Saldanha Bay

“ In the entrance to Saldanha Bay there is a second small island, to which the colonists have given the name of the Marmotte. Upon this sequestered spot the captain of a Danish vessel, as our traveller had learned from tradition, having been long detained in the bay by contrary winds, had died there, and been buried by his crew. Le Vaillant now conceived the [Pg 269] desire of visiting his grave. In sailing by this lonely rock, in the passage to and from Mutton Island, he had invariably been struck by a dull but startling sound, proceeding from the isle. ”

“ The land at the Cape of Good Hope, near Saldanha bay, [Table bay] is fertile, but divided by high and inaccessible rocky mountains, covered with snow, the river Dulce falling into the bay on the east side. The natives are the most barbarous people in the world, eating carrion, wearing the guts of sheep about their necks, and rubbing their heads, the hair on which is curled like the negroes, with the dung of beasts and other dirt. They have no clothing, except skins wrapped about their shoulders, wearing the fleshy side next them in summer, and the hairy side in winter. ”

“ The natives of the country about Saldanha bay are a very beastly people, especially in their feeding; for I have seen them eat the guts and garbage, dung and all. They even eat the seals which we had cast into the river, after they had lain fourteen days, being then full of maggots, and stinking most intolerably. We saw here several signs of wild beasts, some so fierce, that when we found their dens, we durst neither enter nor come near them. The natives brought down to us ostrich eggs, some of the shells being empty, with a small hole at one end ”

“ The coast line, from the mouth of the Kunene on the west to the delta of the Zambezi on the east, is little indented and contains only two sheltered natural harbours of any size—Saldanha Bay on the west and Delagoa Bay on the east. At Port Natal, however, the removal of the sand bar at its entrance has made available a third magnificent harbour, while at Table Bay (Cape Town) and at other places ports have been constructed. South Africa presents, however, a solid land mass without peninsulas of any size or any large islands off its coasts. ”

“ Communicated with the prize, and directed the Prizemaster, in case he should be blown off by a gale, to rendezvous at Saldanha Bay by the fifteenth of the month. Captain Forsyth, of the Valorous, came on board. Returned his visit.
Friday, Aug. 7th.—I should have been under way for Simons Bay this morning but for the gale. The wind is blowing very fresh from northward and westward, with dense clouds climbing up and over the Table, Lion's head, &c.—presenting a very fine spectacle, with the rough waters, the ships with struck upper yards, and the town half enveloped with flying mists, &c. ”

“ They live on raw flesh, and a kind of roots, which they have in great abundance.
[Footnote 66: This Bay was probably that now called Table bay, which all the early navigators seem to have denominated Saldanha, or Saldania bay.--E.]
We continued here from the 9th April, till the 3d May, by which good recreation on shore and excellent refreshment, we were all in as good health as when we first put to sea. The 7th May we were off the Cape of Good Hope, ten leagues south by estimation, and that night we passed over the shoals of cabo das Aguilhas. ”

“ The 26th of April we got into the trade wind; and on the 10th May, being by estimation 620 leagues west of the Cape of Good Hope, we saw many pintadoes, mangareludas, and other fowls.
The 5th June we came to anchor in Saldanha bay, having only buried three or four men since leaving England, out of our whole fleet, and had now about thirty sick, for whom we erected five tents ashore. Corey [162] came down and welcomed us after his manner, by whose means the savages were not so fearful or thievish as at other times. They brought us cattle in great abundance, which we bought for shreds of copper. ”

“ The cargos of these two stranded ships, together with three boxes containing amber from the Middenrack, which had been washed ashore, have already been brought over by the ships Meyenberg and Nieuwvliet, they having, through God’s blessing, happily ridden through this awful storm from the N.W., not without extreme danger. The ship Hillegonde also lost its rudder and goodgings, and had to be helped into Saldanha Bay. ”

“ The 29th we anchored in Saldanha roads, [Table Bay,] having come thither from Surat in nine weeks and three days, blessed be God for our safe and speedy passage. We here watered, bathed in the river, caught fish, and buried our letters; purchasing three cows, one calf, and four sheep, all unsavoury meat.
We sailed again on the 3d February, and anchored on the 19th at St Helena, where we found the Wappen and the Hollandia, two Dutch ships, the latter of which caught fire on the 22d, owing to her cloves, which had been taken in too green at Amboina. ”

“ Horned beetles, baby tortoises, mice, and green-grey lizards all left their tiny footprints on the shore.
“If this silver sand was only in England a man could make his fortune,” said Hawk. (“We wept like anything to see—!”)
I never saw such white sand before. One had to misquote: “Come unto these SILVER sands.” It glittered white in a great horse-shoe round the bay, and the bed of the Salt Lake (which is really an overflow from the sea) was a barren patch of this silver-sand, with here and there a dead mule or a sniper's body lying out, a little black blot, the haunt of vultures. ”

“ In latitude 24 degrees 30 minutes South is Hollam Bird Island, about half a mile in circumference. Seals and birds frequent it in large numbers; many turtles have been caught on the shore. In 24 degrees South latitude is Conception Bay, and to the northward is Sandwich Harbour, which is situated thirty miles south of Walfish Bay. Sandwich Harbour has a coast-line of sand-hills beyond; inland is pasturage for cattle, and on the beach is a spring of fresh water. A fishery was once established here by a Cape merchant. The River Kusip used to fall into this bay, but now flows into Walfish Bay. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Next to it there is an insignificant village of Islams on the river Suñgalihut, and is only inhabited on account of the edible birds’ nests found in the interior.
Between the eastern point of Labuk Bay and the islands there is a three-fathom channel. The coast is low, with no marked features until we round the point, and the bluff islands of Sandakan Bay are visible. Then the land appears to rise gradually into pretty hills, presenting beautiful slopes for cultivation; but as we approach the entrances of the Kina Batañgan, the land again becomes low. ”

