In short, Africa, such as we have seen it either on the banks of the Senegal or the Peninsula of Cape Verd, is a new country, which promises to the naturalist an ample harvest of discoveries, and to the philosophical observer of mankind, a vast field for research and observation. May the detestable commerce in human flesh, which the Negroes abhor, and the Moors desire, cease to pollute these shores! It is the only means which the Europeans have left to become acquainted with the interior of this vast continent, and to make this great portion of the family of mankind, by which it is inhabited participate in the benefits of civilization.
[1] The Medusa was armed en flute, having only 14 guns on board; it was equipped at Rochefort with the Loire.
[2] Equipped at Brent.
[3] Came from L'Orient.
[4] The town of Chassiron is on the point of Oleron, opposite a bank of rocks called Les Antiochats.
[5] The light house of La Baleine is placed at the other end of the Pertuis d'Antioche, on the coast of the Isle of Rhé.
[6] _Les Roches Bonnes _are 8 or 9 leagues from the Isle of Rhé, their position is not exactly determined on the charts.
[7] Three knots make a marine league of 5556 meters.
[8] These are very large fish which every moment appear on the surface of the water, where they tumble about. They pass with such prodigious rapidity, that they will swim round a ship, when it is going at the rate of nine or ten knots an hour.
[9] The life buoy, is made of cask staves hooped together, and is about a metre (something more than a yard.) in diameter, in the middle of which is a little mast to fix a flag to. It is thrown into the sea, as soon as a man falls overboard, that he may place himself upon it while the operation of lowering a boat down, or heaving the, vessel to, is performed.