fpot where Lord Anfon lay in the Centurion. The water atr
this place is fo very clear that the bottom is plainly to be feerr
at the depth o f four and twenty fathom, which is no-lefs-
than one hundred and;forty-four feet.
As foon as the Ihip- was fecured', I went on fhore, to fix-
upon a place where tents might be erefted for the lick,,
which -were now very numerous ; not a Angle man being"
wholly free from the fcurvy, arid many hi the laft liage o f it.
We found feveral huts which-had been left by the Spaniards-
and Indians the year before ; for this, year none o f them had!
as: yet been aa the place, nor was it probable that th ey
fhou'ld come: for fame months, the fun being now almoft
vertical, and the rainy feafon fet in. After L had'fixed upom
a. fpot for the tents, fix. or feven o f us endeavoured to pufln
through: the woods, that we might come at the beautiful^
lawns:: and meadows o f which there: is fa luxuriant a de*
feription- in the Account of Lord Anfon’s Voyage,: and- if.
pollible k illfom e cattle; The trees Hood fo-thick, and the:
place was fo overgrown with underwood, that we could not.
fee three: yards before us, we therefore were obliged to keep
continually hallooing to each other,- to prevent' our being'
feparately lofl in this tracklefs wildernefs. As the1 weather
was intolerably hat, we- had nothing on befides our Ihoes,,
except our fhirts and trowfers, and thefe were in a very
fhort time tom; all to rags: by the bulhes. and brambles ; at .
laft, however, with,incredible difficulty and labour, we gob
through ; but, to our great furprife and difappointmcnty we
found the country very different from the account we had
read of it: the lawns were entirely overgrown with a ftub-
born kind o f reed or brulh, in many places higher than our
heads, and no w h ereiower than our middles, which conti-
nually entangled.ourlegs,. arrd cut us like whipcord; our
ftockings
ftockings perhaps might have faffered ffill more, but we r7ds-
wore none. During this march we were alfö covered with — '
flies from head to foot, and whenever we offered to fpeak
we were fare o f having a mouthful, many of which never
failed to get down our throats. After we had walked about
three or four miles-, we got. fight o f a bull, which we killed,
and a little before night got back to the beach, as wet as if
we, had been dipt in water, and fo fatigued that we were
fcarcely able to Hand. We immediately fent out a party to
fetch the bull, and found that during our excurfion fome
tents had been got up, and the fick brought on fhore.
The next day our people were employed in fetting up Augoit.
more tents, getting, the water-calks on- fhore,. and clearing ’Ihorfdai' '■
the well at which they were to be filled. This well I imagined
to be-the fame that the Centurion watered at; but it
was the world that we had met with during the voyage, for
the water was not only brackilh, but full of worms. The.
Road alfo where the Ihips lay was a dangerous fituation at-
this feafon, for the bottom is- hard fand and large- coral,
rocks, and the anchor having n o hold in the fand, is in perpetual
danger o f being cut to pieces by the coral; to prevent
which as much as poffible, I rounded the cables, and
buoyed them up with empty water calks. Another precaution
alio was taught me by experience, for at firft I moored,
but finding the cables much damaged, I refolved to lie fingle
for the future, that by veering away or- heaving in, as we'
Ihould have more or lefs wind; we might always-keep them
from being flack, and confequently from rubbing, and this
expedient facceeded to my wilh. At the full and change o f
the moon, a prodigious- fwell tumbles: in here; fo that I
never faw Ihips at anchor roll lb much as ours did while we
lay here; and it once drove in f r o m the weftward with fach
violence,