Soon After Weighing Anchor, Three Ships
Were Descried Under Sail, Which They Chased And Captured, Being Laden
With Flour From Guanehagno To Panama.
In one of them was found a letter
from the viceroy of Peru to the president of Panama, intimating that
there were enemies on the coast, and that he had sent these three ships
to supply their wants.
It was also learnt from the prisoners, that the
Spaniards were erecting a fort near their harbour of Guanehagno, in
consequence of which the design on Traxillo was abandoned. Besides a
large loading of flour, the three captured ships had a good quantity of
fruits and sweetmeats, which made them agreeable prizes to the English,
who were now very short of provisions; but they had landed no less than
800,000 dollars, on hearing that there were enemies in these seas.
It was now resolved to carry their prizes to some secure place, where
the best part of the provisions they had now procured might be laid up
in safety, for which purpose they steered for the Gallapagos or
Enchanted Islands,[151] which they got sight of on the 31st May, and
anchored at night on the east side of one of the easternmost of these
islands, a mile from shore, in sixteen fathoms, on clear white hard
sand. To this Cowley gave the name of King Charles's Island. He
likewise named more of them, as the Duke of Norfolk's Island immediately
under the line, Dessington's, Eares, Bindley's, Earl of Abington's, King
James's, Duke of Albemarles, and others. They afterwards anchored in a
very good bay being named York Bay. Here they found abundance of
excellent provisions, particularly guanoes and sea and land tortoises,
some of the latter weighing two hundred pounds, which is much beyond
their usual weight. There were also great numbers of birds, especially
turtle-doves, with plenty of wood and excellent water; but none of
either of these was in any of the other islands.[152]
[Footnote 151: These islands, so named by the Spaniards from being the
resort of tortoises, are on both sides of the line, from about the Lat.
of 2 deg. N. to 1 deg. 50' S,. and from about 88 deg. 40' to 95 deg. 20' both W. from
Greenwich. - E.]
[Footnote 152: Cowley mentions having found here a [illegible] thing of
its nature of quantity. - E.]
These Gallapagos are a considerable number of large islands, situated
under and on both sides of the line, and destitute of inhabitants. The
Spaniards, who first discovered them, describe them as extending from
the equator N.W. as high as 5 deg. N. The adventurers in this voyage saw
fourteen or fifteen, some of which were seven or eight leagues in
length, and three or four leagues broad, pretty high yet flat. Four or
five of the most easterly were barren and rocky, without either trees,
herbs, or grass, except very near the shore. They produced also a sort
of shrub, called dildo-tree, about the bigness of a man's leg, and ten
or twelve feet high, without either fruit or leaves, but covered with
prickles from top to bottom. The only water in these barren isles, was
in ponds and holes in the rocks. Some of the isles are low and more
fertile, producing some of the trees that are known in Europe. A few of
the westermost isles are larger than the rest, being nine or ten leagues
long, and six or seven broad, producing many trees, especially Mammee
figs, and they have also some pretty large fresh-water streams, and many
rivulets. The air is continually refreshed, by the sea-breeze by day and
the land-winds at night, so that they are not troubled with such
excessive heats, neither are they so unwholesome as most places so near
the equator. During the rainy season, in November, December, and
January, they are infested with violent tempests of thunder and
lightning; but before and after these months have only refreshing
showers, and in their summer, which is in May, June, July, and August,
they are without any rains.
They anchored near several of these islands, and frequently found sea
tortoises basking in the sun at noon. On a former occasion, Captain
Davies came to anchor on the west side of these islands, where he and
his men subsisted on land-tortoises for three months, and saved from
them sixty jars of oil. He also found several good channels on that
side, with anchorage between the isles, and several rivulets of fresh
water, with plenty of trees for fuel. The sea also round these islands
is well stored with good fish of a large size, and abounds in sharks.
These islands are better stored with guanoes and land-tortoises than any
other part of the world. The guanoes are very tame, of extraordinary
size, and very fat. The land-tortoises are likewise very fat, and so
numerous that several hundred men might subsist upon them for a
considerable time. They are as pleasant food as a pullet, and so large
that some of them weighed 150 and even 200 pounds, being two feet to two
feet and a half across the belly; whereas in other places they are
seldom met with above 30 pounds weight. There are several kinds of
land-tortoises in the West Indies, one of which, called Hackatee by
the Spaniards, keeps mostly in fresh-water ponds, having long necks,
small legs, and flat feet, and is usually between ten and fifteen pounds
weight. A second, and much smaller kind, which they call Tenopen,[153]
is somewhat rounder, but not unlike in other respects, except that their
back shells are naturally covered with curious carved work. The
tortoises in the Gallapagos isles resembles the Hackatee, having long
necks and small heads, but are much larger.
[Footnote 153: This word in the text is probably a misprint for
Terrapin, a trivial name for a species of land or fresh-water
tortoise, found also in the warmer parts of North America - E.]
In these islands there are also some green snakes, and great numbers of
remarkably tame turtle-doves, very fat, and excellent eating.
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