At Day-Break Next Morning, We Saw Two Large
Boats Under Spanish Colours, Rowing In For Quivetta, Which Gave Me
Some
apprehensions they had some intelligence of us, and intended an attack.
The mulattoes on the coast of Mexico are
Remarkable for their courage,
and have sometimes done very bold actions, even in such paltry vessels
as these we now saw: These, however, steered into a small cove on the
island of Quivetta, which satisfied us they had no intentions to attack
us. I now sent Mr Brooks in our yawl to attack them, when he found them
all ashore, and brought away their piraguas with two prisoners, a negro
and a mulatto, the rest taking refuge in the woods. We took all their
provisions, consisting of a small quantity of pork, with plantains, some
green, some ripe, and some dried. Of this last there was a considerable
quantity, which, on being pounded, made a pleasant-tasted flour,
indifferently white, and supplied us with bread for a month. The mulatto
mortified us greatly by telling us that a vessel laden with provisions
had passed near us in the night, but promised to bring us to a place
where we might supply ourselves without hazard, provided we were not
above two or three days about it, wherefore we made all possible
dispatch in getting in our wood and water.
We weighed from this place on the 16th January, steering for Mariato,
being the westernmost point of the gulf of St Martin.
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