The Portingales have therein a verie faire and strong castle which now about 10 or 12 yeares past was fullie finished, and standeth right against the first of the unhabited little Ilands, where the ships must come in, and is one of the best and strongest built of all the Castles throughout the whole Indies, yet have they but small store of ordnance or munition, as also not any souldiers more then the Captaine and his men that dwel therein. But when occasion serveth, the married Portingales that dwel in the Iland, which are about 40 or 50 at the most, are all bound to keepe the Castle, for that the Iland hath no other defence then onely that Castle, the rest lieth open and is a flat sand.

Round about within the castle are certaine cesterns made which are alwaies ful of water, so that they have water continuallie in the same for the space of one whole yeare or more, as necessitie requireth, although they take no great care for their necessitie, neither Captaine, officers, nor other inhabitants of the Iland, for that they doe it orderly one by one, each house after the other specially those 40 or 50 Portingales and Mesticos, which are Portingales offspring, but borne in India, which are called Mesticos, that is as much to say, as halfe their countrie men, which are also esteemed and accounted for Portingales.

There are at this time in the Iland of Mossambique about 3 or 400 straw houses and cottages, which belong to the natural born people of the countrie, being all blacke like those of Capo Verde, Saint Thomas and all Ethiopia, and under the subiection of the Portingales, some of them believing in Mahomet: for before the Portingales held that Iland by traffique and dailie conference with the Moores and Mahometanes as far as the red Sea they held the law of Mahomet, as there are yet many that hold the same law, even unto the red Sea, but from Mossambique upwardes to Cape de Bona Speranza, they never received that law: so that there the Moors and natural borne people of the countrie, doe as yet live like beastes, without knowledge eyther of God or of his lawes: Some of the Moores of the Iland are likewise Christians, and some heathens.

The Portingales deale and traffique with such as dwell on the firme land in some villages nearest unto them, as Sena, Macuwa, Sofala, Cuama, &c., which for the most part differ both in behaviour, speech, and manner of life, each village by itself, and fight one against the other, taking each other prisoners and sell them, some of them eating mans flesh, as the Macuwen and others. Their chiefest living is by hunting, and by flesh of elephants, which is the cause that so many elephantes teeth are brought from thence.

(To be continued.)

CURRENTS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

(Continued from page 293.)

Northern Equatorial Current.-About the meridian of 126° W. long., and on the parallel of 29° N., the North Equatorial Current becomes apparent. Its northern limit continues nearly along this parallel to Loo Choo Island in 127° E. But as soon as it reaches West of the Sandwich Islands, it diverges so considerably towards the South, as to be found in this part near the parallel of 19° N.; sometimes it is found still further South.

The temperature of the Northern Equatorial Current is about 74° at its northern limit, 77° on the parallel of 20° N., 82° on that of 10° N.; near the equator in the East part of the Pacific Ocean, it is 82°, at the middle 84°, to the West and North of New Guinea 89°, the maximum temperature of the Pacific.

In this northern division of the Equatorial Current some remarkable anomalies are found. Thus, between the parallels of 10° and 5° N. lat., and particularly between the meridians of 115° and 150° W. long., is found the eastern part of a counter-current, called the Equatorial counter-current, flowing eastward. This current is sometimes further East, according to Johnstone. In the voyage of the Bonite, in 1836 and 1837, it appears that from the 21st to the 30th of August, 1836, between the parallels of 4° 55′ and 11° 8' N., and between the meridians of 100° and 107° W., currents were found varying from N.N.E. to E.N.E. from three to thirty-four miles in twenty-four hours. This current, perhaps, is not always found in this zone. Commander

Hanet-Clery, on the 9th of April, 1846, in lat. 10° 21' N., and long. 150° W., found a current running S. 42° W., at a rate of 25.4 miles per day. On the 11th of April, in lat. 6° 7' N., and 1461° W. long., the current was running N. 61° W., at a rate of 20 miles per day; and on the 13th of April, in 1° 17′ N., and 1461° W., the current was setting S. 58° W., 38 miles per day.

