This article is said by Purchas to have been abbreviated out of the larger journal kept by Finch during his voyage to India and residence there, and seems a most useful supplement to the preceding section, being in many circumstances more full and satisfactory than the relation of Hawkins. In the Pilgrims of Purchas it does not follow the former relation, but that was owing to its not reaching him in time, as is stated in the following note, which is both characteristic of that early collector of voyages and travels, and of the observations of William Finch. [Footnote 208: Purch. Pilg. I. 414.] "This should have followed next after Master Hawkins, with whom William Finch went into the _Mogolls_ country, if I then had had it. But better a good dish, though not in duest place of service, than not at all: Neither is he altogether born out of due time, which comes in due place, while we are yet in India, and in time also, before the _Mogoll_ affairs received any latter access or better maturity: And for that circumstance failing, you shall find it supplied in substance, with more accurate observations of men, beasts, plants, cities, deserts, castles, buildings, regions, religions, than almost any other; as also of ways, wares, and wars."--_Purchas_. * * * * * § 1. _Remembrances respecting Sierra Leona, in August 1607, the Bay, Country, Inhabitants, Rites, Fruits, and Commodities_. The island, which we fell in with some ten leagues south from the bay of Sierra Leona, in lat. 8° N. has no inhabitants; neither did I learn its name. It has some plantains, and, by report, good watering and wooding for ships; but about a league from the shore there is a dangerous ledge of rock, scarcely visible at high water. The bay of Sierra Leona is about three leagues broad, being high land on the south side, full of trees to the very edge of the water, and having several coves, in which we caught plenty and variety of fish. On the farther side of the fourth cove is the watering place, having excellent water continually running. Here on the rocks we found the names of various Englishmen who had been there. Among these was Sir Francis Drake, who had been there twenty-seven years before; Thomas Candish, Captain Lister, and others. About the middle of the bay, right out from the third cove, lieth a sand, near about which there are not above two or three fathoms, but in most other parts eight or ten close in shore. The tide flows E.S.E. the highest water being six or eight feet, and the tide is very strong. The latitude is 8° 30' N.