206 APPENDIX. 
the rocks, five large guns, a quantity of iron ballast piled 
up, which the tradition of the natives represents as haying 
been the forge of the blacksmith of the vessel, (who chose 
to remain among them rather than brave the dangers of an 
exploratory journey into the interior in search of a rescue, 
and who died at a very late period,) attest this place as the 
awful scene of one of the most destructive and melancholy 
shipwrecks with which we are acquainted. It has also 
been supposed, from the immense quantity of drift wreck, 
in which cocoa-nuts are frequently found, and which accu- 
mulates on the rocky shore in an extraordinary manner, 
that the force of the waters passing through the Mosam- 
bique channel expends itself at this part of the coast, or, to 
use the more significant phrase, I find, in the notes from 
which I partly made this compilation, that this is the tail 
of the great Mozambique current, 
V. The Terra de Natal, the next division, commences 
at the Omtavoomoo River, and is bounded on the east by 
the Omtongala or Fisher's River of the charts. Its super- 
ficial contents are about nine thousand square miles. It is 
a natural division, possessing similar productions and the 
same climate, and distinguished from the north-eastern 
country, which is hotter, less healthy, and more arid; and 
from the south-western, which is cold, damp, and variable. 
The chief rivers which water this delightful region are 
the Omzimvooboo, the Omcoonias, (the streams of which fall 
into Natal Bay,) the Omganie, and, lastly, the Omtongala. 
The Omzimvooboo, or Great River, which its native name 
imports, is a large stream, emptying its constantly-reple- 
nished reservoir into the ocean, in about lat. 30° 30’, and 
long. 30° 25’. Its zstuary appears to be accessible to ship- 
ping; it has a course of above ninety miles, is full of fish, 
especially eels, haunted by a number of hippopotami, and 
