eze. The harmattan generally produces a
very strong westerly current in direct opposition to this, and the
want of knowing it, has frequently proved fatal to vessels; the
masters of which, imagining that they were under the influence of an
easterly current, have been actually drifted many miles to the
westward in the course of a single night, and have found themselves
on shore the next morning; the violence of the current from the
westward when the sea breezes are strong, is so great, that it is
scarcely possible to believe, that a day or two of the harmattan
would overcome it, but the effect of this is so powerful, that it is
well known, to those, who have frequented the gulf, that the current
produced by the harmattan, will even continue against the westerly
winds, after they may have again set in. A remarkable instance is
related of the velocity of the currents in the gulf, to the southward
of Fernando Po. In the month of June, a vessel performed the passage
between Prince's Island and St. Thomas in twenty hours, which
generally occupies from eight to ten days. The distance is about
ninety three miles, and the vessel must have averaged from four to
six miles per hour. The harmattan is said not to extend to the
southward of Fernando Po, but this has not yet been fully
ascertained.

The passage through the gulf from Fernando Po to Sierra Leone, is
generally extremely long and tedious, owing to the prevalence of
calms and the different currents. It is usually made either by
running to the southward and getting into the southeast trade, or by
keeping in shore, as far as Cape Palmas, so as to benefit by the
landwinds. The former method is generally recommended by the
merchantmen as being safer and quicker, for a vessel adopting the
latter, is more under the dangerous influence of the currents,
besides being obliged to keep close to the shore; it is also adopted
by the merchantmen in their homeward voyage. Sometimes vessels by
taking a mean between these two methods, get between two different
winds, by which means they lose the benefit of both, and are delayed
by calms and rains. This part, according to accurate information, is
at the distance of sixty miles from the land, so that vessels should
pass either far without or else within that distance on leaving
Fernando Po.

In this part of the Gulf of Guinea, between Fernando Po and the
Calebar River, the rainy season is stated to commence in the month of
July, and to b