America under neutral flags, but really French or Dutch bottoms laden with Indian produce.
No other than British or colonial vessels were permitted to capture whales or seals along any part of the coast between Loanda and Delagoa Bay, and a small cruizer was generally employed in protecting this industry. In December 1795 Captain Alexander was sent up the western coast in the Star to examine the bays along it, to take possession of them for the crown of England, and to warn foreign whalers to leave. The Star proceeded as far as the fifteenth degree of south latitude, touching on the passage at Angra Pequena, Spencer Bay, Walfish Bay,[1] and two ports several hundred kilometres farther north. At each of these places possession was taken by Captain Alexander, the ceremony consisting in hoisting the British flag, firing three volleys of musketry, and turning over a few spades full of soil. Very few inhabitants were seen, and those few could not be communicated with. At Angra Pequena two whalers were found, and from them it was ascertained that in the preceding season thirty ships—half of them American—were engaged in taking whales on the coast, Possession Island being their main station.
- ↑ The spelling of this name in official documents being as above, I am obliged to retain it, although the word Walfish, being partly Dutch and partly English, is objectionable. The Portuguese discoverers gave the inlet the name Bahia das Balêas, on account of the number of whales found there. The Dutch, who came next, merely translated the name into Walvisch Baai, and the first English followed their example and called it Whale Bay. During the time that Napoleon was confined on St. Helena, cattle were often brought down from Damaraland and sent from the bay for the use of the garrison at that island, and the English sailors corrupted the word Walvisch—which they heard from some Cape fishermen there—into Walwich and Woolwich. Some mapmakers took over this corruption, and as Walwich Bay it is still often found on charts. When it was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1884, the word underwent another change in the proclamation, and appeared as Walfish.
