For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT Of arecént VOYAGE to MALTA. 
ARCH 25, 1802, I embarked in 
the Downs, on board the Enters 
prife, merchant veffel, of 220 tons bur- 
then, Capt. James Francis, commander; 
and after one unfuccefsful attempt to be- 
gin our voyage, finally weighed anchor on 
the 29th, with a frefh gale trom the north- 
north-eat. We efcaped, very providen- 
tially, a ferious danger in the very a&t of 
getting under weigh. The violence of the 
wind and tide hurried our fhip with fuch 
precipitation toward another, lying near 
us in the Downs, that all effort to prevent 
their collifion proved ineffe€tual. We 
thought ourfelves happy to efcape from fo 
violent a fhock, without any other injury 
than the lofs of the timbers which fup- 
ported one of our boats, at the fiern of the 
fhip, and feme flight. damage to that part 
of the rigging which entangled with the 
other veflel. The gale of wind, March 
So, bore us with the rapidity of ten miles 
an hour through the fireights of Dover, 
and 31f along the coaits of Kent, and 
Hamphhire; April 1, the Ifle of Wight, 
Dorfet, Devon and Cornwall, into the 
Bay of Biicay. 
April 2, 3, and 4, we continued out 
courfe with unulual rapidity, over the big 
rolling waves of the Bay. I had little 
other amufement than that of afcertaining 
our daily change of latitude by my quad- 
rant, or watching fome or other of the 
vefie!s that occafionally bounded over the 
billows, like ourlelves, near us. For our 
provihons being i+.her fubfantial than 
delicate, the qualms of fea-ficknefs drove 
all pleafurable thoughts away: till the 
morning of the 5th, when the Captain 
affured me he had plainly feen the rock of 
Lifbon at fun-rife. About 10, I had the 
delightful fatisfa&tion of perceiving with 
my naked eye, the high land of the king- 
dom of Algarve, in the fouth of Portugal, 
and began to hope my anxious and eager 
longing to indulge in the delicious fruits 
of thofe countries would foon be gratified. 
The mountains in view, have the name 
of Manchique. We glided along the coat 
that terminates their bafe the whole morn- 
ing and afternoos, highly delighted with 
fo fwift a tranfportation to a new climate, 
and before fun-fet wo: round the blunt 
bold rock that forms the fouth-weft angle 
of the Spanifh peninfula, well known to 
be Cape St. Vincent. A monaftery crowns 
the fummit of this Cape. We were fuffi. 
ciently near it to diftinguifh plainly, with 
an ordinary telefcope, minute objeéts in 
the monaftery. I believe it to be dedi- 
; I 
Account of a recent Voyage ta Malta; 
[July 1, 
cated to St. Vincent; whence the appella- 
tion of the Cape. It was called by the 
ancients Sacrum Promontorium. The 
monaftery fanding on this bold promon- 
tory, overhanging the vaft Atlantic ocean, 
muft command one of ihe mok magnificent 
fea-views in the world. We rounded the 
Cape in the night, April 6, and at fun- 
rife next morning, found ourfelves off tke 
little Portuguefe town of Carvociro. We 
Were, indeed, rather too far from the land 
to diflinguifh objects clearly; without a 
glafs; but with one, the border of the 
mountains lying behind the town, the 
groves of olive trees, and cattle, formed 
a very pleafing and piéture(que appear- 
ance. The town of Faro, near Caryo- 
ciro, lies very near the Portus Hannibalis 
of the ancients:—a geographical title 
that awakened me to the agreeable recol. 
le&ion of the fhort fpace of time which 
had borne me into the neighbourhood of 
the moft interefting countries honoured in 
Claffie Annals. 
We were becalmed off this coaft till 
the evening, wifhing to hold fome inter- 
courle with the inhabitants, whom we had 
a diftant view of onfhore and in their fith- 
ing-boats. But no fignal our captain 
would allow us to make, proved effeétual. 
April 7, we wore off with a hight breeze, 
and next day by two o’clock in the after- 
noon, approached near enough to the coaft 
of the Province of Andalufia, in Spain, 
to diftinguifh with our glaffes, the caitles 
and towns that lie in the vicinity of 
Cadiz. 
Onthe 8th, inthe morning the wind began 
to blow ftrong and adverfe. To our great 
mortification, we entirely lo& fight of 
land, and were all day tofied about in one 
of thofe gales of wind, called among fea- 
men a Levanter. I pafled the whole day 
in confiderable alarm ; and though in ge- 
neral not aware of any unufual dread of 
death, I confefs the horrors of a watery 
grave came powerfully upon my mind. 
The firf excurfion of a reftlefs traveller, 
fo admirably defcribed by De Foe, in his 
Crufoe’s faté, and an. hundred fad tales 
of fhipwreck, took iull poffeflion of my 
imagination. 
On the gth, after a little intermiffion, the 
Levanter refumed its violence, and con+ 
tinued through the whole of the roth: it 
pleafed God, that it entirely abated on the 
morning of the sith. The chearful fun 
broke out about noon, difcevering, to my 
infinite joy, the two Capes which bound — 
the eaftern extremity of the ftreights of 
Gibraltar ; Cape Trafalgar, anciently 
called Promontoriym Junonis, and Cape 
re Spartel, 
