A voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies

HURRICANES:

The West-Indians agree, that August and September is the Season to expect them. They are incredible Tempests of Wind, whose Fury, neither Ships, Masts, Trees, or Buildings can resist. They come a Day or two before the full or new Moon next the Autumnal Equinox, and give Warning by a preceding unusual Swell of Water. They are of no great Extent, but blow within a Chanel as it were, one Island feeling it, when the next (within 20 Leagues perhaps) has no Share; and are, if not peculiar, rarely met with out of the West-Indies.

The Cause, as guessed at, is Plenty of elastic Vapors on the Terra Firma (whence they all blow) with which conspire at this time of year, the united Force of the Sun and Moon, to give their Explosion a greater Force; to this also may contribute, subterraneous Heats and Mountains: and if such different Effluvias as constitute the Matter of a Hurricane, can be supplied to the Chanel it blows in, crescit eundo.

This Opinion seems confirmed, first, from the Points of the Compass they blow on (S E. and S S E.) and never without side the Continent at Cape Roque; for that Length the uninterrupted Trade-Wind is a Barrier, and from which these Storms, by the Position of Lands and Mountains, are necessarily a Deflection. Second, Æquinoctial Gales, we know, are every where observed to happen, and ascribed to the greater Agitation of Air, by Heat in a greater Orb; when therefore the Northern Suns have so long together been attracting, and at the same time chopping, and opening the Earth for a freer Emission of nitrous, sulphurous, and elastic Particles, no wonder the conjoined Forces of the Planets there, should now and then put them in execution.

The present Hurricane was a Week after our Arrival; began at eight in the Morning, two Days before the Change of the Moon, gave at least 48 Hours notice, by a noisy breaking of the Waves upon the Kays, very disproportioned to the Breeze, a continued Swell, without Reflux of the Water; and the two Nights preceding, prodigious Lightnings and Thunder; which all the old experienced Men foretold would be a Hurricane; or that one already had happened at no great distance.

I was ashore at Port-Royal, and found all the Pilots returned from the Windward part of the Island, (where they customarily attend the coming down of Ships,) and observing upon the unusual Intumescence of the Water, so great the Day before, and beat so high, that our Boats could not possibly put on shore at Gun Kay to take the Men off that were set there, to the Number of twenty, for trimming up our Cask; themselves making Signals not to attempt it. Betimes next Morning, the Wind began in Flurrys at N E. and flew quickly round to S E. and S S E. where it continued the Stress of the Storm, bringing such Quantities of Water, that our little Island was overflowed 4 foot at least; so that what with the fierce driving of Shingles (wooden Staves used instead of Tiling upon their Houses) about our Ears, and the Water floating their Boats, empty Hogsheads, and Lumber about the Streets, those without doors were every Moment in danger of being knocked on the Head, or carried away by the Stream. Within it was worse, for the Waters sapping the Foundations, gave continual and just Apprehensions of the Houses falling, as in effect half of them did, and buried their Inhabitants: Nor indeed after the Storm had began, was it safe to open a Door, especially such as faced the Wind, lest it should carry the Roofs off; and escaping thence, there was no place of Retreat, we remaining in a very melancholly Scituation both from Wind and Water. The Perils of false Brethren was nothing to it.

It may be worth notice, what became of the Purser in this common Danger; I was regardless at first, as suspecting more of Timidity in the People, till finding my self left alone Proprietor of a shaking old House, the Streets full of Water and Drift, with Shingles flying about like Arrows; I began to meditate a little more seriously upon my Safety, and would have compounded all my Credit in the Victualling, my Hoops, and Bags, for one Acre (as Gonzalo says in the Tempest) of barren Ground, long Heath, or brown Furze, to have trod dry upon.

Our Neighbours had retreated towards the Church, as the strongest Building, and highest Ground, which I was luckily too late to recover; but endeavouring to stem upwards for a safer Station, was taken into a House in the lower Street, with an old Woman wading in the same manner from her ruined Habitation.

We were no sooner in, but new Fears of this also falling, thrust us into the Yard (the Water then at eleven a clock, breast high) where we helped one another upon a low Brick-built Out-house, that being more out of the Wind, and surrounded with others, kept the Waters still. The unhappiness of those who suffered in stronger, was their facing the Wind, which brought the Sea upon them with violence. A Platform of one and twenty Guns and Mortars were drove some of them to the Market-place; the two Lines of Houses next the Sea, with the Church, were undermined and levelled with the Torrent, and in their ruin was our Safety; for altho’ we had a greater Depth, they were by such a Bank made motionless. The whole Rise of the Water was computed at 16 or 18 foot, very admirable at a Place where it is not ordinarily observed to flow above one or two.

