Algoa Bay

“ It is the same in New Zealand, and every other whale-frequented coast. Nevertheless, the whaling establishment I have mentioned is still kept up in Algoa Bay—and with good reason. One whale per annum will pay all the expenses and outgoings of its maintenance; every other whale taken in the course of a year is a clear profit.
The value of a whale depends, of course, upon its size—the average is from three hundred pounds to six hundred pounds. The establishment [Pg 845] in Algoa Bay consists of a stone-built house for the residence of the foreman, with the coppers and boiling-houses attached ”

“ March 4th.—Anchored in Algoa Bay, at eleven o’clock, a.m. The meteoric light, which has puzzled us all so much, turns out to be a comet, and increases in brilliancy every evening. Landed in the evening, in a private boat. The troops will land to-morrow, in surf-boats. ”

“ But I believe Algoa Bay or Grahamstown are by far the best fields for new colonists, and (I am assured) the best climate for lung diseases. The wealthy English merchants of Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) pay best. It seems to me, as far as I can learn, that every really working man or woman can thrive here.
My German host at Houw Hoek came out twenty-three years ago, he told me, without a ‘heller’, and is now the owner of cattle and land and horses to a large amount. But then the Germans work, while the Dutch dawdle and the English drink. ”

“ Off the coast are a few small islands, mainly mere rocks within the bay. None is far from the mainland. The largest are Dassen Island, 20 m. S. of Saldanha Bay, and Robben Island, at the entrance to Table Bay. St Croix is a rock in Algoa Bay, upon which Diaz is stated to have erected a cross. A number of small islands off the coast of German South-West Africa, chiefly valuable for their guano deposits, also belong to Cape Colony (see Angra Pequena) . ”

“ Algoa Bay, the Cape of Good Hope, furnishes cattle and sheep. The coast of Cockburn Sound and Swan and Canning Rivers, promises plenty of fish for the table—also, oil for use. Tea will not cost more than 2s. 6d. per pound through Java; from whence stock of cattle, poultry and pigs can be added of the best quality.
There is no intention in these remarks to shew the extent of production of which the soil and climate are capable; time and prosperity will be requisite to bring forward all their capabilities. ”

“ Our two days’ sojourn at Cape Town sped quickly by, and the “Briton” left Table Bay. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she proceeded towards Algoa Bay, in order to land the majority of her passengers at Port Elizabeth, the second largest town in the colony, and the most important mercantile seaport in South Africa.
Along the precipitous coast the voyage is ever attended with considerable danger, and many vessels have quite recently been lost upon the hidden reefs with which the sea-bottom is covered. ”

“ Santa Cruz is the largest of a group of islands in the western part of Algoa Bay. It is 4 cables in length, rises to a height of 195 ft., and is nearly all bare rock. There are no springs. The Ilhéos chãos are readily identified with a cluster of low rocky islets about 7 leagues to the east. The Cape Padrone of the charts marks the site of the last pillar erected by Dias, and 5 leagues beyond it rises “Ship Rock,” in the locality where Perestrello claims to have discovered the Penedo das Fontes of Barros and other writers. ”

“ We left the port and proceeded through the pass all right. But unknown to me, and while I was at the levee, the Sultan had sent on board (as it turned out eventually as a present to me in recognition of our fireworks) an ox and a goat, which I imagined when I saw them were the ox and the goat referred to by the agent to be landed in Algoa Bay. There that matter can rest for the present, but there is more to follow. At Mozambique we picked up both the old and the new Governors of Delagoa Bay and a Major Da Andrade who was to be landed at Quillimane. ”

“ On reaching Port Elizabeth, that enterprising city of Cape Colony, Dr Fox proceeded immediately to the long jetty, built well out into the sea, and there boarded a tug that lay alongside, and was soon steaming out to the “Arab,” riding at anchor in Algoa Bay.
Many passengers were aboard, a number having come from Natal, and their faces expressed satisfaction at the prospect of a visit home to England. ”

“ In April 1819 he was appointed to the Menai, a 24-gun frigate, in which he went out to the Cape of Good Hope. In 1820 he surveyed Algoa Bay and its neighbourhood, arranged the landing of the settlers, to the number of two thousand, and organised the infant colony. ”

