524 MADAGASCAR. 



a passing glinipse of the small hills near the shore, 

 it appeared to be a fertile country. This portion of 

 the globe is one of great interest to the world at 

 large, especially when we know that, if considered as 

 a naval or military station, it is scarcely equalled by 

 any in the Indian Ocean ; besides having a soil of 

 the best description, and abounding also in mineral 

 wealth, with timber fit for any purposes, and thou- 

 sands- of cattle running wild in its valleys. On the 

 afternoon of the 27th w^e were within seven or eight 

 miles of the land, near the great Fish River, on the 

 south-eastern coast of Africa, having apparentlv "'ot 

 within the eddy of the westerly current, which sweeps 

 round that part of the coast at the distance of thirty 

 miles with a velocity of from two to five miles an hour, 

 which we entirely lost after passing Algoa Bay. 

 Within thirty miles of the latter place we had a 

 strong gale from the southward of twenty-four hours 

 duration ; and on the morning of the 1st of July 

 arrived at Simon's Bay, in company with Her Ma- 

 jesty's ship Belleisle, which sailed tw^o days before 

 us from the Mauritius.* Nearly six years had 

 elapsed since our last visit, and little improvement 

 had taken place in colonial affairs. 



* The little difficulty that strangers found in recognizing this 

 anchorage at night, is now overcome by a light-vessel being 

 placed near the Roman Rocks ; but the streaks of sand, resembling 

 snow, down the sides of the hills over Simon's Bay, and the re- 

 markable break in the high land over another bay, just to the 

 northward, are sufficient guides of themselves in clear weather. 



