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Con Veuto da greco et tramantana in poppe; literally, having a Greek, and beyond the mountain wind in the poop. The points of the compass, in Italian maps, are thus named, N. Tramontana. N. E. Greco. E. Levante S. E. Sirocco. S. Mezzoni. S. W. Libeccio. W. Ponente. N. W. Maestro. Clarke. This date ought to have been 1413. Astl. Barbot says eight leagues; other authors say more, and some less.
At the confluence, tree- dots, tipping the watery marge, denoted what Barbot calls the "Pongo Islands." It was so called because held by the Mwani-pongo, who was to this region what the Mwani- congo was farther south. The palace was large but very mean, a shell of woven reeds roofed with banana leaves: the people, then mere savages, called their St.
There are four principal islands in the Gulf of Guinea, or Bight of Biafra, as it is usually called by English navigators, Ferdinand Poo, Princes isle, St Thomas, and Annobon, the discovery of which have been related as follows by Barbot, and his account seems the most probable . Fernando Lopez discovered the first of these in 1471, in lat. 3° 40' N. giving it the name of Ilha formosa, or the Beautiful Island, which was afterwards changed to that of Fernando Poo, which it still retains.
Of this coast an ample account has been given by Dapper and Barbot, chiefly following a tract published by Gotard Artus of Dantzick, which is to be found in De Bry's Collection, and that of David von Nyendael and others. This was the work of a Dutch navigator, which was first translated in to German, and thence by Artus into Latin.
Where any of the natives were stolen, in order to be sold to the Europeans, it was done secretly, or at least, only connived at by those in power: this appears From Barbot and Bosman's account of the matter, both agreeing that man-stealing was not allowed on the Gold Coast. And adds, "That man-stealing was punished on the Gold Coast with rigid severity and sometimes with death itself." Fr.
The frequent coruscations gave a name to Corisco, which the natives know as Mange: it was called, says Barbot, "'Ilha do Corisco, from the Portuguese, because of the violent horrid lightnings, and claps of thunder, the first discoverers there saw and heard there at the time of their discovery." There is still something to be done in investigating the cause of these electrical discharges.
Of late years it has almost faded from the map, but it is described at full length in the pages of Barbot and Bosman , of Bowdich , and of Dupuis . They assign to it for limits Mandenga-land to the north and west; to the south, Aowin and Bassam, and the Tando or eastern fork of the Assini to the east.
The only remarkable object was the Quesango, a wooden effigy of a man placed in the middle of the settlement: Battel mentions it amongst the "Gagas or Guides," and Barbot terms it "Likoku Mokisi." Three faint hurrahs, a feeble African echo of England like the "hoch!" of Vienna, and the discharge of a four- pounder were our parting honours. We returned via the gateway between the two islets.
Six or seven hundred are sometimes put on board a vessel, where they lie as close together as it is possible for them to be crowded." Barbot confirms the same, and adds, page 350, "That in the neighbouring kingdom of Ardah, the duty to the King is the value of seventy or eighty slaves for each trading ship."
After the bush has been burned as manure, and the seed has been sown, no one will take the trouble of weeding, and half the surface is wild growth. Barbot says that the soil is unfit for corn and Indian wheat; it is so for the former, certainly not for the latter.
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