Capt. Wilkes shows that the origin of the Equatorial counter-current is found in the Indian Ocean. According to his views, the current which flows along the western coast of Australia, in the Indian Ocean, is a detached branch of this current. After it has turned the western coast of Australia it makes for the Pacific Ocean by the straits formed by New Guinea and Mindanao.

The eastern equatorial current, traces of which are found near Marshall and Gilbert Islands, separates, according to Capt. Wilkes, the northern from the southern equatorial current, and traverses the whole breadth of the Pacific Ocean. The following statements seem to confirm this opinion of Wilkes, and are of importance to ships making a passage from West to East in the Pacific.

Capt. Hunter shows that a ship can make her way to the eastward in the Pacific without going round South of Australia. He says, the whalers generally follow this route while the S.E. monsoon prevails

NO. 7.-VOL. XXVIII.

3 B

South of the equator; that is to say, from the end of March or the commencement of April to December or January, they keep North of the South equatorial current and on the limit of the general winds and monsoons. We may refer the navigator to Capt. Hunter's own words on this subject in our May number, p. 250.

These facts amply confirm the existence of a counter-current more or less considerable separating the North equatorial from the South equatorial current. But it has been found over nearly the whole extent of the Pacific by different navigators, as the following extracts will show.

Lutké, in the East part of the Pacific, found curents flowing East, N.E., and S.E., principally in this last direction, between the equator and the parallels of 8° and 10° N. The mean direction of these currents was E. 6° S., and the rate twelve miles per day.

In the West part of the Pacific Ocean, near the Carolines, in spite of the strong winds from N.E., the same captain found a S.E. current in 8° N. and 163° E. To the West of this the easterly current does not extend beyond 7° N., and its southern limit was in 5° 30′ N. Between these two parallels to the meridian of 152° E., during a voyage of twenty-one days, (in January.) he did not meet once with a westerly current; but, on the contrary, often met with an easterly current with a tendency to the southward. North of lat. 6° 30′, on the meridian of 152° E., he found a strong current setting West: to the West of this, in 144° E. and to the southward of 7° N. lat., he again found an easterly current. South of the parallel of 5° N., and on the meridian of the island of Ualan, the current was setting strong to S.W.; but on the parallel of 3° N., it was again found flowing East at a rate of thirteen miles a day.

Other seamen have also mentioned an eastern equatorial current both in the West and the eastern part of the Pacific. Wilson found it in the Caroline Archipelago, extending more to the southward than described by Lutké. Duperry, between the parallels of 2° and 6° N., being from 7° to 10° East of the meridian of the island of Oualan, found a S.E. current, as well as another to the N.E. But in nearing this island he found it setting strongly to S. W. Again, between the equator and the parallel of 8° 30′ N., and the meridians of 148° and 133° E. he found it running East.

Krusenstern places the southern limit of the eastern current near the equator, and its northern limit near the parallel of 6° N. Freycinet met with strong easterly currents between the parallels of 9° 20′ and 4° N., and the meridians of 149° and 144° W. long. Beechey found between the equator and the parallel of 4° N., on his way from Tahiti to Sandwich Islands, a current setting N.N.E. at a mean rate of eighteen miles per day.

Capt. Wendt, of the Princess Louisa, between the parallels of 6° 30′ and 10° 30' N. and the meridians of 125° and 131° W., found a N.E. current flowing from seventeen to twenty-five miles per day. All these currents flowing East are necessarily connected with each

other, and enable us to trace the eastern or counter equatorial current on the chart.

Krusenstern says, in speaking of this current, flowing from West to East, that it extends over the West part of the Pacific Ocean in a zone between the equator and the parallel of 6° N., and that it sometimes attains a rate of sixty miles per day. Ships returning from China in the S.W. monsoon, and entering the Pacific Ocean by the straits of Yamen, generally pass no further East than the Pellew Islands; but if they do not pay great attention to this eastern current they are carried several degrees by it in this direction. They should therefore cross it rapidly from North to South, so as to reach the S.E. Trades as soon as possible, and get into South latitude, where, near New Guinea, a westerly current will be found, sometimes W.N.W., at a rate of fifteen to forty miles per day. This important countercurrent should receive the attention of navigators, with a view to add their observations to the foregoing, so that its limits may be traced where they are yet unknown, for it may extend across the entire Pacific, which as yet is not absolutely determined.

