fore the _Mogoll_ affairs
received any latter access or better maturity: And for that circumstance
failing, you shall find it supplied in substance, with more accurate
observations of men, beasts, plants, cities, deserts, castles,
buildings, regions, religions, than almost any other; as also of ways,
wares, and wars."--_Purchas_.

* * * * *

Sec. 1. _Remembrances respecting Sierra Leona, in August 1607, the Bay,
Country, Inhabitants, Rites, Fruits, and Commodities_.

The island, which we fell in with some ten leagues south from the bay of
Sierra Leona, in lat. 8 deg. N. has no inhabitants; neither did I learn its
name. It has some plantains, and, by report, good watering and wooding
for ships; but about a league from the shore there is a dangerous ledge
of rock, scarcely visible at high water. The bay of Sierra Leona is
about three leagues broad, being high land on the south side, full of
trees to the very edge of the water, and having several coves, in which
we caught plenty and variety of fish. On the farther side of the fourth
cove is the watering place, having excellent water continually running.
Here on the rocks we found the names of various Englishmen who had been
there. Among these was Sir Francis Drake, who had been there
twenty-seven years before; Thomas Candish, Captain Lister, and others.
About the middle of the bay, right out from the third cove, lieth a
sand, near about which there are not above two or three fathoms, but in
most other parts eight or ten close in shore. The tide flows E.S.E. the
highest water being six or eight feet, and the tide is very strong. The
latitude is 8 deg. 30' N.

The king of Sierra Leona resides at the bottom of the bay, and is called
by the Moors _Borea_, or Captain _Caran_, _caran_, _caran_, having other
petty kings or chiefs under him; one of whom, called Captain _Pinto_, a
wretched old man, dwells at a town within the second cove; and on the
other side of the bay is Captain _Boloone_. The dominions of _Borea_
stretch 40 leagues inland, from which he receives a tribute in
cotton-cloth, elephants teeth, and gold; and has the power of selling
his people as slaves, some of whom he offered to us. Some of them have
been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese priests and Jesuits,
who have a chapel, in which is a table inscribed with the days that are
to be observed as holy. The king and a few of his principal attendants
are decently clothed