_Continuation of the Voyage by Cape Branco, the Coast of Barbary, and the
Fortia of Arguin; with some account of the Arabs, the Azanaghi, and the
Country of Tegazza._
Leaving the Canaries, we pursued our course towards Ethiopia, and arrived
in a few days at Cape Branco, which is about 870 miles from these islands.
In this passage, steering south, we kept at a great distance from the
African shore on our left, as the Canaries are, far-advanced into the sea
towards the west. We stood almost directly south for two-thirds of the
way between the islands and the Cape, after which we changed our course
somewhat more towards the east, or left-hand, that we might fall in with
the land, lest we should have overpassed the Cape without seeing it
because no land appears afterwards so far to the west for a considerable
space. The coast of Africa, to the southwards of Cape Bronco, falls in
considerably to the eastwards, forming a great bay or gulf, called the
_Forna of Arguin_, from a small island of that name. This gulf extends
about fifty miles into the land, and has three other islands, one of
which is named _Branco_ by the Portuguese, or the White Island, on
account of its white sands; the second is called _Garze_, or the Isle of
Herons, where they found so many eggs of certain seabirds as to load two
boats; the third is called _Curoi_, or Cori. These islands are all small,
sandy, and uninhabited. In that of Arguin there is plenty of fresh water,
but there is none in any of the others. It is proper to observe, that on
keeping to the southwards, from the Straits of Gibraltar, the coast of
exterior Barbary is inhabited no farther than Cape Cantin[1], from whence
to Cape Branco is the sandy country or desert, called _Saara_ or
_Saharra_ by the natives, which is divided from Barbary or Morocco on the
north by the mountains of Atlas, and borders on the south with the
country of the Negroes, and would require a journey of fifty days to
cross, - in some places more, in others less. This desert reaches to the
ocean, and is all a white dry sand, quite low and level, so that no part
of it seems higher than any other. Cape _Branco_, or the White Cape, so
named by the Portuguese from its white colour, without trees or verdure,
is a noble promontory of a triangular shape, having three separate points
about a mile from each other.
Innumerable quantities of large and excellent fish of various kinds are
caught on this coast, similar in taste to those we have at Venice, but
quite different in shape and appearance. The gulf of Arguin is shallow
all over, and is full of shoals both of rocks and sand; and, as the
currents are here very strong, there is no sailing except by day, and
even then with the lead constantly heaving.
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