Cape Bojador

“ John Gonsalez and Tristan Vaz, two gentlemen of his bed-chamber, seeing the impression this behaviour had made on the prince, and having obtained a small ship from him, resolved to double Cape Bojador, and discover the coast beyond it. Whether the fiery oceans might not have presented themselves to these gentlemen, I know not; but a violent storm forced them to sea. After being tossed about in perpetual fear of shipwreck for several days, they at last landed on a small island, which they called Port Santo. These two navigators possessed the true spirit of discovery. ”

“ For several years after the successful doubling of Cape Bojador, no new attempt of importance is recorded, but in 1441 the voyages were renewed, and in the next eight years the exploration was pushed one hundred leagues below Cape Verde. Prior to 1446 fifty-one vessels had traded on the African coast, nearly one thousand slaves had been taken to Portugal, and the discoveries in the Azores had been greatly extended. By these explorations Prince Henry had exploded the theory of a burning zone impassable to man, and of stormy seas impeding all navigation ”

“ The successful expedition round Cape Bojador being soon spread abroad through Europe, excited a spirit of adventure in all foreigners; the most capable of whom resorted immediately to prince Henry, from their different countries, which further increased the spirit of the Portuguese, already raised to a very great height. But there still was a party of men, who, not susceptible of great actions themselves, dedicated their time with some success to criticising the enterprises of others. ”

“ The visual ray of the horizon from the Peak being 1 degree 57 minutes, cape Bojador can be seen only on the supposition of its height being 200 toises above the level of the ocean. We are ignorant of the height of the Black Mountains near cape Bojador, as well as of that peak, called by navigators the Penon Grande, farther to the south of this promontory. If the summit of the volcano of Teneriffe were more accessible, we should observe without doubt, in certain states of the wind, the effects of an extraordinary refraction. ”

“ The fate of this vessel has not been recorded; but Don Henry continued for many years to send other vessels upon the same errand. Several of them proceeded one hundred and eighty miles beyond Cape Non, to another and more formidable promontory, to which they gave the name of Bojador—from bojar, to double—on account of the circuit which must be made to get around it, as it stretches more than one hundred miles into the ocean. The tides and shoals here formed a current twenty miles wide ”

“ Gil Eannes followed the advice of his sanguine patron, and succeeded the same year in doubling Cape Bojador and in exploring a part of the coast beyond it.
South of Cape Bojador it was believed that a zone of scorching heat would be entered by vessels sailing toward the equator. Pliny adverts to it in these words: “The middle of the earth, over which is the [66] path of the sun, is parched and set on fire by the luminary, and is consumed by being so near the heat. ”

“ As soon as taken, the fish are opened and salted, and serve as an excellent supply of provisions to navigators. All the coast of Africa, from Cape Bojador, otherwise called Cabo della Volta , as far as Cape Branco and even to Arguin, is low and sandy. At Arguin, which is inhabited by Moors and Negroes, and which is situated on the confines between these two nations, there is a capacious harbour, and a castle belonging to our king of Portugal, in which some Portuguese always reside with the royal agent. ”

“ I have often seen the same tints when approaching Liverpool.
Through the Harmatan-haze we failed to sight Cape Juby, opposite Fuerteventura; and at Santa Cruz I missed Mr. Mackenzie, the energetic flooder of the Sahará. He has, they say, given up this impossibility and opened a comptoir: its presence is very unpleasant to the French monopolists, who seem to 'monopole' more every year. South of Juby comes historic Cape Bojador, the 'Gorbellied,' and Cabo Blanco, which is to northern what Cabo Negro is to southern Africa. ”

“ See Bourne ut supra, p. 195. The original is in Torre do Tombo, bearing pressmark "Coll. de Bullas, maco 29, n°. 6. Inserta." This bull occupies pp. 286-296 of Corpo diplomatico Portuguez. It is printed also in Alguns documentos, pp. 47-55.
[170] See Corpo diplomatico Portuguez, p. 296.
[171] Cape Noon (Naon, Non, Nun) is situated near the south-west extremity of the coast of Morocco; Cape Bojador (Bogiador) projects into the Atlantic at a point two degrees thirty-eight minutes farther south than Noon. ”

