Having Found A Turtle It Is
Turned On Its Back, And Without Doing Any More Harm They Go On To Seek
More, Which Are Treated In The Same Manner.
Having got as many as they
think fit, they come back in the morning to choose those they like best,
as they cannot possibly recover their feet when once turned over.
They
then carry off such as they think fit, turning up the smaller ones upon
their belly and allowing them to go away. The island being very dry and
barren, without either trees or springs, the wretched sick inhabitants
have no other sustenance, and are entirely without employment, and they
are necessitated to drink of the thick and brackish water of certain wells,
there being none else to be found.
Besides the sick, the only inhabitants of the island consisted of the man
who had the charge and four more, and their only employment was to kill
and salt goats to be sent to Portugal. There were such multitudes of goats
on the island, all derived from eight left there originally, that some
years they killed to the value of three or four thousand ducats. The
proprietor was Roderick Alfonzo, secretary of the customs to the king of
Portugal, by whom the original stock of goats had been carried to this
place. These goat-hunters are often four or five months without bread or
any thing to eat but goats flesh and fish; for which reason this man made
great account of the provisions which the admiral had given him. This man
and his companions, with some of the admirals men, went out to hunt goats
for the use of the ships, but finding that it would require much time to
kill all he had need of, and being anxious to proceed on his voyage, the
admiral would not protract his stay in this place.
On Saturday the 30th of June, he sailed for Santiago, the principal of the
Cape Verde islands, where he arrived the next evening, and cast anchor near
a church, sending on shore to purchase some bulls and cows, which he
wished to carry alive to Hispaniola. But finding it difficult to procure
them so soon as he wished, and considering how prejudicial delays might
prove to the safety and success of his voyage, he would not remain. He was
the more induced to get away with all expedition on account of the
unhealthiness of the country, lest his men might fall sick; as during all
the time he lay among these islands he never saw the sky or any star, in
consequence of a perpetual thick hot fog; insomuch that three fourths of
the inhabitants were sick, and all of them had a most unhealthy colour.
On Thursday the 5th of July, the admiral left the island of St Jago,
sailing S.W. with the intention of holding that course till he was under
the equinoctial, and then to steer due west, that he might discover some
other land before proceeding to Hispaniola.
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