-•i Portuguese Explorations 



big river eastwards of the Cestos is the Sanguin. This is from 

 the Portuguese Sanguinho ( = sanguine, bloody, blood-red). The 

 origin of this name is supposed not to have had any lugubrious 

 signification, but to express the blood-red colour of the stream 

 after floods, when it is deeply loaded with ferruginous clay. 

 The promontory eastwards of this river, which is now called 

 Bafu Bay, was called by the Portuguese Cabo Formoso — the 

 Beautiful Cape. The Island of Palma, named by the Portuguese 

 because of its groves of palm trees, and situated near the mouth 

 of the Sanguin River, is apparently represented at the present 

 day by the Baiya rock, about sixty feet high, or by one of the other 

 rocky islets in this vicinity. The Sino settlements the Portuguese 

 called by their existing native name ; ^ but the Sino River is 

 on some early maps the Sao Vicente or the Rio Dulce. The 

 Dewa River near Setra Kru was called by the Portuguese Rio 

 dos Escravos, the River of Slaves. Grand Sesters (which is 

 supposed to have been the site of Grand Paris of the Dieppe 

 adventurers), together with Piccaninny - Sesters, derives its name 

 from the Portuguese word Sestro — sinister^ or suspicious ^ perverse^ 

 an adjective which apparently applied to the people of the 

 locality. The promontory of Rock Town was called Cabo Sao 

 Clernente. Cape Palmas was so named, as I have already related, 

 from the abundance of palms, and the Cavalla River or point is 

 from the Portuguese word Cavalla, meaning mackerel (Cava/a 

 means a big fish like a tunny), a name given to it, no doubt, be- 

 cause of the abundance of horse-mackerel on the bar of its mouth.^ 



1 I spell this name as it was spelt by the Portuguese. It is pronounced Sino, 

 more like the English word snow. There is no reason whatever for adding an "e" 

 to this name, except the desire of all English and Americans and all Negroes 

 under English or An.erican influence to misspell every African name they come 

 across. 



* The Portuguese Pequeninho, " very little." 



^ Several writers on African geography have informed us that the transla- 

 tion of Cavalla (corrupted quite recently into Cavally) is "mare"; and as in the 



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