OUR PROCEEDINGS AT QUIBO, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PLACE
The next morning after our anchoring, an officer was dispatched on
shore to discover the watering-place, who, having found it, returned
before noon; and then we sent the long-boat for a load of water, and at
the same time we weighed and stood farther in with our ships. At two
we came again to an anchor in twenty-two fathom, with a rough bottom of
gravel intermixed with broken shells, the watering-place now bearing
from us N.W.½N. only three-quarters of a mile distant.
This island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wooding and watering,
since the trees grow close to the high-water mark, and a large rapid
stream of fresh water runs over the sandy beach into the sea: so that
we were little more than two days in laying in all the wood and water
we wanted. The whole island is of a very moderate height, excepting
one part. It consists of a continued wood spread all over the whole
surface of the country, which preserves its verdure the year round.
Amongst the other wood, we found there abundance of cassia, and a few
lime-trees. It appeared singular to us, that considering the climate
and the shelter, we should see no other birds than parrots, parroquets,
and mackaws; indeed, of these last there were prodigious flights. Next
to these birds, the animals we found in most plenty were monkeys and
guanos, and these we frequently killed for food; for notwithstanding
there were many herds of deer upon the place, yet the difficulty of
penetrating the woods prevented our coming near them, so that though we
saw them often, we killed only two during our stay. Our prisoners
assured us that this island abounded with tygers; and we did once
discover the print of a tyger's paw upon the beach, but the tygers
themselves we never saw. The Spaniards too informed us that there was
frequently found in the woods a most mischievous serpent, called the
flying snake, which, {202} they said, darted itself from the boughs of
trees on either man or beast that came within its reach, and whose
sting they believed to be inevitable death. Besides these dangerous
land animals, the sea hereabouts is infested with great numbers of
alligators of an extraordinary size; and we often observed a large kind
of flat fish jumping a considerable height out of the water, which we
supposed to be the fish that is said frequently to destroy the pearl
divers by clasping them in its fins as they rise from the bottom; and
we were told that the divers, for their security, are now always armed
with a sharp knife, which, when they are entangled, they stick into the
belly of the fish, and thereby disengage themselves from its embraces.
Whilst the ship continued here at anchor, the commodore, attended by
some of his officers, went in a boat to examine a bay which lay to the
northward, and they afterwards ranged all along the eastern side of the
island. And in the places where they put on shore in the course of
this expedition, they generally found the soil to be extremely rich,
and met with great plenty of excellent water. In particular, near the
N.E. point of the island they discovered a natural cascade, which
surpassed, as they conceived, everything of this kind which human art
or industry hath hitherto produced. It was a river of transparent
water, about forty yards wide, which rolled down a declivity of near a
hundred and fifty in length. The channel it fell in was very
irregular, for it was entirely composed of rock, both its sides and
bottom being made up of large detached blocks; and by these the course
of the water was frequently interrupted, for in some parts it ran
sloping with a rapid but uniform motion, while in others it tumbled
over the ledges of rocks with a perpendicular descent. All the
neighbourhood of this stream was a fine wood; and even the huge masses
of rock which overhung the water, and which, by their various
projections, formed the inequalities of the channel, were covered with
lofty forest trees. Whilst the commodore with those accompanying him
were attentively viewing this place, and were remarking the different
blendings of the water, the rocks, and the wood, there came in sight
(as it were still to heighten and animate the prospect) a prodigious
flight of mackaws, which, hovering over this spot, and often wheeling
and playing on the wing about it, afforded a most brilliant appearance
by the {203} glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage; so that
some of the spectators cannot refrain from a kind of transport when
they recount the complicated beauties which occurred in this
extraordinary waterfall.
In this expedition which the boat made along the eastern side of the
island, though they discovered no inhabitants, yet they saw many huts
upon the shore, and great heaps of shells of fine mother-of-pearl
scattered up and down in different places. These were the remains left
by the pearl-fishers from Panama, who often frequent this place in the
summer season; for the pearl oysters, which are to be met with
everywhere in the bay of Panama, do so abound at Quibo, that by
advancing a very little way into the sea you might stoop down and reach
them from the bottom. They are usually very large, and out of
curiosity we opened some of them with a view of tasting them, but we
found them extremely tough and unpalatable. And having mentioned these
oysters and the pearl-fishery, I must beg leave to recite a few
particulars relating to that subject.
The oysters most productive of pearls are those found in considerable
depths; for though what are taken up by wading near shore are of the
same species, yet the pearls they contain are few in number, and very
small. It is said, too, that the pearl partakes, in some degree, of
the quality of the bottom on which the oyster is lodged; so that if the
bottom be muddy, the pearl is dark and ill coloured.
The taking up oysters from great depths for the sake of their pearls is
a work performed by negro slaves, of which the inhabitants of Panama
and the neighbouring coast formerly kept vast numbers, which were
carefully trained to this business. These are said not to be esteemed
compleat divers till they have by degrees been able to protract their
stay under water so long that the blood gushes out from their nose,
mouth, and ears. And it is the tradition of the country, that when
this accident has once befallen them, they dive for the future with
much greater facility than before; and they have no apprehension either
that any inconvenience can attend it, the bleeding generally stopping
of itself, or that there is any probability of their being ever subject
to it a second time. But to return from this digression.
