overcome it, but the effect of this is so powerful, that it is well known, to those, who have frequented the gulf, that the current produced by the harmattan, will even continue against the westerly winds, after they may have again set in.  A remarkable instance is related of the velocity of the currents in the gulf, to the southward of Fernando Po.  In the month of June, a vessel performed the passage between Prince’s Island and St. Thomas in twenty hours, which generally occupies from eight to ten days.  The distance is about ninety three miles, and the vessel must have averaged from four to six miles per hour.  The harmattan is said not to extend to the southward of Fernando Po, but this has not yet been fully ascertained.

The passage through the gulf from Fernando Po to Sierra Leone, is generally extremely long and tedious, owing to the prevalence of calms and the different currents.  It is usually made either by running to the southward and getting into the southeast trade, or by keeping in shore, as far as Cape Palmas, so as to benefit by the landwinds.  The former method is generally recommended by the merchantmen as being safer and quicker, for a vessel adopting the latter, is more under the dangerous influence of the currents, besides being obliged to keep close to the shore; it is also adopted by the merchantmen in their homeward voyage.  Sometimes vessels by taking a mean between these two methods, get between two different winds, by which means they lose the benefit of both, and are delayed by calms and rains.  This part, according to accurate information, is at the distance of sixty miles from the land, so that vessels should pass either far without or else within that distance on leaving Fernando Po.

In this part of the Gulf of Guinea, between Fernando Po and the Calebar River, the rainy season is stated to commence in the month of July, and to be at the worst in August and September, accompanied by tornadoes of the most terrific description.  The rains continue during November, and cease in the month of December, but the coast is said to be seldom many days together without a tornado.  During the other months of the year, dry, hot weather is experienced, excepting about May, when slight rains take place.  These rains are looked upon as the winter of the natives, and are considered by them equally as cold in their effects, as our winters in England are by ourselves.  They are equally alive to the change of the seasons as in northern countries, and prepare themselves against the cold weather during the rains, comparatively with as much care, as we do against our winter’s frost.