1684.] DESCRIPTION OF THE SEAL AND "SEA-LION." 159 seal-skius and train-oil, for they are extraordinary fat. Seals are found as well in cold as hot climates, and in the cold places they love to get on lumps of ice, where they will lie and sun themselves as here on the land. They are frequent in the northern parts of Europe and America, and in the southward parts of Africa, as about the Cape of Good Hope, and at the Straits of Magellan; and though I never saw any in the West Indies but in the Bay of Campeachy, at certain islands called the Alecranes, and at others called the Desertas, yet they are over all the American coast of the South Seas, from Tierra del Fuego up to the Equinoctial Line; but to the north of the Equinox again in these seas I never saw any till as far as 21° N. Nor did I ever see any in the East Indies. In general they seem to resort where there is plenty of fish, for that is their food; and fish such as they feed on, as cods, groopers, &c., are most plentiful on rocky coasts, and such is mostly the western coast of South America. known, yet it may not be amiss to describe them. They are as big as calves, the head of them like a dog, therefore called by the Dutch seahounds. Under each shoulder grows a long thick fin; these serve them to swim with them in the sea, and are instead of legs to them when on the land, for raising their bodies up on end by the help of these fins or stumps, and so having their tail-parts drawn close under them, they rebound, as it were, and throw their bodies forward, drawing their hinder parts after them; and then again rising up and springing forward with their fore-parts alternately, they lie tumbling up and down all the while they are moving on land. From their shoulders to their tails they grow tapering like fish, and have two small fins on each side of the rump, which is commonly covered with their fins. These fins serve instead of a tail in the sea, and on land they sit on them when they give suck to their young. Their hair is of divers colours, as black, grey, dun, spotted, looking very sleek and pleasant when they come first out of the sea; for these at Juan Fernandez have fine thick short fur, the like I have not taken notice of anywhere but in these seas. Here are always thousands, I might say possibly millions of them, sitting on the bays or going and coming in the sea round the island, which is covered with them, as they lie at the top of the water playing and sunning them selves for a mile or two from the shore. When they come out of the sea, they bleat like sheep for their young; and though they pass through hundreds of others' young ones before they come to their own, yet they will not suffer any of them to suck. The young ones are like puppies, and lie much ashore; but when beaten by any of us, they, as well as the old ones, will make towards the sea, and swim very swift and nimble, though on shore they lie very sluggishly, and will not go out of our ways unless we beat them, but snap at us. A blow on the nose soon kills them. Large A large species of seal, the male ships might here load themselves with of which has a mane on its neck. The sea-lion is a large creature about twelve or fourteen feet long. The biggest part of his body is as big as a bull: it is shaped like a seal, but six times as big. The head is like a lion's head; it hath a broad face, with many long hairs growing about its lips like a cat. It has a great goggle eye, the teeth three inches long, about the bigness of a man's thumb. In Captain Sharpe's time some of our men made dice with them. They have no hair on their bodies like the seal; they are of a dun colour, and are all extraordinary fat one of them being cut up and boiled will yield a hogshead of oil, which is very sweet and wholesome to fry meat withal. The lean flesh is black, and of a coarse grain, yet indifferent good food. They will lie a week at a time ashore if not disturbed. Where three or four or more of them come ashore together, they huddle one on and their diseases were chiefly scorbutic. another like swine, and grunt like them, making a hideous noise. They eat fish, which I believe is their common food. The snapper is a fish made much like a roach, but a great deal bigger. It has a large head and mouth, and great gills. The back is of a bright red, the belly of a silver colour. The scales are as broad as a shilling. The snapper is excellent meat. They are in many places in the West Indies and the South Seas. The rock-fish is called by seamen a grooper: the Spaniards call it "baccalao," which is the name for cod, because it is much like it. It is rounder than the snapper, of a dark brown colour, and hath small scales no bigger than a silver penny. This fish is good sweet meat, and is found in great plenty on all the coast of Peru and Chili. There are only two bays in the whole island where ships may anchor; these are both at the east end, and in both of them is a rivulet of good fresh water. Either of these bays may be fortified, with little charge, to that degree that fifty men in each may be able to keep off 1000; and there is no coming into these bays from the west end but with great difficulty, over the mountains, where if three men are placed they may keep down as many as come against them on any side. This was partly experienced by five Englishmen that Captain Davis left here, who defended themselves against a great body of Spaniards who landed in the bays, and came here to