At 5 in the Evening the Waters abated, and with so quick a Retreat as to leave the Streets dry before 6; when every one was congratulating his own Safety in Condolancies upon the Loss of their Friends. Of 50 Sail in this Harbour, only 4 Men-of-War and 2 Merchant-Ships rid it out, but with all their Masts and Booms blown away. All the Men we left at Gun Kay were washed off and perished, except one Indian that drove into Harbour upon a broken Gallows that had been there erected. Wrecks, and drowned Men were every where seen along shore; general Complaints of Loss at Land (least at St. Jago) which made it a melancholy Scene, and to finish the Misfortune, the Slackness of the Sea-Breezes, Calms, and Lightning, stagnating Waters, Broods of Insects thence, and a Shock or two of Earthquake that succeeded to the Hurricane, combined to spread a baneful Influence, and brought on a contagious Distemper, fatal for some Months through the Island. There being no Volcanos, the Earthquakes felt here are always after great Rains, on a parched Earth that admits their Penetration; and possibly nigher the Coast, as at Port-Royal, may be from the Sea in a long Process of time undermining in some manner a loose Earth, or finding in its deep Recesses new Caverns; or subterranean Heats working towards them, the dreadful Contest shocks.

In December following, for we were detained some Months in the Repair of Damages received, another or two Shocks were felt; and at the End of the Month, as their proper Season, came on what they call fiery Breezes, strong Gales from Sea, that hold out often against the Land-Breezes, six or seven Days together; they are pre-signified by a hazy Horizon, and portentous of a wholesome Season.

Norths, are counter to these; they blow at uncertain Periods, strong and cool from the Mountains; the People shut their Doors, and button up close against it, and the Impurities the Air has been experienced to be loaded with from that Quarter. We had one of these Gales the latter End of September, and two Days after, quick Shocks of Thunder and Lightning, which split a Sloop’s Mast, and the Flag-Staff at the Castle in pieces.

On Christmas-Day we had a Meteor in this Horizon, that appeared to be a Ball of Fire, trailed along to a quarter of the Compass, from N N E. dropping Balls in the Track, that were suddenly extinguished. The same I believe we call Falling-Stars, unless larger, and a more transverse Descent. Astronomers suppose them sulphurous Bodies, set on fire by the Sun, tho’ eclipsed till he is set.

To Return to the Island: The English Gentlemen are preferable to the Women; for the most part, of a genteel Education, and emulous in a Magnificence of Living, but true Republicans in the Disposition; a Stranger unconcerned in Business, very difficultly tasting any other Hospitality than his Landlady’s.

Ordinaries are filled with a Mixture of Land and Seafaring People, who have three or four sorts of Cookery at Dinner, and each a Pint of Madeira, with a Desart of Guavas, and other insipid or ill-tasted Fruit. One of our Dishes is frequently Turtle, much esteemed in this part of the World, and are supplied to the Market here by Sloops, and sold at a Bitt a Pound, like other Flesh; now also increased to a tolerable Plenty, by the Planters having set apart Servants, Pens, and Pasture-Grounds, for rearing up all kinds of Domestick Animals, in which of late Years they have found their account; our Ships Companies being victualled here twice a Week with fresh Beef, during a stay of 6 Months; and an Hospital on shore provided with lighter Food.

Bartering is the easiest way of Living on shore; or rather, no Man can live long without it: Madeira Wines, refined Sugars, Linnens, and Necessaries of almost all kinds, selling from 100l. to 150 per Cent. Advance. Their Rum to you, 3 Bitts per Gallon; Sugars, from 4 to 7 Dollars a hundred, both superior to Barbados. Other Commodities are Ginger, Piemento, Cocoa, Indigo, Cotton, Tortoise-shell, Dyers Wood, Cedar, Mohogany, and Manchineel-woods, and allow 35 per Cent. Advance on Money.

The Cræoles (those born here) which are properly the Natives of the Island, the ancient ones being all extirpated, or fled the Cruelty of the Spaniard, before our Possession, are a spurious Race; the first Change by a Black and White, they call Mulatto; the second a Mustee, and the third a Castee; the Faces, like a Coat of Arms, discovering their Distinction. They are half Negrish in their Manners, proceeding from the promiscuous and confined Conversation with their Relations, the Servants at the Plantations, and have a Language equally pleasant, a kind of Gypsy Gibberish, that runs smoothest in Swearing.

The English Subjects are computed at 7 or 8000, the Negroes at 80000; a Disproportion, that together with the Severity of their Patrons, renders the whole Colony unsafe; many hundreds of them have at different times run to the Mountains, where they associate and commit little Robberies upon the defenceless and nearest Plantations; and which I imagine they would not have done, but for the Cruelty of their Usage, because they subsist very hard and with Danger, by reason of Parties continually sending out by the Government against them, who have 5l. a Head for every one killed, and their Ears are a sufficient Warrant, for the next Justice to pay it; if the Negro be brought in a Prisoner, he is tormented and burnt alive. Our latest Advices from Jamaica concerning them is, that they have chose a King, daily increase, have some inaccessible Places of Retreat, and are suspected of being encouraged and supplied with Powder and Arms from Cuba.

