At ten o’clock we got under weigh, and made sail out of Sierra Leone harbour.  The Horatio, a schooner, which Captain Owen had purchased to take provisions, mechanics and labourers to Fernando Po, was to have sailed in company with us, but from some unaccountable delay, she did not join us till we got to Cape Coast.[18] At noon, Cape Sierra Leone bore E. 1/2 S. distance seven miles; and the Banana Islands S. 1/2 E. The afternoon cleared up, and the wind was very light.  From Sierra Leone to Cape St. Ann, the course is S. 57 deg.  E. distance 86 miles.  From Cape St. Ann to Cape Mesurada the course is S. 60 degrees E. distance 123 miles.

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[17] All the headmen understand enough of English to perform any
labour under the direction of Englishmen, and the Kroomen are a
hard-working body of men.

[18] Fenao Gomez, a Portuguese, was the first person who rented a monopoly of the trade of the Coast of Guinea, on consideration of his paying 300 milreas per annum for five years; and he was to discover 100 leagues of coast per annum, beginning at Sierra Leone.  He finished his discoveries at Cape St. Catherines.

CHAP.  V.

Cape St. Ann—­Dangerous Shoals—­Old Sailors—­Liberia—­Origin and History of the Colony—­Failure at Sherbro Island—­Experiment at Liberia—­ Difficulties Encountered by the Settlers—­Differences with the Natives—­ Final Adjustment—­Improving State of the Colony—­Laws and Morals—­ Remarks on Colonization

Friday, October 5th.—­There was a moderate breeze from the westward, and fine weather.  At eight o’clock, finding, by our calculation, that we had rounded the shoals of Cape St. Ann, we altered our course more towards the land, intending to run along the Gold Coast, within sight of the shore.  These shoals are the most dangerous part of the west coast of Africa; and there is good reason to believe that many vessels have been wrecked on them, particularly in former times.  There is but little doubt that H.M. (late) ship Redwing was lost here, for there has been no trace of her since the day she sailed from Sierra Leone, (the afternoon of which was very squally) excepting a small mast that was picked up on the coast, to the northward, with her name on it; and as she was bound from Sierra Leone to Accra, she had occasion to go round these shoals, which commence about 30 miles from Cape Sierra Leone.  But there is an additional cause for apprehending that such was her fate, for I was informed by an officer, that he heard Captain Clavering say, that he did not believe in the existence of these shoals; it is not improbable, therefore, that, with an idea of shortening his passage, he might have attempted to have gone nearer to them than prudence would justify, and thus tempted the danger which he held to be apocryphal.  They might also have neglected to sound sufficiently often, an error which I have frequently witnessed, and which