destroy them; and though the second time one of their consorts deserted and fled to the Spaniards, yet the other four kept their ground, and were afterward taken in from hence by Captain Strong of London. We remained at Juan Fernandez sixteen days. Our sick men were ashore all the time, and one of Captain Eaton's doctors (for he had four in his ship) tending and feeding them with goat, and several herbs, whereof here is plenty growing in the brooks; 1 The Gobius niger, or black goby. CHAPTER V. THE 8th of April 1684, we sailed from the Isle of Juan Fernandez with the wind at SE. We were now two ships in company: Captain Cooke's, whose ship I was in, and who here took the sickness of which he died a while after; and Captain Eaton's. Our passage lay now along the Pacific Sea, properly so called. For though it be usual with our map-makers to give that name to this whole Ocean, calling it Mare Australe, Mare del Zur, or Mare Pacificum; yet, in my opinion, the name of the Pacific Sea ought not to be extended from S. to N. farther than from 30° to about 4° S. Lat., and from the American shore westward indefinitely. In this sea we made the best of our way towards the Line, till in the Lat. of 24° S., where we fell in with the mainland of South America. All this course of the land, both of Chili and Peru, is vastly high; therefore we kept twelve or fourteen leagues off from shore, being unwilling to be seen by the Spaniards dwelling there. The land (especially beyond this, from 24° S. Lat. to 17°, and from 14° to 10°) is of a most prodigious height. It lies generally in ridges parallel to the shore, and three or four ridges one within another, each surpassing other in height; and those that are farthest within land are much higher than the others. They always appear blue when seen at sea: sometimes they are obscured with clouds, but not so often as the high lands in other parts of the world; for here are seldom or never any rains on these hills, any more than in the sea near it; neither are they subject to fogs. These are the highest mountains that ever I saw, far surpassing the Peak of Teneriffe, or Santa Marta, and I believe any mountains in the world. The excessive height of these mountains may possibly be the rea son that there are no rivers of note that fall into these seas. Some small 1684.] A "TIMBER" PRIZE TAKEN. rivers indeed there are, but very few of them, for in some places there is not one that comes out into the sea in 150 or 200 leagues; and where they are thickest, they are thirty, forty, or fifty leagues asunder, and too little and shallow to be navigable. Besides, some of these do not constantly run, but are dry at certain seasons of the year, being rather torrents or land-floods caused by their rains at certain seasons far within land than perennial streanis. We kept still along in sight of this coast, but at a good distance from it, encountering nothing of note, till in the Lat. of 9° 40′ S., on the 3d of May, we descried a sail to the northward of us, plying to windward. We chased her, and Captain Eaton being ahead soon took her. She came from Guayaquil about a month before, laden with timber, and was bound to Lima. Three days before we took her she came from Santa, whither she had gone for water, and where they had news of our being in these seas by an express from Valdivia; for, as we afterwards heard, Captain Swan had been at Valdivia to seek a trade there, and he having met Captain Eaton in the Straits of Magellan, the Spaniards of Valdivia were doubtless informed of us by him; suspecting him also to be one of us, though he was not. Upon this news, the Viceroy of Lima sent expresses to all the seaports, that they might provide themselves against our assaults. We immediately steered away for the Island of Lobos, which lies in Lat. 6° 24' S., and is five leagues from the main: it is called Lobos de la Mar,1 to distinguish it from another that is not far from it, and extremely like it, called Lobos de la Tierra, for it lies near the main. Lobos, or Lovos, is the Spanish name for a seal, of which there are great plenty about these and several other islands in these seas that go by this name. The 9th of May, we arrived at this Isle of Lobos de la Mar, and came to an anchor with our prize. This Lobos consists indeed of two 1 Or Lobos de Afuera. 161 little islands, each about a mile round, of an indifferent height, a small channel between, fit for boats only; and several rocks lying on the north side of the islands, a little way from shore. Within land they are both of them partly rocky and partly sandy, barren, without any fresh water, tree, shrub, grass, or herbs; or any land animals (for the seals and sea-lions come ashore here) but fowls, of which there are great multitudes; as boobies, but mostly penguins, which I have seen plentifully all over the South Seas, on the coast of Newfoundland, and off the Cape of Good Hope. They are a sea fowl, about as big as a duck, and such feet, but a sharp bill; feeding on fish. They do not fly, but flutter, having rather stumps like a young gosling's than wings; and these are instead of fins to them in the water. Their feathers are downy. Their flesh is but ordinary food; but their eggs are good meat. There is another sort of small black fowl, that make holes in the sand for their night habitations, whose flesh is good sweet meat: I never saw any of them but here, and at Juan Fernandez. Here we scrubbed our ships, and being in