There are four principal islands in the Gulf of Guinea, or Bight of Biafra, as it is usually called by English navigators, Ferdinand Poo, Princes isle, St Thomas, and Annobon, the discovery of which have been related as follows by Barbot, and his account seems the most probable[2]. Fernando Lopez discovered the first of these in 1471, in lat. 3° 40' N. giving it the name of _Ilha formosa_, or the Beautiful Island, which was afterwards changed to that of _Fernando Poo_, which it still retains. In an account of the kingdom of Congo, in Churchill's Collection, viii. 527, more properly named the Oxford Collection, or that of Osborne, v. 2. This island, and a river on the coast of the continent of Africa, directly east, now called Cameroon River, are said to have taken their names of Fernando Poo from their first discoverer. Some writers assign the discovery of these four islands, and that of St Matthew, to Fernando Gomez, who formed the Guinea trade. Perhaps they were discovered under his auspices, by the navigators whom he employed. This island is composed of very high land, easily seen at a great distance, and the Portuguese had formerly sugar plantations upon it. The _Ilha do Principe_, or Princes Island, in lat. 1° 30' N. was either discovered by Fernando Lopez, or by Santaren and Escobar, about the same period, and probably received its name in honour of the illustrious prince, Don Henry. This island is described as consisting of high table mountains, pyramidal at their bases, and visible at the distance of twenty leagues; being about nine leagues long by five leagues broad. It is said to abound in oranges, lemons, bananas, cocoa-nuts, sugar-canes, rice, many species of sallad herbs, and to be susceptible of producing the European grains. The mandioca, or root of the cassada plant, is generally used for bread, of which the juice while raw is said to be a virulent poison; while its meal, or rasped root, after the malignant juice is carefully pressed out, is used for bread. The inhabitants also, have sheep, hogs, goats, and an immense number of poultry; but these have probably been introduced by the Portuguese. The _Ilha de San Thome_, or island of St Thomas, which is said to have received its name from the saint to whom the chapel of the great monastery of _Thomar_ is dedicated, and to which all the African discoveries are subjected in spirituals, has its southern extremity almost directly under the equinoctial, and is a very high land of an oval shape, about fifteen leagues in breadth, by twelve leagues long.