“ Wyndham said that Sandakan Bay is exceedingly unhealthy, and that the whole eastern coast bears the same character during the south-west monsoon; but nearly every tropical place is insalubrious until cleared and drained. Sandakan is reported to be one of the noblest harbours in the world, perfectly [207] sheltered, with eight fathoms of water. Innumerable boats came around the steamer with vegetables, cocoa-nuts, eggs, fowls, fruit, krises, Sulu knives, Dutch 32-pounder shot, cattle, and excellent fish, particularly the red mullet; eggs on the whole very good; mangoes and plantains ”

“ On the 30th, the Captain and myself, for the purpose of completing our survey, went in a boat to the Island of Buckah, passing round the western side of Howakil, in the track marked in the chart. On our way we noticed a fine bason, with four and five fathoms water, but to which unfortunately we could not discover any entrance for a ship. Soon after we crossed a well-sheltered harbour, with four, five, and six fathoms, which bore the appearance, from the imperfect examination we were able to give it, of being the most secure place for anchorage in the whole Bay. ”

“ We anchored on the north shore, off a sandy bay, which I think as good a birth as any in the bay; Cape Banks bore east-south-east, and Point Solander south-south-east, the ground clear and good. The wind, either from the north-east or south-east quarters, set in a prodigious sea. Higher up the bay there is a spot of four fathoms, where a few ships might be laid in tolerable security, but they must be lightened, to enable them to pass over a flat of twelve feet, and that depth but of narrow limits. ”

“ We were forced to go under an easy sail, as our prize sailed very heavily, wherefore we went into Sardinas Bay, in lat. 1° 20' N. where we anchored with our prize in ten fathoms, about four miles from the shore, for the purpose of rummaging her. We durst not go farther in, because of many shoals and sand-banks, which were very imperfectly laid down in all our charts. The sea-coast is inhabited by Indians, but not in any great numbers, and has several small fresh-water rivers. ”

“ It is uninhabited and can only be approached with the utmost difficulty; on landing "almost perpendicular rocks" have to be scaled. Nor is it clear how "Zichmni," having been put ashore at "Sanestol" or Sandöe, managed to meet the fleet at "Bondendon" or Norderdahl, seeing that the latter place is situated on another island. Sandöe is described as a small, barren, and thinly populated island, and the bay of Sand, where the fleet apparently landed him, is exposed to the south wind, and is therefore a dangerous anchorage for sailing ships. ”

“ At high water, the tides rising so high as they do, the coast shows very low; but when ’tis low water it seems to be of an indifferent heighth. At low water-mark the shore is all rocky, so that then there is no landing with a boat; but at high water a boat may come in over those rocks to the Sandy Bay, which runs all along on this coast. The land by the sea for about five or six hundred yards is a dry sandy soil, bearing only shrubs and bushes of divers sorts. ”

“ In Sandag Bay, to the south, a strong current runs at certain periods of the flood and ebb respectively; but in this northern bay—Aros Bay, as it is called—where the house stands and on which my uncle was now gazing, the only sign of disturbance is towards the end of the ebb, and even then it is too slight to be remarkable. When there is any swell, nothing can be seen at all; but when it is calm, as it often is, there appear certain strange, undecipherable marks—sea-runes, as we may name them—on the glassy surface of the bay. The like is common in a thousand places on the coast ”

“ CHAPTER I. The port of La Union, our point of departure, is in the little Republic of San Salvador, which, in common with Nicaragua and Honduras, touches on the Bay of Fonseca. It is built near the head of a subordinate bay, of the same name with itself, at the foot of the volcano of Conchagua, which rises between it and the sea, cutting it off from the ocean-breezes, and rendering it, in consequence, comparatively hot and unhealthy. It is a small town, with a population scarcely exceeding fifteen hundred souls; but it is, nevertheless, the most important port of San Salvador. ”

“ On sped the carriage, the lovely Upper Bay always in sight, until on the curve of the long Coddington's Point it turned, and retraced its course so as to strike Washington Street at the lower end. It was a delicious afternoon. The tide was flowing freshly in, and the brisk northwest breeze which met it sent little white-caps dancing all over the surface. Crafts of all kinds were traversing the harbor: yachts and cat-boats were out in numbers; schooners and barges sped up the bay, their sails shining against the green Island shores ”

“ At nine, we found ourselves close in with Ras Béloul, and after crossing the Bay, which appears to be free from shoals, we stretched along shore, at about three leagues distance, in fifteen fathoms, until we reached Rackmah, when we rounded the point of the first island, and came to an anchor in four fathoms, hard ground. This anchorage, which will be found accurately laid down in the chart, cannot be considered as affording good shelter, even against a southerly wind, and with any other it might prove extremely dangerous. ”

“ In fine weather, with the wind at north-east, spars of any dimensions may be sent off from Sydney-Bay, by mooring a boat without the reef, and hauling the spars off. I have great reason to suppose anchorage will be very safe off Sydney-Bay in the summer. I think vessels might be built and launched in Ball-Bay; and when the flax-plant can be brought to work, cordage and sails can be made of the finest and strongest sort.
Q. 9. How does your stock thrive, and what does the island produce? ”

“ Upon examining this sand with a magnifying-glass, its appearance was like so many small shining crystals shooting into numerous points.—It is often a difficult question with mineralogists, to account for the production of sand in many situations upon the coast; but here the question involves no perplexity, as St Andrew’s Bay, which is generally understood to extend from Fifeness to the Redhead, a distance of about 25 miles, is not only bounded by sandstone, but forms the embouchure of the river Tay, and of several other considerable streams, which fall into the sea upon its shores. ”