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[Page 37]
Dakar, Senegal, Africa
When nearing the Bay we advanced in single file. First the "Kent" followed by "Beltana", "Argyllshire" ourselves and Marathon in that order. We could see another warship in the Bay and ascertained that she was the battle cruiser (British) Swiftsure. There was also a French battleship but could not find the name. We anchored outside for some hours and one by one entered the Harbour which struck us as being very similar to Colombo Harbour, chiefly I suppose because it was formed by a large breakwater with a small entrance. There were also a few merchantmen and soon after we arrived the "Italian" from the Cape to London came in.
Of Dakar itself – From our position which we took up during the afternoon the town seemed very pretty, the Government Palace and Terraces near water were very distinctive. Like Colombo again the houses all had red roofs.
The natives (Sengalese) were a healthy specimen and left the Cingalees in the shade in that direction. They seemed more industrious too.
Cape Verde with the Island jutting out could be seen quite well also the other Island (well populated it looked) which the natives told us was a convict settlement was quite close.
Towards night they put a gun (4.7) on our poop deck and 50 rounds of ammunition to boot. This necessitated the moving of our flagstaff a little.