CLIMATE OF FERNANDO PO. 299 



be stated as the case with respect to five- 

 sixths of the captures that are made in the 

 Bights of Benin and Biafra. 



The period of my stay on the island now 

 drew rapidly to a close ; and on the 29th of Octo- 

 ber I took leave of my kind and generous host. 

 Colonel Nicolls^ feeling most sincerely that I had 

 incurred, during my residence of two months on 

 the island, a debt of gratitude that I should 

 never be able to repay. To Mr. Becroft and 

 Dr. Butter I am under great obligations, both 

 for their attentions to myself and to my crew, 

 and I take this opportunity of returning them 

 my sincere and heartfelt thanks. 



Fernando Po has been alternately represented 

 as an African paradise, and vilified as the most 

 pestilential spot on that unhealthy coast. I found 

 it neither the one nor the other. That it is 

 much healther than the main land is obvious ; for 

 one is a swamp — the other a dry and elevated 

 island, exposed on all sides to the sea-breeze^ 

 and free from that excessive humidity which so 

 fatally distinguishes the neighbouring coast. 

 During my stay there, the crews both of the brig 

 and the steamer recovered rapidly ; and individu- 

 ally I should have left the island in comparative 