The natural Remedy against this Evil, is an Increase of Hands. They have large Savannahs both on the North and South Sides, supposed formerly to have been Fields of Indian Wheat, that afford good Pasturage, and breed up a great number of Cattle with a great Waste of Land, still left capable of large Improvements into Sugar Plantations or Tillage; but here lies the Objection to any further Encouragement. If the present Proprietors can export 11000 Hogsheads of Sugar annually, and the Price with that number is kept low at Market, whoever contributes towards making 11000 more, is depreciating his own Estate, lending a Hand to ruin himself. Tillage and Grazing, tho’ not employing the Land to ¹/₁₀ Part its Value in such Colonies, would yet interfere with the present Interest also, by lowering the Price of Provisions; wherefore the Security from such Augmentation of People (the Merchants being Judges) give place to Profit, a Neglect that must be reaped in the End, by Undertakers of more generous Sentiments. This convinces me, that altho’ Trade be Wealth and Power to a Nation, yet if it cannot be put under Restrictions, controlled by a superior and disinterested Power, that Excess and Irregularity will be an Oppression to many, and counter-balance the publick Advantages by increasing the Difficulties of Subsistence, and with it, Men’s Dissaffection.

Here is a distant Evil; the Cure of which lies in an Expence that no body likes; nor for such Dislike will ever blame himself in time of Danger. The Merchant and Planter think, if less Sugars were made, it would be better, provided (every one means) the bad Crop do not happen upon their own Plantations, and this for the same Reason, the Dutch and other Companies burn their Spice, India Goods, Tobacco, &c. viz. to keep up a Price; for rendering things common or cheap, or assisting towards the same Liberty, would border too much on the christian Precepts.

The Sloop-Trade hence to the Spanish West-Indies, under the Protection of our Men-of-War, has been reckoned at 200000l. per Ann. In 1702, Orders came to the Governor to hinder it, on account of a Treaty between us and the Dutch for that purpose, who have since gone into it themselves from Curisao; and in 1716, a yet greater Obstruction was put, by the peculiar Privileges of the Assiento Factors; however, they continue on, and complain of no other Illegalities, than the Spanish Seizures, of late years very frequent, and together with the Decay of this Branch of Trade, their Want of Spanish Wrecks, Privateering, and Fall of Sugars, makes the Island not so flourishing as in times past.

Sir Nicholas Laws a Cræole, gives way as Governor, to the Duke of Portland, who arrived in that Quality (with his Dutchess and Family) about the middle of January this Year. He had put in to Barbadoes in the Passage, and met a generous Reception.

Here they have doubled the Salary, a Compliment to his Nobility, and that too little, it’s said, for his splendid and magnificent way of Living. His Table singly, has already rise the Price of Fowls, from 4 to 6 Bitts.

The Pelican is a great Curiosity among their Birds, as the Alligator in their watry Tribe; it is a common Water-Fowl, that is all day picking up his Living at Sea, and roosts at Night on high Rocks and Clifts, sitting with his Head to the Wind; his Body when skinned, is as large as an ordinary Goose, the Wings will extend to 7 or 8 feet, a short Tail, the Bill 14 Inches long, very hard, and increasing broader towards the End, where it crooks like a Parrot’s; their Necks are a foot and half, with a bay-colour’d Hair instead of Feathers on the back side of them, and from about half way there are membranous Bags or Pouches, which stretch thence to the Extremities of their under Bills, capable, when separated, of holding a couple of Pounds of Tobacco: in these they reserve their Prey when gorged with eating, and in these they are said to transport their young ones, when Danger or Instinct prompts them to change Places. They appear slow and heavy Birds flying, but have a piercing Sight to discern their Prey (the little fishy Fry below) from a considerable Height in Air, whence they fall like a Stone, and catch, or dive after them.

We killed three or four, and in opening their Bodies, met the same Observations, viz.

1. They had double Ventricles, that together reached the length of their Bodies; to the Bottom of which, were connected the Small-Guts, about twice as thick as a Goose-quill.

2. In the first Ventricle or Craw, the Fish they had swallowed (70, 80, or 100) the Bigness of smaller Sprats, lay whole and unaltered.

3. In the lower Ventricle, those little Fish changing to a paler Colour, were nigh the Fund of it mashed and macerated, and (what was principally meant by reciting any Observations) here also the Mass or Pulp had an intimate Mixture of numbers of slender, lively Worms in it; which to me, was a Matter of Speculation, for finding no such Insects in the small Fish above, which I suspected at first might have been their Prey, I concluded it here to be the common Accident of Concoction, a certain Consequence of Heat and Putrefaction, which are conquered by farther Digestion, and pass into insensibility again; for the Small-guts, after a little Distance from the Stomach, had none, or rather made part of a yellow, chylous Substance.

