confifting almost wholly of a light kind of fea-fand, which produces nothing but heath and is utterly incapable of cultivation. All the spots that will admit of improvement, which together bear about the fame proportion to the whole as one to one thousand, are laid out in vineyards, orchards, and kitchen grounds; and most of thefe little fpots lie at a confiderable diftance from each other. There is alfo the greateft reafon to believe, that in the intérior parts of this country, that which is capable of cultivation does not bear a greater proportion to that which is incorrigibly barren; for the Dutch told us, that they had fettlements eight-and-twenty days journey up the country, a distance equal to at leaft nine hundred miles, from which they bring provifions to the Cape by land; fo that it feems reafonable to conclude, that provifions are not to be had within a lefs compafs. While we were at the Cape, a farmer came thither from the country, at the diftance of fifteen days journey, and brought his young children with him. We were furprised at this, and afked him, if it would not have been better to have left them with his next neighbour? Neighbour! faid the man, I have no neighbour within less than five days journey of me. Surely the country must be deplorably barren, in which thofe who

fettle

fettle only to raise provifions for a market, are difperfed at fuch distances from each other. That the country is every where deftitute of wood appears to demonftration; for timber and planks are imported from Batavia, and fuel is almost as dear as food. We saw no

tree, except in plantations near the town, that was fix feet high; and the stems, that were not thicker than a man's thumb, had roots as thick as an arm or a leg; fuch is the influence of the winds here to the difadvantage of vegetation, setting the fterility of the foil out of the question.

The only town which the Dutch have built here is, from its fituation, called Cape Town, and consists of about a thousand houses, neatly built of brick, and in general whited on the outfide; they are, however, covered only with thatch, for the violence of the foutheaft winds would render any other roof inconvenient and dangerous. The ftreets are broad and commodious, all croffing each other at right angles. In the principal street there is a canal, on each fide of which is planted a row of oaks, that have flourished tolerably well, and yield an agreeable shade; there is a canal also in one other part of the town, but the flope of the ground in the course of both is fo great, that they are furnished with flood-gates, or locks, at intervals of little more than fifty yards.

A much greater proportion of the inhabitants are Dutch in this place than in Batavia; and as the town is fupported principally by entertaining strangers, and fupplying them with neceffaries, every man, to a certain degree, imitates the manners and customs of the nation with which he is chiefly concerned, The ladies, however, are so faithful to the mode of their country, that not one of them will ftir without a chaudpied, or chauffet, which is carried by a fervant, that it may be ready to place under her feet whenever fhe fhall fit down. This practice is the more remarkable, as very few of these chauffets have fire in them, which indeed the climate renders unneceffary..

The women in general are very handsome; they have fine clear skins, and a bloom of colour that indicates a purity of conftitution, and high health. They make the best wives in the world, both as mistresses of a VOL. II.

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