xS
j76+' ance fhould be fent after him, the rapidity November* , * o f the ftream had
i----5----> hurried him almofl out o f figh t; we had however at lall the
Satnr ay 24, gOQ(j fortune t-0 fave him. This day I was again on fhore, and
walked fix or feven miles up the country: I faw feveral hares
as large as a faw n ; I fhot one o f them which weighed more
than fix and twenty pounds, and if I had had a good greyhound,
I dare fay the fhip’s company might have lived upon hare two
days in the week. In the mean time the people on board
were bufy in getting up all the cables upon deck, and clearing
the hold, that a proper quantity of ballaft might be
taken in, and the guns lowered into it, except a few which
it might be thought necefiary to keep above.
Sunday z> On the 25th, I went a good way up the harbour in the
boat, and having landed on the north fide, we foon after
found an old oar o f a very Angular make, and the barrel of
amulket, with the Ring’s broad arrow upon it. The muf-
quet barrel had fuffered fo much from the weather, that it
might be crumbled into dull between the fingers g I imagined
it had been left there by the Wager’s people, or perhaps
by Sir John Narborough. Hitherto we had found no
kind o f vegetables except a fpecies o f wild peas; but though
we had feen no inhabitants, we faw places where they had
made their fires, which however did not appear to be recent.
While we were on fhore we fhot fome wild ducks, and a
h a re ; the hare ran two miles after he was wounded, though
it appeared when he was taken up that a ball had p'afied
quite through his body. I went this day many miles up the
country, and had a long chace after one of the guanicoes,
which was the largeft we had feen! he frequently flopped'
to look at us, when he had left us at a good diflance behind,
and made a noife that refembled the neighing o f a horfe -,
but when we came pretty near him he fet out again, and at
9 laft,
laft, my dog being fo tired that he could not run him any 1764.
longer, he got quite away from us, and we faw him no i— Sj—u
more. 1 We fhot a hare however, and a little ugly animal s“nda), is'
which flunk fo intolerably that none of us could go near
him. The flelh of the hares here is as white as fnow, and
nothing can be better tailed. A Serjeant o f marines, and
fome others who were on fhore at another part o f the bay,
had better fuccefs than fell to our lhare, for they killed two
old guanicoes and a faw n ; they were however obliged to
leave them where they fell, not being able to bring them
down to the water fide, near fix miles, without farther affift-
ance, though they were but ha lf the weight of thofe that
are mentioned by Sir John Narborough; fome however I
faw which could not weigh lefs than feven or eight and
thirty Hone, which is about three hundred pounds. When
we returned in the evening it blew very hard, and the deck
being fo full of lumber that we could not hoift the boats in,
we moored them aftern. About midnight, the ftorm conti-
nuing, our fix oared cutter filled with water and broke
adrift; the boat-keeper, by whofe neglect this accident happened,
being on board her, very narrowly efcaped drowning
by .catching hold o f the ftern ladder. As it was tide of flood
when fhe went from the fihip, we knew that Ihe mull drive
up the harbour; yet as the lofs of her would be an irremediable
misfortune, I fuffered much anxiety till I could fend
after her in the morning, and it was then fome hours before Mondajr 1
fhe was brought back, having driven many miles with the
ftream. In the mean time, I fent another party to fetch
the guanicoes which our people had fhot the night before ;
but they found nothing left except the bones, the tygers
having eaten the flefh, and even cracked the bones o f the
limbs to come at the marrow. Several of our people had
been fifteen miles up the country in fearch of frefh water,
D 2 but