“ Explorers or traders may die from want of water, but they will not die of miasma, or the fevers it produces. The traveller landing at the old mouth of the Belta, between Cape Bojador and Cape Juby, has before him a straight and practicable road across the desert to Timbuctoo, in the very heart of the West-African continent, but only eight hundred miles away. ”

“ As for the attempts made in the Prince's time by ships that he sent into those latitudes to pass beyond Cape Bojador, if we admit the number [Pg 314] of twelve years which Azurara indicates, and if this is taken together with the date 1433, which he fixes for the passage effected by Gil Eannes (?) , the result is that these attempts began only in 1421; and so Azurara did not admit that the expedition of 1418 (or of 1419) , which went out under J. G. Zarco, had for its chief object the passage of the Cape at all. ”

“ Hostium is for ostium. ↑ The first natives captured beyond Cape Bojador were brought to Portugal by Antam Gonçalves in 1441 or 1442. Azurara, Guinea, chs. 12 and 13. ↑ This word appears in this same form in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Decretal. Gregor. IX., lib. V., tit. VI., c 6, ed. E. Friedberg, who gives as variant forms lignamina and ligneamina. ↑ A royal charter, dated Oct. 22, 1443, forbidding any one to pass beyond Cape Bojador without a license from Prince Henry, is printed in Algs. Docs., pp. 8-9. ↑ The Papal bull of June 18,1452 ( Nicholas V.) . ”

“ By that means all the inhabitants of that province were reduced in the space of six months, and came to pay the tribute to his Majesty—they and others who had never been discovered until then. It is said that there are many people still to discover. Good methods will be used toward them so that they may come into the service of his Majesty. The last-named province has a port located near the cape of Bojador and that of El Engaño. One may enter that harbor without passing amid these islands, and the exit from it is so good that one has only to take to the open sea on leaving it. ”

“ Full spread and crowded every sail,
The Dæmon Frigate braves the gale;
And well the doomed spectators know
The harbinger of wreck and woe!"
"I have often thought," continued Hislop, whose memory was singularly retentive, "that the story may have originated in the queer old nautical idea of a downhill current, by which any kind of craft that doubled Cape Bojadore, on the western coast of Africa, could never return; for such was the fixed idea of all mariners prior to the voyage of Bartolomeo Diaz, in 1486, and the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. ”

“ The boat had five oars and a sprit-sail. The captain had a compass, but no quadrant. At first the wind blew fair, but speedily turned to the contrary direction desired, so that all hopes of making Madeira had to be abandoned. The wind rose to a gale and the men were worn out with bailing. They had to clear the boat of water with two pails and their hats. On 2 July they sighted a point of land which they took to be Cape Bojadore, and they steered south in hopes of reaching Gambia. On 7 July they saw a low sandy island, and a sloop ashore, and made at once for land. ”

“ There are the small coves of Rincon, Anasco, and Mayaguez, the latter being protected and of sufficient depth to anchor vessels of moderate draft; the harbor of Real de Cabo Rojo, nearly round, and entered by a narrow channel; and the cove of Boqueron. The spacious bay of Aguadilla is formed by Cape Borrigua and Cape San Francisco. When the north-northwest and southwest winds prevail it is not a safe anchorage for ships. A heavy surf rolling on the shore obliges vessels to seek safety by putting to sea on the appearance of a north wind. ”

“ It is that bay, which, on account of the unhappy fate of the colony of Philippeville, established by the presumptuous Sarmiento, has got the name of Port Famine. Cape Round is a high land, remarkable 155on account of the figure which its name expresses; the shores, in all this tract, are woody and steep; those of Terra del Fuego appear cut through by several straits. Their aspect is horrible; the mountains there are covered with a blueish snow, as old as the creation. Between Cape Round and Cape Forward there are four bays, in which a vessel may anchor. ”

