The Weather Was Fair And The Wind Favourable
Till Two P.M. When A Tempest Arose, Attended By Thunder And Lightning,
Which Almost Overwhelmed Us In The Sea.
It subsided, however, in half an
hoar, as did the agitation of the waves; it being observable in these
hot climates that the waves soon rise and soon fall.
It became calm
about seven p.m. but as we could not get ready to land that night before
day, being then five leagues from shore, we remained nearly in the same
place till next evening, that we might not be discovered.
About three next morning another tornado had nearly put an end to us and
our enterprise, but it did not last long, and we entered the creek, on
the S.E. side of the harbour, leading to Realejo in the night, but durst
not proceed further till day-break. We then rowed deeper into the creek,
which is very narrow, the land on both sides being very marshy and full
of mangrove trees, through among which it is impossible to pass, and
beyond these, where the ground is firm, the Spaniards had cast up a
small entrenchment. We rowed as fast as we could and landed 470 men, the
remainder, among whom I was, being left to guard the canoes.
The city of Leon stands twenty miles up the country in a sandy plain,
near a peaked burning mountain, called El Rico, or the Volcano of
Leon, the way to that city from where our people landed being through a
champaign country covered with long grass.
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