“ On this voyage we went into Cape Town Docks for the first time. It was a very awkward entrance, and it is not given to every man to handle a ship under steam in the vicinity of a pier. Warleigh, however, acquitted himself well, and I can only say that his first performance was a marked success in comparison with mine.
When lying in Algoa Bay loading for home, the ship was rather well thought of. The skipper was very particular as to the stowing of the sails, and the chief was quite as keen. We lay there with royal yards across and fancied ourselves no end. ”

“ About three months after the formation of the company, we were sent up the country, in conjunction with the light company of the 91st regiment and a corps of Hottentots. We embarked on board the Diamond frigate, and reached Algoa Bay in fourteen days, having experienced bad weather. [7] From thence we marched to Graaf-Reynett, about five or six hundred miles in the interior, and fifteen hundred miles from Cape Town, and took up our quarters in a Dutch church. The road from Algoa Bay to Graaf-Reynett is hill and dale, and infested with lions, tigers, hyenas, wolves, and elephants ”

“ We arrived on a beautiful evening at Algoma, a spot as delightful as a Cornish village, on the beach of that inlet of Lake Huron called Georgian Bay. We walked in the astonishing quiet of the evening through the tiny place, and along the deep, sandy road that has not yet been won from the primitive forests, to where but a tiny fillet of beach stood between the spruce woods and the vast silence of the water. ”

“ The dispersion area for the Algonquians was farther north about the Great Lakes and perhaps also the St Lawrence, and that for the Eskimo about Hudson Bay or between it and the Mackenzie river. The Caddoan peoples seem to have been on the southern plains from earliest times. On the north Pacific coast we have indications that the flow of population has been from the interior to the coast. ”

“ The journey from Lagos to Abbeokuta is usually made by canoes, up the river Ogun, the waters of which empty into the bay of Lagos. Somewhat west of its embouchure is the Ogboi creek or cut, communicating with the Ogun about ten or twelve miles from the bay. Canoe-men always prefer reaching the river by means of this cut, as the distance direct up the river is greater. ”

“ Tinné, synonym of Athabascan. Tututenas, on Rogue river, Oregon. Umpquas, Pacific coast near Salem, Oregon. 4. THE ALGONKINS.
The whole of the north Atlantic coast, between Cape Fear and Cape Hatteras, was occupied at the discovery by the Algonkin stock. Their northern limit reached far into Labrador, where they were in immediate contact with the Eskimos, and along the southern shores of Hudson Bay, and its western littoral as far north as Churchill river. In this vicinity lived the Crees, one of the most important tribes, who retained the language of the stock in its purest form. ”

“ The delta properly so called, beginning at the Anenghe lagoon, comprises between the two chief branches, the Lower Ogoway in the north and the Wango in the south, an area of about 1,900 square miles, including the island of Cape Lopez, which projects far seawards. This region is intersected in all directions by shifting channels and backwaters accessible during the floods from at least three points— Nazareth Bay in the north, 20 to 30 feet deep, the Fernao Yaz channel in the south, and between the two. ”

“ After despatching a modest repast, in which the staff of life forms the backbone of our fare, we resume our devious ramble. An unmistakeable footpath leads past the ruins of a deserted water-mill to the shore of Angle Bay, whose calm blue waters, spreading broadly into the land, mirror a cloudless sky of unrivalled purity. ”

“ The Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois occupied the country extending, roughly speaking, from Virginia to Hudson's Bay, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. The Algonquins were by far the most numerous and widely distributed. Dialects of their common language were heard on the Atlantic coast all the way from Cape Fear to the Arctic region where the Eskimo hunted the seal or the walrus in his skin kayak. On the banks of the Kennebec and Penobscot in Acadia we find the Abenakis, who were firm friends of the French. ”

“ The northern face of the Sá Leone peninsula is fretted with little creeks and inlets, bights and lagoons, which were charming in a state of nature. Pirate's Bay, the second after the lighthouse, is a fairy scene under a fine sky; with its truly African tricolor, its blue waters reflecting air, its dwarf cliffs of laterite bespread with vivid leek-green, and its arc of golden yellow sand, upon which the feathery tops of the cocoa-palms look like pins planted in the ground. To the travelled man the view suggests many a nook in the Pacific islands. ”

