A
Market Is Also Held Daily On Bark Logs, Or Boats, Every Day, On The
River Before The Town, Containing Every Thing Afforded By The Interior
Country In Great Plenty.
The other towns in the province are governed by lieutenants, or
deputies, appointed by the corregidore.
Above half of these towns border
on the same river or its branches, so that their inhabitants can all
come to the capital in two tides, though some are many leagues distant.
Porto Vaco was formerly the capital. In the whole province, the
Spaniards reckon 10,000 inhabitants, but I believe there are many more,
including all the mixed races between Spaniards, Indians, and negroes,
which they divide and subdivide into eleven denominations. Few of the
prisoners who fell into our hands were healthy or sound, and nearly half
of the native Spaniards applied to our doctors for remedies against the
French disease, which is so common here that it is reckoned no scandal.
On the 11th May, with a strong gale at S.S.W. we bore away for the
Gallepagos islands, being in a very sad condition; for we had upwards of
twenty men ill in the Duke, and near fifty in the Duchess, seized with a
malignant fever, contracted, as I suppose, at Guayaquil, where a
contagious disease had reigned a month or five weeks before we took it;
which swept away ten or twelve persons every day, so that all the
churches were filled, being their usual burying places, and they had to
dig a great deep hole close by the great church, where I kept guard, and
this hole was almost filled with putrefying bodies: and our lying so
long in that church, surrounded by such noisome scents, was enough to
infect us all. In twenty-four hours more we had fifty men down and the
Duchess upwards of seventy, and in the next twenty-four hours, ten more
fell sick in each ship. We discovered land on the 17th, and on the 18th,
at day-break, we were within four leagues of two large islands almost
joining each other, having passed that we first saw during the night. We
sent repeatedly ashore here in search of water, but could find none,
though the people went three or four miles up into the country, and
they reported that the island was nothing but loose rocks like cinders,
very rotten and heavy, and the earth so parched that it broke into holes
under their feet. This made me suppose there had been a volcano here;
and though there is much shrubby ground, with some green herbs, there
was not the smallest signs of water, neither was it possible for any to
be contained on such a surface. In short, we found these islands
completely to disappoint our expectations, and by no means to agree with
the descriptions of former voyagers. We had also the misfortune to lose
company of one of our barks, in which was Mr Hately, with five of our
men, two Spanish prisoners, and three negroes.[224]
[Footnote 224: Mr Hately, being unable to rejoin his companions, was
forced to land at Cape Passado in lat. 0 deg. 25' S. on the coast of
Guayaquil, where he and his people were barbarously used by a mixed race
between the Indians and negroes; but were rescued by a priest, and sent
to Lima, where he was kindly treated. - E.]
In a consultation on the 26th May, we resolved to proceed for the island
of Plata in quest of water, and then to come immediately off the coast
again, having information of two French ships, one of sixty and the
other of forty-six guns, together with a Spanish man of war, that would
soon be sent in search of us. It was also our intention to refit our
ships there, and not to go near the main, our ships being out of order,
and our men very weak and sickly, several of them having already died.
We accordingly sailed on the 27th, and in another conversation on the
30th, it was agreed to go first to Gorgono, to see if there were any
English ships there; and afterwards to sail for Maugla, Malaga, or
Madulinar,[225] where there are some Indians at enmity with the
Spaniards, who, as the pilots informed us, come seldom there, and were
not likely to procure any intelligence of us from thence. They told us
also, if we could induce the Indians to trade with us, we might have
hogs, fowls, plantains, bananas, and other refreshments.
[Footnote 225: The island of Gorgona is on the coast of New Granada, in
lat. 2 deg. 54' N. and long. 78 deg. 35' W.]
While on our course towards Gorgona, the Duchess took the San Thoma de
Villa nova of ninety tons, having about forty people on board,
including eleven negro slaves, and but little European goods, except
some cloth and iron. Next day we made the island of Gorgona,[226] and
on the 8th of June our boats brought in another prize, a small bark of
fifteen tons belonging to a creek on the main. She was bound to
Guayaquil, having ten Spaniards and Indians on board, and some negroes,
but had very little cargo, except a small quantity of gold dust and a
large gold chain, together of about 500l. value, which were secured
aboard the Duchess. In a consultation, held on the 19th June, proceeding
upon information procured from our prisoners, it was resolved to proceed
to Malaga, at which there was an anchorage, where we proposed to leave
our ships, and to row up the river for the rich gold mines of Barbacore,
[Barbaceas][227] called also the mines of St Pean, from a village of
that name about two tides up the river. At that place we proposed to
seize canoes, as fitter than our boats for going up against the stream,
in which, at this season of the year, according to the information of an
old Spanish pilot, there are such strong freshes, that he did not expect
we should reach the mines in less than twelve days.
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