ain, would be, say nineteen days to Barbadoes;
seventeen days to stop in the Colonies; and twenty-four days from Cape
Nichola Mole to Fayal (2600 miles), together sixty days; and which
brings the return of this sailing vessel to Fayal to correspond with
the arrival of the packets from Falmouth, and of the mails from South
America, and from North America, at that place. Four packets would be
sufficient for this station, giving two mails each month. Their cost
would be 38,000_l._, and their yearly expenses at 4,200_l._ each,
16,800_l._--considerably cheaper than steam, but lengthening, as has
been seen, the communication between Great Britain and that quarter of
the world, _fifteen_ days. A spare packet might be necessary, but the
cost of that has been included, and stated under the South American
head.

VII. (p. 028)

_The West Indian Station._

This station is one of the most important, and extensive, and
complicated of the whole, and one where steam-vessels can be employed
with the most beneficial effects. The prevailing winds and currents,
however, render it necessary that the vessels employed should be of
high power, in order to enable them to stem those winds and currents.
Into the Gulf of Mexico, through the Windward islands, sets; first,
the equatorial current; secondly, the prodigious current occasioned by
the influx of the waters of the great river Maranon, and of the
several rivers which flow through British, Dutch, and French Guiana;
thirdly, the current occasioned by the influx of the waters of the
great river Oronoque, through the Gulf of Paria, between the island of
Trinidad and the mainland of South America. These united waters,
directed by the trade winds, blowing always from the eastward,
occasion a current of such force, running westward from the Windward
Islands to the shores of Mexico, that it is frequently impossible for
the best sailing vessels to make their way through it. Steam-boats,
therefore, of at least 240-horse power, are indispensably necessary,
in order that they may not only be able to stem these winds and
currents, and carry a sufficient quantity of coals, but also to afford
spacious and well-ventilated accommodation, both for the crews
attached to them, and also the passengers which may travel by them.
Without such, neither the one nor the other could ever enjoy health,
nor could the despatches of Government, and the cor