readiness to sail, the prisoners were examined, to know if any of them could conduct us to some town where we might make some attempt; for they had before informed us that we were descried by the Spaniards, and by that we knew that they would send no riches by sea so long as we were here. Many towns were considered on, as Guayaquil, Sana, Truxillo, and others. At last Truxillo was pitched on as the most important, therefore the likeliest to make us a voyage if we could conquer it, which we did not much question, though we knew it to be a very populous city. But the greatest difficulty was in landing; for Huanchaco [to the north of Truxillo], which is the nearest seaport to it, but six miles off, is an ill place to land, since sometimes the very fishermen that live there are not able to go out in three or four days. However, the 17th of May, in the afternoon, our men were L mustered of both ships' companies, | be frugal of it, for he knew not when he should send more. In this ship were likewise seven or eight tons of marmalade of quinces, and a stately mule sent to the President, and a very large image of the Virgin Mary in wood, carved and painted, to adorn a new church at Panama, and sent from Lima by the Viceroy; for this great ship came from thence not long before. She brought also from Lima 800,000 pieces of eight, to carry with her to Panama; but while she lay at Huanchaco, taking in her lading of flour, the merchants, hearing of Captain Swan's being at Valdivia, ordered the money ashore again. These prisoners likewise informed us that the gentlemen, inhabitants of Truxillo, were building a fort at Huanchaco, close by the sea, purposely to hinder the designs of any that should attempt to land there. Upon this news we altered our former resolutions, and resolved to go with our three prizes to the Galapagos, which are a great many large islands, lying some under the Equator, others on each side of it. and their arms proved. We were in all 108 men fit for service, besides the sick; and the next day we intended to sail and take the wood prize with us. But the next day one of our men, being ashore betimes on the island, descried three sail bound to the northward; two of them without the island to the westward, the other between it and the continent. We soon got our anchors up and chased; and Captain Eaton, who drew the least draught of water, put through between the westernmost island and the rocks, and went after those two that were without the islands. We in Captain Cooke's ship went after the other, which stood in for the mainland; but we soon fetched her up; and, having taken her, stood in again with her to the island, for we saw that Captain Eaton wanted no help, having taken both those that he went after. He came in with one of his prizes; but the other was so far to leeward, and so deep, that he could not then get her in, but he hoped to get her in the next day; but being deeply laden, as designed to go down before the wind to Panama, she would not bear sail. The 19th, she turned all day, but got nothing nearer the island. Our Mosquito strikers, according to their custom, went out and struck six turtles; for here are indifferent plenty of them. These ships that we took the day before we came from Huanchaco were all three laden with flour, bound for Panama. Two of them were laden as deep as they could swim; the other was not above half laden, but was ordered by the Viceroy of Lima to sail with the other two, or else she should not sail till we were gone out of the seas; for he hoped they might escape us by setting out early. In the biggest ship was a letter to the President of Panama from the Viceroy of Lima, assuring him that there were enemies come into that sea; for which reason he had despatched these three ships with flour, that they might not want (for Panama is supplied from Peru), and desired him to The 19th, in the evening, we sailed from the Island of Lobos, with Captain Eaton in our company. We carried the three flour prizes with us, but our first prize, laden with timber, we left here at anchor. We steered away NW. by N., intending to run into the latitude of the Isles of Galapagos, and steer off W., because we did not know the certain distance, and therefore could not shape a direct course to them. When we came within 40' of the Equator, we steered W., having the wind at S., a very moderate gentle gale. It was the 31st of May when we first had sight of the Islands Galapagos. Some of them appeared on our weatherbow, some on our lee bow, others right ahead. We at first sight trimmed our sails, and steered as nigh the wind as we could, striving to get to the southernmost of them; but our prizes being deep laden, their sails but small and thin, and a very small gale, they could not keep up with us. Therefore we likewise edged away again 1684.] 163 In AMONG THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. a point from the wind, to keep near 1 The Mammeo Americana, a genus with only one species; it bears a fruit sweet in taste and aromatic in odour. The callipee is the gelatinous substance, of a light yellowish colour, which forms part of the lower shield of the turtle; callipash is the similar substance, of a dull greenish hue, which belongs to the upper shield. 3 The general name for the group of islands in the Indian Ocean that comprises Mauritius and Reunion, is the Mascarenhas Islands, so called from the name of their Portuguese discoverer, in 1545. |