SOUTHERN AFRICA. 247 
point that occurs is the L'Agullla's Bank, where we can have 
no cruizers to protedl: our trade, on account of the heavy ftorms 
that prevail there, and the want of a friendly port to refit and 
refrefh our (hips. The current, that fets along the outer margin 
of this bank, moves at the rate of forty or fifty miles a day, in 
the winter months, in dire£l oppofition to the north-wefterly 
winds ; a circumftance fo well knovv^n, that all our fliips ilrive 
to keep in the ftream of the current, which fv/eeps them round 
the Cape againil the wind. The enemy's cruizers would find 
no difficulty in running from Falfe Bay, in the winter months, 
clofe along fliore as far as Algoa Bay, which our fhips have fre- 
quently done in three or four days ; and, by fkirting the outer 
margin of L'Aguilla's Bank, they can, at any time, return by 
the ftream of the current, even againfl a gale of wind. Thus 
might their fhips of war from the Cape track our homeward- 
bound Indiamen, and greatly annoy our trade; for, on the re- 
turn-voyage, they have much lefs fcope in doubling the Cape 
than when outward-bound. Indeed, in the winter feafon, it is al- 
moft impradicable to double the Cape at any great diftance from 
it. The attempt to do it has generally failed, and always been 
attended with the greateft danger of lofing the fhips. 
Suppofing them, however, to have efcaped all thefe dangers ; 
^admitting them to have paffed the ifland of Manilla, the Straits 
of Sunda, and the Cape of Good Hope ; there flill remains one 
point againft which nothing can protect them but a fuperior fleet 
from England. In whatever degree of latitude the Cape of 
Good Hope may be doubled, in the homeward-bound paflage, 
all our ftiips run nearly upon the fame line to Saint Helena, fo 
:. nearly. 
