The Merchant's and Mariner's African Guide
Containing an Accurate Description of the Coast, Bays, Harbours, and Adjacent Islands of West Africa

An 1822 guide by a Royal Navy officer detailing how to sail to West Africa and engage in trade there.

Edward Bold (Author)

9781108030663, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 May 2011

138 pages, 3 maps
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.2 kg

This work of 1822 was written by Royal Navy Lieutenant Edward Bold to help sailors navigate from Britain to West Africa, via Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands. Bold was concerned about 'excessively erroneous hydrographic descriptions' that misled ships and put crews in danger. Writing after Britain's abolition of the slave trade, Bold was an advocate of developing other types of commerce with this region of Africa - an area, as he discovered, rich in valuable ivory - and part of the work describes the system of trade that stretched from port to port along the continent's western coast, including useful information such as that, upon arriving, sailors should indicate their desire to trade by 'firing a gun and hoisting your colours'. With its navigational detail and observations about trade, this work is a useful source on Anglo-African commerce in the nineteenth century.

Introduction
1. Directions for sailing to the Madeiras
2. Directions through the Canaries
3. On the winds and calms peculiar to the Canaries
4. Coast of Africa from Cape Spartel to Cape Bogador
5. Description of the coast from Cape Bogador to Cape Verde
6. Cape Verde, or Salt Islands
7. General observations
8. Description of the coast from Cape Verde to Cape Roxo
9. Cape St. Mary to Roxo
10. From Cape Roxo to Sierra Leon, including the Rio Grande, its shoals, and the Isles de Loss
11. Mode of traffic from Grand Bassa to Cape Palmas
12. Description of the coast from Sierra Leon to Cape Mount
13. Sailing directions for the River Sherbro
14. The windward coast
15. From Cape Mount to the River St. John
16. On the system of traffic, or barter, pursued between Cape Mount and Grand Bassa
17. Description of the coast from Grand Bassa to Cape Palmas
18. Description of the coast from Cape Palmas to Cape Lahou
19. On the trade of Cape Palmas and Cape Lahou
20. Description of the Adou or Quaqua Coast, from Cape Lahou to Assinee
21. Description of the coast from Assinee to Cape St. Paul's
22. Description of the mode of traffic, employed from Cape Lahou to Cape St. Paul's
23. Description of the coast from Cape St. Paul's to Cape Formoso, constituting what is called the Bight of Benin
24. Mode of barter of Benin
25. Description of the coast from Cape Formosa to Cameroon's River in the Bight of Biaffra
26. Directions for sailing into Old Callebar
27. On the system of the Callebar trade
28. From Callebar to Cameroon's River
29. On the Cameroon's trade
30. Description of the islands in the Bight of Biaffra, namely: Fernandepo, Princes, St. Thomas, and Anno Bom
31. Description of the coast from Cameroons to Cape St. John, and from thence to Cape Lopez, including the Rivers Gabon and Danger
32. Description of the coast from Cape Lopez to the Congo
33. Description of the Congo
34. Description of the coast from Cape Padron to Loando St. Paul
35. Description of the Cape of Good Hope, with its adjacent bays
36. The island of St. Helena
37. The island of Ascension
38. Of the passages to and from the coast of Africa, etc.
39. On the homeward passage.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]