It Is A High Island, Four Leagues Long, Having Many Shoals
On Its West Side, Which Extend A League Or More Out To Sea.
It is about
112 miles to the northward of Baldivia.
[Footnote 207: Called Sibbil de Ward Islands in the narrative of
Funnell. - E.]
We saw the island of Juan Fernandez on the 7th February, and on the
10th, while passing the great bay, we saw the Cinque-ports, which had
arrived three days before. We accordingly anchored in the great bay, in
thirty-five fathoms. At this island we wooded, watered, and refitted our
ships, giving them a heel to clean their sides as low as we could, which
took up much time, and occasioned both companies to be much on shore. In
this island there are abundance of cabbage-trees, which are excellent,
though small. The cabbage-tree, which is a species of palm, has a small
straight stem, often ninety to one hundred feet long, with many knots or
joints, about four inches asunder, like a bamboo-cane. It has no leaves
except at the top, in the midst of which the substance called cabbage is
contained, which, when boiled, is as good as any garden cabbage. The
branches of this tree we commonly twelve or thirteen feet in length, and
at about a foot and a half from the tree the leaves begin, which are
about four feet long and an inch and a half broad, the leaves growing so
regularly that the whole branch seems one entire leaf.
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