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June.] BENGUELA— DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 323 



distance from the shore. A neglect of this caution is generally fol- 

 lowed by a severe and dangerous diarrhoea or flux, especially with 

 those who eat freely of fruit, and make too liberal use of ardent spirits 

 at the same time. But by taking their water from the inland moun- 

 ain springs, and avoiding exposure to noonday suns and nocturnal 

 damps, with sufficient employment to keep up a gentle perspiration, 

 they will experience little inconvenience from the climate of Ben- 

 guela. 



The wild animals that inhabit the interior are often seen in the 

 forests that border this part of the coast ; such as elephants, leopards, 

 zebras, lions, foxes, hyenas, antelopes of many kinds, buffaloes, bul- 

 locks, sheep, goats, wild hogs, and a great variety of monkeys and 

 other small animals. I have often seen the elephant, buffalo, and bul- 

 lock near the beach of the seashore, between this place and Great 

 Fish Bay. In the interior districts the variety of beasts, birds, ser- 

 pents, and other reptiles, insects, and plants is truly wonderful, I had 

 almost said infinite, and well worth the attention of naturalists. Some 

 philosophers maintain that for every passion, propensity, disposition, 

 desire, affection, or thought o/ the human mind, there is in outward 

 nature a corresponding animal, vegetable, and mineral, good or bad ; 

 and that all things which exist in external nature are intended as out- 

 ward manifestations of mental or moral attributes. If this be indeed 

 the case, Africa must comprise a strange mixture of good and evil, 

 truth and error, in the minds of her sable population, where heaven 

 and hell must be commingled in chaotic confusion. But I must leave 

 this subject to the learned ; my province being to point out nautical 

 dangers, and teach others how to shun them. 



There are many fine anchoring places between Benguela and Port 

 Alexander, of which I will mention the most conspicuous. Point 

 Salinas, which lies in latitude 12° 53' S.,' long. 12° 51' E., is dis- 

 tinguished by salt-ponds, which are near the seashore. This point 

 runs about four miles into the sea, with a reef running from it off-shore 

 about one mile. 



Between this and Point St. Francisco the shores are bold, having 

 no dangers more than half a mile off-shore, until you come up with the 

 Friars, which are three rocks, standing about two miles off-shore, a 

 little to the north of the last-mentioned point, between which and the 

 ^Friars there is good anchorage. But off-shore from this point there is 

 an extensive reef, running into the sea, with hidden dangers, on which 

 the sea does not always break. In doubling this point, ships should 

 give it a berth of two miles. 



The river St. Nicholas has a reef on the south of its entrance, which 

 is in latitude 14° 20' S., with not more than ten feet of water on it, at a 

 mile and a half off-shore. Five leagues farther south is a small bay, 

 called by some Village Bay, in which there is good anchorage, in from 

 ten to four fathoms of water, about one mile in a northerly direction 

 from the south point of the bay, in sandy bottom. At this place I have 

 seen elephants and other animals, besides numbers of the natives. 



Still farther south, in latitude 15° 12', is Little Fish Bay, the entrance 

 of which is two leagues broad, formed by Cape Euspa on the north 



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