_Our Proceedings at Quibo, with an Account of the Place._
The morning after our coming to an anchor, an officer was dispatched
to discover the watering-place; and, having found it, returned before
noon; then we sent the long-boat for a load of water, and at the same
time weighed and stood farther in with our ships. At two we came
again to an anchor in twenty-two fathom, with a bottom of rough gravel
intermixed with broken shells, the watering-place now bearing from us
N.W. 1/2 N. only three quarters of a mile distant.
The island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wooding and watering,
for 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 over the whole
surface of the country, which preserves its verdure all the year
round. 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 there than parrots, parroquets,
and mackaws; of the 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 though 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; 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 often found in the
woods a most mischievous serpent, called the Flying Snake, which 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 mischievous 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 afterwards ranged all along the eastern side of
the island. In the places where they put on shore in the course of his
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, every thing of this kind, which human
art or industry hath hitherto produced. It was a river of transparent
water, about forty yards wide, which ran down a declivity of near
a hundred and fifty yards in length. The channel it ran in was very
irregular; for it was entirely formed 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 places it ran
sloping with a rapid but uniform motion, while in other parts 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, and those with him, were
attentively viewing this place, and remarking the different blendings
of the water, the rocks, and the wood, there came in sight (as it
were with an intent 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 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 scene.
In this expedition, along the eastern side of the island, though they
met with 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 every where in the bay of
Panama, are so plenty 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, but extremely tough and unpalatable.
The oysters most productive of pearls, are those found in considerable
depths; for, though what are taken up by wading are of the same
species, yet the pearls found in them are rare 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 found; so that if the bottom be
muddy, the pearl is dark and ill-coloured.
The diving for oysters is a work performed by negro slaves, of whom
the inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring coast formerly kept
great numbers, carefully trained to this business. These are not
esteemed complete divers, till they are able to protract their stay
under water so long, that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth,
and ears. 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; that no inconvenience attends it, the bleeding
generally stopping of itself, and that there is no probability of
their being subject to it a second time.[1]
[Footnote 1: The intelligent reader will demand more than the
_tradition of the country_ to induce his belief, that this diving
business is not most certainly destructive of the miserable wretches
who are compelled to pursue it. The divers in the Persian gulph, where
it is well known the pearl fishery is carried on by individuals on
their own account, "seldom live to a great age," (says Mr Morier in
the account of his Journey through Persia.) "Their bodies break out
in sores, and their eyes become very weak and blood-shot. They are
restricted to a certain regimen; and to food composed of dates and
other light ingredients." It cannot be imagined that the negroes of
Panama fare better in this hazardous occupation. But to the expression
of any solicitude as to _their_ blood, it is very probable the answer
might be something in the style of one of Juvenal's worthy ladies:
----ita servus homo est?
Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.--P.]
The sea at this place furnished us with a dainty, in the greatest
plenty and perfection, viz. the turtle. There are reckoned four
species of turtle: the trunk-turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill,
and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the
hawksbill (which furnishes the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent
food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is
esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with
its taste, as the most delicious of eatables; and that it is a most
wholesome food, we were amply convinced by our own experience: For we
fed on this for 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 took 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 carried them off at our leisure. These 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, generally weighing about
200 lb. weight each, what we took with us lasted us near a month, and
by that time we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where
we often saw them in the heat of the day floating in great numbers
on the surface of the water fast asleep. Our mode of taking them was
this; we sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous
diver; when the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the
diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise close upon it; on
seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts,
the turtle 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 at sea; and though we had been three
months on board, without putting our foot on shore, except for the
few days we stayed at the island of Quibo, and those employed in the
attack of Payta, yet, in the whole seven months, from our leaving Juan
Fernandez 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. It appears wonderful,
therefore, that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious,
and so much abounding in those parts, 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 aversion, which is strongly rooted in all the inhabitants
of that coast, and of which we had many instances in the course of
this navigation. Some Indian and negro slaves we had taken in our
prizes, and continued on board to assist in navigating our ships, 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 began to eat it: But the relish improving
upon them by degrees, they at last grew extremely fond of it,
preferred it to every other kind of food, and often felicitated each
other on the happy experience they had acquired, and the delicious and
plentiful repasts it would be always in their power to procure, when
they should return 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 of tolerable food is
the greatest joy they know; and that the discovering a method which
would supply them with what quantity they pleased of a kind more
luxurious to the palate than any their haughty lords and masters
could indulge in, was a circumstance which they considered as the most
fortunate that could befal them.
In three days time we had completed our business at this place, and
were extremely impatient to put to sea, that we might arrive time
enough on the coast of Mexico to intercept the Manilla galleon. 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. 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 chase, and coming up took her. She proved to be a bark from
Panama, bound to Cheripe, an inconsiderable village on the continent,
and was called the _Jesu Nazareno_. She had nothing on board but some
oakum, about a ton of rock-salt, and between 30l. and 40l. in specie,
most of it consisting of small silver money, intended for purchasing a
cargo of provisions at Cheripe.
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, whither she was bound, there is a
constant store of provisions prepared for the vessels which 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 store without any hazard, since
Cheripe is a place of no strength.
On the 12th of December we were relieved from the perplexity we had
suffered, 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. We now scuttled and sunk the Jesu Nazareno, the prize we took
last, and having the greatest impatience to get into a proper station
for the galleon, stood altogether to the westward, and notwithstanding
the impediments we met with, left the island of Quibo in about nine
days after our first coming in sight of it.