Quære? whether other, or all Creatures have not such a Principle of Concoction, more or less discernible in some, than others, there; tho’ imperceptible, and differently shaped and coloured, as is the Nature of the Food swallowed, and the Strength and Heat of the Animal swallowing. Vercellonius supposes the Thyroide Gland in Man, to be a little Nidus of verminous Eggs, generated there, and transmitted through subtle Ducts to the Oesophagus and Stomach, to impart a vital Character to the Chyle.

I should have proceeded here to some other natural Curiosities, but omit it, as being already more accurately done by Sir Hans Sloan, in 2 Vol. 4to.

The Weymouth and Swallow having now fixed their Jury-masts, and finished their Repairs, weighed from Port-Royal on New-year’s Day, anchoring out at the Kays, where we stayed till the 7th of February, and then left the Island.

There are two Passages used for returning hence to Europe; heavy Sailers, and Fleets, use the Gulph of Florida, because assisted by a constant Current to the Northward, (already spoke to;) lighter, and well-manned Ships, that called the Windward Passage; First, as the safest and shortest Navigation, all the Difficulty being, plying to the East End of Jamaica; for which, Secondly, there succeeds generally a Windward Current, on new or full Moons; or a Course of fiery Breezes, bringing in a fuller Sea, and therefore the Reflux more perceptible. Thirdly, keeping nigh shore, the Land-breezes sometimes favour the Design.

We chose this way in our Return home, and with half Masts worked to Windward of Port Morant, in six or seven Days, a Distance of 12 Leagues, where the Passage is in a manner gained, because the Lee of Hispaniola makes a smooth Water, and deflects the Trade-Wind often, in Flaws to advantage. We indeed met Calms for three or four Days, but on the 17th, got sight of the little Island Navasia, which the Jamaicans use in Boats, to kill Guanas, an amphibious Creature that breed in abundance at the Roots of old Trees, some of them 3 foot long, a Lizard Shape, with sharp, black, and green Scales; the Flesh firm, white, and as Sailors say, makes good Broth.

The same Evening we anchored in Donna Maria Bay, at the West End of Hispaniola, the usual Stop, especially of the King’s Ships in those Parts, for Wood and Water: We filled our Cask at a Valley, a Mile Southward of the two brown Clifts, very good Water, but on some Winds the Sea gets over the Bar. There are two other Places used, nigher those Clifts, and not so easily overflown. Here we bought some jerked Hog’s Flesh from two or three French Hunters, belonging to Petit Guavas.

At leaving the Bay, a strong S W. Wind soon set us between the Capes St. Nicholas and Maize; when we came into small Winds, and a Current in our favour, the old Bahama Strait, and Islands dispers’d here, showing this wherever they contract the Waters, and lessens again, as we open to a larger Sea.

The 26th, nigh the Island of Heneago, recovered the true Trade-Wind, E. half N. The 28th, saw the Rocks called Hogstys by our Observations in 21°° 38 something farther to the Northward than they are set down in the Charts. At Noon, came round Aclin’s Kays (pretty high out of the Water) and before Night, made Crooked or Well-Island. The last, and from which we took our Departure, was Watlin’s Kay, 24°° N. where we may farther remark, that the Trade-Wind continued with us to the Latitude of 32°° but faint and weak, from 27°°; caused, I presume, from the Contest between the Variable and that, as I have already guessed the N E. and S E. Trade does in other Places.

From 26 to 37°° Degrees of Latitude, (as far N. as Virginia) we found every Day large Quantities of what they call Gulph-weed, floating about the Ship, and lessening in proportion to the Distance; it is so called, from a Conviction of its being thrown from the Shoals of Florida; and by being found three or four hundred Leagues N E. a-trend with the Continent, argues I think, a Continuance (tho’ insensible) of some Current, or that it is longer, or more to the Northward than Southward in those Latitudes; and contrarily, in higher North Latitudes the Seas nigh the Continent have a Tendency Southward, demonstrated in those Islands of Ice, that drive all Summer from the North West, along the Coast of Newfoundland, even as far as New-England.

To the Northward of Bermudas, the Winds grew variable, and as we advanced, stronger; A never-failing Gale (N W. to S W.) blowing from the American Coast at this Length and onward, to 60°° of Latitude, and tho’ not invariable like the Trade, yet a Constancy of ¾ or ⁴/₅ of the year, shews it on the same Principle with them; Ours was a very hard Gale at N W. which put us to a reefed Fore-sail for a Fortnight, so great a Sea following, that we could not help dipping it up by Tuns sometimes at our Stern. We arrived in England, April, 1723.

FINIS.