S.S.W., current running 1¾ mile per hour in our favour. At four P.M. we saw the land situated between the towns of Brava and Magadoxa, (by the Arabs termed Berawa[1] and Mugdasho,) extending from west ½ south to north-east. The nearest point was distant about six leaguess bearing N.W. by N. and appeared to be a sandy hill. The whole coast was moderately high, barren, and sandy with an irregularly swelling outline that had no remarkable points by which it could be particularized. We sounded with seventy-five fathoms of line, but found no bottom.
At this time we had passed the deep bay, as it may be justly termed, in which are situated the islands of Monfia, Zanzebar and Pemba. It was our intention to have visited these, but the season was so far advanced that it was deemed necessary to make the best of our way to Aden before the change of the monsoon should have taken place; for when the northerly monsoon has once set in, which it does in about the month of October, there is no possibility of beating up against it. This circumstance was proved by the ships under Admiral Blanket in 1798-9, which, though some of the best in our navy, were completely baffled in attempting it. (Vide Captain Bissell's Voyage to the Red Sea.) The fleet left Johanna on the 11th of November, 1798, and did not get round Cape Gardafui until the 8th of April, 1799. "It is to be hoped," Captain Bissell observes, "nobody will ever attempt it again; we were forty weeks on this voyage, and ran 18029 miles."
I much regretted at the time the above-mentioned deviation from our plan; but, as I collected in the course of my voyage many particulars concerning these islands, it compensated in some degree for the disappointment of not visiting them, and, as they are very little known, I shall venture to lay before the reader a short account of their present condition.[2]
- ↑ "The town of Brava makes a respectable appearance on the sea side, and on one of the small islands in front of it stands a light-house of a tolerable height. Its position is 1° 12′ and 44° 16′ east." (Captain Bissell's Journal.)
- ↑ My information is derived from a paper given me by Lord Caledon, from the journals of the Commanders of the Caledon and
