Page 530
An.1691
Blooms of Heat.
For one afternoon about the 19th of Jan. 1683 in the lat. of 37 South, we felt a brisk gale coming from off the Coast of America, but so violently hot, that we thought it came from some burning Moun- tain on the shore, and was like the heat from the mouth of an Oven. Just such another gleam I felt one afternoon also, as I lay at anchor at the Groin in July 1694. it came with a Southerly Wind : both these were followed by a Thunder-shower. These were the only great blooms I ever met with in my Travels. But setting these aside, which are exceptions, I have made it my general observation, that the Sea Winds are a great deal warmer than those which blow from Land: unless where the Wind blows from the Poles, which I take to be the true cause of the coldness of the South Wind at the Cape ; for it is cold at Sea also. And as for the coldness of Land-Winds, as the South-West parts of Europe are very sensible of it from the Nor- thern and Eastern Winds ; so on the opposite Coast of Virginia, they are as much pinch'd with the North-West Winds, blowing excessively cold from over the Continent : though its lat. be not much greater than this of the Cape.
But to proceed: This large Promontory consists of high, and very remarkable Land: and off at Sea it affords a very pleasant and agreeable prospect. And without doubt the prospect of it was very agreeable to those Portuguefe, who first found out this way by Sea to the East-Indies : when after coasting along the vast Continent of Africk, towards the South Pole, they had the comfort of seeing the Land and their course end in this promontory: which therefore they called the Cape de Bon Efperance, or of Good Hope, finding that they might now proceed Eastward.
There is good Sounding off this Cape 50 or 60 leagues at Sea, to the Southward: and therefore our