’ 764- but could not find the leaft rill: we had funk feyeral wells:
November.
\-----—|j to a confiderable depth where the ground appeared moift,.
Mon ay 2 . ^ut Up0n vifltjng them, I had the mortification to find that,.
altogether, they would not yield more than thirty gallons in
twenty-four hours: this was a difcouraging circumftance,
efpecially as our people, among other, expedients, had watched
the guanicoes, and feen them drink at the fait ponds. I
therefore determined to leave the place as foon as the fliip-
could be got into a little order, and the fix oared cutter repaired,
which had been hauled up upon the* beach for that
purpofe*
Tuefday 27. On the 27th, fome o f our people, who had been afhore oii-
the north fide o f the bay to try for more guanicoes, found
the lkull and bones o f a man, which they brought off with
them, and one young guanicoe alive, which we all agreed
was one o f the moft beautiful creatures we had ever feen:
it foon grew very tame, and would fuck our fingers like a
calf; but, notwithftanding all our care and contrivances to
feed it, it died in a few days. In the afternoon of this day
it blew fo hard that I was obliged to keep a confiderable
number of hands continually by the fheet anchor, as there
was too much reafon to fear that our cables would part,
which however did not happen. In the mean time, fome o f
our people that were on fhore with the carpenters, who
were repairing the cutter on the fouth fide of the bay, found
two more fprings of tolerable water about two miles from
the beach, in a diredt line from the fhip’s ftation. To thefe
Wednef. 28. fprings I fent twenty hands early in the mqrning with fome
fmall cafks called Barecas, and in a few turns they brought
on board a tun o f water, of which we began to be in great
want. In the mean time, I went myfelf about twelve miles
up the river in my boat, and the weather then growing bad,
I went
I went on fhore: the river, as far as I could fee, was very *764.
broad j there were in it a number o f iflands,: fome of . °!f”1_fael''.
which were very large, and I make no doubt but that it Wedoe(: 2S-
penetrates the country for fome hundreds o f miles.. It was
upon one o f the iflands that I went on fhore,. and I found
there fuch a number o f birds, that when they rofe they
literally darkened the. fky, and we could not walk: a ftep
without treading upon their eggs. As they kept hovering,
over our heads at a little diftanee, the men knocked down
many o f them with flones and flicks, and carried off feveral
hundreds o f their eggs. After fome time, I left the iflandi
and landed upon the main, where our men drefled and eat
their eggs, chough there were young birds - in moft o f
them. I faw no traces o f inhabitants-'on either fide o f the
river, but great numbers of: guanicoes, in herds of fixty
or feventy 'together.-, they would not however fnffer us to.
approach them, but flood and gazed at us from the hills.
In this excurfion the Surgeon, who was of my party, fhof
a tyger-cat, a fmall but very fierce animal; for though It
was much wounded, it maintained a very fharp conceft with
my dog for a confiderable time before it was killed.
On the 29th, we completed our ballaft, which the flrength xhurflay2c,
o f the tide, and the. conftant gales o f wind rendered a very
difficult and laborious tafk.; we alfo- got on board another
ton o f water. On the morning o f the 30th-, the weather F,;day }0
was fo bad that we could not fend a boat pn fhore; but
employed all hands on board in fetting up the- rigging. It
grew more moderate however about noon, and I then fent
a boat to procure more water. The two men who firft:
came up to the well found there a large tyger lying upon th e
ground; having gazed at each other fome time, the men,,
who had no fire-arms, feeing the beaft treat them with asmuch: