330 OBSEKVATIONS ON THE CUKRENTS. 



(282 ) At the distance of about 177 miles South of Cape Palmas (long. 

 7f° W.) the outer border of the Guinea Current sets to the East ; and it 

 continues in the same direction to a similar distance South ot Cape Three 

 Points (long. 2° W.) ; we thence, at 2° North of the Line, find it take a 

 more Northerly course, toward the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra; 

 in the latter it mixes with the waters of the South African Current, which, 

 coming from the South, sets thence to the North and N.W., and both, 

 uniting, form a head in the bight. From this bight and Southward of the 

 Equator the Currents thus blended set to the S.W., W.N.W., and N.W. 

 in one expanding and united stream, which greatly facilitates the passage 

 of ships from Fernando Po to Sierra Leone. 



The prevalence of the Harmattan wind, described on pages 164 — 168, 

 must interrupt the course of this Current ; but its existence, at other times, 

 nearly as described, has long been confirmed, and is incontestable. 



(283.) Near Cape Mount the Current sets in towards the shore as above 

 stated. The ship Charles, a French whaler, in 1833, was wrecked on the 

 coast of Liberia, about 90 miles to the S.B. of Cape Mesurado, probably 

 on the reefs near the River Sestros. This vessel had left the port of Havre 

 for the fishery near Tristan da Cunha, in the Southern Ocean, but the 

 captain, intending to run along the coast beyond Cape Palmas, in the hope 

 of falling in with whales, unfortunately lost his reckoning, by being 

 deprived, for forty-eight hours, of all means of taking observations ; and 

 was moving at the estimated rate of 7 miles an hour, when he found him- 

 self close on shore in the midst of breakers, which in the course of the 

 night forced him on the reef, and dashed the ship to pieces. The captain 

 and crew got safe to land, but were soon stripped by the blacks. In this 

 condition they made their way along the shore to the N.W., until they 

 reached Cape Mesurado, where they were received with all kindness by 

 the colonial agent of Liberia. The catastrophe is evidently attributable 

 to this Easterly Current. 



Captain C. T. Rudge, ship Jane Black, December, 1856, says : — " It is 

 my opinion that the current along the coast from the Bissagos Shoals to 

 Cape Palmas is variable ; and in the parallel of Cape Mount, coming from 

 the Westward with S.W. winds, I have always found northing in the set, 

 let the current be Easterly or Westerly. Ten miles off the land the current 

 runs parallel to the land either way, strongest off the capes. I have com- 

 manded ships on the West coast of Africa 12 years, and have found the 

 currents very variable at all times." 



On the Western side of Cape Palmas it sets along shore with such force 

 to the S.E., that ships which do not steer a point nearer than the true 

 course will be carried from the land. About Cape Three Points, likewise, 

 the stream runs strongly to the Eastward, and frequently sets directly in 

 upon the reefs about that cape. Eastward of this cape the Current has 

 carried many experienced mariners, bound to Cape Coast or Annamaboe, 

 to leeward of those ports, and occasioned much trouble, with delay, in 

 beating up again. About Terra Formosa, in July and August, the Current 

 has also been found to set strongly to the Eastward.* 



* In the Derrotero de las AntMas the following remarks are said to have been found 



