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The natives are treacherous, and require to be cautiously dealt with. The fleet left Annobon on the 4th November, and on the 6th January, 1624, they were in lat. 44° 40' S. where they saw many sea-gulls, and much herbage floating on the water, whence they supposed themselves near the continent of South America.
This latter island is inhabited and cultivated, the produce of its sugar canes belonging to the revenue of the kings eldest son, from which circumstance the island derives its name. To the S. S. W. or S. and by W. and in the latitude of almost 2° S. is the uninhabited island of Annobon, on which numbers of crocodiles and venomous serpents are found.
On the 30th of October they anchored in the road of Annobon, where they obtained hogs and fowls, and were allowed to take in water, and to gather as many oranges as they thought proper. The east end of this island, where are the road and village, is in lat. 1° 30' S. and long. 6° E. from Greenwich.
On the 5th January, the island of Annobon, situated in the Gulf of Guinea, a little below the Line, was sighted, and the course of the ships was changed for crossing the Atlantic. De Noort had scarcely cast anchor in the Bay of Rio Janeiro before he sent some sailors on shore to obtain water and buy provisions from the natives; but the Portuguese opposed the landing, and killed eleven men.
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.
They were then in the lat. of 1° 45' S. At length the scurvy increased so much in the Hope, that the admiral had not men enough to work his ship, and it was resolved to steer for some island where fresh provisions might be procured. They steered accordingly for Annobon, where they hoped to get fresh meat and oranges.
Including the voyages of Cada Mosto and Pedro de Cintra, which have been already detailed, as possibly within the period which elapsed between the death of Don Henry in 1463, and King Alphonzo, which latter event took place on the 28th August 1481, and the detached fragments of discovery related in the present Section, we have been only able to trace a faint outline of the uncertain progress of Portuguese discovery during that period of eighteen years, extending, as already mentioned, to Cape St Catherine and the island of Annobon.
The most southerly of these islands, in lat. 1° 30' S. now called Annobon, was originally named Ilha d'Anno Bueno, or Island of the Happy Year, having been discovered by Pedro d'Escovar, on the first day of the year 1472. At a distance, this island has the appearance of a single high mountain, and is almost always topt with mist.
Strictly speaking the northern limits of Loango, one of the divisions of the extensive kingdom of Congo, is at the Sette river, ten leagues S.S. E. from Cape St Catherine. There is no island of that name in this position; so that the island of St Matthew of de Barros must refer to Annobon.
After several ineffectual attempts to procure refreshments for their men on the coast of Africa and the island of Annobon, they put to sea on the 3d January, 1599, from that island, with the intention of sailing direct for the Straits of Magellan. The 22d they passed the shelves and rocks on the coast of Brazil, called the Abrolhos.
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