e last three centuries, sailors of almost every maritime nation--at
least all whose errand has led them along the eastern edge of the
Atlantic--have had reason to regret approximation to those shores, known
in ship parlance as the Barbary coast; but which, with a slight
alteration in the orthography, might be appropriately styled
"Barbarian."

A chapter might be written in explanation of this peculiarity of
expression--a chapter which would comprise many parts of two sciences,
both but little understood--ethnology and meteorology.

Of the former we may have a good deal to tell before the ending of this
narrative. Of the latter it must suffice to say: that the frequent
wrecks occurring on the Barbary coast, or, more properly on that of the
Saara south of it, are the result of an Atlantic current setting
eastwards against that shore.

The cause of this current is simple enough, though it requires
explanation: since it seems to contradict not only the theory of the
"trade" winds, but of the centrifugal inclination attributed to the
waters of the ocean.

I have room only for the theory in its simplest form. The heating of
the Saara under a tropical sun; the absence of those influences,
moisture and verdure, which repel the heat and retain its opposite; the
ascension of the heated air that hangs over this vast tract of desert;
the colder atmosphere rushing in from the Atlantic Ocean; the consequent
eastward tendency of the waters of the sea.

These facts will account for that current which has proved a deadly
maelstrom to hundreds, ay thousands, of ships, in all ages, whose
misfortune it has been to sail unsuspectingly along the western shores
of the Ethiopian continent.

Even at the present day the castaways upon this desert shore are by no
means rare; notwithstanding the warnings that at close intervals have
been proclaimed for a period of three hundred years.

While I am writing, some stranded brig, barque, or ship may be going to
pieces between Bojador and Blanco; her crew making shorewards in boats
to be swamped among the foaming breakers; or, riding three or four
together upon some severed spar, to be tossed upon a desert strand, that
each may wish, from the bottom of his soul, should prove uninhabited!

I can myself record a scene like this that occurred not ten years ago,
about midway between the two headlands above named--Bojador and Blanco.
The locality may be more particularly designated by saying: that