INTRODUCTION. Xiil 
his angry face, foaming with disdaine, and filling the aire 
with noise, (with fresh helpe) supplies those forces which 
the salt-sea hath consumed.” 
The strong current at the mouth of the river, and as far 
up as ships have been able to proceed—the floating islands 
carried down by the stream into the ocean—the perceptible 
effects of the current to a very considerable distance from 
the shore—have been corroborated by so many concurring 
testimonies as not to admit of the smallest doubt. T'wo 
English frigates, but two years previous to the present ex~ 
pedition, fully experienced these effects. 'The Honourable 
Captain Irby, who commanded the Amelia, with difficulty 
succeeded in getting his ship 48 or 50 miles up the river, 
the current running down in the middle of the stream at 
the rate of six and seven knots an hour ; before entering the 
river the ship was anchored at twelvemiles from the southern 
point of its mouth in 15 fathoms, where the current was 
running at the rate of four miles an hour, the water being 
much agitated, of the colour of rain-water, and perfectly 
fresh. In this situation they observed in the ocean large 
floating islands, covered with trees and bushes, which had 
been torn from the banks by the violence of the current. 
In the journal of the Thais, commanded by Captain Sco- 
bell, it is observed, * In crossing this stream I met several 
floating islands, or broken masses from the banks of that 
noble river, which, with the trees still erect and the whole 
wafting to the motion of the sea, rushed far into the ocean, 
and formed a novel prospect even to persons accustomed 
to the phenomena of the waters.” In Maxwell’s chart the 
current is laid down near the mouth as running at the 
rate of six miles and seven miles an hour, and the mid chan- 
