The 16th, Seeing Many Islands And Rocks To The Westwards, We
Agreed To Bear Away, Not Caring To Encumber Ourselves
Among them during
the night; but by six in the evening, from the mast-head, we could see
so many
Low rocks, almost joining from island to island, that we seemed
land-locked for more than three parts of the compass, and no way open
except the S.W. whence we came. We resolved therefore to return that
way, making short trips all night, and continually sounding, for fear of
shoals, having from forty to sixty fathoms. The 18th and 19th we saw
several more islands, one of them very large, which we supposed to be
near the equator. At noon of the 19th we had an observation, making our
latitude 2 deg. 2' N. We saw in all at least fifty islands, some of which we
searched, and others we viewed from a distance, but none had the least
appearance of fresh water.[228] Signior Morel told me that a Spanish
man-of-war had been to an island in lat. 1 deg. 20' or 30' S. 140 Spanish
leagues west from the island of Plata, and to which they gave the name
of Santa Maria del Aguada, a pleasant island with a good road, full of
wood, and having plenty of water, with turtle and sea-tortoises in
abundance. This I believe to have been the same island in which Davis
the buccaneer recruited; and all the light he has left by which to find
it again, is, that it is to the west of the islands he was at with the
other buccaneers, which must be those we were twice at. We had no
occasion to look out for this island on the present trip, though I
believe it might easily have been found without farther directions. In
these islands there are many kinds of sea-fowl, and some land-birds,
particularly hawks and turtle-doves, both so very tame that we often
knocked them down with sticks. I saw no kind of beasts, but there are
guanas in abundance, and land-tortoises almost on every island, besides
vast numbers of turtles or sea-tortoises. It is very strange how the
land-tortoises have got here, as there are none on the main, and they
could not have come of themselves. Some of these islands are the haunts
of seals, but not in such numbers as at Juan Fernandez, neither is their
fur so good. A very large one made at me three several times, and if I
had not happened to have a pike-staff headed with iron, he might have
killed me. I was on the level sand when he came open-mouthed at me from
the water, as fierce and quick as an angry dog let loose. All the three
times he made at me, I struck the pike into his breast, which at last
forced him to retire into the water, snarling with an ugly noise, and
shewing his long teeth.
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