an excess, and have a very unpleasant effect, by raising
the dust in such clouds, as to render stirring out of doors next to
impossible. Nor can any precaution prevent the inhabitants from being
annoyed by it, as much within doors as without.

At length the wished-for day, on which the next effort for reaching the
place of our destination was to be made, appeared. The morning was calm,
but the land wind getting up about noon, on the 12th of November we
weighed anchor, and soon left far behind every scene of civilization and
humanized manners, to explore a remote and barbarous land; and plant in
it those happy arts, which alone constitute the pre-eminence and dignity
of other countries.

The live animals we took on board on the public account from the Cape,
for stocking our projected colony, were, two bulls, three cows, three
horses, forty-four sheep, and thirty-two hogs, besides goats, and a very
large quantity of poultry of every kind. A considerable addition to this
was made by the private stocks of the officers, who were, however, under
a necessity of circumscribing their original intentions on this head
very much, from the excessive dearness of many of the articles. It will
readily be believed, that few of the military found it convenient to
purchase sheep, when hay to feed them costs sixteen shillings a hundred
weight.

The boarding-houses on shore, to which strangers have recourse, are more
reasonable than might be expected. For a dollar and a half per day
we were well lodged, and partook of a table tolerably supplied in the
French style. Should a traveller's stock of tea run short, it is a
thousand chances to one that he will be able to replenish it here at a
cheaper rate than in England. He may procure plenty of arrack and white
wine; also raisins, and dried fruits of other sorts. If he dislikes to
live at a boarding-house, he will find the markets well stored, and the
price of butcher's meat and vegetables far from excessive.

Just before the signal for weighing was made, a ship, under American
colours, entered the road, bound from Boston, from whence she had sailed
one hundred and forty days, on a trading voyage to the East Indies. In
her route, she had been lucky enough to pick up several of the inferior
officers and crew of the Harcourt East-Indiaman, which ship had been
wrecked on one of the Cape de Verd Islands. The master, who appeared
to be a man of some information, on being told the destination of o