Cape Palmas to the River Congo. ' 59.3 



contrast to the natives of the Gold Coast, 

 wlio are turbulent in disposition, averse 

 from innovation, and over whom the 

 forts have not any control beyond tiie 

 reacii of tlieir guns. 



Their operations in husbandry are 

 extremely limited, and the edible vege- 

 tables which they most cultivate, is the 

 manioc, or sweet casavi, to wliich may 

 be added, a small quantity of maize, 

 calavancics, and yams ; and even wlicn 

 tliey have thus obtained them, they are 

 olteu too idle to prepare them in a pro- 

 per manner, by any culinary process, so 

 as lo render them nutritious aliment ; in 

 consequence of which, their digcslive 

 organs are much weakened, and they 

 suffer from worms, particularly of the 

 tenae species. 



When the season proves unfruilful, 

 and the planlain-tree (the bread-fruit 

 tree of Africa) does not yield its usual 

 abundance of fruit, and on which they 

 chiefly d('])end for subsistence, tiie na- 

 tives of Angola are reduced to extreme 

 %vant, and feel (he effects of a famine 

 which a little industry would have pre- 

 vented. 



On every other part of Africa where 

 slave-ships resort, the captains of these 

 ships depend on the country sujipljing 

 a cer'.ain portion of food adapted to the 

 liabils and constitution of tlie negroes 

 they may obtain at them ; on the wind- 

 ward coast they procure rice ; on the 

 Cold Coast maize ; at Wydah, Ardrab, 

 and Lagos, maize and calavancics ; at 

 Benin, Bonny, Calabar, and Camaroons, 

 yams; but, on the coast of Angola, the 

 natives have no superfluity of provisions 

 to sell, in conscquenoc of which, vessels 

 frequenting it are compelled to bring 

 with them, from Eurojie, sufficient food 

 lo feed the negroes while accumulating 

 on-bourd the ships, and during their 

 passage to the West Indies. 



SEASONS. 



The seasons in Africa may be divided 

 into wet and dry: the wet commencing, 

 north of the equator, in the month of 

 May, and terminating in July, when 

 llio dry begins ; although heavy show- 

 ers of rain fall during the months of 

 October and November, which enables 

 the Africans lo reap a second h;irvestof 

 maize: but the rains commence and 

 terminate six weeks earlier near the 

 equator, than at the norihern boundary, 

 where the periodical rains cea.se. 



To the southward of (lie equator, 

 rains begin to fall in October, which 

 continue till January ; but suliject to 

 thf same variations as north of tlio equa- 



WosriiLV Mac. No, ^bl. 



tor, the seasons being governed by the 

 earth's place on the ecliptic. 



The wet season is always ushered ia 

 by tremendous tornadoes, which occur 

 almost d:»ily for a fortnight or three 

 weeks previous to its commencement. 



THE HARMATTAff. 



The harrnattan wind blows generally 

 once or twice during the months of 

 January and February : it sometimes 

 lasts a fortnight, but more frequently 

 only three or four days. From Cape de 

 Verd to Cape Palmas, the direction 

 from which this wind blows is north- 

 east ; but from the latter place to 

 Benin, ENE by compass. 



In one of my passages between the 

 Cape de Verd islands and the continent 

 of Africa, in the mouth of January, a 

 harrnattan commenced, which continued 

 four days. The atmosphere, during 

 this period, was so hazy, that we could 

 not discern any object fifty yards from 

 the vessel, in any direction. But this 

 i)aze is not like that which accompanies 

 the easterly wind of Europe, but is more 

 intense; for it is occasioned by an im- 

 palpable powder floating in the atmo- 

 sphere, which, in this instance, adhered 

 to those parts of this sails of the vessel 

 that received the greatest impulse from 

 the wind, and gave them the same co- 

 lour and appearance as if they had been 

 immersed in a tan-pit. The powder, 

 when collected, had an earthy smell, 

 and its colour very much resembled 

 clay. 



On the Guld Coast, as also in the 

 bight of Benin, the harrnattan, or north- 

 easterly wind, is not accompanied with 

 so dense a liaze as the one experienced 

 off the Cape de Verd islands, but is in- 

 variably caused by that impalpable 

 powder floating in the atmosphere, in 

 greater or lesser quantities, according 

 to the distance from the desert from 

 whicli it emanates. . When oft' the Capo 

 de Verds, we were near the western 

 extremity of the great desert of Sahara. 

 This accounts for the great quantity of 

 powder floating in the atmosphere during 

 the harmattan, which we there expe- 

 rienced, as there can be little doubt 

 that this dust is raided into the air by 

 whirlwinds from the face of the desert. 

 In fact, I consider it as analogous to 

 those winds which blow from the north, 

 and that prevail occasionally on tho 

 coast of (iuyana, and also at Jamaica, 

 during the same period of tho year; but 

 tempered and modific^d in its passage 

 across the desert, to the western shores 

 of Africa, near the rrfiiator. This wind, 

 •1 (i ou 



