[13] Vessels bound for Brazil usually cross the Equator about long. 22° W. If Captain Cock really intended to go direct to Brazil, he had no business at Cabo das Palmas. Can his voyage to S. Thomé really have been, as he says, an involuntary deviation from his direct course?
[14] The island of S. Thomé was discovered by the Portuguese about 1472, and received its first settlers in 1486. In the course of the sixteenth century it suffered much from the depredations of French, English, and Dutch pirates, as also (1574) from a revolt headed by the Angolares: that is, the descendants of Angolan slaves who had swum ashore when the vessel which carried them was wrecked, in 1544, on the Sette Pedras, and had fled to the woods near. The Fortaleza de S. Sebastião was intended to defend the capital against piratical attacks. It was completed in 1575; but the Dutch, under Admiral Van der Dam, nevertheless sacked the city in 1600. Only four years before the author’s arrival, in 1485, the city had been destroyed by fire.
[15] The Ilhéo das Rôlas (Turtle-dove Island) lies about a mile off the southern extremity of S. Thomé. It is of volcanic origin, rises to a considerable height, and is densely wooded. The inhabitants (about 100) are dependent upon the rain for their drinking water, for there are no springs. The chief articles of export are cacao and coffee.
[16] That is, the Povoação of early days, on the Bahia de Anna de Chaves, incorporated in 1535 as the Cidade de S. Thomé.
[17] Cabo de Lopo Gonçalves, thus named after its discoverer, Cape Lopez of our charts, in lat 0° 36´ S.
[18] The “dolphin” of British sailors is the doirada, or gilthead, of the Portuguese (Coryphaena hippurus), and delights to swim in the shadow of the vessel.
[19] The Ilha Grande lies in lat. 23° 10´ S., sixty miles to the west of Rio de Janeiro. It is about seventeen miles in length, lofty, and shelters a safe bay, surrounded with magnificent scenery.
[20] S. Salvador, on the Bahia de todos os Santos, lat. 13° S.
[21] That is, one of the “degradados” or convicts, whom it is even now customary to banish to the Colonies.
[22] The Isla de Lobos Marinos (Seal Island) lies off Maldonado Point, and forms a conspicuous landmark for vessels approaching the Rio de la Plata.