THIS

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XV.

HIS representation of James Fort at Accra, on the coast of Guinea, where Captain Richard Buckoll, commander of his Majesty's frigate the Trent lies buried, was taken by Mr. Pocock from a plan of Mr. Martin Watts's in 1792. The funeral procession of this deserving young officer is introduced according to the correct account which was sent us.

The English, and Danes, have strong forts at Accra; and each fort has its particular town. The air is here excessively hot, especially from the beginning of September to the end of March; which, with the coolness of the nights, the periodical rains, and the frequent thick, stinking, sulphureous mists, when the flat country is overflowed, makes it very unhealthy, especially to Europeans. Smith says the country about Accra, where the English and Danes have cach a strong fort, is very delightful, and the natives courteous, and civil to strangers. The tract of country styled Guinea, extends along the west side of the continent of Africa for 3 or 4000 miles, beginning at the river Senegal, situated about the 17th degree of North latitude (being the nearest part of Guinea, as well to Europe as to North America). From the river Senegal to the river Gambia, and in a southerly coast to Cape Sierra Leona, is comprehended a coast of about 700 miles; being the same tract for which Queen Elizabeth granted charters to the first traders to that coast. From Sierra Leona the coast of Guinea takes a turn to the eastward, extending that course about 1500 miles, including those several divisions known by the names of the Grain Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, and the Slave Coast, with the large kingdom of Benin.

The most ancient account we have of the country situated on and between the two great rivers of Senegal and Gambia, is from the writings of two authors, one an Arabian, the other a Moor. The first wrote in Arabic about the 12th century: his works, printed in that language at Rome, were afterwards translated into Latin, and printed at Paris, under the patronage of the famous Thuanus, Chancellor of France, with the title of Geographica Nubiensis. The other was written by John Leo, a Moor, born at Granada, in Spain, before the Moors were totally expelled from that kingdom. He resided in Africa; but being on a voyage from Tripoli to Tunis, was taken by some Italian corsairs, who finding him possessed of several Arabian books, besides his own manuscripts, presented him, as a man of learning to Pope Leo the Tenth.

It was about the year 1551, towards the latter end of the reign of Edward the Sixth, that some London merchants sent out the first English ship on a trading voyage to the coast of Guinea.

Medland Fulp

ANECDOTES OF

MR. SAMUEL STANDIDGE,

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF

THE HULL WHALE TRADE.

From Mr.TICKELL's History of Kingston upon Hull. Page 925-1796.

PROJECTS, when wisely laid, and not the wild reveries

of a distempered brain, have been productive of the most solid advantages to society. We shall find, in the ensuing traits, that it is to the able projects and spirited exertions of a private individual, that a new and profitable branch of trade has been introduced into Europe, which at this day gives employment to thousands, and brings annu ally an astonishing revenue into the coffers of his country.

The taking of whales among immense fields of ice, which have been increasing since the Almighty first created the world, will ever be considered as one of the greatest curiosities in nature and shews us what wonders the adventurous spirit of man, joined to perseverance, is capable of accomplishing. The merchants of Hull were the first in England who entered upon this surprising and hazardous branch of traffic; and we shall presently see, that it is to the abilities and enterprising spirit of a single individual, Mr. Samuel Standidge, that this trade, when lately reduced to a very low ebb in England, and the whole fishery in a manner monopolized by the Dutch, owes its revival, and the prosperous and flourishing condition to which it has attained.

For some time previous to the year 1765, it is well known this trade had been rapidly on the decline in England, and in that year was reduced to such a languishing condition, that no ships were employed in it from Hull, nor from many other sea ports of the nation, and for three or four years preceding, it does not appear that more than eight or ten ships were employed in this trade, and during the above period, ten or twelve sail only from the port of London. It was then the active and adventurous spirit of Mr. Standidge exerted itself to revive and restore a trade which has since that time been prosecuted with so much success by the English nation. In the year 1766, he equipped and sent one ship to the Greenland seas, wholly on his own account. This was considered by all the other merchants as an adventure bordering upon insanity, as all Europe did not at that time afford one precedent; it was regarded as next to

impossible for a private adventurer to prosecute a trade with success, in which so many opulent companies had miscarried.

This ship, however, which had excited such a generál admiration in the mercantile world, returned with one whale and four hundred seals. Prior to this period the skins of these animals were generally thrown overboard, as not worth salting; but Mr. Standidge had conceived the idea of turning them to a much more profitable account. In order to this, at a great expence, and with no small trouble, he procured them to be tanned in the country; for the tanners in Hull refused, as they termed it, to foul their tubs with them.

Having so far succeeded, he had shoes made of them for himself and family. And thus was the tanning of seal skins introduced first into England; a discovery of such importance having escaped the penetration even of the sagacious Hollander; and a thing till that time unprecedented in Europe. The only uses they had ever before been put to, were to cover a few trunks, and to make sailor's tobacco pouches of such as had the oil extracted out of them with saw dust, and sold for the trifling sum of three-pence or four-pence each; whereas since the introduction of tanning, they have sold for five or six shillings per skin, and now bring in a very considerable revenue indeed to government, as tanned leather. Stimulated by this success, and the advantages derived to his country through his means, the above gentleman, actuated by the most ardent desire for the further improvement of the Greenland fishery, in the year 1767, fitted out two ships for this trade, in one of which, called the British Queen, he embarked, leaving many profitable concerns at home, and made the voyage himself, from which he returned successful.

The observations and improvements he had made in this voyage, were so important as to induce the Honourable Daines Barrington, Fellow of the Royal Society, to consult him with respect to the exploring of the North Pole; and, was so perfectly satisfied with the information he gave him, that he did him the honour soon after of publishing his letters in a pamphlet he wrote on that subject. He likewise consulted him on the most proper and effectual method to be pursued, in order to ascertain how far navigation was practicable towards that Pole. The delays which Mr. Barrington experienced at that time seem in some measure to have damped his ardour, when Mr. Standidge, in the genuine spirit of enterprize, actually equipped a ship himself, fitted her up suitably to the nature of the voyage she was about to undertake, and would have embarked himself in the course of two days, on the arduous attempt of exploring to the North Pole.

This voyage was however defeated by a circumstance that had not been attended to. Mr. Standidge, it seems, was that year high sheri