OF DR. J. R. T. VOGEL. 5 
letters to his relations and friends in Europe ; but they never 
reached their destination. From Sierra Leone he wrote on 
the 30th of June, as follows : 
* We sailed from Madeira by Teneriffe to St. Vincent, 
one of the Cape de Verd Islands, and from thence came here. 
At Teneriffe we remained a day ; but I was able to take only 
a cursory glance, since I was unwell on the passage from 
Madeira thither, and did not venture to leave the ship. We 
remained a fortnight off St. Vincent: the island is small, but 
has an excellent harbour, and was therefore the rendezvous 
of the ships belonging to the expedition. Anything more 
comfortless than the view of this island, I never beheld: 
one might believe that after the formation of the world, a 
quantity of useless surplus stones was cast into the sea; and 
that thus the Island of St. Vincent arose. There is nothing 
but hills and mountains (some of them 2500 feet high) ; with 
small valleys, which in the broader parts are very sandy, 
without a plant deserving the name of tree: while the 
vallies themselves produce scarcely a species; for in my first 
excursion, I found in four hours only two species, of which 
one, a Javander, was completely dried up. What had been 
wanting here, namely moisture, was in a few days but too 
abundant. On the part of the coast where we are at present, 
the rainy season has begun; that is, the first portion of it, 
which announces itself by single thunder-storms with violent 
wind (tornados. Sometimes on the passage my cabin got 
very wet, and what was worse, my plants. Since we have been 
at Sierra Leone, the weather is generally clear by day; but 
towards evening there comes heavy rain or a thunder-storm, 
and last night we had one, such as I never witnessed before. 
* On entering the river at Free Town, the shore, on 
which the town stands, is bordered at a short distance by 
a range of hills, exhibiting a very pretty appearance with 
their gentle swelling summits and insolated lofty trees. : A 
rich vegetation stretches from the shore upwards, which 
captivates the eye by its soft bright green, such as is only 
seen in the tropies, and gives the whole an incomparably 
