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Updated: June 24, 2025
Both of these bodies of land are very hot; and, as the air from them tends to the cooler atmosphere of the sea, they favor the south-west monsoons. All these bodies of land modify to some extent the prevailing winds." Scott was satisfied with the explanation, for it conformed with what he found in his book.
By their observations we have acquired a great knowledge as to the nature and variation of winds, particularly the monsoons, or trade winds, and other periodical winds, of which the ancients had not the least conception; and by these helps we not only have it in our power to proceed much farther in our discoveries, but we are likewise delivered from a multitude of groundless apprehensions, that frightened them from prosecuting discoveries.
During the hot weather and the monsoons, the navigation of the Red Sea is attended with much inconvenience, from the sultriness of the atmosphere and the high winds; it is only, therefore, at one season of the year that travellers can, with any hope of comfort, avail themselves of the route; it must, consequently, be questionable whether the influx of voyagers will be sufficiently great to cover the expense of the vessels required.
The monsoons on the northerly shores of Borneo are found to correspond with those prevalent in the China seas, viz. from the N.E. from October to April, and from the S.W. the rest of the year. To the southward, about Benjarmasing, the monsoons are the same as in the Java seas, i. e. westerly from October to April, and easterly the rest of the year.
"I am obliged to sail in the interest of my owners, and I must make the best time I can. The south-west monsoons prevail at this season; and by carrying sail I may add half a knot, or perhaps a knot, to her speed. I should be sorry to run away from you, but I must do my duty." "Certainly; that is understood. If you run away from me, I shall still wish you bon voyage.
They have also the advantage of being placed in the course of the monsoons; though however, west winds sometimes blow for several days together.
They timed their voyages by the constant monsoons, and in sailing from island to island coasted the Asiatic shores, trusting, when for a short time out of sight of land, not to the compass, though they were acquainted with it, but to known rocks, glimpses of headlands, the direction of the wind, and their observation of the Pleiades.
Later on, a Greek sailor, Hippalus, found out that by using the monsoons at the appropriate times, he could sail direct from Arabia to India without laboriously coasting along the shores of Persia and Beluchistan, and in consequence the Greeks gave his name to the monsoon.
He described the course of the voyage from Lisbon to the East, the currents, the trade-winds and monsoons, the harbours, the islands, the shoals, the sunken rocks and dangerous quicksands, and he accompanied his work with various maps and charts, both general and special, of land and water, rarely delineated before his day, as well as by various astronomical and mathematical calculations.
And thus it is called, with slight modifications, in all the languages of Europe and many of those of Asia. We must also not forget the countless palms which wave their crowns in the tepid winds of the monsoons. There are the date palms, the coconut palms, the sago palm, and a multitude of others. The sago palm, from the pith of which sago grains are prepared, is a remarkable plant.
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