Easterly Currents West of the Sandwich Islands.-To the West of the Sandwich Islands, and nearly in their parallel, easterly currents are found, which Johnstone calls "the entanglement of the eastern current."

This fact is clearly shown by the observations of some Prussian navigators. Besides, Freycinet speaks of it, Beechey mentions it, and Lutké has collected numerous observations which prove the existence of these easterly currents in a zone where the Trade winds blow with the greatest force. Savans have endeavoured to find the reason of this anomaly in the North equatorial current. We shall see from observations on temperature that what has been considered as a disturbance of the equatorial current, is in reality only the Japan Current, similar to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean. We shall first refer to the currents produced by the monsoons of the Caroline Islands while we are in this part of the Pacific Ocean; but it is worthy of remark that the Bonite, in 1836, from the Sandwich Islands to Manila, and ruuning between the parallels of 18° and 19° N. lat. to Luconia, found no easterly current here, from which we conclude that in this part of the Pacific, West of the archipelago of Hawaii, the northern limit of the equatorial current is nearly on the parallel of 19° N., and that it is North of this parallel that easterly currents are found.

Currents of the Caroline Islands in the Monsoons. In the zone of the North equatorial current, and near the western limit of the Pacific, a remarkable independent current is found, known by the name of the monsoon current of the Carolines.

The monsoons of the China Sea, as already observed, exert their influence as far as the meridian of the Marianne Islands and over that of the Carolines. In this part of the sea the Trade and S.W. monsoon alternately prevail. The result is a corresponding current, which especially in the West part of the Caroline Archipelago attains a very considerable velocity.

These monsoon currents of the Carolines appear to occupy a zone comprised between the meridian of Bonnebey on the East and Gilolo Island on the West, extending from the parallel of 10° or 8° N. to the equator.

From June to October the current runs N.E., varying to E.N.E. From October to May it runs S. W. and W.S.W. The mean rate, however, is not more than two or three miles a day. The temperature of their waters varies from 85° to 89°, which last temperature is found very near the equator, in 135° E., the maximum of the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Notwithstanding these monsoon currents, the equatorial current prevails West of the Marianne Islands, a little South of the South parallel of the Carolines, and does not appear to be influenced by the monsoons.

In this part of the Pacific, its southern limit, which flows W.N.W., passes about 120 miles South of Guam, (one of the Marianne Isles,) and at the same distance North of Ouluthi Island, (one of the Carolines,) from thence the equatorial current, the northern limit of which is near the parallel of 26° N., becomes narrower in proportion as the strait of Formosa is approached. At 120 leagues East of this island it suddenly turns northward, and then N.E., and forms the great Japan Current.

Japan Current. From the island of Loo-Choo, 140 leagues off the eastern coast of China, a continual warm current flows along the East coast of Japan, in an E.N.E. and N.E. direction, often with considerable velocity. It would appear to be occasioned by the accumulated waters of the equatorial current returning to eastward. Its influence is felt as far as the N.W. coast of America, thus, nearly crossing the whole ocean from West to East, it appears to form the Gulf Stream of the Pacific.

The western part of the northern equatorial current having passed from the eastward South of the Loo-Choo Islands, curving round to the N.E. then becomes the Japan Current, continuing its easterly. course to the eastward of the Japanese Islands to the meridian of 180°. From thence it runs E.N.E., crossing the parallel of 30° N., on the meridian of the Sandwich Islands; and again running N.E.. crosses the meridian of 150° W. in 40° N.

From thence it takes a S.E. direction, curving to the South and S. W. on the parallel of 32° N. lat., and on the meridian of 133° W., where we fail in tracing it further.

The Japan Current, after flowing along the eastern coasts of these islands, and only as one current, gradually spreads itself, and in the latitude nearly of the middle of Niphon Island, forms into two branches, one flowing North-eastward in the direction of Behring Strait, is called the Kamtschatka Current, to which we shall allude presently; the other continuing East, as abovementioned, preserves its name of the Japan Current; its northern limit appears first to continue to the eastward, and is found in 160° E. and 41° N., and in 165° W. and 44° N. From thence turning to the North-eastward, it becomes lost near the N. W. coast of America.