DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.634#0447
Our Return w ENGLAND, 42 1
perishcd, the Ship having sresh Way, and the Boats lying on Chap. J.
Board ; they threw over several Plants and Vessels, but he made '-/^\j
no sign of contending with the Waves, or Motion to save hirhself:
Wheresore it was judged he had his bane against the Ships side, or
some Gun in his Fall before ever he came at the Water ; and in
this hurry we were presently carried out of sight, so that he was
left for desperate, and given over as lost.
Before the Tenth of this Month, St. Brandon an Island on the East, we Sail on,
and Diego Rais to the South, were palled by; as also St. Maurice the Backside
kept lately by the Dutch, for no other end but to prevent others ofs"Ll"*"""-
letling there ; as Mascarems, not sar from it, by the French, for
the same reason. The day after the Sun was posiesied of the /Equi-
nox, we made the Tropick of Capricorn, from whence the Platonists
feign the Sauls descend upon the Earth ; but more truly it decla-
red that we drew near the Coasts of Asrica ; for having hitherto
measurcd a Southern Way almost diredtly, we now incline towards
the West, having not more Meridional distance from Joanna than
Nine Degrees; but now we begin to bend our Course Westward,
which we ihould do in a (trait Line, were it not for St. Lawrence,
the outside whereof our Navigators always pass by homeward bound,
it lying Twelve Degrees South, to Six and Twenty and an half,
which we supposc to be Three hundred Leagues West of us, though
here being a strong Current to the West, it/makes our Judgment
very unsteady ; however to make the Cape, it isnecessary to ele-
vate our Longitude more than our Latitude, which we did till we
had made Fourteen Degrees West from our supposed Meridian of
Joanna, whereby we reckon our selves clear of the Island Madagas-
car, or as the Portugal* call it, St. Lawrtnce ; when the East Wind
failed us, and the West blew hard upon us, contrary to the assirtion
of the iorementioned Author; the Winds, as we formerly Noted,
beyond theTropicks being unaccountable, for that they observe
no Rule s and hereupon it happened we were so long beating about
the Cape, and had been much longer, had we not made for the
Shore ; which we did about the middle of April, when it is high
Winter in these parts, wherein we tried all Weathers, the worst
of which were Calms, according to our Englijb saying,
Worse is a Winters Calm,
By far than Summers Storm.
Which we sufsered till we got under the Shore, whence we were We Weather
nssisted with fine Briezes , we falling sirss: in with Cape d' Aguthas *e Cape os
the low Land being bare and naked, the high Land, a Ridge os Q°" m''
Mountains only gaping in one place, from which the Portugal*
gave it the name d* Agatha, or of the Needles: Fifteen Miles North-
ward of it lies the Promontory called Cape Falfo, which we wea-
thered in the Morning, and afore Night did the like to the Cape
of Good Hope, which in respest of the Heavenly Position is 54
Degrees and a half South Latitude, Longitude 47, in a strait Line
from Joanna 1800 Leagues. The Marks of this Promontory are
agreeable to Seiner's Atlas: It is inhabited by a Barbarous People
called
perishcd, the Ship having sresh Way, and the Boats lying on Chap. J.
Board ; they threw over several Plants and Vessels, but he made '-/^\j
no sign of contending with the Waves, or Motion to save hirhself:
Wheresore it was judged he had his bane against the Ships side, or
some Gun in his Fall before ever he came at the Water ; and in
this hurry we were presently carried out of sight, so that he was
left for desperate, and given over as lost.
Before the Tenth of this Month, St. Brandon an Island on the East, we Sail on,
and Diego Rais to the South, were palled by; as also St. Maurice the Backside
kept lately by the Dutch, for no other end but to prevent others ofs"Ll"*"""-
letling there ; as Mascarems, not sar from it, by the French, for
the same reason. The day after the Sun was posiesied of the /Equi-
nox, we made the Tropick of Capricorn, from whence the Platonists
feign the Sauls descend upon the Earth ; but more truly it decla-
red that we drew near the Coasts of Asrica ; for having hitherto
measurcd a Southern Way almost diredtly, we now incline towards
the West, having not more Meridional distance from Joanna than
Nine Degrees; but now we begin to bend our Course Westward,
which we ihould do in a (trait Line, were it not for St. Lawrence,
the outside whereof our Navigators always pass by homeward bound,
it lying Twelve Degrees South, to Six and Twenty and an half,
which we supposc to be Three hundred Leagues West of us, though
here being a strong Current to the West, it/makes our Judgment
very unsteady ; however to make the Cape, it isnecessary to ele-
vate our Longitude more than our Latitude, which we did till we
had made Fourteen Degrees West from our supposed Meridian of
Joanna, whereby we reckon our selves clear of the Island Madagas-
car, or as the Portugal* call it, St. Lawrtnce ; when the East Wind
failed us, and the West blew hard upon us, contrary to the assirtion
of the iorementioned Author; the Winds, as we formerly Noted,
beyond theTropicks being unaccountable, for that they observe
no Rule s and hereupon it happened we were so long beating about
the Cape, and had been much longer, had we not made for the
Shore ; which we did about the middle of April, when it is high
Winter in these parts, wherein we tried all Weathers, the worst
of which were Calms, according to our Englijb saying,
Worse is a Winters Calm,
By far than Summers Storm.
Which we sufsered till we got under the Shore, whence we were We Weather
nssisted with fine Briezes , we falling sirss: in with Cape d' Aguthas *e Cape os
the low Land being bare and naked, the high Land, a Ridge os Q°" m''
Mountains only gaping in one place, from which the Portugal*
gave it the name d* Agatha, or of the Needles: Fifteen Miles North-
ward of it lies the Promontory called Cape Falfo, which we wea-
thered in the Morning, and afore Night did the like to the Cape
of Good Hope, which in respest of the Heavenly Position is 54
Degrees and a half South Latitude, Longitude 47, in a strait Line
from Joanna 1800 Leagues. The Marks of this Promontory are
agreeable to Seiner's Atlas: It is inhabited by a Barbarous People
called