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ISLE OF ARGUIN. — PORTENDICK. — HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE
DIFFERENT NATIONS WHO HAVE OCCUPIED THOSE PLACES. — EUROPEAN
COMMERCE AND FISHERIES. — CAPE VERD. — GOREE, ITS POSSESSION
BY EUROPEAN NATIONS. — ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND TRADE OF ITS
INHABITANTS.
THE ships which leave Europe for the establishments in the Atlantic
ocean, along an extensive coast of about three hundred and fifty
leagues, cannot relay more conveniently in Africa than at the
isle of Arguin, at which their commercial operations may be said
to begin. The most safe anchorage is at the southern point, where
vessels that draw only ten or twelve feet water may approach very
near to land. Between the isle and the continent is a canal in which
vessels of heavy burden, and even frigates, may anchor at the spot
on which formerly stood the fort. When the Dutch took the place,
they regularly fortified it, and built a fort with four bastions
and deep fosses. In short, they neglected nothing that might enable
them to keep perpetual possession of the isle, but this fort has
disappeared; and of all their works there only remain two cisterns,
which seem to have been respected both by time and men. The largest
is ten fathoms wide, sixteen long, and about fifteen deep, and is
about two hundred fathoms from the part containing the remains of
the face of the fort. It appears to have been dug in the rock. In
the midst of this spacious vault is a large well fifteen feet deep,
in which all the waters unite, whether they proceed from springs
or filtrate through the rock from the soil which covers it. It
is asserted that the cistern contains five thousand six hundred
muids of water. The smaller cistern is to the north of the first,
and is an artificial vault dug like the other by the hand of man,
with the assistance of explosion. The capacity of the parts which
receive the water is estimated at half that of the cistern first
mentioned. These two cisterns were formed by the Portuguese between
1445 and 1481, when after the fall of the Norman company they first
occupied the isle of Arguin.