We
Once Caught In An Hour 6000 Fishes Like Bleaks.
Of birds, there are
pelicans as large as swans, of a white colour, with long and large
bills.
Herons, curlews, boobies, ox-eyes, and various other kinds of
waterfowl. On land, great numbers of grey parrots, and abundance of
pintados or Guinea fowls, which are very hurtful to their rice crops.
There are many other kinds of strange birds in the woods, of which I
knew not the names; and I saw among the negroes many porcupine quills.
There are also great numbers of monkeys leaping about the trees, and on
the mountains there are lions, tigers, and ounces. There are but few
elephants, of which we only saw three, but they abound farther inland.
The negroes told us of a strange beast, which our interpreter called a
carbuncle, which is said to be often seen, but only in the night. This
animal is said to carry a stone in his forehead, wonderfully luminous,
giving him light by which to feed in the night; and on hearing the
slightest noise he presently conceals it with a skin or film naturally
provided for the purpose. The commodities here are few, more being got
farther to the eastwards. At certain times of the year, the Portuguese
get gold and elephants teeth in exchange for rice, salt, beads, bells,
garlick, French bottles, copper kettles, low-priced knives, hats, linen
like barber's aprons, latten basins, edge-tools, bars of iron, and
sundry kinds of specious trinkets; but they will not give gold for toys,
only exchanging victuals for such things.
* * * * *
"This diligent observer hath taken like pains touching Saldanha bay: But
as we touch there often, and have already given many notices of that
place, we shall now double the Cape, and take a view along with him of
Cape St Augustine." - Purch.
* * * * *
Sec. 2. Observations made at St Augustine in Madagascar, and at the Island
of Socotora.
St Augustine, in the great island of St Lawrence or Madagascar, is
rather a bay than a cape or point, as it has no land much bearing out
beyond the rest of the coast. It is in 23 deg. 30' S. latitude, the
variation here being 15 deg. 40, and may be easily found, as it has
breaches[211] on either side some leagues off to the W.S.W. Right from
the bay to seaward the water is very deep; but within the bay the ground
is so very shelvy, that you may have one anchor to the north in 22
fathoms, and your other anchor in more than 60; while in some places
nearer shore you will not have two feet at low water, and deep water
still farther in; the whole ground a soft ooze. Within a mile or two of
the bay the land is high, barren, and full of rocks and stones, with
many small woods. Two rivers run into the bottom of the bay, the land
about them being low, sandy, and overflowed; and these rivers pour in so
much water into the bay that their currents are never stemmed by the
tide, which yet rises two fathoms, by which the water in the bay is very
thick and muddy.
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