Though the pearl oyster, as hath been said, was incapable of being
eaten, yet that defect was more than repaid by the {204} turtle, a
dainty which the sea at this place furnished us with in the greatest
plenty and perfection. There are generally reckoned four species of
turtle; that is, the trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and
the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the
hawksbill (which affords the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent food,
though better than the other two; but the green turtle is generally
esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its
taste, to be the most delicious of all eatables; and that it is a most
wholesome food we are amply convinced by our own experience, for we fed
on this last species, or the green turtle, near four months, and
consequently, had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could
not possibly have escaped us. At this island we caught what quantity
we pleased with great facility; for as they are an amphibious animal,
and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a
large hole in the sand just above the high-water mark, covering them
up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually
dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to
turn them on their backs when they came to land, and the turtle being
thereby prevented from getting away, we brought them off at our
leisure. By this means we not only secured a sufficient stock for the
time we stayed on the island, but we carried a number of them with us
to sea, which proved of great service both in lengthening out our store
of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant
supply of fresh and palatable food. For the turtle being large, they
generally weighing about 200 lb. weight each, those we took with us
lasted near a month: so that before our store was spent, we met with a
fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where in the heat of the day we
often saw great numbers of them fast asleep, floating on the surface of
the water. Upon discovering them, we usually sent out our boat with a
man in the bow who was a dextrous diver; and as the boat came within a
few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, taking care
to rise close upon it, when seizing the shell near the tail, and
pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle was thereby awakened, and
began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the
diver till the boat came up and took them in. By this management we
never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we
continued {205} at sea; and though, when at the island of Quibo, we had
already been three months on board, without otherwise putting our feet
on shore than in the few days we stayed there (except those employed in
the attack at Paita), yet in the whole seven months from our leaving
Juan Fernandes to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried
no more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof
that the turtle, on which we fed for the last four months of this term,
was at least innocent, if not something more.
Considering the scarcity of other provisions on some part of the coast
of the South Seas, it appears wonderful that a species of food so very
palatable and salubrious as turtle, and there so much abounding, should
be proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome, and little less than
poisonous. Perhaps the strange appearance of this animal may have been
the foundation of this ridiculous and superstitious aversion, which is
strongly rooted in the inhabitants of those countries, and of which we
had many instances during the course of this navigation. I have
already observed that we put our Spanish prisoners on shore at Paita,
and that the _Gloucester_ sent theirs to Manta; but as we had taken in
our prizes some Indian and negro slaves, we did not dismiss them with
their masters, but continued them on board, as our crews were thin, to
assist in navigating our ships. These poor people being possessed with
the prejudices of the country they came from, were astonished at our
feeding on turtle, and seemed fully persuaded that it would soon
destroy us; but finding that none of us died, nor even suffered in our
health by a continuation of this diet, they at last got so far the
better of their aversion as to be persuaded to taste it, to which the
absence of all other kinds of fresh provisions might not a little
contribute. However, it was with great reluctance, and very sparingly,
that they first began to eat of it: but the relish improving upon them
by degrees, they at last grew extremely fond of it, and preferred it to
every other kind of food, and often felicitated each other on the happy
experience they had acquired, and the luxurious and plentiful repasts
it would always be in their power to procure when they should again
return back to their country. Those who are acquainted with the manner
of life of these unhappy wretches need not be told that, next to large
draughts of spirituous liquors, plenty {206} of tolerable food is the
greatest joy they know, and consequently the discovering the means of
being always supplied with what quantity they pleased of a food more
delicious to the palate than any their haughty lords and masters could
indulge in, was doubtless a circumstance which they considered as the
most fortunate that could befall them. After this digression, which
the prodigious quantity of turtle on this island of Quibo, and the
store of it we thence took to sea, in some measure led me into, I shall
now return to our own proceedings.
In three days' time we had compleated our business at this place, and
were extremely impatient to depart, that we might arrive time enough on
the coast of Mexico to intercept the Manila galeon. But the wind being
contrary, detained us a night; and the next day, when we got into the
offing, which we did through the same channel by which we entered, we
were obliged to keep hovering about the island, in hopes of getting
sight of the _Gloucester_, who, as I have in the last chapter
mentioned, was separated from us on our first arrival. It was the 9th
of December, in the morning, when we put to sea; and continuing to the
southward of the island, looking out for the _Gloucester_, we, on the
10th, at five in the afternoon, discerned a small sail to the northward
of us, to which we gave chace, and coming up with her took her. She
proved to be a bark from Panama called the _Jesu Nazareno_. She had
nothing on board but some oakum, about a ton of rock salt, and between
£30 and £40 in specie, most of it consisting of small silver money
intended for purchasing a cargoe of provisions at Cheripe, an
inconsiderable village on the continent.
And on occasion of this prize I cannot but observe for the use of
future cruisers that, had we been in want of provisions, we had by this
capture an obvious method of supplying ourselves. For at Cheripe there
is a constant store of provisions prepared for the vessels who go
thither every week from Panama, the market of Panama being chiefly
supplied from thence: so that by putting a few of our hands on board
our prize, we might easily have seized a large quantity without any
hazard, since Cheripe is a place of no strength. As provisions are the
staple commodity of that place and of its neighbourhood, the knowledge
of this circumstance may be of great use to such cruisers as find their
provisions grow {207} scant and yet are desirous of continuing on that
coast as long as possible. But to return.
On the 12th of December we were at last relieved from the perplexity we
had suffered occasioned by the separation of the _Gloucester_; for on
that day she joined us, and informed us that in tacking to the
southward on our first arrival she had sprung her fore top-mast, which
had disabled her from working to windward, and prevented her from
joining us sooner. And now we scuttled and sunk the _Jesu Nazareno_,
the prize we took last; and having the greatest impatience to get into
a proper station for intercepting the Manila galeon, we stood all
together to the westward, leaving the island of Quibo, notwithstanding
all the impediments we met with, about nine days after our first coming
in sight of it.
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