142 Remarks on Delagoa Bay. 



dry, without any appearance of its being insalubrious. But all 

 countries, when the sun is near his zenith, are at these periods 

 subjected to similar visitations when their deleterious effects are 

 not avoided. 



Even in the Ganges the rainy season is more inimical to the 

 health of the Europeans, than we found Delagoa Bay. Our 

 people were peculiarly subjected to the noxious effects of the 

 season, being confined to the beds of the rivers at or near their 

 estuaries, where vegetable matter undergoing decomposition 

 had lull and unobstructed room to act on subjects, unprepared 

 by habits to resist its attack, wherefore we could not but expect 

 to suffer, aud cur losses were very heavy ; two of seven fell in 

 one season from its deleterious effects, but neither the natives 

 nor the Portuguese garrison suffered materially, the season they 

 remarked as unusually unhealthy though very few died. The 

 country is, however, full of lakes, yet it is in general so elevated 

 aud so dry as to furnish numerous situations both airy aud 

 healthy. It is never extremely hot, and the changes of tem- 

 perature are never sudden ; the highest range of the thermome- 

 ter was 8G or 88, and the lowest in the warm season about 70. 



When the sun is in the northern hemisphere, which is the season 

 for the black whale to calve, the bay is very much frequented 

 by American and English whalers, into which vessels many of 

 the natives engage themselves as boat's crews for very trifling 

 remuneration ; that season is found both healthy aud agreeable. 

 The banks of the Mapoota and of the rivers which fall into 

 English River are for the most part muddy, covered with man- 

 groove, and behind them is a rich champaign country, studded 

 with clumps of trees like park land, of a moderate elevation 

 (that is from twenty to fifty feet above the sea), with a very rich 

 soil. The King George River, however, has a different charac- 

 ter, which marks most decidedly the distance of its sources like 

 the Mississipi, and other great rivers. This one passes through 

 a lower country of alluvial soil, being bounded by elevated 

 banks, which banks are for the most part the spots chosen by 

 the natives for their huts and rude culture. At Chamoa and 

 Mancess on the right bank, there are some high lands, of which 

 the Vaterahs have now possessed themselves. On the left bank 

 the country is an entire swamp or reed marsh, except the bank 

 that forms the margin of the river, which in some places is 

 formed into sand hills of small elevation. The seasons here are 

 similar to those of other tropical countries, and extremes of 

 temperature are never known. The barometer ranges generally 

 from 29.05 to 30.03 inches, rising always with a southerly wind. 

 It generally, in October and November, as also in March, stood 

 about 29.0!) in settled weather, when sea and land breezes were 

 regular. 



The changes of the barometer here, as within the tropics, 

 seldom precede a change of weather, but follows it rapidly. 



