We ought also to take into account the inconveniences experienced in the voyage round the Cape, resulting from the settled calms succeeding the continued tempests, the diseases which decimate the crews, and the disasters which are so frequent on passing the equator. We should also take into consideration that, if the difficulties are greater during a good part of the year for vessels going up the Red Sea, vessels coming down are, for that very reason, sure to meet with favourable winds.
To leave no doubt on so important a question, and on which depends, in part, the success of the enterprise in contemplation, we will give a passage from a paper communicated to the Société de Géographie, by Count d’Escayrac de Lauture, the motto of which is,
“Aperire terram gentibus.”
“If the minimum distances which separate the ports of Europe from those of India, on the one part by the Cape of Good Hope, and on the other by the Canal of the two Seas, be compared with each other, enormous differences in favour of the latter route will be made manifest. These differences become still greater, when it is recollected that, in navigation, a straight line is far from being the shortest way from one point to another, and that navigators only reach their destination by successively following a certain number of courses, which form greater or lesser angles with each other.
“So that instead of steering directly for the Cape of Good Hope, mariners starting from Europe or the Atlantic ports of North America to go to India, must make the Canaries or the Azores; get into the track of the trade winds of the northern hemisphere, reach the coast of Brazil, and make Cape Frio, or put in at Rio Janeiro. It is only then that they can make for the Cape of Good Hope, better named, perhaps, Cape Tempestuous. They clear at length the Agulhas Bank, reach Bourbon or the Mauritius, and thence proceed to India in the track of the monsoon.
“Vessels from the Mediterranean have still greater disadvantages to contend against. It frequently takes them a fortnight to pass the straits of Gibraltar, in consequence of the west wind which prevails in those straits, and the rapid current which pours the waters of the ocean into the Mediterranean.
“The consequence is, that the passage to India takes at least from five months to five months and a half. The passage back is rather more direct, without being to any perceptible degree shorter. The coast of Africa may then be followed more closely, thanks to the trade winds of the southern hemisphere. The place to put in at, in this case, is St. Helena.
“If we now examine the conditions to which navigation is subjected in the three seas nearest to Suez, that is to say, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Oman, we shall find that in the Mediterranean the winds blow from the north during the greater part of the year, change to the south by east towards the spring, and return to the north, passing by the west and north-west. The case is nearly the same with regard to the Red Sea, where the north wind, which is the most frequent, drives the waters in the direction of Bab-el-Mandeb, so that when the calm succeeds, a current is observed running north. This is evidently produced by the waters which had been raised in the south endeavouring to regain their level. The south wind usually succeeds the calm.
“The Gulf of Oman has two monsoons, that from the north-east, which prevails with more constancy in the winter, and that from the south-west, which blows with force in summer. The change from one monsoon to the other is effected, there as elsewhere, by a series of calms and gusts of wind.