Author: William Bosman

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“At each bite an Arm”; an excerpt from A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea by William Bosman (1705)

In this excerpt from A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (1705), the Dutch merchant William Bosman describes various species to be found in the waters off the Gold Coast of Africa, or what is present-day Ghana. Bosman’s “noordkapers” are right whales, and the “hayes” are sharks (from the Dutch haai for shark). Some spelling has been modernized.