9 
Cunha, a desolate island in the Atlantic ocean, inhabited only by 
seals and sea-fowl. On the 15th of November, we had a distant 
view of the Table mountain at the Cape; the southern boundary 
of Africa, and for many ages the barrier of navigators from 
Europe to India, until Vasco de Gama, at the conclusion of the 
fifteenth century, surmounted every obstacle; and his approving 
monarch changed its name from the Cape of Storms, to that of 
Good-Hope. 
In those seas we encountered violent tempests; and, for weeks 
together, passed through such foaming mountains, as baffle all 
description: indeed it is difficult for a person unaccustomed to 
such scenes, to form any idea of this immense body of water when 
agitated by a storm. In those southern latitudes we saw abun- 
dance of whales, grampuses, sword-fish, and porpoises ; with 
flocks of albatrosses, and other aquatic birds, usually met with in 
stormy seas: in the milder climates, the ocean was enlivened by 
shoals of albicores, bonitos, dolphins, sharks, and flying-fish; 
which amused the passing hour, furnished variety at table, and 
afforded me an opportunity of delineating their different charac- 
ters: the remora, or sucking-fish, which adheres to the body of 
the shark; the azure pilot-fish, which conducts him to his prey, 
but is never devoured himself; and the flying-fish, which by 
means of its long fins, wings its way through another element, and 
escapes its direful jaws, are all curious and beautiful; but the 
exquisite colouring of a dying dolphin, surpasses every effort of 
the pencil. Falconer, in his inimitable poem of the Shipwreck, 
has happily described it: 
c 