“ The Aglegmutes occupy the shores of Bristol Bay from the river Nushagak along the western coast of the Alaskan Peninsula, to latitude 56°. 'Die Aglegmjuten, von der Mündung des Flusses Nuschagakh bis zum 57° oder 56° an der Westküste der Halbinsel Aljaska; haben also die Ufer der Bristol-Bai 140 inne.' Holmberg, Ethn. Skiz., p. 4. Dall calls them Oglemutes, and says that they inhabit 'the north coast of Aliaska from the 159th degree of west longitude to the head of Bristol Bay, and along the north shore of that Bay to Point Etolin.' Alaska, p. ”

“ The harbour at Olga Bay is two miles long and one-and-a-half broad; it is sheltered from all winds except the south-west, being defended by many rocky peaks; and the granite island of Brydone, before the entrance, forms some additional protection. The river Gilbert, which flows into the bay at its north-east extremity, has fourteen feet of water on the bar, and is navigable for two leagues. On the banks of this river the Russian post is established, consisting of two officers and forty-five soldiers. ”

“ Its mouth is wide, and soon after entering, a bay opens to the left, which by an inlet only just wide enough to admit a boat, communicates with a lagoon of considerable magnitude, in which lies an island on its western bank. Beyond this bay, the passage narrows and consequently the stream, always setting from N. to S. grows more rapid. Here the mountains on both sides rise to a great height. Having proceeded for two miles in a narrow channel, the strait opens again, but afterwards contracts to about 1000 yards across; immediately beyond which, the left coast turns to the south. ”

“ Had the boys known it, they were, in their camp near the head of Kaludiak Bay, not more than thirty miles distant across the mountain passes to the head of Uyak Bay, which makes in on the west side of the island, and which was the first great inlet to be searched by the boat crews of the Bennington. The total coast-line of so large a bay is hundreds of miles in extent, and broken with many little coves, each of which must be visited and inspected, for any projecting rock point might hide a boat or camp from view. ”

“ There are villages of Kasa-an Indians in the smaller inlets and coves opening from the bay, and carved totem poles stand guard over the large square houses of these native settlements. The bay itself is as lovely a stretch of water as can be imagined, sheltered, sunny, and calm, with noble mountains outlining its curves, and wooded islands drifted in picturesque groups at the end. ”

“ In the eastern part of this territory was an area occupied by Iroquoian tribes, surrounded on almost all sides by their Algonquian neighbors. On the south the Algonquian tribes were bordered by those of Iroquoian and Siouan (Catawba) stock, on the southwest and west by the Muskhogean and Siouan tribes, and on the northwest by the Kitunahan and the great Athapascan families, while along the coast of Labrador and the eastern shore of Hudson Bay they came in contact with the Eskimo, who were gradually retreating before them to the north. ”

“ Bathing, boating and fishing in Agate Bay at Tahoe Vista is at its best. The white sanded beach is broad and is safe to the smallest child, the bay being shallow for a distance of five hundred feet from its edge and affording a temperature to the water that is more pleasant than to be found at any other part of the Lake. ”

“ To seaward, open on all sides to this bay and the Indian Ocean, forming the southern arm of Delagoa Bay, is Iniack Island, which is 240 feet in height, and shows no indication of a sickly climate; but, on the contrary, has been always used by the natives of the adjoining low country of Tembe (which forms the south side of the bay) as a sanitarium.
Inland, on the north bank of the English River, is a lofty cliff, called Point Rubin, gradually [153] declining into the interior to the banks of the adjoining rivers. ”

“ The tilted beach represents the deformation of the Algonquin beach.
interruptions, for there is no intervening strand, as the water did not remain at one level long enough to leave beaches. Warren water was now broken up into two great gulfs; the one called the Algonquin, occupying the basins of Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, and opening to the northeast, through the strait to the Ottawa Valley, as is shown on the map (Fig. 13) ; the other was the Lundy Gulf, occupying most of Erie basin, and extending over the Ontario Valley at a great height. ”