98 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



by an English company at Port Grand, Island of St. Vincent, of the Cape de Verde group, 

 and it is said that a reasonable supply can always be obtained there by transient steamers. 



Steamers from the United States might proceed direct to St. Vincent's, provided there be 

 certainty of obtaining coal at that place, and thence proceed to the Cape by Cape Palmas, via 

 Loango ; but it is much better that cargoes of coal should be sent ahead of steamers leaving 

 the United States, as the only security for a certain supply. 



As to the route from England, that which is prescribed for her mail steamers bound round 

 the Cape of Good Hope, is to touch at St. Vincent, and thence proceed to the Cape, via 

 Ascension Island, replenishing their coal at all their stopping places. In pursuing this route, 

 (which they are compelled to do to leave a mail at Ascension for the African squadron,) they 

 are obliged to contend with the entire range of the southeast trades, which are directly ahead, 

 blowing most of the time quite strongly, and always producing a lee current of from one to 

 one and a quarter knots. By taking the route along the African coast a steamer has the 

 advantage of the sea and land breezes, and the favorable current usually setting to the south. 



On the 24th of January, at nine in the morning, the ship made the land in the vicinity of 

 Saldanha bay, and at two p. m. Table Mountain was in sight. After passing outside of Dassen 

 Island, and through the channel between the main land and Kobben's Island, at half past 

 eight p. m. the ship came to anchor in Table Bay in seven fathoms, and the following day 

 moved further in toward the town. 



This port is easy of access either by night or day, if the two lights can be distinctly seen, 

 so that the distance from Green Point can be accurately estimated. This is important, as by 

 bordering upon that point too closely there is danger of a ledge of rocks near the Cape shore, 

 and by keeping too far to the northward, the Whale Rock, at the southern end of Eobben's 

 Island, may bring a vessel up. Particular instructions for entering Table Bay at night will be 

 found in the Appendix. 



The Cape of Good Hope was first discovered by Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese, in 1493. 

 During an exploration of the Atlantic coast of Africa, this navigator was driven out to sea by 

 a storm, and the first land he made, after the subsidence of the gale, was Algoa Bay ; he 

 having thus doubled the Cape without his knowledge. Diaz gave the name of Cabo 

 Tormentoso (the Cape of Storms) to the Cape, which was afterwards changed to that of Good 

 Hope by the king of Portugal, as he rightly thought the discovery auspicious of a favorable 

 result to the great prospect entertained by the Portuguese navigators of reaching India. In 

 149 T, Vasco de Gama, another Portuguese navigator, doubled the Cape on his voyage to the 

 Indian seas. 



The Cape of Good Hope forms the southern extremity of a narrow peninsula about thirty 

 miles in length, with the Atlantic ocean on the west. False Bay on the east, and Table Bay on 

 the north. Cape Town is situated on Table Bay, and was originally founded by the Dutch in 

 1650, but fell into the hands of the English in 1795 ; and, it having been restored to its original 

 possessors after the peace of Amiens, was finally retaken by the British in 1806, in whose 

 possession it now remains. 



The town is well built with substantial houses of stone and brick, and wide, regular streets. 

 The general aspect of the place, with its well constructed public buildings and private resi- 

 dences, and its park, in the neighborhood of the government house, shaded by oaks of magnifi- 

 cent growth, is exceedingly agreeable. 



