256 TRAVELS IN 
there is no other danger than that of being driven out to fea 
from the wear and tear of the cables ; though the water is not 
fmooth, yet the fea is not high, and it is next to impoffible for 
a fhip to go on (here, unlefs on the fouth point of Robben 
Ifland, which they have always time enough to avoid, the 
dillance being feven or eight miles. Within this ifland and the 
continent there is excellent anchorage, where fhips fo driven out 
ufually bring up. Here, too, fhips intending to come into Ta- 
ble Bay generally wait the abatement of a fouth-eaft; wind, if 
it fliould happen to blow too ftrong for their working up againft 
it. This ifland is too fmall, and at too great a diftance, to af- 
ford the lead fhelter to Table Bay in the north-weft v;inds that 
blow in the winter months. 
The frequency, the ftrength, and the long duration of the 
fouth-eaft winds are attended with confiderable difadvantage to 
commerce, it being fom.etimes impracticable to fhip or to land 
goods for many fucceffive days. 
Thefe winds are very uncertain in their duration, there being 
fcarcely two years in which their periods do not vary. The 
Dutch ufed to bring their fhips round about the beginning of 
September ; but as Simon's Bay is fafe, at all times of the year, 
for a few fhips, the Englifh protraded the time of entering 
Table Bay to the beginning of October, yet, in the year 1799, 
his Majefty's fhip the Sceptre-, with feven others, were driven 
on fhore on the fifth of November. 
The 
