ti 



" 



APPENDIX.] WEST INDIES. 119 



The reader will now perhaps conclude, that Dr, Robertson 

 pronounced too hastily, when he observed " that such events, J> 

 (as those that I have mentioned) " are barely possible, and 

 " may have happened ; but that they ever did happen, we have 

 " no evidence, either from the clear testimony of history, or 

 " the obscure intimations of tradition.' 1 This declaration is 

 the more unexpected, as the learned author had a little before 

 jelated the circumstance of the accidental discovery of Brasil 

 by the Portuguese, in the year 1500. " The successful voy- 

 " age of Gama to the East Indies" (observes the historian) 

 having encouraged the king of Portugal to fit cut a fleet, so 

 powerful, as not only to carry on trade, but to attempt con- 

 quest, he gave the command of it to Pedro Alvarez Cabral. 

 In order to avoid the coast of Africa, where he was certain 

 of meeting with variable breezes, or frequent calms, to re<- 

 tard his voyage, Cabral stood out to sea, and kept so far to 

 the west, that, to his surprise, he found himself upon the 

 " shore of an unknown country, in the tenth degree beyond 

 " the line. He imagined, at first, that it was some island in 

 " the Atlantic ocean hitherto unobserved; but, proceeding 

 " along its coasts for several days, he was led gradually to be- 

 " lieve, that a country so extensive formed a part of some great 



a certain season of the year generally make for the southern coast of Bra- 

 sil, in order to fall in with the westerly monsoon, which enables them 

 either to reach the cape of Good Hope, or pursue their route by Madagas- 

 car j for while the eastern monsoon prevails, they are constantly baffled in 

 their attempts to double the cape, and are driven to leeward towards the 

 coast of South America. In the year 1626, when Sir Dodmore Cotton 

 was sent on an embassy to the Persian court, the fleet in which he sailed 

 was forced by contrary winds within a few leagues of the island of Trini- 

 dad, in the West Indies. Sir Thomas Herbert, in his account of this 

 voyage, relates, that " on the first of June, when they were by observa- 

 " tion in 24 42' south latitude, they met with many sudden gusts and 

 " storms which rendered them unable to pursue their course, and drove 

 ** them to leeward 100 leagues upon the coast of Brusil.'" 1 