“ The Admiral conjectured that the land he saw to-day S.E. of the Cabo de Campana was the island called by the Indians Bohio:156-2 it looked as if this cape was separated from the mainland. The Admiral says that all the people he has hitherto met with have very great fear of those of Caniba or Canima. They affirm that they live in the island of Bohio, which must be very large, according to all accounts. The Admiral understood that those of Caniba come to take people from their homes, they being [157] very cowardly, and without knowledge of arms. ”

“ Near this were three or four other islands, although further to the northwards; while on the extreme left, some miles to the westwards, was the high snow-white peak which the skipper had said was Cape Horn, standing on a little island of its own that stretched out into the sea to a more southerly point than any of the other islets composing the archipelago.
“Why, sir,” said I to Captain Billings, “I always thought that Cape Horn was part of the mainland, jutting out from the end of Tierra del Fuego—that’s what my school geography taught, at all events!” ”

“ No envious southerly gale battered us back from the Cape we were striving to get round, and presently we found ourselves in the embrace of the great Agulhas current that for ever sets steadily round the Cape westward. Homeward bounders have reason to rejoice when they enter the limits of this mighty marine river, for, in spite of contrary winds or calms, they are irresistibly carried on the way they would go at a rate that is the same for the bluff-bowed sea-waggon as for the ocean-flyer. ”

“ This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters' families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the Seamew on this summer day.
"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling suddenly to face the old steersman.
"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old man. ”

“ They passed the headland between Tangier and Cape Malabata and were inside the bay before one o'clock. When within one hundred yards of the outside of a reef of rocks, forming a natural breakwater, and the landing place at Tangier, the impracticability of the boat clearing the reef (toward which the current was driving her) with the aid of the oars alone became manifest. They therefore advised Boyton to take a line as they were going to set sail and would tow him around the point, for otherwise they would inevitably be dashed against the rocks. ”

“ These Kafir chiefs were afterwards feasted and fêted by the governor and gentry of Capetown, but I have my doubts whether they will ever forget or forgive the treatment received on that occasion in Algoa Bay.
To correct the false is more difficult than to imbibe the true. Did you ever think of that before? All my life have I been under the false impression that the Cape of Good Hope was the most southerly point of Africa. It is nothing of the sort. Cape Agulhas, not far distant, is the real extremity of South Africa. ”

“ Here in New England, the sailing fraternity may be divided into those who prefer the Maine coast and those who cling to the Cape and Buzzard’s Bay. As one of the latter class, I always claim our supremacy by stating two points which I believe to be true: first, that we have more wind, and second, that we have less fog. To me this is convincing. The southwest wind which cools the Cape, blows nearly every day [137] in summer and with a strength that often requires reefing. Rarely between ten in the morning and five at night will the mariner find himself becalmed in Buzzard’s Bay. ”

“ By the annexation of the eastern part therefore, the whole island became subject to one government. From Cape Tiburon to Cape Samana, and from [239] Cape Nicolas Mole to Cape Engano, the power of Boyer extended, leaving no competitor to disturb his arrangements, nor to attempt to defeat those views which he contemplated for the preservation and repose of his dominions.
That a work of such magnitude should have been accomplished in so short a period, and without even the loss of blood and lives, seems more like the effect of magic than the result of the efforts of man ”

“ Back from the other shore of the harbor, jutting out for some miles into Chedabucto Bay, lies the Cape. You get a view of it if you climb to the crest of the hill—a broad reach of barrens, fretted all day by the sea. Out there it is what the Acadians call a bad country. About the sluice-like coves that have been eaten into its rocky shore are scrambling groups of fishermen's houses ”

“ There is, however, every reason to believe that in mid-channel the water is deep enough for any purpose; but as our persisting would have answered no end, we steered across Mermaid's Strait, and by sunset were abreast of Cape Bruguieres, so named by Captain Baudin, round which the land trended to East by South, forming the south side of a shoal strait, separating Gidley Island from Captain Baudin's Legendre Island: the latter is a narrow, long, rocky island, lying East-South-East and West-North-West, and is of a lower character than the islands to the southward of it. ”