146 FERNANDO NORONHA— BAY OF ALL SAINTS. [1824. 



there is always an abundance of live-stock and fish, with an immense 

 quantity of doves. Wood may be obtained here, but with some diffi- 

 culty, as there is danger of staving the boat which brings it off, it 

 being nearly as heavy as so much iron, and sinking in the water with 

 equal rapidity. 



On approaching this island, the navigator will find no soundings 

 until close aboard of it. There is no invisible danger near it except 

 on the south side, where there are some rocks between two and three 

 miles from the shore ; and off the south-west point, where there is a 

 rock at the distance of one-fourth of a mile. The principal anchoring 

 place is on the north side of the island, being sheltered by the north- 

 eastern land and several little islands in that direction. Here a ship 

 may anchor, in from ten to twelve fathoms, loose sandy bottom, at 

 about half a mile from the Citadel Point, which is the nearest shore. 

 There are three months, however, in which the northerly and north-west 

 winds prevail, when it is not safe to lie close in. These are the 

 months of January, February, and March. During the rest of the 

 year the winds are mostly from the south-east and east ; sometimes 

 north-east. 



The southern extremity of the island is called Tobacco Point, from 

 which a reef of rocks extends half a mile to the south, even with the 

 surface of the water. Two miles and a half south-east-by-east from 

 Tobacco Point there is a rocky reef on which the sea always breaks. 

 When in a line with these rocks the Pyramid is shut in with the highest 

 hill on the south side of the island. Between this reef and the shore 

 there is a channel of from ten to fifteen fathoms. 



About seventeen leagues westward of Fernando Noronha are some 

 reefs or keys, called the Roccas, lying in latitude 3° 52' S., long. 33° 

 21' W. Variation 4° 42' W. These low keys or islets are very 

 dangerous, being sandy spits or banks formed upon coral reefs, with a 

 little brush or shrubbery growing upon them. They are not discerni- 

 ble in a fine clear day from the mast-head at a greater distance than 

 three leagues, and are distinguished by a high rock at their north-east 

 extremity. When within two miles of them, the water shallows grad- 

 ually from thirty to five fathoms, within a cable's length of the shore, 

 coral bottom. 



Here the current generally sets to the westward, at the rate of one 

 mile and a half an hour. On these reefs, in 1805, two of the East 

 India Company's ships were lost, being deceived by the currents, 

 which have been known at times to run for a day or two at the rate 

 of three miles an hour, in the direction of west-north-west. The tide 

 rises and falls here about six feet. I landed on these keys in 1822, 

 and found perfectly smooth landing on the west side of the large one. 



September 5th. — We left Fernando Noronha, on Tuesday, the 31st 

 of August, with a fine breeze from east-south-east, and on Sunday 

 the 5th of September, cast anchor in the Bay of All Saints, in the 

 Brazilian Province of Bahia de Todos Santos, of which the city of 

 St. Salvador is the capital. At nine, A. M., we were safely moored 

 in five fathoms of water, between Fort do Mar and the city. " Here," 

 says Lindley, in his Voyage to Brazil, "vessels riding on clear 



