165 



countries, proves the reality of these creatures. In the fifteenth 

 century, after a dreadful tempest on the coast of Holland, one of 

 them was found struggling in the mud, near Edam in West Fries- 

 land; from whence it was carried to Haarlem, where it lived some 

 years; was clothed in female apparel, and it is said was taught to 

 spin. In 1531 another, caught in the Baltic, was sent as a present 

 to Sigismund, king of Poland; it lived some days, and was seen 

 by all his court. In loo'O, the fishermen of Ceylon caught seven 

 of both sexes, which were seen by several Portugueze gentlemen 

 then at Menar, and among the rest, by Dimas Bosquez, physician 

 to the Viceroy of Goa, who minutely examined them, made dissec- 

 tions, and asserted that the principal parts, internal and external, 

 were conformable to those of ihe human species. 



Our small vessel approached much nearer the African coast 

 than is customary for India ships homeward bound. We were 

 not far from Melinda, that hospitable port which received Vasco 

 de Gama and his brave comrades after encountering the storms 

 of the Cape, and escaping the treachery of the Moors at Mombaz 

 and Quiloa. Here they met with a friendly monarch to supply 

 their wants, and found a number of merchants from various parts 

 of India, who opened a scene of glory and profit to Gama's aspir- 

 ing mind, and furnished him with pilots to navigate the first ships 

 from Europe across the Indian ocean to Calicut, then the grand 

 emporium of commerce in the oriental world. 



From Melinda our voyage was protracted by light winds and 

 calms, and sometimes by strong southerly gales. A favourable cur- 

 rent generally carried us twenty or thirty miles a day; and more than 

 once, when we had no advantage of wind, on taking an observation 



