They Lay Large Eggs; And The
Bird Is About As Large As Two Ducks.
All the time we remained at Port
Desire, we fared well on penguins and their eggs, young seals, young
gulls, and other birds of which I know not the names, all of which we
had in vast abundance.
In this place also we found plenty of an herb
called scurvy-grass, which we eat fried in seal-oil along with eggs,
which so purified the blood, that it entirely removed all kind of
swellings, of which many had died, and restored us all to as perfect
health as when we first left England.
We remained in this harbour till the 22d of December, 1592, in which
time we had dried 20,000 penguins. In this time also the captain, with
the master and I, made some salt, by filling some holes in the rocks
with sea-water, which in six days was changed to salt by evaporation, it
being now Midsummer in this southern hemisphere. Thus did God feed us in
the desert, even as with manna from heaven. The 22d December we departed
from Port Desire for Penguin island, where, with great difficulty, we
got 14,000 of the dried birds on board, during which we had nearly lost
our captain; and had not our master been very expert in the set of the
tides, which ran in many cross directions, we had lost our ship.
We now shaped our course for Brazil, under a regulated allowance of
provisions, so that our victuals might last six months, in which time we
hoped we might get back to England, though our sails were very bad.
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