On Asking For News,
We Were Told, That All The French Ships, Being Seven In Number, Had Left
The South
Sea six months before, and no more were to come there; adding,
that the Spaniards had such an aversion to
Them, that they had killed
many Frenchmen at Callao, the port of Lima, and quarrelled with them so
frequently that none of them were suffered to come ashore there for some
time before they sailed.
[Footnote 220: It is quite obvious that they had now left Juan
Fernandez, but this circumstance and its date are omitted by
Harris. - E.]
After putting some men aboard the prize, we haled close upon a wind for
the isle of Lobos, and had we not been informed by our prisoners, had
endangered our ships by running too far within that isle, as there are
shoals between the island and the main, having a passage for boats only
in that direction to get into the road which is to leeward of these
islands in a sound between them. This sound is a mile long and half a
mile wide, and has from ten to twelve fathoms on good ground. The only
entrance for ships is to leeward of the islands. We went in with a small
weather tide, but I could never observe it to flow above three feet
while we were there. On the eastermost island there is a round hummock,
behind which is a small cove, very smooth, deep, and convenient enough
for careening a ship; we here hauled up and fitted our prize, which we